And thus began their friendship as secret allies. George would receive letters from his stable hand, Casper, who was apparently Ryan's brother. After he had been told, the resemblance was obvious; George soon took to Casper as a close friend. He was a welcome relief after spending long days locked up with his tutors or other nobles. Alyssa wrote to him with frequency, even when his help wasn't required with whatever heist she was planning. She appreciated his opinion and they often discussed strategy in their letters.
A year passed this way, with the Council doing odd jobs to benefit the people and rescuing the innocent. Alyssa kept those who had been rescued or needed to hide from adversaries in the Rechadian winter palace, which hadn't been used since the wedding of her parents. It was secluded and easy to guard, and there was enough room that the accused could bring their families to live with them there. A small town grew at the Palace's feet, and rumors spread among the people about an idyllic village where the laws were just and the inhabitants always had full bellies.
Alyssa worried about these rumors. Admittedly, no one knew the location of the "alleged" town, but the rumors still set her on edge. It would not do for their home base to be discovered. The Palace was where they held their regular Council meetings and kept all of their weapons and extra food. It would seem as though she were stock piling a military base instead of a safe zone.
"But what can be done, Lyssa?" asked Ryan from across the round table, "Besides perhaps if word spreads of our efforts we will hear word of more people who need our help."
"Either that or the Kings and Queens will hear it first, and we'll all be sentenced to the noose!" Alyssa snapped. Then guilt filled her eyes as she looked over at Ryan, it was not even him who had angered her. "I'm sorry." She said quietly. "I'm just so worried. All of these people to whom we have offered sanctuary, what will become of them if we are discovered?"
"There is no way to know," Ryan said sadly.
"Well, onto happier subjects then?" asked Mary. She was one of Alyssa's maids who had joined the Council in its early days, back when Alyssa was only fifteen. Together they had slowly recruited their other friends to help and a net of contacts and members grew. Now around the table sat a range of people from various Kingdoms. They would come together at the forgotten Rechadian winter palace because Alyssa was the founder and Rechad was conveniently located in the center of the other four kingdoms.
"I heard," said Jeff, a man from the northern kingdom of Bryn, "that a farmer in northern Rechad needs our assistance. His cousin approached me just as I was setting out for this meeting. Apparently the Duke who lives in the north—"
"Wait." Said Alyssa, exchanging a nervous look with Ryan, "You can't mean the Duke of Belmonte?" she demanded, already fearing his answer.
"Why yes, I believe that's his name," responded poor Jeff, looking bemused by her sudden outburst and consequent look of horror.
"Ugh!" Alyssa groaned and threw her head in her hands, "Alright, alright," she said looking up, "out with it, what did he do?"
"Well," said Jeff, pausing to ensure that he would not be interrupted, "this man in Bryn tells me that the Duke has raised his taxes to such a price that to pay them is impossible for the lower classes. Failing to pay their taxes leaves them in debt and the second time they fail to pay the Duke tells the families to send one representative to work for him. The people who go to him disappear behind his walls and are never seen again."
Alyssa's forehead was a knot of worry as she considered Jeff's words. 'Never seen again', she thought, now that sounds ominous. Ryan looked equally uncomfortable, as did Mary. All three of them knew the Duke from his frequent appearances in the Rechadian court.
"Well that's a little vague, in all honesty." Mused Janet, a seamstress for the Orion court in the west, "I mean for all we know their work is only behind the walls and when their debt is paid they'll emerge."
"But maybe that's just it," said Tom, master of the hunt form Vanid. "that they will never pay off their debt, that they'll work for him indefinitely."
"What, slavery is against the law, so he creates a 'work for me because you owe me money'? It's a different way to get the same thing." Said Hunter, Crown Prince George's attendant from Axia.
"Well let's all make some inquiries," said Alyssa, "I'll look into the records of law that we keep at the palace, any changes he made will be documented there."
"Right, then. Same time two weeks from now?" asked Ryan. There was some general nodding around the table as they all moved to leave. Just as Alyssa made to follow them, Ryan grabbed her arm. "Lyssa, wait." She waited. He swallowed then spoke, "Be careful, with the palace records I mean. He won't want anyone to figure it out."
"Who me?" asked Alyssa, batting her eyelashes with an innocent look, "why I'm merely the foolish, head strong princess. Not enough brains to do more than choose an appropriate gown for the Fall Festival." She said with a reassuring smile. Ryan nodded, and let her go with a smile of his own. But he still felt uneasy.
Alyssa sat at her favorite desk in the palace library; it was in a secluded corner with a big window stretching before it. The view overlooked the city surrounding the castle and it was just possible to make out the royal stables to the right. But today she was not admiring the vista, but instead had her nose in a large tome titled The Estates of Rechad and Their Laws Volume 3. She had spent the morning reading through the laws of Belmonte, a region of northern Bryn. Sadly they were in no particular order. So far Alyssa had learned that it was illegal for a rooster to crow before dawn, and that the penalty was death to said rooster. And that the people were not to wear anything orange, paint anything orange or grow anything orange because the Duke found that color distasteful, and it vexed him that it lacked a proper rhyme to accompany it.
Fool, thought Alyssa distractedly, who creates such laws in the first place? It is impossible to maintain your dignity while outlawing the color orange, she decided. Not that the Duke had much dignity to begin with, she thought wryly as she recalled his disgusting whispers to her at balls and other events. She shuddered, and then returned to her reading, pausing occasionally to look around and make sure that no one was taking an undue interest in her corner.
An hour or two later, Alyssa found what she had been searching for. With another glance over her shoulder she pulled out a little notebook and copied down something from the large book. Then she tucked it back onto its shelf and fled the library.
Alyssa ran directly to the stables, where Ryan was holding Giro's reins for her. He would be missing this weeks meeting because the King was going on a hunt the next morning and all of the grooms were needed. She thanked him, and promptly swung up into the saddle after securing the notebook safely in one of the saddlebags. With a last wave she pulled her hood up over her head and trotted down towards the main road.
Mary met Alyssa in the little clearing where she had first told George of the Council, and from there they cantered off together deeper into the forest towards the winter palace.
Around the table that evening, the faces were solemn. Their inquiries into the Duke of Belmonte had not revealed much information. Naturally this cast even greater suspicion on his estate since it appeared impossible to breach.
"What we need," said Philip, a servant from the castle in Vanid, slamming his hand down on the table, "is somebody on the inside. But of course, anyone who got inside could never return to the outside so where does that leave us?"
"Without a plan," said Josie, also a Vanidian palace employee, morosely. A few heads nodded in defeated agreement.
"This is ridiculous!" moaned Alyssa, "These laws make it obvious that he has manipulated his people into becoming indentured servants, but we have no proof! It's not like I can march in there and say, 'Hey, would you mind showing me where all of the disappeared people are? And while your at it, what's the guard schedule?'"
"Can't you though? After all you are the Crown Princess, even though you spend three fourths of your time here trying to make us forget that." Said Hunter, teasingly.
"That's it!" said Mary suddenly, "Alyssa you must be the one to go, it's perfect." She smiled at the genius of it, and looked around the table expectantly. After a moment in which the others looked confused and Mary looked ecstatic, Jeff interrupted the silence.
"Care to share your epiphany with us lesser mortals?" he asked dryly.
"Alyssa, forgive me dear, but isn't the Duke always inviting you to come visit his estate? Accept his next offer and you're in! He can't possibly enslave a princess or keep her there, the crown would have a fit, not to mention the people!"
"It's true, the people have always loved the princess as she, I mean you, are the only heir…" mused Philip.
"Sorry Lyssa, I know how much you despise that man, but I fear it's the only solution." Said Mary.
"But of course if you choose not to go, we shall all understand your reasons," said Hunter, "after all; you'd be walking into quite the mystery and there is no guarantee that you'll be able to contact anyone." Alyssa had yet to speak on the topic, it was true that she disliked the Duke with a passion and would rather eat manure than spend extra time with him. But eating manure would not help the people, and visiting the Duke would. She sighed. She knew the right choice, though it pained her to voice it.
"I will go." She said, without any fanfare. There was a pocket of silence before the table exploded into preparations and plans, discussing how and when she would leave. For how long would she stay? Who would be her village contact? Alyssa did not participate in the meticulous planning, preferring to keep to her own dark thoughts about the Duke and what his home would be like. The only useful thought she had was to remember not to pack anything orange. Or perhaps to pack everything orange…She would decide on that point later.