The Porfian Princess
The Chronicles of Cornu Book 4
L J Dalton Jr
Copyright © 2021 L J Dalton Jr
All rights reserved
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Cover design by: Humble Nations
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Prologue
Suborning Tantulus
Controlling the King
Mako
Koronus Falls
Research
Baby Announcement
Retreat
Victory
Lieutenant Sorbor
In the South
Sandford
Sorbor and Petronas
Heading Home
Vinfarm
The New Village
Great Falls
Home
Truce
Skelous Falls
Some Turbines
Koronus
The Trial
Akari
Porcelain
Baron Bjorn
Baby Makes Three
The Porfian Dukes
Leonades
Big Plans
Spymaster
Wheels within Wheels
Same Old Thing
On the Road
The Wedding
At Nordport
The King Returns
Getting Organized
Alla
Leaving Home
Resistance and Sabotage
Petor’s Wedding
Refuge
Centralia
Fairness
Nordport
Settling In
Catrina meets Illaria
Corporation
SWAT and Guards
Off to the Wedding
Making A Break
Catrina’s Assistant
Traveling to Sandford
Plots
Koronus
Exploring the City
Betrothed Again
Preparing
Security
Meeting the Merchants
Lunch
Reconstruction
Menounos Names a Successor
Wedding Preparations and Plots
Menounos Arrives
The Wedding
Books In This Series
Prologue
Michael was happy with the results of his military intervention. Koronus was now in the hands of Duke Harlold. Prince Arken and Elizabeth would soon have Alla join their marriage and cement their ties with the current King. This would add legitimacy to Arken. The casualties, while substantial by Cornu standards, were nothing approaching what they could have been. The people had learned some tactics, and he’d trained good officers. That wasn’t a problem in his mind. Most didn’t want to be military men anyway.
It appeared that Tantulus was nearing a tipping point. With the right inputs, it would free itself from Porfia. That was all for the good. It also meant that Porfia was probably heading towards civil war, or at least King Leonades would be removed. That meant he’d be killed. Mike wanted to do what he could to make sure that Tantulus was free and that King Leonades got his just deserts. He also needed to know more about the Porfians. He needed to help things go in the right direction. Now military knowledge was not required, nor would it be helpful. He needed to put his research chops to use.
Michael realized that to really help Harlold and Arken; he needed to know how things in Tantulus wound up the way they were. If he could understand that, he could possibly come up with some ways to make the transition easier. Just giving military advice on how to win the fighting wasn’t enough. They needed to win the peace as well. To do that, he needed a much better understanding of how things got as they are.
That would give him insight into the personalities of the people involved, their relationships, and what potential levers there were. This would be a staff paper that would be used to brief the people who needed to make the decisions. While he’d never been a staff officer, he had a pretty good idea of what was required. He could use the skills he learned in writing op his thesis and the scientific papers to produce the report.
He started interviewing people who knew how things went down and reviewing any history that was around.
Suborning Tantulus
King Hector was the former ruler of Tantulus and the father of the current King, Menounos. He was a handsome man of medium stature and intelligence. The problem was that Hector didn’t really care about running the kingdom; he left that to lesser men. His father before him had been very different, a nose to the grindstone type. Hector apparently rebelled against that the first chance that he got.
He cared about the trappings of royalty and all the things that went along with it. He had an extensive harem and spent a good deal of time indulging his sexual desires. He also liked to hunt and have lavish parties. King Hector was the Cornu version of a jet-setting playboy. Not the kind of ruler who engendered confidence in the nobility and the merchant class. Also, not the type of person who should be running a kingdom when that kingdom had an aggressive neighbor like Porfia.
Left unchecked, he might have bankrupted the kingdom. That didn’t happen because the royal Treasurer, Baron Norven, regularly lied to him about how much money was in the treasury and whether or not they could borrow some. That kept the King’s spending down to a tolerable level. It also kept the taxes reasonable. King Hector didn’t care about such things, and as long as he had a reasonable amount of funds available for his pursuits, he was content.
It also meant the Baron and the Chamberlin, Count Dzeko, had access to funds for their own use. Of course, they embezzled from the treasury, just not too much. Between the two of them, they controlled the kingdom or, at least, the capital. With a lax central government, the Dukes were more independent than they had been, and they took advantage of it. The result was the Tantulus, while a kingdom was a collection of five city-states in many ways. Depending on who the Duke was that ruled the area, that was either mildly good or mildly bad for the citizens.
This lack of central control and the indifference of King Hector did not go unnoticed by King Agnemon of Porfia. He saw it as an opportunity to gain influence over his neighbor and control the kingdom if things went well. He knew that absorbing the Tantulus into Porfia would be a provocation that many other realms could not ignore. It might even mean war. That was to be avoided at all costs. He would be content if he were the puppet master, and Tantulus danced to his tune.
He started the process slowly. He was young, having just turned thirty, so he had time. The plan was going to take time, and he could play the long game. He planned carefully and started to put those plans into action. Tantulus’ vulnerability would last for years, as barring some accident, King Hector would be on the throne for a long time. If he were smart, he’d be able to call the tune in at least part of the country.
The first thing he did was to find a city outside of the capital that he could suborn. Gortyn seemed perfect. The Duke, Sesnor, was getting on in years and had no male heirs. Tantulus, like Porfia, followed the rule of agnatic primogeniture when it came to the nobility. That meant that a male relative would have to take over. King Agnemon had a two-part plan. The first part was to make sure that the
Duke didn’t have any male heirs who survived to adulthood. The second was to quietly throw the weight of Porfia behind one of the potential heirs.
His father had started the process. He had made sure that Porfia maintained close commercial ties with Tantulus. While neither kingdom was an economic powerhouse, trade had its advantages for both of them. It meant that it wasn’t unusual for there to be a fairly substantial Porfian presence in any of the cities.
King Agnemon spent time identifying some successful merchants and traders in his own kingdom and then encouraged them to set up business in Tantulus, specifically Gortyn. He made sure that he received reports on what went on in Tantulus, but especially Gortyn. His spymaster was Baron Nester. The Baron was the son of his father’s spymaster, and the two men had grown up together. There was a close bond and working relationship. Nestor was one of the few people privy to the King’s plans.
Nester collected information on potential successors to Duke Sensor. His age made it unlikely that he would father an heir. He had numerous daughters, but they couldn’t succeed him; only a male could. Nester eventually identified two cousins of the Duke as the most likely people to succeed the old Duke. That Duke Sensor did not have an heir and was unlikely to produce an heir was common knowledge. In a well-run kingdom, the crown would have stepped in to ensure that the transition went smoothly. If that wasn’t done, then there could be a power struggle, and blood could be shed. This was the case with the two cousins. Both were ambitious and were maneuvering to be in a position to take the Duke’s place. They also were fully aware that they were rivals.
One Ambrit was intelligent, focused, and strong-willed. Baron Nester did not think that this was someone who would be suitable for the plans his King had. He and the King wanted someone much more malleable.
He found it in the Duke’s second cousin, Prestor. Prester was mildly intelligent, ambitious, and vain. He thought he was much more intelligent than he was. He also had some vices, including gambling that could allow the Porfians and in. Prestor and his family had the Duke give him one of his daughters in marriage. The marriage was not a significant tie, but it showed that the old Duke was not adverse to him and viewed him favorably. Prestor made more of it than it was.
The significance of the marriage didn’t go unnoticed by Ambrit. He got the King to give one of his daughters in marriage to his oldest son. He felt that this evened the playing field with his rival, Prestor.
It took four years, but Nester finally had enough to bring to the King. They met in the King’s study for a working lunch. The King was tall with curly black hair, piercing brown eyes, and a Roman nose. He was intelligent, willing to take calculated risks, and, when necessary cruel and ruthless. If he hadn’t been, he wouldn’t have survived the contest to rule with his two brothers. He also was pretty moderate in his personal life. They met over a meal of fish with some white wine.
Agnemon looked at his friend, Nester, and asked. “Well, Nester, you said you wanted to discuss Tantulus and specifically Gortyn. Have you got a plan for me?”
“Yes, your majesty, I do. I think that we’ve found our man, and I’ve worked out a way to make him Duke and then have him follow our directions. Ultimately, I think we may even be able to replace him with one of our own.”
“That’s excellent news, my friend. If we just have significant control over the man, that would be excellent. But to eventually put one of our own in as Duke, that is even better. Tell me more.” Said an obviously pleased Agnemon.
Nester continued. “As you know, the current Duke, Sensor, has no male heirs. At his age, it’s unlikely that he would produce one. If by some miracle he does, we can maneuver around that. It would probably result in a regency, which I believe we can control. We would simply modify our current plans. There is no guarantee that the heir would survive to succeed his father.”
Agnemon interrupted him. “How would we do this?”
“I think that we can control the most probable regent. Which is the man I believe will succeed Sensor if there is no male heir. We can put a heavy hand on the scales to make that happen. Then it would be in both the regent’s interest and ours that the heir met an unfortunate and untimely end.
King Hector has no interest in getting in the middle of a political battle in Gortyn. He’s much more interested in the latest member of his harem or what party he can throw or attend. As you know, all our plans are predicated on the current king having a long rule.”
Agnemon seemed to accept that and indicated that Nestor should continue.
Nester nodded and went on. “The two most likely candidates to succeed the old Duke are Ambrit and Prestor. Ambrit is a third or fourth cousin to the Duke. He’s a successful and influential merchant in the city. He’s also intelligent and strong-willed. I don’t see him as the ideal candidate for our purposes.
The second candidate is Prestor. Prestor and his family are closer to the Duke. His father is the Duke’s first cousin, and both are close to Sensor. Prestor has one of the Duke's daughters as a wife. That is a signal of the Duke’s favor. I believe that if it were just up to the Duke, he’d make Prestor his successor.
Unfortunately, the Duke has a circle of advisors that he will rely on to pick his successor. They are more inclined to pick Ambrit. We are working to correct that, but it is still a roll of the dice. That is unacceptable.
There are a couple of other secondary candidates, but as long as Ambrit and Prestor are viable candidates, they don’t stand a chance.
I propose that we wait a couple of years and have the assassins’ guild eliminate Ambrit. That would open the way for Prestor.” With that, Nester paused.
The King looked pensive and finally said. “That would not be unusual for the assassins’ guild to be called in to eliminate a rival. That would throw suspicion on this Prestor fellow, as he is the most likely to benefit from his rival’s demise. I’m sure you have thought of this. What’s your opinion?”
“Suspicion would fall on Prestor. Of course, if a failed attempt on Prestor closely followed the assassination of Ambrit, then that would throw suspicion off Prestor. People would look to one of the secondary candidates. I think that would go a long way to cementing his status as the heir apparent.”
The King laughed. “Excellent, excellent. Eliminate the main rival and make it look like somebody was trying to get both of them. So that puts our man in as the Duke. How do we get control?”
“First, I have instructed our people in Gortyn to throw their support, subtly mind you, to Prestor. Our merchants have established themselves in the city and are now a respected part of the community. A couple of the younger merchant sons have become advisors and friends to Prestor. I expect that to continue when he becomes Duke.
Our opportunity comes from the Guard. The Guard for Gortyn and all the other cities in Tantulus is small. Gortyn’s Guard is only five hundred men. That’s too small by half. Our people will urge Prestor to increase the Guard. I’m sure we can convince him to do so. We’ll make sure that the increase in the Guard will come from Porfia. Once we control the Guard, we control the city.
Eventually, we’ll take the gloves off and make it clear to Prestor who the real power is. We may even replace him with one of our own. If we are careful, very few people will care. The common people don’t care about what their betters do as long as it doesn’t affect them negatively. I believe the same will go for the merchant class as well.
Once we have the Duke we want sitting in the Palace, we can make more changes. We can start to tilt the playing field, so to speak, to favor our merchants and businessmen in the city. Eventually, Porfians will be the leading economic power in Gortyn. Everyone else will be very small players. This needs to be done gradually.”
Agnemon sat back with a smile on his face. “Excellent, Nester. I think you have it all covered. How long do you see this taking? I mean to put our man in charge. Taking over the economy will take time after that is done.”
“Ten years or so is my estimate.”
“Ten years or maybe a little more, and then we have control of one of the key cities in Tantulus. What about King Hector? You know that a member of his harem just presented him with an heir. I hear that randy bastard is doing his best to get as many members of the harem with child as he can.
Yes, don’t say anything. I know; I’m working on doing the same myself.
How do we get the next King of Tantulus under our thumb?”
“A variation on what we’re doing in Gortyn. Right now, the kingdom is run by the Chamberlin and the Treasurer. I’m working on getting people close to them. I thought about bribery. But since they have access to the treasury of the kingdom, what leverage do I have?
So, I plan to put people near them and eventually put our people in their place. I’ve got several people who are envious and want to be in that position. They are willing to work for us to get their wish.
Of course, I expect that King Hector will produce heirs. With a bit of luck, he’ll have one that is too young to be involved in the contest for the throne. They also have a small number of men in the Guards than is typical for other realms. But that seems to be the norm in Tantulus.
My basic plan is to eliminate the older heirs. It’s not unheard of for heirs to kill each other off and leave the family with no viable heir. If that’s the case, we’ll use our pet Chamberlin to bring forth a suitable candidate. If there is a regency, we’ll control it.
We’ll have to wait twenty years or so for this to be successful.”
“Yes, Nester, this is a long game.” Noted the King. “I doubt any of our neighbors have the desire or the patience for such long-term plans. This will require gold and silver. So as needed, I’ll make the funds available to you. I’m assuming that you’ll want our people in Gortyn to hire the assassins?”
“That’s right. While the guild is very discreet, there’s no need to take unnecessary risks.”
Satisfied with their plans for Tantulus, the two men went on to discuss other issues in the kingdom.
The Porfian Princess: The Chronicles of Cornu Book 4 Page 1