The Born Queen

"I think," z'Acatto grunted, "it's time we drank that wine."

"Let's bind you up first," Cazio said.

"No need for that."

Cazio got a knife, cut a broad strip from a Sefry shirt, and started wrapping it tightly around z'Acatto's torso. The wound was a puncture, very deep.

"Just get the damned wine," the mestro said.

"Where is it?" Cazio asked, feeling the apple in his throat.

"In my saddle pack," z'Acatto wheezed.

It took Cazio a while to find the horse, which wisely had moved away from the fighting.

He dug one of the bottles of Zo Buso Brato out and then raced back to where his swordmaster still sat waiting. His head was down, and for a moment Cazio thought he was too late, but then the old man lifted his arm, proffering a corkscrew.

"It might be vinegar," Cazio cautioned, flopping down next to his mentor.

"Might be," z'Acatto agreed. "I was saving it for when we got back to Vitellio, back to your house."

"We can still wait."

"We'll have the other bottle there."

"Fair enough," Cazio agreed.

The cork came out in one piece, which was astonishing, considering its age. Cazio handed it to z'Acatto. The older man took it weakly and smelled it.

"Needs to breathe," he said. "Ah, well." He tilted it back and took a sip, eyes closed, and smiled.

"That's not too bad," he murmured. "Try it."

Cazio took the bottle and then hesitantly took a drink.

In an instant the battlefield was gone, and he felt the warm sun of Vitellio, smelled hay and rosemary, wild fe

"It's perfect," he said. "Perfect. Now I understand why you've been trying to find it for so long."

Z'Acatto's only answer was the faint smile that remained on his face.

"I'll tell them I did it," Mery said. "I'll tell them you weren't even here."

Leoff shook his head and squeezed her shoulder. "No, Mery," he said. "Don't do that. It wouldn't work, anyway."

"I don't want them to hurt you again," she explained.

"They're not going to hurt him," Areana promised in a hushed and strained voice.

Yes they are, he thought. And they'll hurt you, too. But if we can keep them from examining Mery, from noticing the wrongness about her, she might have a chance.

"Listen," he began, but then the door opened.

It wasn't a sacritor standing there or even Sir Ilzereik.

It was Neil MeqVren, Queen Muriele's bodyguard.

It was like waking up in a strange room and not knowing how you got there. Leoff just stared, rubbing the bent fingers of his right hand on his opposite arm.

"You're all right?" Neil asked.

Leoff plucked his voice from somewhere. "Sir Neil," he said cautiously. "There are Hansan knights and warriors about. All over."

"I know." The young knight walked over to Areana and cut her bonds, then Leoff's, and helped him up.

He only glanced at the dead men on the floor, then at Areana's swollen face.

"Did anyone still living do that, lady?" he softly asked her.

"No," Areana said.

"And your head, Cavaor?" he asked Leoff.

Leoff gestured at the dead. "It was one of them," he said.

The knight nodded and seemed satisfied.

"What are you doing here?" Areana asked.

The answer came from an apparition near the door. Her hair was as white as milk, and she was so pale and handsome that at first Leoff thought she might be Saint Wyndoseibh herself, come drifting down from the moon on cobwebs to see them.

"We've come to meet Mery," the White Lady said.

Neil watched the stars appear and listened as the hum and whirr of night sounds rose around him. He sat beneath an arbor, half an arrow shot from the composwer's cottage.

Muriele was there, too, still wrapped in the linens from Berimund's hideaway. She'd made most of the trip unceremoniously tied to the back of a horse, but once in Newland, they'd found a small wain for her to lie in state on.

She needed to be buried soon. They hadn't had any salt to pack her in, and the scent of rot was starting to remark itself.

He noticed a slim shadow approaching.

"May I?" Alis' voice inquired from the darkness.

He gestured toward a second bench.

"I've not much idea what they're talking about in there," she said. "But I got us this." She held up a bottle of something. "Shall we have the wake?"

He searched for something to say, but there was too much in him to let anything come out right. He saw her tilt the bottle up, then down. She dabbed her lips and reached it toward him. He took it and pressed the glass lip against his own, held his breath, and took a mouthful. He almost didn't manage to swallow it; his mouth told him it was poison and wanted it out.

When he swallowed it, however, his body began to thank him almost immediately.

He took another swallow-it was easier this time-and passed it back to her.

"Do you think it's true?" he asked. "About A

"Which? That she slew forty thousand men with shinecraft or that she's dead?"

"That she's dead."

"From what I can tell," she said, "the news came from Eslen, not from Hansa. I don't see what anyone there would have to gain from letting such a rumor circulate."

"Well, that's a full ship, then," he said, taking the again proffered bottle and drinking more of the horrible stuff.

"Don't start that," Alis chided.

"I was guard to both of them."

"And you did an amazing job. Without you they would have both been dead months ago."

"Months ago, now. What's the difference?"

"I don't know. Does it make a difference if you live one year or eighty? Most people seem to think so." She took the bottle and tugged at it hard. "Anyway, if anyone is to blame for Muriele's death, it's me. You weren't her only bodyguard, you know."

He nodded, starting to feel the tide come up.

"So the question," Alis said, "is what do you and I do now? I don't think we'll be much help to the princess and the composer and Mery in whatever it is they're doing."

"I reckon we find Robert," Neil said.

"And that is excellent thinking," Alis agreed. "How do we do that?"

"Bri

"Ah, Bri

"Fond?"

"Oh, stop it. You don't seem the woman conqueror on the face of it, but first Fastia, now the princess of Hansa who is also, ne'er you mind, one of the Faiths. That is quite a record."

"I met her-we had met before," Neil tried to explain.

"You said you had never been to Kaithbaurg before."

"And I hadn't. We met on a ship, in Vitellio. This isn't the first time she's run away from Hansa."

"I don't blame her," Alis said. "Why did she go back?"

"She said she had a vision of A

"Well, she was wrong about that, at least."

"I suppose."

"Well, if A

"Your order?"

"Yes. The Order of Saint Dare. There's no point in keeping it secret now."

"Bri

He took two drinks.

"Did you know A

He took another pull. "I knew her. I wouldn't say we were friends, exactly."

"I barely knew her. I hardly knew Muriele until last year."

"I don't suppose mistresses and wives socialize that much."

"No. But-" She closed her eyes. "Strong stuff."

"Yes."

"She helped me, Sir Neil. She took me in despite what I had been. I try not to love, because there's nothing but heartbreak in it. But I loved her. I did."