Against the Empire: The Dominion and Michian (49 page)

Chapter 44 – Life in the Palace

Alec and Rief had left the docks and ridden to the palace without incident, where Alec gazed with affection on the familiar scene. Alec dismounted at the gate, and playfully introduced himself at the gate to the startled palace guards. “My name is Alec, and I’m the crown protector. May I enter the grounds to see Rander?” he asked.

Within minutes Walnut was taken away to the stables, and Alec and Rief were accompanied with an escort as they walked to the Throne Room, where Rander and several other advisors awaited their arrival. Applause broke out among the assembled crowd upon Alec’s entry.

“These people seem to take you seriously as a ruling monarch,” Rief said with a touch of amazement.

“It surprises me too, sometimes,” Alec admitted. He introduced Rief to the assemblage, asked that General Hewlett, Aristotle, Rubicon, Nathaniel and Moriah be invited for dinner and discussions afterward, and asked to go to his quarters to change and clean up after the long journey. “We’ll need a room for my friend as well,” Alec indicated Rief as they were shown through the hallways to the residential suite.

“All of this is yours?” Rief asked incredulously when they were in the suite of rooms set aside for Alec.

“Only for a while,” he replied. “When the heir comes forth, everything belongs to him,” he said as he started to walk towards the windows.

“Look at this bath!” Rief exclaimed as she examined the rest of the suite. “I suppose you only use it for bathing?” she asked with an arched eyebrow as she poked her head out the doorway to look at Alec.

“So far,” he agreed. “Go ahead and clean yourself up if you want to take the first bath.”

“I think I will,” Rief accepted the offer. “Are we going to be dining with lots of people tonight? What should I wear?” she called from out of sight inside the bath.

Just then a knock at the door caught Alec’s attention. He opened the door to find Rander and Brannis, along with guards now stationed.

“Come in! Come in!” Alec greeted them enthusiastically. They entered the room but before any words were exchanged, Rief appeared, wrapped in towel.

“Oh! Tarnum! Why didn’t you tell me someone was here?” she shouted as she ducked back out of sight. “Would you come here please?”

Alec looked at his guests and motioned for them to be seated while he went to see Rief.

“I didn’t know you received guests in your room,” she said. “You ought to be happy I respected your modesty enough to wrap in the towel.

“I don’t have anything to wear but our traveling clothes. Is there anything available that is better for dinner tonight and for being in your palace tomorrow?”

“Go ahead and take your bath, while I check to see what we can do,” Alec suggested. “I’ll try to have an answer by the time you’re finished up,” he promised, and left her, then returned to his guests and asked about how to handle the domestic issue.

Upon hearing the issue, Rander stepped out into the hallway and spoke to the guard, then returned. “We’ll have a seamstress here in just a little while,” he told Alec. “Is there anything else you wish for us to address before dinner?”

“Tell me, how is our army, and where is it right now? We need to send it on another campaign immediately,” Alec told them.

Rander and Brannis looked at one another. “Almost everyone is back from the lacertii war, now that you’re back. The Nineteenth regiment was the last to arrive yesterday, so there are only a few stragglers still on the road,” Rander answered. “What new war do you plan to wage?”

“There is an invasion taking place in southern Bondell,” Alec told them. “The land beyond the barrier islands and mountains has secretly sent thousands of soldiers as the first wave in a plan to conquer the Dominion.

“We will need to immediately reconstitute the army we used against the lacertii, and make it even greater if possible,” Alec told them. “If the Nineteenth has not demobilized, I’d like for them to be ready to begin shipping out within four days,” he suggested.

“We’ll discuss it more at dinner and after,” Alec assured them. “Tell me how are things here? Is the city calm and safe?”

“The surface is calm enough,” Brannis told him.

“But the expectation that an heir will arrive keeps things churning underneath. There are any number of seventeen and eighteen year old heir claimants about the city, living off gullible supporters,” Rander explained. “Until the crown is released from its protective cube, or until they all turn nineteen without the crown’s release, they keep their respective circles of supporters running around town and squabbling among themselves.

“Once your return is known, you’ll be bombarded with requests to meet the ‘rightful heir’ I’m sure,” he added. “They kept bothering me until I threatened to throw them all in jail!” he laughed.

There was a knock at the door, and a guard stuck his head in. “A seamstress is out here as requested,” he told them.

“Bring her in,” Alec acknowledged, and a matronly woman appeared. “Wait here just a moment, please,” he asked, and he went into the bathroom. Rief was out of the tub and putting her old clothes on, when Alec asked her back out to the main room.

“So this is what she looks like with her clothes on?” Rander asked, a sly smile on his face. Rief looked at him in surprise, then her eyes narrowed, and Alec could tell a sharp retort was about to erupt.

“Rief, this lady is here to help you with a new wardrobe,” Alec interjected. “This is Rief, my friend and guest, who has only her traveling clothes, and needs some finer things for dinner tonight and for wearing in the palace the next few days,” he told the seamstress. Alec escorted the two women to the door. “Rief has not been to Oyster Bay before; show her the best styles, treat her right, and have all the bills sent to me,” he told the seamstress as they opened the door.

“Who exactly is that girl?” Rander asked as Alec returned to the group of chairs.

“She has been traveling with me for several weeks. The land beyond the mountains is called Michian; I have visited it and learned about it, and it is where I met Rief,” Alec replied. He noticed a gleam of interest in Rander’s eye. “She and I are only companions and friends – nothing more,” he clarified, and saw a slight smile touch Rander’s lips.

“What did you think about this other land, Michian?” Brannis asked, focusing on a different topic from Rander.

“It is big, powerful, and dangerous,” Alec said immediately. “The land is unified by an all-powerful emperor. They widely practice slavery. They worship other gods, and call upon demons,” he inventoried some of the worst aspects of Michian. “I will tell you and everyone more tonight when we are all together. Now, tell me more about Oyster Bay. How is the Palace Guard shaping up? Have you drawn new recruits?”

Brannis and Rander launched into a lengthy discussion about the growth and improvements in the Guard for several minutes. “When the heir arrives, we’ll have the forces needed to protect him and the palace. Or to protect you until an heir arrives, if one ever does,” Brannis explained. “Leading to the question of where is Armilla?”

“She’s alive and healthy,” Alec assured them. “I sent her on a mission to Goldenfields to alert the Duke to send his army to Bondell. We should see her again when we rendezvous there. She served well during the lacertii war, as a guard and a friend.

“Have the nobility calmed down and moved back to the city?” Alec asked.

“Many have,” Rander said. “More would if they found out you were here.”

“No reason to mention all the daughters of the nobility who visit the palace to see the honorable steward, is there?” Brannis chuckled.

“There are perhaps some nice young ladies present,” Rander diplomatically agreed.

“Shall we go to the armory?” Alec asked suddenly. He felt the urge to enjoy the use of his special left-handed sword, which he hadn’t swung since receiving it back in his possession.

The three went to the armory, and Alec put on pads then began working off the rust in his sword work. He realized he hadn’t swung a sword since leaving Frame, and he needed several matches to begin to regain his best form. As time passed on the mats, Alec at one point realized that the other swordsmen around him had stopped their action. Stepping back from his opponent, he turned to look at the doorway.

Rief stood inside the armory with her seamstress, and many of the men were studying her. She wore a light green gown with one bare shoulder, and Alec realized he had never seen her dressed in anything but everyday work clothes. Someone had also addressed her hair and makeup, making her look cosmopolitan as Alec had never seen her before.

“I wanted to show you my new clothes,” Rief said self-consciously, not having thought about all the other men who would be in the armory when she had learned where Alec was and pursued him there. “I’ve never had anything so fine in my life! You don’t mind, do you? I told her I was afraid this would be too much, but she insisted I needed it in the palace.”

Alec saw the grins from the men around the practice floor. “I don’t mind at all,” he assured her. “I don’t think any of us mind. Rander, I’ve had enough practice for the day. Shall we walk our friend back to the Palace?” he suggested, and a few minutes later they were back in the residential wing of the palace, and dropping off parcels in the room that had been prepared as Rief’s own.

Alec left Rander with Rief and went back to his own room, where he stripped off his traveling clothes and took a long, hot bath, then looked through his closets for the plainest set of clothes he could find, which turned out to be a black pair of pants and a short-sleeved white tunic. Alec pulled the shirt over his head and looked down at the ingenaire marks on his forearms and the deep purple wound scars on his left hand. The scars would have to be covered, to avoid both questions and the intense, revealing episodes that occurred when his hand contacted another person. It was almost time to join everyone for dinner he realized, so he asked one of the guards at the door to send for a pair of gloves

A black pair of gloves took almost half an hour to arrive, and as a consequence, when Alec and his guard escort entered the dining room, he was the last to arrive. He stood in the doorway unannounced for a moment, appreciating the opportunity to observe the gathering of friends scattered around the room. Bethany, Moriah, Rief and Rander spoke to one another in one corner, while Brannis, Rubicon, Nathaniel and General Hewlett were in another, and Aristotle spoke to Allisma, along with two ministers of the former king, Ventin and Marble at the end of the table.

A servant at the door announced Alec’s arrival seconds later. “His Grace, Alec the Crown Protector,” the servant announced loudly, and his roomful of friends came flocking to the door to greet him. There were long minutes of hugs and tears and close conversations as Alec enjoyed the gathering of so many companions he had not seen in months. Aristotle looked closely at him, and glanced at his hand as they broke their embrace. “You must have stories enough to tell to fill this night and several more,” he said.

“Many, many more,” Alec agreed. “That’s why we need to talk about what comes next.”

The dinner began, and Alec decided to begin speaking as the first course was placed on the table. “There is very much we need to begin to prepare, so I think we need to understand all that is happening. Aristotle knows how the ingenairii are these days, General Hewett can tell us about the army, while Rief can help explain about the Michian empire,” he told them all.

Alec began the conversation by talking about his return to John Mark’s cave, hoping only to mention it to explain how he traveled to Michian. “You’ve been to the Cave again?” Aristotle asked.

“Several times recently,” Alec replied. “John Mark spoke to me while I was there and he healed me by restoring my powers, then he sent me on many journeys, but I returned to his cave after each mission. He provided a means of instant travel,” Alec explained, not feeling that he should reveal too much.

“The first journey was the hardest, when he sent me to the Michian empire. He sent me as a mute, so that my accent wouldn’t reveal my identity, just as Rief’s accent identifies her foreign origins,” and he explained about the slavery, the temples to gods, the restorers and the demons.

“Someone is putting up a good fight in southern Bondell, and has slowed their invasion down, but it will take every warrior we have in the land to truly defeat the emperor’s invasion,” he said, and told them about putting Stronghold and Goldenfields in motion to send armies to Bondell.

“Have you told Bondell about all of this?” Ventin asked.