Demon of the Black Gate

The Lord Chancellor called Rovinkar to his offices after the second day. Rovinkar dressed in black robes, his preference; though now it was a fashionable sign of mourning fervently adopted in the aftermath of the destruction of the Royal Shaft. He didn’t wonder that Chenli would call him to his private offices. Much better, he thought, than their last meeting where the plot was hatched. Chenli’s compound was as secretive and secure a place as anywhere in the Rule. His private servants were mute. Staff was routinely changed, or some simply disappeared. Chenli employed the Hashini, though the imperial crest was emblazoned on their shields. Whereas the Imperial Guard was trussed in whites and golds, Chenli’s guards were cast in black and earning the deserved sobriquet of Black Guard. The secrets of the Empire were safe behind the walls of the Chancellor’s estate.

Rovinkar crossed the Strait by private ferry, and hired a cart to take him to the center of the Rule, skirting the plains of dust that remained from the collapse. The Grand Plaza was close to the center of the destruction, but just upwind. Sand storms in the past had left as much drifted remains. He walked across the plaza, noting when he could the remains of the tower. Even two days later a layer of dust hung poised in the air yet to fall, hung there by the heat of the volcanic fire that still seared the walls of the mausoleum.

He approached the high marble and stone walls of Chenli’s estate, under the ramrod, watchful eyes of the Guard, who held their posts at every tower and convenient platform. His arrival was expected for a lieutenant of the guard was there at the gates prepared to greet him and escort him to the Chancellor’s library. Rovinkar wondered how many visitors had entered these walls and never left.

The inside of Chenli’s chambers were spacious, though lightly furnished. Their footsteps echoed on the marble floors and off of the walls that would do well to have a few tapestries or drapes. The lieutenant opened the door to the Chancellor’s private study, and closed it after him. There would be no one to witness this conversation.

Chenli didn’t bother standing or otherwise greet Rovinkar.

“Well THAT was impressive. I’ll be sweeping dust from my chambers for a fortnight.” Even Chenli’s good humor snarled. He changed his tone immediately to a more familiar venom. “But you didn’t tell me everything. I SAW that destruction. Something lived in that explosion.”

“You’re welcome.” said Rovinkar crossing to a leather covered divan. “And you’re right.” he added seating himself without leave.

“The methods are mine. It is best my secrets are left with me, and yours to you.”

“Not when this empire is at stake. The method may be your secret, but before we go any farther I want to know what I am dealing with. Are you a capable wizard, or mage or what you call yourself; or a madman in control of a monster that I don’t know what it is. So I ask you again. What in the hells of copper did I see?”

Rovinkar stared at a spot on the Chancellor’s desk, an imposing slab of marble devoid of papers or affairs of state, while trying to decide what he could reveal. And with the Chancellor, he had better decide quickly.

“It was the majics of an ancient demon that caused the destruction of the tower. I alone can summon or control the fiend, and it serves my command.” Rovinkar knew he stretched the truth some, for he knew now the extravagance of the demons powers. Control would be easily lost if the protections demanded were not in place.

Rovinkar led on, not wishing Chenli to dwell upon the weapon, but rather the next target.

“And as you can see, the ability to destroy the Black Gate is evident. Your army, the Emperor’s army I should say, can march into the Stands without resistance.”

“Already the recruiters are feeling the press. You have conjured up the army as well.” Chenli’s mood lightened slightly.

“There is no magic where judging the behaviour of people is involved.” Rovinkar said. “You have their attention. Now you are free to arm them.”

“Tell me about the Black Gate. What do you know of them? Surely you didn’t come to these conclusions of yours without study.”

“I have traveled to the Stands many times. I’ve studied in the monasteries beyond the Bridash …”

“It is not Bridash I am concerned about.” Chenli interrupted, growling.

“ ... and found each time that I passed the gates into their domain, they were alert and efficient, though no enemy has laid siege to their gate in generations. The empire is beyond them, with a strand of desert and an immense wall of dirt between. I admire that they stand ready rather than just allow the mountains to do their work for them.”

The Black Gate was the barrier nature herself had devised for the Stands, named for the stern dark basalt cliffs separated by the Emerald River. Some say the mountains had in ages past been joined, and behind their immense walls had been a deep inland sea. The water eventually found the weakest point where the two chains of mountains met and burst through with a great flood. Rovinkar had no opinion on the tale, though could well believe that the deep and narrow canyon that allowed the Emerald River to pass had the look of an ancient sluice. The Camelback Mountains extended from the West and drove the Emerald River into its easterly run, and so the great river lay heavily against its cliffs. Only one route existed into the Stands, a boulevard that had been carved and laid into the rocks and shores of the canyon on its northern side. The Granite Mountains, extending from the North, ended abruptly as though torn off. A giant fang of rock remained, and the route constricted to skirt this final barrier before reaching the plains beyond.

The regents of the Stands had long ago applied fortifications to these natural guardians girding the river. Battlements and posts clung to the edges of the cliffs. On each side of the river, capping the canyon edges, the sentries of the kingdom stood as heroic carvings, past kings who had guarded the realm. Their likenesses were hewn and mortared into the very cliff, soaring impressively above the rivers edge. Rovinkar could not remember the names of the august monarchs. It didn’t matter to him. It was the fang of rock, much of it carved in regal solemnity, that Rovinkar meant to obliterate. Without its intrusion and fortifications, the passage through the Black Gate would become a manageable passage for troops.

“Other than the patrols that guard the pass, there is little to stop a determined army once the river port is reached.”

“You can breach the Gates as you destroyed that god’s-bane tower?” Chenli was already sold on the invasion. He had only to see if this ambitious wizard could deliver on his boasts. In his mind he was seeing the bulging coffers of the armorers as revenue became diverted to arm the violated empire.

Rovinkar had insinuated the demon so thoroughly into the tower that the remains were pulverized. What hadn’t been caught up by the demon was being swept away by wind and broom.

A lot of brooms, Rovinkar smiled to himself.

“Yes.” he said aloud. “And it is to our benefit to press on with an aggressive time table, take advantage of the current patriotic fervor before the fable unravels with time.”

“How fast, dare I ask.” Even when he was in tandem, Chenli’s manner betrayed a bitter sarcasm.

Rovinkar remained unmoved by the Chancellor’s abrasiveness. “If you can assemble the army at the Black Gate by Sulimas Eve, I can be ready. Some mere fortnights I know, but a new strike on a new year bodes well.”

“Are you a fortune teller too?” Chenli sneered. He paused for a moment analyzing his potential profits.“Agreed.

‘Greed’, thought Rovinkar, echoing the remains of Chenli’s answer. He could see it in Chenli’s eyes. He was thankful his own were more immutable.