Chapter 15: Lies

 

 

 

Chapter 15: Lies

 

WITH the unheard of case of an assassin sneaking into the royal castle’s inner compound temporarily resolved with his capture, the king had summoned Unen and her friends to the main residence’s sunlit guest room.

King Klinack and Aide Harabal were already waiting for them inside. Yet, the man who had kicked back and boasted about the room’s lavishness as if it had belonged to him was absent.

Klinack invited them to sit before speaking formally to Unen. “Lady Unen, as the lord of Kujh Castle, and as the king who rules over all Cerná Kingdom, I accept full responsibility for the danger you faced. It was a direct result of my poor judgment. I offer you my sincerest and most heartfelt apologies for all you have been put through.” Fatigue stretched the crow’s feet at the corner of his eyes.

Vrba’s chamberlain Jalt had loosed the arrows at Unen. He was renowned as the greatest archer in all of Schaehor, and had received orders from his lord to assassinate the mapmaker Sparrow Eyes.

Gold mines belonging to Cerná Kingdom were located within Vrba’s Schaehor Province. A former king once granted the mountain range to Vrba’s ancestors, but ownership had been reclaimed by another king upon the discovery of a gold vein.

That was three generations ago. A hundred years had passed without much change until last year, when a new vein of gold was rumored to have been found near the summit of one of the mountains. It was merely “rumored” because Vrba had bribed the magistrate overseeing the mountain range’s mines, so the new discovery was never officially been reported back to the king. In other words, Vrba had been trying to retain unlawful possession of the newfound gold.

If Klinack came to regard the mapmaker he had summoned highly, and thus asked Unen to map his entire kingdom, then the gold-laden mountain range would inevitably be surveyed in the very near future. They had heard that the new gold vein ran so close to the surface that Vrba was already conducting open-air mining. However, even if he could buy silence from the magistrates and miners, lying about the shape of the mountain was impossible. Were Unen to make a map that faithfully reproduced the curves of the land, his crimes were destined to be revealed. Therefore, Vrba had tried to put an end to Unen’s life before she could pose a threat to him.

After having explained these circumstances, Klinack covered his face with his hand and let out a loud, heavy sigh. He was clearly tormented. A close friend had attempted an assassination within his castle, and even more disturbing, he had been betrayed by a vassal he had trusted deeply as the king.

But Klinack dispelled his vulnerability with the sigh and now bore a commanding visage. Slowly running his steady gaze over each person present, he stopped on Mouru. “I’ve heard from Harabal that our success in apprehending the assassin owes most to you. In that regard, would you care to explain how you caught on to Vrba’s treacherous plan?”

Mouru nodded eagerly and suddenly directed his gaze at Unen and Irena. “Did you notice that the highwaymen who attacked us on our way here possessed no items, such as bags or rope, for securing and transporting their spoils?”

He must have been feigning his illness after all, because he spoke with enthusiasm. Unen really hated to admit it, but she had to shake her head no at his question.

“Maybe they were thinking of stealing their victim’s bag with the spoils inside, essentially removing the need for extra bags, but there’s always a chance that the victims will fight back and rip the bags in the process. For those who make a living off stealing, preparing to minimize unnecessary losses is a way of life. Besides, items and horses only get you so far. For highwaymen, women and children make for excellent spoils as well. If they’re lucky enough to score someone from a noble family, they could even charge a hefty ransom. Despite all that, our attackers didn’t even have a single strand of rope. There’s no other explanation, of course, other than that they were planning to kill and only kill, right from the start.”

Mouru paused and raked his gaze over the room. “That begs the question: Who was the target? Naturally, you can come up with all sorts of possible targets, but considering that they were prepared to kill at that place and time…”

He pointed at Unen. “You were the most likely candidate.” The corner of his mouth drew upward. “So, temporarily setting aside the other options, I hypothesized that the ‘Mapmaker summoned to the royal capital’ was their target. Acting on that premise, I sought assistance from Lord Harabal last night.”

Harabal took the cue to speak next. “Last night, Master Mouru came to me to inquire about whom else knew that His Majesty had summoned Lady Unen to the capital. Hence, I answered him so: His Majesty, myself, the emissaries Sir Sissel and Sir Turek, and Lord Vrba, who happened to be present when the messenger had arrived from Chelveny with a list of excuses from his lord for attacking Lady Unen.”

“Ahhh,” Klinack muttered. “I spoke with my queen about it as well, but certainly, I hadn’t informed anyone else of the details. I didn’t want to draw much attention, as it may have affected you adversely had your maps turned out to be a sham and word spread of a mapmaker being tossed out of the royal castle…”

Klinack abruptly gasped. Creases forming in his brow, he angrily placed his hands on his desk and turned to shoot daggers at Harabal standing beside him. “Did you lie to me last night? When you said that the Master Mage had asked if we were going to war?”

“No, that was not a lie. I simply left out what the rest of our conversation had been about, Your Majesty.”

Klinack brought his hand to his face and groaned, but didn’t press for further details.

Dismissing the king’s dejection, perhaps because he was confident, or perhaps because he knew they held a bond of strong trust between them, Harabal continued explaining. “You see, I also became convinced that the attack had not been the work of typical highwaymen after Master Mouru told me of the details. I found it strange that Lord Vrba, who had not once shown an inkling of interest in geography or mathematics, had become so invested in our talks about mapmaking—especially when it came to recording undulations in the ground. However, we did not have enough information to determine whether that was connected to the highwayman incident or not.” Harabal signaled for Mouru to take over the conversation again.

Mouru addressed Klinack this time. “With that in mind, I had Lord Harabal set a trap, since we had nothing to lose either way. The plan was to incite the culprit to action by having Lord Harabal openly speak of meeting Unen alone on the turret rooftop, and to purposely leave enough time in between so they could prepare an attack. Things started to get a bit dicey when the target decided to take a detour into the city during that critical phase, but…” Mouru glanced back at Unen. “Well, I guess you can say it worked out in our favor, because we got to confirm that she was indeed the target.”

“I knew it—you used me as bait.” Even in the king’s presence, Unen couldn’t resist calling Mouru out. Narrowing her eyes, she glared furiously at him.

But Mouru swiftly sidestepped her fury and flashed his killer grin. “I had to. It was the fastest method.”

“Why did you pretend to be sick?” Irena interrupted, disapproval knitting her brow.

“I couldn’t afford to fall behind the assassin or let them get the upper hand. So, obviously, I had to lie in wait on top of the turret. But any culprit worth their salt would be wary if a mage was conspicuously absent. So we put on a little show to trick them.”

So that’s why Vrba stopped by the grand dining hall without staying to eat. He was trying to figure out the reason for Mouru’s absence, Unen pieced together.

“Does anyone else have any questions?” Mouru asked the room.

After confirming that no one did, he bowed to Klinack and took a step back.

Klinack nodded to Mouru. “Thank you for taking the time to explain.” Loosely shaking his head to clear away his doubts, he shifted eyes gleaming with determination on Unen. “First there was Chelveny, now Vrba—it appears Harabal was correct in his assessment. Your knowledge has the power to drive people to action.”

The grief-stricken, betrayed man who had lost his best friend was nowhere to be seen. Now poised with the majestic grace of a powerful king, Klinack brought the room to respectful silence as he pondered what to do with Unen.

He turned to Harabal. “Harabal, let me confirm the situation with you. When you say her knowledge is dangerous, are you referring to the chance that other kingdoms may misuse her maps?”

“That is the general idea.”

“In that case, there is no problem if we win her over to our side first.”

At that statement, not only Unen, but Mouru froze with wide-open eyes.

Harabal was the only person completely unfazed. Switching into business mode, he commented, “Now that I think about it, I have been inconvenienced ever since my assistant was hired as a scholar for a noble family half a year ago. There is no end to the number of people who will assist with the simple work, but to my great disdain, I have had a remarkably difficult time finding anyone versed in arithmetic. I am not free to teach someone from scratch either.”

“Now, that indeed is a problem,” Klinack responded with a straight face. But it didn’t take long for him to sigh loudly, a frown muddling his brow. “…I’m going to regret asking this, but you planned this from the start, didn’t you?”

“No, sire. I merely had it as one of the cards on the table.”

Unen and her friends could only watch the banter between the king and his aide in mute astonishment.

Returning to a more official expression, Klinack came to stand in front of Unen and looked directly into her eyes. “You heard him. Lady Unen, do you have any interest in becoming Harabal’s assistant?”

Unen stared at Klinack’s face with her mouth agape.

She had a hard time suddenly accepting what His Majesty the King had offered. Had she misheard him? She replayed the memory from a moment ago. Painstakingly repeating each letter in her mind to reform the words, she reconfirmed what they meant.

“You want me to become Lord Harabal’s assistant?”

Klinack answered her with a quiet smile and a firm nod.

“Um, uh…someone like me? Err…well…” Unen couldn’t hide her flustered state of mind.

“It appears you don’t make use of trigonometry during your surveying,” Harabal pointed out.

“I, um,” Unen said, gasping her words, “know it exists…”

Harabal’s expression spread into a wide smile. “Then you will gain much by coming to work with me.”

“My castle’s libraries are stacked with books and documents passed down for generations,” Klinick offered, “The books will rejoice if you become the Witch of the Archives.”

Joy soared inside of Unen’s chest, her excitement pounding against her ribcage the instant she had heard him mention the Witch of the Archives. The waves of happiness crashed against the shores of her conscious mind again and again, until they finally spilled over the shoreline into a gigantic flood.

“Th-Thank…you…very…much! I accept!” Unen somehow mustered a reply despite her trance-like state. She felt like she was dreaming. Not knowing the proper etiquette for the situation, she let her emotion radiate from her as she returned Klinack’s gaze.

“Your Majesty, since Lady Unen has agreed to work for us, why don’t we take this opportunity to conduct an accurate survey of the entire kingdom?” Harabal promptly proposed. “I have repeatedly counseled you to do so, but you have refused to listen to me until now.”

“No, wait. We can’t do it all at once. Yes, we can’t.”

“I have no issue with conducting it territory by territory. You refuse to take action on this matter because you want to finish it all in one go,” Harabal countered.

Klinack started to mutter incoherent excuses about the logistics of budget and timing. At that moment, Mouru put his right hand on his chest and stepped forward from where he had been waiting behind Unen.

“If I may, Your Highness?”

“What is it?” Klinack turned to Mouru with relief, grateful for being rescued from Harabal’s persistence.

“Ori and myself are charged with the duty of protecting Unen on orders from the person you might call her master. As such, won’t you please allow us the privilege of serving as her bodyguard within your presence as well, Your Highness?”

Unen’s eyes darted to Mouru in shock, just as Irena’s shout of, “WHAAAT?!” rose from behind her.

Klinack hadn’t expected this development either. He took a second to assess Mouru with calculating eyes, before breaking into a broad smile. Swinging his arms open, he cheered, “What blessing is this? Master Mage is offering to come to my castle, eh?! I wholeheartedly welcome your presence here!”

“Thank you kindly for your permission,” Mouru replied formally, before turning toward Unen. “You heard it. I look forward to spending more time with you from now on.”

He flashed the most blinding smile yet.

***

THEY were to move to the king’s office in order to discuss the many details of their new arrangement. Irena stayed behind in the bright guest room, while Unen, Ori, and Mouru were temporarily shown to the antechamber on the main residence’s second-floor. They were waiting there until the stewards, clerks, and necessary servants had been gathered.

Unen heaved a heavy sigh once the king and his aide had left the room as she scrutinized the faces of the two men accompanying her.

Ori’s expression was as unreadable as ever. He stood in silence a few steps behind her, and seemed to be examining the suit of armor decorating the wall next to the window. Was he thinking up tactics for how to confront a combatant in full plate armor?

Mouru appeared equally unaffected, traipsing around the room staring at everything with interest. He stopped in front of the large tapestry decorating the wall to their left and muttered “oohs” and “ahhs” at it.

Yet another sigh spilled from Unen’s lips.

“You look fairly unhappy.” Mouru turned toward her with his head cocked.

Reeling in her desire to jump on him and declare him to be at fault, she settled for a crack at sarcasm. “You must have some nerve to smoothly weave those lies about being on a mission to protect me. You’re something else, all right.”　

“What I said isn’t necessarily a lie.”

Unen thought Mouru had to be cracking a joke or mocking her, but his eyes were dead serious.

“We were ordered to retrieve the Book of Secrets Hereh escaped with to prevent the knowledge inside from spreading across the world. In other words, not only must we keep an eye on you, but we must also protect you from those after your knowledge.”

As Unen dizzily turned over his words inside her head, she felt as though a hand of ice had taken ahold of her entrails. No matter how many times she swallowed, the taste of bitter saliva continued to fill her mouth.

Mouru watched her stand there in horrified silence with delight before going on to say, “Besides, as far as it comes to telling lies, I think you have me beat there.”

His penetrating ice-blue eyes jabbed at hers.

Unable to wrench her gaze away, she watched as he smirked in triumph.

“Unen, you’re Hereh’s child who supposedly died, aren’t you?”