Finnikin of the Rock (28 page)

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"It's what the king wanted to believe. What we all wanted to believe," Lady Abian maintained. They were silent for a moment.

"There is no proof it was the Charynites," Lord August's brother-in-law said, speaking to an earlier argument.

"Of course it was the Charynites," Finnikin argued. "And the king should have treated Charyn as a threat. Instead he signed treaties with their king and cocooned himself in domestic life." He looked at Sir Topher. He knew his mentor agreed with him but would never voice his opinions aloud.

"I should have protected the worshippers of Sagrami," the priest-king said sadly. "Instead I allowed myself to be flattered by the importance of my title. I blame my hubris for not seeing what was unfolding in front of me."

"They should not have been so secretive about their ways," one of the women said.

"And that gave us the permission to turn them out of their homes and persecute them?" Lady Abian protested.

"In other kingdoms they worship more than one god or goddess with few issues about which divine being has superiority," Finnikin said.

"It is wrong," Lady Celie blurted out, her face flushed. It was the first time she had spoken that evening. Perhaps the first time she had ever raised her voice in the company of adults.

"What is, my sweet?" her father asked.

"That we persist in speaking about the goddess as if she were two. The fault lies with the men of the ancients."

"And not the women? Must men be blamed for all, my sweet?" her father asked gently. "Celie has a great love of history," he added with pride. "She has taken to recording the stories of our village."

"The men are to blame," Lady Celie continued, her voice

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wavering, "because they wrote the books. They were frightened by the power of our goddess complete." There was an awkward silence.

"So they split her in two," Evanjalin spoke up, placing a hand on Lady Celie's shoulder. "The goddess Lagrami and the goddess Sagrami: light and dark. But all that did was cause division and a belief that one people was better than the other."

"Those who worshipped Sagrami practiced dark magic," Lord August's sister argued. "They were instrumental in our exile."

"Yet it is the work of those inside the cloisters of Sagrami and Lagrami that will ensure us entry back into our kingdom," Evanjalin said.

"Evanjalin can walk through the sleep of our people trapped inside Lumatere," Lady Celie said boldly.

At his daughter's comment, Lord August looked at Evanjalin for the first time since she had spoken to him about the Charynites. He could not forget her voice as she stood beside Finnikin that day. He had described to his wife with wonder the power he felt in the two young people. The voice of Lumatere had come from the sun and the moon, he said. Abie called him a dreamer. "See them together and you will feel a force that will take your breath away," he had responded.

"When we return, I would love nothing more than to be part of the cloister," the duke's niece said. She was a pretty girl, more confident than her cousin Celie.

"The cloister of Lagrami?" Lady Abian asked. "Why? All they teach you to be is a rich man's dutiful wife and a blind worshipper of half a goddess."

"Oh, the idea of a dutiful wife," Lord August said with a sigh. "Why did no one point me in the direction of the cloister?"

Lady Abian raised her eyebrow. "You were lucky I was not taught by the priestess of Lagrami to bore you to tears, Augie, or

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by the priestess of Sagrami to poison my husband with the proper herbs. Instead, I prayed to the goddess complete to send me a man who would accept me whole and not as two halves, as men have treated our goddess for the past thousand years."

"I was a novice of Lagrami," Lord August's sister sniffed. "Do I bore people to tears?"

"Of course not, my dear," her husband responded, patting her hand. "Nor are you a dutiful wife."

The others laughed.

"You are harsh on the cloisters of both sides, Abie," Trevanion said solemnly. "Lady Beatriss was a novice of Lagrami, and she had much strength to offer."

"That I know, Trevanion," she said gently. "But the cloister of Lagrami is there for the daughters of those with wealth, like our Celie and Beatriss the Beloved. But what of the daughters of our dear friends here?"

"Privilege does not necessarily lead to freedom for our noble young women," Sir Topher said. "The princesses were always going to be sacrificed for the kingdom. The older girls had already been promised to foreign princes and dukes. Sooner or later, Isaboe would have been sacrificed in the same manner."

"Sacrificed?" Finnikin asked.

"Of course," one of the women said. "To be taken away from your family, your homeland. To be a foreigner for the rest of your life, with no true right over your children. Did it not happen to the dead king's aunt? Given to a lesser prince in Charyn, whose seed produced the monster who rules our kingdom?"

"Regardless, we must concern ourselves with what takes place inside Lumatere now. If the novices have united, as we believe they have, then those of Sagrami will teach us to be healers. Physicians," Evanjalin said. "And those of Lagrami will teach us the ways of the ancients and the beauty of goodwill. Perhaps

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because of the most dire of situations, daughters of peasants are secure in one of the old cloisters in Lumatere as we speak."

"When will we return to Lumatere?" one of her younger boys asked. "When Balthazar is found?"

Sir Topher nodded, but Finnikin recognized the look of uncertainty that always crossed his mentor's face whenever the heir's name was mentioned.

"How do we know that for sure?" the boy piped up.

"Because Seranonna decreed it," Lord August said.

"I fort she damned the kingdom," Froi said.

The others looked at him, uncomfortable.

"We do not consider the kingdom damned," Lord August said politely. "We prefer not to use that word."

"What would you call it, Lord August?" Finnikin asked. "A little magic? A slight curse? A bit of bad luck?"

"Finn," his father warned in a low tone.

"For the sake of the children--" Lord August's brother-in-law began.

"Only a chosen few have been privileged enough to have a childhood," Finnikin interrupted. "There have been few children since the days of the unspeakable. Were you ever a child, Evanjalin? Or Froi? Or half the orphans of Lumatere? Or even me? Was I ever a child, Sir Topher?"

"I applaud any of you who have been able to preserve innocence for your children," Evanjalin said, turning to the younger ones. "But our kingdom was cursed. Damned. Taken away from us, because good people stood by while evil took place. Let that be our lesson."

"Has it been revealed?" Lady Abian asked. "What was said that day? When Seranonna ... cursed us?"

Sir Topher nodded. "It was difficult to decipher, for we heard the words spoken only once, in an ancient language, and there

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are many interpretations of each word. At every camp, we searched for those who had been in the square the day of Seranonna's death and we gathered more words, poring over the books of the ancients, until four years ago Finnikin made sense of it."

Everyone's attention was directed at Finnikin. Opposite him, he watched Evanjalin take a breath, as if in anticipation.

"Finn?" his father urged.

Finnikin's eyes met the priest-king's." 'Dark will lead the light and our
resurdus
will rise. And he will hold two hands of the one he pledged to save. And then the gate will fall, but his pain shall never cease. His seed will issue kings, but he will never reign.'"

"Balthazar," Lord August confirmed.

" 'Our
resurdus, "
Finnikin said, nodding. "King."

"I think the exact words were 'her
resurdus
will rise,'" Sir Topher said.

The priest-king nodded. "'Her' being our kingdom of Lumatere."

"I don't understand the two hands," Perri said.

"And you believe Balthazar can ... survive such an entrance of damnation? 'Pain shall never cease'?" Lady Abian said. "And 'he will never reign'?"

"Regardless of whether he lives or dies," the priest-king said, "the main gate of the kingdom will open."

There was silence until Lord August stood. "Then we must make a decree. Here. This night. In the presence of the priest-king and Trevanion, Captain of the King's Guard, and myself, Lord August, Duke of Sayles." He turned to the king's First Man. "That Sir Kristopher of the Flatlands, as regent of our dead king, is to rule if our beloved heir does not survive."

He took in the faces of all present. "We enter Lumatere with a king," he continued forcefully. "We will never allow the leaders of other kingdoms to crown a king for Lumatere again."

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Finnikin felt the weight of his father's stare. He shifted his gaze to Sir Topher, and saw that the king's First Man was looking at him with the same intensity. He was a son blessed by two fathers, one a warrior, the other a leader.

"We enter Lumatere with a king," Trevanion acknowledged.

"Sir Topher?" the priest-king said.

Sir Topher stood, looking from Finnikin to the priest-king. "I pray to the goddess ... the goddess complete, that our heir will live to see the new day in Lumatere, but if that is not to be, our kingdom will have a leader and that leader will have a First Man." His eyes rested on Finnikin. "I accept."

There was a cheer in the room as people began to chant Balthazar's name. Finnikin felt as if his breath had been wrenched from his body.

Her blood will be shed for you to be king.

He had not prayed since that day in the Valley of Tranquillity, but as the others celebrated, he began his mantra.
Be alive, Balthazar. Live forever, Sir Topher.
He looked over to where his father was speaking to one of Lord August's men, Matin. The steward was showing Trevanion something he had retrieved from his pocket, and Trevanion, in a rare show of emotion, drew the man toward him in an embrace.

On shaking legs, Finnikin made his way across the room to where Evanjalin stood, tears in her eyes.

"Resurdus,"
she whispered to him. Her lips trembled and she held his face between her hands. Suddenly Sir Topher stood between them.

"Evanjalin is tired, Finnikin," he said firmly. "She needs to sleep. Let Lady Abian take her."

Later, the sounds of Lord August making love to his wife echoed through the house. Their cries were earthy and raw, and the

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paper-thin walls ensured that their guests heard each murmur and groan.

"What is it with the nobility?" Sir Topher muttered, putting a pillow over his face. "The queen and king were always at it like rabbits."

Moss groaned. "If they do this every night, I'd rather give myself up to the king's prison."

Froi shuffled where he lay under the window.

"Froi, if I hear one sound coming from you," Trevanion warned.

"Must I remind you that we have the priest-king of Lumatere among us?" Sir Topher said.

The priest-king chuckled. "I'm used to hearing people dying, Sir Topher. Why would I be threatened by the sounds of people living?"

But all Finnikin could think of was the scent of sandalwood soap and a golden face scrubbed clean, and with every thrust he heard, he imagined himself inside her until his body ached for release. And the evil within him that wished for the death of Balthazar, and the realization of the prophecy spoken to him in the forest alongside a doomed princess, rejoiced that if he were to be king, he would make her his queen.

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***

CHaPteR 19

Sometimes Froi of the Exiles thought he dreamed it, what happened at the crossroads. That it seemed like forever, not just a few days, and that the difference between left and right and north and west meant everything and nothing.

It began with tears when they left the home of the duke. His daughter was the worst, sobbing like a baby as she held on to Evanjalin, as if they had known each other forever rather than just two nights. She cried even more when Finnikin gave her the
Book of Lumatere
to keep safe. They were stupid like that, these Lumaterans. Not that he minded the duke's house. The fireplace always seemed to be working, and there was lots of food. But too much touching and kissing. Sometimes the duke's wife hugged Froi and he would try hard not to growl and shove her away, because when her arms were around him and her chuckles were in his ear, he felt calm. As if his blood wasn't beating hard all the time, urging him to fight.

Then they left and traveled north. To the crossroads. Nobody grumbled, because soon they would reach the valley outside the kingdom of Lumatere, which meant nothing to him really,