"Yes, Alexis was her name. An angel on earth. I wish Haven could have met her. They would have gotten along quite well," Rhodri mused.
"I can imagine," Silver smiled.
Leaving no time to contemplate further, the king abruptly sat back at his desk and changed the subject. "Now, Guardian. In the search of truth, there is one more reason I summoned you. I want to ask about that young man..."
"Ethyn?" Silver could think of no one else to fit that description.
"Indeed. How well do you really know him?" The gentleness and familiarity were suddenly gone from Rhodri's voice.
With the title of Guardian invoked, Silver straightened his back and considered his answer.
"I have a good idea why you are asking. He is a good man and would never hurt or do anything to..."
Rhodri frowned. "Humor me, please. I want you to tell me all that you know."
The cloaked man scratched his head. 'I guess I cannot blame him for wanting to be thorough.'
"Very well. Ethyn came to me when he was ten. His mother had died and his father had abandoned him. He'd been living in the woods. We took in the boy and raised him until he was old enough for us to send him off to train as a knight."
"Us?" the king asked. "I did not realize you were married."
"I'm not. By 'us' I meant the two men of Rynnlee that you met today: Mayor Conall, and Sheriff Aiden. Also Aristos the hunter and his wife Lily, and Katherine the innkeeper…the whole town adopted him, really." Silver felt it would be unfair not to give credit where it was due.
"I see. That is most interesting. And you are sure he is of the house of Samberg?" The king's question was weighty and Silver sensed his answer was crucial.
"That is what Ethyn told me when we first met. I have no reason to believe otherwise, Your Majesty."
"That crest of his. The one on his shield. Where did it come from?" Rhodri tried to remain calm, but his forehead creased more with each word.
"Do not blame Ethyn if that crest is offensive. I did my best to honor his lineage. When I knew he needed armor, I sought out his childhood home and tried to find anything I could of his family's. I don't know what I hoped for, but anything of Ethyn's past life was utterly gone. The only thing I found was a symbol carved deep into a tree with the initials P.D. I assumed they were Ethyn's parents." Silver pulled a piece of paper from his cloak. "I made a rubbing of the carving so that the artist could recreate it for the knight's shield."
"So that is what happened. The truth is what I sought and I have found it." Rhodri heaved a great sigh. "Does Sir Samberg have any idea who he is? Who his father is?"
The Guardian tilted his head in confusion. "Who his father is? I don't follow."
The king placed his hand over his face. "It seems you will learn all my secrets today, Guardian. Though that is the nature of the truth, is it not? Making things laid bare?"
"It is, Your Majesty," Silver could see the man was in some internal battle. While the Guardian wanted to know, there was a part of him that was wary of what was going to be revealed.
Rhodri shifted uncomfortably. "I am at a loss where to begin, so if you know any of these things by fact-finding or revelation, please let me know."
Silver nodded, and the king continued.
"It is not a well-kept secret that my own father was not a kind man. King Stephan had only one way things could be done: his way. Being the oldest, I tended to conform to his will to avoid the punishment for disobedience." With a wince, Rhodri recalled what happened the few times he had gone against his father. The consequences had not been pleasant.
"My younger brother, on the other hand, did everything in his power to infuriate our father. They would argue about everything, and no punishment was ever enough to deter my brother from acting however he pleased. It was difficult playing peacemaker all of the time, but I really had no choice.
"But as Dayne grew older, making peace got harder and harder. He would run away. My father would always play it off at court as a hunting trip. But then he would find my brother and drag him back to the palace. Those reunions…no one should have to see.
"Then one day, Dayne did the unthinkable in my father's eyes. He announced his intention to marry a commoner. Father forbade it, so Dayne married her in secret before presenting her to the court. If looks could kill, King Stephan's glare would have murdered the newlyweds on the spot.
"Father banished them both, quietly of course, saying if he ever saw them again, he would kill them where they stood. I tried to stop my father, but he threatened to banish me as well. Dayne stepped in on my behalf, saying he would leave quietly. I found out when we parted that my mother's family had some land, and she had gifted the manor to my brother on her death. It was like she knew it was going to happen and planned for it.
"To protect me, Dayne would not tell me where the land was. He disappeared without a trace. It wasn't until I became king that I found out my had father expunged any mention of my brother and my mother from the royal records, including his very birth. I replaced as much of it as I could, but some of it, like the location of the manor, was lost."
Silver silently took in all of this information. He found the tale interesting. It was strange to find a small bit of camaraderie with the king.
Not even a royal birth had allowed Rhodri to escape the mistreatment of another. While the manner of abuse might have been different, both the king and the thief had scars as a result. It was one of many things that transcended class or station.
"I thank you for entrusting this story to me. If you are worried that Ethyn is going to be a man like King Stephan, I can assure you that will never be the case…"
"I would never have made the boy Rose's personal knight if I had seen any indication that he would be like my father!" Rhodri raised one eyebrow at Silver, questioning how that could have even been a concern.
The king had seen plenty of evidence of Ethyn's character. The knight had given up everything to tell the truth and admit he was friends with Silver. There was no doubt about his integrity.
The Guardian quickly backtracked, "Oh, I just thought because you asked who Ethyn's father was and then began to speak about your own father, that his lineage might have been of concern to you…"
"It is, but not in the manner you think. Forgive me! I have left out the most crucial detail in this story." Rhodri smiled at his own blunder. "Dayne took up my mother's land and therefore took up her family name as well. That name…
… was Samberg."