Elliott, Kate - Crown of Stars 3 (108 page)

"Thank you," said Alain, and with his burden and his disquieting attendants, he walked on down the line of wagons and vanished into camp.

"Well," said Hanna. "What do you make of that?"

"He's a strange one, in truth," said Ingo, staring after Alain with a pensive expression. "Not disrespectful or arrogant, considering what he was. Nor is he humble and groveling either. You'd think he'd always been a Lion, really. Yet when I saw him sit among the lords, I never doubted he belonged there. And those hounds. Fierce as lions 'round anyone else but him, and with him they might as well be lambs."

"I thought the hounds belonged to the Lavas counts! Didn't they stay with Lord Geoffrey?"

"Nay, they're here in camp. I don't know if they followed him or if Lord Geoffrey turned them out. Still, it's very odd."

She left him there, thinking it odd herself, but she was late, and Wolfhere was waiting out beyond the sentries where a campfire burned. He was just feeding it another log when he saw her and indicated that she should sit down opposite him.

"I had hoped Hathui could come as well, but she must stay beside the king."

"He trusts and respects her."

"As he should," retorted Wolfhere, but then he smiled his wolf's grin, sharp, deadly, and oddly reassuring. "I've a trick to teach you. We call it Eagle's Sight. It's a way of seeing long distances through fire."

Hanna laughed at such an absurd claim.

"Yet you believe me, don't you?" he observed. "With proper training, many Eagles can learn to see through fire any person we have observed closely enough that we can form their likeness in our minds. In time, you may learn to hear voices within the flames as well, but that won't happen at first. And I must warn you that some people simply are blind. If that proves so for you, Hanna, then think no worse of yourself."

"Only envy those who aren't blind!"

"Here, now. Look into the fire. See nothing, not even the flames. No,
truly
see nothing. Expect nothing. See what lies beyond the flames, not my hands or the trees or the camp, but that stillness which lies at the heart of all things. That stillness links all of us, and through it as through a window we can see."

She sat as still as she could, just staring.

"Good," he whispered. Clearly he felt something she did not. She felt only the heat of the flames and yet a taste of some other pulse, another thread that drew her toward the wasp sting in her heart. Shadows quivered in the flames, and for an instant she thought she saw the profile of the Kerayit princess. "Tell me who you see," he murmured.

"Liath," she whispered. "I want to see Liath."

And she saw something truly, not flames, not shadows, but a wall, like a veil of fire. "Is that the Chamber of Light? Ai, God. Is she dead?"

"Or only hidden from us," he replied so calmly that her fears dissolved. "You're fast to catch on to this, Hanna. I begin to think your dreams are true dreams, and that some portion of your soul has already opened to these teachings."

"But I don't
see
anything!" Frustrated, she wiped a hand over her eyes, which stung from the smoke. "Ai, Lady! Isn't this sorcery? Am I imperiling my immortal soul by doing this?"

He sat back, relaxing. "Nay, child. This skill you use for the sake of the king. With Eagle's Sight you can gather intelligence hidden by distance or through intrigue. When you travel, you can find the king's progress more easily if you know where he's traveling."

She chuckled. "Rather than track him always two days behind! No wonder you arrive so quickly, and with so few detours."

"Have you seen enough? The sun is rising, and we've our duties to attend to."

"And no doubt look a little crazy staring into the fire like this. But—may I try one more time? What about Prince Sanglant? Surely if he's with Liath, then I would at least know where Liath is."

He simply lifted a hand, as if he hadn't the energy to dissuade her. Yet as the fire burned and snapped, she saw nothing, and she began to think that he was only humoring her, that she'd never seen anything at all in the flames.

"Well, then, one last time," she said, because Mistress Birta's daughter wasn't one to give up so easily. "I tell you truly, Wolfhere, I've always wondered what became of Biscop Antonia and Brother Heribert, if they really did survive that avalanche. Lady knows I got to know their faces well enough. Poor Heribert. He seemed harmless enough. I always wondered why he was so loyal to her."

At first she thought it was smoke, a wet branch caught in the middle of the fire. But the shadow spread and grew form, and Wolfhere made a little noise, almost inaudible, what a mouse might utter when the cat sprang upon it.

"We dare not delay any longer," says a woman whose silhouette is regal land whose voice is cool and measured. It is a familiar voice,,vut through the agency of flame Hanna cannot quite make out the secret of its timbre. "We left Novomo before we were certain the pass was open because we got word that Ironhead was marching north to take Adelheid into custody. He styles himself king of Aosta now."

Was that hiss the flames, or Wolfhere?

A supplicant kneels before the great lady. "He meant to follow me at once, Your Highness. If he did not, then he was held against his will."

More shapes cluster beyond the flames yet somehow still in them; they are like the shadows of buildings seen beyond a palisade, and one among them speaks. "We found nothing, Your Highness. The goat track runs out on the hillside, and the cliffs are too steep to climb. Either he is lying to save his own skin
—"

"Or there is more magic loose than we have ever suspected," says the regal woman. "After everything we have seen, I think we must believe the latter. Nay, I am convinced this man was with my brother. Can you not tell me more, Brother Heribert?"

Is this a true vision, or a false one? Hanna dared not speak for fear that her voice would scatter the shadows. Was it truly Brother Heribert? Where had he been hiding all this time?

"/
can say no more except that he was alive and healthy when I left him. fear to say any more, Your Highness. Some words are better left unspoken."

"It's a thin reed to build a bridge on," says the man in the distant shadows.

"Once more, where is my brother?" she asks.

"If he did not follow, then he could not follow, " insists Heribert. "There are powers you do not comprehend
—"
He seems afraid to say more.

"What, then, do you suggest, Brother?" She sounds slightly exasperated, and Hanna begins to believe that the curve of her shoulders isn't natural, it's a cape, some item of clothing common to travelers; the regal woman is simply ready to leave and is only waiting to receive, or to give, the final word.

"What he said himself. Go to the king, as you mean to do in any case."

"King Henry himself sealed the document that ordered you to be censured and taken before the skopos. Dare you to go before him now, knowing what might await you?"

"I trust you to protect me, Your Highness. Prince Sanglant said you would."

"Ml" She sounds pained and amused together. "So I am bound by his word, damn him." That shadow within the shadow, the slash of her mouth, is a smile. "You would risk this for him?"

"Who would not?" he asks, sounding honestly surprised, and her laughter in answer is sharp. "There is one other thing, Your Highness. I pray you, may I speak to you privately?"

She gestures, but not all the shadows recede. "Trust you this man, Princess?" asks her counselor.

"I trust my brother, Captain Fulk," she answers, "and so do you." As flames shift and leap Hanna now sees only two shadows wavering in the fire.

When Heribert speaks again, at first she can scarcely hear him. "He has a child."

"A child! By the Eagle?"

"What mean you, the Eagle?"

"The woman called Liathano."

"Yes, by Liath. He believes that Liath, and thus his daughter, is descended from
—

Dirt flew in her face. Wolfhere had leaped to his feet and kicked ashes and earth over the fire, and it guttered as she coughed and spat. But he was already leaving, striding away with his shoulders set so tensely that she almost feared to run after him.

But she had too many questions. She had seen too much to fear him now. And she was still spitting dirt and hot ashes from her lips.

"Wolfhere!" She ran, and although he did not quicken his pace, she was panting hard by the time she caught him. "Why did you do that? Wasn't that Princess Theophanu? Why is Brother Heribert with her, and why is he speaking of Prince Sanglant as though they were old companions? Did he truly mean that Liath and Sanglant had a child together? Is what I saw true, or only a vision sent from the Enemy?"

"Your time with Liath marked you," said Wolfhere harshly. And then, with an agony that did not show in his expression: "Have I misjudged her so completely? Has she changed so much?"

"But^x He turned on her with an expression more fitting for a man who has just jseen Death riding down the road in his direction. "Go to Hathm and serve her and the Eagles well. But don't ask

me any more questions, for I cannot and will not answer them. You have a good heart, and I like you. Stay away from that which you can't comprehend."

He would say no more, although she followed him like a lost puppy, still asking questions. He did not even acknowledge her, only went to the stables and commandeered a horse although he hadn't the king's permission to leave. He would not answer her, he just left, riding out of Autun without looking back.

After the noon meal Henry called Hanna before him in the private garden of the biscop's palace. "Hathui says that you witnessed the departure of Wolfhere."

"I did, Your Majesty."

"He left without permission from me, or orders from any of my stewards or chamberlains."

She looked first at Hathui, but the other woman only lifted her chin, a signal Hanna could not interpret. After all, she was the King's Eagle. It was to him she owed her loyalty, wasn't it? "So he did, Your Majesty. But I know not where he was bound."

"Hathui?"

"I do not know either, Your Majesty," Hathui replied with obvious reluctance.

He slapped his leg hard enough that the sound made Hanna jump. "I knew he would betray himself some day." He seemed exultant. "The faithful Eagle abandons his post. So be it. I place him under the regnant's ban. If he is seen again by any woman or man loyal to me, let him be taken into custody and brought before me in chains, for desertion." He turned that pitiless lightning gaze on Hanna. "Know you what brought about his flight? Fear not, Daughter. I can see you are innocent of his treachery."

She could not lie. She saw in an instant that he comprehended the whole of her guilt.

She bowed her head in a vain attempt to gather her thoughts. Bricks paved the walkway she kneeled on, set in a lozenge pattern that repeated itself on and on and on around the square path that enclosed a central gazebo. When she looked up again, the king had leaned forward from the cushioned bench on which he sat, balancing himself with an elbow on one knee.

"Go on," he said, although she had not yet said anything.

"You know of that skill called the Eagle's Sight?" she asked.

No flicker of surprise or distaste marred his expression. He remained masked with dignity. "My father told me certain things known only to the heir. Indeed, it was Wolfhere who brought the trick of the Eagle's Sight to your company. Did you know that?" She did not, and he must have recognized it from her expression because he went on. "For that and many other things my father honored Wolfhere and made him his boon companion. But I know otherwise. What did you see?"

"This, Your Majesty. First, a woman I believe was Princess Theophanu, interviewing a man who called himself Brother Heribert. That same Heribert, I believe, who was sent to Darre with Biscop Antonia and who vanished with her in the avalanche that I myself witnessed. I was curious what might have become of them—" But she broke off, struggling back to the warp of the tale. The king remained silent, listening. "The princess said that Lord John Ironhead was marching in pursuit of Adelheid, and that he had been crowned king of Aosta." Henry grunted, like a man kicked in the stomach, but said nothing. "Brother Heribert told the princess that he had shortly before been with Prince Sanglant—" Now she had his attention fully, and she didn't like it. "But that the prince was somehow prevented from following him. Heribert said that the prince would want him to travel on to you, Your Majesty. He had a child—"