The Scourge of Muirwood (Legends of Muirwood 3)

She nodded, remembering the Aldermaston. “So you convinced Dieyre to let you go?”

He shook his head. “No. None of my persuasions ever convinced him. In the end, he arrived one night after one of his servants had perished by the plague. He stripped the man’s clothes and gave them to me and replaced mine with his. He said he would announce to the world that I was dead and that I could leave that night.”

Lia wrinkled her forehead. “Surely he was letting you go to follow you to Marciana,” she said, suddenly concerned.

Colvin nodded. “Naturally. Which is why I went to Forshee first instead of here. I went there for two reasons. To find my tome and to get something for you. There is something I wanted you to have.”

“What is it?” she asked, leaning forward curiously.

He retrieved the pouch with the Cruciger orb and pulled it out. Then fishing at the bottom of the pouch, he withdrew a wedding band.

“This was my mother’s,” he said. “You remember I told you that she was buried in an ossuary at my manor house? That I had feared she was buried alive?”

Lia nodded, her eyes widening in wonder.

“I opened the ossuary and there was nothing left but graveclothes and this ring. As you pointed out to me in the past, if the dead do not wish to wear rings in Idumea, then we may as well use them here.” He walked up to her and took her hand. “Will you wear this, as a symbol of our binding?”

Trembling with happiness, Lia nodded and Colvin slipped the ring on her finger. It fit well. It was beautifully crafted by an expert goldsmith, with little designs made of maston symbols along the band.

“In return then,” she said, reaching into her bodice and removing the ring she had found as a child. “Would you wear this ring? When you gave it back to me in the cell below Dochte Abbey, I fashioned a little necklace from some threads and wore it beneath my chaen.” She snapped the threads and put the ring on his matching finger. It fit perfectly, as if it had always belonged on his hand.

“I have carried that ring since I was a child,” she murmured. “To think, all along it was meant for you.”

Colvin leaned down and kissed her warmly. She enjoyed it immensely.

“You still have not finished your tale. How did you escape your manor?” she reminded him, tugging at his shirt front. “Dieyre is not known for being generous or a fool. I am certain he had his men follow you.”

“Yes. But neither he nor I was expecting Nuric. That is his Pry-rian name. I knew him as Theobald, my father’s steward. He was an Evnissyen who served your father. His mission was to deliver you to Muirwood Abbey as a baby. Because of the binding sigil, he could not speak of it, but he hinted as best he could. As I child, I had heard his stories about the Prince of Pry-Ree’s missing daughter. I assumed he had family in Pry-Ree, not that he was of Pry-rian descent. Do you see, Lia? Your father sent Nuric to Forshee to serve my father. He was my advisor and a friend. He knew about you and where you were, but he could not say until the binding was broken. Remember, when I told you last night that Hillel and I went to the Holk, I was given the room of a shipmate, the one belonging to the crewman Malcolm. That was when Maderos told me who he really was and gave me your father’s tome. He was the one who kept it safely all these years.”

Lia smiled at the thought, grateful to her father and his Gift of Seering. “And the password?”

“The tome had passages for me, written in my language, by your father. He explained that to get the password, I needed to take the orb from Hillel and bring it to Maderos. He would be able to read it and make it work. The password was, as I told you last night, the name you were given in the maston ceremony.”

“And you read the tome during the journey home, at least the parts you could read. Then Twelfth Night came. That was when you betrayed Hillel and banished the Myriad One who was with her. You cannot banish it permanently, because of the mark on her shoulder, but you drove it away for a while and could explain to Hillel who she really was and what she had done.”

Colvin nodded, rubbing his chin. “Nuric helped me escape Forshee undetected. He is a skillful man and helped me cross to you undetected. He knew I should visit you alone and has gone ahead of us to the Holk and will leave with the ships for the new land. He is so anxious to meet you, Lia. He served your father faithfully so many years.”

Lia looked out the window again. It was dawn. “I suppose it is time to leave for Pry-Ree.” She smoothed her hand across the trestle table. “I will always remember this kitchen. My earliest memories are here. It will be sad to leave Muirwood, knowing we will never see it again.”