Maia stared at him.
“I thought not,” he replied with a wink. “Leave that to us as well. I will go find Frances. She will want to greet you personally, and I am certain there is much you must discuss with your new chancellor. Excuse me.”
He bowed meekly and strode out of the kitchen. Maia noticed that the additional kitchen helpers from Assinica had all been staring at him in respect. Upon his departure, they immediately went back to work without a reminder from Collett.
“What troubles you?” Maia asked the Aldermaston, who still looked grave.
He glanced at his wife, who nodded and approached closer. “What Richard is loath to speak, I will,” she said in a hushed voice. “This is not about serving you, Maia. Please believe that. We are humbled by your faith in us. The city is much in commotion, we hear. There may be rioting the day of your coronation. But that is not the concern. Richard looked over the tome containing the coronation ritual. Clearly some of the words need to be adapted, but a certain practice has been in place for centuries.”
She frowned. “Maia, the anointing of a king or queen is called the Chrism. It is holy oil. It is to be anointed on your shoulders, breast, forehead, and temples.”
Maia blanched. “I did not know this.”
Richard nodded sternly, his voice too low for the others in the kitchen to hear. “It is clear that the tradition is in place to prevent an Aldermaston from unknowingly anointing a . . . hetaera.”
“The ceremony is usually performed inside the abbey walls, but it is done in front of a few witnesses,” Joanna continued. Her look darkened. “Changing the ritual drastically will only attract more attention. And it would not be honest to do so.”
Maia felt the wrenching anguish again, and tears swam in her eyes.
The Aldermaston reached out and took her arm. “I feel the Medium has forgiven you, Maia. You would not have been able to open the Apse Veil otherwise. But consequences are still being meted out, dram by dram. We will ponder this situation. Do not be grieved by it.”
“How can this not grieve me?” she said. She kept her voice low so that the kitchen helpers would not hear. The weight of the past threatened to crush her, and she felt miserable. “Before Crabwell tried to execute me, he sent Aldermaston Kranmir to talk to me. I was forced to show him my shoulder. He already knows.” She was starting to tremble and could not quell it. “He is going to try and use that knowledge to unseat my grandmother. And you. He is already calling himself the High Seer.”
The Aldermaston and his wife shared a grim look. “He may try to discredit you. But he will only invalidate his own authority,” Richard said. “When we go to Augustin, we will go with the full authority of the Medium. The Leerings there will no longer obey him. He may have deceived himself and others, but he cannot fool the Medium.”
Worry welled in Maia’s stomach. “I have the shadowstain on my chest,” she said with a groan. “And the mark on my shoulder. I do not see how this can stay secret. It is my sin. It is my offense. As long as the Chrism is anointed inside the abbey, the Myriad Ones cannot overwhelm me. They nearly did in the palace. But the witnesses will all know something is wrong.”
She felt the Aldermaston’s wife put an arm around her shoulder. “Perhaps it is time for the binding sigil to be broken,” she whispered, squeezing Maia.
CHAPTER TEN
Coroner’s Inquest
Even though the sun had long since set, many people still wandered the corridors of the castle, trying to complete the work of the day. Another day had passed since the news of the new chancellor had been announced, in which time Richard had been installed in the tower and his wife had taken up residence at Augustin Abbey. Kranmir had fled with some of his loyal supporters, but his whereabouts were still unknown. As Maia walked toward the chancellor’s tower, she was met with startled looks and quick obeisance as her subjects recognized her and the guardsmen escorting her. Light streamed down from several Leerings, and she saw it reflected in the glossy polish of the tiled floor. There were hardly any floor rushes and a host of servants swept the floors clean each day. Maia even saw a little drudge with a rag kneeling and scrubbing at the seams, and she frowned, knowing the little girl should be abed already.
When she reached the tower, she turned to face her escort. “Wait for me here if you must, but I would prefer that you retire for the night. It has been a long and busy day.”