[Fordim Hedgethistle]

Faroz bid the Lady Arshalous sit upon the cushions that had been left for her at the base of his divan. In this, his private audience chamber, the scale was not so grand or intimidating as in the main hall, but the room was still arranged with due sense to the primacy of the King. He sat somewhat above the Lady then, as she settled down. He offered her tea and the Lady accepted, apparently happy for the diversion. Tea was brought and Faroz poured it out for them, and while Arshalous was as familiar with the ritual as she was with the contents of her own closet, to see the King pouring out her drink still thrilled her somewhat.

When they had both taken the first sips of their tea they sat in silence for a time. The private chamber was high up in the Palace, built in the inner wall to overlook the garden. The clouds that had been threatening rain all day roiled above their heads but still the birds of the garden continued their calls. A chill wind blew through the arches and swirled about them both, lifting the corners of the tapestries that hung about. The King took another sip of his tea before fixing the Lady with his gaze. “You are not, I believe, a friend to your cousin Korak?”

The suddenness of the question startled the Lady, and before she could prevent herself the truth escaped her lips. “I am not, majesty.”

The King nodded at his, accepting it for the dangerous thing that it was. “May I ask why you and he are at odds?”

The Lady looked confused for a moment, flushing deeply, whether with discomfort or shame he could not tell. When she did reply, however, it was in an even tone. Her composure impressed the King. “It is difficult to know, Khamul. He and I were once close, when we were children, but times and people change. I cannot say at what moment we parted, but…such a moment has come.” She paused, gathering strength for her next question, and the King gave her the time she needed. “May I ask, majesty, why you inquire about this?”

The King fell into a silence and looked away from her. “To answer that my Lady Arshalous, I must tell you a story…

“It is a story of love and betrayal, as so many stories are, but I am afraid that is it not yet finished so it may be an unsatisfactory tale for all that it is composed of the things that we want from our stories. There was a King once who was powerful and beloved by his people, but who in private was stern and heartless, perhaps even cruel – yes, let us say that he was cruel – to his wife. The King and his wife had little love for each other, as their marriage had been forged in the furnace of war and he had taken her to assert his claim over the lands of a mighty rival. One day the Queen met another man. He was gentle, perhaps, and kind. Or perhaps he was handsome and winning in his ways. I do not know. Whatever charm it was that he possessed however, he was able to capture the Queen’s heart. They would meet in private, fearful, no doubt – even terrified – of disclosure for they both well knew the terrible wrath of the King. After a time the Queen realised that she was with child, and knowing that it could not be the King’s, for he had been away at war during the spring, she panicked. Or, perhaps, she did not panic, but merely came to her senses. Maybe even it was her lover who decided that the risk was too great and forsook her…I do not know… I can tell by the look in your eye, my Lady, that my story-telling is far from masterly. I apologise, but as I said, it is a tale still in the writing and I do not yet know its full shape. It is why I have called you here today.

“However it ended, it was over, and the Queen was with child. The baby was born hard upon the beginning of the cold season. A chilling wind was howling that day, and it is said that in the temple of Rhais a fire began of its own accord in the goddess’s brazier: a sign, no doubt, that the child would be the heir that the King had so long desired. The Queen lied to the King and said that the child had not been expected for at least another month and the King, deluded, perhaps, by his own lust for a male child, was fooled. He accepted the boy as his own. The Queen never told the King or her child the truth.

“The boy thrived and grew into manhood and in the fullness of time his father passed and he assumed the throne. He took a wife to himself, and like his father the match was a political one, undertaken for the safety of his people. He might have gone on in this manner the rest of his days but for an ambitious noble. Somehow, this noble had acquired a letter – a love letter. It was from the Queen and addressed to her lover, whom she did not call by name but referred to only as the Lord of her Heart: a pun, no doubt, on her husband’s title as the Lord of her Hand. In this letter she wrote of their child, assuring her lover that the King did not know the babe was not his own, and assuring him that she would take the secret to her grave to ensure the safety of her son. He was her only child, for her husband – having seen to the production of an heir – had taken to visiting mistresses in the city. One of them even bore him a son whom the King made sure to install as a priest in the temple of Rae. The noble who had this letter was a fool, and more dangerous still, a greedy fool. He saw in the letter only a way to further his own ambitions. He said that if the King agreed to unite him in marriage to the princess, then the noble would keep the letter safe. Safe, that is, for as long as the noble was alive. Should anything happen to him, the letter would be published abroad.

“The King pleaded – yes, pleaded – with the noble, trying to get him to look beyond his own petty ambitions and to pay regard to the needs of the people and the good of the kingdom. If it were to become known that the King were not the true heir, then the King’s enemies to the North, who had allied themselves to him in marriage, would be furious at the deception and the peace that had been wrought would fall. The Northern enemies had thought they were marrying their princess to the son of the King and the true heir of the kingdom – to reveal that it had all been a lie would have been to invoke ruin on them all! But the king was unable to convince the noble, and he was forced finally to agree that the noble could marry the princess. The King knew that this was but the first demand, and that eventually the noble would want to be named heir. But what could the King do? To refuse the terms of the deal offered him by the noble would be to risk publication of the letter and the destruction of his world.”

Faroz looked at Arshalous with an intensity that frightened her. His hand had moved beneath his clothes and he clutched at something hidden and terrible. It radiated a menace throughout the hall, filling her with loathing and dread and it seemed as though the clouds above them thickened, plunging the room into darkness. In the distance there came the dry rumble of thunder, and she knew that rain was coming. The King resumed speaking. “But then one day the King found a way to retrieve the letter. It would take time and patience, but eventually he knew that he could get it. When he did, then he would no longer be under the sway of the noble and would be free to act against him. The king dared not do anything against the lord openly, for even with the letter gone the noble could still cause trouble. Perhaps the noble knows more than he says? Perhaps there were other documents, and maybe – even – he knew who the King’s real father was. No, the risks of openly attacking the noble are too great. A more delicate solution is required. And the King is nothing if not…delicate…in such matters. But even a mighty King such as he, even one with the power of life and death over his subjects, requires allies in such matters. So he turned to a powerful lady of the city, one who is cousin to the noble, one who is isolated from the other nobility, one whom he can trust because she has nowhere else to turn, and one whom he knows despises their common enemy. The King summoned her to his presence and asked her if she would aid her King in the preservation of her kingdom. He asked if, when the time came for him to move against Korak, would she be willing to help him in the downfall of her cousin?”