The Grand Palace of Zadok was a magnificent structure. It sat on 14 acres of land within the walls, except the additional land outside that also belonged to the palace, and housed just over 200 people, including the king and his extended family, many eminent officials and a multitudinous crowd of palace staff as well as the King's Guard or palace guard. It sat on top of a hill, the Palace Hill, in the northwest part of the city, so most of the city was to its east and south. Within its eight-sided wall were many buildings that formed the whole, sharing four courtyards and an exterior orchard. The audience hall was separate from the residence. There was a library, a mini-temple of Ihanga, the armory near the gate, where the King's Guard resided, the dormitories of the staff, the kitchens adjacent to them, a spa, a playground, a repair room where everything between leather and furniture was taken, a maze, the stables, regalia room, a museum, a courthouse near the entrance where residents came to make complaints and requests, etcetera.
King Sargios lived at the palace with his extended family, including his brother Iorgos and a cousin sister, Amira, who had grown up in the palace with her uncle, the king's father, having lost both her parents as a child. Her family estate was also in Allon-var on the shores of the great lake, leased out to a General in the Allon-var unit of the Revolutionary Guard. The Revolutionary Guard was the king's army. King Sargios was father to two sons and two daughters by Queen Myrios. They were Princess Dir-Amme, also called Remi, the eldest, the crown prince Ghita, Princess Shaniz, and the youngest prince Asaon, whom they called Asa. Iorgos' daughter Bekka was the same age as Shaniz. Bekka's mother, who had been older than Iorgos, had succumbed to a bad heart and died when Bekka was eight. Bekka had turned out fine, finding solace with the rest of the royal family, especially Shaniz.
It was now the end of May, and the assembly of the Supreme Council was on schedule for today. But this wasn't one of the three mandatory assemblies. Among other things the king had heard distressing reports from the east about a secessionist, which he had initially ignored, until they had become a constant rumbling that he couldn't ignore. He wanted the governor of Siroh to deliver a full report to the whole Council, especially if it was possible that the Sirohan Satrap, Yath, knew something he was concealing from the king. The king was already sitting in the throne room, revising several scrolls that contained the contents of the day's agenda. At about midday eight of the governors made an appearance, all except the governor of Syene, Chalak, who came in long after the assembly had begun.
'Pardon my tardiness,' he apologized to the assembly when he did come in. An empty seat for him was between the only two women on the Supreme Council, Amphine of Cauda and Yrma of Fimron. Chalak was beginning to regret coming late, which he had done on purpose, because he was terrified of Governess Yrma. Everyone was wary of her. She was tough as a badger, and did not hesitate to show her disapproval of such behavior by rebuking them publicly.
'The matters we are discussing,' said the king to Chalak, 'involve Syene, yet you take your time.'
'A thousand apologies, Your Majesty.'
'Just take your seat,' the king said quickly, 'and tell the council what you have heard about the eastern problem.' This is what the Council was now calling the problem.
'Your Majesty,' said Chalak, 'I spoke to Governor Yath, and he…'
'Governor Yath says there is a growing militia in the east of Siroh, but that they are spreading like an invisible plague along the mountain. I asked you to put an eye out on your border with Siroh, which you haven't done.'
'Your Majesty,' Governess Yrma spoke, and Chalak grimaced, 'it is clear Chalak has something he's sitting on that is preventing him from executing Your Majesty's command. There must be sanctions. Such behavior creates backlash for this Council.'
'Governor Chalak, is it true?' the king asked the man. There was a soft hum of murmurs among the governors, because if Chalak did harbor such a grudge, they knew what it was. And so did the king, who went on, 'Governor Yrma speaks well. If your insubordination is as a result of our family issues, I will ask you only once to not let it get between you and your national duty. This will be your last warning.'
'I will send out a unit as soon as possible, Your Majesty.'
'I still don't know who is responsible for this altercation. Governor Yath, you should up the ante in your investigation. We cannot be too late.'
'Yes, Your Majesty.'
'Now in other news, I have noticed that this palace is a bit monotonous, so I've decided that the family and I will be visiting each of the Provinces, starting June. I would have asked my advisers about how to do this, and if it was good for us, but I think you should tell me.'
Sars the Governor of Et immediately stood up, smiling from ear to ear,
'Your Majesty, you do not need a fortuneteller to tell you whether or not it is good. I think it is an excellent gesture.'
'I agree,' said Heres of Bar'sha.
'As this is a union of many tribes,' Amphine of Cauda said, 'of which you are the supreme leader, I am actually envious that it's not us who recommended this to you. Just give us the schedule for the visits, and we will get ready.'
All the other governors were pleased with this, and king Sargios was delighted.
'The Union Games are coming back to us next year, so the preparations to pick participants will be underway in your provinces. Perhaps I get to see some of those internal preparations.'
When the king was not dealing with matters of state, he was either honing his archery skills or bird hunting in the parks north of the palace walls, where the mighty River Bizkek flowed from under the palace. The king was also fond of his children, including Bekka, so he would also spend considerable time with them. He was a man with a long sight, and this attribute was the root of Governor Chalak's grudge with him. The king's eldest child, princess Remi, had been engaged to Chalak's son by pact, but Remi had had no feelings or interest for him, and had as a result confronted the king about the essence of picking her husband for her. He had agreed that she should have a say in the matter, and had allowed her mother to call off the engagement. Chalak's reputation had been severely harmed by this, although some of his own friends asked him to consider the fact that perhaps his son was not suitable to be husband of any woman, much less the princess, because he was extremely undisciplined. The king was also a good swordsman and a good teacher. He never wasted an opportunity to instill a good word to his successor, crown prince Ghita, or to engage in a mock duel with some of the men on the King's Guard. He was a man who knew the value of a good name, whether it was a personal or national matter.
Because of this he asked Chalak to stay behind after he dismissed the Council, and sat him down with a cup of tea in his office. He wanted to inculcate in the man that the reason for breaking off the engagement was more to do with his daughter's feelings than Chalak's son's reputation.
'You would do the same thing, wouldn't you, Governor Chalak?' he was saying.
'My lord, all due respect, the princess should have expressed her feelings before the engagement was started. That way we could have avoided this monkey business.'
'She was being a good daughter. She was suited with your son because two men and a woman sat in a room and discussed it. Those two men are you and I, and the woman is the queen, as you remember.'
'I do.'
'But she wasn't here. The woman we are giving away in marriage was not there, and we set her life's course before her without her consent. But because we are two powerful men, she must kowtow.'
'Because my son is unruly?'
The king swallowed the hint of disrespect, and said calmly,
'No, Governor Chalak. Because my daughter, and your son, should be able to choose for themselves whom they want to marry. They are not puppets that we should make for them a choice that will alienate them from us. Princess Dir-Amme was engaged for marriage, which is built on love, not on a pact. That said, your chief mandate is to take care of your province to the best of your abilities. Is that clear?'
'Yes, Your Majesty.'
The family of Qallio the metalsmith was a family of five, living in Asprit at the mouth of the River Patma on its eastern side, in Sirohan territory. Qallio had moved all the way here from his home province of Andria because of his wife, who was native Sirohan. Asprit had turned out a good location because it did not hamper his metalsmithing business, and his wife had not gotten accustomed to Andria after many months of staying there due to its cold weather. When she had constantly been under the weather, Qallio had realized it would be better to move, and so it had happened eleven years ago. They had been happy since, and even had two sons, ten year old Krespo and four year old Marvis. Until one Monday evening in April.
Qallio was just finishing a meal of rice, meat and collard greens, his favorite, and his wife Mesarea was with him because she loved watching him eat it. They were in his forge, where he had just finished polishing an ax, which he had resting on his lap. It belonged to a lumber who had hired him to make five of them and deliver them to his home in the neighboring settlement. But Qallio was shy even in front of his wife, so he was saying to her,
'Meal's not as good if you're watching me like a hawk.'
'I disagree. If you don't like it, throw it in the metal soup. Perhaps it will turn into a silver bracelet.' Mesarea said, smiling. Qallio returned a dry smile, and threw another ball of a mixture of the contents of his plate into his large mouth. Qallio was a short, stocky man whose metalsmithing job had made him a muscular stout fellow. He liked working in a vest, so his veined, sweaty arms, which Mesarea thought were sexy, were displayed. He also ate quickly, and he finished the meal in just under five minutes, just before their son Krespo appeared in the entrance to the forge. This was the normal routine, because every other day he would spend most of the day at the school center in Asprit's township, where he and other learners were trained in literacy by scribes. That is why when Qallio suddenly dropped the axe and stood up straight, with his eyes fixed at his son, Mesarea knew something was wrong.
'What the hell happened, Krespo?' were Qallio's words as he raced to the entrance to take a closer look at his son. Krespo was drenched in mud, and his crumpled face indicated that the boy had not rolled in the mud voluntarily. Qallio took a quick glance at the direction where the boy had come from, and having made sure the cause of this wasn't following, yanked the boy inside the forge.
'Krespo, tell us!' Mesarea almost screamed.
'The older boys,' stammered the boy, 'the older boys said I was a pig, and then they…they took me to a…'
'Okay, it is okay,' his mother silenced him with a hug, 'we'll talk about it later. Just go to the tank, and I'll find you there.' The boy did so, and his parents stared at each other.
'What the hell, Qallio.'
'I will find out what happened,' Qallio said, 'the scribes will still be at the synagogue. I'll pay them a visit.'
Qallio went about that task almost immediately. As he intended to visit a friend of his in the town, he would make a detour to the synagogue, part of which formed the learning center, and have a word with the scribes there. His first stop was at his friend's house, one of many houses settled near the river. His friend, Magnac, had helped him secure the home he was now living in, even though it was quite secluded from most of Asprit. Magnac, who was one of the runners of a mine on these ranges of Mt. Shizmin, had also secured for him a steady supply of ore from that mine. Magnac had been a good friend to him, and Qallio loved him like a relative. Magnac reciprocated this affection. He was an adventurous man who loved to associate and study the tribespeople from the other provinces, so when he had met a troubled Qallio in Hannes in transit to Siroh, he had readily offered him a helping hand, and they had begun the lasting friendship that was the reason for Qallio's visit.
Magnac was on the flat roof of his house when Qallio appeared on the path leading up to his compound, so he saw him quickly, and stood up to wave until Qallio saw him. Qallio was not only a friend to Magnac, but also his wife and children. All of the children surrounded him to welcome him in the compound, and he gave each of them a trinket from the bag he was carrying, before climbing the steps to the roof to meet his friend. Magnac had only just returned from Cauda, and the friends hadn't met in nearly three months. They embraced each other, and Qallio said,
'God, you are as dry as Cauda itself.'
'And you, as metallic as your job,' replied Magnac, laughing, 'it's good to see you again, Qallio.'
'Yeah,' the other man said casually. They began talking about so many different things until the subject of Qallio's son's episode came, and distressed Magnac so bad that he offered to go to the synagogue with him for answers. They skipped the cup of tea that Magnac's wife had just brought up to them, and descended together into the compound as the evening turned quickly into dusk. That is when Magnac's mature son, also called Magnac, appeared. The moment he saw Qallio with his father, he just brushed past them with a disdainful look at Qallio. The senior Magnac was clearly unhappy about this, but he ignored it for another time. The walk to the synagogue was short, but not for Qallio, because they met another bunch of men, mostly youth, who were coming from the direction of the mountain, and all of them had the same look that Magnac junior had when they saw him.
'Qallio, something is wrong,' Magnac said to him.
'No shit.'
'Hey, you there!' Magnac wanted to know exactly what was going on so he stopped a group of three of the men. They obliged and stopped. One of them said very disrespectfully,
'What's the matter, old man?'
'What?'
The young man in the center skulked closer to him, wearing a discourteous look. He said, with his hands crossed.
'Not you, ser Magnac. This northerner,' he pointed at Qallio.
'What the hell are you doing kiddo?'
'You'll soon find out. Your northerner will soon find out too.'
And then it became clear to Qallio, and his eyes dilated.
'Shit,' he said, 'Magnac, there is no need to visit the synagogue. Let's go back.'
'What is it, Qallio?' Magnac asked his friend paces later.
'Something bad. Something very bad is brewing up in this place.'