Magic's Pawn

Eighteen-year-old Joserlin Corveau stared after the lad for a long moment, putting his thoughts together. He was the oldest of the fosterlings, and the latest-come. Really, he wasn’t properly a fosterling at all; nor a close cousin. A true cousin, childless after many years, had decided on Joserlin as his Heir and (as he himself was not in the best of health) requested he be fostered to Lord Withen to learn the ways of governance of one’s Holdings. He was broad and tall as any of the doors to the keep, and even Jervis respected the power of his young muscles. After a single practice session with young Jos, Jervis had decreed that he was old enough to train with Withen’s armsmen. After seeing the way Jervis “trained” the boys, Jos had been quite content to have it so.

Some of the younger boys had made the mistake of thinking that his slow speech and large build meant that he was stupid. They had quickly discovered their mistake when he’d gotten them with well-timed jokes.

He liked to say of himself that while he didn’t think quickly, he didthink things through all the way. And there were aspects of this vaguely disturbing evening that were not adding together properly in his mind.

Meanwhile the rest of his group continued dissecting Withen’s least-beloved offspring.

“He thinks he isthe Heir to the Throne,” giggled Jyllian, swishing her skirts coquettishly. “Or at least, that the rest of us are that far below him. You should seehim, lording it over us in the bower!’’ She struck her nose in the air and mimed looking down it while playing a make-believe lute. “But just tryand get anything out of him besides a song! Brrr! Watch the snow fall! You’d think we were poison-vellis, the way he pulls away and goes cold!”

Mekeal snorted, tossing his head. “Thinks he’s too good for you, I s’ppose! Nothing high enough for himbut a lady of the blood-royal, no doubt! Think girls like you aren’t lofty enough.”

“Or not pretty enough,” snickered Merthin. “Havens, give it a thought - none of you little lovelies are even a close match for His Majesty’s sweet face. Can’t have his lady less beautiful than heis, after all.”

“I don’t doubt.” Larence put in his bit, coming up behind Merthin. “Well, he’ll find he’s not the only pretty face when he gets to the High Court. He justmight find himself standing in somebody’s shadow for a change! Take my word for it, dear little Vanyel is going to get a rude awakening when he gets to Haven.”

“Dammit, it’s not fair,”Mekeal grumbled, face clouding at this reminder of Vanyel’s destination. “I’d give my armto go to Haven! I mean, think of it; the best fighters in the country are there - it’s the center of everything!” He flung his hands wide, nearly hitting Merthin, in a gesture of total frustration. “How’m I ever going to get a - an officer’s commission or any kind of position when nobody with any say at Court is ever going to see me? That’s why they sent m’sister off to be fostered right near there! You have a chance to get noticedat Court!

She’s going to be an officer, you can bet on it, an’ best I’ll ever get is maybea Sector command, which means not one damn thing! I needto be at Court; I ain’t going to inherit! I’mthe one that should be going, not Vanyel! It’s not fair!”

“Huh. You’ve got that right,” Larence echoed, shifting his feet restlessly. “Dammit, we’re all seconds, thirds - we allneed a chance like that, or we’ll be stuck doing nothing at the end of nowhere for the rest of our lives! We’re never going to get anywhere, stuck off here in the back of beyond.”

“And think of the ladies,” added Kerle, rolling his eyes up and kissing his hand at the ceiling. “All the loveliest darlings in the kingdom.”

He ducked, laughing, as Jyllian feinted a blow at his head, then shook her fist at him in mock-anger.

“Dammit, think a bit,” Mekeal persisted. “What in Haven’s name has he doneto deserve getting rewarded like that? All he does around here is play he’s a minstrel, look down that long nose of his at the rest of us, and shirk every duty he can!” Mekeal glowered and pounded his fist into the palm of his other hand to emphasize his words. “He’s Mother’slittle darling, but - there’s no way she’d have talked Father into sending him off, you all saw how she acted! So why?Why him, when the rest of us would dieto get a chance to go to the capital?”

Joserlin continued to stare off into the dark; he was still putting together what he’d been observing. Everyone looked expectantly at him when Mekeal subsided and he cleared his throat. They all knew at this point that he was not the bright intellectual light among his brothers and cousins that Vanyel was, but he had a knack of seeing to the heart of things, and they wanted to hear if hehad an answer for them. He usually did, and as they had half expected, this time was no exception.

“What makes you all think it’s a reward?” he asked quietly.

The astonishment in the faces turned to his, followed by the light of dawning understanding, made him nod as he saw them come to the same conclusion he had made.

“You see?” he said, just as quietly as before. “It isn’t a reward for Vanyel - it’s an exile.”

Vanyel didn’t have to control his trembling when he reached the safe, concealing shelter of the hallway, but he didn’t dare pause there. Someone might take it into his or her head to follow him.

But what he coulddo - now that he was out of the range of prying, curious eyes and ears - was run.

So he did, though he ran as noiselessly as he could, fleeing silently behind his shadow through the dim, uncertain light of the hallways. His flight took him past the dark, closed doorways leading to the bower, to bachelor’s hall, to the chapel. His shadow sprang up before him every time he passed a lantern or torch, splaying out thin and spidery on the floor. He kept his head down so that if anyone should happen to come out of one of those doorways, they wouldn’t see how close he was to tears.

But no one appeared; he reached the safe shelter of the servants’ wing without encountering a single soul. Once there he dashed heedlessly up the stone staircase. Someone had extinguished the lanterns on the staircase itself; Vanyel didn’t care. He’d run up these stairs often enough when half blind from trying not to cry, and his feet knew the way of themselves.

He hit the top landing at a dead run, and made the last few feet to his own door in a few heartbeats. He was sobbing for breath as he fumbled out his key in the dark and unlocked it - and the tears were threatening to spill.

Spill they did as soon as he got the door open. He shut and locked it behind him, leaning his back against it, head thrown back and resting against the rough wood. He swallowed his sobs out of sheer, prideful refusal to let anyoneknow of his unhappiness, even a servant, but hot tears poured down his cheeks and soaked into the neck of his tunic, and he couldn’t make them stop.

They hate me. They all hate me. I knew they didn’t much like me, but I never knew how much they hated me.

Never had he felt so utterly alone and nakedly vulnerable. At that moment if he could have ensuredhis death he’d have thrown himself out of his window. But as he’d noted earlier, it wasn’t thatfar to the ground; and pain was a worse prospect than loneliness.

Finally he stumbled to his bed, pulled his clothing off, and crawled under the blankets, shivering with the need to keep from crying out loud.

But despite his best efforts, the tears started again, and he muffled his sobs in his pillow.

Oh, Liss - oh, Liss - I don’t know what to do! Nobody cares, nobody gives a damn about me, nobody would ever risk a hangnail for me but you - and they ‘ve taken you out of reach. I’m afraid, and I’m alone, and Father’s trying to break me, I know he is.