“Your Excellency, did you hear the news?” cried Lord Healer Ailín hastily, barging into the laboratory where Lady Abbess Cara sat, her eyes fixated on readings from a sub-atomic microscope.
Lady Abbess Cara brushed back a lock of her long black hair that picked that xiao-shir to fall out of her meticulous long braids, “Lord Healer Ailín, what is wrong?”
Ailín bowed, “Your Excellency, King Gareth has just declared in open court that you are to marry him in twenty beinors. An order just came through: you are recalled from here to seal your betrothal in the king’s bed.”
“Is it not curious, my friend, that the king should do this without consulting me or even without my awareness of his intent?”
“It is not for me to say, Your Excellency. I am but a humble healer in service to you and the vital work you commissioned here. The people of Nan-li must not suffer simply because this tyrant Gareth was the only surviving son of King Dylan.”
“Tell me again why Princess Lilian is not our queen?”
“King Dylan declared her a bastard, that it was Lady Darah to whom the king was betrothed, not Lady Alexandra, even though Princess Lilian was born to Lady Alexandra only two shir-ors before King Gareth was born to Lady Darah,” answer Ailín.
“And, speaking as a trained healer, what does that tell you medically?”
“The only way two children could be born of the same man by two different women only two shir-ors apart would be for them to be conceived only xiao-shirs apart – usually with some sort of medical assistance to stimulate ovulation and ensure both conceptions resulted in pregnancy.”
“Correct.”
“Your Excellency, you must return to Hejing; my brother Liam will finish this for you.”
“Lord Knight Liam is going to finish my analysis?”
“Your Excellency will be pleased to hear that since you left us he completed his studies as a healer. He is now that rare Ten-Arian accepted to both the healers and knights of our house.”
“Is he?” pondered Cara thoughtfully.
“Yes! You did not hear?”
Cara’s mind raced, “No.” Pacing she turned to Ailín, “Ailín, would you ask Lord Knight Liam to accompany me to Hejing? The king will want to avail himself of me right away, knowing him. But after the king has finished – I have need of a man who is both healer and knight, one able to liaison for me here medically while protecting me. Surely his majesty will not deny me a princess-consort’s right to a knight-protector! I would feel safer guarded by one of our own than by a man of the king’s choosing.”
“And your analysis on the new data?”
“Are you able to work on it in my steed?”
“W-yes, of course. I am now here long enough to begin to suffer from the disease.”
“And Liam?”
“With all his studies? He’s as grey-eyed as Your Excellency.”
Lady Abbess Cara hugged him gratefully, “Make this so for me, please.”
“As always, I am at your service and to the service of our great house.”