Lescari Revolution 03: Banners In The Wind (22 page)

Litasse recalled Lord Rousharn from occasional meetings in her Sharlac girlhood. He soon dominated any gathering with his height and his readiness to state his position on any question. He was always ready to argue with anyone inclined to the contrary. No wonder her father disliked him. No wonder her mother had yielded so feebly to his control of her affairs.

Though Rousharn didn't expect his women to be silent helpmeets, Litasse thought bitterly. In her outmoded gowns and haphazard jewellery, Lady Derenna had been as free with her opinions as her husband. Far from rebuking her, he praised her independence of spirit as their repellent children were raised with a scandalous lack of discipline.

Litasse gazed unseeing out of the window. 'So my witless mother has dashed any hope of reclaiming my position in Sharlac.'

'Don't weep, Your Grace,' said Karn quietly. 'Not yet.'

'How so?' Realising a tear had indeed trickled down her cheek, Litasse angrily wiped it away. She had done enough weeping for a lifetime.

Karn looked thoughtful. 'Lord Rousharn has binding ties with Tormalin. With Duke Secaris's long-standing friendships across the border, their alliance could offer Tadriol and his princes some hope of peace along the Great West Road. While Parnilesse is held by murderous thieves, merchants will surely send their goods by land, not along that hostile shore.'

'Will that make a difference?' Litasse couldn't see how. 'There's still anarchy in Carluse and Triolle and this renegade cripple from Vanam claims to be Draximal's heir.'

Karn smiled briefly. 'He has been struck down by illness.'

'Since when?' Litasse demanded. 'How do you know?'

'Master Hamare still has friends in Carluse Town and Abray.' Karn patted the front of his humble brown doublet. 'So let's consider what our Caladhrian friends will make of Tormalin influence waxing in Sharlac and Draximal.'

'My mother long planned to marry my sisters into noble houses across the border,' Litasse said slowly. 'Duke Secaris has more daughters than sons now.'

'Won't that appal our Caladhrian friends?' Karn suggested. 'Won't they see the sense of supporting Duke Moncan's rightful heiress, his eldest legitimate daughter?'

'Won't they just sit tight and count their coin and sell their wares to whoever will pay?' Litasse demanded bitterly. 'That's all they've done thus far.'

Karn nodded. 'But now there are bandits prowling Lescar's highways. Copses shelter mercenaries thrown off the muster rolls, militiamen who fled the autumn's battles.' He gestured in the direction of the river. 'Caladhria's barons will be hard pressed to send their goods east by land without help from Sharlac and Draximal and that would mean acquiescing to Tormalin demands. Unless Emperor Tadriol's influence in Draximal was balanced by Duke Moncan's daughter ruling Sharlac in her own right.' He paused. 'If this would-be Duke Rousharn is cast down, you'd take Carluse's orphaned daughters under your wing. Supporting them through you would see Caladhrian interests on both sides of the Great West Road protected.'

Litasse desperately wanted to believe all this. Reluctantly, she shook her head. 'Caladhria's barons will look to Duke Ferdain and Marlier first.'

'Ridianne the Vixen turned her coat to support this Soluran.' Karn scowled as though that was a personal insult.

'She's broken with him now,' Litasse pointed out. 'She's sitting tight with the remnants of her army, defying anyone to cross Marlier's borders.'

Karn was still scowling. 'The barons will soon see she's a toothless bitch if those ruffians plaguing Lescar band together, stealing boats and raiding across the Rel.'

'Is that likely?' Litasse asked, uncertain.

'Quite likely, I assure you.' Karn's face cleared. 'Then Caladhria's interests would demand that the barons take action, and upholding Duke Garnot's daughters' interests would do so. None of them will want Marlier seizing Carluse if the Vixen does get off her fat arse to fight. Duke Ferdain would dominate the entire eastern bank of the Rel from the coast to the bridges at Abray.'

'But I would be beholden to Caladhria for my restoration.' Litasse had serious doubts. 'To whoever commanded the forces the barons lent me.'

Karn rubbed his chin. 'Not if His Grace your husband commanded that army.'

'So I must remain shackled to him,' Litasse said unguardedly.

Karn looked at her, all innocence. 'Battlefields are dangerous places, Your Grace. More than one final victory in a campaign has been dimmed by the loss of a captain-general.'

'No--'

Before Litasse could protest that wasn't what she was proposing, the parlour door crashed open. Iruvain strode in. Karn retreated to the fireside, every measure the unobtrusive lackey.

'Make ready to travel, my lady wife.' Iruvain laughed, too raucously. 'You're celebrating Solstice in Marlier this year.'

'It's barely mid-morning,' Litasse observed with contempt, 'and you're already drunk.'

'And you're an adulterous whore, but we've had this conversation before.' Iruvain smiled unpleasantly. 'Shut your mouth and pack your bags and do as you are told, bitch. Or you can go begging barefoot on the streets, or sell yourself, whichever you see fit, Your Grace.'

Litasse bit down on her anger. 'What does Duke Ferdain offer? Will his Vixen lead her army to reclaim Triolle?'

Iruvain's finger wavered in front of her nose. 'You're going to Marlier, my lady wife, and that's all you need to know.'

'You're not coming with me?' At least that was good news.

Now Iruvain smiled with spiteful pleasure. 'I will celebrate Solstice in Ferl where I shall address the Caladhrian parliament. What do you think of that?'

'I think you had better be sober when you do.' She took a quick step back to avoid his slap. Clear-headed, he might have succeeded but the wine was blunting his reactions.

Over his shoulder, she glimpsed Karn's disdain. For the briefest moment, Litasse was tempted. Karn surely knew how to kill Iruvain without anyone accusing her. If she was ever to be free of him, to regain her place in Sharlac--

Iruvain's next words drove such thoughts from her mind.

'I've had a letter from Her Grace your mother.' He reached inside his lilac doublet.

The wool was already stained with wine and grease, Litasse noticed with irritation. Was her coin to further replenish his wardrobe?

'And a letter from His Grace Duke Rousharn of Sharlac.' Iruvain waved a second parchment with malicious satisfaction. 'I will convey his compliments to Caladhria's parliament and assure them he will restore peace to Lescar and see me and Secaris and Ferdain secure in our rightful places.'

Litasse couldn't restrain her fury. '
Lord
Rousharn cannot speak for Sharlac.'

'He can when your lady mother gives him your father's seal and her own approval,' Iruvain taunted. 'She can't want a whore ruling Sharlac, even one she whelped. So you will go to Marlier and tell Duke Ferdain that he can join us and secure a fat portion when we carve up Carluse. Or he can cower beneath his Vixen's paw and wait for whatever scraps we see fit to throw.'

'Don't you think I should honey those words a little?' Litasse asked sarcastically.

'You can lie back and let him lick your honeypot for all I care,' Iruvain retorted. 'Just as long as you make him see sense.'

Litasse folded stubborn arms. 'What army will enforce this peace that Lord Rousharn is so sure he can regain?'

'Tormalin's legions.' Iruvain looked surprised she needed to ask. 'Which will get Caladhria's barons' attention. They had better match Tadriol's forces, if they don't want to be sucking the old cow's hind teat come the end of summer.' He scowled. 'The price will be handing over southern Parnilesse to his Imperial Majesty, but that'll be fair recompense to see Lescar's dukes restored.'

He smiled with sudden smugness. 'The fate of the High King's crown can finally be settled. Everyone will see I am the truest claimant. The Vixen's treachery has discredited Ferdain and who could trust his sons, raised alongside her pack of bastards?'

'The High Kingship?' Litasse couldn't believe her ears. 'You'd renew an empty quarrel that's blighted Lescar for generations?'

This time she wasn't fast enough to escape his slap. 'Shut your mouth,' he snarled, 'and be grateful I can't throw you into the gutter where you belong while I need your mother's support and her open purse.'

Pressing a hand to her stinging cheek, Litasse saw Karn was thinking the same as her. This might be the reverse of the plan they'd devised but every coin had two sides and spent the same whichever was uppermost.

This scheme of Iruvain's could well work and where would that leave her? The disgraced wife of a resurgent duke, with no value in her bloodline and a whole gaggle of unwed maidens now with rightful claims on Carluse and Draximal, and somehow, somewhere, there must still be an heir or heiress to Parnilesse.

Iruvain took her silence for acquiescence. He looked down, the wine-borne brightness in his eyes dulled. 'This morning hasn't only brought good news. Roreth is dead.'

'How--?' Litasse began.

'At Pannal, you foolish slut.' Iruvain raised his fist.

Litasse took a step back, still pressing her hand to her face. 'How did you find out? What's happened to his body?'

She blinked away unexpected tears for her brother-by-marriage. When Lord Roreth had failed to reappear, she'd wondered if he had run away. Perhaps he had fled to that new land across the ocean, where the Tormalin Empire had founded their colony. Litasse had half-hoped he had, thereby escaping the burdens of his birth.

'His body was found in the river.' Iruvain choked on grief and outrage. 'Those vermin in Parnilesse Town have stuck his head on a gate spike and thrown his corpse to the dogs.'

'That's vile.' Litasse retreated to the window seat and sank onto the tapestry cushions.

'They will pay, I promise you.'

At least Iruvain's wrath wasn't directed at her any more. This might even be the goad he needed to truly act like a ruling duke.

'May I read my mother's letter?' She let the tears slide down her face. When Iruvain forced a quarrel, making her cry usually convinced him he'd won. If the swine would leave her alone, she could think all this through.

'As you wish.' Iruvain tossed both parchments onto the table. 'See to it that all our belongings are packed, for your journey and my own. I have other business to attend to.'

As he strode out of the room, Litasse wondered how long it would take him to find a bottle. Though perhaps he had some excuse today.

But Roreth was dead and no one could save him from Poldrion's demons while his mortal remains lingered to tie him to this world. Litasse must think of her own future.

Karn stood by the table, examining the letters from her mother and Lord Rousharn.

'What now?' she asked him helplessly.

'We continue with our own endeavours.' The gaunt spy was examining the letters' wax seals. 'I can't be certain this has been lifted,' he concluded, 'but it's the same as the one on those letters from your mother.' He nodded to the parchment packet still lying by the lace pillow. 'This is written in her usual cipher and we know they have the key to that too.'

'So these rebels are reading all Lord Rousharn's clever plans?' Litasse contemplated her unopened letter with loathing. But she would have to endure her mother's self-serving justifications for this heinous betrayal of her father and her dead brothers. Still more hateful, she must find some way to reply, to keep her rightful share in Sharlac's gold flowing. 'What good does that do us?'

'They're chasing their own tails at the moment,' Karn said thoughtfully, 'rounding up hounds in the Carifate to flush out the rats they've let nest in Wyril.'

'Who cares?' Litasse's exasperation swelled to anger. 'What do we do now?'

'Iruvain and Rousharn are making all their plans around Solstice. If we set our own endeavours in motion sooner, we'll still have the whip hand.' Karn looked steadily at her. 'If you give me leave to go to Relshaz, I can drop a few words in the right ears and some coins in the right palms to set the dead grass alight across Caladhria, Carluse and Marlier.'

Litasse remembered a childhood coach journey across the wolds of Sharlac. The land had been blackened in all directions, scorched by just such a ferocious fire. Her face must have betrayed her doubts.

'Your Grace, to reclaim your rightful inheritance, we must do whatever it takes.' Karn clearly had no qualms. 'You say you want to be revenged, on all of these rebels, for your father's sake and your brothers'. Iruvain has dishonoured you and, forgive me, so has Her Grace, your mother. This is how you can be free of them all. '

Litasse remembered her father telling her how the grass would grow again now that the fire had passed. It would be richer than before and bright with glorious flowers.

She touched her cheek, to see if Iruvain's blow had left a bruise. Her marriage had been a wretched bargain and her own mother had been the one to make it. Hamare and Pelletria were dead, leaving Karn as her only ally.

'I don't have much ready coin,' she said reluctantly.

'I can deal with such necessities,' Karn assured her. 'Triolle has old friends in Relshaz, and debtors.'