Herald of Shalia 4

by Tamryn Tamer

  “Fair point,” Frost sighed while thinking through the offer. “But even if Brynn is safe that doesn’t protect everybody else.”

  “If you were to help me, I would arrange for their escape,” Fiora said. “As well as help them get out of the city safely.”

  “Are you sure you want to help them escape?” Frost asked. “Wouldn’t the herald frown on that?”

  “Once I’m engaged to King Asmund I’m virtually untouchable,” Fiora answered. “I’ll not only be the daughter of King Leaucault but the fiancée of King Asmund. My father would be furious if such an engagement were threatened.”

  “He approved me assassinating King Asmund,” Frost argued.

  “He never actually approved that,” Fiora said, shaking her head. “He likely said that it was a good plan and as long as Zira had nothing to do with it, he couldn’t object to it. If the herald of a neighboring territory decided to kill the king of another territory, it’s not our concern. But, if I am betrothed to King Asmund and somebody kills me, my father will feed the person responsible to wild dogs.”

  “Makes sense,” Frost said, thinking through his options. “I suppose I’ll have to play it by ear.”

  “Play it by ear?” Fiora asked. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I mean this all depends on King Asmund accepting your proposal,” Frost said, smirking at the elegant blonde princess. “He could decline.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Fiora asked, clearly irritated by the suggestion. “You think he would reject me?”

  “I wouldn’t marry you,” Frost said teasingly. “And as you’ve pointed out, I’ll fuck anybody.”

  “You’re an irritating man Herald Frost,” Fiora said. “But since you’re joking, I’m going to take that to mean you’re at least interested in my proposal.”

  “I haven’t decided,” Frost said. “You haven’t offered anything in return yet.”

  “What do you mean by that?” Fiora asked.

  “If I don’t kill King Asmund I’m going to lose an entire country,” Frost said. “Do you really expect me to give up an entire country, it’s wealth, and it’s armies so that you don’t have to suck some old nobles cock?”

  “I’m going to help you get the demihumans…”

  “Herald Law was going to release them if I kill King Asmund anyway,” Frost said. “So, in reality the only thing I’m getting out of this is not having to kill King Asmund. I lose the title of Herald of Riliandra, I lose Rilia, I make an enemy of Herald Law, and even if you do manage to get the courtesans out, it’ll be more dangerous than the herald releasing them. So, what are you offering exactly?”

  “I…” Fiora found herself unable to answer. “I don’t have anything to give you. I thought…”

  “You thought that I would agree to do it because of all the respect you’ve given me?” Frost chuckled. “Or maybe the way you found ways to cut my monster hunting payments? I mean, come on Fiora. You must realize how this works.”

  “What do you want?” Fiora asked, her face turning red with embarrassment as she covered herself. “My mother owns all of our family’s property and my personal allowance isn’t much. As for my body…”

  “I have no interest in your body. Also, I can’t imagine Darius ever agreeing to marry a woman that I’ve been with. I do have an idea though. I imagine it’ll be a while before you actually marry King Asmund and during that time I fully expect you to maintain control of Blackwater,” Frost answered. “That means no pawning it off on a different noble while you prepare to be married off.”

  “Herald Frost,” Fiora smiled. “I wasn’t aware you were so fond of me.”

  “I wouldn’t be smiling yet,” Frost said while pointing at the noble district. “While you’re governing the city, you’re going to be doing any number of favors for me that you might not like.”

  “You want me to be your puppet,” Fiora shook her head. “So, what? You want me to have nobles imprisoned? Give their homes to the elves? Repossess their land and hand them over to centaurs? Some other ridiculous thing?”

  “No,” Frost chuckled at the suggestion. “It’ll mostly involve trade agreements, business licenses, and work contracts. I intend to make it extremely unprofitable for nobles to operate in Blackwater. Operating in the city will put nobles so far in the red that they bleed to death. Finally, when the time is right, I want you to suggest to your father to sell me Blackwater.”

  “Sell you Blackwater?” Fiora took several steps back and looked at Frost like he’d gone mad. “Why would he agree to that?”

  “I’ve seen the numbers and I can’t imagine that Blackwater is anything but a vanity purchase for King Leaucault,” Frost said. “It’s a large mass of land with very few people, almost no valuable resources, and constant monster problems. He only owns it because it increases the size of his kingdom. But it costs him more rel than it generates from taxes. Right now, if this territory had a value, it would be slightly in the negative. Am I wrong?”

  “You’re not wrong,” Fiora said. “But it has strategic importance as a buffer between Rilia and Zira’s other six territories.”

  “As far as strategic value, it’s better to have a country like Pluma acting as a buffer,” Frost said. “Right now, he’s paying massive amounts of money maintaining this buffer but if Pluma owns Blackwater he still has his buffer with none of the expenses. But, there’s his vanity. He likes the massive size of the territory and then there’s the idea that losing it makes him look weak. But if Blackwater were bleeding money and he tricked some stupid herald into purchasing it, he’d be a wise king.”

  “I can’t make him sell it,” Fiora said while thinking over the proposal. “And I won’t do anything that’ll impact the stability of the territory. I’m not about to let wyverns run rampant or bandits pillage with impunity to decrease the territory’s value. Too many nobles lose their heads to revolts.”

  “No complaints there,” Frost said, nodding in agreement. “I’m only interested in the value of the territory. Of course, all of this is contingent on King Asmund agreeing to marry you.”

  “I don’t think that’ll be an issue,” Fiora said haughtily. “I’ll make sure of it.”

  “Okay then,” Frost said, sticking out his hand. “We have a deal.”

  “We have a deal,” Fiora said, taking his hand. She turned and stared at the hatch leading back into the prison. “Now, how are we going to do this?”

  “I can always go down first…”

  “That’s not going to happen,” Fiora scoffed while sitting on the edge of the hatch, shoving her skirt down through it. “I’ll have Slade make the arrangements to get everybody out of the city. He needs something to distract him and keep him from doing something stupid.”

  CHAPTER 17

  Frost spent the next few days making sure everything stayed on track.

  Brynn continued to latch onto Herald Law during the days and the elves administered punishments in the evenings for various comments she’d make while with the man. Frost didn’t particularly like the things the elves were telling him about her time with Herald Law but he tried not to let it distract him.

  Frost spent most of his time gathering available information on Herald Law’s forces.

  He wanted to know their patrol patterns, their rotations, their levels, their classes, everything. Slade was similarly interested but for reasons of his own. There seemed to be a specific guard he was searching for and he was attempting to locate them without drawing attention to himself.

  Frost also checked in with Madam Gardenia and the courtesans twice a day and brought them better food and blankets. While the guards weren’t happy about the special treatment the prisoners were getting, they weren’t about to argue with Princess Fiora.

  As for Fiora, she spent her time making preparations of her own. She held meetings with her soldiers as well as the Blackwater Monster Regulators, a special force that seemed as loyal to her as Herald Law’s guards were to him. Her conver
sations appeared harmless on the surface, mostly praising them for the fine jobs they were doing, but anybody watching closely would notice her pulling various people aside for brief talks.

  When it was time to return to his territory, Frost was confident that everything was taken care of. The only thing he had misgivings about was leaving the elves with Brynn. It was likely that if the courtesans went missing, the elves would serve as replacement hostages but Brynn assured him that they would be fine.

  He was admittedly also concerned about her but there wasn’t much he could do about it. Brynn insisted that she stay with Herald Law.

  A company of a hundred royal guards accompanied them to the river but Frost insisted that no more than ten would enter his territory since that was what he agreed to with King Asmund. Fiora and her mother quickly acquiesced while Elias complained about the lack of protection.

  The tall weaselly prophet wore a hooded robe to hide his face from any onlookers as they rode through his territory toward Pluma village.

  “Interesting,” Grand Counselor Leaucault said while admiring the road. “Brick roads connecting your villages when dirt will do. Rather wasteful isn’t it?”

  “Better roads mean faster travel,” Frost said. “Faster travel is beneficial for trade and moving reinforcements.”

  “Hm,” she said as they approached the forest. She let out an audible gasp as she stared at the Arachne and other demihumans constructing homes along the roads. The aqueducts immediately caught her attention as a small group of orcs worked to erect a pillar. “How are you doing this?”

  “What do you mean?” Frost asked while turning to look at the perplexed woman. “The roads are built using geomancer spells. The same ones that are normally used to raise giant walls of stone or mud can be used to…”

  “Not that,” Fiora’s mother said while pointing at the homes. “I mean all of it. To my knowledge you don’t have masons and the guilds in Blackwater won’t work with you. Did you hire guilds from Rilia?”

  “No need for that,” Frost said. “The Arachne are skilled at building homes and since they are building quite a few their skill is improving rapidly.”

  “But that doesn’t explain the quality,” she said as they passed a small construction site where orcs were laying stone foundations. “Where did you find a master to train them?”

  “The Arachne had masters and they’re training others,” Frost answered politely. “Although I admit that I did quite a bit of brainstorming with them on how to get the water flowing through effectively.”

  “I bet the guilds in Blackwater would hate this,” Fiora said, grinning at her mother as they started passing completed homes with various demihuman residents tending to small gardens. “Hm. Does every home have a personal well?”

  “Yeah,” Frost sighed. “I honestly consider that a bit of a failure since I haven’t quite been able to figure out how to get full working plumbing. I also am going to run into some issues as we expand unless I create a reservoir in the north.”

  “Working plumbing?” Fiora’s mother asked. “What do you mean?”

  “Water flowing through the houses themselves,” Frost answered. “You’d use a system of pipes to deliver water. You need a way to cut the water off and start it up and I’m pretty sure that it involves water pressure and gravity but I just haven’t figured out how…”

  “But why?” Queen Valencia asked while rapidly glancing at the colorful homes. While the houses were all made similarly, the residents liked to paint them vibrant colors and fill their yards with different flowers and herbs. “What’s the point?”

  “If water is inside of their homes then every home can have a bath,” Frost answered. “It also means every home can have sinks and toilets and it’s just better for everybody.”

  “Baths in every home,” Fiora laughed, causing her mother to glare at her. “What? This is all new to me. Last time I was here it was just a small village with a nice tent.”

  “It has been a while,” Frost grinned as they turned the corner toward the village proper. “I don’t think any of this was…”

  “What in the Goddess’ name,” Fiora gasped as she stared at the academy. A large group of students were in the field casting fireballs at targets. “How old are they?”

  “That group is made up of children that are ten or older,” Frost answered. “Fire magic isn’t permitted before then because of a few incidents.”

  “You’re teaching demihuman children elemental magic?” Grand Counselor Leaucault said with disgust.

  “And human children as well,” Frost said pointing to a small group of children that were carted in from other villages. “Every village in my territory can send children to the academy. They learn to read, write, mathematics, basic combat, basic magic, and basic crafting. There are also more advanced courses.”

  “Herald Frost!” Cassia waived excitedly as she rushed straight for him from the academy. “You’re back! Where is my beloved…Herald Frost? Where is my previous little Renna? I don’t see her. Did something happen? If something happened I’ll…”

  “She stayed in Blackwater with Brynn,” Frost said as the white-haired elf frowned. “Don’t be like that. She’ll be back soon and then…”

  “Did she ask to stay there?” Cassia asked, twiddling her fingers while avoiding eye contact. The way she clasped her hands caused her large chest to squeeze together. The low neckline of her white robe acted almost like a picture frame, highlighting the elf’s beautiful chest. “I feel like she’s been trying to avoid me lately and I’m worried…”

  “It’s not that,” Frost said, shaking his head. “Brynn asked them to stay with her. Ena and Fayeth aren’t back either, see?”

  “Oh,” Cassia said with a relieved sigh while glancing at the guards. The elf didn’t need to scan them to know that she could have killed them all with a few quick flicks of her wand. “You’re right. Oh, and you brought the Grand Counselor and Princess Fiora. A pleasure to see you both again. It’s been far too long.”

  “Has it?” Queen Valencia said disdainfully. “I wanted to have you killed.”

  “Lots of people want to have me killed,” Cassia said cheerfully. “You’re welcome to try again but I can’t promise it’ll end well. Herald Frost might not let me kill outside of this territory but he’s assured me that anybody that causes trouble within it is fair game.”

  “I see,” she replied. “So, you’re in charge of protecting the territory in Herald Frost’s absence. That explains why he was so keen to come to your aid. You’re an important deterrent.”

  “I’m afraid your mistaken about that,” Cassia said politely. “Herald Frost came to my aid because he loves my wondrously beautiful daughter. It’s really not that complicated. He loves my perfect little Lysandra and my gorgeous daughter loves me so it was only natural that he would protect me. It’s the same with all of his wives.”

  “All of his wives…” Elias mumbled from beneath his cloak. Frost could hear the nervousness in his voice as he realized something that they hadn’t considered. Desdemona was his wife and King Asmund was her brother.

  “Anyway,” Cassia said, gesturing toward the temple. “King Asmund arrived in the evening. A little surprising since he said he would arrive this afternoon. According to Desdemona it’s something he does.”

  “He’s here already…” the prophet growled under his breath.

  “I’d wager he arrived early to make sure that there weren’t any unwelcome surprises waiting for him,” Frost said. “He only has his ten guards, right?”

  “That’s correct,” Cassia nodded. “Desdemona spent most of the morning showing him around the village and introducing him to people. He seems like a very nice man all things considered.”

  “All things considered?” Frost asked.

  “Well,” Cassia smiled. “The amount of people he’s killed. I don’t need a scan to recognize a dangerous person.”

  “Should you be talking about him like that?” Fiora asked. “I
could take offense. He’s potentially my fiancé after all.”

  “It’s not an insult,” Cassia answered. “It’s a statement of fact. Within this village at the moment I’m the most deadly followed by Herald Frost followed by King Asmund.”

  “Aww,” Frost smirked. “You think I’m deadlier than him?”

  “I believe you are,” she answered with a sly smirk. “Although the difference in ability is fairly close.”

  “I suppose we’ll see then,” Elias grumbled.

  “Oh,” Cassia tilted her head as she smiled excitedly at Elias as if she recognized him. “I suppose things will be interesting today. Also, I should probably ask since I don’t see any courtesans with you, are they dead?”

  “They’re fine,” Frost chuckled at Cassia’s lack of tact.

  “That’s good,” she said nonchalantly while staring at the hooded man. “I suppose you should get to your meeting. If you’d like my assistance with anything, feel free to ask. It’s been ages since I’ve had any real excitement.”

  “I think I have everything handled,” Frost said as they continued toward the temple.

  “I forgot that you had that prophet here,” Elias said. “She knows who I am.”

  “Oh?” Frost glanced back. “How do you know Cassia?”

  “Not who I am specifically, what I am,” Elias clarified. “She can just sense that I’m another prophet. If she tells anybody…”

  “She won’t,” Frost said. “And even if she did, I could say you’re the prophet of Zira and you’re here to act as a witness.”

  “Right,” he said, calming down as they dismounted in front of the temple. The ten royal guards quickly surrounded the Grand Counselor as she dismounted while Fiora was left on her own.

  “Really?” Fiora said, gesturing at the handful of the men surrounding her mother. “I should have brought my own guards.”

  “At least you have your handmaidens,” Frost chuckled as three women jumped from the wagon and rushed toward her. The women started rapidly checking every item of clothing on the princess’s violet gown. One of them pulled out a small gemstone and charged it with magic, causing a buff of air to swirl around Fiora, blowing away any leaves, twigs, or blades of grass that’d stuck to her. “I suppose it’s important to look your best.”