In the time he'd spent at Argentine, he'd spoken at length with Rilca and learned exactly what sort of fertility potion she'd recommended to Ilsabet.
He'd also been working quickly, mixing the potent infusion that would bring either life or death to the baron. He'd finished the night before. Now it was time for the inevitable confrontation.
Sighing, he turned his back on the fog. With one final glance around his room, he went downstairs to where his horse was saddled, waiting to take him back to Ilsabet for the last time.
In the dank, secret passages of Nimbus Castle, the spider found little to eat, and it hurried on. It smelled the scents of the huge, succulent prey in the room just below it and searched in the dark for some crack wide enough to allow it to descend.
THIRTY
From the Diary of Baroness Ilsabet
Since the Sundell guards left some days ago, Shaul has sat at Peto's side like an obedient dog. He reads to Peto, tends to him as if fearful my servants would be too rough with his precious, useless body. In truth, I have been most careful with Peto, for I find his helplessness so satisfying. Both men actually cried when I released Sagra and Lekai from that hidden room and brought the boy to Peto's side. Sagra, too, wept, thinking my son was now safe from his enemies.
I saw Peto's arm tremble as he tried to hold Lekai. I looked down at my son's features. He still does not resemble Jorani, but now he does not resemble Peto either. Instead, Lekai looks most like my father, with the same fierce dark eyes and unruly red hair. The fates, it seems, have brought my father back to his land and his people.
Now that my husband and his faithful servant are both helpless, with my guards outside the door, it's time to tell them both the truth about the child they think is Sundell's heir…
Peto heard his wife's footsteps in the hall, heard her order the guards to stand close to the door, ready to come to her aid should she call.
She came to his side and kissed him as she always did. He heard his lieutenant's whispered oath, but Shaul stayed where he was, ready to defend the baron and his child, Ilsabet took her husband's hand.
'In the last few weeks, I've told you much,' she said. 'Now I want to tell you the rest.'
And in the same beautiful voice she'd used to confess to everything else, she told him about Rilca's special tea, her night with Jorani, and the pregnancy that followed.
Peto listened, not surprised by what she believed, but not at all certain it was true. Shaul, however, was furious. He backed away from the bed. Peto could see him moving down the length of it.
'I suppose your work is finished here now, Lieutenant,' Ilsabet purred. 'I suppose you want to go back to your little family. You can't, of course. You'll die here, and the knowledge with you.'
'Then I won't be alone!' Shaul lunged.
Ilsabet managed a strangled cry as they fell.
Peto heard her head hit the floor, then nothing. He pictured Shaul's hands around her delicate white throat, squeezing the life from her. He felt no regret.
AH this happened in an instant. Then the door burst open and the guards stormed in, swords drawn, and pulled Shaul off the baroness, pounding him into submission.
'Shall we kill him, Baroness?' the captain asked.
It took some time for Ilsabet to catch her breath and speak. When she did, Peto could picture her smile, twisted and cold, could hear the hunger in her voice.
'Perhaps later.'
Sagra entered the room, carrying Lekai. She looked from Ilsabet to Shaul and frowned. 'Lord Jorani just rode through the gates.'
Ilsabet clapped her hands. 'Send him up.'
The fog was thick around Nimbus Castle, and it had a strange, pale glow that reminded Jorani of the white mists on the path to the Seer's cave. Nothing moved in the fog, though the fog itself was moving. Patches of it thickened into phantasmal creatures. Red eyes shone out from the amorphous faces, then vanished as smoothly as they'd appeared.
A promise of things to come, Jorani thought, and shivered.
His horse refused to enter the thickest patches around the castle, and Jorani had to lead the animal on foot to the gates. No one could see him coming, so it took some time to get the guards' attention and open the gates. When they did, the fog invaded the courtyard. By the time Jorani handed his spent mount to the care of a stablehand, the mists had already reached the top of the stairs. The sound of the servants in the courtyard grew muffled, then died altogether as if the world outside the castle halls ceased to exist.
'Let what will come, come.' Jorani whispered the ancient prayer to the fates and left the doors open behind him.
Sagra came to the top of the stairs, her eyes fixed on the fog. 'Baroness Ilsabet wants to see you now.' She pointed to the open doors of Peto's chambers.
So soon, Jorani thought, and decided it was better that way.
Ilsabet met him just inside the door, hugging him, then tilting up her head for him to kiss her. The undisguised contempt on Shaul's face told him all he needed to know about what had been revealed in his absence. Instead of kissing her, he whispered into her ear. 'Dismiss the guards,' he said. 'We must have no witnesses.'
'And the lieutenant?' she asked quietly.
'Let him see this,' Jorani responded, trying to keep his tone deceptively sinister.
'He'll have to be restrained,' Ilsabet countered.
'Will he?' Jorani pulled out his sword and looked at the Sundell officer, his bleeding head, the bruises on his bare arms. He breathed shallowly, his face ashen. 'He couldn't stand, let alone be a match for my blade. Tell the others to leave.'
Puzzled, Ilsabet ordered the guards away, but feeling the need for an ally, asked Sagra to remain.
Shaul, all fight out of him, sought out a chair and sat, his back stiff as he tried not to put pressure on his broken ribs. Sagra hovered above him, wanting to help, but not at all certain what to do.
Jorani lifted Lekai from his father's arms, placed him on the floor, then sat beside the baron. 'I'm sure my pupil has told you a great many things, Baron, but she hardly knows it all. I can't say for certain whose child Lekai is, but chance is in your favor not mine.'
'But Rilca…' Ilsabet began.
'She wanted to impress you with her knowledge, so she embellished with information she knew little about. If she'd told the truth, you'd know that she tried that potion herself many times and was still childless.'
Ilsabet glanced at Lekai, sitting by the bed, biting a finger to force another set of teeth through. 'He looks like my father,' she said stubbornly.
'So he does,' Jorani agreed. 'But not like me.'
'It isn't true,' Ilsabet whispered. 'It can't be. If it were I would…'
'You'd what, Ilsabet? Kill your child out of vengeance? If I thought you capable of such a deed, I'd kill you myself,' Jorani said. He carried his sword to Shaul. 'Can you use it?' he asked. Shaul nodded. 'See that she doesn't interfere.'
'And see that the lieutenant obeys only that order,' Ilsabet said to Sagra. The servant did not answer. She was looking at Shaul's battered face, as if seeing clearly for the first time what sort of a mistress she served.
Returning to the baron, Jorani pulled out the vial he'd brought. 'How is your strength?' he asked.
Peto managed to close both hands into fists, to whisper a word: 'Better.'
'Good. I've brought the strongest stimulant I dare use. Your life belongs to the fates.' He sat next to the
