Authors: Bob Blink
“Are you really so ready to accept your situation that you’ll step down docilely?” Yisa asked.
A wry, somewhat sad smile crossed Rosul’s face. “There is really nothing I can do,” she replied. “The law is quite specific and the people would be outraged if I tried to circumvent it.”
“The people love you,” Yisa objected.
Rosul hoped that was true. She had tried to be a champion of the people, but knowing what she did, she wondered if she had accomplished as much as she hoped. She felt she could continue to rule effectively. She didn’t feel old and mentally challenged, in fact she wished she could continue to wage the secret war against the Guild and the tentacles it had into everything. Well, perhaps she could, but not as Queen. The Guild would see to that, even if the people would have allowed her to continue as Queen.
The Queen worriedly watched as her eldest daughter left the room. For such a successful woman she certainly had a lot of insecurities. She’d have thought a child of hers would be made of sterner stuff, but Yisa had always surprised them, and not always in a good way. Although she was by far the most successful of her daughters, Yisa had always had a few cracks in her make-up, take her selection of husbands for example.
“Something wrong?” Tinl asked from the door that led to the conference room behind her.
The Queen turned and looked at the newcomer, wondering how long she’d been there. Yisa had come into her quarters through the family entrance, and momentarily the Queen had been distracted with family matters, forgetting the busy meeting schedule she had this morning. Tinl had come in through the front entrance, being passed by the guards who knew her well and who were aware of the standing meeting. As usual, Tinl was early, arriving an eighth of a glass before the others.
Tinl was one of her Advisors, one of those who hoped to find a position with the woman who would be selected as Rosul’s replacement. Tinl had been part of the Queen’s Cabinet of Five for the past decade, having been chosen because of certain skills and contacts she had in the South that were important to Rosul’s plans in that area. More than once Rosul recently had wondered if the selection had been wise. Frequently of late she wondered if she’d been out maneuvered and Tinl was actually a plant that the Guild had managed to place in her inner circle. If so, then Tinl might be successful with her stated desires to continue on. If she had the blessings of the Guild, she would have the inside track to be selected. Only time would show how matters would turn out.
“Nothing important,” the Queen replied. “As the transition approaches, many within the castle are unsettled by the changes that are coming. Even those within my immediate family, who should be less concerned than others. Yisa wishes the status quo could be maintained.”
“As do we all,” Tinl replied tactfully. “But, that is the way of things. Yours has been a long and successful rule. Far longer than any of your recent predecessors. You can retire knowing you have directed the country well through many troubling times.”
Rosul was deciding how to reply to the condescending words when a pair of additional voices interrupted her train of thought. She turned to see the remainder of her cabinet making their way into the area. The voice she had heard was that of Alani, her childhood friend who had served on the Cabinet since the first day Rosul had been named Queen. Every five years when the Cabinet was reformed, Rosul had made sure that Alani was one of those selected, her wisdom and loyalty something the Queen had on more than one occasion relied upon. Alani was the only member who had served so long. Most of the remaining members served a session or two, then moved on as different people were selected reflecting changing conditions in the kingdom. Kalli, with whom Alani was engaged in a serious discussion of some sort, was another rare member. She had served on the first Cabinet with Rosul all those years ago, then had been absent until the Queen had managed to convince her to come back for this last session after twenty-five years of absence. It had been a wise move on Rosul’s part. Only Kalli and Alani were of the same age as the Queen, the remaining three women considerably younger. Tinl was a full two decades her junior, another reason she felt she might have reason to hope for more years in the castle’s inner circles.
“Your Majesty,” Kalli said formally as she approached, although she never used the greeting in private. “We just learned that the Guild sent the additional Casters to Ront as you had demanded.”
“How many?” the Queen asked. She and the Guild had often had different ideas how the battles with the Baldarians should be approached. For reasons the Queen couldn’t fathom, Carif, the Saltique, the supreme leader of the Guild, frequently held back resources that would have aided the fighting. Ront was a city to the south, but well inland from the border with the Wastelands. Several days before the city had been unexpectedly attacked by the persistent Baldari. Never before had they reached so far inland, which suggested a change in their tactics.
“I was told that fifteen Casters were being sent,” Kalli replied. “All but two of them women, and Senior Casters at that,” she added knowing the Queen would want to know the skill level of the team.
“That is good to hear,” Rosul replied. “Perhaps Carif is starting to appreciate the seriousness of the raids by these savages.” She led the group into the conference area, and closed the doors behind them.
Rosul wasn’t concerned that anyone might listen into conversations that took place in this wing of the castle, let alone what was said inside the conference room. She wasn’t a fool, and had known that the castle to be honeycombed with back corridors and hidden paths before she had come here. Within a year of her establishing residence in the royal quarters, a mysterious major fire had broken out, and the entire wing of the castle had required renovation. She’d overseen the rework, supposedly to make the quarters more comfortable and modern, but in truth she had ensured the builders followed certain design requirements. No hidden passageways now penetrated the royal wing. The guards who protected the Queen controlled the flow of visitors into the area, and without going through the choke point manned by her most trusted guards, no one could get within a hundred paces of the rooms occupied by the Queen. Walls were made of thick stone, a single layer moved into place by skilled commercial Casters, rather than those offered by the Guild. The thickness of the walls provided soundproofing, and yet the walls were limited in depth so there was no room for a hidden passageway to be built into the span of a wall.
The royal quarters and the conference area were further protected by their layout. Both were built within the royal wing, but set apart from the perimeter walls of the wing so that a wide open corridor entirely surrounded the rooms. Anyone lurking outside of either area would be fully exposed, and the walls, equally as thick as those of the outer perimeter, further provided assurance that what was spoken inside would not be overheard. The Queen knew the Guild had spells that would have provided additional protection against eavesdropping, but the simple truth was that she didn’t trust Carif and her Casters not to cast a spell that did just the opposite. Spies the Queen had planted within the Guild, something everyone believed impossible to accomplish, had assured her that her efforts had frustrated the leadership there, and they had yet to find a workaround. Much of what the Queen wished to discuss privately she specifically didn’t want to reach the ears of the Guild’s senior leaders. No, if word of what was discussed inside this room were to reach the ears of Carif, it would be because someone in the room told her. That was one reason the Queen had taken to avoiding certain topics of late when Tinl was present. She might be doing the woman a disservice, but she had learned over the years to exercise caution, and now those lessons were doubly important.
For the first glass the situation in Ront occupied their attention. Her generals wanted more troops and a significant increase in Casters to deal with the Baldari problem. They pointed out that the situation was becoming worse with time, and the only way to deal effectively with the problem was to pursue the invaders and discover the routes they used to infiltrate Sedfair. Since the few Baldari they had captured all mysteriously died within a few glass of capture, the only workable plan was to follow the enemy force into the Wastelands, despite the dangers and difficulty. The Guild resisted such a suggestion. The Guild’s leadership pointed out that the Caster’s magic became ineffective within a few glass of steady riding into the Wastelands, which would simply put its people at risk. It was a dangerous plan and one that would see many talented Casters killed.
The Queen and Carif would be meeting after lunch to discuss the proposal as well as other matters, not the least of which was the matter of her replacement. She and Carif had begun as friends many years before. The relationship had deteriorated over the years as they progressed to become political opponents and now near adversaries on nearly every issue. Rosul knew that Carif was anxiously awaiting the day she would be relieved of power, and someone new and more malleable would be placed onto the throne. Unlike herself, the senior leaders of the Guild had no restrictions on how long or to what age they could remain in power. As an extremely competent and powerful Caster, Carif held tightly to the reigns of power within the Guild, and that meant she was a formidable power that even eclipsed the Queen in many ways, although the general population did not realize this.
The Queen had seen the changes that had wormed their way into the political life of Sedfair over her reign. The attacks by the Baldari and the appearance and growing threat provided by the strange beasts coming out of the Wastelands had forced the country to commit men and resources to the problems. This had provided certain factions with more power, and she could sense that many had grown to relish the additional power and privilege that resulted. Now there were those who tried to manipulate the politics of Sedfair to ensure what they had become accustomed to was not lost, but further enhanced. It was not a good trend, but she had only been moderately successful in stemming the changes. Soon, her chances of turning the trend around would be lost entirely.
“These increases will require considerably more gold than we are bringing in each year,” Alani warned the group as their discussions drew to a close.
That was always the reality of things. The crown was expected to protect the land and foster growth, but that took gold. The gold was paid to the royal treasury by the nobles who oversaw large areas of the country, but everyone knew for the most part they were shortchanging the kingdom. No one had figured out a way to prove their dishonesty without adverse political repercussions. The shortfall had been somewhat mitigated by the rich gold mines the crown controlled, but even the output of the mines wouldn’t be sufficient to meet the needs Rosul could see in the near future.
“We will make note of it,” she told the others. “It won’t be my problem. The taxes won’t be due until some time after I have been replaced, so at this point we can only make suggestions.”
After seeing her Cabinet out, Rosul rang for her servants and requested lunch be served in the library. She made certain her servant knew to bring her a single glass of the green wine she preferred. After the meeting she had just completed, she needed something to relax her. One glass only. She still had to deal with Carif, and that woman required one to have one’s wits about her. Rosul would have liked to have Alani stay and eat with her so they could talk privately, but that would have been noted by the others. She’d have to wait to meet with Alani at their usual time. Her old friend shared more secrets than the others realized, and they had much to do in the remaining weeks before they both departed Nals for the northern territories.
Rosul felt especially isolated of late. Her consort was away, his stated trip to visit their family estates and coordinate the upgrades and repairs to make the place more suitable when they retired to the family lands in a few months. That would not have really been necessary. Her brother would have handled the task well enough, but Kall was also seeing to a far more important matter.
Kall was more than a simple consort to Rosul. She had chosen her life partner wisely, and found that her mate was a man of considerable wisdom and bravery. Long they had shared far more secrets and plans than others would have suspected, contrary to the usual prejudice regarding the role of the male in Sedfair’s society. She greatly missed his presence, both in terms of sharing concerns about what lay ahead and the simple physical comfort of his arms. But his task was important, and he’d had to go.
Two miles offshore from the family lands, an almost forgotten island that had been part of the estates when granted by the Queen almost four hundred years earlier, formed the heart of her plan to wrest away some of the Guild’s power. For the past fifteen years a small group chosen by the Queen had been creating an independent and secret community on the island. That community was about to grow much larger, as her fellow conspirators moved the center of their activities away from Nals. Even now, Captain Abend should be on his way north with the most recent members of their secret group. Some would stay in Nals of course. She had eyes and ears in key places and they would keep her and the rest of the group informed after she was replaced. It was too bad she didn’t have another ten years as Queen. She felt they were getting close to a major breakthrough, but unfortunately they wouldn’t be given the time needed.
With a sigh, the Queen realized the time was gone, and the bell indicated that Carif had arrived. She pushed aside the plate of food she had barely nibbled at. She lifted the crystal goblet and took a single swallow of the mellow wine, then stood and walked out of her library area toward the room where Carif would be waiting. She was not looking forward to the contentious discussions that would consume most of the afternoon.