The Rose Throne (23 page)

Stupid, stupid Edik, showing off for Issa. Even now, Ailsbet could not understand why Kellin had
done so little in his own defense. She could hardly wait for Kellin to wake up so she could scold him on this point.

Near dawn, Kellin had still not opened his eyes, nor spoken. He had fallen hard, and there was a terrible bruise on the left side of his head. The physician also suspected that one of his ribs had been broken, because of the hot swelling on his left side there, though Ailsbet did not have the chance to view that damage under his shirt.

The physician insisted that the window in Kellin’s chamber be curtained, and Ailsbet felt oppressed by the emptiness of the room. There was nothing here to tell her about Kellin. Even in his own room, he was hidden under a cloak of mystery.

Some time later, the physician began to pack up his things.

“You cannot give up,” said Ailsbet. “You must do something for him. I shall offer you anything you want. Just help him.”

The physician raised his bushy eyebrows. “I am leaving because he is better, not worse. If he has made it this far, he may be too stubborn to kill. Summon me if he wakes so I can ask him what his secret is,” he added drily.

“You are not lying to me to make me feel better?” Ailsbet asked.

“Princess,” said the physician impatiently. “I know that your tender feelings for him mean that you can hardly think. But I swear to you that he is doing well. He will wake soon enough and tell you himself how he does.” He nodded and then left.

When the physician was gone, Ailsbet allowed herself to move closer to Kellin. She held his hand to assure herself he was still alive.

Some hours later, she felt Kellin stir and saw that his eyes were open. She started and pulled away her hand.

Kellin groaned, “Head hurts.”

“You are a fool,” she said. It was only the beginning of the lecture she had stored up.

“Doubly a fool,” said Kellin. “The prince?”

“He is not hurt.”

“The princess?” said Kellin.

“Princess Marlissa is also uninjured,” said Ailsbet. Issa had never been in any danger.

“I meant, did she show what she felt for me?” said Kellin. It was the first time that he had admitted that he knew what Issa felt, and that he knew Ailsbet also knew.

Ailsbet shook her head. “Nothing that my brother
or father saw. Or anyone else, I think. You and Edik fighting with taweyr was as entertaining as anything my father has ever paid for.”

“Edik and I?” said Kellin.

Ailsbet tensed, ready to deal with an accusation that she was ekhono, but Kellin asked, “She has not come here?”

“I think she must have decided that she does not love you so very much, after all,” Ailsbet said. “A man who gives up his life so easily cannot be worth the trouble.”

“It would be better for her,” said Kellin.

Ailsbet did not argue with him on that point. She stood and stretched. She could feel the taweyr inside herself once more, not uncontrollable, but there, like a banked fire.

“I should call the physician,” she said. “To tell him you are awake.”

“No,” said Kellin. “Not yet. First, tell me what you remember from last night.”

Ailsbet looked at him suspiciously. “You engineered that. As a test for me,” she accused.

“You think I control your brother? If I had meant for you to show your taweyr to me, it would have been privately, not in front of your father and the whole court.”

So he had known about her taweyr before then? It seemed that every time she thought she had the better of him, he found out something just as dangerous to hold over her.

“Do you think Edik has no taweyr, then?” asked Ailsbet.

Kellin sighed. “He is too young to be sure. It may yet come to him in full force.”

“And do you think my father suspects anything with regard to me?” asked Ailsbet. It was surprisingly easy to talk about her taweyr with him.

Kellin shook his head. “Certainly not. His reactions last night were all of a father enjoying his son’s display of power. But we must make sure it does not happen again. You must deal with your taweyr properly and mask it when necessary.”

“And how do I do that?” asked Ailsbet.

He shook his head. “It is not something I can tell you about. We will have to be in a place where you can use it. I have some experience with the ekhono. But you need training, to learn control.”

“And how will we do that without my father knowing?” asked Ailsbet.

“We will have to be away from the palace on some excuse.”

Ailsbet reddened. She had immediately thought
of an excuse. If they married, then her father would send them to tour the kingdom. It would be the perfect time to practice whatever Kellin had to teach her. But she did not want to say it out loud. Neither, it seemed, did Kellin.

“For now, tell me when you feel desperate,” said Kellin. “I can take some from you. That is easy enough.”

Like her father taxing taweyr from his nobles. It did not look pleasant, but it would do what she needed, she supposed.

But Ailsbet was not desperate with anything now, except frustration with Kellin. She shook her head, and he let it go.

Kellin fell asleep soon after, and Ailsbet was about to steal out of the room when he started awake suddenly and called after her, “Don’t let her come! It is too dangerous.”

Ailsbet turned back. “She will know the danger already,” she said. “She is not a fool.”

“Women like a doomed love,” said Kellin with a hint of a smile.

“Well, she cannot be in love with you anymore. You are too much trouble,” Ailsbet said.

“What a song you could make of this,” said Kellin.

“Are you giving me advice about my music?”
asked Ailsbet, smiling. “I don’t write music with words. It is—cheap.”

Ailsbet brought the physician to him again, and when he was gone, Princess Marlissa came into the room without a knock.

“Issa, what are you doing here?” said Ailsbet.

At the sound of her voice, Kellin stirred awake. “Issa?” he said, and smiled. “You should not have come.”

Issa held her head high, but her eyes were shadowed. “I have come on behalf of Prince Edik. He wishes to know if the duke yet lives.”

“He will live long enough to annoy us all many times again, according to the physician,” said Ailsbet. She opened the bed hangings, and Issa ran to him immediately. She touched his hand, but Kellin pulled away.

Ailsbet turned and stared out the window, thinking of an intricate song that required almost all of her attention.

“You must go,” said Kellin after a long while.

“In one moment.” Princess Marlissa said. “Prince Edik asked me to come. He was worried that he might have killed you. He is very proud of himself.”

“Good. Tell him how weak I still am. He will like that.”

“I shall tell him I slapped your face for your arrogance.”

“Oh, yes, he will like that, too. But now you will have to do it,” said Kellin. He pointed to his cheek. “Someone is sure to come in and see me, and if there is no mark, then the truth will come out.”

“No.” Princess Marlissa sounded stricken. “Don’t ask me to do that.”

Ailsbet thought it was time for her to intervene. She tugged on Marlissa’s arm. “Come back tomorrow,” she said. “I shall slap him for you today, and gladly.”

“No, do not come back,” said Kellin. “Not ever. Wait until I return to court.”

“Tomorrow,” said Ailsbet. “You can castigate him again and make the walls ring with the sound.”

When Princess Marlissa had closed the door to the outer chambers, Ailsbet returned to Kellin.

“You are going to make sure you leave a mark, aren’t you?” he asked, his dark eyes wide.

“With pleasure,” said Ailsbet. This was one use of her taweyr that she did not need to conceal.

T
HE NEXT DAY
, Prince Edik insisted on going to see Duke Kellin for himself, and Issa had to go with him. Ailsbet stood aside as Edik strode into the duke’s chamber and yanked open the hangings around the duke’s bed. “Kellin, I have come to offer you my forgiveness,” he said loudly.

“I thank you, Prince Edik,” said Kellin, lying back on his pillow. “For your kindness in coming to visit me.”

“And now if you hear of any saying that I have not yet proven strong in taweyr, you will have to speak against them.”

“Of course,” said Kellin, as Issa tried to pull Edik away.

“You don’t sound convinced,” said Edik. “Let me show you my taweyr again. There can be no doubt here, among women, that it is mine and mine alone.”

“Surely there is no need for that,” said Issa.

“My prince,” said Kellin. “I have long shown myself to be your friend and supporter. I know that your taweyr is as strong as any boy’s your age.”

“As any boy? You mean as any man of any age,” said Edik.

Kellin would never have made that mistake if he were not ill, thought Issa.

“But—” began Kellin.

It was too late.

Edik lifted a hand to Kellin and then thrust it out, as if expecting the force of the taweyr to carry it forward.

But his hand sagged.

“What is wrong?” Edik demanded. “I have done this before. Dozens of times.”

“You are a little weak, that is all. Depleted,” said Kellin, shrugging. “It happens to those who have expended a great deal of taweyr.”

“It does not happen to my father,” said Edik. “And
it has never happened to me before.” He shook his head and thrust his hand out again.

Again, there was no taweyr. “You are still young,” said Kellin. “The taweyr is not always sure at that age.”

“The ekhono.” Edik looked about wildly, ignoring Kellin. “They must be here, even now. They have stolen from me.”

“Edik, no,” said Ailsbet.

“I must go at once and tell the king,” Edik said. “He must know the danger to us all—” He didn’t finish, but rushed away.

“Go!” Ailsbet urged Issa. “Who knows what he will do?”

Issa chased after Edik into the Great Hall.

What Edik had said as he burst in, Issa did not know. But the king looked up in annoyance at his son. “Yes, what is it?” he said.

“There are ekhono in the palace,” said Edik, in great heaving breaths. “They have taken my taweyr. And they may take yours, and every other man’s here. We must find them and stop them!”

“There are no ekhono in this palace,” said King Haikor. “I have made very sure of that, Prince Edik. Do you think I would not be able to sense them around me?”

“But how could you be sure?” said Edik. “The ekhono may have stolen even that ability from you.”

This was dangerous for Edik and dangerous for her, as well, thought Issa. If Edik angered the king, another could be set in his place as heir. And then what of their betrothal? What of the prophecy?

But King Haikor was focused only on Edik’s challenge. He lifted a hand, and a sword flew to him from the wall. It was long and studded with rubies at the hilt, a sword he had once used in battle.

“No!” shouted Issa.

But King Haikor did not even turn in her direction. Just when Issa was sure that he would run his son through at the neck, he stopped, the blade gently slicing a tiny point of the prince’s skin. A trickle of blood ran down to his shoulder and into his tunic.

“If your taweyr has been taken, you will not be able to stop me,” said King Haikor.

Prince Edik swallowed hard, and the blade dug a quarter inch farther into his neck. “Please, Father,” he said.

King Haikor’s arm twitched. “I must be sure,” he said, and the sword pressed into the skin once more.

Issa ran forward, heedless of her own safety, and thrust Edik out of the way of the sword, as blood poured down his neck. Issa pressed her fingers to him, focusing on her neweyr.

His wound had not been caused by taweyr, but only by the naked steel blade. Issa poured neweyr into Edik, sealing the wound in his throat. If he lived, that was good for her and for Weirland, surely. The betrothal would continue.

“Neweyr in my own court?” said King Haikor. “You must know I have strictly forbidden it.”

With a deep curtsy, Issa begged the king’s pardon with all the proper language she could summon. “For the sake of your son, whom I knew you would have wanted saved. I promise it will never happen again, Your Majesty.” She kept her head low, her voice humble.

King Haikor touched her chin with a finger and looked her in the eyes. There was something in his eyes that made her think of the ocean at the land bridge, rapaciously hungry and grasping, never satisfied.

Edik groaned, and Issa bent down to him.

“Get up,” said King Haikor to his son with little sympathy. “You have not an ounce of taweyr in you now, Edik.”

Did that mean the king would say he was no longer heir?

But King Haikor’s anger was not directed at Edik. “Someone has taken it from you, for you had it in quantity when you battled with Kellin. So who have you seen since then? Give me the names!”

“Only—only my groomsmen,” said Edik. “And Duke Kellin.”

But the king shook his head. “Duke Kellin is no ekhono. He has shown his taweyr time and again. It cannot be him. Therefore, it must be your groomsmen.” He clapped his hands and two servants ran to kneel before him. “Bring me Prince Edik’s groomsmen immediately.”