Chapter Seven
Essien was still drunk as he made his way to the keep of Lioncross Abbey, so much so that he swore the steps leading into the keep were moving. The damn things were moving! He stumbled in through the door and headed to the chamber on his left.
He stumbled through that door, too.
“Ah,” Christopher said, looking up from Peter and Addax, whom he’d been in conversation with. “You’ve managed to make it here, Essien. Well done.”
Essien was weaving where he stood. “It was not easy, my lord.”
“I can see that,” Christopher said, fighting off a grin. “Greet Peter. He has only just arrived.”
Essien had only just noticed him. He yelled the man’s name happily and affectionately mauled him, hugging him until Peter had to push him away.
Addax helped, directing Essien into the nearest chair.
The man sat so heavily that the chair cracked but didn’t break.
He looked so shocked that Peter and Addax burst into laughter. Even Christopher was grinning.
“Christ, Essien,” he said. “Are you going to break my furniture, then?”
Essien stood up and tried to tip the chair over to see where it had cracked, but Addax wouldn’t let him. He kept the chair on all four legs, insisting his brother sit, and Essien did, though far more gently.
“I will buy you a new chair, my lord,” Essien said. “My apologies.”
“No need,” Christopher said. “Peter, send for fruit juice or boiled water. We need to flush the alcohol out of Essien’s veins because I fear the man is too drunk to understand what I’m about to tell him.”
“Not true,” Essien insisted even as Peter went to the door to summon a servant. “I’m perfectly fine. I’m not so drunk that I cannot understand a conversation.”
“This is not only a conversation, Es,” Christopher said quietly. “It is more than that.”
Essien frowned. “More than a conversation?” he said. “What more could it be?”
“Your destiny.”
Essien wasn’t any clearer on what Christopher meant. “My destiny is out on the tournament field,” he said. “It is on the field of battle. It is at my brother’s side and it is serving in your armies. That is my destiny, my lord.”
Christopher perched his bottom on the edge of his cluttered table, watching Essien carefully. “Is that what you always envisioned for yourself?”
“It is,” Essien said. “Enjoying life, enjoying my friends, and fighting my enemies. What more is there?”
“What about an earldom, like your brother?”
Essien’s brow furrowed. “It is right that Addax should be the Earl of Deira,” he said. “An ancient kingdom now belongs to a king. Addax would have made a great king, you know. The Kaara Ejadar. The Dragon King.”
Christopher nodded. “He would make a magnificent king,” he said. “He would have made your father very proud. But what of you?”
“What of me?”
“What would you do to make your father proud?”
Essien had to think about that. “I do not know,” he said. “I’ve not given it much thought.”
“Why not?”
“I suppose because I was not born to be king,” he said. “I am the second son. Dosara beta is what a second son is called. There is not much expected of him other than to support his brother, the heir.”
Christopher frowned. “Essien, you are a skilled knight and an accomplished warrior,” he said. “You have the best education I could give you. You have served the finest men in the finest armies. And you are telling me that you have no ambition beyond that?”
Essien didn’t say anything for a moment. The question either confused him or, worse, he had an answer that he was reluctant to bring forth. The expression on his face rippled between confusion and displeasure.
“Have I done something wrong?” he finally asked. “Is that why I have been summoned? Because I have failed at something?”
Christopher shook his head. “You have not done anything wrong,” he said.
“But you are one of the rarest commodities in the world. You are one of only two princes of the ancient Kingdom of Kitara. You are the only hope to carry on your family lines. To carry on the blood of your people. Does this mean nothing to you?”
“Of course it means something to me,” Essien said. Then he looked between Christopher and Addax. “Have you two been discussing me? Did Addax bring up my lack of a wife again?”
“Nay,” Christopher said quickly. “This has nothing to do with Addax. This is coming from me, Essien. The man who found you when you were very, very young. I do not know exactly how old you were, but you were no more than three or four years of age. You do not remember your day of birth and neither does Addax, so we can only guess how old you are. What did we decide on?”
“That as of this year, I have seen thirty years and eight,” Essien said. “Addax is two years older than I.”
“Old enough that he has done his duty and married,” Christopher pointed out. “He has a lovely wife and children already. It is time for you to have the same.”
Essien bolted up from the cracked chair. “You have been speaking to Addax!”
Christopher remained calm. “I have not, not recently,” he said. “But I know this is a recurring conversation between you and your brother.”
Essien was enraged. “I do not need or want his advice,” he said, looking at Addax. “I will marry when I’m ready and not before. You will not force me into anything.”
“Essien, look at me,” Christopher said. “Stop looking at your brother and look at me. That is better. Now, I want you to listen to me and listen well. Are you listening?”
Essien nodded, but he was still angry. “I am listening.”
“Sit down.”
Essien did, but slowly. As he sank down, Christopher stood up from the table he’d been sitting on and faced the knight. The point had come in the conversation to reveal the truth and stand firm by it.
Given the expression on Essien’s face, it wasn’t going to be easy.
“Essien, I will say what I’ve said before,” Christopher said quietly but firmly.
“You are a prince of Kitara. It is your duty to marry and carry on your family’s bloodlines through your children.
It is a duty like any other duty—a duty to your king, to your liege, and to your fellow knights.
You would not disobey a direct order because it is your duty.
Do you understand what it means to do your duty? ”
Essien was still frowning, still agitated, but he nodded. “I understand, my lord.”
“Do you understand, then, that marrying and having children is also your duty?”
Essien sighed sharply and looked away. “I have never thought of it as a duty.”
“It is,” Christopher said. “We have all had to do our duty at some point. Es, if your father were standing here, what do you think he would say to a man who is almost forty years of age and has not yet taken a wife? My suspicion is that he would be saying the same thing I am saying. Since I found you and your brother at such a young age, I have taken responsibility for you. In a sense, I have acted as your father would. I made sure you were safe and warm and educated. I made sure you wanted for nothing, as your father would have. I have tried to do what I thought your father would want to do for his sons, and now, that means finding you a proper wife, a proper title, and wealth. Everything you deserve. Would you not agree that your father would want the best for you?”
Essien was calming down, but he still wasn’t particularly happy. “Fathers always want what is best for their sons, I suppose,” he said. “My father would have been no different.”
“If your father told you to marry, would you argue with him?”
Essien wasn’t sure how to answer that. “I would give him my feelings on the matter,” he said. “If I did not wish to marry, then I would tell him.”
“What do you think he would say?”
“I would hope he would listen to me.”
“And if he commanded you to marry?”
Essien sighed faintly. “I suppose I would have to do as he commanded.”
Christopher pulled up a chair, sitting so he was nearly right in front of Essien.
“Then listen to me,” he said in a low voice.
“You will be the next Earl of Mercia. You will have an earldom that rivals mine. You will be the bearer of an ancient legacy of an ancient kingdom, the largest kingdom before England was united as one. As you represent the ancient blood and legacy of Kitara, I now give to you an equally ancient legacy, a legacy that is my own. My people were Mercian, Essien. They were warriors and kings and poets. I am very protective of that legacy and I cannot think of a better man to defend it, to honor it, and to continue it. Will you refuse this great honor?”
Essien was looking at him with big eyes, all of the anger and irritation gone from his face.
He just stared at him, digesting his words, or trying to.
He was drunk, that was true, but not so drunk that his wits had left him.
He still had them. Most of them, anyway.
But it took him several long seconds to process everything Christopher had said.
“Nay,” he finally said, his voice hoarse. “When you put it that way, I cannot refuse. But in order to accept this honor, I am assuming I must accept the bride that goes with it?”
Christopher nodded. “Harald de Efford’s widowed daughter,” he said.
“She is his heiress. And there is no one more deserving of what this marriage will bring you. This will make you one of the most powerful warlords in all of England, but more than that, it will make you lord and master of Mercia. Do what you were born to do, Essien. Be a great leader and make me proud. More than that, make your father proud.”
Essien actually sucked in his breath. His eyes widened and, for a moment, he stared at Christopher in shock. “De Efford’s daughter,” he repeated, muttering. “The de Barenton widow?”
Christopher nodded. “Do you know her?” he said. “I know you are acquainted with Eckington. Have you met his daughter, then?”
Essien nodded. “Today,” he said, sounding dazed. “Her daughter had run off and I found the child. But Eckington… He is Mercia?”