The King's Sons (The Herezoth Trilogy) (30 page)

“We’ve
three options,” Kora noted, when she had explained the situation. “We attack
them at the Hall, before they come here, or we plan to defend Oakdowns. Or….”
Kora forced herself to voice the proposition. “Vane takes me to Partsvale, and
I take care of Linstrom now.”

August
grabbed her husband’s arm with a jerk that pulled him up against her. Vane
himself paled a bit, but seemed to be considering what Kora had suggested.
Rexson was the one to say, “I won’t have you bloody your hands that way, not
when it might not solve the problem. There would still be his followers. And
there’d be his lover, no? She’d know what we’d done. What I’d ordered. She
might rally Linstrom’s men against us, and we’d be more or less at the same
place we are now.”

Vane
loosened August’s grip on his bicep to take her hand in his. He said, “We’ll
defend Oakdowns. As best we can. If we want to maintain order, it’s better he
attack me here than raze a public space. Herezoth won’t spook like a timid
horse over a personal beef between two sorcerers. We can portray it thus. And
he’ll have no clue we’re prepared to meet him.”

The
king reminded his duke, “There’s the Hall, Vane.”

“There
is, but I know Oakdowns. I know every nook and cranny of the place. Linstrom
doesn’t, and if he burns it to the ground, I can’t say I’ll mind. I can’t look
out a window without seeing those protesters with their torches at the fence,
the ones who came when you announced the Magic Council. I can’t walk the
grounds without cursing how big they are. Ten years it’s been, and I still say
had there been less to search here, I could have saved Bennie that day she died
for August. Could have gotten to her sooner. I came here first….”

Vane
gave August’s hand a squeeze, and emphasized, “I don’t care if the manor’s
destroyed, Rexson.” The king nodded grimly. Kora knew he could relate to Vane’s
sentiments, knew he loathed the Crystal Palace. It scorched his soul to live in
a building where he had seen so many die. He told the duchess:

“Come
to the Palace. Bring whatever you discreetly can.”

August
stood straight-backed. Determined. Unbreakable, was the impression she gave
Kora. She said, “The portrait of Val’s parents, I can’t leave that. And I’ll go
to the children’s rooms, right now. I know which of their things they hold
dearest. I’ll take those too, in case we’re forced to spend some time as your
guests.”

The
king told her, “You’re welcome for as long you need to stay. Duration’s no
issue…. Lottie, Kora?”

“Vane
should bring her here. We have to protect her. After all, she didn’t go running
to her lover. She was trying to prove his lies, and he interrupted her. It was
a horrid case of bad timing…. We can’t leave her to Linstrom’s mercy. I don’t
know how well she could play a part if he went to see her, and she’ll be safe
with us. She can help with Oakdowns’s defense.”

The
king told Vane, “Get her now. Bring her here, but not a word about Kora. Take
her to the parlor.”

The
duke squeezed his wife’s shoulder, and then left the room to obey the king’s
command. August excused herself, to collect her children’s things, and followed
him. Kora found herself alone with her old comrade-in-arms.

“You
might not want me bloodying my hands, Rexson. I’ll tell you plainly, since
there’s no one else to listen, the same as I told you yesterday: I’ll bloody
them, and gladly, if it keeps my…. If I can keep my boys from danger, I would have
no qualm.”

“His
supporters, Kora. Linstrom’s supporters, they number two hundred. Believe me, I
wish I could eliminate this problem sending you after him.”

Kora
held back tears of fright as easily as in the days of the Crimson League. She
even kept her voice firm, and was sure the supreme effort that cost her was her
secret, unless she betrayed herself with the way she grabbed her wrist. “Send
my sons home, at least. Send them home. I’m begging you, as your friend….”

With
a sigh, Rexson sank into a chair. She hoped he might divert his gaze, but he
looked directly in her eyes. He had always done that when speaking difficult
truths to her. She considered it a mark of respect, and imagined he treated
everyone that way. When Rexson must deal disappointment, even anguish, the
least he could give a poor soul was the satisfaction of knowing he realized the
pain he caused.

“As
your friend, I’d gladly restore your sons to you. You can’t doubt that. I’m a
father myself. I’m also the king, and as your king, I’d remind you that no
matter the good fortune that’s befallen us with Linstrom’s new choice of target,
should Oakdowns fall to him, he won’t stop here. He’ll be straight off to the
Great Square or the Palace courtyard, if not Yangerton and its Central Plaza.
Any of that constitutes an eminent catastrophe for this kingdom.

“Kora,
your sons are sorcerers. Herezoth needs them here, though I will say this: I
don’t conscript them. I couldn’t, even if I wished to, as natives of Traigland.
If they choose to leave my realm, they’re free to go. You’re free to urge them
to make that choice. But they came on their own to offer their aid, came with
you yourself.”

With
that, Kora’s voice did break. “They love Zacry and Vane too much not to be
here. I know that. I know I must support that kind of unselfishness, but I….
Forgive what I asked of you.”

“It’s
no affront to me that you’re a mother to those young men.” He paused. “And fine
young men they are. They’re quiet, aren’t they?”

Kora
found herself smirking. “Quiet? I suppose they must be, if you’re comparing
them to their sister.” Then her expression turned serious. “They’re unnerved by
all this. They’re not quiet at all, not at home or when they’re together. Walt
and Wil, they’ve always been close, and Kansten’s two sisters have each other.
Kansten, on the other hand, has always set herself apart. Always taken the role
of guardian. It’s been hard for her, to see her brothers don’t need that any
longer. She’s felt lonely for years in my crowded house.”

“That
girl is your daughter through and through.”

The
sorceress sighed. “Don’t I know it.”

“She
protects her brothers? I’ll never forget all you did for Zacry in his youth.
How you strove to safeguard him. Your entire soul was in your voice when you
begged me to convince him to go to Zalski’s school.”

Kora
would always remember eavesdropping on the subsequent discussion between the
prince and her twelve-year-old brother. It took place outside the barn where
the Crimson League was hiding. Rexson had explained Zalski’s plan to educate
the magicked, to train them for work in his government. He had convinced the
boy he had no choice but to follow the path Zalski would force upon him.

The
king said, “You can’t realize how painful that conversation was for me. How
much it did to prepare me for the throne. The thought of ripping Zacry’s
freedom away, his future, and making him see why he had to give them up…. It
was the only thing to do, for his own good. He had no other options with Zalski
in power, but that didn’t make me feel less torn about what I did to the boy.
I’ve always considered that discussion my first act as king. I imagine my son’s
came this week.”

Kora
had no idea how to respond, or what he wanted her to say, or whether she should
say anything. Still standing, she looked down on him in his chair; his
effortless, perfect posture was the only sign of the life he led, except his
words.

“The
most damnable thing about being king is knowing Valkin must do it after. To
wield that power myself, and live with the guilt of each life and death
decision, that’s one thing. To prepare my son to do the same….”

The
sorceress pursed her lips. She remembered the elder brother he’d survived, the
man who should have ruled; the contrast between them had never been so marked.

“Your
brother’s death was the only thing you refused to speak to me about. Not
whether or how deeply you grieved. Not what it meant for you, should you
survive. Nothing.”

“I
refused to taint you with all of that, refused until I must.”

“Which
would have been?”

“Sometime
after your crest on the Palace wall inspired that mob to form and forced me to
rip your heart out instead of talking things over.”

Right
after Zalski’s death, that mob had trapped them in the Palace vestibule. Rexson
had waited as long as possible to interfere with the situation, to banish her,
in the hopes he could avoid doing so. When Podrar’s citizens threw her,
voiceless and defenseless, to the floor and began to beat her, he had acted,
with the sole intent of keeping her alive.

Kora
didn’t say how she blamed him for nothing. She had told him that before, years
before, and had no desire to repeat the words. She had to emphasize the impassable
barriers that had always separated them. That was not what he wanted to
discuss, but she needed to remind herself of them, to remember her life was in
Traigland.

 
“I’m no noblewoman, Lanokas. I could never
have been happy in the Palace. I think I always knew that, deep down, and I
think you did too. There were moments we managed to forget, that’s all, and
never both at once.”

That
summary of their relationship was accurate, if painful. It set Kora’s arm to
aching, and Rexson’s back tensed up. “I still don’t know whether that last part
is lucky or regrettable.”

“I
choose to think lucky.”

“That
makes sense,” he said. “For you.”

She
was the one with a stable and steady marriage, one that only improved with the
years. As for Gracia…. Kora was the last person who should ever speak to Rexson
about his queen. Even what she had told him the day before, suggesting he
respect Gracia’s error as the act of a mother trying to protect her family, she
regretted. That had not been her place. It hadn’t. She could only hope her
intention of showing Rexson’s wife to him in a more positive light would not
cast herself in one instead. Rexson would appreciate, heartily, what she’d
attempted to do.

Kora
brought the conversation back around to what had brought her to Herezoth in the
first place.

“I’m
fighting beside my brother,” she told him. “Beside my sons. I won’t sit in this
room while they’re risking their lives. I’ll change my appearance to look
younger and keep my ruby hidden.”

Rexson
looked her in the eye from his chair, as she still stood before him. That
signaled he would be blunt in his response, parts of which, if not all, Kora
wouldn’t like.

“I
suppose that’s your decision. I’d prefer you go home, to your husband and
daughters. You know what I’ll have to do if you’re found out. If Linstrom and
his men take you prisoner and turn you over to me, which they would. They’d
take great joy in forcing me to kill you for them.”

She
would hang for violating her banishment, in a little-used execution chamber in
Podrar’s prison. The king could not, and would not, make an exception for her.
Neither Vane nor her brother could intercede on her behalf. For them to free
her would mean their own lives, were they ever caught and extradited from
Traigland. Herezoth would never be safe for them again.

The
king voiced his request as a simple question, with a tone that gave it no more
significance than if he wondered whether she could pass the water pitcher.
“Would you really make me kill you?”

“I
don’t intend for things to come to that, now do I?”

“You
very well know they could.”

“I’ll
see they don’t. I’m not leaving Zacry and my boys. You left the choice to me,
and that’s what I choose.” Kora quailed before the prospect of what she must
say next, but she forced herself to speak after a steadying breath. “You never
called me here. I still hold you should have, rather than send Vane to
Linstrom, but you didn’t. I came on my own. I stay of my own volition. And if
Linstrom does somehow take me prisoner and turns me over to your guards, I
understand that’s the result of my actions. I wouldn’t hold you responsible for
the consequences, and neither must you.”

The
change in Rexson was as sudden as it was revolting. He rose from his chair so
quickly he might have been manipulated by a spring. Kora had seen such insulted
anger on his face only once, and then it had been feigned: when he’d banished
her. That sneer on his mouth and the suspicion in his narrowed eyes still
haunted her, and this time…. This time they revealed his heart. Before, at
least, she had known them a sham. Now he tore from her the only consolation she
had when she looked back on the worst memory of her life. She no longer could
think him incapable of feeling all that scathing stare implied.

“Damn
it, Kora, you know what it would do to me to hang you. You need to go home.
Home! Oh, you can stay here if you want. I know you’ll do just that. But it
won’t be with some false sense of comfort, thinking you’ve addressed or eased
the pain you’d cause me in forcing your blood upon my hands. Do you think I
could eat a full meal again, once I’d not only ordered but had to witness your
death? Could sleep a night in my life, even after I quell the riots your
presence rains on me? You can name me guiltless all you like, but you’ll take
no peace from it. I could never feel guiltless in that situation, and you damn
well know it. You will not hide from that.”