Two Kingdoms 41: Ghosts

[DoctorM]

TWO KINGDOMS 41: GHOSTS

This is the thirty-ninth part of an AU construction about a Gwynedd where the duel at Kelson Haldane's coronation went very differently indeed. We are now almost three years into the Gwynedd Wars-- Charissa's new kingdom at Valoret against the Haldanes in the south and the kingdom of Torenth in the east. This episode follows some weeks after "Leopards" and "Padishah", and takes place at approximately the same time as "Horsemen". As always, comments and suggestions are very much appreciated.

****

From the tower window you can see north towards the Torenthi border and the  heavy forests of the Mórmarlüky foothills. Christian points out over the walls of the old ducal palace. "Right up there," he says. "There's a byrn just to the west. Your father took me there a couple of times to teach me to fish when I was nine or ten. He always told me there was no better place to go and think." He looks back at the Shadow Queen. "It's full of ghosts, this place."

"I know," Charissa says. She's behind him, her arms around him. "So many memories here." She's looking over him at the expanse of Marluk lands out there. "You did well today. I love showing you off. And the Marluk lords, well— they didn't hate you out of hand."

Christian grins. "No, they didn't. They don't know what to make of me, but they don't hate me, or at least not yet. A lot of them know me, or at least knew my father. They have no idea why you married me, but I'm not a threat to them so far. You made me Kheldour, and that's too far away for them to envy. I'm your Remembrancer, and they don't know what that really is, and wouldn't want it if they did. You're not showering me with gifts from the ducal treasury, and I'm not taking away anyone's patronage rights. I'm your folly, but they'll live with that for a while. At least until the time comes for you to have an heir."

Charissa pulls him back into her. She's resting her chin on his head. "They're not about to say the word morganatic. They went through all that with my father years and years ago. Besides, I married you over in Valoret. Gwynedd succession law doesn't say anything about morganatic marriages. I'll let my lawyers worry about it. Crown succession law in Tolan-and-the-West is mine to make."

He can feel her smiling behind him. Her arms tighten round him and she pulls him close. "You know," Charissa says, "you must be one of the few men in all the Eleven Kingdoms who doesn't mind being the little spoon."

Christian laughs. "No, that I don't. I like you tall. I like you being just what you are. You're complicated, and I like that."

Behind him, Charissa smiles. "There's nothing complicated about me. I keep telling people that. They don't believe me, not even Kyri. My father, now. He was complicated. Look down there in the courtyard at all those stables. He had horse farms all over the Marluk. He used to spend his days breeding horses and talking with people's stewards about crop yields and new kinds of oats. He told everyone all he wanted to be was a country gentleman and live a quiet life. Then he'd go off east with Lionel's father and yours and fight for lands all over the steppe. He always wanted to just hunt stag and hawk and fish on the strand at Tolan-by-Sea, and then he'd go into his cabinet and read about old Deryni magic and mages for days. I still miss him, every day."

"I liked him, too. He didn't know what to make of me, mind you. I was my father's son, but I wasn't cut out to be a soldier all my life. I didn't want to hunt stag, and I wasn't much for pig-sticking, either. Never cared about farming or fishing. But he liked the idea that I'd be a courtier one day and be your supporter. He's the one who told me tales about the Deryni past. I'm grateful for that."

"That's one thing I like about Mistress Montague. La Montague tells me all her stories about my father. She tells me about what he thought of me— and you —when I was just a girl."

Christian looks back at her. "You should know something. Wencit's grand vizier is writing people about you. Aurelian and your young Ratcliffe tell me Count Berrhones is sending long letters to every lord in Torenth about you— telling them all about you— about, you know, what you're really like."

"Effing Berrhones. Everybody says he's as good an administrator as Brechlin, but he's an old fool who loves scandal and he's usually drunk these days. So he's doing my biography for Wencit. How many times does he say 'evil bitch' on each page?"

"Pretty much every other sentence. He says that you're obsessed with vengeance and power."

Charissa shrugs. "Well, that's not exactly wrong."

Christian leans back into her. "He says your branch of the Festils doesn't have any real claim on Gwynedd or anything else. And he says you murdered King Károly when you were a girl. Fed him poisoned figs at a banquet. Or maybe apricots."

Behind him, Charissa stiffens. He can feel that. Her fingers tap at his belt. "Károly— Károly's the one who kept me alive after my father died. He kept the magnates of Torenth from taking all my lands. He treated me like a foster daughter. So then I'm supposed to have poisoned him."

"He says Károly wanted to make peace with Brion Haldane after the Fathane war and you killed him for it, just in case he would've signed away any claims to Gwynedd."

"Eff him. Just eff him. Let him write what he wants, or what Wencit tells him to write. What do you think, when we get our hands on him— stuff him with poisoned apricots 'til he bursts or drown him in some barrel of cheap wine?"

Christian pulls up one of her hands and kisses it. "I like the wine idea. Maybe I'll show up and read to him while they drown him. I'll read my history of the Gwynedd Wars aloud and let him know that no one will ever read anything he's written ever again. He thinks he's a historian. He thinks he can write.  He thinks he can shape the way the world looks. Just like Stefan effing Coram. Let's let him die disappointed."

He pulls her around to him and kisses her. Christian runs a thumb along the scar across her nose and then up around her eyes. "There's another one, too. A Lord Callan.  Desiderius, they call him. He's circulating tales of you. Aurelian has a copy of something he sent around. Now Lord Callan, Callan says that even as a girl you had hard little beady eyes and were a grim and charmless little thing. He uses those words— grim and charmless. And he calls you petite."

Charissa makes a face. "The year or so after my father was killed, I was damned well grim and charmless. I don't think I spoke five words at a time to anybody. I didn't have a lot to be charming about. Especially the part where people from Beldour and maybe Rhemuth were sending to have me killed." She looks down at Christian. She's almost laughing: "Beady?"

Christian grins. "You have the most beautiful blue eyes I've ever seen. Better than anyone's. Been losing myself in them for years and years.  And as for petite..."

"How does he get to that? Petite?"

"I thought it was just a bad translation. I thought he meant slender— you know, starved-skinny.  Or maybe just slight. But he means petite, all five foot thirteen of you. He wants you to be some little thing who's too small to be of consequence."

"Eff him, too. I'm freakishly tall and I'm all bones and angles, but when I walk in a room, people know I'm there. What else does he say?"

"Berrhones says you're debauched and depraved and a sapphic whore. This Callan, now— he says you have no ability to do anything romantic or carnal unless it's a tool to gain power. He says you're like an expensive fruit that's gone rotten on the inside. He says you're predestined to die a well-deserved horrible death."

"So tell me what you think about the part where I'm not carnal."

Christian kisses her again. "I'm thinking about you at fourteen and fifteen and the two of us on pretty much every flat surface in this castle.  I'm thinking about us breaking a bed in Lionel's summer palace. I'm thinking about waking up and seeing the way you look watching me."

She brushes a finger over his face. "I'm going to be grim and charmless enough. This Callan— what else does he say?"

"The usual. Nothing that hasn't been in sermons all over Haldane country for the last three years." Christian jerks his head toward the window. "Callan could do more harm than Berrhones. Everyone knows Count Berrhones is Wencit's man— Wencit's vizier, Wencit's mouthpiece.  What he says is political and partisan, and everyone knows it. Callan's calling you a freak of nature. Nobody wants a freak of nature sitting the throne. Nobody wants a bitter little girl on the throne."

Charissa sighs. "If we have him killed, does that make him right?"

"It makes him dead."

"Whatever you have to do, then. Put Aurelian on it. Copy Brechlin on what these people are saying— though I'd think Brechlin probably already knows."

"He'd know. Things like this— not the politics, just the part about you as a person —get into sermons. Priests stand up and say what a  depraved sinner you are.  People who don't know and don't care about succession law or politics, they still care about whether you're a freak of nature and an evil bitch. It'll all be in sermons, and Bishop Brechlin will know about it."

Charissa is there at the window. "I grew up here. I mean, yes, Beldour, too, and in my father's campaign tents.  But whatever I am, this was home. Here's where I need to feel like I belong. Here's the place that made me. I can feel my father's ghost here. I'm the last of my line— my brothers were legitimated, but they didn't get any dynastic rights.  This place— the Marluk —is where I started. Do you think this effing Lord Callan and that old drunk Berrhones are right about me?"

"Not that I've ever seen. You're ruthless enough, but that's how you get to a throne. And I don't give a damn about tracing bloodlines and all the subchapters of successions law. You're the Festillic heir— you're a Festillic queen. Charissa, first of her name.  That's what you are now. It doesn't matter if they call you a tyrant; we just can't let them call you a freak."

"I don't think I mind being called a monster. Kyri told me that to make a new world or a new kingdom you have to be a monster. She's not wrong."

Christian rests his hands on her hipbones. "This castle is where we both started. Your father and mine wanted me to be loyal to you, even if your father would've had an apoplexy thinking I might marry you— not that he'd have believed something like that could ever happen. This castle, the duchy of Marluk, this is where your father told you about being Deryni and about being a duchess.  You're good at it. The Marluk lords like you, and they don't even hate me. We have wars to fight, Cara. We have a crown for you to keep. You're not a freak or a little spoiled girl. You're the one building a kingdom out of nothing.  Every time you're here, you can see all the ghosts— all the people who taught us both. Me, I'm your Remembrancer, and I want you to hold it in your mind. This place, these halls, this tower— you started here. And what we do next is help break Wencit and then we go back to Rhemuth one day. That's why you're here, and at Tolan-by-Sea, too. We put things together here, and we make all those titles you're claiming real and permanent."

Charissa looks out north. "Tell Aurelian what has to be done. Tell him to use Ratcliffe's people, too." She's grinning. "Pick a really cheap wine for Count Berrhones' farewell. This other one, this Callan, you know what he needs stuffed down his throat. By the time you and I get back to Valoret, I want at least one of them dead. And you— draft me a ghost story,. Write down about who and what I am and get it to the publicists and lawyers. I don't even need to read it.  Whatever you say, that'll be me. I trust you absolutely. Write about the ghosts who made me. Write about that. I want you to tell the world what I am."

*****
ADDENDUM

I've had a couple of people ask me how I imagine my Two Kingdoms characters  and how I'd cast them in an imaginary film. That's harder to do than I imagined. But if you're reading this, these are a few of my ideas— or at least how I imagine my characters in my mind's eye. If you have any thoughts, please do let me know.

Charissa — the French model/actress Aymeline Valade, especially in her role in the 2014 film "St.-Laurent". I'd probably imagine the younger, teenaged Charissa as Milly Alcock from "House of the Dragon".

Christian — something of a younger, darker-haired Jeremy Renner, with a bit of the young actor Aneurin Barnard, who played Richard III in "The White Queen".

Aurelian — a rather younger Christoph Waltz. Remember that Christian, Charissa, and Aurelian would all be just about 30 in the current "Two Kingdoms" episodes.

Lionel of Arjenol - A mid-1980s Jeremy Irons. Obviously.

Bishop Brechlin - Charles Dance. Again, obviously. Whoever else?

Duke Nigel Haldane - a younger Lloyd Owen, Elendil in "The Rings of Power".

Yusuf al-Fayturi - Josh Brolin, from "Dune".

Richenda, Wencit, Rhydon, and Bran Coris have eluded me so far. So has Kyri de Roiste, Any comments and suggestions are welcome.








 

[tmcd]

"They're not about to say the word morganatic. They went through all that with my father years and years ago."

I was about to ask, but I found the end of Chapter 6 of The King's Deryni, where there's an explanation. Hogan wanted to marry his inamorata, but his mother got the marriage annulled. But there were illegitimate-ish children. He then married Larissa de Marluk, who gave birth to Charissa.

[DoctorM]

"They're not about to say the word morganatic. They went through all that with my father years and years ago."

I was about to ask, but I found the end of Chapter 6 of The King's Deryni, where there's an explanation. Hogan wanted to marry his inamorata, but his mother got the marriage annulled. But there were illegitimate-ish children. He then married Larissa de Marluk, who gave birth to Charissa.

The Marluk legitimated his two sons by his inamorata, but apparently without dynastic rights. Both sons ended up with counties out east, but it's unclear as to whether they were alive in 1120, or if they had heirs.

[Jerusha]

Do I dare say a "haunting" chapter?   

I do like delving into Charissa and Christian's minds and history.  I would not want to be Aurelian's target.

[DoctorM]

Do I dare say a "haunting" chapter?   

I do like delving into Charissa and Christian's minds and history.  I would not want to be Aurelian's target.

I do think we're about to see more of Aurelian and his staff at work...

I like looking at Charissa and Christian's thoughts and backstory. And at how others see them, too.

[DerynifanK]

I also enjoy Charissa and Christians' backstory, when they knew each other as children and teens. Still this is a bloodthirsty lot fighting over crowns and lands. And even if you achieve your goal, I don't think you can ever be secure. Uneasy rests the head on which sits a crown. You will always need to be looking over your shoulder. And I certainly wouldn't want Aurelian hunting me.

[DoctorM]

I also enjoy Charissa and Christians' backstory, when they knew each other as children and teens. Still this is a bloodthirsty lot fighting over crowns and lands. And even if you achieve your goal, I don't think you can ever be secure. Uneasy rests the head on which sits a crown. You will always need to be looking over your shoulder. And I certainly wouldn't want Aurelian hunting me.

Medieval politics tended to be bloodthirsty, or at least blood-soaked. You're very right-- there's little enough security even for the winners. Yet the game is one everyone keeps playing, over and over.

[DerynifanK]

I guess each one thinks that if he or she wins, they will be the exception to the rule. But the Eleven Kingdoms are really a mess right now. I wonder how the common people fare, those that do all work but have no say in any decisions which often cost them much more dearly than the nobles.

[DerynifanK]

I do enjoy your writing. You have an amazing if rather bloodthirsty imagination. You do seem to rather favor the Festils. Not sure Gwynedd would be happy to have them as rulers again. If I were Gwynedden, I certainly would not.

[DoctorM]

I guess each one thinks that if he or she wins, they will be the exception to the rule. But the Eleven Kingdoms are really a mess right now. I wonder how the common people fare, those that do all work but have no say in any decisions which often cost them much more dearly than the nobles.

You raise a good point. The common folk are the ones who make the kingdoms possible, and we don't see them much. So far, the Gwynedd Wars have been more skirmishing than real battles (except maybe Warin's revolt in Corwyn), but the real battles are coming. Rhemuth has been burnt twice-- that's been the biggest  loss --but south-central Gwynedd is intact. But we'll see.

I think the nobility on all sides have an interest in avoiding serious devastation, even if only because you need healthy peasants to grow crops and a merchant class to pay taxes.

Charissa isn't interested in blood for its own sake, and I think she sees a functioning kingdom as a way to show her detractors that she can run a government. But she's prepared to use any means needed in winning her wars. Christian was raised to be both a courtier and a light-horse captain, and he probably has to keep reminding himself that the ways mercenaries usually behave on campaign (kleptomania and pyromania) isn't a good thing in the long run.

[DoctorM]

I do enjoy your writing. You have an amazing if rather bloodthirsty imagination. You do seem to rather favor the Festils. Not sure Gwynedd would be happy to have them as rulers again. If I were Gwynedden, I certainly would not.

If you look at the Festils, what intrigues me is that, yes, Imre was a fool who wanted to be a tyrant, but we know very little about the other Festillic kings. Their Gwynedd was a conquest kingdom, and even Evaine recognizes that a conquering aristocracy has to be ruthless, at least for a couple of generations, to stay in power. I'd like to know a lot more about Gwynedd under the first three Festils and King Blaine. What was life like at their courts?

[tmcd]

"What was life like at their courts?"

Well, given a general cavalier attitude towards peasants dying at Nyford, and the collective punishment of the innocent 49 humans, and the man complaining about a previous employer trying to sexually abuse him but that not causing outrage even from Cathal, it sounds pretty corrupt and nasty.

[drakensis]

From what I recall off hand, Festil I would probably be looking approvingly at Charissa, Festil II had a fair bit in common with Imre and Blaine was a fairly pragmatic and well educated king (he and Camber were pretty good friends). I don't recall anything offhand about Festil III.

[DerynifanK]

I do hope that Rhemuth the Beautiful is finally restored and lasts a long time, no matter who is ruling. Destruction for destruction's sake is never good policy. I wonder if the commnon folk ever reached a breaking point where they turned on the Torenthis or other invaders because of the destruction they spread leaving the populace to starve and without shelter for themselves or their families.

[DoctorM]

I do hope that Rhemuth the Beautiful is finally restored and lasts a long time, no matter who is ruling. Destruction for destruction's sake is never good policy. I wonder if the commnon folk ever reached a breaking point where they turned on the Torenthis or other invaders because of the destruction they spread leaving the populace to starve and without shelter for themselves or their families.

I can at least note that the conduct of English troops in France during the middle stages of the Hundred Years War was so destructive that the French peasantry finally did take to ambushes and attacks on anything English they found.

Do remember here in the Gwynedd Wars, though, that during the recapture of Rhemuth, much of the damage to  residential areas was done by Llannedd mercenaries, and not by either Nigel's or Charissa's troops.