Dynasty: The Glorious Strategist (Dynasty Saga Book 3) (30 page)

Yunna let out a giggle that caused the water to ripple around her. Lymee smiled as she watched her. She had missed spending time with Yunna. Even around Yoni and Voss, Lymee felt like she could not quite be herself. But that was different with Yunna. Lymee trusted Yunna more than anyone and not just with secrets but she trusted her with herself.

“I’m glad you’re here,” Lymee said under her breath. “And not just because I have no idea how to put on those stupid clothes or how to make my tea actually taste good.”

“Or because you have a horrible sense of direction,” Yunna smiled.

“That too,” Lymee grinned.

Yunna’ smile faded as she looked down at her lap, absently swaying her hand through the water and watching the ripples. “I feared you might not want to see me ever again,” she mumbled.

Lymee’s head shot up in surprise. “Why would you ever think that?” she frowned.

“You left Lord Hanna in my care when you left,” Yunna stated. “You trusted me not only with the secret of her condition but also with taking care of her.”

Lymee sighed realizing where this was going. “I don’t blame you,” Lymee assured. “If I were to blame anyone, I would blame her.”

A silence fell over the two of them then. The hot water gently lapping against their bare skin.

“She did say something the night before,” Yunna said. “I didn’t understand it at the time but I think now she was asking that I pass along the message to you.”

Lymee perked up slightly leaning forward so she could better listen. “What did she say?”

“She said that she wished that she had more time,” Yunna said. “But she would not trade the time that she had spent with you for a thousand more years of life.”

Lymee smiled warmly at the thought. Thinking that even at the end Alia was thinking of her was comforting in its own way though she was sure she had meant that to imply to everyone not just Lymee.

“I had been told that she was in a lot of pain there at the end,” Lymee said.

“She was,” Yunna nodded. “A few days after the army departed she started getting sharp pains in her stomach.”

“After we left,” Lymee whispered.

“That’s correct,” Yunna nodded but Lymee thought Yunna understood what Lymee was implying.

Alia was definitely the type of person who would mask her pain while in front of Lymee and the others. Alia would have known that if she had been showing such pain before they left, they would have insisted that one of them stay.

Lymee wanted to believe that what Yunna said was true and that she only suffered those few days after they left and that she had not actually been suffering in silence for weeks, maybe even months. At this point all she could do was choose to believe it and move on. But Alia was not the kind of person one simply moved on from.

The first time they had met Lymee had thought Alia so beautiful. Covered in blood and dirt, and even wounded she had managed to take Lymee’s breath away. Looking back now she felt like the teenage she had been so smitten the way she was.

But Alia had always felt a lot like the moon to Lymee.

Lymee almost laughed as she realized how accurate that comparison was. Alia was beautiful and yet unattainable. No matter how far Lymee reached it would always be out of her grasp. And yet its presence was always there, always comforting.

“And how are you doing?” Yunna asked no doubt seeing Lymee’s sullen expression. “Are you doing alright?”

The question had caught Lymee so off guard that Lymee nearly laughed. Yunna had been the first person to ask her that question and that included herself. Now that the question had been asked Lymee realized that she did not actually know the answer. She looked down at her lap as she thought it over.

“I hurt,” Lymee admitted placing a hand over her chest. “I still find myself tearing up when I’m alone. And the burden of being the Empress is far heavier than I ever could have imagine and I’m not even the Empress of anything yet. The other lords have not officially declared their support for me. But it’s weird,” Lymee took a deep breath puffing out her chest as she did so. “I don’t regret it. And I don’t wish that this hadn’t happened to me.”

“Maybe this is your true calling,” Yunna suggested shrugging her shoulders.

“Maybe,” Lymee agreed. “Regardless, I have decided that I am going to give it everything I got.”  Lymee reached out her hand toward the moon far off in the distance. “No turning back, only moving forward.” She clinched her fist as if she were grabbing the moon itself then brought her hand back. “No more hesitating, no more complaining. I am the Empress now and I will remake this world into one that I would want to run away to. Where everyone has the opportunity to find their own happiness.” She clinched her fist tighter as the determination built inside of her. “And I won’t let anyone or anything stop me.”   

CHAPTER 10

Lymee stared blankly at the document in front of her as she tried desperately to make sense of what was written on it. Letting out a defeated sigh she hung her head and handed it over her shoulder to Yoni who was standing beside her.

Letting out a disappointed breath Yoni took the document and started skimming over it.

“I would be more than happy to read the documents to you, Empress,” Keo stated standing across the desk that Lymee was sitting at.

Lymee apparently now had a very large office along with a beautifully designed and well-crafted desk. But what really amused Lymee was the very comfortable and elaborate office chair that she was sitting in. The chair had been there even before Lymee had become the Empress. That made Lymee smile a bit. Seeing that the very first thing she had invented had reached even the Imperial Palace made her feel a little warm inside. Little by little this world was already changing because of her. She wondered if by the time she died the world would have been made into some kind of steampunk utopia. Now would that not be funny? And slightly awesome.

“Because you are not my personal adviser. Yoni is,” Lymee answered gesturing at Yoni with her thumb as she waited for her to finish reading the document. “You are my Primary Minister of Administrations.” Lymee felt out of breath every time she said that title. “Reading documents for the stupid illiterate Empress is her job not yours.” 

“I still do not see why you are having such trouble learning Mura,” Yoni said looking up from the document in her hand. “You picked up Kinju quick enough.”

“Because Kinju actually made sense,” Lymee sighed leaning forward and resting her head on the top of her desk using her arms like a pillow. “You have a symbol for the sounds and you put the sounds together making words. That’s how written language is supposed to work. Maru is just stupid. You take the symbol for mountain and the symbol for dog, mash them together and suddenly it means army,” Lymee let out an annoyed breath.

Yoni frowned as she tilted the paper to the side and examined it closer. “There is the symbol for dog in army,” she stated rather surprised. “But it’s upside down and reversed. How did you ever notice that?”

“Hurray for dyslexia,” Lymee twirled her finger in the air and let out a breath.

“For what?” Keo frowned.

“It’s a reading disorder,” Yoni explained having heard Lymee tell her about it before while they were wandering. “It makes the symbols ‘jumbled’ inside the mind.”

While letting Yoni finished explaining Lymee looked around at her office. It was actually a very comfortable feeling room all in all. The walls had what looked like some kind of story panels painted on them depicting a tale of some sort. Lymee was not sure what story it told other than it looked to be about a large battle of some kind involving a man engulfed in light and a large red gem surrounded by flames.

“So what does that report say?” Lymee asked interrupting the conversation Yoni and Keo were having but continued to stare at the painted walls. She would have to ask someone at some point what the paintings meant but that was for another time.

“It’s a requisition from Chief Military Commander Gea asking for various equipment and supplies,” Yoni stated turning her attention back to Lymee. “Basic stuff mostly.” She slid the paper under Lymee’s arm to await her seal. “Looks like she wants to try and build more permanent lodging while they continue their occupation of Mjon Dynasty.”

“And the lord of Mjon Dynasty is still being cooperative?” Lymee asked reaching out her finger and scratching Kitsune who was casually laying in at the top end of the desk.

“There is no mention of problems in her reports,” Yoni stated.

“Nor in any of the reports that Lord Niimu has been sending us,” Keo confirmed.

“And there has been nothing out of Fu Dynasty?” Lymee asked turning her head so she was looking up at Keo.

“No, Empress,” Keo shook her head. “Lord Yung has been surprisingly quiet. She has offered no protest, formal or otherwise, to you or your armies marching through her land to Mjon Dynasty. I am convinced she is plotting something however and I have people looking into it.”

“Of course you do,” Lymee said as she continued to pet Kitsune.

“Until we find out something more as to what she might be planning I suggest we simply wait and see what she does,” Keo finished. “Until we know what she might be planning the only thing we can do is prepare to react as best we can.”

“Sure sure,” Lymee said moving her hand up Kitsune’s back until she reached her head and started scratching her behind the ears.

“It would seem all the exciting things are actually happening in Song Dynasty,” Yoni stated placing her hands on her hips.

“Oh?” Lymee perked up a little her hand momentarily stopping its petting.

“It would seem,” Keo started, “that Lord Tuwa’s return home after your glorious victory has not been very well received. Having participated in any battle nor even killing a single enemy, her half-sister is using this to greatly shake the faith that the military once held in Lord Tuwa. Lord Tuwa is often ridiculed both publicly and privately by nobles and generals alike. It is possible that Lord Tuwa will lose all face and never have the chance to make a bid for the throne. If that were to happen then they may not be a civil war in Song Dynasty after all.”

“Good for them,” Lymee stated nodding her head against her arms that she was still laying on. “Not so good for us,” she added. “No civil war means no show of power. No show of power means we will have to find another way impress the other Dynasty Lords. Not to mention find some other way to bring Song Dynasty to heal after their mother dies,” Lymee let out a long sigh.

“We could always do something to make sure that it never stabilizes and ultimately falls into war,” Yoni suggested.

“I would rather not,” Lymee stated lifting her head up from the desk and sitting back in her chair. “We can use situations as they arise but I do not want to cause civil unrest in my own kingdom. Not only does that seem rather counterproductive, I would like to think we are better than that. No, we will have to think of something else. But we can worry about that another day. Any word from your brother?” Lymee asked Yoni, her voice sounding more bored than anything.

“Not yet, but they only departed a month ago,” Yoni stated. “Winter hasn’t broken yet so I am sure they are taking it slow. They have a small child with them after all.” Yoni shook her head trying to hold back her smile. “I never would have thought that General Chee would adopt a child like that. It still does not seem real.”

“I guess we are all full of surprises,” Keo said her voice seeming to lack the humor that Yoni’s had.

“What surprises me is that Voss had the guts to ask to escort Shan back to Hu Province,” Lymee stated refusing to meet Keo’s gaze for fear that her expression would give something away. Lymee doubted that Keo actually suspected anything and simply thought that it was suspicious. But a sure fire way to make sure Keo did figure out that something was going on, was for Lymee to try and act like there was nothing going on. “Think Voss will actually make his move on Shan?”

“This is my older brother we are talking about here,” Yoni said crossing her arms. “Of course he won’t.”

Lymee let out a snort of laughter as she gazed at the stacks of papers that still required her attention. She truly did detest all the bureaucratic work she had to do. It was as if someone could not scratch their nose without the Empress’ approval. And she knew there were a ton a matters that had been put on hold until after her coronation and she received her actual Empress’ seal.

“When is my coronation?” Lymee asked looking up at Keo. “I know that I will be made head of the Su Family and the Empress at the same time but the month of mourning for Alia is over. I figured that I would have had it by now.”

“Yes well,” Keo nodded her head as she gathered her thoughts. “It would seem that normally a Priestess of The Heavens would be the one to lead the coronation for the Empress. In the absence of a Priestess the duty is then to fall to the officially appointed Primary Minister of Administration. The only problem with that is there is currently no officially appointed Primary Minister as she was killed while taking the city.”

“And as I am not officially the Empress yet you are not officially the Primary Minister,” Lymee nodded in understanding. “So then what? We just sit around waiting for The Heavens to drop a crown on my head or something?”

“At this point I would not be surprised,” Yoni snorted under her breath turning her head away from Lymee.

“It would seem,” Keo explained giving Yoni a shake of her head. “That Lord Niimu as sent a request to Priestess Ling in Gon Dynasty. She is to make the journey here once the snow melts and the mountain paths clear around the temple she is currently staying at. She will then be the one to perform the ceremony.”

“And when will that be?” Lymee asked absently scratching the top of her head.

“In the spring,” Yoni shrugged with a smile.

“Fair enough,” Lymee nodded.

Not like they could give any kind of estimate when the snows would melt. She guessed she could have people watching groundhogs and seeing if they see their shadow. Lymee wondered if they had any kind of traditions like that. She was sure they did. They seemed to have a ritual or some such for everything else.

There was a light knock at the door snapping Lymee out of her thoughts. Lymee quickly fixed her dress and brushed the hair out of her face as she tried to make herself seem presentable.

“Enter,” Lymee called out in her authoritative voice.

The latch on the door clanked as the door slowly swung open.

“My Empress,” came the voice on the other side as a woman wearing a forest green dress stepped into the office.

“Lord Lei,” Lymee nodded in greeting. “It’s always a pleasure to see you.”

“I agree,” Yoni said tilting her head to the side looking at the beautiful woman.

“What can I do for you?” Lymee asked smacking Yoni’s knee with the back of her hand using her desk to hide the action. 

Lei bowed her head slightly then moved across the office taking up a spot next to Keo in front of Lymee. “I have just finished looking into the situation my Empress has asked me to,” she stated once she came to a stop. “Regarding all the resources and silver that the former Empress had been gathering up.”

“I would imagine there would be a lot of both by now,” Lymee said. “She was after all sucking this kingdom dry for the better part of four years.” Lymee sat back in her chair letting her hands rest in her lap as she looked up at Lei.

Lei had fit in quick enough with the others. She was charming, friendly, not to mention easy on the eyes. And despite her becoming one of Lymee’s vessels she still wore the green color of Gon proudly showing that while her loyalty was to Lymee she had not forsaken her ties to her mother and home land. This was good for if she was too quick to cut all ties and affiliations it would seem that she was simply a turn coat with no real loyalty to anything.

She seemed eager to prove her usefulness to Lymee, though she was starting to develop a bit of a habit of doing things she thought Lymee would want to be done without bothering to ask first. Normally Lymee would not mind people being proactive, so long as they were actually doing things that Lymee wanted done. As it turned out, what Lei thought Lymee wanted done and what Lymee thought Lymee wanted done were not always the same. 

“As much as I hated her methods,” Lymee intertwined her fingers as she casually tapped her thumbs together as she talked. “Utilizing those resources could go a long way in rebuilding this Kingdom.”

“I agree,” Lei nodded. “But sadly we were unable to find said resources anywhere in the capital. I found records that state most of what had been accumulated had been shipped out of the kingdom before autumn set in but they did not mention where their destination was.” Lei paused setting down a thin metal cylinder that contained the report she had made on the matter. “If I had to guess, I would say they were heading to the Kingdom of Cesis. From there one could board them up on a ship and sail them just about anywhere in the Seven Kingdoms.”

“I will see if I can track it down,” Keo declared taking the report from the desk. “It would seem that the former Primary Minister was receiving reports from people outside the Kingdom. I hope to keep those sources open if possible and use them to track down this shipment.”

“Do what you can,” Lymee nodded. “Though I would prefer it if we made new contacts that we can actually trust.”

“I agree,” Keo nodded.

“We should also think about creating some kind of spy organization who are trained to blend in with nobles and commoners alike to help gather information,” Lymee suggested. “They say knowing is half the battle and in order to know we need people out there gathering information.”

“We have our own spies,” Keo stated.

“No you have at best scouts,” Lymee corrected. “I am talking about people who not only go unnoticed but fully blend in with the people around them. As far as anyone is concerned they are truly a blacksmith or adviser. But before we can really do that first we need a spy master who can organize them all and keep all the secrets straight in their head. Someone who knows both the ends and outs of commoners and nobles alike. They say the best spy masters see ten years ahead.”