Wherever I Am

Chapter 14 - Part 1

I annoyed Lord Calin by not being in my rooms the following morning when he came to fetch me and couldn't find any of my ducklings. I'd taken them for a pre-dawn hike back up to the top of the dome. Ellie heard us getting ready, so she got the girls moving along with us, frustrating Lady Lavinia. By the time I was halfway up, I had that pain with each breath where the ribs hadn't fully healed. Then again, they still hurt when I rolled out of bed, lifted my left arm, or any number of things, so this wasn't going to stop me from enjoying the exercise.

So I was late to the breakfast meeting with Regent Grigore and Burgraves. Well, I wasn't late because I couldn't be late, but they were all rather early. Calin and I were the last ones in. I sat opposite him in the circle of chairs, though this seemed to be by design rather than lateness. The table was round, and I didn't see any hierarchy in the sitting pattern. I did my usual answer questions by asking my own and otherwise tried to learn the personalities of the different high lords.

Lord Emil was to my right, gray-haired with a bit of blond still showing. Though still reasonably fit, he definitely had the dad-bod, not surprising at almost sixty. He had Bacea, the lands east of Baemardis. Emil seemed calm and collected, not often speaking, though the others paid attention when he spoke.

Lord Calin was to his right, a decade younger, blonder and trimmer, and a couple of inches taller than Emil. That still left him a couple of inches shorter than my own five-eleven. He was the Burgrave of Baemardis and the lands surrounding it. He handled the day-to-day running of this area while Regent Grigore ran the whole country, also called Baemardis. Definite Type-A personality.

He seemed like someone with aspirations who was in a dead-end job. The only position higher was Regent, but Grigore was over a decade younger than him. I was the only one younger than Grigore in the room. I wondered if that was why Calin had volunteered to be part of my retinue...give him something new to do. Maybe be the power behind the Realm?

It wasn't like any of them could aspire to become king. It had been tried a couple of times, according to Boian, and Uncle John had brought in forces of swordsmen from who-know-where and quickly took care of the attempted coups.

Regent Grigore seemed uncomfortable. He'd taken over after his father's death a few years back but didn't wear his regency with ease, or at least not with me at the table. Boian said he became regent because none of the Burgraves wanted the job. From the discussions around the table, he seemed to be less than autocratic, but at the same time, it seemed like he did have the power to remove the bows from the armies, or rather his dad, so I still didn't understand the balance of power here.

Lord Tiber was next around the table and was a few years younger than Calin, though more laid back. He had the southernmost lands of Moise and seemed quite happy I was here. Since his son Radu was now my new squire, that probably had something to do with it.

A chair sat empty next to Tiber. I wasn't sure why, though it was set as though expecting someone.

Lord Bogdan was next, Burgrave of the beleaguered northern areas of Crisan. He seemed of ill health. I was told he was in his early fifties, but he looked much older and heavily set. His skin was almost as gray as his hair. He spoke laboriously, wheezing upon occasion.

Lord Marian finished the circle, sitting to my left. He was the oldest of the Burgraves, controlling the western holdings of Painat. Thin, he had the energy of a much younger man, even if his dark hair had faded most of its color, not actually gray, but not really another color. He was the only dark-haired Burgrave, though his complexion was paler than the others.

A thought struck me. What if this world was the twenty-first century like at home, and Lief Erikson or his equivalent had managed to settle the Americas a millennium ago? They'd kept to themselves genetically enough over the intervening centuries, at least enough to have this Scandinavian-looking ruling class. It still didn't explain the look of the commoners, but maybe a different mix of those coming across the Bering Strait or something. It was still a wild-ass guess, but maybe now with a bit of science behind it. Or it might be total bullshit.