25.15

In the hours following Zyrdicia's departure, all over the castle Dirk found macabre graffiti made during the battle the image of her waived-bladed sword sketched on the gray stone in the blood of the vanquished. Soldiers greeted one another with phrases like "long live the Landeshexa" and "may the queen keep our souls."

Despite the day's victory, the mood in the castle was not one of celebration. Everywhere he turned, he saw barely disguised resentment in the eyes of his men. Sometimes he overheard hushed whispers, gossiping about the manner of the queen's departure.

It fed his paranoia, and he began to fear that an insurrection could be afoot. And he was sure that somehow, she was orchestrating it from afar.

25.15.1

The next day, Dirk summoned his captain of the guard, his senior-most generals, and a few trusted knights to report all that had transpired while he had been asleep.

He had also sent for Kai, only to discover that his seneschal was imprisoned in the dungeon, and Portia was dead. Kai's alleged involvement in the theft of millions of kolnas from the royal treasury would have normally sent him into a violent rage. Right now, it was just more bad news on a perfectly bleak day.

The news grew worse as he listed to his men's reports. Dirk grew silent as he listened to the manner in which Zyrdicia had prevented Geoffrey from claiming the crown. He listened intently, his gaze fixed on the fire burning in the room. His mood became increasingly pensive.

Captain Nelor said, "The queen single-handedly saved Tronin. Your entire southern forces quartered there for the winter would have been annihilated had she not intervened. She wiped out the entire attack force by herself there. The South has no army left after this. Her heroic sacrifice tonight will be remembered for ages."

"Sacrifice?" Dirk frowned.

His question was met by tense silence.

"Oh, just spit it out, you cowardly fools! What exactly did my former queen sacrifice?"

When Nelor finally spoke up, Dirk heard the tenor of condolence in his captain of the guard's voice. The room became very somber as he reported the grim news of the queen's miscarriage.

Dirk looked up from the fire for the first time in a great while then. He was visibly shaken. After a moment he frowned and stared at Nelor, and he said, "You permitted my pregnant wife to defend the castle you were charged to protect?"

"I suggested that she shouldn't go into battle in her condition, and she ignored me," Nelor said defensively. "She was already weary when she returned from Tronin and found Castle Blackpool under attack. She refused to rest. Greystone's forces had overrun the three wings in a matter of minutes. She sent all our forces to the East and West Wings to concentrate them, and went to the North Wing herself since you were there. She did not want them to find you unconscious in the royal quarters."

"Did she take a blow from one of the invaders?" Dirk inquired quietly.

"No," Kendall said, speaking for the first time. "I followed her and kept an eye on her from a distance during the battle. It looked like she simply feinted from exhaustion. She cast some sort of spell as she went down that caused the room to explode around her. As soon as the flames receded, he went in and grabbed her and brought her to the throne room."

Dirk blinked unhappily. He felt as though he had woken up in a different castle. He did not like the sensation of being a stranger to the events that had unfolded here. He also felt like a perfect fool now for sending her away, under the circumstances.

Nelor stared at the floor. The Captain of the Guard knew how precarious Dirk's position was. The men in Dirk's army did not just love Zyrdicia; they would die for her a hundred times over. Nelor knew that this royal marital strife had the potential to explode into a force that would depose the king.

The Captain of the Guard said respectfully, "Your troops believe our queen's sacrifice for the kingdom in its hour of need should be honored. They believe that she was very loyal to Crown. The sentiment is that--" Nelor broke off, suddenly embarrassed.

"That what?"

"You blasphemed against the goddess who is the soul of Karteia. They believe the nation is doomed as long as she is not here."

"Doomed? What idiotic babble," Dirk scoffed.

"The idiotic babble wants to avenge the soul of the Karteia, Sire."

"Stop calling her that."

"Whatever name you give her won't matter to them. The mood among your troops is potentially explosive."

Dirk stared at Nelor in silence, his jaw clenched. The man's honesty unnerved him. Dirk heard the urgency in Nelor's voice.

"Do you concur with his sentiments?" Dirk asked his generals darkly, daring them to agree. Dirk looked around at his generals and saw in their eyes that Nelor spoke for them.

"I'm not a religious man," General Depin mused, pursing his lips. "I'm a pragmatist. I can control the men who fight under me through the use of fear. But I can count, my lord. And the men who idolize the queen outnumber those of us in this room, whose loyalty you can count on, by several hundred to one. If their outrage over this incident were perhaps to overpower their fear, then we could have a grave problem. The current situation is precarious for you, Sire."

"Of course, you cannot tolerate betrayal, Sire," Kendall said respectfully. "If she betrayed you, she deserves to die."

Nelor offered in a thoughtful tone, "Perhaps what you perceived to be a betrayal was merely a misunderstanding." He paused to see whether Dirk was open to a way out of the political dilemma. When he saw he had his lord's attention, he said, "Your chamber maid has told the whole castle she saw the queen do battle with the grim reaper at your bedside to keep you alive. She claims she literally saw the god of death reaching out for you. Perhaps your coma was a way of protecting you."

General Depin mused, "It is interesting that she did not declare herself regent, or otherwise assume formal control of the kingdom. She only ruled informally, preventing any change in the throne's status until she could find a way to revive you."

Nelor added, "She took no joy in ruling, my lord - nor in your absence. I often found her sitting on it alone, wrapped in your cloak. She said the smell reminded her of you. She was quite unhappy about the situation."

"You go too far in your counsel, Captain," Dirk warned halfheartedly. It was plain to everyone in the room, though, that Nelor's words had hit home.

"I'm duty-bound to protect you. I do not wish to see you put yourself or the kingdom at risk of civil war needlessly."

"Civil war?" Dirk scoffed. "My army would not dare rebel against me openly. They have no one to lead them, yet."

Silence met the remark. Each of the generals stared at the floor, refusing to meet his gaze. He added, "You shall publicly execute any man that speaks of striking at me to avenge my former queen. Make a spectacle of it."

Nelor frowned, "You just ordered me to put your entire castle guard to death."

"And all of the torture troopers garrisoned in Tronin," Depin added darkly.

Dirk closed his eyes and sighed. If it came to a coup, he wondered whether these men would defend the Blackpool Crown.

He opened his eyes and stared hard at Nelor. Nelor was a tough soul who understood the politics of the castle as well as anyone. The man had always been fiercely loyal, and he commanded the castle guard masterfully. His warning had to be taken seriously. "Is an insurrection already underway?" he demanded wearily.

"I've heard whispers of rumors, though no one has brought the information directly to me."

"I've heard those same whispers," Depin said.

Dirk glanced at Kendall. His knight was scowling in the background. Dirk recognized a look on the man's face that he recognized as unspoken reproach. "I hope you have information to contradict these fools," Dirk said.

"I do not. Had I been here to advise you, I would have warned you that choosing such a woman as your queen was terribly dangerous. This is why. Your army thinks she's some sort of goddess. Your marital strife turns into a spark for rebellion and religious upheaval."

"Tell my troops that she will return," Dirk ordered, sounding resigned to it. "She always does."