The High King: A Tale of Alus (28 page)

The older man was busy looking over documents already despite the early hour. After a quick look to see the intruder, Carter put the papers down to face the young man. "Good morning, Gerid. I’m glad to see you. I was just about to send a servant to find you."

Taken by surprise, the commander asked, "You were?"
"Yes, I had urgent need of you or perhaps I should say the king does."
"The king needs me? Why?" the younger man asked quite confused.
"A messenger delivered the message to come only. He left a roll of parchment with the king's seal for admittance to the very throne room itself. It sounded like this might be a formal order from the king directly." Carter winked slyly at him and added, "I've heard of men receiving such an order and, after performing a certain task, some were made knights. You may be moving up in the world quicker than we thought. First your reputation as a hero, then your fleet and wealth, now...? Who knows?"
Gerid shook his head, "I doubt that, sir. But like you say, it does sound very important. Has the messenger left or do I go alone?"
"He left after dropping the note with me. Now you came to ask me something, did you not?"
Gerid fumbled for the words to say and decided not to try his luck until after meeting the king. "It can wait, sir," he sighed.
The older man shrugged, "If you say so. You had better hurry now. The king doesn't hold audiences all day, after all. When you get back, come let me know how everything went."
Gerid backed out of the room with the scroll and headed towards the back of the house. He found Finneas and had him gather his guardsmen and saddle the horses. By the time Gerid had reached the stables himself, Catiya was there.
"Where are you going in such a hurry? Did father banish you or something?" she asked with half a laugh.
He shook his head, "No, I didn't even get a chance to ask."
"What!" she exclaimed in surprise. "Why not?"
He sighed knowing her disappointment. "I received word from the king by messenger. I need to report to the capitol at once, though I don't know why."
A look of worry reached her face and she stepped forward clutching his arms. "Did my father know what it was about, do you think?"
Giving her a quick hug of assurance, Gerid shook his head and took the reins of his stallion. The rest of his men were forming atop their steeds outside. "If he did, he wouldn't tell me."
The woman seemed to get angry again, "This isn't fair. You couldn't take the time to tell him, so he couldn't have known what you were planning." She stomped her foot in frustration. Looking back at him pleadingly, Catiya asked, "Would it be wrong of me to ask you to go back to my father and ask for my hand?"
Gerid laughed. With one arm, he pulled Catiya into his embrace and kissed her lips fiercely. He chuckled and answered, "Yes, it is wrong, but I love your
determination. Unfortunately, our love will have to wait until after speaking to the king. We could disobey your father's best wishes with less consequences than disobeying the king, my love."
"Are you sure about that?" Catiya grumbled as she watched him mount the horse. Sighing, the woman added, "Hurry back at least?"
He smiled, "As quickly as possible, but I do have one stop to make in town as well."
Her brow furrowed in question, "What stop?"
"I can't tell you, right now. It's a secret."
Catiya crossed her arms and stomped her foot again, "You’re keeping secrets from me already and we're not even officially engaged?"
He wheeled the stallion through the stable doors carefully. "You'll like this surprise, I assure you, but I must go."
Motioning the men ahead of him, Gerid kicked the horse into a canter and started for the road to Camerton. Catiya followed at a walk and watched the riders move quickly out of sight.
The castle's tall walls of gray stone had been painted white to appear gleaming in the day's light. That had been done years before and now the coating had begun to wear away or to flake in areas revealing the gray in spots and patches. Still the sheer strength of the stone shielding the king of Rhearden was awe inspiring to Gerid and his companions. The looming outer gates appeared equally daunting since they were nearly fourteen feet high and made of foot thick oak braced with bars of tempered iron. The sight seemed to have become easily dismissed by those who lived near the walls but, as they approached, Gerid still had to nod in admiration.
The trip into the city had taken a couple of hours of hard riding for him to complete. By the time they had arrived there, Camerton was wide awake and bustling with activity in its streets and markets. They had picked up Simon at his office and proceeded as quickly as possible to the castle. It had been a bit of a struggle getting there. The traffic nearer the castle had proven lighter than that of the outer streets of the city proper, but already the lines to enter the main gates were quite long. Recognizing that there had to be a better way than this, Gerid sent Simon to find one of the guards. Being a holder of the king's letter proved to have the power to move them through as he had hoped.
Simon returned with one of the guards and led Gerid and Finneas away from the main gate. The rest of his men had stayed with the horses or gone on other errands for Gerid making the party small enough to move quickly through the building crowds. Taking them around a turn of the outer wall, they soon found a much smaller gatehouse. The guard knocked and a second guard opened the door for them.
The second guard looked up at the giant form of Gerid in amazement, before remembering his duty to check the paper in his hand. He quickly waved them inside as several other citizens noted the opening and began to stride purposefully forward thinking to request entry.
Once inside the first wall, the three were forced to pause and note the second inner wall. A space of about one hundred and fifty feet separated each wall from the other, but the second wall had been built about twenty feet higher than its already impressive outer sibling. Gerid knew that should an enemy breach the outer wall, the fighting would be far from over. Defending archers would have free rein to send wave after wave of their deadly projectiles into their attackers.
They turned and walked a hundred feet in a diagonal path to the next interior gate. Looking up again, Gerid could guess how deadly nearly doubling the gate run’s distance would prove to an enemy. He wondered who would possibly dare to attack such defenses.
Inside the second wall, they crossed through a magnificent garden. The colors of early spring lit up with the morning light. There was still planting to be done for the season, but the plants surrounding a small, crystal, clear pond were already quite impressive. It made that of the Holtein's pale in comparison unfortunately, he thought.
Their sightseeing was cut short as they were introduced to the castle proper. There they were forced to wait in a foyer for nearly half an hour. When Gerid was finally called, a man clad in a long, crimson robe led the men down a long hallway culminating with the open doors to the throne room.
Gerid's gaze quickly found the king atop his dais and was surprised by the sight of the man. The king seemed quite tiny to him. King Colona stood maybe five feet tall and was very thin of frame. He did have a thick head of hair and a neatly trimmed beard of near black. His clothing did little to proclaim his kingliness either. They were unremarkable except for their color perhaps. Colona wore a simple purple tunic and dark blue leggings unadorned except near the collar where a thin band of gold highlighted his neck. The only thing that truly separated the man from the others was the circlet of gold and diamonds crowning his head.
King Colona noticed the commander’s entrance quickly as well and his eyes widened. "So you are the famed warrior Gerid Aramathea? I've heard that your strength is even greater than your giant size would have one believe. Your privateering exploits of only a half a year's work are already legendary as well. That is the reason I have called you here today.
"You have served the kingdom in many ways already. The taking of the pirates' weapons known as god’s fist cannon will definitely give us an edge in upcoming battles, I'm sure. My sorcerers and alchemists are still trying to determine the exact nature of the black powder they used, but once that is known we will begin building them to outfit our fleets." He eyed the giant scrupulously, "You haven't learned the mixture yet have you perhaps?"
"No, your majesty, the pirates that we've captured had no answers to give.. They claim to simply use it without knowing its nature. Several of them went to your dungeons to meet your interrogators and I've heard that nothing has been learned yet."
The king's head sank disappointedly onto his balled fist. "I was hoping that we might have the formula as an extra bargaining chip, but it probably won't matter much anyway." Colona stood up from the throne and stepped down the three stairs of the dais. He motioned Gerid to rise from his mandatory kneeling position before the throne. Realizing the height difference immediately as the man craned his neck upward, King Colona stepped back onto the lowest stair and continued, "I have two things to ask of you, commander. First, I have this document that I wish to have you deliver to the king of Tseult. You'll need to wait for the reply to my message before returning here with it. If you come across any of Kloste's ships, you have my permission to continue doing as you have, but if things take a turn for the worse, you must protect the letter. It is most important that it be delivered safely. Understand?"
"Of course, your majesty."
"Good, then the second task, is to find a way to get the answers about the pirates' explosive formula. My sorcerers have managed to devise a much weaker substitute that may work, but if you could bring us the real thing...?" the king left the implications unsaid. Clasping his hands, the king brought his hands in a point to his chin as if thinking. "I do have a suggestion for your course of action. The interrogators have learned that these pirates have created confederations or families like small nations. Each family has taken a certain island or city as a base. I have sent small fleets to the Quardi islands and to Famir, but the islands were too well defended. Ironically, it is their cannons that kept us from closing too near. If you can find a way to reach the islands, I'm sure that you could find the answers there."
The king nodded happily to himself and retook his seat atop the throne. "I think that is enough to think about, after all, you are a privateer. You do much of this for a living. You are dismissed, but remember that I need word from Tseult as soon as possible. Do not dally, Mister Aramathea."
King Colona turned away from them as if they were forgotten and began conferring with his aides. Gerid nodded to his companions and they left.
Once they were away from the castle and back on the streets, Finneas spoke his mind, "Kind of assuming about all of this, isn't he? This will wind up setting back your plans as well won't it, my lord?"
Gerid groaned, "Oh, please, Finneas don't call me that. I'm either Gerid or commander, not a lord. But back to your question, I think that this will do no damage to my plans. You heard him say that we could hurt the Klostens as much as we want on the way. I think that we'll have to take the whole fleet with us to get to Tseult,
unfortunately, but, once we are back in Rhearden's waters again, we can separate for a few weeks before checking out the islands. The only things that may get delayed are my plans to marry Catiya."
Both men stopped in their tracks stunned.
"What?" Simon asked of his younger brother and spun him back to face him. "You're going to marry Catiya already? Why didn't you tell me of this? Has she said yes?"
"She has," he nodded, "but I was interrupted before I could formally ask Carter for her hand."
Simon let out a low whistle and shook his head. "Yeah, that could be a problem all right. Isn't Sama getting married this summer coming up already? Carter may have reservations about trying to give two weddings in one year."
"That and the question of my having been a slave, even if it was only for a short time. I could always pay for a wedding or just marry quietly. I wasn't truly worried about that." The young man sighed and shook his head. "Well, this isn't getting anything accomplished, is it? I have an errand to run in the city. I need you two to alert the captains to prepare for a joint trip to Tseult. Tell them to meet aboard the Raven to discuss matters tomorrow. I'll talk to you two back at Holtein's, if you'll come visit tonight, Simon?"
"Of course. Good luck, little brother," Simon replied as they separated to go their various ways.
"I may need it," Gerid laughed harshly and rounded the far corner.

It was very late in the afternoon by the time Gerid returned home to face Carter. His two stops in the city had taken some time and travel was only so quick by horseback. Before going to talk to Carter, he made sure to call for one of the maids to have her put a bouquet of flowers (a mixture of the red tremara and the golden dodera that he knew Catiya favored) into a vase of water before they spoiled. He pocketed the other gift and went to the study where Carter Holtein spent so much of his time.

The door stood closed and the suitor was forced to knock. Carter appeared surprised to find the young man before him, "Back so soon? I hadn't meant that you had to rush to tell me of your meeting with the king. Has something serious happened?"

Gerid closed the door behind the two of them and followed the older man inside. Carter looked at him with curiosity and the younger man squirmed slightly beneath his intent stare. "The king has given me a mission as you thought, sir. It will take my entire fleet and perhaps three or four months time to fulfill it completely." Gerid stopped as he thought about his next words.

The other man held his tongue waiting for the worry to be revealed. Seeing Gerid still musing, the master of the house gestured to one of the chairs before the desk. "Sit down and tell me what is on your mind, Gerid. You can tell me. I won't tell any of your secrets as you know."

Shaking his head, Gerid started to pace uncomfortably. He stopped and fumbled for the gift in his pocket. Flipping a small box to Carter, he said, "It isn't a secret that needs to be held, at least not for long I hope."

The older man held the box before his eyes a moment, before opening it. With a small pop, the box flipped open to reveal the glitter of an engagement ring. Carter's eyes narrowed slightly and he sighed. "Who is this for, Gerid?"