The Magicians' Daughter, page 16
He disappeared without another word. Giserre was stunned. And she was angry, too. Not at the way he had treated her, but at the way he seemed to be treating everyone. She had known he was distraught when he had returned from Norly, but she had assumed he would soon recover. He had always recovered before, and his trials in Ussene had been much harsher. It was fear for his daughter that had done this to him.
Briefly she wondered if the Wizard had cast some spell. But, though Giserre understood little about magic, she did not believe Fornoch had laid an enchantment on her son. That was not the Wizard’s way.
Driving a husband and wife to fight with one another was.
Leaving the bedroom, she selected a small mirror from the collection on the sitting room mantle. When she passed her hand across the glass, a view of Valing Manor’s kitchen emerged.
“Is anyone there?” she asked.
Sally Veale appeared in the glass.
“Has Ferris arrived yet?”
“She’s been and gone, milady. More than an hour ago.”
“She is on her way back now. When she arrives, please have her call me. I think I shall be going to Valing, too.”
But it was Trier who returned to Castle Grangore for Giserre. After all her recent traveling, Ferris was too tired to make another trip. And so it was that Giserre was not in Valing when Reiffen came striding out of the orchard to grab Hubley by the hand as she stood with her mother and the other apprentices at the top of the Neck. Daughter in tow, he walked straight off the edge of the cliff.
Lorennin screamed. Ferris and Plum raced to the edge, but Reiffen and Hubley had disappeared. No splash marked the dark blue surface of the lake forty fathoms below.
Ferris’s eyes narrowed, but she didn’t say a word.
Chapter 10
Avender in Malmoret
After his and Reiffen’s failure in Norly, Redburr disappeared into the mountains without telling anyone where he was going. Avender waited a day for Reiffen to come back for him, then gave up and marched south with the soldiers to Maarend. Maples and willows edged the riverbank in red and yellow as they boarded the last schooner of the year bound for Malmoret.
Wellin and Brizen met them at the pier. Avender braced himself for the worst, but soon saw that what had happened between him and the queen wasn’t the source of the unease he felt as soon as he stepped ashore. Nine days had passed since Ferris and Reiffen had dragged Hubley back and forth between Valing and Castle Grangore, but, as far as anyone in Malmoret knew, there had been no change since.
“It has already lasted far longer than anyone expected,” explained Wellin as the three of them walked toward the wharf. Avender wondered what it was about women like Wellin and Giserre that allowed them to face any situation with complete composure.
“They are too similar in temperament not to reconcile,” the queen continued.
Brizen rubbed a finger across his chin. “Their similarity is exactly what worries me. Both are so stiff-necked that neither is likely to give in.”
“Reiffen has always liked getting his own way,” Avender admitted. “Since he came back from Ussene, it’s only gotten worse. If Ferris doesn’t go to him, this could last forever. He certainly won’t give in first.”
The queen paused to allow one of the footmen to clear a way for her wide skirts through the apple crates blocking the pier. “He tried to kill Trier,” she declared.
Avender stopped in mid-stride.
“He does not deny it,” she continued. “He claimed it was necessary to prevent the apprentices from being turned by the Wizard. It is all rubbish, if you ask me. If not for the child, Ferris would be perfectly justified in never going back to him.”
“We should keep in mind,” cautioned Brizen, “that we all thought Reiffen was in the wrong once before. I cannot help but wonder if he might be right this time as well, horrible though that sounds.”
“It is horrible,” Wellin scolded. “Taking the law into his own hands with Ahne was bad enough, but at least Ahne had committed a crime.” She shuddered at the thought of what that crime was. “The apprentices have done nothing.”
“What does Giserre say?” Avender started forward again, though he hadn’t fully recovered from the news that Reiffen had tried to kill Trier.
“Giserre is with Ferris. Not even she will take her son’s side in this.”
“What we really need is someone Reiffen will listen to,” said Brizen. “Someone to talk to him.”
Avender raised his hands. “Don’t look at me. The only time Reiffen ever listened to what I had to say was when I used to knock him down, and I can’t do that any more.”
“Please try,” begged Wellin. “You cannot have any less success than we have had.”
“This quarrel between Reiffen and Ferris could cause all sorts of complications,” the king added. “The situation regarding the succession is already delicate enough.”
Avender deliberately kept his eyes on the men unloading the schooner. Now was not the time to be sharing glances with the queen.
“You think Ferris and Reiffen might fight over that too?” he asked. “They’ve both always been dead set against you naming Hubley your heir.”
“If their disagreement worsens,” replied Wellin, “who knows what might happen?”
“I suppose I can try.”
Avender did his best not to flinch as the king clapped him on the shoulder.
“It is good to have you back.” The worry in Brizen’s face had already begun to ease. “You know the magicians better than anyone. With you here, I am sure this will all blow over soon.”
At the queen’s carriage, another footman held the horses steady as Brizen helped his wife up into her seat. Avender turned away as Wellin’s skirts ruffled across the door and cushions. Here was Brizen, so glad to have him back, and Avender was only bringing more trouble. During the entire trip from Norly he had debated whether he should be returning to Malmoret at all, but the lure of the queen had been too strong. Now that he was here, he felt like a traitor.
Even Reiffen couldn’t claim that.
At the palace, Avender left the king and queen and went immediately to the mirror room. If he was going to talk to Reiffen, he wanted to do it as soon as possible. And he wanted to talk to Ferris too. His old friends were both known for stubbornness, and he could just see them digging in their heels. Ferris, if she thought she was right, would never give in. But telling Reiffen he was wrong wasn’t easy, and had only gotten worse after his great successes in the last war.
With a crisp salute, the guard outside the mirror room allowed Avender to pass. A pair of clerks at desks set against the walls looked up as he entered. Nearly two dozen mirrors covered the sides of their small closet, quills and bottles of ink close at hand. One clerk’s pen scratched busily across the page, the feather waving back and forth beside the writer’s cheek like the tail of an attentive cat. A man Avender recognized as the harbormaster in Mremmen was reporting from one of the mirrors on the arrival of several Banking ships. Other faces waited to speak from other silvered panes.
“May I?” Avender reached for two empty mirrors.
“Of course, Sir Avender. Let me just make a note of the time, and which ones you’re taking away.” The second clerk glanced at the wenwick above the door and added two small notes to his ledger.
Rather than go to his own room on the other side of the palace, Avender found an empty study and, seating himself in a comfortable chair by the window, addressed the first glass. Smoke swirled, reminding him of a dark night years before when Reiffen had first revealed what he was able to do with magic and mirrors. At the time, Avender had wondered at Reiffen’s purpose, but he had made the right choice in the end and had supported his friend even before Reiffen proved he was the enemy of the Three. Avender wondered if he was going to have to make the same choice again.
“Hello,” he called as the smoke cleared. “Is anyone there?”
The Valing kitchen appeared in the mirror. Out of sight, dishes clattered faintly. Avender imagined he could smell the bread that was certainly baking in the ovens beyond his view.
It took a while, with Hern sending Lorennin scurrying to find her mistress, but Ferris finally appeared in the glass. “Made it back at last, have you? I’m sorry Reiffen left you behind like that.”
“Is it true he tried to kill Trier?”
Ferris’s face clouded further. “He wanted to kill all the apprentices, but I think I talked him out of it. At least he hasn’t tried since.”
“What about Hubley? Will he still not let her leave Grangore?”
“No. That I can’t talk him out of at all.”
“Do you think I’d have any luck?”
“I doubt it. He’s being very difficult.”
“Do you think Fornoch did something to him?”
Weariness showed in Ferris’s eyes. For a moment she actually looked her age. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. At least nothing that wasn’t already done a long time ago.”
“Have you gone to see him?”
“No, and I don’t intend to, either. He has to know he can’t just order me around.”
“Even if that’s the only way you can see Hubley?”
Ferris’s mouth tightened. “That won’t last long. He can’t keep her locked up forever.”
“This is Reiffen we’re talking about.”
“I know. But with everyone against him, he has to give in eventually. I’m not the one who’s wrong.”
“Do you really think that matters? Reiffen probably doesn’t think he’s wrong, either. Hubley’s the one you have to think about. What’s best for her.”
Crossing her arms, Ferris cocked her head to one side and gave Avender a stubborn look. “I know you’re trying to help, but really, Avender, this is between Reiffen and me. If you’d ever been married, you’d understand.”
His conversation with the other magician went no better. Asking Reiffen to think of what might be best for Hubley was no use at all.
“What can matter more than the child’s safety?” he declared after answering Avender’s call. “Ferris’s and my feelings are of no consequence.”
“But you tried to kill Trier,” argued Avender. “Don’t you understand how that might make everyone suspicious about what you’re up to? At least take Hubley to Valing to prove your good intentions.”
“My intentions need no confirmation. And Valing is no longer safe. Fornoch was just there. Who knows what sorts of traps and temptations he left behind?”
“Even with you there to protect her?”
“I would not take Hubley into the High Bavadars in snowslide season, either, though I believe my magic would keep us safe enough. Ferris must come to me. That is what is best for our child.”
Avender stared at his reflection for a long time after the smoke cleared in the Castle Grangore glass. It was at times like these he was glad he’d never married, but that thought soon passed. He was certain the good in having someone to share a life with was far greater than the bad. Ferris and Reiffen would get over their quarrel eventually. In the meantime, Avender was reduced to wandering around the New Palace in love with the king’s wife. Worst of all, he couldn’t even be noble and self-sacrificing about it, because he knew she loved him too.
Despite his better judgment, he tried several times over the next week to visit Wellin when the king was away from the palace. She was more than glad to see him, but always kept two or three of her ladies in attendance.
He knew she was right. Such things were paid more attention to in Malmoret than they were in Castle Grangore. As long as nothing had happened between them, neither he nor Wellin had ever given a single thought to meeting alone. But, now that something had, they thought about it all the time.
He considered hiring rooms somewhere outside the palace, but couldn’t picture either of them doing that sort of thing. Such secrets had a way of always coming out anyway. Furtive meetings were for the stage, with husbands and lovers inevitably dueling by the fourth act. As Durk liked to point out, it was always the lover who died. Avender was certain, should such a duel ever come about, he’d slit his own throat before he’d murder a man he’d already wronged.
By the end of the first week he knew he couldn’t stay. It wasn’t his guilt that made him want to leave, or the feeling he might accidentally do or say something to hurt the queen. The problem was he couldn’t do or say anything at all. Every day he and Wellin came together, at audiences and council meetings and formal dinners, and every day it hurt more that he couldn’t go to her, couldn’t take her in his arms. He had known that would be the case, but at least before there had been the prospect of future visits to Castle Grangore. That was impossible now, at least until Ferris and Reiffen reconciled. How perfect, he told himself, that his friends’ troubles had afflicted him as well.
Even if he did leave, he didn’t know what excuse he could give. No one would believe him if he claimed he was retiring to Goose Rock, especially not the farmer who rented the land from him. Perhaps Brizen would give him a ship and crew to sail east to look for the other side of the ocean. Everyone would blame his wandering on some misbegotten love; he wouldn’t be the first to flee Malmoret because of a broken heart. No doubt the poets would sing of his sorrow for generations. Mindrell could write a masterwork of melancholy and sarcasm.
Then one afternoon, about a month after his return, a lady-in-waiting intercepted him as he was on his way to the College to look at their collection of ancient maps. The woman flirted terribly as she told Avender her mistress wished to see him, but he was too busy wondering why Wellin had sent for him to pay attention. Had the queen’s desire finally overcome her caution? Had she summoned him to tell him the affair was over? His heart tumbled between joy and despair as he rolled their last several meetings back and forth in his mind in search of clues.
“Thank you, Fanning,” said the queen as the messenger showed Avender into one of the cozier sitting rooms. “Sir Avender and I wish to converse alone. If you would come to me an hour before dinner. I shall need at least that much time to prepare for the Duke and Duchess.”
Bowing, Lady Fanning backed out of the room. For the first time since the night they had spent together, Avender and Wellin were alone.
He couldn’t say how often he had been in that room before, but this time it all seemed different. He noticed everything, from the small portraits of the queen’s mother and father hanging beside the door, to the edging of the lace draped over the side tables. Outside, the bare branches of the rose bushes rattled in the gusting wind.
When she held out her hand to him, he went to her at once. Allowing a single kiss, she pushed him away.
“Fanning will notice every wrinkle in my dress,” she said. “She intends to be your next conquest, you know. It was all I could do not to dismiss her on the spot when she told me, but I fear that would have caused too much notice. Especially as you have taken no new lover since your return.”
“You know, as long as I love you, there can be no one else.”
The queen rolled her eyes. “You sound like something written by Durk.”
“That’s because I’m out of practice.” Bracing his hands on Wellin’s chair, he leaned down to kiss her without rumpling. This time it was a while before the queen pushed him away.
“I have missed you too,” she told him. “But I fear I have some difficult news. Ferris has been with the king. We have been very foolish. I should have known Brizen would ask her the same questions I did.”
“What do you mean?” Sitting on the edge of the chair, Avender took the queen’s hand. She did not pull away.
“I mean the king has had the magician examine him as if he were someone’s prize bull. As I once had Ferris examine me like a common heifer.”
“And?” asked Avender, still not comprehending.
“Now the king knows that he is the one to blame, not me. At least in the matter of public concern. Privately, the matter is entirely reversed.”
“You’re saying Brizen can’t father a child.”
“So Ferris has told me. She thought it best I know.”
“But then...”
The queen nodded. “Yes. Only it is too late to start worrying about that now. When I heard she was in the palace, I asked Ferris to see me also, to confirm what I have only just begun to suspect. She did confirm it, which was why she felt obliged to tell me what she had already told my husband. Unfortunately, that news has taken nearly all my own joy away.”
“You’re pregnant?”
“Yes.”
“Well, that’s just great,” he said, appreciating the queen’s predicament at last. His own satisfaction at the idea of becoming a father passed quickly. “Will you keep it?”
He wanted to bite his tongue the moment he asked the question, thinking he sounded terribly cruel. But Wellin didn’t seem to mind.
“At first, I thought not. Ferris would help me easily enough. I believe it is what she wishes me to do. But the thought itself is terrible to me. I have wanted a child more than anything else in the world, more even than I wanted to be queen, or I would never have risked it all to be with you. If I have to, I will certainly give up the one for the other. Being queen, that is.”
From unhappiness at the queen’s distress, Avender’s mood switched to sudden joy. Wellin would give up her throne for the sake of the child they would have together? What could be more perfect!
“We could go to Grangore,” he said at once. “Or Valing. Or Far Mouthing if you want, to your family’s estates. I hardly think Brizen is the sort who will start a war to get you back. Look how easily he gave up Ferris.” At the thought of the king’s failed first wedding, Avender’s elation dimmed. This time his friend’s unhappiness would be his fault.
“I will not run away,” said Wellin. “I cannot be so base. I will ask him to forgive me first. Then we can both live honestly, released from our pledges to his side and service.”
“We’ll live quietly somewhere,” Avender agreed. “You and I and the child.”
