by David Pauly
'Enough, my son, for you have said things here today that would have a lesser man in chains,' said Creon. 'Begone from my presence and return not to me for a fortnight.'
When Daerahil had refused to inform Mergin of the names of those who had set up his investments for the families of the troops, he had been banished from the City for a month. He had spent the first week encamped outside Sisera in a furious sulk, angry with his father and also his brother for not coming to his aid. The following week, while riding in Ackerlea, he had been welcomed by Ferox, Elven Lord of Ackerlea and Prince of the North Forest. Ferox sympathized with Daerahil's plight, as he had a similarly contentious relationship with his uncle, King Albericus. Upon their parting, Daerahil discovered he had a new friend in Ferox, who offered him the hospitality of the Elven city of Ackerlea whenever he desired.
Shaking his head at the memories, Daerahil lowered his sword and returned it to his scabbard and asked, 'What is so urgent?'
'My Lord Prince, Prince Paladir has been found and is on his way here. Shall I order your breakfast?'
'Yes, and do not disturb Hardacil, as he was up later than I was last night. After breakfast have the baths prepared for me.'
A few minutes later, a brief knock at the door announced the arrival of his breakfast. The guards escorted in a young serving man from the kitchens. He bore a large platter of food, a small portable brazier to ward off the morning chill, and a large jug of coffee. Rapidly setting the meal before the Prince, he inquired if there was anything else.
'No, thank you,' replied Daerahil. Not feeling particularly hungry but knowing he needed to eat, Daerahil absently consumed the breakfast before him. Drinking the last of the coffee, he rose from his repast, and strode out the door and down several corridors with his guards in tow. Soon, they were, joined by a tousled Hardacil, still bleary with sleep.
'My lord, why did you not summon me when you awoke?'
'My friend, there was nothing for you to do, and you were up well past the middle of the night reviewing security plans for the Keep. You deserved your rest. Besides how did you know I was awake?'
Smiling, Hardacil said 'I always know where you are my lord, my job requires it.'
'Well, now go and get some breakfast, my friend.'
'I will have some sent to me outside the baths, so I can ensure your safety.'
Sighing, Daerahil knew it was fruitless to argue with Hardacil, and he continued on to the baths, followed by his guards and Hardacil.
Daerahil approached a large set of wooden doors, which a servant standing outside opened, announcing quietly to another servant in the room that Daerahil was present. Bowing, the interior servant knocked on a large wooden door leading from the antechamber into the bathing room, to alert the bathing attendant within. Daerahil bade his guards keep watch here in the antechamber, where the stone walls were unfinished and comfortable benches and tables allowed those waiting to bathe to enjoy refreshment brought to them. As there was only one entrance and exit from the baths, the guards gratefully agreed, and Hardacil ordered breakfast for himself and the rest of the guards.
'Hardacil, since you insist on accompanying me, you are of course in charge; I do not wish to be disturbed by anyone, unless it is a true emergency,' said Daerahil.
'Yes, my lord.'
The inner door of the antechamber was opened by a matronly woman in a long bathrobe. 'My lord, if you would follow me.'
Daerahil entered a room similar in appearance to the antechamber; but here, large copper cauldrons of steaming water fired by small coal fires underneath filled the room with steam. Bidding Daerahil to strip naked, the serving wench began washing him with soap and a thick cloth from head to toe. The first time Daerahil had visited this keep as an adult, he had been shocked by the concept of washing before he got in the bath. But he had been told that dirt and sweat from his person would pollute the pristine waters of the hot spring.
At last, considered clean enough to enter the baths proper, Daerahil was given a plush bathrobe and a large soft towel. Then the bathing wench opened the door to the baths themselves, allowing him to enter alone into the empty bathing chamber.
The baths were quite large, ten by thirty feet, resembling a bent oval. Benches of natural stone had been installed in the ledges of the pool. Daerahil knew that the center of the pool was at least forty feet deep and that the hot water streamed up through small fissures in the bottom. Deep within the earth, steam had burrowed up beneath the hills, creating a natural hot spring, and the keep had been extended in this particular direction to make use of this wonderfully rare phenomenon. Thinking back to his first visit here, all of his objections had ebbed away once he first immersed himself in the lightly hissing waters and smelled the faintest hint of sulfur emanating from the still surface, testifying to its source deep in the earth.
Many different minerals were dissolved in these waters, and their properties were said to be unique to these springs. The powders left behind when the waters departed were highly regarded for their healing abilities and would have been sold at a high price but for Paladir's generosity. Those who could not journey here, yet were in great need, were able to use the powders to heal their ailments. Regardless of the reasons, the baths were renowned for their soothing and healing powers, and, once per month, the ill and infirm of Nen Brynn were scrubbed head to toe and allowed the otherwise unknown privilege of these baths, a gesture not lost on Paladir's subjects. The prince was loved by his people and his soldiers for this and other activities that promoted their well-being over his own purse or sense of place.
Steam rose thickly from the waters, swirling in drafts of cool air from the open windows. The soft morning light coming through those windows was diffused in the mists, making the room seem huge and endless. Obscured by clouds of steam, Daerahil heard the slow murmur of water trickling out from the far side of the pool drain into collecting ponds for the mineral powders prior to entering the sewers of the keep.
While he had not consumed more than his usual two bottles of wine the night before, he was still quite tired; a lethargy and malaise more of the spirit than of the mind and the body. With a grunt, he sat on a stone ledge and slid his legs into the pool.
Musing for several minutes, Daerahil tried to relax amid the silence of the pool, but nothing could shake the exhaustion he felt in every fiber of his being, or the residual dread left behind by his dreams. He closed his eyes and tried to let the tension slip away. He felt his breathing become deeper and his heart began to slow. Drifting on the edge of sleep, he was startled to hear a hoarse whisper in his ear.
'If you value your life, Prince, you will not return to the City until the morrow.'
His eyes sprang open, and he turned to see who had spoken. But Daerahil had forgotten that the ledge in front of his seat was narrow, and so he plunged into the deeper, hotter water that lay just in front of him. He caught only a glimpse of a cloaked form receding from the edge of the pool and vanishing into the swirling mists.
Caught unaware, he inadvertently breathed some water into his lungs. It was a moment before he was able to grab the bench upon which he had been seated. Coughing out the water, Daerahil glanced around, but there was no sign of the mysterious cloaked figure that had spoken its warning—or threat. But Daerahil gathered his bathing towel from a rack along the wall and rapidly circumnavigated the pool. There was no one else present, and Daerahil thought to himself that this joke had gone on long enough.
Bursting into the antechamber, Daerahil saw the same woman who had washed him look at him with a quizzical stare. 'Is there something you need, my Lord?'
'Who intruded upon my bath, woman?' asked Daerahil quietly, but there was no mistaking his intensity.
'Intruded, my Lord?' she replied. 'No one: you left strict orders that no one was to disturb you unless your guards deemed it necessary. I turned away the guard captain who normally bathes at this time and told him I would send a servant for him as soon as you were done.'
Stri
ding quickly toward the woman, Daerahil grabbed the edges of her robe and, lowering his voice even further, stated, 'Don't toy with me, woman, as if I were a dullard or a child, for I am neither. Someone entered the pool and spoke with me, and I want to know who it was.' Extending his mind, he found only fear and confusion present in her feeble brain. Releasing her, she staggered back, fearfully stammering a repetition of her earlier statement. Roughly pushing her aside, Daerahil opened the antechamber where Hardacil and the guards were finishing their breakfast.
'Who entered the room after I did?' demanded Daerahil.
'No one, Lord,' replied a startled Hardacil.'
'No one? Are you quite sure?' asked Daerahil.
'Yes, Lord,' Hardacil said. 'We may not see as well as we did when we were young, but rest assured that no one got past this door this morning.'
Shocked, Daerahil said woodenly, 'Thank you Hardacil; I must have dozed off and imagined someone in the baths with me.'
Apologizing briefly to the still shaken bathing woman, he returned to the bath chamber and carefully looked around the room. He did not find anything amiss, except for one small wet shoeprint on the stone floor, pointing away from the pool toward one of the high windows at least fifteen feet off of the floor. 'Either I fell asleep and had a dream, or someone quite acrobatic was able to slip in and out by this window.' With the keep on high alert, Daerahil knew that the intruder was either now caught or gone without a trace.
Shaking his head, he returned to the antechamber and dressed quickly, leaving with Hardacil to walk the battlements of the keep, trying to make sense of the mornings events. Battlements they might have been called out of tradition, but one watchtower with two guards that barely stood fifty feet above the hilltop could scarcely compare to other battlements throughout the realm. Measuring only a fifteen foot diameter, the watchtower was surrounded by crenelments about four feet high with arrow slits carved into them. The soft morning light was filtered by the tall ash trees that grew to their east, the sun just beginning to crest the topmost branches. The rich and lush smell of flowers came to him on a soft breeze moistened slightly by the distant river.
Once atop the stairs, Daerahil asked his friend, 'Hardacil, how many years have we known each other?'
Raising an eyebrow, Hardacil responded, 'Over twenty, as you know, Lord.'
'Why are you not my guard captain?' asked Daerahil.
Smiling for the first time that morning, Hardacil said, 'Because you know I am not a leader of men, only a fighter of them. Therefore, remaining your aide-de-camp is all the honor and responsibility I need.'
Knowing that Hardacil had foiled two direct assassination attempts personally, disrupted a third, and regularly advised Daerahil's various guard captains, Daerahil knew his friend's worth.
Swearing him to secrecy, Daerahil gave him the message whispered to him in the baths. Hardacil was about to express his angry thoughts that anyone could get so close to the Prince when Daerahil, who knew this particular expression, stated, 'If the person wanted me dead, you would have found me floating in the pool.'
'Person, Lord? Why do you say person and not a Man, my Lord?' asked Hardacil.
Daerahil responded, 'Either an incredibly silent and agile Man was involved, an acrobat or a Shadow, perhaps, or it was an Elf. I tend to think it was an Elf.'
'Why an Elf, Lord?' asked Hardacil.
'Because of the incredibly artistic way the deed was done,' said Daerahil. 'Someone scales fifteen feet of wall outside a keep that has been placed on alert without making a sound or alerting a guard in the full sun of an early morning. They then enter a silent bathing room where they are able to contact me without alerting the inner guards, and then make their escape the same way within seconds and remain undetected. Either it was one of the Shadows that Mergin has trained with the help of his Hagarian allies, or it was an Elf.'
But you don't think it was a Shadow,' Hardacil said.
'No, it was not one of Mergin's assassins. If it had been, the man would have killed me, not warned me. No, it must have been an Elf . . . though I suppose it could have been a Hagarian tribesman. In any case, this was skillfully done.'
Quietly, he wondered if the Hagar tribesmen had trained others besides Mergin's men in their arts. They had promised loyalty, but not exclusivity. 'But why do they want me here,' he mused aloud, 'if their intent is not to harm me?'
Knowing that an Elf could have just as easily killed his Prince as a Man, a shaken Hardacil stated, 'Perhaps, Lord, they want you here because they do not want you somewhere else. Where would you be today and what would you be doing if you were not here?'
'I would be at my new post inspecting the Out-walls. Before the meeting of the Council two days ago, I would have ridden to Western Ackerlea, actually near to this keep, to speak with one of Zarthir's friends regarding the Fishing Guild, and perhaps I would have hunted in Ackerlea that afternoon prior to returning to the Citadel, for there was an important meeting of the Council of Ministers today I did not want to miss.'
'Therefore, Lord, if no one wanted you to necessarily be here, but rather not to be in the City or nearby, then that is why you are here,' concluded Hardacil.
'Well, Hardacil, we can talk about this all morning, but I fear we will learn little without more information,' said Daerahil. 'Please go below and see that the horses are saddled and ready to depart, for I do not wish to give these conspirators any further joy of my absence.'
Hardacil moved as if to descend to the stables but turned and said, 'Lord, if there is indeed a conspiracy, perhaps the mysterious messenger was telling the truth, and returning to the City is not advisable today.'
'Perhaps,' Daerahil replied, 'but you of all men should know that I do not turn up my nose at danger.' With that, Daerahil made a rarely used but significant gesture of dismissal, moving his right hand outward and downward, and Hardacil went below.
At that moment, Paladir arrived with Girnon. Daerahil greeted his fellow prince as the red-haired, broad-chested Paladir strode toward him. The prince's features proclaimed the unusual blend of Kozaki blood from his great-grandfather and Westmen blood from his great-grandmother. Paladir was shorter and stockier than most men of Eldora, and his mane of red hair, flowing down his back, and bright blue eyes were striking and disconcerting until one became used to them
This morning, Paladir's countenance was drawn and pale. 'Girnon has informed me of the forged message, my Lord Daerahil. I have examined it closely, and it is indeed a forgery, though the signet impression is real. It was dated yesterday, but we started using the new silver wax from the Bastion over ten days ago.'
'Was this wax used inadvertently on this message?' asked Daerahil somewhat maliciously. Daerahil gently used his powers on Paladir, but sensed only the prince's fear and apprehension, coupled with astonishment, too raw and fresh to be rehearsed. He was fairly confident that Paladir was telling the truth.
'No, Lord, for the day that the silver wax was put into use, the white wax was sold to merchants who were quite pleased to receive such high-quality wax, and a message was quickly distributed throughout my fiefdom and throughout Eldora via the messenger corps that my wax had changed,' said Paladir.
'It is so like Mergin to not inform me that a Prince of the realm changed his sealing wax,' thought Daerahil. Regardless, feeling somewhat defeated, Daerahil did not quite know what to say.
'Lord, while I know we have not always seen eye to eye on many issues, let me take the first step in trying to bridge the gulf between us. I want to personally thank you for saving my beloved hound, Sammie, yesterday afternoon; I appreciate it more than words can say,' said Paladir with clear sincerity.
Looking at the man for the first time in a long time without rancor, Daerahil saw the expression of genuine friendship on his face, and needed no mental powers to sense the pure intent behind it. He extended his hand. 'Well said, my Lord Paladir well said; it was no effort on my part. I owe your beautiful bitch a debt, and I am glad to repay it in som
e fashion. Let there be a new bond of friendship between us, and perhaps together we can solve this mystery.'
'Indeed, Lord, let me first say that I am sorry for whatever part, inadvertent though it might have been, that I have played in this affair,' said Paladir. 'I am deeply ashamed to admit, as honesty compels me to do, that it must have been the work of a wench whom, in my weakness, I allowed to escort me to my bedchamber on the night in question.' His face red with embarrassment, he recounted the events of that night, at least those of them that he could remember.
Daerahil listened sympathetically. 'We have all had such nights, Prince. Think no more of it. But the question is why was I directed here? What can anyone hope to gain from my presence? Did your scouts find anything unusual?'
'No, Lord Daerahil. They rode to the foot of the hill and along both the south and north roads till they encountered their first patrols. No one had anything unusual to report.'
'Well, then, I will leave you to investigate this matter on your end, and I shall investigate it on mine. Perhaps we shall uncover the mystery,' said Daerahil. 'I trust I can count on your full support in this matter?'
'Yes, you can. While you and I have not always agreed on policy, I don't believe it is stretching the truth to say that we have always respected each other's abilities. Today is a new beginning between us,' Paladir avowed.
'No, Paladir, it is not a stretch, and seeing as how we have both been practiced upon by others, we should certainly combine our resources and discover who is responsible and why this event has occurred. I am honored by our new beginning, and I will work hard to honor my words with deeds so that we can become closer friends and allies against those that would take advantage of us. I will take my leave of you now, Paladir.'