The earls and baron having been ushered in, I waited. Honorifics completed, I waited. Three n staring at . Enough. “Ok, gentlen, who have you decided will be duke?”
“Begging your pardon, my lady,” said one man, “this feels rushed.”
“And your na?”
“Baron Cambert, ma’am.”
“It is rushed. If you’ve chosen, you’ll be rid of sooner. I have a castle to retake.”
Cambert, the man beside him, both turned toward the older man sitting across from them. The man who’d t this body when it was five. Good. He was calm and poised and seed to have common sense about him.
“I see. And your na, sir?”
“Treleal, my lady.”
“Earl Treleal?”
“That’s correct.”
“Earl Treleal, do you promise to protect the kingdom, honor its laws, and safeguard the weak?” I didn’t bother with the sword. With ritual.
He tilted his head, a puzzled expression on his face, “I do.”
“Excellent. You are now Duke Treleal. The duchy is yours.”
“It will be my pleasure to serve Your Royal Highness.”
I turned my attention to the other two, whom I now just wanted gone, “Fantastic. Baron Cambert and Earl . . . ?”
“Kalart, ma’am.”
“Earl Kalart and Baron Cambert, thank you for conveying this council and choosing your new duke. When can my army receive its levy of soldiers from you?”
“I apologize,” the earl said, nearly mumbling, “but it will take weeks to organize. I’m told, we’ve been inford, that your army will take only horses? No wagons?”
“Pack animals, my lord. And horses. No wagons, no personal camp followers. Only one servant for every six n.” They were about to interject, but I held up my hand, “Mostly the servants will take care of the baggage, al preparation. This is a professional army, not a trip to, not a camping trip.” I was about to say, trip to Disneyland, but that wouldn’t have gotten my point across.
“Excuse , that will take weeks to prepare.”
“You have until tomorrow.”
“It can’t be done! We need to round up horses, mules, dry rations the weapons your army stripped of us . . .”
“Ah, my lord, that you can create a list so quickly in your mind is excellent and demonstrative,” I said, smiling at him. “It’s clear you are a capable earl. Now, if you’ll excuse the duke and I to have a discussion, you can go about preparing for the campaign.”
“I’m telling you an army cannot be organized on such short notice! Only the cavalry could prepare for such an excursion.”
“Wonderful. I’ll take only your cavalries then. Thank you for the suggestion.”
The other man, the baron, stood up, “My lady, I, uhm, feel like a little more ti would help us prepare, would help your campaign be more effective . . .”
“I’m sorry, you don’t have it. Look, the sooner we leave, the sooner my army is no longer in the Barclay, excuse , Treleal Duchy. And the sooner you can get this village back to normal.” They looked about to protest again, so I nodded at the guards, who opened the door and looked expectantly at the lords, and said, “No more protests. Thank you. If you don’t mind, I’d like to talk to the duke alone now.”
They left, with just a touch of pouting and sulking and that was that. Guess my cavalry force just tripled in size.
I sat down and gave my attention to the new duke.
He said, before I could speak, “About hostages, Your Highness, I think it best-”
“Listen, I didn’t want to co here. I didn’t want to destroy the Barclay family, didn’t want my friend Sapphire to die, and I did not want to hang children. I know, probably every conqueror says these things. But I’m sorry. And angry. All these things I did not want, they ca to pass because of greed. Everyone wants my kingdom and so many people keep trying to kill .
“And I keep trusting the wrong people.
“So, no, I don’t want to take your children as hostages and yes, I want to trust you, but I just can’t. This is the strongest duchy in the kingdom, my kingdom, and if I just naively trust you, like I’ve been doing up until this point, you’ll take power, rebel, think you can take the kingdom and, well, that’ll be more war.”
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“Princess Cayce, may I?”
“Yes,” I felt embarrassed for having rambled on, “sorry, you have an answer?”
“I’ll co with you. I can be your hostage. Myself and, ah, given the ti constraints, my cavalry. I implore you to allow my wife and daughter to remain here. My children are young adults. Too old to be effective hostages, but my sons can co with us as officers in the army. I trust my wife. She will rule justly in my absence.”
“You are to be my hostage, my lord?” I didn’t know how to take that. I guess it could work. “Your sons and soldiers will be under Brundle’s command. Uh, I don’t know-”
“It’ll be easier, my lady, if I am also under your general’s command. I understand that.” He had a slightly depreciative smile on his face. The kind you’d give a police officer who asked you how your day was going after pulling you over.
“Excellent. We’re leaving post-haste. If you’ll coordinate with General Brundle, that’d be great. And, Duke Treleal, please don’t make bring my army back here.”
As he turned to leave, I realized I had one last question. “Wait, sorry, can you tell who it was who stayed behind at the duchy, just before the battle was to take place?” I’d forgotten to ask that when we were holding the first eting and now worried I’d chosen the man who’d stayed behind, the kind of man Brundle recomnded against.
“That was Earl Kalart, ma’am.”
“Ah. Excellent. Thank you.”
That was the eting, and he left, with plenty of stuff to get done in one day. I rely sat and stared at the wall wondering what the hell I was doing.
Did Alexander have etings like this? He certainly threatened aristocrats, leaders, the elite, into doing his bidding. He slayed those who gave him excuses or tried to argue with him. He sold entire cities into slavery when they refused to surrender. So far, I’m up one point on the threatening chart. Alex is definitely ahead in points.
But he’s long dead. Maybe I’ll catch up.
***
Again I returned to my own apartnts, to eat, drink and be mopey. Didn’t want to get nasty looks from all of Saph’s friends, the kids’ babysitters. At least my n were cooking. I didn’t have to worry about poison. Although, now would be a fine ti to test out whether I’m immune to poison. As good as any ti!
Deep, gravelly voice as I entered, “How’d exalting the new duke go?”
“Morry!”
“That bad?”
“What? Oh, no, not that bad.”
“That was a joke, Princess.”
“I am slow.”
“It’s ok.”
I grabbed a jug, sat across from him, “I owe you an apology. And a thank you.”
“No, you don’t, Princess.”
“Yes,” pouring him a mug, setting it down in front of him, “I do. I took out all my anger on you, and I shouldn’t have. Brundle told . You had nothing to do with it.”
“If I had, I’d have hanged them all the sa.”
“I don’t want to discuss that part of it.”
“I thought you died, Princess.” There was a slight quiver to his hand as he picked up his mug, “I’d . . . I would have torn them all apart myself if you had. You did, you know.”
“What? I did what?”
“You died. Your heart stopped. It took Reese an hour to bring you back.”
“An hour? That’s not possible. No one survives that long without a heartbeat.” Not even where I ca from.
“I wouldn’t let her leave the room. She collapsed when you sent her out.”
“Holy shit. I owe her an apology.”
“As do I, Princess, as do I.”
“An hour. I must have had a heartbeat. There’s no way.”
“I think maybe Bechalle was right. I think perhaps you are a god.”
I shook my head, “Don’t be silly. A god wouldn’t get stabbed.”
“Or a god would get stabbed but not die.”
I drank the rest of my mug, poured myself another. Offered him so. He did the sa, I filled his cup. “A deity, huh? Morry . . . sothing is growing within . Sothing terrifying. I . . .”
Moving to the edge of his seat, he took my left hand in his, “Princess, is this what you were going to discuss with before . . . what is it?”
“Last night. I was so upset, so hurt. I let the power take over. Wanted to, it felt . . . unstoppable. I almost destroyed the entire castle. I was going to.”
He sat back, “I’m glad you didn’t.”
“I felt the sa on the battlefield. Right at the end. We’d won, do you rember?”
“Oh yes. Not a battle I’ll be forgetting.” He shook his head, “that armor.”
“The ravens and crows, they all cawed at the sa ti. Such incredible noise.”
“Huh. Yeah. I’d thought sothing frightened them.”
“I could barely contain it then. The energy, I needed to free it, let it burst forth, the raw power.”
He tilted his head, “Where you were standing, a clump of grasses and herbs in a barren field.”
“Yeah. They sort of grew quickly wherever I touched.”
“Maybe you are the god of plants.”
I gave him a glare. “No.”
“The god of crows?”
“That doesn’t feel right. Maybe they’re the god of .”
He laughed and sat back. “Princess, you’re probably just . . . Ah, you know. That and becoming a mage. A wizardess. It’s all new and powerful to you, you’re mistaking it for divinity.”
“I know what?”
“A young woman. You’re a girl becoming a woman.”
My eyebrow raised on its own accord.
“Sotis, I’ve heard, well, I’ve seen it. A boy or girl will hit that age, teenager, start growing and then destroy their house. Or hurt their family. It’s often tragic. Mages always show up and take the sobbing kids away. Don’t know what happens to them. I’ve never seen one return.”
“Damn. Why wouldn’t Etienne warn of this?”
“You’re wearing perseidian iron all the ti. And he’s teaching you to control it.”
“He’s trusting .” Morry pointed his cup at in agreent. I lowered my gaze. “The iron doesn’t really work on anymore. I an, I did take the jewelry off. Last night, but . . . here.” I opened my palm and fire danced upon it. I made it burn high, straight to the ceiling, then snapped my hand shut, extinguishing the power. “Mages cannot do this.”
His voice took a serious tone. “I think you’d know if you were a god.”
“Yeah.”
“Princess, when training new recruits, young n or boys. They all think they know what to do in a fight. But fights never go as planned. Never. The other guy, he wants to beat you as much or more than you want to beat him. Never less. The first ti those boys get into it, get tossed and pinned if wrestling or stabbed if battling, nothing but surprise on their face.”
“Ok, yeah.”
“I’m saying, you’ve seen what mages can do. People like , I’m not so much as an afterthought to them. In a fight.”
“Ah. The power I feel, you’re saying it might be normal . . . for them?”
“Or less than they have. You don’t know. You don’t have anything to compare it to. You’ve yet to fight a magical fight.”
“Damnit, Morry. I think you nailed it.” I lifted my cup up to him, smiled, finished it off again in one go like the budding drunk I was and repoured.
“Don’t fight them thinking you’ll best them. The boys, they never win their first real fights. You have to lose many, many tis before you know-”
“How to win?”
He shook his head, “Why you’re losing. Don’t fight a mage, Princess. Don’t do it.”
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