The lord of the castle lounged in a small sitting room decorated with mounted birds on the walls. He picked his teeth with a knife and spit the loosened particles on the ground. “Ladies, please be seated. Apple mead?” Lord Ichibod offered by snapping his fingers for the serving girl.
The two women sat at the small square table set for four. Elisa sat across from Ichibod. “Thank you, my lord, you really love your apples,” Elisa said while pointing to the huge golden apple on the tabletop. The wooden table had an apple shape carved into it and filled with gold level with the rest of the top. “Oh huff, prepare yourself,” warned Victoriah, shaking her head. The serving girl poured two chalices of apple mead for Elisa and the lady. The shy-looking girl curtsied and left. Elisa Burke had become fond of the tart apple flavor upfront and the sweet, fermented finish.
Ichibod cleared his throat and spoke, “The Ellsworth family was built on the strength of the mighty apple. Quite a versatile fruit that many underestimate. My great grandfather realized instead of trying to grow every crop on land intended for apples, the district should focus on apples and trade for other staples. King Ali-Pharell and other lords laughed at him for pickling apples and preserving them in cinnamon and sugar in the middle of summer,” said Ichibod, who almost smiled until his lips froze and went back to their normal, nasty look. The lord constantly appeared to have just tasted food that he didn’t like and carried a seemingly permanent natural frown. It made most people uncomfortable during negotiation with Lord Blackheart. Lady Victoriah had told Elisa that before the year-long imprisonment, Ichibod had smiled and laughed all the time, even singing to her.
“Then a terrible winter that lasted half the year hit and all those men who had laughed at my great grandfather came begging for pickled apples. Most of the top lords of Lightview died during that winter and Theoron Ellsworth rose to the position of high lord. His first initiative was to replant apple trees everywhere and expand commercial trade. Through the years we have grown every variety of apple from evenfall purple to moonlight white and everything in between. Let’s see, you have sunfire orange, dead red, grandmother green, midnight blue, cedar crunch, honey blond and emerald forest, to name just a few. Throughout the years, the apple has helped Lightview become the most profitable district in Fox Chapel.” Lord Ichibod took a swig of his drink and pushed his hair back behind both ears. “We use every part of the apple. We use the skin from the grandmother greens and emerald forests for the apple mead. We use all the cores and boil them with water to make the dough of our famous apple buns. There is no real apple in the buns at all.”
Elisa knew most of the Ellsworth story and smiled thinking about the apple buns. They had them in Burkeville and the delicious snack sprinkled with cinnamon and crushed cane sugar had quickly become Elisa’s favorite as a child. However, nothing compared with eating a fresh, warm one straight from the hearth. Lightview sold the apple buns at the ports to add to the vast Ellsworth fortune. People came from all parts of the earth to get their hands on some fresh apple buns.
Lord Ichibod continued, “Right now we have an extremely loose claim to the throne so I took measures to etch it in stone. Sir Endo,” he screamed. A tall, thin guard brought in a fat, balding red head with his hands tied behind his back. Elisa felt sick on seeing Ali-Varis Wamhoff again. Lord Ichibod said, “Holy horseshit, there he is in all his magnificence, the Wamhoff. Those fools forgot about the one true claimant to the throne, the king’s eldest son. We have our rightful claim now.”
“I will not…” Elisa started but Ichibod stopped her. “No, no, no, this isn’t what you may think. He is nothing more than a ghost with a lucky last name who holds a proper claim to the throne. More people will come to our side now. He will be locked away and the soon-to-be Lord Endo will handle the animal and make him presentable when we have to show Ali-Varis to guests. We will always tell others he isn’t feeling well and keep our king filled with nightshade to avoid incident. Once we reach the throne it would be quite unfortunate if something awful were to befall the king.” “Yes, quite tragic,” Elisa replied.
“And that brings us to the second part of our alliance. Sir Endo, please take our King to his quarters,” Ichibod ordered. “Yes, my lord,” the knight petted Ali-Varis like a horse as he led the unstable Prince out the door. Ichibod waited for the door to be closed again and said, “The second half of the deal is that you will marry my son Darryg after we take Falconhurst and he shall put a prince in your belly.”
Elisa hesitated as she thought about Brehan for the first time in days. “I cannot believe she has to mull our offer,” said a sour lord directed at Victoriah. “No, I accept. Everything has taken place so quickly,” Elisa stated by way of explanation. “Good then. I am a proactive man and I have already been forming alliances with other lords and scheduling meetings with some high lords. Lord Nanbert will be here on the morrow. He is a gross, disgusting man but also the key to us making a straight run to Falconhurst. If we cannot gain his support, all is lost. We can’t go north through Red Meadow or Fox Woods. We have to go through Powers Run and crush Tersen Wamhoff and Cloverfoot. Do you know anything about Lord Jerion Nanbert?” Ichibod asked Elisa.
“Count Bidwell told me that he is a man of large appetites in every sense of the word. They called him a mughugger in the Capitol and I know Tersen Wamhoff doesn’t like him,” the queen answered. Lady Victoriah joined in, “So we must take all this and figure out how to entertain men of different ilk. For Lord Nanbert we will throw an extravagant feast. Twenty one courses I am thinking with whores and plenty of booze for the good lord and his band of men. Why?” “Because that is what he likes,” Elisa answered with a grin.
“With Lord Nanbert and his men that is exactly what they enjoy. We will stop in the kitchen and inspect the Lion’s Hall later to be sure everything is pristine for our important guest. I have special dresses being made for us to further entice the high lord to come to our side.” The lady put her veil on the table and combed through her tangled mane of hair with her hand. “In a short time we will meet with Lords Maron and Wedgeword, and the entire setting will be vastly different. They will require a simple meeting and dinner or supper to follow. We will host a ball after the small feast and they can choose to stay or leave. These lords will want to pull the most lands and titles from a prospective queen. Be prepared for them to ask for your first born son in marriage.” Lady Victoriah fixed her hair and put the veil back on.
“But I don’t even have a son,” a puzzled Elisa stated. “You will and they will want to get their names into the royal records. You had better think about your sister too,” Lady Victoriah advised. “What of her?” the queen asked. “She can be a valuable bargaining piece for strategic land and men at arms like I was at fourteen. I have warned you this won’t be easy. I would never put the girl’s life in harm’s way but she holds a certain influence to gain support,” the lady gently said.
Elisa Burke had never looked at her sister as a piece of leverage. She didn’t want to force her sister into marriage and suffer like her. Elisa wanted to be a better person than her father, but she also lusted after the crown. Her first taste of power was intoxicatingly delicious. The new queen only hoped she wasn’t biting into a poison apple.
“We have something to show you,” Victoriah said to Elisa and looked at Ichibod. The lord yelled, “Itano, bring it in.” A guard entered carrying a long white cloak. As he neared them, Elisa saw a picture of a black bear holding a golden apple bigger than its head. The profile image had the bear standing on its hind legs and holding the huge apple in front of its face. “I love it,” Elisa exclaimed and stood up. Lady Victoriah took it from Itano and wrapped Elisa in the flowing silk.
The lady secured it with a golden bear pin and Ichibod spoke, “We will have a small crowning ceremony in the morning for you and the false king. After that we will show potential supporters that Ali-Varis is alive, but he will never bother you. He’ll barely even see you. Later today, I will show you the other key t
o the throne. For now, I carefully chose a knight more than capable to personally protect a queen and watch over you. Grizzly Bear,” he screamed.
Frosty shivers shook Elisa in her seat. She hoped this wasn’t the man she had known back in Burkeville, but her hopes were dashed when the castle of a man ducked under the doorway and entered the room. His curly, hickory brown hair and beard shot past his belly. The beard started high on his cheeks, near his dark eyes that always looked blackened underneath, and ran down his neck, diving into his layers of mail and boiled black leather. The hairy beast spoke in a gruff manner that suited his appearance and scared most people. “My queen,” Grizzly Bear said as he extended his arm, palm up, to show Elisa out of the room.
Elisa hesitantly got up and walked in front of her personal guard who followed as she went to her apartments in the west wing tower. She did not turn around, but spoke loud enough for him to easily hear, “I thought you worked for my father.” “Your father couldn’t keep paying me. He’s dead too, you know,” the Grizzly Bear told her. “I do know,” she replied in a sharp manner, devoid of emotion.
“Yeah piss on him, I’m not sad either. After he stopped paying me and I left, a large number of lords bid on my services and Lord Ellsworth was the lucky winner. It’s lucky for you, too,” the Grizzly Bear said. “And how might that be?” she asked. “Now that I protect you, not a soul will bother you. Men everywhere fear me. They know if they fuck around just a bit I won’t hesitate to kill them. Your threats are only as strong as the man you have backing them. Empty threats can create an empty chest, don’t forget that. All men kill but I do it the best,” the beast bragged.
Elisa remembered this cruel man from Burkeville. He’d worked as her father’s top punisher to keep the citizens in order. The Grizzly Bear had gained a dubious reputation by age fourteen and his services were in high demand. Every lord in Donegal had expressed interest, but he chose Duke Aston Burke. A man who could scare citizens by the mere mention of his name was always of tremendous value to the nobles. She vividly remembered when the Grizzly Bear had beaten Brehan Castaway so badly Elisa thought he was dead. After a minute, Brehan had coughed up blood and gasped for air before he mercifully found some. Brehan was twelve years old and the Grizzly Bear at least twenty-five.
“You may think I’m cold and ruthless but I’ve only ever done what lords or dukes have ordered me to do. You may think Lord Ellsworth is a dark man but your dear father had me kill many more in what people would call gruesome ways. Whatever that’s supposed to mean? If you die, you die, doesn’t matter if you burn, drown or choke on a chicken bone while dropping a stinky shit, you’re fucking dead and you’re not coming back. Some rulers think it sends a message if you kill a man in a disgusting or painful manner. We’ll see if you can match your father when you sit on that pretty throne. The day will surely come that you need me to clean up a mess you created. We’ll see if you’re still scared to look at me then,” the Grizzly Bear stated.
Elisa hadn’t turned to face the Grizzly Bear the entire walk. She turned and stared into his scary face. The giant half-smiled, exposing busted, stained teeth and Elisa smelled the rotten breath from the man’s heavy exhaling. “I am not scared of you,” she defiantly said. He quickly stepped closer to her and she backed up in fear against the stone wall. “Yes, you are. You’re brave, I’ll give you that, but not stupid. Has the queen played chess before?” he asked. “Yes,” Elisa answered. “I could smash your face into this wall right now if I wanted, so what’s to stop me?” The Grizzly Bear clumped his two fists together and held them by Elisa’s face. The ball of hairy hands looked bigger than her head. “I don’t know,” she said.
“Because there are rules that must be followed, even by a man who could kill any other living man in a one-on-one fight. You are the queen. I am the pawn. You and the king hold the power on the board and can move wherever you like while we only blindly move forward to protect and defend the king or queen. How often does the pawn capture the king or queen? Pawns usually only kill other pawns. If one pawn like me steps out of line, the queen can command the rest of her lords to order their pawns to kill me. A pawn doesn’t have an army backing him, he is only a small piece of the army. Now in real life you use words and your pawns will put them into action. I only take orders and do what I do for money. I’ve gained a notorious reputation for carrying out the wishes of wealthy men and women, that’s all. I don’t think this stuff up myself. I may have been knighted and own lands but I am still a lowly pawn in the world of nobles. However, you’d be wise to keep your pawns happy. Their blood will spill when you speak the word of war, not that of the people you see at the parties and feasts. And on the shoulders of terrible men like me, you will rise and be carried to that throne, my queen,” the Grizzly Bear told her. The giant turned abruptly and left.
Elisa was still getting used to her new living quarters and she kept thinking about her talk with the Grizzly Bear. She barely had time to get ready before Victoriah showed up in her bedchamber. “There is something you simply must see,” the lady said with excitement. Lady Victoriah had Elisa wear riding pants but the queen didn’t know where they were going.
Elisa, Victoriah and Ichibod rode on horseback through the humid Lightview day. They travelled inland and northwest. After almost an hour of rushing through towns, villages and countless apple groves, they arrived at an open field. Apple trees and bushy forests formed the outline of this grassy landscape. Elisa saw a bunch of foreign savages setting up a campsite. There was a small city of tents and fires. All the men had shaved heads and wore black leather for body protection. Some of the men sparred with huge spikes, effortlessly swinging them through the air. Elisa heard the whistling as one man whipped the double-sided spike around before connecting with his opponent’s wooden shaft and shattering both weapons from the force. The men had black streaks painted under their eyes and matching white ones along their brows. Every man looked to have an uncomfortable bone piercing his septum. The straight white bone looked to be the size of a normal man’s smallest finger. The men shared a sandy complexion and every soldier had a shaved head.
“What exactly is this?” Elisa asked. “This is the other key to the throne. Have you heard of the Prograggers?” Ichibod questioned. “I have,” said Elisa. Count Bidwell had taught her that the Prograggers were the top fighting force of Gama Traka. The situation started to make sense in her head. “I thought they lived in Gama Traka?”
Ichibod spoke, “They’re born in Gama Traka but they will fight anywhere, for anyone who holds this.” Ichibod held up a curved horn the size of Elisa’s hand. The prism pattern on the horn looked like mother of pearl and it hung from a gold necklace around the lord’s neck. “They will fight for whoever sounds this and they will listen to whoever holds it. I will give it to you to practice but I will wield it on the battlefield. Just so you know, I bought them before I met you to make sure the Wamhoffs didn’t try to pull a Duke Jon Colbert on me, but they will serve our purpose well. The Prograggers’ previous owner was a man named Anders Ahitni. He died without any heirs and the army went to auction. I won the bidding and brought something else back with them from Gama Traka I must show you.”
Elisa wanted to know, “How many men are there?” “Six thousand. We will need more support from the realm but they are seasoned and disciplined. These men are revered the world over and when prospective lords come to join our side, the Prograggers could convince them.”
The trio hopped back on their horses and went to the other end of the living grounds. Elisa heard strange, booming shrieks unlike anything before. Thunderous thuds shook the earth. Elisa looked ahead to see a lake with elephants walking around in front. Elisa had only heard stories of the exotic animal and seen the stuffed replica in the Ellsworth Castle that stood almost ten feet tall. They seemed even bigger in real life. A few lounged in the water with a Progragger on their back. One elephant used his trunk to fountain water up in the air, showering it down on the Progragger. The beast th
en watered its own sweltering head. She looked at the other animals with full silver armor on their bodies and heads. The wild animals stomped around shaking the earth, and Elisa thought her horse was bouncing off the ground. She understood how these fearsome creatures could intimidate an opponent in battle. From the horn-like shrieking to the earth shaking steps, the queen could barely maintain her concentration. Elisa became nervous just looking at them from fifty feet away and had to pat her horse on the neck to calm the mare down.
Elisa Burke Wamhoff went to bed that night so excited she barely slept. Lady Victoriah came to her door before dawn to brief her further on Lord Nanbert and take her to the crowning ceremony. The coronation took less than an hour and one hundred guests quickly filtered out. Elisa was left with Lady Victoriah and the women made a plan for the day.
They first stopped in the Lion’s Hall, aptly named for the stuffed lions, pelts, quilts, embroidery and table legs which furnished the vast room with arched ceilings. A raised dais housed the table of honor and there were several other higher, prestigious tables but most were on the lowest level of the hall with trestle tables against the walls.
Fractured Families (The Pearl of Wisdom Saga Book 2) Page 24