Zachania (28 page)

“Heikan’s right
we must wait for the prophecy.” added Sol Tanaga.

Prince Arun
rose to his feet looking frustrated and anxious.

“How much
longer do you want to wait? I hear you speak of the Zararhakzar but
we will soon be attacked, the Empire will soon be upon us, I say we
attack them before we lose the element of surprise.”

“What does the
King say” Heikan asked quietly.

“My father has
not been told yet.”

“Arun we cannot
make a decision until the King permits it.” added Heikan.

“The King is
not well” Arun replied rather recklessly.

“The King is
never well, you know my Prince that we cannot go into war unless
the King orders it.” added Kaan Korvak very sternly banging his
hand on the table to emphasise his point.

“Then will you
take the crown!” Heikan said looking determined.

Prince Arun
rested back in his chair as if frustrated and then replied in a
breathless tone of voice.

“I cannot do
that, I can neither ask for his crown nor act in a way that would
be treason to this land.”

“Treason, is
your spoken word my Prince, I ask you merely what is the point of
this meeting if the one who makes decisions is not present?”
answered Heikan.

The debate went
on and on going back and forth until Prince Arun sensing the
council’s frustrations decided to call an end to the meeting and
let everyone sleep on the topics.

“Brothers, I
can see we are all getting tired and tempers are fraying, let’s
call it a night and resume tomorrow evening where I shall summon
the King and the wizards to join us.”

The next
morning Prince Arun was woke at dawn by the frantic banging on his
door, the Prince did not get to sleep till the early hours so he
struggled to pull himself from his bed and pull on a gown to open
the door to reveal General Pelkan.

“Sire there is
men here from Zula!”

“Zula!”
interrupted the Prince.

“Yes my Prince,
last night the fields of Zac were set alight, the entire crop is
destroyed.”

“By who
Pelkan?”

“No one knows
sire, the men behind this wore no uniforms.”

“Could it be
one of the great houses who ordered this?”

“I cannot say,
all I have been told is that men arrived and burned the
fields.”

“The fields of
Zac, destroyed” Arun added with a slight smile on his face yet
still feeling puzzled.

“Was this act
on purpose or could it have been accidental, there have been fires
in Zula before.”

“No my Prince
this was definitely intended, I was told that twelve horsemen were
seen with staffs lighting the fires and then they burned the
barns.”

“Twelve men”
who the damn did this, investigate this straight away Pelkan, I
want a name and I want it this evening.”

“Yes sire.”

Prince Arun
sighed and stretched as he sat down to breakfast thinking about
tonight’s meeting with the council, he had been awake for barely an
hour yet this day had already brought trouble.

The Prince
picked up a piece of bread and raised it to his mouth but before he
could take a bite he saw Zumal and Valsa the four hundred year old
personal wizards to the throne burst into the room looking anything
but happy.

“What now?”
Arun said silently, throwing his bread onto the table.

“Who ordered
the fields of Zac to be destroyed” Valsa demanded.

“Excuse Me,”
replied Arun straightening his posture and showing his scant regard
at the wizards tone.

“Forgive me
Prince.” the wizard quickly replied realising who he was talking
to.

“We have just
heard and we wish to know if this act was authorised by the
council.”

“Sorry to
disappoint you, I have only just learned of this myself.”

“So you knew
nothing of this?” added Zumal.

“I was going to
finish my breakfast and ask if you knew anything of this.”

Zumal then
raised his eyebrows looking surprised.

“Most odd my
Prince.” said Valsa taking a seat next to the Prince.

“This is not
good sire, this could cause problems amongst the houses, we have
already spoken to the wizards from house of Korvak and they are
outraged, they travel here as we speak for an urgent audience with
the King.”

“What about the
other wizards from the great houses?”

“All of them
deny any knowledge of this.” added Zumal.

Arun sank back
into his chair and thought a moment before answering.

“Tonight there
is a meeting of the council…see if you can find out any more
information today and be at the meeting tonight, we’ll discuss it
then in front of everybody.”

“Very well my
Prince we will see you tonight.”

In the town of
Zafra home to the great house of Korvak there were many heated
discussions taking place in the Korvak castle. The house of Korvak
had control of the Zac distribution and along with the King they
profited very well from it.

Lord Kaan
Korvak was in Zachra waiting for the night’s meeting of the council
but his sons in Zafra were outraged ordering all kinds of
investigations into what happened to the Zac.

The house of
Korvak had two wizards in their service but unknown to Zachania
they were the Zanlian wizards who betrayed Zachania all those
centuries ago, this morning they were worried as they sensed
trouble ahead.

Their secret
pact was now under threat and the secret allegiance with the
Imperial wizard Grarlin could now be revealed.

During the last
Great War between Zachania and the Empire, the Korvak wizards were
approached by Grarlin the wizard Grand of the Emperors wizard
guild. Scared of his powers they joined him. The spice Zac was
created by Grarlin and given to the wizards who in turn were
ordered to give it to the Zachanian’s as a medicine but something
happened to it when it was planted in the Zachanian soil, it
weakened and instead of causing death it intoxicated people.
Grarlin accepted this and insisted that the wizards give it out for
free but as time went by the house of Korvak started to make people
pay for it. For hundreds of years it has kept the people of
Zachania peaceful and weak and now that it was gone maybe the
unquenchable fighting desire of the Zachanian’s may return.

In Zachra Talon
and Graval were sitting at Zalon’s house discussing what they did
the night before.

“Have you heard
anything Graval? What are people saying?”

“it’s on
everyone’s lips Talon, the price of Zac has risen tenfold in just a
few hours its worth more than Gillenium, more than jewels, and
people are panicking what they will do when their own supplies run
out”

“Good!” replied
Talon feeling pleased with himself.

“Talon!
Everyone is speaking of the fires!” Talon’s Grandfather shouted as
he burst into the room smiling.

“We know
Zalon.” added Graval smiling.

Zalon shrugged
and joined the two men.

“Well there’s a
meeting of the council tonight.” he said calmly.

“Then we will
be there.” replied Talon before Zalon leaned closer and spoke as if
pleased with what he found out.

“The wizards of
Zanlia will also be present.” he said quietly.

“How do you
know this?”

“I know!, I
know a driver of the Korvak’s coaches and he has been ordered to
return to Zafra and return with the wizards, all the wizards of the
great houses will be at the meeting tonight, it seem we have caused
a lot of trouble my Grandson.”

Talon’s jovial
mood suddenly changed to deadly serious.

“Then tonight
the wizards die, I will present their heads as presents to the
council.”

Talon’s
Grandfather suddenly became concerned by his Grandson’s decision to
kill the wizards; it was dangerous, very dangerous.

“Talon we must
be careful, you must present your evidence on these traitors and
let the council deal with them.”

Talon shook his
head.

“No
Grandfather!, this I will do my way, if I am to be trusted as a
leader of men then I must show my courage to make decisions and not
be seen as afraid to carry them out.”

“There first
reaction will be to kill you Talon, you cannot go into a council
meeting and slay members of it.”

“Only a man
telling the truth or someone who is insane will do what I will do
and I trust that they will see that I am not insane therefore
giving me the chance to speak, then I will produce the sword of
Apollo and the scroll naming these traitors.”

“It has
risks.”

“Good then they
will see I am sincere.”

“First we will
have to get into the meeting, how will we do that?” Graval
added.

“Easy!, once
they are in conference we will present ourselves at the Palace and
tell them we are responsible for the Zac, I have no doubt they will
take us before the council, once there we will overthrow the guards
and I will kill the wizards.”

“Talon I do not
like this plan.” answered Zalon cautiously.

“Have faith
Grandfather, I feel no nerves, something tells me this will be
alright.”

“If you’re
wrong Talon then this uprising will be the shortest in all history”
Graval said calmly.

“If I am wrong
Graval then this salvation of Zachania was never meant to be.”

There was a
strange atmosphere in the King’s castle this evening; it had been
years since a council meeting of this magnitude where all the
wizards belonging to the great houses had been summoned to appear.
Together with the news of last night’s burning of the Zac this was
going to be a very important if not heated meeting.

It seemed to
take an age for everyone to sit down as most of the wizards huddled
tightly amongst their leaders, there was plenty of questions
wanting to be asked and answered so the Prince tried not to waste
any time on dignitaries and got straight to the point.

“Tonight’s
meeting is a continuation from last night but now as you are all
aware there is another topic that needs addressing, and taking into
consideration that the King is still not well we will start with
the topic of the Zac, I have been making enquiries all day but if
any of you wish to add something first then the floor is
yours.”

Kaan Korvak was
the first to rise almost before the Prince had finished.

“Lord Korvak.”
the Prince said inviting him to speak

“Prince Arun,
the house of Korvak is set to suffer most severely from this
cowardly and criminal act, I will not make no excuse for our
outrage and I hereby formally inform the council that the house of
Korvak will stop at nothing and I repeat nothing to bring these
faceless criminals to justice.”

When Korvak
finished the room fell into silence as the other members sat in a
mixture of puzzlement and rage.

The council has
its own set of laws made centuries ago and it has always been the
duty of the head of the council to launch any enquiries or
investigations. Kaan Korvak had just deeply insulted the Prince who
was head of the council with his break from protocol.

Prince Arun
jumped up offended from his seat and banged his fist hard on the
table but before he could speak his arm was grabbed by his soldier
Pelkan who had rose to join him.

“You dare
challenge the authority of the Prince!” Pelkan shouted with his
eyes bulging, Korvak jumped to his feet and stared at Pelkan,
paused a moment then answered now with his own voice just as loud
and threatening.

“I do challenge
it! I challenge all of the council! Someone in this room is
responsible for this attack on our Zac and until this coward admits
who he is then I hold all of you as suspects!”

The whole room
suddenly fell into gasps of disbelief and anger as Korvak’s
outburst was totally beyond the pale.

“I will not sit
here and be accused by you Korvak!” Bolson Heikan shouted as he
rose angrily from his chair forcing it to crash behind him.

Zumal the Kings
wizard now rose frantically towards Heikan, he knew only too well
of how proud and quick tempered Bolson could be and one wrong move
or word could throw the whole of Zachania into civil war.

“Please Lords,
please calm yourselves.” the wizard said trying to calm things.

“You are men of
honour and men of substance let’s not turn a council meeting into a
tavern brawl, please Lord Heikan will you sit down.”

Heikan snarled
at Zumal before seeing sense and sitting down which made Zumal
approach Korvak.

“Please my Lord
Korvak will you be seated and discuss this, men on this council do
not blindly accuse each other.”

Once Korvak sat
down, all eyes returned to the Prince.

“Now then
gentlemen lets discuss this like gentlemen” the Prince said
purposely looking at Korvak and Heikan.

Korvak then
called one of his wizards over who began whispering in his ear, the
council waited as the Lord and his wizard sat having their private
conversation, everyone got angered at this insult but once again it
was Heikan maybe paranoid that Korvak was whispering about him, who
decided to interrupt them.

“Shall we come
back when your finished Korvak.”

Zumal again
asked for calm, which made Lord Heikan sigh loudly before looking
away trying to calm his anger while Korvak arrogantly continued his
private conversation with his wizard.

Eager not to
cause any more hostility in what was a very hostile atmosphere the
council waited for Korvak to finish.

“Well?” the
Prince asked him making Korvak to rise from his seat again.

“Prince Arun,
the matter is still on the table, there is no denying that someone
has conspired against my family, but I have a solution.”

“Go on.” the
Prince interrupted.

“I ask that my
wizards question each head of the council with the truth
crystal.”