A late afternoon sunshower chased them out of the courtyard. Alboim helped to carry the littles into a basement nursery where they happily roamed around under the watchful gaze of the fox girls and several matrons.

  “There is one more place I would like to take you, Lord, if you are willing.”

  “Sure.” Once more, Alboim followed his butler, and… friend? He nodded. Friend seems about right. Bennit took him outside again, out of a gate.

  “This is the middle bailey. Most of the work of the castle is done here, away from the Heart where the Countess lives.” The ground sloped slightly downward as they strode down a wide road paved with massive limestone blocks about three hundred feet to a second wall.

  Looks a lot like what the Romans did. Alboim turned around, looking back at the inner keep, or ‘heart’ as Bennit called it. It towered far above them, a good sixty feet tall, of limestone blocks, with thick bands of red brick. But putting the human engineering to shame, the redwood towered even above those, a green crown growing, heedless of the puny buildings surrounding it.

  The walls they were walking towards were every bit as impressive, a massive fifty feet tall with the same construction. It was too close to tell for sure, but the secondary keep looked like it was a circular wall instead of the octagon of the heart. Every few hundred feet, a square tower rose an additional fifteen or twenty feet above the wall, topped with giant crewed crossbows. The gate was large enough for two waggons, built like Conestogas without the hoop canvas covering, abreast with plenty of room for horse- and foot- traffic.

  Alboim stopped to stare at the giant birds pulling one cart. “Bennit! What are those?”

  “Huh? They’re just thunder birds. The elves use them, mostly. But some of the smaller human kingdoms do too.” The birds were nine feet tall, with dapple gray feathers and small wings they used to balance themselves. Their heads were long and flexible, like a goose’s. The birds' large beaks were shaped like a toucan’s, though not as prominent, and were red, fading to orange and yellow at the base. Powerful three-toed legs pulled their wagon with ease.

  Two of the birds were enough to pull the same-sized wagon as the ten horses laboring behind it. The thunder birds were so unusual, that Alboim almost missed one tiny detail. The horses lacked proper horse collars. Interesting, he thought, as Bennit pulled him away from the gate and up a narrow staircase off to the side.

  They climbed. “You guys ever heard of guardrails?” Alboim asked.

  “They get in the way if you’re armed and armored. Easier to just be fit and careful.” They were on the crest of the wall, making way to the nearest tower. Thankfully, this time the stairs were inside the protective stone, and they made their way up without any touch of vertigo. “Have a look,” Bennit said as he threw open the trapdoor at the top.

  Rugged green hills surrounded him, many dotted with farms and vineyards, others with towering trees that made even the one in the castle look small, once you considered perspective. Clouds cast shadows here and there, though elsewhere the sky was a brilliant Indigo blue.

  “My God, what a view.” Alboim breathed.

  Closer to home, when he finally tore his grasp away, he spied a third wall two-thirds down the hill. A large town filled the lower third, spread out across the small valley and part-way up the opposite hill. “This is the heart of Brantle County,” Bennit said with pride. “Lady Elspith did not mean to cause you any grief. She cares deeply for her land and people. Your very existence offers her hope, for until yesterday, she was the last of her line.”

  Alboim nodded. “I understand, a little, how she feels.” He admitted. “Dad was like that; he’d get so fixated on something that he’d forget all about other stuff. Like that time he forgot to pick me up from Little League, or when he burned Mom’s Christmas prime rib.

  “I need time to adjust, before I can even consider what she asked me. I have responsibilities back home, and I cannot just abandon them.”

  “You would not be the answer to our prayers if you could, Lord.” Bennit placed a comforting hand on Alboim’s shoulder. “We can take it one day at a time. And we can start by telling me, when you are ready, why you are so horrified by slavery.”

  “I am not ready to do that.”

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  “And that is fine. When you are ready, I will be there for you. You should speak, however briefly, to your aunt about it, though, sooner rather than later. She is likely to fill the rest of your staff with some of her most competent slaves very soon, if you do not explain things to her.”

  ~*** *** ***~

  Suzsise was waiting for them in the Heir’s Suite when they arrived, proudly supervising a gaggle of maids as they dusted and swept. “Master, Butler Bennit,” she said, curtsying deeply at the two of them as they entered. “Welcome back.”

  Unlike earlier, she showed confidence. “Thank you, Suzsise.” Alboim answered. The maids dropped what they were doing and hurried over to drop equally deep curtsies.

  “This is likely an audition, Lord,” Bennit whispered sotto voice. “These are some of the best maids in the castle, and the Lady probably expects you to choose one or two.” They were all young, human, and all sported copper choker-style collars, as, Alboim belatedly realized, Suzsise now wore. “If you wish to avoid more personal slaves, do not show a preference to any of them. And definitely do not stare at Lirien.”

  Alboim turned away from the raven-haired beauty quickly. She smiled coyly as he did so, and despite himself, his pulse quickened. “Bennit, Suzsise, I need to speak to the both of you in private. Is the library free?”

  “Yes, Master.” Suzsise answered. “That was the first room we deep cleaned.” One of the other servants muttered something about mildew and fumigation.

  “Then let us go there. How much longer will the rest of you be?”

  The mutterer answered, a wisp of blonde hair falling from a cap into her baby-blue eyes. “If it is your wish to retire, we can finish our tasks within half a chime. If you wish for the deep cleaning to be done properly, I can send for more workers and be done before dinner in four chimes. But, it will be loud.”’

  “Then it is probably best to finish the deep cleaning tomorrow.” Bennit answered for Alboim. “Once you have reached a good stopping point, we thank you for your work and will see you tomorrow.”

  “As you wish, Butler.” She answered for them all. As the door shut, he heard her tell another. “I hope the cat doesn’t think she’ll be keeping all of that to herself.”

  “The blonde makes me feel uncomfortable. Is there a way to keep her from being assigned near me, especially alone, without getting her punished?” Alboim asked as soon as the door closed.

  “I will speak to Dobsen and the Head Maid about her.” Bennit replied. “And I will also convey your unease with slavery to the Lady. The two of us cannot care for your entire suite ourselves. I would suggest a compromise. If you would accept them, you can borrow a few from the castle staff; matrons who are not looking for an easy life as the mother of an acknowledged bastard of Brantle House.”

  “Please do.”

  “Master,” Suzsise added, “my mother is an excellent cleaner, and she will not gossip.”

  He looked at Bennit. “Vireya, her mother, would be a decent choice.” the butler agreed. “Congratulations on your promotion, by the way.”

  “Thank you, Ben—Bennit.” She stammered. “The dresses I get to wear now are so pretty, and they let me eat seconds now, too!” she beamed. In that moment, Alboim saw how beautiful she could be when not cowering in fear.

  “Is your mother going to be enough?” Suzsise started, as if she had forgotten he even existed.

  “I need to learn more about this place, and I’ve noticed some discrepancies between my father’s books, and the reality on the ground. It would be easiest if I could read the books here,” he waved his hands around. “And today impressed on me how vital that is. I don’t have time to learn the old-fashioned way. Is there any way to get that zapped into my head?”

  “Yes, if you can trust your kidnappers.”

  “Huh?”

  “Lady Elspith will insist you learn by wrote memorization. Lady Moara, as her former student, agrees with her completely. And her head is lost in the mist more often than not. Lords Occam and Harralt, however, are more lax about things. They work for the king and understand the value of getting things done quickly over getting things done the right way. If you go to them and present your aunt with the reality of your mind-learning, there will be nothing for her to do but accept it.”

  “Then see if they will do it for me.”

  “Very well. I must warn you, and they will as well, this is not a shortcut. If you do not work hard, reading and writing Barugalan every day, for months, you will lose it quickly.”

  “I’m stuck here for six months, so that should not be a problem.”

  “Then I will ask them to come by tomorrow.”

  “Then, on that note, Suzise, can you go talk to your mother, and if everything works out, help her and Zinnise move in. Bennit, you know what to do.” Alboim yawned. “And I am beat. I think I’ll take a nap. You guys can nap too, if you’d like.”

  ~*** *** ***~

  July 4 / Hierschtan 11

  It was the first time the informant was able to get away without arousing suspicion. He was only allowed one day off each ten-day Barugalan week. Unlike most soldiers, he had made a habit of fishing the myriad creeks on his off day, and a carefully created reputation as an avid fisher. Today, he stopped by a market stall to buy lunch to take with him. When he handed over the copper coins, the merchant palmed the little scrap of canvas easily without any observer, if any existed, seeing anything but a normal exchange. “I hope your skewers are nice and hot, but not too spicy.” Important, but not blow-your-cover-and-flee important.

  “They are the exact same alligator skewers you always buy.” Understood.

  Baron Gastap would get the news as soon as the mail packets could be rowed up the river system to his domain.