Trials of a Champion

by Thomas O'Gorman

  “Sire, I apologize for interrupting, but my dukedom is where you have this small force placed,” Duke Wedhull said. “On one hand the force is not nearly big enough to be any kind of deterrent and secondly the force was poorly provisioned, and I am having to feed them out of my own stores. Surely there will be recompense.”

  “Lord Wedhull, all accounts will be settled once these troubles are over. The size of the force was deliberated over by my generals and this was the best number they could come up with and keep the rest of the country safe.”

  “Sire, I know good and well there are sixteen thousand troops surrounding Alexandra, and another three thousand on Skal’s southern border,” Wedhull said. “The rest of the country is unprotected. How do you explain this?”

  “I don’t have to explain anything to you. I am King here. As I said before, my generals have put our troops in the best position to defend our country and I concur with their judgement.”

  “What about LaVore,” Keyland, the Duke of Barristan said. “If LaVore, an ally of Menegar, attacks we are exposed. Surely you can spare some of the troops in Alexandra to protect against LaVore.”

  “We have spies watching LaVore,” said Landis. “There is no evidence of their troops massing close to our border. In fact, most of their troops are on the Predian border. If this changes, we will reassign our troops, but let’s not look for trouble where there is none.”

  “What about the South Sea?” Duke Avalon asked. “There is no support for an attack by sea.”

  “Again, our spies indicate that there are no more troops in Vestua, Slavesta, and Norn. Menegar has kept around ten thousand troops home for defense and we don’t anticipate them using those troops for offensive action.”

  There were rumblings around the room. Clearly the dukes were unhappy with the King’s defense strategy.

  “Your questions have hit upon a fair point,” King Landis said. “We don’t have enough troops to guard against every circumstance. Therefore, we need to recruit more troops. The only place I know to get more able-bodied troops, by that I mean not children and not the infirm, is to get them from each of you. I know your house guards each have at least 500 troops. Between the lot of you that is 7,000 fighting men that we can add to our numbers. Therefore, I am ordering you to join your house guards to the main army.”

  Each of the dukes stood and started yelling in outrage. Many of them were shaking their fists and pounding the table at the audacity of the King to attempt to take their house guards. Finally, when things settled down, Duke Boniton asked a question.

  “By what authority do you attempt this?”

  “Section 42, paragraph 10 of the Articles of 692 state that if the kingdom is on a wartime footing, note it doesn’t say at war, then the King has the authority to join to the Aviel army any private soldiers that are citizens of Aviel. Unless you have a bunch of foreigners in your house guard, the law is that you turn them over to me if I request it. Which I do.”

  Another eruption of fury and angst boiled over in the meeting hall. Landis sat in his chair and smiled as the dukes finally calmed down.

  “I challenge this interpretation of the article,” said Duke Chisolm.

  “I thought you might,” Landis said. He stood up and picked up a piece of parchment from the table and walked around to where Chisholm was sitting. He handed Chisholm the parchment. “That is a ruling by the highest independent magistrate in the land, Conal Bishop. As you can see, he concurs with my interpretation of the law.”

  The dukes passed the parchment around and as they read the document, they became resigned to the fact that the King was within his rights to commandeer their guards.

  “You will turn over your house guard by the end of the week. My thanks to you. Now, there is one more item that we need to discuss. I have decided that the treasury is insufficient for the needs of this coming war, so I am instituting a wartime tax, which means I am doubling the tax rate and taxes shall be collected monthly on the income and new property accumulated on the previous month instead of yearly.”

  If the explosion of fury was loud before, it was multiplied ten times at this news.

  “This is madness,” Clairsea yelled.

  “Unconscionable,” Tuxley exclaimed.

  “You can’t be serious. This will bankrupt my estate and my people,” Redicon shouted.

  “Silence!” Landis shouted. “You all knew that this was coming. This country has never had a war where this wasn’t done! Many times, the rate was tripled, so consider yourself lucky it was just doubled. I will hear no more of your selfish whining. This meeting is over!”

  The King stood, and he stormed out of the room with his retinue.

  Keyland’s guts were clenched so tight he couldn’t move. Double the taxes. We will be ruined. We just brought the estate back from the ruinous state father left it in. We are making a small profit but with double the taxes we will be losing money again. At least with my men confiscated I won’t have to provide food for them, that will help a little. Tani will have to figure out how to squeeze some more. I don’t know what I am going to do to protect her and the estate now.

  Most of the dukes got up and left the room but like Keyland, the northern dukes stayed seated. They were silent for a long moment.

  “This is untenable,” Clairsea said. “Double the taxes and no men to protect us from the riots that will bring.”

  “It is unacceptable,” Hexton said. “What can be done though?”

  “I don’t know, but if it stands my dukedom may not survive,” said Keyland.

  “There is something to be done, but it cannot be discussed here,” Boniton said. “Let us head over to the Brighton Arms Tavern. They have a nice, secluded meeting room where we can talk.”

  They all agreed and Keyland, Clairsea, Hexton, Boniton, Wedhull, and Redicon agreed to meet at the Brighton Arms in the space of an hour. The only northern duke not going was Poswell, but he told the rest that he would go along with what they decided to do.

  In an hour they all were seated around a large oval table with ales in front of them. Hexton led off the conversation.

  “Obviously it is treason if we refuse to turn over our men and refuse to pay the taxes. Unless you want to go into open revolt during war time and risk the repercussions if Landis is victorious in the war, we need to think of another way to avoid this hardship.”

  “There is a way to avoid outright treason,” said Wedhull. “It takes seven dukes to question the competence of the King.”

  “Yes, but it takes a unanimous vote of all the dukes to remove a king from office,” Redicon said.

  “We don’t need to vote him out of office,” Boniton said. “We just need to start the process of removing him and delay following his orders.”

  “That will buy us what, three months?” Clairsea asked. “What good does that do?”

  “It starts a conversation about who should be ruling Aviel and allows us time to stage a real change in the kingship,” Wedhull said. “We need a king that will treat the north as an equal to the south. What better time to take over the throne than now? Landis is unpopular, and his new tax scheme will make him more unpopular with the nobles and the people. There is a sentiment, and it is growing, that now is the time to get rid of the Carringtons.”

  “The Carringtons?” Clairsea asked. “Now we are talking about killing off his entire line, because even if we were successful in removing Landis, Devon and Henri are next in line and assuming the princess is dead the Duke of Avalon and his sons after that.”

  “It would have to be a repudiation of the Carringtons as the rulers of Aviel, not just Landis,” said Keyland. “Devon is more reasonable, but he is seen as weak and Henri is a hawk for the south. No, those two won’t do.”

  “We are stuck with Landis unless we can somehow get rid of the heirs,” said Redicon. “I don’t see how it is possible without the other dukes finding out we were behind it.”

  “You won’t be behind it,” said a man decked ou
t in full Knight of the Scepter armor who must have slipped into the room while the dukes were talking.

  The dukes were shocked someone overheard them and they were furious and started shouting challenges at the intruder. The man pulled off his helm and Keyland saw that it was Tearance Fall. Keyland breathed a sigh of relief. Tearance ran in his circle and had the same feelings about the King that he did. If it would have been a Scepter that was loyal to the King, he would have charged the dukes with treason.

  “Fine Lords, I come to you this afternoon because I heard what King Landis ordered in the witan, and I figured you would be angry. My brother Keyland is among you and he can vouch for me and my position, which is that the King must be removed.”

  “He speaks the truth,” Keyland said. “He is the King’s most trusted guard and has seen and heard enough that he has said for weeks now that something must be done about the King.”

  “I have a plan to remove the Carrington’s that will never be connected to you, but I need your help to make it work.”

  “What help is that?” Wedhull asked.

  “In the near future, there will be an escalation between the Knights of the Scepter and the Knights of the Pearl. This will turn into an all-out battle. In the battle, the King and members of his family will be killed. It will be made to look like the Knights of the Pearl carried out the attacks, but it will really be men loyal to Keyland and I. The two things we will need is to have your support for Keyland to be made commander of the Knights of the Scepter and after the attacks for you to charge Queen Octavia, who will be kept alive, with treason and conspiring to kill the King and her family in order to attempt to take the throne.”

  “Assuming you get our support, and your plans are carried out, who would be the new king?” Boniton asked.

  “That is for you to decide,” Tearance said. “Though I would suggest the most powerful among you, who has been at court and knows the players the best. That would be Keyland.”

  “I agree,” Wedhull said. “I support your plan and I support Keyland for the throne. Who is with me?”

  The rest of the dukes agreed though they knew the gravity of what they were about to do and the risk they were taking. They all hated Landis so much that even though Aviel was on the brink of a potentially catastrophic war and a takeover of leadership might lead to chaos, they were willing to risk losing to the Menegar for it.

  The group broke up and Keyland walked back towards the palace with Tearance.

  “This plan hinges on you being made Commander of the Scepters.” Tearance said.

  “Why me? Why not you?”

  “I am a commoner. I was lucky just to get in the Scepters. There is no way the rest of the blue bloods would elect me the leader. You, however, are very popular with the men and are the ranking royal in the Scepters. You are a natural fit for commander.”

  “OK, but how are we going to pull that off. Tirus Maxa loves being commander and he isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.”

  “You let me worry about Tirus Maxa. You just be ready to take over as commander.”

  September 1st was always the Day of Skills for the Knights of the Scepter. The Knights of the Pearl had a challenge day too, but they had theirs in the spring. The Scepters said it was because the Pearls didn’t want to be compared to the Scepters skill with the sword and the joust. It was an event that drew large crowds that they held in Highmore Park. There were contests of strength such as lifting heavy iron ingots, speed such as footraces in full armor, horsemanship, and archery. The main events were the tournaments of the sword and jousting. Jousting wasn’t a practice used in modern warfare, but people loved the tradition, so the Scepters put on a show. There were about eighty Scepters in total and all of them participated in one way or another.

  Keyland’s specialty was the sword, he had never even tried to joust. He entered the sword tournament as a favorite to win and he did not disappoint. Keyland’s wife, Tani, and her maid, came from Barristan to cheer him on. Keyland wasn’t challenged until the quarterfinals, but he used a special move and dispatched his foe. In the semifinals he fought a young but well thought of Knight, Sir Tiffail, Baron of Greenspire. This young knight was big but moved like a cat and struck like a snake. Keyland started to feel like he was outclassed but as the match went on the young knight became a little sloppy and Keyland exploited a lapse in his defense to win the match. The last match was against a new knight named Sir Colbin of Rosegarden. He had only been with the Scepters for a couple of weeks and Keyland had not met him previously. The match started and Keyland knew he was in trouble. The young man was not that big in stature, but he was very strong. His strokes rattled Keyland to the bone. Sir Colbin was also quick, avoiding many of Keyland’s surest strokes and almost slipping by his defenses. The match went five rounds and Keyland was tiring but Sir Colbin showed no signs of having any trouble. Both men only needed to get one more blow in to win the match. Keyland was desperate. He decided to play a little dirty. One side of the dueling ground was muddier than the other, and Keyland maneuvered Sir Colbin to that side. He blocked a solid overhead blow but instead of retreating he moved in close and rammed into Sir Colbin. That put Sir Colbin off balance and he dropped his guard for a moment. That was all Keyland needed to strike and end the match.

  Sir Colbin threw off his helmet in disgust and stormed away without congratulating Keyland. Keyland laughed to himself and accepted the prize of 10,000 dreckels with as much good grace as he could muster, which wasn’t a lot. His wife ran up to him and congratulated him. They embraced then he raised his hand and most of the crowd cheered, though some who thought the move Keyland used on Colbin was dishonorable and booed. The boos didn’t bother Keyland at all.

  After the sword tournament was over the jousting tournament started. Half the Scepters entered, including the Commander Tirus Maxa. He was the most popular night and he was a natural at jousting as well. Every time it was his turn the crowd cheered loudly, and he would always acknowledge the cheers with a wave of his hand. He dispatched his early foes easily. He unhorsed them on the first pass.

  As his foes became more skilled and managed to put their lance on him, he was able to maneuver his shield and his body so that he did not absorb the full blow. Yet he was able to strike true and win his matches. The cheering escalated as each opponent was dispatched by Maxa and he breezed through to the final round. His opponent in the final round was Sir Tearance Fall. Tearance was not a crowd favorite even though he showed masterful skill. It was like the crowd knew there was something sinister about him.

  The men and their horses lined up on the opposite side of the field, and like a lightning strike zoomed out to meet each other in the middle of the lists. Both men found home with their lances and both men blocked well and stayed on their horses. The lances shattered. They rode through to the other side and received new lances from their squires. Fall rejected the lance his squire offered and pointed to the last one on the stand. The squire looked reluctant to hand it to Fall. Fall grew frustrated and kicked the squire and rode over and grabbed the lance himself. The crowd booed him.

  The men lined up and took off toward each other again. This time Fall avoided Maxa’s lance by leaning so far to the side it looked like there was no way he could land his lance on Maxa, but he sat up so quickly it was a blur and slammed his lance right in the eye hole of Maxa’s helm. Maxa flew off the rear of the horse and as he was falling through the air blood spurted out of his helm.

  Keyland rushed out to the lists and was the first to reach Maxa. The lance had splintered off and the tip was stuck in Maxa’s eye. Keyland noticed something unusual about the shaft. There was a metal rod inside of it, like the shaft was reinforced, and thereby much more dangerous. Fall rode up and dismounted as other people started arriving. Keyland turned to Fall.

  “Did you know there was a metal rod in your lance?” He asked.

  “There isn’t a metal rod in that shaft,” Fall said. “Look again.”

  Keyland looked a
gain, and just as Tearance said, the metal rod wasn’t there anymore. He looked at Tearance and he winked at him.

  “Maxa is dead, terrible accident,” Fall said. “I feel awful. Jousting is dangerous though. You never know what can happen. Looks like we need a new commander.”

  The rest of the Scepters arrived on the scene and Vice Commander Sir Sebon Renlee approached Tearance.

  “Sir Tearance, there will be an inquiry to be held at seven this evening to determine if Sir Tirus’s death was accidental or malicious,” Sebon said. “Do I have your word that you will attend?”

  “Upon my honor I will attend,” said Fall. He walked off by himself and left the jousting area. He had a pensive look on his face. Keyland wondered what Tearance’s thoughts were. Tearance told me he would take care of Maxa. I thought he would get him to resign, not murder him. I know I saw metal in that lance. I don’t know how Fall got the metal to disappear, but he must have magical powers to have pull that off. There is more to him that meets the eye. I need to be wary of him, even though he professes to be my ally. What is his end game, I wonder?

  That evening the inquiry was held. Tearance had the right to name a representative but he waived it. The inquiry was held by a triumvirate that was made up of Vice Commander Sir Sebon, and the two captains of the Scepters, Sir Roderic Davies and Sir Jasken Pantec. Sir Sebon gave the opening statement.

  “We are assembled this evening to investigate the nature of the death of our commander, Sir Tirus Maxa, which occurred at the hands of Sir Tearance Fall, a knight of good standing in our order. Sir Tearance, please describe the events as you experienced them.”

  “Sir, it is my honor and privilege to do so. Sir Tirus and I were at the lists preparing to have a run, and we sallied forth and traded blows. His thrust at me was aimed right for the center of my chest. I had to lean as far as I could to the outside to avoid it. This threw off the aim of my lance. I was intending to hit him in the chest as well, but I leaned backwards and outside and my aim was off. I compensated for my position and re-aimed my lance toward the middle of his body but looking back I can see where I failed to adjust the aim of the lance and hit him too high.”