Disclaimer: I do not own Narnia...
Thank you to BrokenKestrel for betaing the chapter!
Chapter 2 – The King's Counsel
Caspian gritted his teeth on the way back to his chambers. His leg throbbed viciously, but he almost did not feel it, he was so frustrated at the thought of spending another day in bed. The brief half-hour of freedom - just to leave his quarters - snatched away.
But none of his troubles kept Caspian's stomach from rumbling when he smelled breakfast. His own kitchens at Beaversdam could hardly rival the steaming tray of venison pasties coming towards him.
Unfortunately, the pasties were shortly followed by Caspian's host, the Lord Rethisbar.
It was the same tedious thing that happened every morning. Rethisbar would come to bow and scrape before his king, wishing the king a speedy recovery with a long, tedious speech. Caspian turned his attention to breakfast, nodding whenever Rethisbar seemed to be waiting for an acknowledgement.
"I hope Your Majesty is better this morning," Rethisbar was saying. Without waiting for a response, hardly pausing to draw breath, he continued talking. "No matter how wise and trusted the advisors, there is no substitute for the king's personal inspection of the defences."
Caspian could not disagree with that. Personal inspection of the defences was why he had come to tour the border castles in the first place.
"That is not to say that we are in any haste to be rid of you," Lord Rethisbar said quickly. "Indeed, I hope Your Majesty will be able to spend some time with us while in good health."
Caspian had already spent more time than he would have wished with the Rethisbars' hospitality. His duty was to finish the inspection, and the Rethisbars' castle held nothing to induce him to remain longer than necessary - not even the excellent kitchens. But it was rude to insult his host.
"Your hospitality has been impeccable," Caspian said with a forced smile, "but a king is burdened with many duties and may not always go where he wishes. There are still many castles to inspect, and I cannot stay away from Beaversdam forever."
"Of course." Rethisbar bowed. "But certainly, at least, you will indulge us and allow a banquet in your honour before Your Majesty departs."
"But of course," said Caspian. And in truth, if it were in fact a single banquet, it would not be so bad. Already Rethisbar was babbling about having all the King's favourite dishes – a dangerous offer, Caspian thought. He knew gourmands who would bankrupt a host with such a request. Fortunately for Rethisbar, Caspian was moderate in his taste and appetite. For a moment, the King did consider asking for one of the delicate pastries he remembered from his visit to Tashbaan years ago. But being a mature ruler (and knowing Rethisbar's kitchen staff would get the worst of it), Caspian quickly set the thought aside.
Rethisbar was still talking, but more hesitantly now. "I do not know – perhaps it is not done at court, it has been so long since I was there – but perhaps Your Majesty would allow Lady Lavinia to sing for you during the banquet."
There, that was the real purpose of the banquet, an opportunity for Lady Lavinia to display her talents and beauty for the king. Caspian suppressed a grimace with great effort, and not because Rethisbar was suggesting some violation of royal etiquette - he was not. But Rethisbar was not the first to try to catch the unmarried king with a pretty relative in his five-year reign.
Until last summer, Caspian had given little thought to marriage. His mother, Queen Zylpha, had ruled the ladies' court with ruthless efficiency, imposing order with an iron hand and a shrewd, cunning mind. The reign of Caspian the Eighth would not have been what it was without the aid of his formidable consort. Any number of treasonous plots had quietly come to nothing because of her machinations. Little else changed when her title became queen mother instead of queen consort. Caspian had had little incentive to unsettle the political structure.
That had all changed last summer, when Queen Zylpha had died at a good old age. Presiding over ladies' court was temporarily left to the wife of Caspian's brother Miraz, Princess Prunaprismia (clearly her parents were not thinking she would be elevated to royalty when they named her). But this was a short-term solution. It was a position of trust, and Caspian did not trust Prunaprismia to act in his best interests – what loyalty she had was to her husband Miraz. And there was little love lost between Caspian and his brother. The younger man had always been cruel and ambitious
While mourning for his mother, Caspian had realized how foolish he had been to put it off for so long. Neither Caspian nor Miraz had any children. If Miraz were to succeed Caspian as king, the country would likely plunge into civil war after Miraz died since there would be any number of distant cousins to claim the throne. To avoid the nightmare of Miraz on the throne and the horrors of civil war, Caspian had to marry and bring forth an heir of his own.
So, after burying his mother, Caspian had decided to inspect the border defences, thinking this would provide him with an opportunity to consider his matrimonial options in peace, away from court intrigue.
The tour had been profitable. Many of the garrisons were in need of training (the king's large, and therefore unstealthy entourage should have heard a challenge before they rode over the drawbridge), and several of the castles had walls in dire need of repair. But Caspian had found no respite from matrimonial intrigue. In fact, he had learned the border lords were just as ambitious as their court counterparts. Caspian could not recall a single castle where he had not been plied with the praises of a fair lady – usually his host's eldest unmarried daughter.
The Rethisbars were more discreet than some, but they were still the latest to think, with rather little reason, that their daughter would make an excellent queen. Caspian had arrived at the Rethisbars' castle on a stretcher, having fallen from his horse, so he had not seen Lady Lavinia himself. But his counsellors had seen her, and they reported that while comely in appearance and very accomplished in music, she was peevish and apt to quarrel when she did not get her way – more a spoiled child than grown woman ready for marriage, let alone to help rule a kingdom.
Yet Rethisbar was still talking, chattering on about Lavinia's accomplishments and graces. It was the same speech as before, but Caspian found himself growing inexplicably irritated. The memory of Lady Elkarna kept rising in his mind. The conscientious, gentle lady might at least make good company, which was more reason to make her queen than her cousin could boast. Yet Rethisbar shamelessly promoted his daughter while hiding his niece's very existence. Caspian had never thought highly of Rethisbar, and the king was thinking of less his lordship every minute.
Caspian gritted his teeth, on the verge of telling this self-promoting, flattering fool exactly what he thought of his transparent efforts. If this man went on one second more -
A heavy knock sounded at the door.
"Enter," called Caspian. As three advisors filed in, he wondered (rather unfairly) why it had taken them so long to rescue him.
A glance at his face told the three more perceptive men in the room the depth of his displeasure, for Lord Ulvias coughed loudly, interrupting Rethisbar at once.
"My Lord Rethisbar," Ulivas said, "you still have much to show us in the castle and the surrounding area. I believe you were going to show us some of the patrols you employ? We should not keep your soldiers waiting. Who knows what enemy might be about?"
Of course, Rethisbar could not object to this statement. Bowing, he mumbled what Caspian supposed was intended to be an apology, then left the bedchamber, followed closely by Ulivas and Lord Arlian. The third, Lord Bern, stayed behind with Caspian.
After finishing his breakfast, Caspian decided to sit in a comfortable chair by the open window. Bern sat in silence nearby.
Caspian was still stewing about his host. According to the king's counsellors, there was nothing to fault in Rethisbar's defences (high praise after six months of inspecting defences). Caspian trusted their judgement and did not expect to find anything different when he went to look for himself. This only increased the king's irritation. An incompetent lord was hard to remove, but removing a cruel and competent one was impossible.
The desire to somehow remove Rethisbar from his responsibilities had formed sometime in the past few hours. It was not the man's interminable speeches or his pressing of his daughter – Caspian had seen much of that in the past six months. Rather it was these faults crowned with the neglect Caspian had seen that morning.
Caspian had been king long enough to know, try as he might, he could not right every wrong, especially not in person. There were not enough hours in the day, and worse, some problems had no good solution. But though he had learned the wisdom of leaving some things alone, he would not be still when he could do good. Caspian would be stuck at the castle for several weeks more, with nothing to do until his leg healed. With so much time on his hands, surely he could think of some way to help Lady Elkarna.
Caspian looked over at Bern. Bern was younger than Caspian, and much younger than some of the other senior advisors, but he had a talent for listening. He had a quiet presence that encouraged people to let their guard down. His greater talent was knowing what to report – Caspian rarely heard an idle word from Bern. If there was anything to know about the Lady Elkarna, Bern would know it – or be able to find out.
Caspian hesitated. He had promised Lady Elkarna to keep their encounter quiet. But Bern was discrete – he heard gossip without dabbling in it himself. Caspian had specifically promised that Rethisbar would hear nothing. Caspian was not doing it to gossip or to embarrass the lady, but to see if anything could be done to help her.
Perhaps Bern noticed the king's discomfort, or perhaps Caspian had been staring too pointedly.
"Is there aught I can get for Your Majesty?" Bern asked.
Caspian sighed. "Perhaps."
"Your Majesty has only to ask," said Bern.
"Tell me what you know of Lord Rethisbar's niece, Lady Elkarna."
Bern blinked, but made no other sign he found the King's question strange. "The Lady Elkarna is the daughter of Lord Rethisbar's late sister. As I understand it, the lands of the lady's father were ravaged in a plague some years ago, when she was a small child. Her Ladyship and her nurse were the only survivors. Lord Rethisbar was obliged to take her in as her only living relative, and they have lived here almost in seclusion ever since."
"What need for seclusion?" asked Caspian.
Bern spread his hands. "It is hard to discern motives, sire, especially from servants' talk. Each one sees what they want to see. But Lady Rethisbar seems to not want a rival to her own daughter, and Lord Rethisbar is heard to complain about the increased expense of keeping his niece."
Caspian frowned. Even if a plague had rendered the land uninhabitable, there should have been some amount of gold and other materials that could be passed through fire. Most likely, he thought, Rethisbar had pocketed it all, and so many years later, it would be impossible to convict him of theft (well, with any due process – Miraz would only be too happy to trump up charges and forge the evidence to support them).
"Does anyone know what is to become of the lady, seeing her guardians view her as a danger and a burden?"
"The servants know less of that than their master's motives," said Bern. "I can only surmise they will arrange for a marriage somehow, after Lady Lavinia is safely provided for."
Caspian's stomach turned. The Rethisbars would take the first offer they received, regardless of their niece's well-being.
Caspian knew marriage was the only stable, permanent option for a noblewoman. But who would marry a beautiful, but penniless noblewoman from the borderlands? Besides, how was he to actually bring the match about? If the Rethisbars got wind of his attempts, they would try to get him to make a match for Lavinia also. And making the application to any lords he thought would be willing would be dreadfully awkward – not to mention give rise to ugly rumours he was providing for a cast-off mistress.
If Caspian was to provide for Lady Elkarna, it would have to be done before he left. That curtailed the list of bridegrooms dramatically, leaving the three advisors who were with him. Two, Ulivas and Arlian, were already married. And Bern was single in large part because he and six of his young compatriots had dreams of reviving the Narnian navy. Battling the deep-imbedded Telmarine fear of the sea, and recovering knowledge of navigation, long-lost in Narnia, these men had no time to marry, especially a wife who would bring neither wealth nor connections.
There was only one other man left – Caspian himself. And he had just been thinking about his need for a Queen.
Lady Elkarna as a wife was not an unpleasant thought. Her looks were in no way against her, but Caspian had seen many beautiful women in his life (especially in the past six months). Lady Elkarna's kind heart and conscientiousness was far more rare, and they would endure where beauty would fade with old age.
If Caspian had been only a knight or even a lord, he might have proceeded wooing his lady without another thought. But Caspian was the king - his wife would be the queen. He had to consider the good of the country as well as his own happiness.
Lady Elkarna's lowly connections did not trouble the king - great connections guaranteed nothing. At least she had few connections - there would not be a new swarm of relatives pestering Caspian for favours). But could she, used to keeping out of sight, effectively run the ladies' court? No one could do it like his mother had - she had several decades of experience that no young woman could be expected to match. But Caspian did not think Prunaprismia would willingly give up her power - did Elkarna have the strength and skill to confront his sister-in-law?
He did not doubt she had been largely sheltered from the outside world. But in her seclusion, she had learned kindness and conscientiousness in spite of her guardians' example. To possess such traits in such circumstances showed Lady Elkarna was capable of independent thought, and possessed a quiet, but strong will.
And she would not be thrust into the rigours of court life all at once. Caspian still had the northern border to inspect before he returned to Beaversdam, and while doing that, he would spend Yuletide at the Passarids. The Passarids were an old noble family, who mostly lived in the far north, bearing heavily the burden of defending Narnia against the giants. They were courteous folk, but with the strictures of frequent war, there was less frivolous pomp and circumstance in their castles. It would be a friendlier atmosphere as well - the Passarids were stalwart allies, and would do what they could to support the king's new bride.
Caspian reflected on the young women he had met during his tour of the borders. Too many were like Lavinia - accomplished but spoilt. Some were spoilt and conniving. Lady Eugenia was only one of several that summer who had pretended to faint, forcing the King to carry them. Caspian needed a wife he could trust, and the pretended faints did not engender that. (They were also foolish - Lady Faustinia had twisted her ankle very badly in one of her efforts. Caspian knew it had been a serious injury since the lady had been confined to her room for a week afterward).
Lady Antonia had been a spirited exception. Unfortunately, she had shown her courage by running away to Archenland rather than endure her father's efforts to marry her off to the King. Caspian had had enough of women throwing themselves at him, but he had no interest in an unwilling bride. Moreover, he needed a queen whose determination was tempered with wisdom. The night before she disappeared, Lady Antonia had declared her refusal to marry the King in front of the entire castle during dinner. Forthrightness was a virtue, but so was discretion - especially in a court with many volatile tempers.
There had been no duplicity or foolishness in Lady Elkarna that morning. And though she would have much to learn about life at court, surely keeping out of sight had taught her the wisdom of diplomatic tact.
Caspian smiled and settled into his chair. Yes, Lady Elkarna would make an excellent queen. The only question left was how to woo her.
It was a delicate situation. Caspian had no intention of asking the Rethisbars' permission. He had no intention of giving them an opportunity to exploit his affection for their neglected ward, nor to interfere with his courtship.
But Caspian would not demand Elkarna's hand. He wanted a willing queen, not a frightened and unwilling one. He would make her acquaintance gradually.
The rest of the day passed more enjoyably for Caspian. It would be several days more before he could return to the garden, and though he was impatient to begin, in the meantime it was pleasant to think of imagined conversations he hoped to have. And the gardens were lovely in the early morning, especially when the moon was up.
Caspian went to sleep wondering what "his" lady's favourite flowers from the garden were.
