The Invisible Chains - Part 2: Bonds of Fear (34 page)

He didn’t seem worried at the prospect.

“We sure are,” Anaxantis replied, in a satisfied tone.

He turned Myrmos around and stood upright in the stirrups. His

shining blue-gray eyes looked at his small group of friends, servants,

cartographers and soldiers.

“Gentlemen, a country that stops growing, starts shrinking. A

realm that doesn’t expand, stagnates. A people that doesn’t look over

its borders, becomes a prisoner through its own lack of initiative.

Let’s put an end to three hundred years of lethargy. Let’s start

growing again.”

Sitting down he turned his horse again and led it over the gentle

slope. Before him lay the Renuvian Plains, the broad valley of the

meandering river Mirax, an immense expanse covered in grasslands,

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shrublands, woodlands and forests.

“Are you serious?” Hemarchidas asked in a concerned tone.

“About what?” Anaxantis asked innocently.

“You know about what, you little fool. I’m not deaf. I’m not

retarded. Didn’t I hear you say, just a minute ago, that you are

planning to occupy the Plains?”

“Did I now?”

“Argh. You’re impossible. You know very well you did.”

“He’s right,” Iftang said. “We’ll never be safe from the barbarians

as long as we haven’t a strong foothold in the Renuvian Plains. So,

why not go all the way, while we’re at it?”

“Because it’s an expanse almost twice as big as the Marches, to

name but one thing,” Hemarchidas countered.

“Exactly,” Iftang replied calmly. “Together with the Marches you

have a sizable territory enclosed by mountain ranges, a hilly plateau,

and with an outlet to the sea. All kinds of land. Forests, rocks, but also

fertile soil. Almost uninhabited. People from all over the continent

could come here to build a future.”

Hemarchidas looked stupefied at the general.

“I never realized this side of you,” he said in awe.

“Not to worry. People seldom do.”

“He’s right,”
Hemarchidas suddenly realized.
“Even overseas trade

is within reach. The new dominion could become the hub of economic

activity between Ximerion, the independent city states, Zyntrea an

even the Isles. Agriculture could bloom here. Maybe there is mining

to be done in the mountains. Strategically speaking it is almost a

natural fortress. It wouldn’t need anybody or anything. It could be an

independent country. And Anaxantis has seen all this a long time ago.”

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“Of course you’ve been planning this all along, haven’t you, you

little, secretive megalomaniac?” Hemarchidas ranted. “You never

intended just to defend the Marches. All along you wanted to annex

the Renuvian Plains, pure and simple.”

Between keeping his horse under control while descending the

slope, drinking in the landscape that spread out before him, and the

ruminations of his feverish mind, Anaxantis wasn’t listening.

“Roads. The first thing we need are good roads that descend at a

less steep angle into our new province.”

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Chapter 8:

Prince of the Mukthars

Around five in the morning, when it was still dark, a boy of barely

fifteen hastened along the wall of the big house. He looked skittishly

to the left and the right before yanking the big chain four times in

quick succession, waiting a moment and then giving it a final pull.

He almost died with impatience before, long seeming minutes

later, a little hatch opened.

“You? What are you doing here? You know it is forbid—”

“I have to see her. It’s urgent. It could be important. Let me in.”

“If you have something to say, tell it to your designated contact,

who will relay your oh so important message, exactly as you will

have told him, through the proper channels. Now scram.”

“Yeah, yeah, I will,” the boy said in a threatening voice. “And I also

will tell him exactly when I came here, and exactly who prevented

me to deliver my message, so the queen will know exactly who she

has to thank for the information reaching her too late. Oh boy, you

will be so lucky if she limits herself to giving you kitchen duty till

your dying day. They say it’s her favorite punishment. But for you

that would actually be a promotion, wouldn’t it, old stinky sock? So,

I wonder what she will do to you? Exactly.”

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A dry click followed and a door in the gate opened just enough to

let the boy through.

“I don’t like you very much, Jerruth,” the doorkeeper grumbled.

“Ooh, that makes me so sad. I’ll be crying for days, you demented

relic.”

Jerruth ran to the main building and barged into the hall, where

a servant stopped him.

“But I have to see her. She will want to hear what I have to say. Let

me through. Let me through. She’ll skin you alive. I know she will.”

“Yeah, that will be the day, when I wake her majesty because an

overexcited boy wants to see her,” the man scoffed.

“Does everybody in this house covet an opportunity to clean

vegetables?” a voice roared from the top of the stairs.

Both the boy and the man looked up.

“Is what you have to tell me that important, boy?” Emelasuntha

asked.

“Yes, Your Majesty, at least I think it is.”

“You think it is?”

“Well, yes,” Jerruth replied, beginning to lose his confidence. “It

may be nothing and if so, hang me, if you please, but if it is, it brooks

no delay. I think.”

Emelasuntha looked at him for a moment.

“Then you have done the right thing, boy. Come upstairs.”

She turned around and walked to her chambers.

“And someone get me some breakfast,” she shouted without

looking back.

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269

Jerruth looked triumphantly at the servant and made for the

stairs, while the latter decided he was the someone the queen had

meant and took off for the kitchen.

Upstairs, Jerruth saw that one of the doors stood ajar. They must

have heard him coming, because a buxom, stout lady appeared and

motioned him to come in.

Deeply impressed he entered the room. Both the queen and the

nice lady sat at a large table. He bowed.

“What’s your name, young man?” Emelasuntha asked.

“Jerruth, with your permission, Your Majesty.”

“Well, Jerruth, take a seat and start talking. And from now on ‘my

lady’ will do.”

Jerruth nodded and sat down.

“The poor boy seems tired,” Sobrathi said. “You’re tired, aren’t

you?”

“Yes, my lady, I am. I have worked all night at the royal castle.”

“You’re one of the four remaining Tribesmen?” Emelasuntha

asked, surprised.

“Yes, I am, my lady, and proud to be so too. My family can trace

it’s line back all the way to Anaxormas II. On the wrong side of the

bed, however.”

He bit his lip.

“I am sure you can,” the queen said impatiently. “Now, please, go

on.”

“Well, we can,” Jerruth sulked. Then he snapped out of it. “Anyway,

I am a junior factotum at the castle, and this week I am on night duty,

as luck would have it.”

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“Ah, an odd-jobber,” Sobrathi said.

“I prefer junior factotum, my lady,” Jerruth whispered. “After all,

it is my title.”

“Yes, I see. My apologies, Jerruth.” The baroness smiled.

Someone knocked at the door.

“That will be breakfast,” Emelasuntha said. “Enter,” she added,

raising her voice.

Then she saw who it was.

“Ah, Merrick, I see cook has seen fit to promote you already,” she

said with only a hint of sarcasm in her voice. “How nice to see you

back on your way up.”

Jerruth looked flabbergasted at the man he had always known as

the Master of the Chapter House.

“Jerruth will be joining us, Merrick. He’s had a tiring night, and

we have things to discuss.”

From a large tray, Merrick put baskets with different kinds of

bread, butter, cheese, cold cuts, warm meat pies, a jug with water

and one with warm, watered down, spiced wine on the table. Then

he put plates and cutlery before each of them.

“Thank you, Merrick,” Emelasuntha smiled, “you may go now.”

Merrick bowed.

“Go on, Jerruth, you must be ravenous. I like boys with a hearty

appetite,” the queen prodded him. “Mine never ate much,” she added

with an undertone of regret. “You look a bit like him. You have his

tenacity.”

“And his hair. Except his is golden and yours is blond. By the Great

Goddess, how I want to see him, hold him in my arms again. I want

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to hear his voice and feel his gray eyes rest upon me. Who would

have thought I could miss someone so much? The reports say he has

grown and his hair is longer now, shoulder-length, like Jerruth’s. Not

yet... I have no time for sentimentality. He doesn’t need my motherly

embraces, but my help, my sword.”

Sobrathi took a roll and offered it to Jerruth, knowing that he

would never dare take it himself. When all of them had taken a few

bites, Jerruth let go all pretense and kept shoving food in his mouth

with one hand, all the while replenishing his plate with the other.

“Maybe you could give us your report while we’re eating,”

Sobrathi suggested.

“Of course, my lady,” Jerruth said, gulping down a piece of meat.

“As I said, I am a junior factotum, and this night there was a lot to do.

Very varied work. Never boring. I was just about to count how many

new brooms we had left in the maintenance storage room, when my

supervisor ordered me to go to the wine cellar.”

He paused, out of breath.

“Drink something,” Sobrathi said, concerned.

“Thank you, but I think I’ll finish first. I was to fetch six jars of

wine and bring them to the tower of the Black Shields. All good and

well, but I can carry only three jars at a time. So the first time I went

over to the tower, they brought me to a room without windows.

There were four men there. When one of them saw that I was only

carrying three jars... well, I can’t possibly repeat what he said, but

let’s say he wasn’t pleased.”

“You can tell us exactly what he said, and you will,” Emelasuntha

said pleasantly.

Jerruth flushed red.

“It was really foul language, my lady,” he said eventually.

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Sobrathi laughed out loud.

“Believe me, Jerruth, I think we can match whatever you heard

word for word.”

“You’re embarrassing him, dear,” Emelasuntha said, “look at him

blush. And I’m getting impatient.”

Jerruth closed his eyes.

“The man asked if I had shit for brains and if he needed to fuck

me three times in the mouth and six times in the ass to teach me the

difference between both numbers. I explained we were short staffed

and that three jugs was all I could carry in one go, but that I would

return with three more as soon as possible. On which he replied that

I’d better not be pulling his dick without making him come, or that