While I was Gone
“At least you found your calling.”
“’sgotta be done, no one else’ll do it.”
“What is it that you do, exactly?”
I prepared myself for another one of his signature meandering and vague expositions. To my surprise, he answered it without any fluff.
“Keep people in line. A threat here, an example there.”
“And if they don’t?”
“They be examples fer the next one.”
I am not proud I didn’t pick up on it immediately.
“When you say people-”
“Ha. Ye got soldiers an’ town guards fer common folk. Anyone above the common folk, we keep an eye on.”
“Even the crown?”
“Even the crown. Old man Deterin’s got a few scares over the years, believe me.”
I did not expect that. I reflected on what he related so far and couldn’t put it all together. Financially, that is. Even just having agents in the capital must cost a fortune.
“How do you get it going? You’ve been at it like what, twenty years?”
“Somethin’ like that. We ‘ave our ways.”
I’ve come to learn a bit about Litoc’s habits. Pushing him to spill more than he was prepared to give would only result in a long and fruitless conversation. I sipped on my cup and decided to change the topic.
“You ever miss them? All these?”
“At first. First few years was ‘ard. I knew nothin’ ‘bout livin’ like common folk. Oba, sometimes. Ona not so much.”
“Did they know?”
“I’s taken an’ ta be killed, that’s all they knew.”
“Can’t imagine how’d they’d cover up a thing like that.”
“They tried. Even ‘ad a funeral fer me.” He chuckled. “Said I’s stricken with somethin’ an’ died in my sleep after.”
“But you took care of that.”
“Rumors were already spreadin’ same night I left.” He beamed at me.
The spread on the table tasted better than our supper, I noted, as I pondered how at how long it took to make something like disappearing a prince happen. To keep it under the noses of the crown’s own people, was a feat.
“You sure you have no brothers, or sisters? I can only imagine just how far they went to find another heir when you left.”
“I don’t. Pretty sure o’ that.”
“You don’t think one of them was thrown into the castle donjon when they showed up here?”
“If they ended up there, ‘stheir fault fer lyin’.”
“Abrak, but I find that hard to believe.”
“Ye find it hard ta believe a man can be faithful to a wife?”
“Not that. You know what I mean. You’re king, you own everything. I just… I don’t know. Couples fight. I don’t care how handsome or beautiful they are, they fight and the longer they’re together, the nastier the fights. It wouldn’t be a stretch to-” I shrugged, “especially if you’re king.”
“I get what yer meanin’. Always wondered what kind o’ a brother I’d be. Kin’ would ‘ave been better off havin’ a basterd or two ta be honest. Basterd’s are useful, ye knowin? But, as the waves would ‘ave it, I am the only one.”
“Would a bastard have been king?”
“Yes, he would ‘ave. There’s no amount o’ protestin’ Jakeli could do would ‘ave changed that.”
“And if it were a woman?”
“She’d rule just the same.”
The repercussions of this seemingly simple royal succession wasn’t obvious at first. As I mulled it over, it became apparent that even though there was a small chance it could happen, it would have happened. The good side of it was the throne not being subject to inbreeding just to keep a bloodline going. A peasant could actually, in theory, rise to power in this kingdom. The dark side, well, it wasn’t pretty.
“This arrangement, I assume it’s the same for the nobles?”
“It is.”
“And to be a noble, all one’s have to do is be wealthy?”
“That or do somethin’ fer the kin’dom, which usually means the kin’, somethin’ big.”
“Like what I did?”
Litoc just about choked at my statement. He put his cup down.
“Don’t ye start tellin’ me ye wantin’ that now after all yer talk o’ goin’ back ta Osea.”
“Why not? I could certainly be of help to the… organization if I were. Right?”
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say ye’ve suddenly caught a bad case o’ sea madness. Seastruck, claims everyone sooner or later.”
“I was just wondering. But it could be right?”
“Ha. What’re ye thinkin’ Jorj. An’ don’t ye tell me ye want ta be a town lord like Marbe.”
“Well, not like that. But I was thinking of asking the prince, well, king, for some funds.”
“I told ye already didn’t I? More’s comin’. Lots more.”
“Enough for an inn? Or a school?”
“Maybe not that much. But that could be arranged, might take a while though. Ye thinkin’ o’ puttin’ the innkeepers out of business?”
“If I could put up an inn, I wouldn’t do it in Osea. They’ve been kind to me. I’d even pay them back, whatever it is the prince is going to give me, I’d pay them back.”
“Yer welcome, an there’s no need fer that. Fraku an’ Shan’s just fine the way they are.”
It took a second, then it was my time to choke.
“It was your idea?” I asked with disbelief.
“Why yes, yes it was. We were ‘avin’ some coin troubles o’ late ye see, an’ yer offer ta work fer nothin’ but food an’ a place ta sleep on was too good ta pass up.
But ye didn’t stop there didn’t ye? Always comin’ up with fresh thin’s ta test an’ do an’ it always brought coin. By the time ye came up with lunch at the beach, ye’d earned us more’n ‘nough ta ‘ave a room fer yerself at the inn.”
This motherfucker.
“But you didn’t. Bastard.”
Litoc laughed. Loudly. It echoed in the music room and caused the attendant who sat by the opening to the room before the hall to snap to attention. If there was a stronger word for how hard he was laughing, that would be it.
“Now, now. Don’t go hatin’ me fer that,” he paused, wiping a tear, “ye offered the terms if I remember, we accepted.”
“Still!” I exclaimed, in feint outrage, “Seriously though, are you saying the innkeeps are-”
“Mmmm hmmm. One o’ the best. An’ when we get back, I plan ta introduce ye properly. Ye done wonders Jorj. Fer every single ‘ead in this kin’dom. Might collapse in a few months, sure, but ye gave it a chance.”
“Are you saying I am now… of the guild?”
“If ye’ll ‘ave it.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“What’s there ta think ‘bout?”
“Well, I don’t want to be working for you or under you, after what you just told me!”
I joked but I could not help but feel a rather strange sense of accomplishment at what Litoc just said. More than a title could ever give.
Our conversation moved on to lighter things as we drank. There would be gossip about the peasants in dirty clothes walking around the castle as if it were theirs come morning, I was certain of that, but I, for the first time in weeks, didn’t care. In all sense of the phrase.
“My mother, she was good ta me, at times. Not always. Not in the way ye ‘ear in stories, ye knowin?” Litoc explained as our talk swerved back into familial affairs. “But the old man, ‘e was just, I can’t find the word fer it. Like ‘e ‘ated me but didn’t. Wanted ta ‘ave me around but didn’t. An’ it was just me! Just me. No other siblin’s ta choose from.”
“But you were prince. That must count for something.”
“I was just like any other, ‘cept more spoiled, in a way. Definitely more stupid. Naïve. I tried ta change that as I grew up. Tried ta ‘elp people. They were always goin’ on ‘bout my station an’ my power an’ that I should always do good an’ all that nonsense.”
“How?”
“’ow what?”
“How did you try.”
“Well, I started goin’ out. A lot. Sneakin’ out in peasant clothes with people I trusted. I wasn’t goin’ ta take somebody’s word, ye knowin’? Went travelin’. Ta get ta know the people, I’d tell them. An’ they both would commend that but every time I’d come back and want ta actually do somethin’ fer the common folk, nothin’. Can’t do it. won’t do it.”
“What things?”
“Less taxes, give land to commoners, a celebration here and there. Can’t remember all o’ them. Some were stupid, for sure, but not one, nothin’ I said deserved more than a nod. ‘twas a strange, uh, feeling, ye knowin’? I’s goin’ ta rule one day so folks should be knowin’ ‘bout me.”
Litoc went on to enumerate his grievances. At times, I detected sorrow in his tone. I wondered if he still thinks things would have been different if the monarchs indulged him, even just by a little bit.
“… an’ it took some years ‘fore I finally got it. Everythin’ was fine unless it meant less coins fer their chests. They weren’t interested in anythin’ else. Like it was the people’s jobs ta make them ‘appy.
I wasn’t raised like that. ‘stheir fault too. ‘ad they told Juwen ta teach me like they wanted, like ‘ow they acted, I would ‘ave grown like them. But they wanted me taught like children in the olden days, all ‘eroic an’ idealistic an’ such, so I grew up like that.”
“Juwen taught you?”
“’sthat strange?”
“I just thought you’d be taught by the priests, you know? They who teach and train clerics and other useful things.”
“Well I ‘ad that too. But most o’ my early learnin’s Juwen was in charge. The old hound’s patient, tell ye that. Kind man, very kind. Unlike everyone else I was acquainted with, the nobles I mean. More I traveled, more I saw ‘ow cruel they were. Even started travelin’ like a lowborn merchant just ta see what’s different an’ let me tell ye, it’s a lot different.”
“So you left. Made a show of it too.”
“An’ never looked back.”
He raised his glass up and I mirrored.
“Indulge me here, just thinking out loud but-”
“’salways interestin’ when yer thinkin.” He cut me off, grinning.
Thanks?
“But,” I continued, “what if, say, some of the nobles got together and planned something to wrest control of the throne by capitalizing on the fact that you were gone and there were no bastards stepping up.”
“I don’t see that ‘appenin’. Besides, there should ‘ave been a few who showed up, claimin’ ta be a bastard.”
“But what if? No one else knows better about the going-ons of the crown than the nobles, right? They get together, put up a believable story about a tryst some time in the past, some convoluted story just ridiculous enough to be slightly credible. Before you know it, a bastard!”
“Oh that, I can see that ‘appenin’. Won’t be successful, I can tell ye that.”
“Don’t tell me about being thrown straight to the donjons. This one is so well planned out, took years to make, the crown is shocked!”
Litoc emptied his cup and poured another round, shaking his head and grinning at me like I just made the stupidest suggestion in the history of suggestions.
“See Jorj, any, I mean any, false claim ta the throne will fail fer one reason – they won’t be able ta provide specifics ta anythin’ more’n what the kin’dom ‘as.”
“Even if it was planned carefully? For years? You’re telling me, there is no way? Even if I planned it?” I tested, getting bolder.
“Ha.” He chuckled, “Not even ye can. See, the archives ‘as people whose only jobs is ta write down what the king and queen does. Days, months, places, people. But what most people are not knowin’, an’ when I say most people, that includes the Kin’ and Queen,” he leaned, voice decreasing in volume, “is that there’s, well I’m not knowin’ what ta call them. But there exists a group o’ people whose only purpose is ta observe an’ record the royal line.”