Marilyn Todd - Widow's Pique

Murder was child's play. Anyone can kill another human being, provided they have sufficient strength and guts and motive, but it takes a clever person to get away with it and an exceptionally clever person to get away with several without arousing suspicion.

On face value, for instance, eliminating the royal physician appeared a simple enough task, but you try to make murder appear like an accident. First you have to wheedle his itinerary from some lackey in a way that he won't remember. Then you have to contrive to be in the middle of bloody nowhere without anyone noticing this end. And if that's not difficult enough, you have to win the victim's trust. Not the easiest of tasks, considering he already suspects an attempt to destabilize the throne!

However, with the royal physician happily strolling among his ancestors in the Lands of the Blessed, those suspicions had been eradicated and there was nothing now to stand in the way of the New Order. Histria could rise up — become a force to be reckoned with — a powerful nation — wealthy — respected — strong in its own right. At last, this kingdom was poised to fulfil its true potential.

Where Nosferatu succeeded was in employing a variety of homicidal techniques, then testing the plans from every angle.

One doesn't take risks when killing a king!

Poor Dol. Lovely fellow, charming, honest, fair and moral, devoted to his kingdom, dear chap, but blind to the obvious, i.e. that bridging the divide within his people only prolonged the country's uncertain future. Dol had to go. Eventually, Nosferatu found the perfect solution, and by coincidence it grew wild in the woods. The humble columbine. Remove the top parts, slip them into a tasty titbit or two and, hey presto, shortness of breath. Nothing fatal, just an uncomfortable couple of days, when the patient is encouraged to eat to keep his strength up and obviously needs his appetite tempted, although his physician is surprised at first that the King doesn't recover more quickly. But, as further bouts lay him low, the physician accepts this as a natural course of the illness, and is not surprised that each bout is worse than the previous and lasts longer, weakening the King's lungs further each time.

Nosferatu sighed. Who would suspect a flower so blue and so beautiful set in a floral display could prove so treacherous? And the columbine's beauty is that, as it dries, so it is rendered harmless.

But then for the big part — and again, the various vases of sumptuous flowers disguise their deadly intent. Lilies, larkspur, roses, foxgloves. Ah, yes, the lovely foxglove. Stately and tall, deep-pink, spotted, it is the leaf which does all the damage. Those beautiful, soft, grey downy leaves bring on nausea, breathing problems

… and, tragically, cardiac arrest. The nation mourns, but is not surprised. Dol the Just had a weak chest.

A conclusion which was nothing short of inspirational.

Nosferatu hadn't planned it that way, but surely, by default, weakness of the lungs is hereditary? With the King newly crowned and a kingdom divided, one small child's unlucky inheritance aroused no suspicion, not even in the girl's mother. So it was more tasty titbits, more tightness of the chest, more solicitous bedside visits.

Delmi flashed before Nosferatu's memory. Silky blonde hair, wide innocent eyes, breasts as white and smooth as alabaster. Bitch. Publicly, of course, it was all sunny smiles, happy-happy, not a word of criticism levelled. Alone? Alone, Delmi didn't even try to hide her dislike, and as for holding back with her opinions…! Nosferatu's fists clenched. Slut. I saw you slinking off in the night.

'Your fate is something you have brought upon yourselves,' said the senior elder, as he passed sentence on the rapists, 'for, to let violation pass unpunished is to unleash anarchy. Virginity is sacred in every society, not purely our own, and for you to force yourselves one after the other upon this wretched child…'

Supported by a warrior's sympathetic arm, the little Amazon sobbed uncontrollably and Nosferatu's heart went out to her. The girl hadn't been called to give evidence against her attackers, the judges wanting to save her the ordeal, since they had a confession, but she was adamant that the whole community should understand the depths these kinsmen of theirs had plumbed, and she spared the court no detail. Nosferatu resisted an overwhelming urge to reach out and comfort the child.

As the senior elder excused the little Amazon and expounded on the sanctity of marriage and the damage caused by the violation of decent, respectable women, Nosferatu's thoughts were propelled back to Delmi's infidelity. Oh, but how that sunny disposition failed her, fretting over her baby girl! Time and again, Delmi was brought down as her daughter fell ill, only to have her spirits lift each time the youngster recovered. Nosferatu remembered them clearly. Mother and child, each a spitting image of the other, bowling hoops in the courtyard, spinning tops together, braiding hair, laughing and dancing, singing and skipping. Yet all the while Delmi, that most perfect of mothers, that most faultless of wives, was sneaking from bed to bed…

Drowning the child as she convalesced after yet another debilitating bout had been hard. Many sleepless nights had been lost contemplating the act, even more afterwards, but if the end justifies the means, what choice is there? A new order had to be created. Histria demanded nothing less. And if this meant terminating the stale bloodline and instituting fresh, then, with the girl in her grave, the New Order was brought another step closer.

No one said it was going to be easy.

The trial ground finally to a close. The prisoners were led away, the villagers dispersed and a smile played at the side of Nosferatu's mouth. Actually, there were times when taking life became something of a pleasure. Giving Delmi that hemlock was one.

'Are ghosts getting prettier…?'

The voice that took Claudia so completely by surprise was deep and seductively slow.

'… or am I the luckiest man alive to find myself suddenly alone with the beautiful Claudia?'

Same husky pitch as his brother's and with hair every bit as glossy and dark, Kazan leapt the ditch that encircled the graveyard with muscular ease. Personally, Claudia found it simpler to cross by the bridge. Dawn was breaking, rosy and warm, and the air was filled with the sound of birdsong and the scent of a million wild herbs. Chamomile, thyme, lemon balm. Today was the Festival of Kikimora and, to honour the Cat Goddess, Histrians everywhere would dress in white and pour libations of milk instead of wine. Later, after a procession, hymns and sacrifice, the races and games would begin, and already stewards were hard at work checking the stadium across the way, straightening wobbly markers and hammering in flags. But Claudia hadn't expected company in the graveyard at such an early hour.

'Are you sure we're alone?' she rejoined. 'You Histri go to a lot of trouble constructing your cemeteries, and it makes me wonder why you're so desperate to keep your dead in.' Kazan let out a throaty chuckle.

'These moats and banks are designed to keep the shroud-eaters out, sweet lady, not fence the tenants in, and see those? They're bajuks.'

He pointed out four hideous clay masks nailed to the oak trees that surrounded the cemetery, whose faces were painted black, and contorted his features into a comical matching grimace.

'The ferocious guardians of our ancestors,' he said, 'who face north, south, east and west to protect our loved ones spring, summer, autumn and winter through earth, wind, fire and water. In fact, everything inside this graveyard comes in fours. Four is the number of the dead.'

Below the masks, black empty robes flapped menacingly in the breeze.