Ascendant

by Florian Armas

  “I feel almost naked with only one thousand soldiers to protect us. The other almost one thousand is made of new men and auxiliaries. They are only good for watching the roads. Reymont, you’ve never seen a battlefield. You’ve never drawn blood. You’ve never shed blood. Stop advising me in military matters.” The Duke looked thoughtful; Reymont’s insistence was starting to bother him.

  “Father,” Albert interjected. “If the Circle gives us guarantees, I don’t think that we have to worry about Loxburg.”

  Stefan glanced briefly at Albert and chose to ignore him. “I think that five hundred soldiers would be enough. They can leave in a week.”

  “We won’t impress the future King of Frankis with five hundred soldiers,” Albert said.

  “I am sure that he will be impressed if you lead the army,” Stefan said, with a glimmer in his eyes; Albert was afraid even to ride. “You look so much a soldier.”

  “My Duke,” Reymont said, “maybe you should reconsider. Let’s make a compromise and send one thousand soldiers. It will help us keep Peyris stable in the long run.”

  “I am not yet dead, Reymont,” Stefan snapped. “I am not yet dead, and I intend to stay here for a while. I will send one thousand soldiers if Loxburg sends five hundred. It should not be hard for the Circle to convince him. What’s next?” he asked before Reymont could answer.

  Verenius, the Primus Itinerant, was waiting for Reymont to return, sitting in his office. A page brought him a wine bottle and filled his glass. “Leave me alone,” Verenius said, and raised the glass against the window. Good color, he thought, but he did not start to drink. Why does Maud need three thousand soldiers for Bucur? Still young and new as Primus Itinerant, he did not have the clout Aurelian once had, but a Primus was named for life, and he had enough time to overcome Maud. What does she know that I don’t? They want to conquer Deva and Dorna for Bucur. Even though we are no longer counting on Codrin to lead the army, that can be done with less than two thousand men. After what happened in Leyona... Do they want to attack Codrin later? That would be a pity; Codrin is more of a man than Bucur, and he can help us to pacify Frankis. Why is Maud not considering him? That was a stupid question. Codrin dared to take Leyona from under her very nose. He took a break in his thoughts and sipped some wine. Codrin has no more than two hundred soldiers. He was expecting more, but we thwarted him. So? He sipped some more wine. Why three thousand? And why is Maud keeping me in the dark?

  Reymont entered the office and slammed the door behind him.

  “You are too old for such tantrums,” Verenius said.

  “The Duke is getting old.”

  “As if we are getting younger. Tell me.”

  “He wants to send only five hundred soldiers now, and five hundred more if Loxburg send a contingent of the same size.”

  “After the war we pushed him into, it is no wonder that he is cautious.”

  “Are you sure you are on the Circle’s side?”

  “Sage,” Verenius said absently, as if he was talking to his glass, “There are two people who represent the Circle: Maud and I.”But Maud doesn’t think the same as I do.

  “I apologize. It’s only that I was outmaneuvered today by that young bitch. She put those things in Stefan’s head. I am sure of that.”

  “She would not have been able to if Stefan didn’t have had his own worries. You should have taken care of his worries; but the army will leave in two weeks. You still have time.”

  “Do you think that I should silence her?”

  “Convincing her would be preferable.”

  “I don’t understand that bitch. She loves men yet it seems that she hates Bucur.”

  “Maybe he was not good enough in her bed.” Reymont is blind; most of Cleyre’s so-called lovers never went near her bed. I still don’t know who spread those lies and why. I think that Reymont hates her too much to look, but... Strange that she doesn’t care about her reputation; she is an intelligent woman. “As far as I know, Cleyre is fond of her Grandfather, and she is worried about what will happen after Albert becomes Duke.”

  “Albert will marry her off quickly and send her away from the court.”

  “An intelligent man never sends away a good councilor, but intelligence and Albert don’t work together.”

  “Isn’t that what we want? To weaken Peyris so it will fall into Bucur’s hands? We need her out.”

  “That was a general remark. Fate gave Albert to us. It was a blessing. The marriage contract between Bucur and the little Duchess of Tolosa was signed two weeks ago. She is the only daughter of the Duke, who doesn’t count anyway; it’s his wife, Maud’s daughter, who leads Tolosa. If Bucur takes both Tolosa and Peyris, then Frankis will have a new King. Loxburg is too weak to stand alone against two Duchies and the Circle. I will stay for three more days. Tell me tomorrow how you intend to solve our issue. You have good taste.” He placed the empty glass on the table and stood up. I wonder if Bucur understands that he will be the king, but he will never rule. Why should he?

  “They’ve changed my schedule,” Costa said, his voice mildly annoyed. “Today, I will be the captain of the Western Gate. I apologize, but I can’t come with you.”

  “Strange.” Cleyre bit her lip, and remained silent for a while. “I asked for you and, yesterday, everything was arranged with Nicolas.”

  “Why ask for me?” Costa asked, a touch of bitterness in his voice.

  “Don’t be a child Costa, I always prefer to go with you. Who will lead my escort?”

  “Captain Ferez, I think. That tall man there.” He pointed to the left side of the gate, where a captain and five soldiers were waiting, their faces blasé.

  “Ferez, then,” Cleyre said and went to talk with the leader of her escort. She found that her mare was already saddled, and in ten minutes they were out of Peyris.

  The place she wanted to see was in the small mountains west of the city, a long ridge that look like a man-made wall, fifteen to twenty feet tall and a hundred feet wide. The middle of the ridge was neatly dented, creating a sixty-foot gap that was easy to reach on horseback from the foot of the hill. From there, the whole Seines Valley was in view, a vista that Cleyre had enjoyed from when she was a ten-year-old girl; it was her father who has shown her the place, carrying her on his horse.

  “Wait here,” she said to Ferez when they were about to enter into the gap after her and, from there, she went alone to a stone, rising in the middle and close to the precipice, vaguely resembling a chair. It was warm in that mid-Spring, and she seated herself comfortably. This thing with the army for Bucur may sink me, but I have to protect Peyris and make sure that we will not have such a bastard as king. Reymont is a traitor, and a Sage of the Circle too. You can’t be Sage and Secretary, your main loyalty will be always to the Circle. Absently, she picked some stones and threw them into the deep precipice in front of her. In two weeks, we will send five hundred soldiers to Bucur. The Circle wanted a thousand more. They still claim that they want to take Deva and Dorna. Liars! I know that they want to take Poenari, but I can’t tell that to Grandfather – he will ask about my sources. We will lose many men in a siege against such a fortress. Do they want to weaken us? She threw another stone; somehow, the physical activity was helping her gain control over her bad thoughts. Who knows what will happen when Albert will become Duke? I must be married by then, if not... With Albert in charge, there is little hope that Peyris will survive as a Duchy. The wind soughed between the rocks and she shivered. I shall walk.

  Standing up, Cleyre caught movement in the corner of her eye. Turning, she found her escort leaving in an orderly way, walking at leisure, and unknown soldiers advancing toward her. Mercenaries, she thought. More than ten. They send so many to kill one undefended girl. Nicolas has betrayed me. The mercenaries were already in the middle of the gap, when they stopped. Two of them pointed crossbows at her while another two walked further toward her, unhurried. They want to make it look like an accident. She glanced at the precipice behind
her. Involuntarily, her hand touched the dagger at her waist. I may be able to hurt one of them, but ... I have no chance of escaping. She moved in front of the rock that was her chair before – on this side, it was taller, almost reaching her shoulders. If I die by the sword, Grandfather will understand that it was not an accident and that we were betrayed. That’s the most I can do. Eyes almost closed, she leaned against the stone, the dagger tight in her hand, hidden behind her. Cleyre quivered and felt nauseous from the fear gnawing at her. She stamped her foot on the stone to control her weakness. I am so young... Fate.

  “There is nothing personal in this,” one mercenary said, twelve feet away from her. “Let’s not make it painful.”

  Cleyre could not answer, just gripped her dagger as tightly as she pursed her lips. Tensed and waiting, she heard the soft hiss of flying arrows, and saw the mercenaries with the crossbows falling into the grass. She had the feeling that her mind was no longer sound. One of them cried out, and so did some of the men behind him, to alert the other two, who were now just three feet from her, grinning. In an instant, Cleyre’s eyes widened, and she became alert. The men in front of her half turned, and she sprang, her dagger slicing the throat of the one on her right. She stepped aside, to keep the body between her and the second mercenary. It did not matter much; coming from above, an arrow pierced his neck. Trembling, she leaned again on the stone behind her and saw three men dressed in black sliding into the gap from the ridge’s edge. They were using ropes that had not been not there only moments before. Each of them had two curved swords, and they formed a wedge, attacking the mercenaries with skills that she would not have thought possible. The man at the front was like a storm, and he killed with elegant efficiency, left and right, no more than three sword strokes for each falling mercenary. Arrows were still flying from the ridge and in five minutes only one mercenary remained alive. The tall man in black, who seemed to be the leader, disarmed him and pressed a sword to his neck.

  “Bear is your Black Dervil, and you were hired by Reymont. Tell them that Cleyre Peyris is under the protection of the Assassins.”

  “What Assassins?” the mercenary asked, his voice wobbling.

  “Bear will know what I mean; if not, he will ask. If he does not ask, he will die. Go now.” He released the mercenary and watched him running away toward his horse. Two more men appeared on the ridge, and one of them raised his hands, six fingers up, signaling that the soldiers from Peyris, who had betrayed Cleyre, were dead too. The tall man waved his hand and walked in front of her. “Cleyre,” he bowed slightly. “We’ve finally met.”

  “Thank you, Codrin,” she said. “How did you know...?”

  “Perhaps the same way you knew about Poenari.”

  “It’s true, I feel the Light in you.”

  “Are you...?” He arched his brow, staring at her like an owl.

  “You thought that I was working with the Wanderers.” She smiled. “I prefer to work alone. Drusila is not my preferred Wanderer. But this is strange; I did not know that men could have the Light too.”

  “Things change.” Vio can heal people and has visions about her own future, Cleyre is not a Wanderer, Bernart is a man, and Fate knows what kind of Light I really am. It must be a divergence.“We don’t know how they are changing. We may learn. You are not safe yet. Reymont, the Secretary, hired the mercenaries.”

  “Was Nicolas involved too?”

  “I don’t know. We will take you to an inn down in the valley, and you will stay there while I go to Peyris. Don’t worry; I have five more men at the inn to guard you.”

  “It’s not that. Let me go. They will kill you in Peyris if...”

  “In Peyris, they know me as Tudor.”

  “Are you the Wraith of Tolosa? I hired him once...”

  “Yes, I carried one of your letters to Tolosa. You were trying to find a ... husband. I did not read your letter,” he added quickly, “but my informant there told me about your search.”

  “It did not happen,” she shrugged. “Costa and some men from his company know ‘Codrin’.”

  “I need you to write a letter to Costa to tell him to keep his mouth shut. I may need him.”

  “Don’t use the Western Gate; Costa is its captain today.”

  “Come, we will talk more at the inn.” Codrin stared at the two fallen mercenaries and saw the deadly slit in one’s neck. He looked Cleyre over. “Are you wounded?”

  “No.”

  Before Cleyre could mount, Pintea gave her a pelerine and a helmet. Then he tried to tie a belt with a sword at her waist. It fell, and he caught it between his palms, together with her leg.

  “It happens.” Cleyre smiled gently, seeing him blushing. “How old are you?”

  “Sixteen.”

  “You are a good archer.”

  “I was born in the mountains.”

  “Thank you for your help.”

  “You are welcome.” Pintea looked relieved.

  “Let’s go,” Codrin said. “Damian, Pintea, you stay at the rear. Vlad, Lisandru, you go in front.”

  Chapter 27 – Cleyre

  Built at the cross between the roads going north-south and east-west, the Lily of the Valley Inn was large. Codrin led Cleyre to her room, which had been rented for two men. “If someone asks, you are my young cousin,” he whispered to her while they were walking through the hall.

  In the room, she pulled off her helmet. “I hate this,” she mumbled.

  “Damaging your hair?” Codrin asked.

  “What’s more important on a woman’s head than her hair? Do you know why Reymont wants to kill me?”

  “Something about soldiers. My vision was brief. I was lucky that he was signing a document in my vision, so I learned the date.”

  “I did not think that he would go so far.” She shook her head and threw the helmet away. “It’s about the army Bucur is building to take Poenari. Officially it is to take Deva and Dorna. I convinced Grandfather to send only five hundred soldiers. The Circle wanted one thousand more. Sorry that I could not do more.”

  “In military jargon, when an enemy having a thousand soldiers is convinced to stay away from a large battle, we say that a thousand soldiers were killed by lightning. You just did that. Thank you, Cleyre. I think that you want to be alone now.”

  “The last thing I want now is to be alone. Stay with me.”

  “You may find that I am not the most entertaining man.”

  “Young men should know how to entertain a girl. Did you ever court a woman?” Cleyre asked with a trace of a smile on her lips.

  “I lost everything at fourteen, and became a fugitive,” Codrin shrugged. “You find that learning to survive has priority over learning how to court a girl.”

  “You may start your education with me.” Cleyre stared at him, amused, but it was a friendly thing; she valued Codrin. “Your survival skills may help you survive courting too.”

  “Do you think that we should learn courting together?” Codrin asked, just for the sake of the conversation.

  “Oh, my dear,” she burst into laughter. “You are the Wraith of Tolosa and nobody told you. And nobody taught you how to gather information from the gossip at a court. The young and noble soldier! In a way, is better to learn it from me. I started courting at fifteen, and I won most of the men I wanted as lovers. Many people would tell you that I am a whore, if they dared. Now you know,” she said, staring at him.

  “And are you?” Codrin asked, his voice affable because of the intuition that she was exaggerating.

  “Of course not. I never asked for payment,” she laughed. “Most of the things said about me are not true. Some of them are. My parents died when I was still young, and there was no other way to avoid an unwanted marriage. I made people think that I was a whore. My potential husbands asked for a dowry that my sweet brothers could not pay. Now, you know the gossip. What do you want to do?”

  “I want to know if Nicolas was involved, then it’s your choice. If you feel threatened, I ca
n take you with me.”

  “Thank you, Codrin. I would prefer to stay. My Grandfather needs me. As yet, I don’t know what will happen when he dies.”

  “You are always welcome to Poenari.”

  “Are you proposing marriage too?”

  “For a while at least, I don’t have a mind to marry.”

  “It would give you a way to claim Peyris.” Cleyre went silent, staring at him. “I must look quite strange to you,” she added quickly, feeling embarrassed for the first time that she had to use such ways to find her freedom.

  “Why? For people like us, most marriages are political and start with this kind of informal talk. This year, I need to survive. You may need the same. Please write me the letter for Costa.” Codrin pointed to a table with papers and writing instruments.

  She seated herself and took her time to think. Then she wrote:

  ‘Costa,

  I have full confidence in Codrin. He saved my life. Please do what he is asking you. He is trying to help me and Grandfather.

  Cleyre, the whirlpool girl.’

  “The last phrase is my secret signature that only Costa knows,” she said, giving the letter to Codrin. “And you. Who knows, I may need to send you secret letters.”

  “If Nicolas is innocent, I will send him here, and we will not meet again. Do you know about the Assassins Order?” he asked, and Cleyre nodded. “The mercenary who survived belongs to Bear. I told him that from now on, you are under the protection of the Assassins. He will spread the word to Reymont and into the mercenary world. It may take years until the truth surfaces, so you must tell the same story in Peyris. It will stop another assassination attempt.”

  “And if I am asked why?”

  “You don’t know.” Codrin smiled.

  Codrin and Vlad entered Peyris through the Eastern Gate, and rode toward the Seine Inn, which they knew well. From there, Codrin adopted his other identity, Tudor, and went alone to see Jaun, the Second Secretary.