25.17

Dirk's anger eventually turned upon Eric Greystone. He blamed Eric for the death of the son Zyrdicia had been carrying. Whatever hatred he had in the past for Eric multiplied a thousand-fold.

The news of her miscarriage touched an emotional nerve. He was surprised by the sense of loss he felt. He found himself dwelling on it and brooding.

Though his anger toward her had already waned, it upset him that she had kept her pregnancy a secret from him. He had always prided himself on his ability to know the secrets of everyone in his life. She thwarted him at every turn.

Once he retraced her steps ruling his kingdom in his absence, he found her motives more baffling than ever. After putting him in a coma, she had stayed in Karteia in the middle of winter, tormented by morning sickness. He knew that she had been forced to handle the details of running the castle by herself, without Kai to deal with the routines for kitchen servants and chambermaids. He could not imagine her having the patience for it, yet she somehow had not only done it, but she had done it well. The castle was running flawlessly with its seneschal in the dungeon. She had declined to declare herself regent, though she had the political support for it. And through it all, she had kept all of his generals in line and preserved the balance of power among them perfectly.

Dirk had found all of Zyrdicia's notes tracing Kai and Portia's conspiracy. They had been stacked neatly in a drawer of his desk, as though she had been expecting him to find the evidence of it. She had even written notes to him about it.

Beneath the notes about the conspiracy, he had found a leather folder containing her annotated maps of Lemica and plans to destroy it. Kendall had filled him in on the rest. Dirk knew how badly she wanted these Old Priests dead. He would have expected her to go to Lemica to slay her enemies the instant she found out about their presence there. Knowing her hatred for them, he was shocked that she had stayed in Karteia, instead of going after them immediately.

In the very bottom of the desk drawer in which she had neatly stacked papers for him regarding the kingdom's business, she had left him a sealed envelope. His first name was written in her own hand outside the envelope. He left it unopened for most of the day, dreading its message. Finally, when he was ready to retire for the evening, he carried it with him to his quarters.

Dirk sank heavily into his wingback chair in his sleeping chamber. He sliced the envelope in his hand open with a small, bone-handled dagger. He unfolded the sheet of parchment inside and found a letter dated a week ago. He began reading:

Dearest Dirk,

If you are reading this, then Sindra's research must have revealed some way to revive you. But, as I've told you often enough, there are no happy endings for people like us. I know that when you wake up, we'll be destined for separate paths. I know perfectly well that you will hate me for putting you in a coma. And so I'll use this letter as an opportunity to say goodbye.

Putting you in a coma may have been unintentional, but harming you was not. I unleashed dream demons in your psyche to inflict pain there because you had hurt me. It is quite possibly the only injury I've ever caused that I truly regret.

I've spent days pondering whether I should leave Karteia to its fate. Your brother, generals and knights are ready to fight each other for bits of your realm. If I were to leave, civil war would split the empire you've built into a half dozen pieces. You would wake up to a world in which you had to spend years reconquering your own kingdom, instead of vanquishing the South.

Whatever else I may have done to you, I can't bring myself to permit that. And so instead, I permit myself to be trapped here, not by magic or steel, but simply by my affection for you. Your kingdom means nothing to me, but because it means something to you, I stay here - for you. And I detest every minute of it.

Perhaps when you awaken, you'll find solace in knowing that I suffered while you were comatose. The parasite you put inside me refuses to spawn a soul, and it poisons me from within. Your foolish minions fawn over my illness as though it is a great blessing. In all my thoughts of the importance of spawning a soul, I never imagined it would make me feel this ill.

Zyr's wicked game has played itself out. We have become toxic for one another. Whatever joy there once was became poisoned by the Seraphim's Curse, and its cruel magic has nearly been the undoing of both of us.

You'll always own a piece of my heart.

Yours,

Zyrdicia

25.18

Dirk dreaded his need to contact Zyrdicia. He had no desire to apologize for sending her away. She was the one who put him in a coma.

Still, the current situation was intolerable for a hundred different reasons. But with her servants gone, and Portia dead, there was no easy way to reach her and put an end to the foolishness. Short of going to Lyr to look for her, he had no idea how to even get a message to her telling her to return to Castle Blackpool. The thought of going to Lyr made his stomach turn.

Sitting alone in his study, Dirk discovered an unexpected envelope on his desk, addressed to him only by his first name. He did not recognize the handwriting on the envelope. When he turned it over, he saw the black wax seal bore an official insignia that appeared to belong to the Governing Council of Lyr. He tore it open impatiently, expecting another letter from Zyrdicia.

The document inside, however, was no letter. His heart skipped a beat as he read the first two words at the top of the page. As his eyes scanned the rest of the page, he tossed it aside though he could not bear it.

It was a Lyrian divorce decree. In addition to purporting to dissolve Dirk's marriage to Zyrdicia, the document terminated Geshna's trade rights with Lyr. The Lyrian Merchant's Guild would henceforth impose a trade embargo. Dirk was not only personally banned from entering Lyr - upon pain of execution by the Assassin Guild - but his entire kingdom was to cut off economically from the city.