The Born Queen - J. Gregory Keyes [163]
“My sisters would not believe me, and so they died, along with the order we founded, or at least most of them. Your Alis was once one of ours.”
“She knew who you were.”
“When she saw me, yes. Not before.”
“How did your sisters die?”
“That’s complicated, too. Anne killed them, in a way—the Anne that was and will be, not the one you know. The one she is becoming.”
“How did you escape?”
“I withdrew from the Ambhitus and hid. I abandoned my role as a Faith and dedicated myself to correcting our mistake.”
“And now?”
“As I said, Anne is beyond me. But I have a chance to mend the law of death. The girl, Mery—we’ve been watching her. She has a strange and wonderful power—like mine in ways but also unlike anything that has ever been. Before she died, one of my sisters planted the seed in the composer so that he and Mery could undo the damage to the law. I must now see that to fruition.”
“If the law of death is mended—”
“Yes. Robert will die.”
“Let’s do that, then,” he muttered.
The moon set, and stars jeweled the sky. They moved from canter to trot and back to delay wearing out their mounts.
Brinna, shivering from fatigue, sagged into him and then straightened.
“Hold on or you’ll fall off,” he said.
“I wish…” she sighed.
“What?” He managed to croak, though he knew he shouldn’t.
She didn’t answer, and behind him she felt even more rigid than when she first had been placed there.
“I said there were three reasons I risked having you brought up from the dungeons,” she murmured.
“Yes. You said the third didn’t matter.”
“I said it didn’t matter then,” she said. “I never meant it didn’t matter. Do you remember the first two reasons?”
“You said that you didn’t believe I could be an assassin and that you thought we could help each other.”
“You have to understand my world,” she said. “The way I lived. Four attempts that I know of were made on my life; one was by one of my own cousins, who was afraid I would see that he was cuckolding my father. A coven-trained assassin sent from Crotheny when I was ten. I don’t know who sent her. A Black Talon killer from the dark forests of Vestrana came closest. He actually had the dagger to my throat. I want you to understand all of that because although I didn’t want to think you would kill me, part of me still thought you might.”
“Then why? What was the third reason?”
“The third reason was that I was willing to risk death to touch you again.”
The horse thunked along in silence as a great bloody moon sank toward the dark sea.
“I love you,” he said.
He felt her soften, then mold against his back, and her arms were suddenly comfortable and familiar around his waist. He couldn’t, didn’t dare turn around to kiss her, but it didn’t matter. It was the best thing he had ever felt in his life, and for the next few bells nothing, not his failure, not his grief, not even his thirst for revenge, could distract him from the woman who had her arms around him, from the mystery and wonder of her.
CHAPTER FIVE
ACMEMENO
CAZIO STROKED Austra’s face, then gently prized open her lips and dribbled some watered wine between them. After a moment her throat worked, and the liquid went down.
He regarded her still features, trying not to let the strange panic rise.
She’s still alive, and so there’s hope, he thought.
“Anne will have chirgeons who can cure you,” he assured the sleeping girl. “This always turns out well in the stories, doesn’t it? Although there it’s usually the kiss of the handsome prince. Am I not handsome or princely enough?”
The carriage rumbled on for a moment.
“We might not even have to go all the way to Eslen,” he told her. “We’ll be at Glenchest by this afternoon. Probably the duchess can help us.”
Austra, of course, said nothing.
They ran into a knight and his retainers about half a league from Glenchest, one Sir William, a servant of the duchess. He escorted them back to the