The Serpent Bride

Unlike Egalion, Garth did not immediately let go of Ishbel’s hand. A strange, but not unpleasing, warm sensation passed through Ishbel’s fingers and suddenly all the friendliness in Garth’s eyes vanished.

“My Lady Brunelle,” he said, dropping her hand before stepping back so abruptly it was almost rude.

Maximilian frowned, but then Lixel was ushering them all inside, and Maximilian contented himself with taking Ishbel’s arm and asking her about her journey to Pelemere as they entered the house.

All the light had gone from Garth’s day. All he wanted now was to speak with Maximilian urgently, but Maximilian was not leaving Ishbel’s side. They had gone from the courtyard into the main reception room of the house where, to Garth’s surprise (and Lixel’s, and just about everyone else’s except, he noted, Ishbel’s), Maximilian pronounced an intention to get down to the nitty-gritty of the final details of the marriage contract between himself and the Lady Ishbel immediately.

“You have no objections, my lady?” Maximilian said to Ishbel.

She hesitated very slightly, then shook her head. “None, my lord.”

“Well then, Lixel,” Maximilian said, “to work! Do you have the necessary documents to hand?”

Still looking taken aback, Lixel showed Maximilian and Ishbel into a secondary chamber, where Maximilian closed the doors firmly on the entourage.

Garth and Egalion exchanged a look. “What was that all about?” Egalion said.

“I have no idea.” Garth stared at the closed door, almost too shocked to be capable of coherent thought. For weeks and weeks Maximilian had been extremely wary. Over the past day or so, however, since his return from his time spent alone, his mood had changed, and he’d appeared far more confident and relaxed about the proposed marriage. Even so, Garth had hardly expected him to leap off his horse, take the lady’s hand, and immediately drag her and Lixel into final conference about the matter.

“What do you think of her?” Egalion said. “I’d half anticipated a dumpy pockmarked crone … but …” He gave a soft laugh. “No wonder Maxel has hurried her off to sign what papers he must.”

“I hope he doesn’t sign them too fast,” Garth murmured. “I need to speak to him. Badly.”

Egalion looked at him, frowning. “What did you feel from her, my friend?”

As Maximilian and Ishbel sat down at the table, Lixel retrieved the marriage contracts from a satchel. He couldn’t believe Maximilian was moving this precipitously. By gods, there hadn’t even been the time for a convivial glass of wine first, let alone any time put aside for Maximilian and Ishbel to see if they liked each other or not.

As Lixel sat down at the table, sliding the contract towards Maximilian, he rather hoped that Maximilian had been so smitten by Ishbel at first sight that the king would grant Lixel immediate permission to return to Escator.

“I believe you have hashed out the contract with StarWeb, Ishbel?” Maximilian said.

“Yes,” said Ishbel, and Lixel was not surprised to see a hardening of her expression and a tightening of her shoulders at the mention of StarWeb.

Maximilian nodded, running his eye over the document. “Are you prepared to sign?” He looked up at Ishbel then, and something passed between them that Lixel could not identify.

“If you are agreeable,” she said, softly.

“I am agreeable, Ishbel,’ Maximilian said. “Shall we make a marriage, then?”

There was a long pause, then Ishbel dipped her head. “Yes.”

Lixel’s mouth dropped open. Never had he witnessed such an unemotional, almost clinical assenting to a marriage. Why not spend time together, getting to know each other? Wasn’t that what this entire exercise of meeting in Pelemere had been about?

“Lixel,” said Maximilian, “can you fetch Garth and Egalion in to witness?”

Lixel closed his mouth, nodded, and did as he was told.

Garth had not answered Egalion’s question truthfully. He couldn’t. Not before he’d spoken to Maximilian. He’d fudged an answer, and was grasping about for something to say to distract Egalion when the door to the secondary chamber opened, Lixel appeared, and requested Garth and Egalion enter.

Garth could not believe what was happening. Maximilian was about to sign the contract within a few minutes of meeting the woman for the first time. What in the name of all gods was he doing?

Maximilian was running through the clauses, checking them, as Garth and Egalion entered.

“This one …” he said, tapping the document and looking between Ishbel and Lixel. “How did this come to be here?”

“StarWeb insisted on it,” said Ishbel, her tone strained. “She said you would not ratify the marriage, declare it valid, until I was … um …” She glanced up at Garth and Egalion, clearly embarrassed.

As she has every reason to be, thought Garth, getting angrier by the moment.

“Until you were pregnant and in Ruen,” said Maximilian. “Well, I think we can dispense with that, yes?” and with a single stroke of the pen he drew a thick black line through the clause. “Now, Ishbel, if you would sign here, if you please —”

“No!” Garth broke in. “No. Maxel, I beg you, a moment of your time, please.”

Maximilian looked at him. “Explain yourself, Garth.”

“Maxel,” Garth said, “a moment of your time, I beg you. If you care or trust me at all, then grant me this moment. Please.”

Maximilian looked at Ishbel. “I apologise most sincerely for this unwelcome intrusion,” he said, then rose, walked over to Garth, took his elbow in an ungentle hand and ushered him out of the room.

“Garth!” Maximilian said. “What was the meaning of that?”

“Maxel, Ishbel is pregnant.”

Maximilian went utterly still. “What?”

“Not much, perhaps a week … she has only just conceived. But she is pregnant. You know I can feel this.”

Maximilian nodded. Garth had the Touch; determining an early pregnancy was but a trivial task for him. “And so,” he said, “your point is …”

Garth was growing more astounded by the moment. Maximilian’s anger had faded and he was now regarding Garth with an amused air.

“The Lady Ishbel is not as virtuous as you had hoped, Maxel,” Garth said, wondering if he needed to put this into one-syllable words for Maximilian to comprehend. “Dear gods, my friend, you would take a woman to wife when she’s carrying someone else’s bastard?”

Maximilian grinned, the expression so surprising that Garth felt his mouth drop open. “It’s my child, Garth.”

Garth was now so shocked he could not speak.

“Where did you think I went,” Maximilian said, “when I rode ahead of the main retinue and left you and Egalion to your own company for well over a week?”

Garth gazed at him, struggling to come to terms with what Maximilian had done. “You said … the forest …”

“Yes, yes,” Maximilian said, waving a hand dismissively. Then he smiled, and actually winked. “Changed my mind. Thought I’d see if I couldn’t make Ishbel’s acquaintance under less strained circumstances than a formal meeting.”

“Well, you surely made it very well,” Garth muttered.

Maximilian laughed, and clapped Garth on the shoulder. “She is well with the child?”

“Yes. Yes, she is well. There is no problem that I could feel.”