K'rar finished studying the layout of the Imperial Palace that he had bought from a peddler early that night. The peddler was an underhanded trader, otherwise K'rar would have had to obtain the layout from a trader who would have reported that someone had bought it. Such was the paranoia of the majesties, owing to their very delicate relations with her immediate neighbors. He readied himself, left his apartment heavily booby trapped, and exited again through the porch. He was headed for the side of the palace perimeter wall that stood on a precipitous rock on the lake. That part would have very few or no guards at all on the battlements, as there was no danger expected to come from it.
He was right. Standing in a concealed tree line on an opposite island, he was looking at the high wall right on the edge of the palace island. The earth under the wall wasn't as high as K'rar had been moved to anticipate, and was actually an easy climb. But between him and the wall was a hundred meters of cold lake water. This didn't daunt K'rar. Once more, his harsh, survivalist training would come in handy. If a Kaffrarian Knight could scale vertical walls, he could certainly swim across here. K'rar stuffed his hooded coat in his leather bag, as well as his shirt and pants, and threw the bag on his shoulders. There was no one here in the dark, so there was no need to drop into the water quietly. The first few meters were shallow, but soon, K'rar had to actually swim a long way, while constantly blowing air out of his mouth because of the frigid water. He eventually returned to shallower water, and waded through this until he scaled the ragged rock. He had kept his clothes dry. He threw them on again quickly, hugged the perimeter wall. It was smooth, and there was no way K'rar would scale it using crevices in the bricks. So K'rar took out from his bag steel spikes for his hands, and then turned his back to the wall. He kicked at it with the heels of his boots, and from the inside of the soles popped two claw-like spikes each. These were specially designed for scaling trees, but could suffice for a wall as well. A reason he had sternly warned Fierlen not to auction his boots.
The wall was over twenty meters high, and it took him some time before he was peeping over the battlements, and then pulling himself upon onto the flat in a crouched posture. He manually retracted the hooks of his boots, whilst scanning both sides of the battlements. Guards were present, but far from him on the wall and on the ground. This was the southeast section of the palace, with nothing but a tree park. K'rar used a hooked rope to drop down, and he had successfully infiltrated the Grand Imperial Palace. He would also exit from here, so he took only a couple of things including a knife, and left the rest hidden behind a bush. He couldn't revise the map in the dark, but he had memorized enough of it, and he knew what part of the palace the princess was likely to be staying. Across the park, he came to the first of many, many buildings of the palace. It likely needed no one stationed there at all times, but there were three guards nonetheless, goofing around. K'rar was watching them from the cover of the trees and the hedge bordering the park. He had to cross the pass between the park and the other side, but it was impossible to do so without being spotted. The aim was to get to the kitchens, whence he would once more move undisturbed on the roofs all the way to his destination. This was the spot that would lead him to the kitchen on the east side of the wall, so he couldn't change course. He had to lay in wait for nearly forty minutes before the idiots completed their board game and dispersed. K'rar crossed quickly. He tucked himself in corners and bushes and concrete structures for ten minutes before he came to the back of kitchens, where a tower faced him. It was an easy climb to the top, and K'rar could now even run across the roofs, jump through windows and scale other roofs, until he arrived at the summit of the main building, and even took some time to look around. The palace was of course spectacular. It was also lit, with torches and lanterns both, along the walls, in the meadows, steps etcetera. In more than a few places there was a pool of water, and K'rar noticed there were more than a few wells too. But the highlight were the numerous stone statues of gaping white sharks, the symbol of the city. These were conspicuous also in the hieroglyphic designs on many walls, as on the city walls.
K'rar now began studying the nearest surrounding, which included moving back and forth along the wide roof, up and over the ridges, in all directions. He decided on dropping down onto the railings of a porch on the fifth, and top, floor, and into the palace interior. The windows were open, and the inside was dark and silent. Either there was a sleeping soul or it was empty. K'rar slid into the room quietly and confirmed the latter. It was a spacious chamber, kept very neat and pristine, and with the scent of newly washed fabric, washed with the aid of a fragrant flower. Now, it was time to make contact. He couldn't locate the princess' chambers without help. This palace was home to 21 nobles including three princes and four princesses, albeit some of them were not of the emperor's nuclear family. And that number didn't include nobles of other vassals who weren't married into the family, for instance the Ariscan prince, who lived here, whether it was temporary or not. The emperor had a wife and many concubines in the harem for his sexual pleasure. Back in Moab, monarchs did engage in illicit sexual relations, but not as officially as this. K'rar thought that perhaps the Scovians were better in that regard because they did not pretend about it. In his Chaldea Palace there was no such arrangement, nor in Xaxanika. Some of these concubines got pregnant and birthed children, and from what K'rar had learned, he could not say for sure whether these children were considered legitimate children or not. Nevertheless, concubines' children were raised in the palace as imperial princes, but without a solid claim to some of the inheritances that accrued to legitimate offspring. Samolla's mother was the empress. She was legitimate.
K'rar checked under the door of these chambers for guards, and when he confirmed there was none, turned the knob quietly and peeped into the halls. He was predating a maidservant, and he found her quickly, straggling toward the corridor he was in with a bunch of clothes in her hands. K'rar stood at the base of the steps. The maid's load occluded her sight, she couldn't see him. He nabbed her, and clapped a left palm on her mouth. She was shaken, and she dropped the clothes as K'rar pinned her to the wall, and shushed her with a finger on his lips.
'Quiet. I won't harm you unless you invite me. Understand?' K'rar said in a loud whisper, and added, 'is someone following you?'
The maid shook her head as best she could, with K'rar's hand still on her mouth. She was of eastern origin, with a short haircut of curly hair.
'Good,' said K'rar, 'I need to find princess Samolla's chambers. And you're going to take me there, hmm?'
The maid nodded. Her eyes were blinking uncontrollably out of sheer fright. K'rar now said,
'If you lead me the wrong way, I'll know. And…' K'rar pulled out his knife and flashed it in her face. He said, 'understand?' she nodded, and K'rar withdrew his hand from her mouth. She said,
'I heard about you. You're the pale-skinned man from the klodiat.'
'Precisely,' said K'rar, 'now where does she sleep?'
'Her Highness is in her chambers. They are guarded.'
K'rar said nothing to her until he frisked her away to the room he had come in from.
'Whose chambers are these?'
'Imperial Consort Ramine,' said the maid, 'Her Highness doesn't sleep here.'
'That's what you just said,' he pushed her inside, 'when does Consort Ramine return?'
'I do not know. She is in the harem with the other imperial concubines.'
'Good,' K'rar forcefully took her to the balcony outside, and said, 'which one is the princess'?'
She pointed to it. K'rar had guessed right about the location of the royal's room. He turned her around again and pinned her to the railings.
'Now, unfortunately, I cannot let you go,' he said to her. She began to whimper, but K'rar said, 'relax. I am not a killer. But I can't trust you to keep your mouth shut.'
She sobered down, and stammered,
'Then, you are not here to kill her?'
K'rar chuckled.
'That would require me to kill you to destroy evidence, and I just said I won't kill you. Now I'll tell you a secret, girl,' K'rar said, though the servant could have been older than him by some years, 'the Ariscan prince. What is his name?'
'His Highness Joronen?' she said. One of K'rar's giants was called Joronen too.
'Right. Well, he's my love rival. The princess and I had a thing going, and he showed up.'
'Is that why Her Highness doesn't like him?'
This fact reinforced K'rar's lie. He said, as smoothly as he could,
'That's right. Now I'm just a commoner, so I couldn't get in and say I was visiting the princess. But I am also a ghost. No walls can keep me out.' He cleared his throat, 'that is my secret. I'm letting you go. If you babble anything, she will know, then I'll know, then I will find you, and I will drop you on the concrete below from the roof. Understood?' he squeezed her tighter with his body, against the guardrail. She nodded. Then K'rar jumped up onto the rail, and helped himself up expertly onto the roof, as the maid watched in horror. She stayed there until K'rar showed up at the above the block where he was headed, and watched him with her hand to her mouth as he scaled the wall, hanging from the eaves, the balcony, the base of the balcony, and so on without any concern for the drop to the bottom.
When K'rar arrived at the princess' third floor verandah, he looked back at the maid, who was still there, watching. He smiled to himself, and then silently dropped into the porch. The princess was present and awake. There was movement within, and the lanterns were lit. K'rar peeped, and couldn't see her although he was certain Samolla was by herself, hidden behind the furniture to K'rar's left when he dropped in through the window. That would be her closet. She was humming a tune. K'rar, from behind the tall closet, peeked at her now. She was sitting on a round bed with scarlet and pink sheets and covers. Over it were opaque drapes pulled open. She was clad in her nightdress, a white, silk one, and was in the process of preparing her hair to sleep. She had more hair than K'rar had seen the last time, because she had released it from the hairpin keeping it pulled back. She was also more staggeringly pretty, since K'rar could now see most of her body.
K'rar waited until she turned her gaze away from this side of the room, before moving in for the finish. He closed up behind her, as she pulled the sheets so as to tuck herself under them, and arrested her as he had done to the maidservant. The scream under his palm on her lips might have shredded it if it could, and the shock that made her fall forward on the bed as too great that K'rar had to fall with her to keep her mouth mummed. So he was lying on her back in an indecent position. He shushed first before turning her over and revealing himself, and then releasing his hand. She didn't scream. So he stood back on his feet, and in the next long minute, both just stared without saying a thing. He broke the silence first, by taking her hand, and kissing it.
'May I sit?'
She nodded. Her large round eyes fit perfectly in her bonce, and above them was a long forehead, with a smooth hairline. K'rar threw his hood back. The princess said, roughly,
'How did you get in here?'
'Two years martial arts training, eight years military training. No walls can keep me out, no fortress I can't break into. Whoever I should be careful about, you tell them to be a hundred times more careful.'
Before she could say anything, a knock came at the door, and K'rar reacted by heading for the window, but she held him back by his cloak, and stood, looking straight in his face with piercing eyes. The knock came again, this time accompanied with a male voice,
'Samolla?'
'One moment,' she yelled back without shifting her gaze from his face. She pulled him into a corner, and said, 'don't go.'
When she turned around to call the knocker in, K'rar smiled to himself. It was a good start. He had wanted to connect with Joronen, but he had landed a princess. Again. From his concealment, he saw that it was Joronen who had paid a visit. He also noticed the princess' attractive hips, something which was more common among the women of this strange land than in his.
'Is it not too early to sleep?' he was saying, but K'rar couldn't see him, as he was standing meters away.
'Yes,' said Samolla, 'but I was going to sleep anyway. What brings you here at this hour?'
Now he came closer to her.
'Shall I not say good night to my future wife?'
'Prince, did you come all this way for that?'
He was smiling at her.
'Remember the pale-skinned fighter who fought three opponents at once?'
'He's hard to forget.'
'Well, Enforcement is looking for him now. He just injured one of my guards.'
'W-what? How?' she was asking for K'rar too, but K'rar knew that if a man had been injured, it was because of the traps he had set up in his lodging.
'I wanted to eliminate him. Remember how he looked at me that night? He asked for it.'
'What do you mean you wanted to eliminate him?'
'He's a threat to my dealings.'
'So you wanted to kill him?'
'What? No! I was just making sure he can't fight again this season. He escaped my men, but he severely injured one, so he helped my cause. He attacked a royal guard, so Enforcement will be after him, and he can't fight, for now.'
'Oh my God, Joronen. So you wanted him to just give up his limbs voluntarily?'
'Princess,' the punk now lost the plastic smile, 'two Hassendrale went to him this evening before my men went in. I know it was your guards. I know you don't like me, but I'm trying to impress you. But I am not sure how, because you would even sabotage my dealings. Do you hate me that much?'
The princess had more than a few retorts but she couldn't choose which one to employ in response to this.
'Your dealings? How much money will a few fights cost you, who has a royal inheritance? You would maim an innocent man just for that?'
'Why not? You sound concerned for him. Since when did you care that much about commoners?'
'What? How…'
'Is it because he is exotic?'
'Uh, maybe that's why. You know what? I just hated our union before. Now I just hate you, prince. Leave me alone.'
'Goodness, why are you being immature about this? Girls younger than you would understand. It's not like our families haven't done worse. Your father has sanctioned the beheadings of entire families, important families. But you are concerned about one strange chap?'
'Well, I am not my father. Perhaps I should tell him what you're blabbering so he can behead you too.'
'You are unbelievable, Your Highness. Your Highness.'
'And you're a murderer.'
'It's the wicked way of our world. We must keep commoners in their place, especially those standing in our way. I am to be king of Arisque soon. I want a queen who understands that.'
'Then I rather marry a commoner,' she raised her voice, 'just…just go now. If you don't mind, I want to sleep now.'
He took a disgusted glance at her, and turned away. K'rar didn't come out of hiding until he heard the door close. Samolla looked up at him with an embarrassed look.
'Did you come here to rub it in my face that you can defend yourself?' she was stern.
'Why say that?'
'You injured a man. So you came here to tell me you didn't need my warning?'
K'rar laughed at this point of view,
'I can defend myself, yes. But I do appreciate your warning, princess. And, I didn't injure that man.'
'What?'
'As I said, I have combat training of more than twelve years. So I set up booby traps in my apartment after your warning, and your beloved prince's man was just the unlucky victim. If there was no warning, I am not sure the man would be alive after he tried to kill me.'
She looked at him silently for some time, before saying,
'The prince will stop at nothing to harm you. I'll help you.'
'Don't do that. He will be your husband.'
'I insist. I don't care he will be my husband. I would do anything to stop the engagement.'
'I am still going to go out and into the teeth of the tiger. You must not worry about me.'
'I already worried about you. Remember I sent you my own guards to warn you. I can get Enforcement off your back.'
'Speaking of that. Why did you worry about me? He's right, I am just a guy.' K'rar purposely avoided calling himself a commoner, 'you cannot stop all the deaths royals sanction.'
'No, but he's no royal. He is just an imperious quack, thinking he can kill people for sport. Contrary to belief, royals do not do that.' She was blunt when K'rar expected her to be bitter about his slur on her family. She added, 'and he was right also when he said it was because you're exotic. And now you're here, so you can tell me.'
'I have to go, princess.'
'I am giving you a command. Stay, and when I stop the manhunt on for you now, you may go. I do not even know your name, yet you burgled into the Imperial Palace, and into my chambers,' her eyes widened, and she gasped, 'did you see my…'
'No, princess. You were already dressed when I came. And my name is K'rar von Caspar. Thing is, I have nowhere to sleep.'
'This is a large place.'
'Your chambers?'
'The palace, idiot.'
'The way I see it, princess, the city has far fewer people who will slit my throat or throw me in a dungeon.'
'Are you so eager to go after you infiltrated the most secure place in this land to see me?'
K'rar smiled,
'Are you so eager for me to stay?'
'Yes. You stay here. I will get you a room. You cannot fight in the klodiat anymore, and the whole Enforcement Unit will be out hunting you like an animal. But if you stay here, you will be safe.'
'For how long? I will be confined in a room. I do not like to be confined.'
'Just tomorrow, I'll have the investigations stopped.'
'That is too long, princess.'
'K'rar von Caspar. You came here of your own volition, so I can keep you as long as I like.' She was standing up close to him too.
'I'll simply escape.'
'Don't make me do this, Caspar.'
'von Caspar, princess. Don't make you do what?'
'I'll scream. Uninvited guest, in a room with the princess in her night dress, standing less than a foot from her. You know how much trouble you'll be in, even though you can escape?'
K'rar raised his brows,
'Fine, princess. I'll stay. But while I wait, what will I do?'
'Plenty of time for you to show me reason why I helped you. It was because of your looks alright, but I want to know more. So you sit on this stool,' there was a stool just behind K'rar, 'and you tell me.'
'A bedtime story. Wow princess, you're stylish.'
'Sit.'
He sat.
'Before I tell you about me…'
'I won't tell you about me,' she said quickly, 'until I know what kind of person has the audacity to make an unscheduled visit to an imperial princess.'
'Fine, but I was not going to ask about that. What I want to know is about your city at large. When I first came there was a large army presence all over the ramparts. Why is this?'
'If you wanted to discuss politics with me you should have not come at all,' she was cross.
'Okay, okay. I came from a place called Xaxanika, and before that I was in Korazin, my home country.'
'I don't know any places with those names.'
'That's right. They are not on your continent.'
'What? What do you mean?'
K'rar explained summarily, in a couple of sentences only, about the locations of Korazin and Xaxanika relative to the location of this massive continent.
'So you're saying there are more lands out there?'
'Indeed.'
'But that's…that's incredible.'
It was no longer incredible to K'rar now.
'Once I return to my land, I will surely connect these lands, and perhaps I will write to you in Arisque.'
'How? How did you cross the waters? You said you spent many days on the water. You did this on a boat?'
San Vilgraek did have ships other than the boats the common merchants used to navigate through the islands, but like Xaxanika, those ships were not equipped to travel for even one day in the open sea.
'Within a month, maybe more, you will see.'
She just raised her eyebrows, indicating he ought to elaborate without having to draw the question out of her.
'Do you have a stylus, and a paper?'
She obtained these things immediately and handed them over. K'rar shifted to her bed, and began to draw the image of a Stinger. He did not consider himself artistic, but he was, and after about four quiet minutes, Samolla was looking at an excellent illustration of both a Stinger and a Behemoth.
'This is a Stinger, and this is a Behemoth. Seven weeks ago, I was preparing to leave Xaxanika and return to my kingdom with 81 of them and 37,000 knights,' K'rar had 80 steam warships, and these are the ones that would come, but he had included the BH Pioneer, which had been maintained as a sailing ship, 'but I took a detour with only one of them and a few men, and landed in Tshekaland, your colony. That's when your marauders kidnapped me and brought me here. But my knights, the whole lot of them, should now be sailing across these waters, coming to fetch me. They would have learned that San Vilgraek is a walled, defended city. They also know that they will destroy your city if I have been killed by the time they come.'
The young lady was not sure how to react to this information. She had a lot of questions, and she knew that K'rar had not just conjured up a story. He had no reason to do so.
'You are their leader?'
'Commandant, to be precise. Now, I know there is something brewing in this land, something political. Princess, use the information I just gave you wisely.' K'rar had kept his ears open in the city. A rumor that some belligerent neighbors of San Vilgraek were gearing up for war was gathering pace.
While Samolla mulled over the information she had just received, her chamber doors suddenly opened, and in walked Tahpenes, her mother, flanked by two guards, and then two of her siblings, and then about two others including the maid whom K'rar had contacted, and the princess' own guards. There was not a snowball's chance in hell for K'rar to hide anywhere. The Empress and those with her were riveted to the spot. There were gasps here and there, as two guards immediately drew their swords, but because K'rar hadn't caused any shocking thing, the Empress impeded them with a hand, and said, bamboozled,
'Samolla, what is happening?' she then said to K'rar, 'who in Sangorak's name are you?'
'Mother, he's not an assassin.'
'I can see that, girl, but he is armed nonetheless. How did he come here? Did he come through the main gate? Guards,' she spat at Samolla's guards, 'did you allow that into my daughter's private chambers?'
'Impossible, Imperial Majesty. It is only prince Joronen walked through this door and left. He can bear witness to this.'
'I invited him when I sent them on an errand for me,' Samolla babbled.
'Like that matters! There is a man with you in your chambers at this time. I thought you were in danger, but you are in your sleeping dress and standing next to him. What am I supposed to think, daughter? Guards, take that thing to the dungeons.'
K'rar was in real trouble now. His daredevil antics had backfired. There was no way he was jumping out of this hole, and no amount of the princess' defense of him would sway the Empress' mind.
'Stay back!' the princess snapped at the approaching guards, 'I said he's my guest.' The men stopped, waiting for her mother to reconfirm her order because the daughter's order was valid, and they had to obey. Samolla went on, 'I am not doing anything unbecoming. This man means no harm. He might even…' but no one would believe any of the talk K'rar had just told her, so K'rar did not hold it against her that she held back her words.
'Imperial Majesty,' another guard showed up. He was carrying K'rar's bag of infiltration tools. He was holding one of them, the spikes, in his hand out of the bag.
'Take him!' the empress ordered once more, and now all that was left to the princess was to reassure K'rar,
'I'll deal with this. Don't you worry…'
'No, I'll deal with this. You just tell them I didn't kill that man in my lodging.'
They took his knife and his other tools, which they showed to the Empress. As they led him away past her, she impeded them, to take a good look at K'rar. He took that chance to say,
'Before you ask me what part of the realm I hail from, it is none. I came from very, very far away, from another continent. Samolla can explain.'
'And what continent is that?' she clearly thought he was goofing around to stall his fate, but from the look on his face, he was dead serious. The empress added, 'did you come from all that way to defile my daughter's marriage bed?'
'Your Majesty, I…'
'Your Imperial Majesty.'
'Your Imperial Majesty, I would not try something that audacious, certainly not from this place.'
'Then why did you intrude? How did you get past the Hassendrale? My walls and my halls?'
'Every fortress has a weak spot. For this palace, it is the southeast of the perimeter. It is lightly guarded.'
The empress grimaced at the obnoxity of the remark, just when her daughter waved K'rar's drawings in her face,
'Mother, look at this.'
'What is it?'
Samolla pulled her mother aside to speak privately, and ordered her men to wait before they took K'rar away. Empress Tahpenes had an ice cold look on her face as she listened to her relate the matters that K'rar had just narrated. She, like her daughter, had neither a reason to believe it nor to dismiss it. She said after a long pause,
'Leave us.' This was directed to everyone but K'rar. They all scuttled away, except Samolla. The empress said to K'rar, 'is this all true?'
'It is. You know it is,' said K'rar, 'and you know that I can be on your side, your Imperial Majesty.'
'Metal-hulled ships and 37,000 men?' remarked the majesty, 'if you're lying, there will be severe consequences. I will verify this. But if you are truthful, I will forget tonight's affront.'
'Fierlen, Montien and Gulen,' said K'rar, 'the Tango captains in my caravan.'
'You will sleep here tonight, and by morning I will verify that,' she said, 'guards!' they rushed in, 'take him to the dungeons.'
'The dungeons?'
'Well, I haven't verified anything. Except your intrusion. You expected me to give you pillows and a band welcome?'
K'rar rolled his eyes, but conceded. The guards took him outside the main building, went past three others down the hill, and near their armory, handed him to the Hassendrale in charge of the dungeons. He had obviously caused a real shock because the whole Hassendrale, 120 trained guards, were in a panic in the compounds, and many palace residents came out of their halls to see the assassin who had infiltrated the safest place in the land, a description of the Imperial Palace that K'rar had heard three times already. The guards manhandled him down the dark alley, purposely to alleviate the aggravation K'rar had committed against them by punching holes in their job. The empress had already hollered at their leader for this.
The cells in the palace underground might have been worse than regular prison cells. They were just caverns carved out of rock and enclosed with iron bars. There were just three large cells, and K'rar was stuffed in an empty one. However, they did not have his attire changed to the yellow that the other prisoners, just two of them, were wearing. They also took just his leather belt, but not his boots and armguards, which K'rar smiled for, because he knew it was a mistake. In front of the cells was a space obviously meant for interrogation. The congealed blood stains in uneven patterns on the stone floor were evidence of the not-so-pleasant activity that went on in that area.
It was not long before the princess came down to see him. She was followed by the maidservant whom K'rar wanted to beat black and blue. When Samolla sent the guards on watch away from the cell, K'rar stormed to the bars and pointed in the maid's face,
'I promised to throw you off the roof,' he said. The maid was very frightened even though K'rar was in no position to carry out this threat. She apologetically said,
'I swear on my father's grave, I did not say anything. The Hassendrale were informed by someone who saw you climb over the wall from across the lake. I only said you came to the princess' chambers. Please, you have to believe me.'
'That's enough, Eona. Go back up,' the princess dismissed her, and she scuttled away. Samolla the said, 'forgive my mother. She is the one who arranged my union with Joronen, so she's angry.'
'No shit,' said K'rar.
'I can't get you out, but I'll have them bring you a mattress and the pillows my mother denied you. My father will be furious at what you did.'
'Your father has nothing better to do that to deal with this small matter?'
'You are not a small matter. No man has ever breached the palace walls. Everyone in this palace wants to see the first person who did so. An alien resident at that.'
'And your father will just applaud me for it? From the little I've heard from you and your prince, he'll be the one to have me beheaded.'
'No one will behead you, K'rar. Not after what my mother now knows. But she will not tell my father until she can verify what you said, especially the military part.'
'Don't worry about that. I'll be gone by morning. Remember I told you, I can't be kept out of any fortresses. Nor be kept in a prison.'
The princess was amazed, but she frowned at him. She said sternly,
'No, don't do that. I know you are trained and all that but you don't have to constantly demonstrate it. If there is any chance that you can be useful to my father, to the empire, you will be out of here and eating at the same table with him. I need you to exercise some patience.'
K'rar was a bit shocked at this tirade, but she was right.
'Okay, okay. I'll stay in prison, Your Highness.'
Now they just stood there, looking at each other again. K'rar had a familiar feeling in his insides, an overwhelming feeling that could have shown on his face. He had to speak to avoid it,
'Will you remain there all night?'
'You said you were returning to your kingdom with your knights?'
'Yes.' K'rar replied.
'So, are you mercenaries then?'
'Mercenaries?'
'Yeah, mercenaries. Hired soldiers,'
'Oh, no. We're not hired soldiers.'
'Then, you are soldiers of your nation?'
The knights were the prospective Korazin Army, a special division of it at least, but K'rar had never really harbored the thought for more than a few minutes. But as of that moment, they were neither mercenaries nor the Korazin Army. So he said,
'Neither.'
'Neither?'
'I'll explain, when the time comes.'
Later in the night, K'rar was paid a visit by the Ariscan prince, along with one of the imperial princes. The former had with him K'rar's Nephilim frosteel sword. K'rar's eyes went red with rage, and he spat at him,
'So, you didn't just break into my home to break my bones. You are also a fucking thief.'
'Are you not the thief?' the punk said, 'how does a mere commoner like you have a sword like this. You stole it!'
K'rar scoffed in disbelief,
'How childish,' he said.
'How the hell did you get into the palace?' the Imperial Highness, Rejiales, said, 'I was expecting to see an old, experienced man. You're not even my age.' He was thirty years old, and Joronen was one year his senior.
'Sometimes, age is no more than a value,' said K'rar. He then turned back to Joronen, 'this won't end well, vassal. You are making a mistake antagonizing me.'
'Huh,' grunted Joronen, 'only a fool makes threats he is not prepared to carry out. What will you do from your cozy cell?'
K'rar's words were stuck in his mouth, so he just clenched his teeth at him, and retreated from the bars. Joronen went on with his insults,
'In the end, I get to eliminate you legally. You're an intruder of the securest place in…'
'Ah, a fucking child can breach your walls. Why do you live under that illusion?' he was sitting on a raised stone bed on the opposite wall, on which was a very thin layer of naked straw. The Imperial Highness said,
'Tomorrow, you will show me how you came in. I want to try it too.'
'I didn't learn it overnight,' K'rar said.
'But you'll show me anyway. I'm not asking.'
K'rar saw Samolla once more before she returned first thing in the morning and found him slumbering on the mattress, which he had placed on the ground.
'Wake up outlander,' she was knocking against the metal.
K'rar yawned himself to life.
'Wow, I thought everyone else wanted to see me too,' he said.
'They do. My mother has summoned you again. She's with two Generals. They want to see if you really are a military man as you say.'
'I hope you don't mean by fighting. I have already shown that in the pits haven't I?'
'Well let's go find out.'
Empress Tahpenes had chosen a patio near the center of the palace, raised on the edge of a clear pond. K'rar could see a school of exotic, colorful fish under the surface as he walked past a stone landing over the water and into the patio. Samolla seemed reluctant to follow him, having stopped at the opposite end, but she eventually decided to join the party.
The empress had two men in blue and orange armor with her, a General and his lieutenant. From their likeness, K'rar figured rightly that they were father and son. The father wore a large beard with two braids sticking out of it, while the son donned a short haircut and a clean shaved chin. He was about 30 years old. The table before them had breakfast items for only one person. The General gestured for him to sit down, saying,
'So you are the one. Sit down and have some breakfast.'
K'rar bowed down to them all and threw them a greeting. He said,
'Thank you, sir. Where is your tea?'
'We eat early,' said the son.
'Okay,' K'rar shrugged, but he refrained from touching the tea for now, 'what do you mean I am the one?'
'The one feeding the Empress children's stories.'
K'rar had not expected that. He scanned each of their faces, ending with the empress, who remained quiet and indifferent,
'Wow, that's not what I expected. I thought the Empress believed me.'
'I said I will verify it,' the Empress defended.
'Verify what, Empress? My navy is a long way away.'
The Empress curled up a lip.
'I did verify that you were taken from a colony in the far west.'
'Oh,' K'rar said, 'that's good news. So you believe me.'
'That's only one part of your story.'
'Then what's all this about?'
The lieutenant leaned forward,
'Listen good, outlander. The Scovian Empire has more serious matters to deal with than this silly game you dare to swing by the Empress.'
K'rar raised his brows, frowned and raised his brows again in confusion.
'Pardon my indelicacy, but if you did not consider that I might be telling the truth, why am I here?'
'Because,' the General's deep voice gave away his indignation, 'you are also not a mere joker. You are also obviously not an assassin, not a Herphemian agent. What's bothering me is we can't get a handle on what you are, since you couldn't have done what you did without a serious intention.'
'I thought this was an interview to make certain that I am what I say I am.'
'Oh we know you're a soldier. There's no doubt at all on that part. But since you are not an eastern soldier,' the General suddenly rose from his seat, throwing himself in K'rar's direction, and lifting him by the frocks of his long coat to pin him against a pillar, 'you must be a western one! Speak, Havelan! What is your purpose?'
K'rar did not fight back. He remained calm instead, his hands up in surrender.
'What I told you is the truth, General. I am Commandant of an army that is not from this continent. It will show up on your doorstep, you just have to be patient. And when it does, I am willing to help you in your impending disturbance with the Herphemians.'
'Why?' the empress cut in. K'rar was still pinned, 'why do you want to help us? Who told you we had a problem with the Herphemians?'
'Second question's pretty easy. All your subjects know it's only a matter of time before your enemies show up. And I know they are a great crowd. You'll need help, which I am offering, for a price of course.'
'So you're a mercenary?' the General had still not let him go, 'what a way to ask for the job, eh?'
'Come on General,' K'rar said. The General released him now, 'it was by chance, as you know. Now, as I think you can see from the color of my skin, I am not Havelan or Herphemian or none of it. I am who I say I am. If I'm lying, then my ships won't come, and you can do as you like to me. But if they come now and you have done something to me, the Herphemians will be the least of your problems.'
'The Scovian Empire is not afraid of an enemy we do not know.'
'Now who said the Kaffrarian Knights are your enemy, lieutenant? Do they have to be?'