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silence went on and on, until Calia
wanted to scream at her companion to say something, anything. When
the question came, it was the one she expected, and she was
prepared for it.
    “Do you think he married her deliberately?”
Lady Elgida asked.
    “I do not doubt it for a moment,” Calia
answered. “Knowing Mallory, I think he assessed the situation and
made clever, innocent-seeming suggestions. In the end, King Dyfrig
probably imagined the marriage idea was his alone. I know you are
not overfond of Lady Fenella, but I pity her, bound as she now is
to Mallory and his ambition.”
    “She could have refused to wed your brother.
Kantian women do have that right.”
    “I wonder if any woman can withstand
Mallory’s will,” Calia said. “He may have convinced her that he
loves her.”
    “Fenella’s mistakes are her own. Let her deal
with the results of them,” Lady Elgida said. “What concerns me is
the welfare of my grandsons. Could Mallory want Kinath Castle for
his own? Perhaps he sees his marriage to Fenella and his holding of
the castle as a form of revenge against Garit. Calia, is your
brother capable of murder?”
    Calia caught her breath at the question. She
started to shake her head, to deny the possibility, until she
recalled unexplained deaths at Catherstone and knew that she had to
be completely honest. The lives of two children could be at stake,
and perhaps Lady Fenella’s life, too.
    “I am sorry to say that Mallory can be
vicious when he’s crossed,” she admitted. “If someone stood in the
way of something he wanted very badly, then I fear he’d have no
scruples at all.”
    “Someone like a boy, or two boys, whose
continued existence would prevent him from claiming a large, strong
fortress as his own by right of marriage?” Lady Elgida
insisted.
    “Yes, my lady,” Calia whispered, thinking
again of those deaths at Catherstone. “But Mallory is clever, and
patient, too. He’d wait until he could make the deaths seem to be
accidents, or the result of perfectly natural illness. Oh, I am
ashamed to admit this about my own kin. Truly, my blood is tainted
by murder and treason.” She bowed her head under the weight of that
terrible heritage.
    “Have you ever killed anyone?”
    “What? I?” Calia’s head came up again until
she met Lady Elgida’s gaze straight on. “No, my lady. The thought
of taking a life – no! Never!”
    “Then I don’t understand why you should feel
shame. You are not responsible for your brother’s secret intentions
whatever they may be, or for his actions. Or for your father’s
actions, either, come to that. Now, tell me, does Mallory write to
you?”
    “He doesn’t know how to write. He is a knight
and thinks of himself as a great warrior. To his mind, reading and
writing are pastimes suitable only for mages and women.”
    “Then, he’s a great fool. Which is not to
deny that he’s shrewd and could be dangerous. Thank you, Calia. You
have added greatly to the information that Adana sent me. Now, I
must consider all you’ve told me and decide what I ought to
do.”
    “We cannot be absolutely certain about
Mallory’s intentions,” Calia said, feeling that one last word in
behalf of her only blood kin was called for.
    “Whatever your brother is, you are not
a fool. Don’t pretend to be one,” Lady Elgida snapped. “Despite
your reluctance to admit it, we do have a fair idea of what Mallory
intends. I expect that he will do what his father did in a similar
situation, when Walderon saw the chance of gaining land and wealth
by eliminating two young and innocent souls.
    “Of course,” Lady Elgida continued, “the
ideal solution would be for Garit to travel to Kantia and convince
King Dyfrig that he, as a mature man with a strong and honest
reputation, ought to be made lord of Kinath, instead of a little
boy holding the title. Then, Fenella could take her sons and retire
to her dower lands, leaving her husband to join her there, or aim
his ambitions