CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

Doo was impatient for news from Kroya. Jeggan seemed empty and she was no longer content to be there.
The night following the fleet's departure she was unable to sleep for worrying about the voyage and the coming battle. Chaldez had assured her time and again that he could look after himself but she knew he was no warrior.
She hoped that as soon as Babra was defeated a message would be got to Taigram so he and his household - in which she included herself - could sail for Kroya without further delay. But how long would she and Chaldez be together? She knew he would be eager to begin his attempt to wrest the Sairish crown from the usurper Sigmar, a project which was full of danger.
At one moment she was sure he would succeed, and in the next she was full of doubts and fears. So much could go wrong.
Her mind was in turmoil, and the tranquillity of Taigram's household added to her anxiety. No one seemed particularly interested in the fate of the expedition, and she was disturbed that nothing was being done to prepare for the voyage to Kroya.
Deganz, the eldest of her four foster children, spent several hours every day with Taigram, and she asked him if the king had said anything about returning to his former home. The boy shook his head.
"Has he not told you what Kroya is like?" she asked, and Deganz told her that he had not spoken to him about Kroya at all.
The apathy was mystifying; it seemed to her that she was the only person in all Jeggan who was anxious about the fate of the expedition. She knew that Cregitzig was a great commander, but she could hardly believe that his success was taken so much for granted that no one even considered the possibility of anything going wrong.
Six days after the fleet had sailed, Ardur came to see her. Doo was surprised and pleased. She had liked her from their very first meeting, and Ardur, a young woman of a strong, independent mind, had quickly made it clear that she meant Doo to be her friend. But Chaldez had always provided the pretext for her visits to Taigram's lodge, and Doo had thought that after he had gone the visits would cease.
Informed that Ardur wished to see her once more, she assumed she had come to tell her about her forthcoming marriage, rumours of which had already reached the lodge.
Marriage, however, was far from Ardur's mind; she was more agitated than Doo had ever seen her. "It's being said at court," she burst out, "that Taigram won't be going to Kroya at all."
Doo looked at her in disbelief. "But of course he's going," she said.
"I was told he's renounced the throne. Havil is to be king."
Doo, bewildered, repeated the name. After a pause she asked. "But why?"
Ardur dropped her voice: "Haz made it a condition when he offered to meet the costs of the expedition. Havil will be king, but in title only. Haz will be his soveign lord."
Doo said: "Chaldez thinks Taigram will be sent for as soon as Kroya has been made safe for him. He's waiting for me to come with him."
"I know. That's why I came straight away."
Doo was silent. Then she said: "But Havil isn't Taigram's rightful heir anyway. Chaldez is. He should be king?"
"They're saying at the stavista that Kallistra and Hiyo are behind it. They persuaded Taigram to renounce in favour of Havil."

"Kallistra would," remarked Doo. "She's his mother. I don't see why Hiyo should favour Havil though." Then she said: "What's going to happen to Chaldez? He'll know he's been cheated. And Dan will. They won't stand for it."
"I think they're both in danger," Ardur said simply.
Doo stared at her in horror. Tears sprang to her eyes. "They'll be imprisoned?"
I don't think Havil and his advisers would think that to be much of a solution."
Doo covered her eyes and Ardur put her arm around her shoulder as she wept.
After a while Doo wiped her eyes and blew her nose. Looking at Ardur, she said, "They must be warned."
Ardur shook her head. "That's impossible."
"It can't be! I must get a message to him."
"How can you?"
Doo was silent. "I shall go to the harbour," she said. "Perhaps a vessel is going to Kroya."
"Even if there is," said Ardur, "who could you trust with such a message? Who could you trust even to look for Chaldez to deliver it?"
"I don't know," said Doo. "Will you send your servant with me to the harbour to protect me? I'm frightened of that place. I wouldn't even know who to ask."
Doo was so desperate that Ardur agreed, and later in the day her servant reported at the lodge with instructions to conduct Doo to the harbour.
He seemed to know his way around it and spoke to a number of mariners; Doo gathered from his conversations that a supply vessel was to sail for Kroya on the next tide. They found the master, but as Doo was about to ask him about getting her message to Chaldez she knew it was pointless. The man would agree to do it, take the little money she could offer him, and forget all about it. "I must go to Kroya," she told him on an impulse. "Will you take me?"
He looked at her and shook his head. His vessel would be laden with supplies for the Theigans, he said; there would be no room for passengers.
She offered him gold - knowing perfectly well that she had insufficient to pay for her passage.
He said no, it was out of the question and turned to walk away.
"A thousand gold pieces," she blurted out.
He stopped and looked at her. She puzzled him. She was handsomely dressed and yet her speech was that of the common people. Was it possible that she had a thousand gold pieces to give him? For that much gold he would sail her to Kroya without carrying any cargo at all. "I sail at midnight," he said. "You bring me a thousand gold pieces and I'll take you."
On her way back to the lodge Doo felt like weeping. What had possessed her? Not even Ardur, for all her wealth and rank, could easily raise a thousand gold pieces. For Doo it was out of the question . . . unless . . . and she thought of Taigram. He was surely rich enough to let her have such a sum and not even notice it. She decided to ask him, but a little farther on she knew for a certainty that it was a stupid idea. Then she remembered the "treasure chair" which little Hagar had told her about. Her pace quickened.
Hagar and Chaddi were waiting for her. Their nurse had got them ready for bed.
Doo steeled herself.
She hugged Hagar tightly, and could barely stop herself from crying. She knew that if she was to try speaking, tears would wash away her words. She set Hagar down and the child chatted away excitedly, but she could only respond with mute smiles and nods, her self-control on the very edge of breaking up. Chaddi, as always, was quieter, but it seemed to Doo that she clung to her just a bit tighter and just bit a longer than usual.
Later, when she thought it likely that the Small Chamber, where the "treasure chair" was, would be empty, she made her way to it, protecting the uncertain flame of her candle as she made her way along the dark, deserted corridors of the lodge.
As she approached the heavy door she was completely calm. Calmly she pushed it open, and calmly she walked towards the chair. In one of its wide, ornately decorated arms was the hidden compartment. She supposed there was a locking mechanism somewhere, and rapidly her fingers searched for it among the intricate carvings. A tiny movement; a barely perceptible looseness betrayed it when her fingers encountered an otherwise unremarkable bump. She worked it back and forth, and twisted and turned it until by chance the catch was released.
The padded panel in the top of the arm-rest was hinged, and beneath it was the compartment. There was not enough light for her to see into it, but her groping fingers felt the cold surfaces of a metal box. With difficulty she lifted it out - it was heavy for its size - and placed it on the seat of the chair. It was silver, ornately engraved, and stuffed full of rings, brooches and pendants which glinted and glistened with gems.
She picked out as many pieces as her fingers could grasp and dropped them into her shawl, then quickly she replaced the metal box, closed the top of the compartment and tiptoed out of the chamber. The moment she was past the door her heart began to beat so wildly she thought she would faint; her face was bathed in a cold sweat. She wanted to stop and lean against a wall, but dare not.
She left the lodge unobserved and made her way to the harbour, passing the hovels and shacks of the city's poor. She knew she had every chance of being killed merely for the clothes she wore. Too terrified to stop, or to turn back, she hurried on, avoiding as best she could the holes and detritus with which the deeply rutted track was strewn.
The vessel which was bound for Kroya was surrounded by activity. As she approached it, the master spotted her, and he led her to one side where a flickering torch in a tall holder cast its uncertain light. Breathlessly she tried to explain that she had not had time to find a buyer for her jewels, but she was assured they were worth a great deal more than a thousand gold pieces. The ship's master was impatient to see what she had brought, and seemed hardly to be listening. Carefully she exposed Taigram's jewels.
Until that moment she was not even sure what would be revealed, but she affected a careless air as the seaman lifted up one item after another.
"You've a king's ransom here," he muttered.
Doo was imperious: "More than enough, I take it, to persuade you to carry me to Kroya?"
"Indeed," he said as he continued to examine the pieces. "Indeed!"
Afterwards she regretted having shown him her entire haul; he would probably have been content with just one of the pieces, and on the second day of the voyage she plucked up her courage and complained to him that she had paid him too much. He laughed at her.
"You've taken everything I possess," she said.
"Where are my thousand gold pieces?" he demanded.
"I told you; I was in too much of a hurry to find a buyer."

"So I must!"
"It'll be easy for you. You don't have to sell them all at once. You've more than enough there to keep you for the rest of your life. I have nothing now," and she began to weep, but her tears had no effect.
"You gave them to me for your passage," he said. "You cannot change your mind now just because you think I am committed to taking you. Have you not thought that I could have you thrown overboard?"
Doo looked at him as the tears ran down her cheeks. "What am I to do when you land me?" she asked. "I must go to the capital city, but without gold, who would take me there?
"I will!" said the captain. "You have paid me well, I admit it. I will take you to Budenrath."
"Is that the capital?"
"It is. We will be sailing right up the river and docking beneath its very walls. You'll have no need for gold, but I'll tell you what - come to my cabin tonight and if I like you enough I might - I just might - let you have one of those pieces of jewellery back."
Doo did not go to his cabin, and he seemed not to mind. On the last day of the voyage, as the vessel was waiting for the tide to turn so that she could enter the river, he handed her a small package. Inside it she found a gold pendant set with numerous gems.
Later she tried to thank him but he made a pretence of not hearing her, so when he was not looking she kissed his cheek. She was now bubbling with excitement at the prospect of seeing Chaldez.
The quay where the vessel docked at midday was down stream from Budenrath, which lies on a bend in the river. Dark rain clouds were overhead and after disembarking, Doo gazed towards the city, its stone walls grey in the gloomy light. Above them loomed the royal castle perched upon its towering bluff. A fresh breeze strung out the long narrow banners from numerous pinnacles and turrets, and Doo, who had never seen such a sight before, was filled with apprehension. What awaited her within those city walls? Was she, after all, too late to save Chaldez?