Portals of Infinity: Book Four: The Sea of Grass (4 page)

"Yes your Highness," he said bobbing his head up and down. I could tell he was pretty happy to finally be allowed to build
something
. Up to now only our merchants had been doing any ship building.

"What about our relations with King Ruusolf?" Shellia, the foreign minister asked.

"What about them?" Rachel asked leaning back in her chair.

"He sent another request asking for a royal visit."

Rachel nodded, "King Ruusolf is weak right now, after last year's battle with those troops that came up out of Barassa, Marland is in danger of falling apart, and if it does many of those pieces will end up annexed into our lands." Rachel stopped and looked around at the other councilors. "If Ruusolf wants our help, he can come to us and ask for it. Let him know that the invitation stands. My traveling to Marland would probably invite an attack from Stivik while I was there.

"Ruusolf has sat on the fence too long, it is time for him to pick a side, and I want to see which one that is. If he picks Barassa, we will be relieving him of all those troublesome provinces of his that lie on our border. If he picks ours, we will make him an ally."

"Are you sure about that, Your Highness?" Shellia asked surprised. Obviously she hadn't heard this strategy before.

Rachel nodded, "Marland has survived this long by playing off the neighboring kingdoms and city states against each other. Well that strategy won't work here, and I'm not going to play into it. He takes a stand, or he loses everything. He picks us, or he loses half of everything. He's smart enough to see the options on the table, so now it's time he understands that I see them too."

Shellia ducked her head in a nod, ears flicking. "Yes your Highness."

"Now, I believe Brandt has our interior reports?" Rachel said turning to the councilor who had replaced Diament after his death defending Rachel's and my son.

He nodded and started in on reviewing our food stores, farm status, and the conditions of each of Hiland's cities, and several of the smaller projects that were currently ongoing. I didn't pay too much attention to it; I was mainly here just to growl at anyone Rachel wanted me to growl at, and to help represent any of Fel's interests, along with Narasamman, the high priestess who also sat on the council.

When the council adjourned Rigel came over to me as the other councilors were leaving.

"Will, a moment if I may?" he asked.

"Sure, Councilor Rigel," I said as Rachel was still discussing something with Drea, the mayor of Rivervail, and her aunt Reese who was the mayor of Hiland city.

"Please, just call me Rigel," he said and I nodded. "Other than the slave markets doing so poorly, what did you see about the other markets?"

"They seemed to be doing okay, though I did hear more than a few people complaining about the lack of better goods, as well as prices being higher than they were used to. Why do you ask?"

He nodded, "A moment, what about the troops you saw? How did they look?"

I shrugged, "They looked fairly normal, nothing different."

"What about their morale?"

"Seemed okay to me, though I didn't really speak to any of them."

"And the condition of the city?"

I thought a moment, "Well I did notice that some of the defenses were in need of repair, and not all of the guard posts were manned. Also some of the larger projects looked like they were on hold. Why do you ask?"

At this point Rachel came over, "Yes, Rigel, why do you ask?"

He bowed, "Your Highness, as you observed earlier if King Stivik can't afford to pay his armies to attack us, then he won't. But consider this, Barassa's money almost exclusively comes from the slave trade, it is the prime source of cash for the king. Now what happens if he no longer gets enough money to pay for all the things he must have?"

I thought about that as I watched Rachel consider it. I knew back where I grew up the first things cut were always the police and the military. Because people might revolt if you cut their bread and circuses.

"He'll be forced to cut his army back, and probably the city guard. As well as any new building and possibly even repairs." Rachel said looking at Rigel.

He nodded, "And if the crown is short of money, the people are sure to be short of money as well. Which means levies and taxes are increased, making the people less well off, and less satisfied with their ruler."

"So what does that mean to us?" I asked curious as to where he was going with this.

"Well in the short term, it means that as our queen here noted, we won't be seeing any serious attacks from King Stivik's armies."

"And in the long term?" Rachel asked.

"In the long run, it means that the size and quality of his armies decrease. At first he'll probably cut the guard and raise taxes. Criminals will take advantage of the lower number of guards, crime will rise, and the people will start to get upset. So he'll have to cut his armies even further to prop up the city guard to restore order and keep his throne.

"Less trade will mean spiking prices, lower standard of living, and less money for the people to buy things, which means, less traders coming to the city, followed by shortages, and lower tax revenues."

"Well that sounds good for us," Rachel said nodding.

"Well yes it does, however there is a bit of a problem," Rigel said.

"And that would be?"

"Well, in order for this to happen, Barassa's slave trade would have to continue to diminish, and other traders would have to decide that it wasn't worth selling their wares there as well." He looked at Rachel and me, "This is all just a theory of mine, but I do think if the slave trade doesn't recover, Barassa's power will wither away over time."

I looked at Rachel and she looked back at me and smiled.

"I think I know how to keep Barassa's slave trade from returning to its former levels," Rachel said. "How long do you think it would take for it to have a major impact on their kingdom?"

Rigel shrugged, "A few years at least. Probably three or four. But they do have a reputation for being a major slave trading area, and most of their sales are by sea."

"Yes, but they can't sell, what they don't have, now can they?" Rachel purred. "Thank you for your insights, Rigel, continue to look into this, I may have more questions later."

Rigel looked rather pleased and bowed rather low, his ears perked in excitement, "Thank you, My Queen," he said and then took his leave.

I looked at Rachel, "Obviously this involves me, doesn't it?" I sighed with a smile as we started walking down the hall.

"Oh, obviously. I think I just found a new use for that 'cavalry' you have been spending all of my money on."

"So an embargo then?" I asked.

"What's an 'embargo'?" She asked mouthing the unfamiliar word.

"You block someone from trading with anyone else."

"Oh, I'm not going to block them from trading," She smiled her tail giving a vicious slash behind her. "I'm just going to make sure that there aren't any slaves ending up there." She paused a moment in thought, "And maybe discourage a few of the merchants from wanting to do business there as well. We can't blockade their ports, so we won't even try. But all of their slaves come from the continent, and we
can
block those."

"Well, we can try," I said thinking about it.

Rachel stopped and turned to look at me, "William," she said turning all queen for a moment and looking me dead in the eyes. I'd seen her do this before, but she'd never done this to
me
before. "You will do this. I will not accept anything less."

I bristled a bit and glared back at her, "You won't?"

She smiled rather slowly and seductively at me. "William, as your queen, I
expect
this of you. And as
your
woman, I
demand
it of you." She turned away from me and flicked her tail in the air rather playfully, continuing down the hall. "Are we clear on this?"

I sighed and nodded as I followed, "Witch."

"You knew that when you married me," she said rather smugly.

I just shook my head, because she was right, I did. I just should have realized that one of these days she was going to start ordering me around. I knew her well enough now to know that when she really wanted something, there was no dissuading her, like probably every other queen that had ever existed anywhere, she took stubborn to the extreme.

It was late, and I was asleep, and Fel had obviously decided I didn't have enough on my plate.

"Hi, Fel," I said smiling. To be honest, it was nice to see him, we hadn't talked in weeks.

"So, I see Rachel finally lowered the boom on you," Fel laughed.

I shrugged, "She has a point, if we block the slave trade to Barassa the kingdom will slowly start to collapse."

Fel nodded, "It is a good start, attacking a country's trade always throws off their economy, and Barassa has grown way too dependent on slavery. They've focused on that for so long now, they're not really set up for anything else, and because they've come to rely on slaves as the prime workforce, their own citizens will be hesitant to pick up the work themselves."

"So why am I here tonight? Do you want me to do this as well?"

Fel shook his head, "No, that is Rachel's job as queen. If you weren't her husband you probably wouldn't be involved in it.

"No, I have something else I need you to take care of for me, and it's important, so I need you to deal with it in the morning."

I sat up, I loved Rachel, but Fel was my first responsibility.

Fel smiled and gave me a nod, he could read my thoughts, so he knew he had my full attention now.

"As you know, I sent out two missionaries last month to relieve the ones I sent out last year."

I remembered the first two he had Narasamman send out. Neither one did well with the people, so they were called back to be replaced. Before they got beat to death I suspected.

"These last two didn't get along?" I asked curious.

"Oh they got along. They got along rather well. Problem is, they're dead." Fel grumbled.

I blinked surprised. "How'd that happen?"

"Apparently the Mowoks like to have parties whenever one or more of the clans meet up. A prominent feature of these parties is a drug that they smoke. The first one got so intoxicated that he got himself convinced that he could make friends with a narzhun."

An image of a narzhum suddenly appeared in the bar. It was as big as a buffalo, maybe bigger, and looked to be about as mean as a suzhen.

"They're herbivores; they don't go after people normally. But if you get too close to one, it will attack."

I shook my head, "And the other one?"

"Mowok woman like to flirt, and my priest took it a little too seriously."

"And she killed him?" I asked curious.

"No, her husband did when he caught him in bed with her."

"Let me guess, he was smoking?"

Fel nodded, "And drinking."

"So what do you want me to do? I'm not sure I'm the missionary type."

"I need you to pick two replacements, take them out to the plains, and get them set up among the Mowok tribes. The last two had actually been making rather good progress with the people and I've picked up a lot of converts.

"So I need you to get them out there and get them to start ministering to my people before they can stray."

I nodded.

"And please try and do something to keep them from doing anything stupid," Fel sighed.

I laughed, "Fel, if you can't do that, what chance do I have?"

He shook his head, "I'm sure you will figure out something, pick whoever you want, take whatever you need. I've told Narasamman that you're in charge of this."

I grimaced; I bet that didn't make her very happy.

"No, it didn't," Fel said reading my mind again. "See if you can't cheer her up for me as well," Fel said and gave me a wink. "I don't blame her, but her methods aren't working and this really is something that a champion should be dealing with."

I nodded, "Okay, I'll take care of it. I like the Mowoks, spending some time with them will be interesting."

Fel dismissed me then, and I returned to my sleep.

Three

Outside of Tradeson

I looked out over the head of the Wolat I was riding. He was the same one that I’d bought from those traders two years back. We had just ridden out of Tradeson a few hours earlier and I was on top of a large rise, with miles and miles of grasslands spread out before me.

“There it is boys, your new home,” I said turning to look at the two priests who were accompanying me.

Henry, the younger one, looked excited. Steve, the older one just looked disgruntled. Then again, he always looked disgruntled.

“How did our predecessors end up again?” Steve asked.

“Well the first one tried to make friends with a narzhun.” I reminded him.

What’s a narzhun?” Henry asked curious.

“Like a suzhen, only ten times as big,” Steve said.

Henry’s ears sagged a little bit.

“Don’t worry,” I told him, “they don’t bite; they just trample you to death.”

“Ummm,” he said looking a little lost as his ears went flat. “Trample?”

“Just steer clear of them, they’re herbivores, they shouldn’t come after you,” I told him.

“And, how did the other one die?” Steve asked.

“In bed,” I said looking out over the tall grass, in the distance I thought I saw a herd of something.

“That doesn’t sound too bad.”

“He was caught there with another man’s woman apparently. So word of advice, don’t go hopping into the sack with anyone right away.”

I heard Steve grumble something, and I started off again, leading the others down the hill and off deeper onto the prairie. We were all riding, and had brought an extra wolat with us to carry our gear, or rather Steve and Henry’s gear. Things they would need to preach I guess.

The morning after my meeting with Fel, I’d gathered all the available male clergy in a pub, gave them an open bar tab, and picked the last two standing after a long day and night of drinking.

I had no idea priests could drink so much.

Except Steve, Steve didn’t drink, and thought it was unfair he was one of the “winners.” I had shrugged and told him it just proved he was smarter than the rest and hence a good choice.

We’d left Hiland city about a week ago, me and my two new “recruits.” Rachel wasn't happy about my being sent out here, but she knew I had to do as Fel ordered. I did spend some time with Holse and Rigel before I left however. If we were going to try and intercept every slave caravan that headed by land to Barassa, then we would need a way to find them first. The number of wolats we had available for riding had more than quadrupled since I'd bought that first group. And they figured as key in any plan we would hatch, because they were about the only thing that would let us move fast enough to intercept any slave traders without having to move the entire army down there.

But until we figured out just how we'd find the caravans, it didn't matter where I was, so I might as well be here.

“How far is it until we reach them?” Henry asked.

I shrugged, “No idea.”

“You don’t know where they are?” Henry said surprised.

“They’re nomads, they move around a lot.”

“So how will we find them?”

“We won’t,” I said smiling, “they’ll find us.”

"Ummm, is that a good thing?"

"Probably not," Steve grumbled.

I shook my head and started down off the rise and out onto the grasslands. Or would they be called a veldt?

We rode all day and didn't come across anybody. I wasn't terribly surprised, the grasslands were huge, at least the size of a large mid-western state back home I guessed. When night came we made camp and I set up a fire. Steve cooked dinner then while I cleaned my swords, and Henry spent his time bribing the wolats with pieces of sweet root he had bought back in Tradeson. He'd gotten bit by the one he was riding when they'd first met and since then he'd been endeavoring to befriend all of them.

"I don't know why he wastes his time," Steve grumbled.

"Because he doesn't want to get bit?" I suggested.

"They don't try to bite me," Steve said.

"That's because nobody could stand the taste!" Henry laughed from the group of wolats. I think he might have been using some priest magic on them as well, because they were all being friendly, even my wolat Tom, who could be a right pain to anyone other than me.

"Well I don't see them trying to bite Will," Steve replied.

"That's because they know I'll bite 'em back," I grinned.

"You probably would too," Steve grumbled and went back to cooking.

Henry laughed and I just shook my head and smiled. Steve fit the definition of cantankerous, but he was a pretty good cook over a campfire, which was no small skill. So we appreciated his company.

After dinner Steve and Henry bedded down near the fire. I was pretty sure we had attracted somebody's attention by now, so I planned to stay up and keep watch during the night while they both slept. I didn't think that the Mowoks would attack us, but I really didn't want to take the chance.

Sure enough, about an hour after the other two had bedded down and I'd banked the fire and let it die down to just a bunch of glowing coals, a couple of figures stopped on the edge of our camp.

"Greetings," I said to them. Thankfully Fel had gifted all three of us with their language before we had left.

"Who are you, and why are you here?" One of them asked.

"I am the Champion of Feliogustus, and I have brought two new priests of his out to teach you about him."

"Ah, I have heard of you," one of them said. "The weige of my uncle’s tribe met with you at the trading town. You bought a great many wolats from him. He was very pleased."

Weige meant “trade leader” in their language. Each tribe or clan had one; they coordinated the trade with the outsiders, because most tribes didn't have enough items to trade in the numbers that those in Tradeson wanted. So rather than have a large group of people show up and cause each other problems, they had just decided to assign the job to a select group of individuals, and allow them to deal with it.

"We wondered if your god would replace the two that left us," one of the others said.

"Not everyone has the privilege of being born on the Sea of Grass," I replied. Fel had told me that was how they referred to the lands on which they lived.

They all nodded, "That is true," the first one spoke again. "We will share your camp if you would let us, and then take you to the others come the rise of the sun."

I smiled, "Then come, and make yourself welcome."

The all gave another nod and walked back into the high grass, but returned a moment later, each leading a wolat. They put theirs with ours, though they did not tie or hobble them. I didn't tie mine up either, because I wasn't worried about him wandering off without me. Or not far enough that I couldn't call him back. But the other three wolats I knew nothing about, so I had them on long leads so they wouldn't get lost.

I noticed that our visitors made note that my wolat wasn't tied up, and got the impression that I had just scored a few points with them.

"I am Rees," the one who had been first to speak told me as they joined me around the embers of the fire. "That is Tom, and that is Seb."

I nodded, "I'm Will," and we all touched palms in greeting.

Tom and Seb quickly unrolled their bedrolls and went to sleep.

"Do we need to worry about a watch?" I asked Rees as he sat next to me.

"The wolats will wake us if any problems arise, but most things here will not come into a camp with wolats in it, for fear of being eaten," he told me with a smile.

I smiled back and nodded, "In that case I'm going to go to sleep myself, it's been a long day riding here and keeping an eye on the priests."

Rees nodded, "We have heard of course what happened to the last two. We were surprised to be honest, after what we have heard about you."

I looked at him, "I had no idea that you had heard anything about me."

Rees shrugged, "The People love to tell and trade stories, and there are a good many about you in the towns and in the city that my kin went to teach your people about the wolat."

I nodded, I hadn't considered that. "Well I serve my god in a different role than the priests do. They are chosen more for their desire and ability to teach others about Feliogustus."

Rees thought about that a few minutes, "I guess their desire must be great, for them to travel so far from their homes and families."

I nodded, "Yes, even after knowing what happened to those that came before them, they still came here to teach."

"That says something to their courage and determination," Rees said.

"Yes, so please don't let them die on me," I sighed with a rueful grin.

Rees nodded, "We understood later that the miasha weed is not something they are used to. I will counsel the others to not let them smoke too much of the good stuff," he said with a laugh.

We got our bedrolls laid out and went to sleep. I wasn't really worried, I was pretty sure I'd wake up if anything attacked. Wolats were natural to this area after all, so anything that lived here undoubtedly knew to give them a wide berth.

I found their camp, or village, to be rather interesting when we rode in the next morning. We descended into a small ravine, with a few trees and much larger brush in it than had been on the plains above. There was also a small stream running along the bottom of it. With the grass and brush of the plains, there was really no way you would see it until you literally stumbled on it.

Henry and Steve were engaged talking with Tom and Seb, both of them seemed a lot happier now that they were able to do that which they normally did. Which was to be priests of Feliogustus. Tom and Seb were apparently among the recently converted and had a lot of questions for the two priests, both of which were more than willing to discuss.

Rees and I were riding a bit further ahead of them and I was looking around the camp as we rode in. There were a lot of tents, which looked remarkably like the teepees that the American Indians used.

"How often do you move your camp?" I asked looking around. I could see there wasn't a permanent structure anywhere, but there were a lot of teepees, a lot more than I had expected.

"Our village normally moves with the seasons," Rees told me. "We summer here every year, after the spring floods have passed, before the undergrowth gets too dense."

"And the rest of the year?" I asked curious.

"In the fall we follow the game as they migrate off the plains, then we winter on the side of a ridge to the far north of here, where the weather is milder and there is game."

"So you use the same to locations every year?"

"Yes, all of the tribes do. We have our hunting grounds and village locations. Those who are too old or unable to travel spend the year at our winter grounds."

I was a bit surprised by that. "So you do have permanent settlements?"

Rees nodded, "But there is not enough game and growth to provide for many to live there during the summer months. So we come out onto the sea of grass to harvest enough game to see us through the winter, and so our young can learn the skills of the People.

"Come; let me take you to our chief."

I nodded and he led us through the village. I could see that the tents were laid out in some sort of order, but what that order was, I really couldn't tell. There wasn't a straight line to be found, or at least that I could see. The teepees, on closer examination were rather interesting. All had designs and images sketched upon them. Some appeared to be sewn in, others, dyed or branded on them. The images were everything from pictures of animals, or scenery, to geometric patterns. The level of skill was fairly high on them as well, though I did see ones that appeared to be done in charcoal much lower on the sides that weren't very well done.

The teepee we stopped in front of was really not much different than any of the others, but there was a blue pennant flying from the top of it. Looking around I noticed that the teepees around this one also had pennants flying from them as well, but they were different colors.

Rees stopped and we all dismounted, a couple of youngsters came up and took the leads to our wolats and led them off to a clearing placed well behind the teepees. As they did that an older looking male exited the teepee before us, Rees gave him a small bow, as did Tom and Seb, so we all followed suit and did so as well.

I looked him over when we straightened up, he wore only a loin cloth, a set of leather bands on each wrist that were died blue, and a headband made of small blue and black beads, arranged in a pattern that may have meant something, but not anything I could tell.

"Chief Rain Walker, this is Will, champion of Feliogustus. He was brought with him Steve and Henry, priests of Feliogustus, to continue in their teaching of the words and wisdom of our god."

I almost started at that last part. I had no idea that Fel's religion had been accepted by any of the tribes, much less this one. I knew that a lot of priests had come out here over the last two years, most only staying for the summer months. The two that had died were the first of those who were supposed to live fully among the Mowoks, to stay with the same tribe all year.