“She’s certain one of your servant girls is her niece, and I haven’t been able to shake her conviction.”
“Who?”
“The girl who watches the children in the playground. I think her name’s Serra.”
“And your wife thinks Serra’s her niece?”
Thanzer nodded.
“Why?”
“Yani says Serra is the image of her sister Elayne at that age. That’s why seeing Serra hit her so hard. She felt like she was looking at Elayne’s ghost.”
“What happened to Elayne?”
“She and her husband, Allan, left Lochland intending to settle somewhere along the east coast of Camden. But, from what we heard, a big storm came up and blew them off course before they had gotten very far. It carried them all the way across the ocean. They worked their way down the wasteland to the northern coast of Dresland where they settled in a small village. The trip took them half a year, or at least that’s how long it was before we heard from them.”
Thanzer paused. “At first, Elayne wrote regularly, and according to her letters, they were happy there. Allan fished with the men while Elayne and the women worked the gardens. From what she said, life was good. The last letter we got was about four years after they settled there. Elayne had given birth to a baby girl, and she had named her Serra, in honor of their grandmother. Then the letters stopped coming. A year and a half later, we got a letter from the district minister telling us Elayne and Allan had been killed during a slaver raid. The minister didn’t mention Serra, so Yani wrote back and asked him what had happened to their daughter. It took him a while to respond, but when he did, he said he had checked with everyone he could find from the area and no one had any idea what had happened to the child. The best he could say was no one had found her body, so it was assumed she had been captured along with most of the villagers.”
Thanzer shook his head and wiped his face with his hands. “The whole thing made Kyra, Yani’s mother, physically sick. She took to her bed for over a year. Ester, Allan’s mother, wasn’t much better off, and to this day, she believes Allan’s death and the disappearance of that baby girl worried her husband right into his grave.”
Thanzer looked down at the floor and shook his head. Then he looked at Kevin. “Through it all, Yani was the strong one. She took care of her mother and did what she could for Ester, but wondering what happened to Serra has been eating at her for the past twenty years. Was she alive? Was she being taken care of? All of it preyed on her mind, day in, day out. Then to see this girl, who looks just like her sister, and to find out her name is Serra …” Thanzer shook his head. “It was too much for her. She believes Serra is Elayne’s child. I couldn’t talk her out of it, so I promised her I’d check into it. From what Yani was told, Serra’s mother lives here in Milhaven. I hate to ask, but would you talk to her and find out if she knows anything at all about Elayne?”
Kevin wasn’t sure what to say. He didn’t feel like he knew Debra well enough to ask her something like that without upsetting her and possibly Serra, but he couldn’t help but feel bad for the anguish Yani was going through.
“I’m not sure I’m the best one to talk to Debra about this,” Kevin said, “but I’ll find someone who can check on it without creating more problems than we’d be solving. Would that be all right?”
Thanzer nodded and stood up to go. “Thank you for seeing me, and for agreeing to check into this for us.”
“I won’t be able to do anything about it until after I get the other ministers and their wives back home though. Could you and Yani stay another day or so and give me some time to work on this?”
“We’ll get a room at the tavern for however long it takes.”
~ ~ ~ ~
When Thanzer left Kevin’s office, Chris walked in and shut the door. “Kyle’s back home, and Nikki said hello.”
Kevin grinned.
Chris sat down. “What did Thanzer need?”
Kevin filled him in on Yani’s request.
“Who’s going to talk to Debra?”
“I don’t know. Laryn might have a suggestion.”
“Or Cryslyn.”
Kevin nodded. “Do you think she’s still in her office?”
“I’ll send Ariel to check.”
“Is he still out there?”
Chris nodded as he stood up. “And not likely to leave until the castle shuts down for the night.” He opened Kevin’s door and motioned to Ariel.
When Ariel stepped into the office, Kevin asked, “Would you please go see if Cryslyn’s in her office, and if she is, would you ask her if she has a minute to see me?”
Ariel nodded and left.
Five minutes later, Cryslyn walked into Kevin’s office. “You wanted to see me?”
Kevin frowned. “I asked him to find out if you had time to see me. I was going to come to you.”
“Well, I’m here now, so what can I do for you?”
Kevin motioned towards one of the chairs, and while Cryslyn sat down, Chris shut the door and sat back down in his chair.
“You know Debra, Serra’s mother, right?”
Cryslyn nodded.
“I’ve been asked to ask her some questions, but I’m afraid she’ll get defensive if I do. I need someone she knows and trusts who can question her without upsetting her,” Kevin explained. The frown on Cryslyn’s face caused him to add, “I’m trying to spare her any unnecessary worry. You have to admit, having the Master Sorcerer show up at your door and start asking questions can be intimidating. If she knew me, it would be different, but I don’t think we’ve ever even been introduced.”
Cryslyn nodded. “Well, if you want someone she’s friends with, I guess I could do it. We’ve been friends for twenty years.”
Kevin nodded. “Good. Let me explain what’s going on.” And Kevin proceeded to fill her in on Yani’s suspicions and Thanzer’s request.
Cryslyn closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them with a little shake of her head. “I’ll talk to her, but I can already tell you there’s a good chance Yani’s right.”
“Why do you say that?” Chris asked.
“When Debra was eight months pregnant with Janine, her back was hurting pretty bad. I was afraid she might be going into labor so I asked if Serra had been born early. That’s when she told me Serra wasn’t her natural daughter, that Serra’s parents had been killed in the slaver raid. She pretended Serra was hers so the slavers wouldn’t kill the child. As far as I know, Serra doesn’t know any of this. She was a toddler when all of this happened. She was only four when Janine was born.”
“Could you talk to Debra? Just to confirm everything? And see if she remembers the names of Serra’s parents?” Kevin asked.
“Sure,” Cryslyn said, “but can it wait until we get all these ministers and their wives out of here?”
Kevin smiled and nodded. “I told Thanzer we’d look into it, but there was no way any of us could do anything about it until tomorrow.
“I’ll go see Debra after we get breakfast cleared away. By the time you get all these folks back where they belong, I’ll have some answers for you.”
Chapter 53
Debra's Story
Kevin decided to forgo the breakfast buffet in the dining hall in favor of the peace and quiet of his office. The ministers’ wives were eating breakfast with their host families, but they’d start arriving around 9:00. Things would get hectic then. Kevin wanted as much calm as he could get before the chaos of taking everyone home began. The only bright spot was knowing by mid-afternoon it would be over. The castle would return to normal, or as close to normal as you could get with seven sorcerers under the same roof.
A few moments after Kevin sat down, there was a quick knock on his door and Chris walked in, carrying two cups of coffee.
“Are you picking up Kyle this morning or am I?” Kevin asked as Chris handed him a cup.
“Neither of us. He said he’d wait until all the madness was over and join us for dinner toni
ght, provided one of us has time to go get him. If not, he’ll see us tomorrow morning,” Chris said. “And he didn’t sound upset about waiting until tomorrow morning.”
Kevin nodded. “When we get done playing taxi, I’ll go see what he wants to do.”
“And see Nikki.”
“And see Nikki,” Kevin agreed. “Gives me something to look forward to.” He sipped his coffee. “You weren’t upstairs when I got back from warming up. Did you go to the dining room?”
Chris nodded. “I was planning a quick walk through to check on things and pick up our coffee, but several ministers stopped me. I thought I never would get out of there. Good thing you didn’t use that entrance this morning. I think they were lying in wait for you. How did you get back in anyway?”
Kevin grinned. “Well, I am a sorcerer. I left from my balcony and I came back the same way.”
“You flew?”
Kevin nodded.
Chris laughed. “No wonder the men in the dining room kept asking me where you were.”
“I don’t think any of the guests noticed. There were a few out in the yard but they didn’t look up. The guards noticed, of course, and I’m pretty sure a couple of the grounds men saw me, but they didn’t let on. Were the ministers looking for me for any particular reason?”
Chris’s eyes turned serious as he nodded. “I’m not sure what happened at Joan’s yesterday, but if her intent was to stir people up about slavery, she succeeded. Seems the women were quite upset about the state of things in Camden when decent citizens could be jerked out of their beds in the middle of the night and sold off as slaves.”
Kevin nodded. “Not the most pleasant dinner conversation, but that’s what we were hoping would happen.”
“I know, but from some of the things that were said this morning, I think this is going to end up being your fault. One of the ministers even said that things like this didn’t happen when Badec was alive.”
Kevin’s eyes turned dark and stormy.
Before he could say anything, Chris shook his head. “Keep in mind these people don’t have CNN. Half the time, they don’t know what’s happening twenty miles down the road, much less on the other side of Camden, and most of the time, they don’t care. The interior ministers have probably never given slavery a second thought other than how many slaves they’ll have to request for their district, or whether or not they can afford one to help out around the house. And the border ministers don’t live anywhere near the coast. They think of slaver raids as one more report they have to fill out. The horror of it hasn’t ever touched their lives before. And since it has now, through their wives, they’re looking for someone to blame, and you, my friend, are it. A year ago this problem hadn’t touched their lives. Now it has. What’s changed? The person in this office. Therefore, it must be your fault.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Of course it’s ridiculous, but that doesn’t stop them from saying it, and if enough people repeat it …”
“People are going to believe it.”
Chris nodded. “And from the bits I heard in the dining room, they’re going to hold you responsible for fixing it so nothing like this ever touches their lives again.”
“How am I supposed to do that?”
“That’s your problem as far as they’re concerned,” Chris answered. “But the main thing here is it’s going to come up today while we’re taking these people home. The men want peace in their houses, so they’ve got to appease their wives before they get there.”
“And in order to do that, they’re going to dump all of this on us.”
Chris nodded. “So, how do you want to handle this? We need to both say the same thing.”
~ ~ ~ ~
While Kevin and Chris talked about tactics for handling the slavery issue, noise from the reception area steadily increased. Finally Kevin stood up and straightened his tunic. “Guess I’d better get out there.”
“Just focus on the light at the end of the tunnel,” Chris said as he stood up.
“What light?”
“In a few hours, they’ll all be back home.”
Kevin nodded and opened the door.
“There he is,” one of the ministers said. “About time you showed up.”
Kevin frowned. “Is there a problem?”
“There most certainly is,” another minister said. “What do you plan to do about this slavery issue? When are you going to rescue those people?”
“Which people would that be?” Kevin asked, ice dripping from each word. “The ones who were captured from Syrando? Or do you mean the ones who lived near Rochdale? Or the ones along Longleaf Lake? Or the families who lived along Garrett’s Inlet? Which captives are you referring to?”
Angry questions came fast and furious, all implying he was sitting on his hands letting it happen. One of the ministers shouted above the rest, “This type of thing never happened when Badec and Laryn were in charge.”
As the rumble of questions intensified, Kevin clenched his fists and roared, “Enough!”
Everyone in the room froze and stared at the angry sorcerer.
“Enough.” As the quiet in the room became almost unbearable, Kevin said, “Slavery has been around for a long time, since long before any of us were born. My father was opposed to slavery. So am I. I made my position clear to the other sorcerers during my first council meeting. If I had any idea where our people are, I’d head out right now to bring them home, but you know something? It’s really hard to convince other people you’re serious when they know your governor has to go to slave auctions and buy slaves to fill your ministers’ requests.”
Kevin let his gaze sweep the room. “I’d love to declare Camden a slave-free province, but you know who would fight me the most if I did that? You, the district ministers. I realize you have army units to furnish, but maybe you should find a way to do it other than using slaves. Or do you consider it all right to own someone as long as they weren’t living in Camden when they were jerked out of their homes and carted off to the nearest slave auction?”
He paused and gazed around the room again. “From what I understand, some of you own slaves yourselves, slaves who help out around your houses, tend your gardens, take care of your livestock, and some of those are children. Are they no less entitled to their childhood than your own children are? How do you justify it?”
“What about here?” one of the wives blurted out. “You have slaves all over this castle taking care of your every wish.”
“No, we don’t.”
“Of course you do. You have slaves right here in this office,” the woman argued. “The pages are slaves!”
Kevin shook his head, so the woman turned to Cameryn. “You’re a slave, aren’t you?”
Cameryn shook her head as Ariel said, “None of us are slaves. Not one person working in this castle is a slave. We all asked to work here. We can leave anytime we want.”
The woman’s mouth dropped open, but she shut up.
“You expect us to believe you don’t have any slaves here?” one of the men asked. “What about the men who clean the stables?”
Kevin, Chris, and the pages all shook their heads no.
“But I heard that one of the girls who works here, the one who takes care of the children in the playground, is a slave, and not only that, she’s Yani’s niece,” he continued. “How do you explain that?”
“Simple,” Chris answered. “You heard wrong. Serra’s not a slave. As to whether or not she’s Yani’s niece, that’s yet to be determined, but either way, she’s a free woman. If it turns out she’s Yani’s niece, she can go home with them or she can stay here. It’s her choice. And that’s the big difference between staff and slaves. Staff members have a choice. Slaves do not. All of the people who work here are staff members. None of them are slaves.”
Kevin frowned deep enough his eyebrows nearly touched and directed his glare at the man who had last spoken. “How long have you been a minister?”
; The man puffed himself up. “Fifteen years.”
“And you’ve attended the conference every summer?”
The man nodded. “Haven’t missed a year.”
“How have you come to this castle every summer for fifteen years and not figured out we do not have slaves?” Kevin all but roared. He took a deep breath and looked around the room. “Some of you have been coming here for years, staying on our grounds, eating in our dining hall, wandering around our gardens. How is it possible, in all of that time, you never figured out my father didn’t use slaves? Were you just not paying attention? Or was it because you treated them like slaves and since they let you get away with it rather than embarrass you, you assumed you were right? How could you not know that the entire House of Nordin is opposed to slavery?”
Some of the ministers mumbled, but no one answered him, and very few would meet his gaze.
Finally Ariel cleared his throat. “It’s going to take a long time to get everyone back where they belong, so maybe we should get started.” He motioned to Ryan, the minister of Ragenon, and his wife Sheryl. “We’ll start with you.” Ariel handed a map to Kevin. “I’ll have the next couple ready to go as soon as you get back.”
Kevin took the map, nodded, and as Ryan and Sheryl each placed a hand on his arm, he turned his key.
A few seconds later, they were standing in Ryan’s front yard.
“You did well back there, and what you said needed to be said,” Ryan said with a nod. “Shame all the ministers weren’t there to hear it, but it won’t take long for the gist of it to make the rounds.”
“Thanks.” Kevin sighed. “Hate it had to happen on Laryn’s weekend though.”
Sheryl shrugged. “I bet she’ll consider it the high point of the weekend. Ask her sometime. You’ll see.”
Kevin grinned. “I might do that. Well, guess I’d better get going. Lots of other folks need to get home.” And with a turn of the key, he was gone.
~ ~ ~ ~
It was after 2:00 by the time Kevin made it to Kyle’s. After he played with Nikki for a bit, he took Kyle to join his brothers at the construction site. As soon as he could slip away, he escaped to his office and collapsed in his chair. He leaned back, closed his eyes, and let the quiet envelop him.
The Fourteenth Key (The Chronicles of Terah Book 3) Page 46