The Book of the Night by Pearl North

Author:Pearl North
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

11

The Queen’s Consort

Every night after they made love, Thela talked to Po. She spoke of her mother, of Selene, and of her frustration with the more traditional elements of the Ilysian nobility.

“If we could recruit men for the army, we could rebuild our forces in months,” she complained.

Admit men to the army? Was she insane? Po’s thinking on a great many things had changed since he’d first left Ilysies, but giving men weapons seemed foolish and extreme. Of course he couldn’t say that, and probably wouldn’t even if Thela wasn’t controlling him with the pen. He leaned back and looked at her.

The set of her mouth was rigid. A muscle jumped in her jaw. She was really upset. “I can tell you anything,” she said.

“Of course.”

“Things aren’t going well. I may be facing a challenge.”

The thought of being the consort of a failed queen, with all the uncertainty that entailed, soon gave way to a deeper dread. He wasn’t thinking right. Thela would do anything to maintain her position. She’d use the pen. That was what he needed to worry about.

“What if you did?” he said, the words seeming to come from outside himself. “What if you were challenged, and lost the throne? What if you conceded without fighting? You’ve done so much for Ilysies already. Would it be so bad to retire to a quiet life in the country with a male who adores you?”

She stroked the side of his face, her eyes glittering. “Wouldn’t that be lovely?” she surprised him by saying. “I get so tired sometimes.” She closed her eyes and tears dampened her lashes. “Tired and lonely.”

He rested his hands on her arms, caressing her inner elbows with his thumbs. He let part of his mind slip into kinesthetic trance and he said, “Well, why can’t you?”

She looked at him with such yearning it burned a hole in his heart, and through it flowed the waters from the sunken temple of her guilt. The empty gown floated up in his mind’s eye and wrapped around him. He couldn’t breathe. “It can’t be for nothing,” she said.

Po released her arms and broke the trance. He gathered Thela close and held her. “She forgives you,” he said. “She knows why you did it and she’s grateful to you. Ilysies is grateful to you. You’ve done so much. It’s enough, Thela.” He didn’t care anymore if the words were true.

She was quiet a long time and then she said, “And Selene? I sent her to her death. I thought I had to.”

“It’s not too late. She could forgive you, too, if you gave her the chance.”

“Do you say these things because of what I wrote with the pen, or because you were redeemed and this is your wisdom?”

He couldn’t answer that. “Would you like to be redeemed?”

“I saw it, but I was too far away. I couldn’t feel it.”

“I can help you. The ultimate goal of kinesiology is integration, and integration and Redemption are the same thing. But you have to know, it’s not something you’re ever finished with.

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