Book of Remembrance: The Forgotten Gods: Book One (27 page)

The carriage in front drove off
as its occupants strode up to the grand entrance. I flicked the reins, but kept
the horses going at a slow walk. Impatience was clear on the porter’s face as
we pulled up at our leisurely pace. When the carriage pulled into the lantern
light, though, he quickly smoothed his features. He was wearing a suit nearly
as fine as Seran’s with a frilly collar coming up to his chin. He looked up at
me expectantly. I sniffed and in my haughtiest voice said, “I present Lord
Trien of Ghaldea.” He nodded and started paging through the list. He got to the
end and frowning, started looking again. My stomach fluttered. What am I going
to say? Just then, Seran threw open the carriage door and started climbing down
the steps all the while muttering about country folk not knowing decent
manners.

The porter looked up from his
list and eyed him. “My Lord, if you please. Wait a moment I am just locating
your name on the list.”

Seran snorted with contempt and
strode towards the entrance. I stared after him hoping to the high heavens that
he could pull this off. The porter hurried after him with a, “Sir, sir please
just a moment, my Lord.”

Seran rounded on the man, his
expression enough to make Jurpa hide melt. “I will not be kept waiting by your
floundering! I do not care about your list. I am here on behalf of my father,
Merchant Lord Trien of Ghaldea. He has been trading partners with Merchant
Almeida since before I was born. If you do not leave me be you will not only
have the wrath of Merchant Almeida to deal with, but also of Merchant Lord
Trien.” His voice had gone dangerously low and this sounded far more severe
than when he had been shouting. With a last glare at the now fumbling porter,
he turned on his heel and strode up the broad stairs disappearing into the
hall.

The red-faced porter came
storming back towards me. “Is there a particular reason that you have not moved
along already
or
do you have another charming guest in
there?” I shook my head and urged the horses on, guiding them around the corner
where the previous carriage had disappeared. I pulled the carriage up next in
the row and tied the horses to the wooden beam. Baskets of hay had been put out
for them as well as buckets of water.

I looked around and saw a
coachman going into the building. I followed and was surprised to walk into
what looked like a sizeable dining hall. For a moment I thought I had perhaps
gone through the wrong entrance, but then a group of servants came walking
around the corner followed by a group of men including the coachman I had seen
go in here. They were talking and laughing with the servants who then disappeared
down the hall. A short, portly man with a friendly face noticed me and came
over. “I am Dern and this here is,” he gestured one by one to the men behind
him, “Ghio, Jaim, Erit and Zae,” with glee in his eyes he winked at me and
continued. “I will let you get to know the ladies for yourself.” He stuck out a
hand to me to shake.

I gripped it and said, “Pleased
to meet you. I am Kadin.”

He clapped me on the shoulder.
“New to this, aren’t you? No worries. Lord Almeida is one of the more generous
hosts and so we get to have some food as well. We were just on our way to the
kitchens to serve up.” He waved a hand gesturing for me to follow.

The other men were talking of
some lord who had nearly lost all his money and was hanging on for dear life to
his reputation, trying to cover up what was really going on. Erit laughed
making his small eyes nearly disappear in slits. “You never know, maybe at the
next event, he will be at the back here with us.” This raised a roar of
laughter from the rest of the men.

The kitchen smelled incredible.
My mouth watered as I looked over the choice of food. A serving girl carried a
whole roast duck out past us into what I assumed was the main dining hall. When
the door opened the rumbling sound of many conversations spilled into the
kitchen. I could hear a harp playing in the background as well and then it was
gone again as the door closed behind her.

I served up some roast duck and
pork, heaping vegetables including a moist red vegetable that I did not
recognise onto my plate. We sat at the dining table by the back door. It had
sounded like Dern knew the Almeidas so I ensured I sat next to him. There was a
pitcher of wine on the table and we passed it along.

For a while, I simply listened
to the conversation. They certainly did like to harp on about the lords and
ladies. This one was having an affair with that one, this one hated that one,
this one had a secret addiction to chewing tobbac, which was frowned upon as a
commoner past time. My ears perked though when I heard Alathaya’s name. Zae was
speaking in his raspy voice. “I bet she runs away inside a month.”

Dern shook his head. “As much as
I like Master Almeida, this is a bad match. That girl is too strong willed to
settle for someone she does not even like.” He shook his head sadly.

I kept my voice light as I said,
“I have heard there are cultures where the couple to be married do not even
meet until the betrothal. I suppose in that respect she is lucky.”

Dern snorted. “You try telling
her that! I bet you get yourself a black eye from saying something like that.”

I laughed. “Do you reckon she
will go through with it?”

He gave his head a shake. “Not
if there is any way to wriggle out, but I think short of the sky falling,
Master Almeida will keep her locked into it.” He was obviously fond of her in
some way.

“What about the man she is to
marry. Do you know him?”

He looked at me with a frown.
“When do we ever really know them when they are so far above us?” He said with
mock. “I know of him. Rich fellow from a merchant background and that is most
likely why he has been chosen. Lord Jarien is an arrogant man, but then
show
me a lord who isn’t and I will give you a gold mark for
it.
Fair bit older than our Alathaya mind.
That will
be another reason why she is unhappy about the union.”

The conversation steered away
from Alathaya and I did not push for more information. Should anything come to
light later, I did not want anyone to suspect why we were here.
 
The kitchen staff joined us at the table
later on. All five courses had been prepared and served so they only held a
skeleton staff in the kitchen for the rest of the night, lest some lord or lady
request additional snacks. Apparently, all had gone well with the evening with
no complaints about the food. I did not know how anyone could complain when
they had clearly been served a feast.

Slowly more serving girls joined
as well once the dishes had all been cleared. Two of them sat across from me
and were chatting about the evening. I listened carefully when I heard them
mention Lord Jarien. The red haired girl with the broad nose was speaking. “I
would trade places with her any time. What does it matter if he is slightly
older than her? Did you see the way she looked at him, Hisbet?”

The other nodded emphatically.
“Like he was some sort of monster forcing himself on her. She should realise
how lucky she is. I think she is just a spoiled little girl, used to getting
all she wants from her daddy and now he has put his foot down with her.”

The redhead sighed. “Did you see
how he did not even say anything to her?
Simply acted as
though he did not notice her scowls.
Such a
gentleman.”
I was betting that he actually did not notice her disfavour.
Just as I started to lose interest in their idle conversation, my ears pricked up
again.

Hisbet was speaking, “Did you
see the way that, what was his name, Lord Trien I think it was. Did you see the
way he looked at her?
The whole evening eyeing her from head
to toe.”

Redhead looked scandalised but
she was clearly enjoying this juicy bit of gossip, “I saw. I even saw him have
a quiet word with her away from her minders.
Very
inappropriate!”

Hisbet shook her head, but a
playful smile curled around her mouth. “He was rather handsome though wasn’t
he? Some girls have all the luck!” They broke into fits of giggles. If they had
noticed him talking to her, I was certain that others would have as well.

The redhead had pulled a sheet
of paper out of her belt pouch. “Look, now do not go around telling people. I
took this from one of the tables. It is an official invitation to the
betrothal. This will be going into my memories box.” They were both fawning
over the invitation and holding it so that the back was towards me. It had what
looked like a family crest on it, which strangely looked familiar. I stretched
forward to get a closer look.

The next moment I gasped and
only barely stopped myself from snatching the invitation from her hand. I
cleared my throat loudly. “Excuse me, Hisbet. Do you mind if I had a look at
that?” I gestured to the paper in her hand.

She stuffed the invitation away
under the table her eyes wide. “I will not tell anyone of it, I just want to
have a look at it.” I tried to use my best soothing voice. The two looked at
each other and whispered back and forth.

Redhead was shaking her head,
but finally they looked back at me. “Swear you will not speak of this to
anyone.”

I thought it a bit melodramatic for
a simple invitation, but if it meant getting my hands on it, “I swear I will
not tell anyone I saw you with an invitation.” I even put a solemn hand over my
heart. She held it out to me.

I looked at the crest. It was
identical. It was the same as the engraving on my sentinel. The one that looked
so familiar, but I could not place it. Surely, it could not be, but I was sure
it was identical. Hisbet was snapping her fingers impatiently, gesturing for me
to return it. Reluctantly I gave it back to her. Scowling she snatched it away
as if she thought I might run away with it. The redhead muttered under her
breath about putting my grimy fingers all over it. I let the comment blow over
me.

Sometime later, the porter came
bustling in from the main dining hall. Lord Trien requires his carriage. I
stood up and said brief farewells to Dern and a few of the others that I had
spoken with. I was eager to speak with Seran and compare our information. I
drove the carriage around and halted it at the front entrance. It was quite a
while before ‘Lord Trien’ came sauntering out. Another porter had appeared and
opened the door of the carriage for him. He gave the man the barest of nods and
disappeared into the back. I flicked the reins and we pulled away. Once we were
well away from the estate, he slid the window open and told me to take the
carriage back to where we collected it.

I pulled around to the back of
the farmhouse. The farmer appeared a moment later with a lantern in his hand
and a wide smile on his face. He was probably relieved to have the carriage
back safely. I thought it quite remarkable that he had trusted a complete
stranger enough to lend a carriage to them, especially one that was not his to
begin with. They shook hands and started talking. I was too tired for any more
idle talk so I started unhitching the horses. The farmer did not wait for us to
finish, but with a final “Good night. May your crops carry well,” went back
into his house. Seran helped to finish with the harness and we rode back to
town.

I told him what I had learned of
the couple and told him of the crest on the invitation. He listened in silence
and nodded several times. When I fell silent, he spoke. “I agree about their
relationship or lack of it. She despises him. Whether it is only because she is
being forced to marry him or some other reason, I do not know, but the result
is the same. I do not think it will take much to convince her to come with us.
He seems... affable, if too old for her. Her father watches over her carefully
though. His eyes were like those of a hawk today and she was the rabbit. He
will be the one to pursue her if she runs. I think Lord Jarien may create a
scene, but I do not think he would put much energy or resources into bringing
her back.”

I considered what he had said.
“We need to speak to her about their family crest.”

He frowned and cocking his head
to one side said, “Out of all we had gleaned tonight, how did that come out as
the most important thing?”

I shook my head. “There is more
to this than we know.” I could have explained further, but thought better of
it.

Something the serving girls had
said came back to me. “Did you have a private word with Alathaya tonight?”

He lifted his eyebrows. “So the
servants are as bad gossips as I remember then.” He shrugged before continuing.
“I needed to introduce myself and in a manner that she would remember me by.”
That sounded somewhat alarming to me and at the look on my face he laughed. “Don’t
worry. I did not give too much away. I was certain at this point that she was
unhappy with this arrangement. She was wandering around the hall so I took the
opportunity to have a quiet word. I may have hinted that we have an alternative
future for her. After a few minutes, she casually mentioned that she is part of
a small group of ladies who support a local boarding house for orphan children.
She is quite involved and visits there often. She will be there tomorrow.” He
certainly seemed to have a gift.

The evening had proved even more
successful than I could have hoped for. I went to bed that evening hopeful that
on the morrow we would have our fourth member.