Empire of Avarice

by Tony Roberts

  “Maybe you should have used it anyway for them being so impertinent!”

  Lalaas looked at the princess in surprise. “I’m shocked you would say such a thing, ma’am. They were just being themselves. If they had tried anything, then yes, they would have died, but I saw no reason to attack them. They have brothers, mothers, fathers, sons and daughters, as well as wives – probably.”

  Amne went red again. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m just so angry at their attitude!”

  Lalaas nodded. “The world is full of different beliefs and attitudes. We must all tolerate them even if they seem completely different to what we’re used to.”

  “Would you accept them if they are forced on you, Lalaas?”

  “Forced on me? No, I would resist. I don’t take kindly to someone forcing me to do anything. I’m a hunter, an outdoor man, someone who enjoys the freedom of being able to go where I wish. I choose what I do because I know it’s the right thing to do. Pity there are many who don’t.”

  “Don’t what? Do what they like or don’t do the right thing?”

  “Do the right thing.” Lalaas looked sadly at the water, chuckling happily around and over the large stones in the stream bed. “Some do the things they do out of ignorance, but more do so because they delight in doing it, even though they know it’s wrong. They ignore their conscience and in time they forget it and it becomes their way of life. These are the truly evil people of the world – not the ignorant.”

  Amne considered his words. “Perhaps you ought to be a diplomat, Lalaas.”

  The hunter threw back his head and laughed. “Oh ho! No thank you, ma’am. That deceit and falsehood turns my stomach. I’d most probably start a war with my bluntness. I leave that sort of thing to those better versed in that art.”

  “Are you saying I’m versed in lies?” Amne asked, an edge to her voice.

  “No ma’am. You’ve been put in a position against your better judgement. You don’t want to do this but you will out of a sense of duty. That’s different from Theros who did it because he enjoyed that sort of thing.”

  Amne pulled a thoughtful face; Lalaas’ words had mollified her somewhat. But she was still angry at the attitude of the Bragalese and the fact slave trafficking went on in what was still officially imperial territory. “I want to see this slave auction in Bukrat. You say we’re going near there on our way to Mazag?”

  “Yes we are, but I would recommend we pass the town by. It’s not that friendly a place and you would have to be disguised. You look too much like a noblewoman to pass in a place like that.”

  “Well then I shall be disguised, Lalaas. I insist.”

  Lalaas sighed. When Amne was determined on something, it appeared she usually got her way. They continued along the course of the stream, gradually climbing as they travelled further inland. The land here was of gently rolling hills and a few leagues further on the stream forked. Two tributaries joined at a spot where two valleys met. Lalaas pointed to the right hand one. “That leads due south and to the swamps. We take the left hand valley.”

  Small mammals scurried away as they walked their mounts along the gently rising landscape. The air was fresh and a soft breeze blew up from behind them. Lalaas stopped and examined the ground. Amne came up alongside and looked at him. “What is it?”

  “Herd animals. I think I’ll hunt one for supper.”

  “We camp here?”

  Lalaas looked around, and saw a few large boulders grouped to one side, evidence of some long ago landslide. “Over there; it’ll provide shelter from the elements.”

  The rocks formed a half circle and they pitched camp on the up valley side, away from the wind. There were a few sticks left from their last wood collecting session and these were placed to feed the fire. Lalaas started it again, placing a small stone circle on the ground and soon Amne could tend the blazing fire. Lalaas pulled out a wooden object from his canvas bag hanging from his saddle. Amne was puzzled as to what it was.

  “An imperial bow, ma’am.”

  “But bows don’t look like that! How are you going to use it?”

  Lalaas smiled and produced a length of string from the same bag. “Watch.” He put a looped end of the string over a notch at one end of the wooden bow and placed it on the ground by his feet, pulling on the string so that it was taut. He then grabbed the free end of the bow and bent it against itself, pulling the end away from the other, up and then over so that it was bending back against its natural shape. Lalaas strained, his arms shaking with effort, his teeth gritted, as the other looped end of the string was brought inexorably to the free end and slipped over to rest on the notch.

  Lalaas showed the now complete bow to the princess. She was suitably impressed. “What is it made of?”

  “The bow itself is of two types of wood glued together, and the ends are animal horn. The string is feline gut.”

  Amne pulled a face. Lalaas passed it to her. She found it to be quite heavy and experimentally tugged on the string. It was taut and difficult to pull. “How far does it shoot an arrow?”

  “I’ll show you,” Lalaas took the bow back and slid an arrow from a quiver he opened that was resting against his pack. It was late afternoon and the sun was beginning to set up the valley, casting long shadows. Lalaas placed the end of the arrow against the string and rested the shaft against his hand that was gripping the centre of the bow. He stood and looked across the valley. There was little to see except a gentle sloping of the ground. He drew in his breath and pushed his left arm forward, taking the bow with it. As he did so, he pulled back with his right hand, drawing the bowstring back against his lips. Now with his left arm fully extended, Amne could see the effort needed to hold the string back. Then he released the bow, sending the arrow streaking away across the stream and far across the valley.

  “Goodness!” Amne exclaimed. “And you hunt with that?”

  “I do, ma’am. It’s fairly accurate too. I can get to a killing distance and not worry the herd beasts. Now, if I’m to get one before dark, I’d best get going now. Keep the fire blazing away; I’ll return hopefully with a prize.”

  He left, leaving Amne alone in the valley. She shivered, not really through the cold, but because she felt a pang of fear. There now was no-one to protect her should anything or anyone happen by. After placing a branch on the fire, she looked around. Both to left and right the valley rose in grassy waves until the snow line. Rocks stood out sharply against the white, and it wouldn’t be long before those slopes, too, were free of snow. Up the valley the terrain climbed gently, then turned out of sight. She supposed they would travel there on the morrow.

  The animals were grazing on the grass happily, hobbled and tethered so they couldn’t go far. Down the valley towards the confluence of the two tributaries there was some movement, but it was only from birds and animals, drinking from the stream or eating from the grass. Lalaas was down there somewhere.

  She thought on her mission. Now Theros was gone, how would she conduct herself? Would Lalaas be of any use in the negotiations? No, she decided, he would not. There were no documents to assist her either. She would be as lost and helpless at the negotiations as she was here in Bragal, totally out of her depth and her normal environment. It all seemed overwhelming and she began to shake with the thought of it all. How she longed for the comfort of the palace, her family and the normal sounds and smells of her bedroom. In fact, she badly wanted to go back to the days before she came to be a princess, and longed for that much simpler life.

  The sound of heavy footsteps brought her out of her self-pity and she stood quickly, seeing the dark shape of Lalaas approaching from downwind, carrying a small animal on his shoulders, the bow slung across his back. “I’ve got a small springer,” he announced, pleased with himself.

  Amne felt relieved that he was back, and guiltily realised she had let the fire die down. Quickly throwing a couple of logs on it, she encouraged it to blaze up once more. “I’ll put up the spit,” she said.


  “Good idea. I’ll butcher it while you do that.” Lalaas knew Amne was a touch squeamish about this sort of thing, so he knelt with his back to her and began skinning the small beast, a half grown springer, so-called because that was how it ran. There were two small horns on its head and it had four long delicate looking legs. But these legs allowed it to run very fast indeed and he had only one shot at it. Fortunately his aim had been true.

  Amne fussed with the two forked sticks, ramming them in the ground and placing the spit across the forks. By the time she was finished Lalaas had cut two joints of meat from the carcass and now hung them over the spit. He would cook the rest slowly after they had eaten. Night was beginning to fall and while Amne watched the meat, turning it over occasionally with her knife, Lalaas set up a wind break and the two tents. It was cosy enough and the stars began to twinkle in the night sky as they ate their supper.

  After they had finished Lalaas cut the rest of the carcass and hung the edible parts from the spit and threw the remains far from the camp for the wild animals to take. They sat in companionable silence for a while, watching the fire and the stars, and occasionally checking the meat, before Amne spoke. “Sometimes I wish I wasn’t who I was,” she said. “It’s a terrible responsibility and I have to do things I’d rather not.”

  “That’s true for all of us, ma’am,” Lalaas replied. “It’s just that for you what you do affects more people.”

  “You can be yourself, Lalaas,” Amne said with some force, “but I always have to be a princess, whatever that’s supposed to be,” she added bitterly.

  “There are benefits to being royalty, ma’am.”

  Amne laughed. “I don’t see any, Lalaas. Ever since I’ve been made one I’ve had to do this and do that and go places I’d rather not think about!”

  Lalaas pulled a rueful face. He didn’t really know what to say. He was sympathetic, up to a point. Royalty had privileges and riches beyond his wildest dreams. He was luckier than many people of his social standing, but that was because he had grabbed his own destiny and got up and done something about it. Many others wallowed in self-imposed misery but apart from moaning did nothing to alleviate it; others again had no chance of changing their life but oddly these were ones who mainly said nothing about it.

  Amne pulled her knees up to her chin. “You think I’m spoilt?”

  Lalaas smiled and kept quiet.

  “Oh! I know what you’re thinking,” Amne said forcefully. “Go on, say it! Forget I’m a princess.”

  “Forget you’re a princess?” Lalaas asked in surprise. “No, that’s not possible, ma’am.”

  “Stop being scared to say anything; go on, I won’t hold it against you. I’m curious what you really think of me.”

  “Scared?” Lalaas said slowly. “Yes, I’m scared. Anyone would be. It would take just one word from you and I could be arrested and executed. You say you wouldn’t hold it against me, but what if one day you got angry with me for some reason, and said something without thinking. I could be thrown into jail before I knew what was going on. This is our world, princess. You are royalty, whether you like it or not, and whether I like it or not. You have a responsibility, like all your family, to lead the empire and all who live in it. We want to live a happy, peaceful life, and look up to people like you and your father to provide that for us. You have to look after us, and in many ways you’re like our parents. And like all families, we have squabbles and fallings out, but you have the power to punish us. Sometimes, just sometimes, we have enough anger to change our parents, but only if we have been mistreated too much. But because of that you and I are different. I may be looking after you for now, but ultimately you will be the one to look after my life.”

  Amne looked at her companion with sadness. “Lalaas, you think I would be spiteful to you? You must think little of me if you do.”

  The hunter sighed and lifted up one slab of cooked meat and placed it on a metal dish. “Your father instructed me to make sure nothing happened to you – on pain of death. You understand that?”

  Amne was shocked. “He threatened you?”

  “Why not?” Lalaas asked, tired. “He has the power. I must obey.”

  “Do-do you hate me, Lalaas?”

  “Oh goodness, no, princess! I’d’ve accepted this task whether your father threatened me or not. He just added that warning because he’s a concerned father, and wanted to impress upon me the absolute seriousness of my task of protecting you.”

  “I had no idea – I’m so sorry! I’ll speak to my father when I see him!”

  Lalaas chuckled. “I wouldn’t worry. He’ll probably reward me with something when I present you to him. It’s all part of working for the emperor. Big rewards, big risks. My choice. I could have left his employment and gone elsewhere long ago, but I believe in him, I believe he can bring stability and security to us all, in time. We need an end to this greedy stupidity of the other nobles.”

  Amne hugged her knees and rocked back and forth for a moment. “So you would have taken the job no matter what?” she smiled.

  Lalaas looked at her briefly, then nodded.

  Amne then took a big chance. “Do you love me, Lalaas?”

  The hunter drew in a deep breath. “I think it’s time to go to sleep, ma’am. It’s getting very late.”

  Amne stared at him for a long moment, then nodded. “Yes, it’s late. Thank you, Lalaas.”

  The hunter waited until she had retired to her tent, then set about piling the cooked meat onto the platter and wrapping it in a bag before putting it under his saddle. He then sat by the fire for a while, deep in thought.

  Amne, meanwhile, lay in her makeshift bed and looked into the middle distance, a smile on her face.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Empress Isbel sat at the head of the Council and faced the rows of nobility seated down either side of the long table. The Grand Council was due to sit in a few sevendays but Isbel had called it slightly earlier than expected as things could not wait any longer. The information she had been receiving from Vosgaris and other people pointed to a growing move to oust the Koros from power. It had been allowed to go on for too long.

  “Gentlemen,” she began, “I have called this Council early because I have received distressing news that some of you are plotting to remove the imperial family and replace us with some amongst you.”

  The nobility broke out into a buzz of noise, heads turning left and right. One, the leader of the Palanges family, a man by the name of Guttan, stood up angrily. “Have you summoned us to accuse us all of treason? If that is so present the evidence. If not then it is clear you are unfit to be sitting where you are!”

  A chorus of agreement broke out and hands thumped the table. Isbel leaned back in her chair and looked along the two rows of animated people. “Oh yes, Guttan Palanges, I do indeed have evidence.”

  The nobleman slowly sat down, his face draining of colour. Silence descended upon the assembly. The empress stood up, waving the rest to remain seated. “Ever since my husband publicly declared all tax privileges were at an end and that the nobility had to pay their fair share of taxes, there have been a number of plots to remove the Koros from power, and for a more – sympathetic – regime to be placed here instead.” She smiled bitterly at the faces staring at her. “Once more there are those amongst you who ignore the perilous state of the empire and only think of enriching yourselves to the detriment of us all. It is not enough that the army has been starved to the point of death and the people denied the use of public buildings or the Empire’s facilities because all of these have been stripped of funding due to the perilous state of the treasury.

  “We have already crushed one attempt by the Duras to take power. My husband only regrets that the man responsible was not caught.” She looked pointedly at Vitlis Duras. The Duras clan leader returned her look blandly. He knew that no evidence of the attempted coup pointed to him; he’d publicly distanced himself from the antics of his nephew.

 
She signalled to Vosgaris, standing behind her. He advanced and placed a pile of papers in front of her. “Here is the evidence of treason. Here is evidence of a plot to murder my children. Here is evidence that some of you here willing to destroy Kastania once and for all in return for personal wealth and profit.”

  She began flinging the papers across the table, the sheets coming to rest in front of some or ending up against others. Reluctantly the nobles took hold of the nearest sheet to them and began reading. All were identical. They were a signed confession from Geris Fokis, detailing the money hidden from the treasury and a list of contributors to the plot to oust the Koros. Cledin Fokis, the member of that family at the meeting, stood up angrily. “This is a fabrication! Lies! A scurrilous vile campaign to blacken my family name to the advantage of the Koros!”

  Isbel sat down and interlocked her fingers. “Prove it, Cledin.”

  Cledin ripped the sheet he had into two pieces. “I don’t need to. It’s clearly an absurd piece of fiction. Who else here believes this nonsense?” he turned to his fellow nobles.

  “This isn’t proof, your majesty,” Vitlis Duras tapped the sheet. “Without the verbal confirmation from this Geris Fokis to back this up, there is no proof that this is indeed his confession.”

  “Indeed?” Isbel smiled in a way Vitlis didn’t care for. She nodded to Vosgaris who smiled in a predatory manner and opened the door to the chamber and spoke to someone outside. He then shut the door and came to stand alongside the empress. Isbel spoke again. “While we wait, I would also speak to you of the recent failed attempts on two of our family, Jorqel and Argan. The assailants in both instances fled and vanished, but we were fortunate in tracing the man responsible for the attempt on my five year old son, Argan.”

  Again, the nobles remained silent, waiting to hear what was coming next. Isbel continued. “A poisonous reptile, purchased in Niake, brought here to kill a baby. Is that what you are reduced to now? How brave of you! The man bought off here to perform the wicked deed was paid for by an intermediary, a native of Kastan. He was traced to the thieves guild here, and not for the first time that guild was implicated in a plot against my family. So Vosgaris here arrested every guild member he could and burned down the guild headquarters with the rest inside two sevendays ago.”