A day later, Jara tried to reach some of the few cherries left on the lower branches, and she jumped with the agility of a well-trained body, yet she could catch only one – they were too high. I sneaked up behind, and with no warning, I raised her in my arms until she was at a good level to reach the fruits. She gasped, yet her hand grabbed the cherries, before I let her down again.
“They are good, aren’t they?” I whispered cheerfully, still keeping my hands on her waist. In front of us the girls were laughing.
“You are stealing our cherries, mother,” Vio complained, unable to stop her laughing.
“It was worth the scare,” Jara said, amused, and her elbow landed mildly in my ribs, making me leave her waist alone. “We need a ladder for the higher ones.” She left, and some minutes later Jeon, Milene’s husband, came with a folding ladder and a basket, but I had a different plan.
As I observed, Vio was the first one to try everything exciting; she was more ready to take risks. Maybe because she is so young… It was enough to raise her to the first branch and she climbed the tree like a squirrel, going close to the top where the best cherries hung. Panicked, I climbed to a position where I could catch her if something went wrong. I was worried for nothing – the girl had a body coordination that was puzzling me. The little squirrel, I smiled, watching her climb down.
Jara caught us when Vio jumped into my arms from the tree, smiling and in her best mood both from the small climbing adventure and being filled with cherries. Unsure how to react, Jara kept quiet, yet frowning. This time, I was sure that she was just worried about letting Vio climb the tree, so not very troubled.
“How was it, Vio? I asked, hinting that I needed some help to placate Jara.
“Wonderful!” she exclaimed. “Mother, you should try too.”
“I know, your mother should have been a squirrel,” Jara smiled, resigned, with a slight dose of reproach in her voice meant for me, yet it was amusing that she used the same squirrel word for Vio.
“Me next,” Saliné said, mimicking to push Jara away from me, and it was her comment that convinced Jara.
“Vio was never alone in the tree, I always watched her,” I whispered to Jara, and she agreed, yet she stayed until I climbed down from the tree with Saliné. “Your turn?” I asked humorously.
“I am tempted to be young again,” Jara said in a half-amused voice. “But thanks, no.”
“It’s fun,” I insisted, pushing her slowly toward the tree.
“Maybe another time. But I would not refuse some in a more secure way,” she smiled, staring at me with a thoughtful look that I could not understand.
At lunch, Vio proudly presented a basket filled with cherries. It took her a bit of effort to put the heavy basket on the table, but she did not ask for help.
Chapter 8 - Jara
“You are enjoying it,” I laughed, watching father testing Codrin’s horse with obvious pleasure, on the road to Severin. Zor, I smiled, remembering his name, meaning ‘haste’ in Arenian. It was a short ride; down in the valley, the castle and city were visible from our house.
“Damned to be if I don’t. I never rode such a horse. Codrin told me it comes from the dry steppes south-east of Arenia. Never heard of them until now. I did not know our world was so large. The ocean at the west, Arenia and Tomis in east, were my landmarks. From his description, the steppes are even farther from Arenia than we are from it. I can’t even imagine that distance, my farthest road was to Livonia.”
“A good horse,” I conceded to his joy, and in the end, it was true.
“We never had such horses in our stables. It may be worth more than five hundred galbeni. A small fortune. I don’t think that Codrin realizes it.”
“What?” I could not believe it, a very good war-horse was priced at no more than three hundred.
“I am not joking. Even the Frankis Kings did not have such noble animals.”
I shrugged; we were not able to spend even one hundred galbeni to buy a decent war-horse for father after the robbers killed his stallion. Not that we did not have money; the treasure we brought from our lost castle was still intact, but that was meant for the small army we needed if our plans were to bear fruit. The land we still owned produced some four hundred galbeni rent per year, and most of our current income was going into the same bottomless bag, our plans. The main key is Mohor... He wants the same thing as us. Mohor was planning an alliance against Orban too, and he acknowledged that we knew many influential people in the north, as afraid of Orban’s newly acquired power as him.
“It was much better under the Frankis Kingdom,” father sighed. “There was authority, not the lawless world we live in.”
The kingdom disappeared almost thirty years ago, after a long civil war that started three years before I was born, replaced by a long list of small fiefdoms, fighting each other. I was still a child, but father fought in the civil war, and he even remembered the period before it, when our whole world was safe, yet, while I was dreaming of safety too, I could not relate to a thing that I never lived myself. Born from his longing, a curious thought resurfaced in my mind: a note I received a year and half ago, when I still was a Grand Signora, and the first Secretary of our court: Something about Arenia... Being so far, Arenia was never in our immediate sight, and all information came from merchants, just by chance. Arenia, the thought would not leave me. The King of Arenia. Yes...
“Father, I just remembered something from our Secretariat’s notes. The King of Arenia was slain two years ago. It matches Codrin’s story. Maybe he is...” I did not finish my sentence; there was something romantic in the air, as if I was suddenly part of an old story.
“When a king is dethroned and killed, other people of high rank lose too. It may be that Codrin is one of them, everything about him tells of having a high position in the past: manners, education, weapons, horse. He told us very little of his past, understandable from what happened to him, and he could be a Seigneur or Grand Seigneur by birth, but there is nothing to tell if he really is a King’s son. Disappointed?” he glanced at me, amused.
“Well, yes. The princess is usually saved by a prince,” I laughed. “He is good with the sword,” I remembered, pushed by a new thought, linking him to our safety. “And better than me with the bow.”
“He is not ‘good’ with the sword. He is the finest swordsman I ever saw. At his age...” father shook his head in wonder. “His body is not yet at its peak, but Arenia has a level of training that is hard to imagine. It’s almost like dancing. And Codrin is one with his sword when fighting, something that I could never achieve. I wish to be younger just to train with him. You are thinking of Codrin to replace...?” He could not name Horia and Mugur; they had worked for almost twenty years for him. Father wanted to replace them with some of our people from the past, but I doubted we could trust them again – allegiances change fast, and we no longer had the power to renew old bonds.
“Orban may send another team of assassins soon,” I added another argument in Codrin’s favor. We were not yet able to make a decision about keeping him in our house. Before realizing that he had a certain rank in the past, we had thought of letting him stay in Milene’s house for a while, until he could prove himself, but from the mistake with the leftovers at the table, it was clear that he would not accept. Orban’s men in the forest had no colors. Were they here for us? None of them knew me though, that’s why they tried to... “There may be a link between the robbers and Orban’s men not having heraldic signs,” I added, many thoughts rumbling together in my mind.
“I don’t think so,” father said after a while, as if he did not want to touch the subject. “From your story, they were riding toward Mehadia, the opposite direction from our house, but we need to learn more about that. If they came for us, we have to run, as Orban will reckon that we killed his son. And we should be more careful before letting a stranger settle in our house.”
“A stranger from far away has no links to the S’Arads, and there is bad bloo
d between Codrin and Orban. I can’t see anything safer for us than that blood. He saved my life, father, fighting alone against six men. Codrin is longing for a new home. I feel it. And he is too young for a double game or treachery. There is certain nobility in him. How many would give me back a necklace worth four hundred galbeni just for some tears in my green eyes?” I waited for an answer that did not come, father was still undecided because of his usual caution and much longer experience with dangerous things. “We are always paying our debts, aren’t we? He works well with the girls.” And he likes me, I almost smiled, remembering his discreet gestures that were not at all impolite; there was a certain subtlety in Codrin.
“You are right, but we have to think more. Things could become dangerous if Orban finds out who killed his son.”
“There are only two survivors,” I pointed out the obvious, and the more we discussed the more I wanted Codrin to stay and protect us. “We have already left him alone with the girls, and you can parade on his horse at Mohor’s castle.” To my amusement, he did not answer, and we continued the ride in silence, yet somehow I was sure that Codrin was occupying his mind, too. “He will be a good match to Saliné,” I thought out loud, without realizing it. He is intelligent and … handsome… There was also a surprising sensitivity in him. People who suffer his kind of fate in their childhood, choose to harden themselves, raising barriers, suppressing their feelings. Stones that walk, think and eat. There are a few, however, who develop a new understanding of events’ consequences on people. They remain human, tough and kind at the same time. What am I now? I raised a question that I could never answer myself.
“You are going too far. Saliné is special, and she was marked by the Circle. Not to mention being too young for marriage right now. I think that Vio will pass the test, too,” he said thoughtfully. “There are only three marked girls in the north, and the other two scored far lower than Saliné. Strange that they tested Saliné one year earlier than usual.”
“What can be stranger than the Circle? And it’s not fair that girls are tested at fourteen and boys at eighteen,” I complained.
“They must test their fighting skill, too.”
“Men, they always cover each other. I don’t think Veres will take the test,” I sighed. As much I liked Vio’s chances, it would be better for the family if Veres were marked.
“He will not even be tested,” father confirmed my worries that Veres was not the one able to save us. “If everything goes well, we match Saliné with a Grand Seigneur.”
“If everything goes well,” I accepted, slightly annoyed that he was not able to understand. “But the ‘everything’ can go wrong too. It already happened,” I stopped him when he tried to reply. “It can happen again. Codrin can be an alternative for Saliné or for Vio, if we have to run again… Nobody would accept them, but you are right, we are still far from marrying them.” Arriving in front of the gate stopped our talking.
“Wonderful horse, Cernat,” Aron, Mohor’s Spatar said, instead of greetings. “Where did you steal it?” He pointed derisively to our evident lack of money – no one knew about our reserves, buried deep in the cellar.
“Aron,” father said calmly, “those who talk the most about stealing are the thieves themselves.” Father was always a composed man, and had enough experience to handle all sorts of characters; the grimace on Aron’s face was more than proof. And Aron was still an enigma to us, sometimes very polite, sometimes rude, but for sure an intelligent man. What we were not sure about was his character and integrity. Somehow, he lacked them. “And I don’t remember allowing you to call me Cernat.”
“You are no longer a Grand Seigneur,” Aron shrugged, and I glanced at Mohor to see his reaction, maybe it was just a game to pressure us before the negotiation. He was not pleased that Aron was more than rude.
“Having lands and a castle gives the right to the title, but doesn’t make anyone a Seigneur or a Knight.”
“Lady Jara, Sir Cernat,” Mohor subtly put Aron in his place. “Please come inside.” He briefly touched my shoulder as if to guide me, and we passed through the door. “We are gathered on the terrace.”
Mohor’s residence was small compared with my past one, but it had a terrace and a garden in the backyard. The terrace was filled with people that I had known for a long time already, and our greetings did not lack warmth, even when we were ready to talk about stirring a war.
Before anything would start, father made a brief summary of our ingrate condition. “Together with his allies, Orban has more than three thousand men in arms, and his three hundred strong Guard has some of the best soldiers in the former kingdom. We all have one thousand soldiers. Once the armistice between the Dukes in the north ends, Orban will look to expand his lands further. We all know,” he gestured around the terrace, “that he wants to become a Duke, the first step before becoming the next King, so he will attack us. Up to a point, the Circle is still helping him, mostly because of his son, Bernd.”
He avoided the the ‘rumors’ about Bernd’s sudden disappearance, both to protect us, and because it did not change things too much, although that cursed Bernd defeated Malin in battle. “And we also know that none of us will keep our lands and some will not survive if he is victorious. We must stop him.” He stared at each of us, one by one, just to underline his words. “The alliance we try to forge today is our best hope. To us,” father raised his goblet, and everybody drank the wine in silence.
Everything was in waiting mode, so only general things were touched on, just to create an ambiance for the more serious things to come later, and things went well up to the point when Aron began to act erratically. With no visible logic, he suddenly injected things that usually come after the actors agree the main points. We were far from there, but he started a quarrel, asking that Mohor receive three important fortresses.
You don’t need two of them, I glanced at Mohor, trying to understand if it was a wrong step or a deliberate decision. He was calm. Deliberate… Why? It’s just poisoning the atmosphere.
Irritated, our would-be partners in the alliance refused to debate the spoils of war in such an early phase, and Aron acted even more strangely, raising his voice, and making rude comments. The others answered in kind, and from negotiation, we went to verbal brawl.
“If you don’t mind a break,” I said, smiling chilly, trying to stop the quarrel, and stepped down from the terrace, to walk in the garden. Mohor came after me, with a calculated delay for those still inside, and I understood that he wanted to talk. What do you want? I was curious, but he had to talk first.
“Can we take a few steps together?” he asked, and lent me his arm, the first familiarity of this kind from him.
I turned my head, and together with his face, I saw all the guests staring at us – we offered a perfect view, the terrace was in a higher position. There must be a reason for this, I thought, undecided, yet in the end, I accepted, and we walked together. “You are pressing them too much, and for some theoretical land gains you may weaken the alliance.” I decided to change my strategy and speak first. “You don’t need all those three fortresses, Mohor. Only Magura is of strategic importance for you, it guards the northern route to Dorna. The other two are liabilities, there are no easy access roads for you, and the costs of keeping them will be too high,” I made an oblique insinuation to his low revenues – Mohor’s lands were mostly average or slightly under the average quality.
“Good evaluation,” he said. “I wanted to discuss two things with you. And with Cernat too, but it would have been difficult to extract him from the terrace without being too obvious. The first one: their position is weaker than mine. Three of them are Orban’s vassals, and if I remember well,” he glanced at me with some amusement, “it’s as bad to be his vassal as it’s to be his enemy. And there are some in an even worse position.” That was a direct hint at my misfortune, but I ignored it. “Any negotiation is just an art to extract the most possible in a given situation.”
“I
hardly see any art in Aron’s growls and brutal maneuvering.”
“Art may sometimes depict a brutal world, don’t you think? The second one,” he did not let me answer. “You are basically on my land, even though there are no, let’s say, hierarchic links between us. In many ways, both of you,” he included father, “are still a ‘Grand’.”
You are trying to sweeten the pill. We are ‘Grands’ on your lands. I smiled at my involuntary rhyme, and he glanced curiously at me. “So, you want to say that our delicate geographical situation should be better reflected in negotiations.”
“Can I rather say that it’s in our common interest,” his hand gestured fast between us, “to have a better coordinated approach?”
“We all have a common interest,” I pointed to the terrace, where all the others were gathered. “Orban. And some private ones that may compete here or there.” It was now my time to stop him, he visibly wanted to react. “If you approved of my little interpretation regarding your coveted fortresses’ relative importance, then you don’t want more than one.”
“I would like a more explicit answer to my question,” he pressed me, in a gentle tone. We were no longer walking, and our bodies stopped in a position that let our eyes meet. There was a moderate expectation in his eyes and a thin smile on his lips. “Any alliance needs a leader, and there are now two candidates for it. Strange as it looks from the distribution of power between all of us, the ones who will tip the balance are you and Cernat. My feeling is that the geography will work to our advantage.” Mohor was a refined negotiator.
“You want an alliance inside an alliance,” I advanced prudently. Are you proposing a marriage, too? There were already some subtle signs from him regarding some interest a man can have for a woman. I remembered things from the last month’s encounters, disparate words, he touching my shoulder when inviting me inside today, some glances during the negotiation, and I was still hanging on his arm. This could be just a show for the people on the terrace…
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