Two Heirs (The Marmoros Trilogy Book 1)

by Peter Kenson

  Bern bent over the inert body. “Very well done, milady,” he grinned. “He’s out cold.”

  Falaise stood there wringing her hand and sobbing again but this time, from the pain in her knuckles. David took her hand gently and turned it over to examine the bruising.

  “You’re going to need some cold water on that to stop the swelling and then some liniment for the bruising,” he smiled at her. “But it was a very good punch and I’m sure it’s done something to ease your frustration. Now go with Marta and get that seen to. I’ll deal with matters here.”

  Falaise nodded and let Marta lead her away.

  “Right, milord. What do you want me to do with this lot?” Bern asked.

  “Take that one up to the palace,” David replied, indicating the prone form of Raslo. “Find a secure cell and throw him in. And have them post a guard outside his door at all times. Jeren can deal with him when he returns.”

  “And the other two?”

  “Hang them both. Somewhere public. I gave them fair warning last time. They don’t get a third chance.”

  Chapter 26

  Over the next few days, life in the city began to take on a form of normality. Most of the families found accommodation that they were reasonably happy with, even if some of it needed substantial repair. The disputes panel was still in almost continuous session but, as Jeren had predicted, the disputes had changed from houses inside the walls to land and fields outside.

  The previous occupants of the houses had mostly been displaced into the poorer districts although some had stayed on as servants. There was some grumbling among the displaced but there had been no real trouble. Once the valley gates were re-opened, a few of the former residents had taken the opportunity to leave but most of them were now widows and orphans and had nowhere else to go.

  David and Falaise visited the tent every day and walked round and round the dome looking for any sign of a crack or a change in the smooth surface. Each visit ended with tears on David’s shoulder but, by the time they left the tent, she was the Queen Regent again, smiling and chatting with the people they passed. The ambassadors inspected the dome every day as well. David had given instructions for them to be allowed in on their own and, although they already knew that nothing had changed, it made a break in the dreadful monotony of waiting.

  Ash’s patrol had returned without finding the Lady Deribe but with a wagon laden with treasure from the vaults which had been found in a disused mine entrance. David ordered Evan to inventory every item in the wagon as it was unloaded back into the treasury but Mandal said that it was only a fraction of what was missing. It did, though, bring some relief as they were able to send out foraging parties to the surrounding farms to compensate the farmers for goods already taken and buy any remaining stores of food.

  The missing widow Deribe, however, was a potential problem if she could not be found. As the widow of the warlord, she could provide a focus for the remaining warriors who escaped from the battle at High Falls. In addition, she and Kraxis had a son, a thirteen year old boy named Krasta, who had ridden out for his first battle alongside his father. David sent fast riders to High Falls to question anybody who had helped to clear the battlefield but no-one remembered seeing the body of the thirteen year old boy.

  The widow Yolanthe was a problem of an altogether different nature. Intelligent as well as beautiful, she knew that her unborn baby presented a threat to the security of the throne. David and Falaise summoned her to one of the private audience chambers with two of Jorgen’s red cloaks on the door to make sure they were not disturbed. Yolanthe curtsied to them as she entered and then paused as she looked round at the otherwise empty room. She walked over to the window and stood looking out over the rooftops and down the valley.

  “Yolanthe, what are you doing?” Falaise asked.

  “If this is to be my last day in this life, then I want to look at something beautiful to take with me into the next.”

  David walked over to stand by her at the window. “Yolanthe, give me your hand.”

  She turned and rather hesitantly extended her hand which David took in both of his.

  “You are not going to die today, Yolanthe. But we do need to talk to you and ask you some questions. So please, come and sit with us.”

  He led her over to an alcove where a small table had been set with refreshments and three comfortable chairs.

  “How are you feeling, my dear?” Falaise began when they were all seated.

  “I am well thank you, my lady.”

  “And when is the baby due?”

  “The women say it will be another six weeks.”

  “So, after the coronation then. Assuming Prince Jeren is returned to us by then.”

  “I am sorry about the prince, my lady but I don’t think I can be of any help there.”

  “Thank you for your concern but that is a different problem. It is your baby that we want to talk about today.”

  “I understand that his parentage could be viewed as a problem, my lady. But it is my intention that he should not be a threat to your son.”

  “You believe it will be a boy then?”

  “So the women tell me, my lady. He is certainly kicking hard enough.”

  Falaise smiled at that. “If we accept what you say of your intentions for now, there are other people out there with fewer scruples, who will try to exploit your son.”

  “I know, my lady. That does worry me.”

  “Yolanthe, did you love Kraxis?” David asked.

  She hesitated for a moment and coloured slightly before replying. “No, my lord. Kraxis needed a second son to protect the succession and Lady Deribe could not bear another child. So he picked me and because the child had to be legitimate, he had to marry me. But no, I did not love him.”

  “So the future of the baby would not greatly concern you then?”

  “No!” David and Falaise sat back in their chairs at the fierceness of the response. “I may not have loved my husband but I know that I will love my child. If you kill him, you had better kill me too.”

  “You speak too much of killing, my dear,” Falaise said. “I think you have been around Kraxis too long. We do not kill babies and we are not going to kill you.”

  “I personally think it would be a crime against nature to deprive the world of a beauty such as yours, Yolanthe,” David added. “Of course, Falaise will say that is my manhood speaking rather than my head but we are agreed about the no killing rule.”

  Yolanthe’s colour increased a little more but she shook her head. “Then what is to become of me… of us when the baby is born. We cannot stay here.”

  David and Falaise looked at each other for a moment before replying.

  “Your pregnancy is too far advanced for us to do anything at present but when the baby is fit to travel, if we can arrange for the two of you to go somewhere far away, under a new identity, how would that suit you?”

  “That would be acceptable, thank you my lady. As long as I can keep my baby.”

  “Of course. And you would be provided with sufficient funds to maintain your status. But nobody can ever know who you are or where you have come from.”

  “I understand, my lady and I will always be grateful for my son’s life.”

  “Then we will make enquiries to find somewhere suitable for you. Until then, you are under our protection and no harm will come to you.”

  “Thank you, my lady, my lord.” Yolanthe rose and made as deep a curtsey as her condition would allow.

  As she left, Falaise looked up at David. “I wish all our problems were as easy to solve. It’s been five days now, David. When is it going to end?”

  “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I speak to the ambassadors every day but they are as helpless as we are. However, I do have something to show you that I think you may enjoy.”

  Her face brightened a little as David led the way from the room. “Where are we going?”

  “
We are going to your quarters, Falaise, where I hope that Mo and Marta are waiting for us. Otherwise I may have to make a hasty exit.”

  “Still concerned about my reputation, David? What are you up to? What’s going on in my rooms?”

  “I don’t want to spoil the surprise,” he laughed. “But… you know the old stories about how the whole of the city was supplied with not only cold water but hot running water from the thermal springs in the hills.”

  “Yes, it was supposed to heat the houses and provide hot baths as well. Now we barely have a trickle of cold water and no hot water at all.”

  “Obviously the channels leading the water down from the hills have become blocked over the years. I have had a team of men following the channels back into the hills and unblocking them as they go. You may have noticed the flow of cold water has been getting stronger every day.”

  “You’re right. Now you mention it, I think it has increased.”

  “Well they’ve been unblocking the hot water channel as well but that has had no effect. Yesterday they reached a cave in the hills containing an enormous cistern which was designed to be the source of all the hot water for the city.”

  “And?” she prompted.

  “And the cistern was dry.”

  Her face fell and David chuckled as he opened the door to her quarters to let her pass through. Inside the room, Mo and Marta were standing with broad smiles on their faces. Falaise looked from them to the smile on David’s face and then slapped him hard on the arm.

  “What?” she demanded.

  “The problem was a rock fall on the far side of the cistern that had diverted the spring. The men cleared the rocks and the cistern started to refill.”

  “You mean we have hot water again?”

  Marta opened a small door leading to the bathing chamber and a cloud of steam poured out. Falaise ran to the door and peered inside. The bath was full of steaming water mixed with some sweet scented oils that the ladies had found from somewhere. She gave a little squeal of delight and ran back across the room to fling her arms around David’s neck and kiss him on the cheek.

  “Thank you, David,” she exclaimed, giving him another kiss before letting go. “Now I am getting in that bath so you had better leave. Otherwise even the ladies here will not be able to save my reputation.”

  The impact of restoring the water supplies was felt throughout the city. Both hot and cold supplies ran first of all into the palace. Unused supplies were then directed through multiple channels into the larger mansions, public bath houses and even to corners of the major streets before emptying into the canal in front of the market square. Used or waste water was channelled separately, straight into the river that ran down the side of the city. Some of the minor channels within the city were still blocked but enough water was now flowing into the Grand Canal that David had to hastily order the barricade of rocks behind the portcullis to be cleared and allow the water to flow out along the bed of the canal.

  Having running water again within the city, lifted the mood of the people and willing volunteers appeared from all sides, dropping what they were doing, to help remove the remaining blockages. Much to David’s surprise, they found that there were even channels that crossed the canal in an enclosed aqueduct to supply the merchants’ houses on the far side. The only part of the water supply that did not yet function, was the feed to the fountains in the central gardens between the two avenues leading up to the palace.

  A smaller stone quarry had been found beyond the one that produced the marble and the slaves had been put back to work, cutting building materials to repair the houses and other buildings. Friends and neighbours banded together into work groups to tackle the worst affected properties. Volunteers were also found to go up and down the valley, scouring the fields and orchards for any part of the harvest that could be salvaged. Some of the farmers had already started ploughing the fields and planting for the spring crop but that would not help the food supplies for the winter.

  On the military front, David reorganised his remaining forces. As Jeren had promised the dead were buried in a ceremony led by Falaise, on a high plateau with views over the valley. The volunteers from the families were released from service and payments were disbursed from company funds. With the soldiers that Fran had brought with him, the company now numbered just over a hundred men. It was enough men for the winter but more would be required in the spring, to patrol the trade routes outside the valley when the caravans started moving again.

  But behind all the activity and the appearance of normality, everyone was waiting on the mysterious grey dome. The wait dragged on for a further ten days before a frisson of happiness rippled through the valley. David felt it and was yelling for Jaks even as the communicator around his neck began to vibrate.

  “That grey dome’s vanished, sir,” the sergeant reported. “The field’s fairly empty so I’ve got the two young people in plain view. They seem to have a couple of guards with them and there’s one little lad sprinting hell for leather towards the gates.”

  “That’ll be Izzy,” David chuckled. “Okay now. The opposition will be on their way very shortly but they won’t get here before everybody is back inside the city walls and probably inside the palace. Can you shift your position to observe the approaches to the palace?”

  “No problem, sir. We’ve already scouted a route into the city and we can set up a new OP inside the walls.”

  “Make it happen, sergeant. I don’t want the opposition to get here before you do.”

  He turned to find Jaks standing in the doorway with his mouth open, watching him talking to himself.

  “Don’t just stand there, Jaks. I want horses for myself and Lady Falaise and the carriage and full escort for the ambassadors.”

  He was walking out of the room when he nearly collided with Falaise coming down the corridor at a run.

  “David, has something happened? I have this feeling of happiness. Is it over?”

  “Yes, the grey dome has gone. Jeren and Rachel are back with us and are currently walking across the meadow with two of Baltur’s guards. I’ve already sent for the horses.”

  “Horses! I can’t wait for a horse. I’m going down there now,” and ran back down the corridor towards the entrance lobby. David ran after her and caught her arm, drawing her to a halt at the top of the steps.

  “Falaise, please wait. Listen to me. Who is rushing down there? Is it a mother driven out of her mind with worry? Or is it the Queen Regent going to welcome home the heir apparent?”

  She raised her hand and glared at him and, for a long moment, he thought that she would strike him. Then she let out a long breath and dropped her hands to her side.

  “Falaise, if he’s walking unaided across the meadow, then he’s fine.”

  She nodded but still looked round impatiently for Jaks to arrive with the horses.

  Just then a small boy dashed through the gates and came charging across the courtyard. “My lord…” he gasped before he ran out of breath.

  “It’s all right, Izzy. Well done.”

  “You already knew,” he accused them, looking from them to where Jaks was leading their horses round.

  “Yes, but I’m still proud of you. There’s not many boys could have made it back here in that sort of time. Go and get yourself a drink of water and have a rest now.”

  David helped Falaise to mount and then swung into the saddle himself. They set off across the courtyard at a trot as the ambassadors arrived on the steps behind them, looking for their coach. At the city gates, a crowd was already pouring out towards the meadow while many more were scrambling up to watch from the top of the walls. David had to call for passage several times before they made it through to the front of the crowd.

  Jeren and Rachel appeared completely unaware of the excitement they were generating as they strolled hand in hand across the grass with Baltur and Seb trailing behind. David helped Falaise dismount and then dropped to one kne
e in front of the couple.

  “Your Majesty.”

  “Lord David, mother. It’s good to see you again but I think you are being a little premature, Lord David. I have not been crowned king yet.”

  “I’m afraid I was not addressing you, your highness, but your companion, Queen Rachel of the Ystrad.”

  Jeren’s jaw dropped open as Rachel made a little curtsey. “Thank you Lord Held but, as Jeren says, you are a little premature. I have not been crowned yet either.”

  “Queen Rachel?” Jeren managed eventually. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Oh Jerry, I’m sorry. I wish I could have told you. But I’ve had to keep it a secret for so many years. I don’t even know if my people still exist.”

  “Their numbers are sadly depleted, your majesty, but your people still live,” David said. “And they have sent ambassadors here to greet you. I believe this is them arriving now,” he added at the sound of the red cloaks trying to force a passage through the crowd. Jeren walked over and embraced his mother as the ambassadors climbed out of the coach and promptly fell on both knees, bowing so deeply that their foreheads nearly touched the ground.

  “Your majesty, may I be allowed to present, ambassadors Mahagama, Wijesinha and Adikaram.”

  As David introduced each one, the ambassadors bowed again in turn, this time touching their foreheads to the ground.

  “Gentlemen, please rise,” Rachel commanded.

  “Your Majesty…” Mahagama began.

  “Ambassador Mahagama, I’m sure there is much to discuss and there are certainly many questions I wish to ask. But I suggest that we hold those discussions somewhere more private.”

  “As your majesty commands,” Mahagama replied bowing again.

  “Lady Falaise, I am sorry if we have caused you any worry. But we were being attacked and Jeren was injured. I did what I felt was necessary at the time.”