Portals of Infinity: Book Three: Of Temples and Trials

by John Van Stry

  “Huh, didn’t know that.”

  We chatted some more, and eventually he went off to find his wife Sarah, Darlene’s sister. Now that Sarah wasn’t working the floor anymore, she was working with Darlene learning how to run the inn.

  I had to laugh, Sergeant Chaucer really didn’t want much to do with running the inn, his father had owned it after all. After I bought into it I set Darlene up to help run it, and now she’d enlisted her sister Sarah and so he was dragged back to it regardless.

  I went and helped Darlene close up for the night and took her off to bed. I’d be leaving soon to head back to Saladin and my God Feliogustus. Apparently he had quite a lot of work for me to do.

  Two

  (Saladin – Hiland City)

  It was late at night, and I was in bed with Rachel. She’d canceled her afternoon session with her advisors when I had walked into the castle and dragged me off to our private quarters, not that I minded; it had been almost four months since I’d seen her last and I missed her as much as she had missed me.

  “So, how long are you back for?” Rachel asked as she nuzzled up under my chin. I stroked the short fur of her side as I curled my tail around her. Being a felinoid was strange, especially with how natural it felt. I suspected Fel had something to do with that when I had become his champion. He had admitted that he’d ‘made a few changes’ after all.

  “From what Fel told me when I gated into the temple, I gather that’s up to you.”

  Rachel gave a happy little growl at that. “Ooooh have I got plans for you!”

  “I was under the impression he didn’t expect me to spend the rest of my days in bed,” I teased, “not that I would mind...”

  I got whacked on the side of the head by her tail. “Of course you wouldn’t, but as much as I’d like to keep my husband chained to my bed where he belongs... Hey!” She squeaked as I pinched her butt with a claw, “Respect your Queen, Nave!”

  “Oh, I’ll respect her in the morning, but right now I have an uppity wife to deal with!”

  “Oh I’ll show you uppity!” she mock growled and tore into me with a will.

  We tussled for quite a while and she striped me with her claws more than a few times, I didn’t bother to count. Rachel could be a volatile woman at times, as the Queen she didn’t get many opportunities to just unleash her anger and frustrations. As she couldn’t really hurt me, well permanently at least, I’d let her vent on me.

  Plus the makeup sex was always wonderful afterwards.

  “Are we done?” I asked her when she ran down and I pinned her to the bed beneath me.

  “You are too good to me,” She purred and relaxed.

  “So what’s got you all wound up this time?”

  “The simple fact that I have to send you out almost immediately after getting you back here. That’s what,” Rachel grumbled.

  “Oh?” I lowered myself down and gave her a kiss cuddling her.

  “You’re getting blood on the blankets hon.”

  “Wouldn’t want the servants to think I ran your life now, would we?” I purred.

  Rachel laughed. “Let everyone see you cut up like that and they’ll be terrified of me.”

  “It just shows everyone how much I love you dear,” I smiled still purring. “So, what do you need me to do?”

  “Well,” Rachel said rolling onto her side and pushing her back against my chest. “I want to bring the three nearest city-states under control.”

  “Attacking those might put your neighbors up in arms hon.” I snickered.

  She hit me with an elbow, “I didn’t say conquer, I said brought. Not everything needs a direct application of force you know.”

  “Umm-hmm,” I said and started to groom the top of her head, letting some of my feline instincts have their way.

  “I’m sending you with a delegation to discuss matters of trade, mutual protection, and to drop a few hints that joining my kingdom would be very beneficial to their leaders.”

  “And if they don’t want to?” I asked curious.

  “And if they don’t want to I’ll just have to stripe you a few more times,” she giggled. “Don’t go threatening them with claws and fang; we’re doing this to help them after all. They’re not stupid; as we expand, we’ll be taking over the lands around them one day. Better to join us and become a lord in my court, than find us sitting out side your walls one day dictating terms.”

  “Well isn’t that a threat?” I asked curious.

  “It’s what will happen in due time, it’s inevitable. I know it, they know it. I don’t have to make this offer to them, they know that too.”

  “So why give them an out?”

  “Because they’ll be better subjects if they join willingly, also it will be a lot cheaper to buy them off than to send in my army.”

  I nodded at that and rolled her over to face me.

  “You make it sound like it will be easy,” I said and moved my grooming attentions down to her throat making her rumble rather contentedly. I’d learned just how much Rachel appreciated all these little signs of love and affection. Then again, so did Dialene. But I enjoyed giving them; I did love them after all.

  “Oh they’ll balk a little at first, they’ll posture and maybe complain, but eventually they’ll come around.” She purred putting her arms around my neck and running her fingers through the thicker mane-like hair on my head.

  “I’m sending you to Kethel first,” she purred as I worked a little lower. “I suspect they’ll almost fall over themselves to join. Tradeson after that, then up to Stongshold.”

  I grumbled when she mentioned Stongshold, that place was a fortress.

  “Too bad,” she purred. “Now, how about showing me some of that love and devotion my big nasty Champion has for his Queen?”

  I gave her a lusty growl and spent some time doing just that.

  The next morning came and Rachel’s tail was definitely dragging. She frowned at me more than once, because mine wasn’t. This close to my God’s center of power I could go days without sleep, and had in the past.

  “Want me to keep you company today?” I asked over breakfast. I had gotten up early and spent an hour playing with our son and now I was helping the nanny feed him.

  “You look way to smug for a male with that many slices in his fur,” Rachel said with a slight grumble. But I could see she was smiling all the same.

  “Course I am, I married the most loving, beautiful, intelligent, wonderful female on the continent, nay, the world!” I gave her a toothy grin when I finished and even the nanny giggled.

  Rachel smirked “My councilors are in for a rough time of it today, aren’t they?”

  “Oh I’m sure they’ll soon realize that each of these little love marks are from my mate working out the frustrations that they themselves are no doubt responsible for.”

  Rachel laughed at that. “I’d feel sorry for them, but damn if they don’t deserve it!”

  “Well what good is having your own personal arm twister if he’s not out there twisting arms.”

  “Yes, definitely. Let’s go twist.”

  We finished breakfast and walked out of the living quarters and down the hall to the council chambers. The Hilander Castle wasn’t really much of a castle by the standards I had learned as a kid growing up, overall it was fairly understated. Not to say it was small, the living quarters were probably three times the size of the house I grew up in, there were guards both inside and out, and there were some fortifications, but not the type you’d want to stand off an army with. More just to keep it secure, there were valuable things here, and the King or Queen and their family lived here.

  Also, the council chambers and the great hall were here. The council chambers were just that, where the council met with the ruler to engage in the day-to-day business of running the kingdom. It was where the lords and other peerage could bring their problems for a hearing with their Queen. The great hall was as the name implied a great big hall. It was for audiences, and stat
e events. All of the kingdom’s bureaucrats worked in a separate building on the other side of the grounds.

  Apparently, the ruling family liked to keep them at arms length, not that I blamed them personally.

  There had been six councilors on the council when I first came to Hiland and saved Rachel’s life and her kingdom. With the addition of the former Mulander kingdom to hers, they had added three more members to take on the extra work of running the now much larger kingdom. The number of nobles had increased as well.

  I looked around the room as we entered, we were walking arm in arm. I always showed Rachel lots of affection in public, I also deferred to her when she was acting as Queen. At least on anything official.

  Ramert was sitting near the head of the table now, he’d moved up quite a bit in status in the last two years, now that he had two sons and a daughter who could inherit his title. Wreth hadn’t changed much; he’d never been more than a minor cog on the council and seemed content to stay that way, just looking for whatever benefits he could get without taking any risks. Diament hadn’t moved up, but he hadn’t moved down either, so with the addition of the three new members and the increase in the size of the kingdom his influence had grown some just by the act of staying where he was.

  As I looked at each of those three Ramert smiled, Wreth trembled, and Diament discretely looked away. They all knew I had my eye on them since our last little incident, but only Ramert knew he had nothing to fear.

  Looking around the table, I then looked at the rest of the people seated there. I knew all of them as well, some better then the rest, a few not very well at all.

  Holse, who was the commander of the Queen’s army smiled at me and I smiled back.

  Narasamman, the high priestess for Feliogustus from the temple also smiled, and then winked.

  Next was one I had only learned of last night while talking with Rachel, Drea, the tanner’s son who I had run across after we had taken over the Mulander city of Rivervail was now on the council. Apparently, he really did have a way with people that compared to his way with the suhzen. He was not only the leading merchant in Rivervail, the former Mulander city, but he was the mayor now as well. For all that he was a rather plain looking young man, he was rather charismatic. He smiled and nodded happily when I looked at him.

  Reese, the mayor of the Hilander city was next; she was probably the oldest person in the room, and probably the wisest. She was also Rachel’s aunt and visited quite often.

  Next came Sorin, who was in charge of the port we had gained with the capture of Rivervail and our small but growing merchant navy.

  Last of all was Shellia, she was our foreign affairs advisor I guess you would say. Now that Rachel’s kingdom had ready access to quite a few other kingdoms, she had decided we needed one.

  They all stood as we entered the room and waited until Rachel had taken her seat at the head of the table, before sitting back down. I took a seat on her right after she sat. I didn’t really have much standing here, as I was Feliogustus’s agent and took my orders either from him or from Rachel. When we had married, she’d made it clear that I would not be joining the nobility.

  However, I was not afraid to punch any single one of them in the face and break an arm or two if they pissed Rachel off or I didn’t like their attitude, and they all knew that too. The best part of it all was that they couldn’t do a thing about it either, I only answered to my God or to Rachel, and I didn’t always listen to either one of them.

  Rachel turned to the scribe seated on her left, “Where are we today Telran?”

  “Well your highness, we were discussing the matter of the budget Mister Sorin had submitted, before you adjourned us yesterday.”

  Rachel looked around the table and I could see she was not happy. I smiled and looked around the table and I think the others started to notice that obviously their Queen had been very frustrated last night. The only pair of ears that didn’t go down where Ramert’s, the rest all look suitably worried.

  “Yes, budgets. Let’s talk about all of your budget’s why don’t we?” Rachel said with a slight growl slowly looking around the table.

  I couldn’t help but smile wider; my little wife could be such a ruthless and bloodthirsty minx. Just another of the many reasons why I loved her. Several of the councilors glanced at me and seeing my smile, they wilted further in their chairs.

  “A good many of you seem to think that I am made of money these days because of the slight windfall we have received over the last year.”

  “If I may you highness,” Diament interrupted, “I would hardly call the increase in our revenues ‘slight’.”

  “Have you taken into account our increased expenses? Or how our food reserves are dangerously depleted after the many years of war with the Mulanders? Food reserves that now have twice as many mouths to account for? Or perhaps our medical stores? We used up nearly all of those as well. And seed stocks, we barely were able to plant all of the farms owned by the crown, and let’s not even mention the state of my livestock!” Rachel said staring at him.

  “Well, yes, but those will be built back up with time...”

  “Time that we do not have.” She said putting a hand on my arm as I gave a very soft growl.

  “There are those of you who think we should expand the Army, which we are still rebuilding,” She looked at Holse who had the good grace to look embarrassed. “Or that we should build a large merchant fleet and even a Navy,” She looked at Sorin who opened his mouth but shut it quickly when I gave another soft growl.

  “Others of you want to expand our cities, build new defenses, granaries, mills; all of you have plans for the new monies in my treasury. Well the first thing you need to learn is that it is my treasury. It belongs to the crown, and you need to stop thinking of it as your own, to stop thinking of what you can do with it, what you can get out of it. Am I clear?”

  They all looked a bit embarrassed, well Narasamman and Ramert didn’t, Narasamman didn’t because the church paid its own way, and Ramert because Rachel had told me last night that he was not at all afraid to spend his own funds and had been.

  “I said, is that clear?’ Rachel said again, this time with a growl of her own.

  “Yes your highness!” They all quickly replied looking even more embarrassed and perhaps a little surprised. Rachel didn’t crack the whip often, but when she did, she cracked it hard.

  “All of my funds are going to be spent rebuilding our stores and supplies. Once we have achieved that task we will lay in some additional supplies as well, in case any of our neighbors should perhaps need some help in the coming years.”

  Diament opened his muzzle to say something but Rachel raised her hand and he quickly shut it.

  “We are looking to expand our kingdom; there are two methods we can do this. The first is by bribery, the second by conquest. Well we’ve had enough of conquest for a while; we will try bribery now and see what we can buy. Further we are now exposed to a great many other kingdoms that the Mulanders had protected us from simply by being between them and us.

  “Whether that exposure will bring us good or bad, threats or friendship, war or trade, we do not know. We do not have the monies to prepare for all of these things, so we shall hold our monies in reserve, so that we may deal with the circumstances that present themselves.

  “The one project which I will fund, and fund fully, is the construction of a better road joining our two major cities, and a garrison on that road between them. A small town has already started to grow there to serve those that travel, and we wish to encourage that.”

  She looked at all of them, “Questions?”

  “Your Majesty, what about our merchant ships? We need more to increase our trade!” Sorin said.

  “Let the merchants build them, you may allow them the use of my shipyard if they ask. If they need guards aboard talk to Holse and work something out, we will provide guards on any ships that need them, as long as they are willing to pay for them. Shellia?” She a
sked turning to look at the foreign affairs councilor.

  “Your Highness, what about our trade delegations? Our Embassies?”

  “The trade delegations to Holden and Marland will continue, but we will only send out one official delegation this year, to Holden. A very small delegation.

  “This brings us to the matters of Tradeson, Stronshold, and Kethel, which I have discussed with several of you over the past months. We will be sending a delegation out to each of them, in turn, starting with Kethel. It is our plan to bring all of them into a closer relationship, a more beneficial relationship, with the crown and the kingdom.”

  “Who will be leading this delegation?” Shellia asked.

  “Who do you think?” Rachel purred and turned to look at me.

  I smiled back and purred at her as well.

  “Him?” Shellia protested, “But he’s the one who killed the Mulander’s king! He led the takeover of their city!”

  “Yes, he is, isn’t he?” Rachel said looking back at the others with a smile, “So any offers I make through him will be taken seriously.”

  “Assuming they don’t try to kill him outright,” Shellia continued, “They’ll have to see his presence as a threat! What other reason could he have to be there?”

  “If I may your Highness?” Narasamman interjected as Rachel started staring at Shellia, who apparently hadn’t noticed she was getting herself in trouble.

  Rachel nodded and Narasamman continued.

  “I am sending a delegation of priests and priestesses to each of these cities as well. Feliogustus has commanded me to build a temple in each of these places to minister to those rather numerous followers of his that live there, so that their needs are no longer ignored. It is only fitting that William; his Champion, should accompany them and act as their protector if necessary.”

  “Feliogustus commanded you?” Shellia asked softly in a rather small voice.

  Narasamman nodded.

  “I withdraw my objections.” Shellia said and looked down at her hands.