Darkwitch Rising by Sara Douglass

“Why, Noah?”

“Because I ask it, Jane, and because…”

“Yes?”

“Because, Jane, as a favour to me, Weyland shall grant you your freedom when I have completed my training as Mistress of the Labyrinth. He will have no further need of you, then. He will let you go.”

“I will?” Weyland said.

“A bribe?” said Jane. “How tasty.”

Noah inclined her head very slightly Weyland’s way. She didn’t look directly at him, but somehow the movement conveyed such emotion, and such appeal, that she might as well have thrown herself to her knees.

“Do this for me, Weyland, and for our daughter,” she said, low. “Promise that you will grant Jane her freedom once I have attained full powers as Mistress of the Labyrinth. Why not? What need shall you have of her, then? Grant me this boon, Weyland, I pray you.”

Weyland looked at her, a look of such hopelessness passing over his face as he did so that Jane was momentarily stunned, then he looked at Jane.

“Very well,” he said. “Your freedom, Jane, once Noah ceases to need you.”

Jane didn’t know what to do or say. She’d never dared to even consider the notion of freedom because she had been certain, all this life, that Weyland would eventually kill her once he’d done with her.

All the time she’d been learning the Ancient Carol in the Realm of the Faerie, she’d feared that Weyland would murder her before she could escape entirely into the Faerie.

Could she trust his promise now? Freedom?

Gods, freedom…Jane suddenly wanted it so badly she felt it as an ache in her belly.

But was freedom worth what Noah asked her to do?

She wanted Jane to keep her secrets. And what secrets…and kept from so many people. Hide from all—save the Lord of the Faerie, at least he knew this—that it was Ariadne who taught Noah, not Jane. Hide the fact that Noah was Ariadne’s blood daughter-heir. Hide the fact that Asterion was her forefather. Hide the fact that Noah was a Darkwitch bred and born. Hide from the Lord of the Faerie and from Louis, as all their allies, that Noah was handing the bands to Weyland. Hide from the Lord of the Faerie and from Louis the fact that Noah was pregnant with Weyland’s child. If and when any of these people found out what secrets she had been keeping…gods, she would be dead.

But, by the gods, what she would achieve if she succeeded.

Freedom.

Freedom to do as she wished.

Freedom to be what she wanted, where she wanted. Freedom from the Troy Game and all it meant.

Freedom to stand behind the throne on the summit of The Naked, to carol in the dawn and the dusk.

Freedom to stand and watch the Lord of the Faerie as he lifted his eyes to hers, and smiled.

She swallowed, looked at Weyland, then nodded at Noah. “Very well,” she said, “I will do it.”

Weyland smiled, but Noah didn’t, and, looking at her, Jane realised that she knew the risks Jane was taking.

“Thank you,” Noah said, and Jane looked away, not knowing if that “thank you” was enough.

Three

Idol Lane, London

The Lord of the Faerie knew Noah had shifted a band. The next time Jane saw him, which was two days after Noah had asked her to keep her secrets (all her damned, cursed secrets), the Lord of the Faerie greeted her by the scaffold, kissed her, and asked instantly why Noah had moved a band. Was Weyland forcing her to it? Was she in danger?

“Weyland is not forcing Noah,” Jane said. “Noah told me she was ‘sheltering’ the band, and that you were not to worry.”

The Lord of the Faerie nodded. “Ah. Then I shall not worry. Noah is sheltering them.”

Frankly, Jane didn’t know what Noah was doing with them, but if Noah was witless enough not only to sleep with Weyland, but also to fall pregnant with his child, then she wasn’t at all certain that Noah wasn’t also handing Weyland the kingship bands.

“Coel,” she said, “Noah has made Weyland promise that once she has completed her training as the Mistress of the Labyrinth, then I can have my freedom.”

The Lord of the Faerie stared at her, then his mouth slowly curved in a smile. “Has she now? Do you believe him?”

Jane meant to say something bland, but all she managed to do was burst into tears. She was terrified that Weyland didn’t mean it, that he was taunting her, and that the day Noah finished her training would be Jane’s death day.

The Lord of the Faerie pulled her to him, and cuddled her close. “You will be well,” he murmured. “You will live to stand behind my throne.”

Jane tried to calm herself. One of the Lord of the Faerie’s hands was stroking up and down her back, and she slid her arms about him, and rested her face against his shoulder, and dared to believe that all would, indeed, be well.

But how could it? How could it?

What would happen when she told the Lord of the Faerie all that she knew? Noah a Darkwitch. Noah a descendant of Ariadne and Asterion. Noah carrying Asterion’s child.

What would the Lord of the Faerie do when he knew all that? Would he loathe her? Throw her from the Realm of the Faerie?

And what possibility freedom when Weyland found out that not only was Ariadne—his mortal enemy—teaching Noah, but that Noah was herself descended of Ariadne and Asterion, and was a Darkwitch besides?

“I know more than you think, beloved,” the Lord of the Faerie said softly, his hand still stroking, and Jane began to weep once more, softly, despairingly. He couldn’t possibly know it all.

“Trust me,” he whispered.

Jane wanted to. She wanted to more than anything. But she was too scared. She was caught in a web of lies and deceit, and she was certain that sooner or later that web would strangle her.

Over the next weeks Noah retrieved three more kingship bands. While Jane did not see her with another of the bands, she knew because the Lord of the Faerie remarked upon it on each occasion.

“Noah retrieved another band yesterday, Jane. She is sheltering it?”

“Of course,” Jane said, knowing that is what the Lord of the Faerie wanted to hear. In reality, Jane had little idea what was happening to the golden bands of Troy. She saw Noah only infrequently: Noah and Weyland spent most of their time in his den (their den, Jane supposed) when Noah was not at her training with Ariadne, and both Noah and Weyland made sure that Jane never surprised them as she had on that first occasion. For all Jane knew, Weyland and Noah spent their time sitting in the Idyll, playing hoops with the damned things.

Whenever Noah went to Ariadne, Jane went to The Naked and learned more of the Ancient Carol from the magpie. She threw herself into her learning, using the magic of the music to empty herself of all her fears. From time to time the Lord of the Faerie asked her what was wrong, but she always evaded his questions.

At home in Idol Lane, Jane hummed to herself as she stood over the hearth, using the music to blot out the faint sounds of Weyland and Noah.

Gradually, as the months passed, Jane grew more withdrawn, and far thinner than ever she had been. The kitchen of Idol Lane had grown into a lonely, desolate space.

Noah’s pregnancy progressed. Jane saw relatively little of her (mostly on their way to and from the Tower of London), but what she did see showed her a woman blooming in anticipation of her forthcoming child. Sometimes they talked, briefly, of the baby. Succinct as these conversations were, Jane had no doubt how greatly Noah loved her child, and how greatly she anticipated her arrival.

It made Jane fear for her. To love this deeply, to want this badly…it left it too easy for Fate to step in with its ruinous quirks, to destroy hope, and to ravage love.

Jane wondered how Noah explained the baby to Ariadne, or even if she felt the need to explain it. Noah would need to give birth to the baby before she underwent the trial of the Great Ordeal, the culmination of her training as a Mistress of the Labyrinth. Noah could cope with learning the arts while pregnant without harming the baby, but she could not undergo the Great Ordeal. That would be too dangerous to both mother and child.

So Jane counted the months of Noah’s pregnancy. When she gave birth and then underwent the Great Ordeal in the Great Founding Labyrinth so would Jane be free.

When Noah gave birth so would Jane be free.

When Noah endured the Great Ordeal so would Jane be free.