The Lark and the Wren - Chapter Twenty-Three

[kalinara]

So last time, we found out what Kestrel's deal was, and our heroes decided to go to the Kingdom of Birnam to find out what the heck is going on, and hopefully convince the king to stop sending assassins after their new friend.



So we rejoin our group as they're nearing the border post at the edge of the fens. Rune's not having a great time: the weather is dreadful: hot, humid, and the marsh reeks. Thankfully, herb-juice provided by the Roma have prevented bugs from biting them, but it smells pretty gross. Worse, she and Talaysen have figured out the talisman. That's a good thing, of course, but countering the magic still makes them nauseous.

Rune tells Kestrel that if she didn't like him so much, she'd have left him in the mud. Kestrel's apologetic: he's not yet good enough at the magic to help. She tells him not to worry about it. Besides, Robin would have gone back for him.

Rune confirms for us that Robin is indeed very into Kestrel, and he in turn is very into her. Now whether this will last, and whether it would survive the pressures of would-be kingship...well, that remains to be seen.

On the plus side, Kestrel isn't as easily recognizable anymore. He's got a lot more muscle now, thanks to a combination of regular food and physical activity like hauling the wagon out of problem spots in the fens. He's also tanned "as dark as any [Roma]". So between that, the new clothes, and tying his hair back, he looks very different. Yay.

So they get to the border-station. Everyone's pretty casual about it. Things are going well between both countries, and it's not like anyone would bring an army through the swamp. Rune is a little surprised to see that the guards are brisk and business-like as they do their brief inspection.

There are two things though that Rune notices. First, the guards are looking for someone. She sees the man in charge consulting a piece of paper, and glancing from it to them. Second, there's a man who stays inside. She sees him through the doorway, and he he's holding something copper. Rune thinks she hears a bit of the drone from the seeking-charm. Fortunately, she's been humming the counter-tone all along.

They make it through the inspection, though, and are now in Birnam, which is, apparently, hot as fuck. Talaysen attributes it to the shallow water, and the damp air making it seem worse than it is.

They discuss the guardhouse. Kestrel had seen the sorcerer too. Talaysen is worried that the disguise may not have worked, but Kestrel points out that they would have just killed them right there. Gwyna agrees, they hadn't hesitated before, and "After all, who'd miss a few [Roma]?"

It is interesting to contrast Gwyna's perspective from Talaysen and Rune's. Talaysen has always lived in relative privilege. Rune was poor and struggling, but still, she's white. She has the means to elevate her perceived status, as we saw with her clothes in Nolton. Gwyna can't change her race.

So now that they're in Birnam, it's time to get information.

We move ahead about a week, and it turns out that the heroes are not really getting anywhere in their search for information. There's no sign of rebellion or even resentment among the people. They seem happy! Content!

Talaysen wishes they had someone they could trust to talk to. And Rune has an idea. What if they could find someone completely neutral? Like...an elf? They could call one. Magically.

There's a song called "elf-call", and Rune thinks that they can use the song, as well as her and Talaysen's bracelets, to get their attention.

Talaysen agrees to the plan, but thinks they need to be sure to add conditions around their magic, like the elf must be nearby and willing. They don't want to antagonize anyone else. They realize that they have four conditions, one for each character: someone who can answer their questions, someone willing to talk to humans, someone nearby, and someone who'd be amused rather than offended.

They get ready (and Rune spares a moment to think of Kestrel's easy acquiescence and general disinclination to speak, and how that might work against his effectiveness as a leader.)

They bring out the instruments: Kestrel's harp, Gwyna's lute, Rune's fiddle, and Talaysen uses a drum. The song requires a complex beat, and he's the best drummer.

I like this little throwaway here. The group is and has been fairly egalitarian. Talaysen has made a lot of leadership decisions, but that's been more based on temperament than age or experience. But he is a Master Bard for a reason. It makes sense that he has a wider breadth of knowledge than the others.

So they sit at compass points and each pick a condition.

"I'll take the condition of 'friendly,' " she said. "That may be the hardest to find."

"Ah, 'nearby' for me," Gwyna decided. "I'm not as good as the rest of you are at this. That's going to be the easiest to concentrate on."

"'Knowledge.' " Kestrel chose with as few words as possible.

"That leaves me with 'willing,' the compliment to 'friendly,' and probably just as difficult a condition to fill," Talaysen finished.

I'm not really sure how I feel about Gwyna's statement of being "not as good as the rest of them" when it comes to Bardic Magic. I can appreciate that there's a difference between being experienced as a musician vs being experienced as a magician, but still. Bardic Magic is supposed to be something that's built into the music. And it's not like Rune's really had that much more practice at it. She might be a prodigy, but still, Gwyna's been doing this a very long time.

So Talaysen starts counting them off only to be interrupted by an amused voice.

With a full-throated laugh, their visitor stepped between her and Talaysen into the circle of firelight, stole a cushion from the pile behind her back and dropped gracefully down onto it. If all she had seen was his costume, she'd have known him for elven; no human could have stitched those fanciful silken feathers of scarlet and gold, a tunic in the likeness of a phoenix. But the sharply pointed ears gave his race away as well, and the distinctly unhuman cast of his features as he turned to smile at her.

The elf explains that they really didn't need to go through all this rigamarole. Basically, they've all been training their wills, and the thought of the music is enough to attract creatures sensitive to magic. He's happy to answer their questions, in exchange for them coming to play for the elves tonight.

He also tells them that they're famous: mortals favored by the High King. And sometime they'll probably have to play for him too.

So anyway, they ask him about the kingdom. The elf immediately identifies Kestrel as the son of the old king, and offers them "the tale of King Rolend and his wicked brother, King Charlis".

I wish I were a famous author and could take my petty revenge via naming characters after someone I don't like.

So anyway, Talaysen's intrigued by the "wicked". Is that an elven judgment or history as written by the victors?

Both, actually. And the elf wins my affection by saying that he hopes Kestrel didn't have any real illusions about the quality of his dad. Thankfully, as we heard last chapter, he really doesn't.

So basically, evil King Charlis was a spoiled Henry VIII type. Not the beheading wives part (though it might be that Kestrel's mother's fate was what Catherine of Aragorn would have gotten had she actually succeeded in having a son before Henry grew tired of her?), but he blew a shit ton of money on lavish amusements:

"On exotic pleasure-slaves, on foods from far beyond his borders; on magical toys and rare beasts for his menagerie. On extravagant entertainments for himself and his court-caging the gardens under a great tent and heating it until the trees bloomed in midwinter, flooding the walled court with water and staging a battle of ships."

He neglected his wife, leading to her death.

Now, because Lackey isn't really very subtle, we're told that the Bardic Guild and the Church loved him. He showered the former with gold and gifts, and he let the latter hunt down non humans as unholy anathema. The Dukes and Sires would feud and things just generally sucked.

So yeah, Charlis is a dick. No real nuance here. Rolend on the other hand is a bit more interesting. The elf describes him as "mixed, like most mortals; some bad, but most good." He remitted a lot of the taxes after stealing the throne, spent the treasury restoring the land. He raised up honest Churchmen and pushed a policy of tolerance to non humans. The elves have given him some "considerations". The Sires grumble at being governed. The more corrupt parts of the Church curse his name. The Bardic Guild is VERY quiet, since they siphoned away a lot of money.

Rolend does have one very big weakness though. He's VERY afraid of any rumor of a "rightful king" and has put people to death for 'simply whispering such words'. He's growing less flexible, less forgiving, and power's brought him temptations he doesn't always resist. But as Kings go...he's not that bad. And the people are grateful.

So with a little bit of banter, the group goes off to entertain the elves. And the scene shifts to our adversary: King Rolend.

King Rolend, as we join him, is wondering why he ever took the throne. He's got a massive headache, which the Healer-Priests haven't been able to help. One even suggested that he's doing it to himself. He doesn't know what the hell that's supposed to mean.

So he thinks about why he took the throne: he did it to keep his brother from looting the country to the point of riot and murder. He thinks anyone with a drop of noble blood might well have been slaughtered, and that apparently had been a closer possibility than most guess.

He'd hoped to capture his brother's son as a child, who was hopefully young enough to be trained and maybe even understand what his uncle had done. But he'd missed the chance. Rolend had originally figured the boy had died, but then there were rumors: the Bard had fled to the Guild in Rayden, and Rolend thinks the boy would have doubtlessly been brought up with hateful lies. The Bardic Guild has a grudge against him after all. They'd probably made the kid very grateful to them, filled his head with stories of heroics against foul usurpers, and so on.

The funny thing is, if the Guild had welcomed Darian like they were supposed to, then this possibly COULD have happened. But of course it didn't.

So Rolend thinks that the kid is out there "a handsome young puppet" who is "everything a King should look like, but nothing of substance.". And that's an interestingly revealing bit about Charlis, who was undoubtedly very handsome (like Henry VIII).

Those Churchmen he trusted had warned him of this. When he heard their prophecies fulfilled, he acted. He dared be nothing less than ruthless, so he called upon the wizened, unhuman folk of the fens, the ones his people termed "goblins," and gave them Sional's hair, bidding them make him seeking-charms. And when the charms came back, wrapped in leaves, he gave them to his agents and told them to kill. His conscience had troubled him, but he had soothed it with visions of who would use the boy for their own ends, if they found him. He would not give them that focus.

He had slept better, then, except for the times when he agonized about ordering the death of a mere child-he had been sure, despite the three times that the boy had escaped, that eventually they would find him and dispose of him. He had been utterly certain of that-until tonight.

It's weird, but I kind of loved the bit about "the ones his people termed 'goblins'". So we see the mental gymnastics that Rolend goes through to rationalize sending assassins after a child.

This comes to mind because tonight, he'd just got word that one of the assassins was dead by magic. The boy is gone. The Roma who had last seen him professed to know nothing and had closed ranks. And there were about forty of them, so the three agents weren't about to try to force the issue.

Rolend believes that his hold on the throne is very shaky. Once his enemies find the boy, they'll track him down. And even if Sional is miraculously still innocent, they'll force him to help. A boy of eighteen wouldn't have a chance.

Rolend's thoughts are interrupted by his son, Victor. Victor's about twenty, and apparently the spitting image of his father: Looking into his son's face was like looking into a time-reversing mirror. The same frank brown eyes under heavy brows, now knitted with concern-the same long nose, the same thin lips and rounded jaw.

So Charlis was the pretty sibling.

Anyway, Rolend tells Victor that the assassins lost Sional. Apparently Rolend's been keeping his son advised of everything from the day he took the throne. Which seems a bit rough on a kid who would have been about fourteen. Rolend feels guilty for depriving his son of a carefree childhood, but is comforted to know that if something did happen to him, Victor should be able to keep himself and his mother alive.

Victor is unhappy, and Rolend knows it's because he was going to say something that Rolend wouldn't like. But Rolend wants his son to be able to speak freely. And he does:

"Father, I can't be sorry. I think you were wrong to try and-" The young man hesitated, choosing his words with care. "To try to-get rid of him-in the first place. He has never done anything to give you a moment of lost sleep-never even tried to come home! Why should he try to conspire against you now?"

Rolend tries to explain his view of things. It's the same as we heard: the kid's dangerous. He's probably been raised to hate them. But Victor doesn't believe that. He remembers that Master Darian had loved "Queen Felice" and hated "Uncle Charlis" for what he'd done to her. He points out that Darian took the boy to Rayden rather than the Guild in Birnam, and no branch of the Guild gives a shit about what happens to the other.

(I made a point of including the Queen's name because there's a rather amusing continuity error later.)

From Rolend's point of view, it doesn't matter. If the Church and Guild learn that he's alive, they'll get the kid. And the dark Church mages could strip his mind bare and put what they want in there.

...he might not be wrong about that. We saw what one did to Gwyna after all. And Victor has to agree, he's also seen what a dark mage could do. Apparently a guard had been captured once, and there wasn't much left.

Victor doesn't like it, but he doesn't know what to do. Rolend gets a pretty good agonizing monologue:

"Do you think I like it?" Rolend burst out. He lurched up out of his chair and began to pace in front of the fire. "I've ordered a murder-I ordered the murder of a child. I sent those agents out when the boy was fourteen-perhaps fifteen! But what else am I to do?" He sat down again, heavily; buried his face in his hands, and confessed to his son what he would not have told another living man, not even his Priest. "I hate what I've done, and I hate myself for ordering it. And sometimes I think that perhaps this is my punishment from God for trying to murder a child. Maybe I deserve to find myself facing Sional across a blade. But what else could I have done?"

"I don't know, Father," Victor whispered. "I don't know."

I still feel like there's a whole slew of options that aren't "send assassins after a kid". Like, you know, talk to the elves and find out if there's anything to be afraid of in your kingdom to begin with?

I suppose if you murder your brother for the throne, you probably aren't used to thinking of the damn thing as secure. It'd also be nice if there was a moment's guilt for the woman who was killed alongside the King.

But I like that there is nuance here. Rolend is paranoid, touchy, and definitely a little too willing to rationalize an unspeakable act. He's a debatably good father. I still don't think you really need to be discussing murder attempts with your then-teenaged son, but he's also focused on making sure his son has the skills needed to do what he has to. And he doesn't mind open disagreement.

He's not good or evil really. It does seem like there might be a way to work this out. He is however a bit of a dick, so I hope Talaysen does make him suffer a little first.

So we rejoin Rune and company as they head into the capital city of Kingstone. Kestrel's been very close-mouthed for a while, and no one's sure what he wants to do. They've seen enough to verify what the elf said. The people of Birnam ARE content, and they're reasonably secure that Prince Victor will be just as good a ruler.

And while Rolend does have enemies, they're the kind of people that made Rune's skin crawl. There are a few honest people in there, with genuine concerns about the morality of a man who could murder his own brother, and how long it'd be before he found other reasons to kill the people who opposed him. And how long it'd be before disagreement becomes opposition.

And some have dreamy fantasies of the lost prince, with language that reminds Rune of priests talking about the Sacrificed God.

But behind the well-meaning folk, there are a lot of powerful people who are pretty fucking skeevy. And they'd definitely find a use for Kestrel.

There's one option though: Kestrel could seize the throne in the same way his uncle did. With magic instead of an army. He might even be able to do it without killing his uncle and cousin. Rune thinks that if Kestrel really wants that, she and Talaysen would back him.

They've discussed power a lot, and government, and the seduction of power. They've snuck into more than a dozen meetings of the enemies of the King (most held on Church grounds). Rune and Talaysen have gotten very good at rooting out malcontents and getting them to reveal what they know. They've put people to sleep. And Rune is realizing that it's very tempting to use it for more than that.

Talaysen's worried. Rune is worried. (And adorably her monologue has taken to calling Kestrel "Sion". How long can Kestrel stay out of the hands of people who'd use him? How long could he hold his throne? Can he play the game of politics, playing Church against noble against Guild?

Rune thinks Talaysen could, but Kestrel's no older than she is, and she doesn't think she could do it either.

There's another concern too: Gwyna. Gwyna loves Kestrel. And unfortunately, the Prince of Birnam couldn't even marry a commoner. Let alone a Roma. Rune knows that Gwyna is grieving, she's hiding it of course, but Rune can tell. And there's nothing she can do. If "Prince Sional" takes the throne, "Kestrel" dies. If he doesn't...well. Kestrel's probably also going to die.

So the chapter ends here, with a lot of pensive musing.