Steph Swainston - Dangerous Offspring

‘All I can, but I doubt it’ll do any good. It’s up to you, now.’

‘You said I was like a sister!’

‘I can’t change the Castle, Swallow.’

She bowed her head and sighed. ‘I sometimes feel that I’m on the edge of some great truth. I get excited. I start scrawling the notes on the manuscript. I see the glow, the edge of the bright light where genius resides. I can never reach it completely. Maybe my excitement makes it ebb. The intense white light retreats, eludes me. I grow cold. I am left on the shore. No genius breakthrough tonight, just another symphony finished and my eyes are sore. It is happening more and more these days. I am getting older, and I no longer write from the heart. I’m getting older, Jant, and I will lose my genius. I’m still running the race; time is still burning down the bridges to things I could have achieved.’ She burst into frightened tears.

‘None of us can change the Castle,’ I repeated.

‘You immortals only exist because we allow you to,’ she sobbed. ‘If you’re a…barrier to me…I’ll make your life hard in the real world.’

Eleonora cut in, with a voice used to command battles and law courts. ‘Spare us the vulgar threats, Governor Awndyn. There are not even a hundred immortals and you had one more chance to join them than the rest of us. You held out for yet another and lost both. Return to your music. We look forward to your next concert.’

Swallow swept the room with a look of pure hatred, took a step forward, hesitated, turned on her heel and stormed out. Her progress down the passageway was marked by a vase smashing every few metres. A little while later we heard the clop and crunch as her coach departed at a gallop. Silence returned.

Lightning sighed. ‘I’d just had those replaced. The third time.’

I smiled. ‘Well I’m sure you can afford to have them repaired. Or make some new replicas.’

‘I don’t think I’ll bother this time. Time for a new look.’

‘Lightning, are you sure?’

‘Never more so. And you will all have to get used to calling me Saker.’

‘I think people will still call you Lightning,’ Eleonora said. ‘And Lightning, I do want to escape.’

Next morning I took breakfast in the Orangery. I sat at the round, polished table and pressed my toes into the soft moss that covered the ground like a carpet. An orange tree grew through a large hole in the centre of the table, over which its boughs hung low with fruit. The table was laden with all the foods that pass for breakfast in Awia, a variety far greater than I could actually eat. I had no appetite, I was thinking back to what happened the previous night. I still couldn’t understand Lightning’s volte-face. I felt an open rift in the centre of my being, as if he was already dead.

The sun shone through the glass wall which curved up to the panes of the ceiling. Black-painted wrought-iron flowers and tendrils spiralled from the curlicued frames, as if the struts of the glasshouse themselves were growing. More orange and lemon trees with smooth bark were rooted in the clean, deep moss all around me. The air was rich with scent.

An arcaded loggia passage connected the Orangery to the palace just behind me. In front, I looked out down the lawns to the shimmering lake. On the nearest end of the island the tops of tall monkey puzzle trees poked up from the dense woods extending to the shore, where a tiny jetty emerged.

The Queen of Awia appeared at the glass portal, kicked off her shoes and walked across the moss barefoot. As always she looked fantastic, elegant in cream suede, with her sword scabbard swapping the back of her legs. But beneath her soft feathers, her porcelain face and sepia eyes, I thought she was just another thick-skinned tart. She sat down beside me, so the orange tree didn’t block her view of me. A servant appeared immediately and started loading her plate with kedgeree.

I said, ‘The guests have gone. When are you leaving?’

‘Me?’ Eleonora laughed. ‘Oh, no. I’m staying here for a while, Queen’s prerogative. I’m going to do all I possibly can to impress him. And I’m well capable of that.’

I wondered how to warn him. I couldn’t think how without incriminating myself. I said sarcastically, ‘He’d be overwhelmingly impressed by dressage and the lash.’

‘Do you think I can’t change? If Lightning can, I can, of course. The Eleonora you saw won’t be the one he sees. On the contrary, I intend to marry him.’

‘What!’

She continued, ‘But I won’t hide all of my…more wanton side. If I try to act like a maiden, well, he might not like maidens, and that would be a great shame, wouldn’t it?’

‘Your talents lie elsewhere.’

She stifled a smile. ‘You’d be surprised. It’s difficult to break through his romantic pose but there’s a real man under there. I’ve never met another with such a mix of strength, intelligence and perfect self-assurance. A real equal.’

‘I don’t want to know.’

‘And he’s better hung than you. You can tell from the crease of his trousers.’

‘I don’t want to know! I can’t believe it! Imagine: sell all your antiques, Lightning, and redecorate with mirrors-Eleonora’s moving in! All the servants must wear leather harnesses and nipple clips!’

She laughed. ‘I’m not that bad.’

‘Well, I don’t bloody understand why he chose to lose the Challenge.’

‘I think his leaving the Circle is a very clever move. When we marry, it will be the joining of the two greatest houses in Awia.’

‘Oh, god…’ Realisation began to dawn.

‘Think what he’s doing. When Cyan becomes Eszai, she cannot inherit Peregrine manor, because the Emperor no longer allows immortals to own land. Lightning will keep Peregrine, so reuniting all the scattered lands of his original manor, which has always been his aim. When he marries me he’ll regain Avernwater too, and we will possess all the manors of Awia except Carniss and Wrought. Lightning will not only have united his manor, but the whole of Awia. He will be King, as he should have been fourteen centuries ago. He can fulfil the role he had to relinquish when he joined the Circle, and bring the Micawater dynasty back to the throne, that has lain dormant with him so long. That’s what he always wanted. It’s a long time to wait. We will have a single great manor and Awia will have a degree of stability that has never been seen before. Never!’

‘You’re founding the first absolute monarchy in Awia.’

‘Well done, Jant. You have figured out my aim, at least.’

It did not sound so good to me.

Eleonora added, ‘The Emperor would be pleased.’

‘Would he?’

‘Of course. All the manors would be in Zascai hands.’

‘Except Wrought.’

‘Don’t worry about Tern, I think that would suit San, too. He would like the Castle to keep some degree of control over the weaponsmiths. And with Lightning and I to lead the Awian fyrd, think of all the business they’ll be getting! If Wrought is threatened by anything, it’s the new industries in Hacilith.’

I felt nauseous, staring into the future of a new dynasty. The thought of Eleonora and Lightning’s future generations, that I would have to watch, and to serve as an Eszai, for hundreds of years after them, terrified me.

‘I feel time-sick,’ I said. ‘Who knows what will happen?’

‘Whatever happens, you’re shielded from it. Protected by the Castle’s walls, you immortals experience the arrows of misfortune as nothing but a tickle, compared to us. You should even enjoy the experience, because you know you’ll live long enough to see the wheel of fortune turn up once more. You might even see the system change yet again, from our dynasty-though I hope it won’t.’