CHAPTER SEVEN

Both of Shansi's Kroyan friends had been aware for some time that some sort of crisis was approaching; the moment they met Shansi in the herb garden they knew from her grim expression that it had broken.
At once she told them that Skripshi believed a plot was afoot to murder Chaldez. He considered it vital, she said, that the child should not be in the royal party when it departed for Sembfrid; but the king, she added, was adamant that he should be. She therefore proposed finding a substitute for Chaldez, and placing Chaldez himself under the direct protection of the Lord Segga of Istin, whom she knew was devoted to the royal family, and could be trusted absolutely. But they must act quickly for the royal party was due to leave Felewith in just four days' time.
Pemmel asked if he might make a suggestion. Shansi nodded; as she looked at him she found reassurance in his tall, loose-limbed, muscular presence. His droopy moustache and crinkly, light-coloured hair, thick and shoulder-length, were typical of his native Kroyan tribe. Lewvin's Theigan ancestry, like her own, on the other hand, was detectable in her relatively heavier build and handsome, dark hair.
Pemmel said that it would be easier to get hold of a dead baby than a living one; babies were dying all the time in Felewith. If a dead baby could be insinuated into the palace, along with a woman who could be passed off as its wet nurse, it would simply remain then for Shansi to announce that Chaldez was dead, thus pre-empting the attempt upon his life, while allowing him to be carried away to safety.
Shansi, her judgment impaired by anxiety which was now verging on panic, thought it a brilliant plan, for she realised at once that it would not only preserve the life of her child, but also her own and her husband's. With "Chaldez" dead there would be no question of proceeding with the Sembfrid tour. Morvina's carefully-laid trap would be useless then.
Later that day she sent for Skripshi: she wanted to know if he thought it would be wise to send Chaldez out of the kingdom.
"By all means," he said. "I presume you have somewhere safe to send him?" Then hurriedly, before Shansi could reply, he added "Don't tell me. If he has a protector I am pleased. But be sure you make it possible for him to return and claim his rightful place here, in his own kingdom."
Shansi smiled with incomprehension. Skripshi smiled too. He said "Do not send him away without proof of who he is." He paused, staring at the back of his hand. Shansi remained silent. He looked at her, then he said "I have an idea. May I see you tomorrow?"
The following day he came to her chamber, and when they were alone he gave her a small package. "Ensure," he said, "that this goes with your child wherever he goes."
Shansi unwrapped the cloth, and stared in astonishment at the gleaming red gem which was revealed.
"It is a ruby from the hilt of Roe Aada," he said.
Shansi knew this to be the sword which had belonged to Bedekka. It was now one of the principal objects of the royal regalia.
"You must have put yourself in great danger obtaining it," she said.
"Some," said the wizened little old man. But he was smiling. "It did help," he added, winking mischievously, "that I am Keeper of the Regalia." Then he became serious again. "You will notice that it is cut in a peculiar manner . . ." Shansi peered at it. Skripshi said: "Pick it up. You will see better."
She examined it, and nodded. Skripshi went on: "The stone and the place it was taken from are like the matching halves of a contract. When they are united they will prove the identity of he who had the ruby. Keep it safely. Your son' claim to the throne may depend upon it."
When Skripshi had gone, she summoned Pemmel. She told him that as soon as the dead substitute had been installed in the royal nursery he was to smuggle Chaldez and his nurse out of the royal compound and escort them to Istin. Lewvin was to go too. On their arrival they were to present themselves to the Lord Segga, who would know who sent them and the identity of their charge by the items that she was about to entrust to him. Here she took from her finger the ring which Egmar had given her when they married, and which bore the insignia of the royal house of Sair Jisener, and then she fetched the packet containing the Roe Aada Ruby. She showed Pemmel the gem, and then wrapped it up again, but this time with her ring. He was to ensure, she said, that the gem was mounted and secured to Chaldez in such a way that whatever adventures might befall him he could produce it at the last as proof of his identity and birthright.
Pemmel promised to do as she asked, and she handed him a leather pouch, heavy with gold; the income from her estate in Fromond. Pemmel took it, and in return gave her his dagger. He begged her to keep it for her own protection.
Shansi looked at it doubtfully; she could never use a dagger on anyone, even if she had the strength. Pemmel insisted that she keep it. She shrugged and placed it on the table beside her, but Pemmel was not satisfied until she had placed it inside her long nyarn garment.
Later the same day a dead baby and its mother, a beggar woman, were brought into the palace and put in the nursery.
By the time Shansi let it be known the following morning that Chaldez had died during the night, the real Chaldez, accompanied by Lewvin and his wet nurse, and escorted by Pemmel, was on his way to Istin.
Shansi's desperate deception worked until the beggar woman was examined by the king's council in order to establish how the prince had died and why he was in such an extraordinarily emaciated state. Egmar, who had instituted the proceedings, believed that she had starved his son to death, but it was quite obvious to the council that the woman was nearly starved to death herself. Counsellors were aware that while wet nurses for royal infants were not picked for their breeding and background, they were picked for the size and productivity of their breasts, and this woman's were no more than flaps of skin. Morvina was called in to give her opinion, and it was her opinion that the woman standing before them was an imposter and that the corpse might not even be that of Chaldez.
As the woman was taken away for torture, interrogation and execution she shrieked out confirmation of what Morvina had supposed. The dead baby, she screamed, was her own.
Suspicion immediately fell on Shansi.
She was in the temple of Tin Wina and Agnomi, mourning the death of her child, when members of the council, led by Morvina, came for her. She guessed what had happened as soon as she heard the commotion of their arrival, and before they could reach her, had wedged Pemmel's dagger against the wooden pillar beside her and hugged herself on to its sharp point. Although the wound was not immediately fatal she lost consciousness from loss of blood and never recovered sufficiently to be interrogated.