The Spellbinders by Aleardo Zanghellini

Author:Aleardo Zanghellini [Zanghellini, Aleardo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lethe Press
Published: 2018-10-18T00:00:00+00:00

♠

They had put their clothes back on and were now sitting a little apart on a different bench, by an open door giving direct access to the Palace grounds. They had made love. He had made love with a stranger, a fraud, a lunatic – one Richard de Neueby. And yet it did not feel like that at all. He almost felt as if he could have complete trust in the soul inhabiting this young body. Suddenly, Edward burst into a deluge of tears.

‘What is it, Edward?’

‘Oh, it’s Edward now, is it?’ The King smiled between the sobs.

‘It’s always been Edward,’ whispered Sir Richard.

Suddenly, the urge to unburden himself was overwhelming. ‘You want to know what’s the matter with me, Sir Richard? Well, I lay my heart bare to you. The fact is I had a love, Sir Richard. He was my sworn brother. And he was from Gascony – like you Sir Richard. Indeed, I don’t know that the only reason why I agreed to see you today is that you introduced yourself as my Gascon brother. But my love, Sir Richard – it’s gone. I lost it. One year ago. And with it, I lost everything.’ He swallowed. ‘Even the birth of my son hasn’t stopped my anguish. And I can’t get it back, Sir Richard – I can’t get back my love. I can’t get back my sworn brother from Gascony, even if he promised he’d always come back for me. There. You know now. Make of it what you will.’ He wiped his eyes with his shirt-sleeve.

Sir Richard put a hand on Edward’s shoulder. ‘But have you really lost him, Your Grace?’

Edward looked away – he couldn’t bear the pity in the man’s eyes. He felt Sir Richard remove his hand from his shoulder. ‘I have. Irretrievably. Memories are all I have left of him. Only memories… And…’

‘What else, Your Grace?’

‘Visions. Every night. Visions of him. Not happy ones – I hardly know him in those visions of mine.’

‘Visions, Your Grace?’

Edward turned to face him again. He screwed his face, managing to force back a new onslaught of tears. ‘Yes, Sir Richard. Visions… Spectral visions.’

Sir Richard leant over and took his hands. ‘Don’t trust the shadows, Edward!’

How earnestly he said it! As if Sir Richard knew his grief – every sharp edge, every hard, unyielding facet of it. But how could he?

‘I shouldn’t trust them?’ he asked, half-stupefied.

‘No! Shadows are only…shadows.’

‘Should I turn my back on the shadows? How can I?’

‘Trust that you can, and you will unmake them.’ Sir Richard’s hands squeezed his. ‘What else ails you, Your Grace?’

‘I betrayed him. My sworn brother.’

Incongruously, Sir Richard de Neueby’s eyes now also filled with tears. His hands let go of Edward’s own and rested limply in his lap. ‘Haven’t you spent every waking hour in the last year mourning for him? I know you have, Your Grace.’

Edward nodded.

‘Then how have you betrayed him?’

‘I hesitated. I haven’t killed his murderers.’

‘More death?’ The man put a hand on

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