higher than it normally was. ―She has not opened her eyes and said, ‗I remember‘. She has
simply opened her eyes and been as she has always been in this life—unknowing, unwitting,
unremembering.‖
―The Sidlesaghes told me,‖ Ecub said, ―that all will come to pass as it should. So we shall
wait, my friends. We shall wait and we shall trust.‖
Saeweald was about to respond, but just then there came a knock at the door, and all three
seated about the fire jumped.
Glancing warily at Saeweald and Ecub, Judith rose and went to the door. She opened it,
peeked through the gap, then visibly relaxed and opened the door to the visitor.
It was Harold, looking almost as wan and exhausted as Caela did in her sleeping.
He walked quietly to the bed, held aside one of the drapes momentarily to look down on
his sleeping sister, then came over to the fire where Judith had rejoined Ecub and Saeweald.
Ecub began to rise, her eyes on a stool stowed in a corner, but Harold motioned her to
remain seated, and fetched the stool himself.
―My sister the queen?‖ he said softly as he sat down with them.
―She will be well enough,‖ Saeweald said. ―Her monthly flux was bloodier than normal,
but that is all that it was. With rest and good food Caela shall be well.‖
Gods, how he hated to deceive this man, but it was better that Harold not know of the
love and loss of his previous life. To enlighten would be only to torment.
―To so accuse her!‖ Harold said, low and angry, and it took the others a moment to
realise that he referred to Edward‘s hateful accusation at court. ―My sister should have babies
and love and laughter, but all she has is…is this! ‖ He waved a hand around the chamber, but
taking in with that gesture the entire palace and her life as Edward‘s wife.
To that there was nothing to say, so the others merely nodded.
Harold‘s shoulders slumped and his face suddenly looked old and grey. ―I wanted to
come sooner, but Edward detained me, first with this nonsense and then that, and then sent me to
interrogate some fool who had imagined he‘d seen a pair of dragons mating in the skies over
London during the afternoon. Now,‖ he glanced at the bed, ―it is too late, and Caela sleeps. Well,
I shall not wake her, and will leave my visit until the morrow. Mother Ecub, Judith, if she wakes
during the night, will you tell her that I came, and that I cared?‖
Ecub nodded, and Harold gave a small half-smile. ―Tell me,‖ he said, ―has Tostig been
here to ask after Caela?‖
Saeweald shook his head, and Harold sighed. ―Ah well, I expect he was detained as was
I.‖
He rose, made his farewells, and was gone.
Ecub sighed. ―Such a waste,‖ she said when he was out of the room, and even though she
did not elucidate on that statement, the other two knew precisely what she meant.
―And now,‖ Ecub continued, smiling at Saeweald and Judith, ―I will sit with the queen
through the night, and you two can have some precious time together.‖
Judith started to protest, but Saeweald took her hand, squeezed it so that she subsided,
and smiled at Ecub. ―I thank you, Mother Ecub,‖ he said. ―You will send for us if…?‖
―If there is any trouble, which there shall not be,‖ the prioress said. Then she winked.
―Enjoy your rest.‖
Saeweald‘s apartments within the Westminster complex were spacious and well
appointed, a sign of the regard in which Edward held him. Situated in a long, half-timbered,
half-stone building fifty paces from the palace and (for Saeweald), a comfortable one hundred
paces from the abbey complex, the building housed the domestic apartments of various court
officials, the occasional visiting nobleman and his family, and a few highly-placed servants.
Saeweald‘s quarters were at the very end of the building, and he had his own separate entry so
that he could make his way to the beds of the sick at all times of the night and day without
disturbing the other residents of the building.
Of course, this also meant that Saeweald had far more privacy than others when it came
to the comings and goings from his chambers.
Now, several hours after they had left Caela‘s chambers, he and Judith lounged naked
before the hearth on coverlets they‘d pulled from the bed. They had made love, but the greatest
familiarity came now, when Judith gently, lovingly, massaged soothing oils into Saeweald‘s
twisted leg and hip. This was an intimacy that he allowed no one else, the touching of his
deformity, and that Judith did so was a measure of the love and trust he held for her.
They‘d been lovers ever since she‘d come to court to serve Caela. The instant they first
met in this life, and knew, there had been such a sense of relief and of companionship renewed, that their first bedding had been accomplished with unseemly haste…in a stable, which had been
the first place they had been able to find that gave some privacy.
Except for the resident horse, who had been quite agitated and who had snorted his
disquiet for the fifteen turgid minutes it had taken the pair to sort themselves out.
Since that day, Saeweald and Judith found every spare hour they could to spend together.
The lovemaking was evidence not so much of lust, but of the deepest friendship and respect and
of shared purpose. To serve Caela and Mag, and to serve the land, by whatever means possible.
They were extremely discreet. Ecub knew, and Tostig of course, and Judith thought that
Caela, and perhaps even Harold, suspected, but (apart from the horse, who still watched them
warily whenever he saw one or the other cross the stableyard, and tended to utter panic when he
saw both of them together) no one else knew. They‘d even managed to keep their love secret
from Swanne. In King Edward‘s court, stiff with morality and piety, their discretion was just as
well.
In a world where Asterion strode unknowable and unrestrainable, their secret was doubly
important, for even this simple knowledge might be a piece of priceless information the
Minotaur could use at his destructive leisure.
Judith ran her hands down Saeweald‘s leg, leaning her weight into his crippled flesh,
massaging away tensions and cramps and aches. Saeweald‘s hip had been so brutally twisted
during his birth (and who had commanded that midwife‘s hands? Judith had often wondered.
Fate? Brutus‘ deadly hand reaching through two thousand years? Asterion? Genvissa‘s lingering
malicious humour?) that the ball of his hip joint jutted out beneath his right buttock, making even
sitting uncomfortable for the man. As a consequence Saeweald either stood, or balanced
precariously on the edge of stools and seats; when he rode, as he needed to if he was to get about
at all, he had to sit twisted on the saddle so that his left buttock bore most of his weight. Even
then, riding was often agony.
At least he could walk. Praise Mag that at least he could walk.
―What do you think will happen?‖ Judith said.
Saeweald, who was lying on his left side, his head propped up on a hand, watched the
movement of Judith‘s body in the firelight appreciatively. ―Hmmm?‖ he said.
Judith looked at him, then grinned. ―You would have me to be your slave forever, would
you not, physician? Bending over your body, rubbing away your aches…‖
―Are you offering?‖
Her expression sobered. ―Would it help?‖
In response he only held out his free hand, and she gripped it silently. They locked eyes,
and for a moment nothing at all needed to be spoken.
―Mag,‖ Judith finally said. ―Where is she, do you think?‖
Saeweald sighed. ―Caela would know…but how to make her remember? Ah! She cannot
be pushed, yet…‖
―Be patient, Ecub said.‖
Saeweald muttered something that Judith was rather glad she did not catch. She grinned
again, and was about to say something when, horrifyingly, the door to the chamber swung open
and a man stepped through.
―Stay,‖ he said to the startled couple, raising a hand, palm outward, a gesture that was
both conciliatory and reassuring.
Judith looked at Saeweald, who stared in disbelief at the man, then she unhurriedly
reached for her linen under-tunic and pulled it over her shoulders.
―Your name, good man?‖ she said.
The stranger‘s mouth lifted in an admiring smile at her composure. He was a strikingly
good-looking man of middle age. His long, black curly hair was pulled into a leather thong
behind his neck, a few strands escaping to trail over his broad shoulders. His chest was broad and
well muscled, his limbs long and strong. He wore nothing but a snowy white waistcloth threaded
over a wide leather belt and leather-strap sandals.
His face was stern and handsome, and not at all marred by the leather patch he wore over