Pawns and Queens--a 15th Century Gwynedd Story--Chapter Thirty-One

[Evie]

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Chapter Thirty-One

September 16, 1464
The King's Court
City of Rhemuth
Morning

It had taken a couple of days for several selected Deryni officers of the city garrison and from the royal court to sift through the minds of the Jouvian troops who had survived the war long enough to participate in the siege on Rhemuth, but at last, after a fair bit of discussion amongst those Deryni, it had been determined which of the enemy soldiers were most deserving of being sentenced for their crimes against the Gwyneddan people. Once this winnowing had been carried out, there remained four-hundred and thirty-six of the most hardened war criminals the Kingdom of Joux had to offer who now awaited the King's judgment, and close to 4000 more Jouvians breathing quiet sighs of relief that they had not been chosen to end their days on Gwyneddan soil, or worse, swinging high above it.

Given the large number of enemy combatants to be tried and the larger number of inhabitants of Rhemuth who had a keen interest in the outcome, the decision had been made to carry out the resulting trial and sentencing in the larger King's Courthouse within the City rather than in Rhemuth Castle's Great Hall. There was also keen public interest in seeing Gwynedd's new Regent, for the City was still reeling from the news that their valiant King Cinhil who had miraculously emerged from what all had believed to be his deathbed to courageously challenge and defeat the reviled Prince of Joux had soon thereafter succumbed to the fate which all with mortal flesh must surrender eventually. Now Nicholas was Regent of Gwynedd and very likely to be their next King, provided that the unborn child the new Dowager Queen would bear in the next few days did not prove to be an heir male, and while Prince Nicholas had been much loved by the people as a younger prince, even after he had been seduced into immoral ways by the beautiful but conniving temptress Melisande, it remained to be seen whether his recent marriage had caused him to amend his ways. Thus, the mettle of their likely future King was under as much scrutiny as the crimes of the soldiers awaiting judgment that morning.

One person with a vested interest in seeing how the Jouvian soldiers, and their officers in particular, were charged for their crimes was young Lucie of Woodbury-on-Cleyde, watching from a penny seat high up in the Gallery. She had assured her new friend Mellie that she would return home as soon as the trials were over to share the highlights of what happened, since Melisande also greatly desired to know, having lost her home and likely many of her neighbors in the village of Candor Rhea to the Jouvian invaders, yet Mellie dared not show up in such a public venue to hear the Prince's judgments for herself.

Prince Nicholas entered the Court chamber, the King's Champion following closely behind him along with the Royal Guards. "All rise for this court of Prince Nicholas, Regent of Gwynedd!" cried the herald as the Prince's retinue entered the Court, and all in the lower level who were fortunate enough to be seated stood as a deep silence fell over the room. The Prince and his men crossed the dais to take their places, the Prince taking his seat on his throne at the center of it.

At the Prince's nod towards his herald, the populace was allowed to resume their seats. His keen gray eyes swept the chamber, waiting for the resulting hubbub to settle before turning to the bailiff. "Send in the prisoners," he said.

The archers in the upper galleries grew more alert as the bound men were led into the Court chamber to stand before the Prince. Many looked fearful, others defiant. The Deryni among them had been administered a mild drug earlier that would disrupt their focus just enough to prevent them from using their powers, yet not so strong as to incapacitate them or prevent them from comprehending what was happening. Still, if any attempted to cause a disruption during the court, there would be more than sufficient armed men of the Prince's retinue available to prevent danger to the people or the Prince's person.

"Officers and soldiers of Joux," said the Prince, "those of you standing here before me today have been Mind-Seen by officers of my garrison and court, and have been proven to have committed crimes of war far and beyond any reasonable acts to be expected to be waged upon a civilian population during wartime. To be clear, none of you are being sentenced today merely for foraging off my land to fill your bellies or for killing my own officers and soldiers in honorable combat on the battlefield. You are here because you have all been judged for committing atrocities against the people of Gwynedd against every reasonable convention of war."

He turned to the bailiff. "Do you have the list of charges against these men?" he asked.

"I do, Your Highness." The bailiff held up a scroll, which the King's Champion crossed the dais to accept from him, bringing it to Prince Nicholas.

Nicholas scanned the parchment. "Comte Guillaume D'Aubergy, second-in-command to Le Dauphin de Joux, you are hereby sentenced to execution by hanging for the murders of four-hundred and thirty-seven of my people and fifty-three rapes–"

"I am a Comte!" the man before him declared insolently. "I demand a fine, not a noose!  I will not be treated like a common felon!"

The crowd reacted with a loud hubbub of astonished shock. The Prince lifted a hand for silence, waiting until the voices had died down. "A Count, are you? I assure you, you will not be treated like a common felon, for indeed you are a most uncommon one! Are you truly throwing yourself upon my mercy?" He glanced at his bailiff. "Do you happen to have the figures available for what the Comte D'Aubergy's crimes would add up to in total if I were to show him leniency?"

The man did some quick figuring. "I make that to be four thousand, eight hundred, and sixty-seven and a half sovereigns, Your Highness."

Nicholas smiled. "Indeed. As I recall, that is thirty marks each for all of my people you had put to the sword or noose, and thirty sovereigns each for every rape. If Prince Rémy paid you the equivalent of my earls' compensation for serving me on the field, that would be, what? About five years' salary? As much as I would love to add your contribution to my post-war restoration fund, do you happen to have that amount on you, sirrah?"

The Comte turned pale. "Of course not!"

"Then I'm afraid you shall have to hang like the uncommon felon that you are. Next, the Sieur d'Avrillon...."

#

Once the charges against the ten percent of Joux's army judged to have committed the harshest crimes had been read and those men duly sentenced, they were led out of the chamber to be summarily executed, and the bailiff sent in the officers who were to be pardoned and released on their parole as per the terms of the Duel Arcane two days earlier. There was insufficient room in the Courthouse despite its large size for the nearly 4000 remaining soldiers to all stand before the Regent, so it had been decided that only the officers would stand before him at the Court, the soldiers presumed to simply have been following their lawful orders.

"As per the terms agreed upon by Cinhil, lately King of Gwynedd, and Rémy, lately Dauphin of Joux, I hereby pardon you and your men, and give you leave to depart my Kingdom upon your parole that you will never henceforth set foot upon Gwyneddan soil. Should any of you return, your lives shall be forfeit. Do I have your parole?"

"You do, Your Highness," the officers answered.

Prince Nicholas, Truth-Reading as they did so, could detect no signs of bad faith among the men before him. "Very well. On your way out, state your name and rank for the bailiff, and you will be escorted on your way once all of your infantry have done the same for my officers."

He sat back, prepared to dismiss the Court as soon as the last of the prisoners had filed out, when there was an unexpected disturbance. One of the junior officers broke free of the line and started towards the dais, falling to his knees as soon as he saw the raised lances of the guards leaping forward to protect the Regent. "Please, I pray you, dread lord, don't make me go back! Kill me if you must! I beg only that you make it swift."

Nicholas slanted a look of silent inquiry at the King's Champion, who appeared equally baffled. A few other Jouvian officers glanced at each other uncertainly, then moved to kneel behind the first.

"Let me be certain that I understand what you are asking of me," the Prince said. "Are the four of you requesting sanctuary in this Kingdom?"

"We are, Your Highness."

"I see." He studied them thoughtfully. "And on what grounds?"

"Your Highness, if we remain here, the worst you will do to us is kill us. We are prepared for that. If we return to Joux, King Renier will not be so forgiving."

Even if he had not been Truth-Reading them, there was no mistaking the terror emanating from the four officers before him. Still, this was not a matter he wished to decide without further deliberation and a deeper inquiry into the cause for their request. "We will consider your request, but I will want to question you all further before I decide. For now, take your place at the end of the queue, and the bailiff will show you to a withdrawing room for questioning later."

#

The herald had called the people to stand and Prince Nicholas allowed him to dismiss them, he and his entourage exiting the chamber first as the people bowed and curtseyed at their departure from the court chamber and galleries. The Prince glanced at the King's Champion. "Shall we go see what all that was about?"

"I'm quite curious myself," Joss said, following behind him with a signal to a couple of the men-at-arms and the Prince's squires to follow them.

The bailiff led them to a room where the four men sat, rising quickly as Nicholas entered. He acknowledged them with a nod, gesturing for them to be seated and taking a seat on the other side of the room for himself, his men arranging themselves to either side of him.

"So, tell me," he said without preamble, "what makes you so terrified of being sent back to your homeland that you would throw yourself upon the mercy of someone whose Kingdom you have invaded and whose people many of your comrades have committed atrocities against, which certainly you must admit does not incline me to look too favorably upon your request?"

The man who had first come before him in the Court spoke on behalf of them all. "Your Highness, we are all Deryni. The King is likely to be enraged at all who return to Joux under the terms of his heir's defeat at the hands of your late King, but he will turn his special wrath upon us for not having somehow prevented it. We were informed in no uncertain terms before we left Joux that the King expected a victory, and that there would be dire consequences if we failed to secure it." He glanced at his brothers-at-arms before continuing, "And King Renier has a Blocker. We would prefer an honorable death, Your Highness."

"I see." Nicholas could well understand their fear. Even though he knew the Queen and her sister had both managed to cope with living as ordinary humans for several years, having had little choice, he couldn't imagine a life deprived of his innate Deryni powers. Even as a young child, before he had learned how to fully access them, he had somehow sensed that the way he perceived the world was somehow different from how most humans did, and that there were things he simply instinctively knew that they were unable to pick up on. He imagined it might be much like suddenly losing one's ability to see or hear, and trying to cope with the disorientation of learning how to go through life without those means of perception. Would he prefer a swift death over that? He truly didn't know–he wanted to believe he would somehow overcome the deep despondency such a loss would likely engender–but he could understand how some might find death preferable.

"What are your names, starting with you in the corner?" He pointed towards the left side of the room, towards the man who had been the first to kneel before him in the court chamber.

"François Baudet, Sieur de Babigny, Your Highness."

"Jean de Chasserat, chevalier."

"Estienne de L'Orme, chevalier."

"Charles de Morigny, Comte de Morigny."

He studied their faces intently. "Does Renier only have the one Blocker, and do you know where he, or they, are kept?"

They appeared startled. "Isn't one quite enough? I think he just has the one," said de Chasserat, "or at least I hope he hasn't any others. But I don't know where he's kept, just that he's not at the royal court."

"And if you did happen to discover where he is?"

They started to all speak at once, but subsided at the Duke of Corwyn's upraised hand, answering in turn as he gestured to each in the same order they had introduced themselves earlier.

"I would do my best to be elsewhere!" said the Sieur de Babigny.

"Au contraire, such an abomination must be stopped!" the knight de Chasserat protested.

The knight from L'Orme appeared thoughtful. "Certainement, the man must face the consequences of his actions, but he is a Healer. I think I would first like to know why a man sworn to preserve life chooses to work for Le Roi le salaud."

"What matters is that he does work for the bastard!" de Chasserat retorted.

"So do we all, or we wouldn't be here in this predicament," the Comte de Morigny pointed out with a wry smile, effectively silencing de Chasserat. "But some do so willingly, and others do so under duress. I have ancestral lands I had no wish to lose and generations of my family have sworn fealty to the Kings of Joux, though much good that's ever done for me! Renier is worth no more than a sow's spit, but I held my sword of him and stayed loyal as long as I had the stomach for it in order to preserve Morigny." He looked troubled. "My wife is dead, and I have no son. I can only hope Renier won't take vengeance on my peasants or give Morigny to a cruel lord; they don't deserve that." He looked at Gwynedd's Regent. "If I were to meet this Blocker, my question would be, who or what is he trying to protect?"

Nicholas nodded, coming to a decision. "All of you will need to agree to a Mind-Seeing, so we can determine what manner of men you are and if I deem you suitable to be allowed asylum in this Kingdom. De Morigny, I will start with you, and in the interests of time...." He looked around at his entourage. "Morgan, Sebastian, and Oisin, you know the sorts of things to check for." He looked back at the Jouvian officers. "Before we start, is there any reason that any of you can think of that we are likely to discover which would cause me to reject your request?"

The Jouvians looked somewhat nervous, but none spoke up.

"All right then. De Morigny, over here."

#

Prince Nicholas admired the tight, neatly ordered shields that the Jouvian before him rolled back for his inspection. The man trembled but submitted to his mental touch, and the Regent felt some sympathy for his situation; had their places been reversed, he would have felt a fair bit of trepidation at allowing an enemy such control over his mind.

He checked very carefully for any hidden compulsions first, for even though the defecting Jouvian officers appeared to be truthful, there was a chance this was some form of clever trap, and that some other person–perhaps even without these men's knowledge–might have implanted the suggestion to defect in order for them to carry out some darker purpose once they had been granted asylum. One could not be too careful in such times as these. However, even a very deep search failed to reveal any signs of such mental tampering, to the Regent's great relief.

He sifted through the Jouvian officer's memories beginning with the early months of the Jouvian campaign, doing his best to restrict his search to those memories directly relevant to the man's activities in battle, either against Gwyneddan forces or the Jouvian raids upon Gwynedd's towns and villages.

The man had killed–Nicholas had hardly expected otherwise–but for the most part he had limited himself to defensive actions or aggression against armed combatants his unit was actively engaged with. He saw that man had also been involved, at least peripherally, with some of the village raids and sieges of larger towns, but his actions seemed mostly limited to procuring what foodstuffs and other useful items he could forage as their army moved from place to place.

He was no saint, but nor was he anything like his commander.

One memory Nicholas came across nearly caused him to lose focus because it was so unexpected. He narrowed his focus on that snippet of memory. It was a familiar looking road, winding uphill through forest land. De Morigny rode beside and slightly behind another man. They rounded a bend that the Prince knew all too well, and in the near distance De Morigny had seen a stone lodge with a stable beyond it, at the top of the road, and an animal pen to one side. He had caught a flash of motion in the open stable door, a brief glimpse of a woman fleeing with a dark-skinned man, her long brown hair flowing as she ran. She was beautiful. De Morigny had known instantly what her fate would be if she was discovered.

He had ridden the other way, towards the animal pen. "Look, a pig! We shall dine well tonight!" he had called out to the men riding behind him.

Most had followed him, for they had been on the road for days and they were hungry. One–the lead man–had not. The mounted man ahead of De Morigny dismounted at the stable door, drew his sword and entered, to De Morigny's helpless rage.

He never learned exactly what had happened to the Duc de Guion after that, just that he had been found dead, and those whom he'd been chasing had disappeared. He thought he knew how, but it was not his place to make rash guesses or volunteer his suppositions to his despised Prince. His task was merely to secure the lodge for le Dauphin, and he did no more and no less than his job.

Nicholas withdrew from the man's mind. "How was my pig?" he asked.

De Morigny looked baffled. "Your pig, Your Highness?"

"The one you had for dinner in Candor Rhea. From the hunting lodge." Nicholas fought the urge to smirk.

"Oh. It was...filling. Slightly charred on one side and undercooked on the other. Why do you ask, sire?" De Morigny's puzzlement grew.

"That was my pig that you ate, and the mother of my children that you spared. Sanctuary granted."

Tears filled the man's eyes. "Merci, Votre Altesse!" He paused. "How much do I owe you for the pig?"

"Swear me fealty, and I'll cancel the debt."

#

What did you find out? the Regent asked his squires and the Duke of Corwyn once they had finished their own Mind-Seeing inquiries.

The Sieur de Babigny seems decent enough, answered Joss Morgan, if not exactly the type to exert himself unduly. He appears to be eager not to come to the attention of important people, at least if those people are the likes of Prince Rémy or the Comte d'Aubergy, but one can hardly blame the man for that! Some battlefield kills, as you might expect, but no civilian ones aside from a few who were dying already. He had a dalliance with a girl in Avington, but in his mind at least it appears to have been consensual–she kept him eating regularly while Rémy's forces were encamped there, and in return, he kept her safe from his brothers-at-arms who had less benevolent intent. It's hard to know what the woman herself thought of that arrangement without her being here for us to ask, but his intentions seem to have been more protective than coercive. Aside from that, I can't really find much to object to besides the theft of a few chickens, but I suppose Jouvians can't live on just air any more than we can.

Lots of shades of gray in wartime, granted. I'm more concerned about deliberate intent to do harm. If you didn't find that, then I'll grant his request, replied Nicholas. Oisin, what of your man?

I had de Chasserat. He's a man of strong opinions and tends to see all things in shades of black and white, but his moral compass seems sound enough, aside from a bit of a tendency towards wanting to take justice into his own hands rather than submitting it to higher authorities to handle. Then again, considering who his higher authorities were and his opinions of those men, that likely plays a large part in his attitude. He's used to trusting very few people, and trusting himself more than any of those few. He is more self-serving than altruistic, though that might just be a survival skill, considering the company he's been forced to keep. His battlefield actions seemed to be mostly defensive or administering the coup. Off the field, he has a tendency to raid libraries and steal the occasional book. No eye for the ladies, or for that matter, anyone else, so at least I didn't have to root through those sorts of memories.

All right, I'll make a note not to make him keeper of the Royal Library, but aside from that, he seems fine. Sebastian?

The Chevalier de L'Orme is a Healer, though I get the sense he is largely untrained and wasn't even certain he had the gift until he got here and discovered he could Heal while treating battle injuries. However, it runs in his family, so I don't think it came as a great surprise to him so much as a relief that he'd inherited a useful talent. He seems more grateful that the discovery meant he was kept out of the thick of the fighting so he could assist the field medics in treating the wounded after each battle and skirmish. I didn't see any actions on his part that I would consider excessive; the closest thing I saw to that was that he killed a woman in Woodbury, but she had already tried to kill herself and had botched the job, and he saw that as more merciful than attempting to Heal her, under the circumstances, since she'd been chosen to become an Eistenmarcker thrall. The event also left him with a hearty loathing for Eistenmarckers, or at least most of them, although he did have a short-lived dalliance with one of the Eistenmarcker shield-maidens, which he regrets now. Apparently she can be a little intense. Sebastian shared a mental image of the man running from a beautiful but very angry, Amazonian blonde wielding an ax as she chased him through a war camp.

I thought Catalina was fierce! Nicholas joked. All right, I'll grant his request also. Clearly he's fighting for his life on two fronts.

#

"As Regent of Gwynedd, I hereby grant your requests for sanctuary, provided you each swear fealty to the Crown of Gwynedd. For the time being, you will be housed in the Keep at Rhemuth until such time as I am able to determine how to best use your talents in the Kingdom's service." Nicholas turned towards his junior squire. "Oisin, go on ahead of us and inform the Chamberlain we will need accommodations for four more men. When he protests we're already at capacity, tell him it's on my order."

"I'm sure he'll be delighted, Sire," Oisin said with a suppressed grin, bowing and taking his leave.

"I'll hear your oaths now, and then we will soon be on our way to the Castle also, though there is one more task I'll need to do here before we go."

#

The four Camberian Council arbitrators stood as Prince Nicholas entered the room where they awaited leave to depart with the Jouvian soldiers being deported from the kingdom. He beckoned to Aoife of Llyr, wanting a private moment with her.

"I'm very sorry to hear about Cinhil," she whispered, tears shimmering in her sea-green eyes. "My deepest condolences."

"Thank you," he said, kissing her hand. The Prince pushed his grief aside for the moment; the luxury of having even a few days to mourn for his brother privately was just one of many things this war had stolen from him. I understand he shared the location of Joux's Blocker with you?

He did, and also where Renier has the Blocker's family hidden. Or at least we have the visuals and names of the locations, and some ideas on where they might be found.

I have two men among the ones asking for asylum who might be willing and able to provide additional details that would help.

Aoife gave him a speculative look. Would they be willing to come with us?

I doubt that, and I won't force them to if they are reluctant, though you are welcome to ask. The two who I think might be most helpful are called De Morigny and De L'Orme. De Chasserat, I wouldn't trust to go on a rescue mission because he might be more likely to just kill the Blocker than try to free him, but he might be willing to provide information. I would just be sure to avoid giving him any that might tempt him to go eliminate the threat himself. I suspect De Babigny wouldn't care one way or another what happens to the man, so long as it's left as someone else's problem.

Noted. I'll see if we can get any more useful information from the two you mentioned first, and then if there's no other reason for us to linger, we'll be on our way to Joux with the Dauphin's body and his men. I'm sure you'd like to have King's Meadow free of four-thousand Jouvian prisoners of war.

Yes, I prefer that for grazing land rather than for use as an impromptu tent city.


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[DerynifanK]

Very interesting to see how so many enemy combatants are handled. Very revealing view of Renier that these men would rather die than be returned to Joux to face him. I feel sorry for the blocker since he faces threats from all sides. Hope he and his family can be rescued. Nicholas has a lot to deal with while he is also grieving for his beloved brother. And he never wanted to be king but I feel that he will rise to the challenge.

[Evie]

Very interesting to see how so many enemy combatants are handled. Very revealing view of Renier that these men would rather die than be returned to Joux to face him. I feel sorry for the blocker since he faces threats from all sides. Hope he and his family can be rescued. Nicholas has a lot to deal with while he is also grieving for his beloved brother. And he never wanted to be king but I feel that he will rise to the challenge.

Yes, I would imagine even if Mellie hadn't been in the picture earlier on, Nicholas would never have wanted to be the heir, since that would mean not just losing his father but also his eldest brother in order to inherit the throne. While any prince would know their father would likely predecease them someday, I would think it would be harder knowing a sibling who is only two years older than yourself to also have to die in order for you to become King. If anything, even after learning that Cinhil's illness was likely to be terminal, he'd have hoped Cinhil would have a son to inherit after him. But yes, I think he'll end up doing fine in the role, even if he's having to do a lot of catching up in learning his responsibilities that he ought to have been spending more time learning at his father's and brother's sides earlier on.

Those Jouvian Deryni are all too aware that Renier has a Blocker, because that Blocker is one way Renier has been maintaining control in Joux. Any Deryni with greater powers than Renier who tries to oppose him or who fails him in some major way is liable to find his powers Blocked if he's not eliminated completely. Fortunately most people don't know who the Blocker is, much less where, or he'd likely have been killed by Renier's enemies already.

[revanne]

Luckily Catalina was paying more attention to her father's lessons on statecraft.

[Evie]

Luckily Catalina was paying more attention to her father's lessons on statecraft.

And she was also very attentive to her tutor's lessons, though Colin might wish she was just a little less attentive to her tutor!