Chapter 11: Strange Alliances

Joseph let out a long breath and placed his sword on the ground before standing to his full height. He had no sooner arisen than a second voice came to his ears.

“I would suspect things will go better for you with him if you refer to him as the king,” a voice spoke. “And they certainly will go better for you with me if you follow your own advice. Put the crossbow down and I won’t put a bolt between your shoulder blades.”

Joseph hazarded a look over his shoulder and saw a bedraggled man with a beard almost to his chest holding a crossbow pointed at his back. The man had somehow managed to sneak up on Joseph and the king didn’t like that fact one bit.

Rucar of Dunvil also looked over his shoulder. He saw a small woman, perhaps a child, dressed in buckskins. She held a crossbow in her hands and it was evident that she was proficient with the weapon. Her hands didn’t waver and her eyes were locked on her target.

“I thought I told you to stay in camp,” Joseph said.

“You told the men to stay in camp,” Julia replied, her eyes never leaving Rucar’s form. “You said nothing about women.”

“I suppose I will have to be clearer in the future,” Joseph said drolly.

“So you are the great King Wilhelm,” Rucar spat. “I see you have enlisted children to do your dirty work. I’m quite surprised that you decided to see to me yourself.”

“King Wilhelm has been dead for almost two years,” Joseph told him.

“Ah, King Martis, then,” Rucar said. “I’m sure you’re no better.”

“Martis was dead even before Wilhelm,” Joseph informed the man.

“Put your crossbow down or you won’t live long enough to hear the rest!” Julia said firmly. “I am not a child and I will kill you just as I killed six Creighton soldiers not three months ago. Do you wish to die with a bolt in your back or will you die like a man?”

“I don’t think there is any reason for anyone to die,” Joseph cut in. “I have placed my sword on the ground. Julia, I wish for you to lower your crossbow. I am not here to harm Rucar. I have ordered your band treated with compassion when they were captured in the trees beside our camp.”

“Ha!” Rucar exclaimed. “I will never trust the word of a nobleman again.”

“A good plan, on its face,” Joseph agreed. “I rarely trust them either unless I can verify it firsthand. I have always believed that trust is what cost my parents their lives.”

Joseph, unarmed, turned around to face Rucar. He saw Julia’s crossbow sticking out from behind a tree. She was safe from any danger. It would take a miraculous shot from Rucar to strike the scant portions of her body that were visible.

“Who are you?” Rucar inquired. “You say Wilhelm and Martis are dead. Did someone invade Azkoval?”

“Of a sort,” Joseph said.

“No more answers until he is unarmed,” Julia insisted loudly. “The King is the sort to banter with you but I will kill you without hesitation and claim the reward before you are cold.”

“I asked you to put your crossbow down,” Joseph pointed out.

“And I decided it was a stupid request,” Julia countered. “Mine goes down after his does. He got the jump on you so you yielded first. I got the jump on him so he yields next.”

Joseph shook his head and looked to the sky before his gaze landed on Rucar.

“It seems she makes sense in a convoluted sort of way,” he said in a helpless tone. “It is why I wished to leave the rest of them away from things but there are some you are powerless to control. What say you, Rucar? I have put my sword aside and Julia could have already killed you – and me – ten times over. All I have is my word that you will come to no harm from me – or from Julia if can help it. I wish to explain some things to you and to discuss your options with you. Does that sound reasonable?”

“I still don’t know who you are,” Rucar stated.

“I am King Joseph, son of Welton and Melina,” Joseph told him. “The woman at your back is Julia Trimble, niece of the late Lord Trimble through his youngest sister. Her sister might be somewhere in the forest but I doubt it. Victoria seems to actually pay attention to me when I speak. This one?”

Joseph shrugged.

“Well, to be honest, I am not sure she listens to anyone, least of all me,” he continued. “Oh, and by the way, Julia, there is no reward for Rucar’s death or capture. I rescinded that order when I overturned the rest of Wilhelm’s edicts. So you will have to get by on the gold I gave you as part of my army.”

Joseph gently reached into his tunic and pulled out a sheet of parchment. He stood the length of two men from Rucar but he held out his hand with the document for the man to inspect.

“I don’t read,” Rucar admitted. He jumped when Julia spoke from his shoulder. He felt the point of a dagger between his shoulders. She had somehow managed to sneak up on him again, covering the distance while his attention was distracted.

“Down with the crossbow,” she said.

Rucar nodded. He knew he was as good as dead either way. If the man was lying, he would be hung. If he tried to fire or flee, the young woman would kill him where he stood. He lowered the crossbow as his mind determined what came next. He would take a step backward, hoping to knock the young woman off balance with his weight. Then he would swing an elbow at her head and flee before the man in front of him could pick up his sword. Rucar determined that his life was worth the loss of a crossbow and a flesh wound from the dagger.

When he stepped backward, he found himself falling. His descent stopped only when he landed hard on his back on the forest floor. The woman had dropped to her hands and knees and tripped him, he decided. Before another thought could reach his brain, the woman was on her feet with the crossbow leveled at his chest and the man, sword in hand, was beside her.

“Did you really think I would fall for that?” Julia asked. “He might have but not me. You must be daft!”

She gestured to Joseph with her head but the crossbow didn’t waver.

The king let out another long breath.

“You see what I mean about how powerless I am around some people?” he asked as he put his sword away. “I always thought being king meant people would blindly follow my will. It appears that we are equally stupid, Rucar.”

Joseph used one hand to push Julia’s crossbow toward the ground and the other to help Rucar to his feet.

“Come, let us sit and talk,” Joseph told the man. “I will read the parchment to you or if you prefer, Julia will read it – assuming I can convince her to put away her weapons for a moment.”

“You should count yourself lucky that I have determined that King Joseph wants you alive,” Julia told Rucar. “Otherwise I would have cut out your kidney when you tried your little stunt.”

“Yes, yes, you are the best among us,” Joseph said with a smile and a shake of his head. “I must admit, Julia does have a way of making sure I remain humble.”

Rucar looked from the young king to the young woman who stood at his elbow. His gaze stayed on Julia for a long moment as the king handed her the parchment. She opened it and read the words before she lifted her gaze to the king. An incredulous look etched her fine features.

“But you said...” she began. The king lifted an eyebrow at her and nodded again to the paper.

“Aloud, if you please,” Joseph instructed.

Julia nodded. Any retort that might have come to her lips died in her brain when she saw the look on Joseph’s face. She could not understand why she felt so uneasy when his eyes were fixed on hers.

“I, King Joseph of Azkoval, son of Welton and Melina, do decree this day that Rucar of Dunvil and those acting at his command are pardoned for any crimes, real or imagined, committed against the Kingdom of Azkoval or its gentry,” Julia read. She lifted her eyes to see Rucar standing with his mouth open.

“Rucar and those under his orders are permanently enjoined from trial for any actions committed prior to the personal issuance of this proclamation to the aforementioned citizens,” she continued. “No restitution, amends nor compensation may be sought from Rucar or those who acted under his orders. Signed under my hand this date.”

She stopped and looked at Joseph.

“He signed it before he left the capital,” Julia informed Rucar.

“You will note that I did not pardon you from any crime you might have committed against the common citizen,” Joseph pointed out.

“I have no need of a pardon for those actions,” Rucar said, the color gone from his face, “for I have committed no grievance against anyone but landholders.”

“I suspected as much,” Joseph replied. “Just as I suspected I would run into you on my journey. Julia, would you please leave us and return to camp?”

“Your Highness!” Julia began her protest. As before, the words stopped when she saw Joseph’s look. She let out a long breath and nodded. “Of course, Your Highness.”

Joseph scoffed and shook his head.

“Of course,” he muttered to Rucar. “I would make it an order but then I would have to kill her when she disobeyed.”

Julia was frowning at him when he turned back.

“There are things I need to discuss privately with Rucar,” Joseph told her in a gentler voice. “I appreciate the lengths you go to to see to my well-being but I am certain Rucar will give you his word that I am safe in his company. The remainder of his force is being fed and sheltered in our camps. Please, Julia, do as I ask just this once.”

“It will be as you say,” Julia agreed. “Rucar, if this is our only meeting, it was a pleasure to greet the man who kept my father on edge for almost a decade. I have invoked your name any time I wished to strike terror into his heart and for that I am eternally grateful to you. Please do not waste the chance at redemption our king has given to you. I would dearly hate to be the one who is forced to track you down and kill you.”

She turned and departed back into the trees as Joseph sat down on a fallen log and gestured for Rucar to join him.

“Your betrothed reminds me of my departed wife,” the older man said when he was settled.

“Betrothed?” Joseph asked, eyes wide. “Do you think I am mad?”

“That remains to be seen,” Rucar told him, smiling for what might have been the first time in a year. “If you are not betrothed to her it will not be long, I think. I have seen many weddings during my time in the forest. Many of the courtships started similarly. Your interactions are no different than a young girl throwing a stone at a young man she fancies.”

“Gods in Heaven,” Joseph said. “I will pray that you are wrong. Interaction with females is one portion of my education that is sorely lacking, I suppose. I will burn that bridge when I come to it.”

Rucar smiled again at the look of distress on the young king’s face.

“What do you wish to discuss with me, Your Highness?” Rucar wondered, surprised at how easy the words had come to his lips. He had vowed he would abide no king or lord again and now he sat down next to one. He pondered the impossibility of the situation if he had still been a poor forester in Dunvil. All in all, he would trade a chance meeting with the monarch to have his wife and child back.

“First, I hope the past few months haven’t been too great an imposition for you and your group,” Joseph said. “The men and women I saw in the trees looked as though they have seen far rougher times than I intended and for that I apologize.”

“Intended?” Rucar asked.

Joseph looked abashed.

“When I set my schedule for dealing with Lord Wellington – who is Julia’s father, by the way – I put together a plan to deal with you at the same time,” Joseph told him. “For the past year, I have herded your group here. Well, that’s not entirely true. I herded your group in this direction. The lands about a quarter day’s walk from here are filled with game. You could have eaten as much as you wanted for the next several months. I had expected to see your sentries there. As I came through the country prior to reclaiming the throne for my family, I heard tales of you about three weeks northeast of here. I will admit that I didn’t know who you were at the time but those who remained in Azkoval filled me in.

“I have had my people rid the game lands of but the barest of animals. I knew you would continue to travel until you found somewhere you could stay and I decided that it would be at the forest south of here. I believed I had left enough forage for your people but it appears I was incorrect. I truly hope that you have not seen significant hardship because of my actions.”

“It wasn’t your actions,” Rucar replied. “One of the men in my band decided to steal all the food we had stored before he fled. If not for his treachery we would have been well fed. As it is, it has only hindered us for the past few weeks. We planned to head farther south with the next rain. We travel mostly at night and during periods when few people are likely to be out. You are seeing to those who were with me?”

“They are being provided for,” Joseph told him as he removed some dried venison from his vest and held it out to the man along with a flask of water. “They are my people, too.”

Rucar looked at the venison hungrily but made no move to reach for it.

“I will not hand feed you,” Joseph said, chuckling slightly. “I also will not poison you. If I wanted you dead, well, I suppose I would have let Julia attend to the matter. I am sure you noticed the large army that passed through here a week or so ago. Those were my men. I have 30 more with me at camp. If you are hungry, please help yourself. My story will take some time.”

“Thank you, Your Highness,” Rucar replied as he took the meat and chewed it greedily. He had subsisted on roots and plants for the past two weeks, leaving what little meat remained for those in poorer health.

“We are not that different,” Joseph pointed out as the man washed down his food with a drink from the flask. The statement caused Rucar to choke slightly.

“It’s true,” Joseph continued. “Certainly our parents had vastly different backgrounds but you and I do not. My entire family was killed by the same men who killed yours. I raised a group of men and trained them in warfare so one day I could have my revenge, just as you have. I lived on the march for almost four years before I came back to Azkoval to take what is mine. I have done what I thought was right most of the time but there have been times I knew I was doing the wrong thing but did it anyway because those who followed me counted on me. If you are honest, you’ve lived the same life as I did for many years.”

Rucar considered the king’s words before nodding slightly.

“Just as the time came for me to change how I was living, now is the chance for you to change your circumstances, as well,” Joseph continued. “In one way, I was far more fortunate than you. I was a child and children are resilient. How much did you hear about the coup that killed my family?”

“Not a great deal,” Rucar answered after he swallowed more water. “I heard that King Welton and Queen Melina had been killed. We heard later that you had died at the same time.”

“The first was true but the second, obviously, false,” Joseph noted. “My father and mother were in a meeting with the chamberlain when a young priest burst into the castle to warn them of what Bishop Drell and Wilhelm were plotting. Sadly, he arrived just before the conspirators and their men. The castle guards held the palace long enough for me to hide with the cleric who sounded the alarm – the man that Wilhelm claimed committed the atrocities on my family. I watched my father murdered and my mother degraded. As Wilhelm and Drell searched the castle for me, the priest secreted me away though a hidden passage in my father’s office.

“We fled Tyrell with most of the treasury. That is why Wilhelm had such hard times. We left them almost no coin. It took them several days to force the vaults in the basement of the castle. By that time, the minister had removed thousands of gold coins and the entire stock of valuable gems. He sent some of the trusted staff to the ship where I was hidden. We waited for him but he was killed as he sent the last of the treasure away. The man he had kept behind managed to escape and we set sail for Denaya.”

Joseph’s slight chuckle brought Rucar from his musings.

“I understand that Wilhelm had already pegged a rogue priest as the scapegoat and he couldn’t very well tell the country that the man who had killed the king in a fit of rage had somehow managed to remove the entire treasury beforehand,” Joseph continued. “I lived in a fishing village in Denaya for five years. Sadly, we might as well have hidden the gold in a cave near the coast for all the good it did me. The man who rescued me took his vows of poverty, charity and obedience to heart. We found a small house on the coast and buried the money beneath the floor. In a month I went from being a prince to wearing blisters on my hands from digging a hiding place for all that we had taken with us. That treasure was never touched until it returned to Azkoval after I had assumed the throne.”