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Dayley shook her head. “For her to go would put too much at risk.” She looked past her brother at her father. “Sayce should be sent south to Alcida, or west if the Loquelves would accept her and keep her safe.”

“Keep her safe?” Alexia frowned. “What are you talking about?”

Dayley’s features sharpened. “My sister is pregnant with the Norrington’s child.”

Alexia’s stomach just twisted down in on itself. “Was this all a charade? Did you send her south to seduce Will?”

The elder king shook his head. “We did not.” He glanced at Dayley. “I sent her.”

Crown Prince Bowmar had enough grace to look surprised, though Alexia would have preferred his being aghast. Dayley blushed crimson. Alexia looked from them to their father and back again. “I don’t know what to say, what to think.”

“You may think what you will, Princess, but I did what was necessary. If the prophecy is true, the Norrington bloodline is very important and I wished to secure it. Not for my nation, but for the future.” King Bowmar’s lips pressed together in a narrow line. “You have seen how inept my peers are at assessing the threat that is Chytrine. Sebcia is gone and no one has raised a voice, much less an army, to take it back. My nation is invaded and, aside from your company and renegades from Oriosa, there are no foreign troops here to oppose the Aurolani horde. I am not sanguine about the future of my nation in the short term, but I will do what I must to see the prophecy is fulfilled in years to come.”

Dayley looked down at the wooden floor. “I was given the job of traveling south to find the Norrington and seduce him. My sister, who has forever been jealous of me, decided to head south and bring the Norrington to Muroso. She seduced him and consummated the seduction here, just to rub my face in it. That accomplished, she wishes to continue being a hero and go with you.”

Alyx looked at the crown prince. “You knew nothing of this?”

He shook his head. “I have been preoccupied with the war and have not gone rummaging about in my father’s head. Of that I am glad. I did not know, and would not have approved.”

“Yours is not to approve, son. With the crown goes the responsibility. Were you in my position, you would think differently.”

Alexia could not believe it. She remembered Will’s turmoil when he came to talk to her. He was worried about breaking Sayce’s heart. He was worried she would feel used, and yet he was the one being used all along.

She looked up. “What is wrong with you people?”

“I have a nation to think of.”

Alexia batted that assertion aside. “You hide behind that noble idea as if no one can see the lies you’ve wrapped yourself up in. You’re plotting revenge. If Muroso falls because no one else comes to your aid, you’ll have the Norrington they need to save themselves. And don’t try to deny it, because using subterfuge to get someone with Will’s child—especially one of your own daughters—proves there was no altruistic motive behind what you did.”

The elder Bowmar shook his head. “Secrecy was required so that Chytrine would not try to have the child killed.”

That lie is so flimsy a whisper would shred it.” Alexia’s violet eyes became slits. “You don’t seem to understand: it’s not any Norrington, but the Norrington. If it was the bloodline that was so important, Will would have been spending himself night after night to create a legion of Norringtons. I’d be carrying his child myself.”

Something clicked in the back of her mind. She glared at Dayley. “Sayce doesn’t know she’s pregnant, does she? You had someone use magick to determine that.”

“She knows.”

“You don’t lie well enough for me to believe you. If she knew, she’d not want to travel with me.”

The true king watched her closely. “You know, however, so will you take her into combat with you?”

“And risk losing the child? Yes, but only to get Sayce away from you.” Alexia raked her clawed fingers back through her hair. “King Scrainwood and now you. Is it the masks that encourage duplicity, or something else? I don’t understand this and I don’t want to. You complain about others playing political games and not helping you, but you do the same thing; and you play them with a young man who came north to save your nation. He’s the young man who quite possibly can save your nation.”

Before anyone else could reply, one of the signal-mages came over and placed a number of unit designators at the edge of the map, in Sarengul. One indicated the presence of Aurolani troops in the urZrethi stronghold. That did not exactly surprise Alexia, since she had supposed that the strike on Bokagul could only have been undertaken if Sarengul had been neutralized by conquest or alliance.

The mage placed another marker down, a small one with nothing to indicate nationality.

“Pardon my interruption, my liege, but this information was relayed from Alcida. A small group of people from Fortress Draconis have reached Sarengul and report the Aurolani have invaded it. Details are spare, but parts of Sarengul fell two weeks ago. The refugees are working south, but do not know what they will find or if they will make it through.”

King Bowmar nodded. “Have a message relayed to them that they are to head here to Caledo if they make it through.”

“Yes, Highness.”

The elder Bowmar looked at Alexia. “The situation is yet more dire with the confirmation that Sarengul is gone. Chytrine need fear nothing on her march south, so her entire might is focused here. I do not regret any steps I have taken to protect my nation.”

Alexia let her voice grow cold. “But you were a party to the discounting of Tarrant’s story after the last war, weren’t you? What did you do with the time you bought your nation?”

The elder king hesitated and the crown prince stared at him, stunned. “You knew, Father, that Chytrine would be coming?”

“It was conjecture.”

The crown prince shook his head. “You can’t lie to me; I have your memories of that time. You knew it was wrong, you knew she would come, and yet you did nothing!”

The king’s shoulders sagged. “I hope, my son, that you will be wiser than I was.”

The crown prince nodded. “I had better be, or the future—secured by a Norrington heir or not—will be short and bloody.”

Alexia snorted. “It’s likely to be short and bloody anyway.”

Crown Prince Bowmar gave her a solemn look. “Then let it be their blood and their time. I will make sure you are kept informed of my activities. I am sure my sister will be safe with you.”

“I shall do the same, and I shall keep her safe.” Alexia glared at the king. “Not for the sake of your future, but for Will’s. What you have done is bad. Let us just hope it does not become something worse.”

King Bowmar looked up. “I fail to see bad or worse.”

Alexia shook her head. “You were thinking to create another Norrington to have in case this one isn’t the Norrington. But what if your grandson, by dint of his blood, now is the Norrington of prophecy? You’ve stripped Will of his import, of any power he might have had. As the Norrington, he might have been able to accomplish great things out there. Now, who knows? No matter what, Will Norrington will be doing everything he can for you. If your action has worked against him, you and your nation will pay dearly for your betrayal of Will.”

54

For Kerrigan Reese, the whole idea of a purification ritual being practiced by wizards seemed more theological than thaumaturgical. He could understand folks wanting to cleanse themselves before they went to worship a god, but Kerrigan felt no connections to any particular deity. None had claimed wizards, and wizards had not been inclined to adopt any deity. It did occur to him that Yrulph Kirun might have been trying to ascend to the level of a god at one point in time; but even had he succeeded, Kerrigan doubted he would have had much of a following.