As gently as he could, Regis said, “My brother, these are matters that call for a lady’s tender care. Let me send for my wife. She has training in healing—”
Tiphani’s head shot up, her eyes filled with too much white. “Trained, yes, in that nest of sorcery you call a Tower! Do you not see, my lord,” to Rinaldo, “how she could have cast her evil spells out of jealousy—”
“No, no, my dear,” Rinaldo replied with surprising calm as he patted her hand. “My brother’s wife is a woman of virtue, and she has not been anywhere near Bettany.” In a quicksilver shift of mood, like the sudden fall of night over Thendara, his features darkened. “ Shehas not . . .”
His gaze lit upon Danilo.
“Lady Luminosa is correct. This tragic affair smacks of wizardry!” the priest repeated. “As I said before, it cannot be natural!”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about!” Regis snapped. Cloistered away from women, new to the ways of the world, what monk could be acquainted with the ills of women? But this was no time to educate the man about false pregnancy. “If you will not have Linnea’s help, then let us send for a healer-woman. MestraTiphani is overwrought—”
“Call me not by that vile Terran name!” Tiphani spat.
“—and will need support to bear her own tragedy.”
“What could be worse than the supernatural death of the king’s unborn son?” she demanded, her voice rising shrilly.
“Please, calm yourself—” Rinaldo said.
“Tell me!” she shrieked at Regis. She looked as if she would claw out the eyes of any man who crossed her. Danilo moved to intercept her.
In that brief hesitation, Valdir growled, “Your son was almost killed, you heartless vixen—and my own kinsman is dead! The Terrananraided the house in the Trade City—because youtook your son there!”
“Lies! Foul lies, spread by this scheming usurper!” Tiphani pointed at Regis.
Regis gazed back, and for a moment, his heart ached for her, so lost in self-righteous fury that she could not understand what had happened.
Then awareness flickered across her face. She lowered her hand. Her tone shifted from strident to hoarse. “What . . . what have you done?”
“I, lady?” Regis said. “I tried to save your son and would have done so, if the Federation men had not opened fire. I am sorry, more than I have words to tell you.”
Tiphani began to weep soundlessly. She turned away, blocked by the solid bulk of Gabriel. He put his arms around her with the same tenderness he would have used with a younger sister.
Rinaldo rose like the slow gathering of a storm cloud. “These things do not happen by chance.”
“No, they happen by human folly,” Regis responded. “By arrogance, greed, and ambition. By power without the wisdom to use it wisely.”
“This terrible winter and now this even more terrible loss,” Rinaldo went on, his voice breathy with passion, “these trials are surely sent to punish us for our wickedness.”
He fixed Regis with his icy gaze, then glared at Danilo. “We have tolerated evil among us for too long, even in the highest places. Can you gainsay this, Danilo?”
Lord of Light! I was a fool to think that if Danilo and I were parted, he would be safe!
“Confess now or risk your immortal soul!” Rinaldo cried. “Confess that you have influenced DomnaBettany and tried to sway her from the path of righteousness!”
“I have done nothing to harm the lady or her babe,” Danilo protested. “I have tried as best I could to be her friend.”
“You!” Tiphani shrilled. “You dared—”
Rinaldo cut her off. “You took advantage of my wife’s inexperience. You used her vulnerable condition—you seduced her thoughts—not that you would know what to do with a woman’s body!”
“If that is so,” Danilo answered with a flare of heat, “then she can be in no danger from me.”
“She can be in very grave danger,” came the silky rumble of the priest. “Spiritual danger, far more potent than mere physical lust. Your perverse inclinations, hidden but never abandoned, have struck down the unborn prince!”
“There is no evil in any form of love if it is given honestly,” Danilo said, his voice steady. “I cannot believe that a just god would so punish an innocent child.”
“Aha! There we have the heart of it!” cried Rinaldo. “I have known all along, but I have refrained from taking action for my brother’s sake. I had hoped you would repent, but now I see that is impossible. The evil has taken too deep a hold. It is you, Danilo Syrtis-Ardais, who are the cancer at the heart of this city!”
Rinaldo pointed at Danilo. “There is the sinner whose transgressions have brought retribution on us all. Seize him!”
Before the Guardsmen could respond, Valdir jumped up. “This is going too far! I have no love for your paxman, Your Majesty, but he is no way responsible for the actions of the Federation. I will have no part in this!”
“Rinaldo, I consider it no edifying sight for Comyn to trade insults like a pair of gutter rats,” Regis interposed. “But this matter, as Lord Valdir said, goes too far. Mourn the dead, see to your lady wife, but more than that, I will not permit. Touch Danilo Syrtis at your peril.”
“How dare you speak to me in this manner?” Rinaldo cried. “I have endured this pestilence among us because he was a favorite of yours and the Holy St. Christopher urges us to be compassionate—but Danilo Syrtis overstepped the limits of decency in speaking as he did. And in our very presence! That he should—oh, most insufferable effrontery—link the word loveto such base carnal deviance in one breath and Godin the next!”
“He did no such thing,” Regis countered, keeping his voice even, his words measured, “but only spoke as a man of sense.”
Rinaldo gestured to the guards. “Seize him, I said! If my brother gives you any trouble, lay hands upon him, too!”
“Danilo has committed no crime,” Regis insisted. “He has acted in good faith to you.”
“His own words reveal the blasphemy in his heart.” Rinaldo’s expression turned adamant. “Any man who sins in his thoughts sins in fact.”
“You cannot truly believe that,” Regis said, growing even more deeply troubled. “How can a man be damned for thinking about an act he then chooses not to commit? If that’s the case, we are all lost!”
“But we arelost!” Rinaldo’s eyes went wild and opaque. “Don’t you see?”
“I see that your mind is made up,” Regis said.
“He should be hanged as a warning to other sinners, but youwould make trouble. Your loyalties have never done credit to your rank or education. I must be content to expose him for a day or two in the stocks. That will do him a measure of good and will demonstrate that the eternal Divine Law is no respecter of high estate.”
“In this weather? He would be dead before nightfall!” Now Regis had no doubt of the force of his brother’s delusions.
Blessed Cassilda, my brother truly has gone mad. Danilo,bredhyu , you were right in your suspicions. How I wish I had heeded you then!
“If you intend to send Danilo to the stocks, you had better be prepared to put me there, too.”
“Don’t tempt me, my brother,” Rinaldo said. “If I thought for a moment the people would stand for it, I would do just that!”
I allowed him this power, I welcomed it . . .
“I know what you have been plotting.” Rinaldo’s expression twisted into slyness. “You want my crown for your own. Yes, yes, I see your ambition in your eyes. You deserve to be punished, for you have sinned as well. Oh, don’t tell me that those disgusting lusts are sinful only for cristoforos. God’s commands apply to everyone. Your only hope is to repent and chastise the flesh, which is weak. You should welcome a night in the stocks for the good of your immortal soul.”
Between his teeth, Regis muttered, “If I believed for a moment that you really meant it—”