The Fecund's Melancholy Daughter - Brent Hayward [62]
From the north entrance, near Jesthe, two more palatinate officers entered then, murmuring, and as her eyes adjusted to the relative glare, Tina realized with shock that one of the men—the one on the left, in the deep crimson robe, who moved slowly, and hunched—was Erricus himself, the chamberlain of Nowy Solum.
The second man wore a dark sash at his neck, clearly a physicker. He had a boy’s face and did not appear old enough to shave. The chamberlain, of course, was ancient.
Both men walked the length of Bedenham House, stopping briefly at a cot near the other woman, then proceeding to where her own boy lay.
There they conferred.
Tina had never seen the chamberlain this close. Her heart thudded as he nodded and turned toward her. When he approached, she stopped breathing. He was a dead man, a corpse.
She imagined the chill of his bony hands upon her, his hollow face, his leather skin.
He asked, “You are the mother of this boy?”
She nodded.
“What is your name?” His eyes glistened.
She replied.
“I am here to oversee trials this day. We were waiting for you. Though, of course, it was well within your rights to come any time before dusk.” The chamberlain coughed, light and dusty. He pressed his fingers together. “Your son will be tested first. He is older than the girl over there by nearly nine hours.”
“I understand.” Though Tina did not understand. How could she? How could any mother? As far as she knew, Erricus had never presided over an infant’s trial, not in decades.
At the south entrance, Cadman stared in, though if he recognized who was speaking to his wife was not clear. Probably he recognized nothing.
Chamberlain Erricus lingered by the bench a moment longer. Finally, he coughed again. “Very well,” he said. “Let us begin.”
Back at the cot, the physicker held out a small, ornate jar, which he now cracked open.
Holding both hands up for silence, or to evoke his gods, the chamberlain returned to the cot while the physicker made a big show of listening, apparently to her baby’s breathing. Then the physicker touched her boy lightly in several places Tina could not identify from where she sat. The officer did not wake her son, or at least the boy remained quiet throughout this process. Erricus had closed his eyes. Finally the physicker put his fingers up to his own face, sniffed them, and produced a small vial of liquid from the jar. He sprinkled a few drops, watching her boy intently.
Then Erricus, whose eyes snapped open, did something quickly with his left hand, so quickly that Tina could not follow the movement.
Her son wailed.
The wail ended abruptly.
Outside Bedenham House came a tremendous roar, as if all of Nowy Solum were being torn apart. For an instant, Tina thought this was an extension of the test, a reaction, but two of the empty cots crashed to the floor and the beams of the Bedenham House groaned, shaking dust and debris that pattered all around.
Erricus and his palatinate officer recoiled. The physicker went down on one knee. Gripping her son’s cot for support, with one hand on his chest, the old man looked outside. Screaming had begun.
On the shed roof, Tully was surprised to discover a kholic man and a hemo child sleeping together, huddled under a threadbare blanket. Until this point, his day had been unfolding fortuitously. Most days started off rather badly for Tully and continued to be a bit of a struggle as they went on, yet Tully found himself on this foggy afternoon whistling tunelessly as he climbed in Kirk Gate Alley. He had slept well, eaten a crust of bread (stolen from a lady’s cart), and had wandered South Gate, looking for unaware cobali to trap or a rube from outside to rob.
He had been, in unexpected ways, successful.
Stopped over the couple now, though, his good mood wavered. Whistling ceased.
“Wake up.” He spoke as coldly as he could. Neither man nor child awoke. This kind of thing, Tully thought, happened more and more. He kicked the man, who grunted and rolled onto his back, opening his eyes and quickly averting them when they registered Tully standing