Chapter 52: The Cold Light of Day

Joseph awoke not with the sunlight but instead to a gentle hand shaking his shoulder. He sat up and found Celestine’s face illuminated by a candle.

“Your Highness, please come; it is urgent, I believe,” she said softly.

Joseph was in his office where he’d retreated to ponder what had transpired in the dungeon the night before. He was positive that he had locked the door to keep out unwanted visitors. He was equally positive that it hadn’t hindered Celestine’s entrance in the slightest.

“How did you... ?” he started before holding up a hand. He was certain that he didn’t want to know the answer to his question.

“I am very adept at picking locks,” the maid answered anyway. “Now, Your Highness, please. The soldiers are riled and became positively vexed when you did not answer their knocks at your chamber door.”

“Alright,” Joseph said with a sigh. He already knew why the palace guards were looking for him but he wasn’t positive that he wanted to see it firsthand. “Let them know I will join them shortly.”

“Yes, Your Highness,” Celestine replied, wondering why the king didn’t ask her if she knew why the soldiers would look for him in the middle of the night. She departed with a backward glance as Joseph stood to work out the kinks that had developed from sleeping in a sitting position. He grabbed a cloak to ward off the chill and found it still smelled of the hidden passages from the evening prior. He shook it to try to remove some of the smell but it was futile.

The sergeant of the palace guards looked relieved when the king walked into the entryway.

“I apologize for awakening you, Your Highness,” the man said. He lacked the familiarity with the king as some of the soldiers had. “Something untoward has occurred and we wish your guidance.”

“Very well,” Joseph said. He noticed Celestine nearby observing the situation carefully. “Has someone tried to enter the castle?”

“No, Your Highness,” the guard said. “We have orders about such things. It’s ... it’s the prisoner.”

“What of him?” Joseph inquired.

“He’s dead, Your Highness,” the guard said softly. His men had been tasked with watching over Golrick and they had failed.

“Dead?” Joseph asked. “Did someone sneak past your guards and murder him?”

“No,” the sergeant said quickly. “There was a spat upstairs last evening. Two women were bickering and they were keeping everyone awake. Lord Larchman asked the men to attend to the matter. It took a bit of doing but they got them separated. Then they returned to the dungeon. I fear that they did not check the cells once they returned. When they next ventured in, the prisoner had ... hanged himself.”

“I see,” Joseph said with a nod. “Well, do not fault your men. I would suspect Golrick would have found an opportunity at some point if he intended to kill himself. Are you certain he acted on his own?”

“Quite, Your Highness,” the sergeant said, relieved that he wasn’t going to be demoted or sacked for failing to train his men properly. “I ... he left a confession.”

“He had a means of writing in his cell?” Joseph asked with raised eyebrows.

“No, Your Highness,” the sergeant insisted. “He ... he wrote in his own blood on the cell walls.”

Joseph did his part. He blinked and then looked at Celestine to see if she had heard the same thing. She only tilted her head in curiosity. Not much transpired in the castle that she didn’t know about in advance but this was new to her.

“I think you should see it, Your Highness,” the man said. “The confession was ... detailed. I am a bit surprised he did not die from lack of blood. I fear he covered most of the walls.”

Joseph nodded. He wasn’t the least bit surprised when Celestine joined the entourage on the way down the passage. After all, he was certain Rucar would wish for a full accounting upon his return.

The cell walls were made of stone, like the rest of the castle. A heavy wooden door with a square opening covered with bars was the only portal – and Golrick’s bloated frame was still tied to it.

“We had to force it open,” the sergeant admitted. “The guards looked in on him and found him missing. They could not see him below the window. They unlocked the door but couldn’t open it. They feared that he had somehow barred the door from the inside and found a way to escape. They came for me and we pushed in. The rest is as we found it.”

Joseph lifted his candle and saw the bloodstained walls. They were almost entirely covered with scrawled words.

“I believe, Your Highness, he started here,” the sergeant said, helpfully putting his candle up to where the words “My Dearest Elsa” were written in a corner above the bed. “I think he finished here. He tried to sign his name but I believe he was too weak.”

The last words were written on the floor beside the door. Joseph already knew Lucretia had ordered him to sign his name after he had the rope around his neck.

“Gods above,” Joseph muttered. He had heard the entire scene play out but the visual was far starker than the audible.

“He says he sold her to ... the usurper,” Celestine said as she read the words. “This is very interesting, King Joseph. He writes that he was tasked with spying on several of the landholders the usurper left in place. When he could find no evidence of treason, he had to give up his daughter in order to keep his land.”

“It was as we suspected,” Joseph said, frowning as he looked at the corpse. The face was purple even in the dim light. The tongue had bloated and forced its way outside of Golrick’s mouth. The man had run out of places to prick himself with the hairpin and gouged out a large wound on his left forearm. There was a smear of blood across the floor where it had continued to seep after the man had wrapped a blanket around his neck and sat down to strangle himself.

Joseph sighed and stepped away into the hall.

“I believe every landholder needs to see what has happened,” Joseph said. “I believe it is evident that none had a hand in his demise. Do we agree upon this?”

He looked to the guards, who nodded instantly. They knew full well that if anyone fell under suspicion, it would be they. He next gave Celestine a pointed look. He knew that she often saw things others missed.

“His bulk blocked the only exit,” the maid said. “And we have his own words to condemn him. I don’t see how anyone could think we conspired to murder him.”

“I do not want every landholder to believe I would create a false charge to remove him,” Joseph said. “Short of that, I do not want the populace to think me capable of murder. The priest was different. We presented evidence of his misdeeds and we punished him for it. With Golrick, we had only supposition and innuendo. Certainly, I believed I already knew what he had done – and his words confirm my beliefs. But there is no way I could have proven it to even my satisfaction. I do not wish for people to live in fear of me or those that govern with me.”

“I understand,” Celestine said with a nod. “They do not, by the way. I find I agree with Rucar on this. A bit of fear is a healthy thing. But you are the king and I am not so I will not debate your decisions.”

“Rouse the landholders from the slumber and bring them down in small groups,” Joseph said. “I wish that those I’m closest to be brought first. Start with Choran, please. I will have him transcribe what is written on the walls.”

“Yes, Your Highness,” the sergeant said. He sat off with this two guards leaving Joseph standing in the hallway with Celestine.

“Cleverly done,” she said, peering back into the room.

Joseph lifted an eyebrow in question.

“I cannot come up with a way you accomplished this but I know that you did,” she said simply. “I am not concerned about the whys but I would dearly love to know the hows. This is something I believe I should learn.”

“You said it yourself,” Joseph noted. “His bulk was against the only exit and the words are in his own blood.”

“I know what I said,” Celestine replied with a smile. “If you will recall, I said that I didn’t believe anyone could see a conspiracy. I did not say there wasn’t a conspiracy. I have seen you as you sought a way to punish the man for what we knew he did but couldn’t prove. I have seen those around you debate ways to make the man’s punishment fit his crimes. I also know that, as of yesterday evening, you had found no way to accomplish that which you sought. Now the problem is solved and everyone will be content with its disposition. I believe in coincidence. I do not, however, believe in spirits.

“The man wrote his daughter came to him in the night and caused him such anguish he took his own life. I have experienced loss and I have been party to the deaths of others I held dear to me. They do not come to me as I sleep to seek vengeance. Perhaps my sins are not as great as the prisoner’s but I find them troubling enough that I suspect if spirits existed I would have met one or two by now – and I suspect you would have, as well.”

Joseph frowned as he listened to the maid’s words.

“Do not fret,” Celestine said. “The ruse is very clever. Only those nearest to you will suspect anything – and I would imagine that, since Genrico created a disturbance, they already know what transpired. Perhaps one day you will explain it to me. I care little about the man’s death. If you had asked, I would have killed him for you. I have found I am able to render someone unconscious without leaving a mark. I could have done that and then simply jammed a piece of food down his throat. I have an herb that stops the heart. But to drive someone insane and convince them to confess their deepest, darkest secrets is a skill I think I would like to learn.”

“I ordered you to move these to the manor!” a shrill male voice yelled.

Rucar, for one of the rare times in recent memory, had been having a pleasant dream until its interruption. He arose from his bedroll to see the source of the commotion.

There was a well-dressed man standing in the roadway looking at the horses and the wagons. Janna and Iwia were already awake and tending to the animals but the tanned, lithe young women didn’t seem eager to make conversation with the man. They studiously ignored him and went about their business.

Rucar wiped the sleep from his eyes and took a drink of tepid water from his flask before turning to the man again.

“They are not yours,” he said.

“I want them taken to the manor immediately!” the man yelled. “I claim them as property of the holding.”

“That is simply a shame,” Rucar answered in an even voice.

The man’s face turned purple. The loud voice had brought Stam and his family out of their dwelling. It also brought a host of soldiers from their campsite around the bend.

“I run this holding,” the man declared. “My word is law!”

“Then you are King Joseph?” Rucar asked.

“Of course not,” the man spat.

“Then your word is not law and you control absolutely nothing,” Rucar concluded.

“I am Lord Hulett’s administrator,” the man said. “And you will hang for your insolence.”

The cruel smile that crossed Rucar’s face caused the man to step backward – and directly into a pile of dung provided by the horses.

“Ah, Stanrick,” Rucar said. “You were on my list of people to visit today. But, quite frankly, you are so insignificant that it would have been much later. Well, since you are here, there is no need to put it off. Morten?”

The young man came forward and stood beside Rucar.

“This is Lord Hulett’s administrator,” Rucar said with a smile. “I believe we have some information to impart. Do we not?”

“Absolutely,” Morten said with barely concealed glee. “May I?”

“Of course,” Rucar replied politely. “I know this is the part of the job you most anticipated. I would be a boor to deny you the pleasure.”

“You are anything but a boor,” Morten said, ignoring the clerk – much to Stanrick’s consternation.

“You are too kind by half,” Rucar replied, enjoying the look of impotent rage that had settled on the administrator’s face. Perhaps he would die of apoplexy and relieve him of a burdensome task. Alas, it was not to be.

“I claim these animals,” Stanrick said in his best impersonation of a man with power.

“As my friend has told you, that is a shame,” Morten said, finally turning to the man. “But, perhaps it is time for you to understand that all we want does not come to us.”

“Most of what you wish has come to you,” Rucar noted helpfully.

“Hard work and clean living,” Morten retorted. “I wonder whether our dear Stanrick possesses those virtues.”

“True,” Rucar agreed.

“Now, Stanrick, I have heard you make several false statements this morning,” Morten said. “First off, your word is nothing. Turn and look at the crests on the tunics of the soldiers that surround you. Even if you had not already put your life in peril by offending my friend, you certainly did so when you broke the king’s law. The king has declared that only murder, treason and rape are capital offenses. Those accused of those crimes must be tried in accordance with the precedent King Joseph set forth last year. That is, a trial by their peers. Even if my friend had broken one of the laws, you would not have the power to order his hanging. Simply put, sir, Rucar of Dunvil has no peers.”

Stanrick’s second step backward placed his clean boot into a pile of manure. A helpful push from one of the soldiers moved him back to within Rucar’s reach.

“We shall let that pass for now and focus upon your most egregious error,” Morten said amiably. “You are no longer the administrator for this holding. King Joseph has appointed me for that task.”

“Lord Hulett will never stand for that,” Stanrick stated flatly.

“Standing, sitting or lying in a grave ... it matters little to Joseph,” Rucar said. “Lord Hulett, if he returns, will have 25 more soldiers with him. These men will ensure that the King’s Law is enforced here – even if it means they must remove Lord Hulett’s head to do it. Personally, I am of the opinion that Joseph will attend to that task himself. Or, perhaps, he will permit Yerrick to do it.”

“I have an edict from the king permitting me to make such changes as I deem necessary,” Morten informed the man. “Those changes have already begun. After morning meal, the soldiers and I will accompany Stam and our new friend Eldrick as they select their new dwellings. We will evict the current occupants – along with several others the lord has permitted to live rent-free. I will then review the ledgers. If I find one false entry, I will have you charged with treason against the crown and send you off to face King Joseph’s justice in Tyrell. I will raid the lord’s treasury and return the usurious taxes you have collected from some of your citizens while permitting others to live without payment. Then I will have the soldiers deliver a notice of past-due rent to the men and women the lordship seemed content to make payment in other forms.

“If there is a copper left over, I will send it back to Tyrell with my friend, Rucar, to start the holding’s repayment of the rents it owes the crown’s treasury. That is, of course, after I strip you of your title, your belongings and, if necessary, your head. Are we clear about what is about to transpire?”