The King's Name by Jo Walton Read Free Book Online Page A

tortured. "Bring me hot mint water to the hall," I said, and she scurried off toward the kitchens.
    I went out into the hall, where suddenly I was being asked a hundred questions by everyone.
    Most of them had to do with the daily routine of the house, which had been so terribly disrupted. I could see that we were going to need a new steward immediately. I had never quite thought how much Daldaf did.
    The question of what to do with the bodies was not a simple one either.
    Garian was a follower of the White God, and he had a mother, a wife, and two children at Magor. Conal, of course, was Isarnagan. His nearest relative was Lew, at Dun Morr, but his father was still alive in Oriel and
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    might want his body sent home. He was one of Oriel's Royal Kin. I thought of asking Emer what she would want done, and then realized how inappropriate that would be. Yet I knew nothing about his personal relationship with the gods. I gave orders for both bodies to be laid out honorably for the time being. I sat down on the windowseat to sip my mint water and think. People kept coming up to me with questions, which I answered as best I could. In between interruptions I dozed and fretted. Despite the irritation of the interruptions I didn't want to go to bed or to try to get on with my letter. I wanted to sit in the sunshine and watch my people as I had done so many times in the last years.
    Through the window I could see Second
    Pennon drilling, and a ship unlading at the wharf. In the hall people kept coming and going.
    Well into the afternoon, Veniva came back. She was still wearing the russet overdress she had worn that morning. It was flecked with blood where her apron had not covered it. She looked distressed.
    "What news?" I asked.
    "We must speak privately," she said, glancing around the hall. I followed her back into the little accounts room, where the three words of my letter were waiting ominously.
    "What did he say?" I asked as she closed the door.
    "Civil war," Veniva said tersely, and her lips closed on that single Vincan word as if she would say no more.
    Then, as I gaped at her, she drew breath and spoke again. "You must write to all the kings and tell them it is not true and keep them from rising."
    "What isn't true?" I asked.
    Veniva looked drawn and hollow-eyed. "It is just like that time when Flavien wrote to all of us that Urdo was become a tyrant and meant to depose him," she said. "That time your father and Duke Galba and old Uthbad wrote letters to all the kings and they were reassured. It may work again, if we are quick."
    "But what are they saying, and why has nobody said it to us?" I asked, feeling as if I was riding full tilt through a forest in a mist.
    "It is this Breghedan affair. But that is just the spark. Some of the kings are restless with Urdo, and say he is a pagan and a tyrant and he prefers the Jarns to his own people. Daldaf told me there is a conspiracy between Cinvar ap Uthbad, Cinon ap Cinon, and Flavien ap Borthas, with Ayl and Angas and Custennin wavering about joining in. Aurien, of course, the fool, is deeply implicated."
    "We're in a terrible position here," I said, reaching for a map. It was one of the new sharp ones Raul's people had drawn up. "I don't believe it about Ayl and Angas, but Custennin might be idiotic enough. What's happening in Wenlad?"
    "He didn't mention it," Veniva said. "But wait. Marchel ap Thurrig is due to land in Magor with two alae of
    Narlahenan horse. Apparently they hoped that, if you were ignominiously dead and Aurien urged it, our ala would join them. Then they could take the whole center of the land and the others would join them."
    "Emlin has more loyalty than that," I said automatically. But Emlin had served under Marchel once. I didn't think he would have done that, but it wasn't impossible.
    "That part of the plan failed. Daldaf was horrified to see you coming back and decided to poison you."
    "He would have done better to stab me, if he wanted to get away