The High King: A Tale of Alus (27 page)

Alyanna snorted in derision. Her hand snaked to the golden necklace around her throat and tore it to the stone floor. "If you think that your jewels and clothing have bought anyone's respect, then you are deluding yourself, Merrick. Your wealth comes from those you oppress. That is not respectable."

"Humph," he snorted in retort. "And yet you wear them well, Alyanna. Admit it. You enjoy wearing such finery. If I were to take them back, you would cry for their return."

The woman's face turned red with anger. She quickly unfastened the clasps of her beautiful blue dress letting it slip to the floor. Both of her earrings and the tiara in her hair joined the cloth where it lay and then all her bracelets were tossed there as well. Alyanna had not bothered to wear anything beneath the garment and stood defiantly before Merrick with hands on hips. "If you believe that I need these pieces earned from others' blood, then you were sorely mistaken." The woman started back towards the banquet room to prove her words.

Eyes bulging in their sockets and the veins in his temples looking near to bursting in his fury, her husband snagged the woman by her hair and threw her to the ground. Her soft skin made a slapping sound as she met the stone floor. "Velm, Arok, take the queen to her room! Now! If she resists you, you have my permission to strike her. Now get this woman out of my sight!"

Alyanna picked herself up refusing the guards offered hands of assistance. She strode up the stairs with as much dignity as she could muster despite her appearance and the pain from her injury. The queen would not allow herself to cry before these men, especially Merrick. She would wait until safe within the privacy of her room and never give him the luxury.

The High King returned to the banquet and pretended that nothing had ever happened, but already his mind had begun pondering thoughts of revenge. Finally, the proper retaliation was decided. He called aside three of the four gathered generals. The fourth being Terris, the father of his current hatred, was left out.

"Men," he began with his eyes wandering to where Terris spoke to one of the nobles across the room, "I have come to a decision. I think that the queen and her family need to be taught a lesson in humility."

Terris rode through the city to return to the barracks. His new home lay on the far side of the city of Hala this winter. He contemplated how his daughter had looked at the banquet earlier. Her father worried over both her physical health as well as her mental well being. She didn't seem at all like she had been before the forced marriage. The girl looked much more haggard and worn from her time with Merrick despite her beauty. He could tell that she was near total depression.

As a king, he had thought the alliance wise and in all their best interests. As a father, Terris knew that he had failed his daughter and condemned her to a loveless marriage with a despicable man.

A cry for help in the night broke him from his reverie. A woman's voice had called out desperately and he quickly spied a huddle of at least half a dozen men. The general was outnumbered, but mounted atop his war stallion. Without fear, Terris turned his steed towards the trouble. Seeing his speeding approach, the thugs all ran into an alley dragging the woman screaming along with them. His sword was drawn as he entered the tight roadway behind the men.

He never even saw the men who knocked him from his horse. Terris tried to fight off the gang of men who battered at him with clubs and fists until the man was nearly unconscious from the pain.

As they dragged him from the alley, the former king knew himself to be a fool. The king of tricks had fallen for a simple ruse.

The men hauled him through the alleys and streets of Hala. He was unable to cry for help as the woman had earlier having been gagged and bound. Terris was too injured and near senseless besides to try and struggle. When they were safely outside the capitol city's walls, they turned into the grasslands surrounding the city. In a field only a few hundred feet from the great wall, they beat him again. Leaving the general for dead, the gang returned to the city laughing.

As dawn began to light the early morning sky, Terris felt gentle hands lifting him. His eyes were swollen shut. He could see nothing of those taking him. A deep voice whispered, "Don't worry, m' lord. You're in the hands of friends now."

The Cadmene knight strode into the audience chamber two days after the banquet. High Lord Merrick, as he decided to call himself that day, sat with the queen beside him. The vizier noted the unusually thick make-up used to conceal Alyanna's blackened eye. He had also noticed that the girl seemed much more subdued since the banquet night. Krulir knew enough of Merrick's temper to know that it was a situation that he should stay well out of unless asked.

He returned his gaze to the knight, who proclaimed, "High Lord, I have come with grave news."
"Yes, what is it, man?" Merrick asked appearing uneasy with the knight's statement.
"General Terris's horse appeared in camp without him last night. We fear that he has met with foul play. The general never returned the night of the banquet, sire."
"Have you sent out men to search for him, captain?" the high lord questioned grimly.
"Yes, sire."
"And?"
"There has been no other sign of him. If he is slain, the attackers may have buried him anywhere."
A sob of fear brought all eyes onto Alyanna, who ignored them all. Slowly she turned to look at Merrick in horror.
"Don't cry, my dear. We don't know that he is dead for sure, do we?" a malicious glint in his eye was shared with the woman though Krulir caught a glimpse of it as well. "Captain, continue your search. If he is dead, I want to know it for sure. If not, we still need to know what has happened to him."
"Yes, m' lord," the captain gave a last brief look to the queen before leaving the throne room.
"Don't worry yourself, Alyanna," Merrick said turning to his queen and trying to sound sincere. "I am sure that they will find your father soon."
"If you'll excuse me... husband?" the queen whispered. "I do not feel too well right now."
"Of course," he said patting her hand. The woman was too caught up in her worries to see the humor reflected in the lord's eyes, "go rest yourself, my dear."
Krulir also noticed the look of hate come over the High Lord's face as she shuffled away. He knew, as certainly as Alyanna, that Terris would only be seen again as a corpse. Merrick's temper had vented itself in revenge and death once again. The vizier sighed. The elderly man would have felt sorry for the girl, if he hadn't known that having such a feeling would also incur a taste of Merrick's unkind attentions. Krulir could also pretty much rule out that Terris' line would soon become absolutely no threat to the conqueror. The prince would have to be fearful that such an occurrence might end his life now as well.
"Krulir, who is next in line," Merrick asked forgetting the matter easily.

With the return of his brother Simon to his life, Gerid was renewed in spirit, if not fully, at least in part. Within days of their reunion, Simon had convinced his younger sibling to let him handle some of the office duties. Knowing his brother's innate talent for making money, Gerid was not hard to convince. The first thing the older brother did after looking over the shipping logs was to check out the latest haul. They had yet to have the dock masters look at the ships that were not of use for sea warfare. Knowing that they were not in need of their sales financially, Simon asked to keep only a pair of the merchants.

Gerid had been slightly surprised at the request, but had heard his brother's idea out. Simon had decided that they should use the ships to make even more money by using them strictly for shipping. With the contacts that Simon had developed through Yleth Molein and those of his younger brother, he was quickly able to establish several contracts with the local merchants.

With his brother thus occupied, Gerid left matters in his capable hands and took the Vengeance and her two comrades back out to sea. Heading straight into the thick of the Kloste shipping territory, he kept his fleet busy for most of the next month. On his return to Camerton, Gerid had two more merchant ships and a pair of mid-sized warships in his possession. He found the other half of his fleet in port as well. They had been nearly as successful as their commander. Another merchant and a mid-sized pirate laden with treasure were also added to his collection. He paid the crews handsomely from the takings.

The vessels were all kept from the sales block after a conference with Simon and his captains. The merchants joined the fledgling shipping company under Simon, while the three warships were refitted and repaired. With the largest, a scereon holding one hundred and fifty men, named simply Dragon, acting as flagship for the smaller klereon and the ninety man pirate malae, Gerid now had a third unit ready for battle.

During the repairs, Gerid chose to spend some time back at the Holtein farm. On his return, he was able to find Catiya and a pair of nursemaids playing with his son in the garden. The first flowers of spring were in full bloom making the site almost blinding with the colors after the gray, wintery days at sea. Spring had come early to Rhearden as it always did, Gerid thought. The southern continent was at least a month ahead of the seasons in Marshalla.

Picking a bloom from the crimson tremara, Gerid startled the women as the man spoke loudly as he strode along a cobbled path, "So you've decided to make my son into a gardener, eh?"

Putting a hand to her mouth in surprise, Catiya turned to exclaim, "Gerid!" Plucking little Simon from his seat and placing him upon her hip, she moved to greet the father with a one armed hug before passing over his son. The mistress shooed away the nursemaids, who in turn giggled to each other as they guessed the reasons for such a gesture. "I didn't know that you had returned. Have you been given the news yet?"

"I doubt it," he answered shaking his head. "I stepped in the house only long enough to discover where you and Simon were."

The pretty girl, with her sparkling green eyes and warm auburn hair, smiled at the idea that he had come to her so soon, but remaining with her news she exclaimed, "Sama has finally gotten engaged!"

"Really?" Gerid questioned only slightly surprised. Only a moment later and he wondered if Carter was already working to get rid of his youngest child as well.

Nodding with a smile brightening her face, Catiya led him by an arm to a bright, white bench bordering the center, cobble courtyard. She continued happily, "Yes, a merchant's son came calling just after you left. Sama seemed taken by him immediately, and father and mother were also pleased that she was finally pleased. I think that they would have liked him if he had been ugly as a stukboar," she confided. "Anyway they plan to marry at the beginning of summer season. Isn't that just wonderful?"

Smiling he answered, "Sure. I'm glad that Sama finally found someone that she likes, who likes her as well."

Tilting her head and giving him a calculating look, Catiya stated with a small frown, "That was half hearted at best. You don't sound happy about it at all. This is good news, you know? What is wrong? I thought that you liked Sama."

"Oh, I do like her and I'm happy. Truly," Gerid assured her. "I just began to wonder about something. That's all."

The young woman jabbed a finger playfully at his chest. With a wink at him, she asked, "And what were you wondering about, good sir, when we should be celebrating this joyous occasion?"

Blushing slightly in embarrassment, Gerid took a moment before replying, "I was just wondering, if your father had plans of marrying you off soon. Maybe I should ask for your hand as well before he has you married to some nobleman?"

The woman's eyes went wide in surprise. Leaning back slightly, she eyed him once again in her calculating way. "Are you serious? Do you really mean that? I thought that you wanted to go slow, so that you can make peace with the loss of Tabitha? It's such a big step, Gerid."

His wife's name made him wince ever so slightly. Simon gurgled in his arms as he shrugged in resignation. "Why shouldn't we?" the man asked. Shifting Simon's weight to his other arm, he looked at the woman seriously. Her beauty still sent his heart racing, even more so with the long trips away from home, and knowing her heart as well, he knew the answer. "I think that we both know that it is only a matter of time now, Catiya. I've loved you as a friend for so long. I want my wife to be my friend as well as my lover. That was the way it was with Tabitha and I know that it is the same with you." Passing Simon to her, the baby cooed as she smiled happily upon him. "Simon loves you. I love you. You love us. Tabitha would want us to all be happy. I know it. What could be more right, Catiya?"

The woman smiled at him and turned away shyly. Lifting the baby up before her, she tickled him with her nose. Simon giggled happily. Catiya lowered him again and held him protectively to her chest. "I think that father and mother will be the harder ones to convince, don't you? I, on the other hand, am easily enticed by your decision." He smiled and started to lean towards the woman for a kiss. She held up a hand to stop him in his attempt, "However, Gerid, I must protest one thing."

"And that is?"
"I demand a better proposal than `What could be more right'. Get down on those knees, my love, and do it right," she started to laugh.
Gerid nodded, a smile etched deeply into his face. Moving to his knees before her and taking her right hand in his, he began, "Catiya Holtein, most beautiful of women to me, we have loved each other at arms’ length for so long. Would you honor me by becoming my wife, so that I might love you as you should be loved?" He kissed her hand and looked up to see Catiya crying.
She nodded quickly and moved to kiss him passionately.

They had spent the night separately. It was a hard decision due to the strong emotions running through both of them. So with the dawn of morning, Gerid ate a light breakfast before going in search of Carter Holtein. The man was in his office as usual. Gerid found the doors easily enough, but it took several deep breaths and a couple of weak attempts at entering before he finally pushed through with a quick knock on the frame.