The thunderclap was so loud that it felt as if it shook the bed. Colonel Taerin bolted upright and listened to the sound of the rain pelting the building. He slid out of bed and eased the shutters open. The rain poured down so heavily that he could not see the palace docks. Pools of water dotted the palace grounds and small rivers flowed along the footpaths. He pulled the shutters closed and got dressed. He made his way downstairs to the officers’ mess and found it packed with generals and colonels. He grumbled under his breath. While Despair was usually crowded in the winter because of its warmer weather, many of the senior officers usually stayed up late into the night and rose late in the morning, but the storm must have awakened every last one of them. He turned around and fled from the crowded room. With a slight smile on his face, Colonel Taerin entered the dining room set aside for visiting dignitaries. It was almost always empty. On this particular day, General Fabio sat alone. He looked up and smiled as the colonel entered the room.
“There are plenty of seats in here,” greeted the general.
“So you are aware of the marauding hordes running around the palace?” chuckled the colonel as he sat down at the table.
“One could hardly be unaware. There was a line outside the officers’ mess when I came by. It looks as if the storm woke the entire palace.”
The colonel ordered a light meal when the servant came for his order. He was tempted to engage the general in friendly conversation, but his mind was already reflecting on the events of the prior night. He ate in silence as he planned his day. When he finished his meal, he looked up and was surprised to see that the general had already left the room. He pushed the plate away and rose to his feet.
Colonel Taerin’s first stop was with the duty watch. He inquired about the patrols of the previous night and asked if the intruders had been captured. He learned that the grounds had been thoroughly searched, but no intruders had been found. He frowned as he nodded to the officer. As he made his way to the archives, he wondered if that meant that the Badgers had a secret way onto the grounds of the palace, or more ominously, did they already reside on the palace grounds? He halted in the corridor as a shiver raced up his spine. It was quite possible that some of the soldiers posted to protect the Imperial Palace could actually lead double lives. Could the Badgers have men on the palace staff?
The colonel shook off the ill feeling and entered the repository of official documents. Colonel Donil had said something the night before that stuck in Colonel Taerin’s mind. He stated that General Forshire was not under the control of Grand General Kyrga. Taerin found that hard to believe, but he intended to check on it anyway. Colonel Taerin was one of the few people who had access to the emperor’s archives, and he was let into the special room without question. He started going through the stacks of proclamations and suddenly halted, a mask of confusion staining his face. He turned around and exited the room and faced the guard outside.
“The emperor’s papers are not up-to-date,” declared the colonel. “Where are the newest proclamations?”
“There are no other proclamations,” answered the guard. “Everything pertaining to the emperor is in that room.”
“Who is now responsible for bringing the emperor’s papers down here?”
“You are, sir.”
Colonel Taerin looked stunned. The task had been his for years, but he thought it had ended when the emperor’s guard had been changed. Evidently, it had not ended. He flushed with embarrassment as the guard stared at him.
“Then I have been derelict in my duty,” Colonel Taerin stated. “I shall rectify that immediately.”
The guard tried to hide his smirk, but the colonel cared little for the guard’s opinion. He strode out of the archives and headed for the emperor’s office. The emperor’s guards knew Taerin well, and they knocked on the door as he approached. One of them cracked the door open and stuck his head inside. He immediately opened the door to admit the colonel. Colonel Taerin entered the emperor’s office and saw the emperor sitting back in his chair. The colonel bowed respectfully and waited for the emperor to speak.
“What is it, Colonel?”
“I have come to collect the papers for the archives,” the colonel announced as his eyes moved to a rather large stack of papers on one of the shelves behind the desk.
“What? Oh, yes,” the emperor said as he turned and saw what the colonel was staring at. “Let me add one more to the pile before you take it.”
The emperor leaned forward and slid a paper from the corner of the desk to bring it closer to him. He picked up a writing utensil with his left hand and brought it towards the paper. With a low grumble under his breath, the emperor quickly reached over with his right hand and seized the pen. He scrawled his signature on the paper and shoved it towards the colonel.
“There is no need to announce that one,” stated the emperor. “It has already been carried out. Just file it with the rest.”
Colonel Taerin nodded and picked up the proclamation and carried it to the shelf. He placed it on top of the stack and then picked up the entire stack and retreated to the doorway. He bowed once again and then tapped the door with his foot. The guard immediately opened the door to allow the colonel to leave. Colonel Taerin carried the papers straight to the archives and entered the special room. He pulled up a chair, placed the stack of papers on the table and then proceeded to read each and every one of the proclamations before filing them away in their proper place. The task consumed hours of the colonel’s time, but he found the reading enlightening. What he found most curious was that the proclamations ran back to the days leading up to the celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the Federation, which had occurred months ago. During that entire time, no one had bothered to do anything with the proclamations except pile them up on the shelves in the emperor’s office. The colonel was amazed until he realized that Grand General Kyrga probably had no idea how the emperor’s office was truly run. After all, Colonel Taerin had been handling that before Kyrga became the Grand General.
When Colonel Taerin got near the bottom of the pile, he found the most interesting papers. One of them proclaimed General Forshire as the Imperial General, a new position on par with the Grand General, who reported directly to the emperor. The colonel noted the date of the proclamation and realized that it was the very day that the emperor’s original guards were returned to duty. The colonel finished reading and filing the stack of documents . When he finally emerged from the archives, he was surprised to see that the storm had passed and the sun was setting. He grabbed a meal in the same dining hall that he had used for the morning meal and then headed outdoors to check on Colonel Donil. The first place he checked was the bench near the waterfront, but Donil was not there. He headed straight for the old barracks and opened the door without knocking. He saw the colonel sitting on his usual bunk as if he had been waiting for a visitor.
“I see you are still alive,” quipped Colonel Taerin as he entered the building and strode towards the colonel. “I am pleased.”
“Wait outside, Donil,” came a steely voice from behind Colonel Taerin. “Keep guard and let me know if anyone comes within sight.”
Colonel Taerin did not need to turn around to know who the voice belonged to, but he did so anyway. General Forshire stood in the shadows, sword in hand. Colonel Donil gave Colonel Taerin a wide berth as he moved past. When Donil exited the building, he closed the door.
“I guess you weren’t in Olansk after all,” Colonel Taerin said with surprise evident in his voice. “I should have known better.”
“If you know so much about my travels, why did you bother to send that urgent message? Did you expect me to respond sometime in the spring?”
“Actually,” frowned the colonel, “I expected a return message that would prove Donil’s ability to communicate with you. I then planned to use that communication link to discuss certain things with you, but it is far better that you are here in person.” The colonel’s eyes dropped to the long, two-handed sword that the general held in one hand. “Is that really necessary for a simple conversation?”
“Ordinarily, I would say yes,” smiled Clint as he sheathed his sword, “but you would be a fool to do anything towards me that might require me to use it.”
“And why is that?” asked the colonel.
“Let’s skip the small talk, Colonel. What is so important that you needed an urgent meeting with me?”
“I take it that Colonel Donil brought you up-to-date on what happened here last night?” Clint nodded and the colonel continued. “The Badgers think that you have absconded with some women. I seriously doubt that they would risk entering the grounds of the Imperial Palace unless they were fairly sure of their information. I want to know who those women are and where you are keeping them.”
“Perhaps you should join the Badgers then,” taunted the general. “You seem to have the same questions as they do.”
Colonel Taerin sighed in frustration. He sat down on one of the bunks and stared at the general. He was unsure how to get the information that he was certain the general had.
“This is a serious matter, General,” the colonel said. “I have reason to believe that the women may be members of the emperor’s family. If that is true, I demand to know where they are.”
“Do you think the emperor’s family has the only women worth kidnapping in all of Zara?” the general asked with a slight smile. “What makes you think that these women that the Badgers are searching for have anything to do with the emperor? Colonel Donil did not report such a conversation, and I am positive that his recounting is accurate.”
“I heard the conversation,” scowled the colonel. “The difference between Donil and me is that I know who Colonel Jurgon is, or was.”
“And how do you know of Colonel Jurgon?”
“I manage the official archives for the emperor,” stated the colonel. “I am privy to most everything that goes on in the Imperial Palace. And yes, I even know about your appointment as the first Imperial General. Let us stop playing games. Tell me what I need to know.”
“The less you know the better,” replied the general. “The first thing that I would like to point out to you is that Colonel Jurgon would not be mentioned in the archives of the emperor’s papers. I do not take Jaar for a fool and neither should you. The real question to be answered here is how you learned of Colonel Jurgon, so let me ask it. How exactly do you know the name of the colonel in question?”
“That is no concern of yours, General. You have information that is vital to the Federation. I suggest that you tell me what I need to know, or I will be forced to compel you to answer.”
General Forshire chuckled. “You have pluck, my young friend. I’ll give you that. What shall we do about this impasse? Should we both go before Emperor Jaar and ask him to settle this dispute?”
“No,” Colonel Taerin said much too quickly.
Clint raised an eyebrow at the response. “Why not? Is the emperor not quite feeling himself today?”
The colonel’s eyes widened in alarm. He was not sure if the general’s words were meant literally or not. He did not know how to answer, but he needed desperately to know what had happened to the women.
“Tell me what happened to the women,” the colonel pleaded.
Clint sighed and nodded sympathetically. “The estate was attacked by Badgers. We counted one-hundred bodies, none of them female. Do you remember the day we sat on the bench and I showed you the golden badger pin?”
Colonel Taerin nodded. “I accused you of stealing it from the emperor’s office.”
“I found the pin on the body of a headless colonel.”
“Colonel Jurgon.” Taerin nodded in understanding. “How is it that you even knew where the emperor’s secret estate was located?”
“The emperor gave me instructions,” answered Clint. “You thought that the emperor was acting strangely during the festival. You were correct. Grand General Kyrga was holding him captive. Colonel Jurgon’s head was delivered to him to ensure his cooperation.”
“Why you?” frowned the colonel.
“The emperor could not trust anyone else. He had no idea who was aligned with the Grand General. I was not only an outsider, but I had already completed a sensitive investigation against the Grand General. His choice was logical.”
“I can see that,” the colonel replied with disappointment evident in his voice. “If the Badgers stole the women, then why are they now looking for them?”
“Because the A Corps ambushed them and liberated the women.”
“You attacked the Badgers?” gasped Colonel Taerin. “I would have thought that they would have guarded the emperor’s family better than that.”
“Oh, they did guard them well,” retorted General Forshire. “They had one-hundred Badgers guarding the women, but they made a foolish mistake. They split into two groups. That is when the A Corps struck.”
“I am confused,” admitted the colonel. “The A Corps is supposed to be in Olansk. The estate was surely within the Empire of Barouk. Your telling makes no sense.”
“I have kept a small detachment of A Corps to the west of the city,” explained the general. “We attacked fifty of the Badgers with one-hundred-fifty men. Our losses were minimal, but that did not last long. The other half of the Badgers caught us asleep and extracted their revenge. Only two of us survived along with the women.”
“Do you have the women now?”
“They are safe.” The general nodded. “But do not ask where they are. I am not prepared to answer that question at this time. Right now, I need to determine what is going on in the emperor’s life. What can you tell me about his relationship with Grand General Kyrga?”
“What game are you playing, General?” frowned the colonel. “You know enough from our talks that the key to dethroning an emperor is through his family, and you now claim to hold those women captive. I cannot discuss the emperor with someone who might be trying to overthrow the empire. You could be in league with the plotters.”
The general sighed and walked to the fireplace. He grabbed a handful of ashes and returned to the center of the building. He sat on the bunk opposite the colonel and threw the ashes onto the floor.
“What are you doing?” questioned the colonel.
“We both need answers, Taerin, but we are both afraid of the responses we might receive from the other. I intend to show you that I mean you no harm. Take off your uniform.”
“I will not,” frowned the colonel. “Have you gone mad?”
“Perhaps,” smiled Clint as he bent forward and poked the pile of ashes with his finger.
His finger moved swiftly through the ashes and he leaned back and stared at the colonel’s face. The expression of shock and fear was as clear as the moon on a cloudless night.
“You know, Taerin, you have your mother’s eyes.”
The colonel was speechless. The most closely guarded secret in the entire Federation was laid out on the floor for all to see. The colonel moved his foot to the ashes and scattered them.
“Your mother and sisters are perfectly safe,” declared the general. “Your father I am not too sure about. That is why I need answers from you.”
“Why would you care about him? Is it to help him or overthrow him?”
“I have an agreement with him,” answered the general. “I need to know if he will still honor it.”
“What is the agreement?” asked Colonel Taerin.
“This is not how the game is supposed to be played,” frowned the general. “We are both supposed to be open and honest with one another, but you have not volunteered anything yet. Do you consider me a threat?”
“I do,” admitted the colonel. “There has always been something mysterious about you, and I do not like unsolved mysteries. Now you claim to hold some rather high cards and are raising the stakes. Do you truly expect me to show you my hand?”
“I am showing you mine,” countered the general.
“Not all of it.” The colonel shook his head vigorously. “You are becoming more mysterious by the moment. How could you possibly know that mark?”
“I saw your father’s mark the night he proclaimed me the Imperial General.”
“With your sword at his throat, no doubt,” spat the colonel.
“Actually,” replied General Forshire, “my sword was stuck in the chest of a demonic priest who had just stolen your father’s memories. That demonkin had just learned your identity when I killed him. Your father and I are not friends, but we do have an agreement that satisfies both of our concerns. I merely need to be sure that nothing has changed since I left Despair. Will the emperor honor our agreement?”
“You keep referring to this agreement,” scowled the colonel. “Why don’t you just go and ask him?”
“Because I don’t particularly want to die this night,” answered the general. “The morning after he proclaimed my new title, the emperor appeared outside the palace. He talked to me and Donil as we were leaving the palace. That struck me as odd because we had been meeting in secret. It was not in the best interests of either of us to be seen together. That causes me to doubt that the emperor was acting of his own free will.”
“I cannot answer that question without knowing what the agreement is.”
Clint sat and thought for a moment. Eventually, he nodded. “The A Corps is returning to Despair to seize the Imperial Palace and free your father from Grand General Kyrga and whoever is controlling him.”
“And in return?”
“There will be no war with Alcea.”
“Are you Alcean?” gasped the colonel.
Clint sighed with frustration. “You are interrogating me, Colonel. Oh, you are doing it well and in an excellent manner, but this will not continue. This conversation will be a two-way conversation, or it will end this very moment.”
“You are being unfair, General. You know everything that is going on, and I truly know nothing. Think for a minute what you are asking of me. What if I were to say yes, but I was wrong? You would take your wrath out on me and my family. And if I said no, you would consider the agreement broken and take your wrath out on me and my family. What do you expect me to say?”
“I will never harm the women of your family,” promised Clint, “no matter what happens. I risked my life to save them, and I hold them harmless. If your father cheats on the agreement, I will kill him. As for you, our future relations depend on what kind of man you are. If you are honorable and reasonable as your grandfather was, we will get along fine. If you seek to continue your father’s policies of plundering the poor and enslaving them, we will come to blows. I cannot be more open and honest than that. I will never hold a person accountable for the deeds of another.”
“You still leave me in a quandary,” frowned the colonel, “but I accept your words in the spirit that they were given. I do not agree with my father’s policies. I never have. In fact, we have had numerous disagreements about them. I spoke to you on more than one occasion about the apparent snubbing of me by the emperor. I suspected that most of that was due to the disagreements we had, but now I am not so sure. Since the date of your proclamation, the emperor has been free to move about as he pleases. He has his own guards back and he once again dictates orders to Grand General Kyrga. One would think that the emperor is his old self once again.”
“But you don’t?”
“The quandary, General, is that I want my old father back. I do not want him dead.”
“And you think that as soon as you tell me that he won’t honor the agreement, that will mark him for death.” Clint nodded with understanding. “I am sorry, Taerin, but if your father breaks the agreement, he will die. If we don’t find out who is pulling Kyrga’s strings, your father will die anyway, but there is more to consider than just your father. The war with Alcea is going to be costly for the Federation. Perhaps you should be more concerned with the deaths of hundreds of thousands instead of just your father. I know that is a hard thing to ask of any son, but you are not just any son. You are the future Emperor of Barouk. Will you start your reign trying to make the world a better place to live, or will you start it by listening to thousands of women and children wailing for their lost loved ones?”
Colonel Taerin sat silently for a long time. Finally, he looked the general in the eye and nodded. “I think the emperor is under some kind of magical spell. Unless we can find a way to break that spell, he will not honor the agreement.”
“Why do you think he is under a spell?”
“There are a number of reasons, most of them small, but together they add up. The most significant is that the emperor truly has no idea who I am. I am convinced of that now.”
“The emperor has learned to control his emotions very well,” retorted Clint. “Perhaps he is afraid to let anyone know that he is close to you for fear that they might suspect the truth.”
“Father has done that well for years.” The colonel shook his head dismissively. “Sometimes he would publicly treat me like dirt to keep everyone at bay, but this is different. There is no spark of recognition in his eyes when we meet, even in private. Whatever the black-cloaks have done to him, he does not recognize me. I suspect that they just found a more efficient means of controlling him.”
“What other clues do you have?”
“He tries to write left-handed and eventually switches to his right hand in frustration. I have seen this many times since you left the palace. My father has always been right-handed, but his mind seems to think that he is left-handed. Also, my father was always an early riser, but now he seldom gets out of bed before the sun is well into the sky. Were it not for my father’s familiar face, I would swear that it was not my father based upon these small things alone.”
“Perhaps it is not your father at all,” mused the Ranger.
“What do you mean? How could it not be my father?”
“I would have to talk to a mage that I know, but I remember hearing about a spell that allows a magician to assume the body of another. If that is what has happened here, your father is already dead.”
Colonel Taerin sighed deeply and closed his eyes for a moment. He had suspected for some time that the relationship he once had with his father was long over, and he felt fairly confident that it would never return. While somewhat shocking, hearing that his father might already be dead began to make sense.
“That would explain the late rising and the propensity to use his left hand,” frowned the colonel. “I pray that you are wrong, but I will proceed as if you are right. Where is my family?”
“They are safe,” Clint answered vaguely. “Believe me when I say that they have a better chance of remaining safe if you do not know where they are. That is not a threat on my part. It is an overabundance of caution.”
Colonel Taerin nodded with acceptance. He didn’t like not knowing, but the general had been honest with him so far. “Are you Alcean? Is that why you are willing to risk your life to end this war?”
“I am an Alcean Ranger,” stated the general. “Your father was aware of that when he signed the proclamation.”
“Do you think he meant to honor the deal?”
“I do. I consider myself to be a fair judge of men, and I believe that he was sincere when we made the agreement. His true fury was reserved for the unknown man who is trying to murder his family and steal his throne. Alcea certainly meant less to him than revenge. Yes, I believe he meant to honor the deal. I suspect that something happened that night after I left his quarters. Perhaps Kyrga was alarmed when K’san did not return.”
“Well, Alcean Ranger, I will make you a deal. If you find this unknown man and prove to me that he is behind this affair, I will see to it that there is no war with Alcea.”
“That is a deal that I would heartily accept, my friend, but I fear we may be too late. Spring is just around the corner, and Grand General Kyrga will be dispatching his troops any day now. I will have my people do whatever they can to ferret out the puppet master, but I think war is coming. What can you tell me about increases in troop strength since the festival days?”
“Kyrga is continuing to build the army, and his pace is rather frantic. I do not understand it. We already have over three-hundred-fifty-thousand soldiers, yet he shows no signs of slowing down. He is offering ever higher bounties to get more men.”
“What is he doing with them?”
Colonel Taerin hesitated. “It is one thing to work together for peace,” he said with a frown, “but you are now asking me to betray my country. I cannot do that.”
“It is not your country any more, Taerin,” Clint said sadly. “Someone is driving this coming conflict, but it is not the rightful emperor. If it is any consolation to you, Alcea plans to spare as many of your people as we can afford to. The more knowledge we have of their disposition, the easier we can accomplish that.”
“You are in no position to spare Federation soldiers,” retorted Colonel Taerin. “While I am not privy to the invasion plans, I have heard the odds involved in the coming war. Alcea will be utterly destroyed, and for that I am truly sorry.”
“I will say to you what I said to your father,” General Forshire declared with a thin smile. “There are only a handful of Alceans in Zara, but we have freed the elves, destroyed your fleet and your shipyards, gained access to the highest levels of your Federation, and destroyed a large faction of the infamous Badgers. Think about that before you write Alcea off. Think about it and then realize that there are thousands more like us in Alcea waiting for your soldiers to arrive.”
Colonel Taerin swallowed hard as he thought about the Alcean’s words. “The bloodshed will be great for both of our nations. Let us pray that we can work together to stop this war before it starts.”