Part 30 (1/2)
Coinich Mor stayed, but tucked herself silently into a corner near the hearth, from which vantage point she watched everyone else in the room.
They sat, drinking hot cider and listening to the harsh winds of early winter a.s.sault Mertuile, while Feich tried to engage his pretty hostage in conversation.
”Your Mistress liked this room,” he told her, after observing how continually awed she seemed by her surroundings. ”We came here with Cyne Colfre more than once during her time here. Did she ever speak to you of that time?”
The girl blinked at him as if bemused by his sudden amiability. ”She spoke of it,” she said at last. ”She called it a time of confusion.”
Feich offered a wry smile. ”For me, as well. I was . . . very fond of your Mistress.”
”You tried to kill her.” The girl's eyes were pools of ice that made even Ladhar s.h.i.+ver.
”She seemed a threat to my Cyne and my country. Later events proved me right.”
”No sir. They did not. Taminy had nothing to do with Colfre's death.” She laid subtle stress on her Mistress's name, as if to imply that someone other than Colfre had had something to do with it.
Feich's eyes glittered. ”She abducted the Cyneric-”
”She did not. Toireasa and Airleas came to us of their free will. She means no harm to Airleas, as you well know. She means only to strengthen him to see to it that when he does take the Throne, no one will mold him to their own desires.” Her voice, soft and measured, quivered a bit as she said the words, but her eyes were unwaveringly direct.
Feich shook his head and glanced at Ladhar. ”I appreciate,” he told the girl, ”that you wish to believe no ill of your Mistress, but she has proven herself to be Evil incarnate.”
”She has proven only to be your adversary, Regent Feich. I suppose that must make her seem evil to you.”
Everyone in the room was astonished by the girl's audacity. Ladhar saw on other faces the same look he knew must be on his own. Only Daimhin Feich took the remark blandly, his face set in a benign smile.
”Unfortunately, I must regard you as evil as well, poor child. You are undeniably under her influence. If you were to disavow your Mistress, however . . .”
”I can't do that, sir.”
Feich shrugged. ”Then you will most likely die . . . eventually. Hanged, perhaps, or burnt, or drowned.”
Her lovely face paled to the color of cream, but the girl only said, ”I'm prepared to do that.”
Feich shook his head. ”I admire your courage, child. But what a deplorable waste. How can you love one who would so cruelly ignore your plight?”
”Taminy doesn't ignore me.”
”Ah, well, if you wish to plead that she's unaware-”
”She's not unaware, Regent. She knows where I am and under what conditions. She's always with me. Always.”
Feich perked up at this, his eyes lighting with interest.
”You are in communication with her?”
”Yes.”
”Yet, she does nothing to free you.”
”Perhaps my freedom is not required.”
An odd thing to say, Ladhar thought, and a part of his mind began trying to work out what it meant.
Late that night at Ochanshrine, he came to the beginning of an understanding, for Daimhin Feich arrived there, the Nairnian cailin in tow, and demanded to be admitted to the Shrine.
What choice had he? He let them in, following them down into the Osmaer Crystal's sacred bowl.
The girl was clearly terrified. Wrapped in a long cloak that did not cover the soft skirts of her sleeping gown, hair in wild disarray about her shoulders, she glanced about with frantic eyes-eyes that were willing to beg even Ladhar for aid.
Meanwhile Feich, obviously excited, prattled like a schoolboy. ”I asked if she had a crystal, and of course she did-a tiny thing, barely worthy of the name, belonged to some mouldering Osraed. But she could fire it, Ladhar! d.a.m.n, but she could fire it! So I gave her Bloodheart and the d.a.m.ned thing all but ignited in her hands. Those sweet, magical hands!”
He kissed them both, knotted as they were into fists, and dragged the poor girl down another three or four steps.
”And I thought, if she can do that with puny, flawed rocks, then-” He broke off, staring at Ochan's Crystal.
Yes, it too had ignited, even as Feich's imperfect Bloodheart. Ladhar thought his legs would refuse to support him. He sank to the nearest bench, overcome, mesmerized as on that horrible night . . .
Feich, exultant, dragged the girl the rest of the way down the aisle, forcing her into close contact with the Stone.
The Stone burned.
”Now, Wicke! Show me how you Weave with this crystal. Show me your Mistress! Let me see her! Does she sleep? Does she Weave? Does she feel your distress? Show her to me!”
The girl strained to pull her hands free, struggled to put some distance between herself and the Osmaer Crystal, but Feich had the advantage of physical strength and spiritual frailty. He cared little if he terrified her or caused her pain. He twisted her to face the Crystal, shrieking his commands in her ears, shaking her until the cloak slid from her shoulders.
The commotion drew an audience; Osraed and cleirachs appeared in the upper doorway. Ladhar felt their eyes on him. They hung back, seeing him there. Surely if the Abbod Ladhar was witness to this spectacle they need not interfere.
”Show me Taminy-Osmaer!” cried Feich for perhaps the twentieth time, and the girl, sobbing, put up her hands as if in prayer.
Did she Weave? Ladhar would never be certain, but all at once he found himself engulfed in aislinn mist and he was seeing-dear G.o.d the Spirit!-he was seeing Bevol's Wicke, herself, right there in the Shrine. She appeared, suspended over the Osmaer Crystal, or superimposed upon it, her hair bound as if for sleep, dressed in a robe of blinding white. Light poured from her in waves and her lips moved soundlessly.
Ladhar found his own lips were in motion, as well, releasing a flood of desperate prayer.
Feich moved to approach the aislinn image, reached his hand out as if to touch it, but it folded in on itself, disappearing into an envelope of darkness.
The Regent howled. ”Bring her back!” He turned to the quaking girl, who responded by collapsing into a trembling heap at his feet. Feich kicked at her. ”Bring her back! I want to speak to her!”
”I can't! Please, lord, I can't!”
”You mean you won't. Very well, you stupid child. You've condemned yourself.” Feich turned to Ladhar, who was only now getting his own trembling under control. ”In the morning, I'll return, Abbod. And when I return, I will have the strength to take up that Stone of yours and Weave through it.”
He dragged the hapless girl from the floor, then, and all but carried her from the Shrine.
Ladhar could only stare after them in mute horror. Daimhin Feich meant to get his hands on the Osmaer Crystal and, short of hiding it, there was nothing he could do to prevent that. He turned his eyes to the Stone, silently beseeching its unseen Mistress to aid him.
If ever you have listened to me, he told Her, I bid you listen now. Send me your two saints, your aingeals, to keep Daimhin Feich from abusing Ochan's Stone.