Queen of Sorrows--Part Three, Chapter Eleven

[Evie]

Previous chapter: https://rhemuthcastle.com/index.php/topic,3496.0.html


Chapter Eleven

June 19th, 1465
The Palace at Horthánthy
The rooftop gardens
Afternoon

Lord Davorin stood atop the Palace at Horthánthy at the summit of Zöldhegy, the Great Hill of Orsal, holding a spyglass to survey the seas below. He was stymied by the scene he saw before him.

The Hortic fleet, or at least the part of it that was designated to protect the Île d'Orsal rather than the Tralian mainland's coastal areas, dutifully patrolled the perimeter of the island summer capital, keeping a safe distance from both the rocky shores of the Île and the Corwyner fleet, creating a protective blockade around the island, but thus far not engaging with the foreign interlopers. How much more provocation were his idiotic admirals waiting for? He wanted the Gwyneddan ships gone, fired upon if they refused to retreat, hulled and sunk until the Southern Sea was littered with their riddled timbers if need be!

He walked around the large rooftop garden, studying the seascape from a variety of angles. Once he reached the opposite side of the building that overlooked the sloped side of Zöldhegy and the winding pathway to the port town below, he saw another bewildering sight. A flotilla of smaller boats appeared to be making their way towards the mainland, far more leaving the Île d'Orsal than returning to port. As he trained his spyglass on that puzzling sight, he realized to his dismay that they appeared to be the smaller fleet of Corps Phénix ships that had put in to Horthánthy mere days ago. Where did they think they were going?!

He walked back towards the building's entrance. "Where is Jacques Gaultier?" he asked his newly promoted Captain of the Guard.

"Where is who, Your Hortic Majesty?" the man asked.

"The leader of the Jouvian mercenaries! Sweet Jesu, man, they've been underfoot for days now! Keep up!" 

"Oh, him!" the guard replied, looking nervous at being reprimanded. "He...um...said something about collecting his pay...."

"Bloody swiving hell!" Davorin yelled as a bright flicker in the distance caught his eye. He ran to the railed edge of the rooftop garden, straining to see the source more clearly before belatedly remembering he still held the spyglass. Lifting it to his eye, he let out a string of blistering curses. "It's the Royal Exchequer. Send the Palace Guard out at once! Apprehend every member of the Corps that you can find!"

#

June 19th, 1465
The mouth of the Thuria River
A sailing ship
Afternoon

Jacques Gaultier was fed up with the preening peacock in Horthánthy. His men had been called in to do a job, and while they might not have managed to achieve every one of their goals, they had put in a fair effort. It had not been entirely their fault that the Hortic Realm's Lord Regent had escaped them. He had not been warned beforehand that the man was Deryni. A Deryni nobleman who was a scion of the royal von Horthy bloodline, no matter how distantly related, was almost certainly in possession of at least one portal at his primary residence. At least that portal had almost certainly been rendered non-functional once his men had left Nouveau Richemont, as was the residence itself.

His scouts had informed him that a fleet of ships had been sighted in Beldouria heading towards the Southern Sea. He had a fair idea of where they were likely headed. Davorin's pay wasn't nearly generous enough to induce him and his men into fighting a damn war with three kingdoms! And certainly not now, when his own overlord required his services. He'd lost enough of his men in this Tralian tyrant's folly.

At any rate, he had fulfilled all of the objectives that his true master had sent him out to do. The former Hort, that thorn in the side to Jouvian ambitions, was now dead, his realm was in uproar, and all eyes were turned towards Horthánthy rather than Trebaçeaux and its environs. Those were the primary goals as far as he was concerned. Everyone was too busy watching Lord Davorin's machinations to notice that Renier and his pretty Héritière had gone missing. They too would serve their own special purposes for his master. This puffed-up jackass with pretensions of being the next Hort could go swing in the breeze as far as Jacques was concerned.

The so-called Lord Protector of Orsal and Tralia had threatened to only pay only a portion of what had been promised because the job hadn't been done to his exacting specifications, saying they would only receive the rest once the job was properly done. Ha! Well, they'd taken their fair share from one of the larger trove rooms of the Royal Treasury of Horthánthy. He'd like to have taken more–there were other treasuries in Orsalis as well–but time was of the essence. The Comte d'Auburgy needed him back in Joux.

He was still silently fuming when one of his men called his attention to the Gwyneddan ship that had turned into the mouth of the Thuria behind them, closing the distance between them.

#

June 19th, 1465
Rhemuth Castle
The King's withdrawing room
Afternoon

Master James Bannatyne, Royal Physician and Healer to the King of Gwynedd, finished his psychic examination of the young girl before him. He withdrew from Princess Rezza's mind completely after double and triple checking his work.

"That was extremely cunningly set, Your Majesties," he informed his King and the Hortic Queen. "I very nearly missed seeing what she'd done myself."

"What has Jesaminda done to my daughter?" Miranda asked, looking ready to strangle her brother's Healer if the answer was not immediately forthcoming.

"I think it would be simpler for me to just Show you both," said Healer James. "And that would help you see what signs to watch out for should you ever encounter this sort of mind-tampering in future. Though let's hope you won't. I'll have to give Lord Davorin's daughter this; she was an extremely subtle and skilled practitioner of magic."

He Mind-Shared his discoveries to them both, showing the royal siblings both where and how he had detected the very subtle signs of mental tampering and also giving them a glimpse of how it was meant to work. "I can't be entirely certain how Lady Jesaminda would have received the images of what your daughter was seeing, but my guess is that she used some sort of scrying crystal to view whatever was happening through Her Highness's eyes whenever she wanted to peek in on what was happening in the princess's immediate vicinity. She could also listen in on conversations by that means, if she had sufficient focus on the link between them, though the auditory link would have been more difficult to maintain."

"That's a diabolical thing to do to an innocent child!" The King's lips grew taut with anger. He glanced at his sister. "Do you think that was Lady Jesaminda's idea, or Lord Davorin's?"

"Does it really matter?" Miranda asked. After a moment's thought, she added, "It feels more like something Jesaminda would do of her own volition, but I have little doubt she did it for her father's benefit just as much as her own." Looking back at the Healer, she asked, "Were you able to Heal the damage? Or is it the sort of vulnerability that can be exploited again in future, if someone else were to discover it exists?" She fought down a surge of fear for her daughter.

"It could have been, yes, but Lady Jesaminda's death severed the link between her and Princess Rezza, and I have made further alterations within the princess's mind to ensure such a link can't be remotely reactivated in future."

"Can't be remotely reactivated?! Does that mean someone might be able to reactivate it if she were to fall into the wrong hands?" Miranda asked sharply.

"Only in the same way in which the link was activated to begin with, which could have happened with any impressionable and unprotected mind that fell into an unscrupulous Deryni's hands, not just your daughter's," the Healer clarified. "Though if it helps, as your daughter continues to get older and grows into her powers, her natural shielding continues to get stronger. Already her shields are at least twice as strong as they would have been at the tender age she was when this tampering was done. Until she comes into her full power, you can reinforce her developing shields. I saw you had already added some reinforcement, but as I mentioned earlier, Lady Jesaminda was extremely skilled in this form of magic, and the princess's very young age at the time made her mind exceptionally vulnerable even despite the additional protection. Tell me, has she had her Naming Ceremony yet? That can also confer a certain amount of protection."

"She hasn't yet," Miranda admitted. "None of the children have. I wanted to Name Rezza two years ago, but the Hort seemed oddly reluctant to do it yet. He wanted to wait a few more years until she got closer to being ready for training. It seemed strange to me that he wouldn't want to do it sooner, but I know different Kingdoms sometimes hold different practices when it comes to Deryni traditions."

"They do," the Healer said, "but it might also be that Lady Jesaminda had exerted some form of control or at least mental influence over the late Hort as well. Have you ever seen any signs that that might have been the case?"

"Too many to count," Miranda said. "And yet nothing I could produce absolute proof of cause for that would point to Jesaminda."

"Lord Jourdain might have found such proof," the King said. "Or so he seems to have hinted at in his last contact with his father, although he died before he could share anything more concrete. However, since Adémar and Jesaminda are both dead now, the point has become moot."

#

June 19, 1465
The Town of Horthánthy
An inn near the port
Late evening

Lord Geoffrey Arilan had been to the Palace at Horthánthy before, but never under quite these circumstances. However, his previous explorations of the Hort's luxurious fortress had given him a few ideas on how he and his companion might be able to gain entry without calling attention to themselves.

Geoffrey had had a very busy couple of days already. After the emergency meeting with his King and Lord Alexei Petrovich's equally urgent summoning of the Camberian Council to discuss the same emergent matters, Lord Geoffrey had made his way towards the Duchy of Bočna as quickly as he could arrange, stopping beforehand in Rhemuth only long enough to update the King's information and receive a few additional orders from him, as well as official approval for plans he had made already. There was one other person he had requested permission to bring with him. She, in turn, had agreed to the King's request under the condition that her part of the mission was only to be conducted under terms that she was allowed to set, not Lord Geoffrey. That had chafed a bit, but Geoffrey had reluctantly acquiesced to the demand.

They had learned much valuable information at Bočna, including the happy realization that they would not need to make a detour to Lady Marija's dacha along the way back towards Horthánthy. Geoffrey had initially selected Bočna as a destination for three reasons. The first, because the Duke was known to be a kinsman-by-marriage to the Lord Regent and therefore would likely have a vested interest in seeing Lord Davorin's coup overthrown and his brother-by-marriage restored to his rightful place as the new Hort's Regent. Geoffrey had been charged with offering Bočna the King's official support in any opposing moves the Duke chose to make against Lord Davorin and the Corps Phénix mercenaries he had hired. The second, because the duchy of Bočna was known to be close to Lady Marija's dacha, which was the only clue that Geoffrey had as to its exact location. Fortunately, searching for the dacha had turned out to be needless, as the ladies he had intended to try to rescue had already made their way to the protection of the Duke's castle on their own.

His third reason for choosing to go to Bočna first was that Duke Matej Adamović was one of the three Tralian lords who had been selected by the late Hort to be part of the Ruling Council governing the Kingdom of Joux since the previous autumn, when King Renier's sudden apoplexy had made it impossible for him to rule his kingdom on his own. At the emergency Royal Council, Geoffrey had learned that the Duke had been called back to Tralia suddenly upon hearing of the attack on his brother-by-marriage, Comte Réhon-Rogan. That had occurred prior to King Renier's disappearance and that of his Héritière, Queen Alixa. While these were concerns the Duke could certainly spare little time for at the moment, they were rather vital pieces of information for Duke Matej to know once the more personally pressing matters in Horthánthy had been settled. Geoffrey suspected that the coup in Tralia and the events in Joux were somehow connected, so he wanted to gain whatever insights he could from a man who was intimately acquainted with the current situation in the Kingdom of Joux.

It was by means of his renewed acquaintance with the Duke of Bočna that Geoffrey had managed to make the acquaintance of Comte Réhon-Rogan at the brief seaside parlay earlier that morning. It was through the Comte that Geoffrey had acquired even more vital information that he could use in his mission tonight in Horthánthy, including the identity of a man secretly loyal to the Comte who might be able to gain him access to Lord Davorin.

And that brought Lord Geoffrey back here to the Hortic Summer Capital, awaiting nightfall.

He had stopped by an inn close to Horthánthy Port an hour earlier. The Regent had informed him that he should make inquiries there as to whether a small shipment of goods had been dropped off at the inn earlier in the week for a man by the name of János. It would be difficult to find a more common Tralian name than János, the Lord Regent had assured him with a subtle twinkle in his eye. It was possible that more than one such delivery had been received there; if Lord Geoffrey seemed trustworthy enough to them, they might invite him into their storeroom to identify the package. That would give him the opportunity to tell them in private who it was that he sought. If they decided they could trust him with the requested information, they would make the necessary arrangements for him to meet the Regent's loyal man at the Palace, or if that couldn't be arranged, suggest other alternatives.

That part of the plan would depend on Geoffrey being able to win over the innkeeper's trust in the absence of the Lord Regent being in Horthánthy to personally vouch for him. Still, he had little to lose in making the attempt. Unlike some others in the port town, at least the innkeeper and his staff could be counted on not to turn him over to Lord Davorin once they discovered what it was he was asking from them.

Lord Geoffrey trusted the Lord Regent, or at least he trusted him as much as he could trust anyone whom others he trusted had vouched for but whose information he could not personally verify. Yet under the current political climate in Horthánthy, he had felt it might be more prudent to leave at least one or two of his playing cards hidden. He'd stopped his companion a few feet before reaching the arched entrance to the inn courtyard. "Wait here," he whispered. "If I'm not back out in the next half hour, notify the King, then proceed as planned."

"Unless he orders otherwise?" she'd replied. She might have altered her appearance to her equally familiar guise of Cillian of Llyr upon their arrival in Horthánthy, but that had still been Saoirse's skeptical expression he had seen in Cillian's eyes.

Geoffrey had not answered. He'd half suspected that if anything were to happen to him, the King would immediately call Saoirse back to Rhemuth, not wishing to endanger the less experienced intelligencer's safety. Geoffrey, for his part, had privately hoped that in the event that were to happen, Saoirse would choose to continue the mission instead. She was, after all, a Banfhlaith of Llyr, not a Gwyneddan subject, and therefore not as bound to obey Nicholas's orders as he was. But as the King's man, he was hardly going to advise her to disregard the King's direct order, no matter how much his personal inclinations might scream against it.

"As I thought," his Llyrian protegée had responded to his silence with a faint cynical smirk. She'd withdrawn into a shadowy corner of the courtyard entrance. "Don't take over half an hour," she'd warned him. "The last thing I want to deal with tonight is mo bhràthair Colin in a pisser of a mood."

Geoffrey had entered the inn, waiting until his eyes had adjusted to the dimmer light level within before approaching the bar in the common room. A dark-haired young woman had looked up from her task of wiping down tables. "Is there aught I can help you with, my lord?" she'd asked after a quick glance, swiftly surmising his station of life from his clothing despite his pains to keep his appearance fairly nondescript.

"Just checking to see if a small shipment might have arrived for me earlier in the week. It would have been marked for the attention of János."

"János, eh?" The young maid had paused in her task, giving him a closer perusal. "Wait here, I'll ask if the innkeeper knows anything about such a delivery." She'd disappeared into a back room, and Geoffrey settled in to wait.

A few minutes later, a man had emerged, giving him a long, assessing look. "You the man looking for a delivery for János?"

"I am."

"And who sent you?" the man had asked. Geoffrey had not been prepared for the question, but after a moment, he replied, hoping for the best.

"János has had a slight delay just a bit northwest of Nouveau Richemont. He asked if I might stop by and check on the package. He's hoping I might be able to deliver it to the Palace for him." Geoffrey had raised an inquiring eyebrow at the innkeeper.

The innkeeper had raised both eyebrows in response. After a few moments of continued appraisal, during which Geoffrey felt the light brush of a mental probe against his shields, the man had tilted his head towards the door he had just come through. "Follow me."

The Gwyneddan intelligencer followed the innkeeper into his storeroom. The Tralian closed the door behind him. He frowned. "Your shields feel familiar. I may have the package you seek. You may also have something I seek as well."

"What might that be?" asked Geoffrey warily.

"There was a man here last summer. A Gwyneddan man, very handsome, very curious. He was in the Queen's service. There was an unfortunate accident–or so it was reported–and he was discovered in the surf at the other side of the island. You look nothing like this man...at the moment. But you feel very much like him, eh? Not exactly like him, but enough so that I suspect you could deliver a message to his family, da?"

Geoffrey nodded slowly. "That might be possible, if I know this man's family. Did he give you a name?"

"A family name? Ne. But he was a member of the Queen's Household Guard, and his given name was well enough known. They called him Jourdain."

Geoffrey had already expected that answer, of course, but he had to school his features not to react anyway. "A Palace guard named Jourdain who served Queen Miranda? It should be easy enough for me to locate his family. 'Jourdain' is not too common a name in Gwynedd, and I have some connections at the Court at Rhemuth. So, about that delivery for János?"

The innkeeper nodded. "I will see what I am able to deliver. What is it that you seek from me? Speak plainly, not in riddles."

This was the moment of truth. "I need to gain access to Lord Davorin tonight. Very close access. I can't go through the usual official channels, because I can assure you that he would very much not wish to meet with me. But I have spoken to your master at the place that I mentioned earlier and have made him an offer that, if my meeting with your so-called Lord Protector goes as planned, should help pave the way for your master's imminent return."

The innkeeper pursed his lips. "Few men wish to get too close to the Lord Protector unless he wishes them to be close. That will be a very tricky delivery. But there is a man who may be able to help, if I can get a message to him in time. When did you wish for this meeting to happen?"

"Tonight. The later, the better, but not so late that he would be impossible for me to get to."

The innkeeper smiled. "Eh, with the right connections, the impossible may prove possible. But you would need to be very quick."

"That would not be a problem. The quicker, the better. But what might be more of a problem is that I have a partner who would also need to go with me. The meeting would not be able to proceed without this companion. Could this man gain access for us both?"

"Even trickier. But I can ask."

Geoffrey nodded. "And what message do you have for Jourdain's family?"

"Ah." The man smiled. "Give me just a moment."  He opened the door and called for someone in a burst of quick Tralian in a rural dialect Geoffrey was less familiar with. The Gwyneddan intelligencer watched the door, his initial wariness returning. He was surprised less than a minute later by the entry of a pretty young woman, perhaps in her eighteenth year, blonde haired and rosy-cheeked, holding a young child who appeared to be just a few months over a year old. Blue-violet eyes peered curiously at him from under a shock of black hair.

"My daughter Ruža and her son," the innkeeper explained. "Jourdain was quite the charmer, among his other talents, or so I am given to understand." He gave Geoffrey a wry smile. "She has had a very good offer of marriage recently, but the man is more reluctant to take on the boy, and although my wife and I are fond of him, my wife is too old and too busy with minding the cooking for our guests to keep up with an active young child anymore. If Jourdain's family should happen to want him...?"

Geoffrey swallowed hard, struggling to contain his emotions. "I believe they would want him very much indeed. But I would need to come back for him another time. Sometime very soon. What is the boy's name?"

"Jordán."

#

June 19, 1465
The Palace at Horthánthy
The Hort's Apartment
Night

Lord Davorin's manservant--the same man who had once passed information on to Lord Jourdain and who had later supplied orange and gold livery to the Duke of Corwyn and his men--casually slipped up the corridor past the guardroom and beyond it as though he meant to give the receiving rooms one last check before he retired for the night. At the next to last chamber, he paused in front of a paneled wall, lifting one side of the tapestry that hung before it, and sketched a glyph in the air. The panel silently slid open, and the manservant beckoned the two dark-clad men forward. As he took closer note of their appearance, he grinned. Both men looked remarkably like his late acquaintance Jourdain; in fact, the more slender of the two looked exactly like him.

Here is where I must leave you, he informed them. It would appear very odd to the guards if they were to take note of my arrival but not my departure. But it would have looked equally odd if I had skipped my usual evening rounds. He allowed the panel to slide closed, then showed both of the visitors how to reopen it using the glyph. Glancing at both to make sure they had each confirmed with a nod that they had committed it to memory, he told them, Wait a little longer until I have had time to leave. The Hort's bedchamber is just on the other side of that door. He pointed at the door in question. It is secured with a psychic lock. Here is the image to hold in your mind as you turn the latch. An image of an arcane symbol appeared in each of their minds.

When you are ready to leave, this secret passage will lead you to a fire escape exit in the courtyard below. You will use the same glyph to open that door. It is the same one used to access all the secret passages in this part of the Palace, though rest assured that once the Lord Regent is in residence, that will be changed for security reasons, so don't grow too attached to the idea of using it. He smiled knowingly at the two intelligencers. After that, you are on your own for getting out of the Palace compound, but if you can enter the building with the watch tower, there is a postern door on the lowest level. He nodded, turning to leave. Sretno! Good luck!

He started towards the room's main exit before another thought occurred to him. He turned back briefly. For my own safety, once I leave this room, I will remember nothing of what has happened between us tonight. That is a safeguard in case Lord Davorin ever begins to suspect my allegiance and decides to have his men question me. A wry smile tilted up one corner of his mouth. At least it is my hope he would deem me too insignificant to question himself. If he were to take a deeper dive into my mind than is customary or indeed safe for my continued wellbeing, then he might still find the secrets I hope to hide. But if for some reason you should ever need me to remember this night, the phrase to bring back my memory is 'Tihi prijatelj.'

He turned the corner and left them, whistling softly under his breath as he walked past the guard room and took the grand marble staircase down to the tower's main exit below.

Geoffrey and Saoirse waited until they were certain the man had had sufficient time to leave not just the tower they were in, but the Palace compound itself. It was quite late by that point, and even the guard room at the other end of the long corridor had fallen mostly silent as most of the guards had retreated further in the opposite direction to catch up on their sleep in their barracks. Only the two guards who were assigned to the late night shift remained awake now, each taking turns standing watch at the entrance of their room at the top of the main stairs, while the other guard walked through the empty row of chambers every few minutes on a regularly timed patrol.

Within a few more minutes, the intelligencers had established that the guards took roughly fifteen minutes per patrol. In addition to doing a regular walk-through of the Hort's antechambers, they also patrolled the outer chambers of the Queen's Apartment and the former Royal Nursery, leaving only the Hort's private bedchamber and presumably the bedchambers in the Queen's Apartment unopened as they conducted their routine checks, although every so often one of the guards would stop outside the closed door and lay a palm on it as if checking to ensure that it was still secured.

Think we can get in and out of here within ten minutes? Geoffrey asked once the latest guard to patrol had begun to make his exit from the Hort's antechambers.

Getting in will be the easy part, Saoirse answered. Getting in without Davorin calling out for his guards will be the harder trick. I wish it was the late Hort in there instead; accessing him would have been easy.

How so? asked Geoffrey.

Saoirse suppressed an amused snort. To hear Aoife tell it, the best strategy to use on Adémar would have been for you to assume her appearance and walk boldly in half-naked while I snuck in behind him as he was still drooling.

I suspect Davorin is far less susceptible to that strategy, and in any case I have no intention of parading around in front of him half-naked, whether guised as Aoife or otherwise. But I'm wondering if we can trick him into opening the door himself. If so, I can stand just beyond reach of it looking like a man he knows to be dead, which ought to catch him off guard long enough for you to come up behind him and Block him. If not, we might need to wait a bit longer until he's had time to fall asleep. Lord Geoffrey frowned. Either way, I still think that simply Blocking him and leaving him for the Lord Regent to deal with is far too kind a fate for him, given what he did to Jourdain.

Being hanged, drawn, and quartered is too kind? Saoirse questioned skeptically. Because last I heard, that's the usual sentence for traitors in Tralia. It's up to the rightful Hort--or in this case, his Regent--to dispense justice, Geoff, not us. But Blocking his powers should effectively neutralize him, or mostly so, until Comte Réhon-Rogan can set things to rights here.

The King said I couldn't kill him unless that became absolutely unavoidable, observed Jourdain's father. He never said I couldn't hurt him very badly.

Saoirse sighed inwardly, knowing she was unlikely to win that point. Just don't harm him beyond my ability to Heal. And remember, I only agreed to Block Lord Davorin to begin with due to the heinousness of his actions, but I still have grave reservations about using my powers in a way that others might take advantage of, no matter how strong the provocation. If you don't think you can control your impulse to seek vengeance rather than justice, then I will leave now and you can handle this on your own.

Bloody hell, Saoirse, I have no intention of going against the King's direct order! But I can't help wanting to beat the crap out of the treacherous bastard; Jourdain was my son!

And he was my brother, or at least might as well have been, Saoirse reminded her former foster father. If we want to honor Jourdain, beating a man to a bloody pulp after stripping him of most of his ability to defend himself isn't the best way to do that, and it's also likely to take too much time we don't have and bring in the Palace Guard on us before you're done. She laid a calming hand on her mentor's arm. I understand how you're feeling. But the best way we can honor Jourdain's memory is by getting out of here alive tonight and then providing the best life we can for his son.

Next chapter: https://rhemuthcastle.com/index.php/topic,3501.0.html

[DerynifanK]

What a lovely surprise, a son sired by Jourdain. I know his family will be thrilled! I am

[Evie]

What a lovely surprise, a son sired by Jourdain. I know his family will be thrilled! I am

Oh, most definitely! In The Rebuilding, you'll learn about some of the long term effects that poor Jourdain's death had on his family.

[tmcd]

They're planning to leave Davorin alive?! That's absolutely the wrong thing to do, a thunderingly stupid plan. Even blocked, he could do incalculable damage (and maybe get unblocked, unlikely though it may be, if an appropriate person somehow came forward). "A tiger uses all his strength even against a rabbit." If Davorin dies, the entire usurpation falls apart, & the new Hort can just stroll in.

[Evie]

They're planning to leave Davorin alive?! That's absolutely the wrong thing to do, a thunderingly stupid plan. Even blocked, he could do incalculable damage (and maybe get unblocked, unlikely though it may be, if an appropriate person somehow came forward). "A tiger uses all his strength even against a rabbit." If Davorin dies, the entire usurpation falls apart, & the new Hort can just stroll in.

Who says the plan is to leave Davorin alive?     Remember, though, the Hortic Realm isn't King Nicholas's kingdom, so justice (and capital punishment) isn't his right to administer there. That prerogative rightly belongs to the Hort of Orsal, or in this case since the present legitimate Hort is a 13-month-old boy, his Regent. But the Regent needs to have time to get there first, so in the meantime, Nicholas has merely sent some friendly assistance with neutralizing the culprit attempting to usurp his ally's throne. Wouldn't want Davorin to have a chance to get away or do any more damage before Rehon-Rogan can get there (in just a few hours), would you?   

[Jerusha]

Killing Lord Davorin is too easy.  A certain amount of suffering is required. A large amount. 

[Evie]

Killing Lord Davorin is too easy.  A certain amount of suffering is required. A large amount. 

Well, you know, when it comes to dealing with capital crimes in the Middle Ages, the notion that condemned criminals should not have to endure cruel or unusual punishment had not yet come into being. Kinda sucks to be a traitor and murderer of one's sovereign in 1465 if someone with legitimate authority decides to bring you to trial for it.

[Evie]

I have just queued up my final draft chapter that will be posted in two weeks, so it looks like you will be getting the Epilogue to this story the Thursday before (U.S.) Thanksgiving week. And hopefully once this semester begins to wind down, I can fully focus on wrapping up the final chapters of The Rebuilding so I can get that story to you before too much longer, especially since I'm sure by the time this one is over you will all be wondering what is up with Camber and Alixa and all of those mysterious goings-on over in Joux! 

[drakensis]

Ah, I see that Davorin has run into two of the key rules of employing mercenaries.
1. They are only fighting for your money, so if you start acting like you won't pay then they'll not fight for you.
2. Always make sure that you are the only one paying them.