CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

Prince Beune, Rane's son, was proclaimed king the same day that his mother died, and before nightfall Chaldez and Dan had moved out of the stavista and in with Taigram and Hiyo.
Arrangements for the coronation were put in the hands of the king's nephew, Prince Haz, who hurried to the capital from his father's estate, a day's journey away, as soon as news of the queen's death reached him.
Taigram's household seethed with rumours; people were coming and going every hour of the day, and any news that Chaldez missed, Dan was sure to hear of and pass on to him. Dan had made a habit of keeping himself well informed and he had numerous contacts in and around the stavista.
One of the early visitors at the lodge was the beautiful Ardur; she came to see Chaldez.
Despite her apparent jealousy when she had suspected him of harbouring a love for someone other than herself she seemed to have forgiven him and they had remained friends.
Chaldez was embarrassed by her visit; he would have liked her not to know about Doo, and Doo not have known about her, but as it happened they met each other within minutes of her arrival.
When she and Chaldez were alone she gave him a knowing look. "You're a strange boy," she said.
Chaldez was not sure whether he was being flattered or insulted. "Why do you say that?" he asked.
She only smiled. He wondered what Doo had told her in the few moments they had been together. He was sure she would have given nothing away; could Ardur have guessed, then?
The news that she brought was that Beune's coronation was to be delayed until the great Theigan chiefs had assembled at the capital, and since many of them were the rulers of distant islands, that was unlikely to be for several months. Meanwhile Prince Haz would occupy the stavista.
"He's sent for your cousin Havil," she said.
When he heard about these developments Dan said: "Beune will never be allowed to reach the throne."
Three days later the uncrowned king was dead. Rumours reaching Taigram's lodge suggested that he had been brutally murdered by three or four assailants while he was asleep in bed.
Dan said, in a matter-of-fact way: "It was bound to happen," but Chaldez was unable to be so dispassionate. His father, a king, had been murdered too, and besides, he was horrified at the thought of the harmless and infantile Beune being bludgeoned to death, and in his own bed.
Prince Haz, being next in line to the throne, was proclaimed king. He was crowned immediately, Havil being nominally in charge of the arrangements.
Shortly after his coronation, the king married Beune's young widow.
Dan was not surprised by that, either.
Ardur, it turned out, was a childhood friend of the new queen, who appointed her to her entourage at the stavista. She continued, however, to visit Chaldez, who began to suspect that she came to see Doo just as much as to see him. The two of them seemed genuinely to like each other, and once Chaldez realised that their friendship could do him no harm he was pleased by it. He wanted Doo to have friends; sometime in the not-very distant future he would have to leave Jeggan, and it was a relief to know that he would not be abandoning her in a land of strangers.
Dan told him that there was renewed activity in the harbour; more ships were arriving and he was sure that a fleet was being assembled. Then Havil sent a messenger summoning them both to the stavista.
Dan took umbrage at his peremptory tone. He whispered to Chaldez: "How dare he send for us as though we were peasants. Tell him we're too busy to come."
Chaldez could see no point in creating difficulties. "Tell my cousin we will be pleased to visit him," he told the messenger.
When they got to the stavista ,Dan said that if Havil kept them waiting he would leave. In the event he saw them straight away.
Magnificently dressed and attended by five courtiers, he seemed at first very adult, very grand, but at l7 he had succeeded in growing no more than a gesture of a beard and it emphasised rather than disguised his youthfulness.
He was very pompous. "Ah, dear cousin!" he exclaimed when Chaldez was ushered in. "You'll have noticed some changes here, no doubt. The place was an absolute dump when we got here. How you all put up with it I cannot imagine. I've turned it upside down, of course. The king asked me to make it habitable and, well, I think I've made quite an impression … "
Dan said "Where?" and looked around him, but Havil ignored the question.
"Did you know," he boomed, "that I'm to marry Felda? You must know her, cousin. Quite the most exquisite creature at court. Her father is Dradigsad, of course. Immensely wealthy as you know. The family is one of the most powerful in all of Theigia."
Chaldez did happen to know Felda, a mousey, unprepossessing child who had visited Queen Rane's court from time to time with her father, a grotesque character who was reputed to own more slaves than any one else. Chaldez had thought him repulsive.
"Congratulations," he said woodenly. Dan said: "Felda . . . ah yes, I think I know the one you mean." Then after a pause he added, "yes, congratulations."
Havil said, "thank you. The betrothal will be announced any day but the nuptials will have to wait until things are settled… "
"The dowry, you mean?" Chaldez asked.
"No no. That was all settled ages ago. I refer to Kroya. You must know that."
"What about Kroya?" demanded Dan.
"I'm to be second in command to Cregitzig. Do they tell you absolutely nothing down there at the lodge? Grandfather is to be sent for as soon as the throne is secured. Campaigning wouldn't suit him; well, I don't need to tell you that!" He smiled smugly.
Dan said: "And I suppose Chaldez and I are supposed to stay behind with him, or will there be room in your army for us?"
"I did assume you'd want to come," said Havil.
Chaldez asked: "Who's paying?"
Havil looked mystified.
Chaldez tried again: "Who's paying for the campaign - the ships, the army…?"
"Oh that!" exclaimed Havil. "It's all being looked after."
"By?" Chaldez persisted.
"The king is raising funds. His people will be more than happy to pay their little bit."

"And grandfather, when he is restored, will repay the king, no doubt?"
For the first time, Havil showed that he was unsettled. "I don't think you are aware, are you, cousin, of what was going on? Did you know for instance, that Rane was bleeding grandfather dry? When he heard that she was going to finance the attempt to put you on the throne that is rightfully his, he not only resented it but he knew perfectly well that she would make you repay her many times over what it cost her. In other words, cousin, Queen Rane was not interested in you; she was only interested in getting her sticky fat fingers on the Kroyan hoard. You would be her puppet. To prevent this, grandfather undertook to meet all the costs of the expedition himself, and in return, your good friend the queen said she would back his claim to the throne against yours, and she proceeded to present him with demands for more and more gold with the lying excuse that it was needed for preparations that she wasn't making, and had no intention of making, either."
Chaldez would have liked to disbelieve it, but his own knowledge of the facts told him it had to be true.
Dan was outraged: "The lying cheat!" he said. "I knew she couldn't be trusted; it was obvious she was up to something. They say the gods boiled her brains, and I say she deserved it!"
Chaldez too, was angry; he was angry that he had been taken in by the queen's friendship. He had trusted her, and she had abused his trust. He felt betrayed. Then he thought about the betrayal of his grandfather, and he was angrier still. But he said nothing.
Before they left him, Havil said that the fleet would sail for Kroya the following spring.
"Why the delay?" demanded Dan. "The harbour's full of ships - I've seen them."
Havil explained that some of the Theigan chieftians needed time to meet the quota of ships which the king had demanded of them. "We've given them until the spring," he said, implying that he and the king were acting together in the matter.
The six-month interval between the audience with Havil and the departure of the fleet gave Chaldez plenty of time to work up an uncontainable excitement and a parallel sense of guilt. He was excited that his mission was once more on the point of being resumed, and his excitement made him feel guilty because nowhere in his vision of the future could he see a place for Doo.
It was intended that she and the children would travel to Kroya with Taigram and Hiyo after the campaign had been successfully concluded, but Chaldez had no intention of settling down in Kroya. He had a kingdom of his own to win, and a deadly adversary to overcome. Dangerous times lay ahead.
When he spoke to Doo of them she smiled and told him she was sure he would succeed, but she knew that Chaldez would be sailing out of her life the day he sailed for Kroya, and not always did she managed to hide her unhappiness.
As his departure drew nearer, Chaldez began to share it, for life without his Doo seemed increasingly impossible. He felt he was truly himself only when they were together. They had an understanding that needed no words for its expression. He liked being with her; had grown to like everything about her, even her thin bony nose and her too-wide mouth.
By the time of the spring festival he was conscious, almost daily, of an impending doom. He toyed with the increasingly attractive thought of not going with Dan and Havil to Kroya at all. He would stay behind and marry Doo; it was absurd, anyway, to think that he would ever be able to take the crown of Sair from Sigmar. He had nothing except the Roe Aada ruby, and what good was that? Did he honestly think that all he must do was present himself in his kingdom, show the people the ruby and then sit back while they threw out Sigmar and made him their king?
At the back of his mind that was precisely what he had imagined would happen, but he saw now that it was a puerile delusion. The more he examined the reality of his situation the more convinced he was that it was hopeless. He might just as well stay in Jeggan where he and Doo could live out their lives in quiet obscurity.
He hinted as much to Doo, but instead of being pleased she implored him to think of no such thing. "Your destiny is to be king," she told him. "I would not live with you if you stayed here, believe me. You must go."
There were tears in her eyes as she spoke, and she only grew calm when he promised never again to speak of such a thing.
He knew then that he was bound to sail for Kroya, and indeed, the prospect was less abhorrent now that he knew that Doo wanted him to go. And perhaps, after all, they would not be separated for long. The gods had brought them together, and brought them together for a reason which he was certain had yet to be served.
Activity in the harbour intensified and eventually a fleet of 16 vessels was assembled. Mid-way through the fourth month they put to sea.