“Your majesty,” Eric interrupted. “I think it would be wiser to-”
“That’s an order!” Relam snapped.
His guards sprang to attention and sheathed their blades. “Much better,” Relam muttered. “Now, gather around and I’ll tell you what’s happened here. And a few other things, as well. But first, we need the others. Hadere and Eckle that is.”
“Do we have to include him?” Wil asked petulantly.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Relam replied with a wry grin. His guards chuckled at the shared joke, instantly more at ease. Oreius stepped up beside Relam and smiled at him.
“Hadere!” the sword master called. “Eckle! There’s a story to be told if you’re interested.”
“A story?” Eckle demanded. “I have no time to waste on childish things like stories. I need to get his majesty back to the palace and-”
The palace guard commander broke off as he joined the circle and saw Relam standing there expectantly. “Oh, pardon me your majesty,” he said, reddening. “I didn’t realize you were right here.”
“I am,” Relam said. “Now, please, stand with the others here while I tell you what has happened in the last twenty-four hours. It’s a fascinating tale.”
“Really, your majesty, I think it can wait until we are safe back at the palace.”
Hadere moved over and laid a hand on Eckle’s shoulder. “Your prince is giving you an order,” he said pointedly, winking at Relam.
“Fine!” Eckle snapped with extremely bad grace. He looked around for a place to stand where he would not be in the way and noticed that Wil was by his left shoulder. The guardsman smiled and waved cheekily. Eckle glared at him and abruptly turned and moved to the end of the line, as far from Wil as possible. At this, Wil and Johann sniggered knowingly, hands over their mouths.
Once the mirth had run its course, Relam began his tale. He started with the assassination attempt over a year ago, and the interrogation of the prisoners, moving right into his mother’s decline and eventual death, including the conversation that he and Aven had overheard.
Until Relam brought up Narin’s ‘execution’, the listeners were silent and attentive. But as soon as it was revealed that Narin was alive, a storm of questions broke loose from Hadere and Eckle.
“You disobeyed the king?” Hadere asked, looking at Relam and his personal guards.
“But . . . but that’s treason!” Eckle spluttered. “You helped a condemned man escape justice!”
“Escape justice?” Wil snorted. “You really are as thick as you look. Narin was twice the commander you’ll ever be. Justice. Ha!”
“Quiet,” Relam said curtly, calling Wil to order. “Let it go,” he added as Eckle drew breath to reply. “Narin has served the crown extremely well in the last year and a half. He is pardoned of all crimes, real and imagined. He is no longer sentenced to death and is not a fugitive. And for now he will be serving as the new Master of the Citadel.”
“Here, here!” Johann crowed.
Eckle looked decidedly unhappy about that, but held his tongue. Hadere took the news much better, grinning broadly and clapping Galen on the shoulder. “You men did well,” he said to Relam’s guards. “Doing the right thing isn’t always about following orders.”
“Yes,” Relam said drily, sliding a glance at Oreius. “That’s a lesson that needs to be learned by a great many soldiers in this building. Now, back to the story. Where was I?”
“Your mother’s death,” Oreius said gently.
“Oh,” Relam said, his heart thudding painfully. “Yes. Well, anyway, after my mother’s death and Narin’s execution, I started training.”
Realm blew through the next few months quickly, summing up his training and the frustration with the lack of results from the investigation. Finally, he reached the events of the previous night, describing in great detail the battle with the assassin and the man’s subsequent death at D’Arnlo’s hands.
“Bloody idiotic thing to do,” Eric muttered. “Killing him right by the Citadel like that.”
“It was the middle of the night,” Hadere pointed out. “There wasn’t supposed to be anyone around.”
“But there was.”
“But-”
“It doesn’t matter!” Relam interrupted, glaring at them. “Can I finish? Without interruption?”
“By all means,” Wil said, grinning. “Nobody is stopping you.”
Hadere leaned forward, glancing sidelong at Wil. “You might remember that you are in the presence of a king, soldier,” he said pointedly.
Wil flushed and looked away. Relam nodded his thanks to Hadere, then continued his tale, describing the sleepless hours at Oreius’ house, trying to decide how to go about apprehending the traitor and whether they had enough evidence to do so reasonably. When he reached Cevet’s part of the story, a storm of exclamations erupted from his listeners.
“Thius?” Galen was shouting. “He was in on this as well as D’Arnlo?”
“I don’t believe it,” Eric muttered. “I thought he was one of the good ones.”
“I believe it,” Hadere interjected. The others, including Relam, stared at him in amazement. The commander of the city guard wore a pained expression, but his eyes were far away, lost in some distant place.
“I can believe it, because I have known Ryker Thius for a long time, longer than any of you,” Hadere said heavily. “We grew up together. We were both from families that were on the border between nobility and commoner. We both wanted to raise our station in life, both dreamed of being people of importance in this world. I sought that importance in the guard, and succeeded.” The commander looked around at the others. “But Ryker was not so gifted at fighting. He was, though, a skilled orator and shrewd negotiator. He had a way about him, a way of persuading people to see things his way. He started out serving a minor noble in the Assembly, networking with other nobles along the way and accumulating a strong following. When next it was time to add
