Sitting by the fire in a low, stuffed seat was a woman in her late sixties, her straight grey hair bound in a tight braid, her lined face staring towards the flames. As they entered, she looked up at Ullsaard, her flint-hard eyes betraying nothing of her thoughts.
"Welcome, son," she said, standing. Pretaa looked at the women and smiled. "And my daughters."
"Are you well?" asked Ullsaard.
"As well as could be hoped," she replied, receiving kisses on the forehead from Allenya and Luia.
"You look wonderful," said Meliu, hugging her tightly. She pulled back and stroked Pretaa's hair. "You look the picture of health."
"Thank you, child, you are such a dear," said Pretaa, waving them to the couches around the table. Jugs and bowls steamed and there were plates of nuts and preserved fruits. "I thought you might prefer an informal meal. We can have something proper this evening when we have time to prepare."
Ullsaard understood the gentle rebuke and whispered an apology as he embraced his mother.
"I hear that Urikh is here," said Ullsaard.
"Really?" said Luia, looking around the room as if her son were hiding somewhere.
"He will be back this evening," said Pretaa. "I am sure he would have been here to greet you if he had known you were coming."
Ullsaard gave his mother a look of warning not to push too far and she smiled thinly.
"It is good to see you all, even if the circumstances are not to our liking."
"What have you heard?" asked Ullsaard as he sat down and spooned venison stew into a bowl.
"Only what Urikh has told me," said Pretaa. "You have had a falling out with the king, and now you have been chased into Enair."
"It was not quite like that," said Ullsaard.
"I would say it is exactly like that," said Luia. "Which part is wrong?"
Ullsaard ate his stew and said nothing while Pretaa performed her mother-in-law and grandmother duties, asking after the health of the family and goings-on in Askh. He sensed disapproval from his mother, but knew better than to ask. She would make her opinion known when she wanted, and not a moment sooner.
When they had finished eating and the servants had cleared away, Pretaa invited the women to retire to their rooms for some rest. Ullsaard watched them leave with a sense of foreboding. When he was alone with Pretaa, a mug of beer in his hand, he gave her a long look.
"Just say what you want to say," he said heavily.
"Whatever do you mean?" said Pretaa, moving to sit next to the fire, her back half-turned from Ullsaard. "You are always welcome here. After all, you built this house for me. It would be ungrateful to turn you away."
"You have always been welcome in Askh, you've just chosen not to come," said Ullsaard.
"It seems that neither of us is welcome in Askh these days," she said with a sigh. "I knew that something like this would happen one day."
Ullsaard sat in the other fireside chair and leaned towards his mother.
"What do you mean? You barely know what has happened."
Pretaa would not look at him. She gently shook her head and folded her hands in her lap.
"It was a mistake telling you to go to Askh," she said quietly. "No good can come of being around the Blood and their kind. The Blood calls to itself and brings out the worst."
"I don't understand what you are talking about. What have the Blood got to do with any of this? If you mean Prince Aalun, he has been nothing but a friend and an ally. Though he is in part responsible for what has happened, he could have easily broken his ties with me and left me to the mercy of his father."
"That is exactly what I mean," said Pretaa. "Why did you get involved at all? The Blood has a power of its own. It makes men hungry for power, makes them selfish."
"That may be true of Aalun, but my ambitions have nothing to do with the Blood. I have come so far, achieved so much, I can't let all that effort simply fade into nothing, can I?"
"No, you could not, though you should have done. I cannot see what good will come of this. You should have been content. You have three fine wives, three fine sons. You have everything a man could want from his life, but for you it is not enough! I should have known that this would happen."
Ullsaard studied his mother. There was a haunted, distant look in her eye that he had never seen before.
"What is it?" he demanded. "How could you know anything like this would happen? Tell me what you're keeping secret."
"It does not matter." Pretaa's words did not match her behaviour.
Ullsaard had seen the same before, from officers who wanted to confess a break of regulations, or when one of his sons had misbehaved whilst he had been away and wanted to tell Ullsaard before he found out by other means. Something was on Pretaa's mind that she could not bring herself to tell him but knew she should.
"If it has anything to do with what is happening now, it is better that I know."
Pretaa glanced at him and when she spoke she continued to look into the fire.
"Do you know why I have never been to Askh? I am scared that I will be recognised."
"I don't understand. Recognised by who?"
"I am Askhan, born and bred. Not from a noble family, but one that was well enough off that I spent time in the palace."
"I always knew you were not Enairian; that much is obvious. What does it matter that you are Askhan?"
"I was something of a slut, I suppose. I was always bedding some soldier or servant or other. I was pretty then, as well. No shortage of men wanted to bed me. It was just some fun, at the time. So I thought."
She sighed again and picked at the heavy wool of her dress, eyes downcast.
"One of those soldiers was a young captain called Cosuas."
"You slept with Cosuas? What are you telling me?"
"Not what you think, though it is what he believes. No, Cosuas is not your father."
"But he thinks I am?" Ullsaard could not quite comprehend the importance of this. "Why has Cosuas never said anything about this?"
"Because I asked him not to. I did not want him to lie to you, though I lied to him. When Cosuas was a captain in the palace I used to visit him often. On one occasion I caught the eye of another man, a powerful man, and he took me to his bed. With any other man, that might have been the end of the story. Not for me. The man I slept with was Prince Lutaar, now the king."
Ullsaard was aghast. A dozen questions crammed into his mind but he could not voice any of them before his mother continued.
"There is a dark secret kept in Askh, one that few know about. Any woman bedded by one of the Blood, not their wives, is taken away to the Brotherhood. It is to ensure that there are no bastards trying to claim the throne. What the Brotherhood do with them, I have no idea. We'd hear whispers of some young woman or other going missing now and then, but we would just assume they had been sent somewhere else. Maybe they are, I don't know."
"So what happened? What did the Brotherhood do with you?"
"They never laid their hands on me. Cosuas was ordered to keep me under watch until the Brothers came for me. I didn't tell him what had happened, but I confess I used all of my wiles to twist his heart to my side. He helped me to escape before they came for me, and then faked my death just outside Askh. I fled and headed here to Enair to live out my life in secret." Her face told the sad story of what followed more than any words. "Cosuas was meant to follow, but he did not."
"So you are a fugitive?" Ullsaard almost laughed. "That's why you cannot go back to Askh? This all happened a long time ago, I am sure that nobody remembers you."
"It matters not whether they remember me. When I arrived here, I learnt that I was pregnant with you."
"Another chance encounter on the road?"
"I have not slept with another man since leaving Askh."