News

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The spring thaw came late to the Winter Lands that year. There was news of planting and the rivers having passed their peak in the lowlands while there was still snow on the ground round the Margrave's village. The lowlands and the lands to the north and east near the desert typically saw the summer long before the Loro felt its warmth. Eventually the warmth came, the snow melted and the country was covered in water and mud and the people became busy with the spring planting, eager to get the seed into the ground and the animals up into the Summer Lands.

The Margrave maintained a network of people that he politely referred to as 'correspondents', that is when he referred to them at all. Most people knew that he kept in touch with many across Loro and the lowlands; few knew that he had many contacts in various circles in the King's City and even beyond the borders where the King's writ held sway. There was a continual stream of messages, some coming through peddlers and other itinerant travelers, some from carrier pigeons. There was a constant traffic in the birds, providing a swift, if expensive, and somewhat erratic mechanism for delivering news and information.

The news from the city grew worse. The Queen was becoming cautious, almost a recluse, being careful where she went and who she associated with. As the Margrave remarked to Illumina, "It is a losing game, as she isolates herself she just becomes more vulnerable. It is precisely what she feared for the Prince; that he would be weak through his isolation but a tempting target all the same. Did I mention the news from the desert?" The people of Loro always referred to the lands to the North and east of the lowlands as 'the desert'. It covered the whole area east of the City of the King and north of the great forest.

Illumina shook her head, confused by the statement as it was like saying 'have you heard the news from the sea?' It was an area so vast and so sparsely populated that it was strange to talk of it as though it was a single place, like Nina's village. "I know it sounds strange but it is strange. There is news from all over; from the far north beyond the forest, from the people who live along the river as it runs through the forest, from the people to the east of the forest and to the east of the King's lands. All over the news is the same. They talk of the coming of a man who is the personification of death."

Illumina would have laughed except that her father spoke quite seriously. She asked incredulously, "Do you believe this?"

The Margrave grunted and smiled a little, "No. Do I believe there is someone who personifies death? No, I do not. But the stories are remarkably consistent and seem to have spread in an incredibly short time."

Illumina had a sudden feeling of dread come over her, thinking of the death of the Prince under the ice. "What could it mean for someone to 'personify death'? What are the stories anyway?"

The Margrave shook his shoulders, "Village tales, who knows what is real and what is not. They all have a consistent core but they vary widely in the details. This man came out of the forest from the west. On the northern side of the forest, you understand. That would be pretty much north of where we are here. He has a woman and a giant wolf with him; he was waylaid by eight men, some say eighty, I believe eight. He was waylaid by eight men, killed six of them with his bare hands and so terrified the two remaining men that they became slaves to him. He rarely speaks; mostly the woman speaks for him. It is death to touch him. After he killed the six men, the community they came from, came to challenge him or to worship him; the accounts vary. The elder of the community touched him and died. The rest followed him and the woman as they journeyed down the river. Now each community they come to, he touches some of his followers and they take death into the community, forcing them to acknowledge him and join his following."

Illumina sat silently, still thinking about the Prince. She looked up, "That sounds horrible. Do you think its actually happening?" She paused seeing the concern in her father's face. "Is he coming down river, through the forest?"

The Margrave nodded his head, "I think so. We may be talking of a man and ten followers or it may be a man and ten thousand. It's hard to tell. I have a contact in the east, out in the far desert many days travel beyond the eastern boundaries of the forest. He talks of the death summons; of the people around him leaving the oases and traveling through the eastern borders of the forest, seeking to follow this man. They say the personification of death has touched many of his followers and sent them out to various communities in the north and the east, bringing his message and his summons with them. I tell you this girl, if such a man does come to the lowlands, they are in no fit state to deal with him. I have sent warnings to the King and to some of the influential people I know down there. None have even bothered to reply." He sighed and shook his head. "I was careful not to mention the personification of death but I am sure they have heard the same news by now and believe I am just warning them of some child's nightmare that has come on us from living too close to the forest."

Soon it was not just the Margrave who was hearing the rumors; they spread through the communities of the Loro people like a contagious disease, spreading a sense of malaise and general unease that turned the bright spring days dull. There was no direct evidence of the coming of the dead man, just rumors and people who had seen or heard things at second hand; some peddlers, a story teller, a horse trader coming to trade before the people moved up to the Summer Lands. There were tales of people coming out of the desert or down the river, proclaiming the coming of death; strange ragged people, often filthy and diseased, half starved, clothed in rags or not clothed at all.

Spring was almost at an end, the country beginning to dry out as the snowmelt sank into the soil. One evening the Margrave took the Prince and Illumina to one side and asked the Prince what he meant to do. "I have news of your parents and it is not good. The Queen is besieged on all sides and the King increasingly isolated. I think the Queen especially is in real danger."

The Prince looked at him for a moment as though waiting to be told what to do. The Margrave waited as well and Illumina watched them both. The Prince spoke, "What would you advise?"

The Margrave shook his head, "It's not for me to say. I can tell you what I think the alternatives are. You can stay here with us. You will be safe, at least for a time, though if different hands come to control the city it may be that I will have to send you off somewhere. You can go to the city and try to keep close to the King and Queen. It would be dangerous and might not accomplish anything. It might help them. You could go to some of the people in the Lowlands who have been supporters of your father in the past. Your presence might persuade them to support him again."

The Prince smiled and incongruously said, "I would be offering myself as a hostage. They would protect me as long as they thought they could get some advantage out of holding me. Equally, if another set of hands came to power, they might bury me and send my head to the city." He fell silent for a while. "Whoever is in the city is probably committed one way or the other and my presence will make no difference. It may be that I can bring something new by going to these people outside. I think that the best course. Where do you think I should go?" They talked for some time and decided on a powerful landowner living to the south of the Loro road. He had many titles but the Loro just referred to him as 'the South Lord'. There was some discussion of the practicalities of the journey and the Prince fell silent looking at the Margrave, evidently hesitating over something. The Margrave saw it as well and watched him, waiting to see what he would say.

"There is one thing I would ask. I believe it would help if Illumina were to come with me. In fact, I think without her, I cannot go. If I go alone people will see me as nothing more than a faction in the Queen's party. If Illumina comes with me, they will see your hand behind me and it will make all the difference. There will also be the suggestion of a potential alliance between us and they may vie for my favor, seeking to make the same alliance or dilute the power of what they perceive between us." The Prince said all this in a rush, as though he couldn't believe he could say such a thing and couldn't believe that the Margrave would consent to Illumina going.

The Margrave said nothing, just looking at the Prince for a while, then he turned to Illumina and asked, "Well, what do you think?"

Illumina was shocked, "You think I should go?"

The Margrave just looked at her then he spoke, "It is a dangerous game, I won't pretend you might not get hurt. But he is right, people will see my hand in this and will hesitate to touch you for fear of what I might do. I think, on the whole, the chances are you would be safe enough. If you do not go and he goes alone, I don't think he will survive, he needs both your presence and your advice. My sense is that if we do not act soon, there will be war in the lowlands and in the end, it will spill up here as well. People will die. Maybe this personification of death will overtake us before we can sort out our own problems. I don't know, it's up to you."

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