by B. K. Parent
“Do you know why the Regent is so anxious to capture this Pedersen fellow?”
“No, and I wish I did. If we could find him first, I think we could use it to our advantage. That is why I sent my agents in the first place, hoping he had either returned home, or I could find out some new information that would lead me to him. Well, it is getting late, so you had best return to your Lady before she questions where you have been. That woman is way too savvy and suspicious. Why couldn’t you have married a dull and beautiful woman instead of her?”
The second man gave no answer to his companion’s inquiry, but instead cracked the door to the hall, and checked to see if anyone was in the corridor. He then silently slipped out the door never once looking back, which would have given Master Clarisse or Evan an opportunity to see his face. The bells marking the second hour they had been gone sounded, so Master Clarisse signaled Evan that they should begin to head back. What they had overheard had given them much food for thought.
Once they reached the lower levels, Master Clarisse felt it was safe to talk and so asked Evan, “Well, Evan, what do you think about what we have heard this night?”
“I’m not sure we learned very much that would help Lord Hadrack,” Evan replied.
“Oh, on the contrary, my young friend. We have learned some new nuggets of information,” stated Master Clarisse. “While we still do not know why the Regent’s agents are seeking a rover named Thorval Pedersen, we do know that he lived in a village that was very loyal to him. We also now know that he has a daughter, whereabouts unknown, with only a sketchy description of her. We know that rover Pedersen may or may not be alive, but before you say anything, you are right. We knew that before. What we do not know was who those two men are, and why they sent someone north to seek information in Thorval’s village, other than that they wished to gain some type of advantage over the Regent.”
“I can’t see where that information is very helpful,” commented Evan.
“I can understand why you might think that, but remember, all information, no matter how small, when combined with other information, can turn out to be helpful. Think about the second man. What do we know about him?”
“He has a wife that is smart, beautiful, and not loyal to the Regent, I think.”
“Very good, Evan. I would suspect that she is the landholder, and he married into her estate. He does not want his wife to know that he is in opposition to her loyalties. Too bad we could not see his face or identify him. Do you think you could recognize his voice if you heard it again?”
“I think so, maybe,” said Evan.
“If you do, be very careful not to let him know that you are interested in him. Just let me know discretely that you think you have heard this man. I can find out who the other man was by asking Captain Gwen who occupies that suite we listened outside of. So, what other tidbits did you pick up?”
“I think the other group got an eye opener at their dinner meeting. Now I can see what you mean by little bits of information when put together can form a new picture of what is going on. The Lords and Ladies at Lord Crestly’s meeting don’t sound like they are feeling very pleased with either the Regent’s plans or his grabbing up land. I wonder if the Regent has lost some loyal followers this night?”
Master Clarisse and Evan fell silent after that and continued to head back to the meeting place. Suddenly Master Clarisse held up her hand motioning for Evan to halt. She indicated that they should be very quiet and listen. After a few moments, both heard footsteps approaching. Master Clarisse grabbed Evan’s arm and quickly pulled him into a side passage, hiding them in shadow.
Chapter Twenty-Five
If Beezle or I could have leaned any closer to our listening holes, we would have been embedded in the wall separating us from the two women who were talking in the other room. We had just heard one of the women chiding the other woman, one Lady Henrietta, that she may have jeopardized the Regent’s overall plan with her stupid move.
“I was just trying to help,” simpered Lady Henrietta. “I thought if I could get information that would help the Regent capture that horrible Pedersen fellow, he would realize I was just the woman he needed to stand by his side. Besides, it was a brilliant idea. Those thugs I hired must have messed it up.”
“It was not a brilliant idea. It was an idea you did not think through. The rovers were not going to just docilely be caught and released and not at some point talk to each other,” the other woman suggested.
“Well, they were until that upstart lass somehow got away from my men and went tattling back to her friends. I told you, those men I hired must have been totally incompetent for a mere lass to get away from them. She had to have had help. After that, my men could not find a lone rover wandering around anywhere. They seemed to have banded together,” said Lady Henrietta, with a slight pout in her voice.
“If you had wanted to capture the eye of the Regent, you could have just worn a more alluring gown, but no, instead you have to come up with a harebrained plan that involved a mysterious threatening figure who directed dimwitted thugs to snatch rovers off the street and lock them up in cellars. All this plotting just for the hope of gaining information you could pass on to the Regent and so look like the fair-haired lass. What you did instead was to get the fiercely independent rovers to band together, which was in exact opposition to what the Regent was aiming for, but do not beat yourself up over it. From what I hear, you are not the only bungler among the Regent’s faction. With all the ‘help’ he is getting from his folk, it is no wonder some of his plans are backfiring right and left. He is probably sitting in his rooms in the capitol with his head in his hands moaning over and over, ‘please save me from my followers’.”
“Well, you certainly do not believe in sugarcoating anything, do you?” Lady Henrietta stated, looking more than a bit miffed. “At least I was trying to help, which is more than I can say for you.”
It seemed that the conversation was going to continue in this line with one woman casting dispersions and the other defending herself. Beezle and I quietly left our places and moved farther up the passage, stopping at each of what I came to think of as spy holes to see if there were conversations within, and if they were worth listening to. While it was really not that late in the evening yet, many of the rooms contained the noises of sleep rather than conversation. That did not strike me as odd since many of the folk staying within the keep had traveled long distances over the last few days and were probably tired. I know if I had had my druthers, I would have been in bed now also. I was suddenly pulled out of my thoughts when I bumped into Carz who had gone on alert.
I do not know what had alerted him, but once we had stopped, I could hear someone moving stealthily up the stairway we were about to start down, so Beezle, Carz, and I pulled back. Soon a head appeared at the top of the stairs, and it was with some relief that we saw it was Captain Gwen. She motioned we should follow her down the stairway, and when we reached the bottom, led us a short way to an opening in the wall, which turned out to be the entrance to a very narrow circular stairway that led steeply upward. This part of the old keep was inside one of the towers. I am not all that fond of either heights or narrow enclosed places, so I was more than ready to stop when we reached a landing all three of us could stand on.
In a barely audible voice, Captain Gwen told us a meeting was going to be taking place in a long-unused room at the top of the east tower. She would not have known about it, but she had just happened to catch a conversation as she was heading down that had alerted her.
“It has to be with someone from Lord Hadrack’s staff for this tower has been closed off for several years and no one goes here anymore. Only a member of his staff would have a key to let themselves and others in. An ideal meeting place when you come to think about it. We need to go up one more level, and then we should be right behind the fireplace. Won’t be able to see anything
, but we should be able to hear what’s going on. From now on, and until we get back down and safe, not a sound. Will Carz be a problem?”
“No, he seems to be in his stealth mode, which is his most dangerous when he is hunting. He is more silent than we clumsy humans,” I answered.
With that said, we proceeded up the stairway to the landing. We settled in to wait. It was not long before we heard a door open and what sounded like three to four folks enter the room.
“You sure this room is free of anyone being able to listen in on our conversation?” a mature male voice asked. “I know these old keeps and castles are riddled with hidden passages.”
“Quite sure. This tower is in one of the original parts of the keep, and the early builders were not too sophisticated,” said a male voice, dripping with upper crust distain. “I have been with this household for years and know their little hidey holes. We are quite safe here to carry on any discussion without fear of detection.”
The speaker, who was obviously a member of the household, spoke of Lord Hadrack and his family as if they were country bumpkins and noble upstarts. So much for loyalty. Even though we could not see who was in the room, I hoped Captain Gwen would be able to recognize the speakers from their voices, at least the household member.
“Now we have settled that this is a safe place to talk, and all of you are sure you were not followed, perhaps we can get this meeting underway. We have very little time, and we still need to get back to our rooms before others notice we are not in them,” suggested a female voice. “What news do you have from the capitol?”
“The Princess, it would seem, is developing a backbone and is making noises like she wants to travel outside of the capitol. Her requests have been artfully fielded by both the Regent and the matron-in-waiting, but it is not certain how long she can be put off. The longer she can be delayed, the more her popularity slips in the out country. Undermining the Princess is one of the major threads in the web the Regent is weaving at the moment. Like a spider’s web, the threads are delicate and easily broken, unless you are a golden pine spider, that is. I do not think the Regent’s web has the strength of the golden pine spider web,” stated the mature male voice.
“The Regent would certainly be better off if it were not for my Lord and Master and his ilk,” the second male voice stated.
“None of us would debate that statement, but it would not do at this point to make an example of any of the nobility. The Regent badly misjudged the information gathering capacity of Lord Hadrack’s folks, and he had best slow down his acquisition of land before the nobles get up in arms. I am afraid that little map display of Lord Hadrack’s this night has put a few backs up and has some of our more loyal supporters questioning how stable their positions are,” the woman stated. “But back to the issue of the Princess. If she cannot be persuaded to remain in the capitol, her traveling needs to be carefully choreographed so she only talks to those who are loyal to the Regent and only sees what we want her to see.”
Just then the door to the tower chamber quietly swung open, and I heard the snick of a blade being drawn. How I wished I could see what was going on.
“Put that pig sticker away Gowon. Sorry I am late, but I was detained by that idiot Lady Henrietta. With fools like her who try to attract the attention of the Regent and be ‘helpful’ to the cause, it is a wonder that any of the plans have worked,” said the voice I recognized as the woman we had heard berating Lady Henrietta. “What have I missed?”
While the others brought the newcomer up to date, it struck me that there was a great deal going on in Sommerhjem that average common folks were totally unaware of. Plots and plans galore, bungles and folks working at cross purposes, and yet amid it all, there was something like the surge of the tide pushing at the land. Who knew how it would all wash out? I strained my ears to hear more.
“I agree that we have to carefully arrange any visits the Princess makes outside the capitol,” said the woman who had just arrived. “We do not want her to get wind of what is going on. We need more time for the animosity of the folk to build, so when she does come of age, many will question whether she is really going to be a good ruler for Sommerhjem. She will have to have the approval of the gathering of the nobles. If her ability to hold the loyalty of the folk is called into question, the nobles could return a vote of no confidence.”
“She could call down the Gylden Sirklene challenge,” the first woman suggested.
“The Gylden Sirklene challenge has not been called since time out of mind,” the mature male voice said. “It is just a legend, a tall tale handed down since the mists of time. There is no credibility to it.”
“I am not so sure that is correct,” said the snobby voice. “Lady Hadrack has long been a student of legends and lore and is convinced that there is a grain of truth in many of the folktales and legends of Sommerhjem. I have heard her discussing the Gylden Sirklene challenge with her husband on a number of occasions. It would appear that this legend has a bit more substance than smoke, and there is a very strong precedent for the tale. It is only in the last few hundred years or so that our rulers have been chosen by inheriting the throne. Previously, everyone had the right of challenge, and the next ruler was chosen by being able to handle the object called the oppgave ringe without coming to harm. Only those who felt that they truly had the right to rule, or those who foolishly thought the Crown should rightfully be theirs, even attempted the Gylden Sirklene challenge. I personally think it is all a bit of stuff and nonsense, but Lady Hadrack and many others do not.”
“You realize the easiest way to prevent the Princess from ever ruling is to simply eliminate her,” the mature male voice very coldly stated.
“That may look like the simplest solution, but there is no guaranteeing the Regent would maintain the rule. Sommerhjem could become divided, and the division could plunge us back into small warring states. Eliminating the Princess is an idea to keep way in reserve, to use only if we can control the outcome and be assured that the Regent would continue in power,” said the woman from Lady Henrietta’s room, Lady Farcroft, with a voice that carried both strong conviction and a strong hint of authority. “I suggest that we return to our quarters before others become suspicious. Let us meet the midday of the Crestbury fair at the Inn of the Three Hares for a late supper. Hopefully, we will have caught Pedersen by then or confirmed his death. Gowon, engage your Mistress in a causal conversation and find out all you can about this Gylden Sirklene challenge, and anything else Lord and Lady Hadrack know or are planning. The rest of you, do your best to keep the others from going off on their own and messing up any more plans we have in the works.”
The meeting broke up quite swiftly, and Beezle, Captain Gwen, Carz, and I just stood there for a long moment trying to absorb what we had heard. When I felt it was safe to talk, I asked Captain Gwen who Gowon was, and what position he held within the keep.
“Gowon is Lord Hadrack’s head steward and thus one of his most trusted household members. Gowon came with the keep so to speak. Lord Hadrack’s Uncle Jasper held rule here for many years, and when he died, he left no direct heirs. Lord Hadrack’s father was Jasper’s first cousin, and next in line, but unfortunately followed his cousin in death several years later, leaving the keep in the very capable but young hands of his son, our present Lord Hadrack. Gowon was the head steward for Jasper and just continued on. He has hidden his distain well for Lord Hadrack and his father before him. This information is going to come as quite a blow to Lord Hadrack.”
I could hear the sadness in Captain Gwen’s voice and wondered what Lord Hadrack would do with the information, and what would happen to Gowon. Just as I was about to ask that question, Beezle spoke up.
“What will Uncle do, do you think, about Gowon?”
“I suspect that he will do nothing at the moment,” answered Captain Gwen.
“How can he do nothing? He ha
s a traitor in his midst,” Beezle retorted with some heat.
“Think it through with your brain and not so much with your heart, Beezle,” suggested Captain Gwen. “Would arresting Gowon right now be the best way to use the information we just listened to?”
I watched as Beezle puzzled Captain Gwen’s question through.
Taking a deep sighing breath, which he blew out, Beezle answered Captain Gwen. “You are right. I was not thinking with my brain. Arresting Gowon right now would only cause a number of problems. One, a question about how we obtained the information would reveal the secret passages. That would take away a distinct advantage for future listening, not to mention alerting the Regent’s agents that we might know more about their plans than they now think we do. Two, it would expose those of us who were wandering those passages and thus thrust us into some limelight we would just as well avoid. Three, and perhaps most important, sometimes it is to one’s advantage knowing your enemy when he or she does not know you are on to them. Oh, the possibilities of passing on misinformation and gathering information are endless. See, I have been listening and learning from my uncle this summer,” Beezle stated with some pride.
“Indeed you have, indeed you have. That was well thought out. Come, we had best move on, if we are to meet up with your friends on time,” Captain Gwen said.
We moved as quietly through the passages and down the stairway as possible. Suddenly, Captain Gwen held up her hand, stopping us and motioning that we should move deeper into the shadows. She indicated we should be still and listen. She must have heard something.
Chapter Twenty-Six
I found myself holding my breath, thinking if something happened to us down here in this maze of sewers and hidden passages, who would know? Would our remains ever be found? As we stood there listening, I heard the snick of Captain Gwen’s sword being drawn from its sheath. It sounded so loud, I was sure whoever was farther down the passage from us would surely have heard it. Just as I was thinking that, Carz shot forward, and I just missed grabbing his collar and holding him in place. I managed not to call his name or lunge forward to follow him, but it was difficult. I did not know if we should go after him or remain in place. Captain Gwen held her arm out, motioning we should stay put. I listened as hard as I could, but could not hear any growling or snarling on Carz’ part, nor did I hear any screams from whatever had caused him to run off. At least I hoped he had left us to defend us against something rather than merely deserting us.