Chapter 30: Traitor Duke
Renee sighed to herself as the man kneeling before her continued with his long litany of grievances. It wasn't that she didn't sympathise with the man, but he had the same complaint that the five petitioners before him had.
About three weeks after Richard gathered his knights and all the extra men from the Guard that he could muster, and departed for the border, the raiding from bandits in the east had increased. The small villages along the edge of the great forest had been plagued with a greater than usual number of bandits raiding and burning towns. Ordinarily the contingent of Guard and knights there would have been able to hold them back and keep casualties and damage to a minimum, but such was not the case this time.
The man finished and was looking at her expectantly. She stirred herself and leaned forward. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention," she said quietly, smiling at him in that way that seemed to calm the panicked petitioners down. "I shall send help as soon as I may, and funds to help rebuild and replace what you have lost. The war should not last much longer, and when it is over, be assured that you shall have help rebuilding your village. Now please, you have traveled a long way to get here, and you must be exhausted. David, please escort this man, and the other petitioners who have come here today, to the kitchens and ensure that they are fed and found a place to rest."
The petitioner fell flat on his face. "Thank you, Your Majesty, thank you, you are as wise as you are beautiful…" Renee smiled as she got up and descended the dais, raising the man off his face. "Don't grovel," she said, breaking her façade of the regal Queen to give comfort to a man who needed a plain human touch. "It will be all right. Please, rest and refresh yourselves. Help will come as soon as we may spare it." She watched as the man left the audience chamber with the young Guardsman, David, and said quietly, "My Lord Duke, is it really as bad as all that?"
Behind her, Duke Gilbert stirred. "Yes, Your Majesty, it is," he said with a sigh. "The bandits are becoming bolder and bolder every day the Guard remains at minimum while most of their number are with the King. I have sent members of my own House Guard out to share the burden of law keeping with the regular guard, yet the bandits keep coming. It is simply not enough, Your Majesty, this war must end soon or all the people on my lands will have nowhere to go."
Renee sighed. "I understand, my Lord Duke," she said. "Thank you." She left the audience chamber with a slow tread and a heavy heart. The other guardsman turned and left the room with her.
Gilbert waited until the sound of her footfalls died out along the corridor before exhaling. "And so goes the woman who will, if all goes well, soon be without throne and husband." He smiled as he turned and looked at the chair beside Renee's, the heavy gilding more pronounced than on the Queen's throne. He stood before it for a moment, looking thoughtful, then he turned and swirled his voluminous black cape out around him as he sat. "Quite comfortable," he smiled as he felt the padded leather on the armrest and seat. "I shall enjoy sitting in this chair immensely." He smiled to himself.
He hadn't mentioned to the Queen that the bandits had been paid to raid and plunder the villages. Last autumn he had ordered the leader of the bandits to burn a little town called Brooksmeet to the ground, because their poor tithes hadn't met his expectations. The example had served as an excellent reminder to other towns as to what would happen if they displeased the Duke, and for a time the tithes had been very good. However, the last few months had seen the amount and quality of the tithes drop off, and he had become annoyed to the point where he set the brigands on the towns again. However, this time it seemed that the locals had chosen to take their complaints to the Queen directly, bypassing him altogether. Not a good thing to do. He would have to instruct the bandit leader that the towns of Hereford, Whitehall, and Ilchester were to be burned and sacked. No more reports of raiding would be coming from them.
He frowned. It had been almost a month since Richard had ridden out; shouldn't he have heard something from Gallas by now about the King? He had certainly given Sir Julian more than enough of Gallas's money to ensure the Knight's cooperation in the matter of capturing one of the King's most trusted knights, Sir Logan; so what was keeping him? Gilbert bit his lip in vexation.
"You shall do yourself an injury if you bite so hard, Gilbert," said a rough, sardonic voice from behind him. Gilbert started as a dark shadow glided out from the drapes behind the throne and came around the front of the chair to face him. "And that would cause me grief if you were to die of an infection." The sarcasm in the eyes belied the gravity in the voice.
Gilbert jumped half a foot in the air at the sight of his unwelcome guest. "Hughes!" He gasped out, staring at the leader of the bandits. "What in the names of all the saints are you doing here?"
Hughes grinned, teeth showing whitely in his face. "I decided to surprise you, 'my lord'," he said mockingly, making a sweeping bow before Gilbert. "The messenger came through from king Gallas. I took it upon myself to bring the news to you personally."
"There are folk from Whitehall here seeking an audience with the Queen!" Gilbert said furiously. "Suppose someone recognizes you!"
"They will not," Hughes snorted as he seated himself in Renee's empty chair and leaning back, crossing his arms. "These folk are nothing but sheep, easy pickings for me and mine. They are so terrified now of us that they don't even look up to see who is coming before they run. Or fall on their faces and start begging. I left my second in charge back at your dukedom and came here to see which woman I might claim for my prize when you have taken over."
"I never told you that the highborn women were for the choosing as well," Gilbert hissed. "You have my entire dukedom's worth of peasant women to chose from, and they are quite good enough for you!"
The other man moved so quickly that the knife was at Gilbert's throat before the traitor Duke could even blink. "Insult me not," the man said, his voice low and deadly. "The agreement we made was that I and my men would be able to have our pick of women to take back to our mountain hideaway. Most of the others have chosen; I have not. And you never told me our choices were to be confined to peasants only. If I wish to take the Queen to our hideaway I will do so, unless you want me to tell everyone here what you have paid me and mine to do, and tell everyone the message I have for you from Gallas."
Gilbert held his breath, lest the knife dimpling his skin should actually cut him. "Any woman," he agreed sulkily. "But it was my understanding that you wanted a woman who was accustomed to hardship, so that she wouldn't die on you when you got her to your mountain village. These highborn women wouldn't last a minute. But if they're what you want, you can have your choice. Only give me the message."
Hughes sat back, satisfied, and started to trim a hangnail with that knife. "Gallas sends you his regards via a messenger," he said silkily. "The knight you paid to capture Richard's Sir Logan did what he was supposed to. However, through his subsequent carelessness, Sir Logan escaped."
Gilbert rose with a curse. The man stopped him with a casually raised knife. "The knight knows what Gallas's plans are. He rode back with all due haste to Richard's camp, however, the spies told Gallas that when the man got there he was in very poor shape indeed. He could barely stay on the horse. Gallas told me Richard would send a page here to the castle to inform the Queen of the conspiracy against the throne while he gathered his company for the trip back to the castle. Gallas bids you tell the Queen that Richard has been killed in the fighting, and suggest to the Queen that you take the reins of government until she has done with grieving."
"If the page gets through the point will be moot…"
"He will not get through," Hughes said silkily. "I sent three of my men to intercept the boy. He will get no farther than the Guard post at Dunheath. But you had best go and break the news to the Queen as quickly as you can."
"I shall," Gilbert said, rising out of the king's throne. "You had better hurry back to your men."
"I am in no hurry," the man drawled. "I shall stay here awhile and look about at the women here. And I have also used some of the coin stolen from those villagers to order a new sword made. A sword like yours."
Gilbert turned purple. "That was good smithcraft steel," he spluttered. "Worth more than you could steal in a year. You asked me for the other one as the price for hiring you; what happened to it?"
Hughes shrugged. "I lost it in the first skirmish. A young girl interrupted me while I was killing her parents, and I turned to deal with her. When I went back I could not find the sword. Don't worry," he said. "I told the smith that it was for you. I told him I was your man running errands for you. When I leave here I will go to the suite of rooms you have and choose for myself a suit of clothes in your colors. Until I leave I'll be your man."
Gilbert ground his teeth in anger at Hughes' arrogance, but spun away from him and left the room. Behind him he could hear Hughes' soft chuckle; he had to fight to compose his face into a suitably grave expression, and hurried toward the Queen's suite.
Logan slid off the horse, and his legs almost immediately buckled. He'd ridden as fast and hard as he could since he got a fresh horse at the Guard post at the city gate. The horse was breathing hard from its headlong rush through the city, but it was his rider who was really the exhausted one. Logan had had maybe a total of twelve hours' sleep the last four days; his entire body cried out for rest. His back, with its barely-healed welts, stung with the dust and sweat on it, but he didn't stop. He was being driven onward by a sense of urgency he couldn't explain.
"No!" he said, holding up a hand to ward off the member of the guard who hurried forward, clearly ready to expel this dusty peasant who had just dashed into the courtyard of the castle looking much the worse for wear. "Please…I have urgent news that must be delivered to the Queen.'
"The morning audience is over, you'll have to wait…" the Guard started to say.
"It cannot wait," Logan fumbled in his pocket for the heavy gold King's signet, which he'd kept hidden. His eyes blurred with pain and exhaustion, and his numb fingers almost dropped the ring as he pulled it out of his pocket. He handed it to the guard.
The guard squinted at it, looking doubtful. Logan fumbled with his pocket again, this time producing the tiny gold band Jubilee had given him. "Here. This is from one of her spies. I must see the Queen! Quickly!"
The guard squinted at it, and one of the serving maids came over at his gesture. She gasped when she saw the ring. "He speaks truth. He's one of the Queen's spies," she said quickly. "I have one of those too. Take him up to Renee, quickly!" Logan forced his aching, tired legs to mount the steps to the Queen's suite behind the Guard.
Renee gasped as her door flew open without even a token knock. She opened her mouth, ready to upbraid the guard who stood in the door, but the words died on her lips as she stared at the knight who staggered into the room and fell limply to his knees at her feet. One hand held out two objects to her, both of which she recognized as soon as she saw them. She fell to her knees, grasping the heavy signet and the thin gold band as she said, "Sir Logan, I am here. Speak freely, you are among friends."
"A traitor," the man gasped out. "There's a traitor in the castle…a duke…he means ta take the castle from ya 'fore the King comes back. Richard is all right, he's safe, I got the ring from his own hand. He's at Argonne Keep, headin' here as we speak. Don't give in. Hold the city, Renee. Put no faith in rumours of his death, 'cause they ain't true." He sagged a little lower, as if some of the terrible weight of his news were gone. "He said…ta tell ya he loves ya…and if all goes wrong, keep yerself safe." Then he slumped to the floor in a dead faint.
Renee barely noticed. Her hands turned the two rings over in her hands. Richard's Seal of State; and the ring she had given Sir Logan's squire when she commissioned the girl to spy for her. She clenched her fist around both rings and stood up, determination written all over her face. "Edward," she told the Guard grimly. "Say nothing of this to anyone. Take this man to the Healer's quarters, and have the healer tend him. Dress him in the colors of the Guard; no one must know he is here. If anyone recognizes him for one of Richard's knights, tell them to say nothing. There is a traitor in the castle, and word of this man's arrival must go no further than those who must know."
"Your majesty…what will you do?" The man may have been skeptical, but the fact that Renee seemed to have believed the man convinced the guard.
Renee's face tightened. "I must hold the castle somehow, until Richard comes. This man says Richard is on his way; we must hold on till he gets here. Call in every member of the Guard you can from the city. I need the castle guarded. All audiences are ended; only those members of the staff who need to leave are permitted to go in and out of the castle. Everyone else stays out." The man nodded, and grabbed the short knight in front of Renee, slinging him over his shoulder (well, Edward was a good six and a half feet tall; Logan was not that much a burden on the Guardsman) and walked out of the room, shutting the door.
Out in the hall, he ran right into a noble, dressed in a black cloak. He sighed when the noble refused to stand aside. "I am on business for the Queen," Edward rumbled. "I must get this knight to a healer immediately."
Gilbert was about to brush by the man and continue on to Renee's room, but paused when he heard the word 'Knight'. He took a closer look at the unconscious man's face, and blinked in shock. It was Sir Logan; despite the dusty traveling clothes and grey-streaked hair, it was clearly the knight who had escaped from Gallas's fortress a week ago. He stared, then hurried after the Guard as the man went down to the Healer's rooms. There, he slipped into the shadows beside the door and listened through the half open door.
"Sir Logan!" The healer was plainly shocked. "What is he doing here? I thought he was on the battlefield with the king?"
"Brought an urgent message for the Queen," the Guardsman said. "She said he told her there's a traitor in the castle who's going to try and take the castle in Richard's absence. He had the King's signet and one of the rings belonging to the Queen's spies too. She told me to dress him in Guard colors and hide him among the Guard until Richard comes home. No one's to know he's a knight. And she ordered the castle sealed, too. No one in or out but the palace staff."
The healer shook his head. "Thank goodness the king is coming," he said fervently, then started to examine the man. "He's been tortured, poor man; and he's starved, exhausted, and in need of a bath and a long sleep…" Gilbert didn't wait to hear more; he turned and fled down the hall.
As he ran he revised his plans furiously. The plan was scrapped now, damn that knight! How had he gotten away from Gallas and ended up here? He'd have to see what he could do about getting Hughes into the knight's quarters to assassinate him…no. Renee knew there was a traitor in her castle; he didn't need to attract attention. He'd have to smuggle a message out somehow, to Gallas, telling him what had happened and asking for further instructions. This plan to take over the kingdom had failed; Gallas had to come up with another one. In the meantime Gilbert would have to lie low. And Hughes…Hughes would have to play his manservant in earnest now, because if he was caught sneaking around where a manservant wouldn't normally go, suspicions might be raised that Gilbert didn't want to explain.
He burst into his room just as Hughes was buckling a wide leather belt over a long tunic. The dark, swarthy bandit grinned. "Like it?"
"No time for that now, fool!" Gilbert hissed. "The knight that escaped Gallas is here. He's just given the Queen the King's signet and told her to hold the castle until Richard comes, which he's doing now. The Queen's ordered the castle sealed. No one comes in or goes out but the servers and staff. That's it. The plan's scrapped. We'll have to wait until the king comes back and I can get instructions from Gallas about what to do next." He shook a finger at the bandit leader's face. "You'll have to stay here with me. Stay low. Play the part of my manservant until we know what is going on and until we hear from Gallas. Got me?"
Hughes nodded.