Errant

by Armas, Florian

  “You will stop it,” he said, with a trace of sarcasm and disappointment in his voice; I appeared too obstinate, and lacking any natural or political understanding.

  “I wish to have such power... But it will be Orban.”

  “You may be right, but then another agreement may be signed and another one, or Fate wants yours to be fulfilled. We can’t foresee,” he shrugged.

  Coming to where my horse stood waiting for me, I remained silent, pretending to catch the halter. What I could say? He was right about the alliance, and whatever small hope I had had in the past, had become even smaller with the marriage contract.

  “Codrin,” he grabbed my shoulder. “Maybe you should tell Saliné what you agreed with Jara and Mohor.”

  “As you said, my chance is small. Why should I give her false expectations? She looks strong and calm, but I know better what is in her mind. I wish you could learn that, too.”

  “Maybe we have learned already, but it seems that you know each other well,” Cernat said, making me wonder about his real message, yet there was quite a fatherly tone in his voice. “There was a meeting today. If you approve of my little story about agreements, Mohor will give you the rest of the land offered for the service with the letter.”

  “No,” I protested. “I always keep my part in an agreement.”

  Cernat did not feel compelled to answer, and we left the stable without speaking.

  “Mohor has big plans,” I broke the silence, after we passed the gate. “But he doesn’t have the means to fulfill them, at least not from a military perspective.”

  “What make you think that his army is weak?” Cernat asked, even though I knew that he could not think otherwise.

  “There is no discipline, no good equipment. A gathering of soldiers is not an army, and his Spatar is a joke. I saw soldiers in Arad, in Dorna, in Deva, in Histria. Here I see a rag-tag army. Don’t tell me that you think differently. On papers and treaties, things may look good for you, but Mohor needs a small war just to understand his capabilities, before making a big step that could destroy everything. And Mohor needs to reanalyze the alliance with the Devans. It may end badly.”

  “You may be right,” Cernat said thoughtfully, but to my chagrin, he chose to avoid any other discussion, hiding which of my statements ‘may be right’ if not both. “Speaking of good soldiers, our embassy goes to Deva in five days from now. Mohor asked if you wanted to join it as a protector.”

  “Who will lead it?” I tried to gain time before finding an acceptable reason to refuse it; I did not want to lift a finger for the marriage. Saliné would agree with me...

  “Jorn. I know that’s a very particular case for you, but it’s also a paid service to Mohor, something that allows you to leave with a good reputation.”

  Big Mouth’s brother... “Thank you, Cernat. But I would rather not. At least not this time,” I left the door open. Never with Jorn. One day he will pay for Dana and her father. “Saliné would agree with me.”

  “I understand,” he nodded.

  I bet you don’t, but you just gave me the starting point for my plan...

  From that day, I was rarely invited to the castle and then for official reasons only, and in the rare moments when we still met, Saline never embraced me again; the ‘correct’ behavior for someone engaged and ready to be married. Fate had played its dice against me – socially, the marriage contract eliminated us from each other’s lives, but not from our feelings and thoughts.

  ***

  I left home the next morning, and for two days, I rode watching the roads going east, polishing my plan – the only hope to obtain a status that could bring Saliné back to me. Nothing happened until Panait and his caravan came my way, late in the evening, when everything was prepared for the night.

  “Tudor!” he shouted, pushing his horse closer to me. “I am glad to meet you. I had to move on short notice and couldn’t find you in time.” Usually I knew well in advance when his caravans were leaving Arad, as there was no way for him to send a courier after me. “Are you free? You are my favorite protector,” he smiled.

  “For five days,” I said, evasively. “Where are you going?”

  “Mehadia and then Histria.”

  “I can travel with you for the next four days. Just for the pleasure of talking with an old friend,” I signaled that there would be no charge for my services but also no more days – for a while, we were going in the same direction, and I was eager to hear what had pushed him on the road on ‘short notice’.

  My camping place was not suited for a large caravan, and I lead them further, for another half-turn, until we arrived in the proximity of a low plateau that I knew well, close to the road and accessible to their wagons.

  “Good place,” Panait said, appreciatively; the plateau was thirty feet higher than the road, making the wagons invisible from there, and a ravine blocked access to half of the perimeter.

  “How is Delia?” I asked Panait, after dinner ended and we strolled away from the main group.

  “Still pregnant,” he smiled, in the faint light of the dusk, his voice filled with joy – their marriage was five years old and without children.

  “Just for two more months,” I joked back. “Or even less. This is what set you on the road?”

  “That and more.” His voice went instinctively lower. “Troubles may come and keep us at home.” For merchants that kind of trouble was war, and I had trouble of my own: his information came from Arad, and I knew nothing.

  I was there a month ago. What has changed so fast? “War?” I asked, abruptly.

  “I am not sure, but I don’t want to take risks. Especially now,” he alluded to Delia’s pregnancy. “There were some rumors about troops gathering in a month or two, and some embassies from Mehadia and Dorna. Duke Stefan sent an army to our northern border.”

  This war will kill my own plans. I need a month or two… Maybe I still have time.

  “And Cantemir was nervous when I left, something is wrong in the high place.” That was Panait’s way of naming Orban’s palace. “He wanted to go to Mehadia, but sent me when he learned about my caravan leaving.”

  Merchants were also diplomats, but the stakes of his mission were low; if not, someone from the court would have been sent. Then why was Cantemir supposed to go? Something changed at the last moment. While eager to hear the politics behind the embassy, I did not dare to ask; the best way to obtain information is not to push hard for it.

  “Mehadin can be a hothead,” I tried an indirect approach.

  “I know him,” Panait sighed. “There are some moves against S’Severin,” he gave me a bone. “Low level. At least for now. Next year will be hard for us, Orban is preparing to invade the south. Let’s go back; my people are waiting for you to fill the story time at the fire camp.” A subtle hint that the information spigot was closed.

  Is Orban moving against Mohor now? Using Mehadin? That may be both bad and good for my plan. From everything I knew, Orban planned to attack Severin next year at the earliest, but something had changed on ‘short notice’ and I did not know what.

  On the fifth day, I left the caravan in the morning, taking the southern road to the east – they were going via the northern one, the shortest way to Mehadia. After a while, I climbed a hill towering over the large junction of roads, and with my spyglass, I checked some riders that had followed us the previous evening – not that they wanted something from us. They took the same south road as me, and I stopped spying on them, riding further. A day later, I entered the high mountains. Down in the valley, the four riders were still following me without knowing it. Half a day further, I found the place I was looking for: the gorge of a small river: Nera. I knew the place from my past rides – it had a striking beauty, with tall cliffs meeting high in the sky. Here and there, small tributaries fell from the ridges, raising fine curtains of water. Several places could fit into my plan, and I advanced cautiously, searching every nook and cranny. The second one I found was good enou
gh, and there was no need to check further. After a steep curve, the road ran straight toward me, running between the high cliffs. There was no way out other than going forward or back. On my right, it bent again. From the small hillock, twenty feet higher than the road, I had the best possible view of anyone coming from any direction, yet the luxuriant bushes would hide me well.

  Riding at the front of the embassy, Jorn appeared where the curve of the road went on my side. We were far from Severin, in Mehadian land. Jelin, I recognized his son, and the soldier that attacked Dana and her family along with Jorn was there too. Fate… I could not anticipate that my justice would be so complete. I arranged arrows of different sorts in the special place on the saddle, just in front of me – being different, the arrows would give the impression of a group attack. Well trained for such occasions, Zor was as still as a stone. With a soft hiss, my first arrow pierced Jelin’s neck. I chose him just to freeze Jorn for the few moments I needed. The next arrow followed, and the next one, then I pushed my horse down onto the road, until I faced Jorn, now alone. I wanted him to know why it happened.

  “Traitor! You killed my son!” he shouted. “You will be hanged. I will tell Mohor.”

  You may be right with the traitor thing… “And how do you plan to tell him?” Slowly, I unsheathed my sword. The realization came to Jorn later than I expected, his wide eyes moving around nervously, looking for an escape path – there were just walls, and he drew his sword, too. “You don’t know why this is happening,” I smiled at him.

  “You want to stop the marriage. Even if you do, she will marry Bucur, not a vagrant like you.”

  So you do have a plan for Bucur and Saliné. “Don’t worry; there will be another embassy to carry the contract. This is for Dana.”

  “I paid the bitch fifty galbeni, more than she ever deserved. I can pay more,” he swiftly added, realizing too late what was happening to him.

  “I totally agree with you about more,” I said, attacking even as I spoke.

  It ended fast; Jorn was a diminutive copy of his brother in everything. Good for nothing… With ambiguous feelings, I stared around at the four bodies, lying in unnatural positions. For the first time, I had killed someone to a premeditated plan, not because I was attacked or to help others, and a morbid degree of satisfaction settled in my mind. Yet what had happened was not unlawful killing, it was justice. I owed it to Dana and her father, and to a long row of unknown victims – it was well known that Jorn and his son were serial offenders. I took the backpack from him, trying to retrieve the documents for two reasons: I wanted to know what Mohor planned, and it was not good for him if somebody else found them. It’s heavy. There was a bag with four hundred galbeni. Twenty hectares of land, I counted mechanically. I already have twelve and money for another eleven. Forty-three hectares… Still far from the two hundred I need to become a Knight. Or twenty mercenaries for two months. The mercenaries could make me relevant in a small war and speed up my path to Knighthood. I could even conquer a small castle during the war, if the stars aligned well for me. Unfortunately, the alliance document between the S’Severins and Devans was not sent with Jorn, only the marriage contract, so my political knowledge did not improve. I made a lot of tracks back and forth with Zor just to suggest many horses had been there, and left some more arrows between the bodies.

  I arrived in Arad three days later, and spent the night in an inn close to the city. In that evening, I was finally able to open and read the marriage contract that was nagging at me. I will never be able to match a Grand Seigneur like Devan. The contractual clauses were at a level that I the ‘vagrant’ could only dream of, and with a nervous reflex I threw the contract on the floor.

  The next day, I went to see Delia and Cantemir. I always started my visits to Arad with Delia and Panait, to take the pulse of the region, and to collect some Mefilene from Hateg for Vio and Saliné. Delia always had some for me. She was one of the few people I knew who never forgot the help they received.

  It was almost night; detained by some extra duties in the palace, Cantemir came home late. We were alone in his small office, as usual. “Sometimes I want to quit,” he complained, in a soft voice. “Everything has become so unstable.”

  “Make a King. That will restore order,” I tested him, half-joking; Orban was fighting hard to become a Duke, and he was close to that, but there were also rumors that he wanted to become the next King. And the rumors also mentioned that secretive entity still eluding me: the Circle had approved his nomination.

  “Do you want to imply that Orban wants to be king?”

  “Every Seigneur wants to be the next King. Why should Orban be different?”

  “Then allow me to rephrase. Do you think he can be the next King?” That was the closest affirmation I could receive from him about Orban’s intentions, and Cantemir stared hard on me.

  It seems important to you… “No. Or not now, which is also no. He is too old for a long game, and he has already bitten off a little more than he can chew right now.”

  “I could jail you for that.”

  “Why should you? I just gave my honest opinion.”

  “Honest… There is no such thing as honesty in politics. Just the most honest thing that plays well for me. I am a cynic today,” he added.

  “And what interest could I have in the matter? Never mind that I gave you a negative answer, not one to please you.”

  “Yes, what interest could you have?” But his question was just rhetorical, I was too small for a king’s game. “It’s not that we bit off too much, is more that we lost our main tooth. Bernd, Orban’s eldest son, was killed some time ago. He was our best army commander, and none of the Dukes or Seigneurs around us match him. Maybe Duke Stefan in his prime. But I am sure you know this.”

  Yes, I nodded. I know it quite well.

  “With Bernd still alive there would be no moves against Orban, at least not important ones.” He stopped and went to the window in a display of irritation. The sun was almost gone, a small red arc still hanging over the hills.

  “Cantemir, what is bothering you?”

  “Many things,” Cantemir shrugged, unwilling to reveal his thoughts. “None involving you. One involving you.” He stared at me, making me frown in surprise, and this time I was not faking my reaction. “I needed you two weeks ago. We have to establish a reliable way to reach you when needed. I still want to hire you,” he smiled.

  “We have an agreement on this. It’s better if I can work undercover for you. Well, as much as possible.”

  “Maybe. At least give me a place where I can send a courier.”

  “I have no stable place in your lands, Cantemir. My house is far to the south, and I don’t stay there much either.” My statement was ambiguous but correct. In fact, I never gave false information to Cantemir. The game was there, subtle and sometimes dangerous, and the devil was always hidden in the details: what information you give and in what form, what you keep, when to give it. Even though he worked for Orban, Cantemir was a fair man, at least with me. He always tried to moderate Orban’s evil mind, and sometimes I suspected that he did not like his master, for some obvious reasons: no one liked Orban.

  “So, why did you come?”

  To spread the rumors that Mehadin attacked Mohor’s embassy. Destroying the embassy was the first step in my plan. Mohor will not like it; I thought, but we both needed it, for different reasons though. “There are some rumors that S’Severin’s embassy to Deva was attacked,” I said. “It may be that you already know,” I took into consideration that sometimes, bad news spread fast.

  “Interesting,” he said in a neutral voice, his eyes staring through the window; something was bothering him again.

  The interesting part starts now. “The rumors say that it happened in Mehadian land.”

  “The Mehadins?” he asked, some surprise reflecting on his face.

  “If not them, then who?” I pointed to him, to allude that ‘who’ could mean the S’Arads for other people. �
�Your embassy was in Mehadia,” I played him, making my claim credible, yet I avoided using the main reason people would think that he attacked the embassy: the two attempts on his life, of which one I was sure was planned by Mohor.

  “We were not involved.”

  “You were not involved,” I shrugged. “Anyway, it’s less important than what happens next.”

  “We have problems in the north. Duke Stefan has made some moves. Small ones, but you never know with him.”

  “The armistice will expire at the end of the next year.” Dukes Stefan and Marin had fought five years for control of the north. Orban expanded his land while they were too busy with each other to stop him, and the armistice was signed just because they needed time to lick their wounds.

  “Next year,” Cantemir said absently. “We may need a diversion to keep the Duke busy until spring. A rift between him and Mohor would be good.”

  “Why spring?” His words confused me.

  “I hope to have an agreement with the Duke.”

  That would free Orban’s hands to take Severin. “South would be the best diversion,” I said, trying to push things in the only direction that could fit both my plans and his.

  “S’Severin and Mehadin?” He asked, massaging his chin, undecided, and I could not understand his feeble reaction – from Panait I thought there was already a game in the cards for S’Severin and Mehadin, planned by Cantemir to start next year.

  “Bad things may start anyway. S’Severin will react somehow.”

  “He is a prudent man.”

  “Very prudent. I can’t say the same about Mehadin.” I had seeded in his mind that Mehadin could be the key to his diversion. Mehadin was not Orban’s vassal, but a kind of dependence existed; he had some debts that were not yet clear to me. I have to start the war before Orban is ready to take Severin.

  The next day, I left Arad. There was no hurry, as it would take a while for the news about Jorn to reach Severin, and I was still thinking how to persuade Jara and Mohor that Mehadin and Orban destroyed their embassy – the first step to start the small war that both Mohor and I needed for different reasons. Mohor doesn’t not know yet that he needs a war, I smiled. I even spent a night in an inn, close to the border, a thing that I would have avoided in the past, because time and money were always in short supply. I am a bit richer now. But I have to think more about those mercenaries, they can bring to me a castle. In the morning, there was an appealing realization that travels are more agreeable when you sleep in a bed, and my ride south started in a good mood.