Chapter 74: An Empty Castle

Genrico and Victoria’s nuptials set in motion a series of events that had been planned for several months.

The newlyweds departed for a visit to Osid – and to deliver a dozen horses for the Caliph’s usage and breeding. They took with them a small cadre of soldiers to provide protection. The soldiers would stay behind to train with Osid’s retainers.

They also took along Nadia’s sister, Annika, who departed Azkoval with 10 gold coins to her name (three from King Olaf and seven provided by her older sister from their father’s coinage rather than from King Joseph).

Her captors (Clementine, Carolina and Constance) had offered dire predictions of what would befall the woman if she ever was seen in Tyrell again. But they had also offered her something to think about on the voyage: She was finally free. Annika was free from the stain of her family and from her father’s mistreatment. She had coin and the opportunity to build whatever sort of life she might choose for herself. Half of her wealth (along with her unique beauty) would ensure a marriage to almost any man that caught her fancy and a life of adventure, leisure or profit. It was a gift rarely seen in Azkoval or Denaya.

Annika had nodded as the trio had spoken – but Rucar’s employees had no doubt that Annika von Schuman would find more mischief and an early grave. She was simply too arrogant and too stupid to stay out of her own way.

Carolina and Constance had accepted Genrico’s offer to join them on the voyage – not to watch over Annika but so they could see a portion of the world neither had even known existed three or four years earlier.

A week after Genrico and Victoria headed southward, Morane, Alexander, Amelia, Merritt and their contingent set sail for Morane’s homeland. Joseph knew the ship would return in a year or so – but he doubted he would ever see Morane again. The king knew the ties to one’s home country could never be completely severed. He gave his now-retired bishop a warm hug on the docks – embarrassing for the former slave and missionary.

Liala and her soldiers (which included Bianca and Octavia) departed for Octavia’s homeland shortly thereafter. The group planned to sail as far as they could before winter set in for real. They would stop a few weeks’ sailing time from the Marindar coast to restock their supplies and then make their way northward as soon as the harsh winter permitted passage.

Again, Joseph found himself on the docks wishing his friends farewell and good tidings. He wasn’t surprised that almost the entire city turned out to see the soldiers off.

With Jonathan and Elena electing to spend the winter in Denaya and the rest of his retinue heading off to their home regions for the winter Joseph was left to wonder if this was how he would spend the remainder of his life – watching others go off on adventures while he stayed behind to worry about their safety and guessing when they might return.

He felt a soft hand on his arm and turned his head to see Nadia. She offered a gentle smile.

“They will return to you,” she told him.

“Some,” Joseph replied. “I fear we have seen Morane for the final time. Some will perish in the wilds of Marindar. Some will elect to stay elsewhere if they find the place hospitable. It is the nature of things. People move on.”

Nadia gripped his arm briefly before sliding her hand downward to take his.

“Not this time,” she told him. “Yes, some of our friends might perish on their journeys. Fate can be cruel that way. But those that are able will return to your side – if not immediately then very soon afterward. You have given them something they won’t find elsewhere no matter how often they seek. You have built a home for them here, Joseph. You have taken this land that man and heaven had forsaken and you have built it into a haven for everyone. The friends you have ... the family you have built ... they will always find their way back to you. I know this.”

The king sighed heavily and watched until the last of the ships made its way out of the harbor to the open sea.

Nadia found herself using her thumb to massage Joseph’s palm and wondered when she had begun that motion. It felt natural to be standing at the water with her hand in his.

“Come,” she said before she could lose herself in her own reflections. There would be time for her musings later – because she was as alone as Joseph. “I asked the cook to prepare a nice lunch for us – your favorites.”

Joseph shifted his gaze from the departing ships to the woman beside him.

“Thank you,” he said. “That was kind.”

Nadia’s cloak had slipped off her shoulder when she had taken the king’s hand so Joseph pulled it around her to ward off the chill coming from the northern winds.

Nadia graced him with a warm smile.

The soldiers fell in around them as they started their walk back to the castle. Nadia waited until the ranks had formed around them before she slid her hand back into Joseph’s. Unlike a few moments earlier, this time she laced her fingers in his.

Their billowing cloaks hid the intimate gesture from the citizens that still turned out by the dozens to see their king each time he emerged from behind the castle walls. But one person, Gemma Frund, saw what was happening and gave her husband a nudge in the ribs.

“A woman knows these things,” she informed him in a low voice.

Garten merely nodded – and didn’t mention that he, too, had noticed the burgeoning relationship between their former king’s niece and their current king.

The Frunds had elected to stay in Azkoval for the winter while Garten investigated Joseph’s shipping fleet. They had decided to stay away from the castle, however.

They had taken lodgings not far from where Lydia and Yerrick resided – which suited Geordie just fine since he had taken quite a shine to Annette of Hulett. He lived near enough that it didn’t seem like anything but a coincidence that he got the chance to see her almost every day.

Annette had celebrated her 13^th year but her final growth spurt – along with the amount of time she spent around Julia, Liala, Octavia, Lucretia, Bianca, Elizabeth and Catherine – made her seem older.

Roderick had elected to join the Home Guard as soon as an opening arrived and had taken a temporary job as Garten’s messenger and transcriptionist in the meantime. Genrico’s father still wasn’t fond of visiting the castle but he required information from those sources almost daily. Roderick had excellent penmanship and Garten was already lamenting his loss when Yerrick found a spot for the young man patrolling the city streets.

Garten had decided to conscript Geordie into the duty – until Gemma had pointed out that Garten had already alienated one son by planning out his life without a moment of discussion. Garten hadn’t been pleased by the comparison – but he also couldn’t refute it. For now, Geordie was working as a laborer helping Franco’s sons in their race to finish the barracks before the snows started to fall in earnest.

The work seemed to suit Genrico’s brother. He, too, had grown in stature – and his affiliation with the king and the defense minister (not to mention the fact that he was often seen about the city with the group of attractive women that surrounded the king) had increased his status among the females of the city.

That had led to an awkward conversation, conducted not by his father but by his brother and his surrogate brother (the king) – who perhaps knew less of the females of the species than the 14-year-old Geordie did. Thankfully, the king’s shadow cabinet had been within earshot. They spent much of the week correcting the misinformation Joseph and Genrico had provided.

The last thing Geordie wanted was that group angry at him so he made it a point to treat every female he met (regardless of age or marital status) with courtesy and respect. If anything, his manners increased the numbers of young, eligible women that trailed in his wake.

There were many in the capital that were going to miss the company of the groups that had departed for distant shores – but none moreso than Joseph and Nadia.

That was evident in their shambling pace back up the street to where they resided.

“This must be what it is like to watch one’s children head off to meet their future,” Nadia remarked as they neared the portal.

The comment brought a deep laugh from Joseph.

“Perhaps you’re right,” he said. “It is hard for me to send people off into the unknown without walking there first myself.”

“They are all very capable warriors,” Nadia told him, giving his hand a gentle squeeze.

“Even with those that have simply departed for home, I worry,” Joseph admitted. “They are all first-time landholders. We have brought in administrators with their input. Aside from Elizabeth, they are headed to places that are unfamiliar to them. They will know no one.”

“Lucretia went with Julia,” Nadia pointed out. “Catherine said she knows the man running McMicken for her from her time with the Burbridge family. Catherine is but a day’s ride from Elizabeth. All three are but two days’ ride from here. They will be fine, Joseph.”

The king sighed.

“Perhaps you’re right about the children part,” he confessed as they sat down in the small family dining room. “It bothers me that they will do just fine without me around to watch over them. I know that everyone believes they watch out for me ... but I watched out for them just as much.”

“I know you did,” Nadia said. She had released his hand when they sat but now she placed hers atop his again. “They know you did. But everyone deserves to have an adventure of their own. They deserve to have the chance to put their mark on the world. Liala, Octavia and Bianca want to impress you by bringing victory home from Marindar – and then bringing their soldiers out alive just like you did. Julia wants to prove that she is not just a fierce warrior but also an able landholder. Catherine and Elizabeth are both excited to start enacting their educational plans on a larger scale so you will be proud of them, too.”

“I am already proud of all of them,” Joseph said.

“I know,” Nadia said again. “But this is about letting them prove their worth to themselves, too. I know what they are experiencing right now. There is excitement but there is also great trepidation. I looked forward to my visit here ... but I also dreaded it. My uncle had told me many times that I was capable ... but I could not know for certain until I could prove it without him standing behind me.”

“Which you have,” Joseph said, smiling at Nadia.

“Perhaps,” she said, shrugging slightly. “In many ways, I have gone from having him behind me to having you behind me. There is no real risk of failure for me. You would protect me from that just as he protected me in the past.”

Joseph nodded his agreement.

“Does this mean that you wish some time away from the castle, too?” he asked after a moment of silence. That wasn’t the question he wanted answered – and Nadia knew it. He was asking if she wanted time away from him.

“No,” she said at once. “I find...”

She sighed.

“I find I am quite happy with the arrangements that we’ve made,” she admitted. “I am happy that we can grow to know one another ... without distractions. I am not saying that I will not miss our friends. I already miss them greatly. But this will give us an opportunity to learn more about each other. It will give us a chance to see if...”

She paused again.

“Please do not be cross with me,” she said.

“I won’t,” Joseph said. He turned his hand over to caress Nadia’s.

“I will give us a chance to see if we can exist together without the others,” she said. “I ... I am still uncertain about the structure of the relationships you will wish with them – and they will wish with you. Logically, I can see no real harm in it. Yet...”

“There is potential for a great deal of harm to come from it,” Joseph finished for her. “I have always known that. It is why I have declined their attempts to press the matter further. They can’t simply live in the castle, produce children without a husband and expect nobody to notice and nobody to care. And they cannot simply expect the woman I marry to permit such behavior.”

“It is not a matter of permission,” Nadia said. “It is...”

She stopped when the doors to the kitchen opened and a server emerged.

“Let us discuss this at another time,” she proposed.

“The winds foretell of an early winter,” Joseph said with a soft smile. “I believe we will have ample time to conduct this discussion while we are stuck here staring at each other for months on end.”

The castle wasn’t the only structure that was almost barren as the opening snows of the season coated the landscape.

The barracks held barely 50 soldiers – almost all of them new arrivals that would begin their training when the weather warmed.

A large portion of the army had departed with Liala – more than half the soldiers in Tyrell were on their way to Marindar in a show of force that King Junius could never hope to match.

A smaller group had left with Genrico. Most of the 100 would stay behind to train with Osid’s troops. In return, the Caliph would send some of his soldiers back with Genrico to spend a few months in Tyrell.

Another group had been sent down the Western Road to provide support and supplies to Drayvon. The northern winters rarely affected the southern tradewinds and the pirates had attempted to make land numerous times the previous winter. Drayvon and his soldiers had managed to keep them off land – for the most part – but they had been spread thin.

Joseph had spoken with the mayor and the Home Guard commander. Both believed that the city’s police force could protect Tyrell from any invasion force until help could arrive from elsewhere. There were soldiers stationed only two or three days away by horseback. The only real danger would be faced by those outside the city walls – the dockworkers and the newly arrived recruits.

But little could be done to help those people. Joseph hoped there would be sufficient warnings to get everyone inside the city if invaders appeared in the harbor – or somehow managed to traverse the snowy winter terrain.

The horses were sure-footed on light snow but even the marvelous animals couldn’t do much when the accumulation reached a human’s waist.

Most of Tyrell was content to remain indoors. Remulus had spent his captivity crafting window coverings made from fur that were a great improvement over the wooden shutters commonly used. It stood him in good stead but Joseph still kept him on a form of house arrest.

Life was actually good for the man. Tyrell’s winters, harsh as they might be, were nothing compared to the bone-chilling cold that seeped through even the stoutest in the northernmost climes of Marindar.

As with Annika, Remulus was permitted free movement in the city – with the same caveat as Nadia’s sister had received. There were “minders” nearby and the first step out of line would result in either imprisonment or instant death.

Remulus found he didn’t mind the restrictions. The people in Tyrell were different from his home. Even as the snow came down, they smiled and made jokes. He saw a wife throw a snowball at her husband and the man simply laughed and returned the gesture. The the wife scooped up another handful and started to chase the man, both laughing and grinning the entire time.

In his previous existence, Remulus knew that such an act would lead to a very public beating – perhaps unto death. At the very least, it would lead to a church leader removing the wife from her home for several months of “counseling.”

Remulus shuddered when he considered what form the “counseling” might take.

“Cold finally catching up to you?” a man asked in passable Marindarian. It was one of the “minders” appointed to watch over the newcomer.

Remulus merely shook his head.