The Emergency Council Meeting
♫Queen – Under Pressure♫
Arik took his seat in the Assembly hall. It was the same seat that he always sat at, seated to the left of the King, who as usual, was not present. However, the seat was now adorned with soft furs from snow lynx, which were from the region around Northkeep. Arik also noticed that a new stamp had appeared in the small tray beside him. It displayed the symbol of the Northlands, and stated “Arik, Grand Duke of Northkep.” A misspelling. He would have to have that changed.
The Vizier called the meeting to order, as members of the council were silently establishing themselves in their seats.
“We are convened here, at this moment, to discuss the recent attack on the Castle. For those who may not know, less than an hour ago, the Castle was viciously assaulted.”
The Vizier’s paused, and several gasps came from those seated. Apparently quite a few members of the inner council not only missed Arik’s commission, but had also avoided the sun and become deaf. Arik surveyed the room. ‘Perhaps they are deaf.’ Arik thought, finding that counting the grey hairs was a much more difficult task than counting those without any hair at all. There were easily fifty senior council members in attendance. Each member had an exalted title and a prominent position granted to them by his father, King Drey. Arik had long ago stopped trying to learn each council member’s name. It wasn’t out of rudeness. The council members themselves were extremely friendly. They were also astonishingly boring. Chief of them all was the Vizier – in more ways than one. The head of the inner council, the Vizier was Arik’s father’s chief liaison in almost all matters. Vizier Vordohn, was his name, but he requested to simply be called Vizier. It was an appeal to which Arik easily accepted. Vordohn, or ‘Boredom’ as he was called by others in the royal academy was a proud and intimidating figure. It was his voice however that most singled the Vizier out. There wasn’t any way to sugar coat it. His voice was dull. It was boring. It was droning and monotone. Worst of all, if you missed a single word he spoke, it was the greatest insult you could make to the Vizier, and in turn, to the King. Arik learned this lesson first hand when the Vizier was temporarily placed in the royal academy's mathematics class. Arik had never really managed to get back in the Vizier’s good graces since that day. Today however was far from a leisurely class day.
Arik looked away from the verbose and uninflected Vizier. He toyed with the new ring on his finger, staring at the seal and trying to put the day’s events out of his mind.
Leah still wouldn’t speak with him. It had been years since they had been close friends. Ever since Arien had left, things had become more difficult. He had become close friends with Leah’s father, Bart. As time went on though, his duties to the court had required him to keep up appearances to be presentable. Leah simply couldn’t understand. She and her father were relics of an older age. They still looked back to a time when humans were enslaved by the Western nation of Bourox, when warriors were the exalted vocation. Peaceful business between the border nations of Bourox and Canoan had changed that, and warfare was a remnant of the past. Well, until today that was. Arik tried not to think of the battle of that afternoon. The image of the Doglus overpowering him and snatching the Royal Scepter from his hands filled his mind nonetheless. Arik remembered rebounding to his feet, and racing after the stolen artifact, only to be pulled down to the ground by Arien.
“The Minister of Northwestern Prefecture Agricultural Expeditionary Financials respectfully requests that the prior party please refrain from referring to the present party in the form of a ‘deceased degenerate bovine.’ Thank you. The Minister requests that his time of discourse also not be affected upon by the defense of the present party’s character.”
“Objection has been noted. Thank you Minister. Minister of Western Financials, please refrain from referring to any and all peers as ‘deceased degenerate bovines.’ As a penalty for your defamation of your fellow council member’s character, your speaking time will be reduced by twice the amount which this disruption of assembly has provoked.” The Vizier turned to a poor fool frantically writing on a page. “Please note this on the record.”
A quick hand over his mouth and two loud coughs quickly covered Arik’s imprudence. The turned heads regressed back to the discussion of the assembly. Arik's mind returned to wandering.
He didn’t expect to be turned down by Leah so coldly in the blacksmith shop. She resented him for his recent focus on the Court. He had learned the fine art of politics. He was after all, the Prince. Her world was antiquated, she would never really understand his. Arik didn’t know why he bothered so much with Leah anyhow. He could easily have any woman in the court. His eyes looked up and wandered around the hall. There were several maidens of the court waiting on members of the council. As his eyes drifted, he noticed that the maiden’s eyes quickly looked away from him as his eyes met theirs. It seemed he had at least found what these ladies were paying attention to in the middle of this boring assembly.
‘Tonight may be an interesting night indeed.’ Arik thought, sitting a bit more erect in his chair.
♫30 Seconds to Mars – From Yesterday♫
He raised his hand to the side, and was quickly addressed to the floor by the Vizier. He dismissed of the formalities, and got to the point.
“We were attacked by Doglus Raiders of the Respar clan. Their eye scarring are signature of the clan.”
Arik stood and continued his explanation. “Respar Raiders hail from the far Western lands of Bourox. They are, like most Raiders, are unaligned with the nation of Bourox. This was typical of their style of hit and run attacks. As for the stone beasts they rode on, I’ll leave that line of questioning to someone with more knowledge of the arcane than myself.”
The prince, feeling quite proud of himself, began to sit down.
“Sir, if you don’t mind pardoning my question, but how did you come about acquiring this information?”
“I came face to face with one of the…Riders during my commission today.”
“I see. So you are making conjecture based on your own eyewitness account?”
The comment urged Arik to stand again. “No. I was able to corroborate my information with an expert scout of the Northwestern lands.”
All eyes were now on Arik, who was now in a staring match with Vizier Boredom.
“For the quality of testimony to be admissible in this setting, we need to know the foundation of your council, Prince. Forgive me, it is only policy.”
“His name is Arien, son of John the former Weaponsmith.”
The name began to repeat in whispered and hushed tones throughout the assembly.
“Can you please repeat, for the record, the conversation between you and Arien, son of John?”
Arik thought for a moment.
“I can only paraphrase, Vizier. Arien and I spoke about what might have attacked us. I commented on the eye markings on the Doglus that attacked me. Arien returned that he too had seen the eye markings on the Doglus which he had fought. He commented that this must have been a very well coordinated attack for Respar to attack on the very day of my coronation.”
“And prior to today, when did Arien arrive in the Castle City?”
“Arien arrived today.”
“So your expert scout, arrived on the very day of the attack from the same lands from which the invaders hail from?”
Arik blinked. He had a strange feeling he knew where this line of questioning was going. He strongly wished he had been paying more attention to the conversation before he had interjected.
“This scout, Arien, will be wanted for questioning.”
Arik didn’t like the Vizier’s tone of voice. He was only the Vizier – as Prince, he held more authority in all matters than an advisor to the King. Yet in this social setting, Arik felt it inappropriate to make a scene. The Vizier did demand the respect expected of the King in an assembly wherein the King was not present.
“I can ask Arien to come inside for a short moment.”
“Please understand, Duke, that it will take more than a moment to properly interrogate your knowledgeable council. This kind of insurrection demands that an example be made.”
Arik looked around in dismay. His snippet of insight had gone horribly wrong. All around him, grey and bald heads were nodding in agreement at the Vizier’s words.
Arik was speechless as the Vizier spoke. The monotone voice attacked his ears as Arien’s echoed in the prince’s mind. ‘If you don’t change, you’ll lose everything you have. Men don’t follow a man they don’t respect for very long.’
“Arik, as the Duke of Northkeep, headquarters of the nation’s Royal Guard, you are charged with apprehending this criminal.”
The words flowed like acid through Arik's thoughts. “He…he won’t go willingly,” Arik stammered.
“You have the Royal Guard at your disposal. I don’t believe one man will be too much trouble for them.”
A messenger walked up to the young prince and presented him with a scroll. Arik unrolled it, and read the words to himself, astonished at not only what was happening, but at the speed with which it was taking place.
“Go now, Duke.” a familiar voice said. Arik turned to the side chamber to see his father walking into the assembly. The King was fully armored, and followed by several dust covered Castle guards. “And do not let this warrant slow your journey to Northkeep.”
Arik bowed, and turned to leave the hall.
‘Are they insane?’ Arik thought to himself. ‘Arien had NOTHING to do in all of this…’
Several of the Royal Guards began to follow the young prince as he walked on and pondered, the warrant now in a small wooden scroll case in his hand.
No comments:
Post a Comment