Prince of Dogs (Crown of Stars #2)

Prince of Dogs (Crown of Stars #2) Page 129

“Your voice.” Theophanu’s eyes flared with astonishment. “Your voice is the one I heard warning me. What treachery is this?”

“They saw a deer where you rode, Your Highness.”

“I am no deer to be hunted and slain. Was this an accident, Eagle?”

But now a forester had come up, and the crowd like a mindless writhing creature moved across the wood to engulf them. Back on the path, Hugh comforted a weeping Sapientia.

By now the king had come up to the others, and in their babble of voices Liath heard repeated over and over that all dozen or so there and even in addition the foresters had seen not Theophanu but a deer.

“Witchcraft,” someone said.

“A miracle,” said another.

“Too many damn fool young hotheads hunting for prizes and seeing visions in the mist,” said Villam with disgust.

“This day’s hunt ends now,” said King Henry. A groom helped him dismount. He came up to his daughter and extended a hand. She took it, and he raised her up off the ground. “You are unhurt?” he asked. Villam by now had forced order into the milling mob behind them, pressing them back from the frightened horse. Far away, hounds bayed wildly. Henry released Theophanu’s hand and beckoned a huntsman forward. “Follow the hounds,” he said, “and bring back to the lodge whatever meat you take.”

The man nodded. Soon, foresters and huntsmen went on alone, though some of the young nobles clearly wished to go with them.

“May I have a moment alone to collect my wits, Father,” Theophanu. asked, “before I ride again?”

He gestured to his attendants to back off and himself moved away. Liath began to retreat, but Theophanu signed to her, and Liath hesitated, afraid to be seen with her, afraid not to obey.

“Was it an accident?” the princess repeated, her gaze hard, her mouth a thin line. “Did my sister devise this treachery?”

The thought of Sapientia concocting any kind of intrigue made Liath’s mouth drop open in amazed disbelief. “Your sister? No! But it was not an accident—” Then she broke off. She had revealed too much.

Theophanu said nothing for a long while. Slowly, one scratched and bleeding hand came up to touch the panther brooch that held her cloak closed. “Was it sorcery? And from whose hand?”

“I can prove nothing, Your Highness. I know only what I saw.”

“Or did not see.” She looked up at a sight behind Liath’s back, and away quickly, as if she was ashamed. “Am I any better than those who saw a deer in the forest, which is only what they wished to see?” With a jerk and a sudden grimace, she ripped the panther brooch off her cloak and flung it behind her into the leaves. “I am in your debt, Eagle. What reward can I give you?”

She blurted it out, not meaning to say it, but it was more impassioned for its rash honesty. “Get me away from him, I beg you.”

“‘The meekness of the dove with the cunning of the serpent,’” Theophanu muttered. “But I need proof.” Still pale, she groped through the leaves until she found the brooch again. Gingerly, as though it were poison, she tucked it in between belt and tunic. “I will do what I can. Go now. It is not wise that you be seen with me, if what I suspect is true. Say nothing to anyone until I give you leave.”

4

HENRY was furious. The hunt came clattering back early in an uproar to upset the quiet tenor of a day that Rosvita had hoped would be a productive one for her clerics. But the stories she heard, from so many different sources, were alarming enough that she was relieved when Princess Theophanu rode in unharmed. Strangely, for all that her dress was in disarray, her hair disordered, and her skin scratched and stained with loam and dirt, the princess was herself perfectly composed.

“So eastern,” muttered Brother Fortunatus. “You know these Arethousans are inscrutable.”

“Spare us these false wisdoms,” said Sister Amabilia. “Poor Theophanu! To be mistaken for a deer!”

The king was not to be mollified by the testimony of all who had been present. Everyone, even the foresters and huntsmen who had raced ahead with Sapientia’s party, had seen a deer in place of a princess.

“The rain confused our eyes.” “The mist confused our eyes.” “It was the shape of the branches above her head.” On they went, all of them grievously shocked at the accident.

“Or there was a deer behind her in the woods and in your rashness you shot without looking closely! Lord Amalfred. Lord Grimoald. You are no longer welcome at this court. You will be gone by nightfall. We will all of us leave this ill-omened place tomorrow. One of my children I have already lost. I do not intend to lose any more.”