Indomitus Vivat (The Fovean Chronicles)

by Robert Brady

  “This is more insolence than the Heir should hear,” Hectar said. J’her nodded. “Certainly, you have killed bounty hunters before, your Highness.”

  I looked in his eyes, not really knowing what I would see. If I had been him, I would have stayed, too. I would have wanted to see how the target handled it. But I knew Tom Kelgan to be smoother than I, better at this sort of thing, more mature. He had played me better than I would have thought possible, making him not just smarter than I, but smarter and wiser.

  A threat to me – but keep your friends close and your enemies closer. If I knew whom I dealt with, and I knew that person’s advantages, then I knew more about him than I would about his replacement, who would surely follow if I dispatched this one.

  “From this point on,” I said, “you lose a finger for every weapon you bring into my presence. After you run out of fingers, I start on toes. After toes – well, by then you deserve what happens to you.”

  He nodded, and I released him. He rubbed his neck. “The Guild is still pursuing allies against me?” I asked him.

  “I never agreed to inform on the Guild-“

  The back of his head made a hollow ‘thunk’ when it hit the stone wall, my fist in his eye.

  He might be smarter but I didn’t have to like it.

  “Your temper is going to be your undoing, your Highness,” Kelgan told me.

  “It will undo you in less than a minute,” I said. “But then you will look a lot worse and have a lot less blood in you.”

  He sighed, threw a futile glance to the others there, and sighed again.

  “The Dorkans know what you know of them,” he said. “The Guild used the knowledge they were receiving from Klem to support what they were finding out through your Oligarch. Klem’s family is in Conflu.”

  “And Duke Ceberro?” I asked him.

  He hesitated, and I looked at J’her.

  “I am tired of this,” I said. “Take him to Shela. Tell her I want him sore, but not dead.”

  “We approached him, and we explained your Fire Bond and how to exploit it,” he said. “He wasn’t interested. We offered him gold, he still didn’t seem interested.”

  “How do you know this?” Hectar asked him.

  “I receive regular reports, so that I can tailor my advice back to the Guild,” he said. “As a top operative, I can be trusted.”

  I looked back at J’her. “How many Wolf Soldiers are watching us now?”

  “Twenty.”

  “Strip him, look in every crevice, get all of his weapons, take him to Shela.”

  “I told you the truth,” Tom Kelgan complained.

  I looked him in the eye. “You hesitated,” I said. The Wolf Soldiers were already forming up next to J’her.

  “And you pissed me off. Bet you don’t do either again,” I said, leaving with the Duke and the Oligarchs. I heard steel clatter as it hit the ground.

  When we were out of earshot, I looked at Hectar and, as we walked, asked him, “What were you thinking?”

  “When?”

  “When you brought him armed into my presence?”

  “J’her turned him up among the courtiers today,” the Duke said. “He knew who Kelgan was, and he knew that you hadn’t had him to dinner since returning from Uman City. He told me that we should bring him to you, and I agreed.”

  “That was a lot of initiative,” I said.

  The Duke looked at the side of my face. “You don’t allow that among your soldiers?”

  I smiled without looking at him. “I let them be their own men and women,” I said. “J’her had been a farmer once. He is a lot more than that now. I am impressed with him.”

  Hectar just nodded. I liked the fact that J’her thought to build a bond with the Duke. I still planned to have Shela verify his loyalty again. Trust is a luxury that had burned me before.

  “Where are we going, your Highness?” Oligarch two asked me.

  “The stables,” I said.

  “Shall we ride, then?” Hectar asked me. I had it on good authority from a stable hand that he had gotten close enough to Blizzard to be bitten.

  “I hope so,” I said. The stallion had been cooped up too long. “But I have another meeting to attend, and that is as good a place as any, and better than the throne room.”

  The royal stables were out behind the palace building, within its walls, and accessible by a back exit that went near my own quarters. As we approached them, I could see Karel of Stone riding his pony within its grazing fence, and D’gattis and Ancenon watching him from the fence itself.

  Both of the Uman-Chi were dressed in their usual robes. Karel wore his bear skins, even mounted. He seemed to be trying to show the pony how to take direction from his knees, while he shot arrows at a target I could barely see.

  The Uman-Chi watched me with their ambiguous eyes as I approached with Duke Hectar and my Oligarchs. They barely acknowledged me, which told me more than if they had.

  “Welcome,” I said.

  They nodded.

  “You were taken care of with rooms and all?”

  “All fit for a visitor,” D’gattis said.

  “You handle your anger well,” I said. Why game around with it?

  “We have had a lot of practice with you,” Ancenon said.

  Hectar chuckled.

  “I remember a rough warrior on a rogue stallion,” Ancenon said, “and he could be relied upon for great secrets and trusts.”

  He wanted me to justify myself. As with anything the Uman-Chi did, there would be nuance within nuance, and, of course, if I played their game, I would look stupid and end up apologizing like a good Man.

  “Was he the one whom you led the Legionnaires against?” I asked him, frankly. “Or was this the one whom you warned the Trenboni about?”

  “These are issues which we have thoroughly explained,” D’gattis said.

  “And yet, there it remains,” I said. “You’re upset that the compound on the Plains of Angador is invaded, and you think I allowed it.”

  “You didn’t prevent it,” Ancenon said.

  “I cannot within the laws of Eldador,” I said. “And I’m bound by them. I will never attack you, I will never allow your persons to be attacked, but I cannot prevent a Duke whose support I need from overrunning the compound that you didn’t think to defend and, unlike you, I didn’t give him the information that he needed to do it.”

  “We didn’t think we had to defend it within your borders,” D’gattis said.

  “You wouldn’t have if you had told me what you were doing,” I said. “You are hundreds of years old. I overrated your intelligence, for which I accept blame. But had you simply said, ‘Declare our estates off limits,’ I could have made it an Earldom or something and you would be protected for a minimum amount of taxes.”

  They looked at each other, then at me. I knew I wouldn’t outfox them, so I just told the truth. The blatant truth is nice in a pinch.

  “Rest assured that our intelligence –“ D’gattis began.

  “Cousin,” Ancenon said. D’gattis looked like he had been stung, much as Aniquen had looked a short time before.

  Karel rode up on the pony, no hands on the reins. It didn’t stop where he seemed to want it to, but it did stop pretty close to us.

  “I love this animal,” Karel told me.

  “You’ve made good use of it,” I said.

  It was a pinto, distinctive like Karel. It suited him, I thought.

  “I’m taking over your duties as recruiter for the Free Legion,” he told me.

  “That makes good sense,” I said.

  “You will continue to recruit your own Wolf Soldiers?” he asked.

  “I think that is best, especially now that you have Sarandi,” I said.

  “I suggested that we winter in Sental, then take another stab at a base in Eldador,” he continued. “They think you should build it, or provide us room on your estates in Thera. I told them you would never go for it, and suggested the Andurin peni
nsula, right in the center.”

  I nodded. The peninsula offered a vast plain, relatively open, and could bear a city.

  “How about I make Arath an Earl and then you raise a city?”

  “Can you do that?” D’gattis asked me.

  “I can get Glennen to do that,” I said.

  “He is in the barn, after all,” D’gattis said.

  Oh, crap.

  “Alone?” I asked.

  “Your Wolf Soldiers are watching him,” Karel said. “If he’s still awake, I’ll be surprised.”

  I sent Oligarch one and three after him. They were used to it.

  “Is the Dorkan wizard still alive?” Ancenon asked me.

  “Yes,” I said.

  “No,” Hectar said. I looked at him.

  “Another matter of which I didn’t get to tell you,” he said. “He died today trying to escape. Blew most of his skin off.”

  Crap again.

  “The palace wizards disposed of the body,” he continued. “I think they were afraid you were going to carve him up and send him to Dorkan.”

  “That wasn’t well received,” Karel said. “I am informed that they considered destroying the whole city to get to you.”

  “That would have been an interesting way for them to meet Shela,” I said.

  D’gattis actually smiled. “You have a skill for spreading anger,” he noted.

  My Wolf Soldiers and both Oligarchs were directing Glennen from the barn. Straw covered his clothes and hair, his eyes looked bleary. He wore a stained grey tunic and dark brown trousers, but you could still see the dark stain on the inside of his left leg.

  I made eye contact with one of the Oligarchs. He shook his head and looked away.

  It was a real shame with him.

  Dinner saw my daughter as the guest of honor at the royal table. She got to sit with the big people, her ‘bebe’ in a seat next to her. In my own tradition she’d been provided with a frosted cake in her honor, most of which ended up in her thick, black hair. Sycophants and friends showered her with gifts in order to remain in my favor and off of Shela’s possible hit list. I looked on with pride when none of them had the prestige of her dolly.

  “Have the marriage offers begun yet?” Ceberro asked me. He sat next to me. His woman cozied up to mine. I found it somehow amusing that now he was me, and I had become Glennen, from two years before.

  “Hectar has his hopes,” I said. “I’ve arranged for Groff’s son and Glennen’s daughter.”

  “He told me,” Ceberro told me. “I’m also informed that I am well advised to accept fate and declare for you as Heir.”

  I looked at him seriously. Lee had decided that the more cake she wore, the more smiles she got, and the race began between the cake, her efforts and her mother’s.

  “How do you feel about that?” I asked him.

  He looked me straight in the eye. “In honesty?”

  “Always.”

  “I am a better man for the job,” he said.

  “You think so?”

  “I am sure of it.”

  “You would match me?” I asked him. “Stand against Glennen’s chosen Heir?”

  “I would.”

  “Fists or swords?”

  He grinned, took a look around the room, and then back at me.

  “Fists,” he said. “And I trust your wife isn’t invited.”

  “She isn’t my wife,” I said. “And even if she were, she wouldn’t be involved. In fact, rest assured that she will be there.”

  “You know I will thrash you,” he said.

  “I know you will try.”

  He grinned even wider. “In the morning?”

  I nodded, and gave my attention back to my daughter’s celebration.

  All in all, it hadn’t been a bad day.

  That night I held Shela in my arms. Lee lay in her crib, her dolly wrapped up in both arms as if she thought someone would take it. Shela watched her through the crib’s bars.

  “A bit of cloth and pottery and hair,” she said, her voice sounded distracted, “and I think she loves it more than she does me.”

  I chuckled. “You never had a doll?”

  “Never,” she admitted. “I almost want one now.”

  It occurred to me that I had never seen another child with a doll here, either. When I had described it to the seamstress who had made it, she had seemed to know just what I meant. She’d gone to the potter on her own, and had suggested using my hair for its.

  “I think it is in a girl’s nature to want a baby,” I said.

  “Surely,” Shela agreed. “Just as it is in a man’s nature to fight and make war.”

  I lay quiet for a moment. “I meant to ask you –“ I began.

  She turned and looked at me. “I didn’t want to do what I did to Kelgan,” she said. “But you commanded it, and I did it, on my daughter’s birthday. I stopped arranging her hair, I took him to the dungeon, I made him scream in pain, and then I went back to arranging her hair.

  “If this is what you want of me, then I will become it, but White Wolf, please do not make of me your vile torturer.”

  She slid into my arms and I held her. It hadn’t even occurred to me that it would bother her. She could be a cruel bitch when she had to be. Lately I had been trying to define her, and getting it all wrong.

  Maybe I would never get my mind around my slave girl. It might even be a good thing.

  I fell asleep before I knew it - another dreamless night to commence the start of the second year of my daughter’s life.

  Chapter Ten

  A New Beginning

  Duke Ceberro of Vrek stood taller than Two Spears. He couldn’t make claim to my height, but he might be in better shape. He had ridden here; he had been in the campaign for the Plains of Angador. I had campaigned, and I knew what kind of great shape you got into when you did it.

  I practiced in the swordsman’s gym, with my Wolf Soldiers and Eldadorian trainers, but it felt to me like they held back. Saa Saraan had kicked my ass all over his gymnasium, and no one did that here.

  Ceberro and I both dressed in leather leggings. New leather pants felt tight and binding. Worn leather pants felt like your own skin, and you moved in them like you were naked.

  His pectoral muscles bulged like Nantar’s. His upper and lower arms showed blue veins. I had more meat on me.

  “I want you to know that I am undefeated,” he told me, stepping into the sand circle. We were in the swordsman’s gym within the palace. A few of the barons, Hectar and his family, Shela and Lee, the Oligarchs, Glennen and his family, and Ceberro’s entourage were there. Wolf Soldier guards stood at the door.

  The sweat running off of Glennen smelled like pure alcohol. His kids stood next to Shela. He stepped into the ring between us, looked at Ceberro, then at me.

  “I am told by Duke Ceberro that he should be Heir, and that you’ve accepted his challenge?” Glennen slurred. He hadn’t gotten drunk yet, but he’d managed hung over. One of his attendant Wolf Soldiers held a cup in his hands – no point in guessing what I’d find in it.

  I grinned. Ceberro fought his battles on all of the fronts. I hadn’t even known that he and Glennen had been talking. “My pardon, your Majesty, but I would not presume to enter into such an agreement without consulting you.”

  He barked a laugh. “You enter into a lot without discussing it with me,” he said. “Like marrying off my daughter. I wouldn’t have allowed this otherwise.”

  I raised an eyebrow. He played dirty. Ceberro must feel pretty sure he’d beat me. He better hope he did.

  I stepped into the ring. “If that’s what the Duke wants to tell you,” I said, “then I am more than willing to kick his ass for it.”

  Ceberro raised his eyebrow. “You kick?” he said. “Only women kick.”

  Glennen laughed and raised his hand. He looked at Ceberro, then at me.

  “I expect you to show me why I trust you so much,” he told me.

  I nodded. He lowered his
hand and stepped out of the ring.

  Ceberro charged me like a bull, head down, fists pumping. He’d clearly gotten used to being the biggest guy in the ring, and sought to use his superior size to overwhelm me.

  I was bigger. I side stepped him and punched him with my left fist in the kidneys. The crowd let out a sympathy groan. He grit his teeth and turned, and I pasted him in the nose twice and then stepped back out of his reach, leading with my left.

  He turned his shoulders to put his back to my left, trying to make me focus on his back or his head, where he could hold his arm up and defend from me. Then I would be open to his right.

  He closed. I turned on my right foot and suddenly stood a foot closer to him, leading with my right. I punched him twice in the face and once in the throat with my right, then caught his right cross with my left and hit him in the left eye directly. He swung wildly with his left; I ducked and then had both of his hands on his right side. Now I had him in a classic position and I took advantage of it, grabbing both hands with mine, turning and flipping him. He hit the sand hard, and I followed up with two to the stomach before he could move, then stepped away from him.

  “Wow,” Glennen said. “I believe that is the expression you taught me?”

  I grinned at him for a second, bouncing on the balls of my feet, then stayed focused on Ceberro.

  He clearly didn’t know what had hit him. I hadn’t gone berserk but I felt the blood pumping, the excitement, the good pain in my fists from hitting him. I considered helping Ceberro back to his feet, but this type of guy would punch you on the way up, so I waited.

  He rolled onto his hands and knees, took a breath, then got to his feet. He faced me with his fists up, a cut over his left eye, his nose bleeding and his lips smashed. He looked pissed and didn’t try to hide it. He hadn’t laid a hand on me the whole time. He spat a gob of blood on the floor, looked at me, and then at Glennen.

  “It is his wife, your Majesty,” he said. “Clearly, I am beset.”

  Glennen laughed. “I think you are a bad loser, Ceberro,” he said. “I have seen his wife’s work. You are still alive, so she has done nothing to you.”