Betrayal's Hands - Epilogue

Epilogue

"Baron Makan, it's been to long!" Baron Darleth said as he entered the dark and smoky study of the increasingly withdrawn King's Baron. Makan feigned a smile, but it was obvious that it was far from genuine.

Makan was a shadow of the man he had once been. In the months since the disappearance of his eldest daughter, then the murder of his youngest one, he had grown increasingly paranoid. He forced his servants to test his food before he ate it, and even then he often imagined that it was poisoned. Once hale and hearty, he had grown thin to the point of emaciation.

He went nowhere without an armed contingent of guards, and spent all of his time at his estates in Duth Darek. Visitors were seldom allowed entrance, and those that were had to endure a rigorous screening process. Darleth had accepted it as the price of doing business, and he expected that things would change soon in his favor.

"Any news of T'lerin?" He inquired smoothly.

Makan jerked as though he had been stabbed. He looked at Darleth, a pained expression in his eyes, and shook his head. "Have you come to mock me?" Makan asked, disregarding his former concerns about the man. Makan felt he had lost it all, first his children, then his wife - for he had learned of her adultery with his captain - and then his very health and will to live.

"Far from it, my friend," Darleth said, coming closer than any visitor had been allowed in months. Two guards moved to intercept him but he held his arms up peacefully.

"Send them away, Baron, I would discuss things in private with you," Darleth asked.

Makan snorted. "No one to see you plunge the dagger in me then?"

Darleth frowned. "I would do no such thing, My Lord. I have news. News that could very well change your life. I am but a Lord's Baron, my position sealed for life. I have no line of ascension to you or the throne."

Makan stared at him for a long minute behind sunken eyes. Finally he nodded and waved for the guards to leave them alone. The soldiers saluted and left, surprised at his change of heart and hoping he might indeed come to his senses.

"Speak of this news," Makan bade his visitor.

"My men have intercepted some Nordlamarian spies that sought to infiltrate our borders," Darleth began, moving closer and deigning to sit upon the edge of Makan's desk.

"What of them?" Makan asked, growing interested in spite of himself. He wondered if this might have to do with his search for the murderer of his daughter.

"They revealed that the devils in the north have another plot afoot," Darleth confided. "The kidnap and butchery of your children was only the beginning. As a lesson to our great nation, they seek the same fate for the Prince and Princess!"

Makan's eyes widened. He stared at Darleth, life rekindling slowly in his shrunken frame. "Who have you told of this?"

"You are the first, Baron. You are the King's nephew, I thought it might come best to him from you."

Makan nodded, looking past Darleth at a painting done of his family when his youngest had been still in swaddling clothes. He ground his teeth and straightened in his chair. "Yes! It should!" He slammed his fist onto his desk and rose up on legs that stood firmer than they had in weeks.

"You're sure of this?" Makan asked him.

Darleth nodded, hiding his excitement. "Yes, I obtained the information from them myself."

Makan knew of Darleth's investigative ways; he believed him. Few could withstand the tortures used by the ruthless man, and those that could, it was said, still gave him the answers he sought after they died. Rumors and superstition seemed to surround the man, but Makan had never seen any substance to it.

"Then I had best be off, I'll not let him endure such grief," Makan insisted. He stepped out from behind the desk and started to head towards the doors to his study. He stopped and turned back to Darleth. "Perhaps my children had to die to make me see the greater good for Aradmath."

Darleth nodded, hiding his sinister mirth. "It is a bitter medicine, Baron, but you bear it well. Such is the sacrifice of the greatest men of our Kingdom."

Makan nodded again, his back straightening a little more. "Yes, as it must be, I suppose. Come with me, Darleth, and tell me what you know on the ride to the palace."

Darleth nodded and followed him happily, answering Makan as he knew he should along the way. Secretly he rejoiced that his plans were working as well as he had hoped. Makan, the King's only remaining male relative save for the prince, would ingratiate himself to the King. News of the Prince and Princesses assassination would reach the king almost at the same time, drawing the two closer together. It would also make Makan certain to be the next in line for succession.

Darleth's claim to nobility was tenuous, at best. A border baron with naught but land to his name, his family had risen to royalty out of simple chance two generations back. While that was fine for his grandfather and father, Darleth's ambition was greater than theirs. He sought to dine at the finest tables and to pull the strings that controlled every aspect of Aradmath. And once he had that, then finally he could see Nordlamar crushed and turn his eyes to expanding his realm.

The End