Troy Denning - The Titan of Twilight

“Against what?” Avner scoffed. “An infant?”

“Infants do not have secret f-faces,” Brianna said. “This is a fiend’s spawn, and I will have n-none of it!”

Brianna grabbed her son from between her feet and raised him over her shoulder, as though she were going to hurl him at Avner.

“No, Majesty!” Avner jumped up to catch the child, his shoulder slamming against the wall as the tower rocked. “I forbid this!”

Brianna’s face clouded with fury, but, without appearing to realize what she was doing, she lowered the child. “You what? ”

“I forbid you,” Avner repeated calmly. Regardless of her oath, Brianna did not want to kill her son-or the infant would be dead by now. To save Kaedlaw, the young scout had only to keep her distracted until he found an excuse to spare the child. He reached inside his cloak and withdrew his sling. “I won’t allow you to kill your son.”

Brianna’s eyes widened. “You would assault your q-queen?”

“To save her from herself, milady.” The young scout plucked a fist-sized stone off the floor and slipped it into his sling’s pocket. “Now, feed your baby-or I’ll knock you senseless and do it myself.”

“What of your s-scout’s oath?” Brianna demanded. “You vowed to defend and obey me!”

“What of your oaths, milady?” Avner shot back. “As a priestess of Hiatea, didn’t you vow to protect and nurture all the children of your kingdom?”

Brianna’s face blanched, and Avner knew he had found the excuse he needed.

“Kaedlaw is dif-f-ferent.” This time, it was not the cold that caused the queen’s voice to quiver.

“Why?” Avner demanded. “Because he has two faces?”

“Because he is evil!”

Avner raised his brow. “Really? How do you know that? Has Hiatea sent you a sign?” “No, but G-Galg-gadayle-”

“Galgadayle is no priestess of Hiatea,” Avner insisted. “And even if he’s right, who says that makes Kaedlaw evil? Maybe Hiatea wants your son to be king of giants. Which oath should you honor then-the one you swore to your people, or the one you swore to your goddess?”

“Hiatea would never f-force me to make such a d-decision.”

“But she would ask you to murder your own child?” Avner scoffed. “The goddess of parental love?”

Brianna shrank away as though Avner had struck her. She closed her eyes and screwed her face into an anguished grimace, then remained silent for many moments. Finally, she laid Kaedlaw in her lap and looked up.

“Throw m-me your water,” she said. “I let mine f-freeze solid.”

Avner took his waterskin from beneath his robe and tossed it up, then gathered the cloaks and made his way across the rocking tower. By the time he clambered up onto the alcove, the queen had taken the flaming spear amulet from her neck and dipped it into his waterskin. The liquid inside was bubbling and steaming from the heat of Hiatea’s blessing. Kaedlaw’s eyes were closed, and his skin was as blue as a tourmaline. Only the sporadic rise and fall of his chest indicated he was still alive.

“Open a c-cut on his arm.” Brianna motioned Avner to lay the cloaks aside.

The young scout hesitated to obey. He had seen the queen heal the injured often enough to know what she was doing. When she poured the blessed water on the cut, it would cleanse the infant’s blood of wicked thoughts and emotions. If the child was truly evil, the process would cause an endless black froth to erupt from the wound.

“What are you w-waiting for, Avner?” Brianna demanded. “Are you afraid of Hiatea’s j-judgment?”

“Only for myself, Majesty.” Avner pulled his antler-hilted skinning knife and drew the blade across the infant’s forearm.

A thin line of blood welled up beneath the steel, and Brianna poured the bubbling water onto her son’s arm. The blue flesh turned rosy pink. Kaedlaw’s eyes opened wide, and he let out a pained growl that rumbled through the chamber like a bear’s roar. A single bubble rose in the center of the cut.

It was white as snow.

“Hiatea, forgive me!” The queen snatched the child into her arms. “He’s pure! He’s as innocent as any newborn!”

Brianna lowered her collar over her shoulder, then held her son to her breast. The feel of his icy flesh filled her with a guilty burden heavy enough to crush the titan’s heart. Kaedlaw reluctantly began to nurse, and Avner covered them both with the cloaks he had brought up.

“Avner, I’m grateful,” Brianna said. The first silver rays of dawn were beginning to stream into the tower. “Your impertinence prevented me from committing a grievous sin against Hiatea-and it spared me more anguish than I could bear.”

“Then he’s going to be all right?”

“Thanks to you.” Kaedlaw was already suckling eagerly at her warm milk. “And I would ask you to make a new oath to me-one you won’t break this time.”

“I didn’t break the last one!” Avner objected. “At least not much.”

“I doubt Tavis would agree,” Brianna replied. “But he wasn’t here, and you were right to stop me. Now I ask you to pledge that you’ll always protect Kaedlaw-against anyone who would harm him.”

“Brianna, I’ve already made that vow.”

“I mean the lord high scout in particular,” Brianna clarified. “If we can’t convince Tavis to ignore Galgadayle’s prophecy, can you kill the man who raised you?”

Avner bit his lip and looked away. “If it comes to a fight, I doubt Tavis will be the one who dies-but I’ll give him a good battle. I can promise that much.”

“Thank you. I’ll need you at my side,” Brianna said. “I hope I’m not making traitors of us both. If Kaedlaw grows up to lead the giants, we’re committing a terrible crime against our kingdom.”

Avner shrugged. “Crime is a relative thing. Besides, the time hasn’t come to give up. My guess is that Hiatea wants us to escape, especially when you consider the kind of uncle Lanaxis would make.”

Brianna grimaced at the thought, then glanced at the pale rays streaming through the shattered arrow loop.

“I think Lanaxis will stop when it gets light, but he’ll be ready for an escape,” she said. “We can’t expect to succeed.”

“You’re right, we can’t escape.” Avner smiled. “But he might accidentally leave us behind-if he doesn’t realize we’ve slipped away.”

“And how are we going to do that?” Brianna demanded. “After your escape attempt at Wynn Castle, Lanaxis must know about the sally port.”

Avner nodded. “He saw me climbing back into it.”

“There aren’t any other secret doors in this tower.”

“But there might be a thief’s gate,” said Avner.

“A thief’s gate?”

“On the first floor, in the bottom of the chimney,” the youth explained. “The water collects down there and rots the mortar. I used to sneak into buildings all over Stagwick by scraping the mortar out and pulling a big stone loose.”

Brianna scowled at this idea. “I’m hardly small enough to climb down through the chimney.”

“Sure you are. In a tower like this, the chimney is huge-well, big enough anyway,” he explained. “It’s squeezing through the damper throat that can be tight-but Lanaxis has already solved that problem for us. The throat is smashed to pieces. You can practically walk into the flue.”

Brianna eyed the battered fireplace on the high side of the room. The lintel was four feet above the hearth.

“I think I’ll have to crawl,” she said. “What can I do to help you?”

“Do you have any way to dissolve mortar?”

Brianna shook her head. “Not without my spell satchel,” she said. “And even then, not quietly.”

Avner grimaced. “Then I’ll have to scrape it out.” He fingered the antler hilt of his skinning knife. “I’m glad Tavis won’t be here to see how I treat his gifts.”