Kings of the North - Elizabeth Moon [124]
And so, Andressat realized, the new king would have much to occupy him besides trouble he probably thought he had left behind in the south. It would be hard to convince him—and yet, he must try. He glanced aside at Halveric. The man was staring at the path this time. He had hoped to win Halveric to his own view of the urgency before tackling the king—Halveric had been the king’s friend so long—but the tired, beaten old man Halveric had become would be no strong ally. He would simply have to convince the king himself.
The next morning, he walked out with his host and saw more evidence that Halveric was not what he had been. His servants, his soldiers, even his family, eyed him with concern as Halveric led him from house to gardens to barns to fields. Everything was in order, well-organized and well-kept, but Andressat felt something missing. Halveric talked of plans made, but now abandoned … of people who left and none replacing them, as they had in the past, attracted by a living, growing holding.
Yet fields were tended, animals healthy, fences in repair, buildings mended and clean. Andressat sensed no loss of energy in the others; Halveric’s tall wife bustled about the place as if twenty years younger, keeping the household staff at work. His own room, when he returned to it before lunch, had been freshened. Only Halveric himself seemed faded, weakened by something … and yet essential characteristics lingered.
“I will travel tomorrow,” Andressat said at last. “My mount has recovered.”
“We will provide an escort,” Halveric said. “And supplies, of course. There are few settlements between here and Chaya; this is a quiet corner of Lyonya.”
“You need not,” Andressat began, but Halveric’s wife, entering at that moment, spoke out.
“Of course we must. You are our guest, and moreover a stranger from afar; even if you were not an old friend of Aliam’s, you must have the best we can offer and safe passage. If your courier has reached court, the king will probably have sent King’s Squires to lead you in.”
That seemed incredible. He was only a count; kings did not send escorts for mere counts. Not unless they wanted to imprison them … he shivered, remembering Alured’s threats.
“Are you all right?” Aliam’s wife asked.
“I’m fine,” Andressat said. She said nothing more, for which he was glad, soon leaving the room to do whatever women’s work she did. Aliam excused himself shortly after.
After dinner, when he returned to his room, twilight still lay on the fields. Andressat stood by the window, watching a line of cattle move across a pasture, heads nodding in rhythm; behind them a young person—boy or girl, he could not distinguish—swung a stick and whistled tunelessly.
A tap at the door caught his attention; he turned, expecting Aliam, but instead his wife stood there, hands folded over something hidden in her skirts.
“I have a favor to ask,” she said. “I apologize, as it is a favor with a sting to it.”
“Madam?” He could think of nothing else to say.
“You are going to see the king. You have a message for him; I have one as well … one that Aliam does not know about.” She looked at him, her face dim in the dying light. When he said nothing, she went on. “I can’t go,” Aliam’s wife said. “But you can carry this to the king.” She held up a folded sheet, wax-sealed.
Andressat blinked. Women of his family did not approach male guests and ask them to carry secret messages. It was … unseemly, except that Estil Halveric was clearly not attempting an assignation. She was a woman of power; he could feel that even as he thought how odd it was.
“Kieri’s his closest friend,” the woman went on. “Close as a brother. He needs to know that something’s wrong with Aliam—”
“But what can he do?” Andressat said. Immediately he realized how that must sound: he intended to ask the king to intervene in Aarenis, and she was merely asking the king to help a friend. And she was right; something was wrong with Aliam Halveric. Still,