by Wilbur Arron
“You can also tell your brother and father to stop playing their political games here,” I said emphatically. “I do not want to rule here as I told you and Zilar before. I am not your enemy, but you are rapidly making me into one if this nonsense does not stop.”
Diomedes said nothing but shot to his feet. “I have many things to discuss with my brother, and I need to see him as soon as possible.” He turned to Cleon. “I will need fresh horses for me and my two guards.”
“You will have them,” the tetrarch said.
Diomedes continued, “While they are being readied, I think I will talk to Melanthios. There are a few questions I wish to ask him in private.”
With that, our archon left the room and Philie took him to the dungeons. He left with his two friends by early afternoon. I used the Speaking Stone and contacted my forest friends. They met Melina and me as we left that night through one of the secret passageways out of the palace. The next day I called all my friends together and told them what had happened.
“Do you have any of your kind in the White Mountains?” I asked the Old One who had come.
“No,” he told me. “It is too cold up there for my kind. We live only in the Central Mountains as your kind calls them.”
There went my idea for spying on the Zilar. There was one good thing: with the Zilar taking Vorepolis, they had shown their plan. They would not be doing a major campaign of conquest this year. What force we had in Erinus could keep them in place, not that they wanted to go anywhere.
“So, what do we do now?” Melina asked.
“Not much,” I said. “The game now depends on Zilar and his horde. We will find out soon enough what their move is.”
Melina made a big frown. “Good luck with that,” she grunted.
CHAPTER SEVEN: AMBASSADOR
After Melina and I returned to our home, something completely unexpected happened.
Nothing!
I expected to hear something from Diomedes, Pallas, or maybe even the ethnarch, but I heard nothing from any of them. Even the few messages we got from Cleon and Philie were devoid of any news about the invasion. The only news I did hear was that the ethnarch released Theron and sent him back to his home in Tyros. Theron was no longer useful as a hostage, in any case. We heard nothing more about Melanthios or his minions, or much of any news about anything else going on. It was not that Cleon was trying to keep us ignorant of conditions, there was just nothing going on. The Zilar took Vorepolis and stayed there, quietly.
There were also no more visits into the forest by people looking for trouble. I had my friends watch closely, but there were no more intrusions into the forest except people looking for firewood and small game to eat.
I decided to use the late spring for a project that I needed to take care of. With the expenses of building my new house and supplying the needs of Melina and me, my reserves of gold dust were starting to get low. Malcor had left me three bags full of gold dust, maybe half a talent in total. I had gone through two of the bags and was into the third. It was time to replenish my reserves. This was one of the most closely guarded secrets Malcor ever shared with me. I never even discussed it with Philie when she lived here.
The plantings were in, the fields needed little maintenance except weeding, my animal friends had their duties, the Zilar were quiet, and no strangers were about trying to kill me. It seemed the perfect time to do this. One morning, while I ate my meal of oatmeal mush with my wife, I casually told her: “Today I am going to show you how to become one of the richest women in Argina,” I said with a grin.
That got her attention. She dropped her wooden spoon and looked at me. “Oh, and how is that?” she asked with a smile.
“Malcor had one great secret that he and I never shared with anyone, and that was the source of his wealth. With all our expenses, our gold supply is starting to get low. It is time to get some more. Only we must be very careful about it.”
Melina looked a bit perplexed. “Why, no one comes here? Most are too afraid and for good reason.”
“Yes, they are afraid because of what happened here in the past. There is one thing, however, that will bring strangers into the forest by the thousands, and that is the gold that is in the hills near here. The presence of gold can overcome man’s fear of the unknown and bring out their worst behavior. Both of which could lead to disaster in this forest. What I will show you today and over the next few days, you must never share with anyone, not even your brother. If others knew about this, hordes of people would come into the forest ignoring any past stories of doom. They would trample everything flat. It would be the end of the forest and everyone inside. If there is one thing that will turn men into animals, it is greed.”
Melina slowly nodded her head as she understood what I said was true. “Very well, I will show no one,” she promised.
We dressed in work clothes, and she followed me out past the mill and into the woods. There are high cliffs near my cave, and from those cliffs falls a stream of water. That stream cuts through rocks as it falls and washes out sediment from the rock face. The water hits the ground and forms a shallow pool that I sometimes use for bathing. It swiftly flows downhill from the pool toward my house and then powers my mill. I divert a small amount of this to my house. The rest flows into my settling pond and overflows it. The overflow I use to water my fields when needed. The water becomes one stream again nearby, and then it flows into the Allund River and is carried away into the desert.
There is a small outcropping of rock that has a narrow passageway which leads into the side of the hill. It is hard to see from the ground. Ptolemy and his raiders never found it. At the end of the passage is a small cave Malcor hid from view by undergrowth he planted. In the cave, under several blankets of waterproof leather, there is a wooden box that Malcor built. That simple box is one of the greatest secrets of the entire forest. The box is unusual. It sits on a cradle with wheels that I can remove. The box is curved on the bottom so I can rock it back and forth. It is about three podia long by three podia wide and three podia tall. In one end is a large hole on the side near the top. There is also another hole near the bottom that is closed by a plug. The inside bottom of the box has a tray that sits on the hard wooden bottom. The tray fits almost perfectly into the box. On the top of the tray, there are several strips of wood nailed into it, so the bottom resembles a huge wooden file.
“That is the secret?” Melina asked. “What is it, a cradle for a baby titan?”
I smiled, and together we removed the leather blankets and wheeled the box out to the mill. I removed the waterwheel so that water from upstream would fall into the box rather than power the wheel and then took the wheels off the bottom. Soon the box filled with water until it came out of the large hole in the side. I undressed, got a bucket and a shovel, and went over to the settling pond. I used the shovel to dig soil from the bottom of the settling pond and put it into the bucket. When it was full, I went over and dumped the dirt into the top of the box, and I repeated this until I had maybe ten buckets of soil in the box. I then rocked the box back and forth while Melina stirred the inside of the box with a shovel.
Most of the sediment was light and so mixed into a solution with the water and was washed out of the the large hole. I continued shaking the box and stirring the inside until the water ran out clear. I pulled the plug out of the bottom of the box so that almost all the remaining water ran out. Next, I used the shovel to lightly mix the remaining soil that sat on the tray until I washed most of the heavier dirt off the tray and out the lower hole. There, between the wood strips shone bright metal flakes. It was gold. I took my shirt and laid it out on the ground, then took the tray out of the box and turned it upside-down so the gold dust fell out on the shirt. There was about a handful. Melina was amazed.
“We have bathed in gold all this time,” she said. “Is this some magik?”
“Not magik, but knowledge,” I told her. “The water, as it falls, cuts through the rock and slowly carries
the sediments away along with small amounts of gold. The water flows quickly from the bottom of the falls and then downhill toward our house. The sediment and gold are carried with it. I use that swift flow to power the mill. When it hits the settling pond, the flow slows to nearly nothing. All the sediment drops to the bottom of the pond. All the heavy gold collects there also. We remove the dirt and use this machine to separate the gold from the useless soil.”
“Amazing,” Melina said. “Can I try it?”
I gave her the shovel. She undressed, went into the pond and filled several buckets herself. Under my direction, she put several buckets of dirt into the box and then repeated what I did with the same results. We took turns and continued to dig out the sediment pond until mid-afternoon. By then we had dug out maybe a third of the settling pond and had more than half a sack of gold. I figured that was enough for one day.
“We are both dirty now,” I said to my wife. “Would you care for a golden bath before dinner?”
“I would love that,” she said and led me to the settling pond where we spent the late afternoon cleaning each other and enriching ourselves by other means.
Over the next four days, we dug out the settling pond and half the bottom of the stream bed that ran from the falls to the mill. We refilled all three sacks of gold dust. Now I had another half talent of gold to call upon. Following that task, it was time to weed my fields, which took a day. Two market intervals of ten days each passed since we had left Korpolis when we received a visitor from the east—but it was not whom I expected.
My friends warned me he was coming. They told me they did not know this rider, so I knew it was not one of my friends from the polis. Taking the usual precautions, I met the rider alone on the road. To my surprise, it was Lochagos Nomiki, the commander of the detail that took me to Arginnia after I had killed Archon Lycus.
“Greetings, Lochagos Nomiki,” I said formally and bowed slightly. “What brings you back to Korpolis?”
“I am with Megas Archon Pallas,” he told me, getting off his horse. “I have been sent by the Megas Archon to find you. He remembered you and I knew each other, so he sent me instead of coming himself. He told me he wanted to ensure you have no misunderstandings about the purpose of the visit.”
I understood exactly what he meant. “Your Megas Archon is getting wiser as he ages. So, what message do you have?”
“Megas Archon Pallas, Arch-Mage Theodoros, Polemarch Xanphos, Archon Diomedes, and Tetrarch Cleon are having a council meeting in Korpolis in two days to discuss the Zilar invasion. He wishes to see you there.”
For a moment, I thought this was a lame joke by someone, but I knew as a senior member of the Ethnarch’s Guard, Nomiki would not be sent on a fool’s mission. I took a deep breath, remembering he was only carrying out his orders. “Did anyone tell you what happened to me over the past month?”
“Yes,” he said without expression. “When I explained my mission to Oligarch Cleon, Lochagos Philie explained the matter to me in great detail. That is why I came alone and not with my escort.”
“You are a lot wiser than Pallas,” I told him. “You will also understand when I tell you to return to the Megas Archon and tell him I am not foolish enough to accept any invitation from a person who just sent his minions to kill me.”
“I understand, Mage Sopholus,” he answered. “I am also ordered to tell you the Megas Archon has guaranteed the safety of you and your family under a sacred oath sworn to all the gods in front of the archiereas.”
I tried not to burst out laughing. Nomiki was serious, although I did not think Pallas was. “Sorry,” I told him. “If the Megas Archon and the others wish to meet me, it will be here in my forest, and they will come alone and without an escort. I warn you and them that I have the means to detect any duplicity.”
“I am well aware of your powers, Mage Sopholus,” Nomiki said.
“If they accept my terms, have a single rider return and tell me when they will be here. If unacceptable, I am deeply sorry, but I am not putting my head in an iron collar to be strangled.”
“Yes, Mage Sopholus, I will take your message,” Nomiki told me and bowed.
“Anything else?” I asked.
“No, that is all. I will return immediately,” he said before bowing again and riding off.
As soon as he was gone, Melina came out from behind the trees, her bow in hand. “You heard that?” I asked my wife.
“You think it is a ploy to kill you?” she asked. “To swear an oath before the highest priest in the vasíleio and then break it is certain to get you sent to Tartarus.”
“I think that Pallas believes as much in the gods and the afterlife as I do,” I said. “In any case, I do not trust him in the least.”
“Then we can only see what happens,” she said, and we went back to our house.
Two days later, in the morning, Nomiki arrived again and told me that Pallas, Diomedes, Cleon, Iolaos, Theodoros, and Xanphos would all come to see me the next morning. “I will also be coming,” he added.
I noticed he did not mention Philie, “And Philie?”
“Iolaos told me to tell you she has been advised not to ride until the birth of her child,” he said.
That made good sense. “I understand,” I told him. “We will await you all tomorrow. Have Iolaos lead you to our house.”
I had a fast talk with my friends who would also be there, but hidden. That did not matter that much; other than Nomiki, everyone coming already knew who my friends were. We spent the rest of the day, early evening, and early next morning preparing dinner for nine. It was not a feast because I had only a limited amount of wine, but the salted lamb and other foods I bought recently should make for a good meal.
Around mid-morning Lycos told me they were on their way. It was not long before the seven of them rode into the small clearing in front of my house. It took every couch and chair I owned to seat them all in the main dining room. Melina made the usual small talk while I studied my guests closely. All were heavily armed and armored, so the distrust in the room was running both ways. Finally, Pallas just stood up and motioned to everyone to hush. Melina excused herself and went into the kitchen to work on the meal. I did not tell anyone she had her bow in the kitchen, hidden behind some firewood.
“I do not like the fact you did not trust me enough to meet us in Korpolis,” the Megas Archon started. “I also do not like the letter you sent my father.”
“And I do not like your friends shooting arrows at me, so we are even,” I countered.
Pallas took an exasperated breath. “You will not believe this, Master Mage, but I swear before all the Olympian Gods I did not order Melanthios or his other men to kill you. I know he works for Krateros who oversees my spies, but as we found out, Melanthios and his people will work for others besides me.”
“I see, so who paid him to kill me?” I asked.
“I do not know who he was working for when he tried to kill you, but I have sent him to my father. He has a way of finding out such things.”
So that meant Melanthios was conveniently out of the way, probably forever. “Other than the Zilar, I have heard that many of you in this room would just as soon see me dead.” I made a point of looking directly at Theodoros and Diomedes when I said this.
“What Melanthios said about some of my younger mages and the younger priests discussing your death is true,” Theodoros admitted. “They discussed this in a few taverns in Arginnia, and I am sure Melanthios and his men overheard the conversations. I can promise you that neither the Mage Council nor the Megas Mage himself has any interest in your early demise.”
“But it would not break their hearts if I did drop dead,” I added.
Theodoros just shook his head and went quiet.
“Very well,” I said, putting on a false grin. “None of you want me dead. Well, none of you had to come out here to tell me this. So why are you all here? I doubt if it is for the intellectual conversation.”
Xanphos got up.
“Alex, we have a dilemma. The Zilar have Vorepolis, and there is no way we can take it back. They have already fortified the two mountain passes. It would take an army to force those passes, and most of the army would be dead by the time they got through. Since we have no navy, we cannot attack them by sea. The Zilar, on the other hand, can go to almost any place in Argina at will. You are right when you say that a year from this fall, the Zilar will have enough supplies to invade anywhere on the great plain. We cannot stop them from doing that. We can only hope to contain them and destroy them in battle once they land.”
None of this was news to anyone who can read a map. “And what is your solution, polemarch?” I asked.
“We need help and need it soon. The only way we can attack Vorepolis is to destroy the Zilar navy based there. For that, we need ships and a navarch* (admiral) to lead them. We have neither.” With that, Xanphos sat down.
“There is our problem,” Pallas continued. “We need ships and sailors but have none. There is only one vasíleio that does have a fleet, and that is Lantia. Somehow, we have to get Ethnarch Pytheas of Lantia to join us in an attack on Vorepolis.”
“Send an ambassador to Lantia to discuss it,” I suggested. “Zilar’s people made it clear: once he has destroyed us, Lantia would be next to fall.”
“We are,” Pallas added. “We want to send you.”
I heard a plate hit the floor and break in the kitchen. They wanted to send me. Why would anyone listen to me?
“I am of no noble birth. I have no experience in being an ambassador,” I said. “Any of you would be better choices.”
“Unfortunately, you were the only one that heard the Zilar threats directly,” Pallas said. “Pytheas and his family would have reason not to believe any of us. He would believe you because you heard it directly and you are a Master Mage. Pytheas is greatly influenced by the mages of Lantia.”
“Was a Master Mage,” I corrected. “That rank was taken from me. I no longer have any connection to the Brotherhood.”