The vessels were all kept from the sales block after a conference with Simon and his captains. The merchants joined the fledgling shipping company under Simon, while the three warships were refitted and repaired. With the largest, a scereon holding one hundred and fifty men, named simply Dragon, acting as flagship for the smaller klereon and the ninety man pirate malae, Gerid now had a third unit ready for battle.
During the repairs, Gerid chose to spend some time back at the Holtein farm. On his return, he was able to find Catiya and a pair of nursemaids playing with his son in the garden. The first flowers of spring were in full bloom making the site almost blinding with the colors after the gray, wintery days at sea. Spring had come early to Rhearden as it always did, Gerid thought. The southern continent was at least a month ahead of the seasons in Marshalla.
Picking a bloom from the crimson tremara, Gerid startled the women as the man spoke loudly as he strode along a cobbled path, "So you've decided to make my son into a gardener, eh?"
Putting a hand to her mouth in surprise, Catiya turned to exclaim, "Gerid!" Plucking little Simon from his seat and placing him upon her hip, she moved to greet the father with a one armed hug before passing over his son. The mistress shooed away the nursemaids, who in turn giggled to each other as they guessed the reasons for such a gesture. "I didn't know that you had returned. Have you been given the news yet?"
"I doubt it," he answered shaking his head. "I stepped in the house only long enough to discover where you and Simon were."
The pretty girl, with her sparkling green eyes and warm auburn hair, smiled at the idea that he had come to her so soon, but remaining with her news she exclaimed, "Sama has finally gotten engaged!"
"Really?" Gerid questioned only slightly surprised. Only a moment later and he wondered if Carter was already working to get rid of his youngest child as well.
Nodding with a smile brightening her face, Catiya led him by an arm to a bright, white bench bordering the center, cobble courtyard. She continued happily, "Yes, a merchant's son came calling just after you left. Sama seemed taken by him immediately, and father and mother were also pleased that she was finally pleased. I think that they would have liked him if he had been ugly as a stukboar," she confided. "Anyway they plan to marry at the beginning of summer season. Isn't that just wonderful?"
Smiling he answered, "Sure. I'm glad that Sama finally found someone that she likes, who likes her as well."
Tilting her head and giving him a calculating look, Catiya stated with a small frown, "That was half hearted at best. You don't sound happy about it at all. This is good news, you know? What is wrong? I thought that you liked Sama."
"Oh, I do like her and I'm happy. Truly," Gerid assured her. "I just began to wonder about something. That's all."
The young woman jabbed a finger playfully at his chest. With a wink at him, she asked, "And what were you wondering about, good sir, when we should be celebrating this joyous occasion?"
Blushing slightly in embarrassment, Gerid took a moment before replying, "I was just wondering, if your father had plans of marrying you off soon. Maybe I should ask for your hand as well before he has you married to some nobleman?"
The woman's eyes went wide in surprise. Leaning back slightly, she eyed him once again in her calculating way. "Are you serious? Do you really mean that? I thought that you wanted to go slow, so that you can make peace with the loss of Tabitha? It's such a big step, Gerid."
His wife's name made him wince ever so slightly. Simon gurgled in his arms as he shrugged in resignation. "Why shouldn't we?" the man asked. Shifting Simon's weight to his other arm, he looked at the woman seriously. Her beauty still sent his heart racing, even more so with the long trips away from home, and knowing her heart as well, he knew the answer. "I think that we both know that it is only a matter of time now, Catiya. I've loved you as a friend for so long. I want my wife to be my friend as well as my lover. That was the way it was with Tabitha and I know that it is the same with you." Passing Simon to her, the baby cooed as she smiled happily upon him. "Simon loves you. I love you. You love us. Tabitha would want us to all be happy. I know it. What could be more right, Catiya?"
The woman smiled at him and turned away shyly. Lifting the baby up before her, she tickled him with her nose. Simon giggled happily. Catiya lowered him again and held him protectively to her chest. "I think that father and mother will be the harder ones to convince, don't you? I, on the other hand, am easily enticed by your decision." He smiled and started to lean towards the woman for a kiss. She held up a hand to stop him in his attempt, "However, Gerid, I must protest one thing."
"And that is?"
"I demand a better proposal than `What could be more right'. Get down on those knees, my love, and do it right," she started to laugh.
Gerid nodded, a smile etched deeply into his face. Moving to his knees before her and taking her right hand in his, he began, "Catiya Holtein, most beautiful of women to me, we have loved each other at arms’ length for so long. Would you honor me by becoming my wife, so that I might love you as you should be loved?" He kissed her hand and looked up to see Catiya crying.
She nodded quickly and moved to kiss him passionately.
They had spent the night separately. It was a hard decision due to the strong emotions running through both of them. So with the dawn of morning, Gerid ate a light breakfast before going in search of Carter Holtein. The man was in his office as usual. Gerid found the doors easily enough, but it took several deep breaths and a couple of weak attempts at entering before he finally pushed through with a quick knock on the frame.
The older man was busy looking over documents already despite the early hour. After a quick look to see the intruder, Carter put the papers down to face the young man. "Good morning, Gerid. I’m glad to see you. I was just about to send a servant to find you."
Taken by surprise, the commander asked, "You were?"
"Yes, I had urgent need of you or perhaps I should say the king does."
"The king needs me? Why?" the younger man asked quite confused.
"A messenger delivered the message to come only. He left a roll of parchment with the king's seal for admittance to the very throne room itself. It sounded like this might be a formal order from the king directly." Carter winked slyly at him and added, "I've heard of men receiving such an order and, after performing a certain task, some were made knights. You may be moving up in the world quicker than we thought. First your reputation as a hero, then your fleet and wealth, now...? Who knows?"
Gerid shook his head, "I doubt that, sir. But like you say, it does sound very important. Has the messenger left or do I go alone?"
"He left after dropping the note with me. Now you came to ask me something, did you not?"
Gerid fumbled for the words to say and decided not to try his luck until after meeting the king. "It can wait, sir," he sighed.
The older man shrugged, "If you say so. You had better hurry now. The king doesn't hold audiences all day, after all. When you get back, come let me know how everything went."
Gerid backed out of the room with the scroll and headed towards the back of the house. He found Finneas and had him gather his guardsmen and saddle the horses. By the time Gerid had reached the stables himself, Catiya was there.
"Where are you going in such a hurry? Did father banish you or something?" she asked with half a laugh.
He shook his head, "No, I didn't even get a chance to ask."
"What!" she exclaimed in surprise. "Why not?"
He sighed knowing her disappointment. "I received word from the king by messenger. I need to report to the capitol at once, though I don't know why."
A look of worry reached her face and she stepped forward clutching his arms. "Did my father know what it was about, do you think?"
Giving her a quick hug of assurance, Gerid shook his head and took the reins of his stallion. The rest of his men were forming atop their steeds outside. "If he did, he wouldn't tell me."
/> The woman seemed to get angry again, "This isn't fair. You couldn't take the time to tell him, so he couldn't have known what you were planning." She stomped her foot in frustration. Looking back at him pleadingly, Catiya asked, "Would it be wrong of me to ask you to go back to my father and ask for my hand?"
Gerid laughed. With one arm, he pulled Catiya into his embrace and kissed her lips fiercely. He chuckled and answered, "Yes, it is wrong, but I love your
determination. Unfortunately, our love will have to wait until after speaking to the king. We could disobey your father's best wishes with less consequences than disobeying the king, my love."
"Are you sure about that?" Catiya grumbled as she watched him mount the horse. Sighing, the woman added, "Hurry back at least?"
He smiled, "As quickly as possible, but I do have one stop to make in town as well."
Her brow furrowed in question, "What stop?"
"I can't tell you, right now. It's a secret."
Catiya crossed her arms and stomped her foot again, "You’re keeping secrets from me already and we're not even officially engaged?"
He wheeled the stallion through the stable doors carefully. "You'll like this surprise, I assure you, but I must go."
Motioning the men ahead of him, Gerid kicked the horse into a canter and started for the road to Camerton. Catiya followed at a walk and watched the riders move quickly out of sight.
The castle's tall walls of gray stone had been painted white to appear gleaming in the day's light. That had been done years before and now the coating had begun to wear away or to flake in areas revealing the gray in spots and patches. Still the sheer strength of the stone shielding the king of Rhearden was awe inspiring to Gerid and his companions. The looming outer gates appeared equally daunting since they were nearly fourteen feet high and made of foot thick oak braced with bars of tempered iron. The sight seemed to have become easily dismissed by those who lived near the walls but, as they approached, Gerid still had to nod in admiration.
The trip into the city had taken a couple of hours of hard riding for him to complete. By the time they had arrived there, Camerton was wide awake and bustling with activity in its streets and markets. They had picked up Simon at his office and proceeded as quickly as possible to the castle. It had been a bit of a struggle getting there. The traffic nearer the castle had proven lighter than that of the outer streets of the city proper, but already the lines to enter the main gates were quite long. Recognizing that there had to be a better way than this, Gerid sent Simon to find one of the guards. Being a holder of the king's letter proved to have the power to move them through as he had hoped.
Simon returned with one of the guards and led Gerid and Finneas away from the main gate. The rest of his men had stayed with the horses or gone on other errands for Gerid making the party small enough to move quickly through the building crowds. Taking them around a turn of the outer wall, they soon found a much smaller gatehouse. The guard knocked and a second guard opened the door for them.
The second guard looked up at the giant form of Gerid in amazement, before remembering his duty to check the paper in his hand. He quickly waved them inside as several other citizens noted the opening and began to stride purposefully forward thinking to request entry.
Once inside the first wall, the three were forced to pause and note the second inner wall. A space of about one hundred and fifty feet separated each wall from the other, but the second wall had been built about twenty feet higher than its already impressive outer sibling. Gerid knew that should an enemy breach the outer wall, the fighting would be far from over. Defending archers would have free rein to send wave after wave of their deadly projectiles into their attackers.
They turned and walked a hundred feet in a diagonal path to the next interior gate. Looking up again, Gerid could guess how deadly nearly doubling the gate run’s distance would prove to an enemy. He wondered who would possibly dare to attack such defenses.
Inside the second wall, they crossed through a magnificent garden. The colors of early spring lit up with the morning light. There was still planting to be done for the season, but the plants surrounding a small, crystal, clear pond were already quite impressive. It made that of the Holtein's pale in comparison unfortunately, he thought.
Their sightseeing was cut short as they were introduced to the castle proper. There they were forced to wait in a foyer for nearly half an hour. When Gerid was finally called, a man clad in a long, crimson robe led the men down a long hallway culminating with the open doors to the throne room.
Gerid's gaze quickly found the king atop his dais and was surprised by the sight of the man. The king seemed quite tiny to him. King Colona stood maybe five feet tall and was very thin of frame. He did have a thick head of hair and a neatly trimmed beard of near black. His clothing did little to proclaim his kingliness either. They were unremarkable except for their color perhaps. Colona wore a simple purple tunic and dark blue leggings unadorned except near the collar where a thin band of gold highlighted his neck. The only thing that truly separated the man from the others was the circlet of gold and diamonds crowning his head.
King Colona noticed the commander’s entrance quickly as well and his eyes widened. "So you are the famed warrior Gerid Aramathea? I've heard that your strength is even greater than your giant size would have one believe. Your privateering exploits of only a half a year's work are already legendary as well. That is the reason I have called you here today.
"You have served the kingdom in many ways already. The taking of the pirates' weapons known as god’s fist cannon will definitely give us an edge in upcoming battles, I'm sure. My sorcerers and alchemists are still trying to determine the exact nature of the black powder they used, but once that is known we will begin building them to outfit our fleets." He eyed the giant scrupulously, "You haven't learned the mixture yet have you perhaps?"
"No, your majesty, the pirates that we've captured had no answers to give.. They claim to simply use it without knowing its nature. Several of them went to your dungeons to meet your interrogators and I've heard that nothing has been learned yet."
The king's head sank disappointedly onto his balled fist. "I was hoping that we might have the formula as an extra bargaining chip, but it probably won't matter much anyway." Colona stood up from the throne and stepped down the three stairs of the dais. He motioned Gerid to rise from his mandatory kneeling position before the throne. Realizing the height difference immediately as the man craned his neck upward, King Colona stepped back onto the lowest stair and continued, "I have two things to ask of you, commander. First, I have this document that I wish to have you deliver to the king of Tseult. You'll need to wait for the reply to my message before returning here with it. If you come across any of Kloste's ships, you have my permission to continue doing as you have, but if things take a turn for the worse, you must protect the letter. It is most important that it be delivered safely. Understand?"
"Of course, your majesty."
"Good, then the second task, is to find a way to get the answers about the pirates' explosive formula. My sorcerers have managed to devise a much weaker substitute that may work, but if you could bring us the real thing...?" the king left the implications unsaid. Clasping his hands, the king brought his hands in a point to his chin as if thinking. "I do have a suggestion for your course of action. The interrogators have learned that these pirates have created confederations or families like small nations. Each family has taken a certain island or city as a base. I have sent small fleets to the Quardi islands and to Famir, but the islands were too well defended. Ironically, it is their cannons that kept us from closing too near. If you can find a way to reach the islands, I'm sure that you could find the answers there."
The king nodded happily to himself and retook his seat atop the throne. "I think that is enough to think about, after all, you are a privateer. You do much of this for a living. You are dismissed, but remember that I need word from Tseult as soon as possible. Do
not dally, Mister Aramathea."
King Colona turned away from them as if they were forgotten and began conferring with his aides. Gerid nodded to his companions and they left.
Once they were away from the castle and back on the streets, Finneas spoke his mind, "Kind of assuming about all of this, isn't he? This will wind up setting back your plans as well won't it, my lord?"
Gerid groaned, "Oh, please, Finneas don't call me that. I'm either Gerid or commander, not a lord. But back to your question, I think that this will do no damage to my plans. You heard him say that we could hurt the Klostens as much as we want on the way. I think that we'll have to take the whole fleet with us to get to Tseult,
unfortunately, but, once we are back in Rhearden's waters again, we can separate for a few weeks before checking out the islands. The only things that may get delayed are my plans to marry Catiya."
Both men stopped in their tracks stunned.
"What?" Simon asked of his younger brother and spun him back to face him. "You're going to marry Catiya already? Why didn't you tell me of this? Has she said yes?"
"She has," he nodded, "but I was interrupted before I could formally ask Carter for her hand."
Simon let out a low whistle and shook his head. "Yeah, that could be a problem all right. Isn't Sama getting married this summer coming up already? Carter may have reservations about trying to give two weddings in one year."
"That and the question of my having been a slave, even if it was only for a short time. I could always pay for a wedding or just marry quietly. I wasn't truly worried about that." The young man sighed and shook his head. "Well, this isn't getting anything accomplished, is it? I have an errand to run in the city. I need you two to alert the captains to prepare for a joint trip to Tseult. Tell them to meet aboard the Raven to discuss matters tomorrow. I'll talk to you two back at Holtein's, if you'll come visit tonight, Simon?"
The High King: A Tale of Alus Page 25
