Twins of Trallis: Squalls

The following morning, Gerhardt, galloped into the bailey, his horse heavily lathered from riding hard to reach the castle and check on the new queen. As loyal to Lord Arimus as his men at arms, Gerhardt had been promoted through the ranks of Ari's personal guard time and time again until he answered only to the men at arms and the Lord himself. Leaving the labouring horse with a steward, he gave swift orders that the gates be locked and that no foreigners be allowed to enter until he returned. He went swiftly to seek out Jorlando and deliver his messages.

Leaving Allora with Bennet and Nahn, Jorlando left the room with Gerhardt upon his arrival realising that to have sent back a man such as he, something important was at hand. As soon as they entered the person guards room within the same hallway as the royal apartments Gerhardt handed Jorlando the letter saying, "I have shut the city gates to all foreigners. Some dark magic is at work me thinks." Jorlando raised an eyebrow at him but swiftly opened the short message and read it quickly.

"Dark magic indeed," Jorlando said. Obviously Ari and Janus had said very little about the event at the council deliberations to the men. Ari did not say much more in his message except that a doppelganger of the queen had appeared from the realm of Zantasee and had caused tempers to flare between Stolle and the horse lords of Cavalia once more. "You were given other messages to deliver?"

Gerhardt threw two small packets to the desk. There were two, one for Clio and one for Nahn. "Speak of what happened at council to no one. Go take Nahn's place and send her to me," Jorlando scratch at a long healed scar on his cheek trying to read between the lines of his message. As Nahn entered he handed her the message. Allowing her bare minutes to read and take it in, he held out his hand, and she dutifully handed it to him. He read the short message:

"Allora is not to go to court, tell her there is another outbreak of fever and confine her to her rooms. If she must leave make sure, she is heavily veiled so as to be unrecognisable. Arimus."

"You understand the importance?" Jorlando queried.

"Yes Sir," Nahn nodded, "But not why it must be."

"Ours is not to question," Jorlando murmured. Picking up the second packet meant for Clio he weighed it in his palm. "Go back and tell Gerhardt I am paying a visit to Clio in the infirmary. He will stay until I return."

"Yes, Sir," Nahn turned to leave the room and Jorlando went to seek out Clio, whom he did not entirely trust after what he had witnessed today. He strode with determined steps across the bailey to the home of Janus where he was sure he would find Clio and the fraudulent dance teacher. He did not knock, but mere threw the door open startling the women as they stripped cloth to make bandages for the infirmary.

"It wasn't her fault," Clio stood looking Jorlando in the eye, "If Allora had have become more adept at the dances the storm dancers would have come for her. They can feel it in the air when someone draws power from the storm."

"Get out," Jorlando addressed Rowena, "Go tend the sick or whatever it is you do here aside of cheat the lord and his lady." Rowena curtsied hastily and ran from the room surprised at her reprieve.

"Sit!" he barked at Clio. "You have done yourself no favours lying to the Lady Allora and anyone else who asked about these supposed lessons. Yet, your excuse is not entirely lost on me," Jorlando tried to ease the way to what he truly wanted. "You have the opportunity to redeem yourself in my eyes and lift the bar I have in place at you entering the castle's upper floors." He pulled a small packet meant for her from his pocket, "Of course, I considered reading it myself before giving it to you as something of import seems to have happened at the Council of Nine but I will trust you to show it to me after you have read the contents. Do we understand each other."

Clio nodded silently, and Jorlando handed over the small packet. Opening it, she took less than a minute to read the one sentence and hand it to Jorlando. He read:

"Forgive me. I have put her in danger once again. We will be returning within the day, take care until we talk. Janus"

"Explain," Jorlando barked at Clio, who sat and shrugged looking worried, tears forming in her eyes. Allora had made her life bearable over the last two decades, and now seemingly cut off from her, Clio was distraught. All she had ever done was try to protect the girl she thought of as her own and all these men seemed bent on doing was putting her in danger. She began to formulate a plan of her own to protect Allora from the stupidity of men.

"Seems we both have to wait two days for our answers," Jorlando murmured, "The bar may be lifted but you will be supervised at all times when you see her until Lord Arimus returns. Rowena will stay too; the gates of the castle city have been closed for the time being." He walked from the home and returned to Allora concerned at the lack of information.

*****

The final two days of the council of nine saw tempers flare as Lord Iken was seen as being duplicitous sending the girl back to her home before the fair was over. The arrival and subsequent departure of Kerys of the Solaris realm also seemed duplicitous, and accusations were dealt out easily as four of the nine realms fought amongst themselves over the fate of the tiny dancer. Ari was the first to have had enough of the bickering. He stood and addressed the council on the morning of the second day.

"Silently pointing a finger at me and putting the guilt of the father onto his son, who has in a short time proven himself to be a fair minded and loved ruler within his realm is unfair gentlemen. Whether what my physician claims to know of the girl's origins is up for speculation, of course, but I am not the enemy here. Many of you knew me as a diplomat and statesman within your own realms and can judge my character yourselves," Murmurs followed this point of fact.

"In the absence of a retraction or an apology which I am sure I will not receive from either Cavalia, such is their hostility, or Solaris, who now have blood ties with the Horse Lords, I will withdraw early from these deliberations and bid you all farewell until next year, where I am sure my physician will be able to furnish you with proof of his claims unlike the men of legend," Arimus withdrew from the tent and headed to where his camp was already packed and waiting for him.

"They are so focused on the girl Iken has spirited away, I doubt they care much for your speech," Janus laughed, "But I think I may have come up with a workable idea to ensure both girls safety." The men of Stolle rode southward into the lands of Zantasee as Janus explained his plan. Eager to return home to his wife, Arimus, set a fast pace through the sand dunes that lined the free trade route that travelled from the great plain down through Zantazee. It was only as they approached the small tract of land belonging to the realm of Cavalia that the party slowed taking more care in scouting ahead into the grasslands for hostile parties. The camped for the night before the final ride home within the borders of Zantazee.

Well past the rising of the moon torch bearing riders disturbed the camp of the men of Stole and Arimus sat ready for them thanks to his scouts. "Come in peace," Arimus shouted threateningly, "Or prepared to meet with the icy hand or death."

"Be at ease," an equally deep and threatening voice intoned from the edge of the camp, "Peace it is and shall remain, I have come to talk to the Lord of the Snow Warriors."

"Come forth and show yourself then. Drink with me," Arimus said formally in response.

Five men of Zantasee entered the camp and sat on the ground before the campfire. Introductions were made briefly as Arimus recognised the man who had shadowed the erotic dancer who was the twin of his own wife. He considered the man as he spoke and wondered if perhaps he too were in as much in love with the dancer as he was with his wife. In truth, he would have liked time to speak to the dancer and compare the two but he was denied the opportunity by the man who had now invaded his camp.

"Should you find proof that your story is the truth, even then I will not return the girl to the mountains of Stolle," the man said belligerently stating his reason for the late night visit.

"The proof will only serve to put to rest the current accusations from the Horse Lords nothing more. I will of course give the girl an opportunity to plead for sanctuary within the borders of my realm if she so chooses, and the council allows it, but I have no intention of removing a girl that clearly belongs to you regardless of what your lord Iken may want us to believe," Arimus said slowly and deliberately to defuse the threat within the man's words.

The man grunted and studied the Snow Lord with interest, "And what of your physician?"

"He will abide by my will though it will pain him to do so," Arimus said, not quite sure of how much he would tell this man. Janus had come up with a very plausible story for the birth of the twin girls and their subsequent separation. The only problem that could arise would be the brand scar on Allora's arm were it ever to be recognised but as Gerahn had no other surviving daughters he did not think it likely for any, but those of the Stolle castle to recognise it.

"Why would a physician care for the life of a dancing girl?" Mahan asked, his hostility barely masked beneath the steady countenance.

"She is his long lost daughter thought to have died in a civil war alongside the man and woman who cared for her," Arimus said almost too glibly as if this was a well-known fact. If the man before him was surprised he did not show it.

"The lost sister of legend was the mother?" Mahan probed seeking out the truth of each story he had heard.

"I do not believe so but then I was a much younger man at the time. I somehow feel that if, as the Horse Lords believe, Gerahn abducted the woman she would not have been given to another. The man was a breeder of sons," Arimus laughed good-naturedly, "I should know I buried all my brothers and found no sisters alive."

"Perhaps," Mahan said giving no indication of his belief or disbelief of the story.

"Gerahn branded all his daughters and sent them to the slave kennels. It was rare that any lived more than a few hours after branding. Those that did only lasted a few days if the kine was well trained," Arimus explained.

"Kine?" Mahan grunted and nodded having seen the brands on women of the royal family after a ruler was deposed, and they had been sent into slavery.

"A nursery servant, a wet nurse some might say," Arimus explained. "Have I satisfied your curiosity enough this night?"

"I will come with the trade caravan in one cycle of the moon when it is at it's fullest again, to barter for the koumiss for my Lord. You will show me your proof," it was not a question it was a statement, and Mahan glared at Arimus.

Arimus had finally had enough diplomacy; he was tired from riding hard all day, and this arrogant Sand Lord sat giving him orders. "Your trade caravan will be welcome at the castle of Stolle as always but be under no illusion that you can command me. I bare you and your girl no ill, but I am fast running out of patience with your company. This is a free trade road and as such I have the right to camp here unless you would perhaps enjoy explaining an act of war to the Council of Nine. You have taken enough rest from my men and I this night. Be well, Sand Lord." Standing Arimus left the bemused Mahan and returned to his tent.

The Snow Warriors formed up into a guard before the tent each with their hand on their weapon watching the men of the sand carefully. Their leader whistled, and they faded back into the inky darkness. Raglan, the trusted man at arms that had accompanied Arimus to the Council of Nine entered the tent to give the all clear, noting the lines of worry on his Lords face. He, of course, was one of the few who knew the lie in the words he had told the Sand Lord, but he said nothing. Instead, he just stood in silence waiting for an explanation he knew would come.

"The dancer," Arimus began and Raglan nodded, "I had no idea Allora had a twin, only Janus knew and he thought her long dead. What everyone should be told and know for a certainty is that, Janus is their father and his favourite slave was their mother. She died in childbirth and having two squalling babies to care for as well as attend the royal family was beyond Janus' capabilities. He sent the youngest to his friend, a fellow physician and his wife, to care for as they had just lost their own baby. Allora he kept with him bringing her up as a servant in the castle kitchens until her coming of age when she became my betrothed. Unable to marry a servant as the new Lord of the realm, Janus was given lands, and title from those of my deposed brothers and as we all know she now sits on the throne beside me as my lady."

"We will need to replace the scar with another," Raglan said quietly understanding as Arimus did that this would be an issue if it ever arose. "It will take time to heal though. Longer than the cycle of the moon," He scratched his beard thoughtfully.

"As always my brother you do not judge. We do not want a war with Cavalia over something done so long ago. We must make this believable to all who hear it. Leave no doubt in anyone's mind," Arimus said urgently. Now he had started down this path there was no going back because he could see no other viable solutions that would allow him to keep his love beside him.

*****

The days following the disbanding of the annual fair and the council of nine, there was much activity between the royal houses of the realms.

Lord Nadra of the Northern Wastes coveted the girl as a valuable possession to hold within the game of secrets and lies being played out in the south and east. He sent an envoy to Iken offering the girl and her Master sanctuary within the borders of his realm.

The Ladies, Camille and Fia, had been mesmerised by the changing orb and had immediately petitioned Lord Toka to return two of their storm dancers so they could experiment with the power of the orbs.

Lord Gabriel gathered to him bards from across the realms seeking information on the stone walkers of his land. Though not given to flight of fantasy, the scholarly man had dismissed the changing orb within the council in an effort to cool tempers and keep the deliberations on track, had none-the-less been intrigued by the occurrence and sought other such events in legends.

Lord Haef and Lord Toka worked in concert, to put pressure on the besieged Lord Iken to release the girl to them. They sent countless emissaries to the desert realm and into the southern snow covered mountain to learn more information about the girl and the claims of the Lord of Stolle. It was here, before the snows of winter cut off the castle city from the low lands, that they began to hear the bards sing of a new legend of twin sisters. The news of this song, as well as the song itself, travelled widely during that long winter, and as spring arrived, each realm had petitioned to visit with the new Lady of Stolle.

During the long winter, only Lord Ikeynui of the rainforest realm had stayed silent. Within his tree fortress, he had gathered his mist warpers to him. "The time of myth and magic is returning to the land and should we be successful in our endeavours; we shall rule them all."