Chapter 7
CHAPTER 7
“ Y our Highness, this is madness.”
“Why?”
Leofric stared at Alexios, Auro and Cosmo. The three of them had certainly gone mad; there was no other explanation. There weren’t many times he felt like an old man, but standing opposite Alexios, Auro and Cosmo, he did—ironic, considering Auro and Cosmo were older than he by a few centuries. “Janus is still at large. His powers are vast, and we have no idea when or where he next will strike.”
“Janus knows precisely where I am,” Alexios said. “If he wished to plan an attack, or exact some vengeance, he knows where to find me. Perhaps I would be safer on the road, with only the three of you to know the details of our movement.”
“Here you are surrounded by high walls, you have all the strength of the royal family behind you, as well as dozens of well-trained guards. This is the seat of your power, your Highness. It would be as unwise for Janus to attack you here as it would be for you to venture out.”
“Janus has made attempt on my life here,” Alexios pointed out. “You and Auro thwarted him then, and we have Cosmo with us now, too.”
Leofric looked at Cosmo and scowled. He’d sooner entrust someone he cared for to a rabid jackal than to Auro’s brother, but something told him that argument would not be heard just now. “Her Grace is here, waiting to negotiate terms of the new kingdom with you. You can hardly leave in the midst of something so important.”
Alexios frowned. “That’s so.”
“You have responsibilities, Alexios,” said Auro quietly. Leofric felt a surge of gratitude for him in that moment. “You cannot simply run off.”
Alexios, it appeared, knew he was beaten. “Fine,” he said. “If I cannot go, who will accompany you?”
“Excuse me,” said Cosmo. “I was under the impression this was a quest that only I could undertake.”
“Well, part of it, certainly,” said Auro. “But I didn’t think you’d want to go all by yourself.”
“You…you’ll come along with me?”
“Of course,” said Auro. “And I’m sure Leofric will?—”
“No.”
“My place is here, guarding you, Your Highness. Not playing nursemaid to …” he trailed off, embarrassed. Leofric usually kept his tongue well-guarded, but it was the middle of the night and Cosmo had already humiliated him twice today. “I swore an oath.”
“I imagine your oath probably mentioned something about following orders, as well,” Cosmo put in. “I thought following orders was your favorite thing about the bloody oath.”
Leofric glowered at him, and the man had the nerve, the gall, to wink. He opened his mouth, furious, but Prince Alexios held up a hand to silence him. “Could you two please give us a moment?”
Auro tugged Cosmo back out onto the balcony.
“Your Highness,” said Leofric at once. “Even if I did think it was wise to leave your side, I cannot.”
“Why not?” Asked Alexios.
“My oath?—”
“Leofric, you know as well as I do that your oath should not prevent you from following my commands. Please, tell me what’s really on your mind.”
Leofric hesitated, wondering how much he should share. He had come to be very fond of Prince Alexios, but Imperator Hamate had stressed to him the importance of maintaining a distance between oneself and one’s charge. You must protect them from every threat, including themselves, he had said. That becomes challenging when you think of them as a friend. He had to tread carefully here, he knew, but it would not help to keep his secrets if it meant Alexios dispatching him on a quest that would not only be dangerous, but had potential to end with him being relieved of his post.
“The first thing you must understand Your Highness,” Leofric began, “is that Sokol is a hard and unforgiving place. It’s quite different from Papia.”
“Different how?”
“The border wars with órnio have shaped our people since the kingdom’s founding. Over the years, many have tried to forge a peace between our two kingdoms, but they never lasted longer than a few years, and even during those small periods of peace, each side sharpened their knives and watched as the other side did the same.”
“My father has told me some of this,” Alexios said. “He carries the old grudges of Sokol with him still.”
“As well he would. He led the legions of Sokol as Imperator for almost ten years, and served since he came of age.”
“Did you know my father?” Alexios asked, startled.
“I am not so much older than you, Your Highness,” said Leofric. “But every man my age grew up being told tales of his prowess and ferocity in battle. The king of Sokol showered him with laurels, and as you know, his renown was such that he was able to wed a Queen, and become a King himself. When His Grace left Sokol to wed your mother, a new Imperator took his place.”
“Imperator Hamate,” Alexios supplied. “My father mentioned him to me, when you first took your post here.”
“You are correct, Your Highness. Imperator Hamate was my superior officer. He trained me for my current post, and it is to him I owe all of what I now have.”
“But, you no longer fight for Sokol. You fight for Papia. For me.”
“With regrets, Your Highness, no.”
Alexios frowned. “No?”
“Well, yes, but…it’s complicated.”
“Leofric, please, speak plain.”
“Apologies, Your Highness, this is difficult for me.”
“I know that,” said Alexios. “Please, come sit. Have a glass of wine to steady yourself.”
He must have hesitated, because the prince let out an aggrieved sigh, stomped over to his sideboard, and poured two full goblets of deep red wine. He walked back across the room toward his sitting area and slapped one into Leofric’s hand. “Sit,” he said. “Drink.”
Leofric sat and stared down into his cup. He swirled the wine around, watching the sluggish eddies before he raised it to his lips and drank deep. When he lowered his cup at last, he said, “I had a brother.”
Alexios sat opposite him, and did not interrupt. He simply clutched his own goblet and waited in silence for Leofric to continue the tale.
“A twin,” he amended. His throat was thick; Leofric still found speaking of him to be difficult. “Hamalcar was his name.”
Leofric was silent for a while, still staring into his wine, so Alexios prompted him to go on. “What happened to him?”
“We enlisted together in the Sokolian legion, and fought and marched side by side for years. Then, once, our column was set upon by a much larger force of órnian raiders. He was killed in the skirmish.”
“Leofric, I’m so sorry,” said Prince Alexios.
“Thank you, Your Highness. It was three years ago, but to me the grief is still quite fresh.”
Alexios nodded, his dark brows knit together. It had only been three and a half months but Leofric could read the young royal like a book, and in this moment, he was wondering what on earth Hamalcar had to do with Leofric’s refusal to accompany Cosmo on his quest.
“Many years ago, when we had first joined the legion, Hamalcar and I made a pact. Should one of us fall in battle, the other would see to it his family was well provided for.”
“And Hamalcar had…a family?”
“Yes,” said Leofric. “They are…my family now. My responsibility. After Hamalcar’s death, I approached my imperator and asked his counsel. He told me that the day-to-day life of a guardsmen was often times far safer than that of a soldier, and that Papia was a safer kingdom than Sokol. Imperator Hamate was once the royal guard of our king, so he knew the way of it. For the next two hundred days he trained me personally, took me under his wing and helped me learn the ways of protecting royals so that I might earn more coin in order to support my sister-in-law and her son without risking myself in the constant fighting on the border. Laela and Sorex are everything to me. They need me, Your Highness. I cannot risk my posting here by neglecting my duty.”
Prince Alexios sat and digested that for a bit. “Perhaps we could meet some sort of compromise,” he said.
“What do you mean?” Leofric was skeptical at best.
“I could pay you,” said Alexios simply. “I could pay you enough to retire and spend the rest of your life in Sokol with your family.”
“Your Highness?—”
“You said your family is everything to you,” Alexios interrupted. He met Leofric’s gaze with an uncharacteristically hard look in his big brown eyes. He lowered his voice and said, “Auro is everything to me. It is killing me that I cannot help his brothers in this. Please, Leofric. Help them for me.”
“I will consider this offer your Highness. It is very generous,” Leofric allowed.
“Consider quickly,” said Alexios bluntly. “I will give you half the sum now, and on the way with Cosmo, you can deliver it to your family. The second half I will give you when you return.”
Leofric’s instinct was to refuse. It felt wrong, somehow. He’d always been paid wages as a soldier, and of course now as a guardsman…but he’d also sworn an oath, both to His Highness and his father, the king of Papia—not to mention that he’d only been sent to Papia because the imperator trusted him to maintain the iron reputation of the Sokolian legion.
But he’d sworn an oath to Hamalcar, too.
Perhaps Leofric could find a way to preserve them both. In fact, the gold Alexios offered him didn’t even mean he would have to resign his post. He could still perform his duty with the knowledge that Laela and Sorex would be cared for if something happened to him. Leofric was wary though; this offer seemed too good to be true. He trusted Alexios to keep his word, and even half the sum of a lifetime of his wages would be a goodly amount should something ill befall him on the journey—or if something should happen to His Highness while Leofric was off with Cosmo.
That thought was a sobering one. Janus was still at large, as Leofric had said, and of course, the life of a prince could be fraught with perils, even when excluding vindictive renegade sorcerers. Leofric had come to care very much for the brave young man now staring at him, jaw set, arms crossed over his chest. He didn’t want to leave him vulnerable, either. It seemed as though no matter what he did, he was forsaking someone.
Leofric had to choose, now, which oath he had to keep, and which ones he could stand to break, no matter how painful it might be. When he thought of Laela and Sorex, the choice was clear.
“I’ll do it.”
Cosmo spent the next few days in the royal domus in Papia city. He did his very best to keep a low profile while there, so that his presence wouldn’t become known to the king and queen, or anyone else. He paced restlessly around his rooms, unable to settle to anything. He’d wanted to take to the road ever since he’d had the revelation regarding the location of Kryos’s grace.
It simply had to be on the mountain. It was the place Kryos had always loved, ever since their father had brought him there to impart his grace for the first time. Mount Hiru, it was called, and it sprang up at the place where three kingdoms joined. He knew the length of the journey because he’d made it before, when he’d been so desperate to follow in his brother’s footsteps. It would not be overlong, and he hadn’t seen much call to delay, but Auro had insisted they spend time preparing, making ready. He now realized it was because Auro was reluctant to allow Cosmo to undertake such an important journey on his own.
The fact that Auro wanted him to have a nursemaid in attendance on the quest was galling, to say the least. And he found it impossible to believe that Leofric would ever surrender his precious honor and leave the side of the crown prince, yet here Cosmo was, waiting on Leofric to escort him on his journey. The more he thought of it, the madder it seemed. Without Auro’s reassuring presence, the questions and doubts infested Cosmo’s mind like rats in a granary. Chewing, gnawing, biting.
He’d gone so far as gathering his few belongings and striding toward the servants’ exit three times, the decision in his mind firm: he would return to Lapis and the simple life he’d made for himself here in the city. Heroic quests and grand sacrifices were not for the likes of someone such as Cosmo. But each time, with his hand upon the latch of the door, he would sigh, curse and throw down his bag in disgust. Something was keeping him from backing out. As much as Cosmo could tell, that something was spite. He didn’t want to give that uptight prig Leofric the satisfaction of being right, didn’t want any of them to be right. If the quest failed, or Kryos killed him come winter, well. Cosmo had lived a very long time. At least he could die knowing how wronged he’d been, and that was almost worth it.
Almost.
On the third day, Auro, Leofric, and Prince Alexios arrived with a tail of two dozen guardsmen. Most wore uniforms like Leofric’s, but some wore the badge of Queen Dafina of Neossós. The queen had dispatched some of her own men to watch out for her betrothed, to hear a very annoyed Alexios tell it.
“This plan is already falling apart,” said Cosmo, hiding in his chambers from the guards who would surely recognize him.
“It is impossible for Alexios to go anywhere absent a proper tail,” said Auro, though he too sounded worried.
“How am I to join you on this quest, if all of these soldiers recognize the man dismissed for lascivious behavior?”
“I don’t know,” admitted Auro.
“Perhaps you can all go on this grand adventure without my help at all,” Cosmo said peevishly. “Perhaps I’m not even needed.”
“You are needed,” insisted Auro, but Cosmo suspected that Auro had his doubts.
It took them another two days to come up with a plan. Alexios, Leofric, and his guards would travel the distance to the border between Papia and the kingdom of Sokol. Cosmo could travel behind them, keeping pace with the column but staying far out of sight. Once they reached the border, Leofric, Cosmo and Auro would peel off from the main column and continue on their journey to Mount Hiru. Alexios would return to Papia city, claiming he had dispatched his most trusted guard to Sokol with an important political message.
“The men should not question such,” said Leofric, and Cosmo rolled his eyes. Most of the men wouldn’t question it if the king told them to ride their horses off a cliff, it seemed to him. “But your royal parents might.”
“True enough,” said Alexios. “Perhaps I could tell my father I sent you in secret to recruit more men for the force of royal guardsmen. I think his pride in his homeland would make him more willing to believe such a tale.”
Cosmo felt like a caged beast, unable to leave his chambers for fear of being recognized. It took him all of five minutes to make his own preparations. There were barely any personal affects for him to pack, and he was confident in his ability to forage on the road for sustenance. Cosmo was an excellent hunter and a better cook, and in summer the woods would be teeming with life, both flora and fauna. He still had the tunic he’d stolen from Leofric and a few extras that Auro had been able to smuggle him. His usual garb would hardly be appropriate for such an arduous journey, but he felt strange without his vast array of golden baubles. He’d worn them for so long they felt as though they were a part of him, certainly part of the identity he’d worn for four hundred years. They could be concealed, mostly, beneath his plainer travel clothing. And besides, until they reached the boarder of Sokol, he’d be traveling alone. No one would take note of a few extra trinkets, or so he hoped.
Finally, the night before they were meant to set out arrived. Cosmo paid a call on Auro and Alexios to discuss the plans for departure at sunrise. He was restless, and he could not wait to leave the domus and be free to roam beneath the sky again. Leofric stood at the door, ignoring Cosmo as hard as it was possible to ignore someone, it seemed. Cosmo wondered if the man would even look at him if he were bleeding or his clothing caught fire. The journey to Mount Hiru would certainly be a downright painful one, once Auro was the only buffer between them. It was enough to tempt Cosmo to leave without them.
Leofric would probably enjoy that better, he realized, and with a smile Cosmo thought that alone enough reason to inflict his company upon the man. How easy would it be for Leofric to maintain his composure when well away from his charge? Was he truly this rigid in private? Cosmo had to wonder.
Before he could arrive at a definitive stance on the matter, there came a clamor from the atrium down below; a man shouting urgently, though his words were obscured. Soon enough, there came a brisk knocking at the chamber door where Auro, Cosmo, Alexios and Leofric were gathered. Cosmo retreated, hiding himself in the adjacent washroom as Leofric spoke to the porter just outside.
When Leofric returned, his expression was even darker than normal.
“What is it?” Asked the prince.
“Your Highness, we have a rider downstairs who’s come from the villa in all haste. He comes with urgent words from the Queen. You must return home. At once.”
Alexios frowned. “What could?—”
“It’s your father, Your Highness. Something has happened to the king.”