Darkover: First Contact (48 page)

“Where’s that king, then?” shouted one man in the crowd. “If he’s our rightful king, why isn’t he here, being brought up among his lawful subjects?”

“No Hastur puppet kings here,” another one shouted. “Get back to Hali where you belong, Hastur!”

“We’ll have a real di Asturien on the throne, not a Hastur flunkey!”

“We’ll kiss no Hastur arses in Asturias!”

Bard listened, with growing satisfaction, as the cries grew louder. Someone threw a stone. Geremy did not flinch; he flung up a hand and the stone exploded in a flare of blue light. There was a gasp and a yell of rage.

“No wizard kings in Asturias!”

“We’ll have a soldier, not a damned
laranzu!
”

“Dom Rafael! Dom Rafael! Who stands for King Alaric?” they yelled, and there were even a few cries of “Bard! Bard di Asturien! We’ll have the Kilghard Wolf!”

Someone threw another stone, which did not pass within a hand-span of Geremy. He did not bother to deflect this one. Then someone threw a handful of courtyard horse dung which splattered on the purple robe. Geremy’s paxman caught him by the elbow and dragged him away from the balcony.

Dom Rafael said, “Do you still think you can claim the throne of Asturias, Dom Geremy? Perhaps I should send your head back to Queen Ariel and the folk at Carcosa, as warning to the lady to choose her servants more carefully.”

Geremy’s smile was as grim as the old man’s. “I would not advise it. King Valentine loves his playmate Alaric; but I doubt not that Queen Ariel could persuade him to send you back gift for gift.”

Bard stepped forward, fists clenched, but Dom Rafael shook his head. “No, my son. No bloodshed here. We mean no harm to the Hasturs while they rule their own lands and meddle not with ours. But you will remain my guest until my son Mario dwells again beneath this roof.”

“Do you think Carolin of Carcosa will deal with an usurper?”

“Then,” said Dom Rafael, “I shall be happy to entertain you as long as you desire, my lord. Should I not live long enough to see your return to Carcosa, I have a grandson who will reign as Warden of Asturias for my son Alaric.” He said to Bard, “Conduct our royal guest to his chambers—he is royal in Carcosa, though he shall never be so in Asturias. And station servants to see that he lacks for nothing, and that he does not go exploring in the woods and perhaps fall and damage his lame leg. We must care for the son of King Carolin with great kindness.”

“I shall see that he stays within his chamber in study and meditation, and takes no risk of injuring himself with exercise,” Bard said, and laid a hand on Geremy’s shoulder.

“Come, cousin.”

Geremy shook off the touch as if it burned him. “You damned bastard, don’t presume to put your hands on me!”

“I find no pleasure in the touch,” Bard said. “I am no lover of men. You will not come at my courteous request? Why, then—” He signaled to two of the soldiers, “My lord Hastur is experiencing some difficulty in walking; he is lame, as you see. Kindly assist him to his chamber.”

Geremy yelled and shouted as the husky men-at-arms picked him up bodily and carried him; then, recalling his dignity, subsided and allowed them to take him. But the look he gave Bard told him that if he ever again met Bard armed and ready, he could expect to fight him to the death.

I should have killed him when I had the chance,
Bard thought bitterly.
But I had lamed him by mischance. I could not kill him unarmed.

 

The change of power in Castle Asturias was accomplished within a few days, without much trouble. They had to hang a few of Geremy’s loyal men, who organized a palace rebellion, but one of the
laranzu
smelled out the plot before it had gone far. Soon all was quiet. Bard heard from Melisendra that one of the exiled queen’s ladies was bearing Geremy Hastur’s child, and had begged to join him in his imprisonment.”

“I did not know Geremy had a sweetheart. Do you know her name?”

“Ginevra,” Melisendra said, and Bard raised his eyebrows. He remembered Ginevra Harryl.

“You are a
leronis,
” he said. “Can’t you force her to miscarry, or something of that sort? It is bad enough to keep one Hastur prisoner, without starting a dynasty.”

Melisendra’s eyes were pale with lambent wrath. “No
leronis
would so abuse her powers!”

“Do you think me a fool, woman? Don’t tell me fairy tales of virtue! Every camp follower who finds herself breeding against her will knows a sorceress who will lighten her of that inconvenient burden!”

At white heat, Meisendra retorted, “If the woman does not wish to bear a child into squalor, or on campaign, or fatherless, or when she knows she will have no milk for it—then, no doubt, some
leronis
would take pity on her! But to kill a much-longed-for babe, simply because some man finds it inconvenient to his throne?” Her eyes flamed at him. “Do you think I wanted
your
child, Bard di Asturien? But it was done, and irrevocable, and whatever came of it, I had lost the Sight. . . . so I kept from damaging an innocent life, even though I had not desired it. And if I could keep from laying hands on
that,
do you think I would harm Ginevra’s child even in thought? Ginevra loves her babe and its father! If you want your dirty work done, send a man with a sword to cut her throat, and be done with it!”

Bard found nothing to say. It was an unwelcome thought—that Melisendra might have rid herself, so easily, of that child who had become Erlend. Why had she held her hand?

And there was the problem of Ginevra. Damn women and their idiotic scruples! Melisendra had killed in battle, he knew that. Yet here was a potential enemy of the Asturiens, more dangerous than one who bore sword or pike, and that enemy was to live! He would not demean himself by arguing with her, but let her beware how she crossed him again! He told her so, and slammed out of the room.

Being forced to think of the woman he had and did not want reminded him, perforce, of the woman he wanted and could not have. And after a time he thought of a way to use Ginevra and her coming child.

When the countryside was quiet, and the armies had returned home, except for the standing army Bard was training for defense and perhaps conquest (for he knew perfectly well that the Hasturs would someday descend on them, hostages or no) Lady Jerana had lost no time in coming to court. Bard sought her out in the apartments that had been Queen Ariel’s.

“The lady Ginevra Harryl, who is with child by Hastur—is she healthy and well? When will she be brought to bed?”

“Perhaps three moons,” Lady Jerana said.

“Do me a kindness, foster mother? See to it that she is housed in comfort, with suitable ladies to care for her, and a good and trustworthy midwife in attendance.”

The lady frowned. She said, “Why, so she is, she has three waiting-women known to have Hastur sympathies, and the midwife who delivered your own son waits on her; but I know you too well to think you do this out of any kindness to the Lady Ginevra.”

“No?” Bard said. “Have you forgotten that Geremy is my own foster brother?”

Jerana looked skeptical, but Bard said no more. However, later that day, when he had verified for himself that all Dom Rafael’s wife said was true, he went to Geremy’s apartments.

Geremy was playing at a game called Castles with one of the pages who had been sent to wait on him. When Bard came in he put aside the dice and got awkwardly to his feet.

“You needn’t stand on courtesy, Geremy. In fact, you need not stand at all.”

“It is customary for a prisoner to stand in the presence of his jailer,” Geremy said.

“Please yourself,” Bard said. “I came to bring you news of the Lady Ginevra Harryl. I am sure you are too proud to ask news of her on your own, so I came to assure you that she is lodged in a suite next to that of my father’s wife, and that her own women, Camilla and Rafaella Delleray and Felizia MacAnndra have been sent to wait upon her; and that a midwife trained in our own household is in attendance upon her.”

Geremy’s fists clenched. “Knowing you,” he said, “I am sure this is your way of telling me that you have taken revenge for some fancied insult by casting her and her women into some dirty dungeon with an accursed and filthy slut to mishandle her in childbirth.”

“You misjudge me, cousin. She is housed in comfort considerably greater than your own, and I will say so under truthspell, if you like.”

“Why would you do that?” Geremy asked suspiciously.

“Because, knowing how a man is troubled for the thought of his womenfolk,” Bard said, “I thought you might be as eager for news of your lady as I for mine. If you wish, it can be arranged for Ginevra to join you here. . . .”

Geremy dropped on his seat and covered his face with his hands. He said, “Do you take pleasure in tormenting me, Bard? You have no shadow of a quarrel with Ginevra, but if it gives you enjoyment to see me humiliated, I will crawl to you on my knees, if I must; do not harm Ginevra or her child.”

Bard opened the door to admit a
leronis
of the household—not Melisendra. When the blue light of truthspell was in the chamber, he said, “Hear me now, Geremy. Lady Ginevra is housed in luxurious apartments, not a stone’s throw from those of Queen Ariel when we were boys. She has ample food for a breeding woman, and such things as she best likes, by my orders. She has her own women with her, sleeping in her chamber so that no one will trouble her, and my own mother’s midwife is within call.”

Geremy watched the steady light of truthspell and it did not flicker. He was still suspicious, but he knew enough of
laran,
himself trained in that art, to know there had been no deceit in the setting of the spell. He demanded, “Why do you say all this to me?”

“Because,” Bard said, “I too have a wife, whom I have not seen for seven long years of outlawry and exile. If you will tell me, under truthspell, where I can find Carlina, I am ready to allow Ginevra to join you here, or to move you, under guard, into her suite, until the birth of your child.”

Geremy threw back his head and laughed, a long laugh of despair.

“Would that I could tell you!” he said. “I had forgotten how seriously you took that handfasting . . . we all took it seriously then, before your quarrel with Ardrin.”

“Carlina is my wife,” Bard said. “And since there is truthspell here, tell me this truthfully, too: did not Ardrin repent of his promise and try to give her to you, Hastur-spawn?”

“He repented it early and late,” Geremy said, “and with Beltran dead, and you fled into outlawry, he held the bond between you forfeit. And, indeed, he offered her to me. But don’t clench your teeth and scowl like that, Wolf; Carlina would have nothing to do with me, and she told him so, though the old king threw a mighty tantrum about it, and swore he would not be so defied by any woman living!”

The light of the truthspell on his face did not waver; Bard knew he spoke the truth. He felt an upsurge of joy. Carlina remembered their bond, she had refused to set it aside even for Geremy!

“And where is she, Geremy? Speak, and Ginevra is free to join you here.”

Geremy’s laugh held the bitterness of despair. “Where is she now? Willingly, willingly I will tell you, cousin! She has sworn the vows of a priestess of Avarra, which even her father dared not gainsay,” he said, “and she has fled the court and the kingdom, and made her way to the Isle of Silence, where she is sworn to live out the rest of her life in chastity and prayer. And if you want her, cousin, you will have to go there and take her.”

After the conquest of Asturias, Bard’s father had placed him in command of the armies. But Serrais had been subdued, for the moment, and he was not yet ready to take the field against the Hasturs, so he went to Dom Rafael and begged a few days’ leave.

“To be sure, you have well earned it, my son. Where do you wish to go?”

“I induced Geremy to tell me where Carlina has gone,” he said, “and I wish to take an honor guard and bring her back to me.”

“But not if she has been married to any other man,” his father said anxiously. “I know your feelings, but I cannot in good conscience give you leave to take the wife of any of my subjects! I rule this land under law!”

“What law is stronger than that which binds a man to the woman he has handfasted? But ease your mind, Father, Carlina is the wife of no man; she has taken refuge where she cannot be forced into marriage with any other.”

“In that case,” his father said, “take what men you will, and when you return with her, we will hold the marriage here in all splendor.” He hesitated. “The lady Melisendra will be ill content to take her place as
barragana
when your wife is here. Shall I send her back to our estates? She can care for her son there and live honorably in retirement.”

“No,” he said savagely. “I will give her to Carlina for a handmaiden!”

Something in him rejoiced at the thought of Melisendra humbled, waiting on Carlina, combing her hair and fetching her shoes and ribbons.

“You must do as it seems good to you,” Dom Rafael said, “but she is the mother of your eldest son, and in humiliating the mother, you belittle the son. Nor would Carlina, I suppose, find much pleasure in beholding, night and day, the face of her rival. I do not think you understand women very well.”

“Perhaps not,” said Bard, “and you may be sure that if Carlina wishes me to send Melisendra away, I will lose no time in doing so. As my lawful wife, it will be Carlina’s duty to foster all my sons, and I will put Erlend in her care.” That, he thought, would be better than letting Melisendra poison the child’s mind against him. He liked little Erlend, and had no intention of being parted from him.

He chose an honor guard of a dozen men; that would be enough to show the women of the Island of Silence that he intended to have his wife, and that they should lose no time in handing her over to him. No very great force would be needed against a handful of unworldly female recluses!