Fire Dragon - Katharine Kerr [71]
“Now hear me out,” Maryn said. “This scandal—it's no longer deadly but it's not dead, either. I've been thinking. I'm going to send you back to Cerrmor for a while.” He held up a hand flat for silence. “Just a little while, mind.”
“What? Why? I thought you believed me and Otho if not me.”
“Of course I believe you! That's not the point.”
“It is for me.” Bellyra felt herself tremble again. “Oh by all the gods! Don't send me away!”
“It's for your own good. I don't want servant lasses gossiping about my wife. And you are the queen. Your honor—”
“There's naught you can teach me about my honor, my lord. I know it better than you ever can, how it binds me like a rope of thorns.”
Maryn stared, caught speechless, for a long moment. Bellyra forced herself to stare back, and eventually he looked away.
“Riddmar will become gwerbret the moment I become king.” Maryn's voice was steady, almost calm. “He won't be able to rule there alone. I'm going to name you regent, but in truth, you'll be the gwerbret. Cerrmor should have been yours, if there were any justice in the kingdom. That you're a woman—well, I never could have given you the rhan, but at least this way you'll get the new gwerbret off to a splendid start.”
“I see.” Yet she realized that she'd barely understood his words: something about Riddmar, something about Cerrmor.
“No one will count you dishonored this way. Everyone knows the lad will need a regent at first.”
“Will you send me away before the priests make you high king?” She was surprised to find that she could form a coherent thought. “After all my long years of living in fear for your sake, I'd like to see the end of the wars.”
“I won't. You've a part to play in the ritual, and Riddmar can't be invested till after I'm proclaimed, anyway.”
“Very well. I'll tell the nursemaids and suchlike to be ready—”
“I'm keeping the children here. It's too dangerous, letting them travel to Cerrmor. We didn't fight these wars to put a man without heirs on the throne.”
But not too dangerous to send me, Bellyra thought. I've served my purpose. I've given him his litter of sons, I'll have taken my appointed place during the rituals. “You know somewhat, Maryn?” she said aloud. “It's a pity I wasn't born a broodmare. I wouldn't care if I ever saw the stud who mounted me again.”
“Oh for the gods' sake! It's only going to be for a little while. A year, say, to let the talk die down.”
She thought of saying more, of letting her anger loose like some savage dog freed from its chain, but she realized that he wanted her to be angry, so that he in turn could grow angry as well. If they fought, he would see her leaving court as a victory, and one that he had every right to claim. Instead she looked at him, kept her face as calm as she could make it, merely looked and had the satisfaction of seeing him toss his head and turn away to escape her stare.
“I've got to get back to the great hall.” Maryn got up from the floor. “I'll be back to escort you down to dinner, if you'd care to come.”
He strode to the door, strode out of it, slammed it hard behind him. Bellyra leaned back in her chair and watched the cobwebs drifting from the massive beams of the ceiling. She heard the door opening behind her, and heard Elyssa calling her name, but raising her head to look or answer seemed beyond her. Just when I thought I was safe, just when I thought it was over. She felt as if she were a stick of wood that had withstood a hundred blows of an axe, only to break on the hundredth and first.
Although Clodda had told her that the prince was dragging Bellyra into the great hall, Lilli had stayed away. She was beginning to wonder if she was starting to hate Maryn. How could he do such a thing to the wife who loved him beyond everything? Didn't he realize—then she remembered him blithely talking about their political marriage. Of course he didn't realize. He didn't want to, she supposed. She heard the news of how things had resolved from Nevyn, who came straight up to her chamber afterwards. The old man was