The Maid's War(61)

He approached the table and planted his palms on the surface. “During the siege of Pree, Genette’s squire, he was only a lad, took a crossbow bolt to the heart. It killed him instantly. She brought him back to life, Jianne. The Maid did. But before she did it, she turned to me and said, you must hear the word of power. Someday it will save the life of the heir of La Marche. A little babe—stillborn.”

Jianne shuddered at the words and covered her mouth in horror.

Alensson felt a gush of tenderness and fear. “When Genette was captured by the King of Brugia, I went to Shynom to plead with the king to ransom her. I begged him. I tried every device under the sun to influence and persuade him, even promised to give the crown a portion of my lands once I reclaim them. Nothing was enough to tempt him. He wants her gone.” He felt his lips twisting into a sneer. “She, the savior of Occitania. Jianne, we nearly took Pree in one day. One day!” His voice had raised to a shout, but he wrestled it down. “One day,” he whispered. “The king would not hear me. He ordered me to return to La Marche but to stop attacking Deford so boldly. He’s trying to negotiate a peace between the three realms—Ceredigion, Occitania, and Brugia. To restore some balance. Pah! We could have won it all back and more! But with each of her successes, she grew more powerful. He would have been beholden to her. Limited by her. And so he betrayed her, and now . . . now she’ll languish in a Brugian dungeon for years as I did. Or worse, they will sell her to Deford, who will execute her.” He paused. “There is some magic at work here. I can sense it. Some Fountain magic, though twisted.”

Jianne’s tears streamed down her cheeks. She reached out and put her hand on his atop the table. “Don’t go,” she begged.

He jerked his hand away. “How can you ask that of me! I know what it is like to languish in prison. You are still several months away from giving birth. Let me try, at least!”

“But if you are captured, Alensson!” she said desperately. “I . . . waited . . . I waited so long for you! How can you ask me to endure it again? Think of our child growing up without a father.”

He was trembling beneath a surge of violent and conflicting feelings. “But the child will be stillborn,” Alensson whispered hoarsely. “She knows! Genette always knows! The Fountain whispered it to her. The child will be stillborn. She told me the word of power, but I am not Fountain-blessed!” He pushed away from the table and paced, shaking his head. The look on his wife’s face . . . If he’d sent a letter, he wouldn’t have seen it, but it was an unworthy thought. She deserved to hear the news directly from him, and it would have been unbearable to take such a risk without first seeing her.

She looked down at the table, where her tears had gathered in a splotchy pool. “What will you do?” she said with a whimper of emotion.

“I’m going to Brugia,” he said. “I know the language. I can pass as a merchant, a mercenary, whatever. I’ve heard she’s being held at the Count of Luxe’s castle in Beauvoir. I will go there in disguise to see if I can get work at the castle.”

“But if someone finds out who you are . . .” she moaned.

He shook his head. “How would they guess? I’ve ordered my captain, Jeremy, to continue launching raids against Deford. Everyone thinks I am there. The king forbade me to try to rescue her.” He clenched his teeth. “But I will not obey him. His heart has become blacker than flint over these past months. He has forgotten who put the crown on his head.” He shook his head no. “But I haven’t. And I will do anything to save you and our babe, Jianne. I am determined to do this. If I can free her, then I will bring her here secretly. We will both be here when the babe comes.”

Jianne looked miserable. He was breaking her heart with this news, but he could not allow fate to take its course, not when he knew he had the wits and courage to enter his enemy’s lands and take back what was theirs. The Maid of Donremy belonged to Occitania.

“Hold me,” Jianne murmured, rising from the bench. He wrapped his arms around her, and she pressed her face against his chest and sobbed. They stood silently for a long moment, feeling the weight of the situation crushing against them. He tried to reassure her, to give her courage. But she was terrified by the great risk he was taking.

“What if they’ve taken her to Kingfountain?” she asked him, looking up into his eyes.

He frowned. “Then that is where I will go to find her,” he whispered, knowing it wasn’t the answer she wanted to hear.

Her eyelids closed and she nodded in resignation. She would not thwart his goal, although he could see she did not support it. Even the risk of losing their child wasn’t enough for her to willingly risk losing him.