The Kingdoms of Laruta: Book 1: Campaigns Against the Olden (Grim's Labyrinth Series)

by Grim's Labyrinth Publishing

  In a small Kyllary village, called Deso, surrounded by a thick forest, with only dirt roads going through it, the new levies led to catastrophic results for the local peasants. The village had produced the same crops on the same fields, and managed the same livestock for countless generations. There was a Duke of Deso, who owned all of the land in the district, or rather he held the title of governor and supervisor over the land, and who had let peasants farm it and make a subsistence farming lifestyle of it. They never had enough to purchase luxury items from Kyllary’s cities, but they always had enough clothing, food, and household goods they could make themselves to live calm, strenuous, but fulfilling lives. There was an elderly wizard, Koppet, who ran a school for the children and taught magic to a small group of his pupils that showed a talent for it. The witches and wizards that came out of his tutoring became the local healers, menders, and potion brewers. Koppet’s oldest living student and his assistant at wizardry was Reth, who lived with the old man in a spacious guestroom and took care of Koppet’s housework and preparing for lessons, as Koppet’s eyes were tired, and despite many rejuvenating spells and potions, Koppet’s back and joints were fading away. Both Reth and Koppet knew that the end was near for the ancient wizard, and Koppet had encouraged Reth to begin looking for an assistant for himself in anticipation of the demise that was imminent.

  The levies shifted the entire fabric of village life. They had been planting exactly the amount of crops (I say crops here because it would be difficult to explain how each of these differed from crops on Earth) that they needed to live on, but suddenly they had to give half away to the crown through the Duke of Deso and through the armies of levy collectors that swarmed on the village on a monthly basis. They suddenly had only half a loaf to eat at dinner, and had to sacrifice a pair of pants or a shirt. They were left half-naked and half-starved.

  Koppet and Reth also felt the weight of these taxes, as they were asked to pay levies for running their potion-making and medical practice, and for running the school. Even if none of the students had been paying any tuition, the fact that there was a business in place meant that they had to pay to keep the business open. There were laws against magically generating gold and government coins, so Koppet and Reth had to create decorative items or special love potions and ship these to the cities for sale to generate the extra necessary funds. All this work exhausted them, and left little energy for tutoring young minds, just when they needed help with learning how to survive in those troublesome times. Reth began taking weekly trips on their one two-headed flying beast into Tur, where he traded the items they were crafting.

  One evening, Reth was flying back in from one of these trips when he heard a commotion and screams coming from the village’s central marketplace. He took a sharp turn and flew over the marketplace to study the scene. He saw that a troop of levy collectors had rounded up five farmers who had already lost a limb or a sense in the second wave of nonpayment punishments, and were now facing the final choice of signing the Soul Contract, or losing their lives. While during the first and the second round of punishments, most of the villagers that had found a way to pay the levies stayed home, this time the vast majority was outside glumly watching as the collectors were preparing for the coming executions. Reth noticed a boy among those who were lined up for slaughter who was a pupil at his wizard school.

  Arx was a diligent student, and showed both a talent for and the concentration necessary for the study of magic in the first days he spent at the school when he was five, and a decade had gone by when he showed extraordinary achievements that were well beyond his years. He could summon animals on a hunt. He could make plants grow at a much faster rate. He memorized the ingredients for all of the potions that were typically needed by villagers to cure their common ailments, and he mixed these potions with expert speed. All of this made him into Reth’s first candidate for the role of his assistant, when the job would become available.

  The trouble was that Arx’s father had died a couple of years earlier, leaving behind ten children and a single mother to take care of the brood, without any inheritance aside from a small hut that housed them, and the ability to plant the land as he taught them. Arx was the oldest son in the family, so the responsibility of paying the levies fell onto him. Reth hadn’t seen Arx in class for a couple of weeks, and did not know that Arx had been deprived of his eyesight in the second round of failing to pay taxes. The loss of his eyesight made it impossible for Arx to help the family meet the required levies through magic or on the field, and he helplessly waited for this round to lose his life. Seeing Arx hunched over and stumbling in the darkness in the line of those scheduled for execution distressed Reth, and it affected most of the other villagers in the same way. Here was their brightest mind, a wizard that was destined to become the great healer and teacher of the community in the next generation, and he would be slaughtered in front of them, in a display of the death of their brightest hopes.

  “You are all charged with defrauding the kingdom of its levies. One last time, can any of you find a way to pay the amounts requested immediately?” a finely dressed knight who was leading the levy collectors asked.

  A deadly silence was the response.

  “Your silence indicates that you are refusing to pay the king his levies, and that you are all forfeiting your lives, your domiciles, and all other earthly possessions to the kingdom.”

  The men and women waiting to be executed trembled at these words, but attempted to look brave for the villagers that were watching the scene.

  “Stop!” Reth couldn’t help exclaiming as the executioner’s axe was readied and Arx was taken to a podium with the bloody stand that was to serve as his resting place.

  The head knight looked up at Reth.

  “You are interfering with the work of the justice system. Immediately come down and issue a formal apology, or you will be found guilty of assisting levy dodgers!”

  Reth was so affected by this violent demand that he pulled too hard on his reins, and his beast stood up on his hind legs in midair, nearly throwing Reth off. This new shock enraged Reth despite his usual composure.

  “This isn’t justice! You’re about to massacre poor people that have sacrificed everything they could to meet your demands. You’re nothing but common thugs trying to rob these good people of their money!”

  “You dare to speak against the crown!”

  “I was speaking against you, but yes, I’d say that any crown that sanctions this sort of outrage is guilty of a crime that should be punishable by death! And poverty is no such crime!”

  “Now you’re just talking treason, and if you say another word, we will come up there and will drag your head down to the same block your pals are on!”

  “Rebel, my good people! That’s the word I’ve got to say,” Reth screamed out, projecting loudly enough for everybody to hear. He pointed his finger at the knight who was speaking and fire shot out of it at the knight.

  The knight jumped out of the way, and it only singed his back.

  The other knights meanwhile either took out their swords or stretched out their fingers. There were three wizards among them that pointed fingers. Seeing that there were three wizards against one, four of Reth’s witchcraft students stretched out their fingers and pointed them as well. A few of the peasants that had brought knives or small swords with them, anticipating trouble, took these out and now engaged the troop of armed knights. The peasants that came unarmed scrambled out of what momentarily became the field of battle, running into their huts, or into the nearby forest for cover. A couple of them were hit by the wizard knights, who fired indiscriminately at those who were attacking them and at those who were retreating.

  The screams of those who were injured and a few that were dying on both sides quickly filled the field.

  Reth was battling in the air with a couple of knight wizards that took flight on their beasts to fight on the same level with Reth. Combat was a skill Reth had mastered when as a youth he t
emporarily joined the prior king’s wizard army. Of late, he had only practiced shooting on his hunts, but his instinct for warfare was as sharp as ever. He made a few maneuvers, ducking and turning abruptly on his beast so that he was always behind both of the knights, despite their efforts to get him in their shooting range. Reth’s beast was also faster and more maneuverable than theirs because Reth had bred, trained, and fed him potions that were his own inventions. The knights kept firing and missing their target, and, after dodging them for a bit, Reth had a clear shot and took one of them out. Without stopping for a moment, Reth zoomed through the sky to get out of the other one’s range and shot him twice, straight in his chest, so that both he and his beast were engulfed in a fiery explosion.

  Before the explosion had simmered out, Reth was on the ground, galloping to help his students, as they were struggling against the trained and experienced knight wizards. Reth noticed the body of a young pupil of his, Riora, who had been hit with a violent cutting spell, and this brought out his primal survival instincts, so that he struck at the wizard knights with lightning speed, taking down a knight with each of his strikes. Finally, the head knight was the only king’s wizard left on the field, and Reth went after him. They exchanged several blows with their fingers and then the head knight took out his sword. To avoid an unfair fight, Reth grabbed a sword that belonged to one of the fallen knights and met his steel with his own. Reth’s military training was once again instrumental, and he managed to hold his own in the fight, at first taking a defensive position and repelling blows, and then taking the offensive and jumping at the head knight with skillful lunges. The head knight managed to scratch through Reth’s sleeve, and leave a bloody mark on it, but this boiled Reth’s blood and he quickly ended the fight by striking the head knight through the chest to the hilt of his sword. The head knight gave a short scream and then collapsed, lifeless.

  Reth looked around and saw that the rebels were victorious and there were no knights left on the field of battle. But, the victory came at the price of the lives of a few of the peasants, and a couple of wizard craft students, so the villagers were studying the bodies with forlorn gloom, each thinking about what was in store for them once their rebellion was discovered and more of the king’s troops arrived to take their revenge.

  Seeing that they had won for now, the peasants that had retreated into hiding came forward. Seeing the horror in all of their faces, Reth spoke up. “My good neighbors,” he said in a steady voice that attempted to project his love for his people and his confidence in them, “this has been a terrible battle, but now that we’ve taken this step, we cannot go backwards. We must bury the dead, we must tend to the wounded, and we must gather our resources and solicit help from other villages, and all other defenders of what is good and just. A few of you might want to leave this village and escape to a safe harbor, and I would encourage those among you who want to avoid the fighting that must come to do so. But, all those who stay, must be ready to take all necessary actions for us to defend ourselves against tyranny, corruption, theft, and murder! So, raise your fists into the air if you want to stay and fight for our lives!”

  All of the peasants in the marketplace, in the field around it, and in the doorways of houses raised their fists up and gave cheers of support. After a brief exchange, Reth approached Arx, who had crouched down on the ground and hid his head during the fighting. Reth was familiar with the binding spells the knight wizards put over their blinding spell, so he managed to reverse its effects, and returned Arx’s sight. Arx hugged him tightly around the shoulders and thanked him profusely, through the tears that filled his eyes, just as they were regaining focus on the images before them.

  Meanwhile the villagers began gathering their strengths and resources. They buried their dead, and applied magic potions to the wounds of the wounded. Almost all of them stayed to help with the coming fight, but a few of the youngest and oldest were sent away to a distant retreat, where fighting couldn’t reach them.

  Reth sent messengers to a dozen of the neighboring villages, and went to the capital to find support among his old radical army friends there. He went to a salon that he always frequented in the city that had sponsored a few prior coups and was openly planning a new coup that very night. A few of the guests came in masks for this occasion because they wanted to keep their identities secret, and Reth was among them, as he knew that news of the death of the knights would have reached the capital by that point and the coup plotters at that salon were likely to include some members of the king’s advisers that could flip-flop and turn him in as easily as they could’ve helped him with his rebellion.

  The salon opened with scattered chatter about the arts, fashion, and then gradually, after a few of the less politically inclined ladies had departed, the conversations moved on to possible plots and schemes for radical takeovers. Reth was in a group with a couple of the top radical politicians that he knew from his days in the service. They all recognized him despite his mask, and knew before he began speaking that he was there to seek their assistance with his rebellion. There was also a beautiful masked lady in that circle, who remained silent, and listened to the men’s discussion of possible strategies of winning an anti-levy rebellion. When the conversation started leaning into specifics, the men in the circle became more aware of her mysterious presence, as somehow they all failed to place what her name might be. There were only a few politically active radical women in Tur, and her form didn’t match any of them. Her figure was also disguised in a dress that hid her exact proportions, and her hair and head were covered in a thick pink wig that covered even the shape of the face with streaming curls.

  “Madame,” one of the politicians finally said, “it is not usually our custom to ask those who are masked who they are, but the nature of this conversation is very sensitive, and we are all simply dying to know who you might be.”

  “I would like to speak with Reth alone, if possible,” she said quietly, in a manner and accent that hid even her voice from being recognized.

  “Yes, of course,” Reth said, forgetting that he was supposed to be masked as well. “Let’s step into the library, and chat there. I believe it’s abandoned,” Reth said, and led the mysterious woman into that other room at the end of a long hallway.

  When he had locked the door to the library, the woman sat down in a decorative chair at the main table, and pointed for Reth to sit across from her. Once he was seated, she took off her mask, and Reth immediately recognized her as Queen Ronela.

  “Your Majesty!” Reth exclaimed, jumping up and bowing. He was seized with fear of a potential counter-plot to have him arrested at that salon, and that the queen might have been the gentle deliverer of a death sentence.

  “No, don’t bow. I asked you to just be seated. And please, do be quiet. Nobody else knows that I’m here. If you keep screaming, ‘Your Majesty,’ there won’t be anybody in the neighborhood that won’t know where I was this evening,” she said, pretty frightened herself at seeing Reth so affected by her identity.

  “Yes of course, Your Majesty,” Reth said in a soft whisper, taking a seat again, and listening intensely for what the queen might say next.

  “The news of the rebellion in your village has distressed me greatly. To think that lives have been lost over these unthinkable levies! The punishments they are dealing out for those who can’t pay the levies are just unpardonable! You were certainly in the right to speak out against it and to take actions to defend yourself and your village.”

  “It means more to me to hear you say it than everybody else proclaiming the same in that salon. You do me a great honor.” Reth bowed his head.

  “I really want to do a lot more to help you than just expressing my support,” the queen said, taking Reth’s hands into her small hands. “Tell me, how can I assist you?”

  “It’s just so difficult for me to imagine why you would want to jeopardize your position and possibly your life to help our cause, even if it is just and righteous…”
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br />   “It’s a simple case of dissatisfaction with the kingdom as it is and a need to contribute more than sexual services to the service of the kingdom… I don’t know how any queen can be happy with nothing more than the services of the bedroom, but I’m suffocating in that gilded room, and I need to stretch the wings of my power and attempt to make a difference with the power at my disposal.”

  “Yes, Your Majesty. I’m very sorry that I inquired, it wasn’t my place…”

  “No, no, please do inquire.”

  “Thank you, Your Majesty, but to return to your question, there are many things to be done and countless ways for you to help us.”

  “Name them.”

  “We need intelligence of where the king’s troops will be… intelligence on his strategy… But, you understand that this rebellion might turn into an overthrow… of the king… You would of course not be affected…”

  “I understand, and I knew that a coup was imminent when I accepted the king’s hand in marriage. There are many queens living out the rest of their lives in the countryside, after the deaths of their royal husbands. If the people are fighting justly for an overthrow, I’d rather be in their midst than asleep in bed when the coup comes. I will do my best to provide the intelligence that you require. Would you like to communicate via the mail birds or with secret letter messengers and codes?”

  “If you have birds at your disposal, we should utilize them. Messengers run a great risk delivering these sorts of communication into and out of the palace.”

  Reth and Queen Ronela spoke for a long time, as they ironed out the details of their collaboration, so that when they had finished and Reth escorted the queen to the door, both of them putting their masks back on, as a precaution, they noticed that the other salon visitors had all gone home, and even the owners of the house had retired to bed, leaving only the old butler at the door to give them their coats and to fetch their flying beasts.

  Immediately upon returning to the castle, the queen rummaged through the king’s desk, and made magical copies of all key documents. The queen had received a basic education in magic and knew enough of it to put it to practical use. She shrunk down to a tiny size to listen in on the king’s military meetings, as he prepared to wage war against the rebels, and speedily sent news to Reth, so that the rebels knew where the attacks would come from, the strengths and numbers of the attackers, and their positions. But, all this information proved to be insufficient against the sheer numbers of knights and wizards at the king’s disposal. He also became suspicious of a possible spy after the enemies seemed to know his plans in advance, and he became more secretive, and more difficult to read.