Portals of Infinity: Book Three: Of Temples and Trials

by John Van Stry

  It was a rather nice piece of craftsmanship and I played a scale up the A string, once I found it.

  “Very nice,” I said and handed it back to her. I noticed she was staring at me.

  “You know how to play?” She asked a little suspiciously.

  “I’m used to a different tuning, but a little yes.” I replied still watching her. Something about her seemed a little different, but I couldn’t really place it.

  “Maybe sometime you,” she paused a moment, “could show it to me?”

  “Perhaps.” I dropped the silver piece in her hand. “Thank you for the entertainment.”

  She smiled and nodded and went back to the spot she had been sitting in and started to perform another song.

  “She really does have a nice voice,” I mused looking at the others. “Interesting instrument too.”

  “I have a nice voice,” Tareassa said.

  I smiled at her, “Yes I know.” I looked at the others and stood. “I’m calling it a night; I will see you all in the morning.”

  Tareassa of course followed me as I left the table.

  “Going somewhere?” I asked as I climbed the stairs.

  “Nara said you needed someone to look after you, and I volunteered.” She purred.

  I sighed and shook my head. “I’m sure you did.”

  “Besides, I don’t have a room; you wouldn’t want me to have to sleep out in one of the carts, would you?”

  I shook my head again and when I opened the door to my room, she slipped in before me.

  Well at least I had tried...

  “Oh I’m sure you could have tried harder than that,” Fel said as I found myself in his bar once more.

  I blinked, “Is something wrong?” Fel didn’t talk to me very often, and I hadn’t felt anything before falling to sleep that indicated he wanted to talk.

  “Can’t a God want to talk to his Champion?” He grinned at me.

  “You have told me more than once that you are way to busy to waste idle time on me. So what’s wrong?”

  “Nothing’s wrong,” he said but looked more serious. “But I want you to investigate that cult of musicians.”

  “Sure, I can do that. May I ask why?”

  “I want to know if they have a temple in the city.”

  I nodded. “And if they do?”

  “Just tell me about it, don’t do anything to it.”

  I nodded again, “Okay.” And went back to sleep.

  # # # #

  “So this is the agreement your Queen would have us sign?”

  I nodded and looked up at the council’s leader, a rather old male by the name of Hoffen. I was lounging back in a chair at this point, I’d given them the copies of the treaty some six or seven hours ago and they’d been arguing over it with each other ever since. There were a dozen people on the council, plus Hoffen who led it. I gathered his role was inherited.

  I didn’t know about the others however. Some I’m sure were, others I wasn’t so sure.

  “So why did she send you? William the Godslayer? The Champion of Feliogustus who destroyed the Mulanders last year in a most vicious war?”

  I sighed and stood up, which allowed me to look down at him.

  “Because she asked me to.”

  “And since when does the Champion of Feliogustus answer to the demands of the Queen?”

  “When she’s his wife, that’s when,” I growled. “Besides, I had to come here because Feliogustus commanded me to come. If he doesn’t mind me doing this, then you most certainly should not.”

  Hoffen had taken a step back when I growled, but hadn’t panicked and still looked rather composed. Most of the others on the council looked composed as well; a few might have looked a little worried.

  “So the rumor is true then,” he stated looking around at the others. “So what happens if we refuse the treaty?”

  “You don’t get to be part of the kingdom.” I said simply, while crossing my arms.

  That got them; several of them looked at each other.

  “What do you mean by that?” Asked a middle aged looking male whom I gathered was some sort of rich merchant.

  “Just what I said. You don’t get to be in the Kingdom. So you’ll have to deal with all the rules, taxes, and laws for crossing our borders when you want to sell us stuff. We won’t fix the roads, we won’t help you in your emergencies, and most important of all, if anyone raises an army, say the tribes get some great war leader, or maybe Barassa decides it needs more slaves and brings a really big army, we won’t help you.”

  “Do you really think they’ll do that?” He asked me.

  “Do what?”

  “Raise an army and attack us?”

  “Well you obviously do, or you wouldn’t have asked the question.” I smiled, “But to be honest, yes, I think eventually they’ll come sailing up the river and look for the low hanging fruit to pick off. They’re slavers and they lost one of their biggest suppliers of slaves.”

  “The Mulanders tried and failed, I’m sure if they come they will fail as well,” Hoffen said and several around the table voiced their agreement.

  “Thankfully that’s not my problem, it’s yours. I would like to remind you however that as I am here and that I am Feliogustus’ champion, that Feliogustus does approve of this agreement.

  “Now, I’m getting hungry, and could stand to stretch my legs a bit. I’ll come back tomorrow in the afternoon, say a little after the noon meal, and you can let me know your decision then.”

  “But we have questions!”

  “You should have asked them instead of making we listen to you argue for the last six hours. That’s the treaty, its pretty clear. Organize your issues and I’ll deal with the top three tomorrow.”

  “What about the rest?” Someone asked.

  “They’ll be forgotten. So if I were you, I’d try to keep the list down to three.” I stretched again and yawned and walked out the door.

  “Well that was rather rude,” Kyle said following me.

  “Yeah they were, weren’t they?”

  “I wasn’t talking about them!” he retorted.

  I stopped and looked at him, “Kyle, the offer is fair and they’ll never get a better one. Over time as the Hilander kingdom grows, this city will be passed by and will wither and fail if it’s not in on the deal. That is of course if someone else doesn’t decide it’s ripe for the conquering.

  “The worst part is, they know the offer is fair, they’re just trying to be greedy and win concessions that they’re not entitled to.”

  “No one could take this city, especially not Barassa, they’re too far away.”

  I shook my head, “I took Rivervail in two days, and they were how much larger? Kyle, your city would fall in a week, if not less; and remember that Barassa’s army is several times larger than the Hilander army. They’ll come here eventually, unless of course we’re all two big and tough to be worth the trip.”

  I left him standing there thinking about it. Rachel had confided in me back when she was planning all of this that both she and the council worried that one day the Barassian army would come to conquer. Getting the city-states to sign on, and making stronger alliances with the neighboring Kingdoms would definitely forestall that day, perhaps even prevent it.

  This was also why Fel was spreading his religion, and building more temples. He needed to increase his own powerbase for when that confrontation finally came.

  I spent the next few hours wandering the city, getting the lay of the land. The city was fairly large and I could see the remains of old walls that told me that the city had expanded several times over the years.

  I saw several more of those street minstrels, there were a few in almost every large open space in the town, as well as on a few corners. At least they sounded good and weren’t very loud. It reminded me of the Sireens, but where songs had power there, they didn’t here. So I had to wonder why there was apparently a religion based around it.

  I didn’t see
any sign of their temple, but I didn’t explore as much of the city as I would have liked to as it was getting late. So I headed back to the inn to join the others for dinner.

  Sitting down I noticed there were a few new faces, two of whom were wearing the holy symbol of Fel that the priests and priestess wear. “Father, Mother,” I said giving them both a nod. “Where did you come from? I know you weren’t on the trip here.”

  They both smiled, “We’re the clergy that preside over the local church,” the male said. He was an older settled looking male; the female with him had that same settled and relaxed look.

  “I thought there wasn’t a local church here?”

  “Oh no,” the female started, “there has been a church here for many years, but its small and the flock has grown, and we’ve been petitioning Feliogustus for something larger for some time now.”

  Tareassa came up to the table then, “William, I see you’ve already met Joel and Kayryn,” she said sitting down next to me and giving me a nuzzle. They both grinned at me then and I shrugged looking embarrassed, which caused them both to laugh.

  “So do you have a building site for the temple yet?” I asked.

  “Yes! And it’s a really nice one too!” Tareassa was almost bubbling with excitement when she said it. “Joel and Kayryn managed to secure a really nice location some months ago for us. Jezza and surveyors spent all day marking it out, tomorrow we can put the ward stones in and then begin construction almost immediately!”

  “Wow,” I said surprised, “That really is good news.” I noticed then that we had a different performer than we had last night.

  “What happened to the girl from last night?” I wondered out loud motioning to the minstrel.

  “Oh you don’t need her,” Tareassa said, making me wonder if she’d done something.

  “They tend to move around from place to place,” Joel supplied. “I think it’s so people don’t get bored with them. Most only know a dozen songs or so.”

  I nodded, it made sense. “Is it true that they’re actually a religious order of some sort?”

  “To be honest,” Kayryn said, “we’re not quite sure. Rumor is that they’re a cult, but they look too organized and well behaved to be a cult. I think it’s obvious that they’re following somebody, but as to whether or not that’s a god, a priestess, or just a person, I’m not very sure.”

  “Do you know if they have any kind of a headquarters? Some place where they all meet?”

  She shrugged, “I’d assume so, but as to where it is? I have no idea. Mostly everyone ignores them these days. They play nice music; give us free entertainment, so no one minds them much.”

  “Why so curious William?” Joel asked.

  “Yes why?” Tareassa asked with a slight growl in her voice. I lightly stepped on her foot and she gave a little start but stopped growling.

  “Never seen anything like it before, so I’m curious. I’m also wondering if we’ll start seeing this in other cities.”

  “Well I hear they’re also in Marland, I suspect this group came from there.” Joel said.

  I filed that piece of information away. If Fel believed they might have a temple here, then it was my duty to find it. So far, they seemed harmless enough, and maybe they were, but Fel asked me to find out, so I would.

  I got drafted the next day to help with the burying of the ward stones. I didn’t mind doing it, I needed the exercise and it gave me something to do while waiting to go back and visit the council. They were about halfway done with digging the holes when I had to leave.

  “So,” I asked when I arrived at the council’s chambers, “Any questions?”

  “Yes,” Hoffen said starting off, “We see that with the signing of this agreement I’ll become a Duke, but what about the rest of my council? They have served me well and truly for many a year and I’d like to see them rewarded too.”

  I thought about that, this city was rather prosperous, and they had been keeping it protected for some time now.

  “Okay, who are you most trusted advisors who work with you everyday?”

  Four members of the table raised their hands.

  I nodded to them, “Congratulations, you’re now Viscounts, all the rest of you are Barons or Baronesses. I will need a list of your names to attach to the treaty for the Queen.”

  “Well that was surprisingly easy,” One of the more distinguished fems said.

  “While walking around yesterday I had the opportunity to observe some of your city, you’ve all done a rather good job here, so why not reward you?” I looked around at the group. “You all seem to be fairly intelligent and hardworking, I suspect that ten years from now you’ll all have risen quite a bit in rank and prestige in our kingdom, so I’m not at all worried about giving you those titles.

  “Was there anything else?”

  There were a few more questions of course; they just wanted to be sure that they understood a few minor points on the document.

  “We will have a signing ceremony tomorrow afternoon. That should give everyone time to prepare.” Hoffen said when they finished.

  I gave a little bow to the group; I had been standing at the foot of the table while I was answering their questions. “Esteemed council members, I thank you all very much, and on behalf of the Queen, I thank you as well.”

  Taking my leave from the council chambers, I returned to the worksite for the temple to see several of them standing around one of the carts looking concerned.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked Tareassa as I walked up.

  “Two of the ward stones are broken.”

  I walked around the others to look inside the back of the cart. Sure enough, two of them had broken rather neatly in half so that we now had four shorter pieces.

  I turned back to her and the other priests and priestesses, as well as the head builder. “Can’t you make another one?” I asked.

  “They need to all be made of the same material, and roughly the same size and shape.” Tareassa told me.

  “And you need two more?”

  “Just one really, the other one was a spare.” Jezza the head builder said.

  I nodded, then noticed there was another crate in the cart, towards the front, so hopping up I went over to it and pulled the top off, ignoring the nails that held it on.

  “What about these?” I asked looking at the seven stones inside.

  “Those are for the Stongshold temple.”

  I pulled one out and handed it to the Jezza. “Not anymore.”

  “But you can’t do that!” Tareassa said looking shocked.

  “Sure I can. Now let’s get everyone back to work.”

  “But...”

  “Work!” I said and pointed. They all looked at her, and then looked at me. I growled, they went. Tareassa gave me a scowl then followed the rest of them.

  “What do you want to do with the broken ones?” One of the builder’s crew asked.

  “Pack them up, they’re probably still good. We’ll take them back home later.”

  He nodded and I got out of the cart and went in search of Second Carso.

  “Yes William?” He asked when I came up to him.

  “Could you put a few guards on the carts for me please?”

  “Sure thing, something happen?”

  “It looks like someone got into a bit of mischief in one of them.”

  He nodded. “I’ll take care of it right away.”

  “Thanks.”

  “How’d your day with the council go?”

  “They’re going to sign tomorrow, so you should probably find who your opposite number is here and see about working them into the command structure.”

  Second Carso smiled, “Oh, already did that. We’ve got most of it figured out already.”

  “Really?” I said flicking an ear in surprise.

  He nodded, “We were both fairly sure they’d go for it in the end. Only thing that made sense really, the city just can’t afford to keep a large enough army to deal with the
kinds of problems they’re likely to see in the future. They’re already starting to run into budget problems.”

  I shook my head and gave a little ‘hrrump’ of surprise. “I hadn’t even thought to look at that angle. Well doesn’t matter now. They’ve agreed and that’s half of what we came for.”

  “How long are you staying for the construction?”

  “At least until it’s been christened and had its first service. Then I’ll head off to Stongshold so we can get this all finished. Can’t stay too long or I won’t get up there before the weather starts turning.”

  Carso smiled, “Glad I’m not going!”

  I nodded and went back to the building site to find Tareassa. They were just wrapping up setting the last ward and burying it under some dirt. They’d set a slab over the top next. She was just finishing the ritual blessing when I came up and she gave me another scowl.

  “Oh get over it,” I told her.

  “You overrode my orders!” She said growling faintly.

  “Yes well, you have your orders and I have mine. As mine come straight from Fel guess who wins out? Now let’s get the altar set up.”

  “We weren’t going to do that until the morning now.” She said.

  “Why? I thought it needed to be set to tie in all the wards?”

  “Well it takes a couple of hours to do it, and it with the delay we wouldn’t be done until rather late.”

  “So?”

  “So we need light to see what we’re doing. In the dark, even with torches it would be too easy to make a mistake that would delay us even further.”

  “Ah, okay.” I said and nodded, it made sense I guess.

  I flagged down one of the acolytes.

  “Yes sir?” he asked stopping in front of me.

  “Go back to my room at the inn and grab the large pack at the foot of the bed and bring it here. Take someone to help you carry it.”

  “Yessir!” he said and ran off.

  “What are you doing?” Tareassa asked looking curious.

  “Spending the night here. Those stones didn’t break by themselves. I want to see if anyone tries to tamper with the ones in the ground.”