The Unexpected Heir: A Tale of Alus (54 page)

Toman's patience was apparently further gone than hers and the man stepped forward letting the reins go. "You will address her as Lady Xerese, peasant. Go tell your lord that his cousin has come to sleep under his roof after a long and trying trip home. Now!" he finished snapping the last word like a whip.

The guards all shifted defensively. The insolent steward paled even with the other men there at his back.

Xerese took a deep breath and tried to sound calm as she repeated, "Tell my cousin that I am here. He knows that I went to Southwall with my cousin by now, I am sure. I can't imagine our delay went unnoticed by the royal family."

Still looking uncertain, the steward backed away nonetheless and disappeared inside the castle. She wasn't surprised to need to wait for quite awhile. Itan's castle was quite large even if it was for a border city.

When her cousin strode through the walkway beyond the gate, Xerese couldn't begin to explain her relief. He was tall with light blonde hair and blue eyes. Itan was what most women envisioned a young lord to look like, or at least what they hoped he would anyway.

"Xerese, is that really you?" the lord cried out seeing the dark haired girl waiting for him.

She nodded, "Yes, cousin, now can you tell your soldiers to stop doing their job so well that I might give you a hug?"

"Men, it is alright. This is the Lady Xerese, even if she looks more like a farmer's daughter in those clothes," he finished with a laugh walking through the guards which moved aside like a curtain opening for the man.

"Philip sent word to keep an eye out for you through Alexander, but I never really expected to see you at my door." He hugged the girl to his chest like a father hugging his daughter to him.

As Itan released her to look at his cousin's face again, he remarked with worried eyes, "The steward said that your ship wrecked. Is Annalicia...?"

Sighing with relief, Xerese replied, "She remained with the Sea Dragon to go on a joint mission involving Southwall and Eirdhen too, I suppose, since Darius was behind it.

"Toman and I returned on the Zephyr which sunk just east of Tseult. We have been doing what we could to get here for months now," she finished sounding exhausted from the ordeal, which Xerese realized was kind of true. The lady was certainly ready for it to be over, even if it would take quite awhile to return to Teyas or even Yalan.

"Are all of these people with you?" the lord noted her entourage curiously.

Gesturing towards her guard, Xerese replied, "This is Toman. My other guard disappeared with the ship."

Pausing as she considered what to say, the girl went with what came to mind in the moment. "Tseult has fallen into turmoil, which I will tell you more about when we aren't standing where anyone can listen to us talking, Itan. That is Quela, my new wizard. Oywen and her brother joined us in leaving northern Tseult, though they haven't completely decided if they will try to get to Tristan or not yet."

The lord nodded a greeting and caught hold of her implied need to tell him more without an audience, Marq Itan waved towards the courtyard beyond the gate. "Well, it sounds like you have quite a story to tell. I'm sure Rianne would love to hear it also, so before you go into it all let's head inside. We will see to setting up rooms for you all shortly."

Their horses were gathered by several men from the lord's stables as they moved towards the castle. Itan walked holding her arm and asked, "Do you need dinner first or a bath? You look like you wear much of the road on you, cousin."

"I think food would be first on my list, but only just," the girl sighed. "I haven't had a hot bath in weeks. The last bath we had was in a barn yesterday. One of your farmers was nice enough to take us in and feed us. I think his wife felt bad for us and had a tub brought out to the barn. They didn't have enough warm water to fill it though."

"The farmer said that he could have worked on that, if you had been willing to wait, my lady," Toman commented from right behind the girl.

Waving him off with her free hand, Xerese nodded. "It had been weeks since I hadn't needed to bathe in whatever stream or creek Toman could find. I saw the tub and soap and just couldn't wait any longer, even if the water was only lukewarm."

Itan chuckled at his cousin and commented, "That does sound like desperation."

Finding herself in a banquet room moments later, Xerese and the others sat while the marq had his servants bring out platters of food and a few bottles of wine and juice. He sat at the head of the table conversing with Xerese and the others. While he seemed most comfortable with his cousin, the man's walls soon came down as he listened to her report on the insurrection happening in Tseult. It came during her story, and the others sitting with them let Xerese carry the conversation.

Being both guests and unknown to the lord, it was a combination of shyness and respect that kept them mostly quiet as the girl told her story from the shipwreck through the strangeness in northern Tseult.

While she spoke of Marta, Itan looked at the others and asked, "Were you all there when the city fell to the brotherhood's soldiers?"

Nico spoke up for his sister and said, "We were. It started by an alarm ringing out when the temple caught fire. Though it was strange in my opinion, since the fire didn't really seem to cause a lot of damage, the population turned on any soldier or government official quickly. A few brothers were said to have died, but in truth, I wonder if anyone actually saw the bodies."

"You think that it was set up to make the people blame King Tylus' representatives in the city?"

Oywen answered for her brother. "It was really more obvious after hearing from Xerese and Toman about Delem and Adeer. To think that the same exact problem was happening about the same time in all the cities and towns is a little too coordinated to think that it was just a few soldiers setting all those temples on fire.

"I suppose that there is a slim possibility that King Tylus could have sent multiple parties or messages to every city; but it just doesn't seem like the coordination his army would use if they wanted to get rid of the brotherhood. I would think that he would flush out the brothers one city at a time and make sure that the temples were definitely destroyed."

Xerese was surprised when Itan had apparently noticed Quela's silence. Thinking about it, while the others sometimes commented at parts where they might have seen something to add to her story; the woman had seemed to hide herself on the other side of Toman. While Xerese sat to her guard's left, Quela had been content with taking his right with the rest of the table open beyond her.

"You were in Marta also? What did you see there? Surely there must have been a reason that you stayed and chose to hunt down your own kind," Itan managed to say with neither condemnation nor vindication for her choices.

Frowning as she considered his question, Quela took a moment before she answered, "At the time, I was swayed to join the brotherhood's army for a couple reasons. First, I was afraid not to, but they sent in a brother to speak with us who set my mind at ease. His words may have been magic, but I didn't notice the power in him.

"Second, I had seen the work of the brothers and hadn't considered that they might be willing to incite a riot by setting fire to their own temple. They had always worked for the people, but some of the brothers had also continued to preach that we would be freer following Sordrian than some southern king.

"To tell the truth, the thought of following a god or the men following him that chose service to the people as their goal didn't seem like a bad idea.

"When they started to force the others to join or they would be imprisoned or killed, I began to wonder why Sordrian would choose to force people to follow him. The brothers had never preached that before as far as I remembered.

"The next thing I knew I was being sent to hunt down Oywen and Nico. It all happened so quickly, it wasn't until I was fighting her that I realized that something was wrong. The brother's words didn't seem as convincing anymore.

"Then Fethwer was killed. I felt drawn to join Toman and through him to Lady Xerese."

Itan seemed less worried about why she had changed her mind, even if it seemed a little belated to Xerese. He probed further, "Now that your head is clear, did you see anything else that you might think odd?"

The green eyes of the wizard looked slightly confused and she responded, "There was rebellion, riots, and people being killed for serving King Tylus. It was all strange, my lord, but it all happened so quickly that my mind failed to see what was happening."

"And what was happening?" he questioned realizing that she meant something beyond what the wizard had already mentioned.

"The brothers were prepared for this. Ships with red flags had been sighted attacking other countries' merchants apparently for months. Word from Daria has been different as well. Rumors had begun saying that Daria was the home port for the ships.

"Then wizards appeared among the brothers in large numbers."

"Could they have been building an army and a fleet under King Tylus' nose?" the marq questioned in surprise.

"Philip had been talking about how the brothers in Yalan have been trying to stir up the people to remove Uncle Orlaan from power too. Maybe they aren't just looking to just take over northern Tseult," Xerese worried. "High wizard Darius seemed pretty certain that the Brothers of the Blood were behind the fracturing of Enswere hundreds of years ago too. If that is true, maybe this religion has more in mind than just helping the poor."

Nico was surprised by the lady's comments and asked, "You think that the brotherhood has been working towards this for hundreds of years? Why have they waited so long since Alwere formed? Isn't that a religious state as well? If they wanted to attack Tseult wouldn't they have started with Desdemona or Kloste first? Those are Alwere's neighbors."

Shrugging at the man's questions, Xerese replied, "How would I know? I would say that if plans came to fruition in Tseult then maybe they will try the other nations next. They're letting the people turn against their king and just taking over. It is a relatively bloodless revolution so far really. Maybe they're doing the same thing in the other countries but have simply decided that Tseult was ready first?"

Before anyone else could think to counter her suggestion, a dark haired woman in a flowing green dress entered followed by a trail of maidens.

"Where is she?" the woman asked excitedly. "Your cousin has come to visit unexpectedly and I am so excited to meet her!"

Xerese stood with the others and Itan gave his cousin a hand as she extricated herself from the padded chair.

"She is right here, Rianne. It wasn't a planned visit by any means or I am sure we would have received warning."

"Xerese, it is so good to meet you!" the marquess continued to be excited in appearance. As Rianne pulled her close for a hug, Xerese noticed the light freckles on the woman's cheeks and forehead. A daughter from one of the other noble houses of Malaiy, her brunette hair wasn't a surprise; but her light skin and freckles were quite a bit rarer among the Malaiyan people. While her smile radiated happiness to have a visitor, her green eyes showed a bit of annoyance that she couldn't quite hide.

"I am sorry to surprise you, but the last few months have been quite unplanned for me as well, cousin."

Confusion flashed across the woman's face and Itan explained briefly, "Xerese was returning on one of Philip's merchant ships when it was sunk by a storm. She and Toman are lucky to be alive. As far as she knows, no one else aboard was as fortunate."

"Oh my, you were in a shipwreck? Well that explains the lack of warning, but these clothes aren't what I would expect of a royal lady unless Teyas has changed their fashion to a more rural look."

Itan managed to not roll his eyes at his wife as he said, "Xerese has been living off the generosity of the people of Kloste and Tseult or she would be an even stranger sight than this. The ship sank taking everything that she had with her, Rianne. Also, though she didn't send warning, Marq Philip did send word that he was worried about both Xerese and Annalicia being months overdue in returning home. We were warned in a way, but even with no notice, I am sure that we can make rooms ready for her and her companions."

Nodding without actually looking at her husband, since the marquess couldn't take her eyes off the worn and ill fitting clothing on Xerese; Rianne added, "We must see to getting this poor girl some suitable clothing."

Her eyes moved to the others with her and she shook her head. "They're all a bunch of ragamuffins, aren't they? We must call the tailor and see to outfitting them with appropriate attire."

Giving the woman a warm smile, Xerese agreed outwardly, but was surprised that she had become quite comfortable in the dress and skirts she had found. With her blouses never being able to close properly, the lady in her realized that a proper fit would keep her from looking like a barmaid trying very hard to get men to give her tips.

"I admit that it sounds nice. My clothes aren't a perfect fit and are getting quite worn. As for Toman, I am surprised that his clothes haven't just fallen off of him after all this time. Finding clothes for someone so big was difficult and we had very little money much of the time." Her eyes wandered to the wizards and Nico. Questioning them with her eyes, the girls both shrugged at the idea. Free clothing for wizards who were uncertain of their future was an unexpected gift for them, but Xerese had a feeling that they would be here a few days and likely need clothing that fit in better in the castle also.