Chapter 309 The Blood of House Redford

Kellar stammered.

"I have no idea of..."

"Master," said Ophelia. "I do not judge you."

She eased off the wall a little and straightened her dress.

"When I said the Bear God gave me the power to see everything, it was true," said she. "What I did not say is since when."

Kellar looked at her.

"I am going to tell you something," said Ophelia. "I hope you do not grow bored of my story."

"I am listening," said Kellar.

Ophelia sat on the altar step.

"I was born blind," said she. "My eyes never saw the light. Not a gleam. Not a candle at a hand’s breadth from my face."

Kellar leaned on the back of a bench.

"My father was Lord Redford, sole heir of House Redford," said Ophelia. "Because of his standing I was never intimidated or offended. Everyone treated me with great respect. There was no one who made a remark to me. They treated me very well."

She fell quiet a second.

"Or at least that is what I believed."

"And it was not so?"

"When they could not be seen, they always laughed," said Ophelia. "They mocked me. They made faces I could not see and covered their mouths so I would not hear. And since my eyes were born blind, my ears were born sharp. I heard them all the same."

"And what did you think?"

"That they did not like me out of envy of my father," said Ophelia. "I grew and nothing changed. Everything was the same. There was only hypocrisy in the world."

Kellar said nothing.

"Before long my father sent me to the Royal College, in the capital of Kesh," said Ophelia. "There I met the heirs of the other noble houses. And the prince."

"What was his name?"

"Aldous Kesh," said she, and the name came out with an edge. "Second of his name, heir to the throne of Kesh."

Kellar nodded.

"They showed me it was not only because I was my father’s daughter, nor out of envy," said Ophelia. "It was for being who I was. For being blind. For being a woman. For being an odd creature that House Redford had the nerve to send to the capital."

She ran a palm down her skirt.

"They harassed me every day and every night. All of them. They tried to rape me every day. They beat me, they held me down, they threw my books on the floor so I would crawl after them."

"And you?"

"I got away," said Ophelia. "I always got away. Because my father’s name was not easy to intimidate, and because a man who grabs you in the dark makes noise. I hear noise. I know which foot he is about to move before he moves it."

Kellar looked at her.

"They never caught you?"

"Once," said she. "At a masked ball. Aldous pulled me behind a curtain and put his hand over my mouth. I bit his palm to the bone and tore a piece of meat out of it. He still has the mark."

She looked at her hand.

"I was nine."

Kellar let his breath go slowly.

"When I told my father," said Ophelia, "he did something. At the time I did not know. Things calmed a little and I believed Aldous had grown tired."

"What did he do?"

"A month later I found out," said she. "From a maid who could not hold back the urge to tell me."

She straightened.

"My father launched an attack on every minor family that had harassed me. Twenty-four noble houses exterminated in a single night. Not the old houses, nor the women, nor the children. The men, the heirs, and the shields. And the second son of every major family he killed wherever he found him."

Kellar went still.

"The second son," he repeated.

"The second son," said Ophelia. "Because the first cannot be touched without declaring war. And because the second hurts more, my lord. The first is duty. The second is the one the mother loves."

Kellar nodded slowly.

"And then he sent the king a letter," said Ophelia. "He told him that if anyone troubled his daughter again, he would attack the royal castle."

"And they did not trouble you again."

"They did not trouble me again," said she. "But they did not speak to me either. The college treated me the way plague is treated. Everyone greeted me in the corridor and walked on quickly."

She laughed without appetite.

"That is where I learned the difference between respect and affection, master. Respect is bought with fear. Affection is not bought with anything."

Kellar said nothing for a while.

"Your father was powerful," he said at last.

"My father was feared," said Ophelia. "It is not the same, and he knew it."

She lifted her face toward him.

"He was grand general of the royal army, my lord. He commanded the Black Rhinoceros Knights. The knights who brought me are professionals. I tell you so, who saw them from the inside across two days of forest. But they would not face my father’s knights."

Kellar folded his arms.

"Where were they?"

"On the eastern frontier," said Ophelia. "Three days off. My father sent for them when the slaughter began. They did not come."

She stared at the floor.

"And still he killed them all, master. In the end he killed them all."

"And when did you get it?" asked Kellar. "The blessing."

Ophelia fell quiet.

"A month later, master," said she.

Kellar turned.

"A month after what?"

"The houses."

Kellar looked at her without understanding.

"I did not find out that night," said Ophelia. "I was at the college. I found out a month later, from a maid who could not hold back the urge to tell me."

She pressed her fingers together.

"And I came back."

"You came back to the castle?"

"I came back," said she. "Without leave and without telling anyone. Fourteen leagues in a freight cart, alone, with a carter who tried to charge me double."

Kellar said nothing.

"I walked into the hall and asked my father if it was true," said Ophelia. "I told him I wanted the truth. All of it."

"And he?"

"He told me yes," said Ophelia.

Her voice went flatter.

"He told me yes, master. He took my face in both hands and then he told me my family did not worship the gods of the realm of Kesh," she went on. "That the gods of Kesh were capital gods, parlor gods, gods that kneel when the king walks in. That the Redfords worshipped something else. Something beyond the frontiers. The god of the forest."