The Zulani Empire: The New Chronicles of Elemental Magic (16 page)

The second prisoner similarly had a collar placed about his neck. Once more though, the priest appeared to have no apparent influence of the mind of the wearer. After ordering the youth be held firm by two of his soldiers, the Priest placed a hand over the head of his prisoner. He could sense the collar was again working as it should, but there was something far more powerful holding sway over the boys mind. Quite what was causing it, was beyond the power of the priest to find out. He would need to report his findings when they made camp. Now he knew the young Darekian's mind could not be commanded he ordered his soldiers to kill him as well.

Chapter 20.

Caldar stood looking at the large map he had laid across the table in his study. Two of his advisors were giving him all the latest information about the ongoing troubles. Word had spread that the entire south of Murati was now under the control of the Zulani Empire. He just hoped the northern part of his own country was not the same.

Sethin, the eldest son of the king, was stood at the study window. Usually one to take on board all that was being said; he decided instead to spend a moment contemplating. Sethin gazed out, looking down at the yard below. People moved about, carrying out their daily routines as they did every other day, almost oblivious to all the troubles that were happening elsewhere. He was suddenly shocked to see a crow appear at the glass. The bird fluttered and flapped its wings pecking at the window.

The tapping drew the attention of his father, "What on earth is that Sethin?" Caldar asked walking over to the window. "There is a bird at the window father," Sethin replied. The king thought for a moment, "Open the window and let it in," he asked. Sethin was not so sure, but did as his father asked. The crow fluttered into the room and after flying a few circles around the place, landed upon the tabletop.

Caldar had thought this might have been a bird sent by Luca. His guess proved correct when one of his advisors noticed a note tied to the bird's leg. Sethin stepped away from the open window and walked toward the table. The bird seemed to be comfortable with him approaching, and even when he slowly reached his hand out to grab the note. Once Sethin had retrieved it, the bird flapped its wings and made good its escape through the open window.

Knowing the message was probably for his father and not himself, he handed the small rolled paper to the king. Caldar smiled and took it from his son, before moving back toward the window. He gently unrolled the fine paper and held it up to the window to read. He held it up to the light and mumbled the words as he read. Not wanting to cause his son any more concern, Caldar quickly screwed the note up in his hand. "What did it say Father?" Sethin asked watching and thinking his father was hiding something.

His father told him and the two advisors, that the note had been very brief. A battle had been fought at Hamalin. Some losses, but Luca had come good and decimated the enemy forces. He then quickly moved onto a different subject before his son could ask any questions. They think the Zulani maybe making a further landing, he said looking down at the map once more. He pointed to the beaches near the Ulga mountains at the border region with Darekia. Luca is going to deal with them, he added hoping Sethin was not going to ask any awkward questions.

The note had also warned of his own life being in danger. He decided keeping this information from his family was probably for the best. After all, they had enough to worry about at the moment. Not telling his family however did not mean he was taking the news lightly. He was already running through his mind, ways of improving security. It was not just his own life he was concerned with, if he indeed was a target, that would likely mean his family members were too. Sethin, as next in line to throne would certainly be at risk.

Caldar quickly thought of a solution. Vanessa and the younger children would go to their summer retreat. Few people knew of it, and with it being so secluded, it was doubtful any attacker would stumble upon by chance. Sethin he would send north to Forwich to stay with Darak and Sarena. He would use the excuse that he needed his son to lead a cohort of soldiers north to help bolster the northern defences. He knew Sethin would not be entirely safe there, but it was certainly better than risking him being in New Easton. At least he would be with family and friends he could trust, and should the worst happen, be on hand to take up leadership should the need arise.

Sethin could tell his father was hiding something, or at least not telling him the whole truth about what was going on. However, he did as was asked, and went to his rooms to pack. That evening he would be bidding farewell to his parents and siblings and heading north with over five hundred soldiers. As he carefully placed his clothes into trunks, he pondered as to the reasons why his father was sending him away. The king had already sent over a thousand men north just after Luca and the Elite Royal Guard had left. If all had gone well they would be splitting up, replacing, and reinforcing the garrison towns, of which Forwich was one. Had things gone so terribly wrong? Had his father lied? Was the enemy so powerful even his cousin Luca had been unable to stop them? So many questions ran through his young mind, none of which he had answers to.

Caldar had explained to his wife the real reasons for the actions he had taken. Although not entirely happy that her eldest son was being sent into a potential war zone, she knew it was something the young prince needed to be doing. Caldar himself had done a similar thing in the last war. He had led a cohort of Corlanian troops to the border towns of Berston and Casham, to defend against the North Besemians fighting on the side of Darekia. It was actually during that time the two of them had met. Vanessa knew that a high-ranking royal presence in the north would likely give the people a boost, should things start going wrong, and they did not come much higher in importance, than the crown prince.

Vanessa was also not keen on leaving her husband alone in New Easton without his family for support. Again, she knew the needs of the country had to take precedence over her own. The capital was the home to the king, and that is where he should lead from. If, as Caldar had told her, things had gone well in the north then what she was undertaking would be little more than an early vacation for her and the other children. This thought kept her focused, and although she knew a tear or two would be shed when they all went their separate ways, it was likely they would all meet up again soon.

The sun was low in the sky, as Sethin, sat atop his finest horse trotted out of the city gates. Escorted by his own newly formed Prince's Guard of twenty men, they trotted to the bridge that crossed the River Fivan. On the other side, all ready for moving out were his five hundred troops. He felt his stomach churning a little, as for the first time, the enormity of what he was undertaking started hitting home.

They would travel north into the night before resting for a few hours, and then restarting again at first light. Sethin, although nervous, took his duties seriously. With the majority of his force on foot, it would take a few days to get to Forwich. He placed his hand inside his tunic, just to check the sealed letter his father had given him was still in his pocket, before reverting his focus to the trip ahead.

In Sefton, the reinforcements had arrived. With Dane having emptied the town's garrison of all but a handful of men, their arrival was certainly welcome. Reports had come through that outlying farmsteads had been attacked by very large groups of raiders. This news had put the inexperienced captain in charge of the reinforcing troops into a bit of a quandary. If he split his force now, as had been his orders, he risked putting the town in danger. If indeed the rumours proved true, he would need all his men here. Hence, he made the decision not to split his group just yet. He would keep all his men at Sefton, and see how things went before sending any onto Forwich as he was supposed to.

In Sarus, Dalia hurriedly gathered her things together. She had seen the images bought to her by her birds. An army of the likes she had not seen before had landed on her shores. Worse still, was the fact she had lost an entire training camp to these invaders. With her staff in hand and her makeshift army ready, she planned to make sure they got no further.

Fortunately, for her, the landing site was little more than a day's march. Whoever these foreigners were, she swore that they would regret the day they ever set foot in her country. The only problem she had was the fact her armies were young and green. Many of her training camps consisted of nothing but children, something she hoped to reap the benefits from, years down the line. The invaders had already destroyed such a camp; she could not afford to lose any more.

She did have several hundred soldiers of fighting age at her disposal. The bulk of these would travel with her to counter this new threat. She had always thought any attack would come from Corlan or Besemia once they had heard of her taking control. These strange people invading her nation via the coast had certainly come as a shock. Moreover, she had absolutely no idea where they had come from, nor how they managed to control what appeared in the images she had seen, was an entire menagerie of weird looking creatures.

Her numbers may be fewer, and perhaps many of her soldiers were young, but she did have the staff. On first hearing the news, she had even considered sacrificing her people to create her own Orlac army, to help counter this surprise attack. She had quickly dismissed this idea, realising that would make her no better than her father had been. She would fight with her young soldiers, and unleash the power of her magic through the staff.

She knew she could leave the day-to-day running of her country to the men she had placed in charge. Naturally, each of them now had a compulsion spell on their minds, and would only do as she requested. Therefore as she had asked them to run the country, build her an army and let the people know she was now running things, that's exactly what they did.

In Murati, the people of Onay were now fully subdued and servants of the Zulani Empire. From here, the invaders planned to set up a government to oversee the running of their latest acquisition. In overall control was the Zulani priest. The invaders though had not only bought with them men for fighting. They had also included those who were familiar with the daily requirements for running the necessary administration. Amalgamated into these offices of power were a handful of locals, who although collared to insure their obedience, were allowed an input into proceedings.

Away from Onay, the King of Murati had received confirmation that not only had he lost the southern part of his country, but also his brother. The news had not been taken well, and despite the presence outside his city of over a thousand Corlanian soldiers sent to aide him, a sense of panic filled the air. King Orton still had other siblings, but his relationship with Issac had always been close. His wife and queen, Cela, was struggling to cope with the man's moods. For his own safety, as much as anybodies she had been left with little choice other than to have him sedated.

A king who was suffering the severest of depressions at the loss of his brother was certainly not the ideal leader of a nation in Murati's position. Cela had been forced to write to Orton's other siblings asking of they would step forward to take control whilst their brother recovered. Unfortunately, she was uncertain as to the whereabouts of the next eldest, who liked to travel. The last she had heard, he and his family were exploring some remote islands far to the east of their continent. It would take months for her to even get a message there, and still there was no certainty it would find him. The other brother, just a few years younger than Orton had taken up the appointment as leader of the Murati's western lands.

Orton had given his youngest brother Issac the largest and highest appointment of the south, because of his natural leadership. The brother to the west, although older than Issac, did not have such characteristics. He was only warden of the western lands, which mainly included small farms and large expanses of scrubland. Yet with no son or heir herself, Cela had no alternative other than to seek their help.

With the word spreading that the south had fallen to this invincible army of monsters and men, added to the fact their king had hidden himself away, she was struggling to keep the people in order. She feared that if things got worse, they would start fleeing northward away from the invaders, causing a mass panic and exodus. If such a thing happened would her allies, the Corlanians, still keep patience and stay to help them. This was a time that needed strong leadership, unfortunately something Murati was lacking.

Some distance away in the small town they had decided to stay at, Fabian had still not made any decisive decision about what to do next. Jamal, who had almost reluctantly taken up the role as the young prince's advisor, despite having no more experience in the job than Fabian had, was getting somewhat annoyed. He had hoped that Fabian would step up to the mark, and take over from where his father had left off. Unfortunately, the young royal seemed to be quickly slipping back into his old ways. Fabian was once more becoming the spoiled, selfish brat he had been when Jamal had first met him.

In a way, the harshness shown by his father had proved to do the young prince some good. Both he and Jamal had been thrust into a battlefield and both had escaped different people to the ones that had started out. Unfortunately, the longer they sat idle, the more Fabian was drifting back into his self-indulgent ways.

Jamal had awoken earlier than usual that morning and after washing and dressing had gone to see Fabian. He had found the young royal in bed with one of the Mayor's kitchen staff. The woman was not only probably twice his age, but Jamal thought also had the looks that resembled a cow's backside. The moment he had opened the door and looked in was embarrassing enough, but Fabian had invited him to join them. Jamal had quickly declined and left them to whatever they were doing, deciding instead to go down and get breakfast.

After eating his fill, he had decided to go and walk about the camp set up by the few hundred soldiers that had escaped the rout at Onay. He wanted to try to judge the feelings of the men, to see what they were expecting to do next. The last person he wanted to see at that moment was Fabian. Unfortunately, he had not made it as far as the front door to the Mayor's home when he felt a hand on his shoulder from behind him. He did not even have to turn to know whom that hand belonged too.