Finnikin of the Rock (42 page)

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Sir Topher left, and Finnikin began to copy the recordings from Beatriss's book into his own.

"It's because she returned to fulfill her mother's request to save me," Lady Beatriss said after a while.

Finnikin put down his quill. "Tesadora?"

Lady Beatriss nodded. "She's very frightening when you first see her, isn't she?"

He smiled, abashed. "She's half my size, so it might be slightly humbling for me to admit that."

"Well, I will admit it for you," Beatriss responded with a laugh. Then her face grew serious. "Seranonna and I were locked in the same dungeon cell. The day before the curse, she was permitted a visitor. A novice from the cloister of Lagrami. The novice was there to give a blessing to the Sagrami worshippers so they could repent before death. I remember feeling ashamed to hear such piety coming from a novice of my order. But it was a deception. The novice was Tesadora, her hair shorn, dressed in the stolen robes of a Lagrami novice. She gave Seranonna a blessing in the language of the ancients and pressed into her mother's hand a potion concealed in a tiny vial. It was a substance that would render her mother unconscious; she would be dead to all who saw her. But Tesadora knew enough to be able to revive her."

Finnikin paled. "Seranonna gave the potion to you instead?"

Beatriss nodded. "We have never spoken of it, but I cannot imagine how Tesadora felt that day, watching the guards drag her mother into the square to be executed. When Seranonna screamed out that I was dead, Tesadora knew the words were meant for her. A message to retrieve my body and bring it back to life. I drank the potion after I gave birth, praying that I would not regain consciousness. I have no memory of what took place during the curse. All I know is that Tesadora took advantage of the confusion and came to find me. She said I was still holding your sister, Finnikin."

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Tears sprang to his eyes before he could stop them.

"She lived for only a few moments, and in those moments, I said her name out loud so she would one day be able to shout it through the heavens. I knew she could not possibly survive, because she was too tiny. I had carried her for less than six months. But she knew the important things before she died. That her father's name was Trevanion, her mother's name was Beatriss, and her brother's name was Finnikin. I called her Evanjalin after Trevanion's beloved mother, and when my precious Vestie was born five years later, I swear I heard her cry out that name when she first entered this world. As if somehow the spirit of Evanjalin lived within her. You may think I sound like a mad woman for believing such a thing, but there are moments when I see qualities of your father in Vestie, Finnikin."

"I've learned to accept the unexplainable and not consider myself mad," Finnikin said.

"When Tesadora revived me in the dungeons, I begged her to let me die. I was frightened. I knew the bastard king would come for me again. But she refused to leave me there. She half carried me out of the dungeons, both of us sobbing. Hers were tears of fury, mine of fear. How strange and unnatural a day it was, Finnikin. The palace village destroyed, the streets empty except for the dead who had been crushed under cottages. I could see people wailing against the kingdom walls, pounding them with their bare hands. On the road to the Flatlands, we passed those who looked like the walking dead, muttering about curses, claiming there was no way out of the kingdom. It was Tesadora and my villagers who buried my child. Down by the river." She shook her head, lost in her thoughts. "I think I buried your father that day as well."

"But he's alive," Finnikin said bluntly.

"One day I want you to take him down there, to the grave," she said. "So he can begin to heal. I see so much hurt in his eyes."

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"Why can't he heal with you?" Finnikin pushed.

"Because I am not even half the person he once loved."

"Some things don't change, Lady Beatriss. Can you ever bring yourself to love him again?"

"Oh, Finnikin," she said with great sadness. "After everything that has happened, how do any of us begin to love again?"

Later, Finnikin traveled the road to the palace with his mentor. "Did she speak?" Sir Topher asked.

Finnikin looked at him, surprised. "You left because you believed she would?"

"No, I honestly did want to see my childhood friend," he said with a smile. "But I could tell she needed to talk, and I learned years ago, Finnikin, that people divulge things to you that they would not divulge to anyone else."

"A good skill for the apprentice of the queen's First Man?" Finnikin asked.

"Way beyond the skill of an apprentice," Sir Topher said solemnly. "Or the queen's First Man, at that." He sighed, looking around. "Where do you think our boy is?"

"Froi? Who knows? If he's left the kingdom, I don't want to be the one to tell the queen. I've sent Sefton and the village lads out to search for him."

They heard the pounding of horses' hooves behind them, and a moment later Trevanion and Moss appeared.

"Something's wrong," Finnikin muttered, his heart hammering in his chest. Trevanion and Moss pulled up beside them, their expressions grim.

"Isaboe?" Finnikin asked.

Trevanion shook his head, and Finnikin could sense his father's suppressed rage. "It's the impostor king and his men," Trevanion said bluntly. "They're dead."

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***

CHapteR 28

Poisoned?" Trevanion, Finnikin, Sir Topher, and Moss walked through the dungeons, covering their noses and mouths with cloths. The impostor king and his men had obviously suffered long and painful deaths. One had managed to batter his head to a pulp against the dungeon wall in an attempt to end the agony.

"How?" Trevanion asked, fury in his voice.

"We do not know," the prison guard said quietly. "But we arrested the baker who supplied us with the loaves for the prisoners this morning."

"He confessed?"

The guard shook his head.

"This could only be the work of one who knows their poisons, so I'm hoping we've removed the queen from Tesadora's cloister," Finnikin said.

"Perri's already on his way," Trevanion replied. "He will take the queen to the Monts until she is ready to return to the palace."

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"We must treat this with care," Sir Topher said. "We cannot have a repeat of the past when it comes to those who worship Sagrami."

"Agreed," Trevanion said flatly. "But if Tesadora is responsible for what has happened here, she must be arrested."

"Surely you are not suggesting she's working with the Charynites to keep the impostor king from talking?" Sir Topher asked.

"We take no chances."

It took most of the day to ride to the cloister at the northwest tip of the kingdom. On the way, they passed the cherry blossom tree that had been planted in honor of the dead queen's youngest child, Isaboe. The cloister, where Perri had hidden Tesadora and the novices all those years ago, was one of the most ancient temples in the land. It was surrounded by woodland, where Trevanion's men were now positioned, some in the open, others concealed.

The cloister's entrance was a covered walkway, which led into circular gardens where the novices worked and meditated. Surrounding the gardens were the living quarters. Tesadora stood at the entrance, staring at the men impassively. Light played through the arched opening, and it made her look almost ghostly with her strange hair and beautiful face. Finnikin could not help wondering how such a tiny woman had managed to carry the much taller Beatriss out of the dungeons that day.

"There seem to be a lot of angry men in the vicinity, Captain," Tesadora said by way of greeting. "They are disturbing my girls."

"I'm hoping you made Perri's acquaintance this morning, Tesadora."

"The Savage and I are well acquainted, as you would know," she said coldly. "He had the queen removed from our cloister,

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much to the distress of both the novices and the queen."

Trevanion looked to one of his guards nearby. The guard nodded to verify her story.

"We would like permission to enter," Sir Topher said.

"I will not have my novices alarmed any further. I fear you will also have me removed from the cloister by force if I allow you to enter."

Finnikin was sure that Tesadora's only knowledge of fear was how to instill it in others. "Out of respect for the role you played in the survival of Lady Beatriss, my father will restrain himself, Tesadora," he said.

She stared at him, as if seeing him for the first time in the midst of the others. "Leave your men outside," she ordered. She turned and walked down the passageway. Trevanion, Sir Topher, and Finnikin followed.

"Do not speak for me again, Finn," his father warned in a low tone. "A poor captain I would make if all my decisions were based on how my loved ones were treated."

They walked through the gardens, aware of the stares from the novices. Those belonging to Sagrami were dressed in blue, those to Lagrami in gray. Most were young.
"Finnikin of the Rock,"
he heard one whisper to another.
"He belongs to the queen."

They reached the main temple, where Tesadora lit a candle.

"We have the impostor king and nine of his men lying dead in the palace dungeons. Poisoned," Sir Topher said after she had finished purifying the air with the scented smoke of the candle and a prayer to her goddess.

Tesadora held his gaze. "Are you accusing me, Sir Topher?" She turned to Trevanion. "Is this an arrest, Captain Trevanion? Or are you expecting me to shed tears for these... What did you call them?
Men?"

"Our only evidence that Charyn was set to invade Belegonia

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through our kingdom has been destroyed," Trevanion said. "What would you do in our place, Tesadora?"

She gave a small laugh. "In your place I would declare this a day of joy for the people of Lumatere."

"Especially, perhaps, for those who worship Sagrami," Finnikin said.

"These past ten years the bastard king and his men have not discriminated between worshippers of Sagrami and those of Lagrami. All Lumaterans were victims of their reign of terror."

"The surviving Forest Dwellers?" Trevanion asked, indicating the woodlands. "Did they order the murder of the impostor king and his men, Tesadora?"

Tesadora ignored the question. "The Forest Dwellers have requested autonomy."

"No," Finnikin said firmly. "Your people belong to this kingdom. Autonomy will only make things worse for you."

"Those who worship Sagrami did not feel as if they belonged to this kingdom during the five days of the unspeakable. Is that not what you call those days?"

"The queen would never allow anything to happen to the Forest Dwellers."

"And if something happens to the queen? We were protected under our previous king and queen, yet the moment they were gone, we were hunted like animals and slaughtered. Would you like to carry out your census here, Finnikin? Before your five days of the unspeakable, there were four hundred and thirty-seven Forest Dwellers. Today there are less than forty."

"They will be protected," Sir Topher said firmly.

"Despite what happens to me?"

"Have we treated you as the enemy?" Finnikin asked. "We need what you can teach us. We need to know about the magic."

"So you can control it? Cage it?"

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"Perhaps to celebrate it," Finnikin said. "So we can learn to be healers. Your young girls have skills."

"And you expect me to believe this is your reason for visiting today? When I'm here, answering your questions in an interrogation room?"

"No one is arresting you, Tesadora, and this is a temple," Sir Topher said.

"Yet your captain holds his sword, ready for attack."

"The baker stands accused of murder unless you can shed some light on what took place in the palace this morning!" Trevanion snapped.

There was no response.

"He will suffer for something you planned, Tesadora."

"And Beatriss suffered for something you did, did she not, Trevanion? The captain of the Guard who chose not to lie prostrate at the feet of the bastard king. But by our goddess," Tesadora swore, "they ensured that his lover lay prostrate at their feet.
Continually.
Dragged by her hair out of her home night after night. She was once the most envied of women in Lumatere when she was loved by the captain of the King's Guard. But nobody envied her during our years of captivity. She was their perfect weapon to keep our people in place. When they discovered she was alive and re-arrested her, the bastard king chose not to have her executed. No, he found a better use for the former lover of the captain of the King's Guard. 'See this woman,' he would taunt whenever his men dragged her broken and bruised body into the square. 'This is what will happen to your loved ones if you dare to challenge a king.'"

Sir Topher hissed with fury as Trevanion walked out of the room. Finnikin could not imagine what images had just passed through his father's head. He had been told tales of Beatriss's fate but had foolishly hoped his father would never hear.