Meanwhile in Trieste
Frederick hurried to his sister’s chambers, he had just overheard his father’s chancellor tell him something terrible. He hadn’t been meant to hear it - not like that he assumed - but he had. His first instinct was to head straight to see Estelle and he strode as quickly as he could through the castle without arousing some sort of panic amongst the household staff. The castle felt cold this morning, or maybe it was the dark news he had just overheard that was chilling him, regardless Frederick pulled his cloak tighter around himself. He had known this whole marriage was a mistake from the outset - for a start Neesha just didn’t seem the marrying type, father would have been much better off training her as a diplomat given her mastery of the continent’s languages; although her personality maybe was just as unsuited to that role as it was that of a royal wife. However, he thought she’d have been happier with that path at least. There was always the priesthood, there were many roles for women there, but Neesha had never seemed particularly spiritual, apart from when it came to the cult of the hunt. If it had been up to him he’d have let his little sister decide on her own path even if that was to potter about the palace as some sort of eccentric for the rest of her life.
He knew Estelle disagreed, although she wasn’t particularly happy it was Prince Lancel who Neesha had been betrothed to; she saw it more as a princess’ duty to accept that arranged marriages would be part of their life. Not that Estelle was currently threatened with one. Anyway none of that really mattered right now he thought as he burst through Estelle’s door.
“Brother,” came Estelle’s voice as she turned around from the desk where she was sat writing, “how many times do I have to ask you to knock first.”
“I’m sorry Estelle but I’ve heard terrible news,” Frederick began.
“Well out with it then,” she said.
“It’s Neesha, her carriage had an accident, it fell off a cliffside road. Countess Valla is dead and she’s missing,” he blurted out as quickly as he could.
Estelle dropped her pen and turned to face him. “You’re sure?”
“Definite - I heard the Chancellor speaking to father.”
“Where did she go missing?”
“In the forests south of Malin, off the Alasce Road.”
“She wasn’t coming through Homule?”
“The pass through the Homule Crescent is still blocked by winter snows - it’s been a cool spring so they had to detour around the mountains south.”
“What were they thinking, everyone knows that Alasce doesn’t maintain its roads and that whole area is bandit country - Hamule would have been much safer,” his sister said angrily.
“It wasn’t lack of an escort that was a problem, sixty knights went with her,” Frederick stated, “but you’re right I don’t know what father was thinking, why not have just waited a few more weeks for the snows to clear.”
“It was the Parasians I bet, they were desperate to get the marriage settled, although I’m not yet sure as to why,” his sister speculated; she had always been more politically aware than him.
“So what are we going to do?” He asked after they spent a few moments staring at each other.
“See mother and father of course,” his sister replied, “we’ll see what they say, get all the information and take it from there.”
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Half an hour later, the two siblings entered the throne room. Their father King Trenton and mother Queen Lynnette sat at the end of the long hall in matching thrones, standing next to them was Chancellor Grenn, the King’s chief minister, and Knight Commander Brondel, the commander of the Triestian Knights.
“You’ve heard then,” their father stated wearily as they walked into the room.
“Yes, but we’d like to know the whole story. What has befallen our sister?” Estelle said.
“We’re only just getting the news ourselves your highnesses,” Chancellor Grenn said, “it seems like while travelling some poorly maintained stretch of road about forty miles south of Malin when the carriage driver lost control and they tumbled into the ravine below.”
“Her knights spent three weeks searching for sign of her but all they found was the body of her lady-in-waiting washed up about sixty kilometres down stream,” surprisingly it was their mother who answered, “but of Neesha there has been no sign.”
“So there’s a chance she’s alive?” Frederick asked.
“A chance,” their father answered this time, “but I fear it is only the faintest one, I think we must assume if no evidence comes forward soon that dear Neesha has perished. Even if she survived the initial accident the odds would have been against her in that forest, with bandits and only food you can forage to eat.”
“I refuse to believe she’s dead,” Frederick said, angrily, “not until I see her body with my own eyes.”
“I understand,” the king said sadly.
“She was too young to be married to a man like Lancel,” Estelle sighed, “it should have been me.”
“You know why it could not be you,” her mother said coldly.
“Yes I know mother,” Estelle said bitterly.
“Well let’s say no more on the matter then,” her mother continued.
“This is all well and good, but what are we going to do about it?” Frederick said, he was growing increasingly frustrated.
“There’s little we can do, your highness,” Blondel answered, “Alasace is far away, our order of Knights is severely understrength and I can’t spare sixty knights indefinitely. Besides, I cannot see what we can possibly do that isn’t already being done.”
“She’s our sister, a Princess of this Kingdom,” Frederick replied angrily, “it is intolerable we are just giving up on looking for her. She could have survived and travelled upstream, if so she probably made to follow the line of the road in the direction she’d been travelling in. She is clever and would know Malin was close enough for her to reach before she starved.”
“Calm down, Frederick,” his father said, “you think we don’t know that. This is exactly what your mother, Grenn, Blondel and I were discussing before you interrupted us.”
“So what have you decided?” Frederick asked.
“That is still under discussion,” Grenn said.
It was Estelle’s turn to vent her frustration. “Right this is what we are going to do. I’m going to Malin, we’ll set off via Homule - by the time we reach the pass it should be clear and I will head to Malin and work with the authorities their to find out if she has appeared in the city. I can also smooth things over with the Parasians, as they were meeting her there, and do some general glad handing whilst I’m there and it’s a much safer journey so I would only need my usual household knights as protection, so no additional strain on your forces Sir Blondel”
“It’s too dangerous,” her mother said, “and what is it going to accomplish?”
“Surely if anyone is to go it should be Prince Frederick,” Blondel added.
“What it will accomplish is looking like we care about what has happened to my sister,” Estelle answered, “that we did more than the bare minimum to try and find out what happened to her.” The king slumped in his throne in acknowledgement of the truth of his daughter’s words. “The reason Frederick can’t do it is he will be travelling with you to take command of the Alsacean marches, it’s about time he learned the ropes of command and whilst he’s at it he can interrogate any prisoners he catches from the bandit gangs that roam the border for information.”
“Alright, Estell, you are right, it shall be so,” he said quietly. The Queen flushed red with anger.
“Trenton, you can’t be serious - one of my daughters is missing and possibly dead and you are contemplating sending my other daughter off into that viper’s nest of a city,” the Queen said shocked.
“My dear,” the King replied, “she is our daughter as well, we owe her this much at least and Estelle is willing”
The argument went on a lot longer but in the morning, Frederick and Blondel were riding south and Estelle was heading west, to Malin.