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THE HORSES WERE WAITING for them in the street outside "There is only one litter and two bearers," the Duke said, nodding toward the curtained chair and its two muscular, fair-haired slaves "Even with his crutches, Jaldis could barely hen he met us Do you think you could back a horse, Rhion?"

Rhion nodded, though he had private et into a saddle unaided "After being dragged up here," he said, pushing back his blood-streaked hair froates at lad"

The Duke&039;s lanced back over his shoulder at the featureless black doors which had swung shut, silent and unnoticed, behind theuards jerked and lurched over the undressed granite wall; bronze mail flickered darkly and voices rose, relieved to be out of the Teloom, as Jaldis was helped into the litter For the moment Rhion and the Duke stood in a little island of stillness in the crowd

Now, he thought, and his stoht, cold ball within him He sed hard

"My lord" He reached out to touch the red learner sleeve, and the Duke looked back down at hie in his voice

"My lord," Rhion said, "thank you - thank you beyond words for saving us - for believing in us over Mijac"

The big ypsy horse coper over Mijac"

Rhion shook his head, knowing there was no way out of what he had to say, and forced his eyes to meet the Duke&039;s "You shouldn&039;t," he said quietly, his voice pitched low to exclude the guards "That&039;s what makes this all the worse That confession is true"

The Duke regarded him in a silence which seemed to stretch out endlessly and see of the horses and the uneasy uards Rhion tried not to think of what the betrayal would do to this friend of Jaldis&039; - only what penalty Tally would have to pay for giving herself willingly to any ood faith for her e

At last he spoke "All of it?" His voice was quiet, his face showing nothing

"All of it," Rhion whispered, looking away He had begun to shake all over, with exhaustion and dread and wretchedness - he had to force his voice steady "Jaldis knew nothing He warned s for Tally get the better of me"

They&039;ll drown the child when it&039;s born, he thought He&039;d heard of that happening on those rare occasions when a wo Or Jaldis or Ranley, the court physician, could doubtless bring on a e

He shut his eyes, unable to bear it, unable to bear the thought of what it would do to her

His son If it was Jaldis&039; tincture that was responsible for the failure of his spells, it would indeed be a son Around thelanced questioningly at one another, unable to hear what their master had to say to this battered and filthy littlestillness of the Duke&039;s stance that kept even the stupidest of the about the delay

There was still no expression in the Duke&039;s voice "And is she with child?"

Still not looking up, Rhion nodded "I think so I don&039;t see that Esrex couldhis voice level with an effort, he explained what he thought had happened, withouthow or froiven it to Tally, ht successful in Damson&039;s own terms of motherhood and dynasty

When Rhion finished, the silence was so deep he could hear a slave wo walled house down the street and the endless rattling hum of the cicadas in the trees He could not meet the Duke&039;s eyes or look hiuished little but a blur in the fidgeting cresset glare Overhead, theon the curtains of Jaldis&039; litter as they stirred in a stray drift of wind

The Duke folded his heavy arms His voice was so quiet as to exclude even Marc of Erralswan, holding the two horses four feet away, but calers in his o courts "And you seduced her by an, but could not go on He was shivering, as if with bitterest cold

"That is not," the Duke said, "what Jaldis toldto dust

"According to Jaldis," the Duke went on, "hter loves you very much How much you love her I think you have just deness to shoulder the blame" And for all the quietness of his voice, his dark eyes were grim "But half the scandals in the world are based upon sincere love, and it is scandal hichhave to deal Marc"

At his gesture the young captain came forith the horses

"Coer than we have done"

Early su to tint the sky as the cavalcade ates The houses of the Upper Town crowded close here, not the villas of the rich - not on a street which bore so much traffic - but tall blocks of expensive flats owned by the wealthier civil servants or their mistresses, built over shops that sold jewelry, spices, and silk The alley where Jaldis had waited for the Duke&039;s approach could have been any of a dozen near here, Rhion thought, clinging to the saddlebow of his led horse - the alley where he&039;d waited, listening for just this clatter of hooves on the cobble, this creaking of leather and armor, this smell of torches made up with incense to keep mosquitoes at bay Waited and, still blind, still ed hiroans of a mute which had not passed his throat in eleven years

Waited to save hireat court yet, save the grooht in the shelter of the colonnade awaiting the Duke&039;s arrival from the hills Awakened an hour earlier by the advent of the Earl of the Purple Forest and the Duke&039;s servants and baggage horses, they caain Overhead, the sky was losing its darkness, the lateupon a still lake of lilac-gray

"My lord!" Esrex cath of the pillared hall as the door guards bowed the Duke in Rhion noted that the young ed into a court suit of ash-colored velvet on which rubies glea the Earl of the shocking cri Jaldis at the Duke&039;s side, leaning on his crutches with his opal spectacles flickering eerily in the long, filthy frame of his white hair Then his eyes went to Rhion, his torn robe stained with la at his other hand Up at the other end of the hall, around the two or three bronze lampstands which remained lit, a handful of courtiers self-consciously tried to pretend that staying up until the bakers were taking the bread from the ovens was their usual practice; but, in the sudden hush, the soft pat of a final card being turned was like the slass lace-spindles like the clatter of kitchen pans

Lazily, the Earl of the Purple Forest rose fro with one of Daed out of his traveling dress, though his red hair was still braided back froht velvet of his sleeves and breast "Really, Dinar, I think you owe me so"

"Even so," the Duke said Neither his voice nor his dehts away "Marc - fetch hter"

"She is with my wife, my lord," Esrex hastened to inform him with a mixture of officiousness and spite His pale eyes darted uncertainly from Rhion&039;s face to Jaldis&039; and back to the Duke&039;s "We thought it better to knohere she was If this man still holds her under his spells"

"A e, of course," the Duke responded, and the young er Then he turned and looked around him at the hall, and every head bowed quickly over fashionable needlework, lace-htness

"Oh, pounds thinner, darling, but the way she goes on about eating vegetables, you&039;d think she invented the - house, horses, lands, the town investuts than brains, if you ask me" "horse couldn&039;t run if you lit its tail on fire" A weary-looking corps ofwhat part of their repertoire hadn&039;t already been played four tiht air on viols and flutes, as incongruous in that tense atmosphere as a fan dancer at an auto-da-fe

The Duke raised his voice, not th of the hall "Good people, I bid you good night"

There was nothe dismissal in his tone The hall was cleared in five ainst the strap work allery, half-s-crystals that worked for anyone, he thought wryly, I could retire tonight on the proceeds

Then he thought of Tally again, and his heart seemed to die in his chest

"Really," the Earl said, when the last reluctant gossip had collected her feather tippet, her snoring lapdogs, and her long yellow silk train and departed "If the chit&039;s pregnant, as Esrex clai to have to be renegotiated Not that I wish to spoil sport, but there is the succession to be thought of"

"How did you knoas Esrex?" Rhion stepped back to where Jaldis had unobtrusively sunk down on one of the spindle-legged couches set alare of a near-by lari weak Between lae that covered both their robes, the servants would probably have to burn the cushions, but that was so they could take up with Esrex "And how did you knohat it was about?"

"I remained to listen, of course" Jaldis raised his head fro an effort to shake off the exhaustion that all but crushed hih the roof trap I hid for a few minutes near the door that leads out to thefor me across the roofs and down the alleys, not up next to the house itself"

Rhion was aghast "You could have been !"

"I knee had been poisoned with pheelas root, of course," that soft, droning voice went on "But it did not interfere with the senses of a e They waited, of course, for it to take effect before coe of wizard&039;s uessed what it was about If one is in the habit of storing grease beside the stove, one does not have to look far for a cause when the house catches fire"

Rhion bowed his head, grief and guilt washing back over hi to hers for hiht ridicule and sharace - almost certainly banishment - on Jaldis and probably Tally as well He shied froht on himself The Duke was a just uard against the White Bragenmere faction at hoon, but, as he had observed, scandal was scandal

Intent and terrible, the silence deepened in the room For the first time, Rhion understood why the very rich, in palaces this size, uards had left, Esrex&039; liverye quiet see of those feho remained Once Rhion looked up to see the Earl&039;s dark eyes turned his way, though whether he was studying the man whom Esrex had described as his rival, or ether on the couch, his eyesight was not good enough to deterh his teeth The Duke, his arms folded and his face a careful blank, did not even look at him, but Rhion could aler and disappointe operations, options, scenarios, and covering lies that went on behind those dark eyes

At length, Rhion&039;s quick hearing detected the rustle of skirts in the stairway that led from the vestibule up to the palace&039;s private suites and the firold-stamped military boots All eyes in the room were on the archway as shadow played suddenly across its lamplit pillars Then the pillars framed them: the tall Captain with his bronze ar to his shoulders; Damson in plum-black velvet that flashed with jewels; and Tally like the flaold

She&039;s with child, he thought again, and shivered onder and dread and grief My child Her child

A wizard&039;s child

A child they won&039;t allow to live

Without his spectacles, her face was only a blur to him as she crossed the vestibule, to sink to her knees at her father&039;s feet Dauess what had passed between the sisters in the hours since Esrex had ordered his wife to lock her one-time follower and champion in her roo out her hands "So sorry Please, I beg you"

The Duke stepped forward and took her hands, raising her, his face suddenly strained "My child"

"No" Shaking her head she stepped back quickly, as if to study his face, and, by the flash of the jewels on her rings, Rhion saw she had squeezed his hands Though her features were a blur to hio into a fight - a novice warrior, into her first fight, with no confidence of victory

"How you can dare" Esrex began, but a gesture frohter"

She sed The huge aht as she turned to the Earl of the Purple Forest

"My lord, I can only beg your pardon as well They say you are a man who understands love and lovers"

If you want to call it that, Rhion thought cynically, and saw the Earl&039;s head tilt a little, with detached interest Esrex drew in his breath, but, at a glance fro to be given her say

"Your pardon also I ask, Rhion the Brown" She gave hi distance between the"

She turned back to the Duke There was a small bunch of pheasant-plu down froold Rhion could see the facets of it flash with the tre of her knees

The hall was utterly silent

"As usual Esrex was only half-right," she went on, her voice very clear and steady in the hush "Father and my lord" She inclined her head toward the Earl, atching theleam in his eye "Toyour pardon, beg it abjectly, for having fallen in love with a man other than the one you, Father, would have chosen But I have fallen in love"

Half-turning, she stretched out her hand

and with only the barest perceptible hesitation, Marc of Erralswan stepped forward, took it, and put a protective ar his handsoiveness"

Rhion, who had risen to his feet when Tally had briefly addressed hih sense to keep his ht ahead But Esrex was far too stunned to look at hi for the support of the couch Oh, Tally, no

Stiffly, as if she spoke with a knife-point in her back, Damson stepped forward and said, "It&039;s true, Father" She kept her eyes averted froe were visible even to Rhion Her high, childlike voice sounded strained but firo I would have spoken to you of it toaze fixed deterold ornamentation of her father&039;s sleeve, "said that youwith child, and so bade ht But he never told ht her lover was, nor ould be done to to these innocent men"

"No wizard is innocent!" Esrex sputtered, co suddenlylike a furious boy&039;s "And as for"