Mother of Lies (54 page)

In the morning, servants would wonder about the muddy tracks they found in the hallway, not to mention bloodstains and burned rugs in the state bedroom, but doges need not worry about trivia like gossip. Fabia was starting to appreciate the power in the man she had married, the radiant authority of Marno Cavotti. She had put herself and the city in the big man’s hands and he had taken charge of them without a moment’s doubt or hesitation. He would not loosen his grip until he, too, was summoned by the Oldest God.

Ignoring the reek of burned wool in the sleeping chamber, he set three chairs in a triangle, handed out wine, and told Chies to sit down and speak up. He interrupted only once, when he heard how Flankleader Sesto Panotti’s men had let themselves be enslaved by Saltaja while on patrol. He said “Idiotic,” paired with a noun Paola Apicella had not taught her foster daughter.

Fabia could not detect a single wrong note in the boy’s story. Probably most of it was true, because a good fiction should be based on as much truth as possible.
Mother of Lies, you found an apt pupil!
What was she going to do about Chies? Was he or wasn’t he? Could one palace hold two Chosen?

At the end, she asked what had happened to Sesto.

“She killed him, my lady. It was horrible! In a small wood not far away from the city. I think I could lead your men there, my lord. I know the area. I would like the poor man to have a decent burial.”

“And how did she kill him?”

Chies hesitated for just an instant. “She cut his throat.”

Not she. He.
Blood and birth; death and the cold earth.
An initiation.

Cavotti glanced inquiringly at Fabia. He probably just wanted her comments on Chies’s story, but she deliberately misinterpreted, because she wanted to tell her brother the Chosen a few things.

“Now it’s my turn. Yes, I am a Chosen. When Stralg took Dogaressa Oliva hostage—ostensibly hostage, but really as slave plaything—he gave me to a wet nurse, Paola Apicella. She had lost her husband in battle and her baby had died. But she was a Chosen, and Mother Xaran provided for her.” Her husband winced when he heard the forbidden name, but so did Chies, equally. The boy was good! “She was my foster mother until four years ago, when Saltaja Hragsdor had her murdered. I heard that from a Witness, so it is true. Paola was a gentle, loving, caring person. She was nothing like the Queen of Shadows’ triple-distilled evil.”

Cavotti was a monolith. Chies was wide-eyed innocence.

“I could have refused to accept the Old One as my goddess. I did not. Had I wanted to be like Saltaja, I could have joined her gang, her family. She wanted to marry me to her nephew Cutrath. I refused. I have tried to use my powers to promote justice. I slew the man who killed Paola. I rescued an innocent woman being held captive by Horold Hragson, although I knew he would punish her guards. I did persuade Orlad and the others to trap Saltaja and her escort on the Edge. It was the only way I could see to end her career and stop her meeting up with Stralg. I honestly believed that fewer innocent people would die in the long run.” She shrugged, wishing she could read the thoughts moving behind her husband’s bestial face. “I do not intend to commit any more murders. Of course, if I or my loved ones are ever threatened by violence, I will respond.”

“You worship the Evil One,” Cavotti said.

“The goddess of death. She is the oldest and greatest of the gods. She is the Mother of Lies because we all lie about death. It is the one thing we all fear and fear most, so we lie about it. We say that people have returned to the womb, or passed through the veil, or feast in the halls of Weru. We tell stories about what happens after death as if we knew, but we don’t.”

“You are sworn to the Evil One!” he persisted.

“She chose me. I do not know why. Do the gods ever justify their decisions to mortals? I thought a lot about this while we were crossing the Edge. Mother Xaran is goddess of
blood and birth, death and the cold earth.
Death is not always evil. It can be a release, or a judgment. Birth is also Hers, because without birth there could be no death; without death we could not have birth, else we should fill the world, shoulder to shoulder.”

On the Edge, Fabia had been very close to death. The Mother had taught her much, speaking clearly.

“She grants enormous powers to us, Her Chosen, but She also lets us choose how we use those powers. Saltaja treated other people like weeds, to be trampled. I truly believe that Paola used hers for good. So far as I know, the only violence she ever committed was in self defense. Power is not innately evil!”

She wondered how Chies was taking this lecture, but she kept her eyes on her husband, who continued to stare straight at her. “The uses of power may be,” he growled.

“They often are, but that is the fault of whoever wields that power. All power can be used for good. All power can be abused. Absolute power can be abused absolutely.”

Cavotti yawned and stretched, flexing his great muscles. “It cannot be far from dawn, and we have much to do these next few days. Where do you normally sleep, Chies?”

“Directly above here, my lord.”

“Then you will not meet any guards on your way there. Go and sleep, and in the morning you can thrill your mother with a dramatic story of your escape from Veritano. Do not mention Saltaja to anyone!”

“Oh, I won’t, my lord! I mean, they might think I had helped her and then they would want to bury me, too!” Grinning, he jumped up.

So did Fabia. “Wait! Chies, you have wonderful night vision.”

He looked puzzled. “My lady?”

“I watched you when we went outside. You dodged branches that lord Marno did not see. You avoided rocks and holes. You must learn to be more careful, Chies!”

He smiled cheekily. “Careful about what, sister? I’ve always had wonderful night-sight. Ask Mama. She’s always nagging me to carry a lamp, but I never need one.”

Fabia stepped close and kissed his cheek, just as she had when they first met at Veritano. “I mean, ‘Do not serve evil.’ It is a terrible temptation, I know. If you are found out, you know what will happen, and we will not try to save you. But welcome back. Mama has been out of her mind with worry about you. You are one of the family and I hope you always will be. Thank you again for …
distracting
Saltaja.”

“Sorry I broke the pretty goblet.” He bowed. “Good night, my lord, my lady.”

The door closed.
If that young lout ever starts asking for a bedroom on ground level I will personally
—

“Will we regret this one day?” Marno murmured behind her. “Is he?”

“I think so, I don’t know. Never trust anything he says.”

She turned and looked up at her bridegroom’s face with the shadowy ceiling above it. Could
he
ever trust
her
was more to the point. “I did mean to warn you before we were married. I thought we would have much more time after Papa died.”

“Tonight, did you turn Chies on Saltaja? Were you the reason he suddenly changed sides?”

She hesitated. “I don’t think so. Just holding off Saltaja was taking everything I had. Let him have the credit. And, Marno, I swear I did not use any power on you earlier! In the chariot, I mean. When we talked about what was going to happen after Papa died and who would be doge, I did not put the idea in your head!”

He clasped her shoulders in his enormous hands. “Of course you didn’t. I had been thinking for a long time that Florengia would be in turmoil for years and Celebre would need a strong doge, one who could employ a Werist horde for defense without being deposed by it. My mother is an elder. I saw no need to suggest my name to her. I knew she would think of it all by herself. And then, when Hero Dimo came streaking down off the Altiplano in a lather to say that the doge’s children were back … No, you did not put the marriage idea in my head.”

“And you did not just arrange for the doge’s children to disappear at Veritano. You could have done.”

A Cavotti shrug was an impressive sight. “Never thought of it. But Chies is not the only one who must learn to be more careful.”

“What do you mean?”

“I did not notice your night-sight, but I did wonder at your courage.” His smile did not reach his deadly eyes. “You told me you were a virgin—which Giunietta had already Witnessed, by the way. I am a killer, a Werist, and three times your size. I could inflict serious injury on you in a moment’s carelessness. Just being playful I could crush you. Yet you showed no fear of me. Tonight you came frolicking to my sleeping platform as if you had no cares in the world. You repeatedly hinted that you wanted to consummate our marriage. You are either incredibly ignorant of what men and women do together, or you trust in some special defense.”

She could feel herself blush. “If you tried to hurt me, I … Yes, I would stop you.”

“Just tell me. It will never be deliberate.”

So here it came. “I trust you. Can you trust me?”

“I will. How can I prove it? Like this?” He scooped her up bodily, as if she were a child, and kissed her. It was an extraordinary experience, lips and tongue. Her eyes snapped shut to let her concentrate on it. She had never realized that a lovers’ kiss was not like any other. It went on and on, somehow growing in intensity, sending tremors of excitement tingling in her breasts and deep down inside her. Her one free hand pawed at Cavotti’s massive arm, hard as a tree trunk. Her heartbeat soared incredibly. When he took his mouth away and set her feet on the floor again, her knees buckled.

He clasped her tight against him. His chlamys was still wet, and her ear was level with his heart, which was thumping almost as fast as hers. His distinctive musky scent was overpowering, intoxicating.

“I will trust you, Fabia.”

She gasped until she got her breath back. “You said you had consulted a Healer of Sinura since we first spoke. I asked my goddess directly.”

“Blood and birth
, you said?” His voice echoed deep inside his chest.

“Yes,” she admitted. “Ingeld … Horold Hragson’s wife told me how he impregnated a woman to see what would happen. She died giving birth to his child. It was human, but as big as a two-year-old. I will not be trapped like that. The Mother has authority over birth. I will be able to insist that your sons vacate the premises at the end of a normal lease.” She had asked for confirmation of this the first night after she met Cavotti, and Xaran had reassured her.

“You bribe me. I thought I had lost the chance of children.”

“I want children also.”

The big man sighed in wonder. “You are prepared to trust the Mother of Lies?”

“If she plays me false I will die, but we all die, Marno.” She twisted her neck to stare up at him. Yes, he was incredibly ugly. But he was a lot of husband. “Why else would I have come here tonight? Are you willing to be married to a self-confessed Chosen?”

One of his precious smiles brightened the room. “In your case, yes. And you want me to prove it now? Be warned, all your chthonic powers will not be enough to stop me once I get going!”

“You talk too much,” she said. “Let me see some action.”

LORD DANTIO

spent most of the next five days exhuming his childhood. He attended his father’s funeral and the service for the fallen, but mostly he just walked the halls of the palace and streets of the city, wallowing in nostalgia. He avoided Fabia and Orlad, being heartily sick of the timbre of their emotions after spending so long in their company. They did not remember Celebre, and even he found it much less familiar than he had expected. He encountered few people he knew and escaped their vicinity before they noticed him, but he could not avoid the mind-numbing emotional tumult. Night and day the city reverberated with joy and sorrow in unholy counterpoint until his head ached. On the fifth morning, when the Healers had begun to recover from their treatment of the wounded, he went to a sanctuary and let them mend his shoulder. They refused any gift in return, because the new doge had already promised a huge donation to reward treatment of injuries sustained on the night of the liberation.

The new doge was extremely popular. Dogaressa Oliva had done her best, no doubt, but it was good to have a doge in charge again.
And Marno Cavotti himself!
The Mutineer ranked just below the Bright Ones in his birthplace now. “Poor man, how he has suffered for us … but he killed Stralg in the end.” Despite the generous tribute Cavotti had paid to both Orlad and Waels during the service for the fallen, neither was being given credit by the Celebrians. The local lad had done it all, won the war single-handed.

That afternoon, while inspecting the fire damage to the temple of Weru, Dantio saw his half-brother Chies skulking amid the slums near the abattoir. Why in the world would he go there? No Witness could resist a mystery, and this one was only a few blocks away. Dantio arrived just in time to see Chies emerge from a doorway, accompanied by a grubby old man who looked seedy to human sight and duplicitous to the Goddess’s. The man locked the door and handed the key to Chies. They nodded to each other and parted. Chies went only as far as the next corner, then doubled back, unlocked the door, and dived inside. He did not see Dantio inspecting cups in a nearby potter’s shop.