by Pirateaba
“Her. She was a human.”
“I am pleased you came to no harm. And I trust neither did your guards?”
Bethal hesitated. The dangerous aura around her faded. She smiled at Magnolia and laughed lightly. It was as if her fury of a second ago had never been there, and the effect was disconcerting if you had never met Lady Bethal before.
“Of course not! How silly of me. Here I was worked up about the issue, while my dear husband assured me you would never have anything to do with that!”
“Not for all the gold in Baleros.”
“Then let me say how wonderful it is to see you!”
The two traded light kisses on the cheek, Bethal exclaiming over Magnolia’s dress. The woman turned to the man standing beside her.
“And of course you know my husband.”
“[Chevalier] Thomast. Of course! How are you, Sir Thomast?”
“Very well, my lady Reinhart.”
The elegant man in the doublet bowed and kissed Magnolia’s proffered hand. She smiled at him and then turned back to Lady Bethal.
“Have you seen Patricia? I should welcome her before the arguing starts.”
Bethal shook her head, pursing her lips.
“I have not seen her. But her daughter is over there.”
She pointed. Magnolia turned and saw a young girl laughing demurely with some other girls her age while they eyed the dancers in the center of the room. Magnolia smiled as her eyes fell on one with flowing brown hair.
“Ah, young Eliasor. She must be eight now.”
“Nine.”
Ressa murmured as she and Thomast nodded to each other. Magnolia sighed.
“Ah, to be that young. I won’t go over and scare her, Ressa. Perhaps you can go and ask a servant where Patricia—”
She broke off. Someone was speaking. In fact, every head in the room turned and almost all of the conversations ended at once. Because the person who was speaking could be heard by everyone who wore a jeweled broach, as if they were standing right next to the speaker.
“The King of Destruction has returned. Are we supposed to simply pretend this isn’t an issue and chat idly? Let us discuss this crisis already!”
Magnolia looked for the man who’d spoken. She recognized one of the more aggressive [Lords], a proper war hawk, who’d grown impatient waiting. Many people were frowning at him, but his standing probably hadn’t been damaged by speaking the thoughts on everyone’s mind.
By custom, the absent hostess should have initiated the debate. But once it had begun, voices began speaking. Usually it was only one or two voices at once, but the conversation en masse could become an indecipherable hubbub as well. It was to this Magnolia listened, letting the first speakers make their points and reserving her words for when they mattered.
“If you must bring the subject up, Lord Relt, then begin with the facts. Has the King of Destruction returned?”
“Every report say so. Unless you have no spies in that region?”
“My informants claim he was awake months ago.”
“If it’s a game of guessing when he awoke, I won’t bother. But this is the first moment in which he’s taken action similar to the past.”
Someone spoke up sharply. Magnolia saw Lady Wuvren snap the handheld fan she carried. The crack made all the listeners wince.
“He destroyed a nation and beheaded its [Queen]! The Quarass of Germina is dead and the capital lies in ruins! And the King of Destruction is already marching on Hellios! What are we to think, if not that the King of Destruction is destroying nations again?”
Silence. Someone coughed and then spoke.
“It was a war of retaliation.”
Wuvren rounded on the speaker.
“A war? It was a massacre! He destroyed the enemy army in a pitched battle in a single day!”
“After six nations sent an army after him.”
“Yes. If that doesn’t confirm the King of Destruction has returned, I imagine few things will.”
“So then, your point?”
“The question was whether the King of Destruction has returned. I would say he most emphatically has, and he hasn’t changed.”
Relt spoke into his stone, overriding the next speaker. Magnolia winced and wished there were a way to lower the volume the enchantment produced.
“No, he has not. And he must be stopped now, or he will once again destroy nation after nation and threaten our shores.”
“Surely not!”
This speaker was another [Lord]. He was a minor one, but he held his ground as Relt glared at him.
“You don’t fear the King of Destruction, Lord Halast?”
“I don’t fear a man on another continent, surrounded by nations which have every reason to want him dead.”
“Those are the same thoughts that let him engulf all of Chandrar last time!”
Halast spoke curtly.
“Last time we didn’t know what he was capable of. Now everyone knows the danger posed by the King of Destruction. The nations will unite, and defeat him. He doesn’t have his armies any longer, and as far as I know, only a few of his vassals have rejoined him.”
“He has his Seven—”
“Five now. And I’m told that Amerys is still residing in Wistram.”
“She hasn’t joined him?”
“Or perhaps the [Mages] have convinced her to stay. Either way, the King of Destruction is not as dangerous as he was.”
“That was what was said last time. If you’re foolish enough to believe he won’t succeed—”
“He slew one ruler. Not a [Queen]! It was the Quarass of Germina, hardly royalty.”
“What’s a Quarass?”
Magnolia opened her mouth to respond, but Lady Bethal by her side spoke into her stone first.
“The Quarass is as important as a [Queen]! She is a tribal leader—”
“A [Chieftain] is hardly comparable to a [Queen].”
Bethal’s voice could have cut iron.
“The Quarass is a position revered and acknowledged across Chandrar, Lord Luden. She, along with five other leaders of the tribes are considered part of the Shelter Kingdoms, which hold sway over a great deal of eastern Chandrar, if only politically. Once upon a time, the Quarass and the other Shelter Kingdoms were each powerful empires, capable of challenging Dragons. Her death will cause ripples throughout the entire continent!”
“Well spoken.”
Magnolia murmured to Bethal as the conversation lulled for a bit and Lord Luden flushed red. Bethal smiled at Magnolia and whispered back. She didn’t have a finger on her stone so her words weren’t carried to the others
“I do pay attention to women I admire.”
At that Magnolia had to cough so her eye roll wouldn’t be noticed. As far as she understood, the Quarass was not a woman to be admired, at least, not by anyone who thought honor and decency were more than words.
The argument began heating up. It was always like this, and Magnolia listened with one ear as she watched the [Lords] and [Ladies] who’d come to the gathering argue about what was to be done about the King of Destruction.
“We could send gold to a nation—”
“Gold hardly buys arms and soldiers. A small nation can only do so much.”
“What about the Emperor of the Sands?”
“What about him?”
“He’s at war with the King of Destruction.”
“If he is, it will be a long time before they meet. And if he triumphs, I hardly imagine an [Emperor] would be an improvement over the King of Destruction.”
“I am saying we must act in some way.”
“Are you proposing to send an army across the sea?”
“Utter foolishness!”
“I am proposing we act in some measure, even if it is to condemn the King of Destruction—”
“A signed treatise? What use would that be?”
“A united front—”
“—won’t be part of any declaration—”
/> “—funding a mercenary company from Baleros—”
“—see what Wistram has to say—”
“May I offer a course of action?”
The voice that interrupted was deep, low, and booming. He silenced every other speaker. And Magnolia’s head turned. She turned, searching the crowd and saw the speaker standing by a pillar, alone. She hadn’t seen him before, but upon hearing his slightly nasal, deep, deep voice she knew who—and what—had to be speaking.
Quite carefully she turned and hissed to her [Maid].
“Ressa, why didn’t you mention the Minotaur to me?”
The woman shrugged.
“I assumed you’d spotted him.”
“I would have eventually, but it helps when you point such important people out!”
The Minotaur was speaking now. He was dressed in a suit tailored for a Minotaur, emphasizing his physique and biceps. Magnolia eyed it—not in appreciation as Bethal was doing—but thoughtfully. Here was a Minotaur who had been financed to attend such events. Odd.
“I hesitate to interrupt, but I have been sent by my [King] to address this auspicious gathering. My role is as an emissary. The House of Minos is prepared to go to war against the King of Destruction, that he might never threaten the world as he did in the past.”
Gasps rang out across the room. Magnolia’s brows shot together as a low murmur sprang up throughout the room.
“If that’s the case—”
“The armies of Minos? Will they sail all the way to Chandrar?”
The Minotaur spoke, carefully touching the stone.
“My [King] is prepared to send an army capable of defeating the King of Destruction. However, he understands such an act would be considered a declaration of war by many kingdoms. He has tasked me and others to approach other assemblies and request formal support.”
“In what fashion?”
Magnolia spoke sharply into the stone. She sensed heads turning. The Minotaur bowed to her.
“We would ask for a written treaty allowing us to sail without hindrance, and a small contribution to our army. Arms or gold would allow us to ready ourselves for battle.”
“So you are approaching us as mercenaries, is that it?”
The Minotaur paused. It was a touchy word for them, but Magnolia was watching his face across the room for his reaction. She saw him give her and the others a polite smile which revealed nothing.
“We would like to consider it more a manner of honor than anything else. To defend peace, our people are willing to fight. It is an offer made in good faith.”
And that cast her into an unfavorable light for questioning him, didn’t it? Magnolia narrowed her eyes as people began to express relieved support.
“I’m sure we could offer some small token of thanks—”
“An open-ended agreement from our houses should not be an issue. What say we put it to the vote?”
Magnolia didn’t know if she wanted that. But she could sense the mood in the room and it was immediately swinging towards this unexpectedly convenient solution. Too convenient. She glanced at Tyrion. Magnolia knew if she voted against the resolution—and she didn’t have a solid reason to—she would be able to pull quite a few votes with her. But it would only work if another scion of the Five Families were present, and in this gathering there was only Tyrion.
He was watching the Minotaur warily. But when it came to a vote, Tyrion voted to support the Minotaurs, and so did Magnolia.
Ressa frowned at Magnolia as the discussion went on as to how much to give the Minotaurs and how to word a declaration that the humans of Izril were against the King of Destruction.
“A problem, milady?”
“How much do we know about the Minotaurs, Ressa? They’re always fighting their enemy down around their isles—but recently?”
Ressa thought.
“A few engagements at sea. Their failed war with Baleros around fifteen years back. A war with Terandria which Izril participated in twenty eight years ago. Numerous skirmishes…”
“They tried to take over the world once. But then, which race hasn’t?”
Magnolia studied the Minotaur, frowning. Ressa stared impassively at him. The Minotaur was giving nothing away. He was a trained [Courtier] or some similar class, Magnolia had no doubt. And that was odd. She’d never seen a Minotaur in a diplomatic function.
“You think this is a trick?”
“Possibly, but it’s probably a trick in the sense that they’ll honor their word and then demand something else when they’re in a good position. The lands that belonged to Flos, perhaps. That would give them quite a bit of territory, which is what the Minotaurs always wanted.”
“Do you believe we should not have voted for them?”
“I think we’ll have to wait and see. And I might have to see about finding some spies willing to visit the islands…although they would stick out like a sore thumb.”
Magnolia sighed as the conversation came to a close. The people in the room seemed generally relieved by the resolution, so she decided to stir up the pot. There was more than one reason she’d come here today.
“Before you leave, [Lords] and [Ladies] of Izril, let me put another important matter forwards.”
Heads turned apprehensively towards Magnolia. She looked around the room, watching the Minotaur out of the corner of her eye.
“Have you all forgotten that there is a Goblin Lord raising an army just south of the High Passes?”
Silence. Then someone spoke.
“We are aware, but that is a Drake issue, isn’t it? With all respect Lady Reinhart, I had heard the Drakes were taking care of the issue.”
“Oh? Are you so certain they will defeat the Goblin Lord?”
Magnolia’s tone was icy. The Minotaur wasn’t changing his expression at all. She cursed inwardly.
“They’ve sent two armies to fight him. Together they should crush a Goblin Lord.”
“And if he escapes? A Goblin Lord is one step away from a Goblin King. And I have heard different rumors as well. Or has no one else heard of a troubling tale? That of a so-called Goblin Great Chieftain? One who fought with the last Goblin King in the war?”
The Minotaur twitched ever so slightly at the mention of the Goblin Chieftain. Around the room Magnolia could hear some people gasping who hadn’t heard the rumor.
“A Great Chieftain? Is that a class?”
“With the last Goblin King? Why would we have not heard of a Goblin like that?”
“To support the Goblin Lord? If that’s the case—”
“Are you suggesting we send an army ourselves to deal with the Goblin Lord, Lady Reinhart?”
That last question came at Magnolia. She broke away from eyeing the Minotaur who’d gone back to impassively watching to smile at the speaker.
“That is the question, isn’t it? Do we send an army? The Great Chieftain is on our lands. I believe he must be eradicated no matter what, and I am sure you are all in agreement. As for the Goblin Lord—”
“Let the Drakes deal with him.”
Someone cut in. Only one person would dare. Magnolia turned to Tyrion, but he returned her gaze without blinking. He spoke confidently as all eyes turned towards him.
“Even if the Goblin Lord destroys both Drake armies, let him go. Unless he comes north—and if he does, he will most likely destroy Liscor—we will benefit.”
Outraged voices rose.
“Destroy Liscor? If he heads north, our southernmost cities will all fall as well! Esthelm was already destroyed! Are you suggesting we let that happen to every city in the area?”
Tyrion’s voice was calm.
“Esthelm did fall, but the people have retaken the city. They fought off another of the Goblin Lord’s armies.”
“What?”
Shock echoed through the room at this. Magnolia ground her teeth together. Tyrion would know about Esthelm. She knew what he was doing but she couldn’t stop it. The man continued calmly.
�
��Our cities can defend themselves. They knew the risks of being closer to the border. If the Goblin Lord comes north, we will muster an army to defeat them. And if he does come north, he will have done more damage to the Drakes than we. And that is all to the better, once war comes.”
“We do not need war with the Drakes! We need allies, not more enemies!”
Magnolia snapped into her speaking stone, but the mood was against her. People were in favor of leaving the Goblin Lord alone, especially if it meant trouble for their southern neighbors. Tyrion abandoned the conversation, job done. Magnolia tore the gemstone off her dress and stormed towards him.
“You are an idiot, Tyrion Veltras.”
“And you don’t see the danger the Drakes pose, Reinhart.”
His voice was cold as he spoke to her. Tyrion eyed Ressa and the [Maid] gave him her coldest stare which didn’t faze him an inch. Magnolia took a deep breath and tried not to kick the man.
“Sending an army to pointlessly kill thousands of Drakes every few years does not help this continent, Tyrion. What do you expect will happen if you win this time?”
“If we beat them at the Blood Fields, we’ll take Liscor. We just need the upper hand and we will push past the High Passes. They’ve held it this long, but the Goblin Lord is the opportunity we need.”
Tyrion stared calmly at Magnolia. She opened her mouth to tell him Drakes were not the enemy, when someone screamed.
Her head whipped around. Someone was standing at the double doors. A man in black, with a sword in hand, dripping blood. His face was wrapped in a black shroud, and he was unmistakably an [Assassin]. He shoved the [Head Butler] aside, and the man fell, a wound in his chest. The [Assassin] lifted something with his left hand and threw it.
A head flew into the center of the room. It landed wetly on the ground. More people screamed. Magnolia stared at the head and then saw the blur.
“Magnolia!”
Ressa leapt, but it was Tyrion who caught the dagger. He swatted it out of the air with a gloved hand, interposing himself between Magnolia and the [Assassin]. She blinked at him.
“Did you just save my life, Tyrion Veltras?”
He turned to her as the [Assassin] began to flee.
“A [Lord] does not deal with underhanded murderers and plots. If I kill you, it will be out in the open.”
