There was no trickery from his brother. No sleight of hand. And no businesslike banter. Cauly had never liked all the lies and deceit but the lack of them made him worry. His little brother had lost his spark ever since they had returned from Grietum’s Hive. He hadn’t touched a wisp of the blood flower dust ever since it had left his body—they had none anyway, even if he had wanted it. That part of him had recovered. Wallace’s face had returned to an even skin tone, his hands became less and less withered as the moon-turns passed but his mind, his focus, the things that made him him had never fully returned.
After the woman had left their home, Cauly went into the kitchen and closed over the shutters to the desert outside and began to boil some vegetables in a pot. He went back through to their bedchamber and found Wallace sitting on the floor, leaning back against the bed, twirling a coin through his fingers.
“I’m leaving for a while,” Wallace uttered, staring at the wall.
“Wait! What?” Cauly felt emptiness in his chest.
“It’s a good thing. I need to get out of these walls, Cauly.”
“But I brought you home. We’re together again, doing what we do best.”
“I can’t stay here, looking at these walls anymore. I have to get away.”
“I’ll come with you,” Cauly suggested, even though he didn’t really want to leave his home. “Where are you going?”
“No. This is something I need to do alone. It’s something I’ve been thinking about for a long time. I’ve been saving coin. And I’ve got enough now.”
“Enough for what?”
“I’m going to go to the Still Cities and train to become a skip.”
“A skip?! What the fuck are you on about?” Cauly, knew about skips but he didn’t want to admit that his little brother would likely make the best skip in the Known World.
“They buy and sell information. You can get coin just for investigating something for somebody. In the guild in Mor they teach you everything. They help you set up a network of people to get you information—your eyes. And they even teach you the secrets of places like Grietum’s Hive. You saw the things that were in there. People in Meltanespear say that there are places like that all over the Known World. The skips are taught how to use them!”
“You’re a fucking idiot,” Cauly said, shaking his head.
“You’ve not even let me explain—”
Cauly waved a hand in front of his little brother. “You’re an idiot for not doing this sooner. You’d make a perfect skip,” he admitted, happy to let go of his brother but at the same time feeling a wrenching in his gut about the Ryder brothers splitting apart.
Wallace sniffed a laugh, a smile growing on his face. It was nice to see the genuine happiness in his brother’s face instead of the forced jesting that had become so familiar ever since he had recovered from the blood flower. “And I’ll come back and visit you. I could stay here from time to time if you’d let me. I’ll be traveling all over the Known World, brother.”
Cauly nodded, not wanting to commit to believing in Wallace’s promises of visits. He was well aware of his little brother’s ability to lie and how easily distracted he could become with anything remotely interesting or needing investigation.
“And listen,” Wallace added, “those things I said back in Grietum’s Hive…about you ruining my life and making us live here—”
“You meant them,” Cauly said with a smile.
Wallace chuckled and admitted, “Yes, well some of it. But it’s not your fault. We had to do it.” He paused and thought for a moment, then continued firmly, “I meant what I said about you holding me back.”
That hurt, but something in Wallace’s face told Cauly it wasn’t meant to sting.
“You’re holding me back but I’m holding you back too,” Wallace said, a smile growing, no hint of his ‘business’ voice, just what seemed like a genuine excitement about the future. “Look what you achieved without me. How you earned coin, learned how to fight, planned how to rescue me…You’ve even learned some big words,” he jested and punched him on the arm.
“You better not be lying about coming back to visit me.”
“Hey, I’m Wallace Ryder,” his little brother said, a slanting smile growing on his face.
The Skip
There was his big brother, in the same place that he always was whenever Wallace Ryder came home for a visit—sitting outside the shutters of the Ryder brothers’ home, sipping happily on Arlandish wine looking like the king of the desert.
“Drinking before midday, Brother?” Wallace shouted to Cauly.
“Wallace Ryder, Skip of the Mor Guild,” Cauly said with a grin stretching across his face. He stood and walked closer, throwing his arms out.
The Skip loved his brother but still felt uncomfortable embracing him. He didn’t much like embracing anybody. He consented and gave him a few jolly slaps on the back.
“So what business have you got in these parts then?” the older brother asked.
“Well, let’s see, I’m needing to attend to some business in Meltanespear, and I’ve got some information for a moisture farmer a couple of leagues south of here and there is this wonderful girl that keeps asking for my services…I’m sure she’s into me you know.”
“That last part was a lie then,” Cauly jested and punched him on the arm.
“My big brother…the only person in the Known World who I can’t lie to.” He returned the punch, knowing that it looked weedier and a little more forced than his big brother’s one. “For once, I’ve come to see you,” Wallace said, partially lying.
“Me? I’m honored.” Cauly bowed in an exaggerated way. Wallace was impressed with his big brother’s attempt at sarcasm. Cauly continued, “In the, what is it now, fourteen, fifteen, years that you went off to become a skip, when have you ever visited, just to see me?”
“A fair point,” Wallace admitted, with a playful smirk. “But this time, I’ve come back to get you that lordship!”
“Lordship?!” Cauly laughed. “We haven’t spoke about that since we were boys.”
“Well it’s about time we get it! Have you not heard?” He put on his mocking voice, saying, “King Locutus has just been blessed by the great So’Chor—or whatever shit they preach about in the kingdoms—with a second son. And he has decreed that he will give out ten lordships in honor of his new little princeling,” he said, making cutsie little finger movements.
“Is it really worth the bother though? Why go all that way when I still earn decent coin anyway?”
“You’re not getting any younger, brother. What are you now? Thirty-three? Thirty-four? Just think in a few years’ time you might get a few gray hairs, and those firm arse cheeks of yours might sag a little.”
“Fuck off,” Cauly laughed, blocking Wallace’s playful attempt at a slap to the arse. “I’m keeping myself well enough.”
“Look, I’m going there anyway because I have business with King—”
“I knew there had to be business involved.”
“It’s important business. King Locutus received word from High-King Ma’leven that his first prince, Prince Leonard, had been kidnapped. So Locutus feared for his firstborn son’s safety, the child who is currently in the care of King Servin in Long Kingdom.” Wallace noticed the blank look on his brother’s face. “I know. Don’t get me started on the traditions and workings of the Ten Kingdoms.”
“So what’s this got to do with you?” Cauly asked.
“Well King Locutus employed my services to investigate some comings and goings in Long Kingdom and out towards Narscape and report back to him, to reassure him that his precious first prince is still safe and that the same thing didn’t happen to Prince Costalus that happened to the High-King’s son.”
“And is there a threat to the prince?”
“No, of course not. But King Locutus pays good coin and I’ll put his little royal mind at ease.” Wallace paused, letting his slow-witted brother process his ramblings. “So…�
�
“I suppose we’re going to the capital then.”
* * *
King Locutus, Queen Vasani and the Lady Brendina were sitting on their wooden thrones in the court of Deca’Herem. Fire torches were all that hung on the tall simple unadorned sandy walls and impressive pillars. King Locutus looked casual and friendly for a king—slightly slouched, legs sprawled, a youthfulness radiating from him. Queen Vasani was the polar opposite—old, wrinkled and stern. Of course, the queen was not the young king’s lover; that would be unheard of and deeply frowned upon in the Ten Kingdoms. A queen was purely a political position, selected by the king. In fact, the queen was likely the only woman that a king didn’t take as a lover. The Ten Kingdom kings each had their own horde of willing females. However it is their chosen wife with whom they bear the royal children, and it was the Lady Brendina that had earned King Locutus’s heart…and his potent royal blue-eyed seed as well! She sat next to her husband looking young, fierce, and stout with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. Many nobles across the Ten Kingdoms considered her to be brash and common—some went as far as to say that being a wife to a king was above her station in life!
Wallace’s heart was thumping in his chest, not because he was nervous from the sight of the royal lineup receiving him and his brother, but because he was dreaming of the coin he might earn for delivering the good news.
“Your Grace,” Wallace Ryder announced, kneeling before the royals. He had to pull his brother Cauly down too, for he hadn’t been trained in the etiquette of the Ten Kingdoms as his little skip brother had been. “I come to you with reassuring news.”
“Rise, Wallace Ryder of Mor,” the king said, standing from his throne and stepping down the dais and coming to a stop right in front of the brothers. “And who is this blue that you have brought with you?” Locutus asked, patting Cauly on the shoulder.
Locutus was a different kind of king—less formal than any others Wallace had met since becoming a skip. He had more hair than the bald King Kalon, he talked more than the silent King Rigard, he gurned less than the moaning King Zi and he was far easier to find than the nomadic King Retziz.
“This is my brother, Your Grace. He travels with me from our family home, near Meltanespear.”
“Meltanespear! Now if that isn’t my favorite town,” the young king said, giving Wallace a pat on the arm. “Tell me. What have you uncovered in the lands surrounding my boy?”
Wallace reported to the king, saying, “After much investigation I feel he is quite safe. King Kalon treats him well. He raises him as if he was his own child. In fact, when I visited, the little Princess Londenia and her sister were tending to the child along with their younger sibling. It was as if he was their most treasured doll.”
Locutus smiled and held a hand up. “I have no concern with King Kalon’s wardship over my son. And the Princess Londenia is a delightful girl, warm and caring. I knew her well when I grew up there. It is threats from the surrounding lands that concern me after what transpired to Prince Leonard in First Kingdom.”
“Of course, yes. I did some investigating in Long Kingdom and digging in Narscape and I can assure you there is no threat to your son’s safety. I will provide a full report.”
“Very good! I trust a skip’s word. Especially one that knows he will be well rewarded. You will have your coin.”
“Thank you, Your Grace. And if I may ask something of you?”
“Speak.” Locutus nodded firmly.
“Thank you, Your Grace. Might you grant my brother, Cauly Ryder, a lordship? As you can see he is of blue-sight and would be honored to serve your kingdom—as it was these lands that saved him from the disgusting oppression of blues in the Land of the Old Ways,” Wallace said, remembering to specifically use terms that the king would appreciate instead of calling his former home by its proper name of Arland.
The king’s head wavered in a gentle nodding action. “These are good times, Wallace Ryder of Mor, and I will be delighted to share them with you and your brother. From this day onwards, he is a lord.”
That’s it? Wallace thought, thinking back to how long the brothers had dreamed of this moment.
Cauly smiled and dropped to one knee. “Thank you, Your Grace.”
“Rise,” King Locutus told him. “And I expect to see you fine gentlemen later tonight in the deca when I present my new son.”
And the two brothers did attend the presenting of the new prince. A crowd had gathered within the centre of the ten standing stones of the deca, many having to spread out into the surrounding sands. A circle of guards knelt around King Locutus and his wife, the Lady Brendina. In between them stood gray-haired Queen Vasani, holding the baby prince, bundled in her wrinkled arms.
Long shadows were cast by the standing stones and the crowd as the waning sun skiffed the horizon of the desert. King Locutus held up a hand to silence the crowd. His voice boomed out: “May the Ten bless you all. It warms my heart to be with you, within the holy stones of the deca as I present my son for the first time. Let me assure you, he is a strong healthy boy and I can already see his mother’s stubbornness in his eyes.” Locutus smiled.
The crowd gave a respectful little chuckle and the Lady Brendina playfully slapped her royal husband’s arm.
Locutus’s voice echoed out once again: “And when my first prince, Costalus, returns from his wardship in Long Kingdom, and takes to the throne, his brother,” the king pointed to the little bundle of baby held by Queen Vasani, “will stand by his side to serve you all and make Last Kingdom prosper. May Hal bless Prince Romarus!”
The crowd chanted back as Queen Vasani held the small bundled child aloft: May Hal bless Prince Romarus!
A Poisoned Land
The Main Saga—Novel Trilogy
Part 1: Faith, Lies and Blue Eyes—Available now!
Part 2: Plots, Schemes and Broken Dreams—Coming 2016
Part 3: War, Power and a Hero’s Hour—Coming 2017
Snare of the Blood Flower: A novella from A Poisoned Land Page 7