The King's Deryni by Katherine Kurtz Page A

was failing, and that she could not deliver, she seized her husband’s hand and bade them cut the child from her womb.” Vivienne gasped, and Jamyl felt his gut do a queasy roll. “Hogan held her head and blocked the pain, weeping, and Camille did the deed—all for naught, as it happened. The child, a prince, never drew breath—and could not have long survived, in any case. The head was nearly twice the size it should have been, and there were . . . other deformities. My informant was present at the birth, but would not elaborate. Perhaps it is better that way.”
    As he raised a hand to cover his eyes, a collective sigh whispered among his listeners.
    â€œWell,” said Rhydon, after a beat. “It could be argued that there
is
a positive side to all of this. One less male heir to strengthen Hogan’s claim on Gwynedd.”
    â€œThat is a monstrous thing to say!” Vivienne snapped.
    â€œNonetheless, it is true,” Rhydon said coldly. “The Festils have long memories, and they will not lightly give up what they regard as rightfully theirs.”
    â€œWhat they stole in the first place!” Stefan said under his breath.
    â€œBe that as it may,” Rhydon replied, “eventually, your Brion Haldane will need to contend with Prince Hogan. But at least it will not be with a son at his back. At least not this time.”
    â€œHe does have issue from that von Soslán affair,” Barrett pointed out. “Two boys among them, as I recall.”
    â€œThey are of no import,” Vivienne said flatly. “All of the children of that union are bastards.”
    Jamyl sat forward. “Hogan has children besides Charissa?”
    Vivienne shrugged. “There were several by the von Soslán woman. The two were even married briefly, though his mother had the marriage annulled as soon as she found out, and King Arkady also disapproved. Kethevan, she is called.
    â€œFor some years after that, Hogan refused to take another wife, though he continued to live with his inamorata, and she bore him many children. I believe that three survive. Eventually, he was reconciled with his mother, and agreed to marry a woman of appropriate rank.”
    â€œThat would be Larissa de Marluk, who bore him the Princess Charissa,” Barrett offered. “There was also an identical twin who died shortly after birth. Then after Larissa died in childbed of a stillborn son, he married another highborn woman, Roshane of Fallon. Alas, poor lady,
her
first child was stillborn, and the second. . . .” He sighed. “But it all matters little, now.”
    â€œThese surviving von Soslán bastards,” Jamyl said thoughtfully. “Might they still present a threat?”
    Khoren shook his head. “Festillic house law is quite specific. Charmed though Hogan may have been by the Lady Kethevan, she was not deemed of sufficient rank to contract a royal marriage. Hence, the children of that union may not inherit. None are in the Festillic succession, or have dynastic rights.”
    â€œThat could change, of course, were Hogan to become more ambitious, or more desperate,” Barrett observed dryly. “Blood
is
blood, after all.”

Chapter 7

    â€œThine own friend, and thy father’s friend, forsake not . . .”
    â€”PROVERBS 27:10
    S IR Llion and Sir Tesselin left with the second Culdi party at midmorning of the following day, with both their young charges now well mounted on reliable rounceys. The journey would take nearly a week, since Tesselin kept the pace moderate in the beginning, but it would give ample opportunity for the boys to become accustomed to full-sized horses.
    â€œThey shall never be satisfied with ponies again,” Llion remarked to Tesselin, after they had been on the road for most of the first day. The boys were riding farther ahead with Sir Froilán Lascelles, the other young knight in Jared’s