CHAPTER NINETEEN

The fleet arrived at the capital, Jeggan, to be greeted with the news that King Beune was dead and had been succeeded by his daughter and eldest surviving child, the Princess Rane.
She herself came to the quay to greet her relation Cregitzig and inspect the prizes he had brought back. Cregitzig must then have mentioned Chaldez because as the treasure was being loaded into wagons she sent for him.
Chaldez found her to be a large middle-aged woman in the most fantastic outfit he had ever seen, and laden with jewels. There was a dark blemish in the skin just below her lower lip which made her look at a distance as though she had a lopsided mouth. She gazed upon Chaldez with undisguised delight.
"I am pleased we have managed to get you here at last," she said. "You have had many adventures and I want to hear all about them. You shall come to live with me at the stavista; you'll find your grandfather a dreadful bore. I refuse to let you live with him."
The "stavista" proved to be the royal palace; in fact a collection of wooden buildings within a fortified compound, and rather similar in plan to Datzcrig's palace where Chaldez had spent the winter before he was abducted.
Dan was officially designated as his squire, and as such was also found accommodation in the stavista; Doo and the four children were taken into the household of Draff, the queen's cousin. After the discovery of Chaldez's romantic history, Draff had gone out of his way to become associated with him, and he calculated that by having Doo in his household the association would continue.
Havil was eager to discover what had passed between Chaldez and the queen at their first meeting, and when he heard that Chaldez was to be resident at court he looked momentarily surprised.
"Don't be taken in by her," he advised Chaldez. "She'll like you one minute and have you poisoned the next. Her favourites never last long."
"She wants me to tell her about what happened to me, that's all. I expect I'll soon be allowed to leave and go to our grandfather."
"You'll be better off with him," remarked Havil. "Life at court won't suit you."
Havil himself lived with his mother and father on his father's family estate close to the capital. Su, his father, was connected by marriage to the royal family and Havil had expectations of being summoned to the court any day. Chaldez was surprised to learn that he did not already live there.
Queen Rane did not tire of Chaldez as quickly as Havil had predicted. She was constantly sending for him, and then he would have to stand next to her, while she ate or was being dressed - a laborious business which might take anything up to an hour - or reclined on her enormous bed or sat in state on the throne receiving petitions. When she grew bored with the proceedings she would turn to him and say "tell me again, my dear, about those dreadful potters of yours."
Chaldez soon learned that what she wanted to hear was the part where Kadz struck down his sister-in-law with the hand axe.
As time passed he was astonished to discover how many people at court were terrified of the queen. He heard extraordinary stories of how, in a moment's rage, she might strip a man of all his possessions or order his execution. Her husband, it was said, had been thrown into a dungeon and, on her orders, had his eyes put out and been starved to death.

Chaldez believed this and the other stories he heard to be fabrications. The queen gave him no reason to fear her, and she responded to his confident, un-guarded, frank manner by calling on him more and more to keep her company.
One day she told him "Chaldez, if you were a Theigan I would be tempted to give you estates and wealth, and then you would grow proud and I should have to take them away from you. But you have a kingdom of your own, and one day you will be king of it, so you have no need of the paltry gifts I might give you."

* * * *

The first time Chaldez met Taigram, his grandfather, and Hiyo, his grandmother, he had to remind himself that his grandfather had once been a king. A less regal figure it was hard to imagine. Taigram's clothes were little better than rags and he wore on his head a weird-looking leather bonnet. His hair, like his beard, was long and unkempt. He peered at his grandson, standing a few feet in front of where he and his wife sat, from sunken eyes which were partially obscured by long, thick eyebrows. His speech was mumbling, and made even harder to hear because of an impediment.
"Aa...aa...aa...aa," he began, "Not much of aa...aa...Shansi there. Wouldn't aa...aa...aa...aa...have known you were her boy. Where...aa...aa...you been, eh?"
Chaldez began to explain that he had been detained since his arrival by the queen at the stavista.
"I know that!" snapped the old man, his eyes widening. "Do you think aa...aa...aa...aa...don't know what's going on here?"
So Chaldez tried to explain about the shipwreck and his other misfortunes, but Taigram hardly ever let him finish a sentence. "What...what?" he would demand so that Chaldez would have to start again, but as he spoke he knew the old man was not listening; his eyes roamed the room restlessly, only occasionally settling on Chaldez, and then they would narrow.
After a while it occurred to Chaldez that he thought him to be an impostor. "I can prove I'm Chaldez!" he burst out. "If you don't believe me look at this," and he approached his grandfather, un-buttoning the front of his tunic as he did so. He showed him the locket and the Roe Aada ruby and explained that it was from the Roe Aada sword which belonged to the kings of Sair.
His grandfather made rumbling noises in the back of his throat as he scrutinised the jewel. Then he said "Aa...aa...aa...aa...I've seen better."
Hiyo had so far said little. She was a handsome woman, very upright. Her long grey hair fell to her shoulders in ringlets; her clothes were sober, practical rather than fashionable. After her husband had examined the ruby she beckoned Chaldez to where she was sitting so that she could have a look at it. She gave Chaldez a perfunctory smile and indicated that he could return to his former place.
Taigram said: "You...aa...aa...know it was my intention...aa...aa...that the thrones of Sair and...aa...aa...aa...Kroya should be united, eh?"
Chaldez shook his head.
"The mines," continued Taigram. "They couldn't...aa...aa...aa...be worked properly. Kroya...aa...aa...too small; not enough...aa...aa...aa...aa...people, see what I mean? Get the two kingdoms under one...aa...aa...aa...ruler...aa...aa..." and here his voice petered out.

It occurred then to Chaldez, for the first time, that he was Taigram's heir. He had been born to be king of Kroya as well as Sair; the thought gave him a peculiar feeling. He was, properly, a great princeling, and not so long ago he had been emptying the piss-pots of a potter, and on his chest he bore the brand mark of a slave.
Hiyo was speaking: "You've met you cousin Havil, I think?"
"Yes, we've met," said Chaldez.
His grandmother nodded and smiled. "He's met Havil," she repeated to her husband. Then looking up at Chaldez she said "We like Havil very much. They think highly of him here, you know. The King . . . the late King . . . intended him to be a courtier but he did insist on going off with Datzcrig; such an adventurer he is . . . and so young. They all think very highly of him."
Chaldez, who had grown to detest Havil, could only smile thinly and try to look impressed.
Taigram said: "When they thought you were...aa...aa...aa...dead it was assumed that boy would be my...aa...aa...successor. But you're not, eh?" and he directed at Chaldez a sly, conspiratorial glance. He might even have winked.
Hiyo put in hurriedly: "And neither are you, my dear. And we mustn't forget that Chaldez is not yet king of Sair." Then looking at Chaldez she said: "Naturally we all want you to have your father's throne; it's yours by right. We must get our throne back, and yours. The King . . . the late King promised to put a fleet and an army at His Majesty’s disposal. Unfortunately the Queen doesn't appear to have been told . . . " "She won't see us!" cut in Taigram. It was clear that he was bitter.
Hiyo said "We've lost touch with the court. The King, he was my uncle you know, was so kind. Nothing was too much for him, it really wasn't. Things are different."
"She's treated us badly," growled Taigram. He added darkly: "She should never be on that throne. Have they...aa...aa...told you, Chaldez, how she...aa...aa...aa...got it? Of course they haven't! Too scared the lot of them! Well I'm not."
Hiyo tried to hush him but he was now much too angry to be reasoned with. Rane, he said, had come to the throne by murdering an elder sister and a younger brother; she had had them and their families poisoned.
Chaldez listened in disbelief; when eventually he returned to the stavista he felt confused and deeply unhappy. The visit had been nothing like he had expected.
If the queen had indeed murdered her brother and sister and their families he had no wish to know it; under her care his life was better than it had ever been.
She summoned him as soon as he got back, and he told her what Taigram had said about intending him to be his heir to the throne of Kroya.
"Ha!" she said. "They all thought that vile boy Havil would be his successor. My father, you know, talked of sending a fleet to put Taigram back on the throne but I could never do anything so unkind. The Kroyans were perfectly right to get rid of him and they certainly don't deserve having Havil as their king. But I do believe I would be doing them a favour if I were to give the throne to you. How would you like to be king of Kroya? You would be wealthy enough then to overthrow the usurper Sigmar, and then you'd have Sair as well!"
Chaldez assumed she was teasing him. He smiled and said: "I'd like it very well."
"On the other hand," she said, "I could keep you here . . . "
After that she often returned to the subject of Kroya. Sometimes Chaldez thought she was teasing him; at others he was not so sure, and eventually he began to believe that she did really intend him become its king. He was to be convinced of it when she contrived a meeting between him and Cregitzig in her presence.
"Chaldez," she told her cousin, "wants to be king of Kroya. What do you make of that?"