Chapter 21: Newcomers Find a Place

Joseph stayed in the sparring pit and took on all comers with a variety of weapons until he was drenched in sweat – and he no longer was angry at the world.

Liala and Octavia had stayed for the entire time but Julia had stalked away after seeing Liala sitting across Joseph’s midriff. Her mother had looked on helplessly but Victoria had followed her sister into the castle.

Finally Joseph reached the point that he could barely lift his arms and he called a halt to the battles. He sat heavily in the dirt and gulped water greedily from a flask that Octavia had the foresight to bring with her. Liala had battled the king with staves and short swords, earning a draw in the first and losing handily in the second. Despite a lack of proficiency with the shorter weapon, Joseph was taller and stronger than the duchess. He had no qualms about use those attributes to win the match.

She was left with a far different impression of the monarch than she had come into the day with. She was particularly impressed with his skill with a long sword. He had easily defeated the best warrior that Troyvet had to offer. She could tell from the look on the king’s face that he believed the man had tanked but Liala knew differently. The man had gotten caught off-footed and had left his body open for an attack. The skill involved in getting the blade through the defense was astounding.

“He is a very talented swordsman,” Octavia remarked as she fell in beside Liala on the way back to the castle. She blushed at the double entendre but Liala didn’t appear to get the reference.

“He is a skilled warrior in all disciplines,” Liala replied with a nod. “I was impressed with his stamina.”

“Yes, I understand stamina is required of men who wield their weapons with skill,” Octavia said, continuing to see if she could make Liala blush. It didn’t work.

“I doubt seriously than anyone has survive his initial flurry,” Liala answered. “I wish that he would train me.”

“I believe our parents would be happy for us to vie for that honor,” Octavia said with a giggle. Liala stopped and looked at her, taking a moment to understand what the woman was talking about. Rather than react in anger, the duchess simply chuckled and continued walking.

“Yes, but we are not alone,” Liala replied. “I have seen a few young women trying to capture his attention.”

“More than a few,” Octavia said. “And more arrive each day. The twins from the ship arrived back in the city today. One of them looked highly displeased to find you sitting across his chest when she pushed her way to the front.”

“I have actually been looking forward to meeting them,” Liala told her newfound acquaintance. She had shared only a few words with the Marindar princess since her arrival. Now she found that the woman was more than just a pair of huge breasts strapped to a pale body. She had wit and charm, too.

“You might meet one of them when she slips a knife between your ribs,” Octavia pointed out. “If the guards hadn’t forced everyone to give up their weapons, I am certain she would have attacked you.”

“I have heard that she is very protective of the king,” Liala answered with a shrug. “I believe she misunderstood the situation.”

“I think she understood the situation quite well,” Octavia said with a smile. “I saw you were angry that he wasn’t awed by your staff work but he didn’t rub it in your face. And I saw that you enjoyed it when he pressed up against you when you were sparring with swords.”

“I did not!” Liala said quickly.

“I got you to blush!” Octavia replied with glee. “I knew I could do it. I thought my ribald comments would do the trick.”

“I believe that our cultures are quite different,” Liala said. “Our climate is extremely hot this time of year and we often wear few clothes. Sexual congress is a form of recreation in most parts of our society. I also spent two years on campaign with my troops. There is little that you could say that I haven’t heard before.”

“Sexual congress as recreation?” Octavia asked. “You mean...”

“I mean it is a form of relaxation,” Liala said with a shrug. “Humans are the lone species that can have sex for pleasure. Women take herbs to keep from procreating so there is no harm. Those who are allergic to the herbs find pleasure with other women until they mate with a man.”

“That would be scandalous where I am from,” Octavia said. She was intrigued by the concept.

“As I said, our cultures are different,” Liala replied. “We also have no limit on the number of husbands or wives a person can have. For many generations, only the strongest of our men survived battle. It made little sense to waste those genetic traits so the best warriors were urged to breed with different women. As time progressed, women grew to become warriors and we continued the tradition. Right now, we have one-and-a-half men for each woman. That means several women have more than one husband. Some maintain separate households but others live with both. My mother has two husbands and so does my oldest sister. My grandfather had three wives.”

“That is amazing,” Octavia said. “So you have ... you know.”

“No,” Liala replied. “I have known since I was a child that I would be used as barter for a political alliance. I was required to remain chaste because some cultures would inspect for a hymen before I could be permitted to wed into a ruling family.”

“Will they do that here?” Octavia asked.

“I doubt seriously that King Joseph would permit such an invasion,” Liala answered. “It is good because riding a horse rid me of mine. This culture is a bit backward in regard to sexuality. I have seen very few women in pants – and in fact I was instructed that I would need to wear dresses once King Joseph returned.”

“Why haven’t you?” Octavia asked.

“I knew once I met him that he would likely see through any façade I put forth,” Liala said. “My mother agreed. We also came to understand that a marriage likely wouldn’t be necessary to secure an alliance. I do not mean to be harsh, but if your brother had decided to behave honorably, it would not be necessary for you, either.”

“I understand that,” Octavia agreed. “That is one of the reasons I wanted to stay. If I were to return to Marindar, I would be sent to someone else – perhaps someone who isn’t as nice as King Joseph. I hope that I can secure a trade agreement for our southern lands in spite of how my brother behaved. Short of that, I hope I can avert bloodshed.”

“If your brother attacks, I can see King Joseph launching an invasion of your homeland,” Liala said. “I am unsure how aware you are of martial matters so forgive me if I am telling you something you already know. The army in this capital could overrun every army from my country to yours. If he desired it, King Joseph could establish an empire that rivaled any in history. As formidable as my people are, we would be powerless to stop him.”

“As would we,” Octavia said grimly. “Our army is perhaps a tenth of his and not nearly as well trained. My brother will march in with farmers and shipwrights that he as conscripted. He will die quickly and my father will be compelled to send more men to die. Eventually, I see Joseph growing tired of Marindar’s incursions and removing my family from rule. I am not altogether certain that is a bad thing.”

Joseph walked into the royal dining room to find a packed table. He greeted the Trimbles warmly. He hadn’t heard they had returned. He gave smiles and nods to Liala and Octavia, who were seated side-by-side. Jonathan and Elena were in their usual seats but Genrico had moved his chair beside Victoria’s. Joseph gave his old friend a wink and a pat on the shoulder.

Rucar and Choran still were uncomfortable sitting down with royalty so Joseph made it a point to speak to them cordially. The Serratian priest, Morane, was another who felt out of place. Joseph wasn’t a religious man but he always asked the former priest to deliver a blessing before the meal was served. The king hoped, eventually, the man would be able to move past his slavery and recognize the value Joseph had found in him.

But the far most uncomfortable person in the room was Lucretia Vespucci. The king had offered an invitation to the young woman from Blue Harbor each day. Most days she had chosen to eat with the servants or alone. Tonight, Amelia had insisted she join the rest of the group. Joseph gave her a warm smile and took his seat at the head of the table.

“You know, you don’t have to wait for my royal bum to grace the seat to resume your conversations,” he joked. The talking that had resumed when he sat came to a halt again. Joseph sighed and shook his head. He gestured with his hand for everyone to go back to what they were doing. He turned to Jonathan but the man was talking to his fiancée. On his opposite side, Morane was talking to Rucar. He saw that everyone at the table had someone to talk to.

Lucretia was speaking to Amelia while the twins talked to each other. Choran and Genrico were in deep discussion about something and the two foreign visitors seemed as thick as thieves as they chatted. That left Joseph to study his glass of wine until the meal was brought forth.

Morane offered a brief invocation and the group returned to their discussions as they ate. Joseph sat without speaking for the entire meal. He decided that he was going to have to find someone else to invite in order to have a discussion.

He fell in beside Lucretia on the way out of the dining room and the 15-year-old girl was startled when he spoke to her.

“Thank you for dining with us this evening,” Joseph said. “I hope this will become a regular occurrence.”

Lucretia only nodded and Joseph let her go. It was obvious that she wasn’t comfortable around him.

As the days became shorter, it became obvious that Lucretia wasn’t the only person who found Joseph’s presence disconcerting. Elizabeth patently refused to speak to the king. She never stayed in the room if he walked in and she would walk past a room if the king happened to be there.

As the winter winds started to blow from the north, Jonathan elected to return to the Burbridge lands – Elena and Elizabeth in tow. It was ostensibly to begin planning the upcoming wedding but it was primarily to eliminate one level of tension from the castle.

The other sources of stress remained, however. The fiscal strain of running the country fell hard on Joseph’s shoulders. He was forced to rescind his order of tax amnesty but it would be months before that coin rolled in. In the interim, the castle had become austere. The meals were smaller and the guests had been moved to one wing of the castle and the remainder closed. It would save on the cost of wood for heating.

Some of the guests were not pleased to move from the higher level to the ground floor but when Joseph gave them the option of finding their own lodgings in the city, they grudgingly packed up and descended. Joseph had moved into one of the smallest rooms on the ground floor and had closed off the throne room. He doubted that the castle would see any visitors once the snow arrived.

Many of those who worked in the castle had been furloughed for the winter months. It had been unavoidable. Lydia had agreed to run his household but had agreed to wait until spring to start. Her family had plenty of money thanks to Joseph’s generosity.

In fact, almost everyone in the country had more money than the country’s treasury. Joseph had given leave to the soldiers who had travelled with him to Wellington. They each had gold coin to spend and he didn’t have the money to feed them all. A few had gone with Jonathan and Elena and others had moved to other houses in the region.

By the time the first snow fell, Joseph was left alone in the castle with Choran, Octavia, Liala, Julia, Victoria, Amelia, Lucretia, Genrico and the few servants he’d retained. He wondered if he would survive to see the spring.

As the heavy northern snows blanketed Tyrell, Joseph found himself spending more and more time with Octavia and Liala. He knew nothing of either of their lands and he was as interested in learning about Marindar and Troyvet as the pair was in learning about Azkoval (and its king).

It didn’t hurt that they were the only females in the castle who didn’t require a chaperone to be alone with him. Liala had told him that the custom had never taken hold in Troyvet because a female there was just as dangerous as a male. Octavia had simply shrugged and told him that her chaperone had deserted the country so she wasn’t going to worry about it.

Still, the pair seemed to form a pact that they would spend their time with Joseph as a duo. It seemed to help Liala regain her equilibrium that the chilly weather had forced Octavia back into her formless furs.

“I have never seen this before,” Liala said as they looked out of an opening in the wooden window coverings at the white fluffy mix that fell from the sky. “We do not even have a word in my language for it.”

“We have about 20,” Octavia said with a sad shake of her head. She had enjoyed the fall in Tyrell but she determined that winter resembled her homeland a great deal. “There are places in my land where snow is visible all year long. We have a mountain range so high that the tops are lost in the clouds. It is impossible to navigate because the snow and ice begin only half a day’s walk upward.”

“We have places that have not seen moisture in a hundred years,” Liala told them. “It is brutally hot all the time. You cannot go across it because there is no water for the horses. If a person tried to walk it, he would need a month’s worth of water with him to even stand a chance.”

Joseph shook his head in amazement. He had thought that he had seen a great deal of the world during his travels but he now understood how ludicrous that thought had been.

“I have been to some areas in the northern lands,” he said. “The weather didn’t ever get what I would call hot but it was pleasant in the summer. The land of Creight is as far as I’ve been to the south. They have similar areas as your arid lands but they are passable if a person is careful. We achieved total surprise in Deseret by taking the entire army across an area the locals considered impassable. It was uncomfortable but we sheltered during the day and travelled at night.”

Liala laughed.

“The word for our arid areas is ‘desert,’” she told him with a smile. “I would imagine the country’s name comes from our language.”

“Perhaps,” Joseph agreed with a nod. “Given their coloring and physical stature, I would determine that they are from the same area as you. Their skin color is slightly lighter but not much. Many of the natives are tall and lean, just as you and your mother are.”