The Dubious Heir

by Clark, Lydia

  Salty Skip grasped on to his money pouch hanging from his belt and poured a bunch of coins into his hand. Gold galleons and silver coins were held before Pellesi to take. “You will get the rest of your share when we return to dock. This should hold your family for the rest of the year.”

  Pellesi thought his eyes would pop out of his head while he looked down at what he held in his hand. It was more than enough to take care of his family for two or more years on what they had been surviving on at this very moment. And, there was more where that came from too?

  “When do we leave?”

  “Be at the dock by sunrise tomorrow. I can’t promise you when we will return. We will sail south to the islands. There is a lot of spices and such we sail there to trade for.”

  A wide grin covered Pellesi’s face. His struggles were over. “I will be here at sunrise,” he yelled over his shoulder, hobbling away to tell the grand news to his young wife.

  “What do you mean you are going to set sail in the morning? Who is going to take care of us? Are you going to abandon us over a mere coin?” Mrs. Pellesi stood with a hand on one hip and the babe cradled against her other hip.

  Pellesi thought she would be as excited as he was that their struggles were finally over. He figured all he needed to do was show her the gold galleon and she would be happy knowing that that one coin would give her enough funds to take care of her and the baby for a year. Why was it so hard to make a woman happy?

  “But dear, there is so much more.” He held the rest of the coins out in his hand to show her what he had. She eyed them and looked about their small cabin consisting of a sitting - eating area - a fireplace to cook over and to keep warm. Along with a straw bed in the corner and a wooden crate to lay the babe down to sleep.

  “There’s more,” he repeated.

  She held out her hand to accept the coins. “You say there is more?”

  “Aye, the rest will be paid upon my return.”

  “How long will you be gone?”

  “He did not say. All he said was that we were to set sail to the south islands to do some trading and then return. It can’t be that long. How far away do you think the islands are?”

  She laughed, “I hear they are on the other side of the world. You will be gone for most of the year at the least.” She handed the coins back to him only because the baby had begun to cry. It was feeding time. “The coins will buy food and clothing for Treea and me. But you must promise us that you will return.”

  Pellesi just about did a jig. The woman was warming up to the idea of his trip, which he had never thought possible a few minutes before by the look on her face.

  “Aye, woman, I will not only return, but I will bring us great fortune. I will build you a grand home that will model the greatest castle.” He kissed her forehead holding her close to him while she struggled with the babe to find a teat.

  “Captain, I can see from here, that they await us.” The voice of the guard broke through Pellesi’s thoughts of his past. A past of nearly twenty years, where had the time gone? The babe was now a grown woman and his own woman was a ghost of his past. He missed his wife dearly and feared she was scowling down on him for letting things come to what they were. Her words in his mind, “Think before you act,” haunted him since the day the guards had arrested him.

  Chapter 24

  The sight of him dueled in the pit of her stomach. A part of her wanted to rush to him and another part of her wanted to scream at him to run. Run as far away from here as he possible could go before they caught up to him or did much worse than imprisoning him once again.

  Why didn’t Dale do something about this? He couldn’t let her pop continued to take part in the jousting match. He weren’t in that kind of shape to begin with and now that it had been a few months since he had been imprisoned. Surely he lacked the strength to compete.

  But Dale continued to sit by the King’s side and act out his part. Or, was she seeing a different side of Dale now that he had found his inheritance?

  She hadn’t really known him, but she believed in her heart that she was a good judge of character. Maybe she was wrong the whole time and should have gone on with her original plan of kidnapping him as Hurley had wanted. It wasn’t like he was a pirate anyway, he would not be following the same code of honor as she or her pop.

  The lieutenant was already on his horse and waited at the other end of the field for the competition to begin. Her pop was busy being dressed in some sort of leather armor that didn’t appear to be able to deflect the faintest point. He was doomed right from the start.

  Treea couldn’t watch her pop die right before her eyes. He should have declined and remained in the tower. It would have been better for the both of them. At least if he had been still in the tower, she could have managed to find a way to break him out. Now he was facing almost certain death.

  He was given a lance and a helm slid on top of his head. Another rider on a horse similar to his own galloped across the field to stop before her pop. The rider was also garbed in the same attire, right down to the helm and lance. What was going on?

  The two, her pop and the newcomer, circled each other stirring up a bit of commotion from across the jousting arena. Cries followed from the crowd to begin the competition and finish the match.

  Duke Ellington addressed the king briefly, apparently asking whom the other rider was. More commotion broke out. Soon a flood of horses came rushing across the field from where the last rider appeared.

  Treea recognized a couple of the riders as members of her own crew. How they had survived the attack on their ship was beyond her. But somehow they had managed.

  A lone figure sat upon a horse off in the distance watching the riders below. Could that be Salty Skip? Treea may never know.

  Fighting broke out. The crowd dispersed in a flood of people hurrying back into the city to escape the fighting. With the exception of a few men or women who began helping the new arrivals as they harried at the Duke and King’s guards.

  One of the riders bore down on her, the one with the leather armor and readied to grasp on to her and pull her up on his horse, but the Lieutenant was there first. He snatched her up by the back of her dress, causing it to ride up. The collar of the dress threatened to choke off her airway. All she could do was allow her assailant to toss her over his horse before him.

  She wanted to fight back, but she continued to have trouble breathing. If only she were able to fall from the horse and out of his grasp, she would then be able to recover her wits about her.

  Kick, she told herself, kick at the horse. She moved her feet in rhythm against what she thought might be a horse’s stomach. Her action worked, not the way she had expected. It reared up and thrashed about the air before it with its front legs. She kicked some more.

  The rider struggled to control his mount. One more good kick and both she and the rider were on the ground, the horse ran off into the distance.

  With the sudden release of her dress, she was able to regain herself. Just because she was in a dress didn’t stop her from battling with her attacker.

  He raised his hand to hit her, she countered with a swiping kick, knocking him off balance. His sword lay on the ground three feet away from where they fought.

  Treea burst after the sword. She almost made it, only to find her feet pulled out from under her. Her attacker had leaped at her grabbing at her legs in order to prevent her from reaching the sword.

  He grappled with her on the ground, attempting to use his body to keep her from acquiring his weapon.

  Treea used her legs, bringing them up over his back and around his neck, pulling him off of her. She twisted around, reaching for the sword. As her fingers found the hilt, a boot pressed down on her hand, stopping her from raising her hand.

  She looked up. Duke Ellington stood over her.

  Chapter 25

  “Take her. We’ll keep her locked away for now. Put her in my bas-tile. I don’t want to spare any men guarding her. We will
need everyone to round up the captain and his men.”

  “Aye sir, after the little wench gets a licking from me. I don’t take too kindly to being thrown from my horse.”

  “You will do no such thing. The last thing I want is for her to escape just because you had your pride hurt. I’ve seen how you give her a licking, looks to me as the one who will get a licking will be you from her,” the duke replied. He finished up lashing her hands together with a piece of leather cord off of the horse’s saddle. “Do I need to bind her feet too, or do you think you can manage to get her to my tower without a struggle?”

  Lieutenant Dorian winced from the chastise remark. “Aye sir, I will do as you wish. She can walk there. I won’t chance putting her back on my horse either.” He tied his end of the cord to his saddle before urging his horse forward. A slow trot should wear her out.

  Treea knew better than to fight the horse’s gait. She complied and jogged behind the horse all the way to the Duke’s estate made up of carved gray stones. A small fortress that was a fraction of the size of the king’s castle, but it was a fortress none the less. It had a parapet around it with wall walks and a double wooden gate that opened outward instead of inward. It was the duke’s own design meant to keep attackers out.

  Archers lined the meurtrieres ready for any oncoming attacks.

  The inners of the estate consisted of four main buildings. A forebuilding led to the keep where the Duke’s chambers were and a tower off to the west wing was where the bas-tile was located. This was where the lieutenant took Treea.

  As was expected, Treea was exhausted from the jog all the way to the castle. She was no trouble for the lieutenant. He didn’t lash her as he wanted to, but settled for a little bit of rough treatment when he shoved her into her cell. With a knife he carried in his belt pouch, he slashed the cord from her wrists while he held tightly to them. Just before he shoved her in the cell, he made a thorough effort to twist her wrist making her cry out in pain before releasing her and locking the door.

  This was where she would stay. He knew he would be able to come back at a later time, maybe in the night, and regain some of his pride that she had taken from him that day.

  Right now, the duke had other plans for him. She was to be here for safe keeping. A little bit of leverage between the duke and the pirate captain.

  Now, it was time to round up his men.

  Chapter 26

  Riders on the horizon alarmed the king’s guard. They appeared to come out of nowhere. “Get the King and Prince out of here at once.” Guardsmen barked to his men.

  Dale wanted to stay. He would have fought beside the king’s men, it wasn’t as though he didn’t know how to fight. But he and the king were not dressed or prepared to fight. Instead, they were ushered off and returned to the castle.

  As he was taken away, he spied the rider barreling down on Treea, but at the same time, another rider was hurling toward her. Then he realized the other rider was the Duke’s lieutenant as he grabbed a hold of Treea’s dress and hauled her up in the rudest fashion on the back of his horse.

  That was not a rescue on the Lieutenants part that was a capture as far as Dale was concerned. Why was the Duke holding Treea? What did he think he was going to gain by doing so?

  Surely the Duke didn’t think that Dale had taken a liking to the pirate’s daughter and think he could use her against him. But Dale did find himself to continue looking back over his shoulder as he was whisked away with the king. He tried to watch to see which direction the rider bore her off in, but he really couldn’t tell. His suspicion was the Duke’s estate. That would be the most logical place for the Duke to keep her.

  “That was a bad move on my part.” The king said while he led Dale to the solar room off the south side of the Hall. “I should have known that by releasing Pellesi just for a single moment from the prison, his men would show up to rescue him.”

  Dale couldn’t help but ask, “Why was he arrested?”

  “I was told he brought me bad cargo.” The king explained. “You can’t take payment for bad cargo and not agree to repay your merchant when the goods are considered bad.”

  “What kind of cargo was it?”

  “I’m not sure. I was told that he brought us nothing but rat poop. I had the cargo burned.”

  “You burned the cargo?” Dale had an inkling of what the cargo had really been. “Who told you that the cargo was bad?”

  “Ellington. He and his men were present when Pellesi presented the sacks to the merchant. The payment was made. Pellesi had left before the sacks were opened to reveal that the contents were nothing but rat poop.”

  Dale couldn’t help but laugh. “You burned a precious cargo?”

  “Rat Poop, how can rat poop be a precious cargo, unless you are planning on starting the next epidemic?”

  “I have a feeling, from what you just described, that was not rat poop, but nothing more than cocoa beans.”

  “I’ve never heard of cocoa beans.”

  “Of course not. The cargo was so precious, they are usually only traded on the black market to the inn merchants. It looks exactly as you describe. When it is dried and ground, it has a taste that isn’t comparable, not even to coffee. We both know how coffee is a rare commodity in our kingdom too. Didn’t Pellesi bring you sacks of coffee once?”

  “If that is the case, then wouldn’t Ellington know this too?”

  “I would think so. Maybe he has other reasons for wanting Pellesi captured. Could he be up to something and Pellesi knew about it?”

  “How can you say something like that against the Duke. Such and accusation would be a reason for treason for either you or him.”

  “I think you should consider the possibilities, though.”

  “How could I do such a thing? He is my trusted brother. He’s been there for me even after our parents died.”

  “Treason or not. I do believe there is more to Duke Ellington than you know. I would investigate the possibility that the rat poop wasn’t rat poop. If you found out differently than you would have cause to be suspicious.”

  “You do have a point, and I know just the person to investigate the matter.” The king turned striding toward a man guarding the outer doorway to the solar room. “Bring me Girdy. I have a mission for her.”

  Chapter 27

  “Your majesty, I have the item you requested.” Girdy offered up a small cloth sack for him to take.

  “This is what is left of the burned cargo?”

  “Aye, it is all I could recover from the ashes.” She watched while he opened the bag to inspect its contents.

  “It looks like rat poop.” He asked Dale, “Is this not rat poop?”

  Dale took the sack from him and looked at its contents. Pulled a single bean from the bag. Sniffed it and proceeded to place it on his tongue to the King’s horror. “NO, it isn’t rat poop. Sure enough, it is cocoa beans. They do look alike, don’t they?” He removed another bean and offered it to the king. “Here, try one for yourself.”

  “Ooo, might I try one?” asked Girdy.

  The king continued to watch in horror while Dale and Girdy placed another bean in their mouths demonstrating that the beans were not in fact rat poop as he had been told by Ellington. He reluctantly accepted a bean from Dale and tried it.

  Surprise… Just as Dale had said, it wasn’t rat poop, though the king didn’t know what rat poop tasted like, but sure enough, it couldn’t possibly taste as good as this. “Why would Ellington insist that these bags contained rat poop?”

  “Your majesty, there is something I’ve wanted to tell you for some time, but I don’t know,” Girdy said quickly. She looked about the room making certain the three of them were alone.

  “What is it Girdy? Illegal trade?” The king asked.

  “No… far worse.”

  “Now what can be far worse than Black Market Trading?”

  “I’m afraid to tell you. You will say I am a treasoner and will lock me up. If I’m to tell you the
n, you need to promise me you won’t be angry with me.” Girdy fretted.

  “I trust you Girdy. What is it that you know? You have been my eyes and ears for years. Go on, tell me.”

  “It is about Duke Ellington.”

  “What about Duke Ellington?”

  “He is planning on taking your throne.”

  That got the King’s attention. “What did you say? How can you say such a thing?”

  “You promised, you wouldn’t be mad at me.”

  “What proof do you have? Girdy, I’m not mad at you, but what you are saying is hard on my ears.”

  “It’s the truth. I’ve over heard him making his plans for how he is to take the throne.”

  “Does make sense. First the burning of the beans to remove Pellesi. He knows that Pellesi would have come to my aid even though he is a pirate.”

  “There’s more…,” Girdy added.

  “What else do you know?”

  Dale began coughing. A little bit overly purposeful, but it did get the Kings attention in time to see Duke Ellington enter the solar room.

  “Girdy, excuse me. Now be a good little servant and bring that tea I just requested to my chamber. I will want it in the library.” He turned to Dale. “Son, you need to get checked out with a physician. Make certain that cough of yours isn’t something serious.”

  Dale bowed as Girdy did so. The two of them hurriedly left the room. On the way out, Dale did make a quick note in the guard’s ear to be wary of Ellington when he was in the King’s presence. The guard raised a suspicious eyebrow at Dale, Girdy and the Duke. The idea of the Duke being dangerous sounded absurd. Who could think of such a thing?

  A quick shrug on Dale’s part was the only response Dale gave the guard before he hurried away. Leaving the guard keeping a watchful eye over the king and the duke.

  Chapter 28

  “Is there something you wish to say, Ellington?” The King turned his back on the Duke to gaze out the long narrow window of the library. The cocoa bean taste lingered in his mouth reminding him of how Ellington had claimed that the shipment Pellesi had presented was not indeed rat poop but that of a very fine discovery of cocoa beans.