The Unexpected Heir: A Tale of Alus (13 page)

With the man gone, Karlaan retrieved the tube of green liquid and poured the yellow mixture into a container that could be sealed with a cork. Dropping both into a small pack, he left to find his way to the shrine for Sordrian. It was Caldrefan's favorite place, the young man thought.

Whenever the master needed a break, he would disappear into the shrine and close the doors behind him. Karlaan looked at the golden statue and wondered if Caldrefan believed anything that he actually preached about this god. He hadn't been coerced into following Sordrian by his master; and, aside from time spent in the sanctuary leading his people, Caldrefan didn't seem to believe in him as a god.

Karlaan had seen the look on Caldrefan's face when he looked on the statue. It was hard to determine exactly what he was thinking when looking at it, but the young man thought Caldrefan gazed at it sadly, as if this was someone that he had lost. He was one of a few that believed the master was likely an immortal. Perhaps Sordrian had been someone close to him in his distant past and not a god at all?

As he stood looking at the statue, a shadow moved from behind it. Karlaan should have been surprised; but as a man in black moved into view, he stood without fear.

"Caldrefan is on a trip. If you meant to speak to him, only I am here," he stated to the man in black.

"You will do," a raspy voice stated making the black cloth covering his face from neck to nose move.

"You have news about the royals and their protection?" Karlaan asked guessing that this was at least one of the men feeding Caldrefan news about the family that he was related to by blood, even if they didn't recognize him. Perhaps if the shadow felt like sharing, more plans could be put in place for after the one he was about to set in motion.

A folded slip of paper was left in Sordrian's outstretched hand. Conveniently able to hold the letter, the shadow appeared ready to disappear from sight; but Karlaan spoke up stopping him first.

"Do you lead more like you? Are you and your men the ones who sent the duke off to sleep?"

The shadow didn't speak, but nodded.

"If I give you a target in the future, will you work to fix that similarly for me? It would be in his interest, but you aren't mine to command."

Nearly out of sight in the shadow of the god's statue, the man answered in that eerie raspy voice, "If Caldrefan and Sordrian accept you, my blade is yours to direct. We do the god's will after all."

He nodded and let the shadow disappear once more wondering at his stealth. Caldrefan apparently used this room as more than just a sanctuary to get away and pray, Karlaan thought with a bit of amusement. It wasn't a surprise to him. The master of the Brothers of the Blood was working on making him king. Orlaan and the rest of his family had been considered obstacles with no other consideration given to them as people.

If the master needed to kill a few royals along the way, Karlaan was pretty sure that he would and had at least once so far. Changing a regime would take more than breaking a few eggs after all. Such things often tended to get bloody, if the histories Caldrefan had made him read as a youth were any indication.

Karlaan wasn't sure that he would need the shadow to be his assassin, but now that he knew of this man, it might be something to consider. He went over to the statue and took the folded note. It had a few royal names and notes about their movements as well as that of their guards. This covered most of the royal family living in Yalan. Now he just needed to decide how best to go about using this information. It would have to wait, however, as his current plan was ready to be set into motion.

"Needaly, you look worried again," Karlaan said greeting an older woman. Her brown hair had streaks of gray, though it was perhaps a bit premature due to the stress she had been under for years.

The woman tried to smile at the handsome, younger man. He had shown interest in her as well as some of the friends she had come with to pray to the god. Though Karlaan didn't wear the red robes of the brothers, most knew that he was essentially the presumed heir to Caldrefan and all that he stood for with the brotherhood. He had been kind and offered words of encouragement as the women had spoken of their worries working in the castle of the king.

"It is no worse than normal, Karlaan; but thank you for your concern."

Her words weren't dismissive, he knew. She had little confidence and was in constant fear that she would be fired by her superior, the head gardener in the castle. There were several gardens within the high stone walls guarding the king and his heirs. Needaly had told him of them over the last months and inspired him to come up with an answer to those worries.

"Kamaal is still harassing you over the lack of growth in the south garden?" he queried though it was her usual complaint voiced to him in the past.

Giving him a slow sigh, the woman nodded before saying, "I have told him that it is likely the light being blocked by the south wall. Without enough direct sun to help the plants, they simple refuse to grow large or bloom fully.

"He complains that it is our fault, but Kamaal is the one in charge of the care chosen. I think he blames us in case the king might think about letting him go, so he can use us as the reason instead."

Karlaan gave a sympathetic smile to Needaly and replied, "Well, from what you have told me over the last several weeks, perhaps the flowers just need a little more help than watering and pruning can give them. I have given it some thought, and believe that I might have something that can help."

"You are a gardener?" she asked with raised eyebrows of surprise. It would have been the first that he had ever expressed knowledge in horticulture, and she only knew him from their time spent within the main part of the temple.

Here there were only stone walls and roads which crisscrossed along hundreds of miles of a mostly paved city. The outer portions of the vast city were more open creating pockets of buildings between fields. There some farming and even small ranches could be found, but she had never heard Karlaan speak of that work either.

"I've worked on farms in the past, but this knowledge comes from the books the temple has in its library. Since Sordrian leads the brothers to help those in need, learning how to help grow food for the starving makes sense; doesn't it?" he finished with a little laugh making the woman smile at the thought.

"I hadn't thought of that, but what answer have you come up with from reading those books? Taking care of plants involves attention to the plants and conditions around it. I doubt a single solution from a book works in all cases."

Disbelief was shrugged off easily. Karlaan played it off and replied, "Well, that is true, but I read of a fertilizer solution that is apparently quite effective on plants with limited light. I thought that you might want to try it out in a test area to see if it helps."

Her face revealed doubt. Doing something from her own initiative or his in this case, instead of following the head gardener's orders was unlikely from a tentative servant. Needaly had been from a poor family. She had married, but her husband had died leaving her to raise a family on her own. Testing fate wasn't something she would dare. They didn't live well, but the woman was able to feed her family enough to survive.

"I am not sure..." she began.

"That is why I would tell you to just water the plants already struggling. If they die off because I am wrong, then it may just happen sooner than later from what you have said. What risk is there in that?"

His argument seemed persuasive, but Needaly wasn't quite ready to believe there was little risk.

Pulling out a small package wrapped in cloth, Karlaan handed her the paired liquids and said, "If you decide to try it, you just need to add these two solutions to a couple gallons of water. Pour it over the flowers like normal and they should respond favorably. The book for the recipe suggested that it is fool proof and would do no harm at the least.

"You have little to lose. Just water the flowers once and see if they grow or bloom. If they do strengthen, Kamaal would have to reward you or at least stop picking on you and the others working there."

"That would be nice," she agreed begrudgingly. While Needaly was timid, the thought of being praised for once was tempting as well. If she could gain some favor, then she wouldn't fear losing the work that funded her simple life. "Just the struggling plants, you think?"

Nodding, Karlaan answered, "They are the only ones that truly need it, right? If they might die anyway, then what harm can the fertilizer do to the garden since you are losing ground with them?"

The woman opened the wrapped package and frowned in confusion at the two containers of different colored liquids. "They aren't mixed already?"

Chuckling to put her at ease, the young man replied, "Put together early they tend to lose some potency. They also make quite a smell without the water to dissolve the mix.

"The book also recommends avoiding getting the concentrate on your skin. It can burn, but it is good for the plants. I would also avoid inhaling directly."

His words of warning made her nervous and again he laughed. Karlaan added, "Often concentrates seem a bit dangerous, but once added to water they become safe enough. It is just the hazards of chemistry."

With his continual assurances, Needaly finally nodded before wrapping the containers in the cloth again. The package was small enough that it should be easy for the woman to smuggle inside of the walls. Kamaal would likely never even notice, even if he bothered to watch closely. She had told Karlaan that the head gardener tended to walk away from the bothersome garden. Adding his presence to those with better results, the man could put at least some distance between him and their failure.

The two of them continued to talk of less worrisome things as Karlaan attempted to help ease his friend's tension until she had to go. Her family needed a dinner and her time was no longer her own to simply spend conversing with the young man who made her feel better about her future.

Karlaan sent her off with a smile and dismissed the woman from his mind as he mingled with the other patrons of the temple. If he planned on becoming king, it would take more than just one man or even Caldrefan's brotherhood to get him there. More followers would be needed to hold onto his power afterwards as well, so he worked to build bonds with those coming to Sordrian for comfort and help. This was the basis of his future army of subjects and he had begun to realize that the patience Caldrefan kept preaching might be more necessary than he had once thought.

Philip found himself returned to the castle to see the king once more. Married to the niece of Orlaan, it wouldn't be an uncommon occurrence; but adding in that he was one of the king's advisors as the Master of Coin meant that the half elf was a regular visitor even when there weren't worries caused by fires. That there seemed to be an unvoiced agenda against the king, except by the Brothers of the Blood; meant that Philip found his trips growing more frequent of late as they tried to get ahead of whatever conspiracy might be happening in the shadows. They still didn't know what the brothers hoped to gain from speaking out against Orlaan.

Inside the private office of his uncle by marriage, Philip was as alone with the king as he was ever likely to be. Four guards held the only noticeable entry to the room, while two more stood in the corners, as if they couldn't still hear much of what was said from the center of the room in a normal speaking voice. These men were the trusted royal guard. Virtually brothers in their closeness to the king, the guards had grown up with Orlaan and been his protectors for much of his life.

Glancing to the lightly armored men wearing their swords strapped to their sides, the visitor wondered if they could protect him from the unknown forces seeming set against the king and his family. It was a worrisome thought and quickly filed away in the back of his mind, neither forgotten nor completely dismissed.

"It has been over two weeks since the last fire was set," Orlaan stated as he stood behind a high backed chair. He had been sitting with a pair of secretaries in attendance as he worked through the paperwork of being a king and gladly stood up dismissing them to avoid reading and signing more documents; even if it would only be for a little while. "Even the numbers of brothers calling for me to be dethroned seems to have dwindled of late; or so my men tell me."

"Are you asking me if I think that we are safe from worry now?" Philip questioned managing to avoid any sarcasm. Though Orlaan had spoken the words, he didn't say them like a king no longer worried by these possible symptoms of a greater danger.

Snorting derisively, Orlaan replied, "I think we both know better than to believe that. We can account for the men who were killed in the fires and that means that there is at least one arsonist out there who hopes to hurt me through businesses that I own.

"The brothers might have stopped calling for my head in as many numbers, but there are still enough trying to coerce my people into hating me. I have no doubt that we need to remain vigilant; but I still wonder if this is a subsiding of hate or simply the lull before a greater storm?"

After the king's words left his mouth, there was a pause as they both contemplated the answer to that kind of question. Orlaan was the first to break the silence as he asked, "And what about you, Philip? What have you found? Have you discovered if there is a tie between the fires and the temple of Sordrian?"