1416940146(FY) (9 page)

"Your Majesty, we crave a word," le Comte said with a bow, as my father and I staggered into the hall. "The royal soothsayer has important news which you should hear at once." His eyes flicked to me, then away. "It concerns the fate of all."

Tired though he was, my fathers mind was quick, much quicker than mine was. He knew, even then, I think, what was to come. "I trust you will not mind if we bathe first?" he inquired, his voice deceptively mild. "For Aurore and I have done a hard day's work while you have been communing with the stars."

At this, even le Renard had the grace to blush, and the nobles at his back dropped their eyes and shuffled their booted feet from side to side. None of them had so much as lifted a finger outside the palace, though the most virtuous and farseeing among them had gone to the aid of their estates in the countryside. But even that virtue proved to be a danger now. For it meant that the nobles left at court were the ones who cared the least for others and the most for themselves.

"We meant no disrespect," le Renard murmured. "Of course, you must refresh yourselves. Then, perhaps, we might beg a word in private?" His voice rose into the interrogative, a strange combination of demand and request combined. "We are all agreed this would be best," he said, at which the nobles stopped shuffling their feet and stood up straight, looking stern and grim.

"What must be said touches upon the princess Aurore."

52

Beside me, I felt my father stiffen even as my own heart began to race. Now I see, I thought. For a terrible fear had been growing upon me, day by day, as to the cause of the dire events that had befallen us. A cause I had not yet dared to speak aloud.

"There is no need for secrecy," Papa replied. Though his voice retained its mildness all could now hear its core of solid iron. This was the voice of a king. Even in the midst of my fear, I felt a sudden surge of hope.

You have taken a false step, Monsieur le Fox, I thought.

For in his dealings with others, my father hated subterfuge above all else. Even a fool could become dangerous when armed with a secret. I had heard him say this many times. Suggesting I be excluded from matters that concerned me was the worst thing le Renard could have done.

"Let the princess Aurore hear what you have to say. Pronounce what concerns her to her face. Do not whisper it behind her back like a gossipmonger," my father went on. He ran his eyes over the nobles standing at le Renards back, and I noticed how many of them dropped their eyes.

"Furthermore, since you are all agreed, there is no need for many to deliver your message when a few will suffice. Choose those you trust the most and wait upon me in an hour."

"But, Majesty," sputtered le Renard. "Surely the princess Aurore ..."

"Enough!" exclaimed Papa. As if they had one body, the entire group of nobles stepped back, including le Renard. "You know my will. Come prepared to speak before the princess, or do not come at all. The choice is yours. Now get out of my way."

With that, he swept by them with me scurrying along like a terrier at his side. Neither of us looked back, though I could feel my father vibrate with tension until we turned a corner and were out of sight. He did not slacken his pace until he reached my room. There, at last, he stopped. He pulled in one deep breath, scrubbed his hands across his face as if to clear his mind, then took me gently by one arm.

"Le Renard is clever, but he thinks so highly of his own cleverness he turns his strength to weakness," said my father.

"Do not fear him, Aurore. But come to me as soon as you have 53

bathed. I would have us all together before these loyal and concerned noblemen arrive."

Somewhere in the passages between the great hall and my bedroom I had begun to shake. I could not stop, no matter how I tried. But I knew that now was not the time to burden my father with my own fears, so all I said was:

"It shall be as you wish, Papa."

At this, he sighed and took my face between his hands.

"Someday," he whispered. "Someday it shall be as we both might wish, Aurore. Though not, I fear, for many years yet. Until then, I pray you, remember the words your godmother spoke on the day you were christened: Keep what you hold in your heart safe and strong."

Then he turned and left me, hurrying on to the rooms he shared with Maman. No sooner had he departed than Nurse swooped down upon me, fussing and scolding over the state of my hair and clothes. Not that she wasn't prepared, of course. The water for my bath was already steaming, the great copper tub set before the fire. I was clean in next to no time.

But, no matter what I did, how many times hot water was added, how many minutes I stood before the fire to dry, I could not get warm. For my father's words and my own fears were like two cold fists clenched around my heart.

The catastrophes had returned, and this time they came from within, not from without. Bad as what we had already endured had been, I knew the worst was yet to come.

"We greatly regret that circumstances compel us to intrude upon you at this most difficult time, Majesties," purred le Comte de Renard.

He bowed low, then straightened, his glance somehow managing to linger on Maman and slide over me entirely. This, though she and I were sitting in my father's private audience chamber, side by side on the same straight-backed sofa. A piece of furniture I was usually careful to avoid because it was so incredibly uncomfortable. That night, however, anything I might do to demonstrate the strength and straightness of my spine had definitely seemed to be in order.

54

Le Renard had been clever to address Maman, I had to admit.

She was well known to appreciate flowery words in matters of protocol. I doubted she would be swayed by them tonight, but the Fox was apparently taking no chances. He has used his hour to regroup, I thought.

"But when, in great agitation, the royal soothsayer came to me with what he had learned, I thought it best to bring the matter before you without delay," he went on, switching his attention to Papa who stood just beside us. "In this ..."

"You are all agreed," my father broke in.'l know."

At this, le Renard bowed again, though I could see an angry red blush begin to creep along his cheekbones. Don't antagonize him, Papa, I thought. A cornered animal is almost as dangerous as a wounded one. Did you not teach me this yourself?

At that moment, I caught a strange, intent expression on Oswalds face out of the corner of my eye. He was standing to one side of the room, before the fireplace, a location that put him almost precisely halfway between the groups comprised of our immediate family, and that of le Comte de Renard and his allies.

A position I couldn't help but notice was ambiguous at best.

Though we had never spoken of it again, I was certain neither of us had forgotten what had passed between us the night of my birthday party. I had not forgotten the words of Marguerite de Renard. Was he already in league with the Fox? Did that explain his absence from the fields today?

"Duty and honor," he had said on the night of my party.

Could he speak so and then betray us?

No, I thought. Please, not Oswald.

But when I followed the line of Oswalds eyes I discovered a curious thing. It was not le Renard he studied so intently. It was the men who stood behind him.

Select those you trust the most, my father had commanded. Apparently, they were five in number. Between them, they represented some of the most powerful families in all the land. At the very back stood the royal soothsayer, looking as if he'd rather be somewhere else. And suddenly, as if Oswald's attention had shown me the way, I saw what it was that Papa had done. He had forced le Renard to make a choice.

55

If the Fox brought men below him in birth, he would be proclaiming himself the clear ring-leader of whatever this was. If he brought his peers, he would be revealing his closest allies. He had chosen the second course, and had thereby given my father the advantage. For the fact that le Renard was the spokesman had already revealed his prominent place. Now my father knew the identities of his key supporters as well.

"Naturally, we must appreciate the swiftness of your actions and the depth of your concern for our daughter as well as our kingdom, Monsieur le Comte," I heard my mother say to Renard, and, at this, I pulled my attention back to the Fox himself.

"Perhaps you will begin by explaining why the royal soothsayer felt unable to come to me with what he learned."

For this is what he should have done, the thing that made le Renard's actions smack of conspiracy as much as anything else.

In my father's absence, it was my mother who stood for him, not le Renard. A thing the royal soothsayer, indeed, the whole kingdom, knew perfectly well.

"It was considered a matter of some delicacy, Madame," le Renard replied, and he did glance at me now. As if trying to calculate my strength, my weakness. "It was felt, perhaps, a mothers love ..."

"Would make me blind to the needs of my country, while you and these others, having only love for country and none for my daughter, must be considered neutral?" queried Maman. 'An interesting contention, Monsieur le Comte," she went on, not allowing le Renard to respond. "And one I will not soon forget. On this, you have my promise."

I saw Oswald's eyebrows raise in appreciation even as I bit back a smile. The Fox was learning that it was not so easy to sway my mother with pretty words.

"Let the soothsayer come forward," my father said. "I will hear what he has determined from his own mouth and no one else's."

There was a moment of shuffling feet, and then the group behind le Renard parted. He stepped back and the soothsayer stepped forward. He was dressed in a long black robe which concealed everything but his hands and face, making him look like some enormous and bizarre puppet. His hands were long and very white. His eyes were huge and watery. As if the years he had spent interpreting signs that no one else could even see had stretched him, pulled him out of focus.

56

"Well," said my father. "What is so important you must tell others before waiting for my return when you know full well where I am?"

The soothsayer's huge eyes darted from side to side, as if seeking for a means of escape. Not finding one, they came to rest upon me as he answered:

"You must send the princess Aurore away. As far away as possible."

For an instant, no one spoke.

"Your reasons?" said my father. Not because he wanted to, of this I am certain. But because he felt he had no choice. It was a king's job to get to the bottom of things. To ask questions others would not.

"But surely the reasons must be obvious, Sire," said the soothsayer, relaxing a bit now. Perhaps he felt relieved that my father had not simply ordered his head lopped off at once for daring to suggest that the king send away his only child. Not that there had been a beheading in more years than anyone could remember. Still, a custom that has not been strictly outlawed may always be revived.

"You have only to think of the great calamities which have lately befallen our kingdom," the soothsayer went on. "The signs have shown me that they have the same root, the same cause.

Furthermore, they suggest..."

"Are you by any chance trying to say," my cousin Oswald interrupted in a very soft voice, "that the dreadful hardships that have lately come upon us are because of the princess Aurore?"

Now a second silence filled the room, even longer than the first. Of course that is what he is trying to say, I thought.

Someone had been bound to say it, sooner or later. It had been only a matter of time. Had I not told myself the same thing in the dead of night, when the sleep I so desperately needed had refused to come?

"Augury is not an exact science," the soothsayer blustered, wringing his long, white hands.

"True," Oswald responded. "In fact, I think we may safely say that it is not a science at all. But surely you must have some basis for what you have come to believe."

57

"Of course I do," the soothsayer snapped. "My reasons come from the very events themselves. Wet contends with dry. Fire with ice. Predators give birth to prey and are devoured by it.

Lightning strikes out of a cloudless sky."

"Opposites," I said, speaking aloud for the very first time.

Slowly, I rose to my feet and faced the soothsayer. "You mean opposites contend, just like the spells spoken over me in my cradle. You mean that they are the root of our present calamities, and I am their cause."

"No!" Oswald said swiftly. Vehemently."You must not say such things, Aurore."

But the soothsayer never took his eyes from my face. “I am afraid the princess is correct, my lord. For remember this, also. It was when she turned sixteen that the calamities began."

"The year the spells will be fulfilled," I said.

And the soothsayer answered: "Even so."

"Why should I send Aurore away, then?" my father asked.

"Will she not simply carry calamity with her wherever she goes?