by J Battle
‘I want the guard doubled on this room, and the door is to remain locked until my return. Is that understood?’
The guard nodded his head. ‘Yes, sir, Mr Meldon.’
‘Whatever you may hear from inside, the door must not be opened.’
He held the guard’s eyes for a moment. ‘Understand that your life, and the lives of your loved ones, depend on your obedience.’
‘Yes, sir, Mr Meldon.’ The guard pulled his eyes away and looked down.
‘And you should start calling me Regent Meldon.’
‘Yes, sir, R...Regent Meldon.’
‘Good, good. Now…’ he turned away and began to walk back down the corridor, ‘let me see if I can make a courtier or two miserable for the rest of the day.’
Chapter 33 Woewearer
She found him on the side of the hill, weaving bright flowers into wreaths and bracelets and even a large disc, strengthened by twigs.
‘There you are Lancer, dearie. I thought I’d find you here, sitting around, doing nothing of any use to man nor beast.’
Lancer didn’t look up. ‘If a task needs to be done,’ he said, softly, ‘then it should be given the attention it deserves, don’t you think, Ellaine?’
‘Ay, you might say that, if you were nothing but a fool, lad,’ she replied, with exasperation in her tone. ‘I’ll sit beside you for a while, if you allow, and waste a little time with you. I believe I have a little spare to fritter away in your company.’
When she was settled beside him, he looked her full in the face. ’So, Ellaine Woewearer, you look to top up your supply of woe with me? When I am such a happy fellow? There’s a fellow in that town over there, a blacksmith I believe, and he bangs his poor thumb every morning with his great big hammer. Now, there’s woe for to be singing about, if you like.’
‘Do I look like Ellaine Foolwearer to you, Lancer?’
‘There’s a young lady who has somehow mislaid her virginity, and there’ll be woe enough when her father finds out about it.’
‘Now, Lancer you know full well that that is just the natural course of life, and there’s plenty who will sing of such.’
She watched his nimble fingers for a moment.
‘No, I’ll sing of a man whose mind is a narrow perch that he is always in danger of falling from. A man who could be a good man, if he’d put away his silly flowers.’
‘Silly? I don’t think you understand what I’m doing here, Ellaine.’
‘As far as I can see, and my eyes are still as good as they ever were, you are weaving flowers. But you will tell me that I am wrong.’
‘Ay, you are right, that is what your eyes see. But, tell me this if you will, what does your mind see?’
‘Well, Lancer, I believe that my mind sees just what my eyes see. Don’t know what else it can see.’
‘Watch me carefully, Ellaine. I take this and I feed it through there, and then I take this and wrap around that, just so. Now, look at this. What have I done?’
Ellaine sighed and them she studied his creation for a brief moment. ‘I would say it looks like a little tree, or a toadstool, or mayhap it’s a man with a big flat head.’
‘Now, close your eyes and what do you see.’
‘Well. I reckon I see precious little if I closed my eyes. With them open, I can see an idle fool.’
‘Ah, but this is not idleness. Not at all. This is a battle to save the world. Can you not see that? I would expect a seer such as you to understand.’
‘Who said I was a seer? I ain’t a seer. I’m just a sad old lady who finds comfort in the comforting of others.’
‘Is that what you are doing here? Comforting me? You’ve called me idle, and you’ve called me a fool. Not much in the way of comfort there.’
‘Tell me then, but don’t take a walk around the houses with it. Tell me plain and simple, and don’t use more than 10 words.’
’10 words? But there are so many to choose from. Allow me a hundred at least, lest I take all day picking the right words.’
‘The next word you speak will be the first of the 10.’
‘But…’
‘You have nine left.’
Lancer puffed out his cheeks, and closed his eyes. She could see his lips moving as he counted the words.
‘I am applying order to a chaotic world.’
‘I knew your answer would be nonsense, no matter how many words you used.’
‘I only used eight.’
She made no response, but she lay down on the grass beside him and for a moment closed her eyes.
If Lancer had chanced to look at her face in repose, he might well have seen the beauty she had once been.
‘Your brother is barely 10 minutes from where you are sitting, playing with your silly flowers,’ she said, at last.
‘Is that true?’
‘You know it is. You could take a walk and say hello, if you like, after all these years.’
‘I could, if the idea appealed to me.’
‘Why did you come, if that was not your intent?’
‘I merely wished to take a stroll with a companion. Nothing more.’
‘Pah! Piffle and nonsense.’
He smiled at her reaction, and handed her a bracelet of tiny yellow flowers.
‘You could be of use, you know. Mayhap for the first time in years.’ She sat upright as she spoke, and laid a hand on his arm.
‘Indeed? How do you see that?’
Ellaine studied his face for a moment. She’d had no clear vision of the future this time, but she sensed that something had to be done.
‘Lord Richard. You remember him?’
‘Of course. In some ways, I remember everything.’
‘Then think on this, if you will. The king has not sent him the help he requested. In fact, he killed Jumba for his trouble. Lord Richard, he will not let that stop him, so he will make the attempt on his own. He will stand before the Trytor with his sword in hand, and you don’t need to be a seer to see the outcome.’
‘The Trytor will run away, screaming for his mother?’
‘The time for levity is passed, Lancer. As is the time of confusion and self-indulgence. Can you remember the man you once were?’
‘I was always a fool, Woewearer, but it has taken me all these years to see that.’
‘You could ask the king to help him.’
‘But he never came to visit me.’
‘What does that matter now?’
‘He said he would. And I waited; I was always ready for his arrival, with a table laden with a feast for him.’
‘Look forward, Lancer, not behind.’
‘Behind is all I have. I even kept the pie for him.’
She shook her head in exasperation. What else could she say to move him?
‘The girl, his daughter. She’ll be left all on her own. With a mother and a sister already dead, does she have to lose her father also?’
‘Ah, the girl. She was fair enough, despite her distress.’
‘The king can help her. You can help her.’
‘Help?’ he said, softly, as if the concept was unknown to him.
‘You can help her father and her.’
‘Help? Yes, I see. Help is required.’ He leapt to his feet, scattering flowers all around.
He took two long strides down the hill, and then he stopped. He turned and rushed back, and began to collect the fallen flowers and pack them into his bag.
‘What will you do?’ asked Ellaine, as she rose to her feet.
‘The king. He needs my help. Isn’t it obvious?’
With that he raced down the hill.
Ellaine watched him go, and she shook her head. Was she right to interfere? Would the king even listen to his befuddled brother? What should she do next?
There was war brewing in the far west. There was trouble developing on Fairisle. To the far east, the crops would fail again this year. Was she right to linger here, when her services were needed in so many other places?
&n
bsp; Mayhap I’ll make one last adjustment, one final act of interference before I leave, she thought.
But where could she be most effective?
Chapter 34 Fleur
Fleur popped her head through the doorway of The Blushing Maid, and she saw him bent over the bar.
‘Hey there, brother,’ she said, brightly, ’will you buy your little sister a drink? What, with it being a Wednesday, like.’ She draped an arm across his thin shoulders.
‘What you talking about, foolish girl? Why would I buy you a drink because it’s Wednesday?’
‘Because you didn’t buy me one on Tuesday, of course. That should be obvious, even to you, Rekk.’
He scowled at her for a moment, to see if that would wipe the smile from her face, but she’d had a lifetime of his scowls, and she was immune to them now. Then he tried an enigmatic shrug, with a shake of the head for good measure.
‘A tankard of good ale, Landlord,’ she called, ‘and on this here fool’s tab if you don’t mind.’
The landlord looked over, and gave an example of how a scowl should be performed. He was unfortunate in the form that nature had given him, with one shoulder lower than the other, a head too big for his neck and his hairline, and a round belly that surely belonged on a bigger body.
‘I’ll serve ye a drink Rekk and put it on your tab, but I’ll not serve her, less I see come coin.’
‘Why the frown there, Berned? You had a smile on your face when you knocked on my door last week, with your coins clutched in your sweaty little hands, you did.’
Rekk stood up abruptly; his chair falling behind him.
‘You bedded my sister!’ he yelled, his fist banging on the bar in time to his words.
‘No….Rekk. It was nothing like that. She just be teasing you there, aren’t you Fleur? Let me get you that drink, Fleur. A tankard of ale, wasn’t it?’
‘And one for Rekk, if you please, Berned. And you’ll be treating us to these drinks, won’t you?’
‘Ay…’ he said, slowly, as he pulled their drinks, with a quick shake of his head when the task was complete.
Fleur took a long drink of her ale, and she sighed with satisfaction. ‘The first of the day is always the best.’
Rekk crouched over his drink and said nothing. It was a long way from being his first of the day, and further from being the last.
‘Guess where I’ll be tonight,’ said Fleur, after wiping the froth from her lips.
‘Guessing games are for kids,’ he muttered, in reply.
‘You’re no fun, big brother. I remember when you were fun, when we were kids.’
‘We ain’t kids now, so there’s no point going on about it.’
‘Guess where I’m going tonight.’
He sighed, and he sipped his ale, and then he glanced at her with his good eye.
‘Where?’ he said, without much in the way of good grace.
‘I’m going to a party,’ she said, with a wide grin.
‘A party? Oh.’ He turned back to his ale.
‘Guess where the party’s going to be.’
‘Where?’ he sighed, without taking his eyes from his drink.
‘Up at the Palace,’ she announced.
‘What? You can’t…I forbid…you can’t go to…’
‘Hold your steam there, brother. You look set to blow your head off.’
‘You can’t go. It ain’t safe. That prince, I hear things, like, so you can’t go. And that be the end of it.’ He nodded, as if in agreement to his own words.
‘I’ll be right enough, brother. Don’t you be worrying about me. I’ve got the Regent to protect me, I have.’
‘Regent? What’s a Regent?’
‘He’s in charge, like. And he’s taken a fair liking to me, he has. And he won’t let anything bad happen to me.’
Rekk sat upright and pushed his ale away, just a little. He turned to his sister and he ran his hand across his mouth as he studied her.
‘You’ve got this fool wrapped around your fingers, ain’t you?’
‘You know me, brother. Men like me, and they can’t think of nothing else when I’m in the room.’
Rekk shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
‘Forget about that, though. The Palace, I hear it is full to bursting with jewels and gold and fancy stuff, all just lying around like it ain’t worth nothing.’
‘I wouldn’t know. I ain’t been there yet.’
‘But you’ll be there tonight, won’t you? And when you’ve…done your business with that there Regent, and he’s taken to his sleep, you can creep off, like, and open a door, and you can lead me and my mates to where the rich stuff is, and we can put it all in our sacks and be off before anyone knows we were there.’
Fleur knocked back her drink and called for another. At the affronted look from the landlord, she placed a coin on the bar.
‘Now, listen to me, brother. We could do that, and that would be fine, until someone comes knocking on my door and drags me off to the dungeons or whatever he has in that Palace.’
‘He’d never find you. I’d look after you.’
‘That’s easy to say, but harder to do. No, I’ve thought on this, and, that Regent, he really likes me, and there’s something wrong with the prince, I reckon, from what he’s said, and I think he’s going to be top man in the country, and I think he’ll treat me right, and he’ll give me stuff that will be worth more than you could pinch and put in your bag.’
‘But, you don’t know that.’
‘I’ve had the man between my legs, brother, and I know what he wants.’
Rekk squirmed at the unwanted image.
‘So, brother, we’ll take this slow, and we’ll get all the jewels and gold we want, without no-one knocking on our doors.’
Chapter 35 Alice
Alice stroked Raarwoar, as she sat on the steps of her home, and she considered the news.
Jefro had been severely concerned when he came rushing to her door.
‘A stranger, miss. In Hesselton, miss.’
‘That is not unusual, in itself. We get plenty of visitors, sailors and merchant men and the like.’
‘This man is not a sailor, and he carries no wares to sell. He walked into town from the east, and he has the stink of harroweed about him.’
‘If he stays in Hesselton, then he is safe enough, Jefro. But have him watched, if you please. With my father away, I’d not want to be surprised.’
‘Ay, miss, I’ll be doing that for sure. And, if he finds a way into Misthaven, then he’ll have to pass me first.’
Alice frowned, and touched his elbow. ‘Mayhap there’ll be no need, if fortune smiles.’
Jefro grunted. ’If you say so, miss.’
**********
Jimmywood was sitting on the harbour wall, his back to the ships and his face towards the streets that led down to the docks. His head ached a little from the ale, and his throat still burned from the weed, but he was relaxed enough.
There were people walking down to the docks, and others walking away, and the docks were noisy with the bustle of sailors and dockhands at work.
He reached into his bag and took out his pipe and a tiny pinch of harroweed, with a more generous helping of dark brown pipeweed with which to make an acceptable mix.
There was enough of the strong weed to sharpen his mind, but not enough for a fall.
The routine of loading his pipe set his mind wandering, back to the time when he knew nothing of Elvenfolk and harroweed, when he rarely supped more than a tankard of ale. A time when he had friends.
'Friends!' he snorted. 'I can barely remember their names.'
He drew the rich aromatic smoke into his lungs, and held it there for a moment, until he felt the slight catch in his throat that meant the harroweed had hit home.
He closed his eyes, for he had seen all that he needed to see. All he had to do now was understand what his eyes were telling him.
And it was so simple; so obvious.
Five
ships in the harbour, and four others had come and gone as he supped his ale. There was a saying in his hometown. A one ship town, they'd say, to describe a small town. A two-ship town was something bigger.
He opened his eyes and raked them across the town before him, from left to right, and then from right to left.
This was a three-ship town; no more and no less.
So, why did it have more ships than its size required? And why did all the main streets lead from the dock towards the back of the town? Why were so many men and women walking on these streets, and so few on the narrower cross streets?
His eyes caught on two men, carrying a heavy box between them, working their way along the central street away from the docks. He watched them reach a tall wall at the end of the street and then turn off to the right.
Now he was puzzled. He'd been studying this place for some time now, so why had he not noticed that wall before? Now that he had spotted it, it was obvious, towering over the buildings of the town. And why were its higher parts covered in mist?
He stopped a young man carrying a bolt of cloth towards the harbour.
'What is yon wall I see, sir?' he asked.
'The wall?' His eyes followed the direction of Jimmywood's gaze, a puzzled frown on his face. 'Oh, that be the reservoir, sir. Yes, that's what you see.'
'A reservoir? For a small place like this?'
'Yeah, it was the old mayor, see. He had a passion for freshwater fish, he did. And too much money and too little mind, as they say. Had it built and damned near broke his purse, it did.'
'Oh, I see. Is it always that misty?'
'Mostly, sir. Mostly. There's a hot water spring beneath it, and I guess it warms the water. And the wind is mostly from off the mountains, so it's cold, see. And when you get warm and cold air together, well you know you'll see some mist.'
'Indeed you will, sir. Indeed you will. Thanks are due for taking the time to enlighten a poor old traveller.'
'No need for thanks, and good day to you.'
As the young man left to go about his business, Jimmywood began to pack away his pipe.