by L. M. Roth
“So, what you are telling me, Marcus, is that a murderer is equal to a thief, and a thief is equal to a murderer. Neither is worse than the other, and neither is more blameless than the other in the eyes of your God.”
“Yes, that is right,” Marcus said slowly as comprehension dawned on him. “Yes, that is right. And a man must be judged by the laws of society and so may lose his life according to the laws of that society, but a man may be judged by the laws of the Kingdom and so receive mercy if he truly repents.”
Marcus froze where he stood and gazed out at the lake where the duck still swam in solitude. How ironic, he mused. Decimus was able to evade the laws of justice in Lycenium because of who his father was, the Governor, and were he to repent and ask forgiveness of Dominio, the King, he would “duck” so to speak, the law of eternal justice and so be washed as clean of his sin as that duck is cleansed of filth when it dives into the water.
Marcus was struck by a new revelation: he had once had to forgive Felix for betraying him in a moment of weakness to the Empress Aurora, an event that led to his captivity and the imprisonment and death of his parents. It had been the hardest thing he had ever had to do, forgive a friend for treachery, yet he had done it. Now a new thought flooded his understanding; what difference was there between forgiving a friend for inadvertently causing him pain and suffering, and forgiving an enemy for accidentally killing that same friend? Was there any difference?
And even though he had already asked forgiveness of Decimus for the threat of death he had made against him, for the first time he realized that he was wrong and Kyrene was right.
Chapter XXXII
Marcus Returns To Valerium
Their conversation was interrupted by the sound of running feet. Marcus whirled around and saw his daughter running frantically toward him, her hair tumbling down from her bandeaux and down around her shoulders. Alarmed, he hurried to her side and they met in the middle of the garden where a fountain with a marble nymph sent out a spray of water that sparkled in the rays of the sun.
“Father, oh Father!” Felicia cried out.
“What is it, Felicia?” he asked, as sudden panic swept through him. “What has happened?”
“It is Antonius,” she answered as sobs racked her body.
She doubled over without warning and clutched at her stomach. She was winded from her run and now emotion threatened to choke off her words altogether. Marcus led her to a stone bench and sat her down, leaning over her solicitously. Justus had joined them by now, and stood by silently.
“I shall leave you,” he said. “Let me know if I can be of any assistance to you.”
“Do not go,” Felicia implored. “It is nothing you do not already know, and therefore nothing that needs to be concealed.”
She turned back to her father.
“It is Antonius,” she said. “And it is my fault. I invited Justus and Silvia to dine with us last night, not knowing that my father-in-law had returned to Lycenium. He came in on us in the family sitting room; he was as stunned to see our guests as they were to see him. He left us and retired to his room, and I thought that would be the last of it.
“But Antonius was disturbed by the encounter, because something in his father’s attitude alerted him that there was more to the incident than he saw on the surface. He rose early and confronted his father, who confessed all to him, everything! And now he is bitter against his father, and the Emperor, and swears he will go to Valerium and confront the Emperor just as he has his father, and put an end to this mad man’s dishonoring the name of Dominio.
“I am frightened, Father. Antonius left me and went immediately to the docks. I did not follow and did not know where he went because little Valerius awoke and I needed to tend to him. By the time I had finished feeding and bathing him I discovered that Antonius booked passage on a ship to Valerium and is already on his way to Potentus, where he will face the Emperor. And I know if he does so he will be put to death!”
Marcus pulled her into his arms and stroked her hair as she wept helplessly. Justus averted his gaze; it was obvious to Marcus that the account disturbed him. The two men exchanged glances over the head of the weeping young woman, and Marcus knew suddenly what he needed to do.
“Felicia, hurry home and pack a bag and bring little Valerius with you. You and I are going to see Decimus, and from there we shall all return to Valerium to try to stop young Antonius in his madness.”
It was a gray faced Decimus who answered their summons. Paulina had not accompanied him as his business was of short duration. Her absence gave Marcus and Felicia the freedom to speak openly of the matter at hand, and Decimus actually seemed relieved to get everything out in the open.
He embraced Felicia when she ran to him, and Marcus found himself moved when he saw how tenderly his old foe kissed the top of his daughter’s head. He pulled away from her with tears in his eyes, his attempts at bravado for once cast aside. It was clear even to his old enemy that Decimus Hadrianus was a broken man.
“Father, I tried to reason with him, but he would not listen to me. I told him how sorry, how deeply sorry you are at what you did, but he refused to listen. I think he has had a shock, and therefore can not listen. But we must stop him before he sees the Emperor, for I know the Emperor will kill him!”
Decimus straightened and his face took on a look of urgency. He flew into action at once; he rang for the bell to summon his butler and instructed him to make sure that a bag was packed for him. He was leaving for Lycenium on the next ship and could not afford delay.
Only then did he turn back to Felicia and Marcus.
“Are you coming also?” he asked Marcus with no trace of emotion.
“Yes, my daughter may need me,” he answered abruptly. “And Antonius may need prayer before all is over.”
The gaze Decimus turned on him was devoid of his usual sneer, and he appeared thoughtful.
“Prayer? You mean, pray to this Dominio that he worships?” Decimus asked quietly. “What good will that do? Will it protect my son from his foolish course of action?”
“It may,” Marcus answered just as quietly. “But we must also pray for Antonius to see reason and have a change of heart.”
“Change his heart about confronting Iacomus, you mean?”
Marcus nodded slowly and stared into the eyes of the man who had caused him so much suffering.
“And that he has a change of heart toward you, and the bitterness he harbors.”
They were on the sea within an hour. Marcus had informed Tullia of the situation and she insisted on accompanying them, whether she and Marcus were in danger from the Emperor or not. With fair weather they might be in Valerium within a fortnight. Marcus found himself hoping that Antonius’ ship was delayed by bad weather so they would reach Potentus before him. And he prayed that Dominio would alleviate the bitterness in the young man’s heart toward his father.
Marcus had another matter to share with his wife. Before Justus’ visit that morning, he had read a letter that arrived in the morning post. Lucius was escorting Kyrene home and then would return to Eirinia where he would settle down with his wife.
“Marcus! You are not serious! You know I wish Lucius to return to Lycenium and choose a wife; indeed, if we ever return to Valerium I know just the young lady I have in mind. How could he possibly settle down in Eirinia with some country maiden? Why he does not even like the country when we leave the city for a picnic and is always complaining about bugs and grass; how could he live in the wilds of a province like Eirinia!”
“But Tullia,” he interrupted with a twinkle in his eyes. “Our son is going to marry Dag’s daughter. It is Maelys; he adores the maid and if we refuse he will never return home. That is what he writes.”
“Maelys!” she exclaimed. “Well, why didn’t you say so? Of course, that is entirely different. She is a lady of quality as well as a strong young woman. She will help make him the man I know is hiding behind the spoiled boy.”
Felic
ia, in spite of her worry over her husband, could not have been more delighted. Now Maelys would truly be her sister, and she and Lucius could visit Lycenium during the winter months when the ground lay idle in Eirinia.
“And just think of it, Father; if Maelys had not come here looking for her brother, she and Lucius would most likely have never met. It seems as if the hand of Dominio led her here, does it not? So, He brought something good out of her father’s imprisonment after all.”
As for Decimus, he kept to himself for most of the voyage, coming out of his cabin only occasionally. He did join Marcus, Tullia, and Felicia for meals, something he could not avoid as all meals on shipboard were communal. During those meals he remained silent for the most part, his entire demeanor sober and quiet.
Marcus encountered him late one night, on the last night of their voyage, and they talked.
He had come up on deck to watch the stars, and marveled at their beauty. He recalled the long ago words of his mother and smiled. Just at that moment he became aware that he was not alone, and glanced along the rail to discover Decimus striding to the spot where he stood. When he saw Marcus he stopped and would have retreated.
Marcus waved him over. They stood in silence for several moments, neither of them knowing quite what to say. As the waves slapped against the side of the ship, Marcus saw a spray of water shoot in the air about half a mile ahead of them and caught his breath in wonder. The sight startled him out of his silence, eager to share the experience with whoever was present at that moment.
“Look, Decimus; a whale! It is rare to meet with one in these waters. Indeed, I have never seen one.”
Decimus nodded and leaned over the rail for a better view. Then he looked up at the glittering stars strewn across the night sky.
“You like stars?” he asked Marcus.
“Yes, I do. I was just standing here remembering what my mother used to call them; little lanterns to illumine the darkness was what she said. And it does seem that the world would be a dark place indeed without the stars to light our way.”
“Yes, I agree. Do you think of your parents often?” Decimus asked to the amazement of Marcus.
Always Decimus had taunted him for the disgrace the Empress had brought on his family with her false accusations against his father, accusations that Decimus chose to believe out of his hatred for Marcus. Marcus left off his study of the night sky and turned to face the man beside him.
“Yes, I do miss them; I miss them greatly. I wish they could have watched Lucius and Felicia grow up; I wish they could see little Valerius. It is a sore thing to lose one’s family, especially when one is very young, as I was.”
He was suddenly overcome with emotion as he thought back on those long ago days, and he left off his comments. He could not imagine what had come over him, that he should express his feelings so openly to a man who hated him no less than he hated him. But to his surprise, Decimus did not jeer or call him the son of a traitor, as was his usual bent.
“Yes, that would be a sore thing,” Decimus agreed. “And I have learned that lesson myself now: I have lost my son. I know it, and there is nothing I can do to change it.”
“Oh, but Antonius is a good young man,” Marcus said hastily. “I am sure that time is all he needs. Time, and honesty from you. I suppose I can understand why you chose to hide the past from him and Paulina, but you must understand the shock he has suffered.”
“At first I thought you had told him, or Felicia had,” Decimus blurted out. “But it was my own guilt that gave me away, he said. He saw it in my face when I saw…that woman. Silvia Lucius. He saw the guilt in my face and he knew something was wrong.”
He turned to Marcus with troubled eyes.
“But I could not lie to him, Maximus. I could not! I never wanted him to know what happened, but I could not lie. Why could I not lie?”
A sob tore at his throat, and Decimus clenched a fist to his mouth. He struggled for control, humiliated that he should cry in front of his enemy. But Marcus felt a sudden pity for the man who had killed his best friend and not been punished for it. Now he saw that he was wrong, and that Decimus had indeed lived with the guilt behind his bravado all these years, and the punishment had been terrible.
He found words that he never thought he could say to Decimus falling from his lips.
“Perhaps it is because you want relief from the guilt, Decimus. Perhaps you are weary of the pain of hiding what happened. Perhaps, you have grown up.”
Decimus stared at him, and then slowly nodded his head.
“Perhaps,” he said softly, “you are right.”
Chapter XXXIII
Dag’s Family
Dag unrolled the scroll that had come in the morning post and read it voraciously. How good it was to hear from Cort at last! He had thought of him often and still missed him deeply; his sense of humor had always leavened the emotion of the other members of the Adalbart family, their inheritance of Trekur Lender calm and stoicism at constant war with their Eirini passion and quick tempers.
Cort’s words flew up at him like a bird’s wings, and brought back vivid memories of the sense of adventure of the small boy who had adopted him more than twenty years ago.
“Greetings Father and Mother, and all the lesser stars of the Adalbart family:
“Siv and I are well, and we have made it to Darian, the land to which we felt so strangely drawn on our previous voyage. To our astonishment, the people here expected us and it was only a matter of time before we could share the Good News with them, and we have already founded a colony of believers. My blond hair and blue eyes have found favor among them, for they have waited for someone who looks like me for centuries, it seems.
“They have a tale of one who brought ruin on their people after he wed the daughter of their reigning chieftain, and then sired children with many of the village women. They had never permitted outsiders to remain on their island and only married among their own people. They felt they were of divine origin, and his wicked blood tainted the strain and diminished them to the status of mortal men.
“They had a prophecy that another man with blond hair and blue eyes would come to them one day and restore them to their former glory. When I shared with them the love of Dominio and how He sent His Son Alexandros to reconcile them to Him and become His beloved children once more, they saw the connection with their own supposed heritage and Dominio’s desire to bring us back into our divine connection with Him. Every one of them accepted this truth, and they are all believers, wishing to spread the Kingdom right here on their own island.
“It is strange, but I recalled later, and so did Siv, that there was a story among the people of our own village about a man named Tyr who was wicked and sent away by his own father. And it was said that he never returned. I can not help but wonder if this Tyr and the Tyr the people of Darian speak of are one and the same. Can it be that Dominio sent me here to atone for what he did? Would He do such a thing; send someone from the same village to make amends for the wrong of another?
“I find myself wondering of late if everything that has happened in my life has led me to this moment: my father’s plan to sell me to the Tribal Chief which led to my running away from home, meeting you and our hearing of Dominio and committing our lives into His service, you adopting me as your son and raising me with your own children, and even leaving home because of Melisande and Dominio leading me to Darian. Is it possible that Dominio orchestrated all of the events in my life to lead me to my destiny?
“I can not help but wonder: were it not for my father’s debts he would not have been willing to sell me as a slave, were it not for that I would never have run away from home, and would most likely have remained in Trekur Lende all of my days, just as all of my people always have. And it is the sovereignty of Dominio that led me to Darian after the course of these events.
“I saw Gunnar in Grete’s Land; it is sad what has happened there due to their letting the outside world in after all their history of iso
lating themselves. And I have determined that we shall not do so in Darian. If they are to remain pure, they must stay set apart. We shall even leave the settlement, and establish a colony on the heights, among the cliffs and the rooks where the foot of man shall not ascend without great peril to himself. And up here we shall seek God.
“Give my love to my mothers; I hold them equally close in my heart. And to all of my brothers and sisters, may they be well and grow to be the men and women that Dominio desires them to be. I do not know when I shall see you again, as Siv and I feel we are to remain here indefinitely to teach and to train the people of Darian. It may be that Dominio will send us elsewhere when our task here is completed.
“But know this: no matter where we may be sent, no matter how long before we see one another again, you are my family, and always shall be, to the end of our days on this earth together.
“Cort”
As he read the letter, Dag’s eyes filled with tears of longing for his adopted son. But he knew that Cort was right: he had a task to do, and now Dirk was becoming to Dag what Cort had always been, his eldest son. And yet, he thought, was it not true that in Dominio we are all adopted? What is the difference then between an adopted son and one born to a man? Was there any difference?
Thoughts of family turned Dag’s thoughts in another direction. Whether the family liked her or not, Melisande was part of the family, Brenus’ widow, the mother of his child. And he felt prompted that she must not be excluded, as his daughters had been so determined to do, even Nolwenn, now that she understood Melisande’s true intentions in befriending her.
As he had always been a man of action, he set about at once to make amends. He found himself on a warm day in early September knocking on the door of the hut of the woman who had attempted to kill him, with the intention of asking her to dine with the family that night.
