Dark Oak

by Sannox, Jacob

  Cathryn ordered her thoughts and interjected, unwilling to let the argument escalate.

  ‘We must think further on this, my lords. Our armies will march for the Folly in the morning, and we will return to this matter when we are back behind the Maw Gate.’

  Lachlan, still seething, stared at Linwood. His brow was lined with furrows, and a weaker man would have wilted under the power of his anger.

  ‘Leave us now, and make your preparations,’ he said.

  ‘Your command, my lord,’ said Aldwyn, and he was about to depart alongside Linwood when the queen bade him stay.

  The three of them remained in silence for a moment until the queen’s aide, Ailsa, stepped back into the lamplight.

  ‘Lord Linwood has returned to his camp, Your Majesty,’ she said and stepped back into the night.

  Lachlan let out a great sigh and let his head fall back against his throne.

  ‘That man,’ he said. ‘Save us.’

  Cathryn rested a hand on her husband’s briefly then returned it to the arm of her chair.

  ‘What think you of Lord Linwood’s proposal?’ she asked Aldwyn.

  Lord Aldwyn settled back at his campaign desk.

  ‘It concerns me. The man thinks too much of himself. I fear he may have imperial ambitions.’

  Lachlan grunted and nodded.

  ‘A thousand years of unification and still he thinks of us as separate nations. I understand affection for the land; I was and always will be a man of the Isles, but if he thinks I don’t care about Culrain, he’s wrong. Yet Culrain died before the memories of my grandfather’s grandfather. No man alive can say what it was to be of Culrain. Surely, I know that my ancestors sat upon the throne there in Lacranza, but what of it? The names and the places are but fairy stories. I care a great deal more about our true homes and the living than preserving the legacy of the dead.’

  ‘And yet we do owe the dead our allegiance.’ Cathryn chided, gently, but enough to once more redden her husband’s cheeks. ‘It is our duty to reclaim these lands.’

  There was an uncomfortable silence that Aldwyn felt compelled to disperse.

  ‘If I may speak plainly, I do consider the man a serious threat to the security of your realm, Your Majesty. Linwood has the strength to invade the Isles or the South Continent, even if he cannot hope to breach the Folly walls. It would not be wise to antagonise him, and yet granting him all he desires may embolden him. Perhaps there is a way to reward him and yet not compromise your own position?’

  Cathryn nodded and once more clasped Lachlan’s hand, perceiving and soothing his lingering embarrassment.

  ‘I will have my people make enquiries amongst Linwood’s men and report back to you with my findings, if it pleases you both?’ said Aldwyn.

  ‘Your discretion would be appreciated as much as the effort,’ said Lachlan and, bowing to them both, Lord Aldwyn took his leave.

  As was their custom, the queen and Lord of the Isles led the armies in a column back to the Folly, and by the time their people had departed there was nothing left upon the battle site but the remains of two palisades. One stood intact, encircling a now abandoned camp and the other was a jaw of broken, blackened teeth surrounding a heaped, cancerous mound of charred flesh and melted armour. The foul stench accompanied them on the march, as did the memory of the act.

  Cathryn felt as though the victory had gained them little and judged by her husband’s unusually quiet demeanour that he too was troubled. Here was the aftermath of a thousand years of patience, toil and strife. Here was the product of decades of battle and the loss of thousands. And what had they won?

  Nothing but a grisly mound of dead enemies and an empty land, she thought.

  Without turning towards him, she spoke to Lachlan while she rode.

  ‘If naught else, we have gained vengeance for our people and eradicated the one source of true evil in this world.’

  To her surprise, Lachlan laughed.

  ‘Think back on what you just said,’ he said when the guffaws had subsided. She watched him, and he smiled back at her. She felt relief at the sight.

  ‘Vengeance achieved and true evil is vanquished. If naught else. If naught else?’ he laughed again. ‘What else is there? We’ve achieved nearly all there is to achieve.’

  Cathryn smiled.

  ‘I suppose that is true,’ she said, ‘but then why is my mood so black?’

  They rode on in silence for a time, the sound of hooves and breathing a little way off behind them. The tramping of feet. The clanking of armour.

  ‘I was expecting to be jubilant, I admit,’ said Lachlan, ‘but the taste of victory is foul. I regret the burning back there. Regret it bitterly, truth be told, I argue with myself over the wrongs and rights of it.’

  ‘We could not sustain them.’

  Lachlan sighed.

  ‘Sustain. That word again. I begin to wonder if we rule at all.’

  ‘I do not follow,’ she said.

  ‘Well, does a queen stand in thrall to a word? Everything is about what we can and cannot sustain, of late.’

  Cathryn smiled.

  ‘I see. True enough. We perhaps did not think beyond Awgren bleeding at our feet.’

  Lachlan inflated his cheeks and forced the air out in a whistle.

  ‘Awgren was, at least, easy to understand. Now he’s gone, I’m more vexed by that stone giant from the north. Save us from the heirs to the old countries.’

  ‘Aldwyn is not so bad,’ said Cathryn, but cautiously.

  Lachlan cleared his throat and adjusted his hold of the reins.

  ‘No. At least he says little, and what he does say comes out softer, but who knows what the man is thinking?’ He shook his head. ‘Perhaps I’m being unfair.’

  ‘You are,’ said Cathryn. There was silence between them.

  ‘He seems shrewd,’ Lachlan conceded, but the silence returned, and, as was his wont when ill at ease, he filled it.

  ‘We’ve had clear purpose for years and now, what? Do we expect things to sail on smoothly? It isn’t in man’s nature. Someone will come for us, be it from without or within, but likely both. I fear it will be Linwood and so something must be done about him.’ He sighed. It wearied him to think so cynically, and Cathryn felt pity for him. She was capable of remaining detached where her husband felt every blow, every slight. His was a carefully trained, reluctant paranoia. For Cathryn, it was second nature.

  ‘Do you have something specific in mind?’ she asked.

  He halted his horse, and Cathryn held up her hand. The gesture was seen, and her generals echoed the command. The column, near a mile long, ground to a halt like the conclusion of a landslide.

  Lachlan dismounted and moved to the side of Cathryn’s mount. He cupped the calf of Queen Cathryn’s leg in his hand. Her skin was cold and soft to his touch. She looked down at him, still gripping the reins.

  ‘Truly? You want to know my mind?’ he asked.

  She nodded, already feeling tired at the prospect of hand-holding him through whatever this revelation would involve.

  ‘I do have something in mind – returning to the Isles with you, finding somewhere quiet that we can call home. No halls, no laws and no duties. We have achieved all we hoped. Let others squabble over the spoils.’

  Cathryn nodded in acknowledgement.

  ‘We’re holding up the column, my love.’

  He stared at her long after she looked away, his cheeks growing red. He nodded to himself then regained his mount.

  ‘March on,’ he hollered. His horse trotted on, and Cathryn dug her spurs into the flank of her own.

  ‘Do you fear something specific of Linwood?’ she tried again.

  There was only the sound of their progress as the hooves squelched in the mud and the deep, low rumble of the army that followed on behind. Lachlan struggled for mastery of his temper, and only when calm enough did he remind himself of his duty to her and allow himself to speak.

  ‘I am concerned that Linwoo
d means to try to sunder the realm and assert his own claim to royalty. All this time, we’ve trained for war, we’ve had a common purpose and whilst we’ve forged ever stronger ties between the Isles and the Folly, he’s been all but autonomous in the Drift. We’ve planned and schemed to take our revenge on Awgren, but every so often, Linwood says something which makes me wonder about his intentions. Am I alone in this?’ he asked, turning to his wife.

  Cathryn kept her eyes dead ahead.

  ‘You are astute.’ She said nothing more and together they trotted on.

  The weeks passed slowly as the column survived only on eked-out rations. As they marched south, the weather grew warmer and the skies became an ever more striking blue. In time, the smell of salt air entered their noses and all knew the journey was nearly over.

  Ere long, the column drew near to the narrowing passage of the Maw, and they came under the chill shadow between the mountains. Soon Cathryn spied the Maw Gate opening in the high wall of the Maw Keep, which towered above them, proud and unbreakable.

  Over the course of the day the armies of the Combined People returned inside the walls. When all had entered, the Maw Gate stood open for the first time in a thousand years, under guard, but open nonetheless.

  The sun settled down in the west, nestling itself into the ocean, and Aldwyn turned away from the window. His chambers were illumined by candles, and though the moon was full and he liked to look upon it, he closed the shutters over the windows against the night. Despite his furs, he shivered. Was it really possible to become accustomed to heat so quickly? It had been but a few years since he settled in the New Brodack colony on the north shore of the South Continent, but already he missed the warmer climes.

  He settled into his chair by the fireside and took long draughts from his freshly mulled wine, staring into the flames while he thought on what was to come. He was ashamed to admit to himself that in Linwood’s presence he sometimes felt cowed by the man’s relentless, battering-ram of a personality. Yet after all he had learned on the march, he would have to choose whether to stand beside him or against him.

  In truth it would not be a difficult choice, for he cared little for rebuilding the old countries and, after living away from the Folly, even his childhood home reminded him of woes he had ventured far in the world to avoid. He had discovered a whole nouth continent in the attempt.

  He thought of his halls far away in New Brodack and yearned to return there. The colony was prospering under his watch; there was hard work to be done there and trouble with the natives, but his men were subduing them gradually.

  He longed for the new wide flat lands with their little rivers and tall grass as Lachlan must long for his own home. The Isles were small, beautiful and there too, life was hard, but good. Did Linwood feel the same for Stragglers’ Drift? Aldwyn thought not. He had never visited the north of the Impassable Forest, but even the place names made him shudder; Strewn Man Bay, where the survivors of the Crinish fleet washed up after it was dashed upon the rocks in a storm; Stragglers’ End, Linwood’s seat and Forlorn Watch, the largest port in the north. The people seemed cold and joyless to him. And, to Aldwyn, it seemed as though the Drift was nothing but a temporary residence in the mind of the Stragglers – a place to quarry, mine, multiply and breed horses; a place to forge steel and gather strength. It was a bleak place in which to recover a people’s breath before returning to battle.

  ‘My lord,’ said a voice through the oak door.

  Aldwyn came back to reality in an instant.

  ‘Enter.’

  The door opened just enough for his manservant’s face to appear in the candlelight.

  ‘The queen, my lord.’

  Aldwyn shrugged off the furs and stood.

  ‘Please show her in, Harcourt.’

  ‘Yes, my lord.’ Harcourt pushed the door gently open and stood to attention against it as Cathryn swept into the room. She nodded at him.

  ‘You may leave us,’ she said and closed the door behind him herself, much to Harcourt’s surprise.

  Aldwyn bowed his head and moved to greet her. She wrapped her arms around him, and he kissed her on the cheek.

  ‘The Lord of the Isles sleeps?’

  ‘More than he does anything else, these days. He is struck down by melancholy much of the time.’ She dropped into a chair by the fire. She looked towards his goblet of wine and raised her eyebrows, smiling.

  ‘Wine?’ asked Aldwyn.

  ‘Oh, I’m sure we can do better than that.’

  He smiled, went in search of something stronger and found a bottle of Elaris whisky from the cabinet under the window.

  ‘A little taste of the Isles?’ He brandished the bottle, which had travelled all the way from the Butterfly Isle, at her and she nodded. She took the drink without water and finished her glass in one gulp. Aldwyn refilled it.

  ‘Gods, Wyn. How are you sober? Wine? Are you going soft on me?’ She immediately regretted her poor choice of words and gestured apology with her hands.

  Aldwyn, the only person who would recognise the slip, let it pass. He settled into his own chair and lifted his original goblet.

  ‘Please don’t call me that, Cathryn.’

  ‘Ah, but it vexes you so, and I do like to see an angry flush upon your cheeks.’

  Aldwyn looked at the door without thinking, and Queen Cathryn perceived his worries.

  ‘It’s thick oak,’ she said and sipped at the whisky, closing her eyes and dismissing his fear with a wave of her hand.

  ‘I wish this was all over,’ she said.

  Aldwyn sat back in his chair and regarded her.

  ‘Have I something on my face?’ she said, and he returned her smile.

  ‘Nothing, but the beauty you were born with.’

  She laughed.

  ‘Does that work with the native girls in your new home?’

  ‘Would it bother you if it did?’ he asked and she raised an eyebrow.

  ‘They’d soon know it and so would you. Ask Awgren how I respond to a slight.’ She drained her whisky and poured another. She sipped from it, closed her eyes and savoured the taste.

  ‘I have some tidings of Linwood,’ said Aldwyn.

  Silence hung in the air between them.

  ‘Go on. Let’s hear it.’

  ‘I sent people I trust amongst his men; soldiers, whores and men with bottles to share. It seems that even now there is a great work being undertaken in the north. Not all knew of it, but it seems that Linwood has set about constructing a road to allow passage between his lands in the Drift and the old countries. It will take many years to complete, no doubt, but it seems he has already made some progress and there are new settlements springing up within the forest unknown to us. Or so I assume?’

  Cathryn’s laughter took the lord by surprise and he frowned at her.

  ‘Cathryn?’ he pressed. She drank once more and he could see that familiar wildness kindling in her eyes.

  ‘Lachlan would like nothing more than for us to escape to the Isles, or so he says. For my part, I think he truly longs for ranging about in the mountains chasing after stags and sleeping under the stars. Yet were it not a sign of weakness to allow Linwood to forge ahead with his plans, inviting wider designs, perhaps I would have it so. If his words were sweeter and his footsteps towards the thrones were softer, perhaps he would already have gained his wish.’

  She fixed her eyes on Aldwyn’s, and he felt unable to look away. She smiled.

  ‘But there is always duty and so I suppose it could never be.’ She sighed. ‘And now I must consider that if I do not cede to Linwood’s wishes, I must make an enemy of him and contest yet another opponent for these lands.’

  ‘It may be so,’ said Aldwyn.

  ‘What do you want, Lord Aldwyn?’ she asked him, after a time.

  Hearing her refer to him so formally in private had exactly the effect she had intended. He was not a vain man, but to hear someone to whom he was so close, refer to him as ‘Lord' without a hint
of irony, caused him to muster his thought for a worthy answer – thinking how a lord should answer, rather than just a man. But before answering he checked himself, aware that she was playing him.

  ‘For myself or for the people?’

  She grinned and sipped her whisky.

  ‘Both.’

  Aldwyn pushed back his chair and opened the shutters to the outside so that the cold air flooded in alongside the moonlight, reviving him.

  ‘I am content in the colonies. I press our claim here only to honour the dead and to secure the land against newcomers who might seize it. The world is bigger than we know; the discovery of the South Continent shows that. And did not Awgren spring up from nowhere? Who knows what the future may hold. Evil is gone for now, but may take on new forms.’

  ‘Evil incarnate, maybe,’ she replied, shaking her head. ‘But both my husband and I see some in Linwood. Evil can perhaps spring from reckless determination and rash action.’

  She drained her glass and waved it at him.

  ‘Are you sure? You know how it hits you…’ he said quietly.

  She glared at him.

  ‘Nonsense. Your queen commands it.’

  He sighed and refilled her glass. The bottle was haemorrhaging fast, it seemed. She drank deep of her glass again, stifled a cough then continued.

  ‘If he is extending his territory into the forest and wants to be able to march his forces into Crinan, who is to say that he will stop there?’

  ‘He may not,’ said Aldwyn.

  ‘Reading him as I do, I believe that there is a very real chance that Linwood aims to claim the crown of Crinan himself and disband the Combined People. I would say that is the least of his ambitions.’

  Cathryn went to join Aldwyn at the window and rested a hand on his shoulder.

  ‘You have not told me what you want.’

  Aldwyn turned to look at her and took her hand in his.

  ‘There is what I want and what I can have. What I can have is a life in New Brodack away from memories here. There is hope there for me and new lands to explore. I am more whole than I have been in years. I would return home and leave matters here to others in your service.’