They travelled all day on horseback in silence. As they passed the caves where Phaedra died he saw the four bold red lines marking the four out of six deaths. He wondered who died last with her. He hoped it was Cora. They would have been a comfort to each other in the end. He wondered if she had thought of him. If she’d realised that Lucian had grown to love her and that he had planned a bonding ceremony amongst the Monts unlike the one in Alonso where she had wept the whole time. He wondered if she imagined that Lotte and the fool Orly would build a shrine for her in his paddock and that Yata had the entrance of her house adorned with the shroud of grieving, refusing to accept visitors. And that Alda had her sons leave a posy of mountain wildflowers on the Charyn side of the stream and that Lucian had slept in her cot with her shawl clutched in his hands, the scent of her consuming his small cottage.
In Alonso they identified themselves at the gates and were escorted to the Provincaro’s house where Lucian met Sol of Alonso. The Provincaro would have read the sorrow on their faces. Lucian knew the moment the man understood what they were doing there, but he spoke the words out loud regardless.
Phaedra was dead.
And for the second time in days he saw the grief of a father for his daughter and he heard the fury spat at him as every man in the room tried to hold Sol of Alonso down.
‘You were supposed to protect her! On your mountain! Your father pledged! Your father pledged he’d take care of my Phaedra! He pledged!’
Lucian realised the truth with bitterness. She had lied to the Provincaro. Had led him to believe she was still living happily in the mountains with her Mont husband since their bonding ceremony in Alonso. Did she not say that in her letters home each month? She had lied to all of them. Her father would never have refused to take his daughter back into his home. It had been Lucian’s ignorance that had allowed him to believe that only a Lumateran father would not forsake his daughter.
And as they left the province walls, he heard the wails, the crying from the people grieving their beloved lastborn.
Phaedra of Alonso is dead.
When they arrived back at the valley, Lucian was numb. He didn’t stop, but kept on riding past Kasabian, who was on his hands and knees in the vegetable patch he had lovingly restored with his sister Cora after the Mont lads had destroyed it. Before Lucian or Yael could stop him, Jory dismounted and walked to the man and knelt in the earth beside him. Lucian watched his young kinsman reach out and embrace Kasabian, and for the first time since his father’s death, Lucian wept.
Chapter 43
In the palace meeting room on the day of his father and Beatriss’s bonding day, Finnikin and Isaboe stared at the object placed before them.
‘Just tell me he’s alive, Sir Topher,’ Isaboe said. ‘That’s all I want to hear.’
Sir Topher stared at the ruby ring. ‘This is all there is to prove he was alive in early autumn. The man who brought it to us claims it was given to him as a trade during the events in the Citavita. He thought we might want it back. For a price.’
‘And?’ Isaboe asked.
‘Perri and Trevanion are interrogating him as we speak.’
‘Mercy,’ Finnikin muttered. ‘That’s all we need. My father turning up to his bonding ceremony splattered in blood.’
He stared out the window to where their people were setting up the trestle tables. There would be many absent faces today, especially from the Monts. Lucian’s grief was fierce. The loss of his Charyn wife was felt across the mountain and even Yata had declined to attend Trevanion and Beatriss’s bonding day out of respect for the days of mourning. Finnikin was torn between his joy for Trevanion and his sadness for his friend. He had noticed during his last visit to the mountains that Lucian’s feelings for the Charynite girl had changed. It was in the way the Mont’s eyes had blazed with pride when Phaedra spoke with such ease to those around her and flashed with jealousy when she spoke about the handsome Provincaro of Paladozza.
The death of Lucian’s wife had come at the same time as the arrival of a Charynite through the Osterian border claiming to have a ruby ring belonging to the Queen. The moment Finnikin and Isaboe had heard those words they had suspected the worst.
‘Have you heard news from the envoys, Sir Topher?’ Finnikin asked. ‘About events in Charyn?’
‘Only Celie. She’s returned for the wedding. The Osterians are saying that the King’s First Advisor has taken control of the kingdom with the Nebian army. The Belegonians are saying that a man named Gargarin of Abroi is holding the Queen hostage with Paladozza’s blessing. The Sorellians are saying that a Lumateran nobleman has kidnapped the Queen. The Sarnaks are saying that she is in the hands of rebel Priests in the Turlan Mountains.’
‘Is anyone saying the same thing?’ Isaboe asked.
‘Yes,’ Sir Topher said. ‘Everyone is saying that the Princess of Charyn is with child. Bestiano, the former King’s First Advisor, has made contact with the Belegonians asking for their acknowledgement of his right to lead the heir. He claims the Queen of Charyn is carrying his babe and that she has been kidnapped by Gargarin of Abroi. He says that the last thing Belegonia and Lumatere want is for Gargarin of Abroi to take control of the palace.’
‘As opposed to Bestiano, who was the savage King’s First Advisor for ten years?’ Isaboe asked bitterly.
‘Yes, but appointed after the events of Lumatere, not before,’ Sir Topher said. ‘And that is where our interest lies. According to Bestiano and the Belegonians, Gargarin of Abroi was in the palace eighteen years ago. He was the King’s brightest advisor.’
Finnikin sat before Sir Topher.
‘What is he implying?’
‘That Gargarin of Abroi was the mastermind behind the attack on Lumatere. That it was years in the planning.’
‘Eighteen years ago?’
‘Belegonia believes it to be true. Because what did Charyn need eighteen years ago more than anything else in the land?’
Finnikin and Isaboe exchanged looks.
‘Women who could give birth,’ Sir Topher said. ‘Gargarin of Abroi, according to Bestiano, believed the curse lay with the women and not the men. What better way to prove that than to invade Lumatere and take its women?’
‘Too ridiculous,’ Isaboe said. ‘And heinous.’
Finnikin shook his head. ‘Not so ridiculous. There was widespread rape here, Isaboe,’ he reminded her quietly. ‘Despite the fact it led to no births amongst us.’
‘Thank the Goddess for the smallest of favours,’ she said.
‘And you believe this Gargarin is staying in Paladozza?’ Finnikin asked Sir Topher.
‘According to the Belegonians, yes.’
Isaboe stood and took Finnikin’s hand. ‘What say you, my love? That it’s about time we go in and get our lad back?’
He thought for a moment and nodded. ‘And we set a trap for Gargarin of Abroi.’
They walked out into the main hall where their people awaited them beyond the courtyard doors.
‘We’ll speak of this later,’ Isaboe said. ‘I will not have Beatriss and Trevanion’s day ruined.’
Jasmina burst through the doors dressed for the celebrations and they both knelt down and held out their arms to her.
‘We do what needs to be done,’ Isaboe said quietly before Jasmina reached them. ‘We kill Gargarin of Abroi.’
Epilogue
Somewhere in Charyn, Froi woke to see Gargarin sitting beside his bed. Amidst all the horror, he felt a sense of joy to see him here. After everything Froi had said to Gargarin and Lirah, his father had come to be with him.
‘I’m sorry,’ Froi croaked, reaching out to take his hand. ‘I’m sorry for everything. I’m sorry for losing her.’