by Mark Eller
David rose from his knees, surprised to discover he had been crying. He looked down on Jerry's still face while Susan moved forward to stand by his side. Raising his arm, David tried to put its comforting weight around her shoulders. Flinching away, Susan shrugged it off. She frowned, stared down at her brother, and spat into Jerry Flintlow's open, sightless eyes.
* * *
Rubbing his aching temples, Aaron looked across his desk at Heralda and Missy. He shifted his gaze to the side, seeing Kim waiting for him to make a decision. She was a strange one, was Kim. Young and with a skewed outlook, she had somehow become his anchor. He still didn't know how she had discovered where Autumn was hidden. He didn't want to know her methods, but if Kim had not been there, Autumn would be dead.
"I don't want to do it," Aaron said. He felt twisted inside. Autumn was safe. The relief lifted his sour anger, but a new anger had grown. A frightened anger.
"It is your given task," Heralda said,"but nothing and nobody can force you to it."
"Aaron," Missy said,"don't run from this."
"I won't be an emperor," Aaron told them. "I swear to the Gods, I've had enough. I won't do it. I won't! Heralda, I killed thousands of people. Thousands. And that was without this kind of power."
Heralda's eyes rested on him with cool consideration. "As long as I have known you, Aaron Turner, you have been a deluded man of exaggerations. Yes, people died around you. There have been wars in which your hand dealt death. Those wars, those dead, were needed for the betterment of both our peoples. Yes, Aaron Turner, you were instrumental to the deaths of thousands. I will not deny your role. I will also not deny that because of you tens of thousands now live who would once have died. Children have homes. People have food. Medicines you helped provide have saved those who would once have died. You have killed, and you have saved. You tried to run from these truths by looking in a bottle. You are too afraid to face the burdens the One God has given you."
"I can't forgive myself. " Aaron closed his eyes and swallowed hard. He had once worked his way through this. He had convinced himself he was healed, whole, but his conviction was another self-deluding lie. He opened his eyes. "Heralda, I despise who I am."
"You are a good man. You have done good works."
"I'm a rich man. Good works come easy to the rich. We just throw money at things and other people take care of the problems. I'm not the person people think I am. You say I do good works. I do. I admit it. I can be a great public person, but my personal life, my private life is screwed up."
"And how is this?" Heralda asked. "You live comfortably."
Propping his elbows on his desk, Aaron placed his forehead in his hands. "For one, I've been unfair and hurtful to Melna. I was so blind with jealousy I didn't see my shallowness until Missy forced it me. Heralda, I can't run my own life. How can I run an empire? I'll destroy everything."
Heralda shook her head. "Chosen, you are so wise and yet so blind. The One God does not give burdens too great to carry. He gives burdens to match a person's strength. You have the strength. All you require is the will."
"I can't do it alone," Aaron whispered. He hurt inside. The anger slowly bled away until nothing remained except a hollow, empty core.
"You own many businesses," Heralda reminded him. "Do you run them all? No, you have partners and managers and general overseers like your Amanda Bivins. An emperor need not run everything. An emperor must delegate. He must find good people to make good decisions. An emperor need only make policy."
"They'll not accept me."
"Helmet Klein is a cripple. The Chins do not allow cripples to live, and yet Klein still lives. They will follow his will in this matter. They will accept you as their emperor, for a time, for long enough if you do your job well."
Aaron looked at her, seeing the lined, too old face of a Freelorn nomad. Heralda was perhaps fifteen years his junior, but she appeared to be a decade older. Wind and sun and rain had taken their toll. Hard living in the wild and harder service to the One God had etched wear and worry into her face. Still, there was beauty in her. Something shone within that transformed. No man or woman could look at Heralda and doubt they saw something extraordinary.
"I will be with you for a time," she promised. "I will advise you and teach your people of the One God. To do so is my given chore."
Looking at her, Aaron knew he was lost. His die was cast. He could not betray Helmet Klein in this matter. The Chin Empire had been built on blood and hardship. Helmet Klein had forced disparate tribes to join together so their children could live better lives. Without Klein at the helm, his empire could fall apart. Without an emperor, the infighting would begin and then the fracturing. In ten years everything Klein had built up would be gone. The sacrifices and deaths would be for nothing.
"I will serve you," Kim said. "No matter your decision, I will serve you."
"I can't do it his way," Aaron told them. "I can't do it through war, but I don't know how else it can be done. Helmet is pushing for international aid, but I don't see that happening."
"You are a rich man," Missy pointed out. "Do you really need all that money?"
"I'm not that rich! I own a lot, but not enough to fund an empire."
"What about your other holdings?" she asked. "You have more than just your Isabellan investments."
"My runabout factories?" Aaron wondered if she had gone insane. "Missy, those won't finance more than a day's running of a small town."
Missy began to laugh. Aaron had no idea what she found so humorous.
"You don't know," she managed when her laughter stopped. "Aaron, you really don't know."
"Know what?"
"Aaron, Isabella and the Clans have released a great deal of knowledge from your books. They've relaxed their patents and sold manufacturing licenses."
"Yes, I know. " He remembered reading about it in the newspaper. He also remembered being angry over Isabella claiming a six percent gross from all the profits. Isabella's goodwill gesture had carried a barbed hook.
"Remember your contract with Isabella?"
"I get five percent."
"Exactly. You get five percent. Aaron, you get five percent of everything, including the sale of international rights and all the rest. You're worth tens of times more than you think, and you're getting richer by the minute. It's only going to increase. Miss Bivins had dozens of overseas startups planned. In a few years your interests will account for two or three percent of the entire world's economy. Do you think Chin could use some of your wealth to build up its infrastructure? It's a large country, but really, it isn't heavily populated."
Aaron wanted to believe. For the first time, he began to feel like there was some hope. Heralda regarded him with calm expectancy.
"What if I just gave them the money?"
Heralda shook her head. "Corruption would ensue. They need the guidance of an incorrupt man. Who better to be their guide than the man to whom money has no meaning?"
Aaron nodded, saddened, resigned, seeing nothing ahead but a long string of disasters followed by his death at the hands of unhappy subjects. This was his due, what he deserved.
"I'm not worthy. I'm dirty, small, and shallow. " He rose from his chair and made his way around the desk. They stood. Missy appeared concerned while Kim looked only like herself. Heralda seemed distracted, as if she were having a silent conversation. Reaching out, she stopped Aaron as he grasped the doorknob.
"Your soul is troubled," she said. "My God directs that you be cleansed, and so He has told His Ward."
She placed the palms of her hands against his cheeks. "You will do terrible things, Chosen, but for now you will be clean."
Her face softened. Its lines flowed, and the most beautiful of women stared at Aaron while peace washed into the very depths of his bones.
Aaron fell to his knees. Heralda's face was no longer the aged visage of a Freelorn shaman's. It was something different, something strange and holy. Another Being existed within Heralda, a Being Divi
ne.
When the hands left his face the Being turned toward Missy, gave her a smile, and then the Lady turned her gaze upon Kim. "Guard him well Chosen's Acolyte, for he is the instrument of Our will."
"I will," Kim answered.
The Lady turned her eyes once more on Aaron. The warmth of Her regard filled him with such joy he thought he would burst.
"Know you are loved," She said,"and that you have done Our will. We are pleased. " She looked at Missy, and then once more toward Kim. "You are all loved."
She blinked, and then She was gone. Heralda stood once more before them. Her face was a little more haggard. Her wrinkles were a little deeper, her body a little wearier.
Her tranquility inspired.
* * *
"Hold on there, lads. There you go. Easy now."
"Mamma Gwen. Please take this? Thanks."
"Gwen, what do you think you're doing?"
After setting the heavy bag she had just accepted from Emily into the back of the wagon, Gwen fastened her stare on David. Her gaze held something he had never seen from her before. She had never looked at him with love and longing, but always before she had shown respect and fear. David was used to those. He expected and cherished their meaning. He had never thought Gwen could show him contempt.
"I'm leaving, David. I'm leaving before you kill me like you murdered so many of the others."
His anger roiled, but the servants were near, and the wagon sat where any passerby could hear and see what happened. David wanted to pull her down. He wanted to beat sense into her, to pull her into the house where he could wrap his hands around her throat and squeeze until the contempt left her eyes and fear returned.
Contempt?
For the first time in years, David felt a stirring in his loins for Gwen. She was decades past her prime, but something about her suddenly excited him. Her open defiance, perhaps, or maybe the thought she might escape him.
"You can't leave," he ordered, taking everything he had to maintain a reasonable tone. "There is the investigation going on. It wouldn't look right if you left, especially with Amel recently dead and our son dying yesterday. I need you to help plan our revenge on Turner."
"I was clean when I met you," Gwen said quietly. "I was clean and hopeful. The world seemed bright and full of promise, and I knew I had married the most wonderful man in the world."
She spoke softly, but her face appeared bitter. "I want no revenge on Turner. You see, David, I don't blame Aaron Turner for Jerry's death. He saved his little girl. He did what he was supposed to do. He doesn't rape and corrupt his children. He doesn't teach them to murder and destroy. Aaron Turner lives with honor. He lives clean, and he killed my son because my son deserved to die which I lay on your door. You led Jerry to murder."
Stunned, David cast hurried looks around to make sure they had not been overheard. They had been. Four servants and his two youngest daughters were close. Two of those servants were not deaf mutes.
"Be quiet! We can take this up inside. Emily, Susan, go to your rooms. I'll be up to see to you personally."
Turning pale, Susan's lips thinned, but she refused his orders. Instead, she looked to Gwen, received a nod, and awkwardly climbed into the wagon. Emily remained where she stood.
"Why do you want me in my room, Father?" she demanded. "Do you want to fuck me again? It's been three days since the last time. " Her voice rose higher with each word. Servants peered from the house and a wagon stopped on the road out front.
Sweating, David glared at Gwen. "Go if you feel you must," he spat. "You will not take my last daughters. You never gave birth to these, but they came from my seed."
"I'm the only mother they have who is not cowered by you, and they are all I have left now with Jerry gone. The girls come with me."
"Emily. " His attention fastened back on his daughter. What was the girl doing? She was…she was…the damn girl was removing her clothing. She was naked to the waist, and more people stopped on the street and the sidewalk.
David lunged, but Emily dodged with the speed and the agility of the young. The last of her clothes flew toward his face, and she was totally naked. He shook the clothing to the ground as her bare butt scrambled over the edge of the wagon bed. Pausing, she peered over her shoulder.
"Enjoy the view, father. It's the last time you'll see it."
She finished the climb and stood upright as Gwen lifted the reins and started the horses. David wanted to chase after them. Susan's pale face and dead eyes stopped him. Those eyes showed nothing except a hint of hate.
The wagon left through the gate with Emily still standing upright, her budding breasts and womanhood available for everyone to see.
David fumed. This was not right. She was his. His property. His toy.
A servant ran beside the wagon and tried to pass up her shawl to the girl, but Emily pushed it away. Her voice rang out loud and clear.
"My name is Emily Flintlow. My father had my sister killed. He taught my brother how to murder, and he has raped me since I was nine, just as he has done with each of his daughters. Know my father as a monster deserving of contempt. The cleaner of sewers stands far above him."
Gwen just drove on. Sick to his stomach, David watched the wagon move off until it was out of sight, knowing his daughter spewed filth about him the entire way. This was Gwen's fault. She allowed their private lives to become common knowledge. Gods, how had all of this happened?
Turner. By the Gods, the man would be dead before the week was out, and to hell with the consequences.
"Well," he snapped at the servants," what are you looking at? Get back to work, all of you. This isn't the first time a man's wife has left him, nor even the first time a deranged daughter has spouted lies. I have other wives. I have other children. Get back to work."
They ignored him. They actually ignored him. Most walked through the gate, giving notice with their feet. Good riddance to them. He had plenty of servants and could hire more.
Except, he discovered an hour later, he did not have many servants after all. They continued leaving. These later abandonments were accomplished by servants who had taken time to pack their belongings. David watched while one of the deaf women left with many of Gwen's belongings slung over her shoulder in a burlap bag. He didn't doubt she had the serving silver or a few small rolls of cloth packed away. In fact, he did not doubt the entire lot of them were stealing him blind.
Three hours later he sat alone in his home, planning revenge. He chose who he would hire to kill Turner and thought on which of the many people he knew who would serve best to run down his errant wife and children. They, too, deserved what fate dealt them.
The front bell rang. It rang again. David shouted for somebody to answer, but remembered he was alone but for his remaining wives. The stupid whores did not yet realize they had new responsibilities.
He trudged to the front door, swung it wide, and cursed. Damn them to hell! Could Turner's weasels not leave him alone!
"What do you want!"
The gadfly, Jeffries, nodded to a suited man.
"Sir," the man said. "My name is Yale Benford. It is my privilege to be the principle investigator for Jutland's Finance and Trade Agency. I regret to inform you our investigations, along with information supplied to us by one Gwen Flintlow, gives us reason to arrest you on multiple charges of fraud and embezzlement. With me are representatives of Galesward's City Guard. They have separate warrants in regards to intimidation, kidnapping, and murder. Out of respect for your station, we will give you ten minutes to gather your belongings."
David looked at them. They were vultures, vicious and cowardly animals who waited until a man's fortunes were down before daring to bare their teeth. He was not fooled. The ten minutes they granted was so he could do the expected thing. To hell with them. He would not open a vein to prevent a scandal. Most people were sheep. David Flintlow was not.
"I am ready now. " He held out his hands before they had time to place their demands, making not
e of the woman who slid the cuffs on him. She was ruined for the rest of her short life. She just did not know it yet.
"I will fight these charges with every sovereign at my command."
"You don't have many sovereigns to fight with," Jeffries said. "I've seen your accounts. Your wife withdrew a good deal a couple hours ago. The rest of your assets have been frozen. The courts have records proving most of the remaining money belongs to people you embezzled. The papers your wife gave us were very helpful. "
Chapter 28
The next evening Missy still wore a shocked expression after meeting the One God's Messenger. After collecting her, Heralda, Kim, Autumn (who held Zisst), and the still healing Harvest Patton, Aaron transferred to his and Melna's bedroom back at the conference. When they were all together, they created a crowded room.
A problem immediately presented itself. Despite Aaron's intentions, this wasn't his room. The layout looked the same, but nothing within belonged to him. Robes were laid out on the bed. Hangings he had never before seen were on the walls, and the open closet was filled to capacity. Confused, Aaron opened his mouth to apologize, but Kim's finger on his lips stopped him. She pointed to the robes and the hangings.
"Nefran," she whispered.
Ghosting to the bedroom door, she pressed her ear to it for a moment before gesturing for him to follow her example. When Aaron pressed his ear to the door, he frowned.
"…can't understand how matters reached this point. It should have been taken care of before he had time to reach us. " Adoracil Curfras, the Nefran ambassador.
"Supposed to or not," a woman said,"doesn't change the fact. Turner wasn't taken care of. You promised, and you failed, and now we're in an untenable situation. Unless we do something to derail it, there's a good chance this league will go through. It's the sort of thing that appeals to a lot of those bleeding hearts."
