Drakenfeld

by Mark Charan Newton

  ‘I’m confident the letter got to its destination, but I’ll not be around in Tryum for the reply, unfortunately.’

  ‘Trouble?’ he asked.

  I gave a nod.

  ‘Which is why you’re here?’

  ‘Correct again,’ I replied.

  ‘Right you are. I’m Trajus, by the way. Retired officer – used to do what you do, but find myself more suited to being behind a desk these days.’

  ‘I’m not sure being behind a desk would ever suit me.’

  ‘I was like you, son, but when you get an arrow lodged in your leg and a wound that never quite heals, you don’t get much choice in the matter.’ Trajus moved back to his seat and relaxed into it with a thunderous groan, which he seemed to enjoy. The place was modestly decorated – bare stone walls, with a stove and a few plain chairs, desks and benches. One workbench was littered with papers and scrolls, while in the corner of the room stood a small bust of Polla, with beads and necklaces draped over her. In my head I briefly requested her blessings.

  ‘Now, what course of action would you like?’ Trajus asked.

  ‘It’s a serious situation. I’m going to need an urgent message dispatched to my senior officers – have any soldiers been stationed nearby?’

  ‘Two dozen Sun Legion veterans on the other side of those trees.’ Trajus gestured towards the window.

  ‘Really? I saw nothing on the way up.’ I looked across to Leana, but she shrugged.

  ‘Then they’re doing their job properly, son. No one’s supposed to know they’re here. Not even I know what they’re here for.’

  ‘That might be my doing – or at least I hope it is. Please, can you take me down to see them?’

  The disappointment was apparent in Trajus’ face. ‘I’d just got settled in my chair.’

  Trajus limped at a frustratingly slow pace through the afternoon sunlight, leaning on his stick for support. Eventually, through the yellowing poplars and down a small country track, we arrived at a dip in the valley, a natural shelter carved out of the land itself. There were no tents, just a smouldering campfire in front of a small, crumbling barn overlooking the valley.

  ‘Where are they?’ I asked.

  I heard the clamour of armour – and some brief, sharp orders being issued from up the slope. Silhouetted against the bright sky were the two-dozen men, sheathing or lowering their weapons almost in unison.

  ‘Trajus,’ a voice called down, and a figure gestured towards us with the tip of his blade. ‘Who are these people?’

  ‘I am Lucan Drakenfeld, officer of the Sun Chamber.’

  ‘Is that so?’ the voice called back. ‘Then we have business with each other, Lucan Drakenfeld.’

  The figure marched down the hill and into focus. I could hardly believe my eyes. Looming over me in his resplendent uniform was an old friend.

  ‘Maxin Callimar?’ I called over. ‘Is it actually you?’

  ‘You were always getting into trouble, Lucan, even years ago.’

  Callimar strode into view smiling – a good deal older, flecks of grey in his beard, his nose even broader than it used to be, those brown eyes more penetrating than before. His skin had been darkened by a lifetime under the Vispasian sun. His hair was still raven-black, though, and he’d put on a lot of muscle mass over the years. We embraced, and I felt the iron grip of his veteran arms.

  ‘What are you now, a captain?’

  ‘General,’ he said laughing. ‘One of ten in the Sun Legion. And you’ve come a long way since I trained you, so I hear.’

  We took a step back so we could assess each other better. We’d known each other in Free State where Sun Chamber officers had to undergo a stint of military education. We became close friends for that brief time, the way a young and older man can do: me eager to learn, him eager to talk over a cup of wine.

  ‘Time’s been kinder to you than it has to me,’ Callimar said.

  ‘I don’t do half the things you lot do.’ I indicated his fellow veterans, who were stepping down slowly from the slope. ‘What good fortune that they sent you.’

  ‘Fortune hasn’t much to do with it. Our unit had been ensconced in a small town a few hours from the border of Maristan when there was news that some Lucan Drakenfeld character wanted help. I’m hardly likely to leave a friend standing, especially one like you.’

  ‘I’m relieved to find a friendly face out here.’

  ‘Sounds serious.’

  ‘It is.’

  ‘Come, then. Trajus, please, we’ll be fine from here. Thank you for bringing him and his colleague down.’

  Trajus muttered something before shambling back up the slope to the station post, while Callimar placed his arm around me and steered me towards the barn. It felt good to be among friends, to have someone from the Sun Chamber back me up in what had to be done.

  We walked back to the quiet shelter of the old limestone barn. I introduced him to Leana, and was a little surprised he made no comment on the fact that I had chosen a female assistant.

  We sat inside on rough wooden benches while his veterans set off in small teams around the hillside. Callimar offered us a cup of water, which was gratefully received.

  ‘So, friend,’ Callimar said, ‘what trouble have you found for yourself this time? The details I was given were hazy at best.’

  ‘It’s King Licintius,’ I said.

  Callimar’s face darkened and his expression grew more serious. ‘Go on.’

  ‘He’s staged the murder of his own sister, Lacanta, arranged for a priestess to be killed in her place, and tricked the whole city into believing his sister had been killed. In fact, the whole of Tryum believes the king to be in mourning for Lacanta, but I’m convinced she’s alive.’

  Callimar grunted a laugh of disbelief. ‘That sounds like a lot of effort.’

  ‘There’s a lot more I’m trying to connect. General Maxant has been killed, but I believed him to have been involved in the staging of Lacanta’s murder, too.’ I explained how Maxant had been the first one on the scene, the only one who could have put the key in the lock on the inside; the connection between him and the actor, Drullus, and the leaf of henbane. ‘And we found Maxant’s own murder staged in a similar manner – people were led to believe one thing, though quite another in fact happened.’

  ‘And you investigated all of this, Lucan?’

  ‘I did. The king permitted me access, but I don’t believe he wanted me there – another senator called me to the scene that night – but the king couldn’t get rid of me, not so soon after another Sun Chamber official had died.’

  ‘A unit far bigger than my men would have been dispatched in an instant,’ Callimar said.

  ‘Exactly – and he also had to create the illusion that he was interested in seeing Lacanta’s supposed murderer caught. It would have looked strange otherwise, but he was no stranger to acting, it seems. He put on quite a show of making me welcome. He must have been very confident in his own plans, but he now knows I’m on to something. He’s grown desperate. The King’s Legion will be out looking for us.’

  Callimar waved his heavy hand dismissively. ‘City troops will be lazy. We’ve hidden right in front of their noses and, if they come for you, we’ll keep you concealed.’ Callimar frowned momentarily. ‘Your father – he was the official who died, wasn’t he?’

  I nodded and took another gulp of water.

  ‘Lucan, I’m truly sorry. I hope Polla does her best for him.’

  ‘Thank you.’

  ‘Are these accusations enough, do you think?’ Callimar asked. ‘What solid evidence have you found?’

  I mentioned the priest’s descriptions of the missing priestess, and our verification of the body. ‘Of course, the body will be burned before long,’ I continued. ‘They have to give the impression the funeral rites are being conducted in accordance with Trymus’ own laws.’

  ‘Why would he have gone to all this trouble?’

  I shrugged. ‘That’s what I’ve not yet worked
out.’

  ‘Looks like we’ll have to find Lacanta, in that case.’ Callimar grinned. ‘Good luck with that.’

  ‘It might not actually be too difficult . . .’

  Callimar seemed confused. ‘And what makes you say that?’

  ‘A hunch.’

  ‘A hunch, he says?’ Callimar chuckled to Leana. ‘Where do you think she is hiding?’

  ‘Destos,’ I declared, and added, ‘possibly.’

  ‘Has she gone on holiday?’

  ‘Something like that.’ I described my discussions with Lillus, and produced the map. ‘Admittedly it’s not much to go on, but Destos is near enough to Tryum that, if she is working with Licintius, he can see that she is well looked after. But it’s far enough that she might never be found. Destos is also where the wealthy go to escape Tryum – she may have a fondness for it from her childhood, and know it reasonably well. More importantly, it’s safe.’

  He scrutinized the map and didn’t seem much impressed by it. ‘This map is useless, as far as maps go. You think she’ll be in a safe house?’

  ‘I suspect it will be large enough to house her and some form of protection,’ I replied. ‘I can’t imagine she’d hide out in a cave, not after she’s spent her life in Optryx. We must examine all the major properties in the region.’

  ‘In that case, we might need more than my men. I can arrange that – auxiliaries in Maristan can do the grunt work, and those on the border can be here by nightfall.’

  ‘If it can be done quietly, all the better. Military movements on the border could cause all sorts of problems. We’ll need scouts and agents, lots of them.’

  ‘All easily arranged. Sixty miles to the border, which is a day’s ride for the best of our riders. It could be two or three days before we start to see some real military presence. We’re not restricted by time are we?’

  ‘I don’t know. The king will probably think I’m still in the city but, even so, he might see more assistance is sent to wherever Lacanta is hiding. And if we find her, we’ll need her to remain alive. She must be prevented from killing herself or from being put to the sword. Only then can the picture become complete. We need a confession and there’s still so much that I do not know.’

  Callimar reflected on the subject for a moment, rubbing his jaw. ‘I’m guessing this wasn’t the homecoming you had in mind.’

  ‘You could say that.’

  ‘Then you’ll need a stronger drink than water,’ he replied, standing up. ‘I’ll fetch some wine.’

  That night, while messengers and riders were moving across the countryside, quietly altering the destiny of nations, I bedded down in the barn in the company of two veterans. We talked for a while about politics and joked about Sun Chamber administration. Stories were exchanged and there was a light-hearted effort at one-upmanship. Because I was well educated, one of them then asked me if I believed it was possible for one of his former lovers to have successfully placed a curse upon him, and I said honestly that I had never yet seen evidence of a curse working. It seemed to ease his concerns, though I did not want to ask him what he had done to receive one in the first place.

  Eventually, Leana and I were left alone. As we rested there were other soldiers patrolling the local terrain to make sure we were kept safe, and it was the first time in a long while I had felt relaxed enough to think clearly. Exhaustion overwhelmed me, so much so that once I had laid down with Leana watching over me, my head wouldn’t come back up. For a moment I thought another seizure was coming, but I remained quite awake and mentally alert. Meat was being cooked on a nearby fire sheltered by the ruined door of the barn. A few more of the veterans returned to tell jokes.

  I wanted to join them. To be in better spirits.

  It must have been my new-found freedom that made me think obsessively of Titiana that night. Given the pace of my exit from Tryum, I had not really had time to come to terms with what had happened. I had not shed a single tear at my father’s demise and yet the short intensity of my relationship with Titiana – something born of passion – combined with this sudden calm, all seemed to drag me into a deep misery. All my frustrations and rage were focused onto King Licintius.

  The Search

  The morning passed uneventfully and so Leana took the opportunity to work with me on my sword skills. There were no wooden practice swords so I kept alert and impressed myself by managing to deflect the majority of her blows.

  ‘I could have killed you twice,’ she declared afterwards.

  ‘I coped better than usual in that case.’

  She grunted either satisfaction or dissatisfaction – I could never quite tell, even after all these years together.

  A little before noon, another rider returned, on a fresh horse, having ridden through the night. While the horse was rubbed down, the messenger, showing no signs of struggling after a lack of sleep, revealed that our requests were being put into action. Our superior officers were discreetly journeying to the region. Auxiliaries were being smuggled across the border and into Detrata. The wheels of the Sun Chamber moved quickly, subtly, but to a startlingly efficient degree.

  The makeshift camp was packed away leaving no trace of anyone having being there, and that afternoon we set off in a north-westerly direction, through the rolling hills. Three other groups headed along different roads, mainly to keep our numbers down to a minimum so as not to attract too much attention.

  Our group followed a trail near an aqueduct supplying Tryum, but at a distance – keeping the structure in sight at all times as a navigational aid.

  The following days were among the most frustrating and dull I had ever experienced. Time seemed to stretch out due to my impatience, and the vast and sun-bleached landscape expanded to the horizon without varying, rarely promising anything to break up the day.

  Our journey took us through farmland first, then wilder grasslands and forests that banked up steep inclines. I hadn’t noticed it in the city, but here were the subtle changes of nature that indicated the turn towards colder weather. Certain plants were flowering, other kinds had died, and the leaves were becoming speckled with brown, as if autumn was some disease.

  Our days were long and uneventful. During this time, Leana had made something of a friend in Callimar. They talked of combat technique and weapons, topics for which I could muster little interest. He was keen to learn the arts of Atrewen killing and Leana grew very talkative, to a surprising extent. Killing was something that was occasionally necessary, but I preferred it that people remained alive – these two, however, talked with nonchalance, perhaps with little regard for the shattered families or ruined futures that death could bring to the living. It was the way of a warrior and I accepted that.

  I accepted, also, that I was no warrior.

  ‘You two seem to get on well,’ I said to Leana, lingering at the back of the train of horses.

  ‘We do. He will share wine with me and treat me as an equal. A nice change from Tryum.’

  ‘Tryum had citizens from all over the known world,’ I protested. ‘You could share wine with all sorts of people.’

  ‘Your idea of “all over” is very different from mine,’ Leana grunted. ‘Some people would share wine with me down-city. Up-city they treated me like a trinket. They just stared. In Venyn there were plenty of people from the south, from Atrewe and beyond, many different cultures, and many of them were successful people also. Here it is less so – the only people who hold power in Detrata are from Detrata. I grew tired of the comments, Lucan. I grew tired of the staring. Tryum is not the marvel you think it is.’

  As for my own relationship with Callimar, I had grown up significantly from my days in the academy. Back then he had much to teach me, both officially and unofficially, and our friendship was one of those best left in a certain time and place, but nothing could be achieved by revealing such sentiments. I was polite and courteous to him, but found our conversations strangely lacking in substance. Memory might also have exaggerated those more innocent
times back then. It seemed to me that, if not careful, one could romanticize the past beyond all recognition.

  The nights were cooler, but the midday heat was still powerful. We wore light hooded cloaks for shade, and I worried for the health of our horses. We camped under the stars with a soldier on sentry duty. I volunteered to do the job myself, rather liking the idea of staring into the indigo sky as dawn broke across the grassland, but Callimar insisted a military man do the job. Perhaps I would have been more interested in the poetry of the landscape than where a particular threat may have been coming from, but I happily took my sleep anyway.

  We were not, to our knowledge, being followed and we had not, to our knowledge, been seen by anyone other than traders, villagers or those toothless priests who crawled across the countryside searching for gods that I’d never heard of.

  After two nights the landscape changed again to endless acres of farmland and plantations, indicating that we had finally arrived in the region of Destos.

  ‘You’d better be sure she’s here,’ Callimar whispered to me.

  ‘You already know I’m not,’ I replied.

  ‘I’ve not told the others that.’

  At a small hamlet, which formed the hub of the local agricultural community, we managed to purchase maps from a family in need of coin. With a necessary lack of subtlety, we quickly gathered what little information we could about the region, where the larger villas were likely to be, whether wealthy people from Tryum owned any land, where small settlements were, and so on. We covered half the region’s hamlets in a day.

  As we moved on, an agent of the Sun Chamber caught up with us, having received a notification about our mission. Callimar seemed to know him well enough, which put me at ease.

  An expert in the region, he had discovered the whereabouts of three large villas not marked on any map, nor did they seem to be known to locals. The villas were away from a road, hidden by geography and at the far end of the region, by the coast. Callimar arranged for the agent to try to reach the others of the Sun Legion, who had headed out in slightly different directions, and for us to reconvene at a specific point along the coast.