[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
urgently beside her sister-in-law, eyes never leaving Meraude's face. "You must
keep him from the Deryni taint. Kelson is already in grave danger, but it isn't too
late for Nigel-and maybe not for Kelson, either. That's why I've come back."
"To-save Kelson?" Meraude said cautiously.
But Jehana went right on, taking Meraude's response for an invitation to
say more.
"He must marry again, Meraude-and soon. He needs an heir of his own.
And I feel certain that the right bride could overcome the evil in him. Just as you
keep Nigel safe from harm, so Kelson's queen must bring him back to a life of
righteousness. It's his only hope, Meraude. Say you'll help me."
Wistfully Meraude returned Jehana's eager smile, letting the queen take
her hand.
"Well, there are certainly potential royal brides aplenty," she said
noncommittally, "though I suspect Kelson himself will have something to say
about a choice. In any case, I doubt he means to make a commitment until after
the campaign." Her smile brightened hopefully. "But would you like to meet a few
of them? Several of my ladies are quite eligible. In any case, you'll probably want
to appoint a few ladies-in-waiting of your own. Come and I'll introduce them."
Jehana lost track of the names after the first few presentations, but the
prospect of involving herself actively in her son's choice of a new wife even
brought a little color to her cheeks. Many of the ladies were quite young, and
eminently suitable.
She was in growing good spirit until Meraude brought her to a beautiful
young woman stitching at a tapestry frame near one of the windows. The
woman's gown was the deep blue of mountain lakes, her heavy, flame-gold hair
caught in a net of gold and pearls at the back of her head and circled across the
forehead by a narrow golden fillet.
"This is the Duchess Richenda," Meraude said, as the woman rose to dip in
a respectful curtsey.
Jehana's heart leaped into her throat, her entire body stiffening in shock.
"Duchess-Richenda?" she managed to whisper. "Have I not heard your
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
name before?"
The woman straightened to meet Jehana's eyes with the bluest gaze she
had ever seen, deferential but direct, even sympathetic.
"It may well be that you have, Majesty," she said in a low voice. "My late
husband sat on King Brion's council. He was the Earl of Marley."
"The Earl of Marley," Jehana repeated tonelessly. "But Meraude said-"
"My young son Brendan is Earl of Marley now. Majesty," Richenda said.
"My present husband is the Duke of Corwyn."
Corwyn! Jehana let the name register on a mind suddenly gone numb with
dread. Sweet Jesu, she is Morgan's wife! She married a Deryni!
"I-see," she managed to whisper aloud.
But she could hardly see as she turned to move on with Meraude,
stumbling stiff and half-blind through the rest of the introductions until she
could call Sister Cecile to her side and seek the refuge of the little oratory
adjoining her sleeping chamber. Prayer brought her some semblance of serenity,
but she could not banish the feeling of dull despair that the wife of a Deryni
should be so firmly entrenched in the royal household.
CHAPTER THREE
For they have begotten strange children.
-Hosea 5:7
The strain generated by Jehana's arrival set the tone for the rest of
Kelson's afternoon. Nor was his mood improved by the circumstances dictated
for that evening. Already tense about the ritual set for later that night, he could
not even escape for a few hours of much needed solitude and relaxation over
supper, for even though Jehana had declined his invitation to dine with the court,
he felt obligated to sup with her in private. To help keep the affair on more
neutral ground, however, he asked Nigel and Meraude to host it, and had the
meal sent to their quarters. That arrangement would also prevent Nigel from
dwelling overmuch on what was to come. Half spitefully, he deputized Morgan
and Richenda to preside at table in the great hall in his absence, since Morgan
himself was at least partially responsible for Jehana's attitude. Duncan and
Dhugal could more than handle what few arrangements had to be made.
And so, he sat that evening with his mother, Nigel, and Meraude in his
uncle's supper chamber and tried to make pleasant small talk while he longed to
be almost anywhere else. The chamber was stuffy-or perhaps it was only him-
and he toyed distractedly with Sidana's ring while his mother's conversation
meandered over half a dozen old themes. Almost all of them returned ultimately
to her hatred and fear of Deryni.
"So when the news reached me at Saint Giles'," Jehana went on, "I could
hardly believe my ears. Continuing to keep Alaric Morgan around you is perilous
enough; but to receive his wife, whose first husband was a traitor and apparently
Deryni as well-"
"Bran Coris wasn't Deryni, Mother," Kelson said peevishly, suddenly
concerned for the direction this conversation could take if he were not careful.
"But they say he stood by Wencit of Torenth in a magical circle-"
a
a
T
T
n
n
s
s
F
F
f
f
o
o
D
D
r
r
P
P
m
m
Y
Y
e
e
Y
Y
r
r
B
B
2
2
.
.
B
B
A
A
Click here to buy
Click here to buy
w
w
m
m
w
w
o
o
w
w
c
c
.
.
.
.
A
A
Y
Y
B
B
Y
Y
B
B
r r
"And Bishop Arilan stood by me. Does that make him Deryni?" Kelson
countered boldly.
"Bishop Arilan? Certainly not! But-"
"Of course it doesn't." Which was not precisely a lie, but it was sufficiently
misleading to redirect any suspicions Jehana might have had about Arilan. "I
asked his and Father Duncan's presence-and Morgan's-because the trial
permitted four persons on either side. It was Wencit and I who were contending.
We chose whom we willed to give us company and courage, but the power, if it
had come to the Duel Arcane, would have come from Wencit and myself."
"According to whose authority?" Jehana challenged. "Those strangers who
came on white horses? I heard about them. Kelson. Who were they? They were
Deryni, weren't they?"
Kelson lowered his eyes. "I may not speak of them."
"Then, they were Deryni," she whispered. She turned a pinched, desperate
face toward her dead husband's brother. "Nigel, you were there. What saw you?
Who were they? Are there so many of them that they may walk unrecognized
among us with impunity?"
Nigel, of course, knew little more than Jehana in that regard, for he had
not been privy to the intentions of the Cam-berian Council-only their actual
intervention. But his uneasy dissembling was sufficient to lead Jehana back to the
old, relatively safe topic of Morgan, whose Deryni proclivities were a secret to no
one. As Jehana launched into yet another variation on the old fears, Kelson let his
thoughts turn to a delicious contemplation of the Deryni at court that Jehana did
not know about.
She had not yet made the connection about Richenda, of course-though
she had skirted uncomfortably close. And it obviously had not occurred to her to
question Arilan. The knowledge that a Deryni had risen through the ecclesiastical
ranks unbeknownst and attained the rank of bishop would shake her faith to the
core; surely such a deception could only be the work of the Devil, an attempt to
destroy the Faith from within. Of course, Duncan had managed a similar rise- but
few outside episcopal ranks were certain that he was Deryni, and much could be
blamed on his Deryni cousin Morgan.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]