The Scourge of Muirwood (Legends of Muirwood 3)

As she fretted by the trestle table, she heard him shift and come away and slowly pad over to her. His chin nuzzled her neck and she smiled and trembled, enjoying the bristled feel of his cheeks and chin, the tickling feeling it caused down to her feet.

“I thought you would sleep longer,” she said, glancing over her shoulder at him.

“I was cold after you left. I want you near me…always.”

“The ships will be cramped, I imagine you will get your wish,” she said playfully. “Now, you said the Holk will meet us on the coast?”

He nodded, kissing her earlobe and making her gasp. “Please, Colvin. I do not want to burn your food. You must let me concentrate. The Holk will take us to Pry-Ree and then…?”

“We cross the mountains to Tintern and bring the Aldermaston back with us. He is the last to be saved. We will be on the boats for some time. The land we sail to is very far. Across the great ocean.”

“You said that the orb was meant to direct us there,” she continued, stirring the porridge and nodding with satisfaction at how it thickened. “The Holk will be the lead ship.” She frowned. “What about Martin? We did not speak of his part to this story yet.”

Colvin nodded sternly. “He has chosen to remain and protect his granddaughter. Hillel will become Queen of Comoros and he will be her advisor and protector. There is still some time before the Blight consumes everyone. At least she knows now what she truly is and what she must never do.”

Lia sighed. “It must have been difficult for you. Ruining her sense of who she really was. You were the one who discovered her at Sempringfall. You were also the one to tell her the truth.”

Colvin looked askance and shrugged slightly. “I suppose I do not judge or consider her pains and loss equal to what you have suffered, Lia. She will be Queen. It is hardly confinement in a dungeon. Her marriage will not be a happy one. But she will have more comforts than she would have enjoyed as a wretched. And more power.”

“You learned her true name from my father’s tome?” she asked.

Colvin nodded.

Lia served up two bowls of porridge, flavoring both with treacle and raisins. They ate it ravenously, washing it down with pure water that Lia summoned from another Leering.

“You told me to wait until today to tell me how you escaped Dieyre’s dungeon,” Lia said when they were finished. “I had thought perhaps Martin rescued you. But now I think not.”

Colvin shook his head. “No, but he did mix the herbs that feigned my illness. He is an astute poisoner. I was truly sick for many days and he used juice from some berries to add little poxes on my face and arms. The important thing to create was the rumor of my illness. Rumors get exaggerated with each telling. I knew that I would be spending the winter below ground in a dungeon. Considering what you endured in the hetaera’s lair, I faced my task as bravely as I could. There were no serpents to torment me. Only rats. Dieyre visited me often, trying to get me to reveal where my sister was being held. He kept me alive for that purpose, using his influence to forestall the Queen’s plan to execute me. As long as I revealed nothing, they had no choice but to spare me.”

“Yes, but how did you escape?” Lia pressed.

He paced the kitchen like he had before, back when he was healing from his wound. She wondered if he would reach for a broom and start swinging it like a sword. The thought almost made her laugh.

“Dieyre let me go,” he said simply.

“What?”

“You must understand that we spent much time talking together. He did not come to that decision all at once, but he slowly turned his thinking. He saw people around him begin to die of the plague. He saw that your warning would eventually be fulfilled. He asked me about you. He said he believed you did not die in the furnace, that you were alive somewhere. He wondered where you were and if you could be convinced to remove the curse you had put on him. I think he kept me so long because he believed you would eventually come looking for me to save me. But how could I explain to him that you were an Aldermaston and were bound to Muirwood’s fate? You will be bound to Muirwood forever you know. We both will.”

“Yes, but as you explained last night, it means I am bound to rebuild her. Not myself, but one of my posterity must do it. I did not know I could freely leave, but now I do. Imagine it, Colvin. A child or grandchild of ours, returning to this land to rebuild the Abbeys. It will take centuries to rebuild them all.”

Colvin nodded. “Until we do, the dead will multiply and roam the land. They will be in chains like the Myriad Ones. We must free them, Lia. We must free them all.”