Chapter 3

Excerpt from an Eastern Alliance wormhole drone’s final transmission from Haven: “Back up your wagon or I will hose you.”

-The Search for the Lost Prince: Chapter 21 Discovering A.I. Humor

I woke to find Aberdeen lying almost on top of me, all cuddled up over my left shoulder. Not normally a stomach sleeper, I found it amusing to have her head buried under my arm. I blinked sticky eyes to see the view of the sea. A cloud covered the sun, hiding its warmth and its late afternoon glare. Birds circled fishing boats that had their sails up. Swift boats were returning to the beach, under a healthy breeze. Seagulls would chase after the boats all the way to shore, looking for discarded fish.

Aberdeen and I both liked the hide-a-way; it gave privacy and a memorable location for our first attempt at getting her pregnant. A bed might have been better, but the rocky overview was neutral ground and it served an emotional purpose that I felt she would appreciate. She had made no real demands of me, but I knew this was the right way to handle the odd situation. Marsh women could have multiple spouses and lovers but it was rare. Palus had even told me body-fathers were not as uncommon as I thought. I suspected it was more about sharing property. The medieval mentality wasn’t exactly pro-woman’s rights, which wasn’t surprising in a world full of slavery. Before I over analyzed our experience, Aberdeen rose up.

A frown crossed her face. “Oh, it’s you.”

“Who else would it be?”

She came fully awake and covered her mouth. “Sorry, that sounded ungrateful. You’re a skilled lover and rumors of your performance are true.”

Her tone was light but she seemed embarrassed that I wasn’t Tharin. I suspect waking up every day with your husband at your side is a normal feeling of comfort. However, gaining consciousness in front of your husband’s best friend felt more uneasy than not. Not that nakedness was a big deal to marsh women.

“Perhaps in time you’ll feel more comfortable with me.”

She hugged me and pressed her breasts against me. “Honesty compels me to explain I forgot where I was. It might sound silly but you so exhausted me that I was in a deep sleep.”

“Rock solid,” I told her. She slapped me playfully.

“Thank you for understanding. Thank you for all this,” she began.

I covered her lips with a deep kiss, which she returned. After it ended she shook her head and straightened out her tangled hair with a rake of her fingers. Aberdeen’s breasts hung in front of my eyes like ripe fruit, so I cupped them and she stopped what she was doing.

“You are like the tide. You keep on going,” Aberdeen said.

“A beautiful woman dangles her goods within reach? Of course, it affects me.”

She smirked and tested my male parts. “No, you aren’t ready.”

“It won’t be long,” I promised.

“Well that is a good thing. We need to go back and deal with the jeweler. I received the bulk of your seed. Now you need to deal with her.”

Disappointed and a bit surprised by her declaration, I stopped caressing her breasts and sighed.

“Obviously, I want the confidence of a good planting. Yet, I heard much in the council meeting and I think you need to heed Swarta and fix Usha.”

She ended the thought by turning around and dressing. She acted pretty determined, so I copied her without pushing the discussion. Aberdeen was in an elevated mood, all smiles and humming. I felt pretty satisfied myself.

We made our way back to the wooden palisade talking all the way about the latest dragon ship under construction. She surprised me with her interest. I learned Aberdeen was rather the romantic, seeing the beauty in man overcoming the vast power of the sea. She chatted about her fishermen friends and their love of the sailing boats we had created. Indeed, Aberdeen wanted to visit Convey and see the big cities there. I never suspected she was such a dreamer, yearning to travel out of sight of land. It was an insight that I tucked away for another time.

We were in the vicinity of the lathe workshop when she drew me close to her and changed the topic. “Let’s talk about the traveling jeweler.”

“Usha?” I groused, not really wanting to think about the woman.

Aberdeen smirked. “She isn’t just some random tradesman from Heraldsburg who is curious about us.”

“What are you talking about?”

“What jeweler cares about the size of the garrison at Fort Revenge? Why does a jeweler care about the growth of the villages around the coal operations?”. She waved her hand about animatedly. “These questions came up in the council meeting this morning. I was invited as a courtesy, because I’m living in your tower for the time being.”

“That is news to me.”

“She is a spy,” Aberdeen declared, after looking around to see who was about. “Hazel thinks so, at least, and Swarta agrees with her. While you were gone on your trip with Count Vee, Swarta put Hazel in charge of filtering the gossip out of the lower town.”

“Hazel loves social gossip,” I confirmed. Hazel was a bit of a schemer. She had sent her oldest daughter to Juniper Hills to find a way into my household. That plan didn’t immediately work out, so Hazel showed up with her youngest daughter to see if she could succeed where Celine hadn’t. They were both extremely social women. At first, Celine had been too young for me, and I didn’t need Hazel in my household. However, over time they grew on me and I accepted them into our clan. In the end, both Swarta and circumstances pushed me to accept the polyamorous culture of the Great Marsh.

“Privately, Palus told me that Swarta did it to help ‘focus’ Hazel, who had stirred things up too much with the tower’s handmaidens.” That made me laugh.

“I know Palus would hit you for that comment,” Aberdeen challenged good-naturedly, hitting my arm.

“I can see Hazel rooting out important gossip and enjoying spinning her web outside of the family. It’s likely she already had a lot of contacts down there.”

Aberdeen shrugged, as if “we all knew that, and it’s nothing new.”

“So, Hazel’s network of women decided Usha didn’t fit her role as a jeweler?”

“Actually, we think she really is a jeweler but not from Heraldsburg,” Aberdeen answered.

“Why not Heraldsburg?”

“The council brought Princess Wyrd into the conference, with Swarta’s magic mirror. She had never heard of her, and the king’s representative would know all the good jewelers.”

“Ah, the power of real time communications,” I commented.

We remained silent all the way to the women’s center. I spent the time considering the new information and warding off my stomach grumbles. By leaving the tower with Aberdeen I’d probably short-circuited Swarta’s plan to break the news to me. She liked to sandwich good news or good events between bad news. Swarta and Palus normally operated together like that, so playing with the children was the good news. “The bad news?” I thought.

I was going to hunt a snack down from the kitchen but Aberdeen guided me towards the concubine barracks. “Remember you need to check on the jeweler.”

Usha wouldn’t normally be my first priority, but it was best to deal with such loose ends before something else called for my attention. With the women’s residence so close to the communal kitchen it was only a few strides to the barracks. The living quarters had been expanded three times since its construction to accommodate the addition of so many children and women.

Once we were inside the building, the women present became silent. The main room was filled with empty folding chairs that formed a circle. Most of the women living in the barracks were out working; the half dozen at the back of the room were whispering outside a closed door. They individually drifted away from the room as we walked towards them. I knew it was Laudus’s office, and their behavior made it clear she was in there with Usha.

When it came to hearth and home, Laudus was the head housekeeper. She set plans and aims and then acted, knowing full well that she had Swarta’s confidence. Thus, the head concubine’s office and the women’s center was the center of her power. Laudus was the woman behind the scenes that guided the younger women. I loved Laudus and respected her for the stability she provided my homestead. Laudus was an exciting contrast of personalities. She mysteriously dominated my women, particularly the concubines, and yet was completely submissive to me and my lovers behind closed doors. No other woman made me feel more confident than Laudus.

I walked into Laudus’s office without knocking, Aberdeen followed me and closed the door. With Aberdeen’s presence we were pressed for space. Laudus stood up from behind her cluttered wooden desk and Usha followed her example, accidentally kicking back her chair into Aberdeen’s knee.

“Ouch!”

Usha turned around and looked distressed. “Sorry!”

Aberdeen waved her off but looked annoyed. She backed against the door, rubbing her knee over and over. Usha looked rough, with hunched shoulders and red rimmed eyes. A burden weighed her down.

“I was hoping you’d stop by, Von,” Laudus said stepping forward and giving me a hug. “We’re just finishing up. Usha has been forthcoming with information.”

I took the only open chair, which was next to Usha’s and sat down. “Hit the highlights for me.” Both of them sat back down. For a minute Laudus watched Aberdeen, so I suspected Aberdeen was still rubbing her knee with her butt against the door. There really wasn’t enough space to add another chair in the windowless room. Aberdeen really shouldn’t be present, but I wasn’t going to mess up the good rapport we had going. Not to mention, I knew we would be spending the night together.

“Lady Laudus showed me around the various buildings and introduced me to people. She even honored me by showing off her latest baby. It’s hard to believe he is three months old.” Usha quickly answered. I was rather surprised she spoke up.

“After that, we passed a few hours of intelligent conversation. We’re past being acquaintances now. To a strong degree we see eye-to-eye,” Laudus added. “Usha claims that among high-society, her handlers consider her a master of evasions, innuendoes, and intrigues. However, in a wilderness town she wasn’t up to the task, even when she was well.”

“So, it is true that you’re a spy,” I declared. Usha nodded promptly.

“Usha is a semi-precious stone jeweler and merchant with guards loyal to her. By the same token, she is here under the direction of the King’s Herald, chief diplomat or spymaster, if you like,” Laudus said. “but she hadn’t the opportunity to report back. Usha has worked for the king for years as a traveling tradeswoman. The Herald uses his senior tax collectors as handlers for their spy network.”

I looked at Usha harshly. In a panic she said, “It’s true! I expected easy access to ships but only the Lady of Truth and your ships travel here. My handler doesn’t know if I made it here or not.”

“The ship situation has advantages for us,” Laudus agreed. “For the average person it is harder to leave from Juniper Hills then it is to get here. Lady Derwen has a tight control of who steps foot on her ships from Convey. But you got a ride from our trade galley from Conquest Point, didn’t you?”

“That’s right, your captain charged us a steep fee since he prefers to haul cargo,” Usha confessed playing with the hem of her expensive dress.

“I gave the shipmaster a free hand to run his ship. But he runs our fish to market and normally brings trade goods back,” I explained.

“The stink of fish must have clung to your clothes,” Aberdeen added. Usha acknowledged her with a respectful nod.

“The heart of the matter is why are you here?” I inquired reaching for Usha’s hand. She accepted the touch without flinching or reservation. I felt the nanomites activating under the jeweler’s skin, her nose flared and her eyes slowly dilated.

“The king is still angry over the death of his son, the Black Prince. The Herald knows the truth but needs to feed our sovereign information about you and your people.”

“So the Amarian king’s court knows the Caldavian raiders killed him, but the king doesn’t believe it?” I pressed.

“I don’t know about the majority of the king’s court, but the herald knows the Black Prince tried to double cross the slavers,” Usha answered.

I grabbed her other hand too. “What! Explain.”

“The king’s son plotted with the raiders. He owed their war chief a huge debt. The Black Prince was a drunk and a gambler, mostly spending his time in Conquest Point. Perhaps you don’t know but many unsavory things go on in that neutral port.”

“Oh, I know.” I promised. “Slaving, whoring, gambling, the list goes on.”

“My master, the Herald, believes the Black Prince set up the attack on his half-sister’s land to gain notoriety and fame for defeating the slavers in battle.”

“That and clearing the debt by killing the war chief,” Laudus tossed in, causing Usha to momentarily pause her story.

“The king’s son promised the chief he would get rid of the general of the local troops, delay the new royal garrison’s arrival and allow the slavers a free hand to cover his gambling debts. The Herald’s agents in Conquest Point confirmed the plot when they purchased the king’s son’s severed head. The chieftain’s spies noted the absence of the training garrison’s replacements and the general’s departure for the capital, so the attack went forward. What the prince did was hire a company of experienced mercenaries to fight the chieftain in Heraldsburg. I suspect he lied to that group of hired swords too. Perhaps he gathered up a deposit for their services, with full payment promised later. The mercenaries must have equally lied about their own experience and abilities. In any event, he intended to command all the loyal forces and crush the barbarians. One of the minor nobles, a friend of the Black Prince who was in on the plot confessed and confirmed the tale to the Herald’s assassins before his death.”

“We can’t have the prince’s good name slandered to the king’s court about treason,” Laudus interjected in a jesting voice.

“True,” Usha added. “I doubt the Herald would have the stomach to share with the elderly king his knowledge on that point. Killing the count’s son was a small price to keep him from returning to the capital and spreading word of the dirty deed. He was rather handsome and had a large circle of friends.”

“It sounds like I am the scape goat for the prince’s sins.”

“Those young nobles that returned from the battle don’t know about the plot. They are claiming you didn’t follow orders and that got the prince killed,” Usha explained. “However, the Herald isn’t suppressing your fame from the accounts of the battle. The battle’s telling is a mixture of truth and slander.”

“So, I am the glory hound that won at the prince’s expense?”

“I am told that is the general slant of the court’s gossip. That is all I know, I swear.”

“The headless bastard is still screwing with my reputation.”

Aberdeen put her hands on my shoulders to calm me down. Usha nervously licked her lips. I could tell she wanted the distasteful conversation behind her. She was flushed and a bead of sweat rolled down her temple. Laudus knew me well enough to let me stew over my angry thoughts for a few minutes without sugar-coating it.

“You’re not mad at me, right?” Usha asked.

“We don’t shoot the messenger, like your king does,” Laudus answered. “As a matter of fact, you can show your new master some appreciation for your safety and renewed health. You and I talked about this earlier.”