A meeting with your Council (and a confession)

"This is... most troubling."

Lord Duncan is the first to speak once you have finished informing your small council of all the news of the previous day and night - the warnings from Lady Katyana, the Vixen's true name, everything with the exception of the intimacy which you and Katyana shared. Duncan is not ordinarily given over to statements of the blindingly obvious, so though his words are almost absurdly understated, is clear how distressed he truly is.

"The threat of Lord Velimir is the the greatest concern," you say, "but let us begin with the matter of Princess Liesel von Ingolstadt, so that it may be settled. First of all, she will not be charged with attempted ****, nor any other crime; I intend to grant her full royal pardon for all transgressions both known and unknown. My first action this morning was to have her moved from her cell to a more comfortable room, where she remains under guard. I do not believe it likely that she will try to escape, but it is possible she may decide that she is not safe here, and attempt to disappear into the woods again - or perhaps even leave Elyssia altogether. That would be in neither our best interests, nor her own."

"Agreed," Captain Navarre says, nodding, and the rest of the table concurs.

"I want one thing made clear," you continue. "No matter how dire the situation, no matter if we face the destruction of Elyssia itself, we will not entertain the notion of surrendering the Princess to Lord Velimir. Even if such an action were not despicable and dishonorable, it will only serve to delay his eventual attack; and when it would finally come, it would be all the more devastating. She has said - and she was emotionally overwhelmed at the time, but I believe she meant it nonetheless - that she would take her own life before allowing him to have her." You pause for a moment, and then say, "Before I turn her over to the Warlord, I would honor her wishes, and kill her myself."

The looks on everyone's face around the table assures you that all present understand exactly how much you mean your words.

"Now, let us discuss the threat of Lord Velimir," you say, and indicate that General Ferdinand should begin.

"The source of this disquieting information may be unexpected, but the information itself is not," Ferdinand offers. "We knew that the months immediately following the festival would be a **** time for Elyssia; we knew that it could precipitate an attack. Now that we know when the attack will take place, we can be better-prepared for it."

"If the source may be trusted," Captain Navarre says, frowning. "Forgive me for pointing out the obvious, but she is his daughter."

"Of course, that is a valid concern," you say with a nod. "My strong impression is that Lady Katyana has had a genuine change of heart, and that she has given us truthful information as she sees it. But the security of this kingdom and its people certainly cannot rest on my impressions alone. That is why she will come before this council today, and we may all hear what she has to say." You pause for a moment, and then say, "And, there is another reason why my own judgement may be impaired in this matter. I wish for you all to hear this from my own lips, rather than through rumors and whispers. Lady Katyana and I... have been intimate."

The rest of the council looks uncomfortable, as you would expect. Duncan speaks first, and he does so quietly. "Forgive me, Sire... do you think that was wise?"

"The wisdom or folly of my actions did not occur to me at the time, I confess," you say. "I could say that I felt it was best not to risk the consequences of spurning her advances, or that it seemed strategically sound to have her feel attraction and desire for me - but the fact of the matter is that I have developed genuine affection for Katyana, and that is what drove me to act as I did. My own relations with women would normally not be the concern of the Council of Advisors, but I am not blind to the implications. I will be compelled to rely more on the judgement of this council and less upon my own. I know that all here are loyal to me as King, but I ask you now to remember that my own first loyalty is to Elyssia. If it is the opinion of this council that my judgment is too impaired to defend this Kingdom and its people... I will, for the duration of this crisis, abdicate all strategic decisions to Lord Ferdinand."

There is a momentary pause, and then Ferdinand speaks up. "It seems to me, Sire, that your willingness to make such a candid admission is evidence enough that your mind and judgment remain sound. I say that Xavier, First of that Name, still rules as King in Elyssia."

"Hear, hear," Captain Navarre adds, and the rest of the council indicates their agreement.

"Thank you, all," you say. "General Ferdinand, how do you find Lady Katyana's information?"

"Although I will reserve final judgement, I believe that it is genuine on the face of it," Ferdinand says. "I have informants among Velimir's men; none with direct access to his councils, unfortunately, but his actions are not entirely unknown to us. The latest message from these spies, which was written nearly a month ago but only reached me two days past, states that the Warlord has been drilling his men at night, training them to ride through towns at high speed while hurling torches at the buildings as they pass, such that they are able to maximize the damage so inflicted. This is in keeping with the battle plan which Lady Katyana describes. Lord Velimir cannot possibly bring a large army to Elyssia. The mountain roads are too narrow, and our own shortage of food and supplies means that he must bring such along with him; he cannot hunt woods which are cleared of game, nor plunder fields of unripened crops. Whatever he does, he must make do with a small army, no more than a few hundred soldiers and cavalry."

"What of his men who are already here?" Lord Duncan asks.

"For the moment, they remain encamped," Captain Navarre says. "The two who served as Lady Katyana's personal guard were taken into custody last night once Lady Katyana was secured in the Tower Room, and they now share a dungeon cell. We must decide what to do about the men in the high meadow, however. At some point, we will either need to take them all into custody, or accept that they will come to realize that Lady Katyana is not coming back. They will then likely scatter into the woods to avoid capture - and of course, the lives of our men guarding them will be forfeit, a consequence which I know we would all rather avoid."

"Perhaps Lady Katyana could ride up to the camp and order them to remain for three more days," Duncan suggests. "She is still their commander, as far as they are aware. The fact that her guards would not be with her is a complication, but we may be able to account for that somehow."

"When I saw her guards at the feast, I noticed that one of them resembled a man of my acquaintance who lives in the village," says Lord Helferich, the Master of Coin. "I actually had to look at him twice to be sure it was not the same man. If my friend is agreeable to it, I am sure that we could alter his hair, beard, and features so that he would fool the rest of Velimir's men at a reasonable distance - especially since he would also be wearing the guardsman's uniform and riding on his horse. It would not be difficult to come up with an excuse as to why the other guard is not present."

"Good," you say, nodding. "When this meeting is concluded, Lord Helferich, locate your friend and bring him before me so that I can explain the matter personally. We will be asking him to take a considerable personal risk; I want him to understand what is at stake."

"Yes, Sire."

"There is also the matter of the festival itself, Sire," Duncan says. "As much as it pains me to say it, perhaps it would be best if we... toned down the remaining celebrations. To cancel the festival altogether would not be wise, of course; it would only create confusion and ill will, and would play right into Lord Velimir's hands. But, we should consider the need to prepare for a possible siege. We must conserve our food and supplies."

"I submit that the festival must continue as planned," Ferdinand says. "At the moment, we have one great advantage: Lord Velimir has no idea that we know what we know. We should continue to present the appearance that we are ignorant of his plans, lest he change them and leave us once more in the dark. Of course, this is all contingent on whether Lady Katyana is trustworthy, but if she is, then we cannot afford to squander this advantage."

"We will scale back the festival in only the most minor of ways," you say. "The feast tomorrow night can consist of three courses instead of five. We will preserve the castle livestock, and send hunters into the higher woods for game. Grain which was intended for replenishing the castle's supply of ale will instead be ground for flour. We must be subtle, as if these changes were part of the plan all along."

The faint sound of a bell from outside the room is heard.

"That is the eight o'clock chime; we must conclude this meeting within the next hour, so that we have time to prepare for the parade," you say. "There is one more thing I wish to say before we adjourn to the throne room and hear Lady Katyana's own testimony. Last night, the Lady revealed to me that there is a hidden passage between the conservatory and the kitchens."

Captain Navarre looks most startled at this news. "Sire... I am responsible for this having gone unnoticed. We had thought we discovered all the hidden rooms and corridors years ago."

"This passage was more subtle than any of the others we have found," you tell him. "There was absolutely no sign of it on either end; the wall in the kitchen which concealed it has been blocked by barrels for years, and on the conservatory side, our own repairs to the frescoes had eliminated all indications of the doorway. The most disturbing part of this passage is not that it exists, but rather the reason why Lady Katyana knew of it while we did not. It seems that Lord Velimir has returned the courtesy of planting informants; it was one of his spies who discovered it and revealed it to Lady Katyana before she ever came here."

"Who is this informant?" Duncan exclaims. "We must know!"

"She will reveal him presently, among others. For the moment, she has told me that they are all people who have joined the castle staff in the last two years, and that they are all servants rather than guardsmen. Of course, these are only those who she knows of - Lord Velimir never reveals all of his secrets to any of his captains, and there may well be some she does NOT know of. The only threat these informants pose at the moment is to reveal Lady Katyana's change of heart, and I can assure all of you that none of them could possibly have had the opportunity to learn of it. Now, my Lords, let us adjourn to the throne room, where Lady Katyana awaits."

"...once the castle is taken, my father intends to distribute whatever coin he finds among his lieutenants and soldiers," Katyana continues, describing the battle yet to come. "The men have been made aware of this, and so they will be well-motivated. For his own spoils, the Warlord will take the artworks and jewels, which mean little to him but which he can offer to lords and noble families to appease them. The castle itself would have passed to me. Elyssia would no longer be an independent kingdom, but a part of Bavaria, paying tribute... to King Velimir. Your Majesty, my Lords, this is my testimony and I have spoken true."

"Thank you, Lady Katyana," you say to her. "And now, I must ask: What evidence do you offer to prove that you have spoken true?"

It had been a difficult decision, whether to warn her in advance that this was a question you would ask. It was an easier decision before you had made love to her... but in the end, it seemed that she should have expected something like it, and that it was only your duty as King to put the question to her.

Indeed, a single blink of the eyes is the only indication she gives that she is in any way put out by the question. "I cannot prove the truth of all that I say," she acknowledges, "but I can offer proof to some. It is undeniable that the one you knew as the Vixen is indeed the Princess Liesel von Ingolstadt; this has been verified by the woman herself and by a Lord of Elyssia, but this information was provided to King Xavier first by me, and was offered freely."

"That is so," you say. "Continue."

"I also point out the circumstantial evidence, that the strategy I have described which is Lord Velimir's plan is a sound one, one which likely would have succeeded had you not been told of it in advance; and that there is no advantage to him in having Elyssia so forewarned, even if the attack as described were never intended to take place."

"My lords, do you concur with this assessment?" you ask, and all voices reply, "Aye."

"Finally," Lady Katyana says, "I have given to Sir Magnus and Lady Trina the identities of no less than four of Lord Velimir's secret informants, two from this castle and two from the village. It is my understanding that they will be brought before this council within the hour."

"Sir Magnus waits in the witness chamber with the first of these alleged informants," Captain Navarre says. He raises his hand to signal the guard by the door off to the left, and he opens it to allow Sir Magnus to enter.

"Sire," Magus says, "I bring you Vlad, kitchen steward." Vlad is thin, his hair long and black and falling into his eyes. When he sees Katyana standing by the throne, he looks puzzled, then frightened.

"He is the one," Katyana says.

"Sire, with all due respect, we cannot go by Lady Katyana's word alone," Duncan says in a low voice. "We must give him a chance to speak in his own defense."

"Cut his hair just behind the right ear, down to the scalp," Katyana says. "You will find the symbol of a bear's claw, etched with ink under the skin. It is how the Warlord's most trusted captains identify his spies, so that they are not fooled by those who merely pretend to be."

"BETRAYER!" the boy shouts, leaping forward at Katyana with his hands outstretched for her throat.

Sir Magnus lunges at him, not quite quickly enough - but Katyana moves with the speed of a cat. She meets his charge and then spins out of his grasp, sweeping his legs from under him with a kick to the back of his knees, and then she pounces upon his back. You catch sight of a flash of steel next to his throat, but before you can shout a command to stop, the knife swipes across the boy's face and then Katyana rolls to her feet. It is over so quickly, no one can tell what has happened.

"As I said," Katyana says, dropping a thick lock of black hair to the floor, "check the scalp."

Vlad puts his hand up to the side of his head, slowly, seemingly bewildered that he seems not to be cut. Magnus steps in then and pulls the boy to his feet, twists his head around to look at the spot, then shows it to you. "The mark is there, Sire," he says, and indeed you can see it with your own eyes. Vlad struggles with all his strength, but against the iron grip of Sir Magnus he may as well be pulling on a stone tower. Magnus looks down at him with scorn. "Oh stop it, ya scabby little dobber. Me grandmother's got more muscle than you, and she's been in the ground twenty years!"

"That will do, Magnus," you tell him, trying not to crack a smile. "Take Vlad to a holding cell and put him in irons."

After Vlad is out of the room, Katyana speaks again. "My Lords, it is most unlikely that he will yield to questioning. There is nothing you are likely to do to him which is worse than what would happen should the Warlord recapture him. Spies in my father's service are handsomely rewarded for success, but they are brutally punished for failure. Just for being discovered, he would suffer a hot iron to the right side of his head, to burn off the mark and his ear along with it - and he would then face further interrogation to determine what he may have revealed to you."

"Certainly, we cannot match Lord Velimir insofar as threatening ****; nor would we wish to," Captain Navarre says. "But, he may respond to the carrot rather than the stick. Treating Vlad with kindness could produce results."

"The moment you unlock his manacles, he will attack the guards and try to impale himself on their swords," Katyana says, shaking her head. "It is likely why he attacked me; he counted on me killing him. There will be no reasoning with this unfortunate boy, Sire. The best that can be done for him is to hold him until this ordeal is finished, then release him at the borders of Elyssia to decide his own fate. He may choose life at that point, or he may choose ****, but it will be his choice."

"We will at least try to speak with him," you say, "but if you prove correct, my Lady, then that is how it must be. Let us wait for Sir Magnus to return before bringing in the next of the accused, I would prefer that your knife not be required again."

The meeting soon reaches its conclusion, each of the remaining spies is brought into the chamber one by one to be identified, and the mark is present upon each of them. One of them, an assistant to the shoemaker in the village, throws himself down upon his hands and knees and practically screams as he begs your protection from Lord Velimir, and you have him placed in a cell away from the others; he might be one to respond to questioning. To your surprise, another one is an elderly scullery maid with whom you have occasionally had conversation in the past; as far as you can recall, you have never told her anything which would be dangerous for Lord Velimir to know, but it is still disquieting. She spits at you as the mark behind her ear is revealed, and the Slavic curse she hurls at you as she is dragged away is one you have only heard once before, when your former blacksmith master accidentally set his beard on fire while working the forge.

"The existence of that mark may be one of the more important pieces of intelligence we have received," Captain Navarre points out. "We can check everyone of whom we are suspicious, and it is not something that Lord Velimir will be able to quickly change. Of course, we will have to do so without raising general awareness of what we are looking for, lest those who bear the mark hear of it and flee."

"I would rather not bring in scores of innocent people for inspection just yet," you tell him, "and not all of Velimir's spies are likely to be so marked. But it is something to watch for, of course. My Lords, we have taken too long already, and the parade will not wait. Let us go to make our preparations. Captain, please accompany me and Lady Katyana."

With Katyana's hand upon your arm, you leave the room and make your way to the stairs which lead up to the tower. She seems nervous, as if she expects an assassin behind every column... and it is hard to blame her. "I have seen few acts of courage comparable to what you have done this day, my Lady," you tell her quietly. "The reaction of those brought before us makes it clear that it is no small matter to stand against your father."

"It also makes it clear that I have made the right choice," she says. "I am sure you have informants of your own among our ranks - excuse me, among the Warlord's ranks. I find it hard to believe that if they were found out, they would fear your reprisals above all else. It seems obvious to me now that a leader who must inspire such terror to ensure loyalty is no leader at all, but rather a tyrant."

You find yourself wondering exactly how far you can genuinely trust Lady Katyana. Her slight slip of the tongue is a sharp reminder that she may yet retain some loyalty to her father. Even if her words and actions are sincere, she may not have severed all ties in her heart... and of course, there must always remain the possibility that the entire affair up until now has been an elaborate ruse, and that she remains Velimir's daughter and captain in truth. It had occurred to you that Katyana might ride beside you at the head of the parade, but would that be going too far? And what of her men in the woods - do you dare allow her in contact with them again so that she might carry out Lord Duncan's plan of having her command them to stay encamped? You wish you could know for certain whether she is truly trustworthy... but however intimately you have known her, it has still been for less than a full day, and it is impossible to be certain of anything.