Part 3 (1/2)
”Hush, beloved. I will not hurt you. Gilda,” he said sharply to the old woman, who had not moved, ”do as I have commanded!”
”The physician's gone, like all the rest,” Gilda said. ”There's only me and Suchin left. We hid, or they'd have taken us away too.” Tobeszijian, still trying to soothe his flailing wife, stared at Gilda. Although he had many questions, he knew this wasn't the time. Again he tried to ease Nereisse down, but she was still fighting him.
”Nereisse, it's Tobeszijian, your husband,” he said. ”You know me. I've come home.”
This time she responded to his voice. Her eyes, so wild and frantic behind hanging wisps of hair, glared at him. ”You're dead. I parted the veils of seeing, and you were dead.”
”No,” he said softly, stroking her hair. ”I escaped.”
”Saw you,” she panted. ”Saw the Nonkind surrounding you. Saw them rend you. How you fought, my beloved. You fought so fiercely and well, but you were alone and there were so many of them-” ”No, Nereisse,” he said, trying to silence her. ”I am here, safe with you.” She groaned and clung to him, weeping now. ”It cannot be true,” she said. ”I saw so clearly.”
”It almost happened,” he told her. ”Almost, but they could not trap me. Now you must rest and get better.”
He laid her down upon her pillows, but she still clung to his hand, her blue-gray eyes frantic. ”It is not safe here for you. The churchmen will capture you. The court has gone. Everything is gone.”
”I saw,” he said grimly, thinking of the deserted palace.
”Muncel-” She s.h.i.+vered, wracked anew with pain.
”Hush,” he said. ”I am here now. You must rest and get better. We will deal with the other later.”
But she seemed not to hear him. ”Muncel has claimed your throne,” she said, her voice a whisper. ”He has moved the court to Belrad, saying the palace here is accursed by eldin magic. The court left yesterday-nay, the day before. Sleds and troikas and wagons. They took all the-” ”Hush,” he said, masking his fury. ”Let me worry about that. It does not matter as long as you and the children are safe.”
Her gaze s.h.i.+fted, and for a second she was his old Nereisse, gazing into his eyes with a corner of her mouth quirked up in something between disapproval and amus.e.m.e.nt. ”Liar,” she whispered.
He gripped her slender hand in his and kissed it to hide a rush of tears. ”No,” he said, closing his eyes as her fingers swept across his face. ”I will make war. Muncel will rue this infamy. He cannot steal my kingdom like a common thief.”
”Then flee now,” she said, s.h.i.+vering. ”Find your allies and loyal liegemen who will raise an army for you.
Do not linger here, for they lie in wait for you, intending to take you prisoner. They would dare try you as a common-” ”Never mind,” he said, not wanting to tell her he was already a prisoner. But not for long, he vowed. He would crush Muncel. As soon as he raised an army, he would ride on Muncel's holding.
Belrad, the fortress he had given Muncel with impulsive generosity. Although he owed Muncel nothing,he had been generous to his half-brother. And this was how Muncel repaid his kindness. Nereisse s.h.i.+vered more violently, closing her eyes. Worried, Tobeszijian glanced at Gilda. ”What can be done?”
”Nothing,” Nereisse gasped out before Gilda could answer. She opened her eyes to stare up at him. ”It is spellcraft, this poison. You must stay away from me before you catch it.”
She released his hand, drawing back when he would have touched her.
”I cannot catch it,” he said.
”You are half eld. It could harm you.”
He frowned. ”What happened, Nereisse? They told me Thiatereika caught it first.
Is she-”
Pain and grief creased her face. ”Better,” she said hoa.r.s.ely, her breath coming short and fast. ”I drew it from her body.”
He understood. In saving the child, she had infected herself. ”Then we shall draw it from you.”
She shook her head. ”Nay, husband. Had there been a sorcerelle here when I first took it, perhaps. Not now.”
He bowed his head in overwhelming sorrow, gripping her hand again, then holding it even tighter when she tried to pull away.
”The poison was meant for Faldain,” she said. ”It came in a sweet, baked in the shape he loves best.
One sweet, brought only for him. I was preoccupied, not paying attention, or I would have sensed it at once.”
”Your majesty was not even in the room,” Gilda murmured. Tobeszijian glanced at the old nurse, and her sad eyes met his. ”I did not know, sire,” Gilda whispered guiltily. ”How could I guess anything was amiss? Except I sent to the kitchens for no such treat. Nor did I recognize the page who brought it for my lamb. Our precious princeling gave such a laugh when he saw it, and clapped his little hands. But the princess is ever greedy, no matter how many times I admonish her. She grabbed it off the tray before her brother could touch it. It went straight in her mouth. Seconds later, she was screaming.” He thought of his daughter, only four, with her mother's grace and slenderness, already a beauty with long, golden curls.
His son was less than two years old, chubby and full of mischief. That anyone would want to harm these sweet innocents sickened him, and stirred his rage anew. ”Where are they?” he asked. ”In the nursery,”
Gilda replied. ”Suchin watches over them. I could not bring them in here to watch their lady mother die.”
”She will not die,” he said firmly, turning back to Nereisse. ”She will not.”
”Save them,” Nereisse said softly, her voice as thin as the springtime wind. ”The children-so young.”
She turned her face away and brushed at it with her fingers. ”So hot. So hot. I must find my dear Tobeszijian, who walks this land no more.”
He stared at her, feeling helpless and afraid, while Gilda went back to sponging her face. There must be something he could do. Her skin looked like wet ashes. She was breathing harshly, with great difficulty, and another spasm of pain shuddered through her, making her cry out. ”Kalfeyd edr hahld't” she said. Awhoosh of energy pa.s.sed his head, just missing him, and one of the ma.s.sive bedposts split. Gilda dropped the enameled basin of water and jumped back, making the sign of a circle on her breast. ”She'll kill us all, sire!”
”Wait, Gilda. She won't-”
The nurse was already scuttling away. Before she reached the door, however, Tobeszijian caught her around the middle and picked her up, carrying her back, kicking and weeping like a child.
”It missed us both,” he said, putting the old crone down and patting her shoulder. ”She won't harm us.
She won't. You've helped her so bravely, Gilda. You must help her still.”
The old woman managed to stop her weeping and wiped her face with her ap.r.o.n.
”Forgive me, sire. There is nothing to be done.”
He paced back and forth at the foot of the bed. ”If I could reach the eld folk,” he said aloud. But even as he spoke, he knew it was futile. He had the Ring to help him escape and return, but despite that he knew not where to go. The eld folk never stayed in a place long. And Nereisse had already said a sorcerelle could not help her.
Still, he would not give up. ”The bathing tub,” he said in sudden inspiration.
”Have the servants fill it with water. Cold water.”
Gilda gasped. ”You'll kill her.”
”She's burning up. We must do something. Gilda, get the tub. Call the pages to help-” He broke off, only then realizing what he'd said.
The old woman pressed a corner of her embroidered ap.r.o.n to her mouth and wept, rocking herself back and forth.
In the bed, Nereisse moaned and tossed, mumbling incoherently in the eld tongue.
He felt tears falling down his cheeks. He could not let her leave him. Instinctively he knew it would take too long for him to go downstairs and find his way to the kitchens, or wherever water was brought from.
He hurried to the window and pulled aside the heavy draperies. Immediately cold drafts raced through the room, and when he pushed open the window, brutally cold air poured in. Tobeszijian leaned out, scooping armfuls of snow into the hem of his cloak, and came back inside, slamming the window shut behind him. He carried the snow to the bed and started packing handfuls of it around Nereisse. She opened her eyes and sighed. ”Tobeszijian.”