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Orphan Queen Valkyrie - Chapter 46

Published at 24th of March 2023 05:53:51 AM


Chapter 46

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46. The Politicians

It was most of another day before anybody returned to Val's cell. As per her decided protocol when somebody started coming down the hallway, Val hopped up into the loft, grabbed the poison-tipped spear she'd fashioned, and prepared to defend herself, should these be the earl's people coming to execute her. Two guards filed in, followed by the duchess's seneschal, who looked around in confusion before one of the guards pointed upward.

"There you are. We're to have you bathed and clothed."

"Am I going to be executed?" Val asked. She didn't think they could see her spear, but it was ready, just in case the answer was yes.

"You're… no, of course not. You're much too young for that. The duchess has requested your presence. That's all I know. Now will you come down or shall I have my guards help you?"

"I can manage," Val said.

Thirty minutes later, Val was out of the dungeon, squinting at the unreasonably-bright sunlight and trundling down the avenue in the seneschal's velveteen carriage. He kept glancing to Val, a vague sneer of disgust upon his face - Val imagined she looked like somebody who hadn't had a bath and who'd slept in a shrub for the past week and a half, because that was essentially true. Violet sat upon her lap, purring in the sunlight and apparently unbothered by the bumps and clatters of the carriage upon the cobblestones.

"Your cat was in prison with you?"

"She goes where I go," Val said. Indeed, Val's connection to nature through Violet was the only reason she'd been able to sleep in a reasonably comfy twig hammock rather than a sour, lousy mattress. The vines of Val's cell had torn that mattress to bits to absorb as plant fertilizer, apparently. Magical plants could make do when there wasn't much light around.

Val was left to her own devices in the bathroom, though she could hear the guard shuffling around outside. Based on the lilac and pastel blue gown and selection of jewelry they'd laid out upon the wardrobe, it didn't seem like she was about to get executed. It was the sort of attire a proper lady would wear - and, while Val was not a proper lady, she'd been around them enough to fake it and not feel too embarrassed about the frippery.

She was tempted to laze around in her bath - her first proper hygiene in a week! But Mr. Uttermand, the seneschal, had implied that they were on a schedule. So Val did the bare minimum that a proper cleaning required, plus maybe one minute of lazing back in the warm water and letting it all envelop her. Then she dried, dressed, and did her hair up in the long braid that Niko seemed to like. She twirled back and forth in the mirror… cosmetics! She needed makeup. Voila! Disguise magic to the rescue. Thirty minutes of makeup in just under four seconds.

She glided out from the bathroom and said in her best proper-lady voice, "Let us proceed," wondering all the while what, exactly, she was proceeding toward.

Toward the earl's court, it seemed. The procession was a long marble hallway lined with statues and leading up to the substantial and sunlit chamber that the earl held official court in. Not being an actual monarch and this being the Eighth Century, the earl didn't often have need to hold court and most often used the room as a ballroom. However, it had been arranged in courtly fashion for the occasion. And, suddenly, fear gripped Val's heart… was Gunthald playing some horrible trick on her? Was she being brought here, dressed in finery, only to have the earl denounce her, laugh at her little scheme, and have her killed in front of Mrs. Eatherfine and whomever else he'd assembled?

Mr. Uttermand had said she wasn't to be executed, so Val would have to take him at his word. But there were plenty of horrible things you could do to a person without executing them. She thought over all of the offensive magic she'd learned - most of what Val knew was defensive, though she'd picked up a few offensive techniques. And, without armor or weaponry, she'd need it if she was suddenly put in a fight for her life against the earl's guards.

But the earl wasn't sitting upon the throne. Val could see Duchess Aleida up there, quietly speaking with an officer of her guard over something. And… yes, there was Mrs. Eatherfine not far behind. Val's stomach sank. The dowager duchess spotted Val about then and shot her a withering look… oh gods, she'd gotten to Aleida. And, just as Val entered the court, she was attacked.

"Ahh!"

"Val!"

Val was blindsided and wrapped in a big bosomy hug, the floral smell of Ginn's perfume assaulting her as she was mashed into a shoulder and then kissed along the side of her face. And… that other pair of strong arms had to be Ette. And there were more people crowding around her. And suddenly, Val found herself face to face with Niko, looking into her crystal eyes - eyes that she thought she might never see again less than a minute ago. And Val couldn't help herself. She cupped her hands around Niko's jaw and brought her in, kissing her right on the lips as Ginn laughed and tried to pull Val away to have more of her for herself.

"I missed you guys," Val said.

"It was a bloody mess all right," Ette said. He was dressed in what he considered his finest clothes, which were his nice pants and his good doublet, which nevertheless had its share of battle marks upon it. Ette got to a lot more fighting than your standard citizen. Probably more than your standard soldier, for that matter.

"They told us you were in prison," Niko said.

Ginn nudged Val's shoulder. "There'll be time for stories later. I hope. Perhaps we'd best see what the duchess wants of us."

Ette nodded. "I'll be thrilled to find out why her grace has put this family through the ringer."

At the seneschal's cue, they ascended the steps and approached the throne, following Val's finishing-school-educated lead on when to bow or curtsy and when to stop their progress. In all, there were two curtsies and one other stop that commoners were supposed to make, whereas nobles just got the one stop and the one curtsy. Aleida stood after the second curtsy and took a step forward until she was no more than one pace from them, dressed in a fine, tight-sleeved powder-blue gown similar to Val's own and with a little silver circlet upon her head denoting her office.

Aleida turned to Mr. Uttermand. "Thank you for bringing the accused. This is dire business that I wish to present before the court and upon official record. Are we taking verbatim notes?"

"Always, your grace," Uttermand said, bowing his bald head slightly.

"Excellent. I've brought before the court one individual convicted of serious crimes after a thorough investigation by none other than His Excellency, the Earl Gunthald. Do you swear to the accuracy of your findings, earl?"

Gunthald smiled tersely and nodded his chubby face. "I do, your grace. To the best of my knowledge, my findings of guilt are true and accurate."

Aleida nodded. "Thank you, your excellency." Her voice was clear and silvery in the courtroom, far more commanding than the wavering, uncertain girl who'd visited Val in her cell not long before. Her eyes sparkled in the sun as it streamed through the skylight. "I've considered the accused, Valkyrie Valicent-Vinzenno, a friend for some time, but here she stands, convicted and attested to by the Earl of Nordauriliast himself, an unimpeachable fellow. Therefore, I performed my own investigation and discovered that all of the evidence levied against Valkyrie was observed and logged after her arrival in Port Rumm… very curious, isn't it, given that she was detained immediately upon her arrival in the city. I wonder why the dowager duchess, my mother, signed such an order in my name?"

Mrs. Eatherfine stood and approached her daughter, a pained expression upon her face. The gemstones in her hair and upon her necklace clattered and glittered with her movements - the hesitant gait of a caring mother not wanting to upset her child. "Daughter, your grace, I did it to protect you - I couldn't ask you to have these charges levied against a young woman you were fond of. Yet I knew that, if you were aware of what I was, then you would have levied the same charges and at great personal cost… unfortunately, it seems I have failed in keeping this process discreet."

A tiny smile curled up the corners of Aleida's lips, almost too subtle to see. "And what evidence, exactly, did you have in advance of the earl's investigation, mother, your grace?"

"I've made no secret that I sometimes have visions and dreams of divination - dreams that are inevitably and invariably true, completely distinguishable from ordinary fantasies. In my dreams, I saw the lies and poisons that this girl spread, and I knew I had to act before she became a cancer that ripped our nation asunder…"

"So prophetic dreams are admissible as criminal evidence? I'm not overly familiar with our laws, but that seems like a questionable basis…"

"It is questionable, your grace," Val said, taking half a step further. She locked eyes with the duchess and waited for her almost-imperceptible nod to proceed. "It is questionable but not unheard of. In any criminal court proceeding, it remains up to the accusatory side of a case to decide what standard of evidence to allow… however, both prosecution and defense are held to that same standard through the entirety of that case and any subsequent cases immediately stemming thereof. That's from Standards of Great Noble Cases by F.C. Svorsky. In this case, it seems, we've established that prophetic dreams are admissible to levy charges."

"Thank you, Valkyrie, for that lesson in our law. Are you a legal scholar?"

Val shook her head. "Hardly, your grace. I just have an uncommonly good memory and this palace has a decent legal library. I've just been trying to understand the charges against me… against me and against my family, too. My parents were detained by the earl after I was arrested."

"You may be interested, then, to know that I had a prophetic dream of my own last night - yes, I'm Gifted just like my mother and her father before her. It seems it runs in the family. On a random inkling, I slept in the palace crypt last night, where I was visited by an apparition who showed me a plot against my own life perpetrated by my caring mother…"

The dowager duchess snorted. "Aleida, cease this ridiculous farce. I am your mother. I would never do anything to harm you."

"You wouldn't secretly have my friend killed, then, and leave me wondering why she'd betrayed me so terribly? You wouldn't have the captain of the secret police, whom you command, order the arrest and indefinite detainment of the girls who'd saved my life? One of whom saved the ducal court from a poisoning attempt this past winter… one of whom rode by my brothers side to the last when he was defeated in Cafernine Valley… both events which you failed to foresee. It's extremely curious how that works, isn't it?"

Aleida strode back to her throne and retrieved a small brown book sitting upon the cushion. With great purpose, she approached the court notary, handing it to her. "This is the journal of Lord Terrian von Liestch, Earl Gunthald's son. In it, the young lord complains one day before Valkyrie was formally incarcerated that his father was pressuring him to romantically pursue Valkyrie for marriage… almost as if there was no criminal case against her at all and it was a political gambit sprung at the opportune moment. This story is confirmed by two other nobles within the palace, who knew Val only as 'the girl who liked to spar with Sir Andrat', a noble of the realm and a man of honor who, I believe, speaks highly of Val and her family."

Sir Andrat cleared his throat and stepped forward with a bow. "The realm is lucky to have them and almost certainly doesn't have any other such family, your grace. Mr. Vinzenno is a skilled and patient teacher and his students are delightful and honorable combatants. It's no wonder that my liege would want his son to wed young Val and none of us in the castle had any inkling of wrongdoing while Val was allegedly up to no good. In fact, I’m fairly certain she was doing weapons practice with me on several of the days she is alleged to have been up to seditious treachery… she didn't once miss practice and wasn't once a minute late to arrive or a minute early to leave." He glared toward Gunthald. "I will renounce my holding if this insane plot to execute this poor girl is even entertained by this court."

Aleida raised her palm to ease him. "Thank you, Sir Andrat, but you may keep your title - I'm officially issuing a full pardon for Valkyrie Valicent-Vinzenno of all charges against her - they seem to be spurious at best… and most likely manufactured by the earl himself. And my mother, the dowager Duchess Hyacinth Eatherfine conspired to both indict Val and then have her executed. This… this will not stand…" tears brimmed in her big dark eyes… "even if it's my own mother, it will not stand."

The dowager duchess put her hand on Aleida's shoulder. "Daughter… this is poison. These people are deceiving you. I've looked out only for your own good, for the good of Aurilicht… I…"

"Shut up!" Aleida shouted. She spun and slapped her mother full across the face, sending a small fortune of gemstones flying from the impact. "You tried to have my friend killed! You tried to have me killed! I saw it… I saw it all in the crypt! Yes… yes, you thought it was for the good of the realm. But it wasn't. It was evil! Bloody evil! Thanks to your scheming, my brother is dead! Ansibald… he was a good man, and he died in a field because of these delusions of kingship that you put in his head! Then you lost our capital because you chased away the only man who could have saved it! And then you tried to have the only person who's dared to tell me the whole truth, even the parts that didn't paint her well, silently killed behind closed doors! No! I want none of your soothing words, mother! Sir Andrat, you seem an honorable man. I order you to detain my mother until we can arrange for her transport to St. Benthia's Abbey… perhaps five years there will do her some good - we'll re-examine our relationship then, your grace."

"Child, no! Don't you dare… this nation will collapse without me," Mrs. Eatherfine spat, fear and anger converging across her pretty, normally-placid face.

"Half of our lands are occupied by enemy fanatics! This nation is collapsing because of you, mother. Take her."

Sir Andrat did so, escorting a shouting and struggling Mrs. Eatherfine from the court. She wasn't trained in combat and her struggles didn't even slow him down as he ushered her away.

After they rounded the corner and the screaming became a distant, keening moan, Aleida dabbed at her eyes with a kerchief and turned toward the other seat next to her throne. "And as for you, Earl Gunthald… the verdict of Val's guilt and the order to have a thirteen-year-old girl executed are both written by your hand. Every evidence suggests you knew the charges to be spurious, and yet you pursued them anyway, an appalling travesty of justice. I strip you of your office and condemn you to thirty years in your city's own prison - a sentence to be reviewed at a trial by nobles of my own choosing."

"Your grace, this sentence will never stand," Gunthald said, though he was clearly flustered. His dark eyes darted about the room like a scared animal's, as if he desperately wanted to secure any venue of escape. "My family has governed Port Rumm for generations… my ancestors ruled here as kings for centuries…"

"In that case, you'll be glad to be relieved of that duty. I strip the House of von Liestch to baronial status - and that is something I can do with no purview if I know my law. Val?"

Val shook her head and, unable to suppress her grin, she looked Gunthald right in the eyes as she spoke. "Close, your grace. The reigning monarch cannot strip nobility but may declare nobility or assign any title he wishes… 'she' wishes, too, obviously, but E.A. Hildesone wrote that when there was a baron, I guess… He cannot raise or lower a rank unless crisis or a time of war requires the creation or dissolution of a holding, in which case a noble's title reverts to the largest holding he maintains control over."

"Thank you again for your expertise, Val… can any here argue with Val's… apparently very-thorough… understanding of the law?"

"It means, your grace, that you cannot unseat me as earl and that, given that this is my earldom, I may choose which nobles serve in my noble trial," Gunthald said calmly, the slightest confidence returning to his posture.

"This is a time of war, sir," Aleida said coolly. "And a time of crisis. So, as is apparently my right, I hereby dissolve the earldom of Nordauriliast and establish the earldom of Greater Port Rumm under the command of my chief strategist, Earl Zollen. I'm sure he will be very obliging in the selection of jurors."

"I will, your grace," Baron-now-Earl Zollen said. He winked at Val.

"Gunthald, your son, Terrian, will remain Baron of Sudderumm where your family's estate is… I trust I do not need to dissolve that holding. This is my ruling. I hereby call an end to this…"

"No! No, damnit, that's not fair!" Terrian shouted. Val couldn't help but giggle - after Aleida's display of sheer monarchical power, he sounded like a bratty little child in comparison. Seeing the duchess's cool response, he calmed himself, but only slightly. "Port Rumm is mine - it's my family's and has been for centuries… I deserve to rule it. It's my right. It's not my fault my father forced me to woo that girl. Punish my father, your grace, but please don't take my birthright."

When the duchess didn't respond quickly, Val turned toward him, suppressing her smile. This was a serious moment and she didn't want the duchess thinking she'd been taking this monumental shift in power lightly. "Terrian… you're a baron. Act like it. Aleida… her grace doesn't owe you anything and neither does anybody else."

"You're just a common girl who thinks too highly of herself," he spat. "I was only nice to you because father made…"

"You weren't very nice to me. If I recall, I socked your nose when you grabbed me and kissed me without permission. Nobody deserves to rule and everything you've said shows you shouldn't be trusted to lead a herd of goats, let alone a whole damn province. Why don't you just ride back to your estate and enjoy having a whole bloody barony that you don't deserve?"

"Do you see how she addresses me?" Terrian growled. He stalked over toward Val but was intercepted by Leftenant Bassa, who blocked his path but made no move to grab him. Terrian turned toward the duchess and then toward Earl Zollen. Nobody was listening. "Your grace, she questions your rule, too!"

"Yes, Val, what of it," Aleida asked, her voice as sweet as honey. "That sounds dangerously close to your fabled sedition. Do I not deserve to rule?"

Val looked Aleida in the eye and shook her head, drawing gasps from the crowd. Somebody behind Val began to object, but the duchess raised her palm to them and waited for Val to clarify. "Nobody deserves to be a duchess or a queen or an archbishop any more than an athlete deserves to be the fastest or strongest or a mage the most powerful. I figure I'm the most powerful natural mage in this duchy… you saw my prison cell, your grace, so you know. Now… did I deserve that? Do the Gifted deserve to be gifted?" She shrugged. "We're not better than anybody else in terms of other things… we didn't earn the Gift. We don't deserve it. It was given. It's right there in the name. And, once inherited, it's up to us to earn it.

"Rulership is the same way. Most nobles rule a plot of land because one of their parents ruled it… and if they see that as their entitlement, that makes them a despot of a ruler and nothing else. If you want to be a leader, then you dedicate yourself to the craft, like you would any other skill. I figure it's a lot harder than magic. You care about your territory. You care about your people. You bring the best people around yourself and you do what you can so they can be the best they can be. So, no, your grace. You don't deserve to be duchess. You're duchess because you were born into the right family and then your brother died. But you're damn well earning every bit of that title, and anybody who thinks otherwise hasn't been paying attention."

Aleida gazed at Val for a long minute, tapping a slim finger against her perfect little chin. "I suppose I won't have you arrested for sedition for that interesting interpretation of rulership. But I will speak with you in private after this. I hereby call an end to this session of the court."

+++++

Three minutes later, Val met up with Aleida in a little meeting room down the hall from the earl's court. When she arrived, the duchess was being attended by her handmaid, who was helping her carefully remove her jewelry - the circlet, the earrings, the sparkling diamond and emerald necklace, all of them likely priceless. The necklace had some sort of significant enchantment over it, and when Aleida removed it, her shoulders slumped and her face shifted from pensive to deeply anxious. Perhaps it had been holding her stress response in check - artificial bravery.

"Yvetta, please give us a minute," she said to the maid.

"Yes, your grace." The maid left the jewelry with the duchess and shuffled out, shutting the door behind herself.

Aleida looked to Val, trembling hands covering quivering lips. "Oh my gods… what have I done? My… I just exiled my mother. How could I do such a thing? Val… am I crazy?"

"You're not crazy, Aleida," Val said. "That was really brave, but you had to do it. You said yourself what she'd done…"

She grasped Val's hands, her fingernails digging a bit too hard into the tough skin of Val's palm. "I know… I know… but… yes, of course I had to… and you? How did you know to say all those things? It was like… you knew exactly what to say. I had… I had a head full of half-formed ideas and I just threw them out there. I just hoped they'd stick and I could get everybody what they deserved."

Val gawked at the trembling duchess before her. "What? I mean… you were perfect, Aleida. How did you know to say all those things? It was like… you had this master plan that was bounds ahead of even Mrs. Eath… your mother's plans, and you played every piece perfectly, and you already knew exactly what I was going to say before I did, and it all fit exactly into that plan…"

Aleida just stared at Val. She laughed nervously, and then she laughed in earnest, great heaving belly laughs that looked and sounded strange from a girl who looked like a fairytale princess. "We're an odd pair, aren't we? You know… I prayed for something like this."

"Me, too," Val said. "I guess the goddesses were listening."

"I guess so. Val… are we friends again?"

"Yeah… yeah, we are," Val sighed. "Even if that means dressing like a proper lady and doing tea parties with you…"

"What do you think a duchess does, Val?"

Val shrugged. "I always assumed there were lots of meetings and probably some tea parties."

"That isn't… entirely wrong," Aleida admitted. "Maybe I can do some fighting with you…" She badly pantomimed a jab-cross-uppercut combination.

"Maybe," Val said uncertainly. Going full intensity, she was likely to break the girl and Niko might kill her. And yet she'd proven herself to be the most powerful person in the whole duchy - politics were strange. "I should get back to my family…"

"Tell them I said I'm sorry."

"I'll tell them the duchess is showing her regrets by upgrading our rooms in the nobles' wing."

Aleida chuckled. "Done. We'll make a politician of you yet, Valkyrie Valicent-Vinzenno."

OvidLemma

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