by Lord Ewen » Tue May 16, 2006 4:58 am
Ewen takes a sip from his brandy and resumes his seat, surveying each of his companions critically for a long moment. He seems somehow more relaxed now, as if the most trying portion of his story is behind him. He offers a wry smile, leaning back in his chair.
"A few minor mysteries, next, briefly expounded and explained. Sir Buell, the knight who occupied the Agrikan stronghold after Sir Zaurial's injury, was an agent of Lord Morgan's, a sleeper operative of longstanding within the Warriors of Mameka whom Lord Morgan told me about that evening. As you recall, Sir Buell recognized me for who I was when I revisited the vacant house. You all naturally took his cryptic remarks as indicating some connection to Lord Graver at the time, but his direct allegiance is to Lord Morgan alone, and I of course took his concern about Morgathian activity as reflecting the thoughts of his lord.
"As for my debut in the Palace of Red Domes, I must say that my particular method of revealing my new-found identity to Lord Graver did not, I'm afraid, endear me to the man. I correctly calculated that the wishes of Lord Morgan, available to Lord Graver if I should drop my shields when he read me, would trump any desire on his part to, among other things, keep one of his "favorite agents" informed, and so I fear I garnered a small bit of his enmity for a time. He felt that I had bearded the lion, as it were, in his own den. Rahel's response, when I told her of Lord Graver's assignment to kill Sir Peten Valgari, was instructive: 'Sir Auram purposes your death.' And so I needed to go about the task, with you, of eliminating Valgari with the additional challenge of avoiding any chance of mental combat with an experienced Deryni whom Rahel, with an accurate degree of foreknowledge and concern, I think, expected to be quite capable of killing me outright."
"And so, of course, when the group wisdom decreed that we attempt to capture Koltho Valgari alive and interrogate him, I could not risk the likelihood that he had inherited Deryni talents from his father, and would quickly discern my own shields and reveal that aspect of my nature. So I am afraid that I very deliberately killed him, right under your watchful eyes. The fact that this precipitated his father's flight into the tender mercies of Sir Klyrdes Bisidril proved, I must admit, delightfully symmetrical to the murder of Sir Felkar which started the whole amazing process in motion.
"Our misadventure in Selvos, as my friend Imarë has already deduced, concluded as it did due to a great deal of effort on my part to cast my mind in Rahel's direction during our imprisonment. Only the fact that she, having sensed that something was wrong, was casting for me at the exact same time led to the unlikely success of that effort. Still, I had no idea that the tactic had worked until I opened my eyes in Caer Selvos. Of course, the fact that Rahel and I were already by that time joined in an, ah, intimate manner, explains the special circumstances of my convalescence in the keep. Rahel herself nursed me back to health. The intimacy of our relationship dated, in fact, from the evening of the very first dinner party at Palliser House; Bevan's machinations to get us conjoined during the second dinner party simply gave us the opportunity, at long last, to make the affair public. And so, Bevan, I can safely say you need not trouble your conscience on that score.
"As for my knighthood, while I believe that ample proof of my utility to the crown in the matter of the Serolan Iblis Milaka played some part, so I think did her scathing treatment of me when Bevan and I interviewed her, refusing to credit my right to even speak due to my supposed lack of bloodline. I think Lord Graver was suitably horrified that someone with Parkhurst blood flowing in his veins should be mishandled so. Thus, in all candor, the knighthood. And, I might add, the colors of my achievement... Whether I believed Lord Graver's claim that he prevaricated when asked by his grace the king about my shields following the ceremony, I leave for you to conclude."
Ewen leans back in his chair, and then raises an eyebrow. “Oh, and one other item. Arnys.” He says the name slowly, lowering the pitch of his voice even further. “You will recall a curious comment he made upon our first encounter, to the effect that I reminded him of something or someone. Given what you now know, you will apprehend that I gave some considerable thought to the matter. What he didn’t say intrigued me even more than his cryptic comment did, and so I decided to recruit him to my service as a way of dealing with the situation. I explained this to Rahel while recovering in Caer Selvos, which explains the touching scene in the market square. I should state, however, that I have never troubled Arnys for an explanation of his comment, and do not, I think, intend to do so. I expect each of you to show him the same circumspection. Our friend Arnys, I think, has yet a role to play in all of this, and I would not see it interfered with.”