Mac Tire � Son of the EarthPart 19 - The Once and Future...Tell me about poison, Cormac had said, and Lij told him. Told him of the poisoning of himself that was meant for Dom, and the figs, and the attempted poisoning of Dom, Liv and the unborn babies and himself by his cousin Pretep and the physician Setep-Ra. Told him how he studied poisons for two years after that with the great physicians Seti-Hop and Soraya of Persia. Cormac's eyes were as wide as saucers as he took all his information in. "Painted the poison on the fruit on the trees? And poison distilled from fruit stones...peaches... killed Nekeb, you say?" He shook his head. "Mankind's evil knows no bounds. I am glad you are here to tell the tale, my friend. Have there been any....um, lasting effects from the.. um...?" Lij explained the falling sickness, turning his head so that he did not see the pity in his new friend's eyes. "Well, that is nothing new to me. I had a friend who..." Cormac stopped suddenly, wishing he had said nothing. His friend had died of it. Drowned in the river as a seizure took him whilst a group of them were swimming in the heat of last summer. Lij seemed to instinctively know the story had an unhappy ending so he wisely held his peace. They talked for some time, until Lij could restrain himself no longer. "Cormac, would you find someone to take me to Dom? I do not know where he is, and I would tell him of Nekeb..." And of other things, Lij thought; but this he kept to himself. Cormac slapped his forehead with a trembling hand. "I am a selfish fool to keep you here, Lij. Please forgive me!" He cast a troubled gaze at Lij, who answered with a smile. "Nonsense! You have been poisoned. It may be I have given you a few hints on how to avoid the medium in future." Cormac called the servant and gave instructions to her for Lij to be led back to his room, and for a guide to be found to take him to Dom. Lij clasped Cormac's hand. "Thank you!" was all he could manage to say before his self control, iron clad though it had become over years of practise, slipped. "Tell him I am thinking of him," Cormac called as Lij went out through the door guided by a young lad who made sure he kept a respectful distance between them as they traversed the corridors. Lij however had an excellent memory, and having now been twice in this direction was sure he could find both Morne's and Cormac's rooms again. Not that he could think of any reason why he should need to talk with Morne, but Cormac was a different matter. He was drawn to him. He was a friend. And he needed a friend now. Lij had only been in his room a few minutes, and was just pulling the thicker woollen robe over his head ready for his visit to Dom, when a muffled oath and a banging on the door made him rush to open it. "Maeve help me! It was heavier than I thought!" huffed Orla, struggling through the door with a large covered basket. "I cannot stop," she said, breathlessly. "The Lady Ede wants me...and as she commands, I obey." Orla's expression looked much less than obedient to Lij's experienced eye, but he said nothing. His mouth turned up at the corners as he indicated the basket with a raised eyebrow, but he did not laugh at the girl's forbidding expression. "Something to keep you company," Orla said, retreating quickly and curtseying very low. She had never done so before. Lij looked puzzled. She interpreted the look. "Cormac has given instruction that all in the keep treat you with due reverence and courtesy, Lord. I am doing that, I am, so." "Well, you may stop, now, my girl. I do not like it. You do not like it. Let us save it for public occasions, what say you? And my name is still Lij, Orla. " The girl gave him a blinding smile and a nod before disappearing. Lij uncovered the basket and found a cat with two kittens. The cat was black and white and so was one of the kittens, but the other was ginger and striped and looked so much like a baby tiger brought to him once, far from the banks of the Indus, that Lij laughed at its scowling face and sat down with the creature on his knee smoothing it and talking to it until a guard knocked on the door to take him to Dom. * Dom was feeling a little worse than he had the day before. His visitors had tired him, and both Rory the old healer and the formidable little dame, Gronya, had ordered that there were to be no visitors today. Dom was not sorry. His head ached and his stomach was unsettled. Gronya said that was to be expected after such an event, and gave him a foul tasting potion, which although he gagged over the swallowing of it had eased much of his discomfort within a short time. He was just settling down to sleep when a voice at the door woke him up completely. "Lij!" he cried hoarsely, trying to push himself up on the pillows. Lij came flying into the room, onto the bed and into his arms, with a soft barely articulate cry. Dom held his love close. Lij was trembling, but there were no tears. Lij very rarely wept, but Dom knew how deep his love's feelings ran at this time. "A hashkeh!" Dom breathed in the scent of his lover's body, his nose buried in Lij's neck, his arms tightly wound around him. Lij could not stop. He kissed Dom, smothering him with embraces, touching him as though he thought Dom a wraith that would disappear before his eyes. His small hands trembled as they covered the contours of Dom's face. He saw how tired and worn Dom looked, and knew he should be quiet for him, so he settled into the crook of his lover's arm, murmuring endearments, and resting his hand on Dom's chest. Dom turned and kissed Lij's brow. "I am so sorry, Lij, about Nekeb. I am a fool, I..." Lij put his fingers gently over Dom's lips. "No...do not, my love. Not now. We have both been...unwise. Both of us, for I, too, have withheld things from you. We must not do this again, Dom. We must be honest with one another." Dom squeezed Lij with his free arm. "We must try, Lij. But you must know that I, too, am bound by sacred kingly oaths. What I have sworn to keep secret, I will keep secret until one of us is dead and I am free of it. Do you understand, muh hraw?" Lij nodded. "I understand. But there will be no more such oaths sworn, will there, Dom? Nothing else that can part us or harm us?" Dom sighed. "I do not know, my Lij. Truly I do not. This place is such a hotbed of intrigue and deceit. It is no longer my home. I do not feel...comfortable here," or safe, he added in his heart. Dom's voice was ragged with fatigue, and Lij, hearing it, kissed the damp face beside him. "Then let it rest there," whispered Lij. "Sleep, now, my only love." Lij did not sleep, but was content to lie beside his heart's desire, just to be with him. Gronya crept in later to look at Dom. She smiled at Lij who, startled to see her there, stared at her in astonishment. She put her finger to her lips and glided out, leaving the heavy door ajar so its closing did not wake the sleeping man. Lij pressed his lips against Dom's neck and Dom sighed in his sleep, moving closer into the touch. The bitter smell left by the poison on Dom's skin did not disturb Lij. This was his Dom. That was all that mattered. * The Lady Ede was furious. Her son Cormac had been very high handed in the matter of the investigations she had begun into the poisonings, and she did not relish being told he was taking the matter over from Morne by two guards who looked as if they belonged guarding a sheep pen, so shabbily were they dressed. In her temper she would have gone to his room and berated him, but she did not consider it wise to walk just at present. Only, when she did get there, Cormac would be told exactly what she thought... To compound things that stupid brat Orla was late with her herb tisane, and she only liked it made the way Orla brewed it, so she was hot and thirsty, having refused any other drink. She dismissed her serving woman curtly. Happy to escape for even a brief moment, the serving woman passed Orla in the corridor. "How is she, Neeve?" Orla asked, anxiously. She had been delayed by the cook wanting eggs, so she was late. The woman shrugged her thin shoulders. "As she always is, muh chree. Like a wild bitch wolf from the mountains. You had better be quick. She is mad at you, entirely!" Orla rushed the last few yards and barged into the room just as Ede was getting out of bed to sit in the chair for a while. She glared at Orla, her rage apparent in her blue eyes. "You made me wait, you little bitch! Pass me my drink, now!" Orla hurriedly took the beaker and pressed it into Ede's hand, but Ede's grasp slipped and the beaker and its contents fell to the floor. Ede screamed her fury, picked up a buckled belt from a chair, wound it twice around her hand to get a better grip and beat the young girl with it until her arm tired. * Brian had reported back to Morne on Dom's condition and what he had had to say regarding Morne's accusations that Lij was the poisoner. Morne looked uncomfortable. "Yes, well, Lord Cormac has asked me to leave any further investigations on the matter to him, and the Lady Ede has agreed. I suggest you inform him of any further developments. You may go." * By the time Ultan arrived later Dom was sitting up in bed being fed some broth by Lij, who refused to leave his side. Ultan smiled benevolently at the pair, and told them of his plans concerning them. "I know it will be hard, Lij, but you must return to the keep. Otherwise people will be sent to find you and I do not as yet want anyone to know I am here. When Dom returns to the keep it will be as her rightful king, and I am afraid you will have to bear with us on this matter. Until the other Lords I spoke of come, we cannot declare him. Who knows what plans are even now being concocted by the devious minds up there?" He cocked his head towards the window. Lij nodded, but Dom demurred. "You may stay here, Ultan of the Briocha, but if Lij goes back to the citadel, so will I." As Ultan raised his voice in protest, Dom put up his hand. When the man quietened, Dom asked softly, "Am I king here, or are you, Briocha?" Ultan let out a bark of laughter. "Well said, my king! Well said! I see you will have your way. I shall have Brian take you up the hill on his horse and carry you to your bed. He is big enough and strong enough to hold you on the horse's back, and to carry you along five miles of corridors. No, I insist! If you go, and I see you will go, your feet will not touch the ground." Lij smiled at Dom. "You will rest in my bed, my love, and I will take care of you." Gronya nodded. "You will be better for him than any medicine, Lij. That is true And in two or three days you will be well enough for any exercise." She winked at Dom and Dom's face and ears blushed red. He mumbled a thank you, and soon Brian was carrying Dom outside, and had him safe on the horse. Dom was glad to be lifted off the creature as docile as it was. He said he was going to be sick, and asked Brian to stop whilst he fulfilled this prophesy. Lij walked beside Brian who held Dom in his strong capable arms as if he were a babe, and flung the door of his room open with a flourish. But Lij's bed was already occupied. Lij quickly opened the adjoining door and had Dom placed upon the bed there, propping the door open so that he could see Dom and be seen by him. Brian excused himself, saying he was late as it was for roll-call, and discipline would crumble amongst the guard without his stern hand at the helm. A servant was tending the fires in both rooms, and Lij, ascertaining Dom had taken no hurt from his journey up the hill, rushed back to his own bed, where Cass was trying to minister to little Orla. She was lying face down on the bed, her face turned towards Lij. Her back was bare and criss-crossed by bloody welts and gouges that had already begun to bruise. Cass was doing his best to bathe the wounds but the girl winced under his touch. Lij took the bowl of bloodied water from him. "Go to Cormac and ask for frankincense, Cass. And bring some Samian wine." He repeated the instructions as the terms were not familiar to the man. Within minutes he was back with a small phial and a bottle of wine. Lij was bathing the welts with a gentle hand, all the time murmuring to the child. She lay there looking up at him, but said not a word. He raised her head and she willingly drank the mixture Lij prepared for her, and was soon asleep. Lij beckoned to Cass to follow him into Dom's room, where they spoke in urgent whispers. "Who did this to the child, Cass. Did she tell you?" His face was a mask of fury, and Cass, unused to Lij in a rage, was astonished at the look on his face. Dom smiled a grim smile. His Lij would deal with it. Cass nodded. "The Lady Ede did it, the girl said...." But the last words were uttered to Lij's back as he strode out, pulling with him the bemused servant who was coming through the door with a basket of peat. "Put that down and take me to Ede!" he demanded. When they got to Ede's room, the servant pointed and rushed away as if wolves were after him. Lij took two deep breaths to calm himself, then knocked loudly at the door. The elderly servant who opened it tried to deny Lij entrance, but he was having none of it. To her cries that the lady was in her nightwear and not suitably dressed for male visitors, Lij answered firmly that were she naked he would still demand entrance. He strode in to find Ede sitting in a chair by her bed, a shawl around her shoulders and a fur over her legs. If she were trying to look too sick to have committed the crime that Lij was about to tax her with, she did not succeed. Lij raked her with a scorching eye, and nodded a stiff neck in greeting. "I have come about the child, madam..." he began, but Ede interrupted him. "Get out!" she muttered to her maid who quickly disappeared into the next room. She raised her eyes again to his, but any hope that he would understand the remark she was about to make that she could do as she willed with her own servants withered on her lips. Lij was thinking what he would do to anyone who treated his Titi with such callous brutality. Ede saw his fury and wisely held her peace and let him speak. He tore her character, her morals, her womanhood and her management of her domain to shreds. Ede, not a bit afraid that he would lay hands upon her, sat entranced as he upbraided her. No one had dared to do so since her father had last berated her, and the novelty of it tickled her warped sense of humour. When he had finished, breathless with anger, she smiled up at him. "Since you have such a value for the brat I make you a present of her. She can take the place of your servant so recently departed from us, as is my own dear Lord." She wiped an imaginary tear out of the corner of her eye, and Lij, driven to suddenly remember good manners, offered her his most insincere condolences. Ede stared at him. "I will not take instruction from a stranger as to how I may order my household, my Lord. But as you are a stranger, and the code of hospitality, of which I am sure dear Seaneen has apprised you, prevents me from answering you in the way you have spoken to me, we will say no more of it." Lij bowed. "The child will stay with me. She will no longer return to the servants quarters. You may inform her mother, if she is interested, where she may find her." Ede laughed quietly. "Have you a fancy for her then, my lord?" But she saw that the barb had passed over his head. "I would like to rest now, if you please. But I will tell you this, Egypt, before you leave; there are more ways of skinning a rabbit than pulling its pelt off with your teeth." Lij, puzzled by her remarks, bowed once again and retreated into the corridor. It was only then that he realised that the bitter smell that had so distinguished the rooms of Morne, Cormac and Dom was entirely absent from Ede's chamber. * Lij quickly returned to his room. He knew where he was now, and had most of the keep planned out in his retentive mind. Ede was just a few doors down from Cormac, so he knew if he wanted to visit his new friend in peace, he would have to keep a watchful eye. Dom had got out of bed and was sitting in a chair next to Orla, who was holding his hand, and fast asleep. Dom looked up as Lij came in and both men knew that this little scrap of humanity reminded them forcibly of their own children so far away. Cass returned and shook his head. "Her mother seems to have disappeared. Ran off with a soldier they say. Not that it will be much loss to the child, as kitchen gossip says they disliked each other intensely. No wonder the woman took no care of her needs. Faugh!" he spat, picking up the ragged and bloody remnants of Orla's one dress. "And she has no other clothing. I asked in the kitchens." Lij was incensed. He called a servant and asked if there was a seamstress in the place. After a time a middle-aged woman tapped at the door and was given one of the fine woollen robes Ede had bestowed on Lij, and instructed to turn it into a dress for the girl. The woman was allowed in to look at Orla; being from the linen rooms set in the other half of the castle she did not know the child. Lij gently pulled back the bed linen revealing the wounded girl. "Dhia! Who did such a thing to the wee mite?" The woman stared at the child, and swiftly ran her measuring string over the slumbering form. "I shall have the dress ...no, two dresses...for you in no time," she said, then turned to go. A sudden thought came to her. "I have an old nightgown I was given to cut up for patching. It is lawn and will not chafe her body. I will alter it and bring that, too. The poor thing cannot spend her time in this room, with only men to tend her, wrapped in half a sheet!" Lij thought quickly and went to the clothes chest. He took out two of the beautiful fine lawn night robes he had been given, and a blue cloak edged with silk braid. "See what you can do with these, also, if you please. Take your time. The girl will not be fit to wear them for a few days yet. And if anyone tries to interfere in your work on these garments, send them to me. I am Egypt, if anyone asks of you who ordered this work. My word is wisdom, my will is law," he smiled to himself as he heard Dom behind him catch his breath on a laugh. Lij knew at times it was politic to mention one's high status. The woman's eyes widened as he spoke. She had heard of him it seemed, if not of Orla. She curtsied low and left quickly. Lij surveyed Dom with a disapproving eye. He looked very pale. He went to the side of the bed and perched on it, still examining Dom carefully. "Why are you out of bed, Dom? You look tired. You should lie down for a while. I will watch the child. Come!" Lij offered Dom his arm, and slowly but steadily Dom walked through the door to his room. Cass stood in the doorway and coughed. "I will stay in this room if you wish to sleep here, Lij," he offered, blushing. "I have fed the cat as Orla - in pain though she was - asked me to, and taken it out for a ...walk.� � Brian is going to the soldiers common room to spread the word that Dom has returned to the keep as weak as a kitten. He has to be scornful of you, Dom. The men must not yet know of his allegiance. Not yet. I will ask him to bring me bedding and I will be warm by the fire. It is not seemly to lie on the bed, for the child is twelve, so I gathered from the kitchen maids. It will be better thus." Dom and Lij looked at each other in astonishment. Orla was so tiny they had both thought she was about nine years old. Titi, who was eight was nearly the same size. When she had recovered, they must think of other sleeping arrangements for her. But for now, she was to stay where she was. Lij told Cass to leave the door between the rooms open so that if the child woke needing anything she could see that there were people to help her. Dom and Lij lay on Dom's bed, and talked quietly together until food came. The capable woman hefting the heavy tray informed them that all food served to the injured parties was now being tested on Connor's pack of hounds before being brought to them. After all, he had no further use for them, she said with no hint of irony in her tone. She plumped the tray on the table, sniffed at the two men on the bed, told them to enjoy their meal and stumped out noisily. Dom could not help it. His sense of the ridiculous was always acute. He burst into laughter which he smothered in the pillow lest he wake Orla. Lij joined in, and Cass came to the doorway again to see the two men limp from laughter in each others arms. Cass harumphed loudly when told of the joke. "I agree with you. I cannot see the use of it - if a dog is dead in the morning - so will you be! However, I shall make it my business to go down and count those dogs every day," he said, eyeing the couple askance as they burst into gusts of renewed laughter. * The Lady Ede lay in her bed. She tied the silken string around her neck. It held the little glass phial she had sipped from several times during the day. She tucked it under her nightgown, and frowned. Her mind was a maelstrom of emotions. Anger, lust, power and vengeance vied within her for supremacy. She nodded her head. Tomorrow, she thought, with a smile. While he is still weak. I will bend him to my will like a pliant reed. This time I have a bargaining tool that is to him of a value far above any living thing. This time you shall not escape me, Seaneen! |