It had been three days since the Korah convened before Queen Kishra and presented to her, among other things, the concern of Chief Constable Mershak who was still at large causing severe problems, but she had not given them any instructions thereof. It was now the seventh day of the king's absence, and the palace was just getting accustomed to life under a woman. But Chief Administrator Maldab was not. He had been passed by Garrera for the affairs of the nation, and was instead put under a woman with no experience in political matters, which was an extremely bitter pill to swallow for him. Most of the appointments in the Korah were technically his appointments, and this was going to make him look like an idiot, had made him look like an idiot. But he knew that an attempt to undermine the queen's authority was extremely dangerous for him, should Garrera return to town. He had to find a way to justify what he had in mind. The Queen had made no movement on the Mershak issue, which Maldab was obsessed with. He wanted to prove his worth. No, he wanted to rub it in Garrera's face that he had been the better shot at taking the reins in his absence. That he had made a mistake choosing a woman instead of him, regardless of the fact that she was queen, and thus his superior.
But the queen knew this. Not Maldab's concerns about Mershak, but his prejudice against her for being a woman. She knew everything that took place in her palace. She had put this in place in her first months here, utilizing the valuable resource of the palace maidservants. They were the largest group of palace occupants. Her chief eunuch, Booi, was an industrious man. He had reconciled the Women's Pavilion to her, having helped her realize that antagonizing them constantly was not in her best interests, and that it was better for her to exercise her power by not only using brute force and exerting fear but also rewarding where it was due. In just two months he had got all the ladies on his, and therefore Kishra's, side, and this included new maids he had vetted thoroughly. One of these was a young lady not older than about 26 named Marlo. There was no debate in the entire Women's Pavilion that she was the most beautiful of them all. This had caused a bone of contention for a long time because Kishra had been as jealous as a bee. She had terrorized Marlo so much that she had wanted to quit. But Marlo had continued to be a diligent worker, taking all her tribulations without so much as a mutter.
That was until it was discovered that Marlo was a potential romantic interest of Chief Administrator Maldab. While Kishra had spotted this as her winning chip, her chief eunuch had instead seen this as an opportunity. When she confided in him, as she did for all her plans, Booi did not jump up in excitement that his queen was finally going to dismiss that little witch. In fact, he just stood there before her seat in the Women's Pavilion looking like an idiot. Queen Kishra didn't miss this.
'What is it?' she questioned him, 'are you not happy that I can finally punish her?'
'Certainly, my lord, but…'
'But what, eunuch Booi? But what?'
'Well, I have given it some thought. The rumblings about Maldab that we have been hearing. If it is true that Marlo is having such a disgraceful affair, she is not your real enemy, my lady. Maldab is, and we can use Marlo to find out what he might be planning behind your back.'
The queen suddenly went mute. She had completely missed that insightful approach.
'Bring her to me,' she ordered. Booi walked out of the chambers and relayed the command to the court ladies waiting outside, and Marlo was stationed before the queen. She did not dare look at the queen lest she found another reason to yell at her and make her do the laundry of the pavilion all by herself, or ordered her to sleep outside for several hours in the night. She made her bows and just stood with downcast eyes before her tormentor. Marlo was a bit darker than the queen, taller than her, and had shorter hair because the queen had commanded her to cut it. Nonetheless she still appealed to the eye better than the queen. The queen absolutely hated this, but today wasn't one of those days.
'Look at me,' she ordered. Marlo reluctantly lifted her head and then dropped it again. Queen Kishra repeated, more austerely, 'look at me.' Marlo lifted her eyes, and Kishra went on, 'I know that you have some kind of affair with the Chief Administrator.'
'A thousand apologies my lady,' Marlo said almost obsequiously, 'I have not visited his chambers at all since you warned me.'
'Well I am lifting that restriction now.'
'My lady?'
'I need to know what the Chief Administrator is plotting behind my back. I know he is plotting something. This is your assignment, and we will be friends if you do it. If you do not, well, you know that expulsion will be the least of your problems were it known that the most powerful man was having an affair with a maidservant.'
Marlo had to choose the lesser of two evils. She would either refuse to prostitute herself with a married man, which would aggravate her relationship with her master the queen, or she would trade that with finally being a free soul in the Women's Pavilion at least. She figured that the old bastard Maldab wouldn't use her as a sex tool without arousing unwanted suspicion. She would only have to lay with him once in a long time. And that was a good deal.
'Will I get back my sleeping chambers?'
The queen shot her an obnoxious gaze.
'Don't you think that will depend on how you do your assignment?' she spat back, 'you should be asking me about the assignment.'
'My lady, how will I tell what is being planned behind your back?'
'Just tell me everything important going on in the Korah, everything he says, even if it's the number of fruits he has eaten, I want to know about it. Understand?' said Kishra. She was referring to the audience hall in which the Korah conducted its business, as well as Maldab's office chambers there.
'Yes my lady. But his wife…'
'I will deal with her.'
Maldab's wife wouldn't have been a problem under normal circumstances, but she was one of the ladies that had exemption from the rules of the Women's Pavilion by royal privilege, but mostly because she was also a semi-permanent resident of the royal palace, as she hadn't yet outgrown the personal home estate just outside the city. The pavilion rules applied only to members living permanently inside the palace.
'When do I start, my lady?'
'Starting tonight you will be assigned to that part of the palace. Do whatever it takes to find out. Understand?'
'Yes, my lady.'
'Good. Report to chief eunuch Booi.'
Marlo walked out of the chambers for the first time with something resembling a smile, but not quite. The maids standing outside snorted at her.
It was not long before the queen received her first report, even before Marlo's night shift began. Marlo was in the second courtyard, moving from the main residence house and the adjacent kitchen, when Maldab showed up. He was flanked by two administrators, members of the Korah whom Marlo knew well because she had seen the three men together before. They were both in charge of two southern jurisdictional districts, and were about his age, so Marlo could make out that he knew them from long ago in his youth. Upon meeting his eyes, Marlo and the other three servants walking with her respectfully stopped in their tracks and bowed their heads. The administrators stopped too, when within arm's distance to acknowledge the greetings, and that would have been enough to end the pleasantries, but of course Maldab wanted to say something to Marlo. He gestured to his companions to progress before speaking.
'I have not seen you around the Korah for some time now, Marlo,' he said.
'I was reassigned, my lord,' came the reply.
'Has the queen been treating you well?' the man knew that Marlo's relationship with the queen was less than friendly. He did not give a shit.
'Yes, my lord,' said Marlo.
'Hmm. Carry on then.'
From behind her as the men pulled away, Marlo eavesdropped the words "city", "merchant" and "ten men". That wasn't enough to begin with but it was a clue. Marlo's companions couldn't quit smirking at her as they walked to and from the kitchen. It was no longer a secret to her closest companions, such as these two, that there was something going on between the Marlo and the Chief Administrator.
'What?' she snapped at them.
'You know, if the Chief's wife finds out, even hears a rumor, your time here could be over,' one of the other ladies said.
'Well, she's not going to find out, is she?' she stopped to emphasize the seriousness of the matter, and wore a stern look, 'is she?' Marlo knew that it was useless to try and deny this by saying she was not interested in an old man like Maldab. Besides, any of the other girls would love such an affair, motivated by the potential privileges they'd have, including acquiring expensive gifts. Such was the low esteem that the young ladies at the palace had. Those who condcted the palace employee vetting process intentionally made sure to choose this kind of women to work at the palace. Marlo, though, was different. She was not humble because she had been liberated from the slums and suburbs and given a job to work among the highly esteemed ladies of the land, no. She was humble by her own training, but certainly held a higher esteem than most of the ladies she was working with.
'Of course not from us Marlo, what's the matter with you?' said one of the others, 'if the queen…'
'The queen? No do not worry about her. She will not tell.'
'How do you know?'
'I have a hunch,' she said.
That evening she promptly moved to the second courtyard, where the Korah audience hall was situated, to tender to that building's needs. This is where the Chief Administrator resided, he and his household. Maldab was a father of two sons and a daughter. His sons both moved with him to the palace and were present, but his daughter lived in Cockroach in the north with her husband and child. Some from his extended family had moved here too, such as his aunt, who was very old, and a man called Rancho, who was the head of his security. He was the man who had found the boy king trying to escape at the end of the tunnel underneath the palace.
Maldab's wife occasionally came around just to update him concerning the family estate and to check on her sons, but nothing conjugal. So Maldab's eyes had landed on the young, sexier Marlo to satisfy his adulterous intentions and burning passions. He had not yet managed to sway her into bed with him, but he and Marlo both knew that this outcome was inevitable. It was only a matter of time before the man would be unable to control himself.
Marlo would be on the shift that would serve supper in the Korah. So she was lingering around the second courtyard and its three buildings with the rest of the detail assigned there, waiting for an opportunity to sneak away and begin executing the queen's command. It was not long before the three men she had seen with Maldab earlier returned to the palace with two more men, who were clearly merchants from the city from the way they were dressed. Marlo was in position to spot them and make a move. She raced to the kitchens, to the east of the second courtyard and across the tiled walkway bordering it. She took over the task of serving the men with tea, which she found two of her colleagues in course of doing. The chief eunuch was on hand to ensure that her assignment went smoothly, so the two servants she had bullied into relinquishing the task of serving tea were dismissed by him when they reported this. When she and two others went into the chambers, in the audience hall, Maldab was not there. The meeting he was conducting was secret, so he and his associates were converged in a separate room, and when the ladies with the tea came along, Rancho and two of his men stood in their way.
'You,' Rancho said to Marlo, 'you weren't part of the group I selected.' It did not belong to him to choose who brought the tea, but he had done so anyway.
'The Chief wanted me to join this group. I am to trim his beard later on too.'
Rancho checked the faces of the other two girls to make sure of this. They just kept their faces down. Rancho whispered something to one of his men, who went in for about half a minute, returned and nodded to him, upon which Rancho allowed the court ladies entrance. There were about eight men in the room with Maldab, including the younger of his sons. Five men were administrators or their representatives, two were the merchants Marlo had spotted outside. Marlo proceeded to pour tea for the attendee farthest from Maldab, intentionally. She knew his eye was on her. He knew that she was trying to avoid unnecessary attention. Nonetheless, he beckoned her to his side of the table, and assigned her to the indoors chores remaining for the night. She would stay in the room while the meeting was going on and after that. Marlo had never liked staying in the same room with the man as she did now, standing in the corner waiting for an order. As the man knew her relationship with the queen, he was not worried that she would disobey his command not to say anything about the meeting to anyone. Marlo had to endure an earful from Maldab about how incompetent the queen was because of her reluctance to answer to the Korah's demands to capture Mershak, before the men got on to the real agenda of their clandestine assembly.
'It will be difficult to catch that rebel with if he is not in the city, Chief. Our best opportunity is to catch him from inside the city.'
'How?' Maldab wanted to know.
'We will lure him,' one of the merchants said, 'his goons have particularly been interested in tribute wagons travelling south.'
'But those wagons are loaded from Polyepp. No tribute wagons come from Chaldea,' said Sha'ad, the Chief's son.
'Let me finish,' said the merchant. He dealt in textiles, 'we will change the loading rendezvous to Chaldea, come up with some reason.'
'We won't need to. You administrators make the rules, the people follow,' said the other merchants, 'it is an executive order as long as it bears the queen's seal, if that is not a problem. Once we acquire it, we can also fix the routes along which the tribute is to travel.'
'So we'll be ready when he attacks the wagons,' said Maldab, 'but what if he launches an ambush farther south?'
'Unlikely,' said the administrator of the Aroer jurisdictional district, whose main city was Tirzah, 'there have been no attacks further south than Tirzah. And we have increased the security on the Aroer borders and the numbers escorting the wagons. If he is to launch an ambush after the proposed changes, he would want to do it in a less guarded section of the route.'
'Interesting,' Maldab caressed his beard, reclining in an askew posture in his chair, 'but how can we be sure he will attack the convoys?'
'We give him a reason to do so,' said the Bezelaria District administrator. He was a native from there, born in Oreum, the district's main city, and had been appointed into the Korah despite being just 33 years old. He was the youngest member of the Korah. He was young man of good repute, and was popular, or had been, in Oreum. Now the people loathed him for inviting the invaders into his bed. His wife of six years had even left him out of fear, and was living far east near the coast.
'Go on,' Maldab invited the young administrator to elaborate.
'By sending a large number of troops to investigate one of the areas. We spread the rumor that we think he is there. He will be buoyed by that to rub it in our faces that we were looking for him in the wrong direction.'
There was unanimous endorsement of this brilliant idea. Even Marlo was impressed, but for other reasons.
'He last surfaced in Hishmoi. If we converge a battalion in Kemosh it might be a good ruse,' said Sha'ad, Maldab's son. These two towns were adjacent to each other and were along the convoy route from Polyepp.
'I agree,' said the first merchant.
'Then let's catch that son of a bitch, gentlemen. I'll send some of my men to Kemosh,' said Maldab, 'meantime I need to run the change of rendezvous to our esteemed lady.'
'About that,' said the administrator who had remained silent throughout the session, 'will she accept?'
'This shouldn't be a problem,' said Maldab, 'after all her job is to just sign papers.'
'We meet again in two days. Who will draft the new directives?'
'I'll do it,' said Asher of Bezelaria. He was also an astute reader, known to spend several hours locked away in his study, which was as big as a parlor. The men began to disperse one by one until only Maldab, his son and Marlo remained. Sha'ad dismissed Marlo, wanting to speak with his father in private. Maldab ordered her to go to the kitchen and make his favorite tea, an infusion of local tea leaves with a weird herb that was grown on Kai. He always had a full consignment of this. She was to bring it to his bedroom in half an hour's time.
Marlo rushed to the kitchen. The first people to greet her there were her two favorite companions.
'I thought you didn't like the old man. Now you're fighting to be assigned to his chambers?' one of them questioned her.
'It's complicated, Eleon. I can't explain it.'
'Of course you can't,' said Eleon with indelicate sarcasm.
'Just let it go, girl,' said Marlo, who was retrieving the blue mandrake medicinal tea for the man from its cabinet, just when chief eunuch Booi was coming in. Everyone hushed up, and Booi approached Marlo.
'You're still on your shift?' he asked, after discerning that she was making tea for the man. When she nodded, he said, 'report immediately after the shift.'
But her shift was far from over. Marlo's suspicions were right. The old man's libido was up to his neck the moment Marlo walked into the room. He was alone, sitting by his bed and reading from a bunch of papers. He was already dressed in his sleeping gown, and his legs were exposed. They were too hairy to Marlo's liking. She knew that that wasn't the only thing she would have to endure that night. She wanted to escape this all, so she said,
'You're going to sleep sir? Should I take back the tea?'
'No. Place it here,' he said, so she did, and immediately tried to escape, but the old man held her hand to restrain her.
'My lord?'
'Just stay a bit longer will you? Why are you in such a hurry?'
'You seem quite busy. I thought I shouldn't be disrupting this important business.'
'No, no, no it's alright. You're important too.' A lecherous smile curled up on his face.
'I'm just a maid, my lord. I serve tea.'
'Yes, and the wheels keep turning, things get done, and the nation is governed.'
'I'm glad you appreciate it, my lord.'
The man was still smiling up at her. Come on, sit down,' he was tapping the mattress to his right. I have even something more, to show my appreciation.'
'What, my lord?'
'First, tell me about yourself. Where are you from, and how did you come to work at the king's palace?'
The man was tactful and cunning, something she hadn't appreciated very well. As she went on and on about how her family was shattered when her father left her and her mother, blah, blah, blah, the man drew her in with a few of his own vainglorious experiences, slowly feeding her the bait, which she gladly took. The gift he had for her wasn't something he had prepared for in advance. It was impromptu, serving the purpose of a fishing line with the bait on it. For him it was no loss at all, but for her it was a fantastic piece of jewelry, which she could either keep or sell. A masterpiece of intricate jade that fit perfectly around her slender neck. She knew that she would sell it and send collect more money for herself, because keeping it was not only moot but dangerous. She couldn't wear it in the palace, as she would be questioned or attacked, so even if the man asked why she wasn't wearing it, there was an easy answer. In fact, Maldab would never ask. He wasn't giving it to her because he wanted. He was giving it to seduce her. As long as she delivered her carnal goods, he couldn't care less if she wore it or not. That night was a long one for Marlo. She learned one more thing that she wouldn't have imagined about the head of the Korah, that he was still sexually capable.
By morning Queen Kishra already knew the plan that Maldab would bring to her table, even before she called an emergency meeting of all the administrators. She had something else other than Mershak up her sleeve, which she knew would show the entire assembly of the Korah that it was not in their best interests to undermine her authority, but also to rub it in Maldab's face that she was in fact more politically astute than him. The Korah members were all in the city, as they had been for close to three months, so by noon all of them were assembled, not in the second courtyard, but the first, which was the location of the throne room. They hadn't met here since the first days of Garrera's leadership, so as they arrived one by one, they kept grumbling between themselves about how impudent it was of her, especially those who subscribed to Maldab's prejudice. Those who chose to remain neutral were careful to keep their mouths shut, lest someone gave them away. One of these was an administrator of the southeastern district of Ar'nan who had met with the queen before she became queen, during her days as a concubine of Garrera's. He had visited the manor that Garrera, then chief of the Korazin Southern Frontier Division of the army, lived in. He knew about the little affair his master had, and he was a man to mind his own business as well as keep himself out of trouble as best he could. And Queen Kishra knew this. She loved that he was one of the administrators, as she could easily sway him to her bloc of this growing rift between the two most powerful people in the city currently. So while he was still explaining to another Korah member about the flippancy of the argument that Kishra was just an inexperienced young woman, chief eunuch Booi accosted him, cleared his throat, and whispered to him that the queen wanted to meet with him secretly for a couple of minutes.
'The queen? Why?'
'I do not know, sir. This way, please.'
They left the other Korah member looking suspiciously, and took an alleyway adjacent to the entrance of the throne room. It led to one of the many corridors that zigzagged this way and that through the residence, until they went up one flight of stairs and directly into the room where Her Majesty was waiting. It was some kind of reading room, likely having been previously used by the boy on the run. The new queen was sitting against the table in the room with her crown on. She was indifferent to the man's bows and obeisance to her. She just got right to business, saying,
'Ar'nan district, am I right?'
'Yes, Your Majesty.'
'We've met before, I believe.'
'Of course, Your Majesty. The manor is in Ar'nan district.'
'I cannot remember your name.'
'Lataro, ma'am. My name is Lataro.'
'Can you guess why you're here, Lataro?'
Lataro shook his head.
'The Chief Administrator is prejudiced against me,' said Kishra quickly.
'I noticed as much.'
'And you are not, I presume?'
'I cannot blow my own trumpet, Your Majesty.'
'Well said. I will blow it for you then. Maldab is currently busying himself with trying to undermine me, by hatching a plan to catch Chief Constable Mershak.'
'I…I didn't know that Your Majesty.'
'Of course not,' she moved away from the table to stand upright, 'you were kept out of the inner circle. Now I am inviting you into mine. I need the Korah to understand that I am the main authority here. And you will help me.'
'I serve at your pleasure, Your Majesty. What would you like me to do?' this was said off the cuff, but he knew he had to take sides immediately or else.
The Korah convened quickly into the throne room, but after close to five minutes queen Kishra was still not entering appearance. The reaction from the insubordinate cocoon was the intention of the queen, who was informed by one of the palace guard that the grumbling had begun. Kishra began to execute her plan now, first by summoning Major Alain, head of the Royal Forces Division. Major Alain was as loyal as a hound to her. At her behest, he had gone out and hunted down her mortal enemy, Lady Esella, which had been an unsuccessful venture. The two had established a stable working relationship over time at the manor down south. Alain served her the purpose that Lankh served her husband, although he was under the immediate command of Garrera. He had wanted a high position, like this one, and was content with it. The Royal Forces, nonetheless, had been left behind to augment the Goldoran forces keeping calm and order in the city. Alain had been given sole discretion concerning whether or not to use force to meet those ends. This division was like the black dog of the pack, meant to do the king's dirty work for him, including tactical assassinations.
The Major's force of about 300 men was stationed at the palace, but had no business in it. Its business was outside the palace walls. They constantly waited for some unfortunate seditionist to initiate a protest in the city to have some employment, but this never came. The Chaldeans were angry, but knew better than to antagonize the enemy, who was already their new king anyway. So the Royal Forces weren't busy at all, and Alain was getting bored. So Kishra employed him in this. He showed up with about 60 of his men in the courtyard where his master was waiting, where she told him that it was time. The man turned around and nodded at his men. Half of them organized themselves in queues of 15 or 16 men each, and stood parallel to each other. Kishra smiled at this, and began walking toward the throne room. The soldiers flanked her and Alain on either side, while the remainder of them followed from a distance.
Kishra knew that the Palace Guard was more inclined to follow Maldab's lead, and to serve at his pleasure, so she had opted not to use them to demonstrate this show of force. The Guard were in charge of her protection, but she never liked them. Maldab could easily use them against her, as he was even more used to them, having employed them in the plot against the late king Caspar, while she had met them less than a year ago. So when the large file of real fighting men marched on the entrance of the throne room, the Guard soldiers there were stunned. Their new head, Parrela, was stationed outside with some of his men. He was in on Maldab's plan, Kishra confirmed, because of the way he reacted to this. He and his entire twenty-man team stopped what they were doing and planted themselves in front of the queen and her men.
'Stand aside,' Major Alain immediately said to him. They were standing at the base of the flight of stairs leading up to the entrance, which was closed.
'What is this? You are not in charge of protecting the queen,' was Parrela's reply, 'the Palace Guard is.'
'Shut up!' Kishra snapped at him, 'do you not know who I am? How dare you stand in my way? I choose who protects me, and I am not being followed by your men now, am I?'
Parrela was a stubborn fellow, so even though he took note of the queen's words, he still didn't move an inch. That prompted Alain to draw his sword, which prompted all the other armed men at the scene to do the same except Parrela, who was held by Alain's sword to his neck.
'Last warning,' Alain said in a severe tone. Parrela surrendered by raising his hands, then slowly standing away from the scene. Alain put his sword back into its sheath, and so did everyone else. And then they marched up the flight of steps. Alain arrogantly kicked the door in, frightening some of those inside, and paused a bit at the entrance intentionally for effect. Then he and thirty armored men escorted the queen into the large hall, and as they filled the length of the hall, the men stood at ease either side of the aisle and faced each other, so that each man or two stood in front of one of the Korah members, who all stood up to recognize her arrival. Maldab was struck dumb at his seat, just below the throne. Kishra stopped beside him to shoot him with a severe stare, before walking gracefully up the rest of the stairs to sit on her throne.
'Shall we begin?' she announced.
Maldab shakily stood up, gave the queen a quick glance and said,
'Your Majesty, the Korah only has one issue of real importance to deal with, while the others, you can simply put your signature against them.'
'Is this issue the matter of the rebel Chief Constable Mershak?' Kishra said.
'Yes, Your Majesty. It is.'
'Was it also the subject of the secret meetings you have been holding behind my back?' Kishra immediately threw in her card. Some faces on the panel went red with terror. She used this to continue, 'this is my palace now. How could you think I did not know what was going on, Maldab? How dare you poison the Korah with your misogynist propaganda?'
There was a long silence in the throne room and a lot of guilty faces. Queen Kishra moved her eyes through the room, waiting to meet the eyes of one of the plotters. None of them dared to look toward her.
'Lord Versaly, Aroer district, stand up,' she ordered. That man stood up, looking like he was naked, 'tell me, what punishment you and your leader deserve.'
The Aroer district administrator wanted to say something but the words got stuck in his mouth.
'He is mute,' said Kishra, 'Asher, lord of Bezelaria, stand up.'
He stood up.
'You surely have something to say, don't you?'
After a moment of silence he said,
'My queen, I cannot speak for the others, but I will take any punishment you give me.'
'Even if I flog you before the whole palace?'
'Y…yes, Your Majesty.'
Now Kishra stood up. Everyone else in the hall who was seated did the same, but she motioned them back into their seats.
'There will be no retribution,' she said, moving down the stairs to look Maldab in the eye, 'but try something like this again and I will behead you, Chief Administrator. Do I make myself clear?'
'We appreciate your mercy, Your Majesty,' he made a bow. He was completely gutted and furious with himself. He had been paraded before his own plotters and skinned alive. If he wasn't holding on to the edge of his table, Maldab would have easily lost balance.
'You are the members of the Korah, the runners of this great kingdom,' Kishra was saying to the assembly, 'now I might cut you some slack because of inexperience, but still each one of you is more experienced than I am in matters of governance. Yet, instead of planning the next ten years to make this nation great, you are preoccupied with trivial matters such as Mershak?' she was now standing directly between the first tables of the Korah, 'hasn't it occurred to anyone that the king left the palace to deal with our nation's most immediate and most dangerous threat? That he has called back the forces on the western border to deal with it, leaving us open to a Hone assault?'
'A Hone assault, Your Majesty?' said the administrator for Hur-Ammin, the northern-central district through which K'rar had passed, via its capital Kedesherad.
'The Hones vehemently support the deposed king, do they not?' all the men nodded assent. Kishra carried on, 'so it's not impossible that he has been in communication with them. Their armies could be mobilizing to fight for the boy as we speak. I want a solution on my table by dusk tonight. You will all stay here until you find one. That is your punishment, the lot of you, innocent or not.'
'A military presence…' the Calcol district administrator attempted to say something.
'By solution I didn't mean swords and chariots. The king is already equipped to deal with that. I am talking about a non-military solution to deter Shona from doing anything stupid. Find it, and we can all prevent a costly war.'
Kishra left the throne room through the entrance, and told them to summon her back once they had come up with one. The Royal Forces deputy commander stayed there to keep watch over them with the thirty men, while the rest of the division, with Alain, left with the queen.