The Broken Realm

2. The Ramblings of a Swindler-3

“Anyone who has had the pleasure of visiting Longwood Rush will recognize our friend, Joran Rosewood. Joran was born a man of the Easterlands, but he has lived, and will die, a true Westerlander.”

The room hummed with reverent respect for the elder man. Jesse wondered what he’d done to earn it. Lord Warwick kept a healer in his keep, but had never paid mind to soothsaying. An imprecise fool’s weapon, he’d said. Jesse had never known a seer, or been privy to their predictions, but it seemed to him that in a world of finite outcomes, one could say almost anything and have a fair chance at the truth.

“My greatest and truest appreciation to you, Steward James. As Lady Asherley has always valued your loyalty, now I, too, find myself on the proper end of it,” Joran replied. Easlan released his arm and stepped away. Joran faced the gathered men. “There are things you must know, you, who are also among the most loyal of Lady Asherley. The sacrifice she made, for all of us. And though she may hang me later, as she was wont to threaten when I did not tell her what she wished to hear...” The men laughed in understanding. “I will tell you nonetheless. I believe it is what she would wish me to do, in her extended absence, which I assure you, is for the realm and none other.”

A small figure bumped against Jesse’s side. He whipped his neck around. He recognized the worn cloak from Easlan James’ closet. He leaned down and peered inside it to see two very familiar green eyes.

“What are you doing here? It isnae safe,” he whispered.

“You said there could be news from home. News of Ryan,” Esmerelda replied. She kept her head bowed. He didn’t suppose she could see a thing from beneath the massive hood meant for a man twice her size.

“I was wrong,” Jesse replied. “Seems your father isnae interested in revolution unless it suits himself.”

“This surprises you?”

“He wants the aid of others, he’ll need to be ready to provide some when they ask.”

Esmerelda made a pfft sound. “Did ye not hear? Isnae another man alive been wronged by the crown such as the great Lord Khallum Warwick has.”

Jesse chuckled under his breath. “Ye do sound like him. Best lower your voice, though. Even in the back of the room.” He pointed. “That’s Lady Blackwood’s seer.”

“She has a seer?”

“Aye. He’s made a rather theatrical entrance. Says he has news to share from Lady Blackwood herself.”

“So he’s seen her? He knows where she is?”

Jesse tapped his head. “Seen her.”

Esmerelda clapped a hand over her mouth, laughing.

He nodded ahead, where Joran had stepped upon a stool to be seen. As if anyone could miss him in his silver glory.

“When Lady Blackwood departed for Termonglen, to the event that has thrown our kingdom into chaos, she did so knowing she would not be returning to the Westerlands or Longwood Rush for a long time. Perhaps ever.”

Shock rippled through the men. “Lady Asherley would never abandon us!” one called out.

“She has far from abandoned you,” Joran continued, smiling, as if he’d anticipated and been further empowered by the question. “A fortnight before The Right of Choosing, I came to Lady Blackwood. I came to her with a vision. A terrible vision, of the highborn children of the realm in chains, dragged back to Duncarrow.”

Men whispered the names Ransom, Pieter.

“They believe him already,” Esmerelda said.

“I bade her send her children away before they could meet this fate. And send them, she did. She scattered her four babes to the corners of the realm where they could not be poisoned by The Pretender’s cruel grasp.”

This revelation was met with some skepticism. The men struggled to believe she would send her children away, unprotected, with no way to get news of their fates. But Joran was undeterred. “If faced with seeing your children taken or delivering a new fate, a better one, you would do as she did. She was right to do it. All but her eldest yet live. Many of you know how ill Lady Hollyn was before she left her home, and it should come as no shock that the Guardians finally deemed her promise spent. We beseech the Guardian of the Unpromised Future to protect her in death, as her mother did in life.”

The men repeated the words, solemn. Esmerelda bowed her head lower. Jesse rested a hand on her lower back.

“The children departed with other children, little ones you all know, from your own towns. Children of Great Families. They are all safe. I have seen them, as only a seer can,” Joran said. “I cannot reveal their whereabouts, as they will not remain secure the more know where to find them.”

“He’s lying,” Esmerelda said, leaning close to mask her voice. “Gabi isn’t safe at all. Who knows where Emberley and Brandyn are, or the others with them. Does he even know about little Brook Ashenhurst sweeping the floor in the back?”

Jesse grimaced.

“But... I tell you now, her son is coming to Greystone Abbey. Where he, her heir, will join with us, and will help reclaim the Westerlands from The Deceiver’s men. Brandyn is on his way to us now. He has left his comfortable life in the Sepulchre to serve his family and this Reach.”

Easlan James smiled, regarding the surrounding men with pride. He enjoyed their renewed energy as they cheered the news; news that would not have reached them had he not found the means to deliver. Jesse was happy for him, after years of being relegated to the steward of the forgotten. His moment had arrived where he had something of value to offer his peers, other than his stalwart loyalty.

“And when Brandyn doesn’t show?” Esmerelda murmured. “How will the seer explain that?”

“Once Lady Asherley could rest soundly in knowing her children were not in danger of The Pretender’s cruelty, she made peace with her own mission. She knew The Pretender would take her, in place of her children, and she was not afraid.” Joran’s hands shook as he looked around, training his eyes across the sea of men. “She was not afraid, for she knew the key to saving this realm could be found only in Duncarrow.”

“She go to kill the king, then? Seems she forgot to do it before escaping,” a man asked, and others around him laughed.

Joran didn’t even c***k a smile. “There are secrets that can bring upon one a fate worse than death. Your lady of the Westerlands knows this. She left her hearth and home to discover this secret, to weaponize it against this kingless crown. She lost her husband, our beloved Lord Warwick, for standing tall against his many repressions. Can any of you say the same?”

“He’s a persuasive man,” Esmerelda whispered. “Do you suppose any of what he says is true?”

“Only he knows,” Jesse replied. His heart raced. Was the truth of Darrick’s fate the secret Asherley Blackwood discovered? If Eoghan knew his brother lived, then neither Ryan nor Darrick were safe.

Joran rattled a long sigh. “I am old, and I am tired, and I have said what I came to say. All except this, which is most important of all.”

Joran’s face was deathly serious as he regarded the gathered men; the last stand of the Westerlands. “If Asherley Blackwood fled Duncarrow, we can be certain it is because she obtained what she went there for. Your leader has not abandoned you—she has put in motion a plan that will save you.”

The moon was the only light on their trip back to Dungarde Keep. They rode in silence until they left the better part of the main road, switching to the path that took them up into the foothills and the keep.

“I’m sorry about your cousin. That’s no way to learn of her passing on,” Jesse said.

Esmerelda dropped the hood back. “I didn’t know she was so sick. Aunt Yesenia wrote not so long ago, after she’d gone to Longwood to visit with Uncle Byrne. In her letter she said Hollyn was improving.”

“It could’ve been a lie. Joran’s words.”

She shook her head. “No. These men are loyal to the Blackwoods. He may mix his tales in with the truth, but he wouldn’t lie about that. Not to them.” She rolled her head back and inhaled the night air. “I don’t trust the seer, but I can’t help my hope that he isn’t lying about Brandyn. How I’d love to see him again, especially now. He must be so afraid, after what happened to his mother and father.”

Jesse winced at the thought of yet another pulled into the secret of Esmerelda’s survival. But he would not deny her the comfort of family, should the boy actually show up.

As they passed into the thicket of trees that would lead to the last stretch to the keep, he found the words he’d been meaning to speak to her for hours. “I want your only worry to be caring for the bairn in your womb. So I'll tell you this once and hope the words are enough to ease you. Ravenna has no sway over me. She seeks her own refuge, for her own reasons. I cannae deny her that, but it has been only you, and me, for months, and when at last we see Ryan again, it will be you, and him, and the bairn, and none of this will have mattered.”

Esmerelda turned to him. Her emerald eyes glowed in the moonlight. “Pay me no mind. The bairn has driven me to madness, that’s all.”

When Jesse didn’t respond immediately, Esmerelda scoffed. “Not going to correct me? Ply me with reassurances?”

Jesse smiled in the darkness. “I said I would protect ye, Princess, not lie to ye.”