THREE DROPS OF BLOOD

By

Uncial Press       Aloha, Oregon
2009

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events described herein are products
of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any
resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely
coincidental.

ISBN 13: 978-1-60174-052-6
ISBN 10: 1-60174-052-2

Copyright © 2009 by Michelle L. Levigne

Cover design
Copyright © 2009 by Judith B. Glad
Background
photo: M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy in Dust and Stars; N Scoville (Caltech), T. Rector (U. Alaska,
NOAO) et al., Hubble Heritage team, NASA

All rights reserved. Except for use in review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in
whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or
hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the author or publisher.

Published by Uncial Press,
an imprint of GCT, Inc.

Visit us at http://www.uncialpress.com

Before the ending of all things worthwhile and strong, there will be
three drops of blood born to the bloody sword.
The daughters shall walk in light and be strong, but the son shall
overstep them.
One shall serve and one abominate and one will triumph.
One will sleep and one shall wait and one shall suffer.
They shall do so forever, and yet even to forever there is an
ending.
The blood drawn from the third shall open the doors and smooth the
road and waken the sleeper.
Protect the strong and vigilant, so that the three drops of blood may
come.
Though you look for the abomination, you will not find her until she
has destroyed innocence. Keep her from the blood drawn from the blood, or all is
lost.

Meghianna didn't know she had a sister until her sixth summer, when she went to visit
her father, Efrin Warhawk.

The adventure of racing through her suite of rooms in the Warhawk's fortress, looking
for the surprises her father left for her, ended abruptly when the door from the hallway banged
open. Thinking her father had left his council meeting to greet her, she turned around to race
from her study room to the front room to throw herself into his arms. Instead, she froze, stunned
to see her near-mirror image standing in the doorway, staring at her in return. The wide-eyed
surprise on the other girl's face crumpled into tears, and she went to her knees there on the
threshold.

"Nalla!" Meghianna hurried across the room. She reached out to lift the other girl back
to her feet when a gasp and a muffled curse from her nursemaid startled and stopped her.

"So it's true," the silver-haired Rey'kil healer muttered.

"What's true?" Meghianna asked.

Warned by the frown on the woman's ordinarily cheerful, round face, she took a step
back. The Threads chimed around her, responding to the tightening in her belly. She reached
with her mind to calm them. So far, only Lord Mrillis could hear when she disturbed the
Threads, but she knew that was only because she was so young and weak. He had promised to
keep her secret--and also made her promise in return to tell him whenever she learned to do
something new, no matter how small or odd. Disturbing the Threads too much would alert others
to her magical talents. Now was not the time to let the world know she had already found her
imbrose.
Not with this mirror image of herself crying silently on the threshold of her
suite, trembling and looking at her and Nalla as if she expected to be tossed out like so much
trash.

"Well, you'll find out sooner or later. And pick it from our minds, no doubt, if we try to
keep it from you." Nalla knelt and caught up the little girl under her arms, just like she picked up
Meghianna even now, when she was frightened or upset, with no regard for her dignity as the
daughter of the Warhawk and future Queen of Snows. The stranger with Meghianna's pointed
chin and red-gold hair and silvery-green eyes certainly seemed to need the coddling.

"I wouldn't do that," Meghianna said, following her nurse further into her suite. "Lord
Mrillis said it isn't polite to go into people's heads without their permission. And anyway, I'm not
strong enough, even if I thought I needed to."

"There you go again, talking like a girl twice your age." Nalla didn't smile, like she
usually did when she made that complaint. She settled on the nearest couch and used a corner of
her apron to wipe the stranger child's face. "Here now, little Megassa, there's no need for tears.
We're the last ones in this place to want to hurt you."

"But--but--why does she look like me?" the other child wailed.

Meghianna frowned as a thread of dislike curled through her belly. She had learned long
ago that whining and wailing didn't do her any good, and was ugly and irritating. She wondered
if this girl acted that way deliberately, or only from fear. She reminded herself to ask Mrillis why
she had that idea, the next time she spoke with him.

That thought made her smile. The prospect of seeing the Rey'kil enchanter every day, to
learn more about magic and the women who were Queen of Snows before her, was almost as
wonderful as being able to see her father every day for the entire spring and summer.

"To be totally correct,
you
look like
her
. Meghianna is your elder by
three moons. And you look alike because you're sisters. Half-sisters, anyway," Nalla corrected
quickly. She sighed. "And, because your mothers are cousins.
Were
cousins, because
sweet Queen Belissa is dead."

And your mother most likely killed her, but that's not your fault, so I won't say
it.

Nalla's thought rang loudly through Meghianna's head, startling her. The girl yanked her
mental fingers back from the Threads, feeling a little queasy at the strength of the thought, as
well as the guilt of trespassing. A moment later, curiosity overrode everything.

"So... Megassa?" She waited until the other girl raised her head and looked at her,
silvery-green eyes big and glossy with tears. "We're half-sisters, and we're cousins both,
yes?"

"I guess so." Megassa nodded. "You're the princess, just because you're older than
me?"

"We should both be princesses, shouldn't we?" She turned to Nalla.

"That's a subject best left for later, when you're better able to understand." The woman
sighed and raked her long, elegant fingers through her silver hair. "Let's find your nurse, little
Megassa, shall we?"

"She told me to go away." The younger girl pouted as Nalla put her back down on her
own two feet. She followed readily enough when the woman led the two girls out the door.

Before they took more than three steps down the hallway, a woman in the brown and
gold uniform of the Warhawk's personal guards, with a captain's triple knots on her shoulder,
hurried up the nearest staircase. Amusement lit her wheat-colored face when she saw
Meghianna, walking down the hall next to Nalla with her hands clasped behind her back, deep in
thought. Shaking her head, she sighed and reached to take hold of her hand.

"Come along, troublemaker. You've had your fun, but now--" Then she saw Megassa,
who had ducked behind Nalla. Her mouth dropped open and she looked back and forth between
the two girls. "I think we're headed for years of trouble," she muttered. "You're Nalla, aren't
you?"

"And you must be Captain Gynefra." Nalla reached for Meghianna's hand. "This one is
my charge. This one must be yours. She claims her nurse told her to go away."

"She's telling the truth. The girl is the laziest little tart I've ever had the displeasure
of--well, none of that matters. She wanted to spend time chasing one of the new Valors in training,
rather than her duty. Little Megassa isn't half as much trouble as her
former
nurse wants
people to think." Her smile turned rather grim as she looked at Megassa and nodded for
emphasis. Gynefra held out her hand again. "Come along and we'll find someone much nicer,
shall we?"

Meghianna opened her mouth to ask why her newly discovered sister couldn't stay with
her, but Nalla stopped her, tugging on her hand.

"Thank you, Captain. It's time for Meghianna to make her appearance, and I wouldn't
want to ruffle anyone's feathers so early." Nalla waited only until Megassa let the soldier take her
hand, then headed for the door to the enclosed, spiraling staircase that led from the royal family's
private quarters, still holding Meghianna's hand.

"Considering everyone's feathers are ruffled all the time nowadays, we thank you."
Gynefra chuckled and bent to scoop up Megassa, so the child straddled her hip. "Let's see what
the cooks can spare us for a treat, shall we?"

Meghianna looked back just long enough to see the smile on the other girl's face, then
let Nalla hurry her along. It was time to see her father--and Lord Mrillis. Even anticipation
couldn't drive the questions from her thoughts.

"Where is Megassa's mother?" she asked, when she and Nalla had reached the bottom of
the staircase and she could see no one else in the hallway either behind or ahead of them.
Meghianna had learned long ago the necessity for speaking with caution.

"No one knows for sure."

"Is she my aunt, or my cousin?"

"She's no one and nothing to you, my dear. And you'd be wise not to ask your father
about her, either. It's hard enough for him to admit Megassa exists. Other men would think
themselves justified in having such painful reminders removed from sight. Permanently."

"But Megassa didn't do anything wrong." Meghianna stumbled as the implications of
Nalla's words sank in. The woman meant other people would think it justified if Megassa died.
What evil had her mother done, that someone would want a little girl dead to pay for it?

"Exactly. But there are those who think a child's innocence is no justification for
mercy." Nalla sighed and stopped and went down on one knee in front of the girl, so they were
nearly eye-to-eye. She rested both hands on Meghianna's shoulders. "Sweetling, you're far too
young to hear such cruel things, but considering who you are to be someday, I wouldn't doubt
you're wise enough already to understand. It's said Lady Ceera was wise ahead of her time, as
well."

"Lord Mrillis' dead wife."

"You've had your lessons about the Nameless One." Nalla waited until Meghianna
nodded. "He was your great-grandfather. His evil came down through two of his three children,
Endor and Triska. Nainan, your grandmother, broke free of the magic he used to control her.
Triska's daughter is Trevissa, and she used magic to trick your father, to think she was Belissa.
And so Megassa was born."

"Oh. Papa must be very uncomfortable when he sees Megassa." She frowned and
chewed on her next thought a moment. "Or doesn't he see her ever?"

"I'm not sure. She's been living somewhere else, and only came to the fortress last fall.
Most of what I know about your sister, I have only heard from others. But show your father some
mercy, and don't ask him. Let him tell you what he thinks of your sister when he chooses, all
right?"

Meghianna nodded, and slipped her hand back into Nalla's as they continued down the
long, shadowy hallway of smooth, golden stone.

She had heard enough people say Efrin Warhawk was far too young to carry the burden
of the throne. It prompted her to step back and look at her father as if she had never seen him.
That was easiest to do when she came to the Warhawk's fortress in the spring, after being
separated from her father all fall and winter. When she walked into the council room that
afternoon and saw him sitting at the far end of the long council table, she noted the touch of
silver in his oak-colored hair and short beard, and new lines around his mouth and eyes. She
hoped those lines would go away when he stopped frowning. Efrin was only twenty-eight. She
supposed older people would think that was very young to be the High King, charged with
keeping the entire World safe. From her very young age of six, twenty-eight seemed enormously
ancient.

Then again, she knew Lord Mrillis was over eighty years old, but he didn't seem any age
at all to her. He was her favorite teacher, and Nalla scolded him quite often for spoiling her.
Meghianna couldn't understand how Mrillis teaching her whatever she wanted to learn, taking
long walks with her on the Lake of Ice for private talks, and sending her long letters explaining
everything that happened in the World could be counted as
spoiling
her. To her, spoiling
was letting her have too many sweets, letting her sleep late and stay up late, and bringing her all
sorts of useless gossip about the women of the Stronghold. Everything Mrillis did was to make
her the best Queen of Snows who had ever been born.