The Broken Blade (56 page)

Alessia was silent for a long time. When at last she spoke, her voice was scarcely audible above the singing roses.

“Because I loved you,” she whispered.

There was quiet between them. As he looked at her then Eamon knew that, despite all that had passed between them, he loved her still.

“I have come to seek your forgiveness.”

“Forgiveness?” she breathed.

“I cannot undo what you endured for me,” Eamon answered. “I cannot undo the darkness, the tears and lies, the life and love lost. I will not ask if you love me still, or whether you may yet love me again. Rather, I here confess my wrongs to you. I treated ill with you, and in my anger and my hurt I forgot all that I loved, and all that I had promised to be. Forgive me.”

Alessia held him in her gaze for long moments. “It is a difficult thing you ask of me, Eamon.”

He swallowed. “I understand.”

She drew a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment. “But it is my choice. Eamon… I forgive you.”

The weight of a universe lifted from him. Eamon gazed back at her with compassion and joy and wonder. “It is more than I deserve. Thank you, Alessia.”

Then her face softened. His voice empassioned, he whispered, “I cannot imagine what paths of grief and torment you have trodden since those dark days when we parted, nor what rage and suffering you bear still. But I know that you have set your heart on peace,
and on life in hope. If… if you would be willing, I would walk with you along that way to peace. And I would have peace with you.” He laughed gently. “Dear Alessia,” he said, and it was as her name came from his lips that he reached across and earnestly took her gentle hand in his own. “I would have peace with you, for all the days of my life.”

For a moment she watched him, and for a moment he feared that she would not speak. Then her fingers pressed his.

“And I with you,” she answered. “Until the stars go out.”

They watched each other. A smile, such as Eamon had always loved, touched her face.

She laid her head then against his shoulder and spoke his name to him. The music of Eldaran and of the King danced all about them. The roses swayed to it.

Gently he turned and kissed her forehead. “Until the stars go out,” he whispered.

So they sat together, hand in hand and brow against brow, until the twilight high above them brought forth the long-awaited evening stars.

Hughan Brenuin was crowned King over the River Realm five hundred and thirty-three years after the battle of Edesfield. How long it had been since the promise that had first brought the house of Stars to the River had long since been forgotten.

Following the crowning of the King, the First Knight was set over the East Quarter, which he loved as dearly as he had ever done. Many of his men, including Giles, followed him, and the East was proud ever after of the First Knight's special history with the quarter. Wilhelm Bellis took up the King's colours shortly after the First Knight came to the East. As he had been at the battle of Dunthruik, he was made the First Knight's standard bearer.

The doors of the city's university were opened and the bookkeepers kept the newly scribed people's copy of the King's Covenant there. The folk of the River Realm came to see it and read the promises joining them and their King.

The Coll was renamed the King's Way, remembering always the first entry that Hughan Brenuin had made into the city, and the Four Quarters were often strung with stars. The Crown Theatre retained its name. On Shoreham's death, Ilenia Roe was made the theatre's director. She commissioned the writing of many new works and took dozens of writers under her wing. The theatre's inaugural performance following the coronation,
Brothers in Law
, was remembered in later years as one of the most loved pieces of theatre that the city had ever seen.

Shortly after his coronation, Hughan formed an order of knights, known as the Knights of the Star, to serve him under the
First Knight. It was not an order of wealth or lands but rather of heart. Many were those who sought to join it. General Rocell took the King's colours and devoted much of his time to liaising with the realm's knights and nobles. Febian, returned at length from his flight, also became a King's man; he worked with the King's riders, helping to form a unit of horse-archers to serve the King's banner.

In early June Captain Roe and his men were welcomed into the city and gave their formal surrender. Many of them took the King's colours and their captain was made one of the King's own generals. It was a title additionally granted to Andreas Anderas, who later also became a Knight of the Star.

Callum Tenent was admitted to this order some years later. His sister, her husband, and their daughter were there to witness the giving of his promises to the First Knight and the King.

In September of 533 Rory Manners married Lillabeth Grahaven, meaning to provide for her and for her child. Eamon Grahaven was born in October and was visited by his father's father. Upon the young child were formally bestowed the lands and titles of the Grahavens, to be kept in trust until his coming of age.

In August of 534 Queen Aeryn gave birth to her first child and heir of her husband's house. Two more children of royal blood came in the years that followed, and all three grew strong and bright, showing their parents' courage and hope.

Not long after the birth of Hughan's first-born son, Eamon Goodman took the hand of Alessia Turnholt in marriage.

Three years after Hughan's coronation an alliance of merchants, assisted by rebels and led by the Etraian princes, led a great force towards Hughan's city. It was a mission undertaken partly in vengeance and partly in pride. Leaving Queen Aeryn to govern in his stead and General Alnos to assist her, the King went to meet the invaders. Many King's men and former Gauntlet took anew his colours and went with him to battle. Both King and First Knight fought at the battle of Brightwood, where the merchants were at last decisively defeated. It was a fiercer, bloodier field than that of Dunthruik, and was the
place where Giles and Sir Rocell both lost their lives, to the great sorrow of those who knew them. Thousands of men were injured, including General Anderas, who returned to Eldaran with no fewer than two arrow wounds. The King's victory at Brightwood marked the beginning of a flourishing peace for the River Realm.

Anastasius and the Easter lords returned each to their own country. The Land of the Seven Sons rejoiced at the return of its masters, but bitter feuds followed in those years as the cities and their lordlings quarrelled over successions. Lord Anastasius did bring those under him to peace, though it took several years, and the lives of both Lord Ithel and Lord Ylonous were lost before peace was restored.

Of the Easters only Lord Feltumadas remained in Eldaran. He had learned much of the ways of war. He stayed then in the King's city to learn the ways of peace and prove himself a worthy heir to his father. He was a trusted advisor at the King's court, and his wife, Aiday, soon joined him there. When Lord Feltumadas learned of his half-brother Ithel's death, it was the King's First Knight who sat with him through his grief and rage, and calmed him. Over time, Lord Feltumadas and the First Knight became firm friends, though they still fiercely – and sometimes angrily – debated many matters.

In 547 Lord Feltumadas at last returned to Istanaria, to be formally recognized as heir to the Land of the Seven Sons, arriving there shortly before his father's death. At Feltumadas's request, and remembering a wish expressed long before, the First Knight went with him to the sun-struck halls of the Easter princes. He returned to Eldaran after long months and was received home with joy.

Lady Alben lived for a number of years and, upon her death, bequeathed all her family's holdings to the King. At her death Alduin Waite reluctantly returned to the city and there, but a short time later, he also died. The First Knight sat as his sole companion as he lay upon his deathbed.

In 550 Hughan's eldest son came of age. Prince Edwin, a bold and fiery young man, was made a Knight of the Star, and in that
order he spent much time with his father's First Knight. At that time the duchy of the West Bank, lost long years before on the death of Elaina's husband, was restored, to be held in regency until Hughan's second son was old enough to claim it for himself.

The First Knight remained faithful to his King all his days. In 551, long after he and his wife had thought it lost to them, Alessia conceived a child. Mathaias Goodman was born in the spring of 552, to the delight and joy of the whole city.

So it was that on the day when Prince Edwin took his father's throne, the house of Brenuin was served still by the house of Goodman.