The Prince in Exile

Preface and Recap

This is Book 2 of a series: The Saint and Martyr Cycle

If you haven't read Book 1: The Lady at the River's Edge, definitely start there.

This story picks up pretty much immediately after where Book 1 ends, and does not go much out of its way to explain the events of the first book.

For those of you who have read the first book, but who might need a refresher of its events (I know there was quite a gap after the first book was finished), I've included a brief recap of the first book below.

Again, if you have not read The Lady at the River's Edge, I strongly recommend starting there. The following recap only briefly covers the main events--you will miss out on a lot of the story if you jump into this book first.

Without further ado...

The Story Thus Far

Erzsebet, eldest daughter of the count Peter and his wife Zsofia, had reached the age when she ought to be married, to secure her future and strengthen her family's position. Unfortunately, none of the suitors her parents had paraded before her had yet caught her eye.

That changed, however, with Benedek.

His father, Benedek the Elder, was the count palatine: the highest office in the kingdom, save for the king. Thus Benedek the Younger was as fine a match as anyone could hope, politically speaking–though that did not mean he was a good man.

Despite her misgivings, even Erzsebet found herself charmed by him. At times he was bold, at others kind and thoughtful, and always with an air of nobility. Indeed, he was unlike any man she had met before–but alas, from the start, the match was troubled.

Janos, a castle knight and childhood companion to Erzsebet, went hawking with Benedek, and during their outing the knight's hawk attacked the young lord, clawing his face around an eye. Benedek did not lose the eye, but he was extensively scarred, and his pride too was wounded.

The palatine demanded recompense for his son's disfigurement, but Count Peter refused to punish Janos for the accident. There were some quiet, tense days, until finally Benedek showed his true colors, exploding at Erzsebet over a board game. Janos intervened in the argument, laying hands on Benedek, and thus began the downfall of Erzsebet's family.

The palatine pressed charges of assault against Janos, and it came to a trial by combat between Janos and Benedek. Over the course of the fight, it became clear that the palatine had ordered his son never to surrender, and even as Janos held a blade to the young lord's neck, the elder Benedek did not conclude the trial.

But Janos could not simply kill the younger Benedek, for they had learned the palatine had brought an army and hidden them nearby, and was likely waiting for any excuse to call the attack. The knight backed off, and as Benedek realized his opponent was unwilling to kill him, he began attacking recklessly. In the course of fighting, Benedek lost his good eye, and so was left only with one wounded and sickly eye. The combat ended with Janos' arm broken and Benedek struck unconscious, proving the knight's innocence in the trial but dooming the castle.

On the next day, the palatine's household departed from Peter's castle. The attack came that night.

A member of Peter's castle staff betrayed the count, opening a gate for the enemy forces, and with the palatine's superior numbers the castle was overrun. Erzsebet tried to escape with Janos and her two younger siblings, but in the chaos of the night she lost hold of her sister and brother. When she returned to look for them, she found only a loyal knight and friend, Mihaly, dying.

Erzsebet and Janos tried to escape the castle, but found themselves facing the younger Benedek once again, madness in his sole remaining eye. Despite his broken arm, Janos was able to create an opening for their escape, though he could not slay Benedek. The pair managed to flee the castle, leaving Erzsebet's family behind.

Erzsebet and Janos ran across farmland and rough hills, keeping away from the road for fear of the palatine's pursuit. Over the course of this ordeal, the pair slowly became aware of the growing feelings shared between them, feelings they had ignored all their lives, as a castle knight could never hope to wed the daughter of a count. In the wild, however, such strictures held no sway, and in a cave in the mountains they consummated their love.

Despite the beauty of that moment, their situation was dire. They had run out of food, Janos could not hunt with his broken arm, and a torrential rain had made making a fire nigh impossible. Thankfully, the pair happened upon a camp of pagans living in the mountains.

Shunned from the cities in this Christian kingdom, the pagans had made their lives on the margins, but their meager goods and comforts were salvation for Erzsebet and Janos. The pair was welcomed into the community by the taltos, a spiritual leader–a wizened woman of cryptic words, who took particular interest in Erzsebet. The taltos gave her the name Emese, that of the mythical mother of the royal lineage which ran unbroken from the kingdom's founding to the current king.

Here among the pagans, Erzsebet was reunited with her younger siblings. They had been rescued and protected by Facan, a man who had served their father for decades, and who had met with the pagans several times. Facan urged them on, to leave the mountains and make for the crown city to plead their case before the king, in hopes of rescuing Erzsebet's parents and retaking the castle. To avoid the palatine's men, Facan suggested sending Janos as a diversion, hoping that the younger Benedek would blindly pursue the man who had maimed him.

But Erzsebet had another plan.

She was doubtful that the king would be of any help, as a royal messenger had already been to the castle, and the king still needed the palatine's powerful network of allies. Instead, she would seek help elsewhere: Prince Andras, who had already rebelled twice against his elder brother King Imre, whose reconciliation with the king was currently tenuous at best, and who happened to be holding his court a few days' ride to the west.

Erzsebet and Janos fled west, drawing the palatine's men after them, leaving the way north clear for Facan and the children. The taltos had gifted Erzsebet with a powerful stallion, and Janos stole a horse along the way, but even so they were outpaced–by Benedek.

The young lord had anticipated Erzsebet's plan, and more: he guessed that she meant to wed the prince, and from that position of power win her vengeance. But Benedek would not allow it.

Janos stood ready to fight, though the odds were sorely against the knight. Instead, Erzsebet realized what had led Benedek down this path of hatred; she saw the hold his father held over him, and how he had fallen in love with her, and how he had struggled between the two forces until they tore him apart. She convinced him that there was another path forward, that he could choose to be someone else, his own man.

"You must decide for yourself what to believe, and what to do. I only ask this: when you choose, choose. This is your life, your path, your measure. If you would stop us, if you would try to kill Janos and take me captive, do it–but only if that is what you want. Not what your father wants. Honor him, if you would–if you feel in your heart that he is worthy of your honor."

And so Benedek let them go.

The road was quiet to the city of Varasd, where Prince Andras kept his court. At the outskirts of the city, Janos halted. He would go no further with her–he had seen her to safety, but he could not stay for what would come next. Benedek was right: Erzsebet's best means of protecting her family was to win the affection of the prince. For the love Janos bore her, he could not impede her, but neither could he bear to watch as she did what she needed to do. And so he said his farewell, and Erzsebet turned her back on him, leaving her heart in the dirt where they had separated.

She made for the court of the prince, shorn of all naive thoughts of justice and virtue and love. She would do whatever she needed to see her position secured, her family made safe.

Whatever it took.

And so the story continues...