The King's Bastard - By Rowena Cory Daniells Page 0,27
my words!'
Byren swore under his breath. Piro glanced to him. Why was he worried? An old woman couldn't hurt them, could she?
'Be off with you!' He went to drive her away.
'Byren,' the queen protested. Piro knew their mother always listened to the poorest of their kingdom. That's why the people of Rolencia loved her, even though she was the daughter of a Merofynian king.
But when the queen took a good look at the old woman, her face went slack with shock. Was this someone from her mother's past, Piro wondered, a Merofynian palace servant, who had come down in the world?
Byren gestured. 'Be off with you, old -'
The woman silenced him with a single piercing look.
The laughter died on Piro's lips as the woman dropped her staff and stiffened, her eyes rolling back in her head.
Since Piro became a woman at autumn cusp unwanted Affinity had been growing in her, so she had no trouble recognising it at work now. Tension made the very air taste strange and Piro's vision blurred. She blinked repeatedly until she realised she was seeing the shift caused by Unseen power acting on the Seen world.
Piro went very still, like a deer startled by a predator. A seer with renegade Affinity - her secret would be revealed and she would be sent away like Fyn!
'You live a lie, Queen Myrella, queen of lies!' The old woman shrieked.
Discovering she was not the object of the old seer's prediction, Piro relaxed fractionally. Her mother took a step back, colliding with Byren who steadied her.
'Your lies will be the downfall of Rolencia and the death of those you love. You think you're safe but one rotten apple turns the rest!' Blind-to-the-seen-world eyes turned to Piro. She felt sure this seer would recognise her growing Affinity and denounce her.
'Like mother, like daughter!' the old woman wheezed. 'Do not make the same mistake -'
'Filthy untamed Affinity!' Lence swore, thrusting through the crowd. A dozen young honour guards wearing the symbol of the royal house of Rolencia followed him. Rich red foenixes, their scales picked out in gold thread, gleamed against the black background of the surcoats.
'Be silent, Utland Power-worker!' Lence ordered.
The old woman's trance left her and she cast him one swift glance before fixing Piro with urgent jet-black eyes, stumbling towards her. 'Piro Myrella Queensdaughter, don't deny your -'
Piro smelt death on the old woman. It turned her stomach and she pulled back instinctively.
'Here, leave m'sister alone!' With one shove Lence sent the Power-worker flying across the swept cobbles.
She hit the wall of the Three Swans Inn and collapsed in a snowdrift, her head at an odd angle.
Piro stared, stunned. The old seer was dead.
Now she could never reveal Piro's secret. A surge of relief filled her, followed swiftly by guilt as she turned on Lence. 'You killed her!'
He lifted his large hands, looking down at them as if surprised by what he had done. Like Byren he was a head taller than most men, but he had a deep barrel chest and the arms of a blacksmith.
Lence grimaced and wiped his hand on his thigh. Revulsion twisted his handsome lips. 'She shouldn't have brought her filthy untamed Affinity into Rolencia!'
Dismay swamped Piro. Would Lence dismiss her as quickly if he knew about her Affinity? 'But she was just an old woman. She wasn't even a very good seer!'
It was true. Piro was nothing like her mother.
'Hush, Piro,' the queen whispered. She looked ill. 'Lence did the right thing. We cannot have -'
'But she should have been arrested and given the choice of banishment or death,' Piro insisted. 'That's the law. You're always making me memorise the law.'
'Enough, Piro. It's for the best,' Byren urged. His attention was on their mother, who was visibly wavering as if her legs might give way. He slid an arm around her shoulder. 'Come sit down, mother.'
Orrade took her other arm.
'Uh, Orrie, Garza. Didn't see you there,' Lence muttered, then looked about eagerly. 'Where's Elina?'
'She's sick,' Garzik whispered, still staring at the seer.
Like him, Queen Myrella stared at the old woman's body, which lay abandoned like an empty husk.
Piro shuddered. She had never seen violent death. Surely the seer knew the laws of Rolencia? What had been so important that she risked death to warn them? Piro tried to remember what had been said to her mother, something about living a lie because she was the true heir to Merofynia and this would cause Rolencia to fall and her loved ones to die.