Chapter 62: Fallen Brother

The travelling party found several men sitting beside the road with their hands bound. Rucar was in the lead and he stopped the wagon. Belinda was riding in the back and she looked at the men in shock.

She knew all of them – most of them intimately. They were some of the meanest, nastiest men the holding had to offer.

There were six broken bows and several arrows sitting in the dirt with the men.

“Lying in wait for your king?” Rucar asked with a sad shake of his head. “It is a shame that you confided your plans to the wrong person. May I assume your encounter with the King’s army did not go as you planned?”

He didn’t wait for an answer. He bounded off the wagon and delivered a swift kick directly into the face of the largest man. The man was tied to the others so he didn’t topple. It gave Rucar a reason to kick him again.

“What holds?” Genrico asked as he rode up from the back. He saw the group of men. The only one he knew by name was slumped forward. Rucar’s second shot had rendered him unconscious.

“It appears your soldiers had some good hunting today,” Rucar said. “They bagged six idiots waiting for our king.”

“Thanks to the information your spy provided,” Genrico said amiably. “Where is young Roderick?”

Rucar frowned. The men were bound hand, foot and waist. The soldiers had moved onward to clear out any other potential ambush sites but Rucar had expected Roderick to remain behind.

“I hope he has not been injured,” the spy said with genuine concern. He had come to view the young men and women in his network as his surrogate children. He knew he was sending them into danger and he longed to protect them as much as he could.

“Spread out and search for Roderick,” Genrico ordered his soldiers. “He might be injured so look for blood.”

The king was the first one off his horse. His ever-present protectorate raced to catch up to him.

“Wait!” Julia said, grabbing the back of the king’s trousers and pulling to try to get him to stop. She was barely successful but it permitted Liala to get in front.

“I am not a helpless child,” Joseph seethed. “Split up. We’ll cover more ground.”

He directed Liala, Julia, Catherine and Elizabeth to the left while he took Octavia, Bianca and Lucretia with him. Genrico led Victoria and Rucar straight forward.

Julia started to protest but Joseph silenced her with a glare. She understood that this was now a potential battlefield and there was no room for conversation. She nodded and moved off without a word.

“Let us be as silent as possible,” Joseph whispered. “Bianca, you have experience in woodlands so you lead. Octavia, I want you and Lucretia to follow in her footsteps as closely as possible. I will make sure no one attacks from behind. I fear that the Huletts have learned of Roderick’s role and sent a second ambush for him – and for us. You watch out for her footfalls. I will watch out for your safety.”

Bianca nodded. She was proud that the king had noticed her ability to move almost silently. It was a skill that Octavia, who had grown up in a land with few trees, and Lucretia – who had lived on the sandy coast – did not have. Still, they paid close attention and slipped quietly into the woods. Bianca kept her bearings by keeping the meager sun to her left.

She stopped suddenly and others followed suit. She motioned for them to remain silent as she tried to discern the noise. Joseph was the only one that didn’t pay attention. He knew the sound and he charged forward with his sword in front of him. Bianca was amazed that he managed to move past her without her even knowing he was moving.

“Someone is dragging a body through the forest,” he said urgently. “No time for stealth.”

The others were not armed for hand-to-hand combat. They carried only a dagger but they rushed forward behind Joseph.

The king charged into a clearing and came to an abrupt stop. Bianca barely had time to avert her dagger lest she plunge it into Joseph’s back. As it was, she hit him hard and fell on her rear. The sound of her fall caused Roderick to look up from his task.

The young man was covered in blood – some of it from a wound in his shoulder. He was straining to tug his brother’s body back toward the road.

“You’re injured,” Joseph said softly. He saw the battle rage in the young man’s eyes along with the look of pain that came from taking a human life. “Let us help you, Roderick.”

The young man blinked at the foursome, their faces failing to make their way through the haze in his brain. If it had been Rucar and Genrico with the king, Joseph was positive the man would have dropped his cargo and attacked. As it was, the two small women and the buxom Marindarian princess caused him to stop.

Lucretia stepped forward. Without a thought about propriety, she used her dagger to cut a large piece of cloth off Joseph’s shirt. She started to move toward Roderick but Joseph stilled her with a firm hand on her shoulder. He had sheathed his sword as soon as he saw Roderick. Now he gently pulled Lucretia’s dagger from her hand and stuck it in his belt.

“Do you recognize me, Roderick?” Joseph asked in a gentle voice. He kept his hand on Lucretia’s shoulder to keep her from making any movement toward the man that still carried his bloody sword in front of him. Octavia and Bianca remained still as Roderick’s eyes darted from the king to those around him. After a long moment, the man nodded and lowered his sword tip toward the ground.

Through the hand on her shoulder, Lucretia actually felt the tension leave Joseph’s body. He gave her a soft squeeze and exhaled.

“Lucretia is going to treat your wound,” the king said. “You can put Frederick down. I’ll help you get him to where you want him.”

Roderick glanced behind him toward his brother.

“He attacked me,” he said in disbelief.

“I know,” Joseph said. “We need to see how badly you’re hurt. Can Lucretia come over?”

Roderick nodded and let his sword and his brother fall to the ground. A moment later, he sat down heavily. Lucretia waited for Joseph to lift his hand before taking off at a run. The others soon followed while Joseph ran his forearm across his face to wipe away the sweat that had formed.

The young women were attending to Roderick and the man finally appeared to be aware of who had found him.

“Are you well?” Joseph asked when he came over and sat down beside the new presumptive heir to the Hulett lands.

Roderick tried a brave nod but the tears in his eyes gave him away. Mindful of Lucretia’s efforts, Joseph put an arm around Roderick’s back.

“It is never as you picture it,” Joseph said softly. “In your head, you tell yourself that you can do it if it becomes necessary. I know you have pictured this day a hundred times. I know you have formulated a plan of battle if the moment came. None of it matters when the day arrives. I’m sorry you had to learn this lesson, Roderick. All the words from those that have experienced cannot prepare you. This can only be learned by doing.”

“I didn’t want to kill him,” Roderick said. “It wasn’t my plan. I was just going to put him with the others for you to find.”

“Tell me what happened,” Joseph told him. “I’m surprised Frederick was anywhere near to here.”

“He was supervising the ambush site,” Roderick confided. “Once he had everyone in place, I expected him to leave. Instead, he hid to watch. It happened just like I thought it would. Your soldiers came through and Frederick’s men had little chance. They didn’t even get a shot off. Your men had swords to their throats before anyone even knew they were near. Frederick saw them, of course, but he couldn’t very well warn his men. Instead, he slipped out of his hiding spot and ran. I chased him. I know these woods better than he ever will.”

He paused and looked back at his dead brother.

“I supposed that is especially true now,” he said sadly.

Joseph looked away so Roderick wouldn’t see the tears that the man’s pain had caused. Bianca saw them, though, and she gave a soft smile toward Octavia.

“You caught him?” Joseph asked gently.

“He was running in circles,” Roderick said. “The trees are thick up on the hill and you have to be careful. It is easy to get turned around. That’s what happened. He got turned around and ran straight into me. He was panicked. He knew if he were caught, it would mean the gallows. I don’t know if he even recognized me. I grabbed him by the shoulders and tried to stop him. I was going to offer to lead him home. Once we got close to the ambush site, I was going to hit him over the head and leave him with the others. I didn’t get the chance. I wasn’t armed. I had my sword still in its scabbard. He pushed me away and I stumbled. That gave him the chance to get his sword into his hand. I dodged at the last moment or it would have been me on the ground.

“I got my sword free and parried him. I thought he’d stop but he didn’t. He kept pressing and I know he planned to kill me. I don’t know if he knew it was me or if he was just too frightened to stop. Finally, I had to defend myself. I still didn’t want to kill him. I mean, I wanted to kill him but I didn’t plan to kill him. I was just going to aim for his shoulder to make him drop his sword.”

Roderick paused, lowered his head and shook it.

“He slipped on the wet grass,” he said in a soft voice. “My aim would have been true if he hadn’t faltered. I got him in the neck. Gods above, I have never seen so much blood in my life. It was spraying out of him too fast for me to even help him. He looked at me while I tried to save him. There was nothing I could do.”

“No,” Joseph agreed. “You faced a choice of him or you. You chose well. This feeling will fade in time, Roderick. It will never fully go away. In your heart, you will always know that you did all you could but the mind is different from the heart. I think you know that I’ve been in your spot many times. This is how I’ve reacted every time.”

“It is what separates us from other people,” Bianca cut in. “We feel remorse at what others have forced us to do. Some people don’t feel anything. I hate to speak ill of the departed but Frederick would not have mourned your loss, Roderick. Maris did not feel pain when he murdered my parents. I killed a pirate to save my grandfather and I still see the man’s face some nights in my dreams. I know our King still sees the faces of those he’s been forced to kill. Do not feel shame at being human.”

Roderick looked up and nodded but Joseph knew it wouldn’t be that simple.

“The sergeant at your manor knows what you will experience,” he said. “Do not hesitate to speak to him if you feel overwhelmed. You are a young man, Roderick. You have not seen enough of life to deal with this on your own. I ... I was not much older than you when I took my first life. I had Genrico to lean upon. He helped me to understand that I was not ... like Wilhelm and Drell. Bianca speaks wisely. Some men feel pleasure at taking a life. You and I ... our friends around us ... we will never be like those people.”

Nadia stood on the prow of the ship as it cut through the water. Two soldiers – both of whom knew how to swim – stood nearby.

“This is an amazing way to travel,” she said with a wide smile that made her already beautiful face turn positively radiant in the sunlight. She had been a remarkably pleasant passenger. Nadia had offered to assist with the mundane tasks that the soldiers and sailors had to perform each day and had taken over the galley. She hadn’t even been cross at the outset when she was getting used to being on the sea.

“Wait until you ride a horse for the first time, Mistress Nadia,” the sergeant said.

“I could not believe it when Empress Yana told us of them,” the young woman said. “Can you truly straddle their backs and they will deliver you to where you wish to go?”

“It is a little more complicated than that but, with practice, yes,” the sergeant said with a nod. “The ladies at the castle love them. But you’ll need to get accustomed to wearing buckskin trousers if you want to fit in with that lot.”

“Trousers?” Nadia asked incredulously.

“Oh, yes,” the sergeant said. “Julia and Victoria introduced the fashion when they returned with King Joseph two years ago. Now, many of the women in the capital wear them. Even Elizabeth and Octavia sport them.”

“Who are these women?” Nadia wondered.

“They are part of the ‘shadow cabinet’ I spoke of with your patron,” the sergeant answered.

“King Olaf is my uncle,” Nadia informed him. The sergeant nodded. “You knew?”

“The information was imparted to me before I left,” the man admitted.

“They knew in Azkoval and I didn’t know,” Nadia said, shaking her head.

“It didn’t matter to you and it was important to us that we knew,” the sergeant answered simply. “The king has always treated you with courtesy, respect and love. That was enough so the blood ties didn’t make a difference. I know your king has told you what you will find in Azkoval but those facts made it important that we understand the situation. It was not meant as an intrusion upon you or King Olaf. We ... we have known for a year that someday you would visit us.”

“You did?” Nadia asked, her mouth agape. “Do you have spies in our capital, too?”

“No,” the sergeant said. “Or, rather, I don’t think so. With Rucar, I would not be willing to offer a definitive answer. We learned last year when our defense minister came across to visit his family and introduce your uncle’s troops to our methods of training. Your uncle spoke to Genrico about the possibility of you spending a few months with us. I think your uncle understood that all young people have wanderlust and he wanted you to have an experience that you could look back on in 20 years and smile. We began to make preparations to receive you. It is why some of the men around you speak Denayian.”