An insistent knock has me frown.The child"s knocks are always soft and hesitant while my husband"s are firm and short.
"Who is it?"
I ask the question but am aware that it didn"t really matter.
Without a lock on the door a lack of permission wouldn"t stop someone determined from entering.
"... Larcen."
He practically bites out his own name.
"Come in."
I would prefer not to speak to him but the manners that had been drilled into me dictated that I at least hear him out.
He enters the room looking distinctly uncomfortable.
Good - I"m not the only one.
"To what do I owe the pleasure of your presence?"
I take pains to ensure my voice is coldly polite.
"Look, I get that actually fighting upsets your delicate sensibilities or whatever but we need your help."
If not for the fact that it is unbecoming of a Lady I would have snorted at his a.s.sumption.
Still I wasn"t about to enlighten him of the true cause of my reticence.
"How many times must I refuse before you accept that you saved me for nothing?"
The anger my question causes is clear but it doesn"t frighten me in the least.
"Fine - don"t fight but at least make yourself useful. As a n.o.ble you must know something that could help us."
I can"t help the derisive laugh that escapes me.
"What I know is that this is a fool"s errand. To get to the King you"d need to take the castle and that is not possible."
Not without a master strategist and certainly not with some ragtag bunch of villagers as soldiers.
"The castle has been taken before."
The conviction in his voice almost makes me feel sorry for him.
"Yes - with a master strategist and a proper army, not to mention a battalion of mages. Even then they only barely won. You have none of that. Not to mention that the defenses were fortified to prevent such an attack in future."
Tales of the current king retaking the castle from a far superior army that had decimated the royal guard and killed the captured royalty as a show of force are well known but few remember that it had cost greatly.
In little over the span of my life it had become the stuff of legends just for how improbable it was.
The current king - the youngest son of the previous king - only survived because he had been sent on a "diplomatic mission" to another kingdom - no one ever seemed to question why he needed an army for a diplomatic mission, but that"s neither here nor there.
He spent the next 5 five years trying to recruit additional allies as well as mages.
It was by sheer coincidence that he met a master tactician who was low on his luck and looking for a challenge.
The offer of potential riches and nigh impossible odds had been too much for the tactician to turn down and soon they were devising a plan.
It took months of planning before they were ready to attack and even then the plan relied heavily on mages and required that at two thirds of the army walk into certain death.
A surprising amount of them had been happy to do so - whether it was for revenge, out of loyalty to the crown or just because they had nothing to live for - but it doesn"t make the sacrifice any less staggering.
Once he"d claimed the crown the king had declared that it would be mandatory for all mages and the like to be taken from a young age to join the army so that there would never be a risk of the castle being taken by force ever again.
The tactician was given an official position and a marriage into a n.o.ble home and estate.
His death just five years ago had been a blow to the kingdom.
I give my head a mental shake.
This is not the time to be thinking about any of this - especially not with Larcen in the room observing my reactions.
He was obviously waiting for me to say or do something.
Why else would he have remained while I was lost in thought?
"Look, Larcen, there"s nothing I can do to help you."
His frustration is practically a living thing consuming the air in the room.
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I want him and it gone.
"You mean you refuse to help."
"Yes."
I heave a sigh of relief when after one last piercing look he finally leaves.