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

by Grim's Labyrinth Publishing

  Queen Ronela typically lost her appetite even before entering this room. If she ate, it was typically a bit of warm water with leaves of invigorating local plants, with a pastry, or with some other light snack, back in her own rooms. These rooms could be accessed by a winding white-carpeted staircase that went up past an arched ceiling into a small tower with two floors of rooms, which were decorated with exotic plants, and included a library room, which had a large dark-wood desk with drawers at which Ronela did her research, wrote her formal and informal communications, and otherwise spent most of her waking hours on a little wooden stool that was purposefully sturdy and allowed her to focus on her task without the distraction of comfort. The desk was positioned under a window that allowed for a view of most of the castle and the fields and forest that surrounded it.

  Ronela’s eyes only wandered onto this sight when she was distracted and couldn’t focus on the work at hand, as happened one day, when Sergeant Gerp and the Teag Islands fluttered into her memory. She looked out a little pond outside the castle’s walls, but she saw the waterfall and Gerp on the islands.

  When her mind was furthest from her study, without a knock and without Ronela noticing, King Lohsa entered and slyly walked over and stood by her table, blocking the view of the pond that she was admiring. Being caught at an unusual moment when her concentration was waning was deeply embarrassing for Ronela. She flushed red with fury.

  “How dare you barge into my study while I’m working!” she screamed out in a tone that was highly unusual for her. She typically managed to control the tone of her voice and the lines of her face to hide all hints of emotion, but something about King Lohsa’s grin and mocking stare broke through all of her defenses.

  “What! This is my castle! I invited you into it when I married you! How dare you say that I can’t walk as I please into a room in my own castle!?”

  “So, now I’m not at home even in my study! You won’t leave even if I ask you to?!”

  “Why should I leave? Who’s going to make me leave!? I’m the king!”

  “Are you!? Well, are you just going to stand there staring if I go back to work?!”

  “Perhaps I will. What are you going to do to stop me?!”

  “I just might do something…”

  “Oh, really, and what do you imagine you’ll do?”

  “Do you really want to find out what I can do at my worst!?”

  “I do. I should know what you’re capable of!”

  “Perhaps, I’ve already done it!”

  “Have you? So, what is it that you’ve done?!”

  “It’s possible that I’ve found happiness in the arms of another man!”

  “Unholy slut!”

  “As if you’ve been faithful to me…”

  “I have. I believe that’s the nature of the agreement we entered. And, it’s… illegal for a queen to do as you suggest you’ve done!”

  “Illegal?! What are you going to do? Are you going to stage a public flogging?”

  “Some queens have been executed for less.”

  “Only by brutish kings that were assassinated themselves soon afterwards.”

  “I don’t believe this supposed affair you’ve had… Do you have any proof of it?”

  “You’d like proof? Like a baby with eyes that aren’t exactly the right color?”

  “So, who exactly are you saying you had an affair with?! There’s nobody in my court that would dare to sleep around with my queen!”

  “Maybe it wasn’t with anybody in your court!”

  “Did you sleep with some goat herder outside the gates?”

  “Certainly not!”

  “Oh, so, who with then?”

  “You insist on knowing!”

  “I do.”

  “And what will you do when you know?”

  “I’ll do what the man deserves!”

  “You couldn’t do anything with that good man even if you had all the magic in the world!”

  “How’s that? Is he in hell already?”

  “In hell?”

  “Yes, where else is there a place where I can’t do something about a man bedding my wife!?”

  “There is another place…”

  “If not in hell, perhaps up in the clouds?”

  “No, not there either…”

  “In this castle?”

  “No.”

  “In the city of Tur?”

  “No.”

  “When have you been outside of Tur?”

  “You know when.”

  “Ah, so you’re saying that you slept with somebody at the Teag Islands.”

  “I am saying that.”

  “Somebody on our boat!?”

  “No. Not on our boat?”

  “You left the boat to be with some Olden fool!”

  “I did. And, if anybody’s a fool and a cuckold, it’s you.”

  “I’ll sack all of Olden to find and put him on trial for treason!”

  “You’ll lose, just like you lost on the Teag Islands. He’s better at warfare than you are and he’ll outsmart you again, and you’ll be left looking like the fool that you are.”

  “No, you’re talking treason yourself. Watch out, woman! You’re not above my rule!”

  “I might have some tricks up my sleeve. You can try to put me on trial for treason, and I might just find some who’d rather be rid of you than me!”

  “That’d be rich! You think my advisers will just support you? A woman?”

  “Some of them might think you’re mad…”

  “Mad!? Nobody has said that I’m mad!”

  “They have, just not to your face!”

  “I’m as sane as any king.”

  “That ain’t saying much…”

  “Now, you insult the entire royal line?”

  “What line? It’s more of an infestation.”

  “If you won’t see reason, I’m thinking of a few drastic measures that might make you see it.”

  “There’s only one way for us to resolve this matter permanently.”

  “So, you’re making a direct death threat?!”

  “And you’re truly beginning to act like a madman! No. Not that way. We must annul our marriage.”

  “Annul?! Hasn’t most of the court seen out copulations? I doubt any of them can be convinced that we’ve been abstinent and haven’t managed to have intercourse.”

  “There are other reasons an annulment might be legal.”

  “Such as?”

  “I can simply confess that I was having an affair with somebody of the Olden faith.”

  “If you do that, I’d have to claim that you were acting treasonously, or it would be the most bankrupting insult of my reign.”

  Ronela thought for a moment, searching for other ways out of their dilemma. “Perhaps we share an ancestor?”

  “An ancestor? And we just found out about it now?”

  “It doesn’t have to be a fiction. If one searches far enough back, most people on Kyllary are related somehow. And the amount of inbreeding in the aristocracy…”

  “Do you have genealogical books here?”

  “Yes,” Ronela said, and went over to a lower shelf that kept those dusty volumes. She took several out and spread them out on a side table that she used when she had too many books to examine to lay them all out on her writing desk.

  King Lohsa and Queen Ronela spent the next few hours closely examining each of these books, and did find that they had a common ancestor that was close enough to be a fair enough grounds for an annulment. If they were not the reigning monarchs, this wouldn’t have been an acceptable excuse, but since they were, there were few in the kingdom that could object to their mutual decision. The annulment couldn’t happen right away though as the Great Council, other advisers, and judges had to be consulted and had to give their consent first.

  The key personage that had to give his permission for the annulment was the Deputy of Niton, the man who held the highest magical post in all of Kyllary. Deputy Sah was
elderly and he was firmly against divorces regardless of the reasons presented. Once the plan was agreed upon, King Lohsa was determined to carry it out, so he implied to Deputy Sah that he either had to sanction the annulment or it would be better for his health if he stepped aside and allowed for a new election for the post of Deputy of Niton to be carried out. Very few deputies had willingly stepped aside from the post before their death ended their term. But, the king tossed in a castle and a large plot of land for Deputy Sah to enjoy his retirement in, and this sealed his agreement. Deputy Sah departed for his castle, and the Chief Magicians gathered in their grand meeting room to decide who among them was fit to be the next Deputy of Niton. To avoid somebody taking over that also did not approve of annulment, King Lohsa sent in spies to take the measure of the Chief Magicians and their likely view on the matter. Once he had the information, he went about using his overflowing coffers to line the pockets of many of the Chief Magicians to side with his pick for the post. Thus, the “right” man for the job was soon found and promoted into the high office.

  Deputy Yaw approved King Lohsa’s plan for the annulment on his first day in the post, as he knew exactly how he came into possession of that position. But, there were still several formal steps, ceremonies, and queries that had to be made, so the matter was put on another hold.

  Living in the castle with King Lohsa was unbearable for Queen Ronela during this period of waiting. And King Lohsa was also frustrated out of his mind with the situation. He partially reopened his old harem because his frustration was in part sexual in nature. But, no amount of fucking was enough for him to forget the bitter betrayal he suffered at Queen Ronela’s hands. In his eyes, he had been a loyal and good husband, and there was no excuse for her treacherous behavior, which had now forced him into corrupting the highest magical post in the land.

  One of the matters that distressed the king was that the election of Deputy Yaw cost him a good deal of the coin he collected through taxation, as the castle and the bribes the Chief Magicians demanded were costlier than any other items the king might have wanted to purchase on a whim. The king wracked his brain trying to think of a way to replenish the coffers, and finally devised a plan that amazed the council due to its originality.

  “We’ll create a magical remnant that we’ll say belonged to Niton himself.”

  “How would that help us?” asked Moc.

  “We’ll display it to draw crowds of tourists to Tur.”

  “And why would that be profitable?”

  “We’ll sell tickets to a viewing of this remnant.”

  “How much can we charge, though, without seeming to be taking advantage of a magical item?”

  “We won’t charge too much. We’ll also make a profit from tourists buying things in Tur at much higher tax rates than the locals, say thirty percent taxes for hotel stays, and for food at the taverns.”

  “That would be a healthy profit.”

  “But, what kind of a ‘remnant’ can we create?”

  “A shirt?”

  “Pants?”

  “A coin?”

  “A napkin?”

  “Why don’t we just create a tissue he wiped his rump with?” King Lohsa said in frustration.

  “No. What about a potion bottle?” a council member proposed, brightening.

  “Ah, here is a good idea,” the king said admiringly. “We can put our best magical craftsmen to designing a bottle that’s typical for Niton’s period. It shouldn’t be too luxurious, but not the bottle of a peasant wizard either. And we must take care to give it some magical remnants that would convince the toughest critics that it belonged to Niton himself. We can’t be found out.”

  The matter was settled, and pretty soon the remnant potion bottle was crafted and spelled into being a believable artifact that was passed down from Niton’s possession. An elaborate archeological dig was carried out in a place that was known to be a Niton residence, and this potion bottle was “found” there. It was “cleaned” and polished to make it presentable to the public, and quickly put on display in a little stone museum that was erected in its honor just outside the castle’s gates. As predicted, announcements of this find brought crowds of Niton worshippers to the capital to see this remnant and the king’s coffers were quickly replenished.

  When the king stopped worrying about his coffers, his thoughts returned to the looming annulment of his marriage to Ronela. He brought the matter to the attention of Deputy Yaw, who confirmed that he had taken the necessary steps and it was nearly time for the annulment ceremony, but before he could proceed, he requested that King Lohsa do an act of submission before him in front of the court and the Great Council. The act of submission was not a common step for all new Deputies of Niton, but it could be required if a deputy felt that the king had something he had to ask his forgiveness for, or in this case the annulment was something out of the ordinary that was a justifiable reason to explain the necessity of the act of submission.

  The act of submission was scheduled for a weekend, when every aristocrat and adviser could attend and observe the king’s atypical humiliation. The act itself was composed of the king crawling on his knees across the entire length of the great hall, past all of his subjects, kissing the dirty stones of the floor as he went. When he finally made it over to the front, where Deputy Yaw sat on his kingly throne, he shuffled around on his knees to show Deputy Yaw his butt. When it was properly displayed, with the royal garments lowered to reveal the flesh, Deputy Yaw took a wand and demonstratively spanked King Lohsa on the buttocks with his long wand. The king did his best not to scream out in pain, as any display of pain during this procession was frowned upon. Once the spanking was finished, or when the butt was pink all over, Deputy Yaw said, “And now, my child, you may pull up your pants!”

  The king obeyed, pulling them up, and waiting on his knees for further instructions.

  “And now, my child, you may kiss my magical feet,” Deputy Yaw proclaimed, graciously sticking out his little right foot in its gilded high-heeled shoe.

  King Lohsa kissed this shoe, as was the custom.

  “And now, my child, you may beg me for my forgiveness,” Deputy Yaw announced.

  “Please, Your Highness Deputy of Niton, Deputy Yaw, please, in all of your goodness and fairness and justice, would you forgive me for my awful deeds and thoughts, and would you grant me the right to submit before you for as long as you shall live?” King Lohsa begged with some feeling, as this act of submission had left him truly mortified and humbled.

  “All right, my child, I grant you my forgiveness, and accept your submission, you may rise, and sit at my side.”

  The king slowly rose and sat on the side throne that was typically occupied by Queen Ronela, who was now sitting on a throne that was added to the left for this occasion. King Lohsa couldn’t stand to look over at Ronela, as he knew she would be grinning, and she certainly was.

  This act of submission was pretty uncommon at the court, as the deputies frequently lived very long lives and an act of submission could only take place when a new deputy was meeting the king. Lohsa had never seen this full ritual performed, and when he read over the details of what was expected of him, he was already questioning the soundness of his decision to retire the old deputy and to replace him with this Deputy Yaw that had the guts to make him go through the act of submission after he accepted all that bribe money from his coffers. As King Lohsa sat on the queen’s throne, trying to avoid meeting the eyes of any in the audience, he was fuming and thinking of ways he could retaliate against the world for putting him through all that misery despite his possession of the most powerful office on the continent.

  Thus, when Deputy Yaw proposed arresting all of the wealthy Olden across the continent of Kyllary, and forbidding all other Olden from lending money, engaging in mercantile trade, and other profitable ventures, King Lohsa supported these harsh edicts. In part, he blamed the Olden for corrupting Ronela’s mind and seducing her into bedding one of them.

>   The knights that had previously been commissioned to collect levies now were put to the task of rounding up and imprisoning or seizing the assets of the Olden. Immigration between continents wasn’t very common, but at least five percent of Kyllary was made up of either pure-blood or mixed Olden immigrants, who had come to Kyllary for jobs, business ventures, for love, or for some other practical or emotional reasons. The roundup and persecution of the Olden was not entirely new, as there had been many similar persecutions in earlier reigns when they were blamed for various unrelated problems Kyllary might have suffered from. The ongoing wars between the Country of the Olden and the Kingdom of Kyllary meant that immigrants between the two were frequently in uncomfortable positions, being suspected of espionage or disloyalty. The fact that the Teag Islands were lost under strange circumstances that suggested that the Olden had inside knowledge of Kyllary’s intelligence only heightened these fears.

  The arrests and seizures put some profits into the king’s and the deputy’s coffers, but they failed to make any dent in determining how the Olden won at the Teag Islands. King Lohsa knew that the fault must have been with Queen Ronela and her affair with some key military personage from among the Olden leaders. She must’ve betrayed not only his bed, but also her country’s military plans. He considered telling Deputy Yaw and others about these suspicions, but it would’ve meant also revealing that he had been cuckolded and after the submission he endured, he couldn’t stand another humiliation.

  Deputy Yaw, meanwhile, was losing his self-possession due to the failure of his initial campaigns against the Olden to produce a solid result that might have shown the positive changes he was making in the kingdom. In an effort to make a larger dent on what he perceived as a major problem that was preventing the smooth operation of the kingdom’s business, Deputy Yaw called for the drowning of all of the wealthy Olden that had been caught in Kyllary and had been held in prisons. They were led out into prison courtyards and city squares and were drowned in temporary pools that were created for this purpose. Rocks were attached to the victims’ necks and they were dropped into the shallow pools, where they struggled hopelessly, just below the surface of the water, but could never get loose of the ropes that held their necks at the side of the rocks that would fall to the bottom of the pool.