Hal - The Duellist #1

Chapter Thirty-Five: Blackmail

It seemed like an eternity that she waited there in the dark. For some time there was silence. She could hear nothing but her own blood pumping loudly in her ears. Then came the sound of a chair scraping, a cupboard door opening and slamming shut again, papers being shuffled. At last, the door creaked open and he beckoned her back in, his eyes now wild. Not a trace was left of the genial host who'd greeted her at the gates to his fort.

Noticing some pieces of parchment spread out on the desk, she stared at him, desperate now for an explanation, but once again he avoided her gaze.

"For the Emperor's own sake, Franc, what's going on?" She sank back down into her chair.

"Who knows anything of your birth?" he asked at last.

She shrugged, disorientated and confused. "No one. Well, I suppose Cara is probably my mother. And Marc must know everything too. He was Master of Records at the Court. But he never told me anything."

"He was right not to. He'd lose a great deal more than his position if he broke such a confidence."

A terrible suspicion hovered on the fringes of her thoughts. For the first time in her life, she regarded Franc with suspicion.

"What are you trying to say?" Her voice quavered as she spoke. He rolled the ring between the thumb and forefinger of his right hand.

"This was placed in your swaddling when you were brought to the court..."

"What?"

"Let me finish! It was placed in your swaddling as proof of your parentage."

"And how do you know that?" The fury quickened within her. She already knew what he was about to tell her.

"Because I put it there."

He shoved a sheet of parchment across the desk, its red seal also impressed with an eagle. "Read it," he instructed.

"No. I know what it says. I don't have to." Hal clutched the arms of the chair, digging her nails into its wood

Cursing, he picked it up and read aloud. She seized the wine bottle and poured herself a glass, her hand shaking.

From the noble houses of Thæc and Hannac to the Great Emperor's court, greetings.

We hereby request that this child be adopted as a ward of court, being the daughter of two people of noble birth – Lady Cara Thæc, and Franc Hannac, Master of the Hannac estates. The evidence presented here should remove all doubt as to the girl's parentage. She will be provided for as long as she remains within the care of the court.

The families of Thæc and Hannac hereby request that no one, the child herself included, be informed as to the origins of her birth. We sign this declaration willingly, as

Cara Thæc and Franc Hannac.

The numbness came first, a strange refusal on the part of her body to acknowledge what she had just heard. But as the minutes passed, she felt the weight of Franc's gaze upon her as he waited for a reaction, and a strange kind of madness began to flood her veins ─ an anger which she realised she had carried her entire life and which now threatened to envelop her completely.

"And just when were you planning to tell me?"

"I invited you here, didn't I?"

"Afraid of what they'd say in Colvé?" she jeered.

"No – but I thought you'd need some time alone to come to terms with it."

Shoving back her chair, she got to her feet, a fine skein of nausea curdling in the pit of her stomach. "I don't need to come to terms with it!" Her voice rose against her will. "I don't intend to come to terms with it. If you want to sit here in your great castle, with only your dishonourable memories for company, then do so. I want no part of it." She turned to go.