Devan Chronicles Series: Books 1-3 (115 page)

Bothmar read the message quickly then opened the other; Vexin watched his eyebrows climb.

“Hundreds of wagons of loot were taken during the sack. Methrym and the ex-slaves are camped at Nelek—he has taken the liberty of supplying food and clothing paid for from the loot. It only comes to a few thousand golds or so.”

“That’s fine,” he said, well pleased with Methrym’s foresight. Already these people were in his debt. “These new peasants are to be my new borderers… heavily armed borderers I might add.”

“Is that wise?” Keppel said. “Arming peasants will have the lords howling.”

Vexin shrugged fully aware of the potential problems. “If it strengthens the empire it is good, if it weakens the empire it is bad. Arming these people on my border strengthens it and me. If it weakens the lords somewhat, so much the better!”

Keppel looked sceptical but Vexin was determined to carry this through to completion. One of the reasons that Deva had survived so many struggles, was that a peasant was free to join a lord’s guard and be trained almost as if they were kinsmen. That gave Deva unbeatable numbers when they needed them. Besides, Deva’s lords were still in power. If Keppel was right, wouldn’t the peasants have taken control before now?

Bothmar was engrossed in the scrolls, but he surfaced long enough to give his emperor another morsel. “Lord Nelek has your goods under seal, my emperor. One of these scrolls is an offer to market the whole lot for ten percent of the value. I would suggest…
strongly suggest
that you not accept.”

Vexin was already willing to accept Bothmar’s suggestion. When Bothmar said he strongly suggested something though, he knew he had better look closely before making a firm decision.

“Oh, and why is that, Bothmar?”

“Because three of the wagons carried coin already. Nelek must know this.”

“How much?”

“A little more than a two million golds my emperor—in each wagon that is. Six million golds and the other items will bring twice that. The wagons carrying the silk will sell for another two million I shouldn’t wonder.”

“How…” he croaked and then cleared his throat. “How much would you estimate altogether?”

Bothmar shrugged and began adding in his head. “We won’t get top price, my emperor, not unless you trickle it into the market place. The gems alone—perhaps three million or so. All together at top price, twenty… twenty-five million, but if we dump it all at once barely seventeen million I shouldn’t wonder, possibly less.”

Barely!

Seventeen million golds… he was flaming
rich!
He calmed his thoughts. He was already much richer in property than seventeen million golds, but he had never had seventeen million in
spare
gold at one time.

Seventeen million spare golds!

He could do…
things!
He could build roads, and libraries, and schools, and ships… and… and
armies!
By the God, Tanjung was about to become the power it was meant to be!

* * *

17 ~ Pretty Boys

Sergeant Burke led Julia silently through the palace. His eyes scrutinised every alcove and doorway for threat to his charge, while Alvin did similarly from the rear of their party.

“Here you are, lady,” Burke said.

“Thank you Burke, you too Alvin. I’ll be much happier when we can leave for home. I’m sure you have better things to do than follow me about.”

Burke and Alvin shook their heads vigorously. “No, Lady. Our first duty is to protect our Lord and Lady. By the Lord’s order, that means protecting you first from all harm.”

She laughed. She knew he would say that, just as Udall always did…
had
done. With that thought, her laughter died.

“I want you to be careful,
very
careful. Udall… poor Udall didn’t have a chance to save himself. I want you to take every precaution you can think of.
Every
precaution.”

Alvin shook his head denying her words. “He died protecting you. For that we honour him, Lady. There can be no higher honour than dying to protect you,” he said seriously, but he was young yet.

She didn’t laugh at the boy. Alvin was serious. She hadn’t expected the nod from Burke though; she’d thought he had more sense.

“Well I… thank you,” she said flustered.

Burke and Alvin grinned at her embarrassment. They waited for her to enter the women’s quarter before leaving. She nodded to Elise and continued on, hearing it boom shut behind her like the door to a prison cell. It did feel like a prison to her. At home in Athione, the women’s quarter had a different feel to it. It was somehow lighter, though the corridors were dimly lit. Athione left a person with no doubts it was a fortress built for war, but she felt happy there and not at all out of place. She did feel that way in the palace. Here, people knew her only from stories retold of her actions last year, and they were afraid. Her reputation had more than a few people scurrying from her path when she walked through the palace. The scowl she often wore made it worse, she knew, but she couldn’t help it sometimes. The wall she had cultivated to keep people at a distance back in England, had long since eroded to nothing. It still surprised her how much it hurt when a mother snatched a child from her path in fear of what the ferocious sorceress might do.

Julia nodded at the ever-present guardsmen standing either side of her door. Halbert and Moriz were old hands at being bodyguards; they had often shadowed Keverin when he was younger. They were good with their swords even now, but they were getting on a bit for a guardsman’s life. She wouldn’t hurt their feelings by offering to have chairs brought out for them, but it made her uncomfortable to ignore them.

“How’s the arm today, Halbert?”

“Fine, Lady, thank you. It was right nice of you to fix it up for me—might have missed duty else.”

“Glad to help. I like healing people, it makes me feel useful. No doubt Moriz here will be more careful with that scythe he calls a sword from now on!”

Halbert grinned at the spluttering coming from Moriz.

“There’s nothing wrong with this blade, Lady,” Moriz said stoutly and patting the weapon affectionately. “I’ve ridden to battle many a time with Lord Keverin and his father afore him. This here blade has saved me more than once. It’s better than those tiny things the youngsters are carrying these days!”

“I wish we were home,” Julia said wistfully. “I wonder if Adara has her first tooth yet. What do you think?” She winked at Halbert who rolled his eyes. Adara was Moriz’ great granddaughter. He doted on all his family, but his second born granddaughter was special in his eyes.

A dreamy look came over Moriz’ face as he imagined the baby safe in her crib. “I would hear her even here, Lady!”

Julia laughed. “You might at that!”

Still laughing, she entered her room closing the door behind her. Both men were acutely uncomfortable being in the women’s quarter of the palace, but she refused to sympathise with them too much. She had put up with the nonsense of bodyguards for almost two years now. They deserved being uncomfortable after dogging her heels around Devarr all yesterday. She chuckled remembering their aggrieved comments about aching feet as she aimlessly walked around the city sightseeing.

Julia wandered through her empty rooms trying to find something to do. She could have a bath and change her dress for dinner, but no, Jessica had reminded her not long ago that Kev wouldn’t be there. He was still trying to persuade Ascol’s allies to break with him. She could help Lucius with his experiments… only she didn’t know a fraction of what was necessary to help. She had raw strength and little else. She could maybe visit Lysara and Ahnao, but they would be with the others, and she wasn’t very popular with many of the lord’s consorts. Besides, she didn’t know any gossip, and half what they thought funny made no sense to her.

She stopped before the open windows and watched the guardsmen pacing the palace wall. She wished Keverin would come by. He had stayed away every night of their stay. He said it wouldn’t be proper for him to spend the night with her. She knew he was right, but it didn’t make her feel any better. She wanted to be with him day and night and never let him out of her sight, but she wasn’t getting her way. Deva could be prudish about some things. A lord could dally with a peasant woman, but marrying one was shocking. Jihan was still receiving strange looks for marrying Ahnao, but he ignored them. A Lord Protector could do that. He had six thousand guardsmen who said he could! Another thing was sex outside of marriage. Again, a double standard reared its head. Lords received a boys will be boys attitude, but noble ladies… well, even a hint of that kind of thing would be a major scandal, which meant she had slept alone for well over a year! Ahnao’s pregnancy only reminded her of her own lack of intimacy.

It was infuriating! She wasn’t even a real noble, but Keverin said she was, her guardsmen knew beyond doubt that she was, so that was that as far as they were concerned. She was trapped by people’s expectations.

With nothing to do, she settled herself to read a book she had borrowed from Jessica. Poetry was not to her taste, but she could hardly turn on the radio and listen to music. At home, she would use her spare time working on her gymnastics. She still trained. She was determined not to lose her ability without a fight, but it was a more relaxed kind of training—more for enjoyment and fitness than anything. She had discussed adding a new event to next year’s tournament with Jessica, and she had loved the idea. Julia wondered what Keverin would say when he heard that she wanted to train others in gymnastics? She had a feeling he wouldn’t like the idea. He’d nearly had apoplexy when he first saw her in a leotard.

She settled down and tried to concentrate on her book, but after reading the same paragraph twice, and still not remembering its content, she gave it up as a bad job. She rubbed chilled arms and gestured at the logs in the fireplace. It took only a little magic to create a nice blaze. The evenings could be chilly here.

There came a tap on her door and it opened to admit Gideon. He was in a dither. He was wringing his hands fit to twist them off, and his face showed a deep worry.

“I have terrible news. A Red Guard captain informs me the Holy Father has taken ill. Will you come?”

“Of course I’ll come!” Julia said and snatched up her cloak.

Gideon helped her with the brooch that fastened her cloak, and then hurried to follow her. She collected her guardsmen and rushed through the halls with the cloak billowing behind her.

“Dugan must be frantic,” she said.

Gideon puffed along beside her, but when she made to slow her pace, he urged her on. “The captain made no mention, Lady, but I imagine you’re right. Dugan loves the Holy Father—we all do.”

Julia wouldn’t say that she loved the old man, respected him certainly, liked… maybe, but not loved. To her the Holy Father seemed too preoccupied with inconsequential matters, such as why Malcor town didn’t have three chapels instead of two larger ones. What difference to the world did that make? Still, she didn’t have to love someone to offer them her skills. She would heal a sorcerer if asked, she had once, and Lucius had become a good friend.

They left the palace proper and entered the grounds in a whirl. Startled people jumped out of her way as they realised who she was. Halbert and Moriz, with heads swinging side-to-side, kept the people back. A large contingent of Red Guards stood uneasily watching her sweep toward them. There were twelve men with halberds and a thirteenth in front wearing a gold sash of rank. Julia frowned at the slovenly soldiers at the captain’s back. Her guardsmen always looked professional. Whether standing at their ease or fighting a battle, they looked ready for whatever might come. These men looked nothing like her guardsmen, which Moriz and Halbert had noted.

“Look at them pretty boys, Moriz,” Halbert whispered. “Have you ever seen worse?”

Moriz grunted he hadn’t. “Keep your eyes moving. They ain’t gonna be worth shit in a fight!”

Julia tuned out their conversation. The captain was a big man, but surely they could have found him a uniform that fit better than this. The red tunic was fairly bursting at the seams where the his belly stressed the material. He wasn’t wearing the shiny breastplate the others wore either. Maybe they couldn’t find enough metal to cover that belly. He was sweating and breathing heavily, he must have been marching at the double.

“What news of the Holy Father?”

“Captain Kell, Lady, at your service,” he said and performed an awkward bow. “He be dying they say.”

Julia blinked in surprise. She had never heard the peasant twang from an officer before. Even Brian, a newly minted captain, was losing his as greater contact and speech with Keverin rubbed off on him. The Red Guard must be different from other guard companies, less…
prejudiced
was too strong a word, but they were obviously less concerned with class. That was all to the good to her way of thinking.

“As bad as that?” she asked. “What’s wrong with him?”

“I… I’m not sure, Lady. You should come and see.”

“Well, if you don’t know then you don’t. Have you horses ready?”

“Er no, Lady… we marched.”

Halbert and Moriz snickered but she ignored them. “All right we can—”

“Can I come, Lady?” Lorcan said panting as he ran to catch her.

“I don’t—”

“We’re only supposed to bring you and the priest, Lady,” Captain Kell said.

“You can come, Lorcan,” she said smiling, and totally ignoring the captain’s squawk. “We had better leave for the ferry…
now, Captain!
” she said firmly brooking no argument.

Kell nodded jerkily, and with more confusion from his men and more snorts of laughter from Moriz, they turned about and marched out the gate. Julia shook her head at Halbert and Moriz. They were smirking and pointing at this or that Red Guard’s attempt at a proper marching formation like children at a funfair.

Captain Kell and his men led the way through the darkening streets. Julia muttered to herself about the dark and how there was nothing to be scared about. She had always feared the dark. Back in England she would usually carry a torch with her, but here she had nothing… she realised she did have something better than a torch—she had magic! Her preoccupation with ways and means of producing light without fire caused her downfall. She wasn’t ready when dark robed forms glowing for all they were worth suddenly surrounded her group. She snatched at her magic, but it was too late—far too late for her friends.