The Unexpected Heir: A Tale of Alus (23 page)

Looking closer, Philip's green eyes might seem foreign, though his brown hair wasn't that unusual in Yalan. His slightly pointed ears were covered well enough that most people would miss them also, but the Master of Coin was an important enough man that most would have expected him to have at least a few guards trailing him. It would be expected, but Philip chose the anonymity of being solitary on most of his walks to the castle.

Sometimes he would ride one of his horses or take a cart close by and walk the remainder of the trip. Philip liked walking. Alone, it gave him time to think and let him also see the city around him. A king didn't have that kind of option, to see his city from the streets; so it was the job of Philip and other advisors like him to discover Yalan on the ground and in its heart.

The side entrance door he approached was one that was used by the servants of Orlaan's castle, and it was through this that Philip entered today. He had been called and such a directive might merit the front door, but the message sent to him had held unwritten worry. Ink on a page couldn't always breathe the intent that the author intended, but Philip was good at finding the true message within the one sent.

"Lord Philip, you know that you could have used the main door," a man's voice spoke without any amusement.

Looking towards the voice, the one accosted nodded to an older looking man who was balding with gray hair and an equally gray beard. Not many hairs dared to hold any brown for the steward to the king.

"Well, he hadn't specified and with things the way they have been lately, I figured that a little discretion might be worth using today," Philip answered with a bit of a smile on his lips. The fact that the steward had caught him entering so quickly meant perhaps the Master of Coin hadn't been subtle enough in his approach.

Following the steward, he listened to the man retort, "Discretion is often a good choice, though you would hardly go unnoticed for someone watching out for Marq Philip. You are well known to almost everyone in the castle, I would assume after all these years."

Wishing the man would be silent and respect his attempt at caution, he also realized that once inside the castle, Fairven was likely correct. He didn't berate the steward or argue further. This wasn't a fight he needed to make and, despite that he was noticed in the castle; Philip was fairly certain that he had gone mostly unnoticed in the streets along the way. His face was known after being married to Serafene for nearly thirty years, and it hadn't changed much in that time either. Being part elf or perhaps the son of an immortal meant that he didn't age the way most humans did here.

Serafene had been a young bride, and at that time he had been the one who looked more mature; but now she was in her forties and the mother of a twenty-eight year old son as well as their younger daughters. It sometimes came up from his wife's mouth that she felt old when she looked at him. That he was nearly forty years her senior was forgotten over time.

He noted the cough of a servant followed by another from another man. Word had come that more and more had become ill in the castle, but it had only seemed to spread within those walls. No plague had affected the population of Yalan. Philip wondered if this was the reason that he had been summoned. Admittedly it had been a few weeks since he had seen the king, but the Master of Coin had been diligent in sending word every few days to keep Orlaan apprised of his work.

While Philip had never been trained in the work of being a spy, he had been trained to be intelligent and observant by his father. He had been missed by the seed of magic that Darius had and some of his siblings and their children carried. Even Annalicia had manifested the talent early on proving that it had merely skipped him by, but his father had made sure that he was more than prepared for life beyond the village where he had been born.

A strange smell came to his nose and Philip couldn't help recoiling slightly. Faintly chemical in nature, it was likely someone had tried to hide it with flowers. It faded and returned often as he walked through the castle making Philip wonder how the others could stand working in the contained halls and rooms. Even open windows didn't seem to relieve the smell. Some windows even carried more of it on the slowly stirring spring air.

He said nothing of it, but catalogued the thought. While he made a mental note, Philip doubted that he would ever forget to say anything to the king when it continued to be obvious in much of their walk through the castle.

Soldiers guarded the doors where he would meet Orlaan and the man picked up on their unusual tension. There had been a bit of it seen with others in the halls as well, and he wondered at the source of it all.

"He is with the princess," the steward stated as the guards opened the doors for the man both knew well enough. If he needed to keep this visit a secret from the castle staff, then he had failed, Philip thought ruefully. "I think he would appreciate explaining why for himself."

With that, the steward moved to the right of the doors. Perhaps he was waiting to see if there would be more orders for him from the king or princess, but Fairven wasn't willing to intrude either.

It had been a walk that Philip had never made before and the doors were unfamiliar as well. This was one of the private wings of the castle set aside for the royal family. He wondered quickly if this was Princess Persimee's suite or one of the newer princesses married into the family, but quickly realized that it was Orlaan's daughter by blood.

The room was far from vacant as well. Not only did he see King Orlaan, but the queen was sitting in a chair beside a canopied bed. Persimee's husband was pacing near the fireplace across from the bed worriedly, while a handful of men and women in healer's robes moved about from the bed to the carts of supplies.

His entry was quickly noted by the king and Orlaan rushed towards his nephew through marriage.

"Philip, I am glad that you could come!"

"Of course, your majesty, I came as soon as I was able. If I had known that there was a need, I would have come far sooner without the request," the smaller man answered looking towards the bed. With so many bodies moving around it, he couldn't see whether it was the princess or someone else on the thickly stuffed mattress covered by sheets and blankets. There seemed like too many coverings when it was warm in the room already.

When the king earnestly took both hands to shake his, the gesture revealed more of that tension he had felt since entering the castle. One thing he noted was the scent he had been catching throughout the castle had somehow been walled away from this room.

"What is wrong, my king?" Philip asked getting to the point. The letter hadn't said exactly why he was needed, but this looked to be the source of the urgency.

"Persimee has been stricken ill. At first, she simply had the cough which sprung up in the castle a couple weeks ago. No one knows where that started, but Persimee's coloring and health quickly deteriorated. The healers were called and the wizards shortly after when they felt certain that it wasn't some flu or cold."

Philip waited as Orlaan began leading him towards the bed and as soon as he saw the sunken cheeks and sallow skin of the princess his instincts leaped to a single conclusion. "She's been poisoned?"

The king did a double take before nodding to his close friend. "I am surprised that you could diagnose it so easily. We thought for sure it was just this sickness going around, but that was the healers' belief as well.

"We began checking through the food and drink. Our wizards even have spells to find it, but this one seems to have no source, at least none which remains to be found."

Philip frowned and didn't want to come to any hasty conclusions. He was neither a wizard nor a healer. If they were having trouble finding the source, surely a man with a merchant's talents would be unlikely to answer a question that seemed to have stumped the others.

"When did she get sick? In fact, when did this all start? I heard coughing almost the whole way here. You are still healthy, correct, my lord?"

He suddenly realized that the princess's brothers and their wives were not present. If Persimee was sick enough to get this much attention from her parents and husband, he was surprised that more were not there. Prince Wylaan and his wife Princess Galina had a six year old son, Prince Ordaan. Perhaps they would need to keep him away for safety, but Prince Jeremiah's wife, Deeanne was known to be very close to her sister-in-law.

"I am fine as is Murietta," the king said noting his wife's name without a title as he continued. "Deeanne is almost as bad as Persimee and they are afraid that even if she survives, their baby will not."

Orlaan frowned and shook his head as he mourned, "My sons found women that they not only loved, but were capable of giving them children. Now both their loves and their children are at risk!"

"Prince Ordaan?" Philip worried over the youngest prince. The heir of the first son, the child would one day be king as long as he survived to be old enough.

"He has a little cough, but the healers couldn't find any poison in him. It is strange, that the three women were targeted. Wylaan and Jeremiah would make for more likely targets."

Philip thought on the fact and finally had to ask the question that he had made a note to ask from the start. "There is a strange chemical smell in the air. Have the wizards tried to trace it to a source? Perhaps there is poison on the air affecting the servants as well? If it is on the air, maybe it isn't completely deadly without some form of contact.

"Perhaps the source of the chemical was touched by all three princesses. They tend to socialize together much of the time, do they not?"

Nodding at the last, Orlaan commented, "The three are virtually inseparable. With two of them pregnant as well, Persimee has been the impatient aunt hovering around even closer than she had before."

The king paused and his forehead wrinkled in thought. "What chemical smell, Philip? No one has mentioned any new smell in the castle that could be called chemical."

Looking surprised, the younger looking man shook his head and replied, "I noted it almost the instant that I entered the castle. I could even smell it over the flowers in the halls."

"Like I said, no one has said anything. The gardens have been flowering and growing incredibly well this year. The head gardener Kamaal seems to have figured out something after all these years.

"Persimee and the other princesses had complained that parts of the gardens hadn't grown in very well. After the disappointment had been registered, I heard that the man had cracked the whip over the servants he managed. I was actually afraid that we would have to fire him or give him a different job, perhaps at one of the royal farms instead. He had a strong background from working the farms as a lad, so he was qualified.

"Then suddenly as the soft winter ended, things began to grow fuller. In fact, they grew so well that he needed to prune the flower beds already. That is why the halls are so full of flowers now."

Philip thought on that and tried to remember the last time he had been to the castle. Had there been flowers at that time?

Uncertain that there had been any flowers back then, he asked, "When did the flowers start being brought inside the castle?"

"You don't think that they could have been tainted with poison? Admittedly, I have some allergies and had to make sure to tell them to avoid putting any flowers where I work or sleep. Still, how could flowers be so healthy and yet hold poison that could affect everyone on the air?"

Shrugging, Philip countered, "More importantly, how come no else has noticed the smell? Can we have Steward Fairven spread the word and see if anyone else has noticed a chemical scent?

"We should talk with the head gardener as well. Maybe they have seen someone tampering with the flowers or have begun using new chemicals to help the plants grow?"

Starting to look angry, Orlaan questioned, "You don't think he poisoned the flowers intentionally? Kamaal has worked in the castle for years. He was once just a simple gardener working under our former head gardener.

"There has been pressure on him lately since parts of the gardens weren't looking as good as they once had, but surely that wouldn't drive the man to try and kill us all!"

Wanting to put his king at ease, though he wasn't certain that Orlaan's worries weren't somehow correct, Philip tried to remain analytical and detached from the possibility of this being some assassination attempt on the royal family. If it was, the criminal behind it didn't seem to care how many other innocents were harmed as well.

"Fairven!" the king hollered only to receive a hissed warning from the queen. Both Orlaan and Philip moved towards the doors, though the king's voice had carried already. The steward looked in past the arms of the guardsmen holding the doors curiously. "Have Head Gardener Kamaal come here to discuss something with me immediately."

"Kamaal and a few others from the gardening staff have been missing for a couple days. Those who continue to come have been as sick as any of the staff as well," the steward replied quickly.

Looking confused by the man's answer, Orlaan asked in turn, "Why wasn't I notified? If people are getting sick and suddenly a group disappears, perhaps..." The king didn't want to accuse his staff of treachery, but with Philip's words in his mind, he wanted to pick someone to threaten immediately. Missing staff from a department that had already been questioned made them all wonder if the people that they had trusted within their home had turned against them.