Stormqueen! (31 page)

“I would prefer not to,” Renata said. “I have always thought that solitary meditation over some tedious or boring task is punishment enough for most misbehavior. Still, I wish you would tell her, sometime, what you have told me, my lord. She seems to feel that her rank should excuse her from punishment or discipline.”

“You would like me to tell her that my tutors had leave to beat me when I was a lad?” Lord Aldaran chuckled. “Very well, I shall do so, by way of reminding her that even I have had to learn to rule myself. But did you come only for leave to punish my daughter, Lady? I had thought that when I put her in your charge, you would take that for granted.”

“And so I do,” Renata said. “But I had something far more serious to discuss with you. You brought me here because you feared the strength of your daughter’s
laran
, did you not? I have monitored her carefully, body and brain; she is still several moons short of puberty, I judge. Before that comes upon her, I would like to ask leave to monitor you, my lord, and Donal as well.”

Lord Aldaran raised his eyesbrows curiously. “May I ask why,
damisela
?”

“Margali has already told me all she can remember of Aliciane’s pregnancy and confinement,” Renata said, “so that I know some of what Dorilys inherited from her mother. But Donal, too, bears the heritage of Rockraven, and I would like to know what recessives Dorilys may be carrying. It is simpler to check Donal than to go into germ plasm. The same with you, my lord, since Dorilys bears not only your heritage but that of all your line. I would also like access to your genealogies, so that I can see if there are any traces in
your
line of certain kinds of
laran
.”

Lord Aldaran nodded. “I can see that you should be armed with such knowledge,” he said. “You may tell the keeper of the Aldaran archives that I give you freedom of all our records. Do you think, then, that she will survive threshold sickness in adolescence?”

“I will tell you that when I know more of what lies within her genes and heritage,” Renata said. “I will do what I can for her, I swear it, and so will Allart. But I must know what I am facing.”

“Well, I have no particular objection to being monitored.” Lord Aldaran said, “although it is a technique with which I am not familiar.”

“Deep monitoring of this sort was developed for the matrix circles working on the higher levels,” Renata said. “When we had done using it for that, we found it had other uses.”

“What must I do, then?”

“Nothing,” Renata said. “Simply make your mind and body as quiet and relaxed as you can, and try to think of nothing at all. Trust me; I shall not intrude into your thoughts, but only into your body and its deeper secrets.”

Aldaran shrugged. “Whenever you like,” he said.

Renata reached out, beginning the slow monitoring process; first monitoring his breathing, his circulation, then going deeper and deeper into the cells of body and brain. After a long time she gently withdrew, and thanked him, but she looked troubled and abstracted.

“What is the verdict,
damisela
?”

“I would rather wait until I have seen the archives, and worked with Donal,” she said, and bowed to him, leaving the room.

A few days later, Renata sent word asking if Lord Aldaran could receive her again.

When she came into his presence this time, she wasted no words.

“My lord, is Dorilys your only living child?”

“Yes, I told you that.”

“I know she is the only child you acknowledge. But is that only a manner of speaking, or the literal truth? Have you any unacknowledged bastards, by-blows, any child at all born of your blood?”

Aldaran shook his head, troubled.

“No,” he said. “Not one. I had several children by my first marriage, but they died in their adolescence, of threshold sickness; and Deonara’s babes all died before they were weaned. In my youth I fathered a few sons here and there, though none survived adolescence. As far as I know, Dorilys alone, on the face of this world, bears my blood.”

“I do not want to anger you, Lord Aldaran,” Renata said, “but you should get you another heir at once.”

He looked at her, and she saw the dismay and panic in his eyes.

“Are you warning me that she, too, will not survive adolescence?”

“No,” said Renata. “There is every reason to hope she will survive it; she may even become something of a telepath. But your heritage should not rest on her alone. She might, as Aliciane did, survive the bearing of a single child. Her
laran
, as near as I can tell, is sex-linked; one of the few gifts that are. It is recessive in boys; Donal has the ability to read air currents and air pressure, to feel the winds and sense the movement of storms, and even to control the lightning a little, though not to draw it or to generate it. But this gift is dominant in females. Dorilys might survive the birth of a son. She could not survive the birth of a daughter gifted unborn with such
laran
. Donal, too, should be warned to father only sons, unless he wishes to see their mothers struck down by this
laran
in their unborn daughters.”

Aldaran took this in slowly. At last he said, his face gray with torment, “Are you saying that Dorilys killed Aliciane?”

“I thought you knew that. This is one reason the Rockraven gift was abandoned by the breeding program. Some daughters, without the full strength of
laran
themselves, nevertheless had it to pass on to
their
daughters. I think Aliciane must have been one of these. And Dorilys had the full
laran
… During her birth - tell me - was there a storm?”

Aldaran felt his breath catch in his throat, recalling how Aliciane had cried out, in terror, “She hates me! She doesn’t want to be born!”

Dorilys killed her mother! She killed my beloved, my Aliciane
… Desperately, struggling for fairness, he said, “She was a newborn child! How can you blame her?”

“Blame? Who speaks of blame? A child’s emotions are uncontrolled; they have had no training in controlling them. And birth is terrifying for a child. Did you not know that, my lord?”

“Of course! I was present when all of Deonara’s babes were born,” he said, “but I could calm them to some extent.”

“But Dorilys was stronger than most babes,” Renata said, “and in her fear and pain, she struck - and Aliciane died. She does not know this; I hope she will never know. But, knowing this, you can see why it is not safe to rely on her, alone, to pass your blood to future generations. Indeed, it would be safer for her never to marry, though I shall teach her, when she comes to womanhood, how to conceive sons only.”

“Would Aliciane had had such teaching,” said Lord Aldaran, with great bitterness. “I did not know this technique was known in the Domains.”

“It is not very commonly taught,” Renata said, “although those who breed
riyachiyas
know it, to breed nothing but females. It has not been taught lest the lords of great estates, hungry for sons, should upset the balance nature has given us, so that there would be too few women born. Yet, in such a case as this, I think, where such a frightful
laran
can strike the unborn, I think it justified. I will teach Dorilys, and Donal, too, if he wishes.”

The old man bowed his head. “What am I to do? She is my only child!”

“Lord Aldaran,” Renata said quietly, “I would like your permission, if I think it needful, to burn out her
laran
in adolescence to destroy her psi centers within the brain. It might save her life - or her reason.”

He stared at her in horror. “Would you destroy her mind?”

“No. But she would be free of
laran”
Renata said.

“Monstrous! I refuse absolutely!”

“My lord,” Renata said, and her face was drawn, “I swear to you. If Dorilys were the child of my own womb, I would ask you the same. Do you know she has killed three times?”

“Three?
Three
? Aliciane; Darren, my brother’s son - but that was justified, he attempted to ravish her!”

Renata nodded. She said, “She was handfasted once before, and the child died, did he not?”

“I thought that was an accident.”

“Why, so it was,” said Renata. “Dorilys was not six years old. She knew only that he had broken her doll. She had blocked it from her mind. When I forced her to remember it, she cried so pitifully, I think it would have melted the heart of Zandru’s self! So far she strikes only in panic. She would not, I think, even have killed the kinsman who tried to rape her, but she had no control. She could not stun, only kill. And she may kill again. I do not know if anyone living can teach her enough control over this kind of
laran
. I would not burden her with guilt, if she strikes again in a moment of fear or panic.”

Renata hesitated. Finally she said, “It is well known: power corrupts. Even now, I think, she knows no one dares to defy her. She is headstrong and arrogant. She may like the knowledge that everyone fears her. A girl on the threshold of adolescence has many troubles; at such times girls dislike their faces, their bodies, the color of their hair. They think others dislike them, because they have so many anxieties they cannot yet focus. If Dorilys comforts herself for these anxieties with the knowledge of her power - well, I know
I
would be frightened of her under these conditions!”

Aldaran stared at the floor of the room, black and white and inlaid with a mosaic of birds. “I cannot consent to having her
laran
destroyed, Renata. She is my only child.”

“Then, my lord,” Renata said bluntly, “you should marry again and get you another heir before it is too late; and at your age you should lose no time.”

“Do you think I have not tried that?” Aldaran said bitterly. Then, hesitating, he told Renata of the curse.

“My lord, surely a man of your intelligence knows that the power of such a curse is upon your mind, not your manhood.”

“So I told myself for many years. Yet I felt no desire for any woman, for many years after Aliciane died. After Deonara died, and I knew I had only a single
nedestro
girl-child surviving, I took others to my bed; yet none of them quickened. Of late I have begun to believe the curse had struck me before the sorceress voiced it, for while Aliciane was heavy with my child I took no other. For me that was unknown, that I should live half a year with no woman for my bed.” He shook his head, apologetically. “Forgive me,
damisela
. Such talk is unseemly to a woman of your years.”

“Speaking of such things I am not a woman but a
leronis
, my lord. Don’t trouble yourself about that. Have you never been monitored to test this, my lord?”

“I did not know such a thing was possible.”

“I will test it, if you will,” Renata said matter-of-factly. “Or if you would rather - Margali is your kinswoman, and nearer to your years - if it would trouble you less…”

The man stared at the floor. “I would feel less shamed before a stranger, I think,” he said in a low voice.

“As you will.” Renata quieted herself and sank deep into the monitoring of body and brain; cell deep.

After a time she said regretfully, “You are cursed, indeed, my lord. Your seed bears no spark of life.”

“Is such a thing possible? Did the woman merely know my shame, or did she cause this - this - ” His voice died, between rage and dismay.

Renata said quietly, “I have no way of knowing, my lord. I suppose it is possible that some enemy could have done this to you. Although no one trusted with a matrix in the Towers would be capable of such a thing. We are sworn with many oaths against such abuse of our powers.”

“Can it be reversed? What the powers of sorcery have done, can they not undo?”