Conflict and Courage

by Candy Rae

  “Depend upon it,” he said, donating another kiss, this time on her forehead, “I’ve not been wrong yet when it mattered, have I?”

  She snuggled in, careful of her knitting bones and his partially healed wounds, comforted despite the nagging worries.

  Her eyes fluttered shut. Tara was asleep.

  Peter lay awake for a while then he too fell into dreamland.

  Vadath’s war was at an end, Vadath’s peace was at its beginning.

  * * * * *

  CHAPTER 38 - KINGDOM OF MURDOCH

  The news of the events in Vadath was not long in arriving at Lord Regent Sam Baker’s seat of government at Fort. By now there were more southerners who could communicate with the Larg and the news arrived as the defeated armies began their evacuation of the beachhead.

  The Larg envoy padded his way to the Conclave chamber the moment he learned of the defeat, his human translator a few steps to his rear.

  Lords Baker, Cocteau and van Buren were deep in discussion when the heavy door creaked open and they entered, the guard closing it quietly behind them, being careful to keep his distance from the envoy.

  “News?” demanded Sam.

  The envoy sat at the door and his Altuinq came to a halt a few paces from the table.

  “Not good,” the unfortunate man replied, “Bluaor received word a while ago. The armies are on their way back home.”

  “The regiments?”

  “Safe. They should reach the island landfall by dusk.”

  “The kohorts? Aoalvaldr?”

  “The kohorts have been routed. Aoalvaldr and his kohort were destroyed Bluaor thinks a week past as he attempted to run south to the beachhead. It appears that our surprise attack was not such a surprise as we intended.”

  “Duchesne?”

  “Aoalvaldr did not destroy him. Our intelligence indicates that he has survived.”

  Sam Baker let out a hiss of displeasure and disappointment.

  “The Larg did manage to capture a significant amount of cattle,” continued the man, “they are on the island awaiting transport. That should appease the Largan’s anger.”

  “Anger?”

  “That your regiments did not go to their assistance during the battle.”

  “That was not part of the agreement and he knows it.”

  More information emerged as the days passed.

  “It appears that General Karovitz did offer some assistance to take out the Keep but the offer was refused. The Larg did not wish to share the victory,” said Sam Baker to Henri Cocteau.

  “They will not refuse a second time.”

  “There won’t be a second time Henri. I’m not going to squander lives on another foolhardy attack on the north. We need them to protect our own borders and to keep the population in line.”

  “I don’t think our ‘allies’ will say much. Last time I spoke to Bluaor he was very reticent.”

  “Infighting between the packs?”

  “It’s more than that. They would hardly have initiated an attack on Vadath if there was a power-struggle in progress.” Henri Cocteau shrugged his shoulders. “We’ll no doubt hear all about it when they decide to tell us. We have more important matters to attend to, the recently vacated Lordship of Duchesne for one thing. Gardiner wants it for his second son. It’s a valuable piece of real estate for all that it’s so far away. Prime agricultural land and abundant forests.”

  “I think not,” hissed the Lord Regent. “My son William is a far more suitable candidate and he is betrothed to your daughter Henri. Let’s keep it within the family.”

  “Let’s have another look at the charts,” said Sam, “betrothals can be broken. Elliot and Ruth are still only nine. Perhaps some reallocations are in order, especially with the disappearance of Duchesne’s three sons.”

  Henri Cocteau decided to agree with Sam Baker.

  * * * * *

  “The regiments took few losses thanks to you,” said Sam Baker when the regiments returned to Fort.

  “The Larg are not pleased with our conduct on the battlefield,” worried General Karovitz, “they complain that our men sat safe behind the barricades and did not help.”

  “There’ll be no more trouble from them,” said Sam Baker with a triumphant grin of pure malice. “The rumours are true. Disease. They’re dropping like flies. Now is the time to consolidate what is ours, perhaps we could even bite off a chunk of that arable land in the north.”

  Sam Baker was content. He had achieved the power and prestige his ego demanded. He was in control. It was unfortunate that he could not marry one of his daughters to young King Elliot but not just Pierre Duchesne had balked at a marriage between a half-brother and sister. His blood would flow in all the noble houses except the royal one and next generation perhaps there too.

  * * * * *

  CHAPTER 39 - INTERREGNUM 2

  Years 10 to 16

  Aoalvaldr was dead.

  The Largan was dead, together with most of the ruling pack.

  The surviving Larg retrenched in the deep south and left the humans to it.

  Lord Regent Baker breathed a sigh of relief and pressed on with his plans. He completed the complex arrangement of betrothals and marriages between the noble houses and consolidated his power over young King Elliot. Under his rule feudal Murdoch had come into being.

  In the north Jim Cranston recovered from his wounds but was unable to continue as Susyc. Francis and Asya were confirmed in the position. Jim and Larya left for domta Afanasei where he spent his remaining years in honourable retirement.

  He kept busy, forcing through certain legislation in Argyll to ensure that when the Larg re-emerged, the continent would have the means to defeat them.

  He saw, as did Tara, Kolyei and some few others, that Argyll and Vadath would go their own ways in the years to come.

  There were signs already that some citizens of Argyll, especially those who were settling in the mountainous north, felt themselves to be different to those of Vadath. True, they were happy enough having the Vada in Argyll protecting the coasts and the services provided by the ‘Lind Express’ were appreciated, but already there were those who called those who bonded with the Lind ‘freaks’.

  In year twelve, he chaired his last conference, at Stewarton, the new-built capital city of Argyll, where the Councillors of Argyll and representatives of both Vadath and the Lind signed a new treaty of mutual defence. He could do no more.

  Jim’s greatest joys were the visits of his friends and his friend’s children who called him Uncle Jim and Larya, Auntie Larya. As he pottered around their daga with Larya sleepily watching, his tired eyes would light up when one or more of them appeared. They liked to surprise him and Larya never let on.

  * * * * *

  CHAPTER 40 - KINGDOM OF MURDOCH

  Lord Regent Sam Baker’s plans for betrothals between the children of the most powerful were coming to fruition by the summer of year sixteen.

  King Elliot and his twin sister Princess Ruth were fourteen years old.

  Elliot would have to wait, his future bride, the daughter of Lord Smith was only twelve, but Ruth’s intended was the eldest son of Lord Gardiner and he was older than she was by some months.

  Sam Baker informed the King, “your sister leaves next week.”

  Elliot raised a shocked face to his guardian. Underlying Baker’s pronouncement and unspoken was the knowledge that, if anything happened to Elliot, Ruth’s children would be Baker’s security, but she wasn’t as strong as her twin as the old doctor, who had cared for her since birth, told Elliot.

  Elliot turned to Sam Baker with concern, “where exactly is she going? Gardiner’s castle is low-lying and beside the river, not a healthy place for a chesty person.”

  He was fond of his twin sister and was not happy about Baker’s choice of husband. David Gardiner was slow-witted and a bully into the bargain.

  “Gardiner has drained the marsh. He assures me all precautions have been taken.”

  �
��Could we not at least postpone the marriage for a while?” ventured Elliot. “Send her to Gardiner by all means but to the bracing air of the coast where the air is fresher and cleaner. We could send a guard. She would be quite safe and when she is stronger she could marry then?”

  Sam looked at Elliot. The boy had been difficult of late, trying to assert his authority as King; of course he had none, Sam Baker had seen to that, but it might do no harm to give way on this relatively unimportant issue.

  “If that is your wish my King,” he agreed, “I have no objections.”

  “It is,” said a firm Elliot, very much on his dignity.

  “Perhaps you would also like to make the arrangements for her journey?”

  “Go now,” Elliot said turning to an aide and sitting up straighter in his throne, “tell my sister I will visit her this evening and tell her of the arrangements.”

  “Yes Sire,” announced the aide, bowing repeatedly as he backed out of the chamber.

  Sam Baker looked at Elliot. The boy sat, very pleased with the results of his show of independence.

  Time to burst the bubble.

  “Let us get on with more important matters,” he began, “the Conclave, your Conclave has agreed on the main points regarding the disputed border. All you need do is sign the proclamation.”

  Elliot sighed. His Conclave. That was a fiction and well he knew it. The bigger decisions were not his. He looked at his guardian through narrow eyes. A look Sam Baker did not see, engrossed as he was in settling the papers in front of Elliot.

  King Elliot would bide his time but he was King and would get rid of Sam Baker one day.

  Baker had brought Elliot up to be as ruthless as he was himself.

  He should not have been surprised when his protégée made his bid for power, only that the axe fell so soon.

  * * * * *

  “You will leave for Gardiner as soon as transport can be arranged. Lord Gardiner grows impatient. Fourteen is old enough.”

  Ruth sat upright, embroidery forgotten on her lap.

  “So soon,” she managed to say, “I thought next summer?” Her voice betrayed a plea that Sam Baker’s aide ignored.

  “The Lord Regent will be pleased to see that you appear happy with his arrangements.”

  Ruth’s eyes were stinging, but she would not let him see her cry. She was all Princess as she asked the aide her next question.

  “May I see my brother before I leave?”

  “My Lord Regent shall arrange it.”

  Doctor Arthur Kurtheim had not planned to say anything but during that afternoon Ruth opened the topic, seldom discussed, of her mother.

  “Mama used to say her first husband called her his green-eyed elf,” she began.

  “You are very like her.”

  “Do you think that a strange thing to call someone Doctor?”

  “It is a term of endearment Ruth, when two people love each other as deeply as I believe your mother loved him, it takes on a whole new meaning. You’ll find out yourself one day.”

  “With David Gardiner?”

  “Perhaps the marriage won’t happen.”

  “We’ve been betrothed for years. Nothing will stop this marriage.”

  “Have faith.”

  “Mama used to say that too, “but it didn’t do her much good.”

  A plan was forming in Arthur’s mind, an audacious and dangerous plan.

  “How good are your acting skills little Ruth?”

  Ruth stared in surprise, “fairly good I think. I seem to have been acting the part of dutiful princess for most of my life.”

  “Feel up to some more?”

  * * * * *

  Who would have believed, thought Arthur Kurtheim as he walked with the aid of his stick across the courtyard of the Little Sisters Hospital, that six years ago when I ‘persuaded’ Lord Regent Sam Baker to give me Cara to train that this would be the result?

  Cara had become, under his tutelage, nurse and midwife then had announced that she wished to form an order of like-minded women with the intention of tending to the poor and needy. Dressed in white, the Little Sisters of the Poor, named after a religious order on old Earth, now numbered twenty-four women of varying ages and disposition who had decided a life of chastity and nursing the poor was vastly preferable to the alternative. They had joined Cara, the oldest over sixty, the youngest a child of twelve whose father, a farmer-vassal of Lord van Buren, had desired her removal at all costs from within the grasp of his Lord.

  Arthur directed their medical training and Cara took on the governance of the group.

  The presence of the Little Sisters meant that the Lord Regent did not have to bother himself arranging for the care of the old and the sick at Fort. He had been under considerable pressure to do so. In his opinion, the Little Sisters were the perfect solution to the problem.

  It had taken time, but Cara had managed to locate Marcus Kushner’s sister Charlotte. Cara had been ‘invited’ to organise van Buren’s rather haphazard medical system and, in the process, had located Charlotte. As payment for her services, she demanded that Charlotte be given to her. So grateful had Raoul van Buren been that he had raised no objections.

  Raoul van Buren must have thought it a fair exchange, mused Arthur as he reached the doorway of the inner hospice, a large rambling wooden structure where the dying were cared for, an increasing number each season as the ex-convict population aged.

  The Sisters were held in high esteem by the men of both encampments, or River City as it was becoming known and Fort. None dared molest them. The reaction and punishment meted out by their fellow citizens by those foolhardy enough to try, was too awful to contemplate.

  Sam Baker had unbent enough to endow the sisters, in perpetuity, with the land and buildings they presently occupied and had even, at Cara’s insistence, (Arthur was still amazed at her temerity) sent soldiers to build a sturdy wall around, repair the fabric and adapt the old barn into a hospital. Not to be outdone, Lords Cocteau and Gardiner had provided money and labour too.

  The Little Sisters, unlike the long dead women they were named after, was not a religious order. The women did take vows, that was true, but these vows were purely to their vocation of nursing and to a life of chastity and moderate poverty.

  The women were happy; no one was there against their will including the latest novice, young Bernadette.

  Arthur could hear her voice chattering merrily as she went about her duties, no actual nursing yet, but she could help with the carrying and bed making, the little things that kept the place running.

  He reached the blue door that marked the entrance to the convent proper. Inside the peace enveloped him as the old sister led him along the narrow corridor to the Mother Abbess’s door.

  “Better get some more of these white habits of yours ready,” he joked, eyes twinkling.

  “More novices?” Sister Jean queried with a sad-faced smile.

  “Four young novices,” he answered.

  “Bernadette will be pleased,” the old nun said, “she finds it lonely with no other young ones to play with. When do they arrive?”

  “Very soon,” he promised and was rewarded with a beaming smile as she sped away as fast as she could, which was, Arthur reflected sadly, not much faster than him these days.

  He knocked and he heard Cara’s sweet voice as she called for him to enter.

  She looked up at him eagerly.

  “What news? Has Lord Cocteau finally decided?”

  Arthur eased himself into the indicated chair.

  “And more,” was his tantalising reply as he placed his walking stick beside him. “General Karovitz too. Henry Cocteau is very aware of his status, overly so, all the Lords are, probably as a result of reaching such exalted positions so late. With the death of van Buren’s boy Wolfram there isn’t a lad of similar age and rank for young Celine to marry and Cocteau is of no mind to pass her over to van Buren.”

  “I can understand that,” said Cara, “it is a de
spicable law.”

  “The Lords were happy enough to agree to it.”

  “Only when it is not their daughters who are forced into the breeding programme,” Cara reminded him.

  “I believe him to be genuinely fond of his children and he certainly doesn’t want to see her unhappy.”

  “Does the girl truly wish to join us? I will not accept the unwilling. It is not an easy life.”

  “According to Lord Cocteau, yes, at least she is not adverse to the idea. General Karovitz wishes to send his eldest daughter as well. She does want the life.”

  “So we get both of them?”

  “My dear, you have not two but four joining you this week, the other two are friends of Celine and the Karovitz girl but the main point is that you get two novices from the most powerful families in the country. It will protect you. When I’m not here you will be safe.”

  “What do you mean, when you’re not here?”

  “Cara, I’m an old man, but my imminent demise is not what I’m talking about. I plan to be away for a while.”

  “Where?”

  Cara was all inquisitiveness.

  “Best you don’t know, a mission of mercy of my own, call it what you like, but it is something I must do, a promise I made years ago to someone very dear to me.”

  “When will you get back?”

  “Soon,” he answered. Arthur did not believe in premonitions, but he was experiencing one now. He would not see Cara again, of that he was sure, as sure as he was that the sun would rise again come morning. He looked at the little white figure with affection as he rose from his chair.

  “I must get back now, I only wanted to tell you the good news.” He left, leaving the young Mother Abbess wondering what he wasn’t telling her. She was a busy woman though and forgot about it in the excitement of preparing for the four new arrivals. Afterwards, she remembered, with tears and a pride mingled with sadness.