Gods Concubine by Sara Douglass

moment her own face went as slack in shock as Swanne‘s had been for most of their

conversation.

Two heavy hands had fallen on her shoulders, pinning her to the stool.

―Well, well, Mag,‖ said a chilling male voice. ―What a posy of surprises you have turned

out to be.‖

Damson struggled on the stool, but she was caught in the twin grips of Swanne and

Asterion.

Swanne looked to her lover, an expression of unfeigned love and rapture on her face.

―Asterion,‖ she breathed. ―Oh, how I have missed you.‖

Both expression and words were enough for Damson to let out a shocked cry. ―No!

Swanne! No! What are you doing?‖

Swanne turned her face back to Damson, her expression now twisted with hate and

loathing. ―Think you that I would ever hand you my powers? Think you that I have any intention

of completing the Game with William? Nay, this is my lover, my partner, my mate, and this time, my dear darling Mag, you are to be given no chance of flight at all.‖

She let go Damson‘s hands and, although Caela-within-Damson tried to wrench herself

free of Asterion‘s hands, and tried to use every piece of power she had against him, he held both

her form and her power in check with infinite ease.

Swanne rose and, with deliberate slowness, reached with one hand into the pocket of her

robe.

Very gradually, very deliberately, keeping her own eyes steady on Damson‘s frantic face,

she drew her hand forth.

In it she clasped the twisted-horn handled knife of Asterion.

―Do you recognise it, you witless bitch?‖ Swanne whispered. ―Do you remember how

you made Cornelia plunge this into me? Well, now you feel what it is like, Mag, to have cold

metal end your ambitions and hopes.‖

And with that she hefted the knife, then plunged it into the soft, tender skin at the

juncture of Damson‘s neck and shoulder.

SEVENTEEN

Saeweald, Ecub and Judith were keeping company with Caela‘s body as it lay still on the

bed.

Within, Damson‘s soul slept unknowing.

Suddenly, all three gasped as a bright red spot appeared at the base of Caela‘s neck,

which then flowered into a crimson pool of blood.

―No!‖ cried Saeweald, and lunged forward.

―Oh gods,‖ Swanne moaned, as if in the ecstasy of lovemaking, ―how I have longed to

sink this knife into Mag! At last! At last!‖

Behind Damson, Asterion was almost doubled over with laughter although he kept his

hands firmly on Damson‘s shoulders.

Swanne twisted viciously on the knife until the blade sank completely into Damson‘s

body. ―I only wish you were Caela, bitch, then my happiness would be complete.‖

Damson‘s hands were grasping at Swanne‘s, but they were slippery with the blood that

now pumped out of her neck, and she could not dislodge Swanne‘s grip on the knife.

―No,‖ she said in a horrible bubbling whisper. ―No, Swanne, please…‖

But Swanne was not listening. Her eyes were wide and glassy, her mouth open, and her

hands twisted again and again as she leaned so hard on the knife that she forced even the

twisted-horn handle into Damson‘s body.

Saeweald grabbed at Caela‘s shoulders, shaking her as violently as he could. ―Come back

now!‖ he shouted. ―Now! For Og‘s sake, Caela! Now!”

Behind him Judith was screaming something, and Ecub was shouting, but Saeweald took

no notice of them. “Return home now!” he shouted. “Now! Now!”

Caela”s soul obeyed, even though it did not want to, even though it was almost fatally

mated with that twisting, murderous knife in Damson”s body.

It left Damson, and fled shrieking back to its own body, passing Damson”s soul halfway.

That soul seemed curiously resigned, even peaceful, even though as it neared its own

body it knew what awaited it.

Death.

Caela‘s body came to life under Saeweald‘s hands, and she grasped instinctively at her

neck where blood was pumping forth, even though her skin was apparently unbroken.

―No!‖ she cried out, then fell insensible as the blood flowed from her.

―Stop the bleeding!‖ Ecub said, rushing to Caela‘s side as Saeweald tried to staunch the

flow of blood.

―It won‘t stop until Damson‘s heart stops beating,‖ Saeweald said in a curiously flat tone.

―Pray that that happens soon.‖

There was a single, appalling silence.

―Or Caela will die with her.‖

Swanne was panting as she leaned with all her strength into the knife.

Damson had stopped struggling, and was regarding Swanne with flat, hopeless eyes;

beyond her Asterion was hopping from foot to foot, his eyes almost popping out of his head as

he watched Swanne. This was so much better than he”d planned!

Damson‘s hands were fluttering at her sides, scattering bright drops of blood over both

Swanne and Asterion. Her mouth had fallen silent, even though it still moved.

The blood continued to pump from her neck.

―Curse her sturdy heart!‖ cried Saeweald, as he uselessly tried to stem the flow of blood

from Caela‘s neck. ―Why can‘t the damned peasant woman die?”

Judith took one futile step towards the door, as if she meant to run to Aldred‘s palace and

wrench Damson‘s head from her body.

If Caela died now then all was lost, for the Mag force within her would finally vanish.

Damson gave one great shudder, and Swanne let go the knife and took a step back,

staring wide-eyed at Damson.

Damson gave a soft moan, shuddered again, then fell forward, snapping her head back as

her chin caught the edge of the stool which she‘d pushed in front of her during her struggles.

Her neck snapped, and with it snapped Damson‘s life, and the connection which bound

her to Caela.

―It‘s stopped!‖ Saeweald said. ―She‘s died at last. Thank all gods in existence!‖

Judith came back to the bed. ―Is she still alive?‖

There was a long, terrible pause.

―Just,‖ Saeweald eventually said. ―And only just.‖

Swanne looked over Damson‘s body to Asterion.

Both of them were covered in blood.

―My lover,‖ she breathed, and he stepped forward over the corpse and took her in his

arms.

Later, while Saeweald, Judith and Ecub were still grouped about Caela, willing her every

breath, Silvius rushed through the door, not even bothering to knock.

―Gods!‖ he cried. ―What has happened?‖

The next morning as the waterman was poling his craft from the fish wharves just below

the bridge towards Lambeth on the southern bank of the river, he saw a bloated white body half

submerged in the water.

It did not immediately perturb him—the Thames was the final resting place for hundreds

of unfortunates every year—but as he passed it, the current surged, turning the corpse over.

It was Damson, her head almost severed from her body.

EIGHTEEN

It took Saeweald five days and nights—days and nights when he hardly slept—before he

could be sure that Caela would live. He dribbled broths down her throat, he placed medicated

lozenges in her mouth to slowly dissolve, he coated her tongue with honey.

And finally, finally, she began to respond to his treatment.

Ecub and Judith also kept vigil within Caela‘s chamber, as did Silvius. More than

anything else, all three wanted to move Caela back to the relative safety of St Margaret‘s. This

small religious house within London‘s walls was too close to Swanne and whatever had

happened in that chamber (and how they wanted Caela to wake, and to talk, so that they would

know what had happened!). But Caela lay so close to death that there could be no thought of moving her.

Not yet.

On the sixth day, so wan she looked like a three-day-dead corpse, Caela opened her eyes.

Saeweald, waving Silvius, Judith and Ecub away from the bed, gently fed her some broth

with a spoon, then wiped her face with a clean towel.

―Caela,‖ he said gently. ―You‘re back with us.‖

She started to weep. ―Damson is dead.‖

―We know,‖ Saeweald said. ―But—‖

―I killed her. I killed Damson.‖

―Enough,‖ said Silvius, who had finally managed to find a place beside Saeweald. ―It was

not you who killed—‖

―I put her in harm‘s way,‖ said Caela, and then wept so violently that Saeweald again

motioned Silvius away with a frown, then held Caela‘s hand while she cried away her grief and

guilt.

When, eventually, her tears had abated somewhat, Silvius said: ―What happened?‖

―Swanne…‖ Caela said, her voice hoarse. Saeweald fed her some more spoonfuls of

broth, and she smiled at him gratefully.

The smile died almost the instant it had appeared.

―Swanne had Asterion‘s black knife,‖ she said, ―and with it she murdered Damson.

Swanne has allied with Asterion. He is her new lover.‖

There was a chorus of voices, shocked, stunned, angry, disbelieving.

―Wait,‖ Caela whispered. ―There is worse. Swanne and Asterion mean to control the

Game between them.‖

―Asterion does not want to destroy it?‖ Silvius said.

Caela gave a weak shake of her head, prompting Saeweald to murmur in concern and to

glare at Silvius, as if his question had seriously weakened Caela.