CHAPTER SIX
Deep Fathoms Beckons
The words stunned Trynne and left her breathless with dread and confusion. The Deep Fathoms was the place where the dead went, where treasures from the past were hidden. Could the living go there and survive? Even if it were possible, she knew without question it would be dangerous beyond imagining.
She’d lost her father, and now the Fountain was reclaiming her mother. The cruelty of it was beyond her faculty to understand. She couldn’t even imagine what Drew and Genevieve would say. They had lost the Wizr Myrddin on the eve of Kingfountain’s woes. Then Owen. Now Sinia. It was too much. It was asking far too much!
Sinia pulled Trynne close, hugging her to her bosom, and began stroking her hair. “Grief and pain is part of this mortal coil. But no pain so sharp as that which afflicts a mother’s heart. I think I can bear any sadness for my own sake. But seeing my children suffer . . . that is the worst pain of all.”
Trynne only then realized she was crying. She lifted her head, gazing into her mother’s face, seeing the turmoil there. Her mother had always been a source of strength for her.
“I don’t understand,” Trynne said. Never had she felt so frightened and alone.
“Neither do I, Trynne. Neither do I.” Sinia smiled sadly, wiping a tear from Trynne’s lax cheek. “I saw many things I do not as yet understand, but the vision was clear. It showed me boarding a ship in Ploemeur with Captain Pyne. We were outfitted for a long expedition, so we may be at sea for quite some time. The course we should take was not made known to me, but I saw that it would be revealed. I hear the Deep Fathoms calling to me even now.” She turned and gazed out the window again, staring longingly at the sea. “It whispers to my heart to come.”
Trynne felt nothing, not even the ripple of the Fountain inside her, but she trusted her mother’s visions.
“Mother?” she asked, her voice trembling.
Sinia turned and looked at her.
“Mother, when you saw my marriage. I know you don’t like speaking of it. But when you saw it, were you there? Will you be there?”
Sinia blinked rapidly. She reached down and took Trynne’s hands. “No. I will not be. Trynne, when I go, Brythonica will be in peril unless the wards are maintained. You must make sure that it is done.” Her look was keen. “You must, Trynne. This burden is on our house alone.”
“But Gannon knows the words,” Trynne said, feeling a yawning chasm opening and threatening to swallow her, to chain her.
“Of course he does. But he’s just a child, Trynne. You are a woman. I know you have responsibilities of your own. I know that you do not want this burden.” Her voice hinted at the disappointment she felt that her daughter had chosen not to follow her path. “You must see it done. The people will need the reassurance that a Montfort will always be near. Promise me.”
The words were like shackles fitting around Trynne’s wrists. She could feel the heaviness of them. Brythonica and Westmarch were her birthrights, her responsibilities. It was a relief to have Gannon, young though he was, to share the burden.
“I will, of course,” Trynne said, though she could not completely mask the reluctance she felt. “The king asked me to summon you to court. That is why I came.”
Sinia heaved a sigh. “This will not be welcome news.”
“Indeed, it will not,” Trynne said. “I think he is anxious for word on where Gahalatine will press his attack. We have too many vulnerabilities. The fleet of treasure ships is on its way. They are coming to invade us, and his Wizr is about to tell him that the Fountain bids her to leave.” The panic and dread inside Trynne’s heart threatened to consume her.
“The king has another Wizr,” Sinia said, her voice flat. Although she was looking at Trynne, it was understood that she meant the king’s sister. “Morwenna is powerful. She finds new words of power almost daily. She’s drawn to them somehow, as if the books are trying to teach her quickly. I’ve never seen this before. She has surpassed where I was at her age.” Her voice grew softer. “The Fountain has provided another to take my place.”
It felt like another blow.
Trynne had been there the day Myrddin had told King Drew and her father that he was leaving. The threat they had faced was less real back then; they had not been attacked by their enemies at that point, so Gahalatine had not yet possessed a foothold in their realm.
Trynne watched as Drew absorbed her mother’s news in stunned silence. They were gathered in the solar of the palace at Kingfountain. Genevieve cradled their tiny babe in her arms, wrapped in the softest of blankets, and pressed little kisses against her feather-light tufts of hair. The babe’s namesake, Lady Kathryn, was also present. She and Morwenna were standing side by side, and while Kathryn was clearly surprised by the news, a strange look had passed across her daughter’s eyes. Perhaps Morwenna was thinking about being the realm’s only Wizr. It was a powerful position, to be sure, and a dangerous one.