Finnikin of the Rock

'The night she came to me, Beatriss had smuggled Japhra out of the palace and they rode through the dark to find us. Japhra of the Flatlands was twelve. Taken from her family by the bastard king to do with whatever he pleased. She was almost catatonic, and even today her spirit is damaged.'

Finnikin shuddered.

'I had been trying unsuccessfully to contact my mother through the magic of the goddesses and had failed repeatedly. That all changed the night I was reacquainted with Lady Beatriss. Japhra wasn't the only reason she came to see me. Let's just say it was for ... medicinal purposes.'

'She was with child?' Trevanion asked.

'I don't think I need to tell you that if this conversation ever goes beyond us —'

'You'll poison us?' Trevanion said.

She sent him a scathing look. 'It would shatter Beatriss's heart if you knew why she came to see me that night, and we don't want to go around doing that, do we, Captain?'

'She wanted to rid herself of the babe inside her?' Finnikin asked.

'I don't think she knew what she wanted. But she was exhausted from the ride, so I allowed her to stay the night. The girls and I had had very little contact with the rest of the kingdom up until that point. I had twelve of the forty remaining Forest Dwellers in my care in the cloister, as well as the priestess of Lagrami and her girls. I trusted no one with their lives.'

The girl returned and poured the tea with trembling hands.

'Thank you, Japhra,' Trevanion said quietly.

She nodded and left them.

'That night, the spirit of my mother came calling. I felt her. As if she were holding me somehow. She spoke words to me that I could not recall the next morning, until Beatriss told me of her strange sleep. She had dreamed she held her first child in her arms. And the child had spoken to her. Delivered a message.'

The three men waited.

' 'The child of Beatriss will share dreams with our heir, who will set us free.''

She took in the looks of shock and disbelief on their faces.

'You could argue that it was the need of two grieving women, one for her mother and one for her child. But at such times, gentlemen, you grab at any sign of hope. You grab it with both hands and breathe life into it, day after day. You do anything to keep it alive.

'We talked about it, the priestess of Lagrami with us, all day and night, putting forward different theories. Seranonna and the child died on the same day and we believed that my mother carried Beatriss's child to the heavens to be protected by our goddess. That night in our cloister, your child came looking for her mother, Trevanion.'

'What magic did you use to contact Isaboe?'

'None. It's beyond even my power or knowledge. I can heal because my mother taught me what plants and flowers to use. It's what I teach the novices. Japhra is one of our most talented. But healing and magic are different things. One must be very powerful to make contact with another through the sleep. A spirit so strong, full of all things good and all things wicked. An ability to look into the darkness and find a light.'

'Isaboe,' Finnikin said.

Tesadora nodded. 'She found us. She found Vestie, but I believe her sleep spirit was searching for Beatriss's first child, Finnikin's half sister. Somehow, blood caused a bond between Isaboe and any child that Beatriss would give birth to. All because Finnikin made a sacrifice to keep the princess safe, and I'm presuming he used the same dagger for the sacrifice as he did to end my mother's suffering.'

Finnikin did not respond.

'Of course, Beatriss was petrified about the message, but she knew she had no choice. I promised her that if she gave birth to the child, I would take it and she need never be reminded of who it was or what it represented. She agreed. She had nothing left to give. Oh, but the moment she saw Vestie,' Tesadora said with a sigh, 'I believe that if anyone had tried removing that child from Beatriss, they would have lost their life. I think many people were strengthened by the sight of them together. Villagers would visit Beatriss, afraid to speak but not afraid to hope, and somehow Beatriss gave them that hope. 'What needs to be done,' she would tell me.

'Then one day the blacksmith of the River village of Petros came to see me. Confessed to me that he had turned a Sagrami worshipper out of his home after the deaths of our beloveds. He begged me to take his daughters for protection.'

'It was good of you to agree,' Trevanion conceded.

'I didn't,' she said flatly. 'So that night, while his family slept, he smothered his wife and three daughters and then plunged a dagger into his own heart. He couldn't bear the idea of what the bastard king and his men would do to those girls.

'Beatriss threatened that if I did not agree to come up with a plan to protect the young girls of Lumatere, she would refuse me access to her child. A child whose first word was 'Isaboe.' It was our earliest indication that the heir and Vestie had walked the sleep together. We were stunned by the knowledge that it was the princess who had lived and not the prince. When I argued that there was nothing I could do, Beatriss spoke about the potion my mother had once given her. She left me no choice but to take in the young girls. Unbeknownst to many, Beatriss of the Flatlands is quite a bully when she sets her mind to it. One can imagine who she learned that from,' Tesadora said snidely, looking at Trevanion.

'You had a choice,' Finnikin said. 'You protected the priestess of Lagrami and her novices long before that night.'

'Don't paint too sentimental a picture of me, young man,' Tesadora said sharply. 'It will only make you look like a fool.' Her expression was hard, and Finnikin could tell that she had said as much as she was going to. She stood up to walk them to the entrance.

'We will be questioning the baker tonight,' Trevanion said as they followed her.

'I doubt that very much,' Tesadora said.

Sir Topher and Finnikin exchanged glances.

'The queen has already arranged for his release,' she advised them.

'Is that what you convinced her to do?' Finnikin asked angrily.

Tesadora gave a humorless laugh. 'I hear the queen allows only one person to convince her, Finnikin.'

'Once the queen knows what took place in the dungeons—' Finnikin began.

'There is little that takes place in this kingdom that the queen does not know about,' she said, a glint of victory in her eyes. 'I would take her advice, Finnikin, and concern yourself less with truth and more on what is for the greater good of her people.'

Finnikin shivered as he realized the truth. He saw by their expressions that Sir Topher and Trevanion had come to the same conclusion. This was no random act from vengeance-seeking Forest Dwellers. The poisoning of the impostor king and his men had come from the highest office in the kingdom.

'Where is she?' he asked, as Moss approached them. 'Where is she?'

'Remember your place,' Trevanion said firmly. 'In Lumatere the queen rules, Finnikin.'

'Perri has taken her to the Monts,' Moss said quietly. Finnikin was on his horse before another word was spoken.

Trevanion felt Tesadora's furious stare as Finnikin rode away.

'Remember his place?' she said angrily. 'For the sake of this kingdom, gentlemen, I am hoping that you have not prepared your boy to remember his place among royalty, but rather to recognize it alongside the queen.'

'A very hard task indeed with your mother's premonition ringing in his head since he was a child of eight,' Sir Topher replied.

'The boy remembers her words the way he wants to remember them,' she said, 'but the man must understand them the way they were intended.'

Finnikin caught up with the queen and Perri as they rested at the foot of the mountains. Isaboe was sitting next to the guard, her back against a weeping willow, her knees tucked under her chin. The ride had done nothing to quell Finnikin's rage. When Perri saw the horse's fast approach, he was on his feet in an instant, his sword ready. Isaboe stood behind him, her eyes dark and piercing. Perri returned his sword to its scabbard and she stepped past him as Finnikin dismounted.