Page 231 of Disillusioned
“Bastion,” Garin warned.
“No. You let me speak.” Bastion turned on him. “The leader of the only real defense we have against an enemy we haven’t faced in decades, is tethered to a queen whose marriage is supposed to save us. You didn’t just enthrall her—you fell in love with her.” He glanced at Lilac. “Or is it the other way around? Does she pull the strings now?”
The flames in the hearth hissed in the silence that followed. Bastion’s gaze followed the sound and caught onto something. He moved—past Piper, toward the hearth. When he straightened, he was gripping her bloodied stake.
Garin’s face shifted, his barely tethered mask slipping. He lunged.
Bastion caught him, arm twisting viciously around his neck, and forced him to his knees. “Make her sign it,” he growled, pressing the tip of the stake against Garin’s back. “Maximilian’s marriage contract. End this madness, before it guts us all.”
Across the room, the fire continued to crackle like a warning; Lilac heard nothing but the sound of her own blood roaring in her ears. Garin’shand, offered to her just moments ago, still hung in question. A gesture of noble surrender. Of defiance.
“Lilac,” Bastion barked. “Now.”
The weight of her crown was heavy enough to break her spine. Her voice was cold as frost. “You would rather see me sold for safety than at your brother’s side,” she said, fully aware of how selfish she sounded. “Signed away like a treaty.”
“I would rather see you alive, for fuck’s sake,” Bastion spat. “I would rather see Brocéliande stand.”
“Do as he says, Lilac,” Garin ordered.
With no time to react, her arm moved of its own accord, snapping the lid off the long box back. She unscrewed the lid to the inkpot.
“The moment it is complete,” Bastion said, “François’s men will be encroaching on Maximilian’s betrothed’s territory. The moment you are married, and they are made aware, France then involves itself in a direct altercation with the Holy Roman Empire.”
“I understand how this works,” she seethed.
“Then sign it.”
“If I may,” Myrddin interjected, stepping forward. “Garin and Your Majesty, if I could just have a word?”
“Not now,” warned Garin.
“Do as he says, Lilac,” urged Adelaide, a half-sob.
Piper neared. “She deserves the right to choose.”
Her heartbeat was so loud, it drowned out their voices. Her muscles strained, weakly resisting she picked up the quill. “Wait,” she panted. “I want to read it first.”
“Go ahead.” Garin’s voice was taut. Measured. “Read it. Then sign the contract.”
The parchment kept rolling; she spread it out between her sweaty palms, the words barely legible with the tears that stained it.
THE CONTRACT
This Indenture, made the twenty-eighth day of April in the Year of Our Lord 1532, between the Most Noble and Serene Lady, Eleanor of Brittany, Sovereign Queen of Brittany, through the hand and consent of Her appointed proxy, Lord Henri Trécesson, on the one part, and His Most Imperial Majesty Maximilian the First, Holy Roman Emperor, Archduke of Austria, King of the Romans, through the person and authority of his appointed and sworn proxy, Count Albrecht Fritsch the Third of Vienna, on the other part:
Whereas it hath been mutually agreed by treaty and sealed consent between the Royal House of Brittany and the Holy Roman Empire, that a matrimonial union shall be entered into by Lady Eleanor and His Imperial Majesty Maximilian, with all solemnity and binding force, to the end that peace may be established and amity strengthened between their realms, especially in light of the reported increasing hostilities by the Kingdom of France:
It is therefore covenanted and confirmed that lawful proxy shall contract the aforementioned marriage, in full accordance with the customs of the Holy Church, and shall be held in full force as though both sovereigns were present in-person.
And furthermore, for the advancement and securing of this union, Her Majesty Queen Eleanor doth bestow, as her royal dowry to His Imperial Majesty, the following entitlements and grants:
Unfettered access and usage rights to all royal naval ports of the Kingdom of Brittany, including but not limited to: St. Brieuc, St. Malo, the Channel, and the western Bay of Douarnenez for purposes of both Imperial defense and commercial passage;
