The Book of the Broken

And then, in the night, she opened her mouth and began to tell me, of her past days, many an amazing thing…

-The Song of Ayar

* * *

Daumany

Saskata set amboragaya

Astokay endo mysotahae

Ando leas taman noramate

Ando am gastaham

The chanting came from beyond them where the White Monks and the Black Monks sat, legs folded under them, singing the hymn of the dead in the Great Hall of Oland Palace.

Under a cloth of gold the old king lay, glinting coins pressed over his eyes. The three brothers, black robes tied about their waist, weaponless, rose, bowed to the dead king, and then turned to leave, walking slowly to the back of the hall, and then up the stairs to the gallery that overlooked the dead king and the empty throne.

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Astrakay astrakay adohaem ladohaenam

Astrokay astrokay adohaem ladohaenam

Saska saskya, enno dum saski

“You were declared King in the room easily enough,” Robert said, “but will they crown you in the House of Okimini?”

“It won’t hurt to pay her an offering this and every night,” Rufus said, half in jest.

“You will be crowned,” Odo said, simply. “But will you be obeyed? That is the issue. You have three uncles who would love to be King in your place.”

“And to secure it for their children,” Robert added.

“They don’t give a damn about their children,” Odo hissed.

“Brother, I love you, but be calm. My family problems are not your family problems,” Rufus said.

“Of course they are,” Odo scolded his brother. “They are the problems of the whole land.”

The talk between the three brothers might have been confusing if one did not know the story of their mother. The Lady Herleva had stayed away from court, thinking it best. She was the reminder that Rufus was the son of King William, but she was also the reminder of how. Herleva was a tanner’s daughter, not born to royalty, and never the wife of King William, but rather his mistress. Some said more than simple mistress, she had been a prostitute who had fallen on her feet. William had made no secret of his mistress’s pregnancy and had no doubt that her child was his, He had paraded, to the anger of his whole family, the round belly of Herleva, and when she had born him a son, he had named him Rufus.

Saskata set amboragaya

Astokay endo mysotahae

Ando leas taman noramate

Ando am gastaham

“I will never have a wife, and I will probably, never have another son.”

The Daumans had been Dayne raiders from the far north, corsairs, and in olden times a corsair king might have had several wives or really no wife at all. But marriage was different in this world, and something that had not interested William. After a time, he wanted to do well by his mistress, and even the King, libertine that he was, did not think mistress was a fit place for the woman he loved to end up, so he married her off to his cousin, Gearstand.

Though no king, and no great warrior, Gearstand was called the Badger and the Unmoved. All the men of the family feared this short man and he said he would not have Herleva unless the King vowed never to touch her again.

“I may be a badger, but I am not a cuckold, and I will wear no horns.”

William had given more of a solemn vow than he wished to in the House of Inushi, the God of Honor, that if he cuckolded his cousin, his manhood would shrivel or be forfeit to Gearstand’s sword. That very day, Gearstand had wed Herleva, and it was as if by the marriage every taint of her former life had been removed. She brought Rufus into the house of her husband, who raised him as a son, and soon added Odo, Richard and Cecily to the mix, but no one ever forgot the real heritage of Rufus, and King William had called him to court for fostering, swearing above the outcries of his brothers, that this boy would succeed him as King of the Daumans.

Astrakay astrakay adohaem ladohaenam

Astrokay astrokay adohaem ladohaenam

Saska saskya, enno dum saski

Saskata set amboragaya

Astokay endo mysotahae

Ando leas taman noramate

Ando am gastaham

“But how will I make my claim good?” Rufus said. “Armies of course.”

“And the support of the White Monks, the Black and the Red,” Odo added.

“And not all of your uncles are against you.”

“And I am for you.”

They turned around.

The man had almost purred. He was elegant and dark haired, handsome, and Rufus blinked twice.

“How did you get here so fast? And do you dare leave you own lands untended?”

“Not untended,” the man said, His armor was different from theirs, a netting of mail and a red overcoat with three lilies upon it. His helmet was under his arm, made in the Sendic fashion, for Sendic he was. His mother had been a Dauman, and though treacherous to him, had him raised far away in this land, by her cousins, one of whom was this dead King Rufus.

“Edmund!” Rufus clasped him on his shoulders.

“Your Grace,” Edmund bowed to his cousin.

“Your Grace,” Rufus returned.

“You all have grown,” Edmund said to Odo and Richard.

The two other men placed their hands together and bowed.

“We have been remiss,” Odo said, “Greetings upon you, Kind Edmund.”

“And greetings to you,” Edmund replied. “Never fear, Cousin, you will be King indeed, for now that the King of Inglad and the Two Hales is here, you have the might of three nations behind you.”

The

Greenwood

“Before the feasting comes to a height,” Anson said, “we will have to move the girls to the next vale.”

Hood in black, cleaning his nails with an old knife, Ohean said, “Why?”

“Things will happen.”

“I daresay they will,” Ohean said. “The Green One will be present. Things have happened before, and you my friend have often been a part of them.”

“They are not fit for girls.”

“I disagree,” Ohean said. “Everything that is fit for boys is fit for girls, and your sister is a princess. If Myrne is no princess she is the closest thing to it. Let them stay and see or do as they wish.”

“Forgive me,” Anson said, tugging at Ohean’s hood, “for what will doubtless seem my hypocrisy, but my sister is not going to stay here for an orgy and neither if Myrne.”

“Orgy,” piped of Wolf.

“Most likely,” Ohean said in a bored tone.

“Very well, we will remove ourselves, but we will all remove ourselves.”

“Did you think I’d be staying?” Anson said.

“How do I know what you’d be doing? When I wasn’t around you made yourself at home at many a Blue Temple.”

Anson opened his mouth.

“No one’s blaming you,” Ohean said, silencing him, “so there’s no need to play the hypocrite.”

While Anson looked like he was still searching for words to say, Ohean approached his cousin, Polly who was speaking to Derek and Conn.

“We will be traveling into the next valley after we eat,” Ohean said. “Apparently the evening’s festivities are considered too much for princesses.”

Polly cocked her head and smiled and then said, “Ohean, you were always so practical you were almost impractical. I take it this is not your idea.”

“It is Anson’s,” Ohean almost whispered. “He thinks the little eyes of princesses should not see certain things.”

“Well,” Polly allowed, “do not be too hard on him. He may be right.”

“Shall we see you in the morning?” Derek said, scooping Conn under his arm.

“I think,” it was Conn who spoke now, “you will see us both in the morning.”

“What?”

Conn walked away a few paces and Derek followed him

“These last few days we have had no time together,” Conn said, “and when we do I wish it to be our time, not part of some grand orgy.”

“So you’re going with them and leaving me again?”

“You could come too,” Conn said. “Only you don’t want to.”

Derek blinked at him through his black lashes.

“Everything in you wants to see what happens tonight when the Green God comes. You want to be part of that and I couldn’t keep you, so that means you do not get to judge or be angry when I say I will be on the other side of the hills discovering something else.”

Derek grasped his wrist.

“Are you some strange and lonely mage growing ever distant from me, from us, or are you one of us? A Blue Priest given to the mysteries?”

“I am both. I am the door from what was to what will be. What must be.”

Derek stared at him in irritation rather than awe, then shook his hand and said, “Go. Just go.”

“We should go to get Mariamne,” the Friar suggested. “she has been gone the whole afternoon. Bless my big bottom.”

He heaved himself up, and Derek said, “You could rest and I could find whomever you need.”

“Mariamne, the woman of the great wood,” Friar said. You may go with me if you would see more of our home, but I’m afraid you might get lost going alone.”

But Derek did want to see more and know more, and he followed the Friar who said, This will be the place where you bathe anyway, so it’s good you see it now.”

They traveled out of the clearing and down a sloping way into a valley where a woman stood below them, under a pool and then Derek, touching the Friar said. “I’ll scoot down and get her myself, in thinking of the old friar’s fatness, despite how hale and hearty he was, he thought of Quinton, and how he wouldn’t want him scrabbling down a hill either. Derek was down there in a moment, and he saw the woman, nut brown skinned, in a gown green as a pea, or green as the sun on a summer leaf, and her amrs were bare, and her hair was a rich red down her back and over her shoulders. She bent looking into the waters, but he was charmed by her small lips and steady eyes, by the flower crown and the gown.

“Derek Annakar, you have come for me?”

“Lady… “ he tried, “Lady Polly… Mariamne?”

She rose up from the pool and smiled at him warmly, standing at his side.

“You have met my Robin?”

“Michael? I… I have.”

“you know how it is,” she said, “If the Greenwood is the Greenwood in truth, it must always have its Robin and Robin must always have his Marian. Come, you must be as hungry as I am.”

Despite the long and robe, she was climbing up the hill quicker than he and she held a hand out to him and he was surprised at her strength.

When they had topped the hill, springing out of the trees like orange blurs, their tails bottle brushes, came tow silent foxes to either side of Polly… or Mariamne, and she said to them, “Greet our friend, Lord Derek.”

The foxes looked at him, their yellow eyes so curious, but so dignified that Derek gave a slight bow and then said, “But I am no Lord.”

Mariamne had kissed the Friar on the cheek and they all began walking twoad the encampment under the great arches of the trees.

“You are a Blue Priest of the third rank, are you not? Around these parts we honor the old ways, and this makes you a lord.”

Like, Michael the night before, Mariamne did not disguise her knowledge or tell him how she knew. As they went walking, she said, frankly, “I use the pool to look into a great many things and when I sleep a great many things look to me.”

“Mariamne is the Seeress of the Wood,” the Friar said, skilled in such things. “Some say she is one of the most powerful enchantresses in the land.”

“Some say a great many things,” Mariamne dismissed this. “I am the Lady of the Greenwood, that is all, and the Lady must see.”

As they came into the clearing, Robin appeared, and he picked up Mariamne and swung her by the hips and she laughed and then as he brought her down she punched him playfully.

“I’m too big to be twirled around by a grown man.”

“Even by me,”

“Especially by you,” she laughed, “and you’re too little of a man to be twirling about women.”

Even so, now Derek saw Michael Flynn was plenty strong, and though he was not tall for a man, he was of a height with Mariamne, and she had lain her head on his shoulder while he wrapped an arm about her waist, and they walked about the others, stopping at cook fires and laughing, telling jokes, looking earnest. Clearly the Lord and Lady of the Wood.