Green Eyes

The early stillness of the stone city was shattered by the sound of metal-shod hooves pounding on the pavement as thirteen horses rode through the metropolis of Jermelek. Sleepily, children looked out their windows to a dozen red-cloaked soldiers riding around a small man. Pushing their horses, the procession thundered their way up the slope of the city built into the arms of King Mountain. Pulling up to a stop at the wall around the palace of the kings of Kalashon

Reaching the gate, the guard dismounted, letting stable boys take their exhausted mounts to the stables, and entered the palace grounds. They strode past sleepy guards on the stone path through the immense courtyard, past the black marble statue of a howling wolf, symbolic of Zeeb, the first king, up the white stone steps, and through the columns into the palace itself.

“My lord, the king is expecting you in the throne room,” a young page came up to the short man.

“Very well,” the man acknowledged. He gave a curt gesture to the twelve guards, who bowed and left for the barracks and bed. It had been an exhausting journey from the edge of the kingdom.

Following the page up four stories of the massive staircase, the man soon found himself standing in front of two massive mahogany doors. Red-draped guards on either side heaved the doors open and the man walked into the throne room.

The room was huge, measuring 150 feet long and 50 feet wide. Fifteen feet in from either side stood a row of columns supporting the vaulted ceiling. In between each column was a white marble statue of a man or a woman wearing a simple band around their heads and holding a black sword in their hands: the kings and queens of Kalashon.

But to the man, none of this was of any interest. He had seen them thousands of times before and had never cared much for them. History he considered of little use; his only concern was for the present.

He marched briskly down the center of the quiet hall. Normally it would be filled with hundreds of courtiers, lords, ambassadors, generals, and other people who needed to see the king. But it was still too early for most of them, which suited the man just fine. The news he brought would be best for a small audience.

Two men greeted him at the other end. One stood still a little bleary-eyed on ground level wearing a steel breastplate over a long black tunic that reached his ankles. A sword hung loosely from his belt and a spear rested casually in his right hand. Around his shoulders he wore a flowing purple cape, symbolizing his rank as the chief general of the Kalashonian army: Jericho.

The other man sat relaxed on the massive black marble throne that stood on a ten-step high dais. He wore no armor; instead a velvet black tunic with a rich, blood-red cloak draped around his shoulders. In his right hand was a golden staff with a serpent intertwined around it and on his head was a golden crown studded with rubies: Manasseh, king and lord of Kalashon.

In front of the throne, the man stopped and bowed with his face to the cold stone floor.

“Rise and welcome, Lord Brutus,” the king greeted in a cool, even voice.

Brutus shuddered slightly as he felt Manasseh’s sapphire blue eyes appraise him. It wasn’t that he felt threatened or that Manasseh was evil; evil Brutus could handle. But it was the similarity between the two that he found so unnerving.

“Tell me Lord Brutus, what was so important that you had to wake me up two hours early and convene this special session of court, away from all the other lords?” Manasseh questioned.

“Sire, we have a serious problem from the east,” Brutus still did not meet Manasseh’s gaze. “Do you remember the physician Max’s daughter, the one with green eyes?”

“Yes, of course,” nodded Manasseh. “The Navi, correct? I believe that you eliminated her before I assumed the throne.”

“It appears, sire, that I did not,” Brutus replied.

“She lives?” Manasseh raised an eyebrow.

“Max seems to have deceived us all into thinking that she died in the fire,” Brutus explained. “He’s been raising her in secret the last 20 years in the village of Lakeside.”

“So that is where he went after the fire,” Manasseh scratched his goateed chin. “How interesting. Has she been dealt with?”

“Not exactly, my lord,” Brutus shook his head. “Her father has been executed and she was briefly in my custody, but she escaped. We spent the next several days searching the surrounding forest for her, but to no avail.”

“We have a Navi on the loose,” Manasseh commented dryly. “How much of a threat is she?”

“That is hard to say,” Brutus answered. “It seems that Max told her nothing of her identity and her powers are only now truly awakening. She does not yet fully grasp her potential.”

“Thus she is at a very vulnerable point in her life,” Manasseh observed, pressing his fingertips together. “Is this something we can take advantage of?”

“I believe she could be trained to follow us, yes sire,” the Viceroy nodded. “But…”

“But?” prodded Manasseh.

Brutus shifted uncomfortably, kicking the ground with his right toe. This news was the news he least wanted to deliver. “Do you remember the one body we were missing twenty years ago?” he asked the king.

Up to this point, Manasseh had appeared only mildly interested. A young, inexperienced girl, Navi or no, was of little concern to his vast kingdom. His soldiers would eventually capture her and then Brutus could train her to be his servant. But this…

Brutus saw the king’s hands go white as they clutched the granite armrests. Reticently the Viceroy looked up to see Manasseh’s arctic blue eyes staring so intently at him that Brutus thought for a moment he might freeze, again.

“Are you saying he’s alive?” rasped the king, clearly struggling to control himself. “You said you threw him out a five-story window!”

“I did, sire,” Brutus replied, dropping to his knees. “I don’t know how he survived the fall, but he’s back now and if possible stronger than ever.”

“And he’s with the Navi!” thundered Manasseh. “Do you realize what this is?”

“The biggest threat to the crown we’ve ever faced?” Brutus guessed in a small voice.

“A Malchian invasion would be nothing compared to this!” roared Manasseh. “How could you have let both of them walk away again?”

“I did not know who he was until it was too late,” explained Brutus. “I was told that the man guarding the Navi was just a mercenary. I never believed it could be him.”

“What is your will, sire?” Jericho spoke for the first time. “Shall we mobilize the army after them?”

“No, no,” Manasseh waved off, settling back down in his throne, resuming his stoic outlook. “That’s what he’d expect us to. The two of them will move faster than our armies so we’d exhaust ourselves hopping from place to place all over the world. The real question is what is he going to do?”

“He might come straight here,” offered Brutus. “Try to take the crown.”

“No, if he truly wanted the crown, he would have tried years ago,” Manasseh shook his head. “No he’s after something else.” For a couple of minutes silenced reigned in the hall while Manasseh stewed over the situation. “Brutus, you said that the Navi has just learned of her identity, correct?”

“That seemed to the situation, yes,” confirmed Brutus.

“So in other words, she needs to be trained, correct?”

“Correct,” confirmed Brutus again. “Where are you going with this?”

“Our friend isn’t going to start a coup,” Manasseh relaxed. “He’s going to take the Navi to the place where Navi are trained.”

“Jerel,” Jericho and Brutus said at once.

“But that’s all the way in the Esthorian Empire,” protested Brutus. “And Ammon’s in between. If they can reach Ammon, then they would be out of our reach.”

“But they have to get there,” Manasseh pointed out. “Which means we know their route.”

“We do?” Brutus raised a bushy eyebrow.

“Of course,” Manasseh smiled a cold smile. “We know he isn’t going to try the canyon, especially this time of the year. The river would draw way too much attention, especially official attention. That leaves only one option left.”

“The Ammonite Road,” Jericho guessed.

“Which means?” Manasseh prompted.

“Which means he’s going to have to take her to Endor and then go overland from there,” Jericho put together.

“Brilliant as always, sire,” praised Brutus. “With your permission, I and a dozen of my best witches will wait for them in Endor.”

“No,” Manasseh said firmly. “Twice you have been charged to deal with these problems and twice you have failed. Now it is up to someone else to clean up your mess. Lord Jericho, you will personally oversee the operation. Take four Blood Guard legions, two cavalry legions, and four regular legions to Endor.”

“But my lord!” protested Brutus. “She is a Navi; against her soldiers are nothing. You need someone magical to beat someone magical.”

“We have trusted twice in your way and twice it has failed,” Manasseh snapped harshly. “You are dismissed from the court for the moment but do not stray far. We still have the issues undoubtedly caused in Lakeside to clean up.”

The Viceroy opened his mouth as if to protest, but closed it and bowed. Then he hurriedly scurried from the room.

“It’s nice to see him squirm,” Jericho commented.

“He has been getting more and more difficult to manage lately,” Manasseh sighed. “It is this way with all great sorcerers: sooner or later the corruption of the Adversary turns them completely insane, often creating homicidal maniacs.”

“Then why have him around?” Jericho asked.

“Because he’s a useful tool,” shrugged Manasseh. “But one that isn’t above replacing. Why do you think I let Max and his daughter live in peace for so long?”

“You knew that she survived?” Jericho gasped.

“Of course I knew,” snorted Manasseh. “A prominent court physician like Max is not someone you ignore, especially if you are planning to take the throne. So I had him investigated and found out that he and his little girl had settled peacefully in Lakeside.”

“But I though she died in that fire!” Jericho’s mind was reeling.

“She’s a Navi,” Manasseh shrugged again. “A little fire isn’t going to harm her, especially since it’s her own.”

“She started the fire that killed—”

“So the facts seem to indicate,” Manasseh nodded.

“But if you knew all this time, why didn’t you do anything?” Jericho questioned.

“Because she is my ace in the hole,” Manasseh smirked. “I knew that sooner or later Brutus would lose all stability and become a liability. So I knew that I needed a stable, longer term second option and what better person than the Navi? She’s more powerful that Brutus and far more stable. She could be my hand of fear and trembling like Brutus but without the worry of keeping him on a leash.”

“So you let her grow up, completely unaware of what she was until the time was right,” filled in Jericho shaking his head. “But what if she found out? What if Max had told her?”

“Then I would have known about it and brought her here immediately,” Manasseh replied. “They weren’t nearly as safe there as he hoped.”

“And now is the time for Brutus to be replaced?” guessed Jericho.

“Exactly,” nodded Manasseh. “Brutus’s outbursts have been getting more and more disturbing which means the time has come to set into action the next phase of my plans.”

“That’s why you sent Brutus to Lakeside,” Jericho supposed. “You wanted him to fetch his own replacement.”

“Well done,” congratulated Manasseh. “I knew he would discover her and he did not disappoint. The only unforeseen catch was him coming back. Now that is a real problem.”

“As glad as I will be to see the Viceroy go, I do have to agree with him on this,” Jericho said. “Even untrained, she is still powerful. Wouldn’t it be better for a magician to take her on?”

“If it’ll make you feel better, you may conscript a few of Brutus’s lackeys,” Manasseh lazily waved his hand. “But I’m less concerned with her than I am with him. He’s the real danger right now. If you capture or preferably kill him, then she will surrender. That man is all she has left in the world and without him, she has nothing to fight for.”

“If that’s true, then isn’t ten legions overdoing it a bit? Especially with our other plans being set in motion?” Jericho wondered.

“Have the last two decades dulled your memory?” Manasseh demanded of the general. “Have you forgotten that he was one of the two greatest warriors in history? I wonder if ten legions is enough.”

“I hadn’t forgotten, sire,” Jericho shook his head. “But I do see your point. I’m just grateful that we don’t have to deal with her. She, we know, is dead.”

“That is a relief,” agreed the king. “But there is another reason I am sending you instead of Brutus to Endor. There is some investigating that needs done; investigating of the subtle kind.”

“Sending 10,000 soldiers isn’t exactly subtle,” Jericho pointed out.

“There is one more going with you,” Manasseh amended. “Take the Lady with you.”

“The Lady?” Jericho suppressed a shudder. “She’s almost as creepy as the Viceroy.”

“Agreed,” Manasseh nodded. “But she is very good at what she does. Your presence there will kick up enough of a storm for her to do what she needs to.”

“Which is?”

“Certain people’s loyalties are in question,” Manasseh allowed. “She’ll take care of the rest.”

Of that Jericho had no doubt. “And in the meantime?” he asked.

“Like a snake, we wait,” Manasseh relaxed into his throne.