Chapter 16: A Life in the Balance

Life in the capital had returned to a lull and but Elena was not enjoying the trappings of power as she had previously. Her worries revolved around the men she had sent down the coastal road several months earlier and those who had left for Wellington almost a year before. It had been several weeks since she heard from Drayvon and several months since Joseph or Jonathan had sent word to the capital.

She knew Drayvon and his troops were well trained but she had wanted them to move swiftly so she had sent only half a company. Now she regretted not sending half her army, not only to increase the chances of success but so she wouldn’t have to feed the rest from the meager amount left in the coffers.

Joseph had put a moratorium on taxes to help the citizens get back on even footings but Elena had considered suspending that order so that she could keep the country running. The cost of shipping the food to the western islands had eaten away any surplus Choran had found and the costs associated with a huge army was more than either she or the chamberlain had considered.

Joseph had told her that she could use his personal funds if the need arose but he would prefer he be left that coin to be used to pay whatever debts he incurred on his trip to Wellington. She had been forced to dip into Joseph’s money the past two months in order to ensure the city remained solvent.

She had no way to replenish those funds without levying a tax – which would be in direct opposition to Joseph’s instructions. Still, she knew that Joseph hadn’t anticipated the influx of people to his service nor had he known of the true situation that existed on the western border. She simply had no answer and each day brought a fiscal crisis closer.

Her only solace was that she knew Choran was feeling the same strain. So she was surprised to see the chamberlain wearing a broad smile when he came into the office for their daily meeting.

“I have wonderful news!” he said.

“Joseph has returned and we can leave all the hard decisions to him?” Elena asked facetiously.

“To a certain extent, yes,” Choran answered. His reply caused Elena’s eyes to widen.

“He has returned?” she asked hopefully.

“Not as yet, but Drayvon sent word aboard a ship that arrived this morning,” Choran told her.

“Word?” Elena wondered. “I am heartened that he is alive but we need more than words, Choran. We need coin and short of that we need the king.”

“Well, how about the accumulated wealth of Blue Harbor?” Choran asked with a wide grin.

“Our troops liberated Blue Harbor?” Elena asked, her excitement rising.

“Not exactly,” Choran replied, stringing Elena along a bit.

“Out with it,” Elena commanded.

“The king and his troops had already overrun the town when Drayvon and his group arrived,” Choran said, scanning a piece of parchment. “Joseph is staying in Blue Harbor for a few more weeks to ensure its reclamation but he did send us thousands of gold coins and hundreds of gems that we can add to the treasury.”

“Don’t you have to have something in the first place in order to add to it?” Elena asked with mirth in her voice.

“There is that,” Choran agreed. The release of nervous tension came out in an extended bout of laughter that soon infected the entire room.

Even Vanya, Elena’s stoic lady-in-waiting, was caught up in the joy that Choran’s news had brought. It took the chamberlain a while to regain his equilibrium but once his side stopped aching, he placed a folded letter in front of the steward.

“Jonathan has sent you a missive, as well,” he said. The chamberlain watched Elena carefully for her reaction. He had grown close to the young woman over the previous rough months. Outside of the steward, he alone knew the marriage contract that would make her queen was still intact. He had watched as she had weighed the prospect of marrying a man she loved or maintaining a hold on the power she had grown to enjoy.

Elena’s face held no emotion as she picked up the parchment. She did not break the wax seal to read it. That would wait until she was alone in her chambers. Instead she simply looked at her name written on the outside in Jonathan’s fine hand. She didn’t even notice that the wax seal bore the signet of the Lord Burbridge.

“I will read this when I have time to enjoy his words,” she said aloud. “Is there any further news from the king?”

“Just word informing you that he is conscripting the men you sent southward under Commander Drayvon,” Choran said. “He plans to send a large contingent of his army up the western road to rout the remaining bandits and to secure all the caravan routes.”

“Does he say how many men he has remaining with his group?” Elena asked. “He left with 200 and arrived in Wellington with almost twice that amount. His last message said many had left for home but it would be good to know how many mouths we will have to feed when he arrives.”

“He does not mention numbers but I would suspect it was a sizeable force,” Choran said. “Drayvon says that there was fierce fighting in Blue Harbor and I know the ship that docked this morning had more than a two dozen wounded soldiers.”

“Which means at least a dozen were killed,” Elena’s bodyguard added. “It a battle, you can count on four wounded for every man killed. Some wounds are not serious and are treated at the site. Others are too serious for immediate transport. About half of the wounded are evacuated as soon as hostilities cease.”

That thought ended the jubilation in the room. Although the soldiers present were the only ones who knew any of the men with Joseph well, even Vanya had found the sight of the valiant men marching off to battle to be exhilarating.

“What is your estimate of Joseph’s army?” Choran asked the guard commander.

“Joseph rarely plans a battle that results in heavy casualties,” the man said after ruminating on the question. “If we accept 25 dead and 100 wounded, I would put his army at about 600. Of course, those numbers can vary depending on the terrain. If they fought house to house in Blue Harbor casualty numbers go up. If they were facing a superior force, they rise higher.”

“Would they attack a superior force?” Choran asked.

“Without question,” the guard answered immediately. “If Joseph thought the goal was worthwhile, he would take on a legion by himself.”

“He would not be by himself if Genrico still lives,” another added.

“Or Jonathan,” Elena said with a frown. She hoped Jonathan’s letter didn’t contain grave news – or worse, had been a letter he’d written knowing he was about to die. She glanced down at the letter again.

“So you are saying that you have no idea of how many troops we can expect to return with Joseph,” Choran pressed.

“I should have said that from the start, sir,” the commander answered with chagrin. “You are correct. I have no idea how many men he has with him or how many he will leave to guard that region of the country. I have travelled with him for almost five years and I can say without a doubt that I have no idea how his mind works.”

Lucretia Vespucci looked ill as she sat down across from the king and his entourage. She had been summoned from the pen by one of the guards and directed to the center of the village where King Joseph sat with a group of men and women she didn’t recognize. The only person at the table she had seen before was the woman who often brought the food to the prisoners.

She wondered if she was to be the entertainment for the evening. She had not seen any of the soldiers pull females out of the pen – as often happened with the slave pens she had seen – but that didn’t mean tonight wasn’t the start of the rapes.

The two men who sat on either side of the king watched her warily as she was seated and the guard who had escorted her across the village was close by. Perhaps they expected her to vault across the table and attack the king with the straight pin that held her pants closed, she mused.

“Be at ease,” the king said.

Lucretia thought that might have been the stupidest command the man had ever given. Apparently she wasn’t the only one because one of the young women at the table burst into laughter.

“You have summoned her to dine with the man who sacked her town and sentenced her parents to slavery and you tell her to be at ease,” Julia said, shaking her head. “Really, Joseph, do you ever think about how other people view you?”

The king looked down the table at the woman before he spoke.

“No,” he said simply. This caused many of the others at the table to join the young woman in laughter. The king was smiling when he turned back to face Lucretia.

“Well, I suppose I handled that badly,” he said with a shrug. “Fine. I will dispense with the formalities. May I call you Lucretia?”

“Of ... of course, Your Highness,” the young woman stammered.

“And I am Joseph,” the king told her. “I have been told that you are different from the lot I have awaiting their fate in the pen. I would like to know why.”

The young woman looked down the table to the other guests but they looked back at her impassively. The woman she vaguely recognized gave her a slight nod but Lucretia had no idea what it meant.

“Just be honest,” Amelia advised the confused girl.

“I suppose I have always known this day would come,” Lucretia finally said. “The people here have always lived at the expense of others. Eventually I knew a stronger group would appear and the town would fall. I will admit that I expected raiders or pirates from the sea and not an army led by the king. We are taught that Blue Harbor is a nation unto itself. I knew, of course, that I was born in Azkoval but my family has told me for years that we are separate now.”

“That was a lie,” Joseph said unnecessarily.

“One of many I’ve been told over the years, I suspect,” Lucretia agreed with a nod. “I found most of what happened here repugnant. I have seen the way they treat the servants and it appalls me. To be blunt, free women have only a few more rights than those who wear the collar. Unless a woman allies herself with one of the powerful families – either as a mistress or through employment – she is fair pickings for any of the marauders who visit our ports. The city guard kept watch over those of us with power but those without influence were left to their own ends. Then there was that awful atrocity on the hill. They called it a church but I knew differently. I was taught by a true Serrat for many years and I know what they preach up there has no bearing on the religion.”

“Hear, hear,” Morane chimed in.

Joseph listened as the young woman told the group of the things she disagreed with but Amelia could see he wasn’t swayed. Her assessment was confirmed when he spoke.

“I appreciate your sentiment,” he said when Lucretia had wound down. “But they are mere words. Some people have asked me to ameliorate your sentence but I find I have no real grounds to do so. It is obvious that you are intelligent and I have to wonder if that means you are smart enough to tell me exactly what I wished to hear.”

“I am that smart,” Lucretia admitted. “The truth is, I’ve always known I would wind up living off my body. I would be married off to some old man my father owed a debt to or captured by whatever group overran the city and used for sport. I accept my fate as you have determined it because I never expected anything more.”

“Then you are smart enough to accept that I cannot exempt you from the sentence I have given your family,” Joseph said.

“I cannot accept that!” Amelia cried as she jumped to her feet.

“Mother,” Victoria said urgently as she tried to pull her mother down. Amelia pulled free and moved toward Joseph.

“What would you have me do, Amelia?” Joseph asked, also rising. He didn’t think Amelia would attack him physically but he wanted to be prepared just in case. “You asked me to compare Lucretia’s situation with the one I found in Wellington. I have done that. I have compared the two and found one stark contrast.”

“My daughter is old enough to appeal your prurient interests,” Amelia cut in angrily.

“Mother!” Julia hissed but Amelia ignored her.

“Your daughters put words into action,” Joseph said in an even voice. “They proved their worth by assisting me in keeping men from dying. Lucretia had that opportunity. The army has been here for a month and she has said not a word. She did not come forward to tell us of the hidden alcoves in her family’s house. We had to find them ourselves and suffer the wounds from their traps. She did not alert us to the fact that some of the foods in this area are not for human consumption. We had to have six people grow ill before that came to light.”

“She would have been killed,” Amelia countered.

“Julia and Victoria would have been killed if Lord Wellington learned of their deceit,” Joseph replied with a shrug. “It is quite simple, Amelia. If Lucretia wants to avoid the fate I have in store for her, she must prove to me that she holds more value to Azkoval and this army than as a bed warmer.”

Amelia stared at the king before turning and stalking off.

Lucretia had been terrified when the woman had stood. She was certain that she was going to see the king kill Amelia on the spot. She was positive a violent death was in store for the woman when she raised her voice. In her household, retribution would have been swift and brutal. Her mouth still hung open when Joseph calmly resumed his seat.

“You have heard what I need from you to belay my orders,” he said to the stunned girl.

“I do not know what you do not know,” Lucretia answered. “I didn’t know that people would try to eat some of the berries. I know not to and I thought you knew that, too. I didn’t say anything about the hidden places because I didn’t know about them. Anything I know is something that you already know.”

Joseph considered the statement but Genrico had parsed the sentences quicker. He had watched the stark terror on the girl’s face when Amelia had confronted the king. It was apparent that life in Blue Harbor was far different than even Joseph had suspected.

“Perhaps if we ask you some questions,” Genrico said. “Would that be acceptable?”

“I will answer if I can,” Lucretia replied.

“You said you knew the church was corrupt,” Genrico said. “How much of your family’s business are you aware of?”