The Crown Of Yensupov (Book 3) (22 page)

“Yes, yes,” the chatra said. “We must include that. If he remains suspicious, as would his grandfather and father, he’ll raise an army if there isn’t an orc army within his borders already.”

“Well, we shall have to take that risk,” the queen said. “We can’t leave the road to Konnotan open and defenseless. The treasury must fund the new army. With discretion, we shall arrange loans with our bankers using our crown jewels as collateral to pay for the new castilyernov at Heedra.”

“Majesty, the expenses of raising a new army will fall on a depleted treasury. As you’re aware, tackenbeck has been declining in popularity, and it’s Neuyokkasin principal cash crop. That and bad harvests have reduced the revenues for several years now.”

“We’re aware of the fiscal challenges, lord chatra. Unfortunately, the risk of a spring invasion is too great. It will take time to enlist sufficient men, then equip and train them. Starting at once, who knows if we can have such a force in place by spring? We must act at once and find the resources, where we can. Now, recall General Socockensmek to active duty. Offer him command of the new army and the northern defenses south of Hoya.”

The chatra prepared the necessary documents, and with the queen’s signature and seal, sent them by direct messenger to King Calamidese the Seventh.

The envoy never arrived in Sengenwhapolis.

*

“Your Majesty,” Memlatec said, “It’s time to write and insist… to demand that Crown Prince Augusteros return to Konnotan at once. He’s heir apparent, and his future subjects need to see him here among them to ensure their support when he ascends the throne. If he’s not in Neuyokkasin and war breaks out, the people won’t support him for their future king.”

The queen wrote the letter, this time demanding that the crown prince return. Augusteros wrote back he had other ideas. Memlatec frowned when informed by the queen of Augusteros’ response. He planned to marry Tatiana, the imperial crown princess of Powteros. The princess imperial stood second in line to inherit the imperial throne. The marriage would make Augusteros Imperial Consort of Powteros should she inherit. If he could secure that marriage, he'd unite Neuyokkasin with Powteros, creating an empire on the scale of the ancient Occintoc Empire. Prince Augusteros was going to gamble on the Powterosian princess imperial and that his mother lived until he was Imperial Consort of the greater empire.

Memlatec and the chatra set about repairing and rebuilding the fortifications around Konnotan in case the orcs breached the new and untested defenses along the Nhy. The wizard sent his winged agents out to search along the Sengenwhan southern border. Memlatec wanted to see if they could discover where the orcs were massing, if they were indeed in southern Sengenwha.

* * *

The athletic silhouette of King Calamidese stood out on the balcony as he walked along the terrace of his private apartments in the highest tower of Sekcmet Palace. The cool night air laced with cooking aromas and a wisp of autumn wood smoke blew through his wavy red hair. It toyed with the long flowing tips of his thick red mustache and passed on into the study beyond.

The breeze refreshed the king as he stood looking down on the peaceful courtyards and vine-covered walls surrounding the formal gardens below. The city lamplights beyond the palace grounds flicked their warm yellow hues up on the buildings walls, bathing the city in shimmering shades of pale ochre. The sights and sounds of the evening warmed him, and for a moment he enjoyed the façade of serenity nearly a century of peace had brought the city.

There was a knock at the study door behind him. It was loud.

Perhaps I didn’t hear it the first time, he thought. He turned and stepped back into the room, where he stood behind the ornate walnut desk and pretended to be searching for a book. He looked over his shoulder at the door, “You may enter.”

A neatly uniformed palace attendant entered, crossed the room, and stood rigidly upright before the king. The man stood silent awaiting the king to address him first, as per custom. The king turned from the bookcase.

“What is it?”

The attendant bowed, “Your Majesty, Dreaddrac’s ambassador left before giving you this gift. Since Your Majesty had already left the audience hall, he asked that this be given to you this evening when you weren’t pressed by the day’s events.”

King Calamidese looked down at a box as the servant extended it to him on a tray. He looked up at the servant. The king took the box, but didn’t open it.

“That will be all.”

The servant bowed again and withdrew.

Calamidese put the box on the desk and stared, still hesitant to open it. His thoughts ran back to the afternoon. Dreaddrac’s ambassador had come that morning to warn the king of unusual activity in Neuyokkasin.

Calamidese disliked the squat, oily little man. He wasn’t the sort one expected for an ambassador. He always has a smirk and arrogance far above what his stature and abilities inspired. While the king had little respect for the man, the monster he represented was another matter. Still looking at the box on the table, Calamidese moved it about and thought of the morning’s discussion.

Now Calamidese knew Dreaddrac’s king wouldn’t honor treaties. He’d use them to further his means to conquer the South. Dreaddrac would pretend to be his ally until Neuyokkasin fell. Then he’d turn on Calamidese and absorb Sengenwha without hesitation or second thought.

The king stepped back to the balcony doors between the draperies rippling in the evening breeze. He stepped out to look over the busting city again. He sighed and returned to sit at the desk resting his forehead on his hand.

“The treaty with Dreaddrac was a strategic mistake,” Calamidese said. The new Neuyokkasinian envoy and the old ambassador’s honor and integrity were above anything Dreaddrac’s ambassador would understand. Why did I agree to allow orcs to guard my southern border?”

When he signed the treaty, Dreaddrac’s ambassador had offered orc troops at no cost as a goodwill gesture in exchange for the military experience the troops would attain. In a moment of greed, it seemed like an enormous cost saving and he knew the arrangement would alarm Neuyokkasin. The old family desire for revenge on Neuyokkasin blinded him to the decision’s foolishness. Now he had a foreign army streaming through his kingdom that could, at any time, overpower his own troops and make him a puppet in his own country. Calamidese slammed his fist down on the desk, making the silver cap to the inkwell jump and tinkle when it landed back on the obsidian well.

“Greed and hatred are so corrosive,” he said aloud. “Now I see the price of my foolishness. I must think of a means to stop the subjugation of Sengenwha that I unwittingly agreed to.”

He ran his fingers back through his hair, pressing his skull. His gaze landed on the box in front of him. There was another knock at the study door.

“Enter.” Calamidese looked up, frowning annoyance.

“Your Majesty,” the chatra said, bowing.

“Yes, yes, what is it? Why must we be disturbed at this hour?”

“Orcs on the way south of Botahar have murdered an entire farm family and looted the farm. The neighbors found the people, a grisly sight they say. A delegation from the area has just arrived in the city and is demanding to speak with Your Majesty.” The man bowed low awaiting the king’s response.

“At this hour?” the king asked. He rose, walked around the desk and leaned back against it. “They expect us to grant them audience at this hour?”

The chatra didn’t raise his head, but said instead, “They’re angry, and the scene at the palace gate has drawn a crowd.”

“And what’s your function if not to handle domestic affairs? We’ve enough to occupy us without dealing with regional domestic issues like this. Go listen to the farmers’ grievances. Report to us in the morning before we grant a general audience. Mind that you obtain all the facts and report all the details.”

The chatra bowed, backing toward the door.

“Chatra.”

“Yes majesty?”

“Is there more news from Neuyokkasin?”

“Nothing new to report, Your Majesty. The ambassador awaits your reply and is quite vexed at the delay as you wisely expected.”

“You may go. And see to it we’re not disturbed again tonight.”

The man bowed one last time before closing the door.

Calamidese stepped again to the window. Sending the Neuyokkasinian ambassador back to Queen Eleatsubetsvyertsin with a request for troops to drive out the orcs would be quite a shock, he mused. Dreaddrac or Neuyokkasin, either way he was now going to be vassal to one monarch or the other. He’d lost, no, given away his own sovereignty before he realized it.

He walked on the balcony racking his brain, checking and rechecking his scenarios for some means to expel the orcs without toppling his throne. When he grew chilled in the night air, he reentered the study and sat at his desk. He looked down and the first thing he saw was the box. He reached for it, but again hesitated to open it. He pushed it away, sat back and thought again. He rose and called the guard.

“Has the chatra left the palace yet?”

“He’s not within sight, Your Majesty.”

“Go catch him. Bring him back here.”

The king heard the guard hurry down the hall. In a few minutes, the chatra returned to the study.

“What of this Neuyokkasinian prince, wandering somewhere north of Sengenwhapolis that’s supposed to be making his way south?” Calamidese asked.

“Dreaddrac’s ambassador lost his menacing grin and began fidgeting, when he told us about the missing prince. Whoever the prince is, for a secondary royal, he’s certainly annoyed the sorcerer,” the chatra said.

“What’s the prince’s significance and what caused the ambassador to lose his composure at the mention of him?”

“I know nothing of it, Your Majesty.” The chatra was wheezing, trying to catch his breath.

“Report on this prince tomorrow, when you have information on the incident in the southern province. That will be all.”

The door closed, and King Calamidese returned to his thoughts. I’d welcome such a visitor and entertain the prince to find out why Dreaddrac hunts him. If the prince is in my kingdom, I’ll know soon enough.

Next morning King Calamidese met with the chatra. How to play the Neuyokkasinian queen, the prince, and Dreaddrac off against one another and survive the conflagration consumed Calamidese’s thoughts, entering the throne room for the day’s audience. “Dispatch agents throughout the land to search for the prince and report on his whereabouts. Be discrete. Keep news of the internal search between us. Dreaddrac’s ambassador need not know of it.”

That afternoon, the king sent for his defense minister to meet in private.

“General, this is to be held in strictest confidence. We wish you to dispatch couriers to the various outposts on the northern borders, especially Prertsten’s border. Have their commanders report any strangers entering Sengenwha that might be from southern countries. The order is secret. Report to no one other than ourself, not even to the chatra. Do you understand?

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“We’re confident of our military commanders’ loyalty through their careers and oaths. No one else must learn of this search.”

Calamidese was less certain of the chatra.

The orcs are forming an army in the southern border’s marshes, he thought. Once they’re in place, I fear they could overpower the Sengenwhan army, reducing the kingdom to Dreaddrac’s vassal. It is as if Dreaddrac has already conquered Sengenwha. Perhaps a secret letter to Neuyokkasin’s queen could open the door to possible assistance in ejecting the creatures.

* * *

On a cold, rainy night two weeks later, the first of Dreaddrac’s murderous super-wraiths slipped into Dreaddrac’s embassy as a vapor and for a while watched the sleazy ambassador.

I’m greatly disappointed in every aspect of that nasty little man, he thought. The petty slug’s efforts seem to focus on annoying King Calamidese and impressing himself, rather than getting results that benefited Dreaddrac.

A servant brought the ambassador something to drink. Reaching to take the goblet, the ambassador smelled sulfur and began trembling. The wide-eyed servant froze. The ambassador collapsed to his knees as the vaporous specter descended from the ceiling, swirled around the servant, and slipped into the man through his gaping mouth. After horrendous twisting from the seizure’s pain, the wraith-servant stood, a cold near-lifeless tool, facing the ambassador. The silver tray he carried fell, clanging on the floor, igniting the room’s sizzling tension.

“What news have you for your master?” the wraith asked, through the servant’s lips.

“No… no certain news,” the quaking ambassador said. His disheveled hair atop his semi-bald head frizzed. The man remained bowed apparently terrified to look on the thing before him. “King Calamidese now seems to resent our orcs in Sengenwha. I think he may be contemplating expelling them.”

“You fool, you’ve offended Calamidese with your trivial annoyances and, in so doing, driven him from your master’s coalition. For the moment, we need his compliance.”

The ambassador cowered without response, staying hunched on the floor, trembling as the wraith-servant thought about what to do next.

”Send a servant to the palace at once and request an evening audience with King Calamidese tomorrow night. Tomorrow night, do you understand?”