by A. R. Rend
Once again he’d walked into a situation like Fend.
But this time, he’d done it aware of what would happen.
What to expect.
This time had been completely different because of that fact. That it wasn’t a surprise, he knew what the princess wanted, and had a fair idea of what she would do.
He could have easily have walked away or remained in the main hall. He had chosen not to.
That… doesn’t give the princess permission to do what she did, but in the same breath, I made the choice to go there.
Knowingly.
With my eyes wide open of what was about to occur. I chose to put myself at risk regardless of anything else.
But… I was able to control it.
Control her.
It was walking a tight-rope. A very dangerous one.
I had power though. The same power I can wield against Mim, Alice… Milly… and all the others.
Closing his eyes, Phillip laid his head to the interior of the coach and tried not to think.
It was too much for him right now.
“We’re here,” his grandmother said, breaking Phillip out of what felt like a nap. Or at least that’s how it felt considering he felt somewhat groggy. “Would you like to remain here while I discuss this with her?”
“No! No. I didn’t… I didn’t do what I did, just to back out now,” said Phillip, reaching up to rub at his eyes then his mouth. “I’m going with you. Besides, I want to know what’s going on with my mother.
“If the queen isn’t willing to talk about it, that really only leaves one source of information. One that we don’t have any choice but to consult with. Not to mention isn’t the countess who we’d likely pay a ransom to?”
“That’s… true. It isn’t as if we could reasonably expect to make it to the front lines, slip through to the enemy’s camp, and get your mother,” the Duchess muttered, thinking it through.
The door to the coach opened and Phillip stood up. As the lesser party, and a male, he was expected to get out first.
Stepping out, he found they were in front of a home that was quite similar to his grandmother’s here in the capital. If he didn’t miss his guess, it was built around the same time as his grandmother’s.
Which meant the Karen family had been created roughly at the same time as the Curis family.
That or both houses were already made long before we received our titles.
The ducal guards for the home were coming their way now. Phillip imagined they were on high alert given the situation between the duchess and the queen.
Stepping to the side, Phillip held up his hand to his grandmother who was stepping out now.
“Thank you, Pip,” she said, stepping down from the running board. Looking to the guards, she gave them a tired smile. “Would you be so kind as to tell your mistress if she’s home that the Duchess of Curis is here to see her? Otherwise I would be in your debt if you could provide me with a space to wait for her to return home.”
“She’s already expecting you, Duchess,” said the lead guard, a rather large and broad-shouldered woman. “Please, if you and the young master could follow me, I’ll escort you to her.”
If she beat us here… wouldn’t that mean she left almost the minute after she was done speaking with Grandmother?
That’d mean she really did expect the queen to just turn us away.
Just… what is going on?
Glancing at his grandmother, he could see she had a similar look on her face. To anyone else she probably looked like an old woman fretting over her daughter.
Phillip could see dismay, resignation, and anger there. Whatever was going on in her mind, had just been confirmed.
Wordlessly, and with the guards forming up around them, they were escorted into the manor. Brought through several hallways, across a large open dining room, and finally into a study.
The countess from earlier met them there, sitting at a table in a sofa.
“Sit, sit,” she said, gesturing at the seats across from her. “Let’s not stand on ceremony or etiquette. We both know why you’re here, and we both want the same thing. Just on opposite sides of the same deal.”
Nodding her head, the Duchess sat down and cleared her throat.
“Thank you for that,” she murmured. “I do hope this’ll be something you can help me out though with. Because Queen Tralin was unwilling to discuss it, other than to say she believed it would be expensive.”
Clicking her tongue, the countess leaned to one side and put her elbow on the arm of the couch. Propping her chin up, she shrugged her shoulders.
“That’s not surprising I suppose. Do you know what happened?” she asked instead.
“No. I only know my daughter is a prisoner at this time. Nothing of the details, despite me spending money to find out,” admitted the Duchess.
“That’s not surprising, either. The queen is spending a great deal of coin to keep the story silent. Very silent,” explained the countess. “To the degree that I’m positive there are a number of missing persons that will never show up again. Or show up as bodies, and whoever finds it will be told to forget that they did.”
“That… bad?” Phillip’s grandmother asked in a strained tone.
“Well, seeing as your inquiry falls in line with both of our needs, I’ll be happy to tell you the story. The gist of it is the queen’s own royal guard failed,” divulged the countess. “The details are much more sordid, though.”
With a wave of her hand toward the far side of the study, the countess then gestured at the table.
A group of servants came in with a tea-service and began laying places out.
“Your mother, Phillip,” the countess said turning to look at him. “She is a genius in the field. A terrifyingly brilliant woman.
“She gives my poor cousin a terrible time and runs her ragged. To the point that it was starting to look quite bad for my aunt’s forces. Then… then about two weeks ago, the queen decided she wanted to be part of the fight.”
Phillip frowned at that, his eyebrows drawing together.
“Apparently the fact that my aunt is on the field of battle with her daughter every day was starting to nag… at Tralin,” guessed the Countess. “To the point that she wanted to be there in person and lend her elite troops to the situation at hand.”
Nodding her head to that, the Duchess looked like she agreed with it in some way.
“The royal guard are the best there is. Very few can beat them. It’s why they’re chosen,” argued the Duchess.
“Oh. Yes, of course. Their individual prowess is wonderful. But they’re not soldiers,” the countess countered as a young man set down a filled teacup in front of Phillip. “Nor have they been challenged in any recent time. They do their tournaments and spar but… there was always a question. If the queen’s changes to their recruitment had scooped out the ovaries of the guard and filled it with prissy little noble girls. Those lovely scions of the peerage who couldn’t handle army life and wanted an easy route in.”
Smiling, Phillip nodded his head at the servant after the first sugar cube was added to his tea and looked back to the countess.
“Tralin demanded that her little pets be given the right wing of the army. Ran Clarissa right over despite her protests,” continued the countess. “And so the countess of Curis was forced to give in.
“Her normal right-most troops being replaced with the queen’s royal guard. Cousin dearest noticed it almost instantly and shifted her troops around. Suddenly her left was stronger than her right. But that wasn’t known until after the battle ended, of course.”
Picking up his teacup, Phillip could see where this was going already.
If his mother lost her right flank then the enemy line would just start rolling up her forces. There’d be nothing she could do other than break the engagement and retreat.
“-had stationed a great many cavalry in reserve to wait. Which wasn’t like her if I’m being honest,” said the
countess. “I do think that tipped Clarissa off but at that point, the queen wasn’t having it. She’d dug her heels in, gotten her way, and would hear none of it.
“So… cousin ran her best unit down the royal guards’ throat. And slaughtered them. The estimates I got back was more than fifty percent of them were killed there. Their battle standards thrown down and left on the field. They broke and ran as if they were little better than peasant girl levies with nothing but a pitchfork.”
Laughing, the countess took a rather long sip of her tea and shook her head.
“Your poor mother did her best,” said the woman, looking to Phillip. “Her limited reserves created a second line to protect her flank. Her troops held the line. Just barely so. They were stretched terribly thin.
“But the damage was already done. The battle had already tipped in favor of my cousin. She just shifted her foot reserves out and re-flanked the line again. Then the queen ran away.”
Sighing, the Duchess lifted her left hand up and pressed it across her eyes.
“I hear it was most cowardly,” Countess Karen said, waving her free hand at her servants. They all left quickly after being dismissed. “She ordered Clarissa to hold the rear to the last and ran. Fled on a horse with her retainers. Both the royal guard and the queen had broke ranks and ran.
“Your daughter, Duchess, had ordered her army to retreat and it was accomplished in a reasonable fashion. Unfortunately, Princess Marie was the only other competent commander on the field. Faster than anyone expected, Countess Curis was surrounded by thousands of light cavalry without a way out.
“Princess Marie crashed through several times with her heavy cavalry to reach Clarissa. Battling them most ferociously. It was for naught. Countess Curis was captured, Marie was beaten back and suffered a great many losses, and the battle was over. An incredible noble and valiant effort on the Princesses’ part but fruitless.”
When he thought about it, Phillip was surprised to hear the beastly woman that was Princess Marie had tried to save his mother. All he could see of her character was how she’d assaulted him.
“The queen of course wants none of this spoken about it in any way. Her battle standard was captured, by the way. As were most of the royal guards,” said the countess with a chuckle. “Would you like to see one? My dear aunt sent it over as proof.
“Along… with the Curis standard. It was surrendered over to my cousin once it was obvious the battle was completely lost.”
Taking in a sharp breath, the Duchess nodded her head.
“Yes, please. And I’d also like to discuss what it would cost to free my daughter,” said the older woman. “While I do not doubt your word that she’s being treated well, I don’t wish for my heir to suffer any more than she has to.”
“Of course, of course. Completely understandable. I’d be the same way about my own daughter I have no doubt,” said the countess, waving at her servants once again.
Trudging over, two men brought a large chest over. They brought it over and set it down next to the countess.
“I was told I am to return the Curis standard to you,” said the countess as the chest was opened.
Peering into it, she reached down and shifted something out of the way.
“Ah, here we are,” she said, pulling out a dark-maroon fabric. It was large and folded onto itself. There were loops on the side of it that looked like they had once hung on a pole.
Holding out the folded standard to the Duchess, Countess Karen waited.
Taking it from her, Phillip’s grandmother laid it down on her lap. Looking at the material.
She didn’t seem to want to unfold it.
“And see here, this is the first regiment of the royal guards,” said the countess, pulling out a yellow and gold standard. “We didn’t bother to clean or repair it as we did yours. No reason to give respect to those who fled.”
Looking to what was being held up, Phillip saw what looked like a crown with a sword and a lance. There was a large blood stain across the bottom of it along with what looked like several holes.
“And that brings us to now,” the countess said, setting the standard back in the chest. “Your mother is a terribly good general. To let her go is… almost foolish in a way.
“But… I have it from my aunt that they’re more than willing to make a deal for her to be released. It’d be a cash offer along with a written statement guaranteeing she would not return to the front. Her, or anyone from her family.”
In other words, we’d pay for her release, but her career as a general would effectively be over for the duration of the war.
And likely forever after.
There’s no way the queen would ever allow her to lead a force of women again.
It’s also very likely that my cousins wouldn’t be able to serve either.
“From the last missive I received, the amount attached to the countess’s freedom was fifty thousand nobles. Payable in one sum, only,” quoted the countess. “Along with the condition as stated earlier. My apologies, Cassandra. Your daughter… she’s very important.”
Fifty… fifty thousand?
Oh… oh my word.
Feeling the world spin around him at that number, Phillip set his teacup down and pressed his hands to his head. That was an outrageous number.
A number that was more akin to them saying that they’d rather keep his mother as a hostage than let her go.
“I see,” the Duchess said. “I’ll… look into our finances and see what we can arrange.”
“Of course. It’s a queen’s ransom to be sure,” admitted the countess. Not bothering to argue about the price she’d given them. “As at this time, she’s technically worth more than the queen herself. Or so my cousin would say.”
Fifty thousand nobles… Mother… I have no way to help you.
Thirty-One
By the time they’d made it back to the Ducal seat of Curis in the capital, Phillip wasn’t as despondent. His mind was starting to work through the problem. How he might be able to solve it. Rather than just seeing it as the insurmountable wall he feared it was.
“I have about… two thousand nobles,” Phillip said as he and his grandmother entered her private study. Mildred and his guards were not included or allowed to be here.
As much as Phillip cared for them, they were still but commoners to his grandmother.
“You… really? That much?” his grandmother asked, looking over to him as she went and sat down at her writing desk.
“Yes. It does include my dowry but… this isn’t the time to chit-pinch,” Phillip said, sitting down in a sofa. “I can make more as we go but… that’s what I have immediately on hand that I can get ahold of.”
“That helps considerably,” his grandmother murmured as she picked up a quill nib and checked it. “I have ten thousand nobles available in coin. The rest is all tied up in… well, business ventures. Your mother is not a wealthy lady and I imagine she would only have perhaps a thousand gold to add to the total. A lot of her wealth is in land and that’s not something she can access quickly.”
“What about my aunts?” Phillip asked.
“They earn less than your mother, dear. But I’m sure they’ll contribute all they can, but it would at most be another thousand,” his grandmother said, sharpening the quill nib and splitting it expertly. Then she unstopped her ink-well and began writing. “We’re not a wealthy family. Not one that’s based our power on coin and how far we can push, like some. We’re a warrior family. Even I served the queen in my time. Just as my grand-daughters are.”
Closing his eyes, Phillip pressed his hands to his face.
I’ll ask Alice and Matilda for help. I’m sure they have some coinage available but… it’s probably about as much as I have.
Assuming I can get two thousand from Alice as a loan. And two thousand from Matilda as a loan, that’d be an additional four thousand.
Lenore… doesn’t have more than a thousand. That’s if she’s even willing to
loan it to me.
Mim would be almost the same wouldn’t she. I could probably count on her for a thousand.
Adding all that up, it would just barely break twenty thousand.
It’ll be short. Far, far, short.
“Or were, that is,” his grandmother muttered, causing Phillip to look back to her. She was in the middle of dipping her quill tip into her ink-pot. “I likely think that after this the family might wish to pivot away from the queen’s service. It doesn’t do any good for us to serve a master that would throw us away like this.
“It isn’t as if your mother made a mistake or cost the queen a battle. On the contrary, I imagine she preserved a greater majority of the army than anyone would likely have expected her to do.”
Nodding, Phillip couldn’t disagree with that line of thinking.
We should most certainly f-
Pausing in his thoughts, Phillip realized it technically didn’t concern him.
He wasn’t a Curis.
He was a Rias.
In this current situation he was able to assist because it involved his mother and Alice had allowed him to go. Had she said no, or if it was his aunt or cousin, there really wasn’t any need for him to be present.
“I’ll just have to shift our assets around a bit. It’ll only take a few years to get ourselves into a different position,” his grandmother mused aloud. “Realistically speaking we’d do well managing a caravan and trade company. I have no doubt that quite a few officers and soldiers would sign up for a job as soon as your mother gets back.”
That’d work rather well.
Rather than dealing with trade and the rise and fall of it, only let yourself be involved in the movement of goods.
It’s still combat, still managing soldiers, and it’d be an easy way to use the Curis family reputation in a similar field.
“Well, that’s neither here nor there. For now, I have a different job for you, Pip,” his grandmother said and set her quill into its place. “Duchess Karen and her family owe me a number of favors. Most of them only minor though I do have a few that are a little larger.