Pendant of Fortune (58 page)

Volle blinked, but kept quiet. King Barris continued in his deep, measured voice. “It was not long after you arrived that a small group of activists put into motion their plan to bring us to war with Ferrenis, believing the time to be right. Soon after that, a leading noble was assassinated.” He looked sternly at Volle. “Despite the very likely possibility that he was a part of or even the leader of that group, we do not look kindly on assassinations within the peerage, much less inside the palace. It was quite a disturbing time.

“
We recall that Dereath first began his campaign of allegations against you at that time, too. He didn’t do a very good job, did he?”

Volle shook his head and started to reply, but the King held up a paw. “No, don’t say anything. Then there was the matter of the raiding party, two years later. They were slaughtered, you remember, by a division of the Ferrenian army that had no reason to be defending that town. We do not believe it was a coincidence that they had just reported their movements and intentions to the palace the previous month.

“
You married, and your wife has not been to the palace since then, we believe. Which, again, fits with your life, but also gave fuel to Dereath, Whassel, Wallen, and the others who were beginning to share their suspicions of you. Yes, it wasn’t only Dereath, though he was the most vocal. We daresay Wallen might now be beginning to wonder whether he has been led astray by a murderous lunatic, though unfortunately, your newly revealed ancestry will do nothing to endear you to him even so.

“
But we can do nothing about that. We are recalling the events of the past year.”

He left the wall and started to pace back and forth in front of Volle. “The plans you referred to were the result of a year and a half of work—more than two years, if you count the time Dereath spent convincing us they were necessary. You see, while we could fit those incidents into a pattern that coincided with your arrival, Lord Alacris pointed out that there were other incidents—or rather, lack of incidents—that did not fit the pattern. We will give you two examples.” He held up a single finger. “Firstly, the trade agreements with the northern tribes. You are likely aware that neither Ferrenis nor Tephos owns the valley that is the most convenient entrance to the northern lands. They are a fierce and independent people there, unwilling to bow to any king. We had planned an embassy to the north for two months, and they spent another month traveling there. There would have been ample time to communicate a message to Ferrenis to sabotage the party. We would have assumed they had been killed by the barbarians.

“
But the embassy succeeded.”

He held up another finger. “Example two. Two years ago, the heavy rains rotted the grain in the storerooms around Divalia. We kept it secret, but you were on the Agriculture Committee. You had to have known about it. We bought some grain from the Reysfields that saved a number of lives, not to mention grain that we requisitioned from some lands bordering Ferrenis. Again, it would have been a simple matter to have directed the Ferrenian raiding parties to burn down grain silos, or to raise the price on the Reysfields grain harvest by offering them more.

“
But neither of those things happened.”

“
Rallish, who was a very sensible wolf, sat down with Alacris and ourself after Dereath had presented yet another plea for us to investigate you, and we decided that there were three options: either you were not a spy; or you were a spy but not a very good one; or you were a spy but your aim was not in and of itself to be a threat to our kingdom.”

“
We agreed to Dereath’s plan, finally, in order to be sure. Alacris felt that in none of the three cases would you be a serious threat, but Rallish made the point that your first loyalty being to another power could be a threat under the right circumstances, no matter what your aim. So we ordered some troop movements, discreet ones that could not be read as an overt sign of war. We drew up a single set of plans that showed an aggressive intention to take over the Reysfields. We let some rumors spread in the right circles. And we left the plans in Rallish’s office.”

Volle was holding one paw in the other; both tightened at hearing this. So now he knew: it really had been nothing more than a trap, and he had fallen right into it. He couldn’t keep his ears from folding back, but he brought them forward again immediately.

Barris didn’t seem to notice. He shook his head angrily, his voice acquiring a distinct growl, but his anger was aimed far outside the room and long ago. “The worst possible thing happened. The plans disappeared without anyone being caught. Dereath claimed that you had gotten away, and we were furious. The plans had to look authentic in order for the trap to work. They would be believed if they reached the palace in Caril, in Ferrenis. Our countries could, and very likely would, go to war. Over nothing.

“
We were afraid to pull our troops back, lest they leave precious areas undefended against attack. We were afraid to move forward and attack pre-emptively in case the plans had not made their way to Caril. There were proponents of both actions in our inner council, but we could not act without knowing the fate of the plans. We spent months wondering if the dawn would bring a rider from the Reysfields with the horrible news that war had begun.”

Volle shuddered. The King nodded. “If Rallish had had any other competent help, we would have dispensed with Dereath then and there.” He paused. “Looking back, we admit the possibility that his other assistants were discredited or displaced by Dereath himself, which is regrettable. In any event, the rat stayed. And six months after the theft, when we all had begun to breathe more easily, he came crawling to us with another confession. You know what this one was.”

“
That he’d lied to you about me getting away.”

“
But that it was no longer a lie. Yes. And we went through it all again. He had some excuses about there being another spy in the palace, that you had to have handed the plans to someone else or had some associate—perhaps because he still believed you were responsible for Prewitt, and you were unmistakably elsewhere at the time, if we recall.” This time, he actually smiled at Volle, and Volle smiled boldly back.

“
I was with my wife.” The first mating they’d had. Well…the first fruitful one.

“
Precisely. So he had to confess that he’d tortured you, devised a cunning plan to get you to reveal the identity of your conspirator, and that it had all gone wrong. We were tired of his cunning plans by then, but his knowledge was invaluable, so again he was kept on, with stern warnings this time. We hoped he had learned his lesson.”

The King paused and looked at Volle. “I am about to tell you certain things that not even your friend Tistunish has heard.”

Volle nodded. King Barris dropping the royal ‘we’ made him very aware of how important and personal this was. “Yes, your Majesty. I swear by Canis and Gaia that I will keep your confidence.”

Barris waved a paw. “They will not be secret for long. I would not be telling you if they were. I fully expect that your friend
will
have heard them within the next few hours.” He gave Volle a knowing smile, and continued. “We decided that we did not want to endure another six months of waiting and wondering, so we sent an embassy to Caril with an entreaty to open a channel of diplomatic communication.”

His brows lowered as he continued. “We are Ursid, Volle. We do not embrace change quickly. Ferrenis and Tephos had existed peacefully for years by ignoring each other and sending raiding parties back and forth across the border periodically. We saw no reason for that to end, except that we grew very tired of watching our eastern border, tired of wondering whether we would soon be embroiled in a meaningless war. And in the end, that was reason enough.

“
We found the Ferrenians open to discussion. They did not express any knowledge of our false war plans. Negotiations are currently proceeding well, which is to say slowly and deliberately, just as we like. It would be a terrible blow to them if a Ferrenian spy were to be discovered in our midst.” He didn’t smile as he said that, just stood with arms folded and looked at Volle.

Volle tried to match the bear’s serious expression. He was buoyed by the King’s story, delighted at the turn things had taken. “I can see where that would be an impediment to negotiations.”

“
As for you,” Barris said, “we are left with our original three options, though we think we can eliminate one. A spy who was not very good would not long leave us in doubt about the other two options. So we are left with the question of whether you are a spy or not.”

He shrugged. “We believe that you took the plans. It may be that you just picked them up to look at, were alarmed when you heard movement, and hid them so you would not be accused of stealing them. When you escaped to Ferrenis, you simply left them behind. Or it could be that you stole the documents because they presented an imminent threat to Ferrenis, took them with you when you escaped, and did not turn them in to the monarchy there.

“
Or. It is possible that you took the documents and presented them to the monarchy. In that case, you would almost certainly have been consulted as to their authenticity, and as to the need to act upon them.” His dark eyes studied Volle, who could not think of a single thing to say.

“
Still, it appears now that you are of royal Tephossian blood, and that changes some things. If you are the kind of fox we believe you to be, you are an observer of Canis’s creed to care for your pack, and you will not be able to deny that in some small respect, your pack includes the land of Tephos. You have rendered a great service to this monarchy by exposing the murderous nature of its Minister of Defense, and you have rendered good and faithful service as the Lord of Vinton for five years. Your governor recently attested to that in a letter sent to the Crown on your behalf.”

He smiled, a full, broad smile now. “It occurs to us that such faithful service should be rewarded. And here we have a fox in need of reward, and a land traditionally ruled by foxes that is bereft of a Lord. One does not have to be as clever as a fox to see the solution.”

Volle’s ears flicked in surprise. He certainly hadn’t expected to be Lord Vinton again this soon. He was surprised not only by King Barris’s offer, but by how much he realized he wanted the title. The unexpected support of Anton, his governor, touched him deeply. His voice cracked as he said, “I…would be most greatly honored, your Majesty.”

“
Of course you would. But I think this is something everyone should see. Let us return, and,” he fixed Volle with a dark eye, “remember what we have spoken of here.”

“
Yes, your Majesty,” Volle said. His tail swished with excitement as he followed the King back to the room, Alister and the guards escorting them.

The crowd had not diminished in the hearing room, except that Volle noticed that Lord Wallen was gone, and Streak was not back. He felt a sharp pang of disappointment; he wanted the wolf to see this. But he couldn’t very well ask the King to wait while he went to find him, and he didn’t have time to send someone else. He sighed. He would have to tell him about it, and Streak would be sad that he’d missed it.

They returned to the dais, where the King raised a paw to the crowd. “We have made our decision,” he said. “The fox called Volle is innocent of the charges of treason that have been brought against him.” He quelled the brief spatter of mixed applause with another motion of his paw. Volle noticed several members of the audience who looked less than pleased, but he had no time to worry about them now. “And because, in the course of this hearing, the province of Vinton has been left without a Lord, it occurs to us that a fox of noble blood is just what is needed to fill that vacancy.”

King Barris turned to Volle and drew the long, glittering, ceremonial sword at his side. “We know that you swore an oath of fealty to us six years ago,” he said more quietly, “but we hope you will understand if we require you to swear it again.”

Volle dropped to one knee, bowing his head. “Of course, your Majesty.”

The sword shone as it ascended to the top of its arc, then descended to his shoulders, tapping each one in turn. “We hereby award to thee the title Lord of Vinton. Let Gaia, Ursa, and the assembled peers recognize that henceforth, you shall be the servant to the people of Vinton, their voice to the King, the foundation beneath their paws, and the fur that protects and keeps them warm. This title shall be yours and your cub’s, and your cub’s cub’s, in perpetuity.”

“
I swear fealty to you, King of Tephos, and I pledge to you my loyalty and the loyalty of my people,” Volle said. He didn’t remember exactly how the oath was supposed to go, but Barris apparently found it acceptable, because he tapped Volle’s shoulders with the sword once again.

“
Rise, Lord Volle of Vinton,” he said.

Chapter 14

The room filled with cheers and applause, both genuine and otherwise. Even the younger stag at the prosecutor’s table was clapping, though his expression was anything but pleased. As the King stepped back and Volle got to his feet, he was greeted by a beaming Tish, who tried to shake his paw around the weasel hugging his waist. Volle hugged Helfer back and then Tish, and then walked down into the crowd, still feeling rather dazed. He looked around for Streak, but still didn’t find him.