“Thank you, Senior-Commanding Knight Travail,” Baltor said right away. “Additionally, I am going to need a new governor to assist me with ruling Parthway, and other governors to rule all the other major cities within the Vispano Province.”
“Do you have anyone in mind, my Sultan?” Travail asked.
“As for Parthway, yes I do—you,” Baltor answered. “As for governors to rule the second and third major cities, Sultaness Brishava and I have pre-selected Commanding-Knight Valiante and Commander Barquoth. Her other cousins will govern the lesser cities. Basically, we want people that we implicitly trust.”
“Very good, my Sultan and Sultaness.”
Baltor continued, “Tomorrow, we shall teleport for Parthway. This of course includes all the Knights and our cousins. We shall then have an official ceremony to inaugurate my wife and I as the imperial rulers of the Vispano Province, yet in the very same ceremony—all the other governors.”
As he was giving his explanation, servants came in bringing trays filled with desserts. They began the process of circling around the table, and offering their particular dessert to each of the guests.
Meanwhile, Travail nodded his head, and said, “As you wish, my Sultan.”
Upon completion of dessert, as well a ton of pleasant conversation that lasted for many more hours to come until midnight, the fond farewells for the night were finally exchanged. Only minutes later, the queen’s servants and soldiers entered the room, and prepared to go back to their home.
After the last of the farewells had been concluded, nearly ten minutes later, Baltor drew the rune into the air, opened the portal, and gestured for Calitta, and her entourage of servants and guards to go through first—they did. Baltor followed behind, but he did not close the portal on the other side.
Once again they were in Chelsea’s old room in Calitta’s palace. It was then and there that Baltor delivered his quick farewell to the queen, which included a light hug, before he walked back through the portal.
After the portal had shut, Baltor excused himself from his group of friends still standing near the door and talking—Brishava revealed that she would be joining her husband in about an hour’s time.
With his entourage of guards, Baltor headed back to his bedroom—once alone inside, he sat at his desk, and began the process of drawing a valiant-looking image upon paper of Humonus.
An hour after he had begun, Brishava joined him in the bedroom, but watched in silence as he continuously drew. Two hours later, not only had he completed the sketch, yet also the listed instructions and materials needed to build the statue, especially five tons of bronze—once all was said and done, he asked, “So…what do you think, love?”
“I love it! I really do!”
“Thanks,” Baltor said with a satisfied smile of his own. “Me too, Babes.”
She planted a firm kiss on his cheek.
“Guards,” he called out a second later, while rolling it all up and putting it in a scroll case.
The doors opened and in walked two male guards—the leader said, “Yes, my Sultan?”
“Please put this in Jamar’s work bin for me.”
“Yes, my Sultan,” that guard replied—after he had taken it, he and his fellow soldier bowed, exited the room, closed the doors, and then he put the scroll case where it belonged, which bin was located near the staircase.
Only seconds later, just as Baltor and his wife were about to start kissing at the desk, a knocking could be heard on the door.
“Enter,” Brishava said.
The guards opened the door, and Lara entered.
“Yes?” Brishava asked.
“My Sultaness? I’m sorry to bother you. The girls and I were waiting for you at seven tonight, as you ordered. It is all right that you did not show, but are you now ready to get the make-up off your face and settled for the night? Also, the Sultan’s assistants have said they are ready for him whenever he is ready.”
“Yes, I am ready, Lara,” Brishava answered. Looking over at her husband, she added, “I’ll be back soon, honey.”
“Okay, love,” Baltor said, right after he had given her a kiss on the cheek.
Only seconds after Brishava had exited the room with Lara, the male assistants came in, and helped their leader out of his wardrobe and into his pajamas. Nearly thirty minutes later, they completed their tasks, so they bowed and left.
Baltor picked up a book on sleight-of-hand magic tricks, and began to read. Nearly an hour later, Brishava returned, and some hanky-panky went on…
The following morning, after breakfast was served in their bedroom, the two slept together the whole day. Shortly after a lovely dinner that night spent with all their friends, Baltor, Brishava, Travail, Barquoth, and Brishava’s three cousins, headed by the royal carriages to the coliseum—the Vispano Knights followed behind.
There, Travail called for formation, and they assembled.
After Baltor had pondered Valiante’s position on the world-map inside his head, and getting an innate answer that he was outside inspecting the exterior walls of Parthway, as well getting a rune, Baltor drew it into the air with his left index finger.
Immediately after the portal opened, he ordered the Vispano Knights to travel through it, with Travail and Brishava in the very lead.
Once Baltor had traveled through, the portal disappeared—by the time he was on the other side, everything was already cleared up with the initially alarmed knights in Parthway.
That night the intricate transfer-of-power ritual was carried out. Baltor and Brishava became the Vispano Province’s rulers, and all the promoted-governors promised to continuously serve the Sharia Empire.
Upon completion, as well the following victory celebration, Baltor and Brishava then decided to stay in Parthway for two weeks before returning home with a company-sized element of Vispano Knights, who enthusiastically volunteered to start a branch in Pavelus.
Two weeks after Baltor and Brishava’s return, Yaush and his buddies revealed that they had finally finished creating a wall-mounted plaque out of the dragon’s head—the head was already mounted on the wall directly behind the thrones in the throne room. So far, they happily reported, the skull of the dragon never regenerated again.
It was in the throne room that Yaush gave Baltor’s swords back to him—of course, both Baltor and Brishava were quite impressed by the “outstanding work!”
After many more fond farewells became exchanged, Baltor teleported Yaush, Jimnee, and the remainder of the Valakanese back to their home. Once there, he and his wife stayed in Valakan for an additional two weeks, before going back home.
The very day after their return to Pavelus, Jamar revealed the information to the Sultan and the Sultaness that the fifty-foot-tall bronze statue of Humonus was finished in the Town Square; ready to be unveiled two hours after sunset. Following the unveiling, there would be a small commemoration party.
On this day, Baltor and Brishava went to bed and slept together. That evening, while eating dinner in the royal dining hall by themselves, the guards opened up the door, and in walked Darius and Traes.
Both men had a very proud smile on his face. Darius began, “Guess what, my Sultan and Sultaness?”
Traes continued, “Leshava has just produced seven eggs!”
Darius added, “We should expect the hatchlings in twenty-eight to thirty-five days!”
“Most excellent news,” Brishava exclaimed happily. “Are either of you gentlemen hungry? There’s still plenty to eat.”
“Sure,” both Darius and Traes answered. With that, servants brought in two more chairs, and together, they all shared a very nice dinner.
For the next month or so to pass, both Baltor and Brishava remained unbelievably busy with domestic and foreign affairs in their empire—still, despite these hectic times, she soon after began to notice that Cheo and Chelsea were hanging out with each other more and more often!
Of course, Brishava privately mentioned this trivia to Baltor in t
heir bedroom, but Baltor nonchalantly replied that very few people, other than the remaining Chao-chu-sha-maen villagers living in one single lavish home in Pavelus, knew the sign language. Each villager had been offered his or her own place, but they preferred to live together.
Three non-exciting weeks later, Chelsea finally began to experience labor pains during dinner she shared just with Brishava—Baltor, Cheo, and Cheo’s people were “out on the town!”
After a messenger was sent to retrieve at least Baltor and Cheo, Brishava and her handmaidens assisted with Chelsea in delivering the baby in Chelsea’s bedroom.
Once the two men had returned, as well all the other villagers, they all excitedly waited in the hallway.
It was then that Baltor turned to his friend and asked with a little smile, “I’m just curious, but is something going on between you and Chelsea?”
With a slightly strange look upon his face, Cheo signed, “What do you mean?”
Baltor answered, “Well, Brishava mentioned to me several weeks ago that the two of you were hanging out more and more often, yet only now am I really curious if there is something going on between the two of you.”
“Well, she and I like each other very much, but there’s been no talk of a romantic relationship, if that’s what you mean,” Cheo answered with an innocent smile.
“I see,” Baltor said. He said nothing more about it.
Instead, “casual conversation” occurred between the large group of friends ... until, about two hours later, the sounds of a baby crying erupted in the bedroom.
A moment later, the interior guards opened the doors, and Brishava called from within, “Come on in guys—it’s a beautiful baby boy!”
As Baltor and Cheo excitedly ran into the room, as well everyone else, they heard Brishava ask, “What are you going to name him?”
Though Chelsea looked extremely exhausted, she breathed out, “Humonus Jr.!”
Right away, more servants came in bearing cigars—but anyone that wanted to smoke had to go back out in the hallway, per the handmaidens’ orders.
A month later, during the course of dinner, which Baltor and Brishava shared with Cheo and Chelsea, the latter two delivered the “official word” that they were now engaged to be married in a year’s time. Of course, the first two offered their support and blessings, Brishava even offering to help pay for all the expensive wedding costs.
And so, after a hectic-but-successful-year for the empire, Chelsea and Cheo became married. Right away they departed on their honeymoon to a secluded cabin in the mountains of Thorium. Though Humonus Jr. remained behind in Pavelus, he was always under the protective and loving care of Baltor or Brishava.
After the newlyweds had returned from the honeymoon two months later, Baltor teleported them, Humonus Jr., the masons, the soldiers, and the remainder of the tribe back home, but this time much closer to the eastern sea called Prolusina.
Two weeks later, Baltor and Brishava returned for home…
CHAPTER XXII
Nearly a decade passed, and peace and prosperity continued to prevail throughout the lands of the Sharia Empire, spreading from one side of the continent to the other. Only a few other small-to-midsized countries remained on this continent.
Throughout all these years, Baltor and/or Brishava, teleported often to all of their cities, and most especially to Chao-chu-sha-maen, which was fast becoming a successful trade city that had fortifications similar to Mauritia—portable thirty-foot-tall blocks of stone that surrounded the inland city shaped like a circle.
To date, there were more than six thousand people who had immigrated there from other cities, lands, and continents, and became citizens.
Moreover, only six months prior, Chelsea and Cheo just had their own first child—a baby girl named Rhea. Her half-brother, Humonus Jr., was ten years old and remarkably looked and acted just like his father! Baltor, of course, promised Jr. that when the boy turned twelve, he would teach the martial arts he had learned from Jr.’s father.
Additionally, by this time, Yaush and Jimnee had two boys of their own—their oldest boy named Thar was eight years old, and he had blonde hair and blue eyes. The younger boy’s name was Rex—he was six years old with flaming-red hair.
Yet, despite all the progress in the Sharia Empire, problems slowly began to develop between Baltor and Brishava—mainly because she hadn’t gotten pregnant, despite all their best efforts that happened almost every day.
Brishava was increasingly becoming distraught over this fact, though she always bit her tongue and never spoke about what was really bothering her—she really-really wanted her own child and an heir to the throne! Most likely because of this, Brishava was increasingly becoming upset about the way that Baltor just “casually ruled.”
After all, Brishava was all about dotting the “i” and crossing the “t” with absolutely everything, while Baltor didn’t seem very concerned with politics at all anymore.
On the contrary, he preferred to spend his focus and time upon the training and the progress of the army—regular, shadow forces, and knights—or reading all the books he could find upon the subject of magic, which information nearly always proved false.
Baltor had, only two years earlier, developed two dozen permanent magical teleportation mirrors, which was what allowed them all to instantly teleport supplies, troops, and/or themselves between their cities.
Teleportation mirrors had also been distributed out not only between all their cities, yet between all friendly nations, including the Kingdom of Thorium and Valakan.
One particular night just after sunset, Baltor awoke to see Brishava sitting at the edge of the bed—the look on her face clearly revealed that she was pissed!
With a concerned look in his eyes, Baltor sat up in bed while asking, “What’s the matter, honey?”
Brishava cast “the look” over to Baltor, before asking, “You want to know what the matter is? You didn’t write that new trading contract I asked you to do yesterday, did you? ”
Baltor nonchalantly replied with a shrug of his shoulders, “No—I got tied up with the army all night long, honey. I’ll do it tonight!”
“I figured as I looked around for it everywhere, but couldn’t find it anywhere. I need it in an hour! At that time, merchants from all over the world will be assembled in the throne room, and they will need to not only to listen to our proposed tax law, but to sign upon the official document if they want to do business in the Sharia Empire!” Brishava exclaimed.
“If it’s so important, why didn’t you do it today?” Baltor asked.
“Because…” Brishava seethed out angrily, “like I told you yesterday, I had to tend to political diplomacies all day long today with the Ambassador to Larius to ensure the peace between our two countries! That is why I asked you to do it for me.”
Baltor casually said, “Fine—I’ll start right now.”
“Even if you start now, you’re not going to be able to have it looking official and proper by the time they arrive,” Brishava snapped.
For the first time in a very long time, Baltor’s face contorted angrily. Pointing a finger menacingly at Brishava, he was about to say something nasty, but changed his mind.
Instead, he got out of bed, and sighed, “Get me Jamar—he’ll help me make the contract, and make it look official and proper by the time they arrive, okay, Hun?”
“Fine—but from here on out, when I ask you to do something and you agree to it, you better do it! After all, what kind of a Sultan will you look like to our people if you can’t produce your words?” Brishava asked.
Baltor’s face once again contorted to that of anger—this time he did not hold back as he yelled, “What the hell does this have to do with our people? This matter is between me and you!”
After Brishava had stood up, she exclaimed, “Everything—you and I are the figureheads to the Sharia Empire! When you and I don’t have effective communication, the Empire does not have effective communication!”
Angrily, Brishava stormed out of the room.
Fifteen minutes later, Jamar arrived in the room with parchment. He immediately noticed that Baltor was still in his sleeping robes, and still looking quite upset—just like his Sultaness had only minutes earlier.
After nervously clearing his throat, Jamar sat at the desk, picked up a feather pen, dipped it into the ink, cleared his throat yet again, and then asked, “Are you ready, my Sultan?”
“Yes. Okay, write this,” Baltor said, just before he spoke the edict—Jamar wrote it. Fifty minutes later, after Jamar read it aloud, the edict was finished.
Baltor then ordered, “Jamar, the Sultaness should now be in the throne room with the merchants. Please deliver the edict to her. As you can clearly see, I’m not dressed for the occasion.”
After delivering a low bow, Jamar said, “Yes, my Sultan.” He then exited the room.
Baltor took a nice bath, dried off, dressed into his undergarments, and then called out, “Assistants, dress me in my battle attire.”
The servants came in, and did so.
Once completed, and the assistants had left, Baltor donned the black cape, moved the drapes to the side, nodded to the two guards posted on the balcony, hopped off, stealthily departed the palace grounds while climbing over the eighty-foot high wall, and headed over to the Shadow Forces Guild. For most of the night, he oversaw training.
Arriving back at the palace approximately a half hour before sunrise, he stealthily arrived back into his royal bedroom, squeezed between the very thick curtain and the wall, and observed that Brishava was sleeping in bed. After he had released the straps holding his armor in place, he quietly set the armor onto the floor, walked over to bed, climbed in, and went straight to sleep.
The next day, just nearing two in the afternoon, Baltor had been blissfully sleeping away in his royal bedchambers, as usual; that is, until something forced him to wake up, though he did not know what that something was! In fact, this was the very first time he had woken up before sunset … ever since having become a vompareus.
BOOK II OF III: The Reign of the Sultan Page 38