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Nuris wanted some time to himself, but when the message came that he was required in the throne room, he wasn’t surprised to find the cardinal standing before the king. He was surprised that the Circle members were also present.
“Here he is,” Lord Langham said.
“Let him explain it then,” Lord Morys offered.
The cardinal, grinned and Nuris wondered what the man was concocting now.
“She is secure?” asked Lord Sumner, an older member of the Circle of the Sun. He sounded far more nervous than Nuris had heard him before.
“I can assure you she is,” the cardinal returned, his grin not shifting. Nuris wondered just what he had missed.
“Explain it,” the king demanded. It appeared that he wasn’t clear as to what was going on either.
“I felt the dungeons were not the place.”
“For whom?” Nuris asked, trying hard to keep his voice level. Would they kill her without telling me?
“There are many who might use them to endanger us, the kingdom, and the king.”
“Us?” Nuris asked, allowing some mirth into his voice, his eyebrows raised. Was this man putting himself and his church above the king?
“Those who hold no magic,” the cardinal said, a seriousness in his voice that Nuris had not expected.
“What have you done?” he asked, and a murmur moved through the group.
“I moved them. And to ensure they would cause no trouble, we did so when they slept.”
“Slept?” Nuris asked. But he guessed what had occurred—they had been drugged, likely with the bread he had insisted they be fed. “Where are they?”
“Only I am privy to such information,” the cardinal said. “To ensure they are not used.”
“You think your king would use them?” Nuris demanded. “Or is it me you fear?”
“General, I know you have done your best to try to find your sister over the years. And yet you failed to do so. I wonder if it was not her skill but your relationship that prevented you finding her.”
“She is no longer my sister,” Nuris said, allowing all the anger he had felt that day to be heard in his voice. “She is a witch. Do you plan to use her and her magic as you did the other one?”
The murmuring grew louder, and the cardinal glowered openly at him. “I have a child witch as well. I suggest we use the three of them to learn all we can so that we can better uncover how they work and how they are formed. To put a stop to this once and for all.”
“How do you propose this learning take place? Will you allow them to use their magic, or will you cut them open to see how different they might be? Or better yet, you could produce children by them to see if the offspring have magic.”
The cardinal actually growled as he took a step towards Nuris.
“Enough!” the king bellowed. “You all appear to have forgotten I am King.”
The room hushed, and everyone bowed before him.
“I am tired of you thinking you know best, Your Grace. You found them out, and I applaud that, but it does not give you the right to move my prisoners.”
The man bowed again, but said nothing.
“I will have all four of them returned.”
“No,” the cardinal said, far too calmly. Nuris drew his sword.
The king held up a hand towards Nuris, his focus on the older man before him. “I’m not asking. I am telling you to return my prisoners, or I will assume that you are working with the witches as the people begin to whisper.”
“Your Majesty,” a member of the Circle of the Sun murmured behind Nuris.
“This is not the first time you have defied me in relation to the witches. And now you have not one, but three of them. Has the God changed his mind and will work with them? Will you use them against the people?”
“We aim to learn from them,” the cardinal said, more subdued. His smirk had disappeared. “We are doing what your general could not.”
“He has killed many and kept none for himself.”
For the first time, the cardinal looked a little nervous.
“Bring me the child,” the king demanded.
No one moved, and for a moment Nuris wasn’t even sure any of them were breathing.
“Now,” he said, his voice soft and low. Every hair on the back of Nuris’s neck stood to attention.
The cardinal waved at someone by the door, and Nuris realised that the soldiers who had travelled with him were guarding the room. Unease filled him. He stepped closer to his king and ensured his sword was visible to all in the room.
“They are my men,” the king said, as though reading his concern.
“They have spent much time with a man who wishes to keep witches, perhaps work with them. What if they feel the same?” Nuris didn’t try to lower his voice or keep the idea between them. “They followed his bidding over yours when you asked for his return. They burnt another convent to the ground at his request, and an inn.”
The membership of the Circle looked around the room nervously. Their murmuring increased, and the guards remained unmoving.
“General,” the king said, his voice carrying around the room. “I appreciate your loyalty, but they are loyal to me.”
“As was the guard who carried the medicine to your prisoners to make them sleep and allow the cardinal to take them.”
Several of the guards around the room looked at each other then.
“I would never work against Your Majesty,” the cardinal said.
“And yet you have,” the king said.
The older man dropped to his knees, something Nuris didn’t think he had ever seen.
“Please, sire, I work for the good of the kingdom—of the people.”
“Even if you need to go against your king to do that?”
A door creaked open. The soldier the king had sent to stop the cardinal appeared, the child’s hand in his. She looked dishevelled and terrified. Her eyes wide, she walked close to the soldier as though he might protect her.
When she saw the cardinal, she started to whimper. The soldier whispered something, and she almost climbed his body to be away from the man. He held her close as though she were a child of his while he stepped forward and bowed to the king.
“Put her down, West,” Nuris said, but he was gentle.
He stood the child before the king. She was still shaking.
“Bow for the king,” the soldier prompted.
She gave an uncomfortable bob.
The king looked grave, but his focus was on the soldier.
“There is no proof of what she is,” he answered as though understanding the look. “She witnessed the loss of so many and was then trapped in a cage and dragged far from what she knew.”
The king stood, and she stepped around the soldier’s legs.
“She is a frightened child,” the king said, squatting down and motioning her forward. “What is your name?”
She peeked out from behind the soldier and looked up at him. He nodded. “I don’t have a name,” she whispered.
“What did the sisters of the Goddess call you?”
She looked up at the soldier again, as though confirming with him whether she should answer. When he nodded, she nodded back and then looked to Nuris rather than the king. “Pip.”
Despite his certainty at what she was, Nuris didn’t hold any fear of the child—although the word she had said, the name she had given pulled at him. Did she understand the connection? Did she know it was the name he had called Nelda by when they were children?
“Why were you at the convent?” the king asked, and Nuris wondered at his tone, soft and gentle.
“My parents died,” she said, studying him.
“Did you kill them?” the king asked in the same tone.
She shook her head.
“Did the sisters of the Goddess look after you?”
She nodded, and tears glistened in her eyes.
“Did they teach you?” he asked.
She nodded again.
“What did they teach you?”
“To read the words of the Goddess and to write.”
The cardinal growled. “Women reading and writing.”
“They are sisters of the Goddess,” the king said, standing. and the child took a step back. “The queen herself can read and write. Can not all women do such things?”
Someone in the group of elderly men snickered.
“Is this how we keep the people ignorant of your corruptions?” the king asked the cardinal. When the man didn’t speak, he looked at the Circle of the Sun.
“They do not have the aptitude for such learning,” Ellistone said.
“And yet a child can do it.”
The room fell into an awkward silence.
The king took a deep breath, cleared his throat and looked down on the small child before him. “What else can you do?” he asked.
She held out her hand and motioned Nuris forward. He bent slowly and took the hand, despite a soldier by the door drawing his sword.
“He is scared for the king,” she said, her eyes closed. “There are those using powers not their own.”
Nuris wondered if she was more perceptive than he thought for a child of her age or if she had truly sensed something. The cardinal had taken a step back, and she looked at him then. Although she maintained her hold on Nuris, she took a step towards the cardinal.
The king stepped forward while the Circle moved, as one, a step back from the table. The soldiers around the room drew their swords as the king reached for the child. Nuris stepped between them and her, finding the other soldier at his side.
“Your Majesty,” the cardinal cried. “She is dangerous.”
The king ignored the old man and reached for the child’s hand. Nuris expected the room to drop into silence again, but he could hear the members of the Circle trying to leave—trying to move as far away from the child as possible.
“You miss him,” she whispered. “You miss her.”
The king pulled his hand from hers, and Nuris wondered at his feelings about his wife. It wasn’t as though he spoke of her.
“I told you she was dangerous,” the cardinal whispered, taking another step back.
“She’s a child making guesses,” Nuris murmured. “We could all have made such a prediction. What could she tell us we don’t already know of you?”
“You trust these men,” the king said to the child, and although Nuris didn’t want to take his eyes from the swords in the room, he chanced a glance at the king. The cardinal eyed them all warily.
A hand reached out and tugged at Nuris’s tunic. “He gave me bread,” she said. “And he”—she must have done something to indicate the other soldier—“kept me safe. They are kind and good. Although they should have killed me at the convent with the others.”
“Other witches?” the king asked, his voice kind despite whatever secrets of his she might have shared.
“Children,” she said, and Nuris could hear the wobble in her voice. He was tempted to pick her up and run, although he had no idea where the feeling came from or where he would run to.
“Your Majesty?” a too-familiar voice asked, and Nuris wondered how the queen had made it into the room. Yet here she was, again too close to the king as she lowered herself down to the child. “Look at you, dear one,” she whispered, reaching out to the child, but the girl pulled back from the queen. “You could do with a bath.”
“I do not think, Your Highness, that you should allow this child anywhere but in her cage,” the cardinal growled.
Nuris tried not to sigh.
“General,” the king said as the child slipped her hand into his. “You may take charge of this one.”
“Me, Your Majesty?” He looked down at the girl, who gave him a nod. “And the other prisoners?”
“I will go with the cardinal to see them myself. This man will accompany me, and we will ensure they are where they need to be.”
Nuris wasn’t sure where that might be or whether he liked the idea, but he nodded. The soldier beside him stood to attention.
“Or should I have the child extract the information from you?” the king asked the cardinal, and Nuris was sure the older man paled.
Nuris was left in the throne room with the soldiers surrounding the walls, the queen standing too close behind him, and the child holding too tight to his hand. The members of the Circle of the Sun, who he had thought had run away, were murmuring amongst themselves loudly as they gestured towards the child.