The Twelve Kingdoms: The Mark of the Tala (12 page)

Hugh laid a hand on my back. “The sister of my wife is under my protection in all ways while she is away from her father and King. This has been a difficult ordeal for her. I’m sure you understand, Einsly—I cannot allow her to be importuned.”

“Oh! Oh, surely so.” Einsly hurfled. “I just wanted to—”

“Of course. And now, I’m certain the ladies would prefer to rest and refresh themselves.”

I clung to Hugh’s proffered arm and followed along into the depths of the castle. In the distance, I thought I heard a wolf howl.

T
he cool cloth Dafne laid over my eyes felt better than any of Glorianna’s benedictions. My stomach still roiled unhappily, but at least the pounding in my head receded.

“I can search out an herb woman, get you a headache cure.” Dafne sounded worried.

“No—I got too hot is all. Some rest will see me better.”

Her silence spoke volumes. I lifted a corner of the cloth and leaned up to see her standing an arm’s length away, arms folded.

“Are you actually tapping your foot? And Amelia would warn you that your face will freeze that way and you’ll look old before your time.”

“Andi—you are a master of ducking and hiding, but you don’t fool me. You’re puke green. What’s wrong with you?”

I felt puke green, actually. With a sigh, I collapsed back on the bed. “I don’t know. I just need to rest. Please?”

Water splashed in a basin and the cloth left my eyes to be replaced with a colder one. “Ah, that helps.”

“I’ll let you rest, but I’m finding an herb woman.”

“I’m fine.”

“Then she’ll agree and be on her way. Here.”

She tucked something under my arm. Long, silky hair tickled my skin.

“What is that?”

“Your little doll. It’s the only thing you brought. I thought it might make you feel better.”

Oddly, it did. The dreadful wrenching in my stomach subsided and I fell into a cool and soothing sleep.

I surfaced to the scent of rosemary carried on steam. Another herb rode with it, one that reminded me of the gentle perfumes from Elcinea that traders and minstrels brought back, weaving tales of turquoise waters, warm coastal breezes, and flowers that bloomed only at night.

Mermaids danced in blue coral ballrooms . . .

“What is she singing?”

“Who knows? Wake up, Princess!” This voice had to belong to the herb woman I hadn’t wanted.

“I’m awake.” I reluctantly opened my eyes, but thankfully the light no longer stabbed in like knives. A woman with a young face but silver-white hair sat on my bedside. Her eyes were a striking aqua blue. Around her neck hung a finely wrought chain from which dangled Moranu’s moon.

“How do you feel?” Dafne peered over the woman’s shoulder.

“Much better, actually.”

“Drink this.” The herb woman handed me a goblet. I peered inside it. The potion was warm, and a black and bitter smell rose from it. The herb woman raised fine white eyebrows. “I won’t lie to you—it will taste truly awful. But it will help you, I promise. It’s better drunk warm.”

“What’s wrong with me?”

She glanced down and away. “It is something perhaps best discussed in private.”

“I’ll leave.” Dafne gathered up a few things.

“Oh, no, Dafne, you don’t have to—”

“Believe me, Princess. There are things I don’t want to know. That I’m likely better off not knowing.” She gave me a half smile. “Besides, I could use a nap myself.”

She left, snapping the door closed. Balancing the goblet in my hand, I scooted myself up. They’d put me in a grand room. No doubt the suite Hugh had promised me, because windows ringed three sides of it. Somewhere far below, surf crashed against rocks.

“The potion is a combination of bitter herbs that work to counteract poison,” the woman said.

“Poison? I’ve been poisoned?”

“In a manner of speaking. Tell me—is it true you encountered Rayfe of the Tala?”

That should not be common knowledge. Who was this woman?

“I’m a priestess of Moranu—the Tala are her children.” She touched the moon at her throat, seeming to read my thoughts. “But then, you recognized that immediately. Your lady-in-waiting was right to come to me. If anyone can help you, I can.”

“Help me with what?”

“His blood passed your lips, didn’t it?” She nodded at my surprise. “I can see it, if no one else can. Now he comes to you in dreams, and perhaps when you are awake, yes?”

I didn’t answer. She didn’t need me to.

“You are Salena’s daughter, more than the others. You bear the mark. Her blood in you is also his.” She shrugged. “When you drank his blood, it started a change in you. I understand it can be painful. Especially outside of Annfwn. And, of course, you’re old for it.”

“I did not drink his blood,” I replied, stung on several levels.

She smiled at my denial that admitted so much else. Careless of me.

“It doesn’t take much, especially for someone like you. This potion will help.”

I sniffed it. As bitter as Glorianna’s had been sweet. That might actually be a good sign. “It will counteract his blood?”

“No.”

“What, then?”

“It will make it easier for you to assimilate what the blood is doing to you.”

“Then I don’t want it.”

She refused to take the goblet I thrust back at her. “Princess Andromeda,” she said gently, the voice of someone practiced at giving bad news, “you have already started down a path you cannot retreat from. You must go forward. I offer you a way to make it less painful. That’s all I can give you.”

“How do I know you’re telling me the truth?”

She shrugged. “How do you know anyone is? I suspect you have a talent for that.”

“When I drank a potion in Glorianna’s chapel, for the rite of protection—I couldn’t.”

“Not surprising. Your path does not align with those of Glorianna’s followers.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means what it means, Andromeda. You will find your own answers. Drink the potion or not—it matters not to me.”

“What do you know of Annfwn?”

Her serene expression tightened. “I know there are many trapped outside the borders who would benefit by being allowed in. It’s difficult for the Tala outside—and you are Tala. More with every passing night, whether you wish it or not.”

The priestess smiled, stood, and began sliding paper packets into a leather bag.

“But your goblet—”

“A gift.” She shouldered her bag. “Moranu blesses you, Andromeda. Remember that. Her chapel is always open to you. Find me there, should you think of some better questions.”

She slipped out of the room before I realized I didn’t know her name. Setting the silver goblet on a little table next to the bed, I clambered up, tangling my legs in the obnoxious pink gown. The movement made me a bit dizzy, pain pounding into the base of my neck. Not so much better, after all. I managed to stagger to the door and open it. Two surprised soldiers snapped to attention.

The long, curving hallway was empty in both directions.

Of course. Can’t be mysterious without a disappearing act.

The goblet waited for me, still steaming. I could see now that the silver bore the imprints of Moranu’s moon in all four phases, moving in endless cycles around the rim. I picked it up, wrapping my chilled fingers around the welcome warmth, eyeing the doll also sitting on the little table. Glass blue eyes somber amid a tumble of black hair.

Steeling myself against the bitterness, I drank down the potion in one long swallow.

Amelia just loved having me visit Windroven. She happily settled in as if this was the pleasure jaunt she’d imagined, seeming to forget for long spaces of time what had driven me here.

As soon as I emerged from my chamber, feeling much more myself, Amelia practically pounced on me and insisted on a full tour of the castle. She danced along, chattered, and showed me every nook, every pleasing feature. She did not seem to notice, however, how busily all the denizens worked.

Or how distracted by my dark thoughts I was.

Workers in lower rooms piled up bricks and mortar, to be used to seal accessible windows. Chains of brawny lads handed barrels of dried legumes down into the cavernous cellars. The spectacular views Amelia pointed out also showed soldiers streaming in from outlying villages to join those drilling below in the fields being harvested early. I half expected to see Ursula come striding around a corner in her fighting leathers, snapping out orders.

Hugh was preparing for siege, indeed.

I barely listened to my sister. Happily, she didn’t need me to do more than make the occasional admiring sound. My headache had eased but my mind still roiled. The priestess’s words kept going through my head.
A path you cannot retreat from
. Even Dafne had said when I first met her that I’d need to form a plan. So far I’d avoided that, letting events carry me along.

I do not have the luxury of your inaction.

Rayfe’s taunting words rankled. I needed to make a decision. The dread building with every preparation for battle I witnessed spurred me to do something. Worse, I felt strange changes inside me. Sometimes it seemed my skin didn’t fit right. My fingers would suddenly spasm, and I’d look down, expecting to see claws bursting forth. My spine ached, lengthening and then contracting. A fluttering sensation bubbled in my veins, and I imagined tiny black birds fledging inside me, their wings beating to break free.

The headache might be gone, but my body was changing. Shifting into something else.

When the rest of Amelia’s ladies arrived, Amelia went to greet them and see them settled. I slipped away and sought out Hugh.

Wearing his jeweled armor, he held court near the still-open main gates, greeting a country lord, newly arrived with a ragtag group of rosy-cheeked workers from his estate, there to become soldiers. I could just see Ursula rolling her eyes at their inexperience. Hugh, though, asked after their skills and thanked them so graciously that they all seemed taller as they trotted off to join one of the drilling battalions.

Hugh immediately turned to me and took my elbow to lead me away from the entrance—and the tantalizing promise of freedom. “How do you fare, Sister? You are well?”

“Yes, Hugh, I’m fine. Nothing a little nap couldn’t cure.”

He frowned in concern. “I pushed you all too hard in getting here. I should have taken your more delicate constitutions into account.”

I nearly burst out laughing at that. Delicate constitutions! A little black magic and shape-shifter blood transforming me into a monster only gives a girl a little indigestion.

“Really, Hugh, I’m fine. I’m grateful for the protection you’ve offered me—and that you got us here safely.”

He beamed at me, so pleased to be the hero. I bit my lip, unsure how to phrase what I needed to say.

“I’m concerned, though, that—”

“You mustn’t be,” he broke in. “You must not fret or worry. I’ve made a promise to keep you safe, and I will. Look about you! Windroven can withstand a siege for years, if necessary, and—”

“Years!”

Hugh looked aghast at my outburst. I had nearly shrieked the word. Years of being confined to this castle, looking out the high windows at armies below and never leaving, never riding or feeling the grass on my skin. I felt like I had days until those thousands of birds pecking at the insides of my veins tore their way free, leaving me a dying, shredded mess.

“I’m sorry, Hugh, but I just can’t . . . I can’t see us living under siege for years, for all these people to ruin their crops and their lives for me. For me.”

“You’re wrong, Andi. It’s not only about you. The Twelve Kingdoms are united against this enemy. The High King will triumph once again and drive this scourge from our lands. Besides, all we have to do is hold out until the King brings his forces behind the Tala. They’ll be crushed between us.”

“But I could stop this,” I argued, my voice weak against his ringing tones of certainty. “This is foolishness, to risk so much, when I could stop it. Wouldn’t that be the truly loyal thing for me to do? The one thing I could do for the kingdoms?”

“No. You three are the greatest treasures of the Twelve Kingdoms. We will never give you up to them.”

A tumult of noise announced a wagon trundling through the gate, piled high with metal armor and bristling with bundles of weapons. It stopped me from responding to that absurd statement, and Hugh’s eyes gleamed with excitement at the sight.

“You’ll see, Sister. None shall defeat us!” He spun on his heel to survey the new weapons, and I caught his sleeve. Hugh turned back, burying his impatience with a comforting pat on my hand. “Go have tea with Amelia and relax. All will be well.”