Industry & Intrigue (25 page)

Lawrence had been
impressed
by
the idea. The agorid was not only shrewd but he was also learned
and sensitive to how his presence may affect other bipeds. Lawrence
made a mental note to keep track of how the agorid did in his watch
career. As a loyal subject of Alkos he could prove to be
useful.

Snar stepped back into place
and
Clara
called each of three university students, Reese, Cassandra and
Michael. They were all nervous, although the girl had a certain
melancholic look. No doubt by the loss she had suffered during the
incident. Lawrence had read both of the watch officers’
reports.

As they finished and stepped
back Clara spoke again
, “Congratulations all of you. And once again let
me express my eternal gratitude at the service you have done for
Estara.” They all bowed to her. Clara stepped back into place to
the left of the throne.

Lawrence
spoke again, “And let me
express my gratitude to all of you as well. You are all examples of
honor and pride for Alkos and I am honored and humbled to have
citizens such as you.”

Lawrence gave a nod to
his
head
guardsman who then turned to the royal guards and shouted,
“Imperial Guard salute.” The guardsmen responded and saluted the
five of them, lifting their halberds into the air.

Lawrence looked over at Clara.
S
he had
tears in her eyes, though she was doing her best to not let them
flow. Looking at her face, he wanted to do whatever he could to
ensure she never had to cry. Then he realized that Ursa had caught
him staring at her queen and had a disapproving glare on her face.
He turned away and signaled for the ceremony to finish then exited
the room.

He asked
Jornas to send someone to Queen
Clara and request her to come and speak with him in the palace
gardens. Then he made his way out there and waited. He sat on a
stone bench next to a bed of roses, his guards taking positions at
the entrances.

Clara
arrived at one of the entrances and
walked over. General Ursa was also with her but she stopped and
waited at the garden entrance.

“
Your Imperial
Majesty
, you
asked to see me?” she asked him.

Lawrence
smiled
.
“Yes, Your Highness, there’s something I’d like to show you.” He
led her to the center of the garden where a small, stone building
stood. He pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the doors,
holding them open for Clara.

She walked down a set of stairs
and Lawrence c
losed the doors. They stepped past two white poles
decorated with the black lion symbol of Alkos and into another
garden inside the building.

Sunlight streamed down through
several windows, speci
ally designed to capture the light and create a
tropical atmosphere for the flora inside to flourish. There was a
small line of grass after the steps and then flowers. They filled
the entire center of the building. They were brightly colored,
coming from the tropical regions of the world and a variety of
floral smells filled the air.

The collection on its own would
have been impre
ssive alone, but there was more. The flowers were arranged
by color and formed the shape of the eastern regions of the
continent of Maceon, including Alkos, Estara, Enz and Huffolk and
Silund. A large pool of water and a waterfall represented the
ocean.

“
Lawrence
, this is incredible,” said
Clara, in awe of the impressive display of flowers. Now that they
were alone, Clara dropped the use of his title as he had requested
her to do so.

“
I thought you’d like
it
,” he
said. “My father had it commissioned, a work of art to celebrate
the formation of Naikos province. You’re the first person to have
set foot in here outside of my family and the
caretakers.”

“
It’s beautiful. What about
Estara? I can’t see it from here.”

“
This way
,” he said and grabbed her hand
. He led her down the grass path along the side of the map garden,
passing the waterfall and reaching the top end. Estara was
represented by red and green Zefey lilies with a single white lotus
indicating each of the major cities.

La
wrence plucked one of the red lilies
and presented it to Clara. “This is only a flower, but take it as a
promise from me. I will do everything I can to see you restored to
your rightful place on your throne.”

Clara gratefully accepted it and he felt
her shiver as his hand brushed hers slightly. Lawrence wanted to
see her get her nation back, but his ability to aid her was
hindered by several factors. He couldn’t declare war on Estara in
an effort to restore her to the throne. That would risk
antagonizing both the Kordate Union and Silund. Together the two
nations could do significant damage to Alkos, particularly in the
level of trade they controlled. The Alkos government had supported
royalist rebels in Estara for many years but their success had been
dwindling with President Praellis ‘clean-out’ actions.

“
I was thinking of having a
public ceremony, open this place up, in
celebration
,” he said.

“
Celebration of
what
?” asked
Clara. He smiled, he was finally about to admit his true feelings
to her. “I was thinking that the people of Alkos would want to
celebrate if they knew their emperor had finally found a woman he
wanted at his side.”

H
e placed his hands on her arms and looked
into her deep blue eyes. He could spend forever losing himself in
those eyes.

“
Lawrence, I…
,” she was unable to find the
words.

“
You feel as I do, don’t
you?
” he
asked. “I have tried to fight against it, but I cannot help myself.
You’re the most amazing woman I’ve ever met Clara and I want you as
my empress.” He leaned forward and kissed her, something he had
wanted to do for so long. She was hesitant at first but was swept
into it and responded to his passion. It only lasted moments. She
stopped and pulled away, her face flushed slightly.

“
Lawrence you know how difficult
this would be
,” she said.

He had been
prep
ared for
her reluctance. “Why is it difficult? We both feel the same for
each other. We are both of royal blood.” It was only natural that
they should marry.

“
Yes we are
.” She sighed. “But we are also
both heads of state. How on Somal can two heads of state marry? We
have a duty first and foremost to our nations. You to Alkos and I
to Estara. People on both sides would accuse us of selling out our
nations; or trying to create an even bigger empire. The Creator
only knows how other nations would respond. Any children we had
would inherit two kingdoms. Numerous wars have been fought over
dynastic struggles like that.”

Lawrence didn’t accept that
though
.
“Marriages and wars of this nature are how Alkos was built. We
weren’t always the largest empire you know,” he
countered.

“
I
f my family was still alive and I was not
a queen-in-exile, then perhaps it would be possible. But I must do
what is best for Estara. What little support I have in my homeland
would quickly dry up. Praellis would seize the opportunity to paint
me as nothing more than an Alkon puppet, answering to its
emperor.”

Lawrence moved his hand to
stroke her perfect cheek and said
, “We could…find ways to work around it
all.” But his voice was not as certain as it was moments
ago.

“
You know in
that I am right,” she said. She
hugged him and laid her head on his shoulder. ‘I truly wish the
situation were different, but we are tied to our individual fates
and they do not intertwine. I have never met a better man than you
and I don’t think I ever will again. I’m sorry.”

She pulled away and looked
him
in the
eyes again, she was crying. She wiped the tears away and dropped
his hands. She exited, leaving him alone in the private
garden.

***

Clara returned to the
patient
Ursa. “Are you alright, Your Highness?” asked Ursa. The
general had noticed she was upset.

Clara re
plied, “I’ll be fine Ursa. I
want to return to my apartment and rest, it’s been a long day.”
Ursa nodded and they walked through the palace.

After several minutes, Ursa
decided to take a guess as to the reason behind her
queen’s demeanor.
“You Highness, may I be frank?” she asked.

“
Go ahead, Ursa” replied Clara.
S
he could
guess at what her general was going to say. She had already made
plain her feelings when she noticed Clara and Lawrence’s budding
romance.

“
Would I be correct in
assuming that the emperor has made his intentions toward you known
and asked for something formal?”

“
Yes, he did. But before you
repeat the lecture you gave me last week. I can already tell you I
turned him down, for all of the same reasons you made clear to me,”
replied Clara.

Ursa nodded. The general would
be
glad that
she had listened to her head instead of her heart. “I see. I
realize it is difficult now, but you are doing the right thing,
Your Highness. Your duty lies with Estara, you are the last hope
for all of us,” said Ursa. She was referring to all of the Estaran
refugees in Alkos that had pledged full support to the
queen.

“
That doesn’t make it
easier,” said
Clara.

“
Being queen isn’t about what’s
easy, it’s about what’s right. The republicans have torn our nation
and culture to pieces. You are the last chance we have to get back
from the brink. Before we lose what was Estara forever.”

Clara looked at
Ursa
. “It’s
been fourteen long years. I wonder if we did return would we even
recognize our home. The republicans have made so many radical
changes. I fear that trying to undo them could cause as much damage
as the war.”

”
Fear not, Your Highness,
we shall reclaim
Estara and you will sit in Haltoria. In fact, I am due to meet with
the Alkos minister of security of tomorrow. He’s one of our
strongest supporters in the Alkon government.”

“
Then I hope he has something
significant to tell you,” replied Clara. All the support from Alkos
ministers had done little to get them home so far. “The more time
we spend in exile, the further our homeland slips away from us,
until it is nothing but a chapter in the history books.”

Chapter 22

“
On page eighty six of your text
book, you will see the full display of Stirling’s Theory of
Biological Diversion for the higher kingdoms of animals,” said
Professor Ling Xerin. “As you can see, they are grouped into three
categories, gigantic, dragensis and carvolgis.”

Reese tried to
concentrate
on the class as best he could. He should have known going
drinking after the medal ceremony was a bad idea, but he had gone
along anyway. Cassandra was still upset and he wanted to support
her. She had taken the drinking to heart and had more than both
Reese and Michael combined, in an effort to drown her
sorrows.

After
embarrassing moments of her drunkenly
trying to hit on several cute girls, Reese had decided to cut her
off and dropped her in her apartment to sleep it off. He wasn’t
surprised that she hadn’t made it to the class this morning. He
took swig of water from his drink bottle to slake his dry throat
while the professor continued her explanation of kingdom
classifications.

“
Carvolg Bax, more commonly
referred to as Lannoch’s Rat
. Named for its discoverer, George Lannoch. This
is an artist’s impression of what it looked like.” Xerin clicked
the projector. The picture that appeared looked something like a
rodent standing on its hind legs, although its front legs were
clearly arms that ended in hands.

“
Not
much to look at, similar in shape and
form to a common rat. But all of you sitting in this room are
descended from this creature. As well as every other human,
skylord, elf, goblinoid, agorid and kitsune in the entire
world.”

Someone put their hand up with a
question.

“
Yes?” asked Xerin.

“
According to Stirling,
convergent diversion is the reason why species with similar
features, say drakons and humans, emerged from separate different
lines of diversion. But why is it that the dragensis line only
produced one biped while the Carvolg Bax line produced numerous
ones?” asked the student.

Reese was curious about it as
well, but he was not in
the mood to ask questions today. He was glad
someone else had asked for him.

Xerin smiled and
said
, “Even
Stirling, the father of modern zoology was stumped by that. It was
one of the few pieces of evidence that ran contrary to his theory.
It was not until recently that newer work with residual energy
dating has allowed us to explain this contradiction.