**chapter five**
Laera’s plan was made easier by the fact that the Empress Faelina was not yet pregnant when she arrived at Seaharrow. It was the first time she had ever met the woman her brother had chosen for a wife. Trust Michael to marry a tomboy, she had thought on meeting the new empress.
She was pretty enough, in a rather common sort of way, but she had no conception of how to comport herself like a real lady, much less an empress. She walked like a man, with no grace whatsoever, and was much too direct in her manner. Subtlety was clearly something the poor girl would never understand, thought Laera.
Faelina was polite and friendly to the other ladies of the court at Seaharrow, but evinced little genuine interest in their pursuits. She had no skill at dancing, embroidery, or weaving and could not play a dulcimer or lute. She was unschooled in the courtly graces, and though she was amenable to conversation with the other women, she much preferred to spend her time with the horses in the stables or galloping over the fields with Michael. She enjoyed hunting as much as any man and took delight in watching the guards at their weapons practice. The men all seemed to find her captivating and delightful, remarkably earthy and unprepossessing. The women did not quite know what to make of her.
However, it was obvious to everyone that Faelina and Michael were very much in love. They were birds of feather who understood one another, and everyone commented on what a perfect match they were.
Laera treated her like a little sister. Actually, she treated her much better than she had ever treated her real sisters, for whom she had had very little use.
It wasn’t difficult at all to gain her trust. Laera bestowed it freely from the very start. Manipulating her was not even a challenge. She was an innocent, completely without guile. Laera had nothing but contempt for her.
Faelina accepted Gella as her body servant without question, and from the day she arrived to one week prior to the summer solstice, Gella faithfully administered the potion that would prevent her from conceiving. Each night, she poured several drops into her mulled ale, which was Faelina’s preferred libation before bedtime. She even drank like a man, thought Laera. Michael had no taste whatsoever, marrying such a common wench.
Aedan diplomatically kept his distance. When the emperor’s party arrived, he had greeted her very formally and politely, with no hint upon his features or in his manner of what had passed between them.
He apparently preferred to pretend it simply had never happened. Laera would have liked nothing better than to plunge a dagger deep into his heart, but that would have been too quick. Besides, his turn would come. He was courteous, but after the emperor’s party had settled in, he avoided her as much as possible. That was fine with Laera. It meant he would not get in the way.
Toward the middle of the month, the army arrived, marching from Anuire for the long-anticipated punitive campaign against Thurazor, planned now for midsummer. There would be several weeks of preparation, and then they would depart around the middle of the next month. It meant that both Aedan and Michael would be kept busy drilling the troops in readiness for the campaign, which Derwyn would be joining with his knights and men-at-arms.
Rodric would be going, too. The young fool wanted an opportunity to distinguish himself in battle. It was just as well, thought Laera. He was becoming tiresome in any case. With luck, he would fall in battle, and she would be spared the necessity of getting rid of him.
On the night of the summer solstice, Laera gave Gella the little vial that contained the Gorgon’s seed.
She did not tell the girl what it was, merely that it was a new and more efficient preparation of the same nature she had used before.
Gella had accepted it without question, then returned later in the evening, as directed, to tell her that the deed was done. Now, thought Laera, all she had to do was wait. The child would quicken, and nine months later, when Summer Court was over and Michael and his party were long gone, the birth would take place.
She felt confident no one would ever suspect the truth of what had actually occurred. Aside from herself, only Gella and Callador would know, and she held both their tokens, giving her power over them.
Still, thought Laera, it would be best if Gella were disposed of as soon as possible. Callador was old and had too much to lose to think of betraying her.
He was too deeply involved himself, and he needed a patron. Besides, she still had use for him. But Gella was a loose end that would have to be accounted for.
She was the only one who could link her directly to the birth.
After everyone in the castle had gone to bed, Laera went to get the small bronze jewelry box she kept beside her bed. In the hidden drawer it contained, she kept the lockets that held the tokens of Callador and Gella, though she wore the one with Derwyn’s hair. She had given some of the lock to Callador so that he could effect the spell that lulled her husband into a deep trance each time the wizard came to her, but she had also kept some for herself.
She used Derwyn’s token now to make him sleep, but at the proper time, would use it to effect a spell that would make her a grieving widow.
She imagined what it would be like.
When the monster child was born, any effort to keep the birth a secret would be
