The Oracle's Queen

  Lutha still cringed at the memory of the day Erius had caught them giving sword lessons to the girls on the Old Palace roof. Arengil had been sent home in disgrace and Una had disappeared. Lutha wondered if he’d ever see them again. No one handled hawks better than Arengil.

  As he started for the stairs, a flash of movement on the tower balcony caught his eye. Lamps still glowed through the windows there, and he could make out a lone figure looking down at him—Nalia, Consort of Skala. Without thinking, he waved. He thought he saw her return the gesture before she disappeared inside.

  “Good night, Highness,” he whispered. By rights, she was a princess, but in fact she was little better than a prisoner.

  Lutha had spoken with the young woman only once before, the day of her hasty marriage to Korin. Lady Nalia was not pretty, it was true, her plain features marred by a mottled red birthmark that covered one cheek. But she was well-spoken and gracious, and there was a sad pride in her bearing that had pulled at Lutha’s heartstrings. No one knew where Niryn had found a girl of the blood, but Korin and the priests seemed satisfied of her lineage.

  Something wasn’t right, though. Clearly she’d married under duress, and since then she wasn’t allowed out of her tower except for the occasional brief, heavily guarded walk on the battlements at night. She didn’t join them for meals, or go for rides or hunts, like a noblewoman should. Niryn claimed that it wasn’t safe for her to go out, that she was too precious as the last true female heir of the blood, and that the times were too uncertain.

  “Doesn’t it seem a bit odd that she can’t even come down to the hall for supper?” Lutha had asked Caliel. “If she’s not safe there, then things are worse than anyone’s letting on!”

  “It’s not that,” muttered Caliel. “He can’t stand the sight of her, poor thing.”

  Lutha’s heart ached for her. If she’d been stupid, or petty like Korin’s first wife, then he might have been able to forget her in that tower. As it was, he found himself fretting for her, especially when he caught glimpses of her at her window or on her balcony, gazing longingly at the sea.

  He sighed and headed back to his room, hoping Barieus had the bed warmed up for him.

  Chapter 8

  Nalia flinched back from the low parapet and stole a guilty look at Tomara, who sat knitting in the chair by the open door behind her. She hadn’t noticed the young man on the walls below until he’d waved.

  She hadn’t been looking for anyone. She’d been staring down into the paved yard below the tower, gauging yet again whether or not she’d die at once if she jumped. It would be such a simple matter. The parapet was low, hardly up to her waist. She could stand on it, or simply climb over and let go. She didn’t think Tomara was strong enough to stop her.

  A moment’s courage and she would be free from this dishonorable captivity.

  If Lord Lutha hadn’t startled her, she might have managed it tonight. Instead, his brief, friendly gesture had sent her shrinking back from the edge, worrying that Tomara had noticed her impulsive response.

  But she just looked up from her handiwork and smiled. “It’s a chilly night, my lady. Close the door and I’ll make us some tea.”

  Nalia sat at the small writing desk and watched as Tomara set about preparing the pot, but her thoughts strayed back to Lutha’s kind gesture. She pressed a hand to her breast, blinking back tears. How could something as simple as a wave to a stranger in the night make my heart race like this? Perhaps because it had been the closest thing to simple human kindness she’d known in the weeks since this nightmare had descended?

  If I had the courage to go back out and do as I planned, would he still be there to see? Would he be sad that I was dead? Would anyone?

  She doubted it. Korin, and the few servants and guards she was allowed to see—even Niryn—they all called her Consort now, but she was nothing but a prisoner, a pawn in their game. How could such a thing have happened?

  She’d been so happy, growing up in Ilear. But Niryn—the man she’d called guardian, and then lover—he had betrayed her with breathtaking cruelty, and now he expected her thanks.

  “It’s safer here, my darling,” he told her, when he’d first brought her to this awful, lonely place. Nalia had hated it the moment she’d set eyes on it, but she’d tried to be brave. After all, Niryn had promised he could come to her more often.

  But he hadn’t, and a few months later madness took the garrison. One faction of soldiers, the ones with the red hawks on their grey tabards, attacked the Cirna guard. The sounds that came to her window from the yards that night had been horrifying. She’d cowered in her chamber with her nurse and little page, thinking the world was ending.

  Niryn had come that night, but not to save her. With no warning or explanation he’d ushered in an unkempt, hollow-eyed young stranger who stank of blood and sweat and wine.

  Niryn, who’d played with her as a child and taught her the joys of the bedchamber and made her forget her own flawed reflection—that monster had simply smiled and said, “Lady Nalia, allow me to present your new husband.”

  She’d fainted dead away.

  When she’d come around again she was lying on her bed and Prince Korin was sitting there, watching her. He must not have realized she was awake at first, because she caught the look of revulsion on his face just before it disappeared. He, all bloody and stinking, the invader of her chamber, looking at her that way!

  They were alone, and she cried out and cowered back from him, thinking he meant to rape her.

  To his credit, Korin had been kind. “I’ve never forced a woman in my life,” he told her. He was handsome under all that grime, she couldn’t help noting, and so very earnest. “You are of royal blood, a kinswoman. I have no wish to dishonor you.”

  “Then what do you want?” she asked faintly, pulling the coverlet up to her chin over her shift.

  He’d looked a bit confused at that. Perhaps he thought Niryn’s cold introduction was explanation enough. “My father, the king, is dead. I am king now.” He took her hand in his dirty one and tried to smile, but it was a sickly attempt. His gaze kept straying to the livid mark that ran like spilled wine from her mouth to her shoulder. “I need a consort. You will bear the heirs of Skala.”

  Nalia had laughed in his face. All she could think to say was, “And Niryn has no objection?” Some part of her poor, addled mind could not yet grasp that her lover, her protector, had betrayed her.

  Korin had frowned at that. “Lord Niryn was guided by prophecy to protect and hide you so that you could fulfill this destiny.”

  But he was my lover! He’s had me to his bed countless times! She tried to throw the words in his face, thinking it the only way to save herself from such disgrace. But nothing came out, not so much as a whisper. An icy numbness took her lips, then spread down her throat, on down to engulf her heart and belly, and pooled at last between her legs, where it changed to a brief, hot tingle, like a lover’s parting kiss. She gasped and blushed, but the silence held. Some magic had been laid on her. But how? And by whom?

  Mistaking her intent, Korin raised her hand to his lips. His silky black moustache tickled against her skin so differently than Niryn’s coppery beard. “We will be properly married, lady. I’ll come to you with a priest tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow?” Nalia said. Her voice was hers again, though faint. “So soon?”

  “These are uncertain times. Later, when things are more settled, perhaps we can have a proper wedding feast. For now, it only matters that our child be legitimate.”

  Our child. So she was to be nothing but a royal broodmare. For the first time in her young life, Nalia felt the beginnings of true anger.

  Your friend Niryn has been in my bed more times than I can count! How she longed to shout it, but again the icy coldness stopped her lips and her breath with it. She pressed a hand to her useless mouth as tears of frustration and fear rolled down her cheeks.

  Korin noticed her distress and to his credit, she saw genuine
concern in those dark eyes. “Please don’t cry, lady. I know this is all very sudden.” Then he spoiled it again, when he stood to go and added, “It’s not my choice, either. But we must think of Skala.”

  Alone again, she’d pulled the covers over her head and sobbed. She had no family, no protectors, no friend to turn to.

  She wept long into the night, and fell asleep on the sodden pillow. When she woke at dawn, she found she was still alone and had no tears left.

  She went to the east window, watching the sky brighten over the Inner Sea. Men with red hawks on their breasts patrolled the walls below, while the true birds rode the morning breeze in freedom beyond.

  I’ve never been free, she realized. It had all been an illusion and she’d been such a contented fool. The anger she’d felt last night returned, stronger now. If she had no one to look to for help, then she must look after herself. She was not a child, after all. And she was done being a fool.

  Vena and Alin hadn’t been allowed to come back yet, so she dressed herself and went to the writing desk. If she could not speak the truth to the prince, then she would write him a letter.

  But whoever had bespelled her had been very clever. Her hand froze above the page and the ink in the quill went dry at each attempt. With a frightened cry, Nalia threw the pen down and backed away from the table. Niryn had entertained her with tales of great magic ever since she was a child, but she’d never witnessed anything more powerful than a festival conjurer’s tricks. This felt more like a curse. She tried to speak the words again, alone here in the stillness of her room. King Korin, I am not a virgin. But the words would not come. She thought again of that strange sensation that had overtaken her the first time she’d tried to confess the truth to him, the way it had coursed down through her body.

  “Oh Dalna!” she whispered, sinking to her knees. With trembling fingers, she reached beneath her shift, then let out a frightened sob. “Maker’s Mercy!”

  She was cursed indeed, and a virgin again. That had been the first time she’d thought of the balcony, and the long drop below.

  Her nurse and page never returned. Instead, wrinkled old Tomara was sent up to serve her and keep her company.

  “Where are my own servants?” Nalia demanded angrily.

  “I don’t know anything about any other servants, Highness,” the old woman replied. “I was fetched up from the village and told I was to wait on a great lady. I haven’t done since my mistress passed some years ago, but I can still mend and braid. Come now, let me brush out your pretty hair for you, won’t you?”

  Tomara was gentle and neat-handed, and there was nothing in her manner to dislike, but Nalia missed her own servants. She suffered through her toilet, then took her place by the window, trying to see what was going on below. She could see riders milling about and hear them on the road beyond the walls.

  “Do you know what’s happened?” she asked at last, with no one else to talk to.

  “Ero’s fallen, and a traitor is trying to claim the throne, Highness,” Tomara told her, looking up from a piece of embroidery. It appeared to be a bridal veil.

  “Do you know who Lord Niryn is?”

  “Why, he’s the king’s wizard, lady!”

  “Wizard?” For a moment Nalia thought her heart had stopped beating. A wizard. And one powerful enough to serve a king.

  “Oh, yes! He saved King Korin’s life at Ero and got him away before the Plenimarans could capture him.”

  Nalia considered this, putting it together with the disheveled man who’d come to her last night. He ran away, this new king of mine. He lost the city and ran away. And I’m the best he can do for a wife!

  The bitter thought was balm on her wounded heart. It gave her the strength not to scream and throw herself at Niryn when he came to her later that morning, to escort her to the priest.

  She had no proper wedding dress. She’d put on the best gown she owned, and the hastily stitched veil Tomara had made for her. She didn’t even have a proper wreath. Tomara brought her a simple circlet of braided wheat.

  There were no gaily attired attendants or musicians, either. Men with swords escorted her to the great hall. The midday light streaming in through the few narrow windows only made the shadows deeper. As her eyes adjusted to the gloom she saw that the wedding guests were all soldiers and servants. The priest of Dalna stood by the hearth, and with him were a handful of young nobles, the Companions.

  With no father to speak for her, Nalia was given over by Niryn, and had no choice but to obey. When the blessings had been said and Korin took a jeweled ring from his own finger and slid it loosely on her own, she found she was a wife, and Princess Consort of Skala.

  Afterward, as they sat over a meager feast, she was introduced to the Companions. Lord Caliel was tall and fair, with a kind, rather sad face. Lord Lutha was hardly more than a boy, gangly and a bit on the homely side, but with such a ready smile that she found herself smiling back and taking his hand. His squire, a brown-eyed boy named Barieus, had the same kind look about him. The two others, Lord Alben and Lord Urmanis, were more what she’d expected; proud and handsome, and doing little to disguise their disdain for her plain looks. Even their squires were rude.

  Finally, Korin presented his swordmaster, a grizzled old warrior named Porion. The man was pleasant and respectful, but hardly more than a common soldier, yet Korin treated him with the utmost respect. Taken all together, with Niryn’s wizards, too, it was an odd assembly that surrounded her young husband. Nalia pondered this as she picked listlessly at her roast lamb.

  When the meal was over she was left to herself in the tower again, until nightfall. Tomara had found oils and perfume somewhere in this awful place. She prepared Nalia for her marriage bed, then slipped away.

  Nalia lay rigid as a corpse. She had no illusions and knew her duty. When the door opened at last, however, it was not Korin but Niryn who entered and came to stand over her bed.

  “You!” she hissed, shrinking back against the bolsters. “You viper! You betrayer!”

  Niryn smiled and sat down on the edge of the bed. “Now, now. Is that any way to speak to your benefactor, my dear?”

  “Benefactor? How can you say that? If I had a dagger I would plunge it into your heart, so that you might feel a fraction of the pain you’ve caused me!”

  His red beard caught the candle’s glow as he shook his head. There was a time when she’d found that color beautiful. “I saved your life, Nalia, when you would have died in the king’s purges. Your mother and all her kin were killed, but I protected and nurtured you, and now I’ve seen you made Consort. Your children will rule Skala. How is that a betrayal?”

  “I loved you! I trusted you! How could you let me think you were my lover when you never meant to keep me?” She was crying, and hated herself for her weakness.

  Niryn reached out and caught one of her tears with a fingertip. He held it up to the candlelight, admiring it like a rare jewel. “I must confess a bit of weakness on my part. You were such a dear, affectionate little thing. If Korin had found himself a suitable bride, who knows? I might even have kept you for myself.”

  Once again, anger burned away the tears. “You dare speak of me as if I’m some hound or horse you acquired! Is that really all I was to you?”

  “No, Nalia.” His voice was tender as he leaned forward and cupped her cheek, and in spite of herself, she leaned a little into that familiar caress. “You are the future, my dear little bird. Mine. Skala’s. Through you, with Korin’s seed, I will bring peace and order back to the world.”

  Nalia stared at him in disbelief as he rose to go. “And you knew all this, when you found me orphaned as a babe? How?”

  Niryn smiled, and something in it chilled her heart. “I am a great wizard, my dear, and touched by the gods. I was shown this many times, in visions. It is your fate, your destiny.”

  “A wizard!” she threw after him as he went to the door. “Tell me, was it you who bespelled me and made me a virgin again?”
>
  This time his smile was answer enough.

  A little while later Korin came to her, stinking of wine the way he had that first night, but clean this time. He stripped naked without so much as looking at her, revealing a fine young body but a lagging arousal. He hesitated by the bed, then blew out the candle and climbed on top of her between the sheets. He didn’t even bother to kiss her before pulling up her nightdress and rubbing his soft member between her legs to make himself hard. He found her breasts and stroked them, then fumbled between her legs, trying clumsily to pleasure her a little and get her ready.

  Nalia was grateful for the darkness, so that her new husband would not see the shamed, angry tears streaming down her cheeks. She bit her lip and held her breath, not wanting to betray herself as she resisted memories of sweeter lovemaking, now tainted forever.

  Nalia cried out when her false maidenhead was torn, but she doubted he noticed or cared. Her new husband seemed in a greater hurry than she was herself to be done with the act, and when he spewed inside her, it was with another woman’s name on his lips: Aliya. She thought he might be weeping when it was over, but he’d rolled off and left her before she could be certain.

  And so ended the wedding night of the Consort of Skala.

  The memory still burned her with shame and anger but Nalia could take comfort in the fact that so far, she had refused her captors the one thing they wanted from her. Her moon blood had come and gone. Her womb remained empty.

  Chapter 9

  Despite her best intentions, Tamír lost hope of leaving for Atyion anytime soon. There was still too much to do in Ero.

  The sporadic spring rains held on. The footpaths between rows of hastily built shacks and tents were often more channels than byways. There’d been no time to establish wards. Nobles unlucky enough to have no estate to retreat to found themselves cheek by jowl with tradesmen’s families or half-starved beggars who’d found their way here, hoping for the queen’s generosity.