A King’s Enemies
King Kavan sat both bored and impatient, listening to the the farmer petition him over his ruined crops. Kavan had much more important things to deal with this day. Today was a day to see if his destiny was still the same, a day to talk with his oracles, a day to important to care about an lowly farmer’s ruined crops. If he ever succeeded to raising himself to godhood, he would more easily hand off the audiences of petitioners to some underling, but for now, some traditions still need to be kept.
“So, what, pray tell, would you have me do to bring back your crops?” Kavan asked, not trying to cover his disdain.
The farmer cringed, “How am I to feed my family? How will I pay my taxes?”
Kavan looked at the man, weighing him with his eyes. Kavan thought to himself, This man has something to contribute to my realm still and because it is a day to face enemies, perhaps it will be to my good fortune to give some kindness to my loyal subjects. “Olivar! Give this man 50 crowns and a wagon to store whatever food he buys with it…”
“Oh thank you, most graciousness…”, the farmer prostrated toward the king, in a grateful and humble way.
Kavan sneered at being interrupted, “I am not done! Olivar! Take note of this farmer’s name…”
Olivar gulped and meekly interjected, “Your Majesty, he gave you his name, it’s…”
Kavan turned his steel-cold eyes onto his steward, “I SAID, ‘YOU TAKE NOTE of his name’ if this farmer dares to petition the court ever again, it will be his last time. Understood?”
Olivar bowed, “Of course your Majesty. My humblest apologies, your Majesty.” Olivar stepped down the dais and paid the farmer, Kavan smirked and wondered how far the poor bastard would get before someone was crazy enough to rob him. Perhaps the farmer would be lucky, such crimes did not happen often, but for a pleb to walk out of the palace with more money than he would make in half a lifetime, it would make him a tempting target in the eyes of those that were not so lucky petitioning the court.
“Olivar, the next petitioner please. And for all you hold dear, let the court know this will be the last one I hear today.”
Olivar cleared his throat and called out, “Vanessia the Fuller would like to claim a grievance done against her family by Captain Montan of the city guard. This will be the last petition the King will hear today.”
Now this should be interesting, thought Kavan as he listened to the slight moans and grumbles of Olivar’s proclamation. Kavan took note as the woman and his captain approach. His captain looked snide and annoyed, probably rightly so, rarely were any so bold to bring a charge against the city guard. Those that did rarely enjoyed the outcome. The woman, Kavan thought to himself, was way too pretty to be working with urine all day. She had pretty eyes, eyes that had a fire for life and didn’t show the toll that life eventually brought to all common folk. She had a shape that would stir most men, as it was stirring him. This should be interesting indeed.
“Your Majesty,” she began, with a voice of honeyed smoke, and an intoxicating confidence, “the captain gravely injured my husband. I could barely support us alone without him working, but with his injuries as well, we are literally starving trying to pay the street healers to try to fix him up.”
“Captain. Did you injure her husband?” Kavan asked, trying to sound generally concerned.
“Yes, your Majesty. In self defense, your Majesty.”
“My Captain claims self defense. Do you call my Captain a liar?”
Vanessia spoke boldly, Kavan enjoyed her spirit, and watching her lips shape words, “Your Captain,” it came out like a hiss, “struck me, so my husband came to my defense, your Majesty. Your Captain and his men, beat him within an inch of his life.”
“Is this true, Captain?”
“She was charging an unfair price for my piss, beg your pardon, your Majesty.”
“Captain! That is not what I asked.”
Captain Montan shrank, “Yes your Majesty, I struck her. I was rash, I admit, however…”
“Silence! Olivar! Get Captain Esterton to send some men to fetch the lady’s husband and have them bring him to my personal healers. Captain Montan, for your actions, you and the men that were with you will be flogged in public display on the morrow, to a point deemed equal to injury inflicted. Obviously you will go without pay until you are back to work. Is this fair, Captain Montan?”
Captain Montan swallowed hard. “Of course, your Majesty. My deepest apologies, my lady. For the injury I caused you and your husband.”
Vanessia’s eyes welled up with tears.
Kavan smiled and turned to Vanessia, “My dear Vanessia. While your husband is healing, you will take residence in the palace. Olivar! Have Vanessia taken to my bed chambers, clothed accordingly, and fed whatever her heart desires.”
The hush in the audience chamber was a tangible thing. Vanessia responded to the final part of the proclamation, “but, I am married…”
Kavan responded calmly, enjoying the way her lips flushed and moved, “perhaps if you take a liking to me, you will beg me to void your marriage? I can have Captain Esterton called back and you can go back dealing with the street healers if you prefer?”
Whatever courage Vanessia showed before, it was gone now. There was no malice in her stare, just the weight of her world. “No, your Majesty. You are kind to offer your esteemed healers to help my...love.”
So there is a hint of defiance in her! Kavan smiled. She would be a fun challenge then, his blood warmed at the thought. He would have to order his healers to take their proper time with her husband.
Kavan watched Olivar usher Vanessia away while watching the guard usher the remaining petitioners out of the chamber. As the room cleared, he saw Lieutenant Paxia approach the throne with a pair of soldiers. Paxia bowed and spoke, “Your Majesty! I bring great news from the front. The siege at Rainmere is fairing well. The castle should be ours within the fortnight. More importantly though, our thieves acquired the stone.”
One of the soldiers approached and unwrapped a piece of silk, showing a stone rod, granite veined in a metal of the rarest sort. Kavan smiled as the soldier handed it to him. There was only one left to get now. This day could not get much better.
“You will be quite rewarded, Lieutenant! Have a runner return to the front to inform your General that I am very pleased. You and your men I am sure have pressed hard to get here so quickly. You will stay in the city as long as you desire. Enjoying all that it has to offer. I will let Olivar know the three of you are to be well compensated. When the army returns from their assured victory, we will have a festival in your honor that will dwarf all that have occurred before.”
“We are humbled by your generosity, your Majesty.”
Kavan barely heard him, he was lost in thought. In dreaming what it will be like to become a god as he cradled the relic in his hands that got him one step closer to that reality.
~~~
The druid chanted over the new rod, it started to glow like the previous ones did. Kavan felt the power that pulsated through it.
“Yes, this is one we’ve seeked, Kavan’ti. Now we wait for the final acquisition. Once they are all together, we can make you a godking in truth.”
Kavan thought about it. How long has the world gone on without one? How long has it gone lost and fractured? He already set so much to rights. He wondered if once he was a god would he still care about such things. The legends of the godlings of the past seemed to make it so. Kavan smiled. So close now. So close to more easily shape the world to his desire, to its proper form.
~~~
Kavan sat impatiently, waiting for any of the oracles to speak. They never spoke in any order. Big change happened today, he needed to know did it bring change to his destiny. He needed to know if anything was at risk.
The lost oracle spoke out in a violent tremor, “The enemies. The enemies. Two must become one.”
The balanced oracle spoke next, as if she suddenly saw a new future. “The woman that weeps in your bed, if she is to love you, will save you. If she is lost to you as a man, will end you. If she is lost to you as a god, will end us.” The oracle wept.
The sage oracle shivered, then spoke, “Ask your questions, my King. I can give only two answers.”
Kavan asked, “So I am still destined to be a god?”
Her metallic reply, “Still. So long as you still trust in the druid completely. This weepy woman changes things though. She was not in the stream before. The water ripples with change from her.”
Kavan hated the days he only got two answers. He hated symbolic water ripples even more. He wondered if his lusting of the fuller woman would unravel anything. Kavan twisted the cryptic words in his head, trying to phrase the next question just right. He still trusted the druid because he knew what the druid got if Kavan did become a god. The druid would never betray him.
“How do I not lose her?” He asked, bracing that he didn’t make a mistake with the question.
“Two must become one. In your enemies. In each other. She must become the queen of your heart. You must become the king of hers. The druid knows. It is how his kind wed, not yours.”
Kavan smiled. A cryptic answer, but an answer with a path to another question. The druid knows. He would have to see the druid again. But, something more pressing required his attention first.
~~~
The gaoler pulled at the rusted door and it creaked open, like the sound of a dying breath. Kavan stepped inside and looked at the man glaring at him. The man that tried to kill him once. One of the few men that had the means of being able to easily, if he wasn’t so sloppy in his attempt. He looked at the man, at his more haggard face, at his dimmer eyes. They didn’t burn with as much hate. Or at least the man would have Kavan believe.
“So,” Kavan said with a mirthful smile, “How is my failed apprentice today?” Kavan was answered with silence. “Very well. Again, why did you try to kill me?”
“Because, our kind kill tyrants. You were not suppose to become one. Once you did, you left me no choice.”
“Am I one? Surely you would have succeeded if I were a tyrant. That is our order’s charge. To remove the tyrants of the world and set their nations on a more proper course by any means necessary after.”
Their order was an nearly forgotten one, supposedly set by the last godling before he vanished. Assassins, groomed to be drawn to kings. Befriend them only to remove them from the game if they show themselves to be tyrants.
“Come, let me show you of the mistake you made. Let me show you that because of your rashness, you failed learn some of the final lessons of our cause. Gaoler! Bring him.”
The gaoler was a huge man, he unchained the apprentice from the wall and dragged the weakened man - still locked in his manacles - from his cell. Almost carrying him like a sack of flour. They walked down the musty, dark corridor to the door at the end. The gaoler handed Kavan the key to the door. Kavan unlocked it, and pulled it open. This door didn’t make a sound. It wasn’t rusted like the others. It was made out of a metal more ancient than iron, one that worked correctly never gives away to rust. It is a door to hold the most precious of things within.
A man leaped at them like a beast as soon as the door showed a hint of freedom. He reeked, yet showed a strength he shouldn’t have. His hair was unkempt and filthy. His grizzled beard was brittle gray and hung down to his waist. He snarled and pulled at the chain just holding him back.
“Now this is someone with some fight left in him. This is what I expected of you actually,” Kavan said toward his former apprentice. “Recognize him?”
The apprentice looked closely at the crazed man. At first he didn’t, then recognition set in. “But you killed him!”
“No, my old friend. My dearest brother. I removed him. You believed that I killed him. Yet, it seems you might finally get your deepest desire. You might finally get to kill a king today.”
The apprentice looked at the crazed man, the former king, with a mixture of awe and disgust, then turned to Kavan, “What do you mean?”
“The two of you are to share this cell. Neither of you will have a meal until only one of you is still has a heartbeat.” The former king looked at the former apprentice with a glare that he was ready to kill the man as soon as he was within reach. The former apprentice looked at the former king with a sense that he was barely a man anymore.
Kavan spoke, almost solemnly, “Goodbye brother. Even if you are the fortunate one to eventually have another meal, we will not meet again. Two must become one. Gaoler, toss him in.”
The gaoler did as was ordered and closed the door, locking it behind him with cold finality. The door muted the screams to almost a whisper.
“Now to learn how druids wed,” Kavan said to no one in particular, a smile creasing his lips, he had a feeling he was going to enjoy the answer, barbaric he may be, but his kind enjoyed life in the earthly ways that the more civilized envied.