The Questing Game

by James Galloway

  Keritanima looked at him calmly, tilting her head to the side, then she gave him the most wicked little smile. "Anything you say, father. You are the King, after all," she said with a malicious little chuckle, turning her back on him without bowing and floating out of the room.

  When she was out of sight, she blew out her breath and leaned on Binter's arm heavily. She was tired, and the stress of the confrontation had worn on her. But it was deliciously convenient. Her father looked insane just then, and that image was one that would begin to be buzzed about the gossip circles...as soon as the other men in the room got out of there and started jabbering. Her campaign against her father would begin that very night.

  She looked up at Binter in wonder. "I can't believe you did that, Binter," she said in awe.

  "What did I do, Highness?"

  "You lied for me, Binter! I can't even find the words that would tell you how honored I am that you'd do that for me."

  "I did not lie, Highness," Binter said. "His Majesty asked me for my opinion. I gave it to him. He did not ask for the plain truth."

  "He didn't say one way or the other."

  "And in not saying, he allowed me to decide what it was that he wanted," he explained easily. "I cannot know your mind, Highness. There is no way that I would know if you do not know where the Firestaff is. You just may know where the Firestaff is, even if you do not believe that you do. So to tell him that I did not know one way or the other was the truth. From my point of view."

  Keritanima looked at him a long time, then she laughed delightedly. "You're in the wrong profession, Binter. You should have been a lawyer."

  "May the Gods permit it never to be so," Binter said fervently as he led her back to the apartment.

  The confrontation had worn at her in more than one way.

  For one, her father was starting to get inconvenient. He was getting bold, dangerous, and he was starting to get unmanagable. She had put the fear of death in him that time, but it wouldn't last. His pride would make him ignore that, and his lust for the Firestaff would strengthen his resolve. Her other activities were splitting his time, but it was apparent that keeping his throne was now not quite as important as finding out just how much Keritanima knew. Continuing to play that game was getting dangerous, and she decided that perhaps ending it would be the better idea. It may have been better if Binter had simply told her father that she didn't know where it was. It would have made things just a little less dangerous, even if it would have taken a very effective piece off the chessboard.

  She thought about it all that day, hand under her muzzle as she rapped her fingers on her desk for hours on end. It was apparent that she had to destabilize her father much faster than she had planned, and just gamble that things would be sane until Sisska could return with the Vendari. Her father did have the power to have them all killed. Only the public relations disaster it could possibly create, and the possibility that he'd be killing the only person who could lead him to the Firestaff were stopping him. She'd already openly defied him, so there wasn't much doubt that she'd committed high treason.

  So she had to distract him again. Going ahead with her current plan seemed to be a good way to go about that, because it was more subtle. They'd just have to hold on for a week or so. It was going to be tense. It hinged on just how badly she scared her father, how far he thought she'd go. She hoped that he realized that she'd carry out her threats. It would make things hard for her, because house Eram would lose the crown and that would mess up all her plans, but it was one means to an end.

  But there were other ways to get at Damon Eram through more than his fear. She intended to assault his pride next, and undermine the loyalty which his people showed to him.

  It would be easy.

  Late that night, more than one servant caught sight of King Damon Eram wandering the halls of the Palace. He was mumbling to himself and wearing his crown...and absolutely nothing else. Any servant who crossed his path received a blistering lecture about showing him proper respect and adulation, even that they should fall on their knees and grovel before him. He then went into the Hall of the Sun and sat on his throne, looking out over the dark chamber with feverish eyes, commanding people that weren't there.

  Then he calmly walked back to his rooms, leaving behind him a wake of spirited gossip.

  The episode repeated itself every night well after midnight for three days, and servants, spies, guards, and even some of the nobility situated themselves in the hallways to see it for themselves. Damon Eram would walk out of his room naked, wearing only his crown, and wander the hallways around his rooms randomly, blistering anyone who met him in the hallways about treating him with the respect he deserved. Nobody bowed deep enough, or looked humble enough, to suit him. He threatened execution for anyone who reached out to touch him. After wandering the hallways a while, he would go to the Hall of the Sun and sit on his throne a while, occasionally calling out to command phantoms, then he would get up and go back to bed.

  Court on that fourth day was eventful. Keritanima was there, and she saw all the strange looks people were giving the King as he sat on his throne and held audience. They all knew about his midnight strolls, and the strangeness of them had set them all abuzz. Her father, hearing about their chatter through his spies, seemed genuinely puzzled at why they would think he was doing such strange things.

  What made it even more eventful was the rather unusual decree the King made, staring at Keritanima the entire time, that stated that the reigning monarch was no longer subject to common law, only the Royal law that governed nobility. The Royal laws made no mention of such things as murder, blackmail, kidnapping, or assault. What he didn't seem to comprehend was that it only reinforced the image of the naked King wandering the hallways pretending to be the most important thing in the world.

  It also made the nobles grumble a bit. Damon Eram had just removed the one thing that made the playing field between the crown and the noble houses even. Those rules were delicate, allowing the nobles and the king to plot on one another but keep it from disrupting the flow of government. But now Damon Eram was no longer subject to common law, so that meant that he could literally do anything he pleased and not a soul could gainsay him. The suffrance of the king was through his nobles, and any king that alienated his nobles tended to lose his crown. She was certain that his decree was another hasty act designed to make her capitulate, but it also had the effect of making the nobles think that Damon Eram was getting completely power-hungry. The struggle of dominance between Damon Eram and his defiant daughter was clouding his judgement, just as she hoped that it would.

  After that decree, Keritanima wandered around, commenting on it to other nobles, and generally setting the mood that maybe Damon Eram was starting to think himself godly long before he got his hands on the Firestaff. And they bit at her bait. Many of the nobles she chatted with were thinking the very same thing themselves, and maybe the stress he'd been under the last couple of months was finally starting to affect him.

  And being the conniving backbiters they were, they immediately redoubled their efforts to get him.

  The next time Damon Eram wandered the hallways, there was an escort of Royal Guard following from a discreet distance. They had ignored his orders to stay at their post and were following him, because that afternoon they had caught a shady Wikuni trying to sneak into the palace with an assassin's pistol. They kept an eye on him as he wandered around, blocked off the Hall of the Sun when he entered and conducted his phantom court, and then followed him back to his room when he was done. More than one thought he was sleepwalking, because his eyes had a glassy quality to them that made him look not quite conscious.

  The next day at court, the new head of House Tarn boldly addressed him and asked him if he was feeling well. Her name was Shareese, a willowy gazelle Wikuni with a slight frame and two polished horns on her head.

  "I'm feeling fine, Duchess Tarn," he replied uncertainly.

  "Well, your Majesty has been
sleepwalking," she noted. "We of house Tarn was just curious if you found out why."

  "I haven't consulted a physician, no," he told her. "I really don't think I've been sleepwalking, anyway. I was up well into the night last night."

  "But I saw you, your Majesty."

  "I'm sure you think you did, but I didn't leave my room at all last night, Shareese. It must have been some other lion."

  And that started it. Keritanima left court with an evil smile on her face. Oh, what plans she had for her father.

  Damon Eram came into court a few days later holding a parchment in his hands. He immediately summoned the Clerk of Law to audience. He looked very out of sorts, and he paced on the dais the entire time as he waited for the older goat Wikuni to arrive. When he finally did, all of court fell silent as Damon Eram dug into him before he could finish bowing. "Why did you put this nonsense on my desk this morning, Travers?" he demanded, shaking the parchment like a chicken about to go in the oven. "It's ridiculous!"

  "You did, your Majesty," the goat said in his raspy voice. "And I agree that it is indeed ridiculous."

  "I most certainly did not, Travers," he said heatedly. "I spent last night in company!"

  "You delivered that to me at ten last night, your Majesty," Travers said a bit testily. "You demanded it be entered into the Volume of Law. I told you that I wouldn't do that until you had time to sleep on it. That's why I put it back on your desk."

  "Ten? Travers, I was entertaining Lady Shareese last night at ten!" he objected. "I didn't have time to come to your office and give you this!"

  "But you did, your Majesty. Perhaps your Majesty simply forgot about it with company waiting for him to return?"

  "Travers. I was in no position to go anywhere last night at ten," he said pointedly. "Me and the Duchess were, indisposed."

  "No offense, your Majesty, but I saw what I saw. You delivered that decree to me last night. I will swear by it. Perhaps we could ask the Duchess what time you left? Maybe my clock was off."

  "Good idea. Summon Duchess Shareese Tarn!" he commanded to the Chamberlain.

  When the Duchess arrived, she looked a bit confused. She curtsied to him gracefully. "Yes, your Majesty?"

  "Duchess, when did you leave my chambers this morning?" Damon Eram asked.

  "I didn't, your Majesty," she replied. "You invited me to dine last night, but I was called back to my house about seven. We had a ship fire."

  "Duchess, you were with me last night," Damon Eram protested.

  "I was, for about half an hour, your Majesty," she said sincerely. "I apologize for leaving early. Would you prefer to dine tonight instead?"

  Damon Eram's face screwed up. "Something's going on around here!" he suddenly boomed. "Bring a priest! I want the truth divined!"

  That sent a rush through court. Damon Eram got a furious look from the Duchess and a glare from Travers. That he would doubt their word enough to send for a priest to divine the truth was an insult.

  When the priest arrived, he cast his spell to divine the truth, then Damon Eram stood up in front of his throne and addressed Duchess Shareese Tarn. "What time did you leave my room last night, Duchess?"

  "It couldn't have been more than seven, your Majesty. I was called away due to an accident at our house docks."

  Damon Eram looked at the priest. "She speaks the truth, Majesty," the portly bear Wikuni announced.

  "Travers, when do you say I showed up at your door?"

  "Ten, your Majesty, by my clock. You demanded I add that decree to the Volume of Law."

  "He speaks truth, Majesty," the priest told him.

  "That's impossible!" Damon Eram said furiously. "I was with Lady Shareese all night last night!"

  "Your Majesty!" Shareese said indignantly. "I'm a married woman!"

  "What's going on around here!" Damon Eram demanded heatedly. "I did not bring this to you, Travers, and I certainly did not demand you notarize it into law!" He raked his gaze across the room, and it fell on Keritanima. "Keritanima, come here right now!" he snapped. "This has your hand all over it!"

  Keritanima floated up to the dais and curtsied elegantly. "What do you want, your Majesty?"

  "Did you do this?" he demanded hotly.

  "Do what, your Majesty?"

  "Don't play games with me, daughter," he warned. "I'll have you racked! Did you set up this little game?"

  "I didn't do anything, father," she said with a malicious grin. "Not a thing."

  "She speaks the truth, your Majesty," the priest told him in a quavering voice. Word had gotten out that every time Keritanima and Damon Eram exchanged words, innocent bystanders tended to die. The priest didn't feel comfortable with making himself noticable.

  "I don't believe you!" he shouted. "Are you using your magic to hide the truth?"

  "I am forbidden to practice Sorcery in the Hall of the Sun, your Majesty. You decreed it yourself. I'm not about to commit high treason in front of a hundred witnesses."

  "She is speaking the truth, your Majesty. Regardless of that, her magical powers cannot hide the truth from her words. She cannot evade the spell, because it has nothing to do with her."

  Damon Eram glared at the priest, then he snorted and looked at Shareese Tarn. "You came to my room last night," he declared. "We had dinner and we talked, and we ended up in bed. We spent all night together."

  "Your Majesty, I am a happily married woman!" Shareese Tarn said vociferously. "I would not commit adultery against my husband, even if you ordered me to!"

  "Well, am I lying, priest?" Damon Eram demanded heatedly.

  "No, your Majesty. You believe what you are saying."

  "Well, you must have dallied with someone that looks like me, your Majesty," Shareese Tarn said waspishly. "It was certainly not me. I have a house full of witnesses to that fact."

  Damon Eram looked at her like she was a live snake, then glared at Trevers. "This is a conspiracy!" he shouted, throwing the parchment down. "Trevers, this is not a decree from me! This is a plant!"

  "Your Majesty, it is written in your hand, and it carries your seal. Nobody else could have made it."

  "I didn't write this!" he screamed, picking the parchment up from the floor, balling it up, and then throwing it at the Clerk of Law like it was a spear. It landed on the floor well short of the goat, and then Damon Eram stamped off the dais and behind the throne without another word, towards the antechamber in the back that served as an office for him.

  Keritanima wandered out into the empty space between the court and the dais and picked up the parchment. She unwadded it and looked at it. Shareese Tarn came over and looked over her shoulder, and she turned it so the Duchess could read it as well.

  "By Kikkali!" Shareese Tarn said in astonishment. "He must be insane!"

  On the parchment was a decree that all noble houses and the nobility were hereby abolished, and all lands and monies of those nobles were now property of the crown. It also went on to say that all private titled deeds of land and property were nullified, and all said properties were now property of the crown. After that, it decreed that the crown hereby annexed the entirety of all land, seas, oceans, lakes, islands, and rivers, and that the entirety of the world was now the property of the crown. It then stated that from that moment forth, the King of Wikuna would be known as Supreme Overlord of Sennadar, and would hold dominion over the world for eternity.

  It was written in the King's hand, and it carried the Royal seal, a seal that nobody else could possibly have.

  "This certainly doesn't look rational," Keritanima agreed.

  Shareese Tarn rushed over to a circle of women, holding the rumpled parchment in her hands, and Keritanima wandered out of court. She almost couldn't contain her glee.

  It had been seamless. Shareese Tarn had spent the night with her father, probably only after he threatened her into submitting to his advances, but where Keritanima's Sorcery wouldn't work on her father, it did work on her. A Mind weave had erased the night from her mind and replaced it w
ith memories of visiting the scene of the accident before returning to her home. That would be backed up, because she had had Ulfan burn a Tarn ship, and Keritanima had visited the scene wearing an Illusion of Shareese. Then she had rushed back to the Palace, to create the Illusion of Damon Eram leaving his rooms and going to Trevers with the decree. That too had been Keritanima, as had all the nightly wanderings of her father. Keritanima under an Illusion of her father. Wearing her father's likeness, she demanded that Trevers register the decree as law, then argued with him over its content.

  Getting around the priest had been easy. They didn't know that using Sorcery created no visible signs, priests couldn't sense its use, and it required no gesturing or gesticulating as they thought magic required. Her use of gestures before had been for nothing more than show. A simple Mind weave was all it took to make him believe that his spell was telling him she was telling the truth. The spell actually said she was lying, but he didn't see that.

  She looked back into the Hall of the Sun, seeing the nobles passing the crumpled parchment around and beginning to debate its meaning heatedly. They may have thought he was sleepwalking before, but now they all wouldn't be able to deny the fact that it seemed that Damon Eram was going mad.

  Keritanima walked out of the Hall of the Sun, a very slight smile on her face. "Take that, Damon Eram," she mused under her breath, then walked away with her hands behind her back and her tail swishing back and forth in rythym with her easy pace. "You'll love what I do to you next."

  Life for Damon Eram degenerated quickly after the incident with Shareese Tarn. Keritanima made sure of that.

  The nightly episodes continued, but they changed as the days passed. Damon Eram's nightly wanderings with his crown had started to get malevolent, the monarch tending to strike anyone who crossed his path and didn't grovel and debase themselves enough to suit him. He would sit in the throne room and order executions right and left, and some of the names he shouted out were among the nobility whom Keritanima had had murdered earlier. He also ordered the murder of all his daughters every night to his spectral minions, an occurance that had brought a very frightened Veranika to Keritanima's door some days after it had started, begging for her older sister's protection, even offering to pay. The audience that observed these nightly rantings became more and more worried, a worry that intensified as Damon Eram denied doing what they saw him doing every morning afterward.