almost white with shock. She actually stopped breathing, her eyes wide and horrified.
“Ishbel…breathe.”
She drew in a harsh breath, then sat up suddenly in the bed, hugging her arms about her
breasts. “No. I can”t be. I can”t be pregnant!”
“Garth has the Touch very, very powerfully, Ishbel, and he isn”t mistaken. You”re only a
few days pregnant, a week or so, but you are pregnant.”
“No.”
“Yes,” Maximilian said softly. “It is what sometimes happens, Ishbel, when a man and a
woman lie together.”
She glanced at him. “I”m sorry. I”d just not thought…a child…no.”
“Ishbel…” He slid his hand over her belly, and she flinched. “Oh, for gods” sakes, Ishbel,
what is wrong?”
“Everything,” she whispered, then lay down and rolled away from him, and would not
speak to him again.
CHAPTER SIX
Pelemere, the Central Kingdoms
Maximilian was surely irritated with her, at her reaction to the news of her pregnancy.
Ishbel could understand why, but she had been so shocked, so appalled, so terrified, that she”d
been unable to act any other way. By the Serpent, to have that little surprise dropped on her, on
top of the horror of the ring.
Pregnant.
A child.
In her body.
She lay on the bed, Maximilian sleeping beside her, the fingers of one hand fluttering
down to her belly, as if she could feel already the turmoil the child was about to create in her life.
She”d not considered the possibility of a child after the night Maximilian had come to
her. Why should she? She should not be able to conceive. She had lost her ability to conceive the
day she”d been inducted into her position as archpriestess of the Coil when she”d surrendered her
reproductive ability to the Great Serpent in return for the blessing of his power. Since then she”d
virtually forgotten she had a womb.
The only time she”d thought about her inability to conceive had been when StarWeb had
been haggling the marriage contract and had insisted on the clause regarding a pregnancy being a
required condition for ratification of the marriage. Ishbel had wondered then what excuse she
might give Maximilian for her lack of ability to bear a child, and had thought that at least it
might give her an excuse to get out of the marriage.
But, no, she”d conceived within the first hour of meeting the man.
It made her angry, mainly because she felt so out of control. Everything she had done as
archpriestess of the Coil had been so ordered, so sure.
Now…
Ishbel lay her hand more firmly on her belly. The growing baby would surely disturb the
Coil…and this, on top of the shock of the whispers.
Oh, Great Serpent, how could this happen? What should I do?
She must rid herself of the baby. Ishbel had no idea how to do this, but she knew women
could manage it. She”d heard they took herbs. All she”d need to do would be to find someone to
procure the right herbs and she could—
Suddenly Ishbel went rigid on the bed as the atmosphere in the chamber thickened.
She jerked her head over to look at Maximilian.
He remained asleep.
Then, her heart pounding, Ishbel very slowly turned her head to look at the side of the
bed.
A great darkness was coalescing on the floor, at midpoint between the door and the bed.
Ishbel tried to control her breathing, tried to center herself, tried above all to calm herself
so that she might be fit to greet the Great Serpent.
Very slowly the darkness resolved itself into a massive coiled serpent. It appeared to be
made of the darkness itself, its scales so black they were more suggestion than reality, but
glimmering here and there with faint rainbow colors as the serpent twisted in the dim lamplight.
The Great Serpent coiled about itself for a minute, then reared its head up so that it
loomed over the bed.
Ishbel could not move, nor drag her eyes away from the enormous head that hovered
above the bed. She”d been in the presence of the Great Serpent before, of course, but only rarely,
and only when she”d been in control of herself and of the situation.
Not ever lying in a bed, with a man, and with a baby in her belly to corrupt the Coil.
The head moved, weaving back and forth, its forked tongue flickering out of its mouth as
it tasted the night air. Its eyes were great dark holes with flashes of fire glimmering in their
depths.
“Greetings, Great One,” Ishbel said, making the sign of the Coil over her belly.
The Great Serpent ignored her. Instead its head wove ever closer to Maximilian, who lay
fast asleep on the other side of the bed. It dipped low, then ran its glistening forked tongue
slowly up Maximilian”s body from his feet to his shoulders.
Ishbel stared wide-eyed, sure that Maximilian would wake.
But he slept on, his chest rising and falling in deep, slow breaths, unaware of the
serpent”s tongue coiling so intimately about his body.
The Great Serpent suddenly reared its head up, now directing its full attention to Ishbel.
It lowered its head once more, and ran its flickering tongue slowly, slowly, up Ishbel”s
body, until it coiled about her belly.
Do not disturb the baby.
“Yes, Great One,” Ishbel whispered.
Do what Maximilian wants.
“Yes, Great One.”
Wash with the tide for the time being. That will please me, and accomplish what I need.
“Great One, the whispers—”
Ishbel, just…wash with the tide. The whispers cannot harm you. Do not allow them to
drive you from this man.
“Great One, please, how long must this marriage last? How long before I can go home to
Serpent”s Nest?”
The Great Serpent regarded her carefully for long moments before he answered.
You shall be home within a year, two at the most, Ishbel. It is not long to wait.
Ishbel relaxed in relief. A year, two at the most. She would manage.
“As it pleases you,” she whispered.
The serpent”s tongue flickered once more; then suddenly the chamber was free of its
presence.
Later, when Ishbel slept, she once more dreamed of the Lord of Elcho Falling, standing in
the snow, his back to her, then slowly becoming aware of her presence, his head turning, turning,
turning, and then the torrent of despair and pain that engulfed her world as he laid eyes on her
and opened his mouth to speak.
Ishbel rose in the morning, putting the dream from her mind, washed and dressed with
the aid of a maidservant, then stood looking at the ring on the top of the cabinet.
“You need not wear it for the moment,” said Maximilian, coming up beside her, “if that
is what you wish.”
Such profound relief washed over Ishbel that she gave him a brilliant smile. “Thank you.”
“We do need to talk about the rings though, Ishbel.”
“Later,” she said.
“Yes. Very well. Later.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Margalit, the Central Kingdoms
Rilm Evenor was one of the three most important chiefs in the Outlands. For the past
fifty-three years he had led the Evenor tribe and had for twenty-eight of those years also sat as
High Chief on the Outlands Council, which governed the region. He was a strong man, of
impeccable character and fair judgment, and there were few people within the Outlands who
looked on Evenor with anything other than the deepest respect.
Evenor was also the Outlands” best war general. The Outlands had not been at formal war
with any of its neighbors in over one hundred years, but there were always the niggling border
territory issues with Pelemere and Berfardi. The Outlander tribes were largely nomadic for eight
months of the year, and claimed the right to travel the pastures to the west and north of the Sky
Peaks—rights to which Pelemere, Hosea, and Berfardi strenuously objected. There had been
skirmishes every few years—nothing more than a few hundred men pitted against each other in a
forgotten mountain pass or on barren pastureland—but Evenor”s real military experience and
renown had been in aiding the Outlands” northern neighbor, Viland, with their ever-present
Skraeling threat.
Every few years, if their numbers had built up sufficiently that their normal feeding
grounds could not support them, the Skraelings tended to drift south in small groups of twenty or
so. They would attack outlying villages and farmsteads, making off with small animals and the
occasional human child or small adult. They fed on fear and terror as much as they did on flesh,
and all the northern nations loathed them. The Vilanders were well used to dealing with the
creatures, but Viland was a small nation, and their men were out on whaling ships for long
months of each year, and Evenor and his tribal army from the Outlands were welcome allies.
This year was one of the few Evenor was actually spending in the Outlands. He was
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