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her waking moments. She had still been alive when Tagalong reached her,
lifting the cloak they had wrapped her in before anyone could stop her. The
enormity of the wounds and bruises Margren had inflicted on Aejys, knowing
what terrible pain she died in as Tagalong watched it was almost more than
the stalwart dwarf could handle. If she could find some way to pay Margren and
Mephistis back in kind, then she would. Once she got Tamlestari to
Vorgensburg, it would be time to look for some serious payback.
A hand extended over the tub and poured a fragrant oil into the water:
Jasmine. As the scent filled the room, Tagalong sighed. "That's nice."
"Yes. It's one of my favorites."
Tagalong turned and saw Tamlestari kneeling beside the tub, her body rounded
and swollen with the children she carried. "Stari!"
"I was tired of waiting." she smiled, but it could not erase the sadness in
her slanted green eyes.
"You wanted to talk?"
"About Aejys."
"I promised her I'd take care'a ya. I will."
"Including taking me back to Vorgensburg? I don't want to be left here."
"Yeah. Soon as the passes open. Take a different route though. Back through
Vallimrah, then drop down ta th' trade routes and over. Ya better have a
midwife along. I don't know nuthin' about birthin' babies."
"Laurelyanne does."
"Huh! Yer makin' plans behind my back?" She gave the young prince a ferocious
mock glare.
"Well ... yes. I had to be certain I had an alternate way of getting there if
you said no."
"Why'n Nine Hells, would I say no? There're Aejys' babies. They belong'n
Vorgensburg. Not this shit-assed realm."
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Tamlestari smiled again and this time it almost reached her eyes. "They are
all of her I have left." She closed her eyes and pressed her hands to her
stomach.
"Kick'n?"
"Yes. They're lively."
"Should be."
"Tell me about it about Dragonshead."
Tagalong's face clouded. "Ya don't wanta hear this."
"I do. I need to hear it from you."
Tagalong remembered and the memories hurt. She started slowly, telling how
they had ridden hard for Dragonshead after Mephistis took Aejys. The fight had
been hard once they got into the citadel. Then they broke into a chamber of
hecatomb where a hundred deaths could be taken in a single rite. They found
Kaethreyn, Josh, Clemmerick, Eliahu, and Sonden already there along with a
small guard of ha'taren and bradae. A single death pole stood at the top. They
were kneeling around something and the instant Tagalong saw that she knew it
had to be Aejys. She did not know who had cut her down from the pole and did
not ask; just as she did not ask who had bound her on it and stuck the blade
in, that much, at least, she knew in her heart was done by Margren. She
described the rest in far less detail, wanting to spare Tamlestari at least
that much: how she flicked back the cloak they had covered her with to see the
bloody ruin of her body. Aejys' dying breath had been given to remind Tagalong
of her promise to protect her people and Tamlestari. Then she died. Sonden
said she was not quite dead yet, but Tagalong knew different: she had just
seen Aejys die. She was crying when she finished. So was Tamlestari.
Tagalong climbed out of the tub and wrapped her wet arms around the
half-Sharani, Valdren prince, holding her, their faces pressed together as
they wept. "Nuthin's gonna happen ta yer or tha babes. I swear ta
GimliGloikynen. An' yer comin' home with me."
* * * *
To Becca's profound surprise, the next day Aejys sent for a solicitor of the
court and made good on her threat to Cedarbird: She had Becca declared her
heir should she die without issue. They sat together in Aejys' room with a
small pot of tea on the little table. Aejys had settled against the pillows on
the bed, her legs drawn up and crossed, giving her more purchase and easing
some of the feelings of helplessness she was prone to when she laid flat.
"I simply cannot believe you did that," Becca told her.
"With Tag stuck in Shaurone until late spring at the earliest, more likely
late summer, I had to make certain our people would be safe if anything
happened to me. Cedarbird brought that home the hard way."
"I still cannot believe it."
Aejys grinned with a twist of her old mischief and said, "Why? Can't bring
yourself to call me 'Mother'?"
"Ohhhhhhh!" Becca groaned, then shot her a mock glare, "If there were any
place on your body that wasn't already cut or bruised I'd smack you."
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Aejys chuckled. "Oh there is, there is. But that would be incest."
Becca groaned again.
"Seriously, now. There's something you should know. It doesn't leave this
room."
"What?" Becca sobered.
"Tamlestari is carrying my children. The reader said twins, a boy and a
girl."
Becca looked dumbfounded. It took her a moment to recover, and then she
quipped, "What? You mean I'm not stuck in this situation? Thank the Nine
Gods!" Then she sobered again. "Babies? Brendorn's?"
"Yes."
Becca fairly glowed and stood up, reaching for Aejys before remembering she
could not hug her without causing her pain. "That's wonderful."
"It does not leave this room. I don't want assassins going after them. If
they must go after anyone, I'd prefer it was me."
A darkness flashed across her face with a sudden sear of memory what it
felt like to die and she reached for that core of stubbornness and anger
that was all she had left to sustain her. She let go of the breath she did not
even realize she had been holding and it passed.
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