The Pinnacle Of Empire (Book 6) (11 page)

“Faster!” Endaquac said from behind.

“Is it still after us?” Helgamyr’s cloak caught on a branch. She heard it rip as she rushed on, not slowing even to check the damage. “Thud,” she heard behind her. There was a yelp. She slowed, not hearing either the maid or the rodent behind her. She turned and saw Endaquac smash the rat’s unconscious head over and over with a rock. “You killed it.”

“Yes, I killed it.”

Helgamyr felt nauseous seeing blood and brains on her maid. “You’ve got… stuff all over you. Let’s get back to the palace. We need to clean up.”

They walked out of the grove in silence, past startled guards now awake. Back in the dowager’s suite, Helgamyr looked at the maid, who was washing splashed blood off her arm. “I couldn’t have done that.”

Endaquac looked up, still patting her arm. “Back where I came from, we had to kill the rats or lose our food.”

Helgamyr felt nauseous. “I see; you’re very brave.”

Endaquac laughed a little, the first laughter Helgamyr had heard from her. “You’d better study your spells a bit more before you attack another rat, Highness.”

“Yes, indeed,” Helgamyr said, but she couldn’t get the sight of the maid smashing the rat’s head out of her mind.

*

Two days later, a letter arrived from King Nindax of Senoshesvas. Like her own letter to the king, it was on fine paper and secured well with ribbon and a wax seal. Accompanying it was a small box, also securely wrapped. A Senoshesvas messenger delivered both personally.

“What’s in the package?” Endaquac asked. Her voice was elevated.

Helgamyr dropped the letter and grabbed the small, neatly wrapped package. She tore at the wrapping but hesitated when she’d freed the box inside.

“You open it,” Helgamyr said, thrusting the gift at Endaquac.

Endaquac took the container without hesitation and opened it. “It’s a broach, a beautiful broach.”

“Give it to me,” Helgamyr said, grabbing the ornament. “It’s the first time anyone has given me jewelry since Engwan died.”

Endaquac watched the former empress fondle the broach, caressing the gems in it as if they were alive and delicate. “That’s fine workmanship.”

“Yes, it’s beautiful. The large, central amethyst gleams. These pigeon-blood garnets surrounding it so enhance the deep purple.” She glanced at Endaquac, then, smiling, stuck the pin through her blouse, securing it. She went to a mirror to check how it looked. Endaquac followed.

“Who sent it?” Endaquac asked.

“Yes, who sent it?” Helgamyr repeated. “Hand me that letter there on the floor.”

The dowager tore it open without regard for the wrapping. Endaquac stared at the wax seal as Helgamyr read the letter.

“It’s from King Nindax,” Helgamyr announced, not looking up as she read.

Endaquac noted her voice and saw her blush. “You must have an admirer after all.”

Still reading, Helgamyr reached up and patted the back of her meticulous hairdo. She glanced back in the mirror then back to the letter. “It would seem so.”

“What does he say?”

Helgamyr suddenly stared up at Endaquac, her expression cold.

“Never you mind what he says. Go get me some tea.”

Endaquac was taken aback at the response but bowed slightly and left to get the refreshments.

* * *

“I’m pregnant!” Tottiana blurted out, rushing into Helgamyr’s suite. “Where are you, Mother?”

The dowager hurried into the reception room, brushing off her dress and patting her hair.

Tottiana noticed a dark grey smear on her mother’s cheek. That’s strange, knowing how fastidious she is about her appearance, she thought.

“I’m here, dear,” the slightly distressed dowager said. “Whatever is the matter with you?”

“I’m pregnant.”

Helgamyr stumbled, finding her footing when she grabbed a chair. Her eyes narrowed, and her smile gave way to tightly pinched lips. She looked away, toward the window. “I told you to take precautions.”

“Well, I forgot.”

“What’s to be done with it?”

“What do you mean, ‘What’s to be done with it?”

“You must get rid of it. This usurper will have no heir by our house.”

Tottiana moved to a chair. She looked at her mother, whose cold stare was fixed on her. “It’s a disaster, I agree, but I can’t kill the child now that it’s happened. What’s come over you, Mother? I’ve never known you to want to hurt a child. I know you hate Saxthor, but to destroy his child, our child… what can you be thinking?”

Helgamyr’s expression froze Tottiana. The dowager moved closer to her daughter, holding the stare, her eyes glazed and growing bloodshot. “There are ways. I have been studying some magic and medicinal manuals. I’ll find a way to dispose of it.”

Tottiana bolted out of her chair. “I didn’t want his child, but I won’t be party to murder, Mother. Take your revenge on Saxthor, but not my child.” She put her hand over her abdomen and, looking at her mother once more, turned to leave the room.

Helgamyr followed her to the door. “Who knows of this?”

“No one, yet, but I’m going to tell Saxthor.”

“You’ll do no such thing. Say nothing to anyone for now.”

Tottiana spun around to face her mother. “What has happened to you? You’re eaten up with vengeance. You never used to be like this.”

Helgamyr’s face darkened, as did the circles under her intense eyes. “You’d bear the child of the man that killed your father?”

“I’ll bear the child, yes. As for its father, I tell you again, Saxthor didn’t kill father. His own troops turned on him and, from what I have learned since, though it pains me to know it, it may have been justified.”

“Then you’re siding with that regicide against your own mother?”

“I’m not against you, Mother. I just don’t know that I hate Saxthor so much as I once did. He didn’t choose to love another. Not everything is his fault. I think he does the best he can.”

“Leave me then.”

Tottiana took a last look at her mother. The dowager stood staring at her as the empress looked back, closing the door. She noted Endaquac appeared from the back room.

Tottiana rushed along the corridor to her suite, holding her head with her hands. Who shall I turn to? She thought. But then a flush of fear rolled over her. I must find Saxthor; he must know about the child.

Tottiana rushed past one of her ladies-in-waiting, not stopping to acknowledge her, and on to the private audience chamber. Saxthor wasn’t there. She dashed through the palace to his suite where she burst in past his guards and slammed the doors shut behind her. “Mother’s gone mad,” she managed to say while catching her breath.

Saxthor dismissed Belnik and the other supporting servants who were helping him formally dress for the day’s audience at court. When they’d left, Tottiana closed the doors again. Saxthor approached his distraught empress, still holding the hallway doors shut behind her. He put his arms around her pulling her to him in a tender, secure hug. Feeling his strong arms protectively envelop her dispelled her fears for a moment.

“What has upset you so, my dear?”

“Mother.”

“What’s Helgamyr raging about now?” Saxthor asked with a chuckle. “You know your mother hates me; that’s not going to change. I wish we could stop her pain and hate, but we must let her work it out for herself since she refuses our help.”

“I’m pregnant, Saxthor.”

Saxthor released Tottiana, stood back and looked her over for a moment, then rushed to pick her up and lay her on his massive, defiant-dragon bed. “That’s wonderful! How do you feel? What can I get you? You mustn’t lift a thing.”

“Nothing, I’m not crystal, I won’t break.” Tottiana tried to get out of the bed, but Saxthor wouldn’t hear of it.

“You’re not to move until I summon the physician and your ladies-in-waiting. It’s time to put them to good use.”

“I shouldn’t have told you. Now, let me up.”

“Not until you tell me what your mother has to do with your stress. She should be thrilled to learn you’re with child. Surely, that will abate her hatred. You must have told her?”

“She hates you and the baby too. She thinks I should destroy it.”

Saxthor froze at that news. “You can’t mean it. She couldn’t hate me so much that she would destroy our child.”

“You should have seen her. Her face twisted with hatred.”

“Stay clear of her then. I’ll have guards posted at your door and hers with instructions the two of you are not to meet. Take nothing she might send to you: food, drink, even clothing. I’ll send for Memlatec; he’ll know what to do.”

Tottiana sensed the love Saxthor felt for the unborn child and it warmed her. She rose up and put her arms around Saxthor of her own accord for the first time since they were married. He kissed her tenderly and then lowered her back down on the bed like a delicate blossom. He pulled the bell pull and Belnik rushed into the room.

“Belnik, escort the empress back to her suite and stay there with her until I return.”

*

As they left one way down the grand gallery, Saxthor strode the other to the dowager’s suite. He knocked and entered, not waiting to be invited. Endaquac was first to come from back in the suite. She bowed to the emperor but said nothing, though her eyes narrowed.

“Where is your mistress?” Saxthor said, his voice frigid.

“Who is it, Endaquac?” Helgamyr called from another room.

“It’s the Emperor, Majesty.”

Helgamyr appeared, tufts of hair strangely waving from her hairdo. She had smut on her cheek and her apron. Her cold face grew pale staring at Saxthor; her eyes narrowed. “What do you want?”

“I know you hate me; it’s no secret. I’ve allowed you that privilege if it helps you cope with your husband’s death, but let me warn you now, in no uncertain terms, I will thwart any attempt to harm my wife or my child. Should you attempt such, I
will
exile you.”

“Is that all?” Helgamyr asked, wiping her hands on her apron with such force they went white then red.

“That’s all. You’ve been warned.” With that, Saxthor turned and left the dowager’s suite, slamming the doors behind him. He started off back down the corridor to find Tottiana but then hesitated and turned back to the guards at the dowager’s door.

“She’s to be kept under guard at all times. She may go where she pleases, but she’s to be watched night and day. If she attempts to see the empress, notify me at once.”

Stiff at attention, the guards saluted Saxthor and he left.

* * *

King Zirkin rode through the forest to a quiet glen hidden from probing eyes by an invisibility spell shared by a dying elf long before. Ancient oaks with massive spreading branches surrounded a pool fed by a spring that bubbled up near an energy gradient. A gold and flame phoenix perched on a limb over the pool, watching him. Plush moss carpeted all else in the glen except a lacy collar of silvery lichens that circled the pool, capping the rocks that defined it. Golden fish swam in the crystal clear water, but never down the stream that flowed out from it. They curled around the pool and slipped back underground to some hidden grotto. King Zirkin arrived at dusk, blew a silver horn hanging from a massive limb, and watched the golden carps’ entwining grace while he waited. A silvery light shone on the pool as the moon rose, making it appear a mirror. He knew from his father, with the correct elfin spell, it could display visions of things to come unless something altered the circumstances to change the outcome.

“I know the evil passed by near Zenobia,” Zirkin said to the phoenix. “What I don’t know is where it is now, a year later, and what it’s up to. I hope Danik, the elf comes to the pool tonight.” Unnoticed, lamps lit, suddenly giving off a strange bluish-silver glow that lit the area around the pool.

“They’re beautiful, aren’t they,” Danik said, suddenly appearing from nowhere and looking at the golden carp dancing their dance, gliding and weaving through the water in their elegant, silent symphony of a spell.

“They were once elf maidens dancing by this pool before a sorcerer tried to seduce them. They turned into these golden carp to escape his advances. Sadly, they couldn’t return to their former selves,” Danik said.

“I’d heard something like that from my father,” Zirkin said. “I wasn’t sure it was true, but then this pool does exude magical properties. Danik, I’ve come to see what you can tell me about an evil essence abroad again that has passed by Zenobia. I would know where it has gone and who it might be.”

“I felt a dark energy taint the mountains as well, but I avoided it. Man can deal with it now,” the elf responded.

Zirkin took a pouch from his belt and stood over the pool, watching the fish.

“They’re mesmerizing, aren’t they?” the king said. Danik merely nodded, enjoying the carp display their long tails and fins rippling like ribbons in a breeze. The elf sprinkled powder from the pouch over the pool. Instantly, the carp dashed into underwater recesses, the water stopped rippling, and the surface again became a silvery mirror.

“What has become of the evil that passed near Zenobia a year ago?” Zirkin asked.