Caracara's Hunt

"Lord Keith, your presence is required at the estate. Her Ladyship has received a letter from Ayersbert!"

The young lord turned to his two guests. "Do you know anything about this?"

Corwal shook his head. "We"ve got nothing to do with it, but you should be able to guess the contents of the letter."

It was most likely about his father, but Arawn found it weird that the letter came right as they went to visit the lord"s son. Was it a coincidence or something else was afoot?

"Regardless, I have to go." Lord Keith stood up and grabbed his jacket from the chair.

His clothes were decorated in a similar manner as those of others, but with a lot more taste. Silver and gold chains intertwined over his pockets and shoulders while a couple red gla.s.s b.a.l.l.s hung at the bottom.

"You"re coming with me," he said while giving them a look.

"As you wish, Your Lordship."

Corwal stood up with a half bow. Arawn thought about it and decided not to bother. It wasn"t going to look good anyway.

The moment they rushed out of the building, there was a carriage waiting for them at the door. It had a crest on the side, but Arawn was pushed inside before he could get a good look at it.

The two men followed after him, and the carriage rushed off. The driver kept on hurrying the horses, and the whip cracked continuously in the air.

Lord Keith asked for more details, and Corwal shared all they knew while making it look like he was sharing only small tidbits of the knowledge they possessed. If Arawn didn"t know better, he would have thought that Corwal only wanted to make the man believe them enough to do his part of the bargain before they shared the really important information.

In an hour, they reached tall gates. Once they went through them, it still took them a long while to reach the large mansion nestled within the vast territory of Lord Katalan.

Without giving them time to admire the architecture and the planning of the estate, Lord Keith brought them inside. The chamberlain greeted them, but Lord Keith just rushed past, making his way to the second floor.

Upon reaching a study, he finally stopped. An elderly woman sat behind a desk, frowning at a letter in her hands.

A young man with a travel bag was sitting on a chair to the side. He smiled at them, then leaned back and continued to observe the room with pa.s.sing interest.

The elderly woman was about to say something when she saw that her son had brought companions. She pursed her lips, giving him a cold look. "Who are they?"

"Is the letter about father?"

"How do you know that?" the woman asked with suspicion, her piercing gaze leveled at her son.

Yet he didn"t seem to be affected. Maybe time had given him a thick skin?

"They came with news from Ayersbert, about both father and sister."

"Humaya?" the woman shouted out and jumped to her feet. "Where is she? Why are you not on your way to bring her back?"

"It"s not that simple, mother. What does the letter say?"

The woman glanced at it, and her hands shook. She closed her eyes for a moment to compose herself, then handed the single piece of paper to her son. "Read it yourself."

Lord Keith"s face darkened with every word he read. It was such an obvious change on the man"s face that Arawn could pinpoint each line that had something to annoy him.

"Your information was outdated," the man said in the end, without turning to face Corwal. "He"s already been imprisoned."

"I"m not from the capital, so maybe. Rumors are said to travel with the wind, but even it needs time to reach the far corners of the country."

When no one said anything more for a moment, the elderly woman stepped around the desk and came to stand by them. "Will you tell me what"s going on now? What do they know about Humaya?"

"Nothing much, Your Ladyship," Corwal said with a bow the woman"s way. "I"m Corwal and this is my companion Arawn. We"ve been sent to investigate your daughter since she left your mansion in the presence of mercenaries around the time Princess Kyla was kidnapped."

"Corwal?" the young man to the side asked with interest. He jumped up and waved a scroll bound with a purple ribbon. "Who"s the walker among broken stars?"

"Sly. Do you have something for me?"

The young man nodded and laughed. "I thought I was going to have to hunt you throughout the whole city. Here. Sly told me to give you this as soon as possible."

Corwal picked the scroll and unrolled it. There was surprise was on his face at first, but it was soon replaced by a grim look. He reread the couple sentences a number of times as if they were going to change meaning if he stared at them long enough.

"Something"s wrong?" Lord Keith asked.

Instead of answering, Corwal just pa.s.sed him the scroll. "Read it aloud."

The lord gave him a strange look, but did as told. "Friend, be careful. Two days after you left, I got news of Lord Katalan"s execution. It is planned to be held a week later, but by the time this letter reaches you, it"ll all be over. It seems that concrete evidence about his guilt has been found. If I were you, I would leave Mairya straight away. It is unknown what will happen after one of their n.o.bles was executed without informing their king. The news have been confided to the capital for a while, but it is going to erupt at any moment."

Silence descended on the room once he finished speaking. Even the messenger"s smile faded away. He looked down at his hands as if not knowing how they could have brought such horrible news without being aware of them.

"My h-husband! Fred!" The elderly woman"s face went pale, and she had to grab hold of the table to remain standing.

Lord Keith rushed to her side and helped her get to the chair behind the desk. The woman fell into it like she"d lost all feeling in her body. "He can"t be dead," she murmured. "Fred would never do anything… It"s impossible… He loved Ayersbert. He loved it! Even more than Mairya!" Her face scrunched up as if she was about to cry, but her eyes remained dry. "How could this happen?"

"I-I-I don"t know," the messenger stammered with his head down once he was faced with the full force of her glare. "When I left, it was public knowledge that Lord Katalan was being investigated for the kidnapping of the princess… but that"s it! I didn"t know he was captured for execution."

"What about you? What do you know?" the woman asked upon turning to Corwal. "Tell me everything!"

"I"m afraid I know even less. We traveled most of the way on foot, so we left Ayersbert much earlier. However…" He then shared all they knew about the circ.u.mstances of the princess" kidnapping.

It wasn"t much, but enough to deflate the elderly woman"s last reserves of strength. She rested her hands on the table and cradled her head in them. "How could this be… Fred would never do this… It"s not like him, not like him at all."

"Someone must have set him up," Lord Keith said, his hands fisted by his sides. He looked like he was about to burst into action, lash out at anyone that got in his way at that moment. "We need to find them and make them pay!"

"Your sister should take priority over that," Corwal said quietly. "She needs you more at this moment."

The lord glared at him. "What do you care? You"re nothing but a carrier of bad news. I shouldn"t have let you into this house."

"Keith! Bite your tongue," his mother snapped, startling the thirty-year-old man. She raised her head and gave Corwal a calculating look. "Forgive my son for being a hothead like his father. We"re grateful for your news. Give us a few hours to grieve, and we would be glad to discuss our action plan with you."

"Your Ladyship."

Corwal bowed and left the room. When Arawn didn"t rush out after him straight away, he looked back at him with impatience.

The messenger joined them on their way out, but they didn"t talk. A chamberlain led the man out while Corwal and Arawn were placed in a guestroom. Soon, they were brought refreshments and asked if they wanted to take a bath after their journey, to which Corwal said yes.

While the servants were bringing in the water to the adjacent room, Arawn chose to ask what was on his mind. "Why were we not thrown out?"

"Why should we be? We"re useful tools," Corwal said while motioning for some apple juice to raise from the pitcher and drop into his gla.s.s. He then drank it with a pleased expression.

"How so? It was the messenger who brought the news."

"To me, not them. Their information network, as well as those of their enemies, has been halted somewhere in the capital, making it a lot slower. Yet I gave them knowledge, which by others" plans they should not possess. With it, they have a chance to counter-attack before the game"s over.

"Lord Katalan"s death is a great tragedy, but with knowledge about it, they can act differently. Remaining pa.s.sive is no longer an option. If they don"t move now and clear up their name, they"re over. Nothing is going to save them, since the only way to avoid war for Mairya is to renounce its support of Lord Katalan and say that he was acting on his own thoughts and is a traitor to both countries."

His words disgusted Arawn. Was it so easy for a country to get rid of its citizens? Wasn"t it supposed to protect them even if they made a mistake?

"Won"t Mairyan n.o.bles get angry at their king for selling out one of them?"

"Probably, but such a complicated betrayal couldn"t have been accomplished by a single person. Many families should be involved, both in Ayersbert and Mairya, so it"s hard to say which way the n.o.bles will go.

"Besides, no one wants war. Ayersbert is the main buyer of Mairyan steel and iron, so who would they sell it to if we went to war? Still us so we could win easier? Some might, but the royal court isn"t that short-sighted. They have too much land and investments in Ayersbert to start a war. They"ll grumble, certainly, but more than likely, that will be all."