This Scepter'd Isle (68 page)

"That is not possible, Aleneil," Denoriel said flatly.

"What do you mean not possible," Aleneil sobbed. "I saw it happen myself."

"Not that the thing did not happen, but that the dog, who everyone else said was sweet, friendly, and foolish, should jump out of a window to keep you from touching it. I have never known any animal—even the wild ones in the woods—to flee from you. They are more likely to run to you than to run away."

Aleneil put her wine glass down on the broad, flat arm of the settle and extracted her kerchief from her sleeve to wipe her eyes. Then she admitted what Denoriel said was true, that fortunately before she could rush to Anne and confess what had happened, another lady had entered the room and commiserated with her on the difficulty of catching a small agile dog.

Clearly the other lady believed the dog had darted by her and got away. And, of course, it should have . . . only that would have meant running closer to her, and apparently the dog could not do that. By then she had realized the oddity of the dog's behavior, and she slipped away to run outside before someone else found the body.

She wept again, remembering the limp, broken body of the little animal, but she swallowed back the tears and admitted to Denoriel that as soon as she actually touched it, she felt the spells in the collar.

"The dog was bespelled to run from Sidhe?"

"Yes," she sighed.

"Then you did not kill it," he said firmly. "Whoever put the collar on it killed it."

"Everyone said it was such a happy, pretty little thing." Aleneil sniffed and wiped away more tears.

"And a great comfort to its mistress," Denoriel said, his mouth set grimly, "inducing her to live in a fool's paradise. Well, now it is gone and Anne is awake again, can she—"

Aleneil shuddered. "No," she whispered. "That was why I first said I had destroyed the queen. It is as if all the terror and ill feeling and jealousy and spite that the spells in the collar held at bay are now pouring out."

Denoriel stared into nothing for a moment and then said, "I'll need to tell Harry to double his watch on Elizabeth who, fortunately, is in Greenwich now. Do you feel well enough for me to accompany you back to the queen?"

Aleneil sighed. "I am not going back. I am dismissed. She blames me for Purkoy's death, which is fair enough, although I did not intend it. And there is nothing more I can do for her." Aleneil looked at her brother with wide sorrowing eyes. "To FarSee is useless. I Saw three paths and I, intending only the best, have driven the queen down the one that leads to the headsman's block."

Although Denoriel cried out in protest against Aleneil's prediction that Anne would die, his sister had Seen true. He did not realize then, that the clarity of the Vision was owing to its imminence. They thought they would have time; Seeings were only possibilities and by actions could be changed. Denoriel did try to warn George Boleyn, offering to help with money if he would leave England.

Obviously he could not tell George that his sister had had a Seeing, but George was only annoyed with him, pointing out haughtily that he could not leave his sister when so many harpies gathered to tear at her flesh. But George could do little to control her. All through April, Anne alternately raged and laughed; she seemed to have lost all balance and it was clear she knew that many were pressing the king to be rid of her. And then she made a fatal mistake.

It began simply enough when Anne began to chide Henry Norris for not completing his marriage to Margaret Shelton, a cousin of Anne's. FitzRoy, who happened to be near, made a jest of men desiring not to answer to a wife, but Anne only irritably waved him silent. Clearly she suspected that Norris did not want to make a commitment to her cousin because of the campaign against her. Norris denied, tried to make some light remark, which only infuriated Anne further.

"You," she cried, oblivious to far too many heads turned in her direction, "you look for dead men's shoes; for if aught came to the king but good you would look to have me!"

"Anne!" FitzRoy gasped.

Her eyes widened and her lips parted, likely to change the words into some jest or excuse them, but Norris was so horrified that his voice overrode hers, crying that if he had ever had such a thought, he would rather his head was off.

And that it was on the seventeenth of May. Considering the many factions that wanted Anne repudiated, it was no surprise that Cromwell had news of Anne's outburst and Norris's response. Cromwell, amazed at the accuracy of Master Otstargi's prediction—although he had not been specific about what mistake Anne would make—went right to the king with an accusation of Anne's infidelity, and he had half the court as witnesses to support him.

Even FitzRoy was forced to repeat what he had heard, although he tried to insist that it was half jest and half temper—something the king should know well about Anne. He was dismissed with angry words, dismissed from the court entirely for his attempted defense. And by the time the week was out, five men had been arrested for adultery with Anne and she, herself, was in the Tower.

"Evidence" was found, trials were held with indecent haste, and every man—including, incredibly, Anne's brother George—was found guilty. Whether the judges actually believed the verdict they gave—Norfolk was weeping when he pronounced it—no one would ever know, but Anne and her "lovers" were sentenced to die, and so they did, the men on the seventeenth, Anne herself on the nineteenth.

FitzRoy was ordered—perhaps as a punishment for his attempt to defend Anne—to attend the beheading. At first he said he would defy his father and absent himself; however, on the seventeenth of May, Anne's marriage to Henry had been declared null and void and Elizabeth was declared a bastard. FitzRoy had to go to the Tower, had to speak one last time to Anne to assure her that he would care for Elizabeth and protect her, as long as they both should live.

His attendance at the execution was now necessary. To refuse—in King Henry's present mood—would be dangerous, even to his son. FitzRoy saw, at least, that Anne did not suffer. She was praying quietly when she laid her head on the block, and the stroke that ended her life was sure and swift.

"That was a piece of work very well done," Aurilia nic Morrigan said, smiling at Pasgen. "It was as if those fools of the Bright Court were our lackeys." Aurilia giggled softly, her green eyes bright with amusement. "Imagine them arranging for the dog's death! I could not have done it better myself."

Pasgen, who stood beside Rhoslyn before Aurilia and Vidal Dhu, who occupied a pair of magnificent gold-wrought chairs in a private, red-walled chamber in Caer Mordwyn, bowed slightly.

"You also manipulated that servant of the king—Cromwell, is that his name?—very well indeed. No one will ever suspect our role in bringing down the queen."

The words were complimentary, the tone was not. Pasgen wondered whether Vidal Dhu was as unaware as he seemed of the ability of others to read him or whether the subtle insults were designed to expose opposition.

"Thank you," Pasgen said. "And the quick declaration of Elizabeth as a bastard ensures that the child will be of no interest to anyone very soon. We will be free to take her whenever we like."

"I would not be so sure of that." Vidal's lips twisted in scorn and he shifted in the taller of the two chairs. "So far you have been remarkably unsuccessful in seizing
anything
the Seleighe wish to keep. The FarSeers tell me they still See a possibility of a future bound to that blasted child. I am sure those of the liosalfar receive the same Vision and may think it worthwhile to guard her."

"That is true," Pasgen said. "And beside that the boy FitzRoy—" an unpleasant memory, a memory of FitzRoy's grim face as he shot down a Sidhe, made him grimace "—no, I must not forget he is a boy no longer, and he is most unnaturally attached to the little girl. Moreover, what FitzRoy wants, Denoriel wants."

"And what Denoriel wants, Aleneil wants," Rhoslyn added.

Vidal waved a hand dismissively. "The child is no longer an adorable baby. I think FitzRoy will soon tire of her willful ways. We can wait."

Aurilia shook her head. "No, my lord, we cannot. Possibly FitzRoy will tire of her, but by then she may be useless to us. Remember that she is absorbing stupid mortal values with each day she is in her governesses' care. We can make any mortal obedient by breaking its spirit, but that is useless in this case. She needs the full range of her mind and heart to be able to dream of power and the ways to use it and to bring others under our hand."

Rhoslyn's eyebrows twitched—Pasgen thought it was in patent disbelief at that statement. It seemed that Aurilia knew what Elizabeth was by her reaction to their demon spies, and probably Rhoslyn could not accept the idea that Aurilia would welcome another attractive female with as strong a Talent as Elizabeth displayed with free will within Vidal Dhu's household. Even to Rhoslyn it must seem that to leave Elizabeth entirely in possession of her will might be dangerous. Pagen wondered what scheme was working in the back of Aurilia's mind.

Vidal, however, had nodded and shrugged, saying, "Oh, I am willing to take her as soon as Rhoslyn has made an adequate changeling."

"Two weeks, perhaps three," Rhoslyn said, "but I think no more than two."

A black frown replaced the bland expression on Vidal's face. "It took you months to create the changeling that was supposed to take FitzRoy's place," he snapped. "How does it come about that this changeling will take only two weeks?"

Rhoslyn's lips thinned. Pasgen suspected that there was still a small sore place in her heart where FitzRoy's changeling had lived. All she said, however, was, "You wanted that changeling to live for some weeks at least and be able to pass for the living child. A boy of six, already taught several languages and the history of his family . . . If he suddenly no longer knew those things surely a replacement would be suspected. I had to teach him. I had to instill enough power in him to keep him alive. I—" Her voice was rising.

Pasgen put a hand on her arm and she fell silent. "This child is clever," he said, but to Vidal Dhu, not to his sister, "but she is not yet three years old. If the changeling can walk and talk about common things, it will be enough."

Aurilia nodded. "Yes, and the dullness of the changeling will doubtless be thought owing to confusion and missing her mother if we take the child soon. Two weeks seems about right to me."

"Very well," Vidal agreed.

"So," Aurilia said, "Pasgen and Rhoslyn should be able to manage this abduction on their own. The household will still be in considerable confusion, and I think almost all of the guards and many of the servants will have been dismissed or assigned elsewhere. And Pasgen and Rhoslyn are so accustomed to the mortal world that this should be easy for them."

Beneath his hand, Pasgen felt his sister shiver. Elizabeth was less important, but she was still the king's child. To send Pasgen and her alone to take her was a prescription for failure, possibly a disastrous failure. Could Aurilia want the child
dead
? Fortunately before she could protest, Vidal Dhu turned toward his lovely companion.

"No, I think not." Vidal Dhu smiled slowly. "Perhaps Pasgen's and Rhoslyn's many failures at abduction were owing to bad luck, but they nearly brought the wrath of King Oberon down on us. I wish to have something to show for our effort this time. I think this time you and I, Aurilia, should accompany them to make sure, not only that no more bad luck occurs but also that the child does not slip through our hands into some private domain."

"That was never intended," Pasgen said, trying to sound indignant, although it was difficult because he was ready to grin with relief.

He certainly did not want Elizabeth, and he thought it better that Rhoslyn should not even think about keeping the child. Rhoslyn had been . . . different . . . since she had made and lost FitzRoy's changeling.

Moreover, Pasgen had not been sure until Vidal said he and Aurilia would accompany them to seize Elizabeth that the prince still wanted the child—and he was still not sure
why
he wanted her. Of course, Vidal might have been seduced by Aurilia's vision of what Elizabeth could accomplish, but usually Vidal was shockingly lacking in a long vision of the future. Mostly his purposes were immediate. And now that Elizabeth had been declared a bastard, Mary's right to the throne definitely superceded hers. If Mary became queen, the Inquisition would follow and pain and misery would fill the wells of power of the Unseleighe Court.

That had been what Vidal originally wanted and he did not need Elizabeth for that . . . And then Pasgen remembered Vidal's passing comment that the FarSeers still envisioned one future in which Elizabeth reigned. That made Pasgen decidedly uneasy. Vidal had not commanded him or Rhoslyn to clarify the Seeing, which was usually diffuse and confused in their absence.

So, what else had Vidal's pallid FarSeers Seen? Pasgen controlling Elizabeth? Was that why Vidal suspected Pasgen of considering rebellion? If Aurilia and Vidal were in the party to take Elizabeth, why did they need him and Rhoslyn? Was this a different kind of trap than the last, intended to bring Oberon's wrath on his head? Was this a death-trap to be sprung by FitzRoy's terrible toy—such healers as the Unseleighe had had not been able to save the Sidhe FitzRoy had wounded.

"Very foresighted of you, my love," Aurilia said, and her glance flicked toward Rhoslyn. "It does so often happen that when many use a Gate, a few get cast out unexpectedly who knows where."

Rhoslyn barely prevented her lips from twitching toward a smile as Aurilia implied she and Pasgen would try to escape with Elizabeth, and Pasgen squeezed her arm in warning. Pasgen was known for his skill with Gates. But was Aurilia's remark a warning to Vidal or a hint to her? Despite her efforts to hide her feelings, it was not unknown that she had mourned FitzRoy's changeling. Was Aurilia hinting that she could have another child, even younger and more attractive than FitzRoy?