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Varrick waved him forward. “Come and speak your peace.”
The warriors were too busy enjoying the meal and ale to pay any attention to Brother Luke. They continued with their own talk as he approached the dais.
“I pray you pay heed to my word, Lord Varrick,” Brother Luke said, after coming to a stop in front of the table not far from Argus. “You must face the truth of this horrible situation and expel your evil wife from the clan.” He paused to lick his dry lips. “Her kindness is a trap and when the God of Death is ready, he will have her strike, and all will be lost for trusting her.” He licked his lips quickly once again. “Death and destruction will rain down, and you will be helpless to save your clan.” His voice rose as he spoke, and the room soon turned silent.
Fia’s eyes remained on the monk with concern. Hadn’t anyone noticed how slow his steps were, how pale he looked, and how often he licked his lips? Something was wrong with him.
Varrick rose out of his chair, taking a deep breath, his chest expanding, his shoulders drawing back, and anger flaring in his blue eyes.
“Never have I been helpless and never will I be helpless to defend my clan. And it is no God of Death that causes this problem and when I find the man who is responsible, he will beg for the God of Death’s mercy for I will show him not an ounce of mercy. Now hear me well, Brother Luke, I will no longer tolerate the way you speak about my wife. Hold your tongue or suffer for it.”
“She bewitches you and there are those who see it, yet you are too bewitched to see it,” Brother Luke argued with a soft shake of his head as if trying to clear it. “Everyone fears to speak what they know is truth. But I am not. All see how you smile at her when you never smiled before or how you always hold her hand when you walk, and all know she has seduced you for your cries of pleasure have been heard in the keep numerous times.”
Varrick’s fist smashed down on the table. “Hold your tongue before I cut it out!”
Brother Luke swayed as he clamped his mouth shut and all in the room kept silent, their eyes on Varrick.
“Fia is my wife, the marriage consummated, and she will stay my wife. It was a witch I thought I wed, only to discover I wed a good woman and a skilled healer. And no one—NO ONE—will ever take her from me.”
Brother Luke looked at Fia. “You evil whore. You have stolen his soul.”
Fia grabbed her husband’s arm before he could launch himself over the table at the monk. “Please, my lord, you cannot beat wisdom into the ignorant.” She turned to look at the monk. “Ut ignoscat Deus tuus irgnorance.”
Brother Luke glared at her, his cheeks flamed red, and his mouth fell open to speak but all he did was sputter, then his eyes rolled back in his head, and he dropped to the floor.
CHAPTER25
Heavy silence filled the Great Hall, and no one moved except Fia. She hurried around the dais to Brother Luke and dropped down beside him.
“She cursed him, and the God of Death took him,” Argus mumbled.
“Hold your tongue,” Varrick warned and hurried around the dais to his wife.
Fia turned her face up to him. “He’s dead.”
Varrick crouched down beside her and kept his voice to a whisper. “What did you say to him?”
“You cannot think that I caused his death,” she said, keeping her voice to a whisper as well.
He protects you.
She did not doubt her husband protected her, but it helped to hear the voice confirm it.
“Never, but others will, and I will know what you said and in what language,” he said, though he believed it to be Latin since all monks spoke the language.
“I spoke Latin to him. May God forgive your ignorance, is what I said.”
“Is he dead, my lord?” someone called out.
Varrick stood, easing his wife up to stand alongside him. “Aye, he is dead.”
Mumbles and whispers began to fill the room, Varrick catching some of the words.
“Cursed.”
“God of Death.”
“Did his bidding.”
