CHAPTER XLII: Bloody Business

The Goldoran camps in and near the Trout Channel were in high and good spirits. They had been complacent and in celebratory mood for months now, having outsmarted the Provincians and turned their ingenious war tactic against them. They had brought their own food from home across the Trout Channel, and their own citizens to occupy what they now called Taopolis after King Tao, now relishing the status of an avatar. Taopolis covered the entire area west of Krossante, which Province was still successfully defending, but only just. Krossante was their last line of defense, and both Province and Goldora knew that if it fell, along with large numbers of defenders, Aquillah's status as the securest city in Moab would be in real jeopardy.

And General Shemah knew it. He had remained behind at Unterlet with only 3,000 men. The rest of the men had trekked east to Krossante to execute another phase of the attempt to take it, while Shemah's Unterlet Castle garrison wore a more administrative than military role, to look after the few thousand Goldoran civilians in the land and those yet to come. A unit of only 250 of the garrison were stationed at the outpost right at the Trout Channel, to receive incoming Goldoran civilians and to watch the Goldoran-Korazite fleet stationed there. There were more than 120 ships in the channel, many of them now being used for supplies and to bring immigrants from home across the channel. The officer in charge of the outpost was the young, boisterous lieutenant called Ildad, one of General Amavi's most outstanding understudies. He was a patriotic Goldoran with a remarkable interest in Goldora's expansion program, and an effective, adaptable officer. This adaptability had given him the edge over many others in the position he was holding at the Channel outpost as its commanding officer.

Yet, not even he nor his superiors could have prepared for Bartle Frere and his 8,000 troops, not counting the crews of the three Behemoths and eleven Stingers in spite of the fact that they could, and would, fight on the ground.

The attack was launched in full force a couple of hours before midnight on a tranquil Saturday, when the Stinger Klaadia's Curse first offloaded a unit of 300 non-crew Knights with their 250 canine comrades, just three miles north of the outpost in the channel, on unguarded territory. With them was Mongoose, who knew the land well, and whose instructions from K'rar which he had delivered to Bartle Frere had been to launch this operation. Mongoose also knew the outpost held only a small number of soldiers, so he led Squad Captain Krespo and the 300 in the night, headed for the wood between the outpost and Unterlet Castle. They were however not the ones who would begin the attack on the outpost. This would be carried out by Bartle Frere and the remainder of the legion on the ships, so Pliny, who was with him on the Revelation, was the first one to witness the military might of his king, K'rar, especially on these ships. The small Kaffrarian fleet had waited in the waters until midnight, when they launched the assault on the wooden warships of Korazin and Goldora. First, eight of the ten Stingers flanked the back end of the large fleet unseen in the dark, while the Behemoths attacked from the north. Pliny knew nothing of the ships' firepower, nor did Mongoose. In the detailed instructions that Mongoose had brought to Bartle Frere, K'rar had intentionally and specifically told the Deputy Commandant to surprise the old veterans. So Pliny found out that there was a lot more to the metal ships than their size and structure, when Bartle Frere gave the signal to lay waste the Goldoran fleet ships. He watched as the Behemoth Wild Beast dropped anchor several hundred meters away from the first line of Goldoran ships while the Revelation and the Blue Lotus sailed on without stopping. Two Stingers, Jen's Constellation and Tuncay's Polemian, sailed with them. He had to ask Bartle Frere in the bow of the Revelation why this was so, to which the man replied,

'Patience, Pliny. Patience. You just watch the space.' He directed his eyes to a squad of six knights, who had now assembled in the bow, and one of them shouted a command to lift something. Pliny watched as a large hatch was opened by sliding a large metal plank in the deck. The huge cylinder of the forward firing whizzgun was hoisted onto the deck, and a knight fastened it into a compartment in the bow.

'What is that?' Pliny asked once more.

'That, friend, is a whizzgun. Fire!'

Pliny almost fell over when the knights ignited the chemar in the barrel at a distance of 120 meters from the Goldoran fleet and fired the whizzgun. Before he even marveled at the instant damage the round caused to the ship it met, the whizzgun was fired twice more in quick succession, while the Blue Lotus also fired its forward facing whizzgun. Suddenly, Pliny's ambience was very illuminated by a light source from above, causing him to move his eyes and witness a spectacular fireworks show. The Wild Beast behind them had launched its twin trebuchets. Pliny was agape as he stared into the night sky at the explosive rounds, flying over him and traveling far into the distance, before dropping on and destroying instantly some of the Goldoran and Korazite ships anchored farther ahead. Then, before he knew it, the Kaffrarian ships sailed into the mix, flanked on both sides by anchored enemy ships, and Bartle Frere gave the order to fire broadsides.

'Come on,' Bartle Frere took Pliny by the shoulder to the side of the ship, had him look down by the side, where 21 guns had been slid into their sights. The blasts from both sides were horrific. Pliny saw some of the Goldoran ships completely blasted into smithereens, awarding no time to the crew below the decks to come up and catch a glimpse of what was going on. Meanwhile, the Stingers on the right flank, at the back end of the enemy ships, had also began to sink them one by one, and the Wild Beast, having fired four times its trebuchets, was now sailing again to pick up the pieces that the two Behemoths and two Stingers might have left behind by sinking them with its own guns.

The Goldorans were both speechlessly frightened and confused. The Trout Channel was alight with burning ships. One moment there had been a tranquil, incident-free night, and in the next, one of frantic, panic-stricken activity for the Goldorans. Those on the ships took the first ten minutes of the attack trying to first of all understand what was happening, yet it was happening very swiftly, very dangerously. There were screams of Goldoran and Korazite sailors dropping into the water or burning or being shot with arrows from knights lined up on the sides of the Kaffrarian ships. They had never envisaged such mass destruction, yet even as they conceded that there was no chance whatsoever of escaping this brand new, lethal enemy, they couldn't believe that the new ships were less than 20 in number, seeping through the fleet and sinking the 129 combined fleet ships with impunity. As for the giant ships, some of them even smashed right through many of the ships, wrecking them in half as if they weren't there, and continuing on their way. None of the sailors on the Goldoran ships was even able to make it into a life boat and row to land to pass on the news. One Behemoth sailed just in front of the first line of ships without running aground, and sunk them one by one, while the other ships made rounds and rounds through the fleet behind, constantly blitzing the ships into nothingness.

But they didn't need to deliver the report to the outpost because it was only a stone's throw or two from the beach, and the report was perfectly delivered by the terrifying sound from the whizzguns. Lieutenant Ildad had been asleep when the attack began, but ten minutes in, he had opened his eyes just before a knock came at the door, shouting,

'Sir, the fleet is under attack!'

Ildad replied, while quickly dressing up in whatever fabric was closest to him haphazardly,

'What? By whom?' he slapped the door lock to the side and opened the door, while still fastening his pants. The scared man at the door had said,

'We don't know sir, but the whole fleet is sinking!'

The lieutenant, with a crowd of armed soldiers, had then gathered themselves and ran together from the outpost to the beach below to take a closer look. Even though the water was lit up with fire already now, they did not see any sign of the cause of the damage.

But now they did. The massive ship Blue Lotus was just appearing from the darkness, and so were two Stingers from the right flank. All were relentlessly firing at the sailing ships and damaging them beyond repair from each blast. The burning sails and hulls of the fleet made the water look like a forge from the Devil's own manufactory. Ildad said nothing, and neither did his men, watching in terror as the unthinkable unfolded before their very eyes. At long last he did say something, when the last ship had been struck and sunk by the Wild Beast. His orders were directed at two of his subordinate officers on the beach with him,

'Send three riders to Unterlet Castle right now. You, prepare all the men.' He said this with a very hapless, infectious complexion.

But his orders were immediately rendered irrelevant. Mongoose and Squad Captain Krespo launched the second phase of the attack against the outpost, from the opposite side, on land. There was no doubt that the attack on the outpost was by the same people as those on the water, because they, too, were invisibly bombarding the outpost from without, at first. The soldiers inside the outpost were completely taken aback, because they were preparing to descend down onto the sand of the beach below to face the enemy there in case they decided to land on the beach. The chaos was nothing like they would have imagined even if they tried ten times over. Once the bombardment from the whizzguns stopped, having killed nearly 80 men who couldn't get out of the way, the surviving soldiers decided to make a run for it, fleeing in all directions except the direction of their invisible attackers. Those who fled north and south were met with units of a hundred knights with their dogs and wolves. Others fled to the beach and cocooned there until they were just under a hundred. After just one and a half hours of a ruthless one-sided affair, the Goldoran and Korazite ships were at the bottom of the channel, and Ildad and his men were surrounded from all sides completely on the beach, by an enemy still unknown. At first, Mongoose and Captain Krespo intentionally flanked Ildad in silence to terrorize him and his men. The canines on the other hand, by themselves terrified the small cluster of men on the beach, and even as they wielded their weapons to indicate that they would fight back, it was clear that their spirits were utterly depleted. And when the forces on the ships behind them began to deploy, they knew that they had just been served a piece of their own cake, as they had surprised and taken three Provincian centuries in the same way three years ago when the Trout Channel plan had been moved into operation.

In the next few minutes, only Ildad and ten of his men were breathing. K'rar was taking no prisoners whatsoever. Still, Ildad had the courage of his convictions to ask Krespo,

'Must I die without knowing the cause of my death? You are certainly not Provincian.' Mongoose was present when he asked this, and he was the one who replied,

'No, they aren't Provincian. But they are certainly your enemies, because you are the enemies of their master. Your nation has continuously fueled tensions and strife against Korazin, and have gone so far as to not only invade our land with your charlatan troops, but also to attempt to kill the King of Korazin. For this reason, K'rar von Caspar, King of Korazin, not the vassal you installed, sentences you to death.'

This was also intentional. K'rar had instructed his men to make it known that the whole debacle was his doing. These forces were to completely destroy all Goldoran military presence in the Province without even appraising the Moon Province about it.

Mongoose sliced the lieutenant's head, killing him, while the rest were left to the canines to tear them apart, as Bartle Frere, Brigadier Milshkin and the larger bulk of the garrison came through the water, carrying or dragging with them all the necessary logistics, including 21 bullguns, for use on land. While they prepared to immediately march on into the interior, Bartle Frere joined Mongoose and Krespo on the beach to give him new instructions.

'Captain Krespo, you will stay here with five squads and two ships. Deploy Urdians and falcons and cut off all communication. No homing pigeon flies over this channel. The Constellation and the Blue Lotus will watch the channel. You watch the land.'

The two ships would only need their crews, and their orders were to sink any ships, whether merchant or navy, in the channel. In his orders, Bartle Frere was to shut out Goldora completely from what was happening to them in Moon Province, and for this, the Knights were well equipped.

Once they occupied the outpost they had half-destroyed, Krespo's hundred men became the third different army to occupy the same outpost in the same decade. The rest of the battalion left in the dark with Bartle Frere and Milshkin, headed directly for Unterlet Castle.

Tyrne, Goldora. The morning after the Trout Channel destruction. Business was booming and buzzing as usual, perhaps even better. Goldora was now reaping the economic fruits of its military prowess from both of its closest neighbors, Korazin and Moon Province. Several of the volunteers that traveled across the channel to Province included many who had previously been struggling in Tyrne and other Goldoran cities. They had traveled there with the prospect of setting up businesses, in conjunction with the state, which would allocate land to them and perhaps even give them pecuniary assistance, to tap into the rich soils of the mountainous kingdom. So the Goldorans at the port of Tyrne, outside its wall limits, were reasonably expecting things to carry on as usual, until about the fifth hour after dawn. The entire population in the port had to stop what they were doing, even against their will because their friends forced them, to participate in the viewing of a most staggering sight. Three bizarrely large ships had just appeared on the horizon, and their sheer brute size wasn't the only odd thing about them. The Behemoths breathed smoke, were visibly metal-hulled, and had no sails whatsoever. The Tyrnians had all the reasons to congregate in the port to watch them sail all the way into the harbor. There were piers in the harbor, and along these, the Behemoths anchored. Two of them stopped with their port sides facing the city, and the people witnessed one more fabulous sight, that is, that these ships had names. The two ships, which flanked their third companion on either side, were named the Black Jack and the Sentinel, while the central one was the Leviathan. The ships were as incredible as they were terrifying. They needed no sails to overstate their sizes, as they were already brutes by themselves. High and tall, they were, so much so that the crowd could not see any of the sailors on their decks, save for lookouts in high towers near the center of each ship.

As if this wasn't enough, there was no further activity from the ships when they anchored. They just sat there in the water, lifeless, for several minutes. No one came off of them, nor showed a face at all. The minutes soon became half an hour, and then an hour. The crowd had endured the chilling silence for the first several minutes, until the ambience began to take on an even scarier outlook, because, as if by intention, the sky darkened very, very quickly. The crowd had only grown larger still because even though many people had grown bored by the silence and resumed their businesses, but others replaced them, this time even from within the walls of Tyrne. They only began to disperse after the weather threatened a heavy downpour, which disappointed rather inexplicably, because the rain did not come down, and instead, the sinister cloud cover cleared up as fast as it had arrived, so that it seemed to have been announcing the arrival of the ships rather than precipitation.

After an hour of uncertainty, somebody decided to make a move to alleviate the redundant worry. It was the Centurion in charge of this port. His name was Astrian, a 47-year old lean, handsome man. He was especially suitable to his appointees to take care of law and order in this area simply because he was born there, in the port district, and had been outside Tyrne less than five times in his life. Astrian strode into the crowd from the Constabulary posting closer to the wall with an air of bumptiousness, but the population actually liked him and his ruthless methods of handling this volatile part of the great land of Goldora, because it was effective and healthy for them in the end. He came to the jetties with a squad of eleven men, dressed in the same colors as the military, maroon, while his minions' skirts were brown. He was also popular among the ladies of the port because he was still unmarried. Wherever he walked, it was not uncommon to spot ogling females, as it so happened when he dispersed the crowd and walked through them to one of the four piers in the port. Two piers were simply perpendicular extensions, while the other two, on either side of the twin piers, were parallel to the shoreline, facing east and west. The Behemoth in the center was anchored by the right of the middle piers, while the other two anchored on the side-facing piers. Astrian cleared the crowd on the center piers, and walked down it with six of his men toward the center Behemoth, the Leviathan. This is exactly what Admiral Sorcatan and the Kaffrarian Knights on the Behemoths had been awaiting. Once the centurion stepped onto the wide pier, the knights immediately hoisted large flags on the flagpoles on the roofs of the bridges. Flags that communicated an austere, even hostile, message to all those who saw them, including the centurion. The ships flew the original flag of Korazin, which was also, effectively, the flag of the Kaffrarian Knights. They even stopped Astrian in his tracks, just by the bow of the Leviathan. The murmur in the crowd was now louder and more comprehensive than an hour ago when the ships had just arrived. If the crowd had been torn between two opinions about the ships, they now leaned toward the more negative of the two as a result of the flags they were now seeing.

Before Astrian walked down half the length of the Behemoth, the Leviathan's door was slid open there, and a ladder began to be lowered onto the pier. Now the crowd grew even more agitated as they drew all sorts of guesses as to the identity of the person about to exit the ship. Once more, Astrian stopped and waited, watching like the rest of the crowd paces behind him. And then the Goldorans were greeted with yet another staggering sight. Four persons came out from the ship, including two men and two women. The women were the more shocking sight the crowd was looking at. The two men were Fleet Admiral Sorcatan and Ossus, while the ladies were knightesses named Lydae and Asnah. Lydae and Asnah had expected to frighten the crowds, as any other female soldier would have. Lydae kept short hair that she combed upwards on her head, while Asnah tied her thick silver hair into a long, wavy ponytail. The knights were battle-dressed, only lacking shields and the other small but significant devices a knight would normally be carrying in a battle. Ossus had also been given a knights' uniform, which he wore. All four bodies could fit on the width of the pier they stood on, so the two ladies flanked the gentlemen in the middle, and all walked toward a dazed Astrian and his men. Because they were armed and had just flown an extinct Korazite flag, the centurion's other men who had stayed on the land all marched onto the pier too. The groups stopped only a couple of feet from each other, where Ossus launched a conversation.

'How are you, officer?' he said, smiling stupidly.

'Who are you?' was the immediate reply by Astrian.

'We are here on behalf of the King of Korazin, and would like an audience with Tao.' As he spoke, Astrian and everyone else saw a parliament of large birds clearly emanating from the deck of the Black Jack, and soaring to the skies above the port to circle. Astrian couldn't resist asking what they were. Admiral Sorcatan gave him the answer,

'That's a unit of Urdian attack eagles. One of six divisions of the king's army. There are also more than 3,000 battle-ready fighters on these ships. Now as my friend said, we are here to seek an audience with Tao.'

These words produced the desired effect and reaction from the centurion. He said angrily,

'So this is a show of force, eh? You think your three ships scare us? Your puppet king has sent you down here with 3,000 kids and some birds, and you think that gives you the balls to refer to the King without respect? You're even flying that dead flag?' the centurion was being honest by calling them kids, because the knights before him, Sorcatan and the ladies, were indeed very youthful.

Ossus and Sorcatan intentionally shared a laugh. Ossus said,

'You are right on the first part. This is a show of force, but you have clearly misunderstood the source. We are not sure which puppet you refer to, because we are here on behalf of the king of the sovereign nation of Korazin. We carry a message for your king from him. Now be a good officer and escort us to the palace, hmm?'

The officer contemplated for almost half a minute, during which he maintained a furious countenance. Then he drew his sword, and quickly placed the blade on Ossus' neck. Neither Ossus nor the knights reacted. Astrian said,

'You are rebels. I will take only your heads to the king.'

Before he could issue any more ultimatums, the crowd on the land behind him gasped in unison, but if they were gasping because he had drawn his sword, they were too late, so he knew it was about something else. Still, his men had to shift his attention by calling him, so that he let down his sword and turned around to a shocking sight. Eleven Urdians had just carried six civilians, including a small child, several meters vertically into the air, and were holding them there. A couple eagles carried an adult each, and only one hovered with the child. The latter flew with the kid over the concrete pier. If any of them were dropped, Astrian knew, they would die instantly. Ossus and the knights were smiling triumphantly. Astrian needed no confirmation of the fact that the birds were playing this stunt as a direct reply to his most recent violent actions. When he turned his gaze back to Ossus, he was shit-scared as the civilians. One pair of Urdians caused another wave of shock when they suddenly let go of the woman they were carrying, but then swooped down and caught her again before she hit the earth. Astrian just had enough time to turn around to see this, and then yell,

'What the fuck are you doing?!'

'As I said,' said Admiral Sorcatan, 'those are attack eagles. They respond to hostility, with hostility. If you sheathe your weapon, nothing bad will take place. And, we're wasting too much time already. We need to see Tao. Now.'

Out of sheer fright, Astrian quickly sheathed his weapon, and the birds did return the civilians to the earth. The kid was wet from his own urine and tears, and one woman couldn't speak or move a muscle. The one who was almost killed had fainted, and was being tendered to by bystanders as Astrian heeded the newcomers' demands and was now leading them through the port to the walls of Tyrne. People formed a narrow path all the way to the gate, standing either side of the strange, frightening delegation. Lydae was especially a recipient of much of the attention, owing to her exotic beauty.

Astrian handed them over to the appropriate officer on the other side of the wall, who had witnessed everything up to that point too, as his posting was really a mirror image of Astrian's own Constabulary station on the opposite side of the wall. This one was actually more impulsive than Astrian, but he had seen more than enough, so he exercised self-control. He took them all the way to the palace without inviting them to display another show of force. The frightening birds were constantly circling, and some were perching on buildings. The knights got the same attention along their whole route as they had at the port. Clearly, the report from the port of a trio of massive ships had traveled as a wildfire, and all those who had dismissed it were more than ready to believe it because of what they were now seeing. The palace was quite a distance away, so the officer obtained horses for the party and for himself and two of his men.

The four-structured palace, although not limited to just four structures, was an intriguing place, especially because the architecture stole the outdoor experience and put it inside the walls of the palace. This was unlike other palaces any of the visitors had been to, which required one to leave the palace to enjoy a garden view or a lakeside view. The Hammedan Residence had artificial versions of these, including a large lake or pool right in the center, with the king's outdoor gazebo built on top of this, surrounded by a garden. The gazebo and its garden were raised above the water surface by pillars, and three sides of it were railed. King Tao was sitting in the side that wasn't fenced, throwing baits into the water for the catfish along the surface to eat. But for his secretary, three guards and two servants including a cupbearer, he was alone. He was an old man now, but he was an accomplished old man, the greatest patriarch of his nation without doubt. He had reduced his visits to Victor's Strip because of his age, so he spent lots of time now in this indoors lake, albeit not being hampered by any particular infirmity. He was quickly approaching retirement, whereupon he would hand over his duties, something he was already practicing, to Deng-Dau the crown prince. He could afford to chillax like this while the son dealt with some matters of the great nation. The only thing he was stalling on was what would be the crowning moment of his glorious career. The occupation of Korazin's Reideland District. He was still discussing this with his undersecretary, the third-most powerful person, politically, in the land when their discussion was cut short. The head of the Palace Guard appeared on the cobbled path leading to the entrance of the gazebo. He walked briskly, seriously. He wasn't in charge of appraising Tao of the arrival of visitors, so whenever he did, the visitor would be a real person of interest, as when Korazite queen Noor-shan had first come to the palace. So both Tao and his undersecretary stopped talking and watched him all the way until he was before them.

'Your Majesty, there are visitors from Korazin here to see you.'

The king never received Korazite visitors that warranted the tone the Chief of the Guard used. Garrera had never set foot here, neither had his top officials. Tao considered this important for demonstrating the political power Goldora held over Korazin, as Goldoran officials, even insignificant ones, could travel across the border into Korazin without invitation and get an audience with the king. So Tao said to the Chief,

'Visitors from Korazin? Why must you trouble me with that? My son can deal with that.'

'Forgive me Your Majesty, but these chaps are not from Garrera. They claim to be from K'rar von Caspar, and they came along with 3,000 militants, docked in the harbor on three ships.'

'What?' Undersecretary Gastan was incredulous. The Chief of the Guard sounded not only silly but also deranged.

'I didn't dare believe it, sir, but Centurion Goth-Ir was pretty serious when he described the scene in the port. I confirmed it, sir.'

'And you saw K'rar von Caspar?' Tao was the one who asked this.

'No, sir. But the three ships fly the old flag of Korazin, and they certainly aren't from Garrera's ranks. There's two women with them too. Women soldiers.'

The king and his undersecretary were still not impressed at the constant jokes.

'Chief Girgash, what is the meaning of this? There's a fleet in my harbor?'

'Not a fleet, Your Majesty.'

'You said there's 3,000 militants.'

'On three ships, sir. It is only when you see it, Majesty, that you'll believe.'

Tao stopped the Undersecretary from asking further questions with a hand. Girgash was right. Since he began talking he had only fed the old monarch bits of the description of the new arrivals, and each new piece of information was more idiotic than the last. Tao had to see by himself. First, though, he said to the Chief of the Guard to have the visitors brought to the gazebo, and the man raced away, was absent for about two minutes, and then returned with the four visitors. Tao could see them from afar before they stepped into the railed pier leading to the gazebo, and he was as shocked at them, especially the ladies, as his subjects. This reaction had been constant the entire way, but it was something they were used to by now. The Chief of the Guard stopped before they turned onto the bridge, and two of his men came up from behind them. He said,

'The weapons. Hand them over.'

All four looked at him as if he was stupid, and made no movement whatsoever to obey his request. Girgash tried again, this time with a harsher tone to match their insolence,

'You cannot assemble before the king with your weapons. Please hand them over.'

'No one is handing over any weapons, man. We're not here to harm your king, but we will also not appease him.'

Girgash was pissed, but he decided against imposing himself. He endured the embarrassment and led them across the pavers to the gazebo. Lydae and Asnah stood off, while the men walked into the gazebo and stood before the king. Girgash reported,

'This is them, my lord. They refuse to surrender their weapons.'

This little detail was an affront also to Tao, who was staring at them disdainfully. The Undersecretary shared these emotions. Tao said,

'To what do I owe this incivility?'

'Your Majesty,' said Ossus, 'we don't come in peace. Let it be known that we are here on hostile terms.'

'Then perhaps I should behead you and send you back to your ships in pieces.'

'Your city defense at the port is shoddy, old man,' Ossus said. K'rar had been specific in his instructions. He had asked Ossus to intentionally be rude, especially to Tao, 'and you would have been told there are 3,000 knights at the port. You have only hundreds defending it. Your city's safety depends on you, so act wisely.'

'Kill them! Behead them now!' Tao bellowed, red with anger. His guards, six men including Girgash, quickly moved to attack. Sorcatan had already sliced Girgash's plexus and injured his ankle before that man even got himself ready. Lydae and Asnah took on three men, while Sorcatan and Ossus dealt with the other two. The Goldorans watched in terror as the knights dropped all six guards in the matter of seconds, killing three in the process. At the end of the action Tao's eyes were transfixed on the knightess. In Lydae's last move she had performed a sliding tackle against her opponent, and while she dropped to the ground, she took his own weapon and made him land on it. As soon as they finished, they stationed themselves back in their former positions as if nothing at all had taken place. Two new guards who had remained on the ground away from the lake had seen the altercation, alerted more guards, and were racing with the new team toward the flash point. When they arrived and drew their weapons, Tao shouted at them to stand down, before saying to Ossus,

'Who the hell do you think you are?!'

'We are here on behalf of King K'rar von Caspar, whom you thought you had killed,' said Ossus. He was relishing this task, 'I was one of his guards eleven years ago when your puppet was chasing him east and west, and when he thought he had killed him. We all thought so. Apparently, he lived! It's amazing, isn't it?' he was now pretending to be jolly and conversational.

'What?' the Undersecretary said.

'He did! The king whom you killed has returned from the sea. My colleagues here, as you can see, are clearly too exotic to be Moabian, don't you think? They returned with him from a far off island. Your Majesty is among the few people who know this, because even Garrera, your bootlicker, is still unaware.' He cleared his throat and suddenly became hostile and stern again. He said, 'now you listen, and listen good. In three days, you will issue an edict withdrawing all your occupation forces in our land, and you will return the Queen Mother you are keeping here to us peacefully. Failure to heed these demands will carry adverse consequences. Keep in mind that the king is being generous with this, because there is no reason as to why he shouldn't burn down your precious city to the ground. Three days is all you have. We will be waiting on board our ships in the harbor.'

They made as if to leave, but Tao shouted,

'Where do you think you're going!?' he stood up, and Ossus obliged and stopped. Meanwhile, the crown prince, Deng-Dau and his mother, Teara, were just arriving on the scene. Lydae and Asnah were seeing them from where the stood. Lydae took out a small round phial from her pockets, and smeared the sticky, scarlet substance in it onto her lips. It improved her looks greatly, now that her lips shone bright red. Tao was saying,

'You think you have moved me, with your absurd stories and assertions?! Do you know who…?'

'Your Majesty, please,' Ossus interrupted, something extremely discourteous, 'control yourself. You are in no position to make threats. You are the one who started this war,' now the other two royals had arrived, listening to these words and staring in horror at the dead and injured at their feet, 'you conspired with Garrera and orchestrated the demise of a whole royal family. You sent a cabal of crooks to our land in the name of good relations, and they are undermining the integrity of our economy. You stirred up a geopolitical crisis on the continent, and you disregard and disrupt the peace on the whole continent. His Majesty, like I said, is being lenient with you. You have three days.'

'You expect His Majesty to believe this load of bullshit?' squealed the Undersecretary.

Ossus did not respond to this, but there was a sudden shocked reaction from all those present, and not at the deputy's words. Ossus and Sorcatan knew what had just happened. Lydae had just kissed Deng-Dau, the crown prince, out of the blue. The prince became rooted to the spot, his eyeballs almost popping out of his head. The queen's mouth was about to move, but Lydae prevented the speech from coming out by speaking first,

'The prince likes it, so why not?' she was grinning like a horse, and was still standing close to the prince. She added, 'you like it, don't you, Your Highness?'

'What corner of the land did this insolent wench spring from?' the queen was apoplectic. She even moved to slap Lydae, who simply moved out of the way. Tao, once this episode had watered down, walked closer to Ossus and Sorcatan,

'You're not leaving here alive, you bastards!' he puffed, 'your king can kiss my ass.'

'The cure is on the ship,' Ossus said, 'the cure for His Highness' new infection is on the ship. If you harm one hair on any of our heads, your son will die in three days. And, we will reduce this fucking city to rubble. So, you will leave us alone, and make only wise decisions. In three days. And by the way, you yourself must come to the ship, accompanying the Queen Mother.'

There was no need for the gods to explain that the infection they were talking about was a direct result of the kiss. Lydae had just poisoned the crown prince, and although he of course showed no signs of infirmity whatsoever at the moment, there was no reason to disbelieve the very serious threat Ossus had just laid. But the queen didn't understand this as much as her husband. She snapped at the guards to take Lydae, but Tao reversed the decision immediately, saying,

'Let them go. Let them go.'

'Thank you, Your Majesty. See you in three days, or less.' And they began to walk away, leaving all the Goldorans stranded in the gazebo, wearing spooked faces. The queen rushed to check her son, by frantically opening his lips with her hands and looking inside his mouth.

'That bitch just poisoned you, my son. Are you alright?'

'I'm fine, mother. I'm fine,' Deng-Dau was an adult, and was embarrassed a bit by his mother's actions.

'Escort His Highness to the Infirmary,' she ordered his attendants, 'we cannot take any chances.' She then turned on the king and launched an offensive, which the prince was very interested in. He stayed put and did not follow the attendants out, while his mother snapped,

'Who are they? Why did you let them go?!'

'Those men didn't come all this way to jest in this palace,' said Tao. He called for his cloak, which two servants quickly put on him, 'they're serious.'

'I will go and confirm with my own eyes for His Majesty,' Undersecretary Gastan offered.

'No,' said the monarch, 'I will do it myself.'

'Who are they, Tao?' Teara asked again.

'They claim that they're from K'rar von Caspar. That the boy lived.'

'That's impossible,' said crown prince Deng-Dau. He was still just fine.

'Is it? Is it impossible?' Tao was serious, 'the boy's body wasn't buried. Only a remembrance of him.'

'He sailed into the…'

'So what if he did? No one saw him die. They all saw him sail into the meridian, and that was it.'

He went out from before them and traced the steps of his visitors. He could not see the harbor from anywhere in the palace, but if he visited the Dagon Temple some streets away, he could. The temple not only stood at high altitude, but also had the tallest structure in all the land, the Tower of Gharial. His son followed him there, and as soon as they arrived, the disturbing report was confirmed by the people there before they even climbed up into the tall tower.

So when Tao and Deng-Dau finally got to view the three Behemoths by themselves, the ships were no longer subject to confirmation. But something else was. Deng-Dau, who had hitherto remained healthy, suddenly became afflicted by something horrible in his stomach, and he doubled over, barely managing to support himself against the pane of the window they were looking through. He knew. And his father knew it too.

By the time the man arrived at the palace moments later in a royal chaise, the news of his sudden indisposition had preceded them. There was a large party at the palace gates waiting for them including the rest of the panicked royal family, scared servants, a couple of soldiers and palace apothecaries. The prince was in real trouble. He looked like he had broken all the bones in his body. He had been shouting in excruciating pain all the way here, and all efforts to gag him had been futile. A large crowd had even followed them to the palace gates, more concerned than the royals. Even Tao was rendered speechless, having seen his son's disastrous situation all the way from the temple to the Residence. Queen Teara only needed one glimpse at her son when he was pulled out of the wagon onto a stretcher to lose all her insides and buckle over, so that her own attendants had to rush to her too. The prince was red all over. All the joints in his body were protesting. His hands didn't know whether to clutch at his knees or his elbows or his neck. He looked like he was being pierced by large needles that had been dropped in fire. Teara shook off the attendants that had helped her back to her feet, and caught up with Tao,

'What is happening to him, Tao? What is happening to my son?!'

She threw up a series of similar pained questions all the way to the Infirmary in the East Wing, but Tao remained silent the whole time. He watched as the prince was gagged and tied up firmly against the bed and examined for a few moments by the two physicians, an old man and his apprentice.

'What's the matter with him?' he asked, just when Lady Noor-shan showed up from without, calmly drifting into the room. Apart from the Goldoran royals, everyone else but the physicians had stayed outside. Noor-shan had never warmed up to her hosts at all in spite of her exile among them for a decade, but what she was looking at was distressing nonetheless. She clapped her hand to her mouth. The old physician said in a stammer,

'My lord. The prince has an unknown affliction.'

'You're the physician, figure it out!' yelled the prince's eldest sister, Amine, 'this is the Crown Prince!'

'My lady, we need more time to examine him before we know what is wrong with him.'

'The prince has been poisoned, is what's wrong with him,' said Teara, who was sitting by the bed trying to revive him, 'that woman said they have a cure. What are we waiting for?'

'She said he has three days. We have the best physician in the land here with us who can rectify this in two. Shall we bend to the whims of people we do not even know?' Tao said quickly, and then marked down the task for the physicians, 'heal him or I will have your heads!' the old man was startled by this a bit.

'Goodness gracious, what is happening to him? What woman?' Noor-shan asked after Teara's last words, and immediately became the recipient of a new wave of attack,

'You wench,' started Teara, pointing at her, 'they were after you. You have been nothing but a curse to this house.'

'By all means,' said Amine. She was particularly hostile to Noor-shan, 'why are you here anyway? This is family business.'

'Amine, watch your tongue,' Tao said. He, of all people, was actually the kindest of them to Noor-shan, so much so that at one point, Noor-shan had been the victim of a ridiculous accusation that she was sleeping with him.

'What, father?' Amine protested, 'did you not hear that? She is a direct cause of all these problems. She should have died with her son.'

Noor-shan had tried several times to understand the inspiration of all her blind animosity against her and had failed. Scoffing and shaking her head in disgust, she turned away to leave, but Tao stopped her,

'Where are you going?'

Nor-shan stooped,

'She is right. I should have died with my son. But I am already dead living with you people.' She once more stepped forward to leave, and once more Tao stopped her.

'The visitors she is talking about. They did come here for you, and they poisoned my son to make me surrender you to them. They also said your son lives.'

'What? What is this now?'

Tao narrated to her the details of the most recent events in their chronology, and then said,

'I would also like to know what it is. In just a few hours, I have been told your son lives, has sent 3,000 militants here, and my son has been poisoned,' he walked toward her with a furious look, 'woman, you better hope nothing happens to my son, because whoever's out there dishonoring your son's name will also cause your death, and the death of your country. Do you understand?'

Noor-shan said,

'Go ahead and do it then. You have already desecrated my kingdom and killed my son. It makes no difference to me if you destroy your own puppet. If there are still loyal people fighting for my son posthumously, so be it. You brought it on your own head.'

Tao suddenly went berserk, grabbed hold of her neck, pinned her against the wall, and began to squeeze. He was still too strong for her despite his age. All she could do was gasp for breath and kick and try to shake off his hand, but to no avail. It was only the man's restraint that saved her when he let go. She dropped at his feet, gagging and coughing. Tao gave the order to whoever it concerned,

'Keep her in her chambers until further notice.'

Two guards came in and dragged her away. Rahab, her attendant, a mature woman now, went after her, ensuring to intimate to her what she had done hundreds of times already, that she was better off not antagonizing the royal family.