Chapter 3: New Faces in Unexpected Places

And so it was that King Joseph and his entourage began their trek to the southernmost climes of Azkoval. Lord Burbridge and Lord Larchman led two columns of the massive army that wended its way through the countryside as Elena of Westmont ruled the country in Joseph’s stead.

The announcement had been met with some outrage from the nobility but the chamberlain squelched the discontent in the same way as he had earlier. He simply stated that those viewed as obstructing the steward would be dealt with most harshly upon King Joseph’s return. Choran did not need to go into detail – nor did any of the nobility doubt that King Joseph would eventually return.

The few who simply could not stomach the prospect of being ruled by a woman elected to return to their own holdings for the duration.

Joseph traveled with the Burbridge portion of the army – along with Jonathan Burbridge, who was acting as Joseph’s aide-de-camp. The army that went forward with Joseph was comprised mainly of untested soldiers who picked up whatever weapon they could find to join the crusade.

As the procession made its way through small cities and smaller towns, the army grew as men and women, boys and girls picked up stakes to join in the fight to free one of Azkoval’s last remaining strongholds of conspirators. Those in the travelling party did not complain. They accepted short rations and scavenging parties when the need arose. The villages brought forth any victuals they could afford to part with to feed the army as it passed. By the time the group camped a few leagues from the manor house of Lord Wellington, it had grown to almost 400 strong.

A much more nimble army led by Genrico of Larchman had taken a circuitous route to the border lands. Genrico’s army was filled with battle-tested veterans, not only from the army of Johan the Merciless but from a group of men who had returned to Azkoval when word of Joseph’s ascension reached their ears. Genrico’s squadron numbered barely more than 150 but the smaller size made it possible to avoid major population centers and to forage for food during the journey.

Their only job was to arrive unannounced and undetected on Lord Wellington’s boundary – a feat they successfully completed by travelling mainly at night by the light of the moon.

Joseph slept in a tent although he would have been fine on the ground beside his men. Those that accompanied him insisted it was necessary and he hadn’t fought them on it. He had enough battles ahead of him and he planned to pick his fights carefully. He firmly intended to be at the head of the column that took out the Wellingtons and continued across the border, should that be necessary. It had been his way since the outset: He would not put his people into harm’s way without facing it himself first.

It had garnered the loyalty of his troops but the idea had galled his advisors, including his aide-de-camp, Jonathan Burbridge.

The Burbridge family was an enigma. Lord Burbridge had been his father’s first commerce adviser and had fought Welton at every turn. Burbridge had finally resigned in a snit when King Welton had insisted on reparations to another country after a series of ill-advised raids from a border lord.

From that moment on, Burbridge was a constant thorn in Welton’s side. Joseph had heard his father often remark how much better life would be if he had kept Burbridge in the capital where he could keep an eye on him. As it was, the Burbridge family was free to rile up the aristocracy over matters large and small.

Still, Joseph was certain of the man’s loyalty – just as he was certain of the younger Burbridge’s. The family was under no obligation to rescue Elena Westmont. They certainly were under no obligation to provide for her for a decade following her rescue. Then they had used their own funds to find and purchase almost every heirloom that Elena had lost when her parents were killed.

Lord Burbridge had insisted upon raising an army. Joseph would have been worried about treachery if not for the presence of Genrico on the flank. Genrico sent a series of messengers across the distance, mostly to ensure that Joseph was still well, the king knew. Jonathan surely understood the reason behind the constant contact but he was unfailingly polite to the messengers. The young man’s mother also accompanied the army while a younger sister stayed at the estate and it was a certainty that Genrico would slaughter every member of the Burbridge family if they proved duplicitous.

Joseph had sent word to Genrico that he was fine and that he believed Lord Burbridge and his son were trustworthy but that didn’t slow the flow the of messengers any. Resigned, Joseph met with the young men when they arrived, fed them and then sent them on their way.

The first indication Joseph had that anything was amiss was when Jonathan Burbridge entered his tent in the middle of the night and took up a defensive position at the door. He had his back to Joseph but the king was wary. He had slept with his sword nearby for many years and this was no different.

“Jonathan?” Joseph asked in a low voice.

“We have had someone sneak through our pickets,” Jonathan said without turning around. He kept his eyes on the tent flap as if awaiting an enemy combatant at any moment.

“It’s probably another of Genrico’s messengers,” Joseph noted, relaxing a bit.

“I don’t think so, Sire,” Jonathan said. “Lord Larchman’s men wait until dawn and always come directly to the camp. This one was seen skulking around the perimeter. Our pickets attempted to apprehend him but he ... he simply disappeared into the night.”

Jonathan shivered as the thought of sorcery went through him. Like many in Azkoval, he had been told tales of witches and wizards – of demons and devils – since he was a child. He tried to tell himself that he didn’t believe them but the dark nights on the trail had made him wonder if there were things out there he didn’t understand.

Joseph arose and put on his leather armor. He didn’t believe in fairy tales and he knew he was the only person associated with this section of the army with the skills to track someone through a forest. The soldiers with him were brave and true but they were not the skilled army that Genrico commanded. In fact, many of them plodded like cattle through the terrain.

“I will find this person,” Joseph declared only to have Jonathan do his best to bar his way.

“Sire, please stay here,” he pleaded. “If someone is sneaking around the camp it is so they can get close to you. It makes little sense for you to make it easier.”

Joseph bristled – as he’d done numerous times over the course of the march – at the forced idleness. His only action on the campaign had been greeting the people in the towns and villages they had gone through.

“We need to find out if this is a solo excursion or a prelude to something larger,” Joseph insisted. “I am the person most qualified to hunt down this person who disappears in the night. I don’t think you can dispute that.”

“I can’t,” Jonathan relented. “Allow me to dress and I will accompany you.”

Joseph smiled at the man in front of him.

“You are a good man, Jonathan,” he said. “You are wise and you are learned. That is why I wanted you at my side on our adventure. However, you are not a soldier and you are not a scout. I could no sooner sneak up on this person with you around that I could a doe in the field. I will be fine. I have fought scores of battles in the past few years and I have emerged unscathed each time.”

“And if this is the time you do not?” Jonathan asked.

“Then I do not and you know what you need to do to protect Elena,” Joseph answered with a shrug. “Now I must get moving. It will be daylight shortly and I want to be well ensconced between the army and Wellington before the sun disappears.”

Jonathan stepped aside and watched as his king – and a man he admired – left the tent.

“If anyone asks, I made it a direct order,” Joseph told him with a smile. Then he seemed to disappear into the darkness just as the sentry had claimed the enemy scout had done earlier.

It didn’t take Joseph long to find the tracks from where his sentries had stumbled blindly through the trees. He followed them until they doubled back toward him and then pressed forward.

The scout’s trail was far more difficult to locate but soon he found signs of human passage through the foliage. The signs were subtle and it was evident to him that the person was very good. He worried that if Wellington had a company of infantry with these skills, the group could massacre the army while it slept.

The trail led to a meadow and then disappeared again. It was a smell on the breeze that caused Joseph to look up at the edge of the forest. He knew instantly that if the person he had been pursuing meant him harm he would be dead by now.

“Will you come down or do I need to smoke you out?” Joseph asked. He saw the shape of a small figure in the tree’s branches through the waning moon. He was thankful that he didn’t see the glint of a dagger or a sword. Nor did he see the outline of a raised crossbow. He had no doubt that if the person had a crossbow the first he would have known of it was when the bolt sank between his shoulders.

“I’ll come down,” a high-pitched voice answered. Rather than climb down the tree’s trunk, the figure grasped the branch on which it sat, turned a somersault and landed in a neat crouch in front of Joseph. He knew the fall had to be at least twice a man’s height – and he knew he would have broken his leg (or his neck) if he had tried it. The face looking up at him wasn’t a child. It was a young woman. She wore armor that almost matched Joseph’s in appearance and she had a dagger tucked into a sheath at her waist.

“Who might you be?” Joseph asked.

“I was about to ask you the same question,” the young woman replied.

“Fair enough,” Joseph said. “I am King Joseph of Azkoval.”

“Oh, bugger,” the young woman said in a tight voice. She immediately dropped to her knees in front of him.

“I am not sure if you meant that as an insult or not,” Joseph said with a smile. “I was away from Azkoval for many years and I’m not certain what the term means.”

The woman looked up and saw the king smiling at her. She had heard stories of his prowess in the field and that was how she was certain he was telling the truth. She had evaded his sentries for several days, probing their defenses and finding them inadequate. It was only a day earlier she had learned that the army with the king was meant as a ruse. There was a smaller, fiercer army camped behind a mountain only a short distance away.

If she hadn’t been in place when the second army arrived she would never had gotten close to them. As it was, it had taken her almost a full day to sneak away before she was captured.

“Get up, for Euclid’s sake,” Joseph told the woman. “And tell me your name and your business.”

The young woman arose and looked at the king. He carried a sword though the woods but she hadn’t heard him until he passed by the first time. The sword should have made his approach evident for quite some time before he appeared.

“My name is Julia,” she said.

“Are you a spy for the Wellingtons?” Joseph inquired.

“That is a difficult question to answer, Sire,” the young woman replied.

“I don’t believe it should be,” Joseph told her.

“What I mean is that, yes, I was sent out to ascertain your movements but I haven’t relayed that information to the lord of the manor,” she told him. “He knows you are nearby but he doesn’t know exactly where. I also haven’t told him of the real threat to his holding.”

Joseph frowned at the news. If the scout were a man, Joseph would have found a way to ensure he was telling the truth. It wasn’t in his nature to do that to female, however.

“I am afraid you are my prisoner until this engagement is concluded,” he said.

“Sire, wait!” the young woman said as he took her upper arm. He felt muscles beneath the armor and it surprised him. It surprised him enough that he stopped when she commanded him to.

“I am more valuable free,” she told him. “Lord Wellington has about 200 men camped between here and the manor. I can show you a way around them. You can impose your army – or the one camped behind the manor – between them and cut them off. But if I don’t return shortly, I fear they will be ordered forward to fight you. The army that travels with you is not prepared for a general engagement. I believe you understand that very well. I fear that you would lose many of your soldiers before your other wing can close up. By that time, the Wellingtons will be across the border and you will have to fight a series of pitched battles between here and the Creight capital. The lord has had almost a year to plan his withdrawal if it becomes necessary.”

Joseph looked closer at the young women.

“You know tactics,” he said.

“I have studied them some,” the woman admitted through her blush.

“Does Lord Wellington employ female soldiers?” Joseph inquired. He had faced female warriors in his travels and he knew the army with Genrico wouldn’t falter. He also believed that the army with Lord Burbridge would probably be slaughtered rather than fight women.

“No,” the woman answered. She frowned. “He considers women to the worth less than a good ox.”

“And yet he employs you,” Joseph pointed out with raised eyebrows.

“Grudgingly,” the woman admitted. “I believe it is because he cares little whether I live or die. He is so intent upon bringing harm to you that he pays attention to little else.”

Joseph nodded as pieces clicked together in his head.

“You are intimate in the household,” he determined. “You are not a maid or a servant. That much I know. May I assume you are Lord Wellington’s daughter?”

The woman gulped noticeably as she stared at the king.