Dawn of Dusk

“Vistyral we have known each other since we were children, and I must say I have always liked you better than your brother, but what I hear sounds too much like treason for the liking of my ears. If I didn’t know you better I would thing you are trying to supplant your brother while your father still lives.”

“Lemmal, it is the knowledge that you have of me that I am relying on to listen to what I say. I am asking you to do nothing except take very good care of yourself. I have no desires for my brother’s inheritance; I just want to be sure that his inheritance is all he ends up with. After all, once he marries your sister he will be fifth in line for the throne of Fulsimter as well. You have known both of us all of our lives, you know Borrial is capable of just about anything. What about the time we played war and he captured you. He tortured you for almost an hour before I rescued you. It was real torture not play.”

“He was just a boy then, we all were. I will tell you what. Because of the friendship you and I have shared over the years, I will say nothing to your brother of what you have said to me today. It will be as if this conversation never took place. But, if I hear another word of this heresy, I will have you arrested, and will turn you over to your father for his judgment.

“I strongly suspect that it would break his heart to hear that is son is trying to stir up and old ally against his kingdom. After all we have been allies for only a generation; it would be easy enough to stir up the old antagonisms of the past.”

“This has nothing to do with kingdoms or thrones or heresy. This is a warning that my brother is not a cooperative person. He finds ways of eliminating the need for cooperation. I strongly believe that your life may be in danger.”

“No more Vistyral, not another word! I will hear no more! I ask that as soon as possible after the funeral that you leave my kingdom and never return except in matters of protocol or of state.”

Lemmal turned and walked from the room. Vistyral sadly went the other direction, back to his room.

*****

Lemmal was met in the antechamber by Lymeel.

Majesty, the ship carrying the King and Prince of Karrondor is arriving; it should be ready for disembarkation within thirty minutes. Call my carriage, I would be a poor host if I didn’t offer a ride to my closest ally and the betrothed to my only sister ask Lymar if she would like to accompany us. We will need two other carriages to bring the lot of his party.”

“Should we invite Vistyral to accompany us to meet his family, Brother?”

“No, he is not one of my favorite people at this time. See if you can find something we can ask him to do for us which will give an excuse for his not being there.”

“We can ask him to entertain the royal family of Artermador in your absence. That would keep him out of the way for a while.”

“See to it, and then let’s go.”

“Corintel, please ask Duke Vistyral to entertain the king and queen of Artermador while we are away for a few minutes.”

“Of course sir.”

Lemmal, Lymar, and Lymeel turned and left the palace.

*****

Vistyral heard a knock on his door. Mentel and Victorial stood and grabbed the hilts of their swords. Vistyral signaled them to relax and went to answer the door.

Corintel was there and he asked Vistyral to entertain the king and queen of Artermador in the absence of the king.

“Where did the king go, Corintel?”

“He went to meet the king and prince of Karrondor, your grace.”

“Thank you Corintel, could you show us to them please.”

“Of course your grace, this way please.”

They followed Corintel down a few corridors and came to a large door. Corintel knocked and when it was opened, introduced Duke Vistyral.

“Come in our dear duke, Montrosal beamed, we are very pleased to have you entertain us while the king is away, thank you Corintel, and be sure to thank the king for us as well.”

Vistyral turned to Corintel. “Corintel, would you have some refreshments sent up here please?”

“Certainly your grace it will be just a few minutes.” He turned and left.

“Well Vistyral, where did the king go?” Vertimar asked.

“To get my father and brother.”

“And you were not invited to accompany them; you must have offended the new king.”

“I told him not to trust my brother. He took it that I was after my brother’s throne.”

Montrosal looked at him for a few minutes then said. “Have you lost your entire mind boy, or only the biggest part of it?”

Vistyral felt foolish. “I know it was a stupid thing to do, but I know my brother better than anyone, much better than even my father could. Borrial is a very dangerous man. Anyone who stands in the way of what he wants is in grave danger.”

“Take your own advice boy, you are the greatest threat to what your brother wants and you seem oblivious to the danger that you represent and the danger that you are in. You walk in to see a king, who is king because his father died in a strange accident. A king who could have been involved with your brother in the complicity and tell him that your brother might be a bad guy? What will your brother do if he finds out about your little chat with Lemmal?”

He blushed as he realized how important of a mistake he may have made.

“If it is of any consolation, Mirtar thinks that Borrial acted on his own and that we will see Lemmal’s brothers meet equally untimely ends in short succession followed by Lemmal himself.”

“That is my opinion as well. That is why I went to talk to Lemmal.”

“Are you always so right, that you do not need to consider other possibilities as well?”

“No your majesty, I’m sorry, it was conceited and ill advised. I’ll not make that mistake again.”

“Let’s just hope that no permanent harm has been done for as we see it, you are the only one who knows your brother well enough to know what he is planning.”

“You flatter me, I know him yes! I know him as a mean, cruel, vindictive, tyrant who will stop at nothing to get what he wants.”

“Then use that knowledge, where will he start?”

“Here! I’m sure of that. He will quickly dispose of the entire household of Fulse except his wife and claim to the throne, Lymar. After that, I’m not so sure somewhere in the south where he can gain a footing on the continent. From there, it will be more difficult because he could use the Fulsimterian Navy to shuttle ships and supplies from his southern base. He would have to have a good reason to invade the southern continent because of the mutual protection treaty.”

“Yes if a country attacks one of the countries in the southern continent, all the others will respond to assist the country being invaded. Hum, how will he get around that one? We’ll have to put our heads together on that one.

Tell me Vistyral, what will you do if Borrial indeed grants independence to Cryarlac?”

“I will be appointing Chertal, son of Baron Mendrel regent of the duchy. If it becomes an independent country, I could surprise Borrial by making Cryarlac part of the Kingdom of Artermador. It would also keep him from bullying them as an independent country. Let’s just see what happens there.”

Vertimar spoke up then, “Mirtar should be invited to be in here dear as she seldom gets to spend time with this handsome man. I also feel that it is about time to tell her.”

“By all means call her in dear, but now is definitely not the time to tell her, but we will before the wedding.”

Vistyral wondered what it was that they had to tell Mirtar that was so important. A servant was sent to bring her and in just a moment she was with them. Her room was probably nearby. As she came into the room his heart leapt she came over and sat down beside him he took her left hand into his right one.

Montrosal spoke. “We have been discussing the possibilities of conquest that Borrial will likely take once he is king. What is your opinion Mirtar?”

“It is my belief that the ruling family of Fulsimter is doomed. The royal family of Artermador is likely second on his list. Especially since Vistyral interrupted a rape attempt on me. We both will be high on his hit list, I expect Vistyral before me.”

Montrosal leapt to his feet’ “That evil one! He would dare harm you in his own home? Wars have begun over less; why wasn’t I told?”

“Precisely because we knew you would react in this way. Vistyral rescued me and in fact brought great shame upon Borrial. He was humiliated before about six people.”

Vistyral stepped in, “Do you know the wound he received dueling on the practice field? In fact, it was Mirtar that wounded him when he entered her chamber. I came along by chance, but I certainly was glad I got there when I did.”

“He was going to ransom my dowry after he had taken me by force, knowing that I would say nothing to keep the peace between our countries. I would have kept quiet too. I wouldn’t have liked it, but I would have done it; if I spoke up, too many lives would be on my conscience.”

“I’m afraid we all will have too many lives on our consciences before our lives are over, but if it is for a righteous purpose...”

“If we weren’t civilized, we would simply assassinate Borrial now and we would save many lives from having to end. Wouldn’t it be better that one man parish than nations suffer from his cruelty?”

“Mirtar, we don’t know that Borrial is going to do anything evil,” Vertimar said, but if he does we need to be ready to stop him. Our country is the strongest militarily in the southern continent. If we don’t stand up to aggression, no one will.”

“I know Mother, it just seems wrong to sit here and do nothing until Borrial makes his move.”

“Besides he would like nothing more than for a strong country like Artermador to come after him and give him the excuse to do whatever he wants as the injured party. Once we are married, I will in effect be in a position to thwart his plans more than I could as Duke of Cryarlac.”

“That is true Vistyral, but you will also be in more danger, so will all the rest of us.”

There was a knock at the door as refreshments were brought in by some of the servants. Conversation switched immediately to wedding plans for Vistyral and Mirtar.