Blood Betrayal Read online

  Opening his eyes, Rederick beheld a black armored young man with seemingly dead, gray skin sitting across from him, his face skewed in anger. The Dahken then stood and leapt up over the desk, somehow upending neither the chair behind him, nor the scrolls and parchments strewn across the king’s desk. He watched as an open, black mailed hand reached for his throat, growing inexorably closer. Though it took an eternity to reach him, Rederick found himself unable to move from its longing, hateful grasp. The cold, black steel encompassed his throat, threatening to rend his flesh and crush his windpipe.

  And the king awoke as the doors to his chambers softly closed.

  “I’m sorry,” sounded Mora’s soft voice. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

  Rederick stared at the empty chair across from him, pondering what he just envisioned – a Dahken, not unlike Cor, clearly intent upon murdering him. Why would such a vision come to him now? Or perhaps it was merely a dream, a residual haunt stirred up by the dark ghosts of the pasts. Just a dream, King Rederick thought.

  “No, it is all right. I must have dozed off,” Rederick replied, pushing himself upright again.

  He lifted his eyes to his queen, noting the slight concern in her face. Her dark hair and Western features were never more beautiful to his eye, either made so by years of their marriage or the belly that had swollen to clearly show her as a mother well into the last few months of pregnancy. That and her swollen breasts contrasted sharply with the taut muscles of a warrior’s body, a Paladin’s body. Watching his eyes, Mora gently touched the underside of her belly with her right hand, her only hand.

  The day she had announced her pregnancy to him was the happiest in years, for the last several had been fraught with hardship and no small amounts of bloodshed. Rederick hadn’t fathered a child in decades, and honestly, he didn’t know he was still capable of it. Mora of course, despite her Paladin’s dedication, was still young and strong. That she had chosen to be with him as wife and Queen of Aquis still mystified him, but he loved her in a way that he had forgotten after the death of his first wife, Red’s mother, so many years ago. Every time Mora smiled at him, he felt as if Garod’s light shined upon him.

  “You’re worried about that business in Losz,” she deduced, approaching him.

  “East Aquis,” Rederick corrected.

  “East Aquis, of course. Old habits,” she explained as she circumvented the desk to stand behind her husband. Mora placed her hand lightly on the back of his neck, and he could feel the permanent callouses from years of swordplay, despite the tenderness of her touch. “Then you should be happy to know that Menak has arrived in the palace. He came straight away upon receiving your return message.”

  “So, it was worth letting him place one of his stones in the palace, eh? Despite some people’s misgivings?”

  “Please don’t make me say you were right,” she pleaded, picturing the smug, lopsided smile that she couldn’t see as his face pointed away from her.

  “I won’t, and only because I love you. Now that Menak has arrived, perhaps I should call the Council together?”

  “Everyone is here except for Red, and that cannot be helped,” Mora nodded.

  Lord Red had been sent north a few weeks previously to mediate a dispute between an independent freehold of farmers and one of the Northmen clans. It was felt that sending such a prominent figure, a member of the King’s Council, would keep the situation from elevating to bloodshed. For if it did, the farmers would surely be slaughtered, and Aquis would have to retaliate in force. An invasion of the North would cause Clans to unite, and full scale war with the Northmen had never worked out well for any force in history.

  “The Council will meet an hour after dawn tomorrow then,” King Rederick concluded. “My love, I would be indebted to you if you would handle the details.”

  * * *

  King Rederick’s eyes traveled down the length of the table at which his Council had met for nearly a decade. A table of its like – a solid and sturdy table, made perhaps of elm with a reddish stain, that was about ten feet long and three feet wide and could comfortably sit the Council – was in short supply in the days immediately following Nadav’s first defeat, and the king selected it because it was there and available. Many carpenters had offered to craft a new table, something strong, immense and beautiful in its workmanship, something worthy to be used by King Rederick and his Grand Council, but the king would have nothing of it. This well-made piece of spartan furniture had survived the destruction of Byrverus, occupation by Loszians and the slamming of mailed fists. When he looked at it, Rederick hoped that history would view his rule as resolute as this simple table.

  However, it wasn’t the table itself that he reviewed this morning but rather those around it. Mora sat immediately to his right on a well-cushioned chair, leaning backward somewhat to ease the pressure that his child surely put upon her bladder.

  Immediately to her right sat the newest member of the council, a priest by the name of Greyson. He was a man of about thirty, young as the priests go and especially for having achieved so high a position as to be elected to the council. He had the white skin and nearly black hair of a pure Westerner, with a full beard to match that he kept closely trimmed. Greyson replaced Walthur at Council just a few months previously, once the older priest had finally admitted that his memory had failed immensely in the years since Bloody Gorge and stepped down from his seat. The Convocation spent several days selecting this young man, and Rederick had found him to be most quiet and contemplative. He seemed a mystery to most everyone, as no one really knew him personally, and he only seemed to go by the surname that announced him as Grey’s son. There was no question that he watched and reported everything to the priesthood.

  Then came the four Westerners to whom Rederick had given seats those years ago after he and Cor repulsed Nadav from Aquis. Of course, Red's seat sat empty, as he was away in the north, and Joth's seat was occupied by his son, the noble having been killed by a broken neck when his horse threw him suddenly two years after Bloody Gorge. When Pall Jothson had first come to Council, a wet behind the ears boy of only sixteen, he said or did little, always looking to the older noblemen for direction. King Rederick watched over the years since, as the boy started to truly grow into manhood, and as he started to more understand the troubles of his lands, he had more and more found his own voice at Council.

  To the king's left sat the foreigners. At least they had started as foreigners, feared, mistrusted and even despised at first by the Westerners. Immediately there was Menak, the Loszian gatekeeper of the Spine turned staunch ally in the defeating of Nadav. The sorcerer still wore blood red robes over his spidery frame, furthering the distrust his fellows had for him, at least in the beginning. He sat awkwardly at the table, for the wooden peg that served in place of the leg severed by Dahken Geoff so many years ago wanted to point straight out under the table top, occasionally intersecting his opposite, Mora. Additionally, he had taken to wearing robes that were longer in the sleeves to hide his missing hand. Menak made for a surreal mirror of the Paladin Queen.

  Next was Karak, one of the Seven Lords of Tigol, and lord over almost a quarter of East Aquis, or what used to be known as the Loszian Empire. There was uproar from the Westerners at the idea of a mercenary ruler sitting the council, besides the amount of land and wealth bestowed upon the Tigoleans for their aid in the war. However, Rederick had quickly quelled this rebellion of raised voices with his own thundering tones. The Tigolean lords had spent much in the war and deserved to be richly rewarded. Also, if they were to rule those lands by the word of the king, their concerns would need to have a voice. The Seven spent little time selecting Karak. Rederick had seen the man fight as fearsomely as one of the great white bears of the north, and yet he was also the oldest and, most likely, the wisest among the Tigolean lords.

  Last on Rederick's left came Dahken Keth, the stalwart friend and ally of Lord Dahken Cor. Years of sitting the council hadn't changed the Dahken's calm, q
uiet demeanor, and he always supported the most even keeled response to any matter or crisis. Keth should have been seated directly to the right of the man he had always viewed as his better, Lord Dahken Cor. Cor's chair was immediately across from King Rederick at the other end of the table, and it was here that the king's gaze lingered for some time.

  The Lord Dahken was absent, though not notably. After Bloody Gorge, Cor had slowly faded from view, leaving his Crescent less and less to sit at either the king’s Council or dinner table. About three years ago, he’d shown up one evening, offering apologies and promises to be present and involved more; it had lasted for two or three days.

  After Bloody Gorge, the remains of the armies returned to Byrverus, and it wasn't until then that Rederick called the first Council to begin the discussion of this new world they had created. As Counselors arrived, some such as the Dahken and Mora, simply strode to their accustomed places, but as Menak and Karak took places on one side of the table, the Westerners made certain to sit across. They showed their distrust plainly by having six crammed together on one side of the table, rather than sit amongst the three non-Westerners. The king had sighed inwardly, though he understood the reaction, and he knew he could have ordered at least one to sit amongst Keth, the Loszian and the Tigolean. Red would have been the most at home with such a thing, as he had fought alongside both Keth and Karak, but the king decided it would be best for the Counselors to earn each other’s trust naturally. They still sat segregated, but Rederick thought that it had become more habit than anything else.

  "It appears we are again missing one," King Rederick announced without ceremony. When Cor's absences began, most of the other Counselors, especially the Westerners, had been derisive of the fact. Eventually it had become commonplace, and none of them hardly noticed anymore. Though, Rederick always hoped, and his patience had finally run out. "I suppose we shall begin without Lord Dahken Cor's presence.

  "Some weeks ago I received a dispatch from Lord Menak," Rederick began, with a motion to the Loszian. "In it I read some disquieting rumors about Eastern Aquis. I sent for him to come to Byrverus, and I called for Council upon his arrival. I'll allow Lord Menak to speak."

  "As you all know," Menak began, "we have faced many challenges integrating Losz -"

  "East Aquis," Rederick corrected firmly.

  "Yes of course, East Aquis," the Loszian agreed quickly, but Rederick detected a hint of regret there. "Integrating East Aquis into the ways of the Western world over the last eight years has been difficult to say the least. Bringing the remaining Loszian nobles under King Rederick's rule was easy compared with what was to follow. Nadav destroyed much and slew many, damaging so much of the core of the nation. We faced widespread hunger and monetary woes, placing great strain on the rest of Aquis. It was only with the savvy of our Tigolean friends," Menak said with a gesture to Lord Karak, "and their network that we stabilized the region."

  "We know all this. What does recent history have to do with why we are here today?" asked Greyson.

  Rederick noted that while the younger priest had never spat venom at Menak as had his predecessor, there was always a certain edge in his voice while addressing the Loszian. It should not have surprised the king, after all, he sometimes marveled at his own ability to so readily accept a hereditary enemy as an important voice in his lawmaking. King Rederick held up a calming hand, "Peace. Let Menak continue."

  "When King Rederick dissolved the Loszian Empire, he also freed thousands upon thousands of slaves, whose only existence was to serve their masters in whatever way necessary. This had been life and law in Losz for thousands of years. We bred Westerners to be slaves, better slaves than their ancestors, rewarding loyalty and wiping out individuality. The newfound freedom created our greatest struggle - hundreds of thousands of people who have no idea how to live without being told. In his wisdom, King Rederick gave them all plots of land to farm, workshops for those who were skilled, so that they may learn to 'earn a living' in a trade as Westerners do. This created huge hardship for our kingdom, and he was then forced to levy taxes upon the new farmers and heavier taxes upon the rest of Aquis.

  "In eight years, many of those freed from slavery still know not how to live for themselves," he continued. "We have thousands of Westerners living in squalor, begging on the streets of the cities or roving the countryside, looking for someone who will tell them how to live. It would seem they have found someone. There is a sorcerer in the northern part of Lo-, East Aquis, called Lord Than'Tok. It would appear that he has enslaved some three thousand former slaves."

  "What?" blurted Greyson, though he quickly regained his calm and collected demeanor. But his exclamation wasn't the only one, as Rederick saw reactions from the others around the table as well. Pall Jothson sat back suddenly against his chair as if he had been struck, and his face registered the stun of such a blow. Karak nodded his head in confirmation, while Keth merely raised one eyebrow silently. Mora, whom already knew this information merely sat quietly, her hand resting on the underside of her belly. Had Red been here he would have likely stood abruptly from his chair, bellowing his disbelief, just as Rederick may have once in his younger years.

  "This should not surprise anyone," Menak stated coldly, looking around the table. "In fact, we should be surprised only that it took as long as it did for such to happen. I sent word of this to King Rederick by scroll, and I investigated while I awaited his answer. It would seem that Than'Tok's slaves have turned to him, they have enslaved themselves to him of their own free will. You freed them so that they could run back to slavery. Ironic, eh?"

  "Slavery does not exist in the Shining West. It is against the word of Garod," stated Greyson.

  "It is against the word of King Rederick," Menak replied. "Garod does not establish law amongst men in the Shining West."

  "Regardless," Mora interrupted, cutting off any response the priest would have made, "we cannot allow this to go on."

  "Even if it is the wish of the enslaved?" asked Menak. "I might add that Than'Tok has not in any way declared himself free of King Rederick's rule."

  "But slavery is an affront to my rule and to Garod. I will not allow anyone under my rule to enslave the people under them," Rederick replied.

  "I mean no offense, My King," Menak said carefully with a slight bow of his head, "but I am not certain you are being given a choice. They freely turned to Than'Tok."

  "If I may," Karak immediately interjected, and all eyes turned to him expectantly.

  As the Tigolean collected his thoughts, considered how he would say his next words, Rederick took in the man's appearance which had changed little since they first met some eight or nine years ago in Byrverus. He kept his head cleanly shaven, as well as his yellow face except for the black mustache which fell long past the corners of his mouth. Excepting a few lines around his eyes, the man hadn't appeared to have aged since the war with Nadav. When he was not armed for battle, Karak seemed to prefer the basic wool clothes of the average Tigolean merchant.

  "King Rederick makes the law in Aquis, as is his right. He is King. The Shining West has not known slavery for thousands of years, and it is not the great evil you may think it to be. In Tigol, it is only a business arrangement, and the mistreatment that the Loszians once heaped upon your people does not exist in Tigol. Let it be so in East Aquis, if the slaves so wish it.

  "May I ask," he continued, looking to Keth at his left, "where do the Dahken stand?"

  Keth's eyes widened momentarily at the question, as if he hadn't expected anyone to ask his opinion, much less that of the Dahken as a whole. Rederick watched as the man struggled over an answer to the question, thoughts flashing ever so slightly across his face. After a long silence that could've only been a few seconds, the Dahken again acquired his usual mild demeanor.

  "I cannot speak for the Dahken race," Keth replied. "Only Lord Dahken Cor can do that."

  "Lord Dahken Cor is not here," King Rederick quickly shot back. "You sit this Council and are e
qual to him in my eyes. I would know your thoughts on this."

  Keth sighed softly as he realized that he would not be released from his responsibility so easily, and he found no help in the faces of those around the table. "While I will defer to my Lord Dahken should he voice a different opinion, I would suggest a more moderate approach."

  "Allow slavery within the Shining West?" Mora gasped.

  "No, I'm not saying that," Keth said quickly. "I mean only that I don't think we have a clear image of what is happening in East Aquis. I intend no disrespect to Lord Menak. I'm sure he has been diligent in his report of the happenings on that side of the kingdom, but perhaps we should send a party to Lord Than'Tok."

  "And what would this party do?" Rederick asked.

  "Further investigate the situation, report back to the Council and enforce the king's will, whatever it may be."

  "There is one more from whom I would hear," said Rederick, and several eyes inadvertently went to the empty chair at the opposite end of the table.

  "My King, I will go speak with Lord Dahken Cor, beseech him to come to you at once," Keth offered.

  "No, Dahken Keth," Rederick disagreed, and he stood from the table, causing those around the table to stand as well, "you will do better than that. You will take me to him. Now."

  Dahken Keth

  Even though it was far from noon, Keth had felt hungry during Council, but that feeling abated quickly at King Rederick's command. The Dahken led the taller man up a flight of stone steps and through the basalt and granite stone corridors that made the Crescent, and the closer they tread to their destination, the more Keth's stomach churned. He had tried to get through to Cor, as had Thyss, but as more and more time passed, the Lord Dahken retreated further into the confines of his small office or his quarters. Rederick was about to remind Cor of his duty, and somehow, Keth didn't think the discussion would go particularly well. At least, he didn't think any good would come of it, even if nothing bad did.