Heritage Of The Xandim

8

SIGNS OF PERIL

Hellorin lay, magnificent and motionless as the carven figure on a king’s stone tomb, his strong, handsome features blurred and silvered by the eldritch glimmer of the time spell. Aelwen, to her surprise, found herself groping for Cordain’s hand, in search of comfort.

‘Is there no sign of improvement?’ she asked. ‘Surely after two months we should be seeing some sort of change?’

The Chief Counsellor shook his head. ‘It is a mystery. The healers seem to be making no progress at all.’

She shuddered. ‘I cannot help but be unnerved by such unnatural stillness, ’ she said softly - though she could have shouted at the top of her lungs for all the difference it would make to the Forest Lord. ‘He has always been so vigorous, so vibrant; always moving, always doing, always in absolute command. To see him looking so diminished and vulnerable shakes me to my very bones.’

Cordain looked at her shrewdly. ‘Such a reaction surprised you, did it not?’

‘How well you know me.’ Aelwen smiled sheepishly. ‘I never found him lovable - not even particularly likeable, although he could be incredibly charming and kind when it suited him. In all the years I have known him we’ve knocked heads any number of times, but—’

‘But it has always been about the horses,’ Cordain said, ‘on which subject you are the most knowledgeable, and he respects and admires your skills. You would never have dared oppose him on any other matter - but at least he possessed the redeeming quality of always being open to advice. Indeed, he valued and respected his counsellors and experts, including the two of us, and always listened carefully and courteously to their suggestions.’ Cordain looked fondly down at his Lord. ‘Mark you, more often than not he would go his own way in any case, but at least he would act from a foundation of knowledge and a new consideration of the long-term consequences of his actions, which often turned his judgements to a more tempered and far-sighted course.’

‘Sometimes he had his secrets,’ Aelwen pointed out. ‘There were things he did that he would never explain even to the closest of his advisors - like never letting a single one of the Phaerie horses out of his kingdom. Merchants and couriers had their own special mounts, clearly a more ordinary breed than ours, and only they were ever permitted to pass beyond the borders, except during the Hunt, of course.’

Cordain shrugged. ‘Every ruler has secrets, Aelwen.’

‘Tiolani has certainly taken that to heart. Already she appears to have more secrets from us than Hellorin ever harboured. She has been ruling for two short months: surely this is the very time for her to turn to her father’s experienced and respected counsellors, even if only to learn the day-to-day functioning of so complex an organism as our realm. But does she? She does not.’

‘She has dismissed us, every one,’ Cordain said. ‘The only person she listens to now is that shifty-eyed Ferimon.’

‘Shifty?’ Aelwen raised her eyebrows. ‘If only he were. Then she might notice there is something wrong. But he’s always perfectly charming, sunny-faced and utterly guileless. It takes folk of our own age and experience to realise that he’s too damned perfect - you just know that somewhere underneath the politician’s smiles, a serpent lurks.’

‘And we can see it, but Tiolani cannot. Aelwen, I fear for this realm, for all of us, if the Forest Lord does not recover. Tiolani has inherited his strong will without his wisdom. She seems utterly oblivious to the problems that are developing within the realm, though they are a direct result of her refusing our help on the one hand, and neglecting to act herself on the other.’

‘Foolish girl.’ Aelwen shook her head. ‘All the years she was growing up she fancied herself in love with Ferimon, and now, when she is grieving and vulnerable, along he comes, suddenly finding her attractive even though he barely spared a glance for her before.’

‘It is as if she’s under his spell,’ Cordain said. ‘He is isolating her from all other influences. She refuses to listen to us any more - not even to me, and I am afraid to keep trying, for the more I persist, the angrier she grows. I am hoping that you can get through to her, Aelwen. If you cannot, then no one else has a hope of influencing her, and we are lost.’

‘If she’s alone with me, in the presence of her father, maybe I’ll stand a chance,’ the Horsemistress replied. ‘That’s why I asked her to meet me here.’

Cordain nodded. ‘Then I will leave you now. May you be successful, Aelwen - for all our sakes.’

Tiolani paused outside Hellorin’s chamber. ‘But why did Aelwen ask to meet me here?’ she repeated to Ferimon. ‘Why not the stables, as usual?’ She hated her father’s sickroom, though she dutifully visited him for several hours every day. It hurt her to see him lying there: that helpless stillness struck Hellorin’s daughter to the heart, and filled her with guilt. Full well she knew that, were he back on the throne, he would never permit her association with Ferimon. Because of this, she had not pushed as hard as she might for an answer from the healers.

Ferimon, clearly mistaking the reason for her hesitation, took her arm. ‘Come, my dearest. You have nothing to fear from your father’s Mistress of Horse. You are sovereign here.’

‘Indeed. And if I must, I shall prove it to her before this day is out.’ With no way to back down without looking weak and foolish, she took a deep breath, and nodded to the guards to open the door.

When Tiolani entered the chamber, Aelwen got to her feet and bowed respectfully, but the girl did not miss the flash of annoyance, glimpsed then swiftly veiled, at the sight of Ferimon.

‘My Lady,’ the Horsemistress said in a tight, controlled voice. ‘I requested to meet with you alone.’

‘And I decided to deny your request.’ Tiolani’s chin took on an arrogant tilt, and her voice was cold and hard with defiance. ‘Ferimon is my most trusted and valued advisor. Anything you wish to say to me, you can say in front of him.’

‘Very well.’ Aelwen could be defiant too - but in her case her words emerged with the quiet force of assertion. ‘Since you raise the subject, it is of your advisors that I wish to speak.’ She gestured to the chair beside her. ‘Come, sit by me, my dear. Let us have a comfortable talk, as I used to do so often with your mother.’

Oh, but that Mistress of Horse was cunning. Tiolani ground her teeth and strove to keep her annoyance from showing on her face. There were only two chairs in the room, and the bed was inaccessible because of the time spell, so that if she sat down with Aelwen, Ferimon would be isolated and plainly superfluous. And as for dragging her mother into this business - that was a low blow!

She answered Aelwen’s blandly innocent smile with one that was barely more than a grimace. ‘We will stand, Horsemistress. This will not take long.’

Without a hint of her emotions showing, Aelwen shrugged. ‘As you wish.’ That gambit having failed, she went straight to the attack - or that was the way it seemed to Hellorin’s daughter.

‘Tiolani, Cordain tells me that you have dismissed all of your father’s counsellors.’ She gestured at the recumbent figure of the Forest Lord. ‘I have known your father well for many years - from long before you were born - and you can trust me when I say that he would be saddened and dismayed by your actions. He trusted those advisors implicitly, and with good reason. My dear girl, do you not see how much easier they could make your life? A vast responsibility has suddenly dropped upon your shoulders, but it was no different for Hellorin. Those very people whose counsel you are spurning helped to lift a good deal of his burden by taking care of so many of the small but important day-to-day details involved in governing the Phaerie realm.’

‘I don’t care about that. I—’

‘Then you should care.’ Anger flashed in Aelwen’s voice, like the edge of a bright blade that caught the sun. ‘There is more to ruling this land than spending all day mooning over a lover and all night riding out to bloody slaughter with the Hunt. Did you know that this long, cold winter has destroyed a large part of the moonmoth population, and that our silk harvest this year will be the smallest in recorded history? Did you know that dozens of disputes have arisen, both minor and major, that can only be mediated by the sovereign? Did you know that our people are becoming increasingly restive and concerned? Were you aware that your decision to close the borders is making life incredibly difficult for our merchants and traders? That we are already running out of certain goods, such as oil and wheat and herbs, that we normally obtain from outside?’

Tiolani felt her face grow hot as anger with a black and ugly twist of guilt rose up inside her, but Aelwen was still speaking.

‘Tiolani, these matters can all be dealt with. Be Hellorin’s true heir. Make him proud. Talk to Cordain and the other counsellors. Work with them to put this realm to rights, before matters deteriorate any further. Whatever you may have been led to believe-’ again there was that blade-flash of anger as she flicked a glance at Ferimon ‘-we are all on your side, and our only wish is to help you through these difficult times. We—’

‘Enough!’ Tiolani was surprised to hear how like her father she sounded. To her relief, Ferimon, silken smooth, slid into the ensuing silence.

‘The Lady Tiolani has noted your concerns, Horsemistress Aelwen, and you have her assurance that they will be dealt with in due course. Your advice on counsellors is well taken, however the Lady can appoint her own.’

‘I will appoint my own,’ Tiolani echoed, love and gratitude for his support glowing within her. Why had she not thought of that before? Ferimon was so clever. Feeling in control once more, like a ruler and not the guilty little girl that Aelwen had evoked, she waved a dismissive hand at the Horsemistress. ‘You have known me since I was a child, Aelwen, and I understand that you are only trying to help, but you are interfering in matters that are beyond you. You may return to your horses, and leave the rule of this realm safely in my hands.’

As she spoke, she called in mindspeech to her new bodyguards, recently appointed at Ferimon’s instigation. They had been standing just beyond the chamber doors and entered at her word, standing stiffly at attention. Their message was clear to everyone in the room. ‘You are dismissed, Aelwen, with our thanks.’

The Horsemistress was still outwardly calm, still keeping her temper reined, but her anger showed in her eyes, burning darkly in a bone-white face. Without a word, she walked to the door - then turned abruptly and pointed at Hellorin. ‘What will he say when he wakes, Tiolani? Will he think that you have honoured his trust? Will he be proud?’ She turned her gaze from the Forest Lord to Tiolani. ‘You know better,’ she said quietly, and left.

Tiolani turned and pounded the wall with her fists, weeping with rage. ‘How dare she? How dare she speak to me like that? She belongs in the stables. What does she know about ruling?’

Ferimon enfolded her in a comforting embrace. ‘Never mind her,’ he crooned, his voice cajoling, comforting. ‘Aelwen knows nothing. She is nothing. She is beneath your notice. And if there is any trouble within the realm, we are more than capable of finding it out and setting it to rights without the interference of a jumped-up dung-shoveller and that coterie of feeble old fools who used to be your father’s lapdogs. You have no need of them, dear one. You will be the greatest ruler the Phaerie have ever seen.’

Tiolani turned into his embrace and laid her head trustingly on his shoulder. ‘Oh, Ferimon, what would I do without you? Sometimes it feels as if you are the only one who understands me. Thank all the Fates that you are here.’