The Born Queen Part 25

"When do you think? In your tree house, back when we first saw the woorm."

Cold crept along his spine. Winna had conceived the same day she'd been poisoned by the woorm. Of course she had.

"That's not the look I was hoping for," she said.

"I'm just-I'm trying to take this all in," Aspar said.

"Yah, well, me too. Where have you been, Aspar? And what, by any d.a.m.n saint, is she she doing with you?" doing with you?"

"That's a long story."

"Does it start with you leaving me here?"

Aspar wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean, but he nodded. "Yah."

"Well, tell me."

"Sit down, then."

She took a seat on the bed.

"I went off after the woorm, followed it for a long time up through the Bairghs. Deep up in there I caught up with it, but I wasn't the only one. Hespero had been tracking it, too, somehow."

"The praifec?"

"Yah. He tried to kill me, so I reckon he knows we don't work for him anymore."

"Tried to kill you?"

"Yah. He was in the wrong place to do it, up on a cliff and me below, so I gave him the slip. But Fend was there, too."

"Right. Riding the woorm."

"And there were Sefry in the mountain: Leshya's people. I think they were fighting the praifec. But I was a bit occupied. The Briar King showed up, so only you and Stephen were missing."

"You didn't find Stephen?"

"No. I killed the woorm with the praifec's arrow. Then I had a bit of a fight with one of those Mamres monks. He hurt me pretty bad: broke my leg. If it hadn't been for Ogre, I'd be dead, and that's certain."

"Ogre..."

"Died saving me."

"I'm sorry, Aspar."

He shrugged. "I meant to pasture him soon, but the chance just never came up. But he died fighting. Anyway, then Fend, ah, killed the Briar King."

"What?"

"With the same arrow. Turns out it can be used any number of times, not just three. He was about to use it on me when Leshya showed up and got me out."

"Convenient."

"Yah. But I got sick after that, really sick. When I came to my senses, Leshya had found us a hiding place, but I wasn't able to travel for months. Fend found us. He's on my trail again, and he's not alone. We can't stay here, Winna."

"You were alone with her for four months?" Winna asked.

"Yah."

"That must have been awfully cozy."

He felt a flare of anger. "That's kindertalk, Winna. There's nothing there. If anyone's been courting all this time, it seems it was you."

"Emfrith? He's sweet. He's not you. He's not the father of my child." She stood up. "And as for kindertalk, yes, I'm young enough to be your daughter, but that doesn't make me a fool for being jealous. It just means I love you. I was actually beginning to lose hope, to think you were really dead, and then you show up with her? Just don't get all angry and don't dodge my question. You tell me nothing happened between you, and I'll not raise this again, ever."

"Nothing happened."

She let out a deep breath. "Fine," she said.

"We're done with that?"

"Yah."

"Good."

"That's all? Don't you have more to say than that?"

Aspar closed his eyes for a moment. "You know how I feel about you, Winna. But maybe it would be best for you-"

"Stop," she said. "Just stop there, Aspar. There's no best for me. There's only you. You know I never asked anything more than you could give, but you have given me something." She patted her belly. "I never imagined a normal life from you, holter. You never promised it, and I still don't expect it. But whatever happens, this child is ours."

He stared at her belly, remembering the greffyn being born. "Winna."

"What?"

Grim take the Sarnwood witch.

"Let's get you somewhere safe, then. Somewhere you can have this baby without fear."

"You'll go with me?"

"Yah."

She smiled and rushed to hug him, pressing the hardness of her belly into him.

"I've missed you, Aspar White. You've no idea how much I've missed you." She took his hands. "Where shall we go?"

He kissed her hands and answered. He meant to say that they would go to Virgenya or Nazhgave, anyplace that seemed outside the sickness wasting the world.

"To the Mountains of the Hare," he heard himself say instead. "I can protect us there."

And he kissed her again.

CHAPTER FOUR.

TWO M MAIDS.

FASTER WAS thunder beneath Anne as she galloped across the Sleeve. Anne felt a fierce grin pull at her mouth, and she shouted her joy up to whatever saints were listening. thunder beneath Anne as she galloped across the Sleeve. Anne felt a fierce grin pull at her mouth, and she shouted her joy up to whatever saints were listening.

It had been so long since she had ridden for the sheer fun of it. Once she had spent most of her time like this, eluding the pursuers her mother would send to bring her back for lessons or court. Just she and Faster and sometimes Austra.

Austra should be with Cazio by now. She hoped they were happy.

That thought brought her spirits down a bit. She wasn't a carefree girl anymore, was she? The hors.e.m.e.n following her right now weren't chasing her; they were her bodyguard, at her command.

She saw more hors.e.m.e.n up ahead, where the Sleeve began to turn, and slowed down a bit. They wore red, gold, and black over their light armor, and their s.h.i.+elds bore a serpent and a wave. She recognized neither the colors nor their emblem. They were practicing some sort of riding formation, wielding compact bows. Targets had been set up, and they were already well feathered.

As she continued to watch, she noticed that one of the riders was quite slight, was indeed a woman. She fastened her gaze on that one, watching as she stood in her stirrups and casually loosed an arrow. It struck, quivering, in the heart of one of the targets. She wheeled her mount, already drawing another shaft from her quiver.

"Whose colors are those?" Anne asked Captain Eltier, the short, balding Craftsman who commanded her horse guard.

"The earl of Cape Chavel, Highness," he replied.

"And Cape Chavel has women warriors?"

"Not that I know of, madame."

A few moments later the hors.e.m.e.n broke off their activity, and two came toward them: the earl and the woman.

They stopped about ten kingsyards away, dismounted, and knelt. Anne saw that the woman was young, probably no more than fifteen.

"Rise," Anne said. "How are you today, Cape Chavel?"

"Very well," he said. "Just riding with my light horse."

"And this is one of your archers?"

His smile broadened. This is my sister, Emily. Not officially a member of the company, but I can't stop her from practicing with us."

Emily did a curtsy. "Pleased to meet you, Your Majesty."

"You do very well with that bow," Anne told the girl.

"Thank you, Majesty," she said.

An impulse struck her. "Would you two care to ride with me for a bit?" she asked.

"It would be an honor, Highness," the earl said.

They mounted back up and continued along the edge of the Sleeve where it dropped off steeply to the marshy rinns far below.

"That must be Eslen-of-Shadows," Emily said, pointing to the somber stone structures poking up here and there through the canopy.

"It is," Anne said, feeling the faintest chill. That was another place where she once had spent a lot of time, but unlike the Sleeve, she had no interest in revisiting it.

"It's big," Emily said. "Much grander than the one in Ralegh."

"Well, more people have died here, I suppose," Anne said.

"Oh," the girl said. She sounded uncomfortable, as if suddenly remembering how many of Anne's family had lately gone there.

"Come this way," Anne said. "There are more cheerful things to see on Ynis."

She nudged Faster back to a run, and the others fell easily in with her. The earl and his sister were as used to riding as walking; she could see that right away.

She led them toward the twin hills of Tom Woth and Tom Cast, glancing wistfully at the Snake, the sharp descent she once had used to escape pursuit into the rinns. None of that today. She led them instead up the gra.s.sy slope of Tom Cast, switching back and around until they reached its great bald summit, from which vantage the whole island of Ynis was laid out for them.

"It's so beautiful," Emily gasped. "So much to see in every direction."

Anne had been there a hundred times before, but not since returning. She was surprised to discover that it all looked suddenly new to her, too.

East, the city of Eslen rose up in three magnificent tiers topped by the many-towered castle itself. North was the Dew River and the vast lake that was the King's Poel, flooded by her uncle Robert and now colorful with hundreds of s.h.i.+ps flying the colors of Liery, Crotheny, and Hornladh. The mist-covered rinns stretched south to where the mighty Warlock River s.h.i.+mmered like fish scales in the midmorning sun and also to the west...

"Thornrath," the earl sighed.

"I never could have imagined," Emily murmured.

"The mightiest wall ever built by Mannish hands," Captain Eltier said.

That it was. The island of Ynis was formed in the confluence of the Dew and Warlock rivers where they opened into Foambreaker Bay. Thornrath cut the bay in half, a wall of ivory stone more than three leagues long. It had seven great towers and seven arches each big enough for two men-of-war to sail through safely. It was seven hundred years old; since its building Eslen had never been taken by sea.

"It's all very grand," Emily said. "Thank you for showing me this." Her eyes sparkled.

Anne nodded. "Well, you came a long way to see it."

She turned to her brother. "Why did you bring her here, Cape Chavel? I'm sure she was safer in Virgenya."

"No, I don't think she was," the earl said. "There she might be taken hostage and used to persuade me to return. Here I can keep an eye on her."

"Anyway," Emily said, "I'd rather be here than safe. It's all very exciting."

"What will you do when your brother goes to war?"