The Tourney

by Juliet Sem

  "Tell me, Dinus, about your planet's colors and symbol. I've learned about all the others, but still have no idea what Phaet's colors and symbol stand for."

  Dinus sat up, looking surprised at be addressed. "Our colors are blue for the sky and purple for the mountains as they both look in the morning just before sunrise here in the capital. Our symbol is the rhombus, which consists of an equilateral triangle on top of an inverted equilateral triangle with the line forming their bases removed from between them. We chose this symbol because the idea of the Autocracy and then the Autocrat and Autocress positions were born here at different times. The majority of the nobles wear the upright triangle, which represents the masses going up to serve the single top point, the leader of their planet. The inverted triangle of the Autocrat and Autocress represents the all the best fighters in a generation being eliminated in challenges and then in the Tourney until only the superior one stands alone and rules. Since it wasn't explained before, the square the Praté and Prató wear represents the walls of a house, and since they are head their houses as well as their planets, they wear that as their rank. The Praten and Praton wear a circle, as in ancient times they circled around the house and its leader to protect them, as the second in command should. The hexagon of the family represents direct family members who move around to defend the house both within and without the square borders of it. The colors of each planet are based on specific meaning, and came to us from some ancient battle standards, so it was natural when the Autocracy was formed and the rank insignias decided upon that everyone should wear clothing that clearly identified what planet they belonged to, so you can quickly tell where someone is from, and from the front, you can see their rank, though we only clearly mark the first four ranks; the Autocrat, Prató or Praté, and Praton or Praten, and the rest of the nobles. An older and much more tedious ranking system was thrown out in favor of this, as we really only need to know the first three ranks after the Autocrat and Autocress when we are dealing with one another. Numerous supercomputers in the palaces of each planet keep track of the hierarchy of the other levels, and the information is updated after every challenge day."

  "I see. Thank you, Dinus," Keestu said. "It's nice to finally understand the symbols of your planetary ranking system. It reminds me of Sandar's family crest system. So when is the last challenge before the tourney?"

  "The day after tomorrow," Béjan answered, apparently happy to change the topic to the upcoming event.

  "But isn't that only ten days until the tourney? I didn't think your months were that short?"

  "Yes, it's not a month, but tradition demands it. Rentham fought her most critical and final battle ten days after a near-defeat, and therefore, if we are to prove ourselves worthy of ruling all the Autocracy, we must also be fit enough to do the same. However, not all of us will fight on this last challenge day, as some subordinates are content with the idea of becoming Praté or Prató should our planetary ruler ascend to Autocrat or Autocress."

  Hatari awarded her father a wan smile. Keestu realized, with their challenge system, Hatari had a tough choice to make, to challenge and fight her father, who was favored to become the next Autocrat or be challenged by her brother, who she had only managed to defeat once.

  "Prató," Keestu thought to ask. "Why is it that you are favored to win the position of Autocrat? Dinus mentioned on his visit to Sandar that you were favored to win, but he didn't explain why."

  "As he told you, our fights are tracked electronically. Every month, the information in the supercomputers on the other planets is downloaded and transported here to the palace so that comparison programs can analyze each fight. I'm favored not only because I've been undefeated for eight challenges, but also because my fights tend to be over much faster than those of others."

  "You've fought Dinus eight times?"

  "Oh, no, I've fought four people during my time as Prató. My first Praton was a man I'm not related to. He held the position for three years and challenged me four times during that period of time before he was defeated by another man I'm not related to, who held the position for seven months and challenged me only once before he was defeated. The former Praten then challenged me twice during her tenure. During that time, Dinus and the other children matured enough to move up the ranks, having the benefit of training with the same people I did. I have fought Dinus only once since he became Praton last year. Our situation on Phaet is an unusual one, with a single family holding the top three ranks, though many people not related to us show great promise to take the top positions in the coming years."

  "So who is the next favored Prató in the tourney?"

  "The last time I checked the listings, Laron of Hetindi has been undefeated in five challenges, having won another challenge last challenge day."

  He smiled then, "I'm certainly glad we have two positions, one male and one female, though, as Enfré of Naelia has endured seven challenges as of last challenge day. She is favored to take Autocress, though Herini has faced more challengers in her five challenges. I have to say I'd hate to have to go up against either one of them, as I think either could take me in a fight."

  The next morning at breakfast, Keestu was invited to watch the Purvol family's training session before going on a more extensive tour of Phaet. Keestu realized she would have time to travel to the Enforcer to record a report to send home and would also have time to use the Enforcer's onboard exercise equipment to keep up her own fitness and agreed.

  When she arrived at the Enforcer, she was surprised to see Admiral Kurzon waiting for her.

  "Is there news from home?"

  "Nothing critical," he said. "I heard from Gontu that you learned more about their ranking system at dinner last night and wanted to hear from you about it for my report. King Ismer is very interested to learn how the nobles can change their ranks on a monthly basis."

  Keestu explained the Autocracy's rank system to Kurzon as best she could while he recorded her explanation, shaking his head several times as she did so. "It's a strange system."

  "Well, we know that at least one Autocracy Prató was certain I had no ability to lead a planet based on the accident of my birth, not just because of my gender, and he probably wasn't the only one thinking that until I bested that Vuloan in a fight. You saw how enthusiastically the crowds reacted to my official visits once that video got sent to every other Autocracy planet."

  After Kurzon left, she recorded a message for home before changing into a set of exercise clothing bag being kept for her on the Enforcer. She put in her workout on one of the Enforcer's treadmills, using a programmed representation of CeCe's streets so that she had some inclines to climb during her workout. She showered before returning to the Purvol estate.

  Dinus was waiting for her when she returned. "As a junior member of the house, I normally would not be assigned to attend a visiting royal, but since you addressed your question to me last night and not my father, mother, or sister, my father realized you are more comfortable with me as your guide, so things have been rearranged. Hatari will attend to her Praten duties, while I continue as your host."

  "Oh dear," Keestu said. "I hope I didn't upset anyone? I know how sensitive you are to rank, and I certainly didn't mean to insult Hatari. It's just that she hardly ever puts two sentences together around me."

  "I figured that might be the case. Hatari really isn't that comfortable holding higher rank, as she's relatively new to it, and while she fights really well, she is used to being in the junior ranks and therefore expected to keep her mouth shut. I'll have a private word with her later about it, so she knows you aren't deliberately slighting her."

  Dinus led her to the family's arena, a large courtyard located in the back of the estate, which gave them a view of the mountains in the distance to the north. However, none of the Purvol family spared a glance to the view. They were busy sparring in pairs. They had all donned protective padding and large padded mats on which to train. Keestu watched with Rue, Gontu, and her guards, n
oting that Gontu and her guards were especially interested in their hand-to-hand fighting techniques. Keestu noted that her honor guard had split up into three groups, and were clustered around the arena, watching and talking with each other in low murmurs, and she surmised they had clustered together so they could easily converse in the main dialects of the regions they had come from.

  Keestu watched while Dinus put on his padding and began sparring with a younger brother. She thought they were rather evenly matched, but then Dinus, flipping a smile at Rue, went into full attack mode, quickly pinning his younger brother to the padded floor in a hold that was designed to choke him to unconsciousness. With his dominant hand pinned under Dinus's body, his brother quickly slapped his off hand on the padding to signal his surrender.

  Dinus gave him a hand up, and while he changed to heavier padding, Keestu watched Hatari fight a younger sister. They were wearing heavier padding and helmets and were using light staves to fight. After watching, Keestu realized that if she had faced a higher ranked noble who was used to fighting with a staff, she would not have stood a chance in her fight on Vulo. Hatari easily defeated her sister in a quick bout, but Keestu felt that Zouri was no slouch with the staff herself.

  Rue leaned in close to Keestu and Gontu. "Did you see that move? Where she feinted with one end, then really quickly brought the other up for that side hit to the head?"

  "Yes," Keestu whispered back. "Most would have gone for an overhead strike, which you can easily see coming. She's a clever fighter."

  Keestu saw that Béjan had changed to heavy padding and a helmet and was waiting for Dinus. They picked up two padded batons apiece, and Keestu was aghast at how fast they were swinging them and found herself unable to follow their complex movements.

  Gontu was tense beside her, his face rigid with concentration as he watched the fight. He expelled his breath in a satisfied sigh as Béjan landed the first blow on his son. The fight went on for some time, their batons flashing in the sun, with regular muffled thumps sounding as the padded batons collided or blows landed, and Keestu learned a new respect for the fighting abilities of the Autocracy's leaders.

  Finally, though, Dinus's concentration waned, and Béjan quickly delivered a series of blows to his head and chest and was declared the winner, as the blows to the head would have knocked an unprotected combatant senseless.

  After their bout was done, the training session was declared over, and Keestu, Rue, and her guards helped roll up the padding and put away the weapons while Gontu took Dinus to the side and spoke to him quietly for a few minutes.

  They were taken on a tour of the continent via lander, stopping at several large towns where goods were manufactured. Keestu wasn't surprised to see that machine assisted labor was favored here, and she was careful to keep out of the marked lanes used by robots manning the electric tuggers and pallet jacks as they moved goods around.

  "Most of the goods in this warehouse are scheduled to go to Autocracy Station, to be picked up by Rillul and Triker ships that prefer not to take the time to get their goods from our planets directly. It really depends on how popular the goods are whether they will pay the extra expense of having them shipped to the Station for pick up there or whether they will go to each planet to get it themselves; there is a slightly higher profit margin for them if they do direct pick up on our planets, but it's often offset by how much faster their competition is when picking up goods at Autocracy Station and getting them back to their planets. These goods will be shipped directly from her, not from the larger spaceport in the capital."

  Keestu was impressed by the sound dampening in the warehouses, for while the constant whine of electric equipment and robots and moving carts of goods sounded within it, she didn't hear any of the spaceships taking off or landing at the nearby spaceport.

  Their day ended with a formal dinner, including the promising nobles Béjan had mentioned were working their way up the ranks, including Dinus's cousin Bital, who now worked for Hatari, a rather prestigious position. Keestu found that her much publicized fight made the nobles of Phaet more comfortable around her, and she had a pleasant time chatting with them about which weapons were used on Sandar in hand-to-hand combat training. Even Hatari made an effort to engage Keestu in conversation by discussing training to fight with a staff. Keestu was happy to see the young woman ask Rue if she fought with a staff, and relaxed even further upon discussing other hand-to-hand combat techniques with them both. Keestu listened closely as Hatari told Rue that Autocracy females tended to learn martial arts kicking techniques in addition to concentrating on combat with weapons to counteract the greater upper body strength men possessed.

  The next day was the last challenge day, and Hatari declined to challenge Béjan, so Dinus challenged her. Hatari chose their family's arena, and Dinus chose barehanded combat. Knowing that Dinus had the advantages of strength, reach, and past victories on his side, Keestu wasn't surprised that he beat her. Their fight was much different than the sparring she had seen the previous day. Firstly, there was the lack of protective padding, which was not allowed in official fights. Secondly, no punches or kicks were pulled. Thirdly, both combatants were bruised and bloodied by the end. Hatari's lip tore open again, and while it bled profusely and her eyes teared up from the pain, she stoically ignored it until the fight was over. Rather than have Dinus choke her to unconsciousness after pinning her in much the same way he had his brother during training, she feebly flailed her hand to signal she resigned the fight after he pinned to the ground, and she realized she couldn't get free with her dominant hand pinned under Dinus's knee. Dinus released her, urging the medics to attend to Hatari's torn lip first, limping to a bench and putting an ice pack on his nose and another on a large bruise on his leg where Hatari had delivered an especially hard kick.

  They were patched up and changed by lunch, Hatari back in her lower ranking insignia, her lip sutured and a thick layer of analgesic and antibiotic ointment on it, while Dinus had his nose packed. Bital, to his credit, neither congratulated Dinus on his win nor commiserated with Hatari on her loss. He smoothly began to fill Dinus in on what he had missed out on the previous month directly after lunch, and with Dinus busy attending to management of Phaet, it left Keestu a few hours free to visit the Enforcer to deliver her latest report, knowing her parents would be interested to know that Béjan would, indeed, be fighting on behalf of Phaet in the tourney.

  Chapter twenty-three

  The remaining days before the Tourney were spent getting reacquainted with the other Pratés and Pratós of the Autocracy as they arrived for the event accompanied by their families and Pratons or Pratens. All of the planetary leaders Keestu had met on her tour had either survived their final challenges or had not been challenged by their subordinates, and they and their entourages were put up at the palace, which had been preparing for the influx of people for some time. Keestu ate most of her evening meals there, wearing her most formal outfits, including the recording headdress and its accompanying ring so its presence as a part of her formal outfits would be not questioned. Vahin had finally recovered enough from his injuries to rejoin her, though he walked slowly and was frequently out of breath with exertion.

  Keestu included Rue and Gontu in as many meetings as she could, knowing they would notice anything she missed. After her first encounter with Fernuin, in which he stomped up to her and began haranguing her about banning his people from her honor guard, she ignored him after haughtily telling him that as Crown Princess of Sandar she could recommend that the Union boycott all goods from Vulo if he did not show any restraint in his rude mannerisms. His face had turned dark red with rage, and he stepped menacingly towards her, stopping when he heard the loud whine of plasma rifles charging, and Gontu stepped between them, fists raised. He proceeded to ignore her at the bargaining table, then began interrupting her and other speakers loudly with rude remarks. His childish behavior continued until the Autocrat had him bodily removed from the chamber. He desisted after that, thoug
h when it came time for the leaders of the Autocracy to vote on passage of the trade agreement, Keestu wasn't surprised that Fernuin cast the only dissenting vote, though she noted that Pulon, who was standing behind his father, shook his head in disagreement.

  The trade agreement was finalized and signed the day before the tourney. Keestu wearily went back to the Purvol estate after dinner, where she noted the Autocracy's leaders had all eaten heartily. The Tourney would commence at close to midday, though the arena would open several hours prior.

  Keestu dressed carefully for the Tourney. She didn't want to wear any of the Autocracy planets' main colors, which meant that black, medium and dark blue, medium green, dark red, and dark purple were out. She also wanted to avoid the secondary colors, which were gold, silver, medium purple, and bright red. She felt that she needed to dress neutrally so she did not seem to be rooting for any particular planet's leader, though she secretly hoped that Prató Béjan would win. She finally settled on a dark gray suit jacket with a long skirt, which was different enough from the shiny black and silver of the Autocracy that she couldn't see it being mistaken for any planet's color. She paired it with a white blouse, lacy jabot, and lace cuffs. In her hair, she fixed the gold recording headdress, checking it several times before leaving her suite, as she was certain everyone at home would be anxious to see the battle first hand via video. In addition, one of her guards would film the Tourney from a box seat near Keestu, as Vahin decided not attend the match.

  After breakfast with the Purvol family, which was understandably quiet as they were nervous about how the day would go, she remembered that the Purvol family box at the edge of the arena was nowhere near large enough to fit all her guard squads. With this in mind, she went to Béjan, who had her ushered immediately into his office, though he was about to face the most important fight of his life.