by Kal Spriggs
“Now,” Commander Flamehair said, “I've been instructed to ask directly about the prisoners you've taken here at the Ryftguard. I've their names and ranks, which we appreciate, but Lord Hector wants to know if they can send letters to their families, since many of them are from Longhaven. He's also prepared to offer a ransom for their release as well as an agreement that they'll serve in his army in the North, so you need not worry about seeing them here again.”
“Not that I'd want to serve with the cowardly lot under me,” Covle Darkbit sneered. “If it were up to me, you could arrange for their feeding and care or their execution. I told Lord Hector myself that it sets a bad precedent to pay for the return of men who surrendered.”
“Well,” Katarina ignored Darkbit's comment and talked directly to Commander Flamehair, “I can imagine many of them are more than willing to return home to their families. I can have some of my men supply them with paper and ink and we'll take letters from them and deliver those to you.” She glanced at Arren who sat silent, “I'm not certain what terms of ransom we're willing to entertain, perhaps you'd like to weigh in on that, Arren?”
The old man stroked his beard. “Yes, well...” he trailed off, “I believe the custom is common enough, in Asador, is it not, Commander Flamehair?”
Katarina didn't miss a sudden guarded look in the other woman's eyes. Despite her past with Arren, she'd seemed relatively comfortable with him at the table, which Katarina respected. This sudden change of attitude, though, suggested that she still had a few issues with the older man. “You are correct. It is our policy there, to rate a fighting man and his equipment at five kudas, a trained horse at fifteen kudas, and a trained knight around fifty kudas, depending on his lineage.”
Darkbit snorted at that, “More for the horses, I can't say I'm surprised.”
Asador's kudas were similar enough to Masov's lita, roughly a ten gram coin, though like all currency, the purity of the metal could change the value of individual coins. Katarina looked at Kerrel and gave her a warm smile, “I think that sounds an acceptable rate, do you not?” At the other woman's nod, she continued, “Well, upon payment, we'll turn over our prisoners.” She looked around the table, “I think then, that we've covered the material we'd discussed earlier. How about a break?”
Commander Flamehair looked over at Miss Kail, who sat quietly stitching. When the other woman didn't weigh in, the mercenary commander gave a nod, “I think that will do for now. If you'll excuse us?” She rose and led the way out, followed by Grel and Darkbit. Miss Kail packed away her needlepoint without a word and rose. After a moment, Katarina shared the room only with her advisers.
“If I have to listen to that murderous swine Grel or that unmitigated bastard Darkbit much longer,” Katarina said, “I'm probably going to kill the both of them.”
“I want to run him through, just for the insults he offers you, my Lady,” Lord Jack said with a flourish. The young man stroked at his red mustache and glowered at the closed door.
“They're trying to provoke us,” Arren said mildly. “They want this process to break down.”
“But why?” Katarina demanded, “They've just as much to lose as us! Civil war would be bad enough, but I'm certain that Norics and Armen burning and looting would be worse.”
“It would,” Eleanor said, “But men like them always have the opinion that it can't happen to them. To them, the rest of us are just pawns to manipulate or toys to play with. Peace with us is dangerous to them, it would take away their power, whereas with us as a threat, they have free rein to do whatever they want, all in the name of keeping the peasants in check or terrifying potential rebels.”
Katarina nodded at that, though their attitude still came across as something even more vile than Eleanor had suggested. It was almost as if the both of them wanted that chaos, wanted to topple the Duchy into civil war. She shook her head, “Still, at least Commander Flamehair's being reasonable.”
“She is,” Arren said, “and for that I hold out some hope that we can resolve all this.”
Katarina took a deep breath, “Me too, actually.” She looked around, “What bothers me, though, is Miss Kail.” When Jarek raised his eyebrows at that she elaborated, “She just sits there, quietly. Today it was needlepoint, yesterday it was knitting. She's listening, but she's not saying anything. That tells me either she doesn't care about our current discussions or...”
“Or she's waiting to lend her weight on topics that she feels are of the most importance,” Jarek nodded. “Yeah, I get that feeling too. My father mentioned her, now and again, said that she had a lot more presence and intelligence than most. I gather that she's playing a waiting game, but I've no idea what she's waiting for.”
Katarina looked over at Bulmor. Her armsman met her gaze with his normal mask. “Maybe I have a solution to that.” She took a deep breath, “Why not a private meeting with her, to feel her out?”
She saw him grimace, “She won't agree to that unless it is truly private,” he cautioned.
“No, she won't,” Katarina said. That would mean her alone in the room with Lord Hector's mother. She felt a bit of ice trickle down her back at that. Lord Hector had long been her own personal demon, the looming figure who had taken away everything and everyone she'd cared about. It seemed odd to meet with his mother in private and Katarina wasn't certain she feared getting to know the other woman and seeing her humanity... or coming to realize that she had none at all. Either one terrified her a bit, for they would provide insight into the man who had killed her father, brother, and mother. She looked over at Arren, “Feel her out, see if she'd be interested in meeting.”
She didn't want to do it, but she wouldn't give into her fears to avoid it.
***
Commander Kerrel Flamehair
“If you dare to continue with your attempts to derail this, I will end you, do you understand me?” Kerrel snapped as she glared between Grel and Covle Darkbit. Grel looked sullen, while Darkbit just looked bored. “I'm here to settle this, Lord Hector, the man who's put you in your positions, wants to avoid a civil war while it is still possible. I will not allow you two to fuck this up!”
Grel nodded at that, though she didn't trust him out of her sight. Covle, on the other hand, gave a more honest sneer, “You might have his ear now, but the concessions you've given them...”
“Are all approved by Lord Hector,” Kerrel said. “And if you stopped thinking with the muscle you set on instead of the one in your head, you'd realize they're tiny things, easily enough given up in the face of it all. Ancestors, man, don't you care if the Armen plunder the north while you live out your fantasies as the hammer of the nobility down here?”
She saw him flush and look away. “It won't come to that. They've less than a thousand men.”
“Before the year began, she had only two,” Kerrel said. “And we still don't know what Lord Joris of Olsztyn is up to. There's been no sign of his levy or personal guard in weeks... which you failed to mention to Lord Hector in your last report.”
Covle Darkbit ground his jaw, but he didn't respond.
Kerrel took a deep breath and looked over at Halyna Kail. Hector's mother coolly set aside her needlepoint and examined a slip of paper that one of her servants had brought her just before they closed the doors. “What is that about?” Kerrel asked.
Halyna Kail gave a slight smile, “It seems that Lady Katarina wants to meet with me personally. It would be a perfect time, I think, to discuss some of the topics that we haven't made headway upon.”
Kerrel frowned at that, “Which topics are those?” The only ones that she knew Hector wouldn't budge on was the rebels continued insistence upon some kind of checks to his power. Kerrel had come to suspect that Lady Katarina's previous offer of a marriage of state was the most likely to succeed, but she personally dreaded that. It's not like Hector's even hinted at a marriage with me, she reminded herself, yet even so, it isn't as if I wouldn't accept if he did. It bothered her, she could admit,
to see him marry someone else, even a woman clearly as capable as Lady Katarina.
The worst part of all this discussion and bickering was that Kerrel respected Lady Katarina far more than she did the men whose side she was arguing. If not for Hector, she would have already thrown Grel and Darkbit to the wolves and patted herself on the back for a job well-done.
“Well,” Halyna Kail said, her voice serene, “the issues of Lady Katarina herself and how to best solve the thorny issues of resolving their differences.” She as much as implied she would discuss marriage and Kerrel saw Covle Darkbit's face go red with fury at that. Yet the implication was too obvious, to Kerrel, for a woman so subtle. Clearly, Halyna Kail had something else up her sleeve, just as clearly, she didn't trust anyone else with what it was she wanted to discuss.
I need to meet with my agent, Kerrel thought, and find out if he knows any more of what is going on here. She just gave Halyna Kail a nod, though, “Very well, let me know how that works out.”
***
Lady Katarina Emberhill
Katarina rose as Halyna Kail stepped into the suite. She'd chosen to meet the woman in her own suite, officially the Duke's Quarters, not only in order to reassure Bulmor, but also to give her a bit more support as well. She was here by right of blood and conquest, something that it wouldn't hurt the other woman to be reminded about. “Miss Kail, thank you for meeting with me.”
“The pleasure is mine,” Halyna said and gave a graceful curtsy.
“I have to say, I'm a bit surprised that you've not taken a more active role in the discussions so far,” Katarina said. She had the feeling that if she'd wanted, Halyna could have drawn out pleasantries for hours.
Halyna Kail gave her a narrow smile, “I leave most of that for Commander Flamehair, she's better at being direct and getting to the point so she can hash out the details... like someone else I could mention.”
Katarina coughed at that, though she couldn't say she minded being compared to Kerrel Flamehair. For that matter, she envied the woman a bit, for her success in what was seen as a man's world. “Well, regardless, I thought I would ask if you had any points you wanted to discuss in person.”
Halyna took her seat and stared at Katarina for a long moment, “Well, you might be right.” She looked away and studied the tapestries on the wall for a long moment. “You're much like your mother, did you know?”
Katarina felt her throat constrict. “I wasn't aware that you knew her well.”
“Oh,” Halyna looked back at her, “I knew her quite well.” She sniffed, “Better than even she realized, I'm certain. She was a strong woman, of good blood and breeding. I was part of the group that was sent to find a prospective bride for your father, while my own son was in tutelage under the Baron of Nine Peaks. I helped to sift through the prospective alliances and brides, many of them younger than you are now. I spent days, sometimes weeks waiting on them, catering to them, getting to know them to make certain of the selection.” Her gaze went distant, “Your mother impressed me, at the time, with her compassion and her intelligence.”
Katarina frowned, uncertain where exactly this topic was headed. “That seems a rather important assignment for...” she trailed off, realizing that to complete the statement would be insulting.
“For your uncle's mistress?” Halyna Kail smiled, but it was cold smile. “Oh, Lady Katarina, I wasn't even your uncle's mistress to most of your father's court. Your uncle, Lord Mihkel was something of a womanizer, as you may have heard. One woman could never hold his attention for long and his affection for wine meant he seldom remembered who it was he spent the night with.”
Katarina flushed at that. For all that Mihkel had died before she was born, she'd still heard plenty of rumors about him. For that matter, there were dozens of women who'd claimed he'd fathered their children and she had heard that her father settled many of those complaints with money from the treasury.
“Why then, did my father have you brought to Ember Castle?” Katarina asked. Suddenly it didn't seem to fit, why was Halyna Kail so important when her father had paid off most of Mihkel's other dalliances.
“Why indeed?” Halyna, “Why did your father send me with his chief adviser, Lord Elaisz, to select his bride to be? Why did he put so much trust in one, illegitimate cousin to the Baron of Longhaven?”
Katarina's eyes narrowed and then she felt the blood drain from her face, “You weren't Mihkel's mistress.”
“No,” Halyna said. “I was your father's mistress.”
Katarina felt her stomach roil, “But that means that Hector–”
“Is your father's son,” Halyna said with a nod. “He's your half-brother, but born well before you, before your mother even met your father.” She waited a moment while Katarina came to grips with that fact. “If Duke Peter had acknowledged him, he would be the rightful heir.”
Katarina took a deep breath and fought tears. Ever since the day that her family had died, she had hoped to hear that her brother, that little Peter, might still survive, that she wasn't alone. Now to hear that Hector was her brother seemed like a betrayal of that close-kept secret hope. She looked up with angry eyes, “But he didn't and so Hector wasn't.”
Halyna shrugged, “No. He never did, though he did sign a paper stating that Hector was his son, he asked me to keep that private.”
Katarina grimaced, “Does Hector know?”
Halyna shook her head, “Do you think he would have killed his own father if he knew?” She shrugged, “Well, if it came to that... maybe.”
“How...” Katarina shook her head, “How could you let him do what he did, then? How...”
“It wasn't as if I was free to act,” Halyna said. “You were just a child, but you couldn't know how quickly things went downhill after Hector killed my half-brother, Baron Estrel.” She sighed at that, “Even your father didn't blame him for it, but my son did it too publicly, to brazenly.” Her gaze went distant, “Your father assumed that Hector knew his lineage, so he had me locked under house arrest, while he planned to have Hector arrested. It tore at him,” Halyna said. “All the more so because Hector was an almost ideal heir.”
Katarina sat back and suddenly some of the overheard conversations of her youth took on new meanings. “Was that why he didn't want me?” she almost whispered the question.
Halyna shrugged, “There were some accusations of infidelity, spread by Covle Darkbit after he tried to convince Peter to give him your hand. Your father and mother had never been close and so he no doubt assumed the worst.” She said it casually, as if casting doubt on Katarina's own bloodline were of no more import than discussing the weather.
Katarina closed her eyes. She took a deep breath, “So... what then, you expect me to give up my fight against your son? Do you expect me to publicly embrace him as my brother?” She didn't keep the derision from her tone.
Halyna sighed, “So dramatic. No,” she shook her head, “if you spoke of this I would deny it with my last breath. I haven't told Hector, because the weight of what he's done would be too much for him. Half the Duchy hates him already, but if they knew he had his own father killed, then popular support would dissolve.” She stared at Katarina, “I'm telling you because you have to take marriage off the table as an option.”
Katarina flushed, “Of course I have to!” She shook her head. When she'd thought Hector was just a murdering swine, it was bad enough, but she couldn't say which she found more repugnant: that he had killed his own father or that he was her half-brother.
“Good,” Halyna said. “Now, I'd also ask that you think, long and hard, about how hard you want to push this. You may not know it, but he's already taken a lover. He may well soon take a wife. If that happens then the bloodline of your house continues and there will be an heir. You can always go back to Marovingia, live a life of comfort in exile... do not ruin what he's trying to build here.”
“What he's trying to build?” Katarina asked harshly. “He's got men such as Grel and Covle Darkbit buildin
g it. They'll leave the south a scorched ruin.”
She saw the other woman sat back, “It's not perfect now, but it was getting better, until your return, anyway. I had almost broken Hector's ties to Grel when your request for reconciliation came. Covle Darkbit's ambitions came to the forefront at that, as well. You were the trigger for all that happened as a result, not my son.” Halyna's brown eyes were sharp and angry.
Katarina took a calming breath, “I think, Halyna, that we are done here.”
She saw the other woman's eyes narrow in anger and she held up her hand, “What more have we to discuss? You clearly want me to leave, to let your son try to fix things. I, on the other hand, think he's done a bad enough job that he can't fix it, not without some sign of real effort. Sending you to talk is one thing... but I think both you and he think this is just one more thing to be swept under the rug, just like the murder of my father.”
Halyna rose to her feet, her eyes flashed with anger, “I loved Peter, damn you! And in all likelihood, there's a chance that you don't even share his blood. Don't you dare hold his death against me when I did everything in my power to stop it!”
“Everything but tell your son the truth,” Katarina said. “And for all that you loved my father... well, I loved him too. I never saw that love returned... and I have to wonder, how much of that was due to you? How many nights, while I was crying myself to sleep, were you in his bed, talking to him about your son?” She saw Halyna look away and she continued in the same calm, cold voice, “I also loved my mother and my little brother. Hector took them away from me, and all this because of the... situation that you and my father put us all in.”
Katarina took her seat. “Now, Miss Kail, if you'll kindly leave, I have to think about how to try and fix this.”
***
