Kushiel's Chosen - Jacqueline Carey [315]
All these things I learned over time; then, there was simply too much to be done for the stories to unfold. Percy de Somerville was taken into custody, along with his chief lieutenants and subcommanders, for of a surety, some few of them must have known. Ysandre appointed Barquiel L'Envers to serve as Royal Commander pro tem, and supervise the military trials of the officers; being a peer of the realm, de Somerville would be tried before the assembled Parliament, like the family of House Trevalion long ago.
It was Marc de Trevalion, I learned, who had suspected Lord Percy's complicity when word of the Queen's death and the siege mounted against the City had reached Azzalle, and it was he who told his son-in-law Ghislain as much. He had known what Melisande had known, though he'd had no proof of it; that Percy de Somerville had vowed to supportLyonette de Trevalion's bid to place Prince Baudoin on the throne. Would that he had spoken of it sooner, for it would have saved a great deal of grief. I suppose at the time he thought it was ancient history and would have caused only pain, with his daughter wed to de Somerville's son. He would have been right, too, if not for Melisande.
Whether or not it ever occurred to Marc de Trevalion to suspect de Somerville in her escape, I cannot say. He was not there, at Troyes-le-Mont. He says it did not, and Ghislain believes him. After all, he would have had no reason to suspect Melisande even knew of de Somerville's complicity—save the fact that she is Melisande. It would have been enough for me ... but then, I know her too well. Ysandre accepted his word; I do not know if she believed it. Enough to let it rest, I daresay.
Ysandre held an audience for those L'Agnacite villagers who had followed our company, learning their names, thanking each in person; to each one, she gave a gift, a gold ducat stamped with her image, sewn in a velvet purse with the Courcel insignia. There are cynics who claim she did it out of political expedience, for there was bound to be unrest in L'Agnace with the arrest of its much-loved Duc de Somerville, but I, who had seen the tears in her eyes when they came to join us, knew otherwise.
There was a private ceremony commending the service of the Unforgiven. Ysandre would have done more, for they were deserving—and too, it would aid in restoring the good name of the former Allies of Camlach—but they refused it to a man. I was there, when she gave them her thanks and blessing, and offered prayers for the dead. Ten had died, one in twenty. It had not been an entirely bloodless victory.
"Was it well done, Kushiel's chosen?" Tarren d'Eltoine asked me.
"It was well done, my lord," I replied.
And I thought on old Bianca's foretelling in the Temple of Asherat-of-the-Sea, and prayed her words held true. I had done as she bid, remembering what they had named me among the Unforgiven. Ten years' peace, she had promised;one, I thought, for every man I sent to his death outside the City of Elua.
Messengers rode out day and night, royal couriers proclaiming the news throughout the realm, laying to rest false rumors and potential uprisings. Ghislain no Trevalion—for so he was called, now, formally adopted into his father-in-law's household—rode to Azzalle, vowing to