PROLOGUE (20 page)

"Was that a plea, or a warning?"

Rosvita jumped, scraping a finger on the wooden sill.” You startled me, Brother. I did not see you come up beside us."

"Nor did the queen," observed Fortunatus.” But she has observed a great deal else. Henry already has grown children who will be rivals to whatever children she bears. Yet she does not fear them as she fears Sanglant."

Rosvita set her hands back on the sill, then winced at the pain in her finger.

"You've caught a splinter," said Fortunatus, taking her hand into his. He had a delicate touch, honed by years of calligraphy.

As he bent over her hand, working the splinter loose, she lowered her voice.” Do you think she fears Sanglant?"

"Would you not?" he asked amiably.” Ah! There it comes." He flicked the offending splinter away and released her hand. She sucked briefly at the wound as he went on.” He is the master of the battlefield. All acknowledge that. He returns rested and fit, with soldiers already kneeling before him, although only God know when they pledged loyalty to him, who has nothing."

"Nothing but the child."

"Nothing but the child," Fortunatus agreed. The privations of their journey over the mountains to Aosta and their subsequent flight from Ironhead had pared much flesh from Fortunatus' frame. Leanness emphasized his sharp eyes and clever mouth, making him look more dour than congenial, when in fact he was a man who preferred wit and laughter to dry pronouncements. In the last few weeks on the king's progress he had been able to eat heartily, as was his preference, and he was putting on weight. It suited him.” I would say he is the more dangerous for having nothing but the child. He isn't a man who desires things for himself."

"He desired the young Eagle against his father's wishes."

"I pray God's forgiveness for saying so, Sister, but surely he desired her more like a dog lusts after a bitch in heat."

"It's true it is the child who has changed him, not the marriage. You are right when you say he desires no thing for himself, for his own advancement. But what he desires for his child is a different matter."

"Do you think it will come to a battle between him and Queen Adelheid?"

She frowned as she gazed out into the foliage. Wind whipped the branches of the walnut tree under which Sanglant sheltered with Blessing, although no wind stirred the rest of the garden. It seemed strange to her, seeing its restlessness contrasted so starkly with the autumnal calm that lay elsewhere. The prince rose abruptly. Heribert, beside him, asked for the baby and, with reluctance evident in the stiffness of his shoulders, Sanglant handed her over. She was splayed out with that absolute limpness characteristic of a sleeping child. The prince and the frater stood together under the writhing branches, talking together while the baby slept peacefully. Finally, Sanglant looked up arid seemed to address a comment to the heavens. Surely by coincidence, at that very instant, the breeze caught in the branches of the walnut tree ceased.

"What does Prince Sanglant know but war? Did Henry not fight against his own sister? Why should we expect otherwise in the next generation?"

"Unless good counsel and wiser heads prevail," murmured Fortunatus.

Behind them, voices raised as the company who had been seated in the adjoining chamber flooded into the one in which Rosvita and Fortunatus still stood. Rosvita moved away from the window just as Hathui came up to her.

"I pray you, Sister Rosvita," said the Eagle, "the king wishes you to attend him, if you will."

"I would speak with you in private council," Alia was saying to Henry as she looked around the chamber.

Henry merely gestured to the small group of courtiers and nobles and servants attending him, no more than twenty-five people in all.” My dear companions and counselors Margrave Villam and Sister Rosvita are privy to all my most private councils." Deliberately, he extended a hand to invite Adelheid forward. She came forward to stand beside him with a high flush in her cheeks and a pleased smile, quickly suppressed, on her lips.” Queen Adelheid and my daughter, Theophanu, of course will remain with me." He glanced up then, looking around the room. He marked Hathui with his gaze. She needed no introduction nor any excuse; she simply stood solidly a few paces behind him, as always. The others slid back to the walls, making themselves inconspicuous, and he ignored them.” If Sanglant chooses to hear your words, I am sure he will come in from outside."

"You have changed, Henri," Alia replied, not with rancor but as a statement of fact.” You have become the ruler I thought you might become in time. I am not sorry that I chose you instead of one of the others."

He rocked back on his heels as at a blow. Adelheid's small but firm hand tightened on his.” What do you mean? Chose me instead of one of the others? What others?"

She seemed surprised by his outburst.” Is it not customary among humankind to be making alliances based on lineage, fertility, and possessions? Is this not what you yourself are doing, Henri?" She indicated Adelheid.” When first I am coming back to this world, many of your years ago, I go seeking the one whose

name is known even to my people. That is the man you call Emperor Taillefer. But he is dead by the time I am walking on Earth, and he has left no male descendants. I cannot be making an alliance with a dead man. It is to the living I must look. I am walking far in search of the living. Of all the princes in these lands it is in the Wendish lineage I am seeing the most strength. Therefore I am thinking then that your lineage is the one I seek."

Henry had color in his cheeks, the mark of anger, but his voice betrayed nothing of the irritation that sparked as he narrowed his eyes.” I seem to have misunderstood our liaison. I had thought it was one of mutual passion, and that you were gracious enough to swear that the child you and I got together was of my making as well as yours. So that the child would seal my right to rule as regnant after my father. Do I understand you instead to say that you had another purpose in mind? That you actively sought me or any young prince of a noble line and chose me over the others because of the strength of the kingdom I was meant to rule?"

"Is it different among you, when you contract alliances?" Alia seemed genuinely puzzled.” For an undertaking of great importance, are you not sealing bargains and binding allies who will be bringing the most benefit to your own cause?"

Henry laughed sharply.” Had you some undertaking in mind, Alia, when first you put yourself in my way in Dane? How well I recall that night!"

She gestured toward the garden, dark now except for the light of moon and stars. Inside, the stewards had gotten all the lamps lit. St. Thecla's many figures on the tapestries shimmered in the golden light; her saint's crowns had been woven with silver threads, and the lamplight made them glimmer like moonglow.

"What other undertaking than the making of the child? Was this not our understanding?"

"Truly, it was my understanding. I understood why I needed to get a child, even if the getting of the child came second to my passion for you. But never did I understand that you wanted a child as well." He spoke bitterly.” You abandoned the two of us easily enough. What could you have wanted a child for if you were willing to walk away from him when he was still a suckling babe?"

She walked forward full into the light from the four dragon-headed lamps that hung from hooks in the ceiling to illuminate the

center of the chamber. Despite her tunic, she could not look anything but outlandish, foreign, and wildly unlike humankind.” In him, my people and your people become one."

"Become one?"

"If there is one standing between us who carries both my blood and yours, then there can be hope for peace."

Fortunatus stirred beside Rosvita, and she pressed a hand to his wrist, willing him to remain silent while, around them, Henry's attendants whispered to each other, puzzling over her words.

How could Alia's people seek peace when they no longer lived on Earth, and perhaps no longer lived at all? Of all their fabled kind, Alia alone had walked among them once, some twenty-five years ago, and then vanished utterly, only to reappear now looking no older for the intervening years.

But the years had not left Henry unscarred. He pulled out a rust-colored scrap of cloth and displayed it with angry triumph. Alia recoiled with a pained look on her face, as if the sight of the scrap physically hurt her.

"I held this close to my heart for all these years as a reminder of the love I bore for you!" In those words Rosvita heard the young Henry who, coming into his power, had not always known what to do with it, and not the mature Henry of these days who never lost control.” You never loved me at all, did you?"

"No." His outburst might have been foam flung against a sea wall for all the impact it had.” I made a vow before the council of my own people that I would sacrifice myself for this duty, to make a child who would be born with the blood of both our peoples."

Finally, as if his voice had at last reached his ears, he schooled his expression to the haughty dignity worthy of the regnant.” For what purpose?"

"For an alliance. A child born of two peoples has the hope to live in both their tribes. We are hoping that the boy will be the bridge who will be bringing your people into an alliance with mine. We knew you would not be trusting us. That is why I left him with you, so that you and your people would come to love him. I was thinking he would be raised to be the ruler after you, in the fashion of humankind. In this way our task would be made easy. Now I return and I find him as an exile. Why were you not treating him as you promised to me?"

"I raised him as my own!" cried Henry indignantly.” No man treated a son better! But he was a bastard. His birth gave me the right to the crown, but it granted him nothing save the honor of being trained as a captain for war. I did everything I could, Alia. I would have made him king after me, though everyone stood against me. But he threw it back in my face, all that I offered him, for the sake of that woman!" He was really angry now, remembering his son's disobedience.

Sanglant walked in from the garden. Folk parted quickly to let him through their ranks. He came to rest, standing quietly between the king and the Aoi woman, and all at once the resemblance showed starkly: his father's forehead and chin and height, his mother's high cheekbones and coloring and broad shoulders: two kinds blended seamlessly into one body. But he had nothing of Alia's inhuman posture and cold, harsh nature. In speech and gesture he was entirely his father's child.

"Liath is the great granddaughter of the Emperor Taillefer." Without shouting, Sanglant pitched his voice to carry strongly throughout the long chamber.” Now, truly, my father's people, my mother's people, and the lineage of Emperor Taillefer, the greatest ruler humankind has known, are joined in one person. In my daughter, Blessing." He indicated Brother Heribert, who had come in behind him carrying Blessing.” Is that not so?"

Henry lifted a hand, a slight movement, and his Eagle stepped forward to answer the prince.” What proof have you that the child is born of Taillefer's lineage?" Hathui asked.

"Do you accuse me of lying, Eagle?" he asked softly.” Nay, Your Highness," she replied blandly.” But you may have been misled. Sister Rosvita believes that a daughter was born to Taillefer's missing son. Any woman might then claim to be the lost grandchild of Taillefer."

"Who would know to claim such a thing?" He shook his head impatiently.” This is an argument that matters little. If proof you will have, then I will get proof for you, and after that no person will doubt Blessing's claim."

"Son." How strange to hear Alia's voice speaking that word. It made Sanglant seem a stranger standing among them, rather than a beloved kinsman.” It is true that I was hoping when first I crossed through the gateway into this country to make a child with

a descendant of Taillefer. But it was not to be. That you have done so—" She had a fatalistic way of shrugging, as if to say that her gods had worked their will without consulting her.” So be it. I bow to the will of She-Who-Creates. Let proof be brought and given if humankind have no other way of discerning the truth. But proof will be mattering little if all of you are dead because of the great cataclysm that will fall upon you."

Most of Henry's retinue still seemed to be staring at Blessing, who had stirred in Heribert's arms, yawning mightily and twisting her little mouth up as she made a sleepy face and subsided again.

But Henry was listening.” What cataclysm do you mean?" He regarded her intently.

"You are knowing an ancient prophecy made by a holy woman among your people, are you not? In it is she not speaking of a great calamity?"

Rosvita spoke, unbidden, as words came entire to her mind.
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' 'There will come to you a great calamity, a cataclysm such as you have never known before. The waters will boil and the heavens weep blood, the rivers will ran uphill and the winds will become as a whirlpool. The mountains shall become the sea and the sea shall become the mountains, and the children shall cry out in terror for they will have no ground on which to stand. And they shall call that time the Great Sundering.'"