The Blood Knight - J. Gregory Keyes [228]
“What’s happened?” he asked the woman.
“What do you mean?” she replied.
“Is this Eslen?”
“Yes,” she said. “You’re in the Liexguildhouse. You’re very lucky. Saint Dun had you, but he let you return to us.”
She beamed at him, then lifted a finger.
“A moment. I’ve been asked to report when you’re awake.”
She scurried off before he could ask another question.
But only moments later, a shadow fell across him and drew his eyes up.
“Your Majesty,” he murmured, trying again to rise.
“Don’t,” she said. “Don’t stir. I’ve been waiting for you to wake, and I’d hate to kill you with my presence. Oh, and you might as well get used to calling me Queen Mother.”
“As you wish, Queen Mother,” he replied. “You look well.”
“You’ve looked better,” Muriele allowed. “But I’m told you really ought to be dead. If the Church still held any sway in this city, you might be tried for shinecraft.”
Neil blinked. She had meant it as a joke, of course, but he suddenly recalled his vision of Brinna’s face. Brinna, who had saved his life once, somehow had used a part of her own life to do it. Could she have done it again, from afar? Did he owe her his life again?
“Sir Neil?” Muriele asked.
He shook his head.
“Nothing,” he replied. “A wild fancy.” His eyes felt tired, but he forced them open.
“You’ve no idea how happy I am you’re alive,” Neil told her.
“I’m very pleased myself,” the queen mother replied. “And extremely pleased with you, my friend. You brought my daughter back to me. And you brought her back as a queen. I cannot think how to thank you.”
“No thanks—”
“Of course,” Muriele replied. “But you must let me do something for you.”
“You can tell me what happened,” he said. “I don’t remember much after the waerd.”
She smiled. “I missed most of it myself, but I’ve been awake to ask questions. After you fell, Artwair took the waerd with few additional losses and, having done that, managed to break the Thornrath gate in a matter of bells. Sir Fail brought his fleet in, and the wind was with them.
“While all of that was going on, however, my reckless daughter invaded the inner keep through the dungeons, with a relative handful of Sefry. Robert’s forces were thin in the castle, however, either marshaling to fight Artwair and Fail on the King’s Poel or dealing with the insurrection in Gobelin Court. So Anne and her Sefry took the inner keep without much trouble.
“The fight in the outer keep was bloodier, but Anne had reinforcements from Artwair by then.”
“Wait,” Neil said. “I’m sorry, Highness, but I think I missed part of your story. Anne went into the castle with Robert’s permission, but it was a trap. How did she get Sefry troops? Or reinforcements?”
“That’s a much longer story, and it needs to be told in private,” Muriele said. “Suffice it to say that when the men on the outer Fastness understood they were being attacked from both sides—and that the monarch they were fighting for had apparently vanished—things ended without the horror of bloodshed we might have had.”
“That’s a mercy,” Neil said, remembering the piles of bodies around him at Thornrath. He knew what she meant, of course.
“Anne is queen, then?” he added.
“Regent. She must be confirmed by the Comven, but that seems fairly certain, since Robert’s cronies have been set to their heels or are imprisoned, awaiting trial.”
“So all is well,” Neil said.
“Well enough,” she replied. “At least until Robert returns with the armies of Hansa and the Church.”
“You think that likely?” Neil asked.
“Very likely, indeed. But that is, as they say, a worry for another day. Mend up, Sir Neil. We’ve use for you yet.”
Aspar bit hard into the aspen branch Leshya had placed in his mouth as she popped the bone in his leg into its proper place. The agony actually left spots in his eyes, as if he’d tried to look into the sun.
“That’s the worst of it,” she promised as she