The Chronicles: Notomol Ch. 12

Well, I certainly didn't need to approach Prosquetel - or Iduallon, for that matter. Berilde and I skirted around them, at a distance. I believe that Obran saw us, but he didn't call out to us.

We moved through the trees. I was curious, now, to know what Notomol was doing in the grove alone. Then a thought struck me: was he trysting with Nelime? The last thing I wanted to do was to interrupt them.

But it was barely midday. Would they have snuck away in broad daylight? And what were all of those others doing at the entrance to the grove? My curiosity got the better of me.

Berilde was an expert at moving silently. I was much clumsier, but I did my best. Both of us froze when we heard a voice - a female voice.

That was not Nelime.

- "Thank for meeting with me, Notomol." said Lady Temara, Duchess of Hvad. "I ... I have wanted to speak with you."

- "You have my full attention, Lady." he answered.

I went to one knee. Berilde immediately did the same. Notomol and the Duchess? I wanted to see, too, but I didn't particularly want either of them to know that we were there.

For a few moments, neither one said anything. Then Notomol spoke again.

"What did you wish to say to me, Lady Temara?"

- "It is more of a question." she said. "Why won't you work with us, Notomol?"

- "We are fighting on the same side. Is that not 'with' you?"

- "You know very well what I mean. Why must you always oppose my wishes?"

- "Yours, Lady? Or Prosquetel's?"

- "He speaks for me. We are of one mind when it comes to strategy."

- "As commander of the army, is that not my responsibility? To decide on our strategy? Yet wherever I turn, I find Prosquetel opposing me - or actively seeking to undermine me."

- "We seek only to present an alternate point of view." said the Duchess.

- "Is that what you call it? To go from Captain to Captain, whispering, promising, and threatening, in order to form a group capable of ousting me from the command."

- "That was NOT our intent!" snapped Lady Temara. I could almost imagine her stamping her foot in one of her little fits of petulance.

- "Wasn't it? You sought to force my hand, to make me adopt a strategy that I know would lead to disaster. The threat was plain: I could give in, or be replaced. That is hardly working with me, Lady."

- "You are twisting the truth!"

- "Your false outrage serves no purpose, Lady."

- "My - my? How dare you! Show me the respect I am entitled to."

- "Respect is earned, Lady Temara. How can I respect you when you allow Prosquetel to oppose me and to hamper my freedom of choice at every turn?"

- "I am the Duchess of Hvad!" Temara was almost hissing, she was so angry. I didn't have to see her face to know exactly what she looked like, in those moments.

Notomol's reply, though, caught me by surprise.

- "Consort to the former Duke, now deceased. We are all aware of it, Lady. But I think that you've mistaken me for one of your servants. In fact, you seem to believe that we are all your servants. You are mistaken. Your advisors should have made you aware of that fact long ago."

The Duchess didn't reply. She was probably too upset.

"Let me ask you a question, Lady." continued Notomol. "What is it that you are fighting for?"

- "I ... I fight for Hvad. And my son."

- "Interesting. Hvad - an abstract idea. Rather vague, wouldn't you say? But I believe you when you say that you're fighting for your son. Still, that's a person. A who, rather than a what. When you say that you fight for Hvad, what does that mean?"

- "To make Hvad free again." said the Duchess. She sounded as if she had regained some of her composure.

- "Free for whom? What kind of freedom do you mean?"

- "What on earth are you talking about?" Just like that, Temara was flustered again. Notomol had her thoroughly off-balance.

- "You know Kolasovets? You saw him, last night? His Hospodar sent him to the Guardsmen at the age of 15. My overlord, the Ban of Stonje, sent me to the Guards because he knew that my father had died, and that I was the only support for my mother and sister. He meant to seize our lands while I was gone. Do you even know who Cinna is, Lady? Have you seen him? He is missing an ear - cut off by the Ban of Pitve, for the crime of trying to feed his family. The Ban decided that all of the forests, and all of the game, should belong to him alone. Is that the freedom that you would restore to us?"

Notomol didn't let up.

"You fight for your son. For the hope that you can continue to rule in Hvad. Whereas I, and most of the warriors here, fight to punish the Izumyrians for attacking our homes, for raping and killing innocent people. We fight to prevent more of the same. Yet you believe that I should submit myself, and be ruled by your nominee, Prosquetel. Tell me why, Duchess. Why should I do that?"

- "It's ... it's your duty. Our whole society is built on duty. Duty and loyalty. And when we win, that loyalty will be rewarded."

Temara hadn't bothered to think. She simply answered with the first thoughts that occurred to her. When I thought about it later, I realized that it was probably because that was what she truly believed.

- "I'm sure Heras Koymil would be happy to hear that." said Notomol. "He serves loyally, in the expectation of gain. I'm sorry, Duchess, but to me, that makes him a mercenary. They fight for pay; he serves in the hope of eventual gain."

- "What are you talking about?" He'd lost her again. Temara simply couldn't keep up with concepts so alien, so foreign to her entire life's experience.

- "You are fighting for the Hvad that you know, Lady Temara. Most of the rest of us are fighting for something very different."

I couldn't see the Duchess, but I probably could have guessed at the expression on her face - especially when I heard her short huff of exasperation.

- "We shall speak again another time." she said, frostily.

- "If you wish." said Notomol.

Berilde and I listened to the Duchess' footsteps as she walked away. For such a graceful lady, she trod very heavily. Now we just had to wait for Notomol to leave as well.

"You can come out, now." he said.

I stood up slowly, blushing a little. I could feel the heat in my face.

- "I'm sorry." I said. "We didn't mean to ..." I'd been about to say that we hadn't intended to spy on him, but that was effectively just what we'd done.

- "It's alright. I'm glad that someone heard what was said. I know that you've been in the same position. Just so you know, Berilde, you were extremely quiet. If I hadn't caught sight of you, I wouldn't have known that you were there. And I only caught sight of you because I heard Guenna."

Berilde was inordinately pleased by his remarks. As for me, I was quite used to being told that I had all the grace of an ox. Notomol waved us over.

"I assume that you didn't know about this meeting - that you're here for another reason."

- "I wanted to tell you that Ban Lemek apologized for siding against you. He was under the same kind of pressure as Mailis was - though I still think that he should have been able to resist it better."

- "He said something very similar to me, first thing this morning." said Notomol.

- "Ah." I should have known that Lemek would do that.

- "But thank you for telling me."

- "Right."

- "On another note ..." he began. "What did you think of my conversation with the Duchess?"

Notomol was asking for my genuine opinion. I told him the honest truth.

- "Watch your back. I said it before, I'll say it again. 'The gratitude of Princes' ... isn't that a saying among you Lowlanders?"

- "I think that it is."

- "You'll never win them over. You were right when you said that she's fighting for her version of Hvad - and that it wasn't the same as yours. That being said ... I'm not sure that Giedra and Berilde and I are here for the same reasons as you and Senderra and ... and Kolasovets."

Notomol arched an eyebrow as he digested that.

- "Why are you here, Berilde?" he asked.

- "I was young and foolish - and bored." she said. "I missed all of the fights against the Izumyrians, when Guenna and Giedra did so much. I thought that it would be exciting - an adventure. Plus, Sarine and I looked around the Vale of Nareven, and we couldn't see a single man that ... that we could see ourselves married to. It was depressing. We both thought that following Guenna into the Lowlands would be the highest point of our lives."

- "But she died." said Notomol. "I'm sorry."

- "No sorrier than I - " I couldn't even finish the damn sentence before I choked up.

Berilde put her hand on my arm.

- "It wasn't your fault." she said.

I caught Notomol looking at me. He understood. How many times had someone died because he'd asked them to hold a position, or to go somewhere? How many friends had he lost? The writer, Motekin. Cinna's brother. A friend of Dubek's, the man named Doreg. I would never meet any of them.

- "What about you, Guenna? Why did you leave? Why are you here?"

I rubbed my sleeve across my eyes. I didn't want to cry in front of both of them.

- "The same as Berilde and Sarine, really. That, and my family. Yevna is a fantastic archer, our best tracker, hunter ... she's -"

- "She's amazing." said Berilde.

- "That." I said. "And my other sister, Tanguiste, is the glue that holds the entire community together. She's everything the Duchess should be, but isn't. Then there's my adopted sister, Nameless ..."

- "Her name is Nameless?" asked Notomol.

I had to explain.

- "It's true." said Berilde. "Faster than Cloudy-Eye, tougher than Dubek."

- "I'm not sure I'd go that far." I said.

- "I would." said Berilde.

- "So ... you left the Uplands to escape your family?" said Notomol.

-"In part. I'd discovered my one true skill - strategy. Or tactics. And I wanted to take your war - the Hvadi war - as far away from my family as I could. But I think that to a certain degree, my reasons were exactly the same as Berilde's. And Sarine's." I didn't want to repeat her point about the shortage of appealing males, but I couldn't deny it, either.

- "Were your prospects really ... that bad?"

- "You've seen Odma." said Berilde. "He was one of the best options."

I was a bit shocked by Berilde's openness. She had never talked this much.

- "But we also had reason to fear the Izumyrians." I said. "If we help you to defeat them, that only makes our family and friends safer."

- "I can't argue with those motives." said Notomol. "Thank you for telling me."

- "This meeting ..." I began. "Are you going to keep it a secret?"

- "No. I'm going to tell Senderra, and Kolasovets. Then Adrastas, and Dubek. Nelime and Orsho. Would you tell Giedra and Mailis for me?"

- "Of course."

Berilde put her arm around me as we walked back to our camp. I tried to put my thoughts into words, but she put her fingers over my lips, shushing me.

- "He's wonderful." she said. "But I think that he likes you."

***

Giedra was angry. Senderra smouldered. Yadha Snakehand spat on the ground, repeatedly, as if he had a bad taste in his mouth. It was Kolasovets, though, who was able to express our feelings in one sentence.

- "Now I understand why it is, that when I look at the Duchess, or Prosquetel - or Iduallon - I have no trouble at all imagining them as Izumyrians."

*****