Chapter 51: Darkened Paths

“Where does this lead?” Elizabeth asked, pointing to a corridor that sloped downward.

“The dungeon,” Elena answered.

“Truly?” Julia wondered. “I’ll bet you two had quite the time tormenting the prisoners!”

“The cells were almost always empty,” Joseph said with genuine bitterness. “Perhaps if my father had kept them filled to capacity he might still be alive.”

“I know you do not believe that,” Genrico said, putting a hand on Joseph’s shoulder. “You have had ample opportunity to have the dungeon overflowing and have passed.”

“Golrick is down there?” Elizabeth asked rhetorically. “I believe I have a plan if King Joseph will permit it.”

The use of his formal title caused Joseph to look at the young woman.

“Julia says you wish a more fitting solution to your problem than simply taking his title from him,” Elizabeth continued. “The pitch of Lucretia’s voice is very similar to Elsa’s. I propose we torment the man. Surely hearing the voice of his long-dead child will give him pause.”

Joseph looked first to Jonathan and then to Genrico for guidance. The young ladies – even Elena – were nodding in agreement.

“Perhaps it will lead him to confess,” Jonathan offered.

“A confession would make your decision rather easy, I’d think,” Genrico noted.

“I will need instructions,” Lucretia said. “I know nothing about the girl.”

“We can help with that,” Catherine assured her.

Part of the group moved down the hallway in the direction they had just come in order to confer without the voices carrying to the dungeon.

“Are you uncomfortable with this?” Liala inquired.

“On its face, no,” Joseph admitted. “However, it is a night of horror compared to the days, weeks, months or years he condemned his daughter to face.”

“Then why do you look concerned?” Liala asked.

“I think it is the deviousness of the plan,” Genrico cut in. “I believe we all would prefer to simply drag the man out to the gallows and be done with it. But I fear Choran is correct. It does not serve any purpose to murder the man just because we find him offensive. We’ve all agreed that no evidence exists to support or refute our beliefs. The trouble with becoming a nation of laws is that those laws don’t always work. If Rucar were here, I’m certain he could arrange for Golrick to simply disappear.”

“I can arrange that,” Liala noted with a shrug.

“That makes us no different from him,” Joseph told them. “As king, I could walk down to his cell immediately, hoist him up by his throat and strangle him. No one would say a word or lift a finger to defend him.”

“True,” Liala agreed. “But it is also your responsibility as king to defend those we view as reprehensible.”

“I fear that is where I find myself,” Joseph admitted. “In due course, I must simply release him to go on his merry way. I suppose I could concoct a charge and put him to death. What would that say about my reign? The rights I gave to every citizen apply even to the bastards among us. If I am willing to circumvent the laws to punish Golrick, what is to stop me from doing it to everyone else? Wilhelm – and to a certain extent, my father – believed themselves above the laws they expected others to follow. I have pledged myself to adhere to the same set of standards as I hold Genrico and Jonathan and you. Golrick has pushed me to reconsider that stance but I still find I must continue to follow the rules.”

“We’re ready,” Elizabeth said. “Joseph, we plan to keep this up for several nights. Are you opposed to that?”

“Do as you will,” Joseph declared.

“Which cell is his?” Elizabeth asked.

“I put him in the first cell on the left,” Genrico supplied. Joseph didn’t know because he had avoided going to see the man – lest his pledge go out the window and he kill Golrick on the spot.

“The path follows the hallway,” Elena said. “It will branch off when it levels out. We go left and it should be the there. We are actually slightly below the hallway. There is a piece of wood directly below the cot. You should speak into there but leave the wood in place.”

Lucretia nodded and led the group down the incline.

“We should stay up here,” Joseph told Liala, Octavia, Bianca, Genrico, Victoria and Julia. “It is small and the hallway ends. There is no exit from down there.”

The evident displeasure on the women’s faces eased when they heard Lucretia speak.

“Why, Father?” she wailed in a piteous voice. “Why did you forsake me?”

Golrick’s voice was fainter but everyone could hear his reply.

“Who is there?” he asked with a sense of urgency.

“Do you not even recall the sound of my voice?” Lucretia inquired. “You always told me I had the voice of a nightingale.”

“Elsa?” Golrick asked.

“Who else did you condemn to a life of depravity and a death too long in coming?” Lucretia wondered. “Did you send more girls to this horrible place after me?”

“Elsa, I’m sorry,” Golrick whined.

“Sorry?” Lucretia countered. “I am the one who is sorry. Five years, Father. I lived in torment for five years. I was soiled. Many men and several women had their awful way with me before I was murdered. This is what you chose for me! All the promises you made me about a wonderful life with a loving husband were lies. You sold me to a madman so you could maintain your status. Do not tell me that you’re sorry. It is too late for sorrow.”

“You don’t understand,” Golrick tried.

“I understand that my first time with a man was not on my marriage bed,” Lucretia pushed. “I was bound, hand and foot, Father. I had a wooden rod in my rear. The king beat me unconscious and I awoke to find him between my thighs. Do not tell me that I do not understand. I understand everything perfectly clearly. My life – my purity – was less important to you than a few gold coins and piece of land.”

“Elsa, no,” Golrick pleaded.

“Yes, Father,” Lucretia declared.

“You were not supposed to be ill-treated,” Golrick said. “He promised me that you were to be his wife.”

“Lies!” Lucretia exploded.

“I swear, that is what he promised me,” Golrick said.

“You are a fool to believe a man like that,” Lucretia said. “Your stupidity and your arrogance cost me everything I held dear. I prayed for death after that first night. I prayed to every god I’d ever heard of and some I created in my head but death was long in coming. I hope your death is as painful as mine. Know this, Father, I will visit you every night until you are dead. My soul has lain in torment until I could find you again. The new king put my body to rest in a grave but my soul has waited for you here – in the place where you murdered me.”

“Please,” Golrick said.

“Do you know how I died, Father?” Lucretia pressed. “I was strapped to a table. One of the soldiers mounted me and another put a cord around my neck and strangled me to death!”

“No,” Golrick said. His voice had grown softer.

“Yes,” Lucretia answered.

“Please, give me peace,” Golrick begged.

“Peace?” Lucretia asked rhetorically. “What peace was I offered? Did you offer me the choice of coming here? No. You know I despised Wilhelm and all he stood for. So you bartered my body against my wishes to a man I hated. I loved you once, Father, but no more. From the day my maidenhead was ripped from my body, I have hated you as much as I ever hated Wilhelm.”

“I beg of you,” Golrick said.

“Do you wish solace, Father?” Lucretia asked. “I will give you solace the moment you die. When your life passes from this land into the fiery depths you deserve, I will be free from torment. Until then, I will follow you wherever you go. I will haunt you every night. Now that I have found the source of my pain, I will ensure that your pain stops only upon your death. I know the king will take away your precious land from you. Was it worth it? Was a few years of living in that horrible manor worth the price you forced me to pay?”

The sound of soft weeping came up the hallway but Joseph wasn’t certain if it was Lucretia or the prisoner.

“If you wish to release me from my horror, I will tell you how,” Lucretia continued. Joseph knew then that it was Golrick crying in his cell.

“Tell me, Daughter,” he said.

“You have a blanket on your bed,” Lucretia said. “I want you to wrap it around your neck and tie it to the bars. Then let yourself fall. You will die as I did – strangled.”

Joseph heard Lucretia’s instructions and started down the passage. Genrico took his arm and shook his head firmly.

“Let it happen this way,” Genrico proposed.

Joseph sighed and gave a solemn nod.

“But first, in your own blood, you must confess to your sins,” Lucretia told him. “Beneath your bed is a hairpin. Use it to draw your blood and write it on the walls. Tell everyone what you did to me. Stab yourself as many times as it requires. It still will not equal the number of members that were forced into my body. Write it and then take your own life, you monster! Or I will visit you again tomorrow night.”

“You are the one they call Rucar of Dunvil, aren’t you?” Stam asked as he sat with the spymaster around a campfire.

Rucar looked at the man and gave a slight nod.

“I recall the Dunvils,” Stam said. “A hateful lot, they were. Thick as thieves with Wilhelm and his crew of misfits.”

“Yes,” Rucar admitted. “Was Hulett involved with that lot?”

“He was too timid,” Stam spat. “He prefers to lord over those without power. He would have found himself cowed by Wilhelm. I’d imagine he’s in the same spot now with King Joseph.”

“He is,” Rucar admitted. “The king is not fond of Hulett but he could find no valid reason to remove him. As you said, he was not part of the conspiracy. He is just a dolt and, sadly, there is no crime in that. Perhaps I should be thankful of that fact lest I be wearing irons right now.”

Stam laughed heartily.

“How did you come to be an outlaw?” he asked. “We heard dozens of rumors and I’ve always wished I could ask you man to man.”

Rucar eyed the man across from him. His story had been shared with only a few. But he respected Yerrick and he had come to respect the man that raised the son.

“I was a forester,” Rucar said softly as he stared into the fire. “We lived well away from the village – my wife and son and I. We didn’t have much but we had each other. Sophia was a good woman. She was a wonderful mother and she was kind to everyone. I know of no one that had a cross word to say about her.”

“Sounds like my Berta,” Stam said with a nod. It occurred to Rucar that Yerrick had never said his mother’s name, referring to her simply as Mama.

“To hear your son tell it, your wife is very similar,” Rucar admitted.

“I’m sorry for interrupting your tale,” Stam told him.

“It is fine,” Rucar said. “It gave me a moment to gather my thoughts.”

He took a deep breath and let it out.

“As you know, the usurper gave the lords and their children almost unbridled power to claim the women of their holdings,” Rucar said after a long moment.

“Dunvil took advantage of that?” Stam wondered.

“He was too old,” Rucar replied. “He had two sons, however, that thought it great sport to attack defenseless women – and children. I foolishly believed that since we were so isolated, we were safe from the barbarism. I worked from daylight to dusk in the forests, cutting wood to sell in order to keep us fed. My son wasn’t quite big enough to help me. He was barely 11 years old and he could carry the deadwood but wasn’t much use when it came to felling timber. So, I often left him and his mother to tend our garden.”

He looked away from the fire again.

“You need not tell me what is none of my concern,” Stam said.

“It is fine,” Rucar said again. “Your son is a confederate and I wish for you to understand that I will always do everything in my power to keep him safe.”