“Stop! Stop! L’Anvien will not allow this!” Maze’s screams seemed designed more to bolster his own declining confidence than to frighten Silas.
“L’Anvien can consider how I treat his priests,” Silas growled. The red dome overhead dissolved as Maze’s energy withered away. Silas drew his sword and strode up to the edge of the pit Maze was collapsing back down into, and with a mighty swing of the blade he swept Maze’s head off his neck.
Both parts of the dead priest collapsed down into the pit Silas has excavated. Silas immediately caused a rain of stones to fill the pit and irretrievable cover the body. He felt a sense of grim satisfaction. He had avenged Lexy, at least to some degree. He couldn’t bring her back to life, he couldn’t give her the satisfaction of seeing the victory, but he could know that she would be pleased by the action he’d taken.
He stood looking down at the bulging pile of stones that marked the place Maze was buried, then he looked up.
No one was standing close, but many people were standing at a distance, staring, and several Ivaric guards were watching as well. Silas looked around and found Reese gazing in fascination from a spot behind him.
Their eyes met, and she seemed to snap to attention.
“I’m sorry; I didn’t know what to do,” she told him.
“There was nothing you could do; I wouldn’t have wanted you to do anything. This was my personal battle,” Silas answered fiercely.
He looked around again. The Ivaric soldiers still stood nearby, profoundly shocked by the defeat of Maze.
“You soldiers of Ivaric,” he impetuously spoke with his Wind Word voice, attuning it to be heard by anyone within range. “Go home. Go home now. Your time in Avaleen is ended. Go back to your villages and farms and cities and return to peaceful lives.
“I have an army on its way here to take control of this nation. Leave peacefully while you can,” he spoke in a commanding voice.
Chapter 23
Four days later, Silas stood on a balcony in the Avaleen palace, with Forna by his side, and watched as Carlton was escorted back into the city by a parade of supporters.
The Barnesnob forces had arrived two days earlier and had immediately begun patrolling the city to maintain an uneasy peace among citizens who were still in shock over the turning of events in their midst.
“I keep telling them you’ll turn them all into toads if they cause any trouble,” Stash advised Silas in regard to the thief’s conversations with the leaders of the criminal element in the city. “I reminded them that you’ve visited one of their whorehouses and know everything there is to know about them,” he spoke colorfully, making Forna and Reese’s eyebrows raise and Silas wince, before a careful explanation clarified that Silas had escaped from Ivaric forces by hiding in the attic of a disreputable social club. He’d done nothing else there, he insisted.
Carlton led his noisy contingent of supporters into the public square in front of the palace gates, then walked through the gates with a smaller handful of supporters and waved up to Silas in greeting.
“We’ll be down to welcome you in just a minute,” Silas shouted happily, so pleased to see Carlton’s arrival.
“Let’s go down the stairs,” he turned and said to Forna and Reese, both of whom were on the balcony with him.
“Not the stairs,” Forna immediately advised, speaking with a hand covering her mouth to hide her words from the watching crowd.
“What do you mean?” Silas asked.
“Use your mover powers. Fly us down, in view of the public. It will be more impressive. You want people to know that Carlton has a powerful benefactor behind him, just as Maze did,” she reasoned.
“Perhaps a more beneficent benefactor,” Reese added mildly.
“Here we go then,” Silas capitulated. “Lift us,” he spoke the words gently with a small motion of his hands, and the three of them were raised over the balcony railing, then wafted down to the pavement below, coming to rest directly in front of Carlton.
“You know how to make an entrance!” Carlton laughed, just before the two of them embraced in a hearty hug.
“So we’re back in Avaleen together again,” Silas agreed with a smile.
“The circumstances certainly seem much better than our last time we were here, when we had to sneak out through a culvert in the dead of night,” Carlton agreed.
“At least you didn’t bring up the house of ill-repute as the defining feature of Silas’s last residency in the city,” Forna muttered, drawing a startled glance from Carlton, before Silas shook his head discreetly.
“Let’s enter the palace and talk,” Wither suggested as he joined the group. “There are endless things we need to discuss. And even though you’ve just arrived in the city, I’m anxious to begin the transition back to Avaleen rule. Our Barnesnob patrols know that no one likes to see them walking through the streets when there should be local forces maintaining the peace.”
Silas and Carlton waved to the watching crowd, and then the small group began to walk into the palace.
“How are out friends back in Amenozume?” Silas asked carefully as they strolled together.
There were seconds of silence, as Carlton considered his answer.
“They are all well, and the nation continues to return to normalcy,” Carlton answered. “But there are strained feelings among a few. You could do a lot to calm the strain if you would communicate with them, regarding,” the nobleman paused, “the state of your heart, perhaps?”
“I’ll do so when I’m ready,” Silas spoke in a tight voice. He understood the implied message Carlton was offering, that Silas should tell the Princess Lumene how his heart was inclined towards the young woman; Forna had told him the same thing. He and Lumene had spend intimate moments together during their time in the wilderness of Amenozume, running from Ivaric trackers. But Silas had felt even then, and still felt now, tenderness and a sense of obligation towards Mata, who carried his child.
Since he’d run away from Amenozume, his heart had slowly drifted away from thoughts of romance, and romantic conflicts. He cared more for revenge against Ivaric and L’Anvien than other passions. In her death, Lexy had helped crystalize that.
And Carlton’s arrival in Avaleen to assume control of the city advanced his freedom to pursue what he wanted.
“As you wish,” Carlton said with a shrug.
The group stepped into a meeting hall, where they found Stash waiting, and spent the next several hours in discussion about Avaleen. After dinner together, the beginning of the restoration of Avaleen’s independence ended for the evening and everyone went their separate ways for the night.
Silas was awakened the next morning by a palace servant, who reported that there was a group of citizens who wished to see him to discuss the future of Avaleen government.
Silas looked at the window in his borrowed palace bedroom and noted that there was barely any pink light in the early morning eastern sky. “What can be so urgent?” he asked the servant, who shrugged.
“They did not state their case, my lord,” the man replied in a hesitant tone.
Silas slipped on clothes quickly, then followed the servant to a palace meeting hall, where a dozen folks stood in the dim candlelight at one end of the room.
“What brings us all together at such an early hour?” Silas asked loudly as he began to walk the length of the room to meet the others. “Let me summon Carlton to join us for this meeting.”
“No, my lord, we’d rather that you didn’t,” one of the men in the group spoke quickly.
“We’d rather speak freely with you,” the man added.
“You won’t speak freely with Carlton, who is putting together your government?” Silas asked.
“We ask you to be honest with us, my lord,” another man said. “We’ve all heard the report that you intend to remain the king of Avaleen and allow Carlton to be your puppet ruler. If that’s true, we’d rather deal with you directly.”
“What nonsense is that?” Si
las asked angrily, stopping his steps just a few yards away from the other group. “I am not a king, and not going to be a king. I have other things to do. Carlton is one of you. You know him, and he knows you,” the words flowed rapidly from Silas’s mouth. “Carlton has shown me that he has the character to be the leader of this country. He was certainly honorable enough to oppose Ivaric when it invaded,” Silas pronounced, then listened to awkward silence and shuffling of feet.
“We do not think he will treat all people fairly,” someone finally said.
“Meaning,” Carlton’s voice spoke from the entry to the room, “that I won’t give advantages to the people who were friends of Ivaric, I presume you mean.”
Carlton strode into the room. “A servant notified me of this untimely meeting, and I’m glad that I was free to join it.
“I will work with Silas to establish rules and rulers who will treat all members of Avaleen fairly and equally,” Carlton was almost strident in his emphatic statement. “We must heal our nation after the viciousness of Ivaric has harmed and divided us.
“I will put together a Council of Advisors,” he continued. “The Abomination and I will converse, and perhaps some of his acquaintances, such as Greywold, can be invited to join our councils sooner rather than later.
“But I hardly plan to discuss all of this before breakfast, unless his lordship the Abomination so desires?” Carlton looked at Silas.
“Great heavens, no!” Silas exclaimed, drawing gentle laughter from the group.
“Then let’s all return to our residences, and we’ll have discussions soon,” Carlton had effectively ended the secretive rebellion against his re-establishment of the rule of law.
The members of the delegation shuffled their feet again, then began to leave the room in single file, their heads down, avoiding eye contact with either Silas or Carlton. All of them avoided eye contact except one.
“Silas, won’t you even say hello to an old friend?” Sareen had been hidden by the taller gentlemen in the group but became visible as she passed by Silas. She stopped and turned to face him, a happy smile on her face.
“I remember the first time I saw those purple and golden eyes,” she said.
Silas shook his head in disbelief. He had thought of Sareen on a few occasions during his temporary role as ruler of the city, but he had taken no steps to visit his former caravan partner. Sareen had been his sparring partner once upon a time; she and he had been swordsmanship students together in the caravan, under the tutelage of Ruten, and Silas had been mildly infatuated with the beautiful girl in those days.
He’d last seen her from a distance when she’d happened to serendipitously be in the same house in Amenozume where Silas had gone to rejoin Mata. Silas had briefly spoken to Greywold, the Avaleen nobleman who Sareen desired as a paramour, but he’d not spoken to Sareen. He knew she had no interest in him as a commoner without prospects of success.
And yet.
She stood and smiled at him in the palace of Avaleen.
“You and Greywold made it back safely from Amenozume after the Ivaric expulsion?” he asked the obvious.
“Yes, yes we did,” she was momentarily nonplussed by the reference to being part of the ‘Ivaric expulsion’. “Greywold hadn’t been part of the Ivaric forces you know; he’d only gone to try to be a trader.
“He’s not here today because he’s out on a trading mission, but the others asked me to join them this morning as his representative,” she said, then glanced at last from Silas to Carlton, who had stepped into the conversation area. “And I’m sure Greywold will be very pleased to hear that you mentioned him as an example of a good partner,” she told Carlton.
“Are you two engaged now? Is that why you’re his official representative?” Silas blurted out the question directly to Sareen. The rest of the delegation had left the room.
“If you’ll excuse me, I’ll go see the others out,” Carlton suddenly managed to extricate himself from the conversation, leaving Sareen and Silas alone in the room together, as Silas awaited Sareen’s reply.
“We’re not engaged,” Sareen seemed to stutter in her response. “We’ve grown very close, but now Greywold focuses more on trading and making money than on anything else.
“I’ve been lonely lately,” she admitted.
“That’s why I was willing to come with this group when I heard they were going to see you. It’s been quite a while since I got to visit a friend – someone who truly is a friend, and not trying to bargain or negotiate.
“Oh Silas,” a barrier seemed to collapse inside Sareen, and she seemed to grow brutally honest. “I may have made a mistake. I don’t know what to do.
“I remember how simple life was when we were in Prima’s caravan. It wasn’t elegant, I know, but in some ways, it was a better life. We weren’t doing things that people would judge us by – we weren’t going to be seen as bad or good or conniving or unscrupulous. But this life now,” she paused. “It just wears at my soul. I wish there was a way to go back and do things over again, and really understand what the future would hold, and what we’d come to think of ourselves.”
Silas was torn. The more moments he spent talking to the girl – looking at her, smelling the perfume she wore, listening to the heartfelt regrets she seemed to feel – the more Silas wanted to get out in front of the situation. Maybe Sareen was ready to leave the life she had stepped into. Maybe she was ready to walk away and begin again with a clean slate.
“If you could help take care of Greywold, I’d be so thankful. Can you please make sure Carlton works with Greywold?” she asked.
Silas froze for a second, as he realized that Sareen was simply trying to manipulate him. She perhaps did regret some of her decisions, but she wasn’t going to walk away from them after all.
“Carlton will do as Carlton wishes,” Silas answered simply. Sareen deflated in front of him, and despite his disapproval of her, he felt some sympathy. “But I know Greywold didn’t seem like a bad fellow when I met him, and apparently Carlton feels the same way.”
An uncertain smile relifted the corners of Sareen’s generous mouth.
“Thank you, my lord. I better go catch up with the others,” she rose quickly, pecked a kiss on Silas’s cheek, then hurried away, leaving him in a reflective mood.
You handled that well. You’re growing up, Kai’s voice sounded in his mind.
Silas stood in bemusement, wondering why the world couldn’t be simpler. Minutes later, Carlton re-entered the room.
“My apologies, my lord,” the nobleman began.
“I don’t see that you have anything to apologize for,” Silas interrupted him. “You will do a great job running this nation. I need to hurry out of here and stop providing an alternative to you. I’ll leave today.
“And,” he suddenly decided, “I’ll leave an insurance policy, something to make sure these schemers continue to take you seriously and don’t plot against you.”
“I’ll be sorry to see you leave so soon, and grateful for anything you choose to do,” Carlton. “But don’t feel that you have to weaken your own forces as you go against Ivaric.”
“I’ll ask Riesta to remain here, to make sure you continue to have a Mover to scare the conspirators away from any plots to overthrow you,” Silas indicated.
“I doubt that Lady Riesta will take kindly to your proposal to assign her to anything other than being by your side,” Carlton answered immediately.
Silas considered Carlton’s answer. The nobleman was right; Riesta was going to refuse to accept the assignment.
“Perhaps you could intimidate the local opponents to independence yourself. Just stay in touch with your Speaker friend Jimes here, and when he reports to you that there is some trouble, you can make another of those frightening pronouncements that can be heard by everyone, like the pronouncement I’m told you made against Maze, the one that frightened half the population into fleeing the city,” Carlton offered an alternative. “If there are troublemakers, Ji
mes can tell you who it is and what they did, then you can tell the whole city to shun that person.
“If they hear your voice ringing in their ears, they’ll listen. And that will allow Riesta to travel with you and help you,” Carlton summed up.
Silas promised to consider the idea, which he thought had merit. He returned to his own temporary room in the palace and dressed, then went down to breakfast, where he found Forna, and discussed the idea with his cousin.
“Well of course you’re not going to leave Riesta and me behind. You probably can’t leave any of the Amenozume forces behind,” the young woman said calmly. “We plan to go to the very end of this battle with you. You’ve beaten Ivaric every time you’ve had to, and we want to be there when you do it for the final time.”
Silas nodded his head gravely as he listened. He feared for her safety if she traveled with him into battle against Ivaric. She gave him comfort and strength, a reminder of the good life he had known growing up. It was the type of life he wished everyone could live, though no one could do so while Ivaric threatened. Ivaric brought death, deception, treachery, and evil. But Silas would not take his cousin into such an environment.
“You stay here and help Carlton. He needs extra advantages, like having a Tracker,” he decided. “I’ll take Riesta.”
“Why would you even ask something like that?” Forna snorted.
The pair held an extended and spirited conversation, but in the end, Silas prevailed.
“If you take much longer, it’ll be tomorrow before you leave,” Forna complained afterward. “I thought you were going to sneak away quickly, like you did from Lumene in Amenozume,” she pouted.
“It’s not even mid-morning,” Silas sputtered in protest.
He penned a quick note and wrote Carlton’s name across the sheet of paper, which he left on his desk. “You go tell Riesta now, and let her know it’s happening now. We’ll each leave the palace five minutes apart, and meet outside the northern gate,” he told Forna, then hugged her tightly, and sent her on her way.
“I’ll see you again when all of this is over,” he promised.
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