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Mearan rebellion were not already far enough advanced, her family now blame
me for Sidana's death as well as Llewell's. The dispute over Mearan sovereignty
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has taken on the added dimension of a blood feud, despite the fact that it was
Llewell who killed Sidana-not I-and that Llewell was executed for his crime of
murder, not because I particularly wanted him dead."
"You would have to have done away with him eventually, in any case,"
Jehana said coldly. "So long as he lived, he would have remained a threat. Any
issue of his body-"
"Mother ..."
Pushing himself away from the table with an exasperated sigh and a
scraping of heavy chair legs against stone, Kelson stood and glanced at Nigel and
Meraude, who had remained notably silent throughout this last exchange.
"Fortunately, the subject of Llewell's issue has been rendered academic,"
Kelson said patiently, catching Nigel's eye in signal that it was time to make their
escape. "Nor have I any wish to discuss the matter further this evening. The
commanders of my northern army leave for Cassan tomorrow morning, and there
are matters Nigel and I must discuss before then. Uncle, would you please make
your apologies to the ladies? We still have work ahead of us before we sleep."
He could only admire Nigel's coolness as the older man rose to take his
leave. Though he knew Nigel trusted him and his Deryni colleagues implicitly,
and they him, he must have harbored some apprehension about the "work" still
ahead of them, if only for the fact that he was the object of that work and did not
know what would be done to him. Still, he showed no glimmer of anything but
relaxed duty as he pulled a cloak around his shoulders and advised Meraude not
to wait up.
"You know how long Kelson's staff meetings sometimes last, darling," he
told her. "We could be half the night. You and the little one need your rest."
Meraude smiled and laid one hand on her swollen abdomen as her
husband followed Kelson out, glancing aside at Jehana wistfully when the door
had closed behind them. Jehana looked a bit taken aback, as if she could not
quite believe how Kelson had managed his escape.
"He's become quite the young man while you were away, hasn't he?"
Meraude said.
Jehana lowered her gaze. "I hardly recognize him," she whispered. "He's so
stem and warlike-and grown-up."
"Children do that," Meraude answered gently. "I'm having to face the same
realization about Conall. And Rory comes of age in the fall as well-though
fourteen-year-olds still have a little time for being boys yet."
"Mine didn't," Jehana murmured.
"True. But Kelson was already a king by the time he turned fourteen. For
Rory to face a similar circumstance would require tragedy indeed. No, Rory is my
little boy for yet a while longer-and Payne, of course. And soon there'll be the new
baby for loving. But I do hope this one will be a girl."
Jehana grimaced. "A girl, to become a pawn one day for a royal marriage?"
"A girl, to marry where her heart dictates, if God wills it," Meraude replied.
"With three older brothers to carry on the line, I see little reason to force her into
any marriage she would not want. Or perhaps she will prefer marriage with the
Church. I gather that would not displease you."
Jehana smiled bitterly, tracing a fingertip through a small spill of ale on
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the table before her. "Would that my marriage had been with the Church, and
saved the passing of the taint I carry within me," she' murmured.
"And what of Kelson, if you had?" Meraude countered. "Aside from the fact
that Kelson would not have been Kelson, given another mother, where would he
have been without your inheritance and protection when he had to face
Charissa?"
"He might have died," Jehana conceded. "But at least he would have been
human, his soul unsullied by the Deryni curse I placed upon him by bearing him."
Shaking her head, Meraude pushed herself heavily back from the table.
"You won't let go of it, will you? You're Deryni, Jehana. Nothing you can do will
change that. But perhaps it doesn't have to be a curse. Surely it's possible some
good might come of it."
"I fear you listen far too much to my son," Jehana said sadly. "It is a curse,
Meraude. It is a canker that festers within me-and here at my son's court. Nor
may I rest until I find a way to exorcise it."
Exorcism of a far different sort than Jehana had in mind was underway in
another part of the castle, performed by a man who bore the very taint Jehana
feared. Murmuring ritual words of purification. Bishop Duncan McLain slowly
paced the circumference of the tiny Saint Camber chapel adjoining his study,
methodically sprinkling the chamber with water from a silver aspergillum.
Incense already hung lightly on the air. From the doorway leading back into the
study, Dhugal watched and made the responses, eyes following his father's every
move with reverence and respect. They had finished nearly all the other
preparations necessary before the rest arrived. The censing and asperging of the
chapel was the final touch, done as much to center and steady the two
participants as to cleanse a room long sanctified by its sacred use.
"Asperges me, Domine, hyssopo, et mundabor: lavabis me, et super nivem
dealbabor."
"Amen."
"Pax huic domui."
"El omnibus habitantibus in ea."
Peace be to this house...
And to all who dwell in it...
When they had done, and Duncan had put aside that paraphernalia of his
office, father and son returned to the study, Duncan drawing into place the
curtain that normally covered the door. Dhugal lingered a moment, eyeing the
curtain with still-awed speculation as Duncan took a seat at the round table set
before the room's fireplace. One candle burned at the center of that table, giving
the only illumination save for the firelight. After a moment, Dhugal came and
joined his father, though he still continued to glance at the curtained doorway
from time to time.
"The chapel retains quite an impression of power, doesn't it?" Duncan
said, smiling at Dhugal's startled glance in his direction. "I'm not surprised you'd
notice. Saint Camber does seem to make his influence felt. And if you'd had the
experiences Alaric and I have had, the difference between this chapel and most
others would be even more apparent. Our good Deryni saint can be a very
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powerful intercessor."
Dhugal shifted a little uneasily. "Do you-really think he intervenes in
earthly affairs? Does any saint?"
"Well, it's difficult ever to be certain, of course," Duncan replied. "Alaric
and I know that a few of the things we'd ascribed to Saint Camber right after
Kelson was crowned seem to have been done by-" He lowered his eyes. "By
someone else," he finished. "I'm sorry, but I'm not permitted to say whom, even
to you. It was a former member of the Camberian Council, but they've asked that
we never mention names."
"I don't mean to pry," Dhugal protested.
Duncan smiled. "I know you don't, son. In any case, some of the things
we'd ascribed to Camber weren't done by anyone we know of-so maybe he did
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