Nine months after Emilak and Dâyamuna were wed, the Queen was brought to bed of a child. It was a girl, the future queen, and she was named Díamun. There was much rejoicing in the land. Even the disaffected said, ‘Whatever the mother is, the father is of good Lôruvanka stock.’ Though the parents did not then know it, the child was born but a few weeks later than her cousin, Hirgul. And so it was that when Díamun was beginning to walk, word came to Dâyamuna and Emilak:
‘Your sister has returned in rags, and she has a child with her.’
At once Dayamuna rose up and hastened to the great square of Tídris to meet Rauwenna by the Stone of Ingos.
As Rauwenna rode up on the mare Gragadam, Dayamuna saw that her sister had on the very gown that she had worn on the day of the crowning, now creased and tattered. She wondered at this, and pity and compassion rose within her at what ordeals her sister might have endured since; for she knew nothing of the rich robes and soft furnishings of Galúd. Nor did Rauwenna do aught to dispel that ignorance. For she dismounted from the mare, took a few steps, and knelt before Dayamuna, saying:
Rueful in rags, Rauwenna kneels
And sues humbly for a sister’s pardon
For murderous deed in drunken fit.
I have paid a price for practising wrong:
Tricked by witchcraft to be wed far off
To a foreign lord of friendly look,
My son’s father: but he sought my death
And I escaped scarcely in these scraps of clothes
On my trusty mare, to make my peace.
Receive Rauwenna under your roof kindly,
And let Hirgul here have home-coming,
And with child fellows be cheered and bred.
Dayamuna’s heart was wrung with pity for her sister and little Hirgul; for her Díamun was just a few months younger. She said:
‘Rise and take comfort, Rauwenna my sister. Let there be no more mind of hard things between us. Come back to your chamber in the Queen’s house and let little Hirgul dwell in the nursery of my daughter Díamun. Let them be playmates together and let us be friends.’
Rauwenna rose and thanked her sister. She set Hirgul upon the ground and Dayamuna knelt to embrace him. Then, as they walked together, Dayamuna caught sight of the purple marks on Rauwenna’s neck where it joined the shoulder.
‘The evil Yoke! We can free you from the Yoke of Negobith! For we have learnt some of the virtues of Sporni, the ancient heirloom of our house that has never been used since the days of our foremother Videmána, granddaughter of Vidnî, Queen of Hope!’
At this, Rauwenna was momentarily confounded; and she hesitated. But she knew that reluctance would undermine her pretended remorse. So she covered her confusion with a show of surprise that this remedy had been discovered, and added a plausible murmur of compliance.
So when they came into the hall of the Queen’s House, Dayamuna called for Sporni to be brought, and she took him from the casket. Rauwenna bared her shoulders and her sister lightly touched them with the crystal. To everyone’s astonishment, Rauwenna screamed aloud and fell to the floor in a swoon. She lay there pale, hardly breathing. Everyone was greatly alarmed. Attendants carried her to her former chamber where she was put to bed still unconscious.
All night Dayamuna watched by her sister’s bedside. In the morning, when Rauwenna finally awoke, the marks of the Yoke were gone, but she was weak and listless. Hirgul was brought to her from his cradle nearby, but she had not the strength to lift him to herself.
And so she continued. Healers came, but none could interpret the ailment. Remedies were tried, but she grew no stronger. Rather she grew weaker, her eyes sunken, her limbs emaciated. Dayamuna sought to touch her with Sporni, but she cried out in fear and shrank away.
One morning they found her in her bed, lifeless. There was a quill in her hand, an inkhorn upon the nearby table, and a scrap of parchment that had fallen to the floor. Upon it she had begun to write:
‘My confession. I, Rauwenna, have not told all the truth. My child is destined to be…’
And this was all.
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