‘That’s right.’
‘You,’ said Damen, ‘but not your women.’
There was a pause.
‘You are the only one protected in your arrangement. These women are going to die. Unless they talk to me.’
She said, ‘You have changed. Or is this the new power behind the throne? Who am I really negotiating with here, I wonder?’
He was already nodding to the nearest soldier. ‘Start with her.’
It wasn’t pleasant. The women resisted, and there was screaming. He watched impassively as soldiers took hold of the women and began to drag them from the room. Kyrina wrenched herself bodily out of the grip of two soldiers and prostrated herself, forehead to the floor. ‘Exalted—’
‘No,’ said Jokaste.
‘—Exalted. You are merciful. I have a son of my own. Spare my life, Exalted—’
‘No,’ said Jokaste. ‘He will not kill a roomful of women for loyalty to their mistress, Kyrina.’
‘—spare my life, I swear, I will tell you all I know—’
‘No,’ said Jokaste.
‘Tell me,’ said Damen.
Kyrina spoke without lifting her head from her prostration. Her long hair, which had escaped from its bindings during the tussle, spread over the floor.
‘There is a child. He was taken to Ios.’
‘That’s enough,’ said Jokaste.
‘None of us know if the child is yours. She says it is.’
‘That’s enough, Kyrina,’ said Jokaste.
‘There’s more,’ said Damen.
‘Exalted—’ said Kyrina—
—as Jokaste said, ‘No.’ —
‘My lady did not trust the Regent of Vere to protect her interests. In the case that there was no other way to save her life, the wet nurse could be instructed to bring the child to you—in exchange for Jokaste’s freedom.’
Damen sat back in his chair, and lifted his brows slightly at Jokaste.
Jokaste’s hand was a fist in her skirts, but she spoke in a calm voice. ‘Do you think you have overturned my plans? There is no way to circumvent my conditions. The wet nurse will not leave Ios. If you are going to make the exchange, you will need to take me there, and exchange me personally.’
Damen looked at Kyrina, who lifted her head and nodded.
Jokaste, he thought, believed that it was impossible for him to travel into Ios, and that there was no place where it was safe for him to attempt an exchange.
But there was a place where two enemies could meet without fear of ambush. An ancient, ceremonial place, which held to strict laws, where, since days of old, the kyroi could gather in safety, protected by the standing rule of peace, and the order of soldiers who enforced it. Kings travelled there to be crowned, nobles to settle disputes. Its strictures were sacred, and allowed parley without the prickling spears and spilt blood of the earliest, warlike days of Akielos.
It had a fated quality that appealed to him. ‘We make the exchange in a place where no man can bring an army, or draw a sword, on pain of death.’ Damen said, ‘We make the exchange in the Kingsmeet.’
There was not much to do after that. Kyrina was taken to an antechamber to arrange communication with the wet nurse. The women were escorted out. And then he and Jokaste were alone.
‘Give my congratulations to the Prince of Vere,’ she said. ‘But you’re a fool to trust him. He has his own plans.’