The Reckless Oath We Made - Bryn Greenwood Page 0,66
uncle, had made up a party of twenty men for hunting, and rode into the forest. During the hunt, they became lost. The duke and the young man, who was called Raymondin, weren alone together.
“The boar they sought to hunt burst from the trees. Raymondin raised his blade to strike it dead, but misstruck and swung again. When the boar lay dead at his feet, Raymondin saw that the first hit of his sword slew his uncle the duke. The boar and the nobleman lay side by side, both dead. In grief and confusion Raymondin wandered the forest until he found Melusine and her sisters beside a stream.
“What, he asked of Melusine, ought I do?
“Go, she said, and ride out of the woods. Pretend thou knowest naught of thy kinsman’s fate. Say only that ye two weren parted as well. None shall suspect thee.
“The lady was right, for in the confusion of the hunt, none had seen Raymondin and the duke together. The huntsmen returned to the wood and found the duke. He slew the boar and the boar slew him, they said. They took his body to the cathedral and laid him out. Some days after, Raymondin returned to the forest to thank the lady and entreated her be his bride. She assented but bade him swear never enter her chamber while she was under her mother’s curse.”
“Well, crap. Like mother, like daughter,” Lady Zhorzha said. She prostrated herself and lay her hand upon her eyes as tho she would shut out some horrible vision.
“Yea, my lady. ’Twas many years that Melusine and Raymondin weren steadfast in marriage. She built him up a great castle with mighty fortifications that still stand, called Lusignan. Because of this, Raymondin was made Count of Poitou. Melusine gave him also many sons. All weren strong and clever, but each was in some way disfigured. One with a great tusk like a boar’s. One with ears like a donkey’s. One called Horrible with a third eye upon his forehead. And so on.
“Raymondin loved her, but soon his brothers, who coveted his castle and his crown, cast into his ears suspicion that Melusine’s secret Sabbaths were of evil intent. That mayhap ’twas the devil’s work that her sons weren ugly. Tho he vowed never do it, Raymondin crept to her bedchamber one Saturday and looked into the keyhole. There she was, like her mother before her.”
“Disporting in the bath?” said my lady.
“Yea. Disporting in her bath. Raymondin gazed upon her monstrous tail and her white neck and her glistering scales and her high, round breasts. He saw and he loved her no less. For she was this mysterious creature, and yet she consented to love him and share his bed six days of each week. He went from her bedchamber with all care and silence, and for many years hence, spake no word of what he had seen, and would hear no more accusations against her.
“The sons of Raymondin and Melusine grew to manhood, and weren known as brave knights, most especially he of the boar’s tusk, that was called Geoffrey Big-Tooth. In a while, there arose a quarrel twixt Geoffrey and his pious brother Froymond. Geoffrey would not see Froymond taken into a monastery, for he scorned monks and feared they held sway over Froymond. In a great fury, Geoffrey fired the monastery. It burned and with it, the monks and his own brother.
“When the dire news reached Lusignan, Raymondin wept to hear the evil deeds of Geoffrey, and Melusine took herself to his side to succor him upon her white neck. In his grief, Raymondin remembered how it was that Geoffrey was birthed, from the great scaled nether parts of Melusine. He pushed her from him and cried out, Touch me not, odious serpent!
“Melusine’s grief and anger weren much at war, but she withdrew from Raymondin and said, Thou hast broken the only vow I asked of thee on our wedding day. By cause of the curse upon me, I must renounce thee. Tears upon her cheeks, knowing that the curse must part her from her dear husband, she transformed. Her tail lay in full view before all of the court at Lusignan, and from her back furled two great wings, scaled alike as her tail. Leaving behind two young sons in their cradle, she thrice flew about the castle ramparts, and cried out in grief. She flew thence and was nevermore seen by Raymondin.”