The Blood Knight - J. Gregory Keyes [11]
Stephen chuckled bitterly. “As far as we can tell, to waken a very ancient and potent evil.”
“Why?”
“For power, I suppose. I can’t genuinely say. But these men attacking us now? I don’t know what they want. You’re right; they seem different. Maybe they’re in the employ of the usurper.”
“Anne’s uncle?” Cazio thought that was who Stephen meant. In truth, the whole situation was a bit confusing.
“Right,” Stephen confirmed. “He might still have reason to want her kept alive.”
“Well, I hope so,” Cazio said.
“You have feelings for her?” Stephen asked.
“I am her protector,” Cazio said, a little irritated by the question.
“No more than that?”
“No. No more.”
“Because it seems as if—”
“Nothing.” Cazio asserted. “I befriended her before I knew who she was. And besides, this is none of your business.”
“No, I suppose it isn’t,” Stephen said. “Look, I’m sure she and her maid—”
“Austra.”
Stephen’s eyebrow lifted, and he quirked an annoying little smile. “Austra,” he repeated. “We’ll find them, Cazio. You see that man up there?”
“Aspar? The woodsman?”
“Yes. He can follow any trail; I can personally guarantee it.”
Cazio noted that light flakes were falling from the sky again.
“Even in this?” he asked.
“In anything,” Stephen said.
Cazio nodded. “Good.”
They rode along in silence for a moment.
“How did you meet the princess?” Stephen asked.
Cazio felt a smile stretch his lips. “I am from Avella, you know? It’s a town in the Tero Mefio. My father was a nobleman, but he was killed in a duel and didn’t leave me much. Just a house in Avella and z’Acatto.”
“The old man we left in Dunmrogh?”
“Yes. My swordmaster.”
“You must miss him.”
“He’s a drunken, overbearing, arrogant—Yes, I miss him. I wish he were here now.” He shook his head. “But Anne—z’Acatto and I went to visit a friend in the country—the countess Orchaevia—to take some air. As it happened, her triva and estates were near the Coven Saint Cer.
“I was walking that way one day and found the princess, ah, in her bath.” He turned quickly to Stephen. “You must understand, I had no idea who she was.”
Stephen’s look sharpened abruptly. “Did you do anything?”
“Nothing, I swear.” His smile broadened as he remembered. “Well, I perhaps flirted a bit,” he admitted. “I mean, in a barren countryside to find an exotic girl, already unclothed—it certainly seemed like a sign from Lady Erenda.”
“Did you actually see her unclothed body?”
“Ah, well, just a bit of it.”
Stephen sighed heavily and shook his head. “And here I was beginning to like you, swordsman.”
“I told you, I had no idea.”
“I probably would have done the same thing. But the fact that you didn’t know who she was, well, it doesn’t matter. Cazio, you saw a princess of the blood in the flesh, a princess who, if we succeed in our quest, will become the queen of Crotheny. Don’t you understand what that means? Didn’t she tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
“Any man who looks upon a princess of the blood—any man save her consecrated husband—must suffer blinding or death. The law is more than a thousand years old.”
“What? You’re joking.”
But Stephen was frowning. “My friend,” he said, “I have never been more serious.”
“But Anne never said anything.”
“I’m sure she wouldn’t. She probably imagines that she can beg leniency for you, but the law is very specific, and even as queen, the matter would be out of her hands; it would be enforced by the Comven.”
“But this is absurd,” Cazio protested. “I saw nothing but her shoulders, and perhaps the smallest glimpse of—
“I did not know!”
“No one else knows this,” Stephen said. “If you were to slip off…”
“Now you’re being even more ridiculous,” Cazio said, feeling his hackles rise. “I’ve braved death for Anne and Austra many times over. I’ve sworn to protect them, and no man of honor would back away from such a promise just because he feared some ridiculous punishment. Especially now, when she’s in the clutches of—”
He stopped and stared closely at Stephen.
“There is no such law, is there?” he demanded.
“Oh, there is,” Stephen said, controlling himself with obvious