by JF Smith
“I’m sorry, that didn’t quite reach my ears...” said Gully, now fully curious as to the guard’s strange behavior.
“Pollon, Sire!” shouted the guard so suddenly that Gully stepped back.
Gully thought out loud, “Pollon... Pollon, you say? That name seems familiar to me...” Gully knew he had seen the man before, but could not quite place where.
The guard gave up entirely at trying to stand at attention. Pollon fell to his knees in front of the king and begged, “Mercy, Your Majesty! It was me! It was me!”
Gully stared at him, thoroughly confused.
“It was I, Your Majesty, that day outside the market! My fellow guard, Bekellor, had you in his grip while we were... forgive me... arresting you. You were struggling in his grip, and I... I was the guard that pounded my fist into your face that day!” The guard was on his knees and sobbing openly now that he had admitted what he had done to the king.
Gully was shocked, but he remembered perfectly the day Pollon was describing. He glanced over at Roald, who looked embarrassed at the lapse, and then at Dunnhem, who looked like he was ready to hang the guard then and there.
Gully shook his head and a smile crept back across his face. He said, “Stand up, please, Pollon.”
Pollon did, sniffling and wiping his hand across his nose, helpless against whatever punishment the king was prepared to hand down.
Gully put his hand on the man’s shoulder and said, “By Vasahle’s bright light, it was you that day, wasn’t it? You had a very strong fist and precise aim, as I recall!”
Pollon only groaned a little at the king’s memory.
Gully said, “And if I also remember correctly, I kicked you in the chest to get away a few moments later! Rather hard, too.”
The guard nodded with terrified eyes.
“Well, I think we can call our transgressions against one another balanced out, then,” said Gully.
Pollon’s face looked baffled instead of frightened.
Gully stepped back and addressed all of the swordsmen gathered. “A word of advice to the rest of the Guard gathered here... be wary of crossing Pollon and getting into a fistfight with him! His arm is not to be trifled with!”
He slapped Pollon on the shoulder and began to walk down the rest of the line again. Pollon stood stupefied, disbelieving that he was not going to be thrown into the gaol.
Roald stepped up to Pollon as the king stepped away and told the soldier, “You only did what the rest of us dream of doing to His Majesty on a daily occurrence, Pollon. Savor it!”
Gully, as he leisurely walked further down the line, said in amusement, “Your voice carries, Lord Marshal!”
Roald laughed heartily and walked down the line to catch up with his brother.
~~~~~
Gully drummed his fingers on the short table between him and Thaybrill. He had found himself rather surprised at how much Thaybrill’s strategic capabilities had improved since he had first learned to play swords and shields with his brother’s instruction.
He studied the board between them, and the maneuvers that Thaybrill had played thus far put Gully in a far more dangerous position than what he had become used to with him. It made him rather proud of his brother. He thought about taking his second shield and moving it back one space. He would sacrifice a critical sword in the process, but it would also open up Thaybrill to an attack that he was likely not taking into account, one that would win the game for him in a few more moves.
He drummed his fingers a moment more and made up his mind. Instead of the move that would likely win him the game, he made a different one. He shifted his fifth sword and took one of Thaybrill’s swords that had gained ground. If Thaybrill was paying attention, he would see how this was a gain for Gully, unless Thaybrill gave up his ninth shield on the next move. That sacrifice would actually win him the game. Gully was subtly allowing his brother to win.
He suppressed his grin when Thaybrill gave up the shield and then won the game.
The prince was ecstatic.
“You must be deathly ill, brother! Other than perhaps the first time you ever played, I have not seen you lose at this game!” said Thaybrill.
Gully stood and stretched. “My constitution is very well, Thaybrill. Your own skill has improved markedly, and even a moment’s distraction for me now seems to result in a lost game. You have won by your own shrewd skills, and I will have to learn to pay closer attention next time!”
He walked over to the oratory tower’s parapet wall and looked down below across the Folly grounds.
“Come, you’ve been stung now, and the next game your wits will be fully gathered to best me as you have come to expect. This last game was a fluke, I’m certain!” said Thaybrill with a chuckle as he began to reset the pieces.
“Nay, thank you, Thaybrill. Perhaps Gallun or Gellen would challenge you in a game,” he said, nodding over his shoulder at the two friends of theirs, standing nearby and acting in their new official capacity as his guards. When they all climbed the tower so he and Thaybrill could spend some time in the late afternoon together, he had to spend several minutes convincing the two men they did not need to stand at attention all the time. It finally took irritating Gellen by tickling him that he finally got them to stop acting so rigid.
Gully turned back and looked over the city again, his mind drifting back over the conversation he and the patriarch had had earlier in the day.
“Gully?”
“Hmm? Yes, Thaybrill?” said Gully without looking back.
Thaybrill stood next to his brother and said, “What troubles you today? Something is on your mind, I can tell.”
Gully smiled and shrugged. For a moment, he did not reply, but then he said, “I have not done right by you, Thaybrill, and I must correct my failure there.”
Thaybrill stood straight and looked at Gully curiously. “Failure? What do you mean?”
“You and I are brothers, twins, and yet I’ve committed the same sin with you that I have committed with everyone that cares about me, with everyone that I should care about in return. I’ve held you off and not fully let you into my heart as my brother, out of my own fear of loss. But no more. I’ve spent my whole life wishing to get my family back, but I refused to see anyone other than my father as being family. You, Roald, those two wolves over there that dog my every step, many more... you are my family and I failed to accept how rich I am with people that care deeply for me.”
Gully expected Thaybrill to be dismissive of his concerns, to pretend as if it was nothing. Instead, Thaybrill said, “Thank you. There have been occasions where I was not sure if you did not want me for a brother after all, even despite all that you have selflessly done for me. Roald and I have spoken of this, and he assured me that it was your nature that you always held back from others. Perhaps from the thief in you, perhaps because of your missing father... who knows? It will be enough for me that you try. I do not expect complete miracles, though,” said Thaybrill with a grin.
Gully chuckled and nodded. He watched below and saw Dunnhem and Roald walking together towards the stables next to the garrison house.
He sighed to himself and realized he was going to betray Roald the way he swore he never would. He had a pang of guilt over it, but the time had come, and it was for the very best of reasons, after all. He refused to let two people very special to him squander a chance.
Gully said, “Speaking of Roald...” Gully cleared his throat nervously and said, “You should tell him how you feel, Thaybrill.”
He could sense that Thaybrill tensed up slightly, but Thaybrill’s response was guardedly casual, “Tell whom what?”
“You should tell Roald how you feel about him... that you find him attractive.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Gully could see the color drain from his brother’s face. Thaybrill’s voice wavered slightly as he laughed and tried to deny it. “Attractive? Roald? That is not a very kind thing to imply about someone you just now professed to care for very
much.”
Gully turned to face Thaybrill fully. He said, his voice comforting, “You should tell him, Thaybrill. I’ve known Roald for more than half of my life. I’ve known he was swayed as long as he has known it about himself, and I have never once thought ill of it or considered him to be less of a person. I feel the same for you.”
Thaybrill looked terrified, and then confused. His mouth dropped open and he started to say something, but no words came out.
Gully put his hand on his shoulder and said, “You’re my brother, Thaybrill, and nothing will ever take you away from me. Roald is my brother, too, and I have watched for years knowing how lonely he is. Trust me, please, when I say you should be honest with him. Tell him how you feel.”
Thaybrill gawped in stunned silence at his brother for several moments while he tried to make sense of all that Gully was saying.
“Roald, though? Is it possible?” he finally said.
“Yes, Roald. This Iisen view of those swayed... it is one of the shameful characteristics of Iisen that I wish to change. I wish for the Balmorean culture and attitude to take hold, instead.”
Thaybrill glanced down at his feet and asked, “How... how long have you known this of me?”
“Known? Not long. Suspected? Perhaps a bit longer. Do not forget, you suspected I was a thief before I admitted to it, too, and you did not push me away,” said Gully.
Gully smiled and lifted Thaybrill’s chin so their eyes met. “You need not hide this around me, or the Balmoreans, for that matter. But you must listen to me when I say that you should be honest with Roald.”
“I... I’ll try. Roald is... he is a remarkable man,” admitted Thaybrill with something of a sigh and turning bright red in the face.
“Yes, he is,” said Gully.
Gully pulled Thaybrill into an embrace, rocking back and forth with him, glad to be surrounded by family for which he could care deeply, and glad to begin changing Iisen in even the smallest ways, a few people at a time.
Chapter 45 — The Very First Day
The cold air was not as frigid as it had been, but despite this, Gully pulled the thick, snow-white mantle closer around him. He rested his boot on the short stoop wall that looked over the shallow, tail-end of the ravine where it emerged next to the Bonedown Square. Behind him was the back of the tent that had been set up for the noble families and leaders during the consecration of Bal’Iisen, and he could hear the faint voices of the people inside the tent waiting to be called out for their part in the ceremony. While he waited, Gully had wished for a moment alone in the few dying minutes left of the Iisendom before he was called for his part in the birth of Bal’Iisen, and so had stepped out behind the tent.
All around him, a late snowfall had intruded into the first of spring and had covered Lohrdanwuld in a quiescent, white blanket. It was unusual for the first day of spring to arrive while there was still snow on the ground, but not unheard of. Gully liked the quiet and solemn nature it seemed to bring with it. The twilight sky above him shimmered a deep indigo, the same as one of the colors chosen to represent his new nation, along with white and pale gold.
Inside the tent, he could hear the murmured discussions of the ruling families of Bal’Iisen, which now included the patriarch, Exoutur, and Encender. The ceremony was already well under way; per Gully’s insistence, the Archbishop was in the middle of the Bonedown at that moment, receiving all of the crowds that had gathered — thousands of people as estimated by Dunnhem — and welcoming them as the first citizens of Bal’Iisen, the very foundation of the new kingdom. Through those gathered in person, citizenship was also implicitly granted to the rest of the population that could not be present.
After that, the noble families and Thaybrill would be led out, and they would be granted their citizenship in the newly formed realm. Finally, Gully would be the very last accepted into the new kingdom, and then crowned king.
There was no sound as he looked out over where the chasm leveled out and became part of the city, but he felt a soft finger touch at his elbow. He turned and smiled when he saw Abella Jule standing next to him, her eyes shining as brightly as her smile. Equal with every time he saw her, he was captivated by her soft and delicate beauty. Tonight, his heart leapt even more because of the pale gold dress she wore that sparkled as if it were made of the stars themselves. She wore it with a white shawl over her shoulders to keep the chill away. As always with Abella, she refused to wear a hat to cover her dark hair, which she kept so that it only reached down to the nape of her neck in back.
Abella Jule nodded back towards the tent, and Gully knew what she meant. It was time for her, along with her family and all the other noble families to take their place in the square for their part in the ceremony.
He reached out and delicately brushed a stray lock of her dark hair off of her forehead, causing her smile to grow even more radiant. Gully placed his hands gently on either side of her face and gave her a brief kiss, delight sweeping through him with the soft warmth of her lips against his own.
“May I be the first to welcome you as a citizen of our new kingdom, Abella,” he whispered to her. He nodded back towards the tent once and said, “Go with your family now. I will see you again soon, once we are all a part of our new homeland.”
She turned and entered back into the tent, and Gully followed behind her. The noble families, once again twelve of them in number when Thaybrill was counted to represent the family of veLohrdan, were led out one by one by the King’s Guard to take their place for the ceremony.
Roald came up to Gully and adjusted how the mantle sat on his shoulders so that the king looked his best. “I will see you after Iisen is no more, and Bal’Iisen takes its place, my brother,” he said. Gully nodded, and Roald then turned to Prince Thaybrill. He took the prince’s hand and kissed the back of it with a wink.
Thaybrill placed a hand affectionately on one of Roald’s ears. He whispered, “My beloved soldier…” Roald smiled broadly and then slipped out of the tent to watch the rest of the ceremony with the other ranking members of the new Guard of Bal’Iisen. Thaybrill watched the Lord Marshal depart, his eyes and his heart following out after the man who had just left.
When he turned back, he and Gully were the only two that remained in the tent. Gully said, “Have I done the right thing, Thaybrill?” He had asked his brother the same question enough times over the last several months that Thaybrill now only laughed at it.
Thaybrill said through his grin, “A bit late to be giving voice to any misgivings, is it not, Your Highness?”
“In a moment, you will be escorted out,” Gully said with a sly grin. “I could slip out the back and run away. I could go back to my old ways of thieving among the shadows and gutters!”
Thaybrill laughed even more heartily and said, “If His Highness thinks he can run and hide from the wolves that know his scent all too well and who take great delight in tracking him down, His Highness is welcome to try! May you have better luck at it this time around!”
They both chuckled at the idea.
“This is as right as anything you’ve ever done, Gully Snipe,” said Thaybrill, putting his teasing aside. “The time to doubt is behind you, very far behind you. Now you must look forward to all the good that will come of this over the years ahead, starting with this first day.”
Dunnhem entered the tent and motioned for Prince Thaybrill to follow him. Thaybrill embraced his brother again and said, “Only you could have done what is happening on this day, Gully.”
He turned to follow Dunnhem out and said as he exited, “And I mean that in the very best way possible, my brother.”
Alone once again, Gully wandered around the tent for a few moments. He stood at one of the pennons hanging inside it, rubbing it between his fingers and studying it. In the center was the new symbol of Bal’Iisen — the Trine Range constellation with the two overlapping circles inscribed in a larger one on top of it. Outside, he could hear the words of the Archbishop as he gave the sacred ch
arge to the noble families to guide and support the people of Bal’Iisen, something they would each be required to pledge before they would be accepted as citizens. Gully had warned them that this pledge was not an empty one; he would hold them to it just as he would hold himself to it in equal measure.
He stepped out of the back of the tent one more time and gazed up at the stars which were emerging in the twilight sky in ever greater numbers.
He said as he looked up, “Colnor, old man... thank you. I hope that what I do today pleases you. I’m sorry that you and I did not have a chance to ever know one another in person, but I think I understand perhaps why it was necessary to have things turn out the way they did. Thank you for ensuring I was put in the care of my father, Ollon, in your absence. I hope you are proud of me. I hope, too, that you are proud of Thaybrill, as I am.”
He scratched at his left palm a few times and added, “I hope that you are proud of Bal’Iisen.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Gully saw a shooting star-send streak through the sky. It streaked ice-blue across the almost-black sky, flashed brightly, and then it was gone. He smiled wryly and thought to himself, a more religious man would likely think that you are pleased with all of this. Perhaps I am not a disappointment to you, after all.
His eye followed back to the star of his father, Colnor, in the Trine Range constellation. From there it traveled to the Father Star towards the north so that he could also locate Mariealle’s star. Deep inside, he hoped he was not a disappointment to either of them before he returned to the warmth of the tent.
Inside the tent, he waited quietly, and it was not long before the flap facing out onto the Bonedown Square opened once again. Instead of Dunnhem coming to fetch him, as he expected, the Archbishop stepped inside to be with Gully.
Gully, surprised, said, “Archbishop? Is something wrong with the ceremony? Where is Dunnhem?”
“Everything is fine, Your Highness. All those outside will not suffer for a moment’s longer wait while you and I have one final point to decide,” said the Archbishop with a smile. “And then we can bring the final citizen of Bal’Iisen into the kingdom that he has created.”
