Homage and Honour (28 page)

“Are you
married?”

“I should be. I
was betrothed to a Kellen’s daughter, Sheila; she was a
Lady-in-Waiting here at Court. She died in the plague.”

“I am sorry, I
didn’t realise.”

“Thank you. It
was an arranged match but she was a pretty little thing.”

“Will you marry
someone else?”

“Father will be
looking for a likely match but we digress. As I was saying, rank
and the right marriage is of paramount importance here, obsessively
so. With rank comes money, influence and most important of all,
power. You must get it all clear and learn how to address each and
every noble so that you do not cause offence and remember, the
familial inter-relationships can give you a headache, which is why
we pay for archivists and other officials to keep us right.”

“You’d better
tell me more,” said David, resignation in his voice, “I don’t want
to make any mistakes.”

“Oh, you’ll
make mistakes aplenty, never fear. It’s my job to keep them to an
absolute minimum.” Charles unfurled the chart that he had been
holding rolled up under his arm and spread it out on the table in
front of them. “These are the genealogical trees of the main noble
houses; that of Baker, Cocteau, van Buren, Duchesne, Gardiner,
Brentwood and Graham. Learn them.”

“What? All of
it?”

“Every noble
and royal child does and it’ll help you to put faces to names when
you meet them at Court.”

David was
looking at the large parchment with dismay. “I’ll never remember
all this. First though please, run through the lower rank
structures again.”

Charles sighed
and began again at the beginning.

“Barons,
Kellens and Thanes, the three lowest ranks of the nobility, can be
descended, via the male line of course, from a ducal house. If they
are, then they can use the appellation My Lord, if not so
descended, then no. There are a number of Baronies that have
existed from the early days such as Karovitz, Senot and Ross. The
present Lord Marshall is from one of these original families. Until
he became Lord Marshall, his position within the noble protocol
lists came after those barons of ducal lineage.”

Yet another
piece of parchment was placed before David who groaned again; his
head was reeling as he tried to assimilate it all.

“What’s
this?”

“Background
notes about the undercurrents and the political alliances that
exist now, in Conclave. You must understand who is supporting who
and why.”

“What about my
wife?”

“My mother is
explaining this to the Queen. Her position is different but just as
important. She also must be aware of who is who. Don’t worry;
she’ll keep her right, she is an old campaigner. My Father intends
to appoint her as Royal Governess.”

“He appoints
her? Not Anne?”

“Would you or
she have any idea who would be the best choice for the job?”

“No,” admitted
David.

“Then let him
do so,” advised Charles, “they’re only interim appointments anyway,
the Conclave still has to ratify them and you can make changes
later. My advice is to say little and think much to begin with. Now
that you’ve appointed me your Private Secretary I can guide you on
political matters and, if you do as I have advised and appoint the
Son Heir Tom Brentwood as Comptroller of the Royal Household, he
will do the same for you and Anne in the more convoluted area of
court behaviour. Now that his father is no longer the Lord Regent,
Tom has lost his seat on Conclave because the Duke will soon retake
his own ducal seat.”

“We could give
him either the Smith or the Sahara seat?”

Charles was
pleased with the fact David seemed to be thinking about the full
ramifications and had obviously learnt that lesson well even though
Charles could not agree with David’s solution.

“Neither my
father nor William Duchesne will like that.”

David sighed.
“It’s all so complicated,” he complained again.

“I told you
politics here are convoluted,” grinned Charles. “That is the
primary job of a King, or Prince Consort in your case, to keep the
Dukes happy. There have been two Civil Wars here; we don’t want to
add to that number.”

“And we mustn’t
forget the Larg.”

“Indeed, they
would love to see us fighting amongst ourselves, weakening us
beyond the point where we are able to defend our borders. If there
was internal strife and if your wife and children were killed, they
might well decide to invade us, to destroy us before attacking the
North. That is what the Lord Marshall fears and I agree with him,
as do my father, Duke William and Duke Jeremy of Graham. That is
why the latter chose young Brandon van Buren as husband for his
Daughter Heir Marcia. The lad may be young but he was recommended
by the Lord Marshall as the best there is to defend his dukedom in
the event of a war with the Larg. Tom Brentwood was supposed to
have married the younger sister but with her disappearance, that
went out of the window. I know he wants young Annette, sooner
rather than later, to continue the bloodline so beware.”

“Annette is
twelve.”

“Old enough to
be betrothed and I believe Tom Brentwood likes them young and
pretty. Don’t be surprised if his father speaks to you about it.
Tom is his only son and overdue for marriage. He’ll not want to
wait.”

“I don’t like
this.”

“Don’t knock
it. As I said, it’s what keeps the kingdom ticking over in a more
or less peaceful fashion. My advice is to go along with it.
Betrothals can be broken, even the binding contract between
Michaela Baker and Xavier if that’s what you want.”

“What Xavier
wants,” David corrected him, “it is his life you are all playing
around with. He might fall in love with someone else.”

Charles
grinned, “the coming years might prove rather refreshing, love
matches amongst the nobility an amazing change. Some of the older
Dukes might well have apoplexy.” His eyes twinkled. “I’m looking
forward to it.”

“That’s more
than I am,” said David.

* * * * *

Sanrhed (Fourth Month of Summer) –
AL157

Quartet (4)

Susa Lynsey of
the Vada and her Lind Bernei, after extensive (and intensive)
discussion with Weaponsmaster Rhian, the training staff and a
number of the Ryzckas, had decided to extend the training programme
for second year junior cadets.

The cause of
this alteration of the programme was her increasing nervousness
about the re-emergence of the Larg.

The senior
cadets, as part of their training, had always spent around a month
on patrol with an active Ryzck. This practice was a
well-established one. They spent this time under the eyes of a
mentoring vadeln-pair, usually a very experienced duo, who guided
the tyros through their attachment.

Susa Lynsey was
now going to extend this practice to include all juniors that Rhian
considered able enough. This decision was not without many inner
misgivings.

The Vada did
not begin training vadeln-pairs until both human and Lind had
attained the age of fourteen, the age when a Lind was considered
adult. Some of those whom Susa Lynsey was considering were barely
fifteen years old.

Rhian took out
the list of second year cadets. She had the final decision about
which pair was ready and which not.

Pencil in right
hand she ran her left index finger down the names; beside some of
the names she marked a cross. These were the duos that were not
ready.

When she came
to the quartet, her pen sat poised uncertainly over one name.

She was not
sure if Beth and Xei should go.

After some more
thought she marked a cross against Beth, then put a question mark
beside the cross.

Hannah, after a
slow start, was beginning to catch up with Tana and Jess on the
military side of training. She was, however, a full two levels
ahead of them on the academic side. Despite what Tana was wont to
call her indolent nature, Hannah wasn’t indolent over her bookwork.
She was a clever girl and, Rhian remembered, had a brother training
to become a doctor.

“You never give
me the impression that you are really working,” Rhian had said to
her on more than one occasion.

“I expend the
amount of energy that is needful,” Hannah had answered with a slow
smile.

Perhaps all
Beth needed was a bit of encouragement.

Rhian scrubbed
out the cross and replaced it with a tick.

The weather was
hot. The sultry heat made lessons, inside and out, purgatory for
cadets and trainers both. Tempers were fraying and the cadets could
be heard complaining that Weaponsmaster Rhian had never been more
exacting and difficult, a sentiment shared by all who came under
her tutelage.

It was, as Tana
said, the most relaxing weather she had ever experienced. Even Beth
declared it a first.

“Of course,”
she explained as Tana argued that she must have experienced
something like it when she had lived in the Southern Continent,
“Castle Graham is built at the coast, on a hill so it gets a fair
bit of breeze.”

She rose to her
feet, “better go and rest as the good medics have instructed
me.”

Of the Quartet
it was, surprisingly, the southerner, Beth who had been the most
badly affected by the heat and she, like the other less resilient,
had been assigned to light duties until the weather deigned to
break. She had not been the first to come down with heatstroke.

“Last year’s
summer was the hottest on record,” complained Tana, “this year’s
must be the hottest and
wettest
on record. To compensate for
the freezing cold winters I suppose.”

“Indubitably,”
agreed Jess. “We’ve got a free period now,” she added, “and I’m
going to get on with that essay we’ve to do for history. You?”

“I’ve done it,”
answered a complacent Tana.

“You have
not!”

“I have
though.”

“Must be a
first, you’re usually doing essays by candlelight at the last
possible moment.”

“It was
interesting,” answered Tana in defence, “Hannah’s finished hers
too.”

“I expected
that.”

“I suppose
you’ve been helping Beth again,” censured Tana. “You shouldn’t
Jess, she’ll never learn if you do.”

“She still
finds written work difficult,” argued Jess, “remember, a year ago
she could barely read and write. I think she’s doing wonderfully.
She just needs a bit of help from time to time and this essay’s a
hard one. At least, helping her, all the research is done, I only
have to write the thing.”

Tana had to
agree with the logic of this and decided to spend what remained of
their free period doing a bit of studying on her own account
instead of going for a swim which had been her first idea.

The second
year’s final academic exam was looming on the horizon and she and
the others in her year-group would have to pass it before they
could advance into their senior cadetship.

As Francis
McAllister, first Susa of the Vada had declared many decades ago
now, he did not want to lead a bunch of ignoramuses into battle and
had insisted on certain academic standards being achieved.

Hannah spent as
long as she could studying, not that she was allowed to forget
about the more practical aspects of her training. Most qualified
medics in the Vada were attached to a Ryzck and shared all that
they did. Holad vadeln-pairs could be and had been killed on active
service. So the naturally indolent Hannah spent as much time on the
practice field as in her cubicle studying.

Jess and Tana
were the more normal type of student, academic lessons had to be
got through somehow but they preferred the military training.

Beth, despite
her valiant attempts, still remained a problem despite her best
efforts. Academic pursuits were difficult and sword-work still so.
She did her best but her teachers were of the opinion that she
would never pass beyond the merely competent with the long rapier
the Vada used.

Whilst the
other three had decided on their futures, Hannah the Holad and Tana
and Jess a Ryzck, Beth was still swithering. The Holad would be an
impossibility for her, her academic skills would never be equal to
the task and she believed that she would never be accepted into a
Ryzck.

However,
Weaponsmaster Rhian did not consider her a failure.

A tenday into
their second year the cadets had begun to learn how to fight with
knives and to everyone’s surprise, Beth had proved herself to be a
natural with the shorter weapon. She was naturally quick and light
on her feet, a legacy from her deportment and dance lessons as a
child. She hated sword-practice but enjoyed these classes, taught
by an elderly man who, before he had vadeln-paired with his Asniya,
had been a thug and street fighter amongst the slums of Port
Lutterell.

His redemption
from his old ideals had been pretty much immediate and Rhian’s
predecessor Anders had been quick to realise his potential. Allan
and Asniya were notionally attached to the Fifty-first Ryzck, known
as the Susa’s Own.

Beth had soon
become one of his favourite pupils and Allan often used her to show
the less able how knife fighting should be done.

He taught her
all he knew about street fighting, stalking and much about how to
get here and there without being seen.

“At least,”
Beth was wont to joke to her three friends, “at least I could make
my living as an assassin or a thief if nothing else presents
itself!”

* * * * *

Tana jumped out
of bed and looked over at her life-mate.

Tavei, with a
pained sigh, closed his eyes tight and pretended to be asleep as he
sensed her rise from her bed. Tana enjoyed a ride before breakfast,
before chores if she was on an early morning detail. Now that it
was full summer this wasn’t so bad he was reflecting as he composed
himself to sleep again but usually she insisted they go hail, rain
or shine, winter and summer. This morning though, he was tired and
had decided to tell her that he was staying where he was.