Ascendant

by Florian Armas

  “I will take them, but I will keep them for you and Jara.”

  “Please use them. It would make both Mother and me happy to know that we can help you.”

  Codrin embraced her once more, and they stayed like that in silence until Saliné gently disengaged from him. She closed the portcullis and, with a last look back, moved through the tunnel. At the point where the light vanished, she picked up the torch she had left in a sconce. The secret door was not far, and she left the main tunnel, pulling the door after her.

  “Oh, no,” she whispered, staring back at the traces left by her feet in the thick dust. “I need to come back here.”

  “There was some movement at the foot of the northern hill,” Karel said, entering Aron’s office. “I recognized Codrin and Vlaicu. They were moving away from the castle, but I sent more guards to the wall just in case.”

  “The foot of the northern hill?” Aron rubbed his chin. “Bucur, take ten men and check the tunnel. Double the guards at the prison exit.”

  “Do you think...?” Bucur asked. He was moving before he’d finished his question. “Karel, bring the men. I will be at the door of the prison.” In the corridor, he was almost running.

  He returned after one hour and threw himself into a chair. “You were right. Codrin talked with someone in the castle.”

  “I was more worried about their soldiers getting inside. We had guards at the door.”

  “Not during the night.”

  “What the hell was in Karel’s mind? Any attack through the tunnel is likely to happen during the night. We need to find another Spatar. This one is useless.”

  “We’ve lost a lot of our good people. That decision can wait. I found some interesting footsteps in the tunnel. The same man passed back and forth three times. There were three pairs of footsteps, the same shoes each time, and the sole of the left shoe left a peculiar mark. It must be the man who has been killing our soldiers, and that man is in touch with Codrin. After Codrin leaves, we should set a trap for him.”

  “We’ve made a lot of obvious fuss about this. It’s not good when we look so alarmed. By the end of the day, all Severin will know that something happened in the tunnel. We should wait until the memory of it fades.”

  Long after the last of Codrin’s soldiers left the camp, Saliné was still staring through her window, absent eyes moving without aim from one point to another. The door of her antechamber opened and she turned her head. Bucur smiled at her and closed the door behind him. She nodded and turned back toward the window.

  “I always liked the view from your suite,” he said, from just behind her. “From mine, I can’t see the sunset. Neither can you, but from here you can see the reflection from the Mirror Hill.” The hill resembled a tall orange wall, and in the evening the stones seemed to catch fire.

  “It’s beautiful indeed,” Saliné said, her voice flat, and she froze when his arms went around her waist. After a few moments, she tried to move away, but he kept her in place firmly, even though his grip did not hurt her.

  “My betrothed,” Bucur whispered in her ear, “you are as beautiful as the view in front of us. And it’s even more pleasant to look at it with you in my arms.”

  Saliné bit her lips, realizing that he would not let her go, and she could not reject his closeness without creating a situation that would not work in her favor. She was dependent on them for now, and Bucur’s behavior was normal for their official status. For a while, neither of them spoke, and she forced herself too look through the window, seeing nothing. Her body accommodated itself to his embrace, and she was finally able to ignore it, but she could not ignore the kiss on the back of her neck. She shivered, and tried again to move away from him, and again he kept her in place, pulling her closer to him, until her body leaned into his.

  “How long until the sun leaves the Mirror?” he asked, as if nothing had happened.

  “Half an hour.”

  “Then we have half an hour more for our pleasure.”

  “Bucur, we had an agreement on how we are to behave as betrothed,” she said, alerted by both his words and the tone of his voice – it was seductive in a way that he had not used with her before, and the memory of Jara’s words that Bucur was a well-known seducer came back to her. That, and the fact that he drugged her to get her pregnant.

  “Of course, my dear; I promised you that we will not make that mistake again, and I will keep my word. I will ask nothing more than a man would ask from his fiancée.” He turned her gently, and she realized that she had fallen into his trap. “I hope that everything will be as pleasant for you as it is for me.” His finger traced a line on her face, and went down to her lips, and further down her chin, applying pressure until he parted her lips. Before she could think, she felt his lips on hers, trying to part them further. She closed her mind, and let him play, without answering him, her lips almost rigid. “You know,” he whispered after a while, “your arms should move around my neck.” He did not wait for a reply, and lifted her arms, and she had no choice but to lace them around him. His lips found hers again, while his arms were moving up and down her back until one found the skin on her nape, and caressed it gently. The pressure from his lips grew, and despite her bad feelings, a wave of pleasure spread through her.

  Codrin, she spoke his name inside her mind. Codrin is the man I love. That helped her, and she no longer shivered, just abandoned her body to Bucur, staying alert enough to stop him if things went too far.

  Maybe Bucur felt her indifference, or maybe he was just satisfied with her abandon as a first step, but after a few minutes that were much too long for her, he stopped, and kissed her hand. “Good night, Saliné,” he said and left the room.

  “Good night, Bucur.” She turned back to her window after he left and, remembering everything with unwanted clarity, Saliné realized that this would from now on be a normality from which she could no longer escape, and she feared that once it became normal, it might switch more and more to pressure, and unwilling acceptance. Each day I tell myself that today will be better and it is just getting worse.

  At least she was alone for the moment. And solitude was something she needed and hated at the same time.

  Chapter 9 – Codrin

  “All the negotiations we had in the last ten days have failed,” Codrin said bluntly. They were gathered at some distance from the gate of Severin and from the site where most of his soldiers were camped. The place was known as the Old Oak, from the huge lonely tree overlooking the area. It was a miracle that lightning had not cut its long life. Maybe because the place was in a small valley. The sky above was a deep blue, but fringes of almost black clouds were visible in the west. “Aron rejected the exchange of Saliné for you and Nard. Orban rejected the exchange of Vio for you and Hadrian. That is to say, the Circle did not want it to happen.”

  While Codrin had expected the negotiation with Aron to fail, he hoped to free Vio from Orban. It had not happened either, and he was still wondering what kind of pressure the Circle wanted to put on him.

  “What did you expect? That the Circle would renege on its own policy? Saliné was given to Bucur.” Belugas put on a brave face yet, with all his capacity for restraint, there was a touch of uncertainty in his voice. “In due time, you will have Vio, and the position as Spatar of Frankis.”

  “In due time; meanwhile she is in Orban’s hands.”

  “Some trust is needed...”

  “Don’t speak me about trust. We are alone, and I will grant you an honest talk. We made that pact in Valeni and agreed that Vio would be in my custody. You’ve sent her to Orban instead. You killed Mohor, and sent Jara to Orban too.”

  “We did not want to kill Mohor,” Belugas said. “We don’t know what really happened there. Our Primus Itinerant was killed too.”

  “And Jara?”

  “That was a temporary solution which keeps her alive.”

  “Ah, your Black Warrant. Parents refuse to marry their children of on your orders and you kill the childre
n.”

  “We need to reinforce the rules.”

  “By killing the children...”

  “We are getting nowhere. Forget about Saliné; she will marry Bucur. When the time is ripe, perhaps in Spring, Vio will be sent to you. I will work for that.”

  “Bucur will not marry Saliné. She has just been used so that he could take Severin. Your plan is to give him the young Duchess of Tolosa. You are playing Saliné. You are playing me. I can play too, and you still don’t realize that, from now on, we are at war.”

  “You can’t afford a war with us,” Belugas said, a touch of derision filling his voice.

  “I can or I cannot, but you, Belugas, you certainly can’t afford it.”

  “You will not dare to harm me.” He stared at Codrin, who smiled thinly. Belugas blinked rapidly, and his hands trembled. He clasped them behind him. “You accuse us of killing people, but you plan to do the same, just because some negotiations did not end the way you wanted.”

  “You are wrong, Belugas. I will not hang you because of some failed negotiations, which you torpedoed from the shadows. I will hang you because you planned to kill me at Severin’s border. Aron tried – five times – to kill me, and I never made him pay. I was afraid of the consequences, but Frankis would be a much better place now if I had dared to do things right.”

  “You will not dare,” Belugas snarled.

  “Take him.”

  “Codrin! I am the Primus Itinerant. I represent the Circle.” Recognition dawned on Belugas’s face.

  “Don’t worry, people will know that. There will be a placard with that name on your chest. Just be aware that they may spit on it, or on you. Hang him,” Codrin said – Vlaicu and Boldur were already waiting for his order.

  “You would not dare,” Belugas repeated. “The Circle will hunt you to death.”

  “That may be,” Codrin shrugged, “or it may be that they will learn accountability for their acts. You tried to kill me and failed. Even if someone else manages to kill me, people will already have learned that Sages can be killed too. Your impunity diminishes with each hanged Sage. Bring the other Sage,” he said to his soldiers.

  “No!” Belugas shouted, trying in vain to escape from the grip of both Vlaicu and Boldur.

  “Learn to die, Sage,” Vlaicu spat. “Mohor died with dignity, fighting for his wife and child; you will die like a rat. Write ‘Sage’ on a placard and hang in around his neck.”

  A soldier tied Belugas’s hands, and the rope was placed around his neck. Belugas howled like a wounded animal, struggling and writhing until he was forced to stand on a barrel, and the rope, which was passed over a thick branch of the huge oak, tightened around his neck. He became still, breathing heavily.

  “Does anyone want to speak for or against this Sage?” Codrin asked. There were not many people around the place, three hundred paces from the gate of Severin. A few merchants and their caravans, some servants who had escaped from Aron and people from the closest village.

  “I will speak.” A woman in her early twenties came running from the village. She stopped, bending forward, her palms resting on her knees. Recovering her breath, she spoke again. “I am Ava, and I was Lady Saliné’s maid. A week ago, Aron threw me out of Severin and now he keeps her locked in the palace. She is a prisoner in her own home. This man,” she pointed at Belugas, “came to Severin and agreed with Aron and Bucur to use Lady Saliné for their schemes. And they all laughed about Lady Jara being in Orban’s bed. In the morning, before the Sage left Severin, they met again and decided to kill Sir Codrin. They said that a hundred soldiers from Peyris would help.”

  “You are not a Sage, Belugas; you are a scoundrel,” Vlaicu spat. “A worm.”

  “Ava, how that you know this?” Codrin asked, fighting hard to maintain his calm.

  “They were in the living room, eating. They were careless.” Before she had finished speaking, Ava bent down suddenly and grabbed a stone from the road. Before anyone could intervene, the stone hit Belugas on the nose, making him bleed.

  “Murderer!” another woman shouted, and more stones flew toward Belugas.

  Codrin gestured, and a soldier shoved the barrel away with his spear. The next flying stones hit Belugas’s corpse.

  “Come with me,” Codrin said, when Belugas’s last spasm had ended, pointing toward Hadrian, and they walked away from the soldiers guarding the hanged Sage. “We are alone here, and I will give you one chance. Write, on this piece of paper, the name of the Master Sage and all the Sages and their social positions in Leoyna, Arad, Deva and Dorna. Don’t waste my time,” he snapped, seeing that the Sage was reluctant to deliver. The sharp tone persuaded the man, who quickly filled the paper with a column of names; he gave the paper to Codrin, who took it and read it in silence. He did not recognize a single name, though he already knew four Sages from those cities. “Tie his hands,” he ordered.

  “Let me write again!” the Sage cried.

  “You had your chance,” Codrin said dryly. “Bring me the novice Sage,” he ordered, and when the man was left alone with him, Codrin studied him in silence for more than a minute. He is so young. He shook his head, looking at the eighteen-year-old novice. I hope that he will write the right names. “I will give you the same chance that the other Sage threw away. Write down the name of the Master Sage and all the Sages and their social positions in Leoyna, Arad, Deva and Dorna.”

  “And then you will hang me too.”

  “Novice, I always keep my word; the Circle knows that well enough. You have two minutes.” Filled with names, the paper returned to him in under a minute, and Codrin took his time to read it. Cantemir, Balan, Maud, he pondered. These names I know, and their position is right. The other five names told him nothing; the Master Sage was unknown to him. “So, Folio is the new Master Sage,” he stared at the novice, who nodded eagerly. “Who is he, and where is he from?”

  “I’ve never met him,” the novice said and wiped his palms, suddenly sweaty, against his fine pelerine.

  He is lying, Codrin thought, but I have no reason to kill him. One day, I will find out who the new Master Sage is. “You are lying about the Master Sage,” he said bluntly, staring at the novice, who defiantly kept his eyes locked on him. “But I will still free you, as some of the names here are right.

  “What should we do with these men?” Vlaicu came back, followed by five soldiers pushing Belugas’s guards along in front of them.

  “Release them too,” Codrin said, and Vlaicu wrinkled his brow, though he said nothing. “I know they are not without sins, but who is these days? And the more mouths to spread word about the hanged Primus Itinerant, the better.” He patted Vlaicu’s shoulder. “Hadrian will rot in Poenari prison until his freedom buys Vio’s. We leave for Cleuny.”

  After an hour, the army moved away. It had started to rain, and patches of fog rose from the warm ground. Codrin glanced behind him from time to time, until Severin disappeared at last behind a curtain of almost white mist. Saliné resurfaced in his mind and, with her, the heavy feeling of regret. He bit his lip, and pushed Zor to a gallop. The noise of the horses’ hooves were muffled, and all sounds carried strangely through the humid air, so that words from one end of the long column of soldiers were sometimes heard easily through the distance. Most of them were curses against Aron and the Circle.

  Chapter 10 – Maud

  That afternoon, Maud was relatively happy or, at least, content – she could not remember the last time she was really happy. Maybe when her husband was still alive or when her daughter, Laure, was still a little girl, in the home that they had left a long time ago, and her other two children were still alive. After three weeks of struggles, she was now fully in control of Leyona. It’s a pity that I have to kill that young man, she sighed, but he almost derailed my plans. Drusila will not be happy... She poured some Porto wine into her glass. It was sweet and strong, the flavor of the southern sun in a dry land bordering the desert. The Porto clan of the western Hispany Land was the only
one that knew how to make a good Porto. She heard rumors that they kept the wine in oak barrels in some grottos open into the sea. The waves shook the barrels for a year or two. It could be true, or it could be just a legend meant to enhance the price of the merchandise. It was expensive. And rare. Leyona had no sea port, but Tolosa had, and Laure knew her mother well. Maud’s hand wandered absently and picked a slice of cozonac, a tasty cake, half dough with a lot of egg yolks, half a creamy walnuts paste peppered with some resins, baked slowly in the oven. Cozonac could be made with poppy seeds too, but she preferred the walnuts; they complemented the Porto wine well. If Porto came from the most western part of the continent, cozonac came from the east, from Arenia. It was not imported; the cake had traveled west with the colonists the Alban Empire moved into Frankis, almost a thousand years ago. Frankis and Hispany were the worst affected lands in the White Salt wars, and the last to recover. While Frankis was now fully healed, Hispany still bore the marks of that war; half of its lands were still uninhabited. There were rumors that the Misty Islands, north-west of Frankis – which some called Inglis – were even more affected, but they those lands were only a legend; no ship had gone west for many centuries to confirm or deny their existence. The colonists brought new names with them, like Arad, Severin or Deva, into Frankis, names to make them feel at home, while the locals kept their old names, mostly the Dukedoms.

  Maud’s eyes drifted over the large map on the wall; it was one of the few, printed by the defunct Royal Cartography of Frankis, which still survived. At first, her intelligent eyes stayed fixed on Leyona, then they moved over Tolosa in the south and jumped north to Peyris. I may enter the history books as the woman who pacified Frankis and gave it a new king. I may or I may not, but I have tried my best. If it happens, she closed her eyes, leaving her mind to drift, I will be the real Queen until Marie can take over. She is still young, but she is a clever one.