Dynasty: The Glorious Strategist (Dynasty Saga Book 3) (34 page)

This was her fault. Niimu killed herself because of her.

“After that display,” Chia said speaking softly but making sure she was loud enough for Lymee to hear her. “No one will ever accuse you of being someone’s pawn. Whatever Lord Yung was planning will now be irrelevant. If she intended to undermine your authority she now can’t and no candidate she puts forward will be able to match you and the obvious devotion you inspire in those around you.”   

Lymee listened but she was only half paying attention at this point.

“My older sister Lord Saya, now the head of Gon Dynasty, will openly declare her support for you and declare our mother’s sacrifice as a heroic death in your name. With Gon Dynasty, Hong Dynasty, Song Dynasty and inevitably Fu Dynasty behind you there is no Dynasty large enough or influential enough to stand against you. The minor Dynasties in the south west will not wish to stand up against the might of so many powerful Dynasties and they too will fall in line. The Kingdom will now know peace, and you, will be its Empress.”

“But at what cost?” Lymee asked running her hand down her mouth. “So what if we have peace if we have to sacrifice our humanity in order to obtain it?”

“You left us with no other choice,” Chia stated placing her hands on her hips.

“What?” Lymee frowned.

“All you had to do was announce to the world that you were sent by The Heavens,” Chia stated. “With Priestess Ling support none would have the tenacity or the courage to stand against you. But you were so adamant that we not do that. To the point where my mother even began to doubt. She thought maybe she had been wrong and you really were not sent by The Heavens. So she asked Priestess Ling her opinion.”

“No,” Lymee gasped in horror as she realized what must have happened.

“And the Priestess said without a doubt you were their gift to us,” Chia finished. “That was all my mother needed.”

“I didn’t want to proclaim my divinity because I didn’t want them doing stuff like this!” Lymee cried. “I know firsthand what religious zealotry can cause. People are all too willing to die for their god or The Heavens or whatever they want to call it. I am just a normal person. I don’t want people to die for me, I want them to live.”

“You are the Empress now. Everyone who is killed on the field of battle from this point on will be doing if for you.” Chia paused blowing out a breath. “We all must find something that we believe in enough to die over,” Chia stated her face calm and in control. “My mother picked you. You can decide for yourself if she picked the person, the Empress, or the fox. Regardless she did it for you. Now if you will excuse me,” Chia placed her hands inside of her sleeves. “I must see to my mother’s funeral preparations.” With a very deep bow Chia then slowly walked out of the room leaving Lymee alone.

She had not wanted this. She kept telling herself that over and over again. But the more she said it the more she began to doubt the truth of her words. Had she really wanted this? She may never have wanted this exact thing but was she not willing to do anything she needed to make sure she brought peace to the Kingdom?

Chia was right though. Peace they would now have. Yung would be a fool to try to move against Lymee now. At least for a while. With her brought to heel that was the last piece for all the other Dynasties to fall in line. And now that Lymee had brought peace to her Kingdom she now had to turn her attention to the other Kingdoms.

It was only a matter of time before whomever wished to destabilize this Kingdom came a knocking. More than likely with a very large army, and Lymee doubted even with all the united might of her Kingdom it would be enough to save them from what was coming. Her only hope was the stabilization of the other Kingdoms. Either through alliance or conquest she had to have their support.

Lymee refused to let Niimu’s death be in vain. She would do everything possible to protect her people.

***

“Are you by chance an artist?” Hsu asked moving behind Lymee. She casually rested her chin on Lymee’s shoulder while she looked down at what Lymee was drawing.

“An artist I am not,” Lymee assured the concubine enjoying the sensation of the woman’s chest pressing into her back. “But I have found that a lot of ideas I have are hard to explain, so I draw them out to help get the concept across.

“May I see it?” Hsu asked reaching her hand over Lymee’s shoulder.

“Sure,” Lymee shrugged handing her the paper she had been doodling on.

Lymee looked over at the desk she was sitting at expecting to find Kitsune laying there asleep like she had been the last time Lymee checked.

“Where is Kitsune?” Lymee asked glancing around the room in case she had missed her.

“Getting pampered by the other girls,” Hsu stated still fixated on the drawing.

“Of course she is,” Lymee sighed resting her head against Hsu. “I’m sure she is just loving all the attention from the beautiful girls.”

Hsu smiled returning the pressure against Lymee’s head. The girls had all been very welcoming of Lymee as well as accepting. They were very eager to serve as well as to please. Lymee had enjoyed the company but had been a little hesitant to cross any real kind of line with them.

While all of them were gorgeous in their own right Lymee just did not feel comfortable seeing them as anything more than personal servants. But they were more than that, Lymee admitted. Concubines were encouraged not to hold to the formalities that everyone else was held to. They did not call Lymee Empress unless they were out in public and they easily called her by her true name. As such, Lymee had found she enjoyed spending more time with them then with just about anyone else. Lymee was sure that was part of the point.

“So what is it?” Hsu asked handing back the picture.

“Something that could very easily destroy this world if used improperly,” Lymee stated taking the picture back. “But something we might need before all of this is over.”

“Sounds dangerous,” Hsu stated.

“Very,” Lymee nodded picking the pencil back up as she got ready to continue her sketching.

“What’s it called?”

“There are various names for it,” Lymee stated. “But generally they are just referred to as guns.”

END BOOK THREE

Author's Notes:

Wow. Here we are again. Book three done. Thank you so much for reading it, and I sincerely hoped that you liked it.

It brought me so much joy to find that not only did people like the second book but for the most part they all seemed to like it more than the first. As an author that is all that I can ever hope for and in turn I hope that you enjoy this book more than you did the other two.

I do think it necessary to clarify some key points. The biggest thing being the use of language. One thing that I really try to stay aware of while I am writing is the use of certain words like ‘okay’. As okay is actually an abbreviation of the city Old Kinderhook and is totally English slang. As such they would have no such word in this world as not only do they not speak English the English and American culture do not even exist. Lymee says it but that is just Lymee.

That being said there are some words like Kingdom and such that are used which simply means the domain of a king. Kings do not exist in this world and neither do queens for that matter. So what they are really saying is this world’s equivalent to Kingdom. I could have used Empire but as you will find out in the next book that word does not fit either and as that word is going to be used a lot in the next book. I could have made up a word but in all honesty I am already making up names for people and for every single Dynasty. I know it can be hard enough to follow you don’t need me throwing in made up words. So I thought it best to just stick with kingdom.

The best way to think about it is that this is actually a translation of the story. Yes I am an American and speak English and I am writing this in English but the world that this takes place in does not speak English and I am doing my best to translate it. At least that is how I think about it while I write it.

Fun fact though the idea of using a Trojan Horse pretty much came to me exactly like it did for Lymee in the book. As I was working out possible strategies in my head I was starting to get worried that I had written myself into a bit of a corner and would have to do some kind of deus ex machina or some other contrived thing in order for Lymee to win the day.

I was thinking hard how to use Special Forces to somehow sneak inside the walls to open the gates when I just threw my hands up and said “I need to use a Trojan Horse of some kind. Which is ironically one of the first uses of Special Forces.” I literally froze where I was for like ten minutes as I realized that was exactly what I could do as they would not have the Odyssey and would know nothing about Troy or Greece and all of that. Then I thought about how to get them to bring it inside and instantly thought of the scene from the movie ‘Mom and Dad Saves the World’ if you haven’t seen it look it up. I promise you won’t regret it.

I am happy to say that this book pretty much ended where I intended book three to end all along, so I am still right on course for my five book saga. I have no idea when I will get the next one out. In many ways this one was finished both sooner and later than I had intended. But I really do hope to have another book out before Christmas though I doubt it will be in this series. But really who know. I said that before and look where we are.

I can’t wait to hear what you guys thought about this book. Let me know, write reviews, send me an email, leave a comment on my blog, because I have a blog now. I really do mean it when I say that your feedback is really important to me either good or bad. The only way I can improve is if I know what you guys liked and what you didn’t. And to all of you that have given me feedback already. Thank you so much, and I really do hope you continue to enjoy my work.