Book 2, Chapter 31: Magister arrives
“Your Highness, I heard. Monstrous. I am at your service. Are you . . . well?”
“Alive. I’m alive. Thank you for coming. Grand Magister, what is on my back?” I turned, letting the robe fall to my feet.
“All that is holy!” Footsteps as he approached. Long silence. He stared and stared.
Despite it being the tail end of summer, without the robe, the cold started to get to me. Possibly from blood loss or massive inflammation, I speculated. “Magister. It’s chilly in here.”
He waved a hand and the fireplace flamed on, roaring.
“I’ve seen this image in very old books. Ancient books.”
I was getting frustrated. “And . . .?” I wondered if I should remind him that he was staring at the naked backside of a girl. How many more grown men would I have to be nude for? I knew in my heart then and there that I would not grow up to be a flasher.
“Duke Bechalle was trying to channel a deity through you.”
“Through me? He said I was a deity.”
“Are you?”
“A deity?”
“Yes.”
I sighed, wanting to avoid this discussion and put on a robe. “If I were, I think I’d know. I’d have stopped the duke for one thing.” Pulling up my robe, then picking up the knife and holding it in front of him, I asked, “What meaning does this have?”
He refocused his attention on it, walked quickly forward, asking, “May I?” taking it out of my hand. He turned it over in his.
“Bechalle said it was made out of, I don’t know, a unicorn and some tree faeries or something.”
“Its potency is difficult to describe. He crafted the symbol on your back with this, I assume.”
“You call it symbol, I call it torture. But, yes, with this,” I took the knife out of his hands.
“May I borrow it for a time, to study it further?”
“No, I think I’d like to keep an eye on it.”
“Your Highness, this is a terribly dangerous tool in the wron-”
The door burst open, the countess strode in, “What is the meaning of this attack!”
“Your brother did this to me.” I stood up, faced away from her, dropped my robe and heard her intake of breath, once again felt the wizard’s burning stare. He was very interested in those . . . carvings, symbols, pattern? Whatever it was.
“My word! He’s lost his mind!”
“Really,” I said, turning and robing up, “you couldn’t hear me screaming? My army heard me and they,” I found myself yelling at her, “and they weren’t even in the tower!”
“I was in the dining hall – I’m sorry! I didn’t know,” she quickly walked over to me, falling at my feet, “I am so very sorry.” Sobbing.
I decided to play my hand, act quickly, take advantage. “Are you really?”
“I didn’t know! I didn’t know what he was planning!”
“I think you did. He said he practiced this . . . torture on other people. You must have known. The head nurse knew! With me gone, you would become a duchess, perhaps even a princess. He would rule, you would be next in line.”
She looked up from her sobbing, and said, with terrified eyes, “He is mad. Wholly mad and gone. He frightens me! If he were king . . .”
“He’s dead.”
She closed her eyes, calmness coming to her face. I gently took her chin in my hand, raised her face to mine and our eyes met, “I am taking this castle and its military. I expect you to supply me also with your military.”
“You would expel us?”
“No. I am the princess and therefore the reigning monarch. You serve me.”
“You are unwed and a child!”
“I declare myself an adult.”
“You don’t have the authority!”
“Then you will give me the authority! You will crown me queen.” My hands shook as I spoke, seething with so much anger, and I wondered whether my face was red.
“Me?”
“Look,” tired, I sighed, “I’m not keeping your castle. I’m not amenable to killing you and your children,” pause, let that sink in, “I will return to mine, but I need your troops to retake it. I need to wipe out the attackers, bring the Barclays to heel. But first, I need time. To heal. To train. To learn.”
Glimmers of hope in her eyes as she realized I wasn’t planning to wipe out her family. I wondered if that was within my right. It had been with Duke Barclay, and Brin considered it an error to leave them in power. But I couldn’t see hurting Sapphire in that way and I couldn’t kill Brin’s parents and sisters. Yet they didn’t know that and I intended to use their fear.
“My . . . it should be my husband who crowns you. I will plan the ceremony. We will make it grand! And the people will accept you as queen.”
I stood up, pulling gently on her hands so that she stood as well. “Go and bring your husband, the earl. Make this happen.”
After she left, the wizard, who’d watched the entire affair, spoke. “You are not fourteen.”
In my weakened state, I’d said too much to him already, so I merely scowled. Let that be his answer.
He left. I sat down on my now bloody sofa, placing the knife on the table beside it. I didn’t know how to investigate this blade, but there was a library here. A place to start. Maybe, it was just possible that Etienne would give me more complete answers. I resolved to ask much later.
I had to be strong to get through the next few meetings, but I was so full of anger, it almost alone could carry me.
After another rest.
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