Druid's Bane

by Phillip Henderson

  There was a general stir and every head turned in her direction, not that she took much notice. Her attention was firmly on her father who frowned more severely than before when his gaze found her.

  “My liege, I am returned. And I present myself as summoned,” she said in a loud steady voice before slipping into a curtsey and staying bent until he ordered her to rise and approach the council table. She knew it was not an invitation to take her usual seat, but to stand before his presence in the petitioner’s dock.

  He gruffly ordered everyone except the members of the inner council out of the chamber and the doors closed.

  When it was done, he launched a verbal tirade at her a she suspected he would. “What in Vellum’s name were you thinking, Danielle? You were specifically told to stop trying to manipulate your brother by using provocative rumour and lies, yet you continued to go behind my back, despite warning that there would be consequences. You have made me into a laughing stock in the eyes of the nobles. I can’t even control my own daughter, and I am sure Joseph has made you aware of the unnecessary argument and time that your actions have caused the members of my inner council?”

  “He has. And I am sorry. It was never my intention.”

  “Intention or not, your judgement was badly remiss. And your defiance is utterly unacceptable. Do you understand me?”

  “Yes, father.”

  “More troubling still you have provoked the noble’s ire to fever pitch. There is no official petition, yet, but the word is clear; they want you stripped of your courtly responsibilities and reduced to a royal lady of leisure.”

  “Milord …’

  “You will hold your tongue while I am speak to you!” he thundered, before continuing a little more calmly, “You have a choice to make, because in order to protect from the noble’s knives, there are going to be some significant changes to your roles and duties. You can accept them as they stand and without argument, or you can walk from here and deny this realm and the reformist course we represent the rare talent you have for legal and diplomatic process. So what will it be?”

  “I choice your realm, milord, and obedience to your will whatever that will might be.”

  “Good. Then you should know that you will keep your present rights as a member of the three councils, and as Arkaelyon’s Ambassador to the Grand Assembly of Realms. However, you will no longer take the lead on any piece of legislation in the council chambers or sit as my proxy in this chair. And you will no longer attend any further meeting of the General Council. The less opportunity to fuel the acrimony the nobles now harbour toward you the better.”

  “And my right to vote on that council?”

  “It remains but it will be delivered by proxy. Furthermore, you will stay well clear of your brother’s business and do everything you can to avoid rising the Archbishop ire when your duties at the High Council force you to cross paths, and you will do exactly as I instruct you and as agreed by this council. Do you understand?”

  “Yes, milord,” she said contritely. In truth she felt like she had just been clapped in irons. Even if the irons were of her own making.

  “Further more, you are to begin your training under Joseph’s tutelage as the realm’s next Protector. With less of a public face, you will have the time to reduce Joseph’s formidable burden. It will not be announced officially of course until the nobles have seen that you are once again an asset to this realm and their acrimony has abated. Assuming you want the position?”

  “I accept gladly, milord.” This was an unexpected given the circumstances and rather joyous surprise. Everyone in the chamber knew how much she wanted the role of Arkaelyon’s next protector. Not that she was about to express as much right now. “I will endeavour to prove that your faith is well placed, my liege.”

  “I am pleased, nay, relieved to hear it, Danielle,” her father said, kindness returning to his face and voice.

  “As am I, my liege,” Joseph put in, “my legs are not what they used to be,” Joseph said,” drawing a smile to everyone’s face, even Danielle’s.

  Her father’s smile became regretful as he continued his address to her. “I am also sorry that the truth about Lord Sydney and your first protector, Glomar was kept from you for so long. I do not begrudge the anger you clearly feel on that account. It was a folly on my part, and one I should have ended sometime a go and would have if I’d listened to wiser heads than my own.” He acknowledged Joseph and then a roguish smile brushed his lips. “I’m also pleased at how well you have accepted James as your protector. If you wish to …” he paused looking for the right word, “… advance the connection between the two of you, you should know that you both have Lord Sydney and my blessing to do so. Do I need to say more on the matter?”

  Danielle felt her cheeks burn. “No, milord.”

  She weathered the grins and chuckles from her colleagues good-naturedly, despite her embarrassment that this topic would be raised here.

  “Then welcome back to court, my dear.”

  “I am pleased to be returned, Father. And I am sorry for my poor judgement of late. I have much to learn.”

  “You have much to give,” he corrected. He looked down the chamber to the doors and sighed, his joy ebbing. “I suspect we should get back to business, gentlemen. Danielle, we will talk at the banquet this evening. You may go.”

  Danielle curtseyed; thank them all again and left the same way she had come in. Joseph accompanied her into the vestibule, evidently having business elsewhere. She caught his sleeve and ushered him over to one of the large balcony windows as the waiting crowd filed back into the throne room.

  She did not dare say as much to her father in the throne room, but after what had happened to her on the highway, and now forbidden from attending the meeting of the General Council she was deeply concerned about what Kane might be up to tomorrow.

  “Dee, I really am very business today, so make it quick if you will.”

  She cut to the chase. “I think Kane is going to present a bill tomorrow …”

  Joseph raised a hand, palm open. “Danielle, stop right there. You are barely two steps out of throne room and you are already concerning yourself with Kane’s business again? Really lass, this will not do.”

  “I’m sorry, but ….” She want to tell him what had happened to her on the highway, how concerned he was about the rumours and the fear that she was about to ambush him in the general council tomorrow, but he stopped her again. “Enough. Your concerns are unnecessarily anyway.”

  “Unnecessarily? You know something?”

  “We know a great deal, much of which is not for your ears. But if it puts your mind at ease, we believe this business your brother has been up to of late is partly a diversion of the archbishop’s making.”

  “A diversion for what?” If this was supposed to make her feel at ease, it certainly did not.

  “We don’t know.”

  She could see he wasn’t telling her half of what he knew. “What do you suspect?”

  He looked pained as if he had already said too much. “I am sorry, lass, but I am not at liberty to say at this juncture. You should be more concerned about following your father’s directives. So leave these matters to others. Are we clear?”

  “Joseph, I thought I was back in the loop? I have agreed not to attend the council meetings, but surely you still want my suggestions and concerns voiced behind closed doors?”

  “Danielle you are back in the loop, just not the inner loop, yet.”

  She accepted that was probably fair.

  “Now, I really do have to go.”

  “Can I please talk to you before the banquet. It is important.”

  “I’ll come to your chambers after noon prayers. I’ll send a messenger.”

  “Thank you.” She let his hand go and watched as he walked away.

  ***

  The bell in the eastern tower of the Illandian Abbey was tolling the mid-afternoon hour across the city when James finally showed himself at the
door to Danielle’s chambers.

  She had been lying in her copper bath listening to the bird song from the garden and enjoying the sunlight from the balcony doors on her face. Her thoughts had drifted between the things that were worrying her; Kane and what was likely to happen in the General Council chamber tomorrow. Then there was Fren, who was clearly a druid. The experience of seeing her transform had provoked that horrible irrational fear in her again that there might be some elements of truth to her dream. Which of the old woman clearly knew about.

  Then there were the sanguine thoughts. Her new role as Protector In-waiting and the opportunity that brought to work even more closely than before with Joseph. And of course there was James now here in Illandia with her permanently. That filled her with a joy that also made her grin stupidly and laugh. It also had her considering making their relationship more permanent as her father clearly hinted at.

  She had just slipped into a simple blue dress and was brushing her hair when she heard the knock and James’ voice as he called out to her.

  “I’m down here; the hall on your left. She heard him close the door and footsteps as he headed in her direction. As her protector he could enter her chambers at will. The thought excited her and she got up in a rush from her dresser and met him in the doorway with a lingering kiss. She broke off long enough to say, “I’ve sent my maids away. We’re alone. At last.”

  After kissing him again he gently eased her back and she realised something was wrong for he looked horribly troubled.

  “What is it?”

  “Your father wants to talk to you immediately.”

  She suspected she knew what this was about and what remained of her smile immediately waned. “I take it from your black countenance, he is angry?” It was a rhetorical question. For her father to interrupt court twice in one day on her account could only mean as much.

  “Apparently you had a rather nasty incident on the highway this morning?”

  She thought it might be that. She gave an irritable sigh as she grabbed a shawl and headed for the door. After crossing the vestibule outside her chambers and sure they were out of earshot from the guards stationed there, she said, “I tried to tell Joseph as much, and have made plans to speak to him about it before the banquet. Though it’s clear someone has gone behind my back.” She realised she was whispering. She also realised there was guilt written all over James’ face. She drew up frowning. “It was you?”

  She saw the answer in his eyes and not wanting the guard standing nearby to hear them; she pulled James out of the passageway and into the entrance to the Winterhall, which was quite deserted. “You went to my father behind my back?”

  “I overheard a discussion between several of the grooms who accompanied you from Fairfax. When I pushed the matter with them, they refused to say more so, yes, I went to your father, who promptly had them summoned. Apparently you swore them to secrecy?”

  Danielle was horrified. “Why did you not come to me first?”

  “As your protector your father and Joseph command me, Danielle, you know that. I am duty bound to relay information as serious as this. Just as you were duty bound to notify the city guards the moment you arrived in Illandia and certainly Joseph should have been told without delay. It should have been your first matter of business. Why was it not?”

  He seemed at wits end why she had not acted so, which annoyed her all the more.

  “I tried to talk to Joseph and if you knew what happened, and who was involved, you’d know why I’m trying to be discreet. And more to the point, what happened to our discussion last night? We talked about how this arrangement was to work.”

  “Danielle, these scoundrel’s abducted and assaulted you. This is not about our arrangement. It is about your safety.”

  “That does not negate you from paying me the tiniest bit of courtesy and at the very least let me know your intentions? You know nothing of what happened out there or that I’m trying to protect my father from needless worry by taking the matter to Joseph. Instead you blunder in and as usual I cause my father nothing but more worry. James, why?”

  “I told you, it’s my duty.”

  “And what about us? If you love me as you say, you would have come to me first.”

  He didn’t answer, just looked troubled as he shifted his attention to a stain glass window across the hall.

  Too aggravated to bear his company a moment longer, Danielle turned to go, but James grabbed her arm and bid her wait. She jerked it free and glared at him expectantly. The timing couldn’t have been worse for two maids chose that particular moment to walk by. Danielle offered a polite if embarrassed smile as they curtseyed for they had clearly heard the altercation—or at least some of it. Much to her annoyance she heard both women giggle as they disappeared from view.

  Danielle closed the door to the Winter Hall and turned on him, feeling hurt and wanting answers. He was usually a great deal more sensitive than this.

  “You have every right to be angry with me, but not for the reason you think,” he confessed.

  “Meaning what?”

  “Meaning I was responsible for your protection this morning, and it was my failure that almost got you killed. This isn’t your error. Your father knows that and will not hold you accountable.”

  “You great oaf, that’s not why I’m angry with you!”

  Frustrated with him and well aware her father would not take kindly to being forced to wait for her, Danielle shook her head and then went to open the door to leave. James put his hand on the door handle preventing her.

  “Perhaps this isn’t for the best after all,” he said regretfully.

  “What do you mean?”

  “It might be best for Arkaelyon’s future if a stranger was given the task of protecting you, someone who won’t be so easily distracted.”

  She was horrified that he would suggest this. “That is utter nonsense and you know it!”

  James countered angrily. “My actions, or lack there of, almost got you killed this morning. I should have been with you not delivering your message. Surely you understand that!”

  Danielle glared back at him. “Your actions did nothing of the sort.”

  He moved away from her, his hands going to his head as he gazed out at the empty hall. “You take this too lightly, Dee.”

  “This isn’t the time or place, my father is waiting. We’ll talk about this later.”

  “There’s nothing to talk about.”

  “There is!” she hissed. “More than you can know.”

  At that she opened the door and left, feeling bitterly disappointed in him and more than a little frustrated.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Danielle climbed the wide sweeping staircase to the palace’s grand vestibule for the second time in as many hours. At the top of the stairs she came face to face with her worst nightmare. It appeared that her father had cleared the throne room again in anticipation of her arrival. Courtiers, nobles, merchants, court officials, palace guards and the grey-cloaked members of the royal guard, all the representatives of the rank and file who embodied court life were streaming out into the cavernous vestibule. The mood was universally grim.

  “It’s not what you think,” James whispered, before guiding her past the throng and on towards her father’s chambers.

  On entering with her protector a step behind her, Danielle wasn’t at all surprised to find the members of the Inner Council assembled here as well. They all knew how serious the abduction of a member of the royal family was.

  Lord Worthford, Connell, O’Brien and Kyran were standing in front of the unlit stone fireplace that dominated one wall of the king’s drawing room, several with a pipe in hand the others with a half empty glass of wine. Her father stood by the balcony doors, listening to Austin. There was no sign of Joseph or Lord Blake, and Eden of course was on a hunt with Michael.

  The muted conversations stopped as she stepped forward and curtseyed. “You sent for me, Father.”

  “I
hear that my daughter was abducted and assaulted on the highway this morning. Is this true?”

  “Waylaid would be a more apt description, father.”

  “Why did you keep this from me?”

  “There has been no opportunity to tell you since my arrival. And I did try and raise the matter with Joseph, but he can not speak with me until later this afternoon on account of his busy schedule today.”

  “Milady, why did you prevent my men from doing their duty?” Austin asked.

  All in company seemed curious to know this too.

  “Because it was unnecessary. I guessed what this was about the moment we were told to dismount. Besides, we were outnumbered and poorly armed to defend ourselves against men with crossbows. I thought compliance would be a wiser decision than to provoke bloodshed.”

  “You know who these scoundrels were then? For thanks to James’ efforts Mr. Slurry has been kind enough to admit that these bandits wore masks, and as best he could tell, they seemed to be Surlemians, probably mercenaries and their intent clearly wasn’t robbery. He also told me you refused to speak about the matter with him after you returned to the highway. And you clearly didn’t report this to the city guard,” her father said.

  “I thought discretion would be wise given it was a member our house who waylaid me.”

  “Who?”

  “Kane.”

  The general look of shock on the faces of those in the chamber was understandable. She now hoped they understood why she had been discreet.

  “Kane abducted and assaulted you?”

  “With the aid of some of his lacks, yes. It seems the rumours I’d been foolishly circulating were causing him some bother. I think he was trying to discover whether there was any truth in them, particular the one suggesting that I had discovered what he was up to and was intent on ambushing him at the General Council tomorrow. And now he knows there is not. Though I do feel that his level of agitation and the fact he would risk so much to find out, warrants concern on our part. Does it not suggest that whatever he is up to is more than a simple diversion of the Archbishops machination?”