“What?” the queen asked. “Ahnon, it’s just a few hours until dawn,” she told him.
“Four hours and twenty minutes till dawn, but an infant has to feed every three hours, four at the most,” he told her.
The king leaned over, looking Ahnon in the face, “You wake the wet nurse up in the night every three hours to feed him?” he asked, astounded.
“Yes,” Ahnon answered, not believing Vilarius asked.
Vilarius straightened, looking at his wife. Eira just smiled at him. “He just needed us to make the baby. It seems he has the rest under control,” she told Vilarius, making him laugh. “I think you may be working poor Phobie too much though,” the queen told Ahnon.
“No, she is eating well and is not having a problem,” he assured the queen. They wheeled their heads in unison, locking Ahnon in dumbfounded gazes. “What? I can’t do it, and the queen has many other duties, so I can’t wake her up at night to do it.” He looked at Akene. “Besides, Akene would start trying to beat me down if I tried waking you every three hours,” he noted.
“There would be no ‘try,’” Akene assured him.
With a small cold smile, Ahnon narrowed his eyes at her. “You need to grow up a little before you play in my arena,” he told her. She was about to retort when Theobald laid a hand on her arm. She looked up at Theobald, and he was shaking his head.
Akene took the hint but chided, “I’m surprised you haven’t tested the milk from the wet nurse before your sire.”
“Don’t have to. It’s not tainted,” he said as the queen played with Jedek, and that remark got her attention.
“Excuse me?” the queen asked.
Ahnon looked up at her face. “There is a village in Aztan where they have a drug a woman can eat and pass through her milk to kill a child,” he told her. “I heard about it and went to check it out. The poison is quite good actually. It acts real fast on the young but not the old. They have a chance to develop tolerance to it.”
“That’s atrocious!” the queen gasped, pulling Jedek to her chest.
“There isn’t much I’ve found in the three kingdoms that doesn’t fall into atrocious,” Ahnon told her.
“Has it been used here in the five kingdoms?” Vilarius asked.
Ahnon nodded. “Once that I found out about, on a duke in Racor. His son was going to be married to one of the king’s daughters. The Aztan king didn’t want that duke to have much influence in the royal court.”
“That’s an act of war!” Vilarius shouted, making Jedek cry.
“It can’t be proven, your majesty. The wet nurse died a week after the baby. She was robbed.”
“Yes, to cover the tracks,” Vilarius said.
“Of course, but you can’t declare war on that scale for just that,” Ahnon said.
Vilarius looked at him. “It must be dealt with,” he said in a voice the demanded compliance.
“Oh, it has been dealt with,” Ahnon assured him. The king’s face relaxed, waiting on Ahnon to continue. “The Aztan king lost two sons, four nobles, and a general. I left a note for him with my condolences on his pillow,” Ahnon answered. Hearing Ahnon so casually refer to an attack of that magnitude, Akene stumbled over to a chair and sat down, feeling lightheaded.
Taken aback, Vilarius asked, “Don’t you think that was a little much?”
The queen reached up, grabbed Vilarius’ thick beard, and yanked it, pulling his face to hers. “You were getting ready to launch a war over one death and ask that about seven in retribution?” she demanded.
“It’s the principle, Eira,” he said, wincing. The thought of grabbing her hand and making her let go never entered Vilarius’ mind. Eira let go of his beard, and he looked at Ahnon. “See what I mean about getting vexed?” he said, and Ahnon nodded with a small chuckle. Hearing Ahnon chuckle made Theobald smile, knowing the wall Ahnon had built around himself was slowly breaking down.
Rubbing his sore chin, “Ahnon, how many spies from the three kingdoms do you know of in the castle?” Vilarius asked.
“There used to be nine. Now, there’re only six.”
“I know of three,” Theobald said.
Akene looked up. “I know of two,” she chimed in.
Ahnon nodded at Akene. “You know two of his three.”
The king looked from one sho-ka to another. “I only know of two,” he finally said.
“The same ones Akene knows about,” Ahnon told him.
“Used to be nine?” the queen asked, raising her eyebrows.
“Yes. One died during a robbery, and the other two died of illness. I’m getting to the others,” Ahnon assured her.
“Getting?” the queen screeched. “These monsters use a nurse’s milk to kill an infant,” she growled with a dark look in her eyes.
“Your majesty, I’m still finding out about their contacts on the isle,” he told her.
Theobald held up his hands. “Just how on Thanos are you doing all this? You’ve not been twenty feet from your sire.”
“I have my own bhari on the isle,” Ahnon told him.
Vilarius looked down at him. “How can you afford to hire bhari with the stipend the crown gives you?”
“I have my own money. If I had to use the stipend from Nazar and Gratu, I might be able to hire a drunken cutpurse. Sorry, your majesty, but it’s the truth,” Ahnon said with a wince.
“You shouldn’t need money like that. You get what you need from the crown,” Vilarius told him.
“True, but I like to have extra warning, and the bhari who’ve completed their service to the crown are the best. Expensive, but still the best. I did try to hire one sho-ka who was not bound anymore, but his price was entirely too much,” Ahnon said as the queen laid the sleeping baby back in the crib.
“You have bhari on retainer?” Vilarius asked, amazed, and Ahnon nodded and reached over to tuck his sire in. “Ahnon, I have the entire wealth of Gratu, and I can only keep a few,” the king admitted.
“I know, your majesty, and the ones you have are good, but I wanted my own. You have to watch the realm. I need to watch for my sire,” Ahnon said then looked up at the king with a wiry grin. “I have more on retainer than you do,” he goaded. “Granted, I don’t have a kingdom here to run, but I have other expenses to keep track of.”
The queen stepped in front of him. “I want them gone now,” she commanded.
Startled, Ahnon looked at her. “Your majesty, if we take them all out at once, there will be repercussions. Let me do this so we don’t attract attention and it looks natural.”
“I want them dead before sunset today,” she commanded. Ahnon looked at Vilarius, and he nodded in agreement.
Letting out a sigh, Ahnon stood and lit a candle then placed it on the window ledge. “Very well. It will be done, your majesty,” he said, sitting back down.
“You put a candle in the window, and they know to kill them?” Vilarius asked, amazed.
“No, I’m calling a bhari here,” Ahnon answered. The king didn’t reply but looked skeptical. Suddenly, Theobald and Akene became tense; he put his hand on his sword, and she pulled out a pouch, readying a spell. “Don’t. That one’s with me,” Ahnon said, getting back up and walking over to the window. He opened it then sat back down.
A little less than an hour later, Vilarius watched a shadow glide through the window. When it stopped beside Ahnon, he saw it was a man dressed in dark gray silk with small, light black stripes. Only a narrow strip on his face was visible, exposing his eyes. The man knelt beside Ahnon, pulled his sheathed sword off his back, and lay it on the floor.
Ahnon looked at the man. “Get the others, and I want all six of the spies taken out now before sunset today. Then move on the two houses they use in the city. Find out what you can, but they all die today,” Ahnon told him.
“It will be done, my lord,” the man said, bowing, then picked up his sword.
The king cleared his throat. “If you do what he asks, I will give you and the others what he’s paying y
ou a month for a bonus,” he told the shadow. Theobald immediately moved in front of the king.
The shadow didn’t acknowledge he heard the king as it moved to the window. “You may take the bonus if you wish, Michi, as well as the others,” Ahnon said, and the shadow stopped in the window.
“Thank you, my lord. I can’t speak for the others, but I would be honored,” he said and vanished from the window.
Letting out a gasp, the queen asked, “He jumped?”
“No, he’s climbing down the wall,” Akene told her.
“It’s a solid stone wall, and the ground is a hundred feet down,” the queen gulped.
“So?” Akene answered. “He’s very good,” she said turning to Ahnon.
“He better be for what he’s charging,” Ahnon said then looked at Vilarius. “Are you insane?”
Before Vilarius could answer, Theobald spun around. “Sire, you never offer employed bhari money. That’s a big insult to their honor,” he told him.
“I just wanted to make sure he knew how important this was,” the king said then looked at Ahnon. “I’m not insane. I didn’t mean to insult him,” he told Ahnon.
“I’m not talking about insulting him. Michi knows not to be offended by that. I’m talking about the bonus. You just offered them thirty gold crowns for one day’s work.” Ahnon came close to shouting.
“Thirty ounces of gold?” Vilarius did shout.
Speaking real slowly, Ahnon told him, “I have thirty bhari employed at one gold crown a month each. That’s thirty gold crowns.”
The queen looked at her husband. “I’ll pay for it if they do it. It will be worth every grain if they can.”
“Oh, they will get it done,” Ahnon assured her.
“I need to notify the guards and city patrols not to interfere,” Vilarius said, moving to the door only to have Theobald stop him.
“They will only know if you tell them, sire. The bhari will handle it very quietly. You should know that by now,” Theobald told him.
“Yes, but thirty bhari,” the king said.
“A bit overkill, I admit, but it won’t make any difference,” Theobald replied as Ahnon stood up, heading for the door. “Where are you going?” he asked.
“It’s time for the prince to eat,” he said, reaching for the door.
“You let Phobie sleep. I’m right here,” the queen scowled, undoing her dress.
Seeing that,“I’m gone,” Ahnon said, walking out.
“Sire, I’ll be right outside,” Theobald said, bowing to Vilarius, and left. Akene walked over, and closed the door and then the open window as the queen sat down. The king picked up his son, handing him to her, grinning.
“Well, do you like Ahnon?” he asked, handing Jedek over.
“He’s perfect for our son. I want him to have full authority here in our kingdom,” she said as the prince woke up, crying. Then he realized why he was woken up and shut up. “Your son is a little pig when he eats,” the queen informed Vilarius.
“If I’m not mistaken, he’s your son as well, Eira,” he told her.
“Not when he eats. By the unholy abyss, I think he has a mouth full of teeth already,” she said, wincing.
“I’m sorry, my love,” Vilarius offered.
Eira looked up at him, smiling. “I’m only picking, but I want Akene to wake me up at night for one of the feedings. Poor Phobie is going to turn to dust if Ahnon keeps this up.”
“I will get up with you,” he offered, kneeling beside her as they watched the future king of Gratu and sovereign lord of the five kingdoms drift off to sleep, nursing.
Chapter 4
The crowned prince Jedek was walking by a very large marble pool in the royal garden using a stick to guide his toy sailboat down the length of the pool. He was feeling a bit down today watching his little boat sail along. Normally, the ten-year-old was very joyful and a pleasure to be around but not today.
When he woke up, he started yelling at the servant that brought in his breakfast tray, and few others avoided his tantrum. Hearing the noon bells, he looked up to the sky and saw the suns overhead. “I’m not going, Ahnon!” he shouted behind him.
“Fine with me, sire,” Jedek heard behind him.
“What’s that mean?” he shouted, spinning around.
“Your boat is fixing to hit the wall,” Ahnon told him. Jedek turned back, ran up to his boat, and pushed it away from the wall.
“Thank you, Ahnon,” he said, feeling bad about yelling at him.
“I’m no more in the mood than you are to fix a boat it took us two months to build,” Ahnon said.
“It’s the best one yet though,” Jedek said, giving the first smile of the day.
Ahnon smiled back. “Yes, it is. That’s why we have to make sure nothing happens to it. Your mother wasn’t so happy you cut yourself with the saw as much as you did.”
“She worries too much. I’m not a baby anymore.”
Nodding, Ahnon let out a sigh. “No one knows that better than me, sire.”
Jedek threw down his stick. “I don’t want to go,” he whined.
“Then don’t.”
“But they will be mad at me.”
“All choices have consequences. You just have to accept them, sire,” Ahnon said.
“I’ll take the scolding then,” Jedek said, determined.
Ahnon nodded. “That will be part of it, but what about the princess and her family? They did sail twenty thousand miles to meet you,” Ahnon told him.
Astonished hearing that, “That sounds really far,” Jedek said, trying to imagine the number.
“Halfway around the world, sire.”
“So Thanos is—” Jedek closed his eyes, concentrating. “Forty thousand miles around,” he finally said.
Happy that Jedek figured it out on his own, Ahnon grinned. “Correct, sire. I told you math wasn’t so hard.”
“You shouldn’t have to use numbers that big. When I’m king, I’ll make a law that says you can’t use numbers that big,” Jedek declared.
“Then you just spend all your time adding up small numbers, sire. Think about it,” Ahnon told him, grinning at the small boy.
“That’s not fair,” he said.
Dropping his grin, Ahnon nodded. “Very few things in life are fair, sire.”
“Ahnon, will you please call me by my name? Nobody is around,” Jedek whined.
“Sire, we’ve talked about this.”
“But why ‘sire?’ in the books you read to me, it means father. I’m not your father,” he pointed out.
Ahnon walked over and knelt in front of him. “I’m so happy you are actually listening when I read, and yes, sire does mean father. Think about it from a sho-ka’s point of view. You were the reason I was born and pledged. That is why the sho-ka refers to their ward as sire. The reason we were born was because of them, our father,” Ahnon explained.
Jedek listened and let the words sink in then looked up at Ahnon. “That kind of stinks,” he said from his ten-year-old’s point of view as he picked up his guiding stick.
“Some could say so, sire,” Ahnon told him.
“Oh, okay,” Jedek said with a pout.
Ahnon lifted Jedek’s face up by his chin. “Jedek, the boat is hitting the wall.”
The little boy spun around and took off. Suddenly, he skidded to a halt and dropped his stick. Slowly, he turned around with astonishment on his face. “You…you…” he stuttered and ran back to the kneeling Ahnon. Jedek hit him in a full run, throwing his arms around Ahnon’s neck. “You called me Jedek,” he said, trying not to cry.
“I can break the rules every once in a while for a friend,” Ahnon said, hugging him.
Jedek leaned back, wiping his face. “I didn’t mean to cry, Ahnon,” he said.
“You were happy, and there is nothing wrong with that.”
“I want to be a sho-ka like you when I grow up and not a king,” Jedek told him.
“No, sire; you have to guard the realm while I guard you,
” Ahnon told him.
“How do you become a sho-ka?” he asked.
Ahnon laid his staff on the ground and sat down. “Go and get the boat, and I will tell you,” he offered. Watching Jedek run, Ahnon suddenly felt the change Theobald kept telling him that everyone could see. For the first time in his adult life, Ahnon was happy, loved his new family, and felt the love they extended to him. He could never remember smiling as much as he had over the last decade and at times almost laughing. Jedek was back in a flash, carrying the sailboat, which was almost as long as he was tall. Gently laying it down, he sat next to Ahnon as the new discovery filled Ahnon with a peace.
“Long ago, before there was an alliance of the five kingdoms, the three kingdoms of the north were trying to take over the world. They preceded every attack with an assassination attempt on one of the kings of the south. The five largest southern kingdoms—Gratu, Honch, Racor, Fantshu and Nazar—met in the capital of Honch: Antlas.
“There, the alliance of five was formed, and the kingdoms banded together to fight the northern kingdoms: Multar, Aztan, and Octin. When the northern armies were driven back, they met again at Antlas, declaring the ruler of Gratu the sovereign of the five,” Ahnon explained.
“Why did Gratu’s king become the boss?” Jedek asked.
“Gratu has the largest navy in the world and controls the seas. With the navy, Gratu can cut off the kingdom of Multar from the kingdoms of Aztan and Octin. He could also supply ships to send the kingdom’s troops around the world, so it just made sense to put him in charge,” Ahnon said, and Jedek nodded, kind of agreeing.
“Anyway, at Antlas, the kings were worried about the north and the assassinations starting again. So the emperor of Nazar pledged the firstborn of each royal family member would be trained to guard the royal families of the five kingdoms. Every member of the royal family of Nazar must give up their firstborn son or daughter to become ‘Sho-ka Bhari.’ The bhari in Nazar are trained warriors of the crown. It takes ten years, minimum, to train for you to graduate.” Ahnon stopped.
“Bhari means shadow warrior,” Jedek said proudly.
“No, sire, that’s not what bhari means. It means warrior in plain sight,” Ahnon corrected. “They are trained to assassinate, how to gather information—basically how to be a pain in the rear to your enemy. The crown has had bhari for centuries, and anyone can petition to join, but after you graduate, you owe the crown ten years of service. Then you can either stay on or work on your own. The only catch is you can never work against the crown of Nazar. If you break that pledge, you and your entire family are marked for death,” Ahnon said.
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