Bloodstone - Power of Youth (Book 3)

by Guy Antibes

  Rearranging the maps on the vast table while he gathered his words, Anchor finally found his voice. “If I had known you would have pressed the prince for my Learsea strategies, I might not have been so offhand in presenting them to him yesterday.” Anchor bowed his head towards Peeron. The prince’s face softened as he nodded towards Anchor. With Peeron’s loss of face restored, Anchor cleared his throat. He took the chance to look around the room to make sure he didn’t notice Sallia. He felt disappointment, but relief as well. Even in her absence, she confused him.

  He began to describe his strategy from the fortifications in northwest Learsea to his plan to move on the southern dukedoms.

  “What about timing?” Lotto said.

  “We can’t determine the timing until we know how many troops Histron commits to Learsea. How is Princess Restella doing in Oringia?”

  “Don’t worry about Oringia cutting you off. She’s making mincemeat of them, now that her hands aren’t tied as they were before. They’ll be under control when the fighting season ends.”

  Anchor nodded. “I suggest that you eventually take Port Scarlet in the west, since it’s Oringia’s only suitable place to land an entire army from Dakkor. But the timing is critical that we coordinate our efforts. If we move together, when the time is right, it won’t matter what Histron does. We can bend on one side and penetrate on another.”

  “That’s assuming Histron’s army doesn’t take Learsea,” the prince said, strolling to the table.

  “I am confident that won’t happen,” Shiro said with such unshakeable confidence that all eyes were on him. “If Histron commits all of his troops—” He looked towards Anchor.

  “Indeed. If he overcommits, we will seal him in Learsea and walk into Foxhome. That would be a last resort, but I believe that Histron is too shrewd to do such a thing.”

  “And how do you know?” Peeron said. Anchor didn’t like the challenge in the prince’s voice. It looked like he hadn’t assuaged the prince, after all.

  Anchor cleared his throat as he fought down the urge to put the prince in his place. “I have observed his recent decisions and there are journals in South Keep that documented other skirmishes with the Duke. His lands are not so far from South Keep. All of his military activities have been documented. Histron has never been one to keep his activities particularly secret.”

  “You talk as if you know the man,” Prince Peeron said, scoffing Anchor’s description of the enemy.

  “Do you think I have lived my life in isolation, Prince? I am a Red Kingdom subject and have a good enough knowledge of the man as well as having read the journals.” Nearly another slip. Anchor felt his forehead warm up. He hoped that weak explanation would be enough.

  “That’s good enough for me, Prince Peeron,” Duke Jellas said. “Continue on, Lord Anchor”

  Anchor laid out his entire plan and let the others in the room pick it apart. When they had finished, the group had done less picking apart and more additional planning for various contingencies were put into the plans of the rest of those present.

  “I’m of the opinion that we have made sufficient progress here to proceed in a more coordinated fashion. Anchor, I’m impressed with your work,” the duke said.

  “As am I,” the Gensler general said. “You have wisdom and creativity beyond your years.”

  Lotto clapped Anchor on the back. “I can’t wait to save the world!” He seemed eager enough. Anchor realized that they probably looked to be much of the same age. Perhaps Anchor looked four or five years older, but he had no idea what age his body really was.

  “Your plan will serve Learsea well,” Peeron said. “Perhaps next time my father will be invited.”

  “Prince,” Duke Jellas said. “Anchor will brief your father next. When we hold another such session, perhaps Shiro can bring the king here.”

  “Why don’t you all go there?” the prince said. Anchor wondered why King Willom had neglected to teach his son proper manners and tone of voice. Every sentence carried an undertone of resentment and condescension.

  “Perhaps we will,” Anchor said. The others nodded.

  “My servants will show you to quarters where you may freshen up before we dine a bit earlier than usual. All of this talk has parched my throat and deprived my stomach of a midday meal,” Jellas said, laughing. Even the prince smiled.

  Anchor stood with Shiro and Chika as the others left. “How badly did the prince botch the plans?”

  “He described a long withdrawal to the capital and then defeating Histron during the siege by cutting off his supply lines.”

  “At least he got the supply line angle right,” Anchor said. “He didn’t mention that the Learsea army would be whittled down substantially enough to let Histron’s forces retreat at will?”

  Shiro shook his head.

  “Thank you for bringing me here,” Anchor said. “I think our Learsea strategy helped the others better figure out what they can do and I feel that we now fight as an alliance.”

  “I do, too,” Shiro said.

  “I like alliances, if they’re done properly,” Chika said.

  Shiro ignored Chika except for a quick glance and ghost of a smile. Anchor was sure Shiro would come up with some kind of equally provocative retort if he was absent.

  Anchor noticed someone coming to the door. He glanced over and went to a knee. “Princess Sallia.” Shiro and Chika gave short bows to the princess and left the room. Anchor’s palms began to sweat. Why did she affect him so?

  “Rise, Lord Anchor,” she said.

  Anchor felt like someone glued his tongue to the top of his mouth.

  She smiled and the room seemed to lighten up. Unca could have made the room lighten up with humor and magic, but she did enough merely with her presence.

  “Your Highness,” he said.

  She sauntered over to the map table. “Can you give me a summary of what you talked about today? The men thought that I wasn’t needed.”

  “Not me, your highness. The goal of the entire plan is to restore Foxhome to you.”

  She smiled, wistfully. “To me? I think not. Foxhome will be restored to the people of the Red Kingdom.” She fingered the pouch that held the Bloodstone as she said it.

  “If you will allow me?” Anchor said and then launched into the briefest of summaries that would give her a good idea of what they planned.

  Sallia put the stone in her palm. “So this isyourplan?” She closed her fist around the stone.

  Anchor chanced a smile. “Precisely, your highness.” He longed to call her Sally once more. “Then you can ride triumphant into Foxhome.”

  She smiled again. “I wish I didn’t have to. So many people will die before that can happen.”

  “More will die if we don’t,”

  Sallia’s face turned grim. “I know. We have no choice.” She pressed her lips tightly together and sighed. “And I know where my royal responsibilities lie.” She laid her hand on his own. Anchor’s heart beat a bit stronger. “I’m glad to have you with me, Anchor. This has all been overwhelming. I’ve had a lot of growing up to do in a very short time as have you?”

  He nearly laughed, he had done just the opposite of grow up. “For me, it’s not the same.”

  Sallia’s eyebrows shot up.

  “How could it? I didn’t lose a kingdom.”

  She looked down at the maps. “I didn’t either. I never had it. My father did. How can I rule the Red Kingdom? I don’t know if I’m up for it.”

  “You just have to display the courage you have exercised from the very beginning. Remember how you saved the burning inn? You probably never had to draw water from a well before, but you performed splendidly in no time.”

  Sallia’s eyes widened. “How did you know?”

  Anchor panicked for a moment. “Unca told me before I first headed into Gensler.” He began to sweat a little more. “That’s why I sought you out. Remember?”

  “I don’t remember you saying that Unca told you.”


  Anchor forced a smile. “I wasn’t exactly in the kind of shape to provide you with much information in Everwet, your Highness.”

  She relaxed. “Certainly. Of course. He mentioned that he knew of you in my only letter from him.”

  His smile widened. “How may I serve you further, Princess?”

  “Answer my letters as I will answer yours.” She pulled out his letter to her, still sealed. “What is in here?”

  Anchor took a deep breath. “Much the same summary as I just gave you.” He dare not repeat the entire letter where he repeated his oath of loyalty.

  He noticed Sallia drawing one of her hands into a fist. “I wish I were queen right now. I very much wish you to be titled in the Red Kingdom as well as Gensler, Anchor. Your counsel is important to me and I want you to continue to advise me in matters not precisely connected with the war. I miss my Unca. Since he is unavailable, perhaps you can you divert your attention to take his place advising me from time to time?”

  “I live to serve, your Highness.” Anchor bowed to her.

  “Please, call me Sallia. A personal advisor must have a more intimate relationship. Don’t you agree?”

  Anchor could feel his heart beat increase. “I… Of course. Whatever you feel is appropriate… Sallia.”

  She smiled. “Good. Now what do you think of Prince Peeron?”

  Dangerous ground. Yet, what interest did she have for Learsea’s prince? “He is—I hesitate to talk about my employer’s son.”

  She now had an impish look to her. “Your employer? Yet you live to serve me?”

  Sallia had him there. He felt that he had to be honest with her. “Prince Peeron is a man to watch. Perhaps he’s not as seasoned as he might be. Fighting in a war can mature a man, or woman, more quickly than in peace.”

  “Does that apply to you as well, Anchor?”

  “Especially to me. I’ve changed quite a bit in the last year or two. More than I would have imagined. I picked up a second hand sword to protect me on the road and now I will soon go to my command as a Lord of Gensler, an advisor to the Princess of the Red Kingdom, and as commander of the forces of Learsea. The glory could easily go to my head.”

  “And yet it doesn’t?” Sallia dragged her finger from Sally’s Corners to where his holdings would be on the map. She looked up to him for an answer.

  “I know my place.” He didn’t know what his place was, but it seemed to be the right answer.

  “I’m sure you do, but which place is that?” Sallia said, echoing his very thought.

  Anchor wanted so much to take her hand in his and tell her all, but he couldn’t. “I fight against the enemies of the Red Kingdom in all three of my roles, Sallia. My ultimate goal, and has been for some time, is to restore you to your rightful place as Queen of the Red Kingdom, sitting on your throne in Foxhome.”

  “A simple advisor would claim that as his goal.”

  “Although it may not appear so, I am anything but a simple advisor.”

  “I look forward to reading this.” Sallia held up his letter again and held out her hand.

  Anchor swallowed and knelt as he took her hand in his and kissed her fingers gently.

  “My advisor is also exceptionally gallant.” Sallia withdrew her hand and held it in her other. “Thank you for this conversation. You must go and refresh yourself before we dine.”

  Anchor recognized her comment as a dismissal and left the map room lost in thought and emotion.

  ~~~

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  ~

  SALLIA WATCHED ANCHOR’S BACK AS HE LEFT THE MAP ROOM. She just about called him back. She put the fingers he kissed to her cheek. Why did she have to bait him so? The man had impressed everybody, yet she could tell that he held secrets close to him. A man of mystery? Is that what prompted her feelings? She felt like the impressionable teen-aged girl she had never been during this meeting with him.

  Would he have displayed such devotion to her before Unca had ripped her from Foxhome and changed her life? He claimed to know Unca, yet she had never remembered seeing him at Foxhome. How many other notable people had she just ignored? She shuddered. She was a different person now, yet she still knew she’d have to change again before Foxhome became hers.

  Perhaps Anchor could advise her with that. She envisioned a series of letters discussing elements of ruling the kingdom. What kind of advice would Anchor provide? He’d never ruled anything. His letters made that plain. He lived to serve her. She would have to put that to the test before she regained her throne, unfortunately.

  He did warn her about Prince Peeron. Sallia had wondered about making a suitable match when she became queen. A marriage of state. Marrying Prince Peeron would unite both Learsea and the Red Kingdom for the first time. Would that not be worth it? However the prince was an odious person. She didn’t know if she could make such a sacrifice. Perhaps the subject of another series of letters with Anchor?

  If Unca ever showed up, he could counsel her about the Prince. Perhaps even about Anchor. Her meeting only gave the man more of an aura of mystery. There was something to him that appealed to her. Unca had accompanied her father to Learsea a few times that she knew of and she wished Unca could advise Anchor about what to do.

  She heard a bell toll and realized that she had to change into something more formal for dinner. She hurried out of the empty map room.

  ~

  Anchor had to select something appropriate from the clothes Morio had dumped on his bed. It had been quite a while since he wore clothing of quality. He rummaged around, finding an outfit and laid it out on the bed. He had to laugh. He had chosen Unca-style clothes. Dark grays and blacks. He’d have to change his wardrobe up a bit.

  How long had it been since he thought of himself as a young man? He winced at the realization that he had never acted ‘young’. His parents had apprenticed him to a wizard at ten years old, and Unca had to dress in black as he served his master and had never really gotten out of the habit, except to wear a light gray cloak and robes.

  He wouldn’t dress like Peeron, that peacock. No. He decided on a dark red tunic and black pants. Anchor didn’t have to totally abandon his own style. His face in the mirror looked more presentable after shaving and his hair, less disheveled. He adjusted his tunic and left for dinner.

  As he walked the halls, he thought of Sallia lightly stepping through these same corridors. Had she really gotten used to her captivity? He thought of it that way, but the truth told a different story. Sallia captivated Anchor. Wherever he walked, circumstances shut him off from her. How could he have fallen in love with a princess? He scoffed, because inside, Unca still existed. Old, rumpled, wizardly Unca. Anchor was an external persona, not a real person, although he had thought of himself as Anchor for quite a while.

  Crackledown’s dining hall rivaled Foxhome’s in size. He walked to the front, following a servant, who led him to a seat one away from the Duke, who had already arrived, chatting with Prince Peeron on the other side.

  “We will eat like kings,” Shiro said as a servant escorted him to the seat on the other side from the Duke.

  Anchor laughed. “We will eat like dukes,” he said. “But kings eat much the same.”

  “I submit to your experience, Anchor.” Shiro looked down on of the two rows of tables extending down from the dais. Anchor followed his eyes to Chika, sitting by herself midway to the end.

  “Your third in command doesn’t sit with the duke,” Anchor said.

  “Sometimes I don’t know who commands, Chika or me? It doesn’t matter. We finally have a good understanding of such things.”

  “She is a tiger,” Anchor said.

  Shiro laughed. “And Chika would say ‘… a tiger with a tail,’ and then she would give me a wink. Her mind is always twirling and letting words twist their meanings in intentionally awkward ways,” Shiro said. Smiling at Chika with his eyes.

  “I’ve born the brunt of that.”

  “She would say that she has a lo
vely brunt,” Shiro said, smiling. He looked over at the prince. “I don’t have to tell you that I don’t trust the prince. This visit to Crackledown has done nothing to change my impression.”

  Anchor nodded with a smile, knowing that others might glance his way, “You don’t have to tell me. Our views are the same. I hope we can come up with a solution.”

  Sallia’s hand brushed his shoulder as she stood on the other side of him, interrupting his words. His train of thought fled as he rose from his seat, along with the duke. Duke Jellas nodded and permitted Anchor to assist Sallia in sitting down. The duke turned back to Peeron after nodding to Sallia.

  “I see you both found suitable clothing for dinner,” Sallia said. She smiled to show her comments were not a slight. “It must be quite a shock to blink your eye and move from a border fort to a castle.”

  “I do it often enough,” Shiro said. His eyes widened and he turned red. Shiro must have realized Sallia addressed Anchor.

  “I don’t know which I like more, except for such charming company,” Anchor said. “I’ve come to enjoy working physically with the rankers and teaching myself more history and strategy at South Keep. It has been stimulating… sort of an extension of my rebirth as a warrior.”

  Shiro touched Anchor’s elbow under the table. Anchor smiled as he had let on a bit more that he should have. Sallia’s presence muddled his mind, as it never did before. She had changed from when he left her in the winter. The princess acted more like a princess and less like the aloof, disdainful woman that had escaped from Foxhome. She had let her poise slide at his holding, but now she had let it show, without the petulance. He could see how her capture had changed her. Others might be spoiled forever, but she seemed to have used her time at his holding as a transition period in her life and the horrid experiences in Everwet had to have strengthened her even more.

  “He has learned much in South Keep, princess,” Shiro said. “We have sparred and fought to a draw. I never am beaten. I can barely say that now.” He slapped Anchor on the shoulder.