Chapter 31: Coming to Grips with the Past

A host of soldiers waited at the bottom of the stairs when a bare-chested king – his wet trousers caked with dirt and grime – stepped out of the staircase that led to the spire high above their heads.

Elena, once Elizabeth had been locked into her room, had sounded the alarm and the squadron of soldiers that was always on alert responded immediately.

“Lady Elena says ships were sighted,” the leader said. He didn’t ask why the king had his face covered – or why the Troyvettan duchess was clearly bare beneath a worn travel cloak. As with many of the army’s leaders, he had followed Joseph far and wide and knew an explanation would be forthcoming if one were due.

“Friends,” Joseph said.

“The ships once belonged to friends and might still,” Rucar corrected. “They fly the banner of Troyvet but we do not know of their occupants.”

Joseph grudgingly nodded his agreement. The ships had sailed twice through pirate-infested waters and even the spotting scope wasn’t strong enough to permit him to see the features of the men who roamed the decks.

“They will wait for morning to berth,” the soldier opined. “Our inlet is treacherous in the dark to even those that live here.”

“We need to watch the docks to ensure they do not attempt a night landing,” Rucar stated.

“And we need to alert our local sailors to be prepared to render aid should they try to dock in the darkness,” Joseph said.

“Are ... are the others sober?” Jonathan inquired.

“Perhaps the duty would be better if they weren’t,” Octavia said quietly. Her already pale skin was almost translucent as the memory of what she’d seen found its way back to her mind.

Joseph let out a long breath, causing the rag in front of his mouth to billow outward. He removed it and sighed again.

“We will want the remains handled with the utmost delicacy,” he said softly. “We also will want any personal belongings that might be located to be crated and brought down for the families to look through.”

“I fear we will never truly know who rests up there,” Jonathan said, turning to look back down the hallway to the now opened entrance to the tower.

“No,” Joseph agreed.

The soldiers’ faces hardened at the words as the true nature of the smell finally settled upon some of the newer recruits. As with so many in Azkoval, they had lost loved ones at the hands of the usurper king and his minions.

“Ask for volunteers,” Joseph said sadly. “If we cannot find enough willing, I will see to the task myself. I am responsible for those souls as surely as I am for those still living.”

He walked away to the privacy of his chamber without another word. Those he left in his wake exchanged saddened glances.

“Perhaps Elena can speak to him,” Julia offered. “Their experiences were the same – not only in good times but in bad. Will you permit that, Lord Burbridge?”

“I am, now and always, Jonathan to you, dear sister,” he said as he put his arm around Julia’s shoulder. “I know that we have never acknowledged that fact but after what we shared tonight...”

Julia put her head on Jonathan’s shoulder and wept as she nodded.

“I will speak to Elena and explain the situation,” Liala offered.

“You will go find clothing,” Octavia corrected. “Let me go find Lady Elena.”

Liala looked down at the twice-filthy cloak that covered her upper body. It was already dusty from Elena’s travels and the trip to the long-closed tower had added a fresh layer of dirt and gore to it.

“Yes,” she agreed.

The group separated and headed to their tasks. A short time later, Elena knocked on Joseph’s chamber door and entered without waiting for him to respond. She had never been inside the king’s sparse chambers and she was taken by how stark an existence Joseph lived. There was a writing desk, a tub and a straw mattress on the stone floor covered with a bedroll. The rest of the space was empty.

Joseph was seated on mattress, his head in his hands. He was still bare to the waist.

“Just fill the tub, please,” he said without looking up.

“I believe I told you when we were six or seven that I wasn’t your servant,” Elena said in a gentle voice.

Joseph’s head shot upward.

“This is no place for you,” he said quickly. “The rumors...”

“The rumors be damned along with the rumormongers,” Elena shot back. She pulled the wooden chair away from Joseph’s desk and sat down in front of him. “Octavia told me what you’ve found. Joseph, we long suspected...”

“It was worse than anything I’ve ever imagined,” Joseph cut in. “They say hundreds of tiny bodies. There are chains hung from the ceiling, a table with iron bands across it in one room. Julia said there was a ... a crucifix ... in there. Elena, they used those rooms for sacrifices! They used them for atrocities that I’ve never considered. How could we have let that happen?”

“How could we have stopped it?” Elena proposed. “I know you’ve thought about that day a thousand times. I have done the same. I have pondered my every move and every action as I wondered what I might have done differently. I’ve concluded that anything else would have been futile.”

“I could have killed Wilhelm,” Joseph asserted. “After ... after my mother was murdered. I was still beneath the alcove and he was alone in the room with one soldier. I could have killed him and spared this.”

Elena bent forward and put her hand on Joseph’s shoulder.

“It would not have spared anything,” Elena replied softly. “It would have led to your death, certainly, but the outcome here would not be different. Joseph, unlike you, Wilhelm was a mere figurehead. He wielded no real authority – only what the men who put him in power permitted him to have. If he had died that day, Drell and his followers still would have done what they did. Killing him that day would have only ensured that the people would never break free from tyranny. You’ve told me of your father’s final words to you. Remember them now for me. It is important that you recall his last instructions to you.”

Joseph nodded his understanding.

“Say them aloud,” Elena insisted. “Let me hear them again.”

Joseph ran a filthy arm over his face to dry his tears. In any other circumstance, Elena would have found it amusing – and probably would have passed the story around for generations. Now she simply rubbed her fingers along Joseph’s cheekbones to assist him.

“‘Go with this man and learn from him,’” Joseph recited King Welton’s final command to him. “‘Grow strong and someday, return to avenge this foul deed. Go, my son, and know that you are loved beyond measure.’”

“Yes,” Elena said, repeating her earlier gesture on the fresh tears that had fallen from the king’s eyes.

“My father told me much the same thing just before he turned back to go to my mother’s aid,” Elena continued. “He said that I must flee to safety because one day I would help you bring hope back our homeland. I ... I lost sight of that over the years, Joseph. But you have helped me to prove him right. Tonight, we heard the celebration long before we reached the walls around the city. I feared ... I feared that war had returned but the soldiers with us said the sounds coming from here were of joy, not of anger.

“They were right. The entire city was doing something that three years ago would have been impossible. There was no joy then. There was nothing to celebrate. But you’ve brought that back and I’m pleased that I could assist you in a small way.”

“It was not a small way, Elena,” Joseph told her. He reached forward and took her hands in his – a rare show of intimacy between the two. “The happiness here and around our country is as much to do with you as it is with me. The people rejoiced not only that I was alive but that you were, too. Although I didn’t really consider it at the time, placing you as steward was one of my better ideas because it showed everyone that the future could be different from the past. I wish I had been so forward thinking but it worked so I will never tell anyone else differently.”

“I ... I have long wondered why you selected me,” Elena admitted.

“Simply put?” Joseph asked rhetorically. “I trust you. You and I learned the same lessons as children. We both were taught to put others ahead of ourselves. I knew you took those teachings to heart as much as I did. After all, it was usually left to you to ensure that I learned anything.”

Elena returned his slight smile.

“When they told me ... that you had ... died, I mourned you as much as I did my parents and yours,” Elena admitted. “Perhaps more than them. We were ... we were always in some way inexorably bound. I’ve never understood it but I’ve always ... when I would think of those times ... thought of you as much a member of my family as I was. The same was true with your family and me.”

“Yes,” Joseph agreed. “I think, in many ways, you and I share a bond that is as real and as close as that Julia shares with Victoria. I ... I tried to explain this tonight to ... the others. You were like kin to me – a sister.”

Elena nodded and looked away. This time the tears came to her eyes.

“I have never told this to anyone,” she said, looking back at Joseph. “When we left for Westmont it was ... it was because my mother was with child. She was certain it was a boy – and he was to be named Joseph.”

“I know,” Joseph said, looking downward.

“You knew?” Elena inquired. She was surprised but not angry.

“My parents were content to turn a blind eye to much of what we did,” Joseph replied. “They were not so blind as to think I would accept your departure without a valid explanation. I ... I wasn’t certain you’d been told and I didn’t want to hurt you with news.”

“When my mother told me I was to have a brother, I asked why,” Elena said. “I told her that I already had a brother – you – and I didn’t need a new one. She told me that, someday, I would no longer think of you as a brother but as something different. Perhaps, if the world had not intervened, she would have been correct.”

“Or perhaps not,” Joseph answered with a shrug. “Our paths diverged but now they’ve come together again. We have picked up where we’ve left off all those years ago. I still view you as the lone member of my family that survived. That ... that was why I’ve made you and Jonathan my heirs until one of us has a child. I think it is only fitting that my sister rules with her husband in my stead should something befall me. You should know, if I were to fall, you are to be installed as queen before Jonathan is named king. I have already eliminated the requirement that the head of state be male. I have already named you to rule the country while I was away. That is the trust I have in you – and the love I still hold for the sister I knew as a child.”

Against all propriety – and disregarding the smells that still clung to Joseph’s skin, Elena hugged Joseph tightly. The last embrace the pair had shared had come more than a decade earlier when her parents had announced they were departing for Westmont.

“At Court, I am going to name you as Foreign Minister,” Joseph whispered into Elena’s ear. “You will always be the face that greets visiting emissaries and you will help to shape our foreign policy.”

Elena pulled back and stared at Joseph from only a few inches away.

“Choran will be Finance Minister to make sure we always have coin in the vaults,” Joseph said. “Genrico will be Defense Minister to ensure that we are always safe. Jonathan will be Interior Minister and look after internal matters; Alexander will be Commerce Minister to help us build alliances with those around us. For now, Rucar has said he does not wish to be an official part of the government because it might prevent him from acting in ways I would be forced to disavow. I have ... I have decided the time is correct to share the burdens with those I admire and I trust. It will also give me a reason to ensure that those I love never have a reason to depart from Tyrell again.”

“I’m ... honored,” Elena said in a hoarse voice. “Not only at the role you wish me to play but that we are becoming as close now as we once were. I am also pleased that you understand the need to share burdens. What you’ve found in the tower must be borne by all of us. This is not something you can shoulder alone. I ... Many times while you were gone, I considered having the soldiers attend to the task of investigating it. But, I’m afraid I lacked the courage to do it. Your words to me about what we might find kept me from doing the duty and for that, I apologize.”

“It was never your duty,” Joseph said.

“It is my duty as your friend to take as much of the onus off of you as I can,” Elena insisted. “It is a duty that all of us – Rucar, Jonathan, Alexander, Genrico – all of us share. And we will do just that – if you permit us.”

Joseph lowered his chin in surrender.

“I have asked Liala, Julia and Octavia to visit the local undertakers tomorrow to see if it is possible to acquire a sizeable number of caskets,” Elena continued. “It was ... it was something I considered while you were in Wellington. I believe, even if we cannot identify anyone, we allow the people who have lost loved ones to place their name on one of several graves we will construct. I ... I planned to bury the caskets empty but ... now we will fill them. Is that acceptable to you?”