Podevin and the Queen’s Death: Chapter 1
This is the draft opening chapter of the second book about Podevin and Emma. It is ten years since we left them at the end of ‘Warrior Princess, Errant Page,’ but their peace is about to be disrupted by the machinations of others; like the Saxons, and Emma’s husband. I hope you enjoy this taster of my latest writing …
The boys had not appeared at dusk. At first, Podevin, unlike Lyudmila, hadn’t been worried about their sons. He knew, none better, that Vaclav could – and would at the slightest opportunity – dart off on some mad scheme his young mind would concoct out of nothing: the shape of a cloud, a whisper of a breeze rushing through the boughs of a mighty oak, the sound of a pigeon in flight. His practical brother, Alexandr, would try to keep him in line. They had a job to do: check the traps for rabbits, reset the snares for the next time, and bring the rabbits back home. The family depended on the meat this time of year.
As did everyone else. This was the time of year Emma would emerge from Prague Castle on horseback, leading the hunt. They’d come into the forest often enough, but rarely would they meet there – Emma was never alone, and Podevin would rather not face the inevitable questions from his wife. Lyudmila had always known Emma held a special place in Podevin’s heart but now, for the most part, he no longer pined for the days when he would have been on horseback, taking part in hunts at King Wenceslas’s side. Wenceslas was dead, his assassin and brother now ruled as King Boleslav.
At first Podevin had merely hidden in the forest with the peasant family of which Lyudmila was a part. As Wenceslas’s page, bodyguard and second cousin; the new king wanted Podevin dead and he was a declared outlaw. Emma, Anglo-Saxon Princess Emma, recently-married-to-the-new-king’s-son Emma, had been his friend and protector. It was Emma above all, who had seen to it that King Boleslav believed the body lying beneath the woodland chapel was Podevin’s – and the man who lived in the forest with a wife, two daughters and, latterly, two sons, was a peasant called Krok.
For ten years, they had lived here in the forest, while Emma exercised her authority as Castle Constable. As wife to the heir to the Bohemian crown, she had also produced several sons, and one daughter. The sons had been celebrated on their arrival: especially the first, who had been called, with a singular lack of originality. Boleslav, after his father and grandfather. The daughter had been less celebrated.
However, the dusk outside had turned into full darkness and Podevin could muse no longer. All three of his women were demanding he ‘do something’ about the boys’ continued absence, he agreed it was unusual. Vaclav may pretend he didn’t mind the dark, he’d stay out all night if he could; but Alexandr, at only six, was more honest – and he would be unafraid to state his wish to be home. They were boys, used, it must be said, to finding their way among the forest tracks; but not in the dark. Podevin reached for his new cloak, the one that coped with his broader shoulders. He tugged at his leggings. His waist was getting broader too: Lyudmila complained about that, but as she still didn’t cut down how much food she cooked for him, there wasn’t much he could do.
He picked up his bow, and made his way to the gateway – the gateway that should have been closed and barred an hour since – and towards the forest. He had not gone fifty yards when he heard the sound coming from the wrong direction. The boys were barred from going west, towards Saxony. It was Lyudmila’s prohibition, but one Podevin agreed was sensible. It ensured the lads were away from any possible raiding activity. Not that any Saxon ‘border raids’ would get this far into Bohemia. Any Saxon party coming this far into enemy territory would have to by-pass the town and castle of Budec and, or maybe or depending on their route towards Prague, the similarly defended Levy Hradac. Anyone seeking to avoid both those places would have to make their own way through the forests and would be most likely to lose themselves before they found Prague.
The Saxons, over the last ten years, had learned to be wary of Emma and her fighting spirit. There had been a few foolhardy Saxon knights who’d wanted to ‘take her on,’ but they had come off second best. And when they had tried to deal with her in force, they had come up against her personal bodyguard. It was messy. The Saxons, having clearly underestimated their quarry, came off second best. A wary peace had descended. Besides which, both King Boleslav of Bohemia, and the Saxon king, Otto, had other enemies to fight.
Podevin, worrying that the Saxons had decided to violate the precarious peace, stepped back into cover and readied his bow. This was wrong. This was something blundering its way towards his home. He glanced back to his homestead, where he could see Lyudmila and the two teenage girls he had raised as daughters in the open space. It was too late to tell them to step back into safety and close the gate. Then his sons erupted into the clearing, running full pelt: Vaclav, his long, nine-year-old legs outpacing his seven-year-old brother. Even in the moon-light, Podevin could see the ashen face, the eyes wide with fear, the mouth open as he gasped the frozen air into his lungs.
‘Whoa! What is going on here?’ he said, causing Vaclav to stop and scream. Alexandr, coming up behind, crashed into him and both fell.
‘I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die!’ Vaclav was moaning, repeating the refrain.
‘It’s your fault! You said we could get to the Saxon Road! And you shouted at them!’ Alexandr, his high voice catching, started pummelling his brother, his tiny fists striking wherever they could reach.
‘The Saxon Road, eh?’ Podevin said, standing over them, but making no effort to intervene in the scrap, ‘What did I say about the Saxon Road?’
He saw three shadows at the entrance to their homestead, and waved. No need to be shooting arrows just now, but it rather looked as if there would be no rabbit stew tonight.
The boys, alternately scolded and cuddled by their mother and their older sisters, were scrubbed clean and their faces dried of tears. Podevin, having done a stealthy patrol around the whole homestead and finding nothing untoward – though he promised Lyudmila there would be another patrol at dawn – sat and waited until they were presented before him.
‘Rabbits?’
Silence. Two boys, looking and no doubt feeling very small, gazed at the ground just in front of their feet.
‘Look at me.’ Podevin waited until both his sons had raised their eyes to meet his: ‘Did you even get as far as checking the traps? Or were you too busy doing what you had been told not to do?’
‘No! We got rabbits!’ Alexandr started, before his brother jabbed him in the ribs to shut him up.
‘Vaclav? If you don’t want your brother to tell me, it had better be you, hadn’t it? I assume it was your idea?’
Vaclav gaped at him, as if he was thinking how could his father have guessed? Podevin almost laughed aloud: hadn’t he known his son since the day he was born? Who was going to lead the pair into trouble? Which of his sons always, but always, leapt first and thought afterwards – if he thought at all?
‘Vaclav, either you start talking, or it’s bed. And I will get the story from Alexandr.’
In fits. In starts. And with his brother chipping in, the story emerged. As they weren’t hunting, they – ‘it was Vaclav’s idea!’ – decided to run all the way round the traps. Podevin conceded it was a good way to keep warm on a cold day and could have given them time to have a snowball fight, if there had been snow in any of the clearings.
‘I do hope you weren’t thinking of going out onto the hill in front of the castle.’ There was nothing wrong with their mother’s hearing, even as she sorted out supper – the meat would not be fresh rabbit, but something salted and dried from their stores. The silence that greeted her interjection was all the answer any of the four older people needed. Maria looked up from her basket weaving, glancing at Priby who merely raised her eyebrows and bent to her own chores.
It wasn’t that the boys were outlaws, and the worst they would have got would have been a cuff about the ears if they had been caught. ‘Podevin’ no longer existed. There was a body buried under the woodland chapel to prove it. Also, of course, ‘Krok,’ Podevin’s official name, was the king’s forester. In that guise, he, and sometimes Lyudmila, had to give an account of himself at the castle. More often, the Princess Emma, Prague Castle Constable, or her emissary, would come to the forest clearing to be updated on their work, and on their monitoring of the Saxon Road. On the whole, it was considered best by all concerned (including those few up at Prague Castle who knew the truth about Podevin’s identity) if those in the forest kept themselves to themselves. The last thing they needed was King Boleslav, or his son, taking an interest in Podevin’s family.
The war with Saxony had degenerated into border raiding following Boleslav’s unexpected success in two battles against Saxon forces. Everyone had assumed Otto was just waiting until the right time, when he could concentrate all his forces, but so far, after ten whole years, it hadn’t happened. Just tit-for-tat raiding, cattle and sheep stealing, some crop destroying. Most of the peasantry had moved away if they could, both sides not being averse to killing those too slow or too lazy to get out of the way – and this time, a group of Saxons had made their way up the road to near here.
However, they could not be too near, or he, Podevin, would have seen tracks, or some other evidence on his own patrol. Come to think of it, how come he had not come across Vaclav and Alexandr?
‘Oh, we know where you go. We went further down.’
‘You mean towards Saxony?’
The answer was yes, even if Vaclav did try to cover up Alexandr’s ‘mistake.’ Until they’d met the Saxon party, it had all been fun – an adventure. ‘Mum’s always saying we should go out on adventures!’ The two of them using the cover of the trees and bushes to see what was going on, what Daddy was looking for.
‘Daddy’ was annoyed with himself. How had he failed to keep his patrols, and his patrol routes from the youngest members of his family? He was a key part of Duchess Emma’s look-out system, just in case anything started happening before she was officially aware of it. Now something had happened and Podevin had not noticed.
‘They were stopping – and talking – I just wanted to hear what they were saying! Alexandr’s German is better than mine! But you tripped over! So they started running for you! You only had to keep quiet!’ Vaclav’s exasperation at his brother’s clumsiness might have been understandable, but his willingness to risk his brother’s neck in a foolish attempt to bring better news was less so. However, there was a question he had to ask first:
‘Did you hear what they were saying? Any of it?’
Alexandr nodded, ‘They said they didn’t see the point of their “assignment.” Their chances of killing the Duchess were slim, and the sooner they got home, the better. Then the man on the horse shouted, I was trying to step away when I tripped, and they saw me!’
Alexandr’s tears threatened again as he relived the fear of fully-grown, fully-armed men coming after him and his brother.
‘You didn’t have to throw the rabbits at them!’ Vaclav continued.
‘You didn’t have to shout at them!’
‘Enough!’ until that moment, Podevin had not even raised his voice, but Vaclav’s stupidity was beyond endurance. He leaned towards his eldest son: ‘Even if, even if! I had told you to go that way, you do not try to take on grown men by yourself. And if you insist on putting yourself in danger, you do not endanger your brother’s life on your own whim!’ A thought struck him, ‘Are you going to tell me what happened when your brother threw the rabbits?’
Another silence. This time Podevin didn’t wait: ‘Alexandr?’
‘They ducked! Two of them fell to the ground! Then they stopped to see what it was, and picked them up. So, we ran away. I’m sorry – I couldn’t think what to do!’
‘In other words,’ Podevin turned his attention back to Vaclav, ‘your brother gave you both time to get to your feet and run away from the danger you’d got yourself into. Yes?’
A reluctant nod.
‘Right. We will talk again later. I need to know everything you can remember about these men. But for now, you’d better get up to the table.’
With all four children – though calling Maria and Priby children was hardly fair – at the table, Podevin went to assist Lyudmila.
‘What are we going to do about Vaclav?’ she hissed, ‘He’s ten next year – and full of your tales about being a knight.’
‘Dear, even as a knight, he’s got to learn to think! Before he gets himself into trouble he can’t get out of!’
He got no reply. They sat down to eat in silence.
Suppertime was rescued by Priby starting to talk about her having to spend ‘forever’ rounding up the ducklings, who seemed determined to spend the night outside. Sixteen-year-old Maria chipped in with a tale about having to avoid a boar while she was out (though she never said why she was out or where she was going; it was much too early in the year to be gathering any vegetation for the pot!)
After a further talk with their father, both boys promising never to do it again, they were put to bed. Once she was sure they were asleep, Lyudmila went over to where Podevin sat staring into the fire.
‘You’re going to have to find these people, aren’t you?’
Podevin nodded: ‘Just keep those lads in, will you? I don’t want them following me.’
‘Don’t worry. We’ll keep them safe.’ Lyudmila nodded towards Maria and Priby, busy with their chatting, it now being too dark to see to do any mending. Despite his thoughts of the morning, Podevin smiled, perhaps it was because they were already older when he came into their lives, or maybe because Lyudmila didn’t tell him half of what went on, but he felt it had been so much easier raising two girls. He didn’t catch what Priby said, but, even in the flickering light of the fire, he noted Maria’s blush.
‘Why did you send Maria out today?’
‘She’s old enough to make her own decisions, isn’t she?’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘How old is she?’ Lyudmila was talking in riddles. Maria was, they both were, young ladies, he supposed. There had been talk of finding them places at the Castle, but Podevin had not pushed too hard – if he was honest, he wanted to keep them both by his side for as long as possible. He heard Lyudmila sigh:
‘She’s old enough to be married! Why do you think she’s going back and forth to the castle?’
Podevin turned and stared: ‘Without my knowledge? I’m –’
‘Not going to do a thing! If you can’t make the arrangements, the girls will take matters into their own hands. You castle folk might expect to keep your daughters on a short leash, but those of us who work the land are more used to making our own decisions. If Maria’s made her choice, I suggest you be gracious about it!’
‘But … but she’s got royal blood!’ It was desperate, and got the treatment it deserved.
‘Like you? And you’re only a second cousin to King Boleslav – as you keep pointing out. So, what does that make her: a third cousin?’ Podevin shrugged, he wasn’t sure. However, his wife hadn’t finished, ‘Come on, Podevin! How many royal bastards marry well? Besides, if she has royal blood on her father’s side, it’s peasant blood on her mother’s – as you well know.’ She was giving him a coy smile, and he had to relent. If it was in his power, he knew he would deny Maria, and Priby, nothing. If it was true that Maria had Royal blood, she was a second cousin’s illegitimate child, and the current Royal family had shown no interest whatsoever in providing for her. The Duchess Emma had enough on her plate without having to deal with Podevin trying to bargain for ‘advantageous marriages’ for his adopted daughters. Perhaps, Maria sorting things out her herself was a better way – but he still wanted to know who the young man was! Just maybe not tonight.
‘If Maria has a young man, what about Priby?’
‘She’s close, that one. For all she’s that bit older. Maybe she’s taking her time. Not every girl wants to flee the nest.’
‘Especially one found after her own family …’ Podevin stopped. He, Lyudmila, the long-dead Krok, and Brother Mark, had all been involved in Priby’s rescue. Her biological father was dead, her mother and brother fled; and Priby herself injured. There were still the scars on her back to show for it. Podevin shook his head to clear it of his thoughts. Once this immediate crisis was over, he really must sort out his family. Anyway, the girls didn’t give him trouble, he didn’t have to worry they would be following him tomorrow – and it was time for bed.