Secret Heart (36 page)

“
I feel
the same way,” Jenia said. “Even so, we have to keep Walderon alive
for now. King Henryk expects us to deliver him to royal
justice.”

“
I’d like
to show him justice,” Garit muttered. But he had subsided under
Lord Giles’s chiding gaze and, as far as Jenia could tell, he was
containing his more violent impulses.

During
their meeting Lord Giles had promised to use his Power to bind
Walderon, so he’d be unable to wield his own corrupt Power while he
remained within the walls of Thury.

“
Even so,
my lady,” Roarke had said to Sanal, “I’d advise you to stay in the
solar, out of Walderon’s sight.”

“
Yes,”
Sanal promptly agreed. “I have no wish to see him.”

Thus,
only Jenia, Roarke, Garit, and Lord Giles stood on the dais as
Walderon entered the hall escorted by the squires, Elwin and
Anders, and surrounded by Garit’s men-at-arms. Walderon’s face was
hard as stone and his eyes were icy daggers when he looked at
Jenia. Protected as she was by Lord Giles’ Power and her staunch
companions, she displayed no sign of fear to the uncle she
despised.

“
What
charade is this?” he demanded of Jenia the moment the guards bid
him halt before the dais. “Who are you, woman?”

“
I have
already told you who I am,” Jenia said. “One of your nieces died
below, in the dungeon of this castle, murdered on your order. Your
other niece leapt into the sea to escape the rape and murder you
had planned for her. I am the niece who came out of the sea, and I
am very much alive.”

She saw Walderon swallow hard and for a
moment she thought she had convinced him that she was Chantal. But
he looked from her to Roarke, who stood close beside her, and then
on to Garit, and a nasty smile played across his lips.

“
You are
not Chantal,” he said. “Garit would never stand so far from her
when other men are near. You are Matilda Jenia, and you have no
right to claim Thury for yourself. Impostor!” he shouted, looking
around at the servants. “If you think you can befuddle these
ignorant louts and use them to foster your claim to be Chantal,
then you are greatly mistaken. You will end badly, Matilda Jenia,
just as I always predicted you would, stupid, rebellious wench that
you are.”

For an
instant she felt the nauseating touch of his evil in her mind. She
slammed the door of her thoughts closed against him, knowing it was
too late, though it no longer mattered. He couldn’t hurt her, for
Lord Giles made his move, whispering words to bind Walderon’s
corrupt Power by a clean, healthy spell.

By now
Roarke had his hand on his sword hilt and Garit’s sword was half
out of its scabbard in his eagerness to attack Walderon. The
prisoner’s tirade ended when, at a sign from Lord Giles, the
men-at-arms who were guarding Walderon took him by the arms as if
to drag him away.

“
Let me
go!” Walderon demanded. “And you, Giles, you despicable mage,
unbind me at once!”

“
Not
while you remain inside Thury,” Lord Giles said, unmoved by the
other man’s wrath.

Jenia
stepped to the edge of the dais and spoke to her uncle. “We intend
to take you to Calean City and present you to King Henryk, not as a
candidate for lord of Thury as you had planned, but as a criminal
accused of murder and of subverting the king’s wishes.

“
Now,
then,” she continued, “you can make your ultimate fate a little
easier if you answer our questions honestly. Begin by telling us
why you were so insistent upon marrying Chantal off to Lord
Malin.”

“
I will
tell you nothing, you cursed female!” Walderon shouted at her. “You
have no right to question me, or anything I’ve done.”

“
Perhaps
you would rather answer to me,” Garit said in an ominous tone. “I
warn you, Walderon, my temper is short where you are concerned. I’d
love an excuse to kill you. Any excuse will do.”

“
You
besotted fool!” Walderon exclaimed with a sneer. “No woman is worth
the time and trouble you’ve expended on your fruitless search for
Chantal. You never guessed where she was, did you? You never came
close. And you, Roarke! A fine king’s man you are, looking in all
the wrong places for the subject of your royal mission. A pair of
idiots, both of you.”

“
Say
instead, a pair of honorable knights,” Lord Giles responded mildly.
“Why do you call them fools, when you are the prisoner here? I
suggest you talk to us, Walderon, rather than wait for King
Henryk’s executioners, who know how to cause the most exquisite,
excruciating pain, and how to draw that pain out to the very last,
tormented instant of life. Any man with half his wits intact would
prefer a simple beheading. And any corrupt mage would avoid if he
could the neutralizing power of the Lord Mage Serlion, who will see
you before you are handed over to the executioners. You’ll have no
defenses left at all against what they do to you.”

Walderon had gone chalk white during this
speech. Still, he glared his defiance for a long moment before his
shoulders sagged as he appeared to relent.

“
You seem
to know most of it already,” he said. “What more can I tell
you?”

“
Start
with Lord Malin,” Jenia suggested. “Why were you so insistent that
Chantal must marry him?”

“
Malin
held – still does hold – a piece of land I wanted,” Walderon said.
“He and I made an agreement: Chantal and Thury for the
land.”

“
That
doesn’t make sense,” Garit interrupted. “Thury is an important
castle. What piece of land could equal it in value?”

“
Oh, I
intended to relinquish Thury only temporarily,” Walderon said with
a wry smile. “Malin is an orphan with no brothers or sisters, no
family at all, in fact. As part of his marriage contract, I planned
to have him declare me the guardian of any children he and Chantal
might have and Malin’s sole heir in case he died without heirs of
his body.”

“
That’s
the same arrangement you made with my father and Chantal’s, when
they married your sisters,” Jenia noted. “It was why King Henryk
named you our guardian.”

“
It was,”
Walderon said. “I trusted those two foolhardy warriors to be killed
in battle before many years passed, and so they were. I believed
what had worked for me once, would work a second time, possibly
with a little assistance from me.” He paused to look at Jenia as if
wanting to judge her reaction to his explanation.

“
Go on,”
Lord Giles ordered. “Tell us your entire scheme for Chantal’s
marriage.”

“
Malin is
a man with what is best described as an indiscriminate personal
life. Men, women, boys, animals, whatever he can get his hands on,
they are all the same to his unceasing lust. Such a life inevitably
produces enemies. I knew it would be easy to arrange for both Malin
and Chantal to die soon after their marriage and to have one of
Malin’s enemies blamed for their deaths. As Chantal’s closest male
blood kin, I would then inherit Thury, along with Malin’s lands.
King Henryk knows what a loyal noble I have always been, so I
expected no trouble from him.”

“
Chantal
would never have agreed to marry that disgusting creature!” Jenia
cried. “She made such an issue of her distaste for Malin that
everyone here at Thury and everyone at court knew of her
feelings.”

“
That’s
true. I began to realize how stubborn she was on the subject of
marriage as soon as I told her about the arrangements I had made
for her,” Walderon said. “So, I offered her a second possibility,
which was that she could sign over her lands to me and retreat to a
beguinage. I would provide a suitable dowry to speed her acceptance
there.”

“
She
wouldn’t do that, either,” Garit spoke up. “Chantal possessed no
Power. The last place she wanted to live was an isolated house of
female mages. She wanted to marry me.”

“
Many
women who possess no Power have been consigned to beguinages,”
Walderon responded. “All that’s required is a determined male
relative to make up the lady’s mind for her. Or, in this case, a
beloved cousin whose very life depended on Chantal’s good behavior,
on her compliance with my wishes.”

“
I would
never have agreed to such a scheme,” Jenia declared. “And I’d have
made certain King Henryk knew about your plan.”

“
Yes, you
always were a problem; you are much too independent for a woman.
Which is why I decided upon the abduction, and why I arranged for
the two of you to hear from your jailors that King Henryk was
responsible for your incarceration. I imagined a few weeks in a
dungeon, sunk in the belief that the king would not help you even
if you could get word to him, would break you until you were
willing to do whatever I wanted. Instead, my people reported that
you and Chantal spent most of your days keeping up each other’s
spirits. I decided to allow a little more time to pass, during
which I pretended to aid in the search for the two of you. Since
you were safely ensconced here at Thury, I could see little harm in
the delay and I thought I might, perhaps, still find a use for one
or both of you. I would never destroy a potentially useful weapon
unless it was absolutely necessary.”

“
You
loathsome villain,” Garit said in a soft and extremely dangerous
voice. “What kind of uncle are you? Have you no compassion? They
were not
weapons,
they were innocent girls, noblewomen, and you kept them in
that tiny cell. Drawing and quartering is too good for
you.”

“
Let him
finish his story,” Lord Giles said. “We need to hear all of it, no
matter how unpleasant it is. Continue, Walderon.”

“
Of
course.” Walderon made a slight, mocking bow. “After nearly half a
year, when Garit and Roarke still refused to give up their search,
I realized how dangerous keeping my prisoners alive had become. By
then Malin had married some other silly heiress, so our original
alliance was broken and my chance to obtain the land that began the
scheme was ended.

“
I knew I
could not let either niece live. My only remaining choice was to
have both of them killed and then petition King Henryk to allow me
to inherit Chantal’s estates on the grounds that Thury requires a
competent ruler, which I have been during my guardianship. I also
planned to petition for Matilda Jenia’s estate, though Gildeley is
inconsequential compared to Thury. My plan would have succeeded,
too,” Walderon told Jenia, “if only you’d had the decency to die
when you were supposed to.”

“
You
foul, despicable knave,” Garit exclaimed. “All of Chantal’s
suffering, and Jenia’s, all of the worry and fear I’ve experienced
over the last half year for Chantal’s sake, Roarke’s efforts in her
behalf, – all of that was for a
miserable piece of
land?”

“
Not so
miserable,” Walderon said with a superior smile that belied his
status as a prisoner. “It is fertile, profitable land in northern
Sapaudia, bordering the estate of an elderly lord who has but one
young daughter for his heir. In a year or two the girl will need a
husband.”

“
You
already have a wife,” Lord Giles reminded him. “Ah, but let me
guess; you intended to remedy that minor problem, didn’t you?
Perhaps a sudden, unexplained illness during the coming winter
would conveniently carry off Lady Sanal? Poor, unfortunate
Walderon. So much grief for you to deal with, so many deaths of
your near relatives, each of those deaths with a reasonable
explanation. And with every death, another plot of land, or another
castle accrues to your holdings. And your influence grows at court
as you bear your sorrows with such bravery for all to see.
Especially King Henryk, who will almost certainly reward your quiet
fortitude with still more influence and land.”

“
How
clever of you to work it all out,” Walderon said,
sneering.

“
You
aren’t the first man to try such a plot,” Lord Giles told him. “How
many deaths were involved? I’ve lost count. By heaven, I’d like to
kill you, myself!”

“
You’ll
have to stand in line,” Roarke said, breaking his long silence
during which he had paid close attention to every word that was
spoken. Jenia was certain he would report all of it directly to
King Henryk.

“
Garit
has first whack at Walderon, for Lady Chantal’s sake,” Roarke went
on, speaking to Lord Giles. “Then it’s my turn, for what he did to
Jenia. Then you may have your chance, my lord, though I doubt if
there will be much of him left by then.”

“
Probably
not. I’ll promise you one thing, though,” Lord Giles said, turning
back to Walderon. “Never again will you hurt your wife. Whatever
King Henryk decides your fate will be, I’ll not allow you near
Sanal.”

“
If she
fled to you,” Walderon said with a bored sigh, “then I suppose I
shall have to challenge you for my honor’s sake. After I slay you,
I’ll have every right to kill Sanal for betraying me with another
man.”

“
You
won’t have the opportunity to challenge anyone. I’ve heard enough,”
Roarke said to the men-at-arms around Walderon. “Take him
away.”

“
Where to
my lords?” asked one of the men, who had explored the lowest tunnel
with Roarke on the previous day. “That gloomy cell where the ladies
were locked in seems a good place to me.”