THREE DROPS OF BLOOD (4 page)

"Are you all right?" Meghianna stopped just outside the stable doors, haloed in mist and
light from sunrise. Her hair hung long and unbound down her back, and she wore a pale green
underdress. Whatever had alerted her to the ruckus in the stables had interrupted her in dressing
for the day.

"How did you know?" Gynefra stood, heaving Megassa up to ride her hip.

"I heard Mist..." Meghianna frowned and tipped her head sideways, like a serious little
bird. "I heard her in my head. She was upset. She... it was me, but not me, and that made her
frightened and angry."

Mrillis noted that Meghianna wore one shoe and carried the other. It made her serious,
thoughtful expression all the more incongruous. Especially in light of this demonstration of the
strength of her
imbrose.

"Megassa wanted to ride Mist. I think she frightened a few years growth off all of us."
Gynefra frowned at the child in her arms, then ruined the scolding by crossing her eyes at
her.

Megassa giggled.

It jolted Mrillis to realize he had never heard the child laugh before.

Blessed Estall, forgive us, but we have been cruel to the child without intending.
This is how Endor was turned evil under our very noses, by punishing him for the sins of his
father. Will the evil of previous generations continue because we cannot avoid taking vengeance
on the innocent?

"Do you know how to ride?" Meghianna said. She slipped her other shoe onto her foot
and came into the stable. She frowned, her bottom lip sticking out a little in a most becoming,
thoughtful expression, when her half-sister shook her head. "You have to start on a pony before
you can ride a horse. I'm not allowed to ride Mist alone, and I won't for years because she's so
big and I'm still small. Lord Mrillis, can we get Megassa a pony to learn on?"

"We will have to ask... your father," he said after blanking for just a moment. This new
sensitivity to Megassa's feelings made him reluctant to mention Efrin in front of her. Just how
aware was the child that her father didn't want anything to do with her?

"I won't get to see him until after my lessons," she said with a shake of her head. "That's
much too long to wait."

"You don't see him, either?" Megassa said, curiosity brightening her face. She knuckled
the last tears from her eyes. "Nurse said you're with the king all the time."

"I don't even live with our papa all year. He's much too busy being the Warhawk to be
my papa every day, all the time. You're lucky. You live in the same place with him."

Blessed Estall, how blind have we been? We thought Meghianna understood. We
know how clever she is, and we never thought to explain.

"I see him a lot, but he doesn't ever see me," Megassa said. "I think he doesn't like me.
Why did you get sent away? Did you do something even worse than me?"

"What did you do?" Meghianna's frown deepened. "Lord Mrillis--"

"It is complicated," he said on a sigh. "Megassa,
you
did
not
do
anything wrong. Remember that. Anyone who tells you it is your fault that you do not see your
father is lying." He fought a grin when Megassa looked up to Gynefra for confirmation of his
words. At least the child trusted someone. "The easiest explanation is that your mother was not
married to your father when you were born. The Estall says it is wrong to make babies between
people who are not married. Your father does not want to remember that he and your mother did
something very wrong.
You
did nothing wrong by being born. Do you understand?"

Megassa's nod and little smile stabbed him yet again.

I am getting soft in my old age,
Mrillis thought.

"My mama died when I was a baby. Seeing me hurts Papa, because he misses her,"
Meghianna said, and reached out to take hold of Megassa's hand.

"So he sent you away?" Megassa shook her head, her confusion and disbelief almost
comical.

"No. Princess Meghianna is a student at the Stronghold," Gynefra hurried to say. "She
has very much to learn before she is grown up. That is why she only lives here part of the
year."

"That's why I never saw you before?" She tipped her head to one side, mirroring
Meghianna's expression.

Mrillis caught Gynefra's glance, both of them sharing silent concern at this mimicry.
Megassa's hair had more curl, and slightly more red tint, but other than their mode of dress, the
girls could have been twins. That would only be a problem for another six or seven years, he
estimated. Meghianna's hair would grow fairer, finally turning white as she reached maturity.
That was one constant among all the girls who became Queen of Snows. The flow of power
through them as they manipulated the Threads turned their hair white. But Megassa could bleach
her hair too easily, if she wanted to take her sister's place.

Ridiculous,
he scolded himself.
Megassa has little
imbrose,
and
even if she started training now, she would never reach Meghianna's skill and strength. We have
agreed she will never be sent to the Stronghold to study, never be encouraged to cultivate her
magical talents.

In light of the prophecy of the Three Drops of Blood, the Council had decided soon after
Megassa's birth that if she showed any
imbrose
strength, any talent in magic
whatsoever, she would be enfolded in spells and bindings, to cripple that aspect of her life. The
leaders of the Rey'kil had learned a bitter lesson with Endor and his siblings. It would be wrong
to kill Megassa, but there was nothing either criminal or cruel in keeping her from becoming a
weapon in the enemy's hands.

As those thoughts ran through Mrillis' head, Megassa seemed to come to some
settlement with what she had just learned. She smiled, nodded once, and looked up at Mist, who
hung her head over the stall door, visibly waiting for Meghianna to pet her.

"Do you think they'll really let me ride a pony?" the child asked.

"If you want to become a warrior when you're grown, you have to learn to ride,"
Gynefra said. "Why not start now?"

"I'm going to ask Papa tonight," Meghianna promised.

"There you are." Nalla hurried into the stable, only slowing a few steps when she saw
the group gathered in front of Mist's stall. She wrapped a shawl around Meghianna. "Come back
and finish your breakfast. We don't have much time. You're riding out with Healer Onach today,
remember?"

"Can I go?" Megassa immediately chirped.

"If you want to miss your first lesson with bow and arrows." Gynefra laughed when the
girl's eyes widened and her mouth dropped open in dismay. "They'll be riding all day. You don't
have a pony yet."

"But you will by tomorrow morning," Meghianna promised, and nodded her head for
emphasis.

Mrillis didn't doubt, no matter how reluctant Efrin might be to give Megassa any
mobility or recognition, his elder daughter would have her way.

The girls had discovered each other, and Meghianna's generous, open nature wouldn't
allow her new sister to be pushed back into a dark room and forgotten. He supposed the wisest
course of action was to allow the girls to be together, and be friends. If true affection developed
between them, love for Meghianna might be all that was needed to keep Megassa from following
her mother's and grandmother's footsteps into treachery.

He took comfort from the knowledge that Gynefra would guide Megassa's steps, away
from using her magic and toward the life of a woman warrior. That sort of destiny for the girl
would be safer for all of them.

* * * *

"Where is Megassa's mother?" Meghianna asked, looking up from the scroll she had
been studying for the last hour.

Mrillis sighed, ending on a soft chuckle. He should have known that question would be
bouncing around in her clever mind all day, since her most recent encounter with her
half-sister.

"Nalla said nobody really knows, and I... well, I heard something she thought. I didn't
mean to listen," she added, eyes widening in earnestness.

"I don't doubt you." He got up from his worktable and crossed the long, narrow room to
her worktable, set in front of a window looking down on her garden. He reflected, not for the
first time, that without meaning to, life in the Warhawk's fortress shifted to focus on this
innocently wise child when she resided there. He rearranged his workroom to accommodate her
lessons and her safety--this window was a far safer place for her to sit than the other window,
which looked down over the outer courtyard. For an enemy to see Meghianna, he would have to
penetrate several walls and sets of guards, and stand in the open where anyone looking down into
the courtyard could see him. Or her.

"I think someone does know where she is. Whoever is guarding her. And you know who
that person is. She did something bad, didn't she?" The child swallowed and her gaze flicked
away from his for a moment. "Nalla thinks she hurt my mother."

"Yes, we are very sure Trevissa contributed to the death of your mother. Her cousin."
Mrillis tugged over the stool so he could sit with his back to the window. All the light fell on
Meghianna's face, and left his in shadows. "And yes, I know where she is. What have you
learned in your lessons about Wynystrys?"

"It is the counterpart of the Stronghold, an island. When Master Breylon died, the island
was rocked by the tearing of the Threads that had wrapped around him in his lifetime, and came
loose, so it drifts along the coast of Lygroes."

"Hmm, and let this be your first lesson on prevarication and the usefulness of lies." He
snorted when the child's eyes widened. He could almost hear her clever mind racing, fascinated
and repelled by the concept of some lies actually being beneficial. "The problem with lies is that
there is always some truth mixed into them."

"Then the island was knocked loose from the bedrock when Master Breylon died? And
what does that have to do with Trevissa?" She frowned and tipped her head to the side.

"The island was rocked when my old master died, yes. We took advantage of that
visible, very real sundering of the island from its roots and we set it free. It was Master Breylon's
own deathbed vision that guided us. Wynystrys lies behind a cloak woven of Threads, to hide its
presence from all who are not devoted to its safety, and to allow it to float freely along the coast.
And we put Trevissa there, as her prison and her safe hiding place."

"Because people want to kill her for killing my mother?" Meghianna shook her head a
moment later. "No, for killing Queen Belissa. For killing her own cousin. No one cares about a
newborn baby being orphaned." Her lips twisted in what Mrillis could only describe as a bitter
little smile, and something inside him shuddered in sorrow.
No child,
he swore,
should ever have to wear such an expression.

"Those who know you want vengeance for you." He gave in to temptation and caressed
a few soft strands of hair off her high forehead. "We need to protect Trevissa, because the
madness that resulted from our enemies using her as a weapon against us also formed her into a
tool of prophecy. When she is lucid, she speaks nothing but truth, and her eyes go white with
Seeing. She has given us warnings that have all proven true. Would you allow such a gift from
the Estall to be destroyed, or to fall into enemy hands?"

"No." She looked down at her wax tablet and made a row of dots down the edge, along
the frame, while she thought. "So she wasn't evil, just insane, when she killed my mother?"

"Only the Estall knows."

"Why did my father make a baby with Trevissa, if he wasn't married to her?"

Mrillis nearly laughed aloud at that question. He had been living in fascinated,
half-dreading anticipation of it, since the encounter that morning in the stable. No matter how
sweetly, how cleanly they tried to explain the situation for the girls, no matter how they tried to
protect them, the truth was basically ugly and cruel.

"Trevissa wanted to be queen, or at least a princess. Since Belissa was betrothed to
Cafral, the Warhawk's heir, Trevissa thought she should marry Efrin, his younger brother."

"But my uncle died with my grandparents, so my father became Warhawk."

"Your parents married for duty, but they liked each other very much, and grew to love
each other before she died," he hurried to assure her. Mrillis knew Efrin rarely spoke of Belissa
to his daughter, and suspected the young Warhawk wasn't sure if it was guilt or love that gave
him such pain at the memory of his queen. "Trevissa was jealous, and she was badly hurt, angry,
when your mother announced she was pregnant with you. Trevissa used her
imbrose
to
cast a spell on your father, to make him think she was Belissa. They... mated, and Megassa was
conceived. When your mother died soon after you were born, we knew magic had been used
against her, but we were not sure of the source, only that blood-magic had been intertwined with
imbrose.
Then, before the ashes of her funeral pyre cooled... Trevissa announced she
carried the Warhawk's heir. She demanded he marry her.

"Magic examination proved she spoke the truth, and how the conception took place. We
were unable to determine either her guilt or her innocence in your mother's death, which led us to
believe she was used by someone else to commit the deed. Despite the methods used, the fact
remained that Trevissa did carry another child for the Warhawk. Your father vowed he would
only marry her if she gave him a son. The strain of the questioning shredded her fragile grip on
her sanity, and that refusal to legitimize her child before birth only made things worse. When
Megassa was born..."

Mrillis shook his head and studied the somber little face, with the bright afternoon light
spilling across it. "Trevissa was furious to learn she had given birth to a girl. She tried to kill
Megassa when she was only a day old, and we realized then she was truly insane."