Carlana took a sip of wine, and spoke from behind the goblet, to prevent her voice from carrying. “The Thrallren woods, according my army captains, is impassable, and we didn’t need to be concerned about an invasion from that direction.”
Paedris shrugged. “So thought Duke Yarron, and those are his woods. His sheriffs patrol those woods, but I think it would be prudent to send, perhaps, two dozen Rangers to assist Yarron’s sheriffs.”
“Two dozen? Why not four dozen, or make it an even hundred Rangers? You are always quick to send my troops out to battle.”
“I would think you’d like the idea of Rangers being in the field, where they can mostly live off the land. Here in their barracks, you have to pay for their keep.” Paedris saw that remark caused a flash of anger from the Regent, so he hastened to continue “Yarron would no doubt be grateful for extra protection, and he is one of your strongest allies. Besides, a force of Rangers could also train some of Yarron’s own troops, so they could eventually be entrusted with the task themselves.”
“And a force of Rangers, operating on their own, could of course be trusted not to provoke the enemy? I think not.” The Rangers, a small, elite force of the royal army, had a reputation for being aggressive, sometimes to the point of foolishness. “You defeated the enemy’s raiding force. I think we will not face much of a threat for while.”
Paedris could perhaps be forgiven his rudeness, for he was very tired. Healing Ariana and Koren, then riding out with the army patrol, destroying the enemy raiding force, battling the enemy wizard, and doing his best to heal the wounded on the long ride back, all had drained his strength. “Eight men died in this ‘easy’ victory you speak of, and many other men were wounded. The enemy has been bold enough to attack us because they sense Tarador is weak. Your late husband Adric knew the threat we face.”
“Yes, and he died because he followed your advice, Paedris Don Salva.” Carlana hissed under her breath. “My charge as Regent is to assure Ariana, and Tarador, survive to for her to assume the throne. This war has lasted for many years, I think it can wait until Ariana will becomes queen, and you can try convincing her to engage in military adventures. I will not go poking sticks into hornet’s nests.”
“Those hornets, dear lady, are going to be setting up their nests right here in this castle, if we do not fight them. It is the survival of all Tarador, and not just the Trehayme line, that should concern you.”
Carlana was about to reply, when Baroness Sedgwick, alarmed by the argument that had grown loud enough for everyone at Carlana’s end of the table to hear, stood up and proposed a toast to the wizard, for leading Tarador to victory. The distraction broke the tension, and the royal chamberlain clapped his hands for a troop of musicians and acrobats to perform for the crowd.
“Oh, I ate too much. Koren, this is one of the few times I appreciate wearing these silly formal robes, I can loosen the belt and get comfortable. Ahhhh.” The wizard sighed contentedly as he sank back into his favorite chair, in his chamber near the top of the tower. “Koren, sit down, sit down, relax. Oh, put some more wood on the fire. And, do we have any more of that wine from Holdeness, the sweet red wine? Get the bottle, oh, and get two glasses, if you like sweet wine.”
Koren smiled to himself at the wizard’s idea of ‘sit down and relax’, it seemed to involve a lot of work for his servant. After he walked all the way down the stairs, out the door, and around the backside of the tower to fetch logs from the woodpile, walked back up to the pantry where the wine and glasses were kept, and returned to the wizard, he found the man asleep in the chair, his head lolled to the side, snoring softly. Koren had to set the wine down quickly and cover his mouth to stop from bursting out laughing. He poured a glass of wine, set it on the table next to the wizard, and put a log on the fire. When he closed the door to the stove, the creaking metal woke up the wizard with startled, interrupted snore.
“Snnnxxx- Uh! Oh, oh, it’s you, Koren. I must have dozed off. Why, here’s my wine.” Paedris look a sip of the wine. “Ah, that’s good. I’m more tired than I thought, it was a very long ride back, with few comforts. And less of a joyous welcome that I had hoped for, that didn’t help matters.” He grumbled into his wineglass. “Still, most things look better after a good night’s sleep, eh? You had best get some rest, too, I hear you’re going to a party tomorrow?”
Koren was suddenly embarrassed. “The princess is opening her maze in the garden, I hear many people are invited.”
Many people, Paedris thought to himself, but only one commoner servant boy was likely invited. “I hear the princess has been inviting you to dine with her?”
Koren nodded, embarrassed. He knew tongues were wagging around the palace, about the servant boy who dined with the princess. Jealous, spiteful tongues.
Anyone who thought Koren might have romantic ideas about Ariana were idiots. Commoners, even if they were stupid, did not have romantic notions about royalty, certainly not when the royal person was the heir to the throne, and held the power of life and death over lowly-born commoners. Koren’s people were peasant farmers, who survived only on what they could grow on their land, or by illegal hunting in the forests that belonged to the local baron. At harvest time, the sheriff came to collect taxes based on the amount of land being farmed, whether it was a good year for crops or not. If there wasn’t enough food left over for the family, they went hungry.
Koren wasn’t just a commoner, he was a penniless servant, a farmboy who didn’t even have a family. Did Koren sometimes get a funny feeling in his stomach, like butterflies, when he was around Ariana? Maybe so. When they were sitting around a table, looking at maps, and Ariana leaned close enough that Koren could smell her perfume, and the curls of her hair might brush against his hand, and she looked at him with that cute little smile-
Maybe Koren did daydream, just a little, about Ariana. When he wasn’t thinking clearly. When he was thinking clearly, he remembered his place, and that place had no business even being around the crown princess.
So Koren grumbled uncomfortably when Paedris asked him about dining with the princess. “She’s teaching me about history, and maps and stuff. There’s a whole building full of scrolls and books, that she can borrow. She calls it a library.”
“Good, good.” Paedris was pleased that Koren was learning about Tarador, there was much the boy needed to know, even before he began his training in a few short years. Knowing Koren didn’t want to talk about Ariana, Paedris changed the subject. “Do you, uh, do you have something appropriate to wear to the party tomorrow?”
“Yes, sir, Ari- I mean, the princess, asked Master Fusting to help find clothing for me to wear.”
“Ha, ha! Oh, so you have already had the displeasure of meeting Charl Fusting!” Paedris laughed. The wizard took a big gulp of wine and chuckled to himself.
Koren smiled while he recalled Fusting’s immense distress at having to deal with finding the proper clothing for a mere grubby servant, a servant who needed clothing fit for an official occasion with the crown princess, which was clearly impossible, out of the question, except that she had insisted, and she was the crown princess, so Fusting had to do something, and so had scoured the palace for something Koren could wear. The chief of protocol had, after hours of grueling labor, selected several outfits that might, just might, possibly not be too outrageously horrible, if people didn’t look too closely. And then Koren had ruined all Fusting’s simply brilliant work by trying to put on a jacket backwards. The chief of protocol had fainted, and been taken away to rest, with cold towels on his forehead, and chilled wine to drink. Koren had shrugged, and gathered an armful of clothing for Ariana to choose from. The princess had so much fun making him try on outfits, that Koren wondered why she had asked Fusting to get involved in the first place. “I met him, yes sir. It was, uh,” Koren winked, “most irregular.”
“Ha!” Paedris laughed. “I wish I had been there. A commoner, dining with the crown princess. Why, I bet there wasn’t anything in his b
ook of protocol to cover that, and Fusting loves referring to that stupid book. Be careful, Koren, you may be the death of that man someday. Oh!” Paedris’ jaw stretched wide in a yawn. “I hope you have a good time at the party tomorrow.”
“You wished to see me, your Highness?” Grand General Magrane, commander of the royal army, paused at the door, and bowed to the crown princess. After the tense dinner party, listening to the Regent and the court wizard arguing, all Magrane wanted to do was sleep, for soldiers needed to awaken early. He was still wearing his full dress uniform, which was heavy, and stiff and uncomfortable. Once long and black, Magrane’s hair was now gray, and cut short, and his full beard partly covered a scar on the right side of his face.
“Yes, general.” Ariana replied. “Please, come in, sit down. I wish to learn more about army strategy.”
“Tonight?” Magrane asked, dreading a long night of looking over maps.
“No!” Ariana laughed. “And it doesn’t have to be you, I don’t want to take you away from your duties. I don’t want to wait until I have a crown on my head, to learn the tasks of being queen.”
“That is wise, your Highness.” Magrane thought for a moment. Who to assign the delicate task of teaching Ariana military strategy? A delicate, likely frustrating task, but one that could be rewarding, if the future queen thought well of the person. “I have a young man in mind, a Captain Raddick. He’s a distant relative of the Magnicos. A promising young officer, in my opinion. He will be available, here in the castle, until the spring time. ” And, Magrane thought sourly, perhaps all year, if the fickle Regent refused to send the royal army into the field once winter was over.
“Good, have this Captain Raddick speak with my secretary, soon. Now, general, my personal guards were with me all spring and summer, they must be tired, and in need of retraining, am I correct?”
“Yes, your Highness,” Magrane answered warily, wondering why the princess had asked, “they will report for training in a fortnight, and be replaced by fresh men from the castle guard.”
“The Thrallren woods are an excellent place for training, don’t you think?” She asked with a slight smile.
“The Trall- your Highness, forgive me, but your mother-“
“Commands the royal army, she does not command my personal guard. Since mother won’t send Rangers to help Yarron secure the Thrallren, I am sending my own guard there. For rest, and training, of course. I think thirty men from my personal guard should help Yarron sleep better at night, with his border more secure?” Ariana could not help smiling, she was well pleased with her self, for outmaneuvering her mother.
Magrane could not help smiling, behind his beard. Ariana Trehayme was going to be a formidable queen. The general only hoped he would survive the next few years, to see her safely on the throne.
The morning of Ariana's garden party started extra early for Koren. First, he grabbed a quick breakfast for himself; a small loaf of freshly-baked bread, a sausage, and hot tea. Then, he fed and exercised Thunderbolt, and back to the wizard's tower. Paedris didn't drink tea in the mornings, he drank 'coffee'. Many of the army soldiers drank coffee in the mornings, they said it made them more alert. Koren had heard of coffee before, but never seen it. It was too expensive for most people, even tea was too dear for many poor farm families. Paedris had coffee beans brought in especially from his homeland twice a year, they were stored in metal pails in the root cellar to keep them cool. Koren needed to scoop out enough for a week to keep in the tower's pantry, and each morning, he carefully roasted a small handful of beans, ground them, and slowly poured boiling hot water over the grinds. The wizard liked his coffee strong, with a spoon of cream stirred in. Once the coffee was ready, Koren put the pot on the side of the stove, to keep it hot, but not too hot, and he ran over to the royal kitchens to fetch breakfast for the wizard. With the breakfast in a covered tray, which also went on the side of the stove, he put on an apron and crept up the stairs to listen whether the wizard was awake yet. That morning, the wizard was up, puttering around in his laboratory, so Koren dashed down the stairs and delivered breakfast, which was suitably appreciated. Paedris did not trust the royal kitchens to prepare his precious coffee, he had painstakingly shown Koren how to roast, grind and brew the bitter liquid, and exactly at what temperature it should be served. To the wizard's delight, Koren brewed perfect coffee! Knowing his servant had a busy day ahead, the wizard said Koren could clean up the dishes later. Gratefully, Koren ran back down the stairs to run the wizard's bath water and stoked the water heater stove. He had taken a bath the evening before, so now he got dressed in the party clothes that Ariana's maid had delivered the previous afternoon. The maid had even shown Koren how to wear the clothes, which was helpful, for he had no idea whether the shirt was supposed to be tucked into the pants or not, and whether the pants should be tucked into the boots (yes to both questions). He was dressed and ready an hour before the party was to start, plenty of time to duck back into the kitchens and scrounge up something more to eat. And borrow an apron, so he wouldn't drip strawberry jam onto his new jacket.
Ariana’s party to open the new garden maze was, in Kyre’s words, a smashing success. The weather was perfect, a brilliantly clear late Autumn day, unseasonably warm. At Ariana’s request, the royal gardener had been working on growing the maze for three years, the thick hedges occupied almost an acre of land in a garden outside the walls of the castle. Stone planters held some of the hedges, which could be moved to change the path of the maze, so Ariana and her guests would not get bored with it. There were three entrances, all leading eventually to the center, with many complicated dead-ends along the way. Ariana set up three teams of three, with her were Koren and a girl who was the daughter of some Baron, Kyre led one of the other teams. At the blare of a trumpet, the teams were off, running head-long down the maze. It took almost a quarter of an hour, but in the end, Ariana triumphantly led her team to the center, just ahead of Kyre. Koren could not remember the last time he had so much fun.
Afterward, there was a picnic on the great lawn of the garden, with kites to fly, games of kickball, and much general racing about and tomfoolery that the children’s royal parents certainly would not have approved of, but that didn’t matter, for Ariana hadn’t invited any adults. And she said so.
On the advice of Niles Forne, Kyre did not act as though the princess were his new best friend, in fact, he rather left her alone. It was Koren who brought them together, choosing Kyre to play on Ariana’s kickball team, without asking her first. The princess seemed cool to the idea, but Kyre was a good sport, even when he was knocked out of the game, and laughed and joked around so easily, Ariana had to wonder whether her opinion of Kyre Falco as devious and scheming was entirely correct.
After the fireworks that closed the party, Ariana went back to her royal apartments, Koren went to the wizard’s tower, and Kyre reported to Niles Forne that the day had been another triumph for the Falco’s.
While Koren enjoyed Ariana's party, and Kyre tried to impress the young princess, Paedris had invited Grand General Magrane to discuss recent information Magrane had received from his spy network, although that was really just an excuse to talk about future army strategy. Or, rather, what future army strategy should be, if the Regent had been willing to listen to either her army commander or her chief wizard. The general climbed the stairs with head held high, shoulder back, standing proud and tall. When he reached the study where Paedris was waiting, he dismissed his two guards to wait by the tower's front door, and slumped wearily into a chair by the fireplace. "Oh, Paedris, I am tired to the core of my bones. Perhaps I'm too old for this."
The wizard picked up the coffee pot from the side of the metal stove and poured a mug for his guest. "Nonsense, Leon," he said, returning the general's informality by using the man's first name, "you're in your prime, commanding the entire royal army. And you're younger than me."
"Ah," Magrane sighed as he sipped from the hot mug, "that is good coffee. You may be olde
r in years than I am, but you are a wizard, after all."
"A wizard, yes, but having a longer life sometimes means having more than one lifetime of aches and pains. I dread the winters here, they make my joints ache. If it is going to rain, I can tell because my knees hurt, and that's no wizardry."
"We've earned our aches and pains, Paedris, from long service."
"And too many nights sleeping on the cold ground."
"Aye, that, too."
Paedris poured a mug of coffee for himself, and reached for a scroll the general had brought. "Where is that confounded glass? Oh," he realized he'd been sitting on it all morning, "here it is." He unrolled the scroll, which was written painstakingly in a cipher by the spy who had sent it to Magrane. The general had men who could decipher the document, one letter at a time, but Paedris had no patience for that. He held the glass, a thick, flat disc of clear glass, over the scroll, and looked through it. Because of the spell the wizard had cast on the glass, the words of the scroll appeared in plain writing to his eye. "Hmmm." He frowned. "This is not quite the good news we had hoped for, I am afraid."
Magrane snorted. "Who hoped for good news? I didn't. About the war, about our fortunes, there is no good news. Nor will there be."
"Come, Leon, surely you don't mean that."
"Paedris, we are men of action, and responsibility. You and I, here in private, need not tell each other happy fairy tales. We are losing this war, we have been losing for the last two hundred or so years. Our late king, and a few other kings and queens, may have halted our decline for a time, but year by year, our enemy grows stronger, and we do not. Our allies waver, those who have not already declared themselves neutral, or fallen under the sway of our enemy. I do not blame them, those smaller kingdoms, for if we cannot guarantee their protection, they must act to protect themselves. We know Lemond allows pirates sponsored by Acedor to use two of their islands as a base, to raid our merchant ships." Lemond was a small independent duchy at the eastern end of a large island off Tarador's southern shore. For centuries, part of Tarador's Royal Navy had been based in Lemond's fine harbor, but thirty years ago, Tarador had found the expense of maintaining a large navy, stationing hundred of royal army troops in Lemond, and paying an annual fee to the Duchess for use of the harbor, to be unsustainable. So, the troops had been withdrawn, the ships returned to Tarador, and the payments stopped. The Duchess had begged for at least two ships and a hundred soldiers, a token force at best, to remain. Harbor fees would stop, indeed, the Duchess offered to pay for the supplies the royal army troops needed. But the king who ruled Tarador at the time, struggling to deal with a drought, crop failures, and orcs raiding across the northern provinces, declared Tarador could no longer afford to support Lemond. Three months after the Royal Navy ships departed for home, the Duchess of Lemond received a notice that Acedor would be sending an envoy, and she would be wise to allow the envoy's ship into her harbor. Since then, two of Lemond's strategically placed islands had essentially been ceded to Acedor. It had been a major defeat for Tarador, and the kingdom had been paying the price ever since. Allies learned from Lemond that Tarador could not be relied on.
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