CHAPTER VIII - THE COURSE OF WAR
It is not necessary to the purpose of this narrative to render
a detailed chronicle of four years of war. Sufficient to the reader's
understanding is that the conflict, once begun, thundered out of Arawyn
across the plains of Sardonia and Greymoor. At the height of the
Saxony's success, he had nearly split the Kingdom in two by taking
for a time the eastern shores of the Velowyn River at the ancient town
of Velowyn itself. His former position and his years of service as
Brigadier made Johann Saxony a most formidable foe, and his army's
ranks were swelled for a time by many who held a grievance with the Crown,
and by mercenaries hired with Saxony gold.
Although the Royal Army's response was swift and no less
passionate in the defense of its land, conflicts in several other theaters
- most notably in Ashbury and on the borders of Therendry - kept the full
might of the King from being brought to bear upon the insurrection.
Pirate attacks along the coast of Rotaria occupied that Duchy's
naval forces (there being no Royal Navy at the time), allowing trade and
transportation to continue largely unimpeded to and from Port Jaskara.
It was even rumored that certain merchant clans in Braughm-Raor and Daven
were growing rich in illegal trade with the Arawyn rebels.
For the first year of the campaign, King Mykel continued to seek
a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, twice sending messages under flags
of truce which proffered an offer to negotiate an end to the hostilities.
The first delegation was turned back without ever entering the Saxony's
presence; the second returned by way of Resurrection. By the
winter of 390 - 391, whose severity forced a pause in the campaign until
the end of April, King Mykel decided to take command himself as Marshal
of the Armies of Evendarr.
The King's arrival in the field brought the two old battle
companions into direct tactical combat against one another. In the
first few months the Arawyn forces seemed to be gaining the upper hand,
but a brilliant flanking maneuver across the Velowyn north of Johann's
army - aided, it is said, by Water Elementals Summoned by Lord Ambrose
- caught the rebels in a pincer movement late that summer. Thus was
the stage set for the Battle of the Harvest Moon at Velowyn, on the 12th
day of September, 391. When it had ended two days later, the King
had won the decisive battle in the war against his once-beloved foe.
By this time, Rotarian naval forces had mounted a successful blockade
of Darksands Bay, and supplies to the insurgents were no longer plentiful.
Additional Royal troops and mercenaries of long service were now swelling
the ranks of the King. Johann was forced into a defensive strategy
which, though skillful enough to drag out the war for several additional
months, was by all accounts leading to his inevitable defeat. Slowly,
step by bloody step, the Army of Arawyn began to retreat across Evendarr.
By the following spring all of Saxony territory had been regained by the
Kingdom save Port Jaskara and its immediate environs.
Just before the Royal forces took the port, King Mykel made one
last overture to his kinsman. This time the head of the Obliterated
emissary was returned upon her horse's saddle. Enraged beyond
the obligations of blood and family, King Mykel swore oath before all who
bore witness to this atrocity that Johann Saxony was as evil as he was
mad, and that this combat was now to the Final Death. Less than a
day later Port Jaskara fell to the Royal Army, and a full siege was laid
to Saxony Keep.
CHAPTER X - THE FINAL DAY
By early on the morning of April 9th, 392, speculation on both
sides had concluded that the Saxony forces would not withstand the King's
siege for many more hours. They were now into the 15th day, and additional
Scry spells were beginning to bring the information the King had long been
hoping for - that hunger and thirst were beginning to take their
toll on fighting effectiveness and morale. Preparations were being
completed for a massive Royal assault that King Mykel and his commanders
calculated would overwhelm the enemy by sheer force of numbers, and by
Magic.
Suddenly there was a flurry of activity within the Keep, followed
by the casting of many Obfuscate spells. Anxious moments passed even
as the King's siege engines were being readied. Then from
the upper parapet of Saxony Tower a single heavy crossbow bolt was shot,
a packet attached to its shaft. The packet bore the Saxony seal,
and was immediately brought to the King.
It contained the worst of news. To the King's great
horror, Johann Saxony had contrived to kidnap Mykel's beloved Queen
Katherine and their young son and Heir, the 3 year-old Prince Berthold,
out of Castle Evendarr. Somehow the captives had been spirited into
the Keep - it is believed through passageways deep underground, although
afterwards the Queen could never confirm the speculation - and were now
being held as hostages against whatever terms the Saxony Lord might demand.
His first was simple and direct: that the siege against
Saxony Keep be lifted immediately. As an earnest of Johann's
intent, the message was accompanied by a lock of hair from the head of
each captive and the threat that any following messages would instead be
accompanied by their fingers. Torn between his love for his family
and his duty to his people, King Mykel agonized over his decision.
Finally, he chose a course which he hoped would stand the greatest chance
of success for both himself and the Kingdom.
During her scouting of the Keep's defenses earlier in the
siege, one of King Mykel's irregulars had come upon a tiny, concealed
gate directly below Saxony Tower. Her practiced eye had immediately
noted the presence of traps, evaluated the quality of the locks which held
both the outer door and inner portcullis and, lastly, Detected the eldritch
glow that indicated the presence of Magic. In the distance, she could
hear the measured step of a guard's pacing. She dutifully
reported her discovery to the King, never guessing at the time that this
might be their only hope of rescuing the Royal captives.
This, then, was the King's plan: while the
bulk of Mykel's army began making overt preparations to abandon
the siege, a portion of the Royal forces would storm the main gate as a
diversionary tactic. At the same time, the King and a specially chosen
group of volunteers would attempt to slip into the Keep through that secret
Warded entrance and make their way into Saxony Tower, desperately hoping
that they would achieve their objective in time. The Royal spellcasters
would continually Scry the party's progress. As soon as it
had passed the first challenge, Lord Ambrose would briefly Dispel their
Obfuscation, the Scry spells would catch a glimpse of the King moving forward,
and the diversion would begin.
It will do well enough for history's sake to say of the
King's final heroic journey that he succeeded in his rescue;
that both the Queen and the Prince were safely returned from their trials
to bear witness to a complete victory by the Armies of Evendarr over the
rebels of Arawyn, and to live long and honored lives in the service of
the land and its peoples. There are other tales which tell of the
Gypsy Bard, whom Fortune had placed inside the Keep, coming to the party's
aid when all other means for passing through the Ward had been exhausted;
and of the long battle, always upward, to gain entry into the Tower;
and of the final confrontation between the King and his arch-foe, the former
Saxony Lord and Mykel Endarr's own kinsman.
Nevertheless, the names of the heroes who accompanied their Lord
and Liege should be repeated, since they are writ large upon these ruins,
and their Spirits may yet roam in the half-collapsed tunnels that are said
to thread their way still beneath this bloody ground. And these were,
besides King Mykel himself, Lord Powell Huntington and his son, Lord Ambrose:
Dame Allandra Vandoros, who carried out the Queen's final Justice
upon Johann Saxony and later became King Berthold's Champion;
and Brother Laramis Hartwell, who provided Life to one and Healing to all,
and then more, as Guildmaster of Healers for the City of Evendarr;
and Mages' Guildmaster Jarridar Coriolis, Arch-Wizard of Flame and
Truth, who served the King with his Magic, and who may have ended his life
a few years later engulfed by the Magic he served.
And there was Magda Ivanova Ajanisa, the Gypsy whose destiny led
her to that Warded portal, whose magnanimity - together with dexterous
hands - provided a Ward Key that allowed a King to rescue his beloved family
and made her a legend among her own; and the Eorl Haarkan Thunderblade,
Barbarian, leader of mercenaries, and until his death acclaimed the greatest
warrior in all Evendarr; and the Lady V'ktara Solonori of
the Kyralia or Stone Elves, Royal Magistrate under three Sovereigns, who
passed the Queen's Judgment upon the Saxony; and Shandra MacGregor,
a thief called "Honesty", who discovered and outwitted the
little postern gate which led to the death of a Saxony traitor, and ultimately
to her marriage in later years to the loyal son of that same traitor.
And the last, though not the less important for the order of their
naming, were Gurndrak Hammerstane, Dwarven Armorer and Master Weaponsmith
to the King, who came from simplicity, sped a Royal rescue through a citadel
he claimed was built by an ancestor, and returned to simplicity;
and the Lord Arigil Nandemyr, a Quentari Elf who made a King's anguish
his own, sang a song of lost love that won a Gypsy Bard's heart,
and lost his own in unrequited silence in a land far from home; and
young Perrin Galenson, who took a bolt meant for a King and spent his life
as a Knight in service to a Queen.
There are two names of which brief mention has already been made,
but to whom this writer must still pay the debt of history. They
are, of course, those of Johann Saxony and King Mykel Endarr.
Johann Saxony met the fate that Justice and the Law require of
a seditionist. Yet it is not certain whether his fate was earned
more by rebellion, or the equally abominable crimes of kinslaying and Regicide.
For it is written in the archives of both the Kingdom and the Barony, and
sworn by all those who witnessed the tragic events of that hour, that "Johann
Saxony alone gave the order which resulted in the premature loss of the
King to the Realm, and of husband and father to his beloved family".
It is, in fact, a tribute to the sense of Honor and Duty to the Law and
the Code of Chivalry manifested by those present, that the array of hideous
punishments which could have been exacted upon that twisted remnant of
foresworn fealty and family, were stayed by a grieving Queen.
There are those who believe - like one faithful Elven gardener
who has entered his fourth century of service to Saxony Keep - that the
swift and clean justice meted out to Johann lanced the festering sore upon
the spirit of the House of Saxony which many had called Envy. For
since that sad day in 392, though there have been offspring who might be
called simple, or perhaps foolish, none have been called traitor and several
have been named "Honorable", of which the current Lord of
Saxony Keep may be the most renowned.
And at the end of that long day, Evendarr had lost a King and
gained its wholeness. Mykel Endarr was dead, Berthold was the Crown
Prince and Katherine was both Dowager Queen and Regent. The King
had left behind a legacy of justice and conciliation, but those capstones
of the Diplomatic Arts were swiftly transformed into bold strategy and
dogged persistence when the need arose. He gave up the utmost in
the service of those things which he had held most dear to his heart:
his family and his Land. There are no better reasons to offer one's
life.
CHAPTER XI - QUEEN'S JUDGMENT: THE DESTRUCTION OF SAXONY KEEP
With its leader now dead the collapse of the rebellion followed
quickly, as the remnants of an army that had numbered in the thousands
threw down its arms in surrender. Of the three hundred final defenders
of the Keep, the full weight of the Queen's justice fell upon only
a few dozen leaders. Several of Johann's Necromancers had
already committed suicide and their whereabouts were never ascertained,
although whispers that they had Resurrected in Baltaria continued for years
afterward. Only one other - Diarmid Byrne, called "Byrne the
Bloody" - was Obliterated for the atrocities he had perpetrated.
It is said that his descendant became the infamous pirate Keegan Byrne
who met his own fate more than a century later upon the cliffs of Capulus,
and that Bloody Byrne's ghost still haunts the grounds of Saxony
Keep.
There were twenty-one first executions, of which five were Banished
from Evendarr upon Resurrection. Eight were declared Outlaw and executed
a second time, to Resurrect in parts unknown with the Queen's Bounty
upon their heads. The remainder, all minor nobles, were brought to
the Capital in chains to be paroled to their families after paying a heavy
forfeiture to the Crown. The common soldiers were given the Queen's
Amnesty upon swearing oath never to take up arms again. The mercenaries
were, of course, released from detention after redeeming their bonds.
Only after all this was accomplished did Queen Katherine pronounce her
Judgment upon the Saxony family and upon Saxony Keep.
The land on which the Keep stood was forfeited to the Crown, and
the House of Saxony was stripped of its ancestral rights in Arawyn.
Dame Ysabet Landsheim, who had been a Captain in the 3rd Crown Guard, was
declared the new Baroness of Arawyn. She was issued two Royal Orders:
to build a Manor House in the town of Port Jaskara away from the Keep,
and to rebuild the Court of Arawyn with not a single known drop of Saxony
blood among any of its nobility.
But the Queen's severest judgment was reserved for the
Keep itself. A great space was cleared before the Tower, and the
crowds who had gathered upon its walls were ordered to stand back.
In a clear voice that some say caused the stones themselves to ring in
response, she cried her Doom: "As my Husband and my King was
Destroyed by thee, let ye now be Destroyed by me!" And it
is said that the ground shook with the force of her words, as though the
Keep itself echoed her agony.
Then her brother, the Lord Ambrose Huntington, stood forth.
He raised his Staff and spoke words of a Magic so powerful that every spellcaster
was brought to knee with the force of it. Out of a clear sky a great
bolt of lightning struck the topmost parapet, and the crystal beacon that
had shone upon Port Jaskara and Darksands Bay for three hundred years became
as bright as the Sun, and exploded into a shower of molten fragments.
The brilliant light spread further, engulfing the lower parts, and the
base, until the entire Tower shimmered like sunlight upon water.
With a great roar of sound and wind it disappeared even as its lower depths
were shaken by a temblor, and the stones of the great Wall collapsed and
sank into the ground.
Water steamed from boiling wells and clouds of dust poured out
of the earth, darkening the sky so that the Sun appeared as dimly as a
waning Moon. Both mortals and animals fled in panic - even the bravest
of warriors and wizards - but the small group standing at the Queen's
side kept their vigil. When the Magic had finished its work not one
stone of Saxony Tower remained upon another, and there was no trace of
the great Wall that had surrounded the Keep and the heights overlooking
the town. Age and war had not been able to touch the glory that was
the pride of Thonn Alfred Saxony throughout three centuries, but the tears
of a Queen had brought it to an awesome end.
The Royal party departed immediately afterward, Queen Katherine
having given orders that from the few stones remaining of Saxony Tower
was to be built a memorial to King Mykel, that all might remember the great
evil which had occurred there. As she passed out of the courtyard,
she stepped out of her shoes and ordered them to be burned on the very
spot. And this is where began the custom of "burning one's
shoes" as a sign of the utmost contempt for a place and the implied
oath that the wearer shall never again set foot in it.
CHAPTER XII - THE HEALING: THE RETURN OF SAXONY
It is ironic that the only other family to have taken Johann's
part in the 3rd Saxony Rebellion were a few distant cousins of questionable
repute, possibly seeking to better their fortunes in a Saxony-ruled Kingdom.
Of the remaining descendants of Lord Xavier and Sir Damien, those few who
could be spared from the Troll campaigns in Ashbury - which had diluted
the Royal forces pitted against Johann - had fought valiantly on the Kingdom's
behalf. It may be that this news eventually reached the Queen's
ears, for within the Royal Archives rests her decree of the 21st April,
392 that stripped the titles from all of the Saxonys, but was rescinded
the next day without ever having been sent. In any case, Sir Damien
was the last Saxony Protector of Ashbury as that office passed into other
hands.
Johann's son, Andric, was to marry the Dowager Viscountess
Shandra MacGregor in YR 401, with whom he had five children. He refused
to share title with her, claiming that to do so might offend the Queen
and that Her Royal Highness had suffered enough at a Saxony's hands.
By all accounts, Andric was revered as a gentle and compassionate Healer
who worked diligently among his people at their estate, and was as kindly
disposed toward animals as toward the sentient folk. It was said
of him that he had never cast a Necromantic spell, and in his later years
he began to study Spellsinging after its powers had begun to become more
certain.
His three oldest children took their mother's name and
rode off to the adventurer's life, but the two youngest, who were
twins, elected to call themselves Saxonys, and both became Bards of some
renown. The elder twin, Robard the Handsome, found a wealthy patroness
in Corleonis and is reputed to have ended his life in luxury and dissipation.
The younger, Jessalyn, studied midwifery as well, and for 30 years she
rode circuit around the shores of Lake Hollym. She gave of her songs
and her birthing skills to all who asked, regardless of their ability to
pay; and became so popular that it is said she was one of the few
Humans to be granted the right of passage through the Ash Forest by the
reclusive Amani, although she was never to set foot within the Wold.
Tragedy again struck the Crown when, in YR 472, Queen Brenna I,
her son Ulson and son-in-law Alexander were foully murdered just outside
their estate in Northwatch, in the Fire Downs of northern Endarr Barony.
Necromancers and Undead had laid an ambush that overpowered the Queen's
guards and left few survivors. One of them was the Queen's
Page, young Darrell Huntington, who told the grieving Court of how the
aging Bard Jessalyn Saxony had Spellsung her way to the Queen's
side as one by one her defenders fell. Then, her Magic spent, the
Bard had fought valiantly for her Queen until she willingly stepped in
front of an Obliterate spell meant for the Sovereign. Sadly, the
Bard's sacrifice was in vain, but in gratitude for Jessalyn's
heroic act, Queen Merriel II modified the Judgment of Katherine and returned
Saxony Keep to the House of Saxony, though as a Baronial rather than a
Royal estate.
At first there were murmurs of protest from those who felt that
Queen Katherine's memory would be sullied by such an act, but in
the outpouring of praise for the late Bard - even by the Ash Forest Amani,
who bestowed upon her the rare appellation of Elf-Friend - those voices
were quickly muted. Scry spells cast by the Court Mages confirmed
the Bard's innocence, and a Royal Decree was issued on the 15th
of March, YR 473, which stated in part: "...a King's life
was taken by a Saxony; a Saxony's life was given for a Queen.
Thus are the scales of Judgment balanced." The Queen's
Grant was tempered, however, with the proviso that no major construction
might be considered for the Keep without the consent of the Crown.
CHAPTER XIII - THE MODERN ERA
Since Jessalyn Saxony had no direct Heirs, the Grant passed to
another of Sir Damien's line - Lord Oleander Saxony, a distant cousin
of the late Bard. He was a successful Alchemist who had taught for
many years at the Royal Academy, and had made a considerable fortune developing
restorative elixirs for a number of noble patrons. A shy man who
was given to stuttering among strangers, he busied himself in his laboratory
and herb garden, and was rarely seen in Port Jaskara.
By this time, Saxony Keep had fallen into disrepair after nearly
a century of intended neglect. Part of the roof of the main Residence
had collapsed, and the grounds were largely overgrown. The only areas
still in some order were the kitchen gardens and the stables, kept intact
by the Keep's faithful gardener, Borilen Curiloth, a Wood Elf who
had taken service with Queen Mathea's mother, Lady Larissa, in YR
268 and had quietly remained ever since.
For the next decade the residence was restored into a more modern
Manorial style, and the grounds were cleared into a greensward. Over
time the town had grown away from the Keep as the ruins of war succumbed
to overgrowth, and stories of anguished spirits haunting the place became
imbedded in the minds of the Jaskarans. Lord Oleander died of acid
poisoning during an experiment in 491, and Saxony Keep passed to his daughter,
the Lady Pamilla.
Lady Pamilla Saxony was the wealthy widow of Major Preston Garvey
of the 4th Crown Guard, and reputed to be one of the greatest beauties
in all of Evendarr. She had received a Royal title for herself upon
her husband's death in 493, ostensibly in posthumous recognition
of his services to the Crown, but Court rumor whispered that it was more
likely in compensation for her close friendship with King Roderick I.
Heiress of two fortunes - her husband's and her father's
- she began to divide her time between Evendarr City, where she was considered
one of the most successful hostesses in Court Society, and Saxony Keep,
where her three young children grew up in the care of their governesses,
stewards and tutors. She renewed the business interests of the Saxony
family in Port Jaskara, and became the greatest patroness of Bards and
other artists in Arawyn since the days of Baroness Margala Demrys.
It was Lady Pamilla who popularized the sport of hunting in Arawyn, and
her friendly competition with the Arawyn Court for the most brilliant entertainments
filled the grounds of Saxony Keep with visitors.
During the four decades that she presided over Saxony Keep as
its Lady, additional housing, a Guild Hall, a Library and merchants'
shops were built as the Keep once again entered the bustling life of Port
Jaskara. Lady Pamilla retired from Courtly life to Saxony Keep in
531, where she remained busy with her many activities until her final -
and only - death in 561 at the age of 90. She was truly one of the
grandest Personalities of her age.
Lady Pamilla had outlived all of her children, and Saxony Keep
passed to her grandson, Sir Renfrew Saxony. Although born and raised
at Saxony Keep, Sir Renfrew had settled in Evendarr City at an early age,
and had married the Lady Malvinia Pendarves, a Healer in the Court of King
Hendrick II. In 546 he was named Master of the Royal Hounds by the
newly-crowned King Roderick II, and spent little time in Arawyn up to his
death in a hunting accident in Blackstone in YR 567.
During this time, Saxony Keep was in the capable, though quiet
hands, of Sir Renfrew's sister, the Lady Alyssa. A Scholar
by training and by nature, she preferred a studious atmosphere to the gaiety
of Keep life under Lady Pamilla. Although Lady Alyssa continued the
Saxony patronage of the Arts, it is now directed through the Baronial Court,
and Keep festivals have since been limited to twice annually. Lady
Alyssa married Sir Andrei Griswold of the 75th Assault Regiment in YR 558,
and both of their children now serve at the Royal Academy. She suffered
a series of deaths in the Ritual Circle in 581, and did not Resurrect in
June of that year.
Saxony Keep passed into the hands of its current Lord, His Royal
Highness Prince Joseph, upon his father's final death. A former
Cavalry Brigadier - who achieved fame in the Arawyn Campaign of YR 576
- and Heir to the Throne of Evendarr, Sir Joseph Saxony was Formally Adopted
by his childhood friend and hero, King Richard I, on the 12th Day of November,
in the 576th Year of the Realm of Evendarr.
Although born in Evendarr City, and with duties that require his
attendance elsewhere in the Kingdom, His Highness has nevertheless taken
pains to visit Saxony Keep from time to time, and to oversee its maintenance
and preservation. He has continued the practice of twice-annual festivals
on the Keep's greensward, and has also made arrangements for those
wishing to view this historic site to find lodging and sustenance within
the Keep itself.
It may be that some day in the far future (it is hoped), Prince
Joseph Saxony will take his place upon the Throne of Evendarr. If
such a singular event does indeed occur, then Prince Joseph will have yet
increased the honor that has been the Saxony ideal ever since his ancestors
built, protected, fought and died upon these ancient grounds. To
be sure there have been occasions when such a goal exceeded the grasp of
the frail and culpable mortals who have reached to attain it, but through
all of the trials of history Saxony Keep endures, and continues.
