Upon hearing this news, Varre exchanged confused glances with Lester. “So? Your dad wants to see you again. What’s so bad about that?”

  “Don’t you get it?” Nilo waved his hands in exasperation, “I’ve been living here for years. Representing him in the capital, working on building connections with other noble houses. Why the hell would he want to recall me? Why now?”

  “I still don’t think that’s strange at all,” the king shrugged, “most of the royal family has just been murdered. No wonder he’s worried about his eldest son.”

  “Wait a minute,” Lester cut in, “he doesn’t know that yet. That’s no reason to leave the city.”

  “What do you mean?” Varre asked, “everyone’s heard about the assassination. We’ve even sent heralds to make an official announcement about it.”

  “Exactly,” the merchant replied, “that takes time. Nilo, if I recall, your father lives out West, right?”

  “That’s right,” the nobleman answered, “in Quendon.”

  “It takes a week to get there from the capital,” Lester explained, “maybe your heralds are a little faster, but king Mikkel was assassinated just four days ago! Even if they somehow made it there by now, there is no way he could have prepared a message and have it sent here in time.”

  “What are you suggesting then?” the king urged, “that Nilo’s dad had Mikkel murdered?”

  The aristocrat turned pale. “Hey now. I may not have the best relation with my father, but he would never do anything like that!”

  “It’s alright,” Varre quickly added, “I know you’ve had nothing do with it.”

  “That’s not what I meant!” Lester quickly corrected himself, “I’m just saying that, since he couldn’t know about the assassination, it must have been some other reason! Don’t go putting words in my mouth.”

  “Alright, fine then,” the king attempted to cool the conversation down, “what else could he possibly want? Maybe a marriage proposal? Or he suddenly fell ill and wants to see you?”

  “No way. He would have given more details in the message then,” Nilo pulled the letter out again and quickly read through it, “it’s just so… vague. He wants me to return home immediately. As soon as I read the message. This isn’t his style at all!”

  “What are you going to do then?” Varre inquired.

  The nobleman sighed. “I don’t know. To be honest, I’m already disobeying my father by coming here instead of packing up. The messenger who brought the letter was furious!”

  “If you don’t want to go, then how about you use me as your excuse?” the king suggested.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, you said it yourself. The reason he put you in the capital is to build connections with powerful nobles right?” Varre offered, “tell him that I, personally, requested your assistance with something. And you don’t want to refuse the monarch! Send a message back and tell him that if he wants to see you, he better provide a good reason. In fact, tell him I said that!”

  That seemed to settle Nilo down a bit. “I suppose he won’t be able to argue with that,” he smiled, “a direct order from the king, huh? No better excuse than that.”

  “I’m glad we got that sorted out. I’ve already roped Lester in to my schemes. Who knows, I may need your help soon too,” the king stretched out on his chair.

  “Ha, if that’s what it takes to keep using you as an excuse, you can count me in,” the aristocrat laughed, “but I suppose I better head back. Father’s messenger was fuming when I refused to go. I bet he’ll be even more pissed when I tell him the news.”

  “Good luck,” Varre wished his friend, then added, “why don’t you come back here for dinner tonight? I can someone for you. I’d like to hear how it went!”

  Nilo agreed and left the room.

  The two remaining men had to go soon after. It was almost time for this morning’s council meeting. Benjamin was surprised when the king explained that Lester was joining them, but did not argue against it.

  -*-*-*-

  When the trio arrived in the meeting chamber, the gathered councilors stared at the merchant with interest. It was not forbidden, or even that unusual, for the monarch to bring additional guests or advisors to some meetings, but they did not expect Varre to bring one so soon. The stranger remained standing beside the king’s chair.

  “Good morning,” Varre began once everyone else was seated, “I’d like to start with the Treasurer. Yesterday, we talked about estimating the value of my new properties right? You mentioned it would be a difficult job.”

  “That’s correct, your majesty,” Johan Gruber replied, “to be honest, I have yet to begin the task in earnest. I’m still sorting through all the relevant deeds that belonged to your relatives. We need to be sure of what exactly you have inherited,” the man eyed Lester with interest. The king still had not explained the stranger’s identity, but the Treasurer hoped this man was allowed to hear such sensitive information.

  “Good. In that case, I’d like to introduce someone. This is Lester Crowbie, an excellent merchant and a man I’ve trusted for a long time,” Varre pointed to his friend with an open palm, and Lester bowed, “he is an expert when it comes to trade, and so I would like to grant him a permanent position on this council. From now on, he will be my Head Merchant.”

  The other advisors exchanged surprised glances. Steward Marna was the first to speak. “I see. That is within your majesty’s rights, of course, but may I ask,” she said softly, “what exactly will be sir Crowbie’s duties?”

  “An excellent question,” the king smiled confidently, “as an experienced merchant, Lester will be able to accurately assess the value of all these properties I’ve now gained. He will help Gruber with this task. Afterwards, I’d like him to manage them. We need to figure out if there are any good ways to use all those buildings and lands to generate more money.”

  Lester stood there in silence, with an embarrassed blush on his face. He may have interacted with powerful nobles before, but these were the most important people in the entire kingdom. He calmed down a bit, once he realized that the king, his personal friend, was even higher up on the ladder.

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  The Treasurer remained unconvinced. He stared at this new councilor with suspicion. “While I appreciate the attempt to help me, your majesty,” he said nervously, “I am not sure if this is enough to deserve a fulltime council position. Perhaps Lester would better serve as one of my subordinates.”

  “You may have a point there,” Varre admitted, bringing the embarrassed blush back to Lester’s face, “but that’s not all of his responsibilities. Once everything’s sorted out, the Crownlands will be far larger than before. Several times over, I believe.”

  “That’s… correct,” Gruber slowly answered, worried about where this was going.

  “You will continue to manage the Crownlands of course. But, the sheer amount of grain and other foodstuffs we produce will be far higher than before. We cannot rely on our previous contracts and customers. That task will on the Head Merchant,” the king brought his arm around Lester’s shoulders, “he will get in contact with other vendors, perhaps even other kingdoms, who want to buy our products. With the massive amount of stuff we’ll be making now, we’ll need to find new ways to sell it.”

  That seemed to appease the Treasurer a bit. “I suppose that is reasonable… I mean, an excellent idea your majesty!” he caught himself in time, “but I want you to remember, that you can still rely on me with any important issues. I look forward to a very lucrative cooperation with the Head Merchant,” he slightly bowed in Lester’s direction.

  The embarrassed man nodded back and took one of the seat’s that Varre pointed to.

  “With that out of the way, we can proceed with your reports,” the king said pointing to his steward.

  Marna cleared her throat and started shuffling through her notes. The sudden announcement blew her out of her rhythm, but she recovered quickly. “Right, there are no news from my end. Much of the capital is still in shock by the recent assassination, but the people are slowly calming down. The situation is stable, your majesty.”

  “That reminds me,” Varre interrupted, “do we know anything about the heralds? Has the news of the assassination reached all the corners of the kingdom?”

  The steward stood up to get a better look at the map in the middle of the table. “Not yet. It most likely reached all the major cities in the South by now. If not, it should by the end of today. But the other directions…” she started counting off, “the Western and Eastern borders are farther out. We sent the heralds out on June 7th. Assuming they travel quickly, they should reach the Western border within five days.”

  “The day after tomorrow?” the king clarified.

  “Correct, your majesty. June 12th,” Marna returned to pointing at the map, “the Eastern border should take another day or so. June 14th at the latest. The North is more complicated. The news should have reached the major towns by now, but with how sparsely populated the place is, it could be weeks before it spreads to the more isolated outposts and territories.”

  Quendon is pretty close to the Western border, Varre thought to himself, Lester was right. There is no way for Nilo’s father to know about the assassination just yet.

  “The Royal Guards we’ve sent after Alderman Fedlow should be hot on his trail,” Captain Hakon added, “but there’s been no news yet.”

  The king accepted that with a nod.

  “I, however, do have some news to share,” Tobias stood up, proud of himself, “I finished my investigation into the poison that killed king Mikkel. It was made from hydra venom.”

  “Any idea where the Alderman might have gotten it?” Varre asked.

  “No. It’s not a common creature around these parts. However, we do have an adventurer’s guild in the capital. Perhaps one of them sold the poison to Fedlow,” the Court Mage offered.

  “I have some information as well,” Benjamin added, “as you’ve requested, I got in touch with Zarkon yesterday. He examined the poison too and also determined that it is made with hydra venom.”

  The king nodded to himself. “At least that’s one mystery solved.”

  “However, master Zarkon had a slightly different opinion on where it might have come from,” the chamberlain gulped, “he said that someone from the mages’ guild might have had it.”

  Tobias scoffed. “I doubt that. It’s rare and expensive. I can’t imagine any mage having a powerful poison like that just lying around.”

  “Well,” Benjamin said slowly, “Zarkon showed me a vial of it for comparison. It can’t be that rare if he had it.”

  The Court Mage stood up in anger. “No honest wizard should deal with such dangerous substances! I can’t imagine what use one could possibly have for it, but it only lowers my opinion of that hack even further. I find it highly suspicious that he would have a sample of the very poison used to kill the former king on hand!”

  That was awfully defensive, Varre thought to himself, could he have something to do with this? “Relax Tobias. Just because he was able to figure it out too, doesn’t make him suspicious. Don’t forget he once saved my life.” Right, can’t forget to play up that angle.

  Tobias sat back down. “Forgive me, your majesty. I simply find any underhanded attempt to discredit the good name of my guild, an insult.”

  With that out of the way, the rest of the meeting proceeded smoothly. Marna started to list the various noble houses that sent congratulatory messages to the new king. Since the coronation happened so quickly after Mikkel’s death, many weren’t able to attend.

  The Steward was not as knowledgeable on this topic as an Alderman like Fedlow would have been. She wasn’t certain which houses omitted to send a message, or what exactly their history with the previous king was. She clearly did the best she could, but she was missing the years of experience a proper specialist would have.

  Chancellor Clearwater still had no news to share from any of the other kingdoms. The messages most likely have not arrived.

  With that, the meeting was finished. Everyone was excused, though Varre made sure to stop Hakon, before he could leave the chamber.

  “What do you think about Tobias? Don’t you think he’s being a little bit shady?” the king asked, once he made sure the doors were closed.

  The Captain of the Royal Guard immediately turned serious. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, it seemed like he was deliberately changing the subject. Zarkon was able to figure out the poison pretty much instantly. Tobias needed several days, and even then he was convinced that the hydra venom came from an adventurer, not a mage.”

  “He’s… a difficult man to work with,” Hakon said after a pause, “so I’m not surprised he blew up like that, when questioned. But I suppose, right now, we need to keep our eyes open. We still don’t know who our enemies really are.”

  “Do you think that he might have done it?” Varre urged.

  The captain took a few moments to think about it. “It’s possible, but I doubt it. I just don’t see what he has to gain from all this.”

  The king cocked an eyebrow. “Well, what about wealth and power? Everyone wants that.”

  “Of course. But keep in mind Tobias is a wizard,” Hakon answered, “he may be of noble blood, but he has no claim to the throne. It’s not like he was in the running. Right now, he is your Court Mage. That’s the second highest position a wizard can reach in Logres.”

  “And the first?”

  “That would be the Head of the Mages Guild. However, I do not see him replacing the current Archmage any time soon.”

  Varre grabbed his chin. “You may have a point there. It seemed like he was trying to avoid the insinuation that any wizard could have had anything to do with this. If he wanted to replace the Archmage, he should have tried to frame him instead.”

  “Exactly,” the captain agreed, “as a Court Mage, he benefits from a stable, wealthy kingdom. I don’t see what he has to gain from sparking all this chaos and running the risk of a civil war. Even if we manage to come out of this ahead, he still runs the risk of being replaced. He was far safer under Mikkel’s reign.”

  “Maybe he didn’t think that far ahead,” the king suggested, “maybe he simply gave Fedlow this poison without knowing that’s what he meant to use it for. Now, if anyone was to find out Tobias was involved, he’d be executed!”

  “That’s possible. Though I’d expect a little more foresight than that from a mage. Especially an experienced Court Mage. They spend years studying, so I doubt he’d make such a simple mistake. Still, I’ll make sure to keep an eye on him. We need to investigate all leads at this point.”

  “Good. Get it done,” Varre answered it and watched Hakon leave the room.

  Now that this was resolved, he allowed himself a deep sigh. So many things had already happened today and he hadn’t even had lunch yet. Worst of all, he was about to face another grueling day of training. He contemplated running away and hiding in some quiet corner of the castle, but his hopes were dashed when he found Benjamin waiting for him outside the door.

  The chamberlain bowed. “Kerryn is ready to see you, your majesty. He mentioned it’s time for a sparring match.”

  “Of course it is,” Varre frowned.

  Is it innocuous? Or, do you think there's something suspicious about this after all?

  Do you think he's too shady? Or is he just your typical mean old mage?

  The king vs. an experienced adventurer with decades of combat under his belt.

  Should be an easy victory for old Varre.