Lady's Ransom (The First Argentines, #3)

“You fought that many?” she asked in wonder.

“It was not an even match. They were armored, and I had only a hauberk and my sword.” He looked around. “Where is my sword?”

“Still in the grove, I’ll wager,” she said. “I sent knights there to hunt down any who survived. I expect they’ll come back soon. Or others will.”

Ransom sighed. “I did the best I could. One got away. I threw a dagger at Sir Chauvigny and may have killed him or wounded him enough that the grove finished him, but I don’t know for certain.”

“It was enough,” she said, putting her hand on his. “So it was Sir Chauvigny, was it? He’s been promised to Lady Alix of Bayree.”

Ransom looked at her in surprise.

“I have certain informants in Pree,” she said. “Following Dunmanis, he asked Estian for her hand and the duchy.”

“He obviously didn’t go to war with the king.”

“No,” she said. “He’d been injured during the fighting in Dunmanis, I believe. He needed to heal. But he asked the king for permission to marry her, and the king said yes. I don’t think it has been celebrated yet. I suppose they are using the absence of Benedict and Estian to further their search for the Gradalis.” She frowned. “And with the queen dowager away from the Vexin, they have an opportunity to do mischief. I cannot let these incursions go unpunished.”

“What will you do?” he asked her.

She removed her hand from his. “I’ll increase the border guard. I might send a raiding party into Bayree.”

“That would break the truce between our realms.”

“Haven’t they broken it themselves?” she countered. “You were intended to be my last defense, Lord Ransom. Not my only one.”

He sighed again. “You summoned me to Ploemeur last night. Can you tell me why? I’m not ungrateful, but you didn’t do that last time. I thought the mud would claim me.”

She looked away. “I knew you were in trouble.”

He gave her a questioning look.

“Please don’t ask me,” she said.

“I fear I must. You saved my life, Constance. You knew I’d be injured?”

She nodded, still unable to meet his eyes.

“How did you know?” he asked softly.

She gave him a weary smile. “If I tell you, I must ask you to guard another secret.”

Ransom flinched. There were already more secrets than he wanted between Claire and himself. But he saw Constance was in earnest and that the need was probably great. “I will, my lady,” he said.

“Very well. I shall return in a moment.” She rose from the bed and hurried out of the room. Her sudden departure confused him, but he was in no shape to follow her. His back groaned, and his wrist was painfully sore. The scabbard’s magic had truly saved his life.

Constance returned shortly thereafter, holding something in her hand. When she drew near, she showed it to him. It was a marbled white stone, about the size of an egg, only flatter than one.

“What is it?” he asked her.

“It is one of the seering stones,” she said. “They come in sets of two. One can see the present. The other, the future or the past. The one I’m holding is the kind that sees the future and the past.”

“Where did you get it?”

“It’s been handed down to the rulers of Brythonica since the flooding of Leoneyis. My grandfather told me that King Andrew the Ursus, the famous one, had both of them. They were given to him by the Wizr Myrddin.” She looked down at the stone cupped in her hand. “Grandfather told me that they made him very powerful, for he could see his enemies before they attacked. He could spy on them and learn their secrets.” She paused. “My grandfather said it was wrong of him to use them that way. They are very powerful, and to look at them when not commanded by the Fountain is a grievous sin.”

He felt a shiver go down his spine and heard the shushing of the Fountain. This was a powerful artifact. Possibly the most powerful of them all other than the Gradalis.

“You said Sir Terencourt told you I would become the new guardian.”

She nodded. “I did say that, Lord Ransom, in order to conceal the truth of the seering stone. I was the one who told him that you would replace him. The Fountain whispered to me to look into the stone last night after the Gradalis was activated. I wasn’t going to. I’d assumed you would defeat the threat.” She shrugged slightly. “That’s how I knew what would happen to you.”

“Do you know other things that will happen?” he asked.

“Of course you would ask me that,” she said. “The answer is yes. Some things. But there is a warning about looking into the stone. The desire to peer at them becomes overpowering with time. It can drive one mad.”

Ransom breathed out slowly. “You said there were two stones. Where is the other?”

“I’ve seen it,” she said. “But I didn’t recognize the man who has it. It could be the Atabyrion king or a noble. I don’t know. I only know he uses it for a twisted purpose. It’s safer to use the seering stones together. Their power helps balance each other.”

Ransom gazed into her eyes. “Is your son going to become king?” he asked her.

She shuddered. “I’ve wanted to see that, Lord Ransom. But I dare not look for such a selfish thing. I’ve nearly done it, but each time I felt a warning not to.” Her eyes locked on his. “I’ve learned to trust those warnings.”

“Are you Fountain-blessed?” he asked her.

She shook her head. “No, although I’ve wished for it. Grandfather said anyone can use the stones. Knowing too much about the future is dangerous, though. Even knowledge of the present can be poisonous. There is . . .” She stopped suddenly, then shook her head.

“What?” Ransom pressed.

She looked at him again. “There is some fate that binds us, Lord Ransom. Often I have felt that you should have been . . . my husband. I don’t understand these feelings. It’s as if some fate was thwarted before we even knew each other.”

He wanted to gasp at the audacity of her suggestion.

“You are safe from me,” she said, seeing his reaction. “I would never come between you and Lady Claire. I want to look into this stone and see the future. To understand why I have these strange feelings.” She sighed. “But I dare not. It’s forbidden for a reason.”

A long and awkward silence fell between them, his mind on Claire and her words about Constance. Had she picked up on something he hadn’t?

“So you’ve seen the man who possesses the other stone, but you didn’t recognize him,” Ransom affirmed, drawing the conversation away from personal matters.

“He could be from Brugia,” Constance said with a shrug. “The scabbard you wear also used to belong to King Andrew. It was more formidable than his famous sword, Firebos. Too much power in one man . . . that’s what led to his downfall. All we have left are scraps of knowledge. And no Wizr to guide us.”





I dreamed again last night. Ransom was arriving at Glosstyr by ship. A Brythonican ship. Are these visions the doing of the seering stone? Or is the babe in my womb causing all these fears and jealousy to surge within me? I threw up so violently this morning that splotches of color rose on my face and neck. I feared the spasms would do my child harm.

When I was trapped in the tower at Kingfountain, I felt misery and weakness. This feeling I have now, trapped in my own body, wary of my own husband, feels so much worse. If it is the stone that is causing me such anguish, then I need to be rid of it. Perhaps I should cast it into the sea, lest it claim my soul as it did Purser Dougal’s. But how can a rock know my deepest fears? Am I just being a fool?

The storm has gone. The sea is clear. I will send a ship to Glosstyr to see if Ransom is there. So I may know whether these visions are true or false.

—Claire de Murrow

Connaught Castle

(sick of body, sick of heart)





CHAPTER FIFTEEN


The Still of the Deep