The Gully Snipe (The Dual World Book 1) (70 page)

Gallun and Gellen took their place immediately behind Gully.

The patriarch of the Mercher clan, both human and ocelot forms, had stepped to the black line on the stone floor the same as Gallun and Gellen had done. He began to kneel, and Gully began to protest as usual.

Aian said with a shake of his head, “Nay, Your Highness, nay. If there ever was a time when I should kneel, it is this time.” The patriarch knelt down, his walking staff still in his hand, and said, “Sire... Your Highness... it is my true honor to serve you however I may and to stand with you in the creation of a new kingdom. The joy this day and this moment brings me could fill this hall many times over, Di’taro.”

Gully smiled and held out his hand to help the patriarch stand. He became alarmed because the patriarch, in both forms, was trembling, but he helped him up anyway. The patriarch was smiling, but there was also a tear in his eye. “Rise, Aian, Patriarch of the Mercher clan. Your wisdom and counsel in all things will be much needed! Please, join me.”

To Gully’s surprise, the next to step forward was Holm veDellersean. He knelt and said, “Whatever doubts or trepidations I might have had about you as the heir to the veLohrdan line, you have long since expelled them, Your Majesty. I am with you, and I, and my family, am with Bal’Iisen fully.”

The line continued as everyone present committed themselves to Gully and to the new kingdom of Bal’Iisen. Exoutur crossed to join him, then Strennor veAhnderdan, and then most of the rest of the noble lords of what was left of Iisen.

Encender finally made his way up to the black line that Gully had drawn, looking quite miserable. Gully wasn’t quite sure if Encender would bring himself to do it, but to his surprise, Encender knelt and said through choked words and sniffles, “I am not so proud, Your Majesty... that I cannot admit when I am wrong, and I have been wretchedly wrong about you. I never would have thought that you would have something of this magnitude in you. I never would have believed it possible that you would be the one to give those of my blood... forgive me,
our
blood... a true homeland once again. I am glad that you
do
have this in you, and that you have given us a home after far too long. It makes me ashamed of so much, and I humbly beg your forgiveness for far more than I have any right to ask, for far more than you realize. From this moment on, you have my absolute and unwavering support and loyalty, if you will accept it.”

“Thank you, Encender. Stand now, and cross the line into Bal’Iisen.”

Encender stood, wiped at his eye once and crossed the line to where everyone else now stood. Out of the corner of his eye, Gully even noticed that Dunnhem, up against the wall where he kept watch, had quietly crossed the line to be on the side with him. Gully gave him a smile and winked at him to welcome the swordsman to the new kingdom.

Among the benches and chairs, Gully turned and faced the one man that remained seated.

He said, “What say you, veWarrnest?”

Strafe’s face was red and angry, but he hesitated to reply.

Gully said, “You may speak in total candor, Strafe. You need not turn your head to spit on my account, noblesir.”

Strafe leapt up out of his chair and stormed up to the line without crossing it. Gallun and Gellen wasted no time in tearing off their tunics and kilts and turning to their wolf forms. They stepped up to either side of Gully, warning growls coming from deep inside their chests.

veWarrnest ignored the angry wolves and snarled at Gully and the rest on the other side of the black line, “You spit in your ancestor’s faces! All of you! This joining with these monsters is an abomination, and you prefer them to your own people! This acceptance of the perverted and swayed will destroy us all, and all of you back there have pledged yourselves to it as if it were blessings from the stars above!”

He came right up to the line, barely a finger-length away from Gully’s face, and shouted at him, “And you! This path you lay out is worse than the corruption of which the Domo Regent was guilty! He may have opened the door and invited in a conquering nation, but you... you ‘join’ our people with this filth, knowing in all what that really means. You give us over to these creatures! You look up at the starry night sky and curse our ancestors with this action! You would destroy all that they have built over the centuries! You have destroyed the honor of your family!
All of you have!
All of you will spend eternity drowning at the bottom of the sea for this!”

veWarrnest leaned forward and almost reached out towards Gully. Gallun and Gellen began snapping at him and growling so loudly that veWarrnest had to step back.

“Even now! Even now you surround yourself with these dogs! You turn this land over to the unnaturally swayed, and to these murderous and naked animals! You defile and pervert this very hall with your profane ideas! I imagine because you are one yourself! I want no part of this! I want no part of you or your reign!”

veWarrnest turned his back on the king and sat in the nearest chair, his arms crossed over his chest.

Gellen, being the more hot natured, began to step across the line to attack the man, but Gully knelt and put his hand on the wolf’s neck, pulling him close and stroking him to calm him. He whispered to him, “Gellen, thank you, but I am fine. And I pushed hard enough that he now spreads his true wings.” Secretly, Gully was amazed at the fierce devotion the two wolves were willing to show for him. Gallun and Gellen stepped back behind Gully and resumed their human forms, but the angry scowls did not leave their faces.

Gully faced Strafe again and said with a sadness in his voice, “You are wrong, Strafe veWarrnest. You are wrong in all you say. The Balmoreans are a good and a principled people, and we would not have come through our recent crises without their assistance. My father, Ollon, is... was... is...”

Gully paused and then sighed heavily. He closed his eyes and continued, “...was a good and honorable man. The best honor that I can show to my ancestors, to Colnor my father,
and
to Ollon my father, and so very many before them, is to do right for those that come after me, to the very best of my abilities. And this path forward is right.”

Without even realizing the words were coming from his mouth, Gully added, “The future can only be what it can because the past is what it was.”

Strafe’s chest continued to heave in and out and he pretended to ignore Gully’s comments.

“But then, a closed and bitter mind can only be freed from its gaol by the prisoner himself,” said Gully.

Strafe only glared at Gully in response.

The king said, “Strafe, I respect your decision. If it please you, will you wait a few minutes and join me in my chambers to discuss your decision?”

Strafe nodded curtly and stormed through the hall without so much as a glance back.

Gully watched him leave, a little sad, but having expected no other response from veWarrnest. He turned back to those gathered around him and gazed at the earnest faces looking to him for a long while, gauging the sincerity of their pledges, and finding not one lacking.

He held out his hands at those gathered around him and said, “I am the seed of Bal’Iisen. All of you have crossed the line separating the past from what is to come and have now joined me. Together, we become the sprout of Bal’Iisen. By pledging your loyalty to Bal’Iisen, you have pledged your fealty not only to me, but to one another. There is no more Balmorea or Iisen between us. Here, together in this room, we are one people, and I expect us all to comport ourselves accordingly from this day on, to trust and support each other in what is to come. We will grow to a greater land, a better people... a nobler realm. I thank both of my fathers for each of you here with me.”

Gully walked into his private chambers behind the Throne Hall, a fuming veWarrnest following behind him. After veWarrnest, still furious and puzzled at being asked to attend him, were the patriarch, Exoutur, and Encender. Gallun and Gellen insisted on being close to the king as well. Gully had almost asked them to stay outside, but he had promised Roald and he needed to keep his promise. They would never allow him to be alone with veWarrnest, anyway.

Before Gully could even reach the far side of the table, Strafe threw at him, “I hope that Your Highness is quite satisfied with himself! The lengths that you seem willing to go to accomplish no more than to back me into a corner, to force me to be a toady like the rest, or to be the only man in this kingdom willing to stand up against your—”

“Be quiet, Strafe,” said Gully, irritated and very tired of the man. “Of course it follows that you would see everything that I spoke of as no more than a conspiracy against you, as a knife that I could dig into your side. Of course you would never deign to consider the merits of what I have proposed for their own value.”

veWarrnest’s neck throbbed and his face began turning red. “There
is
no value in what—”

Gully ignored him and interrupted once again, “Noblesir veWarrnest, I said I would honor your decision and I do. I will honor your wish to be no part of this even as I do not respect your opinion. By the last day of winter, you will leave this land. Your fief is forfeit to the crown. Your family constellation, the Victory Rose, is also forfeit. All of your wealth and possessions are yours to take, either west, or across the sea to the south, or wherever you prefer to go, so long as you are at least ten day-lengths outside the borders of this land. If you abide by these conditions, and do not seek to cause discord, directly or indirectly, then you are not an enemy, and you will not be treated as such. If any of your family or anyone on your land wishes to stay, and will swear an oath to Bal’Iisen, then they will be welcomed, but otherwise, they must be gone with you before the sun sets on the last day of this year.”

veWarrnest’s face twisted into an acidic grin. He said, “So this is how you grab more power, is it? Slowly pushing each noble family out and taking their fiefs for yourself so that veLohrdan is the only ruling family left? I must say, I am appalled at the thirst for power that is now showing so manifest in you. Delavoor had
nothing
on your ambitions!”

Gully looked stupefied for a brief moment, but rather than become angry, he then started laughing. “Strafe, one of us is deluded indeed, but it is not me. The very last thing I want is to get rid of the noble families. I
need
the noble families. Iisen and Bal’Iisen need the structure and governance they provide, despite their irksome sense of inborn superiority. What I will not abide, though, is a noble lord who has already made up his mind to work against me in every decision, merely for the sake of undermining a king to whom he has taken a disliking.”

veWarrnest shook his head and said tersely, “You will one day regret this hubris of yours, Thief King.”

“I am but a man, veWarrnest, given an opportunity... a choice... to make something more than what is today. I do not think I will regret that,” said Gully. “Gallun and Gellen, will you show our guest, Strafe Warrnest, out?”

The two men grabbed Strafe by each arm a little more roughly than was strictly necessary, but the former nobleman immediately understood the message that the king would hold no more discussion on the matter.

While they escorted the former nobleman out, Gully shifted his attention to the patriarch and his two sons. Encender and Exoutur appeared supremely uncomfortable at what they had witnessed between Strafe and Gully, but the patriarch seemed unperturbed by any of it. Gully regarded them in silence for a brief period while he composed himself.

He said to them, “I’m sorry for the things that man has said today, but I’m not sorry for his decision. A small benefit of ending this kingdom is that it forced him to take a side, and he could no longer pretend to be looking out for Iisen’s interests while serving his own narrow ones.”

“If I did not know better, Your Highness,” said the patriarch, his eyes smiling, “I would say that Strafe was right that this was entirely designed to force him to choose without further prevarication.”

“No,” said Gully with a weak smile, “In blunt candor, I can say that he is the least of my worries and almost last in my mind for the last several days. What I want for Bal’Iisen will not be easy or as straightforward as it seems. What I want for Bal’Iisen far eclipses any concern for forcing him into line or ridding myself of him.”

Gallun and Gellen stepped back into Gully’s chambers and resumed their place behind the king. From the grins on their faces, Gully suspected the treatment of Strafe improved none after they had removed him from the room.

Gully said, “It will not be easy on you, either, I hope you understand. The people of Iisen will not take to you simply because they are told to do so. I firmly believe that it is critical that they do, though. We
must
become one people.”

“To that end,” said Gully, “I now get to the point of why I had you accompany me here. On the first day of the next year, the family line of Mercher will become one of the noble families of Bal’Iisen. You and your families will be veMercher. Encender, Exoutur... as it so happens, there are now two fiefs without noble lords. You will gain claim to one of these fiefs each to run as your own. Patriarch, my friend, you are free to travel between them, or stay here as one of my most honored guests, anytime you wish and without the need of any further invitation. What I said outside is true... I will have a dire need for your counsel on many topics, but I also know you will want to see your families often. Exoutur and Encender, of course, you and your families are always welcome here in Lohrdanwuld at the Folly as well. To speak openly, I worry that I will not get to see you often enough.”

The patriarch and Exoutur both seemed very pleased at Gully’s pronouncement. Encender, though, looked down at his feet.

“How is it, Your Highness, that you would reward someone who has shown so little faith in you? My conscience… it… I am not so sure I can accept this offer,” he said in no more than a mumble after a moment.