Perhaps all great things begin with blood, she thought. Love and birth and death. And new reigns.
A breeze stroked the nape of her neck and she shivered. It felt like the caress of a cold hand.
Olio knew as soon as he saw his sister the next morning. He did not say anything to her but watched her and Sendarus closely during their breakfast together. The habits they had fallen into as a courting couple were still there, but changed with a new knowledge of each other. Olio wondered who else would know. Areava’s ladies-in-waiting, of course, which meant the whole court would hear the news before the end of the day. That made up his mind for him. When the plates had been cleared, Olio leaned over and kissed her lightly on the cheek.
“What was that for?” she asked, clearly pleased.
Olio did not answer but smiled knowingly at the couple. Sendarus blushed.
“Is it that obvious?” Areava asked. Olio nodded. “Then it is just as well it happened with a prince,” she said dryly.
“Indeed,” Olio said. He licked his lips, and asked carefully: “Are you intending to go further?”
Areava and Sendarus said “Yes” at the same time.
“And when will you m-m-make a formal announcement?”
“We had not discussed that,” Sendarus said.
“It is something we cannot decide by ourselves,” Areava said, and sighed. “We are of royal blood. Our engagement and wedding will be state occasions. Our love is ours alone, but our marriage will be a public affair. As well, the coronation is next week. One thing at a time.”
“The Twenty Houses will not like the news,” Olio pointed out.
“Good,” Areava said simply.
“They will accommodate themselves, surely?” Sendarus asked, still surprised the royal family had not the unstinting support of the nobility. His father, with less power and authority among his own people than Areava among hers, would nonetheless never tolerate open dissent; he would force the issue and decide it in his favor, as always.
Areava exchanged glances with Olio. “Since I have no intention of accommodating them, they will have to.”
“Softly, sweet sister,” Olio advised..“They are still recovering from your ascension.”
“As am I,” she said stiffly, her brown eyes hardening. “But they must learn the kingdom’s welfare comes before their own.”
“And again I say, softly. You have p-p-problems in the north, and can do without new p—p—problems here in Kendra as well.”
“Haxus?” Sendarus asked. “I have not heard of this.”
“Nothing has happened yet,” Areava told him. “But reports from our posts in Hume indicate Haxus is moving troops to our common border. King Salokan has tried nothing yet, but may before the coronation.”
“The coronation would be a good time to announce the engagement,” Olio suggested. “Tomar and Charion will b-b-be here. And your father, Sendarus. It would m-m-make it a double celebration.”
Areava nodded. “That makes sense. If it is to be a political event, then we must use it to best political advantage. The Twenty Houses may not like the news, but the provinces will be pleased.”
“It would have been simpler had I been a scion of one of your Twenty Houses,” Sendarus said lightly.
“Then you would not be with me now,” Areava said tartly. Sendarus was taken aback by the change in her voice. She reached out and took his hand. “Forgive me. But I find little in my uncles and cousins that amuses me.”
Duke Holo Amptra found little about his niece, the queen, that amused him. He sat on a stone seat in his garden watching the birds in the trees bicker and fight, swoop and peck. It reminded him of the Twenty Houses and their relationship with the Rosethemes.
If only Usharna had had a brother, none of the Houses’ present troubles would exist. She would never have ascended to the throne, and the Keys of Power would not have been held all together in the hands of a woman. It was not right that so much power be concentrated in a single person.
For a brief moment he had believed everything had been put right with Berayma’s ascension to the throne. But then that hybrid spawn of Usharna, the despised Lynan, like his father before him, had struck at the core of the Twenty Houses. The fact that Lynan had drowned while trying to escape made up little for the crime he had committed. But at least Lynan had been a true son of Kendra, unlike this foreign prince who had so easily—so casually—plucked the new queen as if she was nothing more than ripe fruit. It seemed to Holo that things were going from bad to worse, and he prayed with heart and soul that on his death his son would come into his inheritance in a world put right again.
He saw Galen enter their grand house and a moment later appear in the garden.
“You were not at the palace for long,” Holo said.
“No need to. Everyone is talking about it. The rumors are true. Areava and Sendarus are to marry.”
“When will they announce it?”
“Probably at the coronation. That is what I would do.”
“It must be stopped.”
Galen shook his head. “It cannot be stopped. We can do nothing against Areava. Grenda Lear has suffered enough shocks the last few weeks, and Salokan will need little excuse to try his hand against the kingdom.”
“Then those rumors about Haxus are true as well?”
Galen sat down next to his father. “I think we will soon be at war.”
“You realize what will happen if the marriage does go ahead and there is issue.”
“Yes. The royal line will be separated from the Twenty Houses, perhaps forever. Once Areava marries someone not of us, a precedent has been set.”
“It is disastrous.”
“Perhaps not, father.”
Holo looked up at his son in surprise.
“Perhaps, father, what the royal line needs is new blood. Perhaps including the kingdom’s other royal houses in our own royal line is best for Grenda Lear.”
“We made the kingdom,” Holo argued, his voice almost pleading. “It is the Twenty Houses who have always provided the kingdom’s rulers, who have united almost all of Theare under one crown. We have not failed yet.”
“Our family failed in one thing; our loyalty to the crown.”
Holo turned his face away. “That was a long time ago. My brother was punished for his crime.”
“But not the Twenty Houses. We all let him thrive, Father. He was our responsibility.”
“This is not something I wish to discuss. It has been kept a secret for many years now.”
“But we cannot afford to forget.”
Holo sighed deeply. “You think Areava should marry this Amanite?”
“No. But I do not think I have the right to stop it. None of us do. And more pressure from us would only further determine Areava along her course.”
“Then we are lost.”
Galen shook his head. “Nothing is ever completely lost.”
“The Rosethemes would put a rabbit warren to shame, and Marin’s family is little better.”
“I have no doubt of the couple’s ability to have children. But royalty is vulnerable and always seeking support. We must bide our time and, when our support is called for, step back into our rightful place in the shield wall. We must win back our influence, not force it on Areava. You know how she will react.”
“So again we must wait.”
“Yes, but perhaps not for long. War has a habit of uniting the great families behind their rulers, and of binding rulers to their great families.”
Somewhat reluctantly, Primate Northam had heeded the urgent message from one of his priests in the city. It was a wet, blustery day, and his cloak did little to protect him from the weather as he made his way cautiously down cobblestone alleyways made treacherous with rain. He found it ironic that on those days when weather made poor lives even more miserable, the old quarters of the city where most of the poor lived looked at its best. Under a bright sun the leaning, two-story oak-and-clinker-board houses appeared faded and dark, but rain made the wood and peeling whitewash glisten, temporarily giving them the illusion of newness and even a kind of gaiety.