Forest Kingdom Trilogy 2 - Blood and Honor

knight said nothing, but his eyes spoke volumes. He turned away, and headed for the buffet table. Jordan had to grin. Gawaine obviously wasn't happy about being used as a waiter.
    'Thank goodness he's gone,' said Heather. 'I need to talk to you, Viktor.'
    'Go ahead,' said Jordan. 'But keep your voice down. If you
    can.
    'I don't like you either,' said Heather, 'but that's not important. What is important is you doing the best job you can, for Viktor's sake. This is his big chance, his one and only chance to be King, and I won't stand for anyone or anything getting in his way. Viktor will be King, whatever it costs. Is that clear?'
    'Very clear,' said Jordan. 'I wonder what it is about Viktor that attracts such positive women; first Elizabeth, and now you . . .'
    'Flattery will get you nowhere,' said Heather primly. 'The point is, you're being paid a great deal of money, Viktor, and I intend to see to it that we get our money's worth.'
    'You'll get it,' said Jordan. 'But my chances of pulling this off successfully would be a great deal better if you could fill me in on as much background detail as possible. Not on Viktor. I could recite his life history backwards in my sleep. I need to know about his fellow conspirators, what moves them and what binds them to Viktor. Your motivations seem fairly clear, but how about Gawaine, for example? I don't doubt his loyalty, but sometimes I get the impression he doesn't like Viktor at all.'
    'You could be right,' said Heather. 'Gawaine's a funny sort. He came to Redhart about fourteen years ago. He was quite famous then, in a small way. I take it you know about the Border War and the High Warlock's axe? Of course you do. Everyone does. It's one of those stories men like to tell around the fire late at night, so they can feel all brave and honourable without actually having to do anything themselves.
    There was even a song about Tower Rouge once, though it's been out of fashion for some time.'
    'Of course!' Jordan shook his head slowly, kicking himself for not having made the connection before.
    'The Ballad of Tower Rouge . . .'It wasn't one of the great Ballads, but in its time it had been very popular, and had been a standard in most minstrels' repertories. During the Border War between Hillsdown and the Forest Kingdom, the fighting had bogged down icinporarily around a long narrow valley called Hob's Gateway. It wasn't much of a valley, being mostly bare rock and scree, but strategically it was vitally important. Whoever controlled the valley controlled that whole section of the border. And the key to controlling the valley was Tower Rouge. There were seven of the Towers, scattered along the boundaries of the Forest Kingdom. They'd been built by the first generation of Forest Kings, long centuries ago, to cover weak spots in the Kingdom's defences. Unfortunately, Tower Rouge had become cut off from the Forest Army, and only a small group of five Rangers remained to man the Tower. Hillsdown sent three full companies of guards to take Tower Rouge. The siege lasted five days. When Forest reinforcements finally arrived, they found two hundred and forty-seven dead guards, and two surviving Rangers: the Hellstrom brothers, Vivian and Gawaine. They'd held the Tower.
    King John had knighted them both, on the spot.
    'I always thought the song was overrated, myself,' said 1 I rather. 'All those verses about flashing swords, and blood
    iking the ground like dew . . . when you've heard one battle 'iii,', you've heard them all. Anyway, Sir Gawaine came to castle Midnight with his wife, the Lady Emma.' 'He's married?'
    'Very. They're inseparable, most of the time. In fact, Emma's been beside herself all the time Gawaine was off looking for you. You'd have thought her husband had died, or run off with another woman, rather than just left her on her own for a few weeks. Anyway, when Gawaine first came here, he had a private audience with King Malcolm, and they talked together for hours. Nobody knows to this day what they talked about, but finally they came out together, and the King announced that Sir Gawaine was now a subject of Redhart, and a member in high standing of the royal Court. Well, my dear, everyone was very excited about that. Sir Gawaine was a famous figure even outside of the Forest Kingdom, and having him at our Court was a real coup. But what really made people prick up their ears and pay attention was that Gawaine had been appointed the special duty of looking after Prince