Date: Mon, 18 Dec 2006 19:57:12 -0800 (PST)
From: Kris Gibbons <bookwyrm6@yahoo.com>
Subject: Songspell 43

This story is a work of fiction. It contains references to both sexual and
violent behaviour, along with expressions of physical affection. If you
find this type of story offensive, or if you are underage and it is illegal
for you to read it, please exit now. All characters are fictional and in no
way related to any persons living or deceased. Any such similarity is
purely coincidental and uncanny.

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it may not be copied or archived onto any other site without the direct
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I never know how well-received these chapters are. The only clues I get are
in emails from readers. Do you like the story? Hate it? Think Evendal
should take a vow of silence? Hope I have written other works? Let me know
and I'll let you know.

I can be contacted at Bookwyrm6@yahoo.com



                 43 What Duty Is

                 Polonius: My liege and madam, to expostulate
                 What majesty should be, what duty is,
                 Why day is day, night night, and time is time,
                 Were nothing but to waste night, day, and time.

                                    Hamlet Act 2, Scene 2, lines 86-89


     Karondeo asked, "Strengths? Or weaknesses?"
     "Both," the King assured, grinning slightly. He glanced behind and
whispered to one of the Guard, who in turn left the room. This roused
Aldul's curiosity. Guard Ierwbae then stood and waved another Guard from
the doorway to replace the first.
     Evendal's mind leapt to another matter. "How is it the Swan Song was
not being careened?" Careened? Aldul wondered at the word, but did not have
to wonder long.
     The seaman frowned, unhappy. "You saw the condition she is in. We
are... were not loved in Alta this year. As reward for what accusations,
threats, and measures we did make, thinking you nabbed, their Maritime
Council put her name last on the roster. If the river froze over before
they hauled her, so be it."
     Evendal winced.
     Aldul had not thought. Ice could trap a ship and, he supposed, its
thawing could tear one up. He had read all he could find about the
Thronelands, disturbed Kwo-edans who had journeyed there. Its seasons had
interested him for what plants grew when. But no words written conveyed the
dreadful immediacy of winter north of the Verge. The cold encompassed all
his perceptions, overwhelmed him at times, so that the numbness in his
hands and feet commandeered his awareness from any movement and
conversation around him. That, for him, was a raw frustration. Kri-estaul's
earlier plaint of living as a doorstop struck to Aldul's core.
     Metthendoenn shifted in his chair, at the same time that Karondeo and
Ierwbae did, drawing Aldul's attention back to the King.
     Evendal stared off into the space between him and Edrionwytt, frowning
as at some off-colour remark or vagrant memory come wandering back. "This
is my mess to clean," he murmured. "Though how could I have forgotten?"
Evendal clearly addressed a matter impinging solely on his awareness.
     Guard Ierwbae felt it incumbent, nonetheless, that he anchor his
lord's attention to the immediate surroundings. "Your Majesty?"
     Aldul could have told the Guard that his King was well aware of
circumstances.
     "Would it cause further consternation among our celebrants were we to
return to the table we first sat at? What say you, Ierwbae?"
     Asked in the act of sitting, Ierwbae paused and answered. "So what if
it did, Your Majesty?" Aldul liked this Guard for just that quality of
surprise.
     "I agree. Then let us return. Seaman Minfal has arrived. `We' should
be present when he addresses Master Alekrond, for I doubt he will remember
to seek me out first."
     Karondeo stood first and looked toward the door that they had all come
through. Aldul noted anomalous movement peripherally, but all his focus was
on moving himself. Thronelands weather did not visit him with terrible
agonies, else he would have petitioned Sygkorrin retire him. Rather he
endured a collection of annoyances: What pain he waited out came on as a
dull ache with occasional sharp twinges, and would have been bearable,
ignorable, if it were constant. He found his hands trembled for no clear
reason, whether gripping a stylus or gripping air. And even though his legs
got him from Kwo-eda to Osedys, they lately did not want to lift him out of
a crouch or a bend.
     His enemy was not pain but debility. He blamed the permeating
cold. When his calves shook, even a little, then his knees invariably
buckled. His fingers ached of course, but he could ignore that until they
numbed. That such an elemental wore him out -- a condition he saw everyone
else accommodate to so blithely -- demoralised him as well. He may have
avenged his father and his degradation by Tothofir and Hanikrest, but that
did not repair what exposure and toxemia had damaged in him.
     Karondeo stayed in place as Evendal grasped his forearm to lever
himself and Kri-estaul out of their chair. Edrionwytt, of his kindness or
out of habit, performed the same service for Aldul. The vigourous King
preceded his entourage back. Aldul took his time, refusing to let his
chilled and unsteady limbs betray him further.
     The approaching movement resolved itself into the sly lad Ierowen and
Alekrond's crewman. Ierowen stopped a proper distance from the royal table
and waited. Minfal continued straightly for Alekrond, until the older
seaman scowled at him, and pointed him back beside the lad.
     The King sat, but halted Ierwbae and Metthendoenn with another
gesture. "You," he accused the younger Guard, "are not sane enough for this
occasion." Kri-estaul opened his eyes, glanced fuzzily around, and closed
them again.
     "Your Majesty..."
     "You would argue? Wytthenroeg is more hale than you."
     Aldul paused at his chair to see if the King intended to single him
out also. He breathed a relieved sigh when Evendal did not.
     "Ierwbae, see to Metthendoenn's retirement and return here." Ierwbae,
supporting his lover, turned to comply when Evendal m'Alismogh added,
"After you have reassured each other."
     The spryer Guard looked confused. "Reassured?"
     M'Alismogh gazed heavy-lidded toward Ierowen and Minfal as he
addressed his Guard. "Go. Both of you. While you two are always wanted at
my side, you need time at one another's side. Exclusively. Ierwbae, your
challenge has been to remain chaste -- not a eunuch. So, as you have fallen
into the habit of letting Metthendoenn labour over you and that would be a
hardship at present, I might suggest instead that you demonstrate your own
passion for Metthendoenn hence." Both Guard froze open-mouthed at their
King as Evendal distractedly continued. "Do not be distressed or angry if
Metthendoenn does not respond well initially. The change from habitual
giver to recipient might seem too foreign for him at first."
     Having just seated himself with some care, Aldul could only lower his
head, momentarily confounded. "Evendal," he groaned as the back of his hip
protested its very existence.
     Evendal caught the dismayed tone and looked doubtfully down the table.
     The Kwo-edan spoke slowly, gently, but did not mince words. "No parent
offers such advice unsought. No friend unveils another's lawful intimate
behaviour in a public fete. No King publicly broaches a concern
over...sensuality, unless the person being helped has given permission
outright. Or unless the person involved is an enemy that that King wishes
to shame." Aldul chided himself not to lecture but to employ what mattered
most to Evendal. "Honouring those bounds is a gauge of
trustworthiness. Divulging details of others' congress baldly, without
their prior sanction, signals a lack of respect for them."
     The King sat with his mouth ajar, finding no flaw in Aldul's
castigation. He wanted to plead his intention to help his friends, but
intention was questionable too: Because his advice was nonsense. If
Metthendoenn was too wearied to sit idly at table, he could hardly take any
joy in the exertion of lovemaking. His Majesty had announced matters not
his to know and, since known by him, certainly not his to reveal. He had
visibly upset four of his guests and made Ierwbae and Metthendoenn to feel
a spectacle. Where had his mind scurried?
     "I just enacted Onkira. I practically marched down the very avenues of
her thought." He glared in horror at a bemused Ierwbae.
     The Kwo-edan was quick off the mark, thinking back on his second day
in the Palace. "Yes and no! The fashion of her haviour would be the one
most immediate, most accessible to you. Also, recall when we arrived, after
your first confrontation with her. You asked me if other mothers commonly
discussed their conjugal joys or sorrows with their sons. You have merely
revealed your ignorance, now as then. Nothing more. Would Onkira have
sought to guide someone whose goal was not all toward pleasing her?"
     Looking nauseated and red-faced, Evendal answered in a careful
monotone. "Not for long. And most often it served as a segue to a salacious
ramble about herself or a segue to some inappropriate demand." He took a
deep breath. "So, I do not perpetuate her mentation, then?"
     Aldul shook his head carefully. "The trappings, but not the hunger or
venom."
     Evendal drew in another slow, deep breath and blatantly relaxed. "That
does nothing to assuage my humiliation of you, my kinsmen."
     Startled by Aldul's revelation as much as Evendal's indiscretion, his
face dusky, Ierwbae floundered. "I. We. I do not know what to say, Your
Majesty. I did not expect. How do we?"
     The two Guard stopped and gazed at each other until both began to
chuckle. The chuckle quickly turned into nervous laughter interspersed with
groans and grunts of pain from Metthendoenn. Aldul understood the impulse
well.
     Ierwbae's mirth stayed visible even as he struggled to excuse his
liege. "Your Majesty, no matter the circumstance, your will has ever been
for our benefit. This is no different. Since last we spoke of... my faults,
I have submitted myself to Metthendoenn's instruction. We have talked to
much purpose. Unknowing, you but provide a test for a stricture we both
have determined to live by. It follows then that no offense was served and
none received. In truth, I would take your advice and implement it." The
man gave his beloved a randy look.
     Softly, with his own eyes downcast, Evendal rumbled. "I, We, most
humbly thank you for your forbearance."
     Ierwbae rightly waved the comment aside. "I would be no worthy man
were I to affect righteous indignation at what is merely an unconsidered
gesture of love. Enough on that, if you please, Your Majesty."
     Evendal acquiesced, but his look made it clear he would not
forget. "If you wish, though I shall indeed task myself over the
frowardness of my tongue. And what effect I truly sought. Tell us what
proceeded from this instruction of yours'."
     Then Metthendoenn spoke up. "I have learned anew how very different he
and I are. We likewise concluded how we are more temperate men, vassals,
and Guard when knit together than when unmated from each other."
     As Metthendoenn had halted, Ierwbae continued. "Between us we have
cleared much of the chaff from the destruction that I sowed. And we have
gleaned some guides, some regulae, Your Majesty, one of which pertains
here. The reason for our mirth. 'Day, night, or twilight, commit no act you
cannot talk freely about to anyone.' That imposition is proving as much a
challenge for Metthendoenn as for me."
     The King saw the ramifications immediately. "From you, Metthendoenn,
it requires more temerity; that you must talk most bluntly about what you
want and what you do not want of Ierwbae. In plain language. And from
Ierwbae it entails a threat and demands restraint. That he account for his
time to you without lying by omission. For were you to uncover mischief,
you can demand he give an accounting of his misdeeds to other people."
     Ierwbae nodded. "I gave Metthendoenn the liberty to ask an accounting
of my days, and to expect truth from me." He continued on with evident
reluctance. "Then it came to me that I yet acted the coward. What specie of
man would actually ask? Any such demand by him, however sweetly worded,
exposes his doubts of me anew, fanning resentment -- in him and in
me. Rather, we contrived a set bell and place, wherein I give over that
intelligence freely and unprompted.
     "Toward that end, Your Majesty, know that I did, in the summer months,
spend most of my leisure either haunting the Guard sword-practice or
meandering by one or two much frequented marinas. All with the unprofessed
hope of dipping my horn up some stranger. My purpose in burdening you with
this is twofold: I would not have you ignorant of the manner of man you
call kin. And I still beg your tolerance of my unsummoned presence, those
times when I do not trust my strength or will."
     Aldul listened in fascination. Did Evendal not treat Ierwbae's
apparent efforts with gravity and approbation, the Kwo-edan would not
readily have credited that someone could be in vassalage to a constellation
of sensual habitudes. Aldul did not doubt the validity of Ierwbae's plight,
but had never witnessed a struggle quite like the Guard confronted.
     He once knew a neighbor in Kwo-eda who, when anxious or beleaguered,
ate. She would insist repeatedly that only food soothed her. She had died
from infections due to a ruptured bladder, having refused to leave a table
one night even for a brief moment in the jakes. He also knew two people,
emigrants from different provinces now settled in Kwo-eda, who regularly
drank themselves into a stupor. They admitted to their narcotic routine,
and agreed such excess unproductive. Their remorse was fierce and
genuine. They also forgot family, friends, all pledges and deepest
convictions whenever their liege, Lord Ferment, demanded earthly worship.
     To Aldul's view, Evendal justly intervened. Whether it be called
brandywine, orgasm or hodge-podge, if the very yearning for some habit
suspended a man's sense and will, that yen was a tyrant that needed
displacing -- the actual lord of a vassal if not the mortal one.
     Evendal took his Guard's confession in stride. "You are always a
welcome attendant, Ierwbae. And I would rather you intrude on me, on Us,
than fail at your ambition utterly. How say you, Metthendoenn? Would you
feel it a source of shame or jealousy, or of security, for your man to come
to us when feeling harried or nightmare-ridden by his worst instincts?"
     Metthendoenn looked surprised. "Both, my lord. But I no less than
Ierwbae rely on your honour, good Your Majesty."
     "Know that were the odour of deceit to waft from either of you, We
would not be slow in sending the offender to the other to give such an
accounting as you, Ierwbae, spoke of. But you uplift my, Our, heart with
the measures you have taken, the healing you have accomplished. Now,
Metthendoenn, you must permit your frame to heal as well. Go with Our good
will. Ierwbae? Return when you are satisfied of your beloved's
disposition."

     As the two Guard left, Evendal beckoned Ierowen to his side. "How fare
you now, Master Ierowen?"
     "Well, Your Majesty. Again, I feel quite the fool here, amidst all
these nobs."
     The King smiled. "Be of good cheer. You will find you are a good deal
more honest than half of them could aspire to be."
     Ierowen's blush and furtive eye jump toward the smirking Minfal gave
Evendal and Aldul -- the ones who knew the lad -- two coins of
intelligence: That Minfal had entered the Palace with an item of value. And
that the seaman was unaware he no longer possessed that valuable. Beckoning
the youth closer, His Majesty lowered his voice. "This example you
shadowed..."
     "Yes, Your Majesty?" Ierowen in turn mimicked the King, dropping his
tone with a worried expression.
     "What did he do to rouse you so?"
     "He would not give over his coats, Your Majesty. And he represented no
one but himself. He boasted of that."
     Nearly every attendant at this fete represented a place or a people,
with the exception of five of the celebrants at the King's table. "His
coats?" Evendal thought a moment on what that might signify to a
street-urchin. When the answer finally came to him, he wanted to hug the
lad, but knew Ierowen would not countenance such yet.
     "Thank you. Did you satisfy yourself as to his harmlessness?"
     "He has an unsheathed blade strapped to each arm," Ierowen
warned. "'Twas all I had the opportunity to ken."
     That report did not please Evendal. "No doubt Guard Ottily, being of
more genteel upbringing, did not consider the threats that can be concealed
therein. When you pressed your concern, and she failed to exercise prudence
and diligence, she became a Guard-in-training." The King craned his neck to
the Guard at his right. "Remind me, should I not address this negligence
within the bell."
     "Your Majesty," the Guard responded neutrally.
     "Ierowen. This rough fellow has come to return a bauble I quite lost
track of, he just does not know that such is his purpose. Do you think you
could help him?"
     "What manner of toy?" Ierowen knew himself to be caught out.
     "A stone, tossed into the boat we habited and, such was the weight and
number of subsequent events, I forgot to retrieve it."
     The red of Ierowen's hair seemed to seep down into his face. "Do you
mean this trifle?" Turning a hand occluded from Minfal palm up, the lad
revealed a dull, smooth, gray-green ovoid.
     The King grinned at the picker like a parent made proud. "I do
indeed. Bear its weight for the moment, but not on your unprotected skin
like that, while I learn the measure of this man." Evendal then thought to
ask. "What think you of gingerbread?"
     Baffled at his continued liberty as much as the non-sequitur, Ierowen
could only, he felt, reply in kind. "I have heard of it, Your Majesty, but
never tasted it."
     "I am not sure if I have or not. Restore the salt you scooped from the
doorway as best you can. Then if you could let either Mistress Shulro or
one of her ordinaries know that We would like three portions of
gingerbread, and return to take your ease with Us, you would have my, and
Our, thanks."
     "Ever your grateful servant, Your Majesty."
     Evendal winced and scowled, and then wondered at his own reaction.
     Ierowen retreating, the King gestured for Minfal to
approach. "Greetings, officer Minfal. How fare you now?"
     "I humbly thank you, Your Majesty. Well indeed." The seaman projected
the aire of a contented ralur.
     "Is there business between us?" Evendal set his features in what he
hoped signalled innocent curiosity.
     "No, Your Majesty. At least... I am not certain, Your Majesty. Is Swan
Song yet Captain Karondeo's? Your Majesty." The man's mockery with each
repetition of Evendal's honour was thick though his countenance remained
cheerful. Alekrond's son stared blankly at his father's crewman, surprised
at both the man's recklessness and at being an object under discussion.
     Evendal smiled to show as many of his teeth as possible, and dropped a
reassuring hand on his beloved's. "The Swan Song remains the property of
Alekrond lin Agredd and under the command of Karondeo lin Alekrond."
     "Then who will stand good for its cleaning, repair and careening? My
mortally ailing Master Alekrond? Or Master Karondeo, who has paid what he
could to Alta for the service, and, according to his mates, hasn't enough
revenue to pay a second time?"
     Disappointed in the direction and occupation of the man's thoughts,
the King groused. "Is there a target to your expressions of concern, or are
you simply flight shooting?(270) If so, We cry `Loose' and beg you have
done with it."
     The seaman frowned, offended at the ruler's seeming flippancy. "The
goal of my address, Your Majesty, is to give whoever holds Swan Song notice
that I would claim her and restore her. For myself."
     The Swordbrother of the Sea sat up straighter and signalled
Surn-meddil, who suddenly held Kri-estaul in his lap.
     "You woke up," Evendal accused. "You woke before Our congress
with...the Sea was ended." The two Guard flanking the King took a telling
step toward Minfal, alerted by their liege's tone.
     "Is that what you call it? `Congress'? With a monstrous, obscene..."
Uneasy at the proximity of his liveried company, Minfal paused to gather
wit and breath. Though he addressed the King, his gaze fixed on
Alekrond. "It took my walk from the ports to even begin to ken all your
talk aboard that boat. But I did. Enough."
     The King stood, offhandedly waving his supper companions to
refrain. With deliberate steps, he maneuvered so that Minfal faced away
from the mass of diners, making it difficult for the two of them to be
overheard except by those at the King's table. "Did you? We think not. What
would distinguish you from other tavern talespinners?"
     Minfal grinned, only glancing at Evendal. "The token that...got
tossed. The effect it gives off in sunlight proves it more than a common
carbuncle. And I fancy that so long as I possess it, that fell beast shall
treat with me most civilly. I have hopes the Throne will as well. Report of
secret communion with murderous sea dwellers would not endear Your Majesty
to your people."
     The Lord of the Thronelands felt a temptation to encourage Minfal into
testing Llyssh's `civility', but forbore. Alekrond's crewman obviously
believed a simple memory-marker -- the convention of a creature that sought
every compensation for a short attention span and a tidal memory -- some
wondrous halidom. The man was partially blinded by a blatant obsession:
Alekrond. Though Minfal properly addressed the Royal Majesty in this public
occasion, his insinuations were not truly directed toward the ruler.
     The King turned to his Maritime Counselors. "Master Alekrond? Matron
Melianth?" Startled, the two shifted their attention from Minfal to the
Evendal, bemused. "He is of your cohorts. What would you?"
     "I rescued you from a Nikloan galley, Minfal." Alekrond grumbled, eyes
glinting in anger and grief. "This is your gratitude? This, your service?"
     "Did you never wonder why they put him there?" Evendal whispered
rhetorically.
     Minfal flashed the King a furious look. "You may try to silence me,
but I reckon I can shout out a few deadly truths before you succeed. Your
Majesty. And your treatment of me will then indict you."
     "That might be true on one of Alekrond's ships, facile manikin, where
mob rule prevails. Here, the mindless masses do not govern. Show Us your
token. Show the entire hall your token. Do you think anyone here would
care?"
     Belatedly, the seaman looked around. Adjacent tables held peerage who
in equal parts ate appreciatively and listened ambivalently. None showed
alarm or great interest in the King's business.
     "It would not serve them. Gentry or commoner, they may benignly accept
or reject whatever you might choose to spout, for they are free to do
so. They are free to do so, and then to leave it in Our hands. They know it
is the nature of rule and kingship to be a thesaurus of weighty secrets
kept from them."
     The King's eyes widened in a lightning strike of realisation, though
his glow stayed dim. "It was when she sought to lure us overboard. Her
casting awakened you!"
     Minfal shrugged, not caring; his fury he still directed toward
Alekrond. "The most difficult task I ever managed, Your Majesty, was
keeping still when I heard Master Alekrond scream. For him to step out of
the boat was sheer stupidity! That is when I decided I could not serve
under such an addlepated captain."
     "Instead you now `pledge to yourself and pay homage to an idiot'(271)?
Show Us your gray-green bauble."
     Theatrically disdainful, Minfal shook his head, then his smug
expression swiftly changed to alarm as he wondered how Evendal knew to
describe a token he had never glanced at. When he searched blindly at the
small of his back, and scrabbled under his winter garb, the man's rough
fingers found a slit in the tunic.
     Evendal m'Alismogh asked again, "Master Alekrond? Have We your
sanction?"
     People knew when Alekrond was in a room, even if the man said no word,
made no deliberate disturbance. It was not a skill Alekrond encouraged but
simply the nature of the man; even at his weakest, his presence made itself
felt. At that moment, the male half of the office of Maritime
Counsellorship seemed much diminished, indistinguishable from any other
guest.
     Alekrond sighed, but did not answer promptly.
     Minfal, all anger displaced by shock and the beginnings of panic,
shared gazes with his captain. The moment stretched like a harp-string in
unnerving silence. Evendal glanced from one seaman to the other, uncertain
of what passed, certain only of the tension and pain. That harp-string,
that strain, broke on a hoarse reply.
     "I had hoped... He has left us, you, no other path, my son."
     Startled by the endearment, Evendal gaped open-mouthed at the older
man and missed the resentful gleam in Minfal's eye.
     "You rock-hearted, cowardly, son of a bitch and a weasel!" Minfal
shouted. "How can you call him that? And not a word of acknowledgement for
me, who laboured without fail for years?"
     The outburst was both sincere and calculated, to draw the attention of
those attending. Most guests considerately continued finishing their meal,
inured to the tactic.
     Evendal m'Alismogh chanted, projecting easily over the seaman's
low-voiced rant:

        Minfal, you will not speak hence,
        Though your living flesh we flense,
        Give out no sly sign nor mime
        Of what you have heard betime,
        No mewl of pain nor rough jeer,
        Until the Sea claims your bier.
        Your gift of life we retake
        For our two dear kingdoms' sake.

     The seaman inhaled ostentatiously, preparatory to bellowing again, but
all he produced was warmer air; the effort to vacate his lungs could not
summon so much as the rasp of a wheeze.
     "Our life is worth more to Us than a collection of wood, pitch, metal
and rope, Minfal. Too bad your's is not worth more to you. We must sentence
you to an ordeal having but one outcome and no witness but its
executioners; no one to know of your passion. But on whom do We inflict the
chore of exacting your sentence?"
     "Your Majesty has but to ask," Ierwbae interjected, having walked back
in and bowed.
     Evendal glanced askant. "'Tis butcher's work, Ierwbae. You of all Our
Guard know what need's be done. But We would not wish this task on you."
     "Then do not. Merely wish it done. Direct me."
     "He is to have his testicle sack cut off, cauterised, the acorns
cooked and served to him. Whether he be living or dead, they are to lodge
in the cage of his mouth."
     Then did Ierwbae encompass the man's offense. "He went diving?!"
     "Ambitions to the same effect. He will make no protest as We have
reclaimed his liberty to speak. After you have unmanned him, though it is
traditional for the miscreant to choose from tongue removal or death, he
may not. He will die this day."
     Ierwbae nodded. "What manner? Where?"
     Pie-eyed, Minfal dropped to his knees and grabbed the King's in
fruitless supplication, so that Evendal briefly struggled to stay
upright. The two Guard pried the now sobbing man's arms away and restrained
him. "'Ware the blades at his wrists. He comes before Us armed without Our
sanction."
     The Guard responded with alacrity.
     "Do not kill him outright, leave that to another. But if he dies from
the damage you inflict, so be it. Tradition presumes We abide at the old
cliff-side court northward, the offender to be weighted down and cast into
the ocean alive. What other records We know of have the traitor flayed and
blood-eagled at the king's feet. Neither commend themselves to Us. But We
would advise cracking his ribs as a final gesture."
     "I will take that advising; I may not be skilled with what details
precedent might demand," Ierwbae warned.
     "This will not demand skill, stomping upon his chest should
suffice. It needs no banquet-master, as he shall not long survive the
effort." The King stepped away from the table, beckoning Ierwbae with a
finger to follow. He meandered to the least populous corner of the room and
contemplated its wall.
     Uncomfortable with them, Evendal eventually voiced his thoughts. "I do
confess, Ierwbae, were it not for such as yourself and those here seated, I
would too readily consign the lot of my people to the depths."
     "What charged this sudden ill-humour?"
     "That fool threatened my home..." For a moment Evendal could hardly
continue. "That man thought to gamble the safety of my kingdom for a... a
coracle! Is this the mettle of my citizens?"
     "Your Majesty knows better," Ierwbae reproved. "He is a menial, is he
not? On Master Alekrond's flagship it is true, but nonetheless not a
principal deputy. Am I correct?"
     Diverted by his companion's tone, Evendal gave over staring at the
stone and rugs. "You are correct. He directs none of Alekrond's `fleet' or
manpower. But when I sought Master Alekrond's imprimatur, his relevant
comment was `I rescued you from a Nikloan galley, Minfal.' And to accuse
him of ingratitude. As though Alekrond had made a singular effort to rescue
him."
     "I suspect, as he was taken off a galley, he has been a fair time in
Alekrond's service. More than nine years." Back in his more earnest days,
Alekrond lin Agredd had made it his habit to fire up every galley pressing
slaves or criminals that his crews came across. He quit that particular
pastime just before Mausna.
     The King peered at his companion and aide in puzzlement. "Do you think
I seek a whipping-boy for my earlier embarrassment?"
     "No, Your Majesty."
     "Do you warn Us, then, that We execute a man deep in Alekrond's
councils and affections?"
     "I would assert the contrary, Your Majesty. I contend that you kill a
dog in the act of savaging a citizen of your's. If my supposal is accurate,
after ten or more years without advancement or commendation, who would not
feel much abused? No good word from a rescuer who might well know what put
him in the chains but clearly has never pushed him to seek his fortunes
elsewhere. Ambivalence. Whereas had the man any worth in Master Alekrond's
soft heart, I'd have heard the Maritime Counsellor's defense of him from
back in our rooms."
     The King considered. "The man acts a cockney,(272) which is no
crime. But Alekrond did indeed have no word for the churl, of command or
approbation, no look or gesture, no acknowledgement the fellow even
breathed.
     "Before you returned, Minfal admitted to hearing report from
Karondeo's mates of his penury. He could only have done this at the same
time he asserted he was..."
     "Was what, Your Majesty?"
     "Struggling to make sense of a conversation aboard the dinghy that was
death for him to hear," Evendal answered truthfully, if evasively. "A
discussion that he claimed engaged him utterly on route to the Palace.
     "That his first impulse should be to mask his presence of mind from
the lord securing his continued survival bodes no good. And to labour
during this deception, sifting small bits of intelligence from a
confrontation not meant for his ears. That shows someone practised at
extortion(273)."
     "Your converse must not have engaged him that thoroughly, Your
Majesty." Ierwbae warned sardonically.
     "Why so?"
     "Minfal would not have your gift for snatching the marrow of matters
from the lips of others. And for him to learn of Master Karondeo's
financial woes in as brief a time as he had, argues vigorous effort with
seamen who are too likely to trumpet their own woes and wounds without
pause --- heedless of his wishes for dispatch -- first and foremost."
     Tangentially proud of Ierwbae, Evendal grinned: He heard a fine
counsellor. "So in truth he knows and comprehends less than he
presents. And plans further mischief against Our vassal Alekrond."
     Evendal turned back and locked gazes with Surn-meddil. He asked an
unvoiced question of the late ruler. Surn-meddil nodded in answer.
     "This is all irrelevant, you know? The man will inform naught but sea
anemones. When the gelding is done, bind his jaw and lightly sew his lips
together around his organs."
     "Sew his lips together?" Ierwbae looked doubtful.
     The King shrugged. "Thread the lips loosely, or fashion a leather or
hemp net that fits securely against his face. It must be seen that he
mouths some object -- but his acorns cannot be allowed to slip out in
water."
     "Be seen by wh...? No. Nevermind. Forgive me, Your Majesty."
     "Forgiven. Do We ask too much? We can do this act Ourself with Our
heart clear, soft and intact, Ierwbae. You are vital to Us in other,
greater tasks."
     Ierwbae shook his head stubbornly. "No. A man threatens you out of
avarice. Without you saying so openly, I ken that he threatens more than
your august person. Either means treason and therefore it is my office to
execute his just sentence. Your Majesty."
     Evendal stared stonily down at the sweating, desperate seaman. "There
is naught `just' about this."
     "I would voice one qualm, Your Majesty. Evendal."
     The King glanced up at the softly spoken familiarity.
     "Is this not a guest we stoop to savage?" Ierwbae's face displayed
serious misgivings; the rules of Hramal hospitality were older than the
Moonchild.
     Evendal ald'Menam shook his head. "No. So eager was he for his prize,
Minfal disdained Our salt. Thus did he indicate of his intent."
     Minfal struggled against his captors in vain; until the King waved the
Guard desist. Surprised at his release, he glared up and pleaded with his
eyes, setting palm to palm and extending them toward the King.
     Evendal ald'Menam took a deep breath, sadness dimming the glow of his
face. "No. We will not accept so poisonous a gift. We will not reward
calumny. You chose the wrong secret by which to wring favour. Had you
straightway delivered up the stone and not meddled, you might have found
your humble ambition blithely granted. Instead you imperil Our realm so
that any decision We might make regarding you is all but made for Us. Rely
on Guard Ierwbae; he is mercifully ruthless and sure."
     He turned back to Ierwbae. "We do not want him a spectacle for any
witnesses, including fellow Guard. When he is gelded and sewn, hood him and
have him taken to where we found Metthendoenn and Hielan-Plwa(274)." The
startled look that arced across Ierwbae's face alerted Evendal to their
harbouring contrary assumptions. "Thunders, kinsman! Alert Bruddbana. We do
not expect you alone to cart him about or clean up his mess or haul him out
to the wild. Mean and Ugly made sudden deaths commonplaces; no fellow Guard
will do more than groan over assisting you in this. However, were you to
delegate the necessary gelding and sewing, the seeming barbarity of it
would repel and remain memorable to the labourer; that chore must be your's
alone."
     "Which is as well. My needlework is just bad enough to accomplish your
wishes." Ierwbae grimaced and, turning back toward the kitchens, signalled
his fellows to follow with an openmouthed, silently tearful Minfal who
flailed his limbs and strove in vain to draw salvific notice.
     "The people here will wonder," Evendal muttered. "And gossip that We
executed the sole menial who took Us on Our furtive boat ride."
     "Of course they will," came a voice at his ear. "And they will
deliberately snag the wrong clew scrabbling for the whole ball. If you give
people nothing untoward, young one, they will create it -- and resent you
for making them put in the effort."
     "Why do I feel as though I betrayed that fool, when he is the one who
betrayed his oaths?"
     "Because you had hoped for a brief moment of unalloyed relief and
celebration; an understandable delusion. Because you and I -- and a now
hale Nikraan --- are the only ones who know what that oaf was gambling
against and with. Because he truly is a fool: To accost the Majesty of
Osedys with his surety on his person. To have no accomplice. To expect you
to submit in fear of his unconsidered threat. No surprise that what he
fancied a circlet twisted into a garrote. He is one `gift' I shall deliver
to the Moonchild promptly.
     "Come back to table. If you must think about that greedy gullet, think
on what he chose against. He could have done what was given him to do, and
with such a will that he would indeed have achieved all that he thought
owed to him. But he chose against that. In the end, he will die because of
his choices more than your's."
     Evendal complied, weighing Surn-meddil's words. The revenant had
listed many reasons for the King's disquietude, but had not thought of the
one that now came clear to Evendal: He was killing a man who did not know
why.
     It mattered to him; even though the man would be just as dead within
the next bell with or without that knowledge. And the intelligence --
learning that his death was not the Crown's punishment for blackmail but a
survival measure against a man proven untrustworthy --- was not likely to
mean much to Minfal. But then Evendal acknowledged that by making such a
conclusion he was deciding for the miscreant.
     "Tell him, please," Evendal adjured Surn-meddil directly. "Explain to
him why he must die, so that he comprehends his true error." Evendal spoke
as though continuing a conversation, a chat no one else at the table had
heard. None flinched, though Edrionwytt looked puzzled.
     Surn-meddil's semblance responded. "Why? What does it matter if he
dies knowing or safely ignorant?"
     "It might matter to him. We did not declare him t'bo, he is still
Our's. His name will not be forgotten or vilified." Alekrond sighed,
whether in dismay or relief not even the Songmaster knew.
     Surn-meddil argued with the King. "He is guilty of treason."
     Evendal shook his head. "Do not cosset Us. That is the fiction Ierwbae
fashioned for himself, to feel at ease with what was asked of him. Minfal
intended no treason."
     "You can say that? Intended or no, had he persisted in his aim, you
would have known injury, and all Osedys after you. And that would not have
mattered to him, so long as he was content. Few traitors intend harm to
another -- only benefit to themselves -- that makes them no less guilty of
treason."
     The King shrugged. "You are correct. However, from his view, his
ambition might have earned him branding, indenture, exile or
crippling. Castration and death have never been venial blackmail's reward."
     "Are you troubled that a man who will not see the sunset thinks you
cruel?" The nature of Surn-meddil's mobile made it impossible to tell if
the question was indifferent or scornful.
     "Yes," Evendal answered surprisingly. "Minfal kelh'Kron Agrit'kelig,"
he struggled and failed to pronounce the names as he heard them in his
mind. "Minfal kelh'Kron Agrit'kelig is yet a vassal. We are not, and dare
not be, deaf even to such a one. And what comfort We can provide us both,
We will."
     "I will indeed do as you have asked. And will reassure him how you yet
acknowledge him a citizen."
     Evendal m'Alismogh nodded. "Whence the 'keli'?"
     Alekrond stirred. "I have not heard that augmentative in many
years. It is Pharikian." When no one showed a hint of recognition, he
elaborated gruffly. "From an island cluster north of Arkedda."
     The King of the temperate-zoned Thronelands raised both brows in
surprise. "North of Arkedda! What do they do at wintertide? Hibernate?"
     "No," was all Alekrond said, closing his eyes as one wearied.
     Melianth answered for her spouse. "They would flee south and west to
another set of islands we call Se-Shemmah. How do you know of Ekron
Agri'kelig?"
     "He sired Minfal."
     Shenrowyn's daughter gripped Alekrond's hand and turned to him with a
troubled expression. It was Alekrond's turn to nod as he forced himself to
speak. "After prolonged effort, I rescued him off a Nikloan galley. From
the first day aboard, I sensed that he doubted my generosity and my
intentions. So I let him be, left him to make his own place among us if he
wanted to. He made friends, and then made them enemies of each other. He
fomented dissension and distrust. I would see crew snarling and challenging
one another, but never did they challenge him. At first I thought he was
serving as mediator, for I would see disputants in impassioned talks with
him. That is what I thought, until injuries seemed to inevitably follow his
mediation."
     "How did you deal with his manufactures?" Ierowen and a kitchen-drudge
returned, bowed, and set three platters on the table.
     "I let a few of the cannier mates know what he was about. They in turn
calmed the more pliable and redirected their distrust until, eventually,
none would talk to him. There were a few who had no coinage of thought, and
so paid us no mind. The measure of distrust he had sowed meant that those
few did not live long; you have to trust your mates in order to survive on
the seas."
     "Why did you continue to suffer such a worm?"
     "I thought we had pulled his fangs. But he changed tactics. He. He
troubled Melianth..."
     Surn-meddil made a show of transferring Kri-estaul bodily into
Evendal's sling. When the child was secured, Alekrond's wife took up the
telling.
     "Minfal paid me court, Your Majesty. Chaperoning me
spuriously. Gifting me with baubles and delicacies. Applauding my looks, my
wit, my temper and manner." She shook her head in remembrance. "'Twas sad
and macabre. Had I wanted any of the trifles he stole or extorted, I would
have already possessed them -- freely given by my husband. And I am well
aware of my flaws and qualities. The very idea of his pursuing me chilled
me."
     Evendal protested. "To accost a married woman makes him troublesome,
certainly, and crass. The perfect provocation to rid yourself of an
ambitious barnacle."
     Melianth's troubled expression did not change. "He said much to me
that was flowery and excessive. But never -- in words -- did he press his
suit."
     "And what of you, Master Alekrond? Did you observe this? Permit it?"
     "Your Majesty, I am not a young man. After Melianth and I came to
understand each other, I decided that she herself must determine the
character of our contract, our marriage. So I watched their intercourse,
and at first thought her discreetly(275) seeking out a boy nearer her age
and vigour. She bluntly disabused me of my error." Melianth and Alekrond
grinned complicitly.
     "How?"
     "Melianth called for a meeting of the crew. She then gathered up every
rough note given by Minfal, every trinket and trifle unclaimed by a
previous owner, tossed them in a barrel with some pitch, set a fire in
it. After the fire had devoured what it could, she tossed the open barrel
over the side."
     "And was your integrity finally written plainly enough for him?"
     Alekrond and Melianth exchanged looks again. "Yes," the husband
answered.
     The King knew that the described crisis was not the end of the
matter. "He responded as a man abused and frustrated in his
purpose. Correct?"
     Alekrond nodded. "Having painted Melianth to the crews as a hireling
whose price he had found, when she torched his tokens he changed his
insinuation: My wife was suddenly an espier for Polgern, waiting for the
opportune moment to betray us into some massacre."
     "In many ways Minfal truly acted the pathetic clod." Melianth asserted
solemnly.
     Evendal evinced surprise at the bald assessment.
     "Those of the crews that harboured a thought in their heads knew they
would not have a home or liberty in the Thronelands without my wife's
sacrifice and steadfast resolve. For three months Minfal sported bruises
and cuts; my crew's response to his tale-fabrication. For three months he
strove to find someone else disgruntled enough to betray her -- and us ---
to Polgern or Abduram."
     "For three months Minfal could have died in a convenient accident at
sea, had my husband given the slightest hint that such was his whim."
     "I would not."
     Melianth frowned in remembered frustration. "Had that greedy
bastard(276) been incautious...But he revealed very little about himself
that was true. None of the crews know his parentage, though some approached
us with their guesses. I treated Minfal as I would any fellow crewmember,
so he thought me equally ignorant. That is how I could glean that his
purpose was not to consummate any passion for me, but for my office and my
Alekrond's life."
     Alekrond took up the telling. "Then one of my oldest friends came to
me while Minfal was on another ship. He reported how the cur had been
sniffing around for a pack of braves to join him the next time he went on
the mainland. This fellow, as dense as I am, feared Minfal planned for I
and Melianth to disappear -- into Polgern's annex of the Palace
under-grounds."
     Melianth grinned fondly. "If that stolid old salt, insensible to
emotional currents flowing around him, anticipated trouble from a
crewmember, true threat existed. We confined Minfal to Ddronthys and to
those ships that did not have the mainland in their itinerary."
     "Finally, we had a respite from his conniving. Every few months he
would return to the Swan's Down from Ddronthys or another ship, battered or
with a bone broken. And we would know that he had tried to convince one of
my kith that black was white. Again."
     Evendal interrupted. "And a third time I ask you. Why did you endure
him for so long?"
     Melianth opened her mouth, but Alekrond slipped his hand from under
her's and waved it to halt her. She demurred, letting her husband reply or
not as he chose.
     "Because, Your Majesty, one score and fifteen years ago, I dwelt for
two years among the Phariki as Ekron Agrit'kelig."
     The King's reaction was instantaneous. "Besayle, Ućstrho(277)
Surn-meddil, detain Guard Ierwbae in his duties. Immediately."
     The spectre turned its passionless countenance on the Maritime
Counsellor. "Is that your desire, Master Alekrond?"
     Stymied, Alekrond did not answer. He did not ken any affection for or
from Minfal; indeed, he had spent the last eleven to twelve years striving
to fashion a complicity or a fulcrum for mutual respect that Minfal
repeatedly ignored.
     The murder of a son, however estranged, was hard to contemplate. For
twelve years he had offered Minfal tasks that could justify advancement,
only to have the young man refuse them or perform them with flawless
indifference. After twelve years of learning again and again how the son he
had boarded galleys to free was by habit lazy but greedy, resented everyone
for what he saw as undeserved good-fortune -- and was determined to lay
claim to all Alekrond had laboured for and nurtured -- the milk of his
kindness had turned. Now this squid of an offspring had latched onto his
liege, a `prey' more perilous than his rabid predecessors, and all Alekrond
felt was tired and empty-headed.
     How could he allow his son to suffer and die so? But how could he
endure more years dreading Minfal's next attempt at usurpation? Minfal
would not scruple endangering Melianth and her yet-to-be-born child. Were
he to say the right word, Alekrond knew Evendal would pursue a way to defy
the laws of this land and permit Minfal to keep his life and all his
organs-- a continuous threat to Alekrond's family and to Thronelander
safety and peace of mind.
     Evendal intruded into the silence of Alekrond's pain. "Almost everyone
at this table has had to make a damnable decision. None will think you a
stone-heart for refusing this chance. None will think you a fool for
accepting it."
     After several laboured breaths, Alekrond turned a conflicted
countenance to his wife. "Melianth? What would be best?"
     His wife responded pointedly. "For whom?"
     Evendal ald'Menam raised his hand, reconsidering. "Forgive us,
Counsellors. Despite Our hasty command and Lord Surn-meddil's query, We
realise that the decision is not your's to make. And so Our sentence, once
pronounced, is to proceed."
     Surn-meddil nodded.
     Alekrond sighed again. "Minfal, as I said, has left us with little
choice. He is my son, yes, but he is also his own man -- long past his
fourteenth year. I will grieve him. But..."
     "He never knew, did he?" Evendal's glowing eyes widened in disbelief.
     "About what?" Melianth asked, confused by her husband suddenly
avoiding all gazes. "Of course he knew his heritage, `twas part of what
pushed him to act so."
     "You are the bane of every secret, Your Nosey Majesty!" the elder
seaman sniped.
     The King glanced back and forth between Melianth and Alekrond and a
long silent Karondeo. "How many have survived to acquire captaincies?"
     After a moment's staring contest, Alekrond protested, "'Twas the one
repeated stupidity of my younger years. Your Majesty. Melianth."
     Neither of those named responded except to stare demandingly, as
Melianth realized that even now she was not yet her husband's confidante.
     "Ten. Three from former crew. Four who sought me out. And three that I
sought out once I learned of them."
     "I am surprised you had time to command your business," the King joked
weakly. "You truly are a father to your people!"
     To Evendal's surprise, Melianth, once she grasped the gist of the
conversation, turned toward the head of the table. "You knew this,
Karondeo?"
     The King's beloved looked around Edrionwytt and shrugged. "My father
is a man of passions and impulses. This is why, when he insisted I was to
be his heir, I insisted he cast word of it openly, and in writing, to all
his ships and the ports we frequented. I feared another impulse might move
him to change his decision."
     "What are they?"
     "The captains of Swan's Down's cadre. Though I do not know what father
did with Kerrágisir?" At Melianth's blank expression, Karondeo clarified,
"He was captain of the Swan's Down before father, in his peeve, gave her to
me."
     She turned back to her motionless husband. "When was I going to learn
of this? After I had paraded our child as what they were to think as your
second-born and -- with Master Karondeo exiled -- your heir? After I had
made a fool of myself and insulted them with ignorant bragging?" Melianth
nudged herself away from Alekrond's outstretched arms.
     "How could you let...? I thought I was supporting... giving you what
you had lost! Something precious. Not what you already had ten of!"
     "Eleven," Alekrond murmured uncomfortably, "if we include Minfal."
     Melianth glanced back toward Karondeo, then away, her orbs spilling
tears. "Oh, yes," she whispered. "We include Minfal."
     After respecting this overwrought scrapper's just complaint with a
time of silence, Karondeo tendered a sop. "You are providing something,
someone, precious, Lady Melianth. Yourself. And the second child of his
line that he will have known from its very birth."
     "Of the eleven, I count myself the most fortunate," Karondeo asserted
solemnly. "I grew up a seaman. I did not have to learn, for a second time,
habits of thinking, moving, conviviality. When I fled upriver, I had
abandoned and betrayed not just my father."
     "How so?"
     Alekrond mumbled, "You never betrayed me."
     "Only after I had left did I acknowledge how a few of my brothers
relied on me almost as...their priest or nathlil. They came to me for
assurance, clarity, corrections. I saw my...my life differently in
listening to them, so I never laughed at their ignorance. But. They must be
furious with me for leaving them."
     Evendal proffered, "They will get over it, so long as you do not
change toward them too much. Am I correct in guessing that the ten captains
we speak of are all male?"
     "Aye, Your Majesty." Alekrond answered, uncertain if he would regret
this answering as he did the last.
     "Then, Matron Melianth, be assured that you do indeed provide Master
Alekrond with a singular grace."
     Evendal found Ierowen's gaze fixed on him, and recalled he had other
business. "So Minfal irritated you and plotted or anticipated violence. Did
anyone else defy the King's Peace in your presence?"
     "No, Your Majesty." Ierowen answered, his body as taut as Minfal's had
grown.
     "Had anyone sought to conceal items contraband in this setting?"
     "Yes, Your Majesty." Ierowen answered. Then, much to the surprise of
everyone but for Surn-meddil, Aldul and Edrionwytt, the lad uncertainly
tendered an enquiry. "Do you want, now, what they tried to hide?"
     "If you would be so kind," Evendal nodded.
     "Your Majesty," As though the discussions were a commonplace, Aldul
commented blithely from his end of the table. "This gingerbread is very
different from what I have eaten in Kwo-eda and called `gingerbread'."
     Kri-estaul stirred, roused by the projection of Aldul's voice. "Papa?"
     "Greetings, Your Highness," Ierowen blurted quickly, then blushed
again.
     "I slept!" he accused, frustrated. "Did I sleep through anything
important?"
     Ierowen was about to apprise the Prince, but Evendal spoke
first. "Some fool refused Our hospitality, then tried to bargain with Us
for what was Ours to begin with. You slept so sweetly, I was in no hurry to
awaken you. Are you hungry yet?"
     "Yes. I think so."
     "I'll keep the krater in place, you claim as much as you wish."
Evendal suited action to word.
     Gwl-lethry bowed from the neck to his lord. "Might I answer Aldul's
confusion, Your Majesty?" He looked eager to broach some innocuous topic.
     Evendal, his hands full, again nodded.
     "That is because of climate, Master Aldul. The traditional Osedys
gingerbread survives better in the cooler weather. In Kwo-edan heat
this... fondant would turn out a sodden, gooey mess. So in Kwo-eda it is
made as a cake. Your Majesty, that is quite the collection."
     Gwl-lethry referred to the items Ierowen had been placing on the table
and to his left: A silver seal-cutter with a large oval amethyst crown. Two
cubit-long cylinders, one made of bone the other of oak. Five ampoules with
fluid contents; two green, two red, and one clear glass. Two talismans; one
amber, one obsidian.
     "How were you able to `borrow' the trinkets?" Karondeo asked,
intrigued.
     "While they had them, the nobs were not wearing them, not as anklet,
bracelet, or necklet. This made nabbing them easy."
     The King's hands otherwise engaged, Karondeo pulled at one cylinder,
which separated from the middle to become a bone-handled blade in a bone
sheath.
     "It is a sign of the gentry's love for their deliverer," Evendal
jested sourly. "And they will have more cause to love me anon."

               ---------------------------------------

(270) A discipline of archery purely aimed at attaining the longest
distance able to be shot with a bow.

(271) ~A proverbial saying, and a double-entendre on the word `idiot.'
Idiot: from Latin idiota ignorant person, from Greek - one in a private
station, layman, ignorant person, from idios one's own, private; akin to
Latin suus one's own.

(272) a : a spoiled child b : a squeamish woman

(273) Any obtaining by any person of property of another with his consent
through a wrongful threat to do injury.

(274) Ch.19

(275) discreet / discrete
Discreet is an adjective that means prudent, circumspect, or
modest. Discrete is an adjective that means separate or individually
distinct.

(276) Melianth is not speaking pejoratively.

(277) (waist-row) - Elder, patriarch

--------------------------------------------------

I know not how you good readers will percieve it, but this is -- to my mind
-- the least exciting chapter so far. But necessary. And no, I did not
expect Alekrond to be such a prolific fellow!