The Invisible Chains - Part 2: Bonds of Fear (13 page)

turned to her manservant. “See to it that this man gets as much

food as he wants, a warm bath, and a soft bed.” Addressing the

messenger again, she said “Cook made us a magnificent rabbit stew

with mushrooms and prunes. It was delicious, especially with fresh,

crusty bread and a full-bodied, little red wine I discovered they make

locally. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I did.”

“Your majesty is very kind...” the man mumbled, impressed that

he was going to be served the same food as the queen had eaten.

Emelasuntha gave him a leather purse.

“... and very generous. Again, thank you, your majesty.”

Sobrathi, who sat at a little table, looked over the parchment she

had been writing on.

“You’ve got it all?” Emelasuntha asked.

The baroness nodded.

“To the last word.”

“Let me see, please.”

“He says he misses us.” Sobrathi grinned as she handed her the

document.

“Yes, so it seems,” the queen answered distractedly.

She read the parchment a few times.

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“What do you think,” she asked.

“He obviously wants us to stay away from his friends.” Sobrathi

shrugged. “It’s endearing, really.”

“Mildly endearing and highly unpractical. But I also sense a

hidden threat. “Don’t touch my friends, or else... or something like

that.”

“I’m sure that is not what he is saying.”

“Oh yes, it is. I know my own son. It’s all nicely worded, but

nevertheless. ‘Ask her to protect me from divided loyalties,’ my foot.

What he’s really saying is ‘Don’t make me choose. You might not like

the outcome.’ He has done some growing up all right.”

“He’s in a tough position, dear.”

Emelasuntha looked at her with cold eyes.

“I’ve prepared him for that,” she said. “Dear.”

Sobrathi sighed.

“Anyway, I’ve already given the Tribe orders to act with the

maximum of discretion,” the baroness said.

Emelasuntha laughed out loud.

“What?” Sobrathi asked, laughing back, but with a touch of the

jitterbugs.

“Discretion and Sobrathi, my dear friend, are not two words that

belong in the same sentence. What instructions did you give? Don’t

torch too many houses? Only when you really, really feel like it?”

Sobrathi shrugged, slightly miffed.

“I had to do something.”

“And you were quite right, my dear,” Emelasuntha said in a

conciliatory tone. “Sorry, I was just having a bit of fun at your expense.

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Forgive me. You were more than right. It was too dangerous to let

that man live. He could have talked to anybody, after all.”

Since, over the last thirty years, she had grown used to her

friend teasing her, Sobrathi didn’t mind too much. Emelasuntha was

studying the text again.

“I wonder,” the baroness asked, “what he means by the enemy

who could come from behind?”

“Oh, that’s obvious. The Mukthars can come from only one

direction, the north. That’s the front. So the back is the inland or

the south. He obviously means sabotage. He means Tenaxos and his

cronies.”

“The one who thinks his sword will shatter Anaxantis’s? The one

he doesn’t fear?”

Emelasuntha shrugged.

“Not the foggiest. However, we’ll find out. Please, read the next

two sentences out loud for me will you.”

She handed over the parchment and closed her eyes.

“I dread the one who comes under cover of the night, when it is

dark and everything appears black. Shields nor armor will protect

me then, I fear.”

“Again, please, but slower.”

Sobrathi read the sentences again and looked at her friend, who

still sat with her eyes closed. After a few minutes a broad smile

appeared on the face of the queen.

“Did you get it? What does he mean?”

Again, Emelasuntha laughed out loud.

“He means what he says. Literally.”

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“Stop teasing me and tell me already.”

“Didn’t it occur to you that the sentences sounded a bit...

contrived, swollen even? ‘The night, when it is dark and everything

appears black.’ Isn’t it a bit superfluous to mention that in the night

it is dark? Isn’t it even more unnecessary to add that when it is night

and thus dark, everything appears black?”

“Now that you mention it...”

“The next sentence is not exactly incorrect, but it sounds a bit

pompous, wouldn’t you say? ‘Shields nor armor will protect me then,

I fear.’ You know, his old teacher would write in red ink ‘Suggestion:

No shield nor armor’ or something to that effect next to it, the Great

Mother bless his grammatically correct, parchment heart. Anaxantis

was a good student and he knows better. He has to mean something

by it.”

“Well?” Sobrathi insisted impatiently.

“But it is staring you in the face,” the queen chortled. “It almost

literally jumps off the page.”

“You’re driving me crazy, you know,” Sobrathi said, beginning to

lose her patience.

“All right,” Emelasuntha said, giving in, but still laughing. “The

sentences seem contorted because they are. And they are because he

wanted two words next to each other. You almost don’t see it because

they are separated by a period, but—”

“Black Shields,” Sobrathi exclaimed. “Blah blah blah appears

black. Shields nor armor blah blah blah I fear. He fears the enemy

coming from behind, his father, will send the Black Shields to the

Northern Marches and that they will come under cover.”

“Very good. Very, very good, Sobrathi.” The queen smiled. “And he

wants to hear from us soon. He wants to. know as soon as possible

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if Tenaxos is planning to send the Black Shields to the Northern

Marches.”

Sobrathi whistled, and if it sounded exactly like the shrill sound

the Tektiranga regularly produced, that was because he had taught

it to her.

“Wasn’t there something very fishy going on, the last time the

Mukthars attacked?” she asked.

“Fishy? Two weeks old, lying in the sun and rotting fish kind of

fishy, you mean. It stank to high heaven. The Tribe wasn’t as well

implanted then as it is now, you’ll remember, and I was still finding

my bearings. Still, we found out that for some reason or other

Tenaxos didn’t want to confront the barbarians. The Goddesses may

know why. Anyway, what we do know is that he sent a special royal

envoy to the then lord governor, a count or duke or something, and

made him abort all action against the Mukthars.”

“Whatever for?”

“As I said, I’ve no idea. At the time it didn’t seem too important.

What was it after all? Nothing more than a border skirmish. What we

did find out however is that he sent a captain of the Black Shields.”

“Just a captain?”

“Just a captain? Captain is the highest grade in the Black

Shields. A captain of the Black Shields outranks a general, even a

commander-general, of the regular army any day of the week. As if

that wasn’t enough he made this captain an autarch. Autarchs are

appointed in desperate situations by the high kings of Ximerion,

when they themselves are otherwise engaged and can’t attend to

very important situations in person. There are only two limits to

their power. The autarchy is given for a limited period. In most cases

a very short time. Think months at the most, but more often only

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weeks. The second limit is that the autarchy can only be exercised

in a strictly circumscribed area, but within that area the authority

of the autarch supersedes even that of the high king himself. He can

make or break treaties and they will be honored. He can condemn

anyone, and I mean anyone, to death without trial, or without giving

even the least justification. There is no possibility of appeal. He

himself is completely immune against any prosecution, retaliation,

or reprimand, even from the high king, for any action he takes while

exercising the autarchy. In short, his powers are literally unlimited in

his designated area and for the time he wields them. You’ll understand

that it is not often the high kings give anyone such authority. I think

that old lizard Portonas never did.”

“No wonder Anaxantis wants to know if his father is planning

something along those lines. An autarch would be the only person

who would outrank a prince of the royal blood.”

“Yes, and it stands to reason that Tenax might eventually resort

to this extreme measure.”

Sobrathi looked at the queen questioningly.

“So you say, and rather easily too, but I don’t see it. As you said, it

is only a border skirmish, and isn’t appointing an autarch for such a

limited theater of war sort of overkill?”

“You’re perfectly right. That’s what’s so intriguing about this

whole situation. But I base my assessment on the fact that Tenax

thought it necessary to appoint one twelve years ago.”

“Ah... I see. Still, what was so important about not resisting the

Mukthars? You would think that what essentially amounts to a gang

of robbers — granted, a big gang of robbers — wouldn’t stand a

chance against the military might of the kingdom of Ximerion.”

“Yes, you would think so, wouldn’t you? Oh, there is one thing

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more we found out at the time. Guess who Tenax sent as autarch to

the Northern Marches.”

“I’m sure I have no idea, my dear.”

“Nobody less than...” the queen said, tantalizingly.

“Oh, out with it, you evil woman,” Sobrathi grinned.

“Damydas.”

Sobrathi’s grin froze on her mouth and she slumped back in her

chair.

“Wasn’t that worth a whistle?” Emelasuntha asked softly.

“Are you serious? He sent the Scourge, the man with a hundred

faces?”

“Gerrubald, Baron Damydas. No less.”

“They say he once murdered a whole village during the short

lived Mattinian Rebellion.”

“No, he didn’t. He merely ordered his soldiers to build a wall

around it, while the villagers, from very young to very old, were

inside of course. He warned them his soldiers would shoot anybody

who tried to climb over it. It was his first autarchy. He ordered that

nobody should enter the village for the coming one hundred years.

Until now, nobody has. The story spread like wildfire. It is the main

reason why the Mattinian Rebellion never took hold and was indeed

short lived, as you rightly called it.”

“Is it true he had one of his sons who had offended him tied by

his feet to a horse and then ordered it to be whipped, causing it to

gallop away with the young man helpless behind it?”

Emelasuntha made a dismissive gesture and shrugged.

“More likely the lad got caught in the stirrups, which made an

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already nervous animal panic, causing the young man to meet an

untimely and very unfortunate end. You mustn’t be too gullible. On

the other hand, it just might be true. Who’s to know?”

“In that case we haven’t got a day, not a moment to lose. What if

that husband of yours sends that fiend after my godson?”

“And my son, you mean?” Emelasuntha laughed. “Sobrathi,

Sobrathi, don’t worry. Damydas has retired some years ago. He might

be dead by now, for all we know.”

The baroness let out a sigh of relief.

“Well, don’t be too at ease. Damydas might be dead or not, as

the case may be, but one thing is certain. The evil of men is eternal.

Tomorrow we set out for Ormidon and if need be we’ll go to the

southern border, but one way or another we’re going to find out

exactly what my husband is planning.”

“Oh no, Emelasuntha. We discussed it last time. There are plenty

of reasons why—”

“Plenty of reasons? My royal ass. If that bloody ogre is sending his

bloody hounds after my son, I will bloody well see to it myself that

nothing comes of it. I’ll strangle the bloody mutts with my bloody

bare hands.”

“Let’s talk about it, dear. The dangers—”

“You’re welcome to talk all you want, in a soon to be empty room,

until you bore the plaster off the walls. I, for one, have some packing

to see to and so do you.”

Emelasuntha smiled charmingly at her friend and mouthed a

kiss. Then she left in a whirlwind of long blond hair, looking excited

and at least fifteen years younger.