The Pinnacle Of Empire (Book 6) (31 page)

“Belnik again,” Saxthor grumbled. “I wonder who is emperor here.”

“Begging Your Majesty’s pardon, but if you’re in a hurry we had best get going.”

Saxthor’s head jerked back as he stared at the aide. “Are you one of Belnik’s relations?”

“We’re first cousins, Majesty.”

“Somehow I guessed a connection.” Saxthor mumbled, shaking his head. “No point in arguing further, I see.”

“No point at all, Majesty.”

The two men rode off into the night, around the great oak with the twisted, seemingly tortured trunk and down along the weedy footpath.

* * *

As the imperial family’s entourage approached the great castilyernov that loomed over the imperial eastern road at the crest of the valley, Helgamyr, fidgeting with her handkerchief, began to cry. Engwan sat up, staring at his mother, not his grandmother. Augusteros slept on, his head still in Tottiana’s lap.

“I’m so sorry,” Helgamyr whispered.

“Sorry for what, Mother?” Tottiana asked. “I’m okay, no one was injured. We’ll be in Neuyokkasin before you know it. We’ve never seen Saxthor’s kingdom; it should be a wonderful adventure…”

“We’re not going to Konnotan or even Neuyokkasin.”

“What do you mean?” Tottiana asked, jerking upright. Augusteros squirmed at the jolt but didn’t awaken. Helgamyr caught Engwan’s alert stare and the cold twist of his mouth.

“I’ve made a serious mistake,” Helgamyr said. She patted the tears in the corners of her eyes. Engwan pulled back his hand from her grasp.

“What mistake, Mother?” Tottiana’s eyes narrowed as her face turned slightly but she held the stare on her mother.

“Well, Boktorian came to me in the night. Scared me half out of my wits, he did. He said Saxthor had abandoned the capital and all of us. He said we were alone and that we’d all be taken captive and possibly executed when Nindax seized the city unless I went along with his plan. He said we’d never escape in time.”

“What have you done?”

“Boktorian proposed that you be held in the castilyernov just ahead since we couldn’t be sure if you’d go along with his plan or not. I only agreed to ensure your safety. I had no idea they’d go this far. In the morning, he’s going to announce to the city that Saxthor and you have abandoned the empire and fled to exile in the east. He’s going to proclaim our little Engwan emperor with me as regent. That way, when Nindax comes, he’ll marry me and support the restoration of the Engwan dynasty through little Engwan here.”

“Boktorian thinks he’ll survive by betraying Saxthor and opening the city gates to Nindax?” Tottiana said.

“Yes,” Helgamyr babbled on. “Boktorian selected the cohorts from those loyal to him and the Engwan dynasty. I swear, I knew nothing of this assassination attempt. Now they’re going arrest you at the castilyernov, holding you there just until Nindax has established order in Engwaniria. The soldiers are supposed to take Engwan and me back to the capital.”

“How could you be taken in by that, Mother? Boktorian is hoping to save his own skin. Do you really think Nindax will marry you and allow Engwan to rule when he has his legions in control of the capital without any resistance? Once in command of the city, Nindax will kill us all and proclaim himself emperor.

“That worm Boktorian switches loyalties like a chameleon. While the messenger from Saxthor was warning me to get us out of the city, Nindax’s envoy must have been proposing his plot to Boktorian. He knows Saxthor can’t get back here with the army in time to save the city. I told him that. He must have panicked. Nindax has probably promised him he can remain as chatra if he complies with the demands to surrender us and the city. They’re getting me out of the way, knowing I’d never surrender but would call on the citizens to resist. They’re going to use you and Engwan as a temporary front to calm the people while they gain control over the population. Then your lives are as forfeit as mine.”

Helgamyr grew pale and started to screech, but slapped her hand over her mouth. “What can we do?”

“We can’t trust anyone,” Tottiana whispered. “The soldiers are Boktorian’s men. Boktorian plans to be the real power behind the throne, not you, Mother. By the time Saxthor returns, they’ll have a trap set for him and he’ll never reach Engwaniria. I must escape and warn him.”

“How can you escape?” Helgamyr asked. “There are two cohorts of handpicked warriors riding in front and behind us to be sure we don’t get away.”

Tottiana stared out the window, caught in her thoughts. Then, she perked up and smiled at Helgamyr. She searched through her handbag for something until she found a beautifully carved elfin cylinder.

“What’s that?” Helgamyr asked, but Tottiana just smiled and shook the cylinder at her.

“Best you don’t know, Mother. But I must count on you to stall the guards when we reach the fortress and the carriage stops. Make a fuss… throw open the carriage doors, doors on both sides, and scream as loud as you can. Say there’s a mouse in here and jump out.”

“What good’s that going to do?”

“The less you know, the less you’ll babble about.”

“Well, I never, you talk as if I’m a blabber mouth.”

“None the less, just make a fuss when the carriage stops. Augusteros, I want you to go with your grandmother and Engwan.”

“Grandmother doesn’t like me,” Augusteros whispered, his arm squeezing her waist. His pleading look up at his mother broke her heart; she swallowed. Tottiana hugged Augusteros, kissed him on the forehead, and looked him straight in the eye. “Of course your grandmother loves you. You must be brave like your father and do this for me; stay close to your grandmother. She will look out of you.” She glared at Helgamyr who looked away.

Helgamyr cleared her throat and patted Augusteros’ hand. “I’ll look out for you, little man,” Helgamyr said. She looked up at Tottiana. “That cylinder is going to save us?” Helgamyr asked.

“Saxthor entrusted it to me before he left. He called it the Peldentak Wand, said I must keep it close by me in case I should I need it. It was a gift from a dowager elf queen I think he said. I’d not thought about it until just now. I guess we’ll see if it really works.”

“Oh, Tottiana,” Helgamyr moaned. “We’re doomed.” She squeezed Engwan’s hand, and he jerked it away.

“Not yet, Mother. But you must be brave. I won’t see you for a while.”

When the carriage stopped inside the castilyernov, Helgamyr screamed to wake the dead and, throwing open the carriage doors, she bolted out, dragging Engwan by the hand. She looked around to find Tottiana, but she wasn’t there. Augusteros struggled to step out of the then empty carriage.

“There’s a mouse in our carriage!” Helgamyr said.

The captain of the guard smirked to the other guards then poked his head in the carriage when the empress failed to appear. “Where’s the empress?” He looked at Helgamyr and Endaquac then around at the guards.

“She was right there,” Helgamyr insisted. “She must have jumped out of the other side.”

The guards began a thorough search of the carriage, but Tottiana had disappeared into thin air.

“Where can your mother be?” Helgamyr asked Augusteros.

The crown prince shrugged his shoulders and yawned. “I don’t know, Grandmother. She took a stick out of that cylinder and spun it around her and she disappeared.”

“A likely story,” Helgamyr mumbled. “More like a healthy imagination, Captain.”

“Well, she’s not here now,” the captain said. “Corporal, take a few men; search the grounds. Find the empress or the chatra will imprison us.” No one but Helgamyr noted the footprints crossing the gravel drive, heading for the stables, no one but Tittletot when he stepped out of the second coach.

* * *

Watching the footsteps cross the gravel, Tittletot poked Belnik as he stepped down from the second coach.

“What are you poking me for?” Belnik asked, rubbing his side with a frown on his face. Tittletot nodded toward the stables, careful not to be noticed and not to look in that direction. Seeing Tittletot’s tense stance and the nod, Belnik glanced in the direction of the nod but saw nothing.

“Make a commotion,” Tittletot mumbled.

“Commotion, what for… What are you up to?”

Tittletot slammed his foot down on Belnik’s, who howled as if mortally wounded. Belnik hopped around on one foot, cradling the wounded one in his hand as if a child. The activity got the guards’ attention and they watched, chuckling.

“Be careful, you klutz, you nearly crushed my foot,” Belnik moaned.

“Who are you calling a klutz?”

The two tussled around a bit and the guards circled them as if betters around a fist fight. Only Tittletot noted a horse in the shadows walking away from the stable.

“What’s to be done now?” a guard finally asked the captain when no one could find the empress.

“Boktorian will be furious,” the captain said. “All this was to get her here and locked up where she couldn’t cause trouble for the chatra. We won’t tell him about her disappearance. We’ll take the dowager and the children back to Engwaniria as planned.”

Tittletot listened and now understood this was all a plot to silence Tottiana while Boktorian’s coup displaced the imperial family. Nindax is behind this plot, he thought.

* * *

In the mountains of northeastern Senoshesvas, Emperor Nindax commanded his eight legions to storm Castilyernov Shinnadda, opening the second front in the war between the two empires. The legions marched over the crest of the mountain and down the slopes to surround the great northwestern, Powterosian castilyernov. Wood cutters began hacking down the forests, constructing catapults, and battering rams. The commanding general had dispatched one legion to plunder the provincial farms for supplies to sustain his invading army. From in front of his tent, Nindax watched as his legions surrounded Shinnadda. A messenger rode up from the colonel in charge of the troops foraging through the countryside.

“What do you mean there’s nothing left among the farms around here?” Nindax asked. He scanned the valley, where smoke rose from burning farm houses and barns.

“It looks like they knew we were coming,” the messenger said. “They’ve stripped everything useful from all the farms. The colonel said to tell you he’d keep expanding the search, but within three days’ march of Shinnadda we’ve found nothing useful at all.”

“Get out,” Nindax snapped. The trembling messenger bowed, turned, and dashed from the emperor’s tent. Nindax grabbed a goblet of ale, downed a heavy gulp, and threw the goblet at the tent wall. “Bumbling fools.”

“What’s Your Imperial Majesty’s plan of attack now?” the commanding general asked.

Nindax fumed. “Without fresh supplies, we can’t afford to wait out Shinnadda’s defenders. We can’t delay here long, in any case. Saxthor will soon discover the Mendenow invasion is a ruse and bring his legions back to Engwaniria. With adequate time here to challenge us in the field on open ground, he’ll have the advantage. His legions are more experienced from the Great Dreaddrac War. We must reach and seize control of Engwaniria before Saxthor realizes our main force is coming down from the northwest.”

“If we try to bypass Shinnadda, the garrison will surely cut our supply lines, such as they are. Without provisions from the countryside here, they could starve us into abandoning the attack,” the general said.

“Abandon the attack!” Nindax repeated. “I’ve wagered the resources of the empire on this campaign. I can’t afford to abandon the attack now before it’s really begun. There’s no time to waste. Bring up those enormous crystals Xthilleon found. I wish the wizard was here to oversee their operation. That wizard operates independently; it infuriates me. He said we must focus them perfectly at the height of the sun’s strength, concentrating the energy in a beam to burn Shinnadda’s great oak gates. We must wait for tomorrow’s late morning sun now to use the crystals and hope there are no clouds.”

Initially, the invading army had stormed the great castilyernov, hoping to catch Shinnadda by surprise. However, the commanding general had sealed the fortress and was able to repulse the attack. The Senoshesvasian legions camped around the fortress in a siege. For Nindax, the time seemed to stand still. He paced his tent, went out and surveyed the scene across the valley floor, and stormed back into his tent, taking out his frustrations by kicking anything that was nearby.

The troops rolled the two enormous crystals mounted on great oak frames to a rise south of Shinnadda. Two days passed before the sun rose high without a cloud cover. Then the men manning the crystal mounts began moving them to align with the sun. At about eleven o’clock in the morning, the sun struck the first crystal at such an angle that a beam of light shot out of it, burning a tree nearby. The crystal was adjusted again as the sun struck the second crystal and it, too, shot out a shaft of light, burning the ground as the sun moved. The two crystals were refocused to aim at the great oak gates of Shinnadda’s main entrance. Nindax watched with his generals as time crawled by.

At eleven thirty, the sun again struck the minerals, and two beams shot forth, illuminating Shinnadda’s great oak gates. A shout went up from the legions around the fortress. Nindax saw terror in the faces of the defenders looking down over the battlements at the brilliance from the great stone arch of the gateway. Then smoke began to rise, and before long it drifted out and up the mountain slope to Nindax’s tent where the sweet smell of smoldering oak delighted him.