Kurtz, Katherine - Deryni Chronology 01 - Camber of Culdi by Kurtz Katherine

Author:Kurtz, Katherine [Kurtz, Katherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fantasy, General, Fiction, Science Fiction, Fiction - Fantasy, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Science Fiction - General, Fantasy - General, Fantastic fiction
ISBN: 9780345347671
Publisher: Ballantine
Published: 1987-08-12T04:00:00+00:00

But if the days were taut for MacRories and Michaelines and a wayward Deryni lord, they were as nothing beside the misery of their king and liege lord, Imre. Grief stalked the towers of the royal apartments like an uninvited specter, wept and raged and hoarded vengeful thoughts in the keep of the House of Festil.

The king, his senses no longer dulled to gray oblivion by the balm of too much wine, spent the day of Cathan's funeral thrashing in sweat-soaked delirium, the fire in his brain assuaged but little by the tender ministrations of his sister. Sick with the aftereffects of wrung emotions, as well as the spirits he had consumed, unable to draw the strength to quell his pain arcanely, too proud to ask another's aid to ease the ache which lay upon him like a stifling mantle, he brooded in the sunless rooms and bore his suffering with an ever-sharper temper, terrorizing the servants until they feared to venture past the outer threshold.

Only Ariella seemed to understand, as she had always comprehended, from his youngest childhood days. And that, too, plagued him: the dimly recalled memory of her body next to his; their passion; a quirk of conscience urging condemnation while another, more fleshly part of him still yearned for her again.

In the end, he succumbed-though that, too, brought him little comfort for the rending in his soul. For two full days he kept his morbid isolation within his sister's chambers, seeing no one but her, taking little food, sleeping less, and indulging in hysterical fits of weeping rage at fate, at Maldred and Rannulf for letting themselves be slain, at Cathan for his betrayal, at Coel for telling him about it and compelling him to act, and at God, who had somehow conspired to make a shambles of Imre's world.

It was with full knowledge of this indulgence in kingly self-pity that Coel Howell dared to approach the royal apartments on the afternoon of the second day-with that knowledge, and armed with protection in the form of a handful of new parchment scrolls obtained but lately from his scribes.

He was received in Ariella's presence chamber, where the king sat in fur-lined robes before a roaring fire. Imre was strained and nervous-one had only to watch the tremor in his hands to ascertain that- but his mental faculties had not been impaired, and he listened to Coel's findings with great attention.

Ariella sat on a cushioned stool at his side, her hand resting negligently on his shoulder, her darting eyes missing no nuance. When Coel had finished, Imre perused the scrolls superficially, then handed them to his sister.

"Birth records of a father and son," he said, furrowing his brow. "Why the interest in them, and why now?"

Coel frowned. "I don't know, Sire. The father, Royston, has been dead for more than twenty years. But his father, Daniel, died only a few months ago. In fact, Rhys Thuryn was his physician-which makes me wonder why he and MacRorie stole the records.

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