“Tell me, I charge you, in what way have they or I deserved this. If I have acted against your clan let you give proofs now. I will bow to them. I will stand before a tribunal of impartial judges and allow them to judge me and mine.” His voice soared up. “Speak! I listen.”
Franzo slumped. He had no proof and he knew it. He had never really hoped for any result in all this. He’d taken charge to prevent a lesser man who would have listened to no sense but attacked. He’d hoped that the duke might be made nervous enough to at least stop the deaths the clan were sure could be laid at Kirion’s door. He’d hoped the duke would understand that the clan deaths must stop. If he’d done that, he’d done enough. But here and now Franzo spoke for the clan. He must get his men out of here with the best face he could.
He bowed low. “My Lord Duke of Kars. The clan has no proof of deeds. I can say only that they feel it.” He paused to choose a word. “Unusual, when leader after clan leader dies. Coincidence may carry only so far. And within your court is one with the abilities to make such ‘coincidence.’ These beliefs I was asked to lay before you.
I have done so. I shall return to my clan.” He bowed again and turned on his heel. His men closed in behind him as he walked down the length of the audience hall.
His back tingled. He wouldn’t put it past the duke to signal an archer. Gods grant the man had more sense; it would trigger a massacre. His own men would strike back, and all were trained soldiers in a crowd of shopkeepers.
Shastro did have more sense but only because he was feeling smug. He’d stood up to the man, shown him that a duke of Kars could not be intimidated. Let the fool run back to his clan and bear them that message. He sneered at the retreating back.
Aisling stood and began to worm her way through the crowd, her brother and friend behind her. That had been instructive. She’d had her mind open in passive mode, her hand resting on her hidden pendant to help her shield in case Kirion scanned for such spying. She’d known when and where Kirion had helped the duke. She’d also read Shastro’s emotions. He believed he’d done it all on his own. He was both pleased with himself and swollen with a feeling of power. He was also still jumpy from the discovery that there had been a plan to dispose of him. It wasn’t a good combination.
Once back in his tower Kirion would have agreed with her. He was listening to the duke alternately rant of how he’d shown up that clan scum and demand that Kirion punish them further. Kirion was reluctant. Shastro had made a good point about coincidences, nor was he unaware of why Franzo had agreed to come to Kars. But if more of the clan died it would bring Franzo back or maybe another, less sensible leader, this time with orders to waste no time in talking.
It would not suit Kirion to be in a besieged city. He soothed his enraged master. As he muttered, his mind cast out frantically for an alternative. Something for Shastro to act against that might cause less harm to Kirion’s plans. The keeps? Not enough to occupy the duke, and it would set every keep lord against them both. A common enemy? Estcarp? Perhaps. Not all-out war but a few small strikes along the borders in the Northwest.
Out past Verlaine maybe. That duchess was still alive. He could encourage Shastro to wonder if she and her crooked lord might not try to return, take possession of the keep in Estcarp’s name. Come to that she was also still duchess of Kars in a tenuous legality. Kirion knew she’d as soon take the Kars throne as sit on an ant’s nest, but Shastro loved power. To him it was inconceivable she wouldn’t like to rule Verlaine or Kars if she could take either somehow.
He set out to hint the duke into the proper frame of mind. Shastro wasn’t hard to convince. He’d feared the witches all his life, and over recent years Kirion had deliberately fed that fear. He mentioned Verlaine and the possibilities. Then he spoke of Kars, and the duke’s gaze became horrified. Shastro bit on the thought.
“Yes, very likely. Think of the trouble it could cause. They’d be delighted to entangle us in our own laws.”
“Then why not change the laws? Make it illegal to desert your holdings for so many years. As for Kars, she never reigned in the city. Hold a special sitting to formally and officially declare that she has no rights here in Kars.”
“Yes, yes. I shall do that. I’ll call a court tomorrow. Then, once that’s settled I’ll attack Estcarp. It’s time they were taught a lesson.”
Kirion bit back a groan. Then he settled to explaining why that would not be advisable just now. Shastro was obstinate, so Kirion was forced to wheedle, then to talk in alternate obscurities and sor-cerous hints. Handling the duke was like dealing with a high-strung horse. He must not be reined in too hard nor allowed to run wild. Kirion was beginning to feel he’d like to shoot this nag and buy himself another.
IX
Shastro held his court not the next day but the next week. Kirion had worked hard delaying, suggesting additional points ordiscussion and soothing the fears of his duke and the courtiers. Keelan, Aisling, and Hadrann had assisted unobtrusively. The three of them agreed with Shastro’s plan to sort the inheritance of Ver-laine and Kars once and for all. Aisling said so to the duke when they talked two days after Franzo had departed with his army.
“Then you agree. You think it right that the succession be clarified?”
Aisling nodded. “I do, my Lord Duke. As to Verlaine, the girl held title through her mother, but she fled the responsibilities. Verlaine is a border keep. Karsten cannot risk having it held by one not committed to our country’s welfare.” Shastro was listening eagerly. Murna was so sensible, so intelligent. She was saying everything he believed and in words he could use when he spoke before his court.
“And what of Kars?” he asked eagerly.
“Now that is far different. The duke ruled; she was merely his duchess, and from all the evidence, the marriage was never consummated. That means that she was not legally his wife. Had she born a child to him that child would have ruled and she would have been its regent. However, with the duke dead, her marriage not ratified, and another holding the throne, then she could not have taken power—unless a convocation of the Kars council agreed that there was no other suited and that it was necessary for her to do so to reduce civil disorder.”
Shastro was all admiration, particularly as Murna was saying what he wanted to hear. “You are right. That’s so clear, so well said.” He drew himself up. “And so I intend to say to the council myself.” He drew her arm through his and walked slowly along the balcony. “With all that cleared up I can consider what to do next. I’m certain that Estcarp was behind the Coast Clan’s attempt to attack me.”
Aisling sighed. “That may be so, my Lord Duke, but it seems to me that our people can think up their own follies without assistance.” She allowed herself to frown a little. “And people agreed with the clan. All those coincidences. It was so very strange. Almost as if the witches were working against the clan. Could it be that they wished to divide you. To lose you the support of one of your strongest allies?”
Shastro gaped, then took the idea to his heart, momentarily forgetting that it had been he who had caused the Coast Clan most of its troubles. “Aye, indeed. That would be a witch trick.” He remembered then, but it would do very well to placate the clan who might well believe it. “By Cup and Flame! Yes. I shall send envoys to the clan at once. They must stand with me against the witches and their evil.” He patted her arm. “Thank you, my dear, your insight is always valuable. But I must go; a duke has many calls on his time.”
He was gone, sweeping hastily across the room and out of the door in search of Kirion. Aisling looked after him and hid a grin then a startled look as the latter portion of his words sank in. Yesterday Hadrann had said he wondered about Shastro, if the duke was becoming enmeshed in his own lies. To Aisling’s ear that last speech had held a ring of truth, as if the duke really had believed that the witches could have been responsible for the clan problems.