Snow (20 page)

"Thank you," he said when she was done but she'd already turned away, walking across the room to hold the door open for him. As he stepped through it he saw Judith in the hallway, watched her look at the maid who wasn't one and saw the maid nod once, slowly. He saw Judith nod back, a satisfied smile on her face, before she vanished into the throng of nobility that had been chosen to escort him to the cathedral.

When they arrived at the cathedral David waited outside, a noblewoman he didn't know standing on his right side, a nobleman he didn't know standing on his left, both of them so happy to be where they were that he could feel it. He glanced at each of them, at the smiles on their faces.

When the great doors were opened and the trumpets sounded he walked inside, down the length of the church to where Michael was waiting.

Michael's voice was strong as he declared that David was his now and would be forever more.

"This I vow before God and you," he said and turned toward him. Behind Michael's head a great window showed sun and sky. David looked out the window and thought of a day when sun and sky had swirled together in his mind, created a color he'd known he'd never see again. He looked out the window and wished for what he knew would never be. He repeated Michael's words back to him and watched a smile bloom across his face. He thought about someone else's smile. Every time he took a breath he could feel himself being held securely, bound so that nothing inside him could leak out. His eyes didn't sting at all, stayed clear and focused on Michael's face.

Two songs were sung after a priest had blessed them and promised them joy forever, a chorus of voices singing praise, and then Michael took his hand and the two of them walked outside. The sun was still shining and the sky was still a lovely endless blue. People pressed flowers into David's hands as he and Michael walked up a flight of stairs toward a decorated archway where everyone who'd gathered could see them. He looked at the flowers, at how they bloomed beautifully, every color he'd ever seen alive and cradled in his hands. He'd always wanted to live in a world like this, full of color and light and happy people who weren't afraid to look at him.

And now he did. He held the flowers tightly, closed his eyes when Michael placed a crown on his head and then kissed him, listened to the crowd roar their approval, their joy. He had never felt so empty. So alone.

A banquet was held in the evening, the castle filled with nobles from every corner of the kingdom. So many people had come for the ceremony that the banquet was held outside in a pavilion Michael had specially built for the occasion. He and David sat at the far end of the pavilion, up on a raised dais so everyone could see them. Those closest to Michael, those he trusted most, were seated right below them. David was not surprised when Judith sat down next to him, her smile warm when she greeted Michael and fading when she turned to him.

During a lull, when they were waiting for servants to come with the next course and Michael was talking to the person sitting on his other side, a pleased smile on his face, Judith passed him the wine and said, low-voiced, angry, "He's given you everything and yet you just sit there, silent and far away. He deserves more from you."

David took the wine and poured it into his cup slowly. Then he turned to Michael and spoke his name gently, smiled and asked if he wanted any. Michael nodded and wrapped a hand around his wrist as he poured, kissed the skin there gently. David pulled his hand away and waited, watched Michael's face and saw his eyes flare hot and eager. Then he put his hand against Michael's face briefly, willingly, and smiled.

When he turned back toward Judith she was looking at him. Her eyes were very bright and hard.

"I'm sorry," he said and he almost meant it. She loved Michael with an intensity, a ferocity, that he understood. "This is all I have to give."

Later, when the two of them were alone, Michael brought in some of the gifts that had been sent.

He passed all the jewels to David and motioned for him to put them on, smiling when he did so.

He looped a finger through a bracelet shining on David's wrist and tugged him close, kissed him.

"You outshine all of it."

The next gift was wrapped in lovely gilded paper. David touched it as Michael ripped it open. It was heavy and smooth against his fingers, somehow almost warm to the touch.

"It's from your brother and sister," Michael said and turned toward him, the gift in his hands. It was a basket, gleaming golden and studded with gems, and inside was a pile of round red fruit.

"Strange ones, aren't they?" Michael said, pushing the basket away. One of the pieces of fruit fell to the floor, split open. Inside it was white, the deep endless color of snow. David had seen fruit like that once before.

"Ah," Michael said, voice satisfied, and David looked at him. Michael was holding a bottle. It was made of crystal so fine it even outshone the splendor of the walls around them. "Now this is lovely," he said. "And the label says the bottle and the wine it holds were made in honor of you.

Shall we drink?"

David stared at his sweet sunny smile, at the bottle shining in his hands, and then nodded once, slowly. The diamonds in his hair were digging into his scalp, painful pressure that made his head ache. When Michael handed him a glass he took it. The wine sparkled, tiny bubbles dancing in it, and smelled lovely, sweet and tempting.

"A toast," Michael said and he was holding his glass up high. David stared at his still smiling mouth and lifted his glass up too.

"To forever," Michael said, a promise, and then lowered his glass. His mouth parted and the wine shimmered in his glass, sparkling as it rose toward his lips.

"Wait," David said, and Michael paused, a question in his eyes and past that, hope. All he wanted was for David to reply, to say that forever was what he wanted too. All Michael wanted was what David didn't want at all.

He took a sip of wine. It sparked heavy and rich on his tongue and when he swallowed he could feel it inside him, cool at first and then spreading warmth, a sweet glow. He leaned forward and took Michael's glass out of his hands, dropped it and then his own onto the floor. The sound they made as they shattered sounded very far away.

"I’m sorry," he said, and this time he meant it. And then the warmth inside him sharpened, twisted, burned as he'd known it would. He could feel himself falling before he actually did, felt something inside him give way, melt.

Michael's voice saying his name was the last thing he heard.

***

She was by Michael's side moments after David collapsed, pulled him away from David, from the puddle of wine on the floor, from the golden basket of fruit. There was no reason to do it, just her desire to not see Michael like that, mouth open and face blank, body curved as if it was broken, his voice saying David's name over and over again, cracking higher and becoming more of a question each time. He shoved at her, hard, when she did but she held on tight, fear giving her strength. She was glad of it when the guard who went to pick up the basket collapsed, staring perplexedly at a piece of fruit that had fallen and he'd caught in his hand, when the maid who came to clean wavered on her hands and knees before tumbling over, a wet rag in her hands and shards of glass haloed around her.

"Poison," she gasped, stunned, and Michael turned to her, his eyes huge and devastated and then, suddenly, furious.

"Poison," he echoed, and within moments he was summoning messengers to send orders to his commanders, instructions for them to be ready to march by morning and speaking of war. He would not discuss what had happened, acted as if she hadn't spoken whenever she tried to ask about it. The royal physicians appeared as he was calling for maps, bowing low and clustering around David's body on the floor. When they looked at her, their eyes filled with fear, she knew what they were going to say. She nodded at them and said "Your Majesty?" quietly, waited for Michael to look at them. They were sorry, the physicians all said as one when he did, their heads bowed. They were so sorry. Michael nodded and stared fixedly at David who was still lying where he'd fallen, eyes closed and a small smile on his face. He looked, Judith thought, happier than she'd ever seen him.

She looked over at Michael, saw the turned down line of his mouth. "You could tell them what happened," she said. "And perhaps they could--"

He shook his head, continued to issue orders for the gathering troops. The physicians looked at her seeking direction, waiting to be dismissed.

"Thank you," she said. "As you leave, direct the guards outside to come in. Tell them the body should be taken--"

"No," Michael said, his voice sharp. "Leave but tell the guards to--tell them to put him in bed."

Silence fell.

"In bed?" one of the physicians ventured. "Your Majesty, there hasn't been time to make a suitable burial--"

"No," Michael said. "My bed."

"Your Majesty," she said, waving away the doctors and praying they wouldn't gossip while already calculating how much they'd have to be paid to keep silent. "You can't--"

He looked at her and what she saw in his eyes took her voice.

"We leave at first light," he said. "I want you with us. Go and prepare."

The war, if it could be called that, was over in no time at all. Michael marched them forward relentlessly, passing into the snow-covered land that had once been David's home and laying waste to it. They first crossed an eerie forest where no snow was to be found, a place that bloomed green and beautiful and made Judith's skin crawl, the wind that blew through the trees sounding like bitter whispers, like fading screams. Michael ordered it burned as soon as they passed through, stopped and stared back at the ripe red fruit littered on the ground as it charred and popped in the flames, no expression on his face.

They reached the castle where David's brother and sister lived easily, the snow that covered the ground melting away as they marched, and Michael killed them both himself. He wouldn't let her be present when he did and his face, when it was done, frightened her. He didn't look like a man whose fury had been appeased. He ordered their severed heads displayed on poles and their bodies placed on raised platforms that were covered with carrion in hours and she thought perhaps then he would look more at peace.

He didn't. He ordered everything that could be burned torched and had the rest of the castle pulled down, the very stones broken up into pieces and the land salted, and even then his expression stayed grim, haunted.

Judith had expected the people to be terrified by Michael's actions, to hide from him and his army, but they weren't. They seemed eager, hopeful, and by the time the castle ceased to exist and the snow had completely melted away, joyful. She had never seen people so happy to view mud, watched grown men and women dance blissfully through it.

"Look at that," she told Michael as they were seated on horseback watching the last of the castle stones be smashed, pointing at the people covered in mud and grinning as if they hadn't smiled in years. "You've set them free."

Michael nodded, looked, but didn't smile. "We have to go home now," he said. "David is waiting for me."

"But--" she said. "Your Majesty. He's--he's not--he isn't--"

"He's waiting," he said again. "I've made everything safe for him and now I can go home."

"Michael," she said carefully, hoping the use of his name would call him back.

"He's not dead," he said fiercely. "His--" he spit on the ground, "brother and sister told me he'd cursed the land and so they'd cursed him in return--something about his mother…you should have seen them. They were--" He shook his head. "I wish I could kill them again."

"You've avenged him," she said. "He's at peace now."

"I'm not," he said and spurred his horse forward. "Tell the commanders we'll be leaving in the morning. Pick two of them to leave behind to set up a governing council."

"You should pick who stays, talk to them and tell them--"

"No," he said. "I need you, Judith. Take care of this so I can go home."

She could never refuse him anything.

When she did return home she found that he hadn't attended any meetings, had delayed the court of petitioners, had not even made a progress through the streets. He had retired to his rooms and stayed there, visited by a stream of wizards and witch women and sages and sibyls. David's body had not been buried. It had not left his rooms. People were talking and worse, talking openly.

She sent him a note, carefully worded, and received a reply granting her an audience two days later.

She did not see him alone. David was with him. She had expected that. Michael was in his bedroom, sitting in a chair, and David was lying on the bed. She stared at him, shocked. His body had not begun to rot. She had not expected that. David looked as he always had, perhaps even more beautiful, a kind of contentment in his closed-eyed expression, and she stared at him for a long moment, startled by how alive he looked.

"You see?" Michael said. "I can tell from your eyes that you do. But yet everyone that comes, they all say--" he broke off. "He isn't gone! They know nothing!"

She looked at him. He wasn't looking at her, was staring at David. The look on his face made her heart clench.

"Your Majesty," she said, crossing to him and kneeling on the floor in front of him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I know this is hard. But you must think of your kingdom, all you've built.

Your people need you."

He still didn't look at her. "Please," she said softly. "He's--"

"He knew," Michael said. His voice was quiet, low. "When you asked before, I didn't tell you anything but he knew. He knew what the wine would do. I saw his face. When I showed him the-

-the gift--" he spat the word, "his family had sent he didn't say a word but he--his eyes. He knew.

I offered him a glass of that wine--that damned wine!--and he took it. I made a toast. I was ready to drink and he said--he said, ‘Wait.’ I thought--I thought he was going to say something. Tell me something. And instead he drank."