Kings Of The North Part 6

They heard noises coming from the third exit and Dorrin quickly drew her sword, but the dust-streaked men who came out wore palace livery, including an officer of the Royal Guard. "This pa.s.sage comes out in the saddler's room in the old stables," he said. "It's illegal to build or maintain secret ways into the palace grounds. Who's in charge here?"

"I am," Dorrin said. "Duke Verrakai."

He blinked at her, apparently not recognizing the Duke he'd seen in formal court clothes in the mercenary captain's garb.

"And I," the Marshal-General said, "am Marshal-General Arianya. We just found this pa.s.sage and sent your patrol back to you, suspecting where it might lead."

"How long have you been in this house?" the officer said, glaring at Dorrin.

Dorrin had to think-two days before the coronation, then that, and then today-"Less than a hand of days," she said.

"And you didn't know-"

"I was summoned here for the coronation," Dorrin said. "I had duties at the palace."

"Oh. And you had not been here before?"

"Never."

"Well, you'll have to have that pa.s.sage closed up. We have secured our end; I must see this end secured."

"We have three exits to seal," Dorrin said. "A temporary seal, to start with. On Marshal-Judicar Oktar's recommendation, I'll have some of these dividing walls pulled down and piled into the pa.s.sages and then stone laid into the exits."

"I suppose that will do," he said. "I'll have to talk to the Marshal-er...that would be you, wouldn't it?"

"Right," Oktar said. "Never mind; we're all confused by this. Duke Verrakai lost a man today in a trap in this very cellar. I'd recommend you post guards down here. The Duke doesn't have the resources right now, and the safety of your king demands it."

"Post guards in a private house? We don't usually-"

"It would be a great help," Dorrin said. She had not thought of that, had wondered how her remaining four militia could possibly guard the cellar, the front, the back...

"Would you want any a.s.sistance upstairs?"

"If you could post someone at the front door," Dorrin said. "My people are understandably upset at Jori's death. He and Eddes were close friends; Eddes saw how he died. But my concern is that the cellar may not be completely safe. These Marshals and I have done what we can in a half-day's time, but poor Jori's death..."

"How did he die?"

"He thought an illusion was real and walked off the landing up there." Dorrin pointed. "He fell into that trap."

The officer shuddered. "And you think there might be more?"

"Not that we know of. But again-not until I have had this taken apart to the outermost walls, and those walls carefully examined, can I be sure it's free of danger."

"My lord! The chickens are ready!" Efla sounded more like Cook every day.

Dorrin's stomach growled. She was suddenly ravenous. "If you can watch down here even the turn of a gla.s.s, I can offer the Marshals some supper."

"You haven't eaten? It's late."

Dorrin felt the last of her energy running out as if she were the hourgla.s.s. "We've been busy. Excuse me," she said. "I need to go back upstairs."

Despite the stuffed rolls Inder had brought and the two baked chickens, it was a somber group around the kitchen table for supper. A faint odor of death seeped through the house along with the sharp fragrance of herbs. The two local Marshals went back to their own granges. The Marshal-General and Marshal-Judicar stayed, but the talk was all of Jori: things Dorrin knew and things the others knew from the days before she became Duke.

"He had this girl," Gani said. "From the same village and all. Pretty, she was, but then one of the lord's sons saw her, and that was that."

"There was the time he lost his badge, remember?" Perin said. "You wouldn't know this, m'lord, but the old duke-that-was, he'd have the hide off a man's back for losing anything he provided, badge most of all. And Jori was sure he'd left it on the ledge in the bathhouse and someone tooken it. He even quarreled with Eddes about it."

Eddes swallowed and took up the story. "But it was Kir, really. Kir went off with them as fought the Fox-the king-that time and never come back. Anyway, he took Jori's badge and threw it to that dog-the brindle mastiff the old duke had-to get Jori in trouble. I saw it in the kennel; the kennel man, he hadn't seen it yet. Jori and me, we stole some meat and baited the dog, but it left tooth marks on the badge, and Jori was punished, just not as bad."

Jori had been, it seemed, the b.u.t.t of many jokes, apparently because his girl had ended up in the Duke's son's bed. Dorrin felt sick at yet more evidence of her family's cruelty, and yet she had always known. Why hadn't she, in adulthood, told someone? Even Kieri? As a duke, perhaps he could have forced an investigation into Verrakai practices. If others had known, it could have been stopped sooner.

She had little appet.i.te after that thought and sat waiting while the others finished.

"Is the chicken too dry, m'lord? I did it just like Cook taught me-"

"The chicken's fine, Efla." Dorrin forced herself to eat the last of it. "I'm not as hungry as I thought."

After supper, all of Dorrin's people except Jaim, who refused, went to see Jori one last time. Eddes and Efla broke down, sobbing; the other three stood a few minutes and then walked out. When they had all left, the yeomen of the burial guild wrapped Jori's head until nothing could be seen but the white strips of cloth. Dorrin waited until it was done and then, as the Marshal-Judicar had quietly suggested, gave Kosa a Tsaian gold coin wrapped in a white cloth as a grange-gift.

Before she left, the Marshal-General took Dorrin aside from the others. "Do not take this amiss," she said, "but because of your family, no Marshal-General-no High Marshal, even-has visited your family's domain for a very long time. With your permission, I would accompany you eastward-meet with any Girdsmen in Verrakai lands, and perhaps-if some evil still lingers-be of a.s.sistance." Dorrin said nothing for a moment, and the Marshal-General went on. "It is not out of suspicion of you yourself, not now. But you are one alone and cannot be everywhere all the time." She smiled. "And as Paksenarrion is there, perhaps she will ride back with me to Fin Panir to see the necklace."

Dorrin shook off the heavy grief she felt for Jori's death. "Of course you can come, Marshal-General." How many, she wondered, would the Marshal-General bring along?

"I travel light," the Marshal-General said. "And since I'll be with you, I need no other escort."

Dorrin blinked in surprise, but the Marshal-General waved a farewell and went out into the night.

At first light, four more yeomen in the burial guild appeared out of the fog. Dorrin had all her people up and dressed in their best; at the Marshal-General's recommendation, she wore court semidress. After days of clear skies, the fog felt chilly and dank. It seemed appropriate. The burial guild carried Jori's corpse, and the others followed. At the grange, Marshal Tamis waited for them, then led the way out of the city. Guards at the south gate let them through. The fog thinned, and a thin drizzle started. Tamis went down the road Dorrin had ridden so often, then turned aside to the west. Dorrin estimated they walked another ladygla.s.s, wetter every step, until they arrived at a field set off with white stones. Two yeomen stood beside an open grave.

Dorrin had seen Marshals in Aarenis but had not paid much attention to the details of the funerals. Now, as the burial guild folded the pall and handed it to her, lifted Jori's body reverently, and eased it into the grave, she felt an unexpected comfort.

Over the next few days, Dorrin talked to the peers she'd met, asking what troops they'd been a.s.sessed and how they were raising and training them. Not entirely to her surprise, she found that many peers ignored their military obligations. "I will send troops if there's a war," one said, "but I see no reason to hold men out of the fields to fight in a time of peace. Besides, the Fox always had more than enough."

The dukes did better but, with their responsibilities at court, left the raising and training of troops to their militia captains. Only a few of those had been to war, though the dukes considered them knowledgeable about handling troops in drill and field.

"Well?" the king said when she came to report her progress so far. "Are they as unprepared as I suspected?"

"It depends what you expect to face," Dorrin said. "Here's a list of those who admit they haven't drilled their troops in the past year. The escorts they brought with them are household only. This other list is those who have some kind of regular training program, though I don't know if it's actually followed."

"You don't trust the word of your fellow peers?"

"Sir King..." Dorrin hesitated, then went on. "I do not know the others well enough to know if they are trustworthy and diligent or not. I've been impressed by many of them. Others...but I could misjudge them in the atmosphere of the coronation, all the festivities..."

He held up his hand, and she waited. "Dorrin, you of all my peers have both long military experience and recent evidence that this realm, long at peace, may not be as safe as we always supposed. As I supposed, anyway, during my years as a prince. The Pargunese crossed the river for the first time in living memory-with collusion from here, yes-but what they did once they might do again on their own. Arcolin's reports, as you know, indicate the south is even more unsettled than immediately after Siniava's War. My ancestors came up that road. Why would not someone else follow if they perceived the north as holding riches they desired? And if he believes he is heir to the Kings of Old Aare..."

No. You are. The voice of the regalia tingled in her head; she felt almost faint; her vision darkened.

"Dorrin? Are you all right?"

"I am well," Dorrin said. The regalia had not spoken to her since she had laid the ring in the royal treasury-why now? She forced herself to concentrate. "I do not see that Alured would try to invade the north unless he had already subdued the south. Stealing treasure is one thing; mounting an invasion is another thing entirely. Have you had a new report from Arcolin?"

"Yes. Rumors that the Guild League will fail are all over the south, he said. Tavern gossip, market gossip: that the cities are debasing their own currency, that the Guild League cities cannot keep merchants safe on the roads. He says the cities are not-as far as he can tell-debasing their coinage, but counterfeits are imported by merchants under Alured's control. He captured one such."

"Alured was never stupid," Dorrin said. "And that makes him all the more dangerous."

"So he might decide to invade?"

"I still think he would need to conquer the south. Even if he succeeds, that will take more than a year. More likely longer."

"Read his letters," the king said. He opened his letter box and handed her scrolls covered with Arcolin's familiar script.

Dorrin read through them swiftly, more familiar with Arcolin's turns of phrase and the logic of his thought than the king could be. South of Vonja, trying to interdict brigand bands that weren't simple brigands-with a single cohort? Her lips pursed. That would be difficult; he might be taking high losses if the brigands were as numerous as he indicated. She saw none of the phrases they'd used as codes in the Duke's Company. Well, he wasn't writing to her, after all, and if he had such codes with the king, she would not know them.

"Why did he take only one cohort south?" she asked.

"That's what Phelan told him, on the basis of what the Regency Council had told him him. And that's what he asked when he came with that one cohort. It meant having two in the north, in case of more trouble there."

"One's not enough. He'll need more next year."

"He'll have yours," the king said.

"Yes," Dorrin said, without enthusiasm. Her Phelani cohort had been invaluable so far; losing them would make her rule harder.

"When are they going back?" the king asked. Dorrin had the uncomfortable feeling he knew how reluctant she was to let them go.

"I'm not sure," Dorrin said. "I will need to talk to Arcolin-and to Selfer, their captain now."

"You know he's coming to Autumn Court. I expect you, too."

"Of course, Sir King."

"Now-do you have a better idea what resources we have and what we might need?"

"By the list of services owed the Crown, you should be able to raise three thousand troops from your n.o.bles. You have no need for that many-which is convenient, since I doubt you could field more than a thousand in any reasonable time."

"A thousand..."

"In another two tendays, another thousand. Eventually you would have them all, but it might be a half-year before they were sufficiently trained to be of much use."

"My lords-"

"Are loyal, Sir King, but in a time of peace few prepare well for war. And consider-as a duke, I'm supposed to provide four hundred myself and have two hundred in regular training. Right now I can't. Almost all who would have been my troops were killed or wounded in my uncle's treasonous attack on Kieri Phelan last winter. I was hoping to hire two cohorts-half my requirements-from whoever took over Kieri's domain. But if Arcolin needs them, I'll have to look elsewhere. What you do have, that your present planning does not consider, is the direct contribution of trained troops from the Fellows.h.i.+p."

The king frowned. "But most of our troops are Girdish-aren't they?"

"That's part of the problem, Sir King. Most of this realm is Girdish, so adults are already enrolled in granges and bartons, where they train as foot soldiers using basic weapons. Your lords are supposed to train them as well, in units related to the size of their domains, but that means more time taken from whatever work their people do. It's very easy to think-especially for those who have never seen war-that their people get enough training through the Fellows.h.i.+p. But Girdsmen in the grange system are under command of Marshals, not their feudal lords, and they have little time to train in groups-five or six granges together-with the weapons they'd be using against well-armed foreign troops."

"What do you recommend?"

"A major change in how your defenses are organized, based on Girdish-trained troops-it will require integrating grange and feudal training, with the possibility that yeomen would be commanded in the field by their lords, not by Marshals. I'm not sure how it would work, but an agreement with the granges would give you access to many more troops-and better-trained troops-than you presently have."

"Would you have to convince every Marshal?"

"Not if I can convince the Marshal-General. She's not Tsaian, of course, and she's not sworn fealty to you, but she might work with you on this. You're Girdish, after all. Your family has long supported the Fellows.h.i.+p here."

Duke Marrakai stopped Dorrin on her way out of the palace that same day. He looked perfectly healthy now, as if he'd never had an injury. "I'm wondering whether you've considered taking squires," he said. "I know other peers are planning to propose their sons to you, but I exercised a little persuasion so I could be the first to ask. I have a situation, you see."

"A situation?"

"Well, perhaps you noticed that although there are girls in training to become Knights of the Bells, you never see them as anyone's squire. There's a feeling that girls of that age should be home with their families. They can train with the local grange, or even here for knighthood, but they're just not chosen as squires. They need a woman's guidance, is one thing people say. The girls don't much like it, but there you are. Now, you've commanded women in battle; you know all the things that young women get into, I daresay. And I have a daughter-"

"You'd trust your daughter to me me?" Dorrin said, shocked into saying exactly what she thought.

His brows went up. "Is there any reason I shouldn't? You saved my life and the king's. My daughter is precious to me, of course."

"I-I'm honored," Dorrin said. "But you know a squire's tasks are both onerous and sometimes dangerous-"

"She's gone up the ranks in our local grange," Marrakai said. "She'd be yeoman-marshal if I'd agreed to it, but she has family responsibilities. She's too young to enter the Bells, and she's too old to stay home without a lot of...um...drama. A dose of reality from someone else is what she needs right now. She's not as volatile as Aris was when we sent him to Fin Panir-she's between him and Juris in age. But I will not press, if you object-"

"I had not thought of taking anyone as squire, to be honest, but also to be honest, it would be a great help to have some trustworthy a.s.sistant when Selfer goes back to Arcolin, as I'm sure he will."

"a.s.sistants, not just one, if you'll take my advice. You have a large domain and-pardon me for mentioning it-you seem unsure, which is understandable. Do you, for instance, have a capable and trustworthy steward?"

"No," Dorrin said. "The one I had was a Liartian and attacked me. Most of my people are ignorant and still frightened; they were never allowed much autonomy. Well, except for the cook." She grinned, remembering that stalwart woman and the kitchen she ruled.

"Then let me recommend you take several of the squires you're offered. My daughter is, though I say it as her father, honest, brave, and kind. Sonder's son Beclan is the same, though perhaps a little spoiled, being the king's cousin; Sonder's going to ask you if you'll take him. I'd send you Aris as well, except the king wants him here to companion Camwyn, and it's probably best not to hand you two of my offspring at once."

"And who else?"

"I think Serrostin and Kostvan may both ask you-but I don't know how many you are willing to take. The king wants Roly Serrostin here-they're good friends, and Roly's the one who saved him and my son Juris from Haron. But Roly's younger brother Daryan is just as pleasant a lad as Roly. The Serrostins are all steady and mild-mannered. I'm not sure which of his sons Kostvan's thinking of. If you don't take one, I probably will."