volumes on herb lore or advanced alchemy in your library.’
‘I will have to take your word for that.’
‘I would advise you to do so, if you wish to recover your health.’
Teclis grimaced. He did not like being told he had to do anything. He was naturally contrary that way.
‘What is the matter, Prince Teclis? Are you afraid I am going to poison you?’
Teclis stared at her. ‘Do I need to be?’
‘What exactly do you mean by that?’
‘What exactly are you doing here with your soldiers and your over-muscled lover?’
Lady Malene cocked her head to one side and stared at him. He met her gaze and for a long time neither of them looked away. A slow smile, almost of understanding, crossed her face. ‘Are you jealous?’
Teclis was annoyed because he had not realised that he was, in part, until she had asked him. He knew how ludicrous that must look to her and beyond all things he disliked being made to look ludicrous.
‘Answer my question, please.’ It sounded more imploring than he would have liked. Normally he was better at controlling his expression than this.
‘I have come to take you to Lothern.’
‘Why?’
‘So that you may be presented to the Phoenix King and then, most likely, to the Priests of Asuryan.’
‘Why?’
‘So that you may be judged and found untainted by the Curse of Aenarion.’
‘What if I am not so judged?’
‘You are worried that you might be found to be cursed?’ She sat down on the bed beside him, still holding her flask of medicine.
‘Would you not be, if you were me?’
‘I suspect I would, Prince Teclis, but I am in no position to know. I am not a descendant of Aenarion.’
‘There are times when I wish I were not. There are times when I think I am accursed, that I must be, to have turned out the way I have.’
‘If your illness is your only manifestation of the Curse, you have nothing to fear.’
‘I fear my illness,’ he said.
‘I meant from us, from the Council of Mages, from the Phoenix King’s personal magii, from the Priests.’
‘What if you do see a reason to be worried, some echo of the doom of Aenarion down all the long centuries? What will happen then?’
‘I do not know, for certain.’
‘Feel free to speculate.’
‘You are a very odd youth, Prince Teclis.’
‘I would not know. I do not have much to compare myself to. Only my brother, Tyrion, and comparisons with him are invidious.’
‘Why? Because you lack his health, his charm, his beauty?’
It was all rather too close to the truth for his liking.
‘Please do not hold yourself back to spare my feelings,’ said Teclis.
Malene laughed.
‘You have your own charm, and you have wit and more to the point you have very great potential in the Art. You are also much cleverer.’
‘Do not make the mistake of underestimating my brother.’
‘I do not. The fact that you are brilliant does not make him a fool.’
‘I think you will find he is quite brilliant in his own way.’
‘And what way is that?’
‘Show him anything to do with warfare and he understands it at once, instinctively. Play him at any game, any, and you will be beaten.’
‘Korhien says that he is... gifted beyond any young warrior he has ever met. I suspect you will prove to be the same when it comes to magic. I am not sure that is such a good thing.’
‘Why?’
‘Because the ones who are exceptional are the ones who are feared. Aenarion was exceptional. Malekith was too. There have been others. Prince Saralion, the Plaguebearer, the Daemonologist Erasophania. They are the ones who bring doom.’
‘There are others of the line of Aenarion who were exceptional too and they did great good,’ said Teclis, aware of how desperate he sounded. ‘The healer Xenophea. Lord Abrasis of Cothique who found a way to stabilise broken waystones. I could name a dozen more.’
‘Then let us hope you are one of those.’ She smiled again and it came to Teclis that Lady Malene, whatever else she might be, was not his enemy. She did not mean him any harm, simply because of who he was, or who she was.
That did not mean she would not turn on him if he turned out to be cursed, of course.
‘Do you think I could be?’
‘Yes. Now will you drink this medicine? Or should I pour it out?’
‘You would not poison me, would you?’
‘If I was going to, would I tell you?’
‘I bow to the logic of your argument.’ Teclis drank the medicine and