Lora of Two Worlds

In the carriage behind Alvin's, Lora and Linnie sat among the baggage.

"My lady, look! The gates of Yorvik, so tall!"

"Yorvik has many soldiers, many people. Northern steppe folk and southern Empire folk meet here. They say the old northern lands breed heroes, this is the place." Lora said, moved.

"My uncle said Yorvik is like Weybrook, the marcher duke is a little king..." Linnie caught herself and covered her mouth.

Lora laughed: "Everyone knows it. Why hide it? The northern domains were granted the right to pass their titles from father to son. If you married a marcher duke, you'd be a queen. A hundred times better than going to the Palace of the Holy Crown to be a toy beauty or lady-in-waiting.

Think about it, the King is my cousin. If the palace were truly a good place, wouldn't my parents have sent me there? Instead they kept me in Lohenheim."

"That's true... I thought Yorvik would be remote. But it's more prosperous than Watchford."

Linnie had to admit: Lora's figure wasn't as good as hers, but her face was just as pretty. And she could sing, dance, and was full of clever tricks. She'd have made a perfect match for her cousin, and she wouldn't go. Looking at the busy shops lining the street, fabric, grain, jewelry, Linnie fell into thought.

Watching her beautiful profile, Lora remembered what Leon had said last night:

"This woman is beautiful as troubled waters. Why not leave the troubled waters in Yorvik?"

He hadn't fallen for her. He meant to dump her here.

How cold-hearted.

I like it.

At the guest house, Lora saw Leon, who'd left the boats two days earlier.

For some reason, this cousin often read her mind.

With Linnie, Lora knew what she'd do in the future and didn't want her at court to wreak havoc. Leon, by instinct, wanted to strand her far from the capital.

She'd spent two days not knowing if he was safe, terrified that the rebel governor had caught the runners.

"Leon!"

"Alvin, Roland, cousin, we're fine." Leon wore his usual serene smile.

"Lucky for us, the governor left us at the guest house. And Linn got here in time, the boats and gifts are still ours."

Prepared as they were, they were few. Alvin had to protect the envoy and his own family. The weight on his shoulders was heavier than anyone's. He turned to Lora:

"You've seen him now. You're satisfied. Go, change your clothes. No one may see you with us."

Leon's heart stirred, like a lively fish darting into still water. He smiled:

"Let her stay. Maybe the stories she heard at the abbey pulpit can help us."

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

The abbey pulpit... that excuse? Even Lora felt embarrassed. She blinked:

"Why did you change the plan?"

Leon stood. His feelings were complicated. This life, coming to Yorvik in person, he understood: don't touch the Yorvik domain directly. Let the household generals and the marcher duke check each other. The Empire gains most that way.

He looked around: "Guess what I saw in the city today."

"What?"

"The Shrine of the Two Lords. You'll never guess who's enshrined inside." Leon didn't keep them waiting:

"The rebel warlord and his general, Urso of Anjou and Simon of Anjou. Yorvik is on the frontier. Steppe and Empire folk have lived side by side for generations. The people here feel no loyalty to the crown. They remember the old rebellion as the time Yorvik was independent and strong.

Proud soldiers, untamable. Kill a batch, another rises. My brother the King shouldn't have listened to Voss and sent a warrant the lord warden never wanted..."

Worse than he'd feared.

If it came to a fight, they were too few. Even if they fought their way out of the governor's palace, the people of Yorvik wouldn't help them just because they were the crown's envoys.

The seal of office that Alvin had brought, a royal proxy warrant, representing the King's presence, how much weight did it carry here? Since the rise of the marcher lords, a marcher duke's own seal had replaced the proxy warrant entirely.

Leon had suggested Alvin bring it as insurance, a way to overawe the garrison if things went wrong.

"So I realized, we're too few. We can't go to the governor's palace to deliver the warrant. We must bring him to the boats. On a boat, small space, our men can strike and kill the rebel in one move."

Lora's heart seized. Killing the rebel was easy. But would the household generals fall in line? Roland asked:

"Did you find the man you were looking for?"

"Sheffield, Yorvik's garrison commander. One of the rebel's three household generals. I found him. I've sent a letter. I need to meet him face to face. If he'll help us remove the rebel, the envoy names him the new lord warden."

"I'll go." Alvin volunteered. He couldn't let Leon take that risk.

Lora was stunned: What a coincidence. Sheffield, wasn't he the man who'd kill the rebel in two years and take his place?

But the man was self-indulgent, weak in authority, played favorites. Within a few years, his own men would kill him.

Leon's approach to Yorvik differed from the later kings who'd been forced to accept one mutiny after another.

The difference: he could proactively use the household generals to check the marcher duke, preventing any one man from growing too strong, containing the turmoil within the domain until the crown was powerful enough to act.

Leon's approach to Yorvik differed from the later kings who'd been forced to accept one mutiny after another. The difference: he could proactively use the household generals to check the marcher duke, preventing any one man from growing too strong, containing the turmoil within the domain until the crown was powerful enough to act.

"Then we wait for Alvin's good news. Sheffield is an ambitious man. You carry the King's word, whether he believes it or not, he'll be tempted."

Leon was right.

But something was missing. Lora couldn't say what.

Then she remembered: "Since we might need to return to the boats at any moment, I'll go to the Salt family's jewelry house and buy back those three gold beads I spent."

"Give me a bead. I'll send someone."

None of them knew this city. If something happened, they'd have no way to find her. But Lora insisted. She needed an excuse to go out, so she could come back and warn them about Sheffield:

Among the household generals who'd rebelled, more than one. But Sheffield was the only one who, after the crown refused to grant him the full title, claimed to have found imperial robes hidden in the rebel's house.

He hadn't won by strength. The rebel's household guards had killed the rebel themselves, Sheffield had been pushed to the top.

They didn't know this. And Lora couldn't say she'd heard it at an abbey pulpit, again.

She insisted: "No. I'm the only one who's seen the beads. I have to go myself."

"Too many people draw attention. Lyle goes with you."

"All right."

The gold beads mattered. But right now, no one could focus on them.

The Shrine of the Two Lords said it all. The old rebel kingdom had lasted two reigns, four years. If Simon of Anjou still had descendants who revered him as the rightful line, it wasn't hard to imagine.

In his former life, Leon, who'd never known the shrine existed, could never have grasped this.

When Lora left with Lyle and Shawn, Alvin also slipped out of the guest house.

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