Medieval 03 - Enchanted

Amber a compassionate look, knowing what
the girl was about to undergo. Amber didn’t notice. She had
eyes only for Ariane.
    “Are you ready, lady?” Amber asked.
    “Aye,” Ariane said. “But are you
certain you wouldn’t rather question me?”
    “Yes. ’Tis important that we know each
one of Geoffrey’s truths.”
    “Then we are lost,” Ariane said curtly.
“Geoffrey has no truth in him.”
    Geoffrey started to speak, but thought better of it
when Erik stepped eagerly forward.
    “Your turn will come to question
Ariane,” Meg said clearly, “if you require such a
questioning.”
    Amber took a breath and let it out slowly,
composing herself. Then she rested one fingertip on
Geoffrey’s cheek just above the place where blood had been
drawn by Erik’s knife.
    As soon as Amber touched Geoffrey, she went pale.
Sweat stood clearly on her skin. Her eyes were so dilated they were
almost black. Only her clenched jaw kept her from crying out.
    Whatever Amber sensed of Geoffrey when she touched
him was intensely painful to her. Yet touching Geoffrey was the
only way Amber could learn his truth.
    Or his lies.
    A visible shudder moved over Amber as she used her
Learned training to control her response to touching Geoffrey the
Fair.
    At the lord’s table, Simon felt
Duncan’s fingers clench in silent protest at what his wife
was enduring.
    “I did not ask for either Amber or Ariane to
suffer this,” Simon said through his teeth.
    “I know,” Duncan said, easing his grip.
“Nor did Amber ask that God give her the ability to see
truth. It simply is, and must be endured.”
    “Why did you permit it?” Simon demanded
of Dominic.
    “It was Ariane’s right.”
    “To be shamed in front of the entire
keep?” Simon asked savagely. “God’s blood, she
doesn’t deserve it!”
    “Yet she demanded it,” Dominic said in
a low voice. “I fear she was wronged, Simon.”
    “It’s in the past!” Simon hissed.

“Ravaged or seduced, it doesn’t matter to
me!”
    “It does to Ariane.”
    I love you, Simon. Soon you
will be able to believe in me enough to love me in
return .
    Simon went still as pain twisted through him. Too
late, he understood Ariane’s truth. She truly believed that
he would love her if she proved herself to have been wronged rather
than merely wanton.
    “Begin,” Amber said tonelessly to
Ariane.
    Ariane turned to Geoffrey, looking at him for the
first time since she had come into the room.
    “The morning my father told me that I was
betrothed to another,” Ariane said clearly, “did you
come to me privately and beg me to elope with you?”
    “Nay, it was you who—”
    “Lie,” Amber said.
    Her voice was like her face, without
expression.
    “Who are you to call me a liar?”
Geoffrey snarled.
    “ Silence .”
    Though calm, Meg’s voice was terrible to
hear. It was the same for her eyes, a green that burned through to
the soul.
    “Amber’s gift is known throughout the
Disputed Lands,” Meg said distinctly. “You may no more
lie successfully to her than you could to an angel.”
    “Yet I say she has no right to judge
me!” Geoffrey said.
    “Truth,” Amber said.
    A startled expression came over Geoffrey’s
face.
    “Do you understand, now?” Meg said.
“When Amber touches you, she discovers the truth or falseness
of your responses. You believe she has no right to judge you, so
Amber perceives your response as truthful.”
    “Witchraft,” said Geoffrey, crossing
himself hastily.
    Without a word Amber reached inside her tunic with
her free hand and drew out a silver cross. Bloodred amber gleamed
at five points of the cross that lay nestled in her cool hand. Her
fingers closed around the cross for the space of four slow breaths,
then opened again.
    There was no mark anywhere on Amber’s hand,
no sign that the cross burned in protest at being held against her
skin.
    Geoffrey looked to the lord’s table, where
Blackthorne’s chaplain sat.
    “What say you, chaplain?” Geoffrey
shouted.
    “Have no fear of Satan within this
keep,” the chaplain said in a voice that carried easily the
length of the great hall. “Lady Amber is like Lady Margaret,
strangely blessed by God.”
    Stunned, off-balance, Geoffrey looked again at
Amber’s cross.
    “Did you come to my sitting room that
evening,” Ariane said into the silence, “and did you
give me wine to drink?”
    “Aye,” Geoffrey said carelessly, for he
was still caught by the sight of Amber’s cross lying