Chapter 11

Marie had spent the last two days with Seth checking around the first town.

They weren't one of the first town's attacked, but they were among the first reported, and they were close to the capital than the rest at a days travel away.

Having spent the day looking around and talking to people they realized that they didn't know anymore than they did when they started.

Marie didn't have much of a chance to be alone with Seth for more than making out. Tonight she wanted to do something since they would have a real room instead of a tent to mask some of the noise she was hoping to make in it.

While in an Inn getting a meal with Seth, and discussing what they had been up to, Seth noticed a young boy about ten seasons old and called him over to meet Marie.

"Marie, this is Toby, he is one of the merchant apprentices. Toby this is Marie the woman who has decided to give me a break and make an honest man of me and marry me," said Seth.

Lightly punching his arm Marie looked at the boy and said "Hello Toby."

"Wow she's really pretty. You got really lucky Mr. Seth," said Toby while staring at Marie.

"Why thank you Toby," said Marie, but while blushing while Seth chuckled.

Normally compliments rolled off her back like water off a duck, but such frank honesty from a young child was refreshing and unexpected.

"There you are boy, why are you bothering Seth?" asked a loud voice.

Looking the direction of the voice Marie could see a quite rotund man as he leaned almost backwards and walked towards them. He was clean shaven with a balding head. His once black hair was now almost white instead of salt and pepper.

The man was dressed nicely but not in too expensive tunic and pants.

"Ahh Master Patterson, how goes it my good man?" asked Seth standing to embrace the man coming towards him.

"Well, well my friend. I hope Toby wasn't bothering you," said Patterson.

"Of course not, I love the little tyke," said Seth as he leaned over and rubbed Toby's head.

"Who do we have here? My god how do you get all the beauties to drag you to their beds? My god if I could bottle up what you have and sell it I would make a fortune!" said Patterson.

"Master Patterson, this is Marie, she's to be Mr. Seth's wife sir," said Toby.

Looking red Patterson tried to speak "Uhm, that was a joke between us, Seth and I ... Uhm, uhh, is a good man. Honorable man and..."

"Don't worry, we all had a past before we met, its not like I'm worried about anything but making sure he's too tired to be with anyone but me," said Marie giving Seth a smoldering look.

"Yes I really need to find a way to bottle that," muttered Patterson under his breath as he gave the room a sideways glance.

"Have a seat and bring me up to speed on your travels," said Seth gesturing to a chair.

Pulling out a chair Patterson sat in it, but leaned way back.

Talking they spoke about various things in the kingdom, how Patterson's shipping business was going, and eventually they got around to the attacks.

"It's a good thing to see that your men are making rounds trying to catch whoever is doing it. It's a shame that you only have a couple men in each town. Those people they train don't even have proper weapons.

"But Patella mind you has a full garrison of 150 - 200 fighting men stationed in every other town near the border it seems. Not every town, but enough that you know they are there," said Patterson.

"Wow, they are intent on catching who ever it is. At least they will see it's not us if they have that many men available to them," said Seth.

"Tell me about it. Who ever is doing it isn't that bright. But at least you're finally doing something about it as well. I thought the king would never loosen up the purse strings to allow you and your boys out," said Patterson laughing.

"Now, now you know as well as I do the Counts control the kingdom's money. The King would have us out there yesterday if he could," said Seth with a smile.

"But I truly find it hard to believe that someone is doing so much damage to your kingdoms like they are. Who ever it is, is attacking you both, but Patella seems to be getting the lighter side of the damage.

"Where you're almost having entire towns destroyed Patella is losing a few buildings, and at the most they are often empty ones. Where you're barely having enough men ride into towns to see what is going on, Patella has troops everywhere. It's like for every three towns or cities that you have hit Patella has one. Why do they have it in for your kingdom I wonder," said Patterson.

"I don't know either. It's like..." started Seth, but he never got to finish.

"Oh my god, that's it. That's why they are doing it. Now it makes complete sense what is going on," said Marie almost under her breath.

"What are you talking about my dear?" asked Patterson.

"Now that we know what is going on, the real questions are now who and what they personally gain from it," said Marie looking down and still in her own world.

"Marie, honey, what are you going on about?" asked Seth as he gently put his hand on her arm.

Looking up as if she realized where she was for the first time Marie looked at Seth.

"Oh, I'm sorry. It's a bad habit I picked up from my friend Dusty. In fact he's infected us all with his way of thinking. It's the invasion that I'm talking about of course. You know that you're in no position to stop it," said Marie matter of factly.

"Excuse me?!" said Seth in alarm.

"Its not going to happen today, but it's soon," said Marie.

"Excuse me my dear, how did you come about to that conclusion?" asked Patterson.

"Think about it. Both of you gave me all the pieces, and if you think about it you have them as well. Seth, think about what is going on here. The Counts are severely limiting all the money being spent right? Think about it, why? What do they have to gain from "not" protecting the people any better than they have or providing better troops in the Kingdom? Just where is all that money going too?" asked Marie.

Having the men looking at her strangely she continued. This was always food for argument everywhere in the Kingdom. If she knew then they wanted to know.

"Now think about this as well, you have no real force of arms in any of the towns. Well not enough to matter, but Patella has, well let's say 200 fighting men in their towns for easy math. Patterson how many towns are you talking about?" asked Marie

"I'd say about ten to fifteen as an estimate on the borders, why?" asked Patterson

"Let's say ten again for easy math. If they all met up in a day's time, or two tops, and you would now have a small army of 2000 men easy who could cross over and start taking towns and cities before this kingdom even knew that they were there.

"By the time you mobilized what few men you had to attempt to repel them with your army as out of position as they would be, they would already be on their way to your capital, and by then as the rest joined them they would outnumber you almost five to one.

"Most towns would fall in moments to trained troops with real weapons, and they would still be claiming self defense as they did it because of all of the border attacks," said Marie as she looked at them.

"But why? What do they have to gain?" asked Seth.

"Your kingdom's main interest to anyone is the fact you have exclusive water rights for various ships coming into your kingdom. They really have no choice but set port in your kingdom or leave through your kingdom. Saving on that cost would be very lucrative for a kingdom that is heavily dependent on export," said Marie.

Seth appeared to be considering it.

"But that just answers what is going on. Master Patterson just pointed out that Patella isn't getting hit nearly as hard as you are. It's like all they need is an excuse to invade and start a war. A war no one can prove who's at fault before it started. Look at where all of their armed troops are and where are yours are positioned, not to mention what your troops are all lacking. It's all just a little too pat," said Marie.

"That all makes sense now that you point it out, but what I don't get is how do they know where to attack and what is going on?" asked Seth.

"Master Patterson I told you it was him," said Toby suddenly from Patterson's elbow.

"Who son?' asked Seth.

"That man who works for Count Randall as one of his men. I don't know his name, but he's the man with the ugly knife scar on the right side of his face that he got from what some said was him trying to force himself on that girl," said Toby

"Josh Sterling? Him? Where did you see him Toby?" asked Seth, now all ears.

"A few weeks back in Tolenburg. We were passing through and he rode past us going the other way. He tried to keep his head down but I got a good look," said Toby.

"That SOB. He almost got me killed," said Seth before it hit him. "He tried to have me killed," whispered Seth as it sunk in.

"So now we know who, but the question is what he gets out of this?" asked Marie.

Clearing his throat Patterson spoke.

"I believe I've seen why near the capital of Patella as well a few different times in my travels. I mean there is no law on who and where you may travel, but I never put it together until you just said you were in the latest town attacked. I wonder who he was talking to there?" asked Patterson.

"If he was in Patella then he couldn't be gone for that long for a round trip without the Count being aware, so he's in on this as well," said Seth.

"The only thing we don't know is what the "Count" gets out of screwing over his own kingdom, but I think we need to head back to the capital at first light. We need to inform the King and come up with a good plan. I need to go to bed, excuse me gentlemen," said Marie getting up.

Before she left she bent over and lightly kissed Seth before she started away and both men sat and watched her swinging hips until they couldn't see them anymore.

Marie now had something she had to do before bed that now totally occupied the part of her mind that was going to seduce Seth into her room. She definitely now had enough information to share.

"My god are you lucky. How do you do it man? How?" asked Patterson turning to look at Seth now that Marie disappeared from view.

"I'm not sure, but since she came into my life I'm really happy; whatever I have going for me I'm honestly glad it worked on her as well," smiled Seth at Patterson before he excused himself to go to bed as well.

Marie used her communication crystal to call Dusty and tell him what she found out. He quickly reached the same conclusion she did. He told her that her plan to get back and warn the King was a sound one and that she and Seth needed to stick to the King until he got back to her.

Dusty said he had a hunch he needed to play as well, but if he was right they needed to talk to Count Randall and squeeze him for information.

Dusty also brought her up to speed on his Knighting and Rachel's marriage before the crystal ran out of power. While Marie was shocked she was secretly happy for Rachel to finally be able to find her man whom future Dusty told her about.

They signed off and everyone went to bed.

The following morning, before anyone was quite up, Dusty went to the festival that was still running for a few more days and made a couple of inexpensive purchases.

He might not need what he bought, but he wanted to be prepared.

The following Morning found Dusty and his friends at the castle.

They met Daniel and Rachel just before they were to enter and both of them had grins a mile wide. Dusty understood, because he remembered right after Suzan and he were married he was exactly like that all the time as well. The six of them waited in front of closed doors for the Queen to arrive.

Earlier the Queen had dresses sent over for Suzan and Lori.

Suzan hadn't brought any since she was planning on only wearing her armor, tunic, and pants, but the seamstress told her that that was unacceptable for both a Lady and for one expected to be received by a Queen to be seen in men's trousers.

Suzan fought it, because it would mean leaving her weapon behind, but Dusty convinced her they needed to see the Queen more than she would need to fight.

Lori, who normally wore dresses, was easier to convince once she saw her dress.

So now Suzan was wearing a light tan gown that was tastefully cut to fall off her shoulders and leave them bare. It was cinched tight at the waist to show off her full figure and flowed behind her, just barely long enough to drag on the floor behind her. The color was just enough that it equally showed off her blonde hair and her wood brown eyes.

Lori's dress was on her shoulders but had a plunging back, but most of her long hair hid that fact. It too was snug in the waistline and followed her curves like Suzan's dress did.

Everyone could see that Rachel also was in a long dress that was a deep brown, off the shoulders, and tightly cinched on her firm body.

She also looked so happy that if she was a diamond she would be too bright too look at. Everyone was really happy for her and Daniel's smile was almost as bright. Dusty wondered if they had any more time to talk last night before they really got to know each other.

As Dusty thought about it he looked at her left hand.

On the ring finger was a white and gold tightly intertwined ring. It had three small diamonds flush in it, set deep in the alternating colors, but it wasn't anything flashy. It was obviously her wedding ring. Daniel must have given it to her last night on their wedding night.

Dusty wanted something better for Suzan like that, but she insisted on a flat gold band and that was all she wanted. She said that her real reward was him and the ring was only a reminder.

As they waited to be announced and told they could enter, Dusty looked around and noticed that there were a fair amount of women dressed in all manners passing by them.

Some of them gave them cool looks, and some were down right hateful. It soon became apparent that it was Rachel who they were really giving the looks to the most. Dusty wasn't quite sure what Rachel had done to elicit all the hostility.

Once he was sure he softly heard "peasant bitch" before the woman in question passed by. What was going on with them?

Eventually the doors opened and they were gestured inside.

Once inside the door way a man, who had his back to them, turned to them, gestured for them to stop, looked them over as if he was seeing something distasteful, and then asked for their names. Once they had complied, turning the man stepped just a little further inside, the man faced the audience chamber.