Chapter 59: A Lack of Diplomacy

The Az emissary to King Olaf’s court looked down at the letter and then back to the soldier that had delivered it.

“I cannot present this to King Olaf,” he said, shaking his head.

“Baron Jonathan said I was to tell you that you have your orders,” the soldier stated in a flat voice. He knew not what the letter said but he did know of the happenings in his capital – and the vexation those events had caused Jonathan, Elena and Choran. “If you refuse, you are to be relieved and I am to present the letter myself. We both know this will go better coming from your hand.”

The diplomat was new, of course. He had never served in any official capacity before his arrival at the Denayian capital of Narcine. He had served King Joseph as a soldier for many years and had served as a captain in the force Lady Elena had built while the king campaigned. But his time in Narcine had been useful. He had interacted with other emissaries from Denaya’s allies and he had learned the rudiments of diplomacy.

“How big a force have we landed here?” Rudolph of Tyrell asked.

“Ten soldiers,” came the reply. Rudolph nodded grimly. Others would see the parchment in his hand as a direct precursor to war. A nation simply did not dictate policy to another nation.

“We are not under arms,” the soldier continued.

“Even better,” Rudolph replied. “You realize, of course, that we are likely to be killed as soon as I offer this to the king. No. No, you do not realize that.”

“If we are killed, then things will go badly for Denaya,” the soldier offered. “I realize that. I suppose it is your job to ensure that the king or his ministers or whoever you give this to understands that, as well. I was given the letter. I was instructed to bring it to you and to have you give it to ... whoever you need to give it to. I was told to tell you that this is a direct order from the stewards. I have done my duty so long as you do yours.”

“Where is the king?” Rudolph wondered. “Why is this not coming from his hand?”

“He is away for a few weeks,” the soldier said. “You should probably be happy it did not come from King Joseph. It might have been delivered by 200 soldiers instead of 10.”

“True,” Rudolph agreed.

“One other thing,” the soldier said as Rudolph prepared to head to Olaf’s palace. “We were instructed to return the body here. Please ask the king where he would like it. We were told to leave it in the street if no one claimed it before it is time to set sail for home.”

Rudolph rubbed his face but nodded as he made his trek to the palace.

The guards knew him by sight because he often sparred with them and the few he passed nodded politely.

Rudolph had grown up in the northern regions of Denaya and he was used to its form of single-rule governance. He had thought the idea of appointing ministers to steer certain segments of life to be madness. Now he longed for such people.

Olaf had only an aide. The king ruled every facet of the country and he met personally with everyone who managed to secure an appointment.

The aide, a man just slightly older than Rudolph, greeted the diplomat cordially – as he always did.

“I fear my country would like for me to confer with King Olaf as soon as it is convenient,” Rudolph told the man.

“Of course,” the aide replied. “I will see if he can see you now. We heard that one of your soldiers paid you a visit today. I hope nothing has happened in Azkoval.”

“Nothing has happened but something was averted,” Rudolph answered. “That is why I wish to speak to King Olaf. My ministers have sent a letter for his eyes. They tasked me with delivering it to him personally.”

“I will see if he is available,” the aide said with a nod. A moment later, he returned and gestured Rudolph into the throne room.

“I pray nothing is amiss,” Olaf said as soon as he took in Rudolph’s grave countenance.

“There was ... an incident, Your Eminence,” Rudolph said after bowing to the king. “A man claiming to be your kin arrived with a woman in tow.”

“I have no kin but Nadia,” he said.

“Be that as it may, Your Eminence, the man claimed to be Earl Ludwig von Schuman, husband to your sister, Sonya,” Rudolph replied. The king’s face darkened and Rudolph wondered if a war was about to start before his eyes.

“Go on,” the king said instead.

“The earl ... we believe he attacked the young woman with him,” Rudolph said, carrying out his instructions. “I should alert you, Your Eminence, the woman claims to be his daughter.”

Olaf’s eyes closed and Rudolph saw the man’s chest rise as the king took a deep breath.

“His daughter resides with me,” the king said slowly. “Nadia, the young woman everyone assumes is my child, is my niece.”

“Yes, Your Eminence,” Rudolph said with a slight gulp. The former soldier did not lack personal bravery but the steeliness in the king’s voice reminded him too much of Joseph not to produce a bit of a fright. “That is what our information has told us. We understand that you removed the child for her protection. I fear, Your Eminence, that your protection did not extend far enough. The woman, whose age I have heard to be around 16 years, was raped by the earl.”

“Damnation!” Olaf seethed. “If you wish my permission to hang him, castrate him, disembowel him ... you have it.”

“No, Your Eminence,” Rudolph said. “The man claiming to be Earl Ludwig von Schuman is dead.”

Olaf’s eyes widened in surprise.

“I wish I could say that I’m sorry to hear that,” he said. “Truly, though, I am not sorry in the slightest. Did the woman said to be his child kill him or did you hang him for his crime?”

“Neither, Your Eminence,” Rudolph said with a sigh. “Later, he accosted another young woman – a maid at the inn where he stayed. She killed him.”

“I truly hope she killed him before he harmed her,” the king said.

“She did,” Rudolph assured the king. “However, I fear my government is still disturbed that he was permitted to come to Azkoval. I have been instructed to deliver this to you and to await a response. I will hasten to add, Your Eminence, that the words come from my ministers. They are not my own.”

Olaf nodded and accepted the parchment.

His frown deepened as he read it. When he reached the bottom of the page, he closed his eyes and put it aside. Most of what he’d read had just been spoken aloud.

“Your Eminence, I am certain that it was not our intent to cause hardship between our countries,” Rudolph said. “As you know, our interaction with foreign countries is rather new. The succor Denaya provided our king has not been forgotten. I wish to assure you of that.”

“I understand the sentiments expressed in the missive,” the king said. “I believe, if the situations were reversed, if a member of King Joseph’s family – may they reside in paradise – if his family came to my land and behaved as Ludwig has, I would be angered beyond belief. The man carried the tools of an assassin on his body. He wished to meet with your king and I can think of no other reason than to cause harm. Additionally, he has harmed a woman on your shores.”

He shook his head sadly.

“I was told my sister was unable to bear further children,” he said sadly. “If I had known she was fertile, I never would have permitted her to leave. Your king is relatively new to his role but, at some point, I fear he will face a difficult choice. He must impose limits on his will or become a tyrant. Given what I’ve heard of him, I believe he will make the correct choice. Ludwig was my crossroads. I had been told by others that he ... he raped a young girl of about 10 years. The girl and her family had disappeared so I could not question them. Ludwig, of course, denied the allegations. There was never love between him and me. I will confess, I have despised the man since first I met him – and that was long before my sister, Sonya, was promised to him.

“Because I loved my sister, I gave her husband a role in my government. It was a small role, to be certain, but it gave him ... credibility. When news of the allegations reached me, I had sat on this throne for barely two years. I had no proof. I did not even have an accuser. I had second- or third-hand accounts. Someone said that someone else witnessed the crime. I considered putting him to death. In fact, I wished to put him to death. At the same time, I feared that would lead me down the road where so many others in my position have been led. So, I removed his daughter from his care and banished him from the capital. I sent a man northward to watch over him. For more than a decade, I heard nothing that gave me pause. I was told that Ludwig rarely left the manor. I knew nothing of a second child. I give you my word of honor that I would have had this one taken from him as well.”

“Pardon my intrusion, Your Eminence,” Rudolph said, “but there is also a third child or so we have been told. The youngest is perhaps 12 years old.”

Olaf’s face reddened, not at the interruption but by the fact that a man he trusted had been duped or turned.

“The woman he claims as a child, what has become of her?” Olaf asked.

“Nothing, Your Eminence,” Rudolph said. “She is not suspected of a crime. In our land, she is an adult so she would have been given the choice to return or to stay in Azkoval. She was not on the ship so I will assume she remained there. She is not being detained and will not be unless she commits a crime.”

Olaf nodded and smiled slightly.

“Your laws ensure justice and fairness,” he said. “I worried more that she had been sent back to Denaya.”

“I do not believe she will be expelled without just cause,” Rudolph replied. “However, there is one more letter I need to give to you.”

Olaf nodded wearily as he accepted the second piece of parchment. The letter was short and he read it quickly.

“We have returned the refuse you sent to our shores,” Jonathan had written.

“Ludwig’s body, I assume,” the king said.

“Yes, Your Eminence,” Rudolph answered. “As I said, we have only his claim to his identity. We wish for someone that might know the man to verify for us.”

Olaf nodded gravely.

“Have you brought it to the palace?” he wondered.

“No, Your Eminence,” Rudolph said quickly. “It is still aboard the ship.”

“Then I suppose I will go with you to inspect the corpse,” the king said. “What does Azkoval ask in reparation?”

Rudolph blinked.

“We ask nothing, Your Eminence,” Rudolph said. “My ministers simply wished to protest the actions of a man they consider to be part of your family. I can see that you do not claim him but I fear that is immaterial to them. Similarly, they were displeased about the weaponry they found upon his body. I will confess I know little about assassins or their tools. I do not know for certain what they might have found.”

“I know as little as you do, Rudolph of Tyrell,” the king said. “What I do know is that Denaya and Azkoval are friends. Our friendship does not come because your king landed on our shores as a child. It does not even come because of geographic, economic or military convenience. It comes because we share ideals. We share a heritage. If your ministers have determined that the man came with blackness in his heart, I will not doubt them. If it truly is Ludwig von Schuman, I have no doubt your ministers have taken an accurate read of him.

“I will draft a letter to return with the ship and send payment to the woman he says is his child and to the young woman that did our countries a great service by ending his life. First, let us go the ship. I will tell you if the man is indeed Ludwig von Schuman and then I will have his body dumped into the bay regardless of its identity. The fish can feast on his carcass.”

“I think I preferred that service to Jonathan and Elena’s,” Catherine noted as she sat at a table during the feast that followed the nuptials.

“It was certainly shorter,” Joseph replied.

The ceremony was outdoors and the temperature had grown oppressively hot. Even the usual mountain breezes were thick with humidity.

“I smell like one of the horses,” Julia added. “I don’t believe it ever got this hot in Wellington.”

“If it did, we just disappeared into the forest,” Victoria told her sister. “The trees provided a canopy of shade so the air didn’t feel so hot.”

“I might disappear into the forest this evening,” Julia said.

“I would rather you stay close to camp tonight,” Joseph cut in. “I fear that things will come to a head and I want everyone where I know they’re safe.”

The others in the group perked up their ears at the news.

“Roderick says his brother has been trying to gather some of his cronies,” Rucar explained. “I doubt they will wish to tangle with us as a group but they might try to find one of us alone. Judging from how several of the men have been eyeing you ladies, I have no doubt they would prefer that person to be female.”

“I sincerely doubt they would have much more luck with one of us than they would with a male,” Liala pointed out.

“That was not my point,” Joseph said. “In ... where was it, Genrico? Was it in Calumet that they call their ale ‘liquid courage?’”

“Badenroot,” Genrico corrected. “In Calumet they called it grog. It wasn’t ale though. It was something much stronger. Whatever it was, it tasted terrible.”

“Either way, the men have been drinking heavily today,” Joseph said.

“It is known that hot weather causes the alcohol to do strange things to men,” Morane added. “They become even more prone to irrational acts and violence. Yes, if any action is to be taken, it will come this evening.”

“Is that why you asked us to go light on the ale?” Octavia wondered.

“Partially,” the king admitted. “I have been around most of you when you imbibe and I know your inhibitions lower as well. I wanted to ensure that no one created any problems on Lydia and Yerrick’s wedding day.”

“I believe he just called us slatterns,” Elizabeth noted with a laugh.

“I did not say that,” Joseph replied quickly. “I just didn’t wish for one of your ribald comments to lead to a misunderstanding that caused you to bash some poor man’s head in for him. I have already seen at least two instances where you would have physically harmed a man if you had consumed much ale today.”

“True,” Elizabeth said with a nod. “If Frederick and his men do attack, please save Lord Hulett’s heir for me. I will punish him before I kill him.”