The Red Wyvern - Katharine Kerr [140]
“What’s so wrong?” Nevyn said.
“I—I had terrible nightmares.”
Lilli sank down on a wooden chest at the room’s one narrow window. When the morning sun glared on her face, she winced and got up, stood looking around her, then finally sat on the end of her bed. Nevyn took the seat in the window.
“Terrible they must have been,” he said. “About what awaits your mother?”
“Some of that, truly. Although it gladdens my heart she’s going to die.”
“Because of Lady Bevyan?”
Lilli nodded, then reached up with a trembling hand and began trying to brush her still-short hair back from her face. She would tuck a strand into place only to have another fall forward, over and over, until he felt like screaming at her to stop.
“What are you doing up here?” Nevyn said. “Your lasses are worried about you.”
“Oh ye gods! Last night, I was just so upset. I bolted for my old chamber without thinking.”
“Lilli.” Nevyn softened his voice. “Somewhat’s gravely wrong, isn’t it?”
“I went to talk with my mother last night. I’m sorry now.”
“Did she curse you?”
“She did, and she told me,” a long pause, “things.”
“Things?”
Finally she stopped fussing with her hair and clasped her hands in her lap.
“Did you want to see me about somewhat?” Lilli said.
“I did.” Nevyn considered, then decided to leave his prying till later. “The poison your mother had, do you know its name?”
“Dwarven Salts. Brour called it that.”
“Not much of a name, but it will do. And how did it work?”
“You put it in someone’s food or drink, and then it ate at their vitals. It was terrible, just like someone dying from eating tainted meat or spoiled milk. There was one woman, Caetha, and everyone said my mother poisoned her because—” She broke off, staring out at nothing.
“Well, your mother did confess to one poisoning.”
“Then it’s true.” Lilli was whispering and mostly to herself. “Everything points to it being true.”
“The poisoning?”
Lilli stared at him, her mouth a little slack.
“What’s so wrong?” Nevyn said again. “I can see it’s somewhat truly grave, or I wouldn’t be badgering you like this.”
Lilli turned her head and stared at the wall.
“Mother told me,” she said, “she told me that I’m really a bastard, that her husband wasn’t my father.”
“Ah. Well, no wonder you’re so troubled! My heart goes out to you, lass, but no one need ever know. Here, Aethan wasn’t your father, was he?”
“I only wish.” Lilli paused as if gathering her strength. “She told me that my father—that my father was—well, her own brother. My uncle.”
Nevyn caught his breath in surprise. At the sound Lilli looked his way.
“I thought she was just saying it to hurt me,” she went on. “But all kinds of things he did make sense if he was my father.”
“I see. Well, it’s no crime of yours, child. You weren’t there at your begetting.”
Lilli merely shrugged the comfort away. She was doubtless remembering all the things that people said about children of incest, that they were cursed by the gods and doomed to an early death. In his long experience none of this had ever held true, and he was groping for some reassuring words when she suddenly cried out, one sharp sob.
“It’s almost midday,” Lilli whispered. “They’ll be hanging her soon.”
“They will. Don’t go watch.”
“I don’t want to. Will you stay here till they’re done?”
“I will. I suspect that you’ll know when it’s over.”
She nodded and went back to fussing with the strands of hair. Nevyn leaned back against the window’s edge and turned a little to look out. All he saw were towers and far below, a strip of cobbled ground. Wherever they would be hanging Merodda, it was mercifully out of sight. If only he could have offered her a full pardon! Perhaps she would have told him about the curse-tablet in return for her life if that life had promised freedom and rank. But Maddyn would never back down now.
“You look troubled,” Lilli said.
“I am. Your mother murdered two women who had no