Limits of Power Read Free Page B

and for us, who have long been partners here. I counsel you all to be vigilant. If you have doubts of something you see, tell a palace official or a servant. I must go to the salle, where the bodies are laid for the night. Those who wish may pay respects later.” With a short bow, he left them and headed for the salle.
    In the passage near the salle, he met Sier Tolmaric’s wife, escorted by one of Arian’s Squires. Lady Tolmaric’s face, normally pale, was blotched with crying, her graying red hair loosening from its braid.
    â€œMy lady,” Kieri began, but she burst into more tears before he could offer any comfort. He knew it had been her first visit to Chaya—she had not come for the coronation—and he had seen her wide-eyed joy in the splendor of the court and her shyness around other Siers’ wives. Now she was bereft here in this strange place with strangers all around and no husband to guide her.
    She sobbed out her misery, her fears, her certainty that nothing would ever come right. “The children—they’ll starve—who’ll take the land? And the farms—what will I do? Salvon knew it all; he worked so hard for us—”
    â€œMy lady, listen to me,” Kieri said when the fit seemed like to go on another turn of the glass. “Your children will
not
go hungry, nor your house be taken away … I promise you, as I promised him—”
    â€œDo you…” A gulp and cough interrupted that. “Do you really mean … you’ll help?”
    â€œYes,” Kieri said. “A king keeps his promises, and I have promised. Before a witness here—” He glanced at Arian’s Squire, who spoke up on cue.
    â€œI witness the king’s promise,” she said. “Now, Lady Tolmaric—”
    â€œYou should not go in yet,” Kieri said. “It would distress you—and where are the children?” He knew that one son and two daughters had come, as wide-eyed and shy as their mother.
    â€œAt—at the house. This—this lady, this Squire said the queen had sent word, so I would not hear it from gossip, but I do not listen to gossip, sir king, truly I don’t. And she said I should wait, but I could not, I must come, he was my husband. Oh—” She broke into sobs again. “Oh, what will I do?”
    â€œYou will listen to me,” Kieri said with more force. Her mouth opened, and she stared but was quiet. “Listen carefully now. A dangerous being killed him, and the killing defaced him. What was done to his body was evil. You should not go in now but wait until those whose business it is have sewn him into a shroud for burial.”
    â€œBut I must see his face one more time—must kiss his hands, his feet—”
    â€œNo, you must not. Remember his face as it was. Hold that memory and do not degrade it with how he now appears.”
    Her eyes were wide, fixed on his. “But … it is what a wife should do … it is what his mother did when his father died. What my mother did…”
    â€œYes, if his death was natural. This is not. Trust me, your king, to know what is best. You will have enough distress when you see him in the shroud, for the evil that was done distorted what was left. You must not remember him as he is now.”
    â€œThen what—how long—?”
    â€œYour children need you. Do you have servants in the house where you are?”
    â€œN-no. It is not our house; we paid to use one for three hands of days. No need for servants; I can cook as well as any.”
    â€œYes, but you should not be alone now.” He sent the Squire to arrange an escort and someone to stay with Lady Tolmaric for a day or so. As soon as Lady Tolmaric and the two servants headed back to her rented house, Kieri went on to the salle.

CHAPTER TWO

    T here he found Arian with her father’s body. Dameroth’s bloody clothes had been removed, his body washed