Chapter 69: A New Glimpse at the Past

Joseph wasn’t surprised to see Julia, Liala, Octavia, Lucretia, Bianca, Elizabeth and Catherine on the training grounds when he walked down.

A week had passed since word of King Augustus’ murder had reached Azkoval but no confirmation had been received. Still, his friends had seemed convinced the news had been correct and had begun planning the incursion into Marindar.

A couple things did give the king pause, however. First had been the number of men from the ranks that had volunteered to follow Liala into a potential battle. Joseph had to admit to himself that he had been skeptical about his army’s ability to accept a female in a leadership capacity. Now he saw he was incorrect. Every single man in the army had stepped forward when Genrico asked for volunteers for Liala’s group.

Genrico had suggested 250 troops sail for Marindar as soon as winter hit. With the number stationed around Azkoval and already abroad that would leave fewer than 100 to defend the capital but Joseph wasn’t concerned. The capital could be defended with less than 50 if push came to shove. In fact, Joseph was almost positive that the Home Guard would be able to hold off any attacking force until reinforcements arrived if it became necessary. Yerrick had not returned to the capital yet so no final decision was made.

The 250 men – and the handful of women that had volunteered, as well – would be split into two companies of five platoons each. Each platoon would have five squads of five soldiers. The longest-serving soldiers would comprise the leadership group with Liala acting as overall commander. Octavia had decided that she would not go as part of the Azkoval army but as a Marindarian dignitary the army was bringing home to verify her father’s death. Bianca and Lucretia had immediately announced that they would accompany Liala if she would permit it. The others wanted to go but Joseph had pointed out that as new landholders they should really be at their holdings for the winter and early spring.

Of course, his words had fallen upon deaf ears. He planned to have someone of the same gender try the argument but he wasn’t certain it would work.

Joseph saw that the soldiers were preparing as though they would face determined opposition on a foreign shore. He was heartened that many of the group was comprised of men that had served with him for years. They knew the perils of complacency.

Nadia had been the second surprise. She had not abandoned the group but she had not fully integrated into it. The military arts held no interest for her, although she was impressed by how quickly the army had sprung to readiness. She would spend her days watching the training, wandering the streets of Tyrell and formulating working relationships with dignitaries from the other countries.

But she always dined with the rest of the group and she seemed unperturbed by the information that certain people in the castle had pegged her for the future queen. The only steps she had taken to avoid the fate had been to avoid Joseph almost completely. Even during their meals she sat far away from him and rarely spoke to him.

Now he found her gesturing to him as he left the sparring pits.

“There is a ship with strange markings waiting to dock,” she said. “It is not a banner I recognize so I thought you should be made aware.”

“We have a constant stream of ships from Troyvet in our port,” Joseph replied. “We send a ship that way every month and one arrives here with about the same frequency.”

“I don’t think so,” Nadia said with a shake of her head. “The men on the deck did not have the correct coloring. They more closely matched Octavia than Liala.”

“I see,” Joseph said with a glance to the water. There were three other ships in the harbor and they shielded his view of the foreign craft. “I suppose I should go see.”

Nadia grasped his arm as he started to move away.

“I believe you should alert Genrico and let him deal with whatever is out there,” she said.

Joseph frowned and turned his gaze to the young woman next to him.

“You have an army for this purpose,” Nadia pointed out. “Joseph, the man’s goal is to destabilize Azkoval. I admit I am new to your shores but I can already see the quickest way to accomplish his goal would be to kill you with the opening salvo of arrows.”

The king sighed and grudgingly nodded his agreement.

“I will accompany you back to the castle,” Nadia said, taking it upon herself to ensure the king did as she told him.

“I will go to the docks with the men,” Joseph stated.

“Well, I plan to go along with you there, too, then,” Nadia declared. “I will stay at your side until we know what we face. Surely you will not put me into danger.”

Joseph closed his eyes for a moment.

“My uncle says my greatest gift is the ability to save him from himself from time to time,” Nadia said with a smile. “Since Azkoval is giving so much to Denaya, I believe it appropriate to return the favor where I can.”

Remulus stood on the deck of the ship and watched as hundreds of soldiers marched to the dock and took up defensive positions.

“It seems as though our banner is recognized,” he told one of the old sailors near to him.

“I half expected to have boarding party aboard by now,” the man admitted. “Did you notice the ships patrolling near the mouth of the river?”

“No,” Remulus confessed.

“They gave us a careful inspection as we passed,” the man said. “I expected one of them to break off its route and intercept us. I gave orders that no man was to resist if a ship with the Az banner pulled up on us.”

“I doubt it would have mattered if we had resisted,” Remulus noted drily as he gestured to the men at the dock. “You saw the rabble Junius put together. Do you really believe we could resist if they decided to come aboard?”

“That is why I suggested we simply permit it without comment,” the sailor answered. “I have to admit that I’ve never seen anything like this. We have seen nothing but soldiers for last week and a half. Now we get here and find more men with swords.”

“And we have yet to see more than half of the coastline,” Remulus pointed out. “It is my understanding that the westward side the country is all shoreline. I would imagine that King Joseph has more than a thousand men-at-arms.”

“And a few women, it appears,” the sailor said. “My eyes aren’t as good as they used to be but I’m positive that there are several armed women awaiting our arrival.”

“It is as I told you,” Remulus replied. “Life is different here. Women are ... liberated. It had started while I was here and I’m certain it has grown since. It is what the princess found so enlightening. Women are treated equally to men.”

“I am not certain that I am ready for equality,” the sailor muttered.

“Then you should set sail back to Marindar as soon as you can,” Remulus answered. “This is the way the world is going to be. Females from other countries are going to hear of what happens here. In a decade I would imagine word will reach the known world. Females are not going to sit back and be treated as chattel in their homelands when they are permitted to prosper here. They will depart for a land that thinks as Azkoval thinks or rise up in great numbers and force their king to acquiesce.”

“It’s unnatural,” the sailor protested. “Muhalla...”

“Says nothing about dehumanizing women,” Remulus finished. “Even if he did, that was a thousand years ago and life is different. Look at the female soldiers. Do you believe them incapable of dealing with an invading force?”

The soldier narrowed his eyes. Except for the slimness of the women he couldn’t tell the males from the females.

“No,” he admitted. “I believe they have been trained very well.”

“And if they can fight off invaders what do you suppose they cannot do?” Remulus wondered. “I would wager protecting one’s home and country is the highest duty a person can achieve. If they are capable of that, is it unthinkable that they could run a business or a farm? We are sadly behind the times. Our disciples have pushed the women into subservience in order to maintain their hold on the religion. The words of Muhalla do not declare women to be deficient. The true text says wives and mothers are to be honored above all else save the prophet. We do not honor wives or mothers. We force them to cover themselves head to toe. We do not permit them any amount of autonomy. A female goes from being her father’s daughter to being her husband’s wife to becoming her son’s mother. That is not honor.”

The sailor shook his head.

“What will you do if King Joseph is determined to place the princess on the throne?” Remulus inquired.

“There would be a war,” the sailor spat.

“A very, very short one, let me assure you,” Remulus said. “Look at the shore, you idiot! Think of all the soldiers we’ve seen for the last week. What would Marindar do if even 100 of these warriors showed up with Octavia? We would fall. If they stayed, we would do exactly as they asked of us – or we would perish from the world. Marindar ruled by might for hundreds of years. Well, we are no longer the mightiest country in the land. And the imbecile that sits on our throne has angered a country we could not defeat on our best day. Make no mistake, sir, if Azkoval wishes Marindar to have a queen, we will have a queen. If the populace is opposed, they can get used to it or they can die. We have forced our will on others for generations. Now, we will see how it felt.”

The sailor looked again at the shore. There was a long boat headed toward the Marindarian vessel. The men aboard looked quite hardy but that wasn’t what captured his attention. It was a woman in tight trousers and tunic. The front of her top was stained with sweat and she had a strange weapon in her hands.

“It seems our princess wishes to show us that she has not been held captive,” Remulus noted.

“That is the princess?” the sailor asked. As with most in Marindar, the ruling family was mostly a faceless rumor.

“That is Princess Octavia,” Remulus stated.

The longboat stopped short of the ship and veered sideways. The men at the oars stopped rowing and lifted rather impressive bows. The sailors on the deck immediately moved backward when they saw the arrows pointed in their direction.

“Marindarian shipping vessel,” a loud voice boomed. “State your business in Azkoval or prepare to defend yourselves.”

Remulus gulped and stepped to the railing.

“I am Remulus,” he said. “Princess Octavia, do you recognize me?”

The man did not give Octavia a chance to reply.

“I said for you to state your business,” the man yelled.

“I was sent by our king,” Remulus said. He didn’t think it best to tell Octavia of her father’s death right then. “I have payment for the foodstuffs delivered to our country and a letter to Princess Octavia from her father.”

“Are you aware my father is dead?” Octavia yelled.

Remulus closed his eyes and lowered his chin to his chest.

“Yes, Your Highness,” he said loudly. “I learned of that fact when we docked for repairs. You have my sincerest condolences, Princess Octavia.”

Octavia leaned forward and spoke to the soldier in charge. He nodded his agreement.

“We will send a boat out for you, Remulus,” the man yelled. “You will come ashore alone and your crew will submit the ship for inspection. Any man found under arms will be put to the sword without question.”

“That is acceptable,” Remulus said. “We have armaments aboard to defend against pirates but I will have the sailors store them in the hold.”

“Bugger that,” said the old man Remulus had been talking to. He walked to the rail and threw his sword and dagger into the water. A second longboat had appeared on the opposite side and everyone aboard could see dozens more being prepared on the shore. Two of the three ships that had once rested near the ship had moved farther into the harbor to block any attempted escape and the third had a large contingent of soldiers on the decks in full battle regalia.

It wasn’t long before every sailor aboard had thrown whatever weaponry he carried overboard.

“Tell them we request to stay here,” the ship’s captain said urgently as Remulus climbed over the rail to the rope ladder that would lead him to the waiting boat. “The ship can be held as collateral if they will permit it.”

“Is that the will of your men?” Remulus asked.

“It is my will,” the captain declared. “If the others wish to go elsewhere, they can look for different passage than this vessel.”

“If that is their invasion force, it appears that they have surrendered,” Nadia noted from the king’s side.

“That is the translator,” Joseph said. “I recognize him beneath the beard. At least he still lives. I gathered he was no fonder of Junius that I was.”

“You do not plan to meet with him, do you?” Nadia asked.

“Do not tell me that I have a foreign minister for such purpose,” Joseph said. “I would no sooner permit Elena in the company of a potential enemy than I would you, and she is away.”

Nadia frowned.

“I will have him searched for weapons or contraband before I visit with him,” Joseph said. “I will have two soldiers in the room with me and I will never permit him to get close enough to me to attack. Will that suffice?”

Nadia gave the king a sideways look and nodded.

“Are you headed back to the castle or do you plan to visit with your friends?” Joseph asked as he turned to go to his office.

“I will go with you,” Nadia said.

“I don’t require supervision,” Joseph said. “I don’t care what that group has told you about me.”

“No,” Nadia said. “I know that you can handle your own affairs. The truth is that ... I believe my sister is nearby. There was a woman with hair similar to mine. I saw three young women hustle her away when they saw you. I can only assume it is she.”

“Have you spoken to her?” Joseph wondered as they walked up the stones that led to the castle’s front entrance.

“No,” Nadia admitted. “She’s tried to make an appointment to visit with me. She said it is something about an inheritance but I have no idea what I might have been left and I don’t want whatever it is.”

“She’s concerned about her inheritance,” Joseph admitted as he expelled air noisily from his lungs.

“What do I have to do with that?” Nadia asked in a brittle voice.

“I knew it was a bad idea,” Joseph said. “Your father...”

“Please do not refer to him in that manner,” Nadia cut in.

“Sure,” Joseph agreed. “Ludwig von Schumann brought a large sum of coin with him along with the implements to murder me – or someone else, I suppose. By our law and yours, his possessions go to his oldest child. My advisers believed it imprudent to offer the coin to your ... to Annika von Schumann. So, they left it with ... me ... to disburse to you through your emissary.”

Nadia stopped and Joseph was forced to do the same. She offered a stony glare worthy of any of her new friends.

“You agreed to this without discussing it with me?” she asked angrily.

“When I agreed to it, I had yet to speak a single word to you,” Joseph pointed out. “It was a relatively benign way out of a difficult predicament. Many believe your ... Annika von Schumann ... was a knowing participant in her father’s plans. We could not, in good conscience, release the coin to her.”