The Kinstrife
Part
43
In
which our gallants sail to Lond Ernil;
we find Prince Adrazôr alive but being poisoned; Ragnor
takes charge of Adrazôr’s health ‘in the King’s
interest’, Aerin becomes Adrazôr’s
physician; Brand pays a visit to Iriel at midnight; Aerin beards Ioreth, Ioreth does a bunk; we learn that someone had their throat
cut the night of Adrazôr fell stricken; Ragnor stands
up Iriel; diverse interviews and investigations.
Brand and I
discuss the imminent situation: loath though I am to relinquish his advice, we
agree that he leave my service for the duration of our visit to Lond Ernil. Instead I ask Aerin and Pimm to join Misternil as I will need legal advice, a bodyguard in case
the threat of law proves insufficient, and a healer in case anything gets past
the bodyguard. However, Pimm declines my service –
apparently I can’t afford him – so I shall have to do without legal opinion.
A steward
asks after our retinues in something of a fluster. It seems there’s a shortage
of of ships but Ilviren
offers her ship, ‘So Much for Subtlety’ and we all book passage.
Castaher
gives me two letters. The first says I am acting as the King’s representative
in all matters pertaining to the Morthond succession. The second is informal;
referring favourably to my service for the Queen in Umbar, Castaher
confesses that he doesn’t know what is going on (and I get the feeling he’s not
used to that and likes it not at all) but he suspects much political manouevering in Belfalas and
Morthond.
He gives me
three objectives: firstly, to secure Morthond for Castamir; secondly, to do the
same for Belfalas. My eyebrows rise at this, with
Adrazôr not confirmed as dead and three healthy sons in line of succession, I
cannot see this as even vaguely likely. In the third task Castaher
recognises that the Enemy may be involved in the sorcerous
attacks on Maeglin and Adrazôr and that the first two objectives may be
sacrificed to thwart the Enemy.
Of course,
it doesn’t state exactly who ‘the Enemy’ may prove to be. Traditionally the
phrase refers to Morgoth and Sauron.
For the present, it may be Adûnaphel, the Storm King,
an alliance of dark cults out of Harad, the Benish Armon cult or merely a Gondorian political alliance using sorcerous
techniques – or even some or all of these together – but that clause may yet be
my salvation if pressed by Castamir or Castahir as to
how or why the Morthond succession escapes Royal control.
But there’s
something on my mind which should not be committed to parchment and I seek a
brief audience with Castaher which he is gracious
enough to grant. I point out that two princes of Gondor
have died, apparently due to enemy sorcery. Someone seems to have taken a
dislike to Gondorian princes, and Gondor
doesn’t have many more. Castaher takes my point and
the tacit warning that what happened in Morthond and Lond
Ernil may also happen in Pelargir. He feels for the
moment that the threat lies well to the west but he will take precautions in
Pelargir.
The princes
sail as the tide rises. Ilviren sails in the small
hours, at high tide. An ohtar of Aradan’s,
called Borgil, is also on our ship, not enough room
being on Aradan’s apparently. (I find this a little odd, surely Aradan’s ship no
longer has to accommodate Estel and her retinue. With
Estel having already left with Mordulin
there should be more room in Aradan’s ship, not less;
I wonder whether Aradan has inveigled Borgil on to ‘So Much for Subtlety’ to keep an eye on me,
now that I am officially the King’s man?)
But if a
spy, Borgil is a bit of an odd choice. He’s conscious
of his youth (though it turns out that he’s a few years older than me) and
perceived social inferiority. He stands on his dignity almost painfully and
resists being drawn out but I take pains to set him at ease and he can’t help
revealing that Aradan and Giladan
don’t get on. Aradan thinks Giladan
is an overly-cautious pen-pusher while Giladan thinks
Aradan is a reckless bone-headed thug. Having met the
two I can see Aradan’s view of Giladan
but the other seems more than a little harsh.
Borgil
also takes a shine to Aerin, apparently seeing
himself as a lady’s man and Aerin does nothing to
shatter his illusions. But for all that she gets nothing out of him save
politics. Perhaps he’s a sound choice as spy after all?
Ilviren’s
praise for ‘So Much for Subtlety’ is accurate and her seamanship excellent; we
enter the harbour of Lond Ernil
the evening of the 10th, at least a day ahead of the princes,
despite giving the islands of the western coast of Belfalas
a wide berth.
Lond
Ernil is very picturesque indeed, nestling under high
cliffs of granite. As with Umbar, real estate is limited and so buildings are
built high. It is divided in to seven districts, called ‘towns’, by streams
running through the city…
Middleport
– shipbuilding and fishing
Cliff Town
– the main residential quarter for the traders, shopkeepers and middle-classes
We have
little money so Brand and I throw ourselves on the hospitality of the prince.
We are greeted by Perion, shief
steward of the castle. His grey hair is balding but his grey eyes seem very
perceptive behind his scrupulously polite manner. He efficiently finds us
lodgings within the castle and asks when he can expect the princes. We give him
our best guess of a
day or two.
Asking
after Adrazôr, it seems the Prince still lives, tended by his personal healer, Ioreth, but he has not spoken since his affliction. We are
permitted to pay our respects.
Adrazôr’s
skin is greyish, he has a fever and his joints are stiff. Aerin
confirms he’s afflicted with what we are now calling ‘Maeglin’s
Bane’ but she also thinks he’s been poisoned!
I bring the
matter to Perion’s attention. He’s shocked! He
brought Ioreth in to Adrazôr’s
service himself. She is the daughter of local gentry but although Aerin cannot identify the poison she’s adamant that the
signs are unmistakable.
Of course, Ioreth isn’t the only servant with access to the Prince so
it could be anyone. In the circumstances, I decide that it is in the King’s
interest that Adrazôr’s care be placed solely in the
hands of Aerin. Of course she cannot tend him solely
by herself and we also need a guard on the chamber (no one from the household
can be allowed access until we have discovered the poisoner)
so I send to Ilviren for 3 reliable guards and her
master-at-arms to govern them.
Aerin
tries the same enchantment that worked for Estel but
it has no effect on Adrazôr.She asks at the Houses of
Healing for artefact of power but it’s a small house of which Ioreth is the senior healer and they have nothing and know
nothing.
Thinking
perhaps another loremaster might know something and
finding no hall of the Loremasters in Lond Ernil, Brand calls upon Iriel in the middle of the night. He learns that she was
summoned by Perion when Adrazôr fell ill. She heard
the castle staff were woken by his cries and were already in attendance when
she arrived to find Adrazôr unconscious in his rooms, Ioreth
having moved him to his bed.
Iriel
has a small library but could find nothing relevant regarding Maeglin’s Bane. Perion, in view
of the gravity of the situation, took it on himself to order a ship to Tolfalas after the princes, though they’d only gone the day
before. At Brand’s request, Iriel draws up a list of
people of those she knows were present when both Maeglin and Adrazôr were
afflicted. There’s Eglaniel, Tirazôr’s
steward; Torgir, his personal guard; and Coruinon, his squire, none of whom went to Tolfalas – and Iriel, of course.
Brand
mentions that I am in Lond Ernil
and offers my regards on my behalf. Iriel pens an
immediate invitation for me to have lunch with her tomorrow; I’m touched!
First thing
in the morning I check on Adrazôr: Aerin says there’s
no change but it will take time for the poison to work its way through his
system – at least there’s no more going in!
Aerin
takes it on herself to interview Ioreth, a netya (dainty and
pretty) woman brown eyes betraying aboriginal ancestry. Ioreth
has mainly been treating the fever, claiming she thought the black staining
around his mouth a symptom of Maeglin’s Bane, but Aerin thinks Ioreth goes a little
pale when the poisoning is mentioned.
Aerin
abruptly accuses Ioreth of poisoning Adrazôr but Ioreth blusters and Aerin
dismisses her, threatening her with dire consequences when she tells the guard.
Aerin,
bless her, is simply not blessed with a suspicious mind. When she tells me I
immediately order Ioreth’s arrest and a search of her
chamber and dispensary, sending a guard beneath the window in case she disposes
of the poison, but all to no avail. Ioreth has
already left the castle, last seen heading for the town. We send word to the
watch to arrest her if seen and to check the Houses of Healing but an hour
later it’s clear she’s vanished.
In the
tumult of all this it becomes clear that lunch with Iriel
is not possible today and I duly send my apologies with the promise that if
duties permit I will certainly attend on her for lunch tomorrow.
Meanwhile
Brand and I are talking to Perion: his story matches Iriel’s and so do those of the other servants (the only
discrepancy is Perion’s claim to reach Adrazôr first,
whereas it’s more likely that he arrived with other servants – doubtless an old
man’s pride). No one saw anything or anyone suspicious.
Lieutenant Halbarad, the Captain of Cavalry under Aradan,
was summoned and claims he arrived before Ioreth.
He says he found Perion in charge but most of the
servants were just milling around in shock. Halbarad
sealed the castle and searched the grounds but found nothing – not that he knew
what to look for. Mindful that Maeglin’s affliction was
apparently powered by the murder of his wife, we ask if there were any other
deaths in the castle. Halbarad is sure there weren’t
but offers to ask the watch if any murders were committed in the city.
Brand and I
are taken to view the room where Adrazôr was stricken but there’s nothing to be
gleaned.
We get word
from the town watch in the early evening that there was indeed a murder in Lond Ernil the evening in
question. Boron was a well-known troublemaker from
Brand talks
to Eglaniel, Torgir and Coruion: none have cast-iron alibis but it seems unlikely
they were involved. Torgir claims he was drinking in
town. He can probably find witnesses but confirming times will be a problem.
His story puts him about in the right place to be involved in Boron’s murder.
Brand reckons Coruion is worried about something but
can’t guess what.
But they
all say there were two other servants also in Morthond and Lond
Ernil at the time of the two princes’ afflictions: Vorondil and Arthradur. We must
find them tomorrow.
It occurs
to me that this bears all the hallmarks of a conspiracy. It’s not that easy to
overpower a ruffian used to handling himself in a streetfight.
To simply cut his throat suggests many hands to catch and hold him down,
especially if it were part of some ritual ceremony. We are not seeking a single
person; more than one of these names may be involved.
I wonder
how closely the poisoning and Adrazôr’s affliction
are connected? It is just possible that Ioreth had her own private reasons for poisoning her lord
and merely saw his affliction with Maeglin’s Bane as
an opportunity. And I wonder whether there’s much ill-feeling toward Adrazôr
among his subjects?
To do list:
Find and
interview Vorondil and Arthradur
Establish
what is to be done about Morthond – it can’t keep the Royal army out long
without strong political leadership
Survey my
estates and produce a plan to improve them
Ensure
Brand looks for the 5fth part of the Key of Fuinur’s Well
Who was Tevildo from the Benish Armon tomb in the Ethir Anduin?
Inquire
after Perhaladin – might be a cult for Ragnor