'Looks like the queen's writing,' Temor agreed reluctantly.
'It is a forgery made to look like mother's writing,' Piro insisted. 'He's trying to turn everyone against her!'
Cobalt shook his head sadly. 'Uncle, I fear you are in for a double heartbreak because it was your very own daughter who had hidden this treacherous message — '
'That's a lie!' Piro could have wept with frustration.
Cobalt shrugged. 'Say what you like, kingsdaughter. I bear the marks you left on my body, when I tried to question you.' He rolled up his sleeve to reveal two long scratches that had beaded with blood. 'You know what a wyvern whelp she is, when her temper is roused.'
Piro gasped. Everyone looked at her as if she'd sprouted horns.
Her hands curled into fists. She wanted to claw out Cobalt's sorrowful lying eyes. Then she realised something.
'Look!' She opened both hands, holding them out for all to see her finger tips. 'My nails are bitten down to the quick!' These last few weeks she had fallen back into her childhood habit of chewing her nails.
Her father's eyes widened as he took in her ragged nails, which were clearly incapable of scratching anyone.
'They weren't like that when she scratched me,' Cobalt insisted.
The king's mouth settled into a grim, sad line. 'I'm going to see Myrella.'
When he strode off, the others followed. Piro hurried to stay by his side. Captain Temor fell into place on his other side.
'Rolen, if there is any doubt we can't risk freeing the queen,' Temor whispered. 'Only betrayal from within could cause Rolenhold to fall.'
'I know.' Her father sounded bleak.
'Mother is not a traitor,' Piro protested, having to take an extra skipping step to keep up with the men.
'Can you prove that?' Cobalt asked, from just behind them.
She spun to face him. 'Can you prove she is?'
He pointed to the forgery in her father's hands.
'One of you is lying,' King Rolen said. 'Once, I would have said nothing could make me doubt Myrella. But she was the one who encouraged me to betroth Lence to Isolt, and King Merofyn has used this to lull us into a false sense of security.'
Piro's heart sank. Nearly thirty years of peace and twenty-one years of marriage to Myrella were not enough to erase the ancestral mistrust of Merofynia.
They had to mount the stairs of the mourning tower in pairs. The tower had been built one hundred and thirty years ago by Queen Pirola the Fierce to celebrate her wedding but, when her betrothed was murdered, she locked the murderer, her own sister, in its topmost room. Her sister leapt from the top rather than face trial. It had been used ever since to contain royal prisoners.
A guard stood at the door.
'Unbar the door.' King Rolen waited while the door swung open.
Piro watched her mother come to her feet, small, regal and very angry.
Queen Myrella's black eyes flashed as she took in the crowd on the tower landing. 'So, you have come with a court, King Rolen?'
'I have come to find the truth,' he said, growing stiff and formal but, underneath, Piro heard defeat. He had already given up on the queen. This man was a pale shadow of her father.
Piro glanced to Cobalt, who was watching their faces. She remembered how he had turned everything to his advantage when Byren confronted him, and she had a bad feeling.
'Only one person is lying here and it is not me, Rolen,' the queen's voice quavered ever so slightly. 'You've known me since I was a child of eight summers. Have I ever lied to you?'
Piro froze. Her mother had lied by omission since the day she discovered she had Affinity. Thank the goddess Cobalt did not know that!
'We are at war with your homeland, Myrella.' He sighed. 'I would be a fool not to protect my castle and my people.'
'You don't believe me.' The queen blanched and turned away from him, going to the window. After a moment she recovered and faced her accusers. 'There is a traitor in our midst and it is not me. Someone forged that letter. I think…'
She stiffened, head tilting back. Piro smelt the tang of Affinity on the air. Piro glanced to Seela to see if she realised what was happening but no one else could read the signs. If her mother's Affinity came out now her father would be forced to execute her.
Her mother's eyes rolled back in her head. One hand lifted. Piro glanced to Seela. For once the old nurse was stunned into immobility.
A voice that was not hers came from the queen's lips. 'Rolen Byren Kingson, heed this warning. Listen to false counsel and your castle will fall. A man who is half snake, half wyvern is coming. He will tear out your heart, he will — '
'No!' Piro screamed and ran across the room, shoving her mother off her feet so that she staggered, hitting her head on the stone lintel of the window.
Nimble despite her age and girth, Seela darted forwards to catch the queen as she crumpled to the floor.
Inspired by what Valens had done to her father, Piro spun to face the men. 'You must send for the mystics. Mother's been under the influence of a Merofynian renegade Power-worker. Only a mystic can counter the renegade's influence and save her!'
The men all nodded wisely. The bigger the lie, they more they believed it. Fools. No wonder Cobalt could play them like fish on a line.
'Perhaps one of the ambassador's servants was a renegade Power-worker in disguise. It's happened before,' Captain Temor muttered.
'So that is why she has been acting strangely,' King Rolen muttered. Piro wanted to kick him.
He crossed the room and knelt, lifting his wife's small body in his arms. Gently he placed her on the bed, brushing the dark curls from her forehead. 'My poor Myrella.'
The old honour guard muttered sympathetically under their breath. Only one person, other than Seela, knew what was going on. Piro allowed her gaze to meet Cobalt's. He gave her a look that could cut glass and she was glad they were not alone.
'Eh, Piro, come here,' King Rolen said.
She approached him and he took her hand in his large callused one. 'I'm sorry I doubted you, lass. You were only obeying your mother when you carried the note.'
Tears stung Piro's eyes. She wanted to howl like a baby. Even now, her father believed Cobalt rather than her.
'Here, don't cry.' He patted her back, pressing her to his shoulder. He smelt of horse sweat and leather and she just wanted to be six years old again, when he was the strongest, most powerful thing in her world and he could protect them all.
The king pulled away from Piro, so he could look into her face. 'I'll send for both mystics and they'll cast the renegade out of your mother. Never fear.' He glanced to the bed where the queen lay so still. 'But, until then, I must keep her locked up for her own good. You understand, Piro?'
'Yes, father.'
And she had to be content with that. Her mother was innocent in the king's eyes so she was salvageable. But the real traitor was Cobalt and, next to Temor, he was her father's most trusted advisor.
Then her stomach gave a sickening lurch for, when the mystics arrived, they would discover her mother had Affinity. Why hadn't she thought before she acted?
King Rolen straightened, an angry gleam in his deep-set eyes. 'Send for Autumnwind and Springdawn. This has been going on under their noses and they didn't warn me!'
Piro cast a swift glance to Seela. The old nurse went to speak but Cobalt was too quick.
'Springdawn is dead. She took a lover and when it was discovered, killed herself and the lover.'
