The lady laughed. “Am I a donkey? Why should I?”
“Because,” said Anne with an edge. “Allies come to each other’s aid. And it might—might—incline me to look upon your nephew’s suit with more favor, should he pursue it one day. Or is there no family-feeling among the korriganed?”
The lady laughed, but then the ancient craggy face softened. “My daughter was a saucy girl too,” she said.
When Isabeau and Elesbed woke from their drowsing, the hall was empty but for Anne and Louis and Henri and Butter, sitting quietly on cushions beside a great golden fire. Anne was leaning on Louis’s shoulder.
Isabeau shuddered as the whole night came flooding back. “Moreau is dead, isn’t he?”
“Yes, dearest,” said Anne. “Or as good as. He will not trouble you again.”
Isabeau looked tentative. “Are we going home, then?”
“That depends on you.”
Anne could feel Louis and Henri listening, for she had bidden them wait until the children woke before she told them where they mightgo next. “We can all go home, tonight,” said Anne. “Back to our castle in Nantes, and sleep in our own beds. But I do not know what will happen after. Possibly I will be considered a mere victim of all this wicked sorcery and then given to Charles of France. Perhaps Maximilien will fight a war for me, perhaps not. But at the end of it all, I shall go away to Vienna or to France and be married to one man or the other.”
Isabeau opened her mouth to protest, but Anne interrupted.
“No, it is true. Out there, in the mortal world, my only power is my choice of husband. It might be Charles, it might be Maximilien, but either way Iamthe realm, and my only choice is to whom I yield myself up, and the duchy with me.”
Elesbed listened, stroking Butter, as Anne went on.
“If we go back, you, Isabeau, will stay safe in Brittany with Henri as your guardian. Louis will have to flee far away, for he struck the king of France in the Guardhouse in Rennes.”
Anne could feel Louis’s shoulder rigid beside her. Isabeau had not reacted. Her eyes were fastened on Anne’s face. “Or?” said Isabeau. It was barely a breath. “Anne—now we know the world has enchantments, and I won’t believe it, that all we have is sacrifice. Iwon’t.”
“Yes,” said Anne. “There might be a path of power instead of sacrifice. But it is dangerous.”
Isabeau clasped her hands together but Anne sobered her with a look. “If I dare this, then the lady of the korriganed will take you in secret to our castle Guérande by the sea. And there you will live quietly for a time, in secret, with Henri as your guardian. And meanwhile Louis and I”—she swallowed—“Louis and I will go deep into the Lost Lands, in search of the drowned city of Keris. If he and I can do what the sorcerer could not, and bring this city back—then I will be able to return to Brittany. But there is every chance that we will not succeed.”
A light had dawned in Isabeau’s face. “Yes, you must go,” she said at once. “And you will succeed.”
“Think of it a moment longer,” said Anne. “If I am not successful, you will never see me again.”
“That will happen anyway, if you marry Charles or Maximilien,” said Isabeau, fierce. “But I don’t think you will fail. You will win, and you will be queen. I always knew something like this had to happen.”
Anne turned to look a question at Louis.
“Do you need to ask?” he said to her, low. “I forfeited my life by striking the king of France; I think it is only the queen of Armorica who can spare me now. Besides”—he touched the blue sword—“blades like this must be earned.”
Henri said, “I too should like a hopeless quest in the Lost Lands.”
“I am sorry, brother,” said Anne. “You must safeguard Isabeau. And Elesbed, who saved your life.”
“Could I do anything else?” said Henri resignedly. “Even if that brat did so by kicking my shins.”
Elesbed squeaked with indignation.
Chapter
33
They must go immediately. Therewas an inertia to the Lost Lands, the queen told Anne. The longer you were there, the longer you wished to stay and the more strangely time crawled by.
“Please,” Anne whispered to the lady. “Keep your word and keep my family safe.”
“I cannot break oaths any more than I can lie,” said the lady. She did not bid them farewell. Perhaps that was not done among the korriganed. Henri, Elesbed, and Isabeau took the queen’s gnarled hands and walked straight into a bar of pure clear light, like the seashore at dawn, and disappeared.
