Allesandra ca’Vörl
“THE COUNCILLORS ARE HERE and seated, A’Hïrzg,” the
aide told them. “They’ve asked me to bring you to
chambers.”
Allesandra stood in
the corridor outside the council chamber with Pauli and Jan on
either side of her. Her hand touched her tashta, low on the throat
where—under the cloth—a common white stone hung surrounded by
golden filigree, next to Archigos Ana’s globe. Even Pauli, who had
been chattering contentedly about how West Magyaria and Firenzcia,
when he was Gyula and Allesandra was Hïrzg, would together solidify
the Coalition, went silent as the aide nodded to the hall servants
to open the double doors and they peered into the shadowed dimness
beyond, where the Council of Ca’ was seated at the great
table.
Jan, for his part,
was solemn and quiet, as he had been since Fynn’s death and
Elissa’s departure. Allesandra put her arm around her son before
they entered. She leaned over to him and whispered: “When I leave
here, you must go to your rooms and wait. Do you
understand?”
He looked at her
strangely but finally gave her a small, puzzled nod.
The chamber of the
Council of Ca’ in Brezno was dark, with stained oak paneling on the
walls and a rug the color of dried blood: an interior room of
Brezno Palais with no windows, illuminated only by candled
chandeliers above the long, varnished table (not even téni-lights),
and cold with only a small hearth at one end. The room was dreary
and cheerless. It was not a room that invited a long stay and slow,
leisurely conversations—and that was deliberate. Hïrzg Karin,
Allesandra’s great-vatarh, had intentionally assigned the room to
the Council. He found the Council of Ca’ sessions tedious and
boring; the lack of comfort in the room ensured that they would at
least be short.
“Please, come in,
A’Hïrzg,” Sinclair ca’Egan said from the head of the table. Ca’Egan
was bald and ancient, a quaver-voiced chevaritt who had ridden with
Allesandra’s vatarh before Hïrzg Karin had even named Allesandra’s
vatarh as A’Hïrzg. He’d been on the Council of Ca’ for as long as
Allesandra had known him; as Eldest, he was also titular head of
the Council. Four women (one of them Francesca), five men; they
rose as one and bowed to her as A’Hïrzg, a nicety even the Council
of Ca’ could not ignore, then sat once more. Six of the nine,
especially, nodded and smiled to her. Allesandra, Pauli, and Jan
stood—as etiquette demanded—at the open end of the table. Ca’Egan
rattled the parchments set in front of him and cleared his throat.
“Thank you for coming. We certainly needn’t be long. A mere
formality, actually. Hïrzg Fynn had already named Allesandra
ca’Vörl as A’Hïrzg, so we only need to have your signature,
A’Hïrzg, and those of the councillors here . . .”
“Vajiki ca’Egan,”
Allesandra said, and ca’Egan’s head came up wonderingly at the
interruption. At her right side, Pauli grunted at the obvious
breach in etiquette. “I have a statement to make before the Council
puts its stamp on that document and sends it to the Archigos for
his acknowledgment. I have thought about this ever since my dear
brother was killed, and I have prayed to Cénzi for His guidance,
and everything has become clear to me.” She paused. This is your last chance to change your mind. . . .
Semini had argued with her for a long turn or two, as they lay in
bed together, but she was convinced that this was the right
strategy. She took a deep breath. She could feel Pauli staring at
her quizzically and impatiently. “I do not wish to be Hïrzgin,” she
declaimed, “and I hereby revoke my claim on the
title.”
Ca’Egan’s eyebrows
clambered high on his bare, wrinkled skull and his mouth opened
soundlessly. Francesca, in shock, reared back in her seat, stunned
by the announcement, but most did not. They only nodded, their
gazes more on Jan than on Allesandra.
“Cénzi’s balls!”
Pauli shouted alongside her, the obscenity almost seeming to draw
lightning in the dark air of the chamber. “Woman, are you insane?
Do you know what you’re doing? You’ve just—”
“Shut up,” she said
to Pauli, who glared, though his jaw snapped closed. Allesandra
raised her hands to the councillors. “I’ve said all I need to say.
My decision is irrevocable. I leave it to the Council of Ca’ to
decide who is best suited take the throne of Brezno. However, it
won’t be me. I trust your judgment, Councillors. I know you will do
what is best for Brezno.”
With that, she gave
the sign of Cénzi to the Council and turned, pushing the doors open
so abruptly that the hall servants on station outside were nearly
knocked aside. Pauli and Jan, surprised by the suddenness of her
retreat, followed belatedly. Allesandra could hear Pauli charging
after her. His hand caught her arm and spun her around. His
handsome face was flushed and distorted, made ugly with anger.
Behind him, she saw Jan standing at the open door of the chamber
watching their confrontation, his own features puzzled and
uncertain.
“What in the seven
hells is this?” Pauli raged. “We had everything we ever wanted in
our hands, and you just throw it away?
Are you mad, Allesandra?” His hand tightened on her bicep, the
tashta bunching under his fingers. She would be bruised there
tomorrow, she knew. “You are going back in there now and you’re
telling them that it was a mistake. A joke. Tell them any damn
thing you want. But you’re not going to
do this to me.”
“To you?” Allesandra answered mockingly, calmly. “How
does this have anything to do with you, Pauli? I was the A’Hïrzg, not you. You are just a pitiful, useless excuse for a
husband, a mistake I hope to rectify as soon as I can, and you’ll
take your hand from me. Now.”
He didn’t. He drew
his other hand back as if to strike her, his fingers curling into a
fist. “No!” The shout was from Jan, running toward them. “Don’t,
Vatarh.”
Allesandra smiled
grimly at Pauli, at his still-upraised hand. “Go ahead,” she told
him. “Do it if you’d like. I tell you now that it will be the last
time you ever touch me.”
Pauli let the fisted
hand drop. His fingers loosened on her sleeve and she shook herself
away from him.
“I’m done with you,
Pauli,” she told him. “You gave me all I ever needed from you long
ago.”