known what it was and might have
even persuaded Frederick to toss her
aside.
***
Jaisyn had just left Vulcan’s study,
where General Acton was seated in
his stead. She’d told the general that it
was important someone ride out to
Montak to find her husband, and bring
him back. He’d taken in the
desperation in the queen’s eyes and
had agreed to send out three warriors.
When she left the study, she was
heading into the Great Hall to meet
Isolde and Mathilda, when Lydia’s
voice called to her. She was seated in
the salon, and a gold tray filled with
little pastries and a large gold tea cup
sat on the table. Jaisyn felt her
stomach growl. She had picked at her
breakfast, as her appetite had fled
when she thought of Vulcan. Would
the soldiers be too late?
“Come. Join me. I have taken a
liking to this herbal tea that you
drink,” Lydia invited, and Jaisyn lifted
her hand to her growling belly and
patted it softly. She remembered then
that she was to meet her sisters in the
Great Hall and told Lydia. “They
won’t mind sitting for a few minutes,
will they? Invite them as well.”
***
Jaisyn asked one of the guards to
escort her to the Sanctuary after
lunch. She was feeling tired and had
decided that after her visit with Anhur,
she would return to her bedchambers.
Magda had warned her that at this
stage in her pregnancy, she would tire
quickly.
The Sanctuary was located a ways
off from the castle. They walked past
the stables and turned down a paved
walkway before arriving at a white-
washed stone cottage with a large red
door. One of her guards knocked and
soon after, the door was pulled open.
“The Queen for the Seer,” he
announced and Jaisyn looked past the
guard to see a little urchin of a child
pull the door open before moving back
into the dark recesses of the cottage.
“Only the Queen,” the young child
said, and Jaisyn could not make out
from the voice if it was male or
female.
The guard moved back and Jaisyn
stepped forward. Closer now, she
could see the child was also
unwashed, with dirt all over its face.
She narrowed her eyes, wondering
how old it was.
“Follow me, Majesty.” The bow
indicated a male but she wasn’t
convinced. Jaisyn’s eyes took in the
simplicity of the Sanctuary as she
followed the child. Unlike her Temple,
with its rows of seats, there were only
mats along the stone floor. A small
altar was at the front, but no sculpture
of a deity was there. She followed the
child down a short stone staircase,
and into a dimly lit room. As soon as
she was inside, the child left, pulling
the door in behind her.
“Are you tired, Majesty?” Anhur’s
voice called and Jaisyn walked further
into the room, searching for the little
old man. He was hunched over a
small pot, stirring its contents with a
wooden ladle.
Jaisyn nodded before remembering
that his back was to her. “I am, Seer,
but before I take to my bed I would
like to ask you a few more questions.”
“Please,
Majesty.
Sit,”
Anhur
replied and Jaisyn looked about for a
chair. She found one to the far corner
and took a seat. Anhur hummed
slightly as he stirred the pot. As he
straightened, the Seer stared at her.
“Have you started using the mixture I
gave you yesterday?”
She nodded, remembering she’d
placed a drop in the tea she’d
consumed last night.
Anhur’s approval was in his smile.
“I am making something else for you
to drink.”
Jaisyn lifted a brow. “You knew that
I was coming?”
“I know everything.” He went back
to humming and Jaisyn relaxed against
the chair. By Lyria, she was tired.
Suddenly, a wooden cup was being
pressed into her hand and she blinked,
feeling the heaviness of her lids.
Anhur wrapped her hands around the
cup and lifted it to her lips. Jaisyn
expected the liquid to burn but it was
surprisingly not hot. She drank slowly.
After she was finished, she handed the
cup back to Anhur, who stared at her
for a long moment before moving
away.
Jaisyn stared at his retreating back
and felt a burst of energy come to her.
Blinking rapidly, she sat up.
“You wished to ask questions?”
Anhur probed.
“Yesterday you said I was not
intimate with Bael. But how did I end
up in his bed? Unclothed?”
Anhur stirred his pot once more.
“You were taken there and your
clothing removed.”
Jaisyn shot up from the seat as his
words began to make sense. Anhur
had told her that she’d been in her
right senses when she lay with Bael.
But who, who would do such a thing?
“Who
took
me
there?”
she
demanded, angry she hadn’t thought
of something like that. Of course she
would be unable to remember if she’d
been drugged.
“Someone who wishes you harm,”
he answered cryptically, the ladle
moving around as it swirled through
the contents in the pot.
“And I cannot remember anything
because I was drugged?” she asked,
wanting to clarify what was beginning
to make sense in her head.
He nodded and replied, “Yes. You
were drugged.”
“Will you not tell me who it was?”
Jaisyn continued, thinking back to the
night. Magda and Asha were loyal to
her. So were Jane and Anne. And
Lydia had been in her room but a few
minutes. She remembered Lydia
walking over to her bed—to the tea. A
vivid image of Lydia holding her tea
replayed in her mind.
“You have already figured it out,
Majesty.”
Jaisyn fell back against the chair,
closed her eyes, and shook her head.
Why would Lydia drug her? She was
Vulcan’s stepmother and Varian’s
mother. And why would she wish to
make it seem like Jaisyn was
unfaithful to her husband?
A scraping sound was heard and
when she opened her eyes, Anhur
was sitting in a chair directly before
her.
“I shall tell you what you seek,” he
said slowly, stretching out a hand.
“Give me your hand.” Jaisyn did as he
asked and as his frail hand touched
hers, he began to speak a tale that
would chill her.
“I told you yesterday that you
reminded me of someone, but did not
say who. It was Eleanor, Frederick’s
first wife, and the king’s mother. Her
spirit was like yours, strong and
warm. They did not like each other at
first. Frederick tried to control her, to
bend her to his will. Eleanor refused,
and the shouts and screams of both
could be heard throughout the castle.”
A soft smile touched his lips as he
recalled it. “As was destined, they fell
deeply in love. Eleanor birthed
Vulcan, and made Frederick as happy
a king as he could be. When Vulcan
was three years old, a beautiful young
woman from the Northern Mountains
came to pay her respects. She was
very pleasing to the eye, perfectly
formed, with hair unlike anything ever
seen before.” He paused and Jaisyn
nodded,
following
the
story.
“Frederick was unfazed by her beauty
but Eleanor invited the young girl
back.” He paused again, and Jaisyn’s
eyes widened. “The girl had been
given a potion, a mixture churned by
an evil hag who lives far out in the
mountains, which she slipped daily
and frequently into the queen’s tea.
The potion itself can cause incurable
sickness, but if caught at the right
time, and mixed with the right herbs,
becomes stagnant—harmless. Unlike
the other poisons, the fatal tree roots
or barks, it kills slowly, and seeps
from
the
system,
leaving
it
untraceable. The girl returned to the
mountains and a few weeks later, the
queen developed a cough that would
never leave. I was with my Gods when
the potion was given but when I
returned, I brewed the tea that I gave
you, and she drank it daily. It was too
late, though. The poison only needed
a full day to seep into her system.
After, it was incurable... Her life was
prolonged by the potion I made but
just six months later, her body
submitted.”
Jaisyn closed her eyes, wondering if
Vulcan knew any of this, and thinking
of the heartache it would cause both
brothers if they found out. An image
suddenly came into her mind, of a
woman with flaxen blond hair and
laughing green eyes. She smiled at
Jaisyn and waved. Jaisyn’s eyes flew
open and she would have snatched
her hand from Anhur’s, had his grip
not been so strong.
“Queen Eleanor wished to see her
son’s wife. She says that you are
beautiful.” He cleared his throat and
continued. “After her passing, I took
to the mountains once more with my
brothers, to pray, to ask for guidance.
When I returned, Lydia was queen,
and Frederick smitten. She used
another potion from the hag. I warned
Frederick to keep a close watch on
Vulcan and he followed my advice.
He raised his son as he was raised, to
value strength, to show no weakness.
That has protected Vulcan for the
majority of his life. Lydia sent
mercenaries after him, and they were
cut through by her own son.” He
released her hands and Jaisyn ran a
frantic hand over her hair. Lydia was
evil. She could not be called anything
but that.
“She tried to poison me, didn’t
she?” Jaisyn asked, remembering how
tired she’d been, the cup he’d forced
to her lips.
Anhur shook his head. “She did not
try, Jaisyn. She poisoned you. The
mixture you took last night was to
protect the baby from the poison she
slipped you today. What I have given
you today will make you immune to
it.”
“But it still resides within me?” she
questioned, horrified that Lydia had
tried to kill her. Horrified that Lydia
had killed Vulcan’s mother! Varian’s
mother had killed Vulcan’s mother!
“Yes, but it won’t harm you.”
“No one else knows of this?” she
asked softly, feeling as if her head
were swimming with too much
information.
Anhur shook his head in the
negative. “By the time the potion wore
off of Frederick and I could get
through to him, Varian had already
been conceived. I could say nothing
without altering the fate of the family.
It is why I only advised Frederick to
keep a close watch on his older son.”
“But Frederick was cold to Vulcan!”
she accused angrily, knowing that
only a hard father could raise a man
like Vulcan. Lydia told her as much
but Jaisyn could see it daily in the way
he carried himself, as if wary to
everything around him but his sword.
Only a lack of love could create a
personality like his.
The Seer nodded before replying.
“Frederick raised Vulcan the way his
father raised him. He was at times
brutal, cold, harsh, unyielding, there
are so many words, but it was all done
because he cared. He was the same
with Varian, but pushed Vulcan
harder because he was the heir, the
one who would bear the responsibility
of the kingdom.”
Jaisyn rubbed at her belly and shook
her head. It was too much.
“Had Eleanor lived, Vulcan might
have been raised differently. I have no