Chapter 28: Lost and Found

Rucar was the first of Joseph’s friends to return to Tyrell. Whatever his business had been, Joseph concluded it had been unsuccessful if the man’s ill temper was any indication. It did not cross Joseph’s mind that Rucar was unhappy with something the king had done.

Rucar stalked the hallway like a bear, frightening servants and guests alike. Joseph finally reined the man into his office.

“What is the difficulty?” the king inquired with a pointed look.

“The difficulty?” Rucar asked incredulously. “King Joseph, you must take more responsibility for your safety. You cannot rely on being a better swordsman or a more valiant fighter. Those that will harm you will not seek to face you. They will ingratiate themselves to you and then slip a dagger between your ribs.”

Joseph looked at the man for a long moment. He wondered if years the man spent in isolation had eroded his mind.

“I believe you will need to explain what you mean,” he said.

“The young Burbridge whelp,” Rucar spat.

Joseph blinked in confusion.

“Elizabeth?” he asked.

“Who else is borne from that awful woman?” the spymaster asked.

“Elizabeth?” Joseph asked again. “You fear Jonathan’s sister wishes me harm?”

“I do not fear it,” Rucar hissed. “I know it. She spent the summer months deriding your every movement. She refused to even enter a room if you were there. Now she has returned and set up housekeeping in the castle.”

Joseph shook his head.

“Rucar, I understand that I tasked you to see deceit behind every action,” he began.

“It is not paranoia,” Rucar cut in. “The girl despises you. She blames you for her mother’s death. She blames you for disrupting her life. She blames you for bringing her mother’s deceit to light. I believe if she sees an opportunity, she will slay you as quickly as her mother or father would have.”

Joseph closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

“Alexander is her father,” he declared. “During the summer months, the girl was grief stricken. She didn’t understand how her mother perished or why. Jonathan tells me that he explained the particulars – or what he knows of them, at least. She hasn’t been the most pleasant of houseguests but she hasn’t been the worst to grace our presence either. She will be fine.”

“It is thoughts like that one that will get you killed before your time,” Rucar insisted.

“To live in fear is to die a slow death,” Joseph declared.

“You did not even permit the soldiers to search her belongings,” Rucar pointed out. “That is their job.”

“Yes, I was remiss in that fact,” Joseph admitted. “I was trying to mend a rift. There is little I can do about it now, though.”

“I have attended to it,” Rucar told him.

“Please tell me that a legion of soldiers is not this instant going through Mistress Elizabeth’s belongings,” the king said tiredly.

“Of course not,” Rucar said. “That would be unnecessary. Celestine is perfectly capable of handling that task while the occupants are away.”

“Celestine?” Joseph wondered. “The maid! You have trained the household staff to spy on our guests? Rucar!”

“I have trained the maids, the laundresses, the cooks, every innkeeper and whore in the city and farmers along the roads leading to the capital,” Rucar declared. “I will confess that Celestine took to the tasks quite naturally. I believe she could have thrived as a thief is she put her mind to it. It is good that you moved the Burbridge girl to her floor. It kept me from trying to convince Lydia to move Celestine to a different floor. She is adept.”

Joseph buried his head in his hands. He heard the door open and saw Choran enter.

“Let me say this,” he told his chief spy. “The dignitaries from other nations are inviolate. Do not risk an incident by invading their privacy.”

“They live in your house and in my country!” Rucar said. “They have no privacy.”

“Rucar,” Joseph said again after a deep breath. “I mean what I say. The young women who now reside here are not to have their persons or their belongings searched – covertly or overtly.”

“I see no need to search the rooms of Octavia Tussain or the Duchess Liala,” Rucar said with clear reluctance.

“Very good,” Joseph said. “I know you are trying to do your best but it is a fine line we walk. We need to be vigilant but we cannot trample on the few rights the people have been afforded. One of the most important rights I’ve tried to return to them is the right to feel safe and secure in their homes and in their person. While someone resides here, I ask them to treat this dwelling as if it were their home. Those are the exact words I used, I believe, to Mistress Burbridge: ‘Make the castle your home.’ I did not include a disclaimer: ‘Except we reserve the right to enter your lodgings without notice or warning and to paw through your most intimate belongings at our leisure.’

“I have told Liala, Octavia and Julia that they may consider this dwelling their homes, as well. In the future, there might be others offered that boon. I do not want people to fear coming to the capital. It already greatly resembles an armed camp but there is little I can do about that fact right now. Please tell me that I will not need to say this again.”

“I will not intrude on Octavia, Liala or Julia,” Rucar promised. “In the future, should I become suspicious of anyone in residence, I will discuss the matter with you before I take action – provided they don’t kill you before I get the chance for a meeting.”

“Has Rucar mentioned the tasks he has asked Octavia, Liala and Julia to perform on your behalf?” Choran cut in. The former outlaw glared at the smaller man but the chamberlain held his composure.

“Rucar?” Joseph asked.

“He deserves to know,” Choran declared. “I have told you this before. You can hide your actions from the citizens but you cannot hide them from the king.”

“Rucar?” Joseph asked again, this time in a sterner voice.

“I have asked ... asked, mind you ... that those three be alert on their travels through the city and beyond,” Rucar said. “As I’m sure you have noticed, they are comely young females with somewhat exotic looks. Men will speak of things long hidden in order to curry favor with women such as these. Yes, certainly, those who live in and around Tyrell will recognize them from the castle. Those who visit with ill tidings on their mind very likely will not. Each of the three is more dangerous than any two men so I do not fear for their safety. In any event, I firmly believe your safety is more valuable than theirs – and no argument you can make will disabuse me of that idea. Joseph, I ... lived ... here.

“I do not need a history lesson on what life was like after The Fall. I am a history lesson unto myself. You did not see me blanch or flinch when the rock was dropped on that awful priest. It is not because I am a cruel man. I probably am a cruel man but that is not why I was unfazed. It bothered me not a whit because I know Drell and his ilk committed atrocities that make his manner of passing seem tame by comparison. In my travels, I met women blinded by red-hot sticks after their bodies were used for sport by Wilhelm’s men.

“I met children with no legs because Drell and his followers liked to chain them to a table, do unspeakable acts upon their persons and then crush their feet so they could never flee. I met men and women and children who wandered this land in search of a salve for wounds to their mind that no time will heal. If I could, I would resurrect the demon spawn to watch him crushed again. Now when I travel the land, I see hope where once all I saw was despair. I hear laughter where there were only screams of terror. I see people planning for their children’s future instead of planning for their escape. I will protect you even from your own folly. It is not because you are king. That is for the men and women who see value in titles. It is because you are the man that gave the people back their lives. If it requires me to injure the pride – or the person – of a foreign noble, so be it. If it requires me to conspire with brigands and outlaws, I am willing. And if it requires me to sometimes do things I know you will disapprove of, well, I am fine with that, too.

“I will protect you.”

“In that, I agree with Rucar,” Choran stated as he watched the king and the spy stare at each other. “As you will recall, I was reluctant to return to Azkoval. The role you asked me to play was no different from what Rucar asks of the tavern wenches or the innkeepers – or, I suppose now that I think about it, what he asks of Liala, Octavia and Julia. You tasked me with being your ears and eyes in a land I had grown to despise. You asked me to ingratiate myself to people I would have killed on sight if you had permitted me. You were clear from the outset: If I were discovered, I would face a harsh demise. But I took up the mantle because you thought I should. You did not tell me the reasoning behind my role. You did not explain to me that you were the king and you wanted someone near the man that stole your throne. You did not tell me that you knew my father once worked for your father and that you knew my father had trained me to assume a role with King Welton.

“Again, if you will recall, I did not ask for reasons. For the first year, I saw danger around every corner – mostly because it was still a dangerous time to live in or near Tyrell. I kept the coin you gave to me hidden in the deepest recesses of the privy to keep Wilhelm’s soldiers from stealing it away. I dared not be on the streets after dark. It was not pickpockets or assassins I feared. It was the men in the fine clothing that preyed beneath the moonlight on those without the sense or without the ability to stay indoors. I did not see the worst of the times here. It was seven years into Wilhelm’s reign that you sent me here. But I saw enough to know that Rucar speaks the truth.

“Yes, I understand the need for discretion – probably even more than you do. I also see the need to protect you – maybe even more than Rucar does. I travelled with you for a year as a common soldier before you promoted me to quartermaster. I handled that job for another year before you sent me here to be your spy. I knew the widespread trust you could inspire long before you sat down on any throne. I also knew of the many men and women who wished you dead long before the word ‘King’ rested before your name. But I will not keep facts from you that I believe you should know.”

This time, it was Rucar who turned to stare incredulously at the chamberlain. Choran noticed and let out a long breath, knowing immediately what the spy had unearthed.

“It serves no purpose for him to know about that,” he said.

Joseph looked from one man to the other as their eyes were locked on each other. Finally, Rucar nodded his agreement.

“I believe I am best suited to know everything,” Joseph pointed out.

“In this instance, I tend to agree with the chamberlain,” Rucar stated. “The information is old and it would only serve to muddy the waters around here. It is best if everyone forgets about it. Wouldn’t you agree, Choran?”

“I have already put it out of my mind,” the chamberlain said in a light voice. “And I know for a fact that everyone else has done the same.”

“Then you should know that nothing of the sort will ever come to light again,” the spymaster said. “If any evidence existed, it no longer does. You have my pledge.”

“That’s it!” Joseph said loudly. “If you two plan to speak in riddles, I demand to know the clues. Out with it.”

Choran and Rucar exchanged glances, each wishing they had conducted this conversation in private.

Finally, the chamberlain nodded.

“Several months before your return, a young girl arrived at the castle,” Choran said. “I’m sure you will recall her name: Vandra.”

“She was daughter to my mother’s maid,” Joseph answered. “I ... she was younger and a bit too girly to play with Elena or me but I recall her. She is in the city again? I would like to see her.”

“No,” Choran said. “The city held the memory of her mother’s death and her despoilment. She left shortly after she arrived.”

Joseph blinked.

“Despoilment?” he asked. “She was...”

Choran nodded.

“As you said, she was apparently a pretty child and Wilhelm used her frequently before selling her as a slave,” Choran answered, looking at the tabletop.

“Gods above,” Joseph raged. He felt tears in his eyes and couldn’t seem to blink them away.

“She was, at least, sold to a decent family,” Choran replied. “Your mother’s maid attempted to send her to safety but failed. Through everything the girl suffered, she kept several documents hidden because her mother told her they were the most important papers in all of Azkoval. One of the papers was a copy of the marriage contract between King Welton and Lord Westmont.”

Joseph nodded.

“I anticipated that there might be copies about,” Joseph told the men. “I recalled signing at least two and perhaps three copies. I spoke to Elena and she said she couldn’t recall signing anything. She wasn’t completely certain she even knew how to sign her name at that point in her life. It is why I issued a decree banning the practice without the woman’s consent. So long as she didn’t sign the paper, it was invalid.”

“But suppose she were to sign it now,” Rucar cut in.

Joseph again looked between the two men in confusion.

“Why would she do that?” he wondered.

“In order to be queen,” Rucar explained as though he was speaking to a dim child.

“That’s absurd,” Joseph protested.

“When I gave her the paper, I thought the same thing,” Choran said. “I believed that she should have the option, however. Her father and your father negotiated in good faith. It was clear from the contract what each man intended. It was also clear that you were quite willing to agree.”

“When I was a child,” Joseph clarified. “You gave Elena the paper?”

Choran nodded.

“Did she destroy it?” he asked.

Choran shook his head. At the same time, Rucar nodded his.