Chapter Seventeen
The herald gazed at her intently and then back at the letter. Was this letter from the king or was this woman lying? He needed to know, yet all of this had erupted at such a terrible time. The king would be enraged no matter how this would come out. Still, Lady Diti was not known to cause controversy. Perhaps the woman was misguided?
“I am on my way to meet with the king. I shall take it to him myself. We will see what he makes of all this.”
“I thank you, Master Caina. Please, let only the eyes of the king see this letter and no one else, and keep a strong guard about you until the letter is delivered to the king, along with my message.” Master Caina readied himself and his men and they left the city to rejoin the royal procession. Before leaving, he made sure to have the King's Guard quell the riots and mayhem by standing in the square and reminding them that the king and his new bride and his army and her family's army were only hours from the city. This threat finally calmed the crowds, along with some bashing of heads and flogging of a few rebels as an example.
“Do you not know how much he has done for you? That you should now rebel against his rule and rise up against him? Let the matter of the Most Honored Lady Diti be tried before the tribunal and the king when he arrives, for he is a just king, as you well know and is father of the city. Do not risk your lives but let the matter be handled by the king and the judges and you must go to your homes!” Though this seemed to work, the unrest had already revealed dangerous undercurrents. The blood and dirt of the city had been stirred up and had brought to a head simmering anger and a multitude of old resentments.
The king's procession met with the bride's caravan and now both were traveling back to Jhis. The bride's family had spent obscene amounts of gold on a fabulous procession. There was a large group of dancing girls riding before the bride on a barge dripping with lilies and katas, a barge of a great golden lion pulled by tawny horses, one of a falcon pulled by gray horses, hundreds of marching Egian soldiers decked in silver, wearing the twin moons emblem on their helmets and carrying a great standard of the silver twin moons with a falcon carved in the lower moon. There were servants dressed in fine linens and silks, many great elephanta that would be used in the games, all decked in garlands of white katas and atop those sat the tents of the king's administrators, the bride's personal servants and family and finally, in the back there was the great float of the queens of the heavens, Nimnet, patron goddess of Egi and the queen mother, Elyshe. This float was the most beautiful, statues of the goddess sitting in serene repose in gleaming silver and her mother standing behind her with the same face of serenity. Inside this was the bride herself. There were many foot-soldiers in the front and the rear of the procession carrying pennants of the lion in red and gold. It was a massive sight and could be seen from far off by those at the city wall.
Master Caina finally reached them. He hailed the procession.
“I must speak with the king, there is a message for him! It is of dire importance!”
“Go, then, to the king. There he is, riding.” Pointed one of the commanders. Farther up, the king, riding upon his red stallion saw that his herald had come back. He called to him.
“Caina! What are you doing here? Did I not send you ahead to tell the people of my coming? Why have you come back?”
“I have a message for you, my king!” Caina raced his horse back to meet him.
“This letter here is for you. It is said that you wrote this letter with your own hand and sealed it with your seal.” He wheeled his horse around and rode up beside the king and handed him the letter. King Khalit took the letter. He looked it over, then tore open the seal and read it. His face furrowed in a deep frown.
“I do not recall giving any such orders before I left.” He shook his head.
“Treachery may be at work here, my king.”
“Treachery indeed! It is not my hand that this was written in and I did not seal this! I never gave any such order! Who gave you this letter?”
“The Most Honored Lady Diti found it. She says that it was forged by the Ainash priest Shishak and another man, Teman, a scribe of the Golden Temple. She created a great commotion among the people over it. When I had returned the city was rioting over this very matter, my king. What do you think? Do you believe her?” The king was silent for a long moment. His face darkened.
“Rioting. Does she think to humiliate me? I do not know what to think of this, yet. But I am not inclined to believe she would make this up. I will get to the the bottom of the pot when I arrive. For her own sake, she had better be telling the truth!” He said, folding the letter up and putting it away. Then he smiled a wicked smile.
“What, my king?” Asked Caina.
“I have seen and heard the schemers for quite some time and I have learned a small thing if nothing else, from them. The Ainash want to play a game, do they? I shall cast a piece they do not expect on the board, then.” He glanced back at the great looming float in the back of the procession, his expression oddly ambivalent.
“The Ainash are as bad as the Egians. My bride's father would enjoy such a game. Of that, I am sure.”
Schisms Page 17
