BOOK II OF III: The Reign of the Sultan (33 page)

With an understanding nod, Chelsea said, “As
you know, he was just as much of a problem for the Sharia Empire,
but now this problem has finally been eradicated, Your Majesty. He
was killed in a one-on-one duel with Sultan Baltor Elysian. The
Sultan and his wife now equally rule both the Sharia and the Vaspan
Empire.”

“Most excellent news,” the queen replied. “By
the way, have you had breakfast yet, ambassador?”

Chelsea answered with a smile, “No, I have
not…”

“Would you dine with me for breakfast? I
haven’t even eaten yet.”

“I would be delighted to dine with you, your
Majesty.”

Returning the smile as well a nod to her
head, Calitta rose from her throne. Besides the thirty guards who
accompanied them, the two left the throne room, and headed for the
royal dining hall.

Once there, nearly five minutes later,
servants served a delicious breakfast, consisting of breakfast
meats, hard-boiled eggs, toasted muffins, fresh fruits, and fruit
juices.

Nearing the end of breakfast, in between
taking small bites as well the two sharing a few get-to-know-you
conversations, Calitta finally asked, “So, are you married,
Ambassador Chelsea?”

As soon as Chelsea had swallowed a piece of
spicy sausage, she replied, “Why yes I am. Are you, Queen
Calitta?”

“No, I’m not. Even though I’ve had a lot of
suitors and three fiancées over my life, mostly princes from other
nations, I’ve never married. It is so hard nowadays to find a
suitable man, and most especially, a suitable king for my
kingdom!”

“Really?”

“Unfortunately so. So tell me, what’s your
husband’s name and what does he do?”

“Well, I am married to Ruling-General
Humonus, and he is off fighting a campaign for the Sharia Empire as
we speak.”

“Hmmm, I met a man named Humonus, once upon a
time, when I was a teenaged girl—I think he was about seventeen or
eighteen, but he was no soldier and definitely no ruling
general.”

“Really? What was he like?”

After releasing a deep sigh, Calitta said, “A
dashing hero he was, and from the way he moved and fought, a very
skilled warrior! He literally saved my life from kidnappers who
were holding me for ransom in your city of Pavelus when I was
sixteen, believe it or not.”

“Really?”

Calitta answered with a distant look in her
eyes, “Yes, but other than telling me his name and that he had come
to rescue me, this Humonus spoke nothing about himself, even though
I asked him many-many questions. He always grumbled something to
the effect of, ‘Don’t worry about me, Princess…who I am is not
important…’

“A month later, the second he had dropped me
off back here at the city gates of Politesse, he departed back into
the night, and I’ve never seen him since!”

“Really,” Chelsea responded with a bit of
awe, “in many ways, this man does sound like my husband.”

“Yeah, but there must be dozens of men out
there in the world who bear that name of Humonus,” Calitta
countered. “Perhaps hundreds?”

“Perhaps…”

A few moments later, a distant memory popped
up in Calitta’s mind, so she asked, “Does your husband, by chance,
have a thin scar that runs up and down on the left side of his
cheek?”

“Yes, he does!”

“Whoa,” Calitta said as goose bumps surged up
and down on her arms, “this is the same man.”

“Even though my husband never mentioned your
name before to me, he did mention once that he had rescued a
princess, Queen Calitta,” Chelsea said with a bit of awe at the
coincidence. “I did not know that that princess was you!”

With a smile, Calitta said, “You are by far a
lucky woman, Ambassador Chelsea! He’s a hunk.”

Returning that smile, Chelsea answered,
“Thank you… Actually, if you can’t tell, I’m pregnant with his
child!”

“Wow… I did notice. Congratulations!”

“Thank you so much again, your Majesty.”

Calitta got down to business, and so she
cleared her throat a couple of times before asking, “So, what can
the Kingdom of Thorium do for the Sharia Empire, especially for the
fact that we have been trade partners and friends for quite some
time…and now we are next-door neighbors?”

No longer smiling, Chelsea answered, “The
Sultaness has personally asked me to come here so that we can
discuss and draw up the new borders between our two nations. After
all, she and her husband, Sultan Baltor Elysian, wish to maintain
the trade, the peace, and the friendships between our two
nations.”

“Sounds great,” Calitta sang.

As another important question popped in her
mind, only a moment later, she asked with curious tones, “I must
ask—what happened to Sultan Brishavus Helenus?”

Sounding indifferent, Calitta answered, “He
died several months ago, and his daughter Brishava and her husband
Baltor have inherited the Sharia Empire.”

“I see,” Calitta said. “Well, the Sharia
Empire has always been generous to us, especially as of late, so we
can definitely negotiate everything.”

Chelsea said with happiness, “Excellent!”

Calitta’s right eyebrow rose slightly as she
asked, “If you don’t mind me asking, where is the new Sultan?
Sultan Baltor Elysian.”

“He, just like my husband, is fighting
against a dark and evil army that is spreading out across the world
like a plague; in fact, this army may be knocking upon your own
doorsteps, soon enough. This was yet another important reason for
me coming here, so that I can forewarn you about this looming
threat, so that you can have your forces ready to defend your
nation!”

With concern now etched into her eyes,
Calitta asked, “What warnings do you have about this army?”

After taking a deep breath through just her
nose, Chelsea answered, “I know that it will be hard for you to
digest what I’m about to say, but you must trust me as I am quite
serious. For one, this army knows and uses magic, including their
magical weapons. For two, this army consists of gnomes with black
skin and white hair. And for three, this army is being led by a
giant black dragon!”

Calitta couldn’t help but laugh upon hearing
all of this preposterous news. After all, not one report about any
such mythical creatures existing was ever reported to her before …
gnomes or dragons.

While Calitta laughed, Chelsea added with
pleading tones, “Queen Calitta, you may not believe me now and
think I’m crazy, but all I’m telling you now is the truth, just
like everything else I’ve said since we first met—I swear! Sultan
Baltor’s best friend, King Cheo’s Nation of Chao-chu-sha-maen was
obliterated by these gnomes, with him being the sole survivor.”

Calitta, who had stopped laughing due to the
desperate tones in Chelsea’s voice, replied, “I see. Well, I’m
going to try and take your warnings seriously. I will have my guard
posts triple their normal numbers.”

“Hopefully that will be enough, your
Highness, but like I said before, this gnome army was able to
destroy my Sultan’s friend’s kingdom in one single night,” Chelsea
informed.

After taking another deep breath, she
suggested, “You may need a lot more than just adding the triple
amount of guards to your posts.”

Calitta replied, “Well, I definitely want to
hear more specifics about this army, but I’d like to have
Superior-General Lennick here listening as well, so that he can
devise a strategic plan of defense. He is much better in handling
our national defenses than I am…

“However, he won’t be available until this
afternoon, which is when I’d like you to tell him everything you
know about this army, okay?”

Chelsea answered with a bow, “Well, I’ve
pretty much told you everything I do know—but, as you wish, your
Highness.”

Perhaps five seconds later, Calitta said with
a chipper voice, “Great—in the meantime, shall we get to work with
our new national borders using all of our maps?”

With a bow and a smile, Chelsea answered,
“Yes, we shall.”

For the rest of the morning, both girls
brooded very hard over the map, while discussing all the options
the whole time.

By lunchtime, there obviously was still a
whole lot more work to do, so they moseyed over to the royal dining
hall to eat a nice, healthy lunch of smoked chicken kabobs laid out
on a bed of rice with a side of corn and a fresh garden salad.

As soon as the two were in the process of
finishing eating their last few bites of this most-delicious food,
perhaps twenty minutes later, the two guards stationed outside the
room opened his respective door.

A moment later, Chelsea peripherally observed
a man enter the room—he was dressed in all black attire and looked
to be in his early fifty’s, due to the all the wrinkles etched onto
his face and his thin silvery hair.

Once the man had entered, the exterior guards
closed the doors behind them—there were no interior guards, which
meant there were only three occupants in the room.

Upon closer inspection, Chelsea observed that
this man donned a black cape that draped over a set of black
plate-mail armor. Painted onto the chest plate was the emblem of a
brown, white and gold double-headed lion. She simultaneously
observed that there was no evidence of rank insignias on this man
anywhere, but he was holding his purple-plumed black
helmet-with-visor in the nook of his right elbow.

A few seconds later, after having finished
studying the man, Chelsea then glanced back over at Calitta, and
noticed that the queen was looking at the empty plate before her,
seemingly lost in thought.

After a bow, the man greeted with a deep tone
of voice, “Your Highness, as soon as I received word that you
needed to speak to me, even though I was in the process of
inspecting your troops, I left General Artlett to finish. So, what
can I do for your Majesty?”

Calitta introduced, “Superior-General
Lennick, this is Ambassador Chelsea from the Sharia Empire…and she
brings some important news that you need to hear right away.”

Simultaneously, Chelsea and Lennick greeted
each other with smiles upon their faces, “Nice to meet you.” The
only difference between their sentences were the titles they used
at the end—however, neither person laughed, nor even looked amused,
at the simultaneousness because of the seriousness of the
moment.

Taking her cue, Chelsea relayed all the
information she knew, which only took less than two minutes to
explain. All the while, Lennick listened attentively to everything
she had to say.

Thirty seconds after she had concluded,
Lennick finally sighed aloud, “I see… So what you’re basically
telling me is that there is an army of millions of evil gnomes who
use magic and magical weapons, have a dragon as their leader, and
may be on our doorsteps any day now. Yet you have not one shred of
proof about anything, whatsoever…nor have we heard so much as a
peep of any of what you’ve said. Nothing personal, ambassador, but
it all sounds to me like a grand fairy tale!”

“I can assure you, general, that this is no
fairy tale,” Chelsea countered.

Still with that look of disbelief, Lennick
glanced over at Calitta and asked, “My Queen—what do you believe
and suggest?”

Calitta shrugged her shoulders, just before
she answered, “I don’t know—I suggested to the Ambassador that we
triple the guards at all of our outposts, but she said that it
probably wouldn’t be enough.”

Lennick replied, “Well, here’s my suggestion,
my Queen. I say that we deploy and disperse ten thousand of our
soldiers to patrol our northern and eastern borders, just in case
the ambassador’s information is indeed correct, and should we need
more, we’ll deploy the rest. As you know, my Queen, it will take
our forces a day to prepare and a week to get to the borders.”

As soon as Lennick had finished speaking,
Calitta looked over at Chelsea questioningly.

A few moments later, Chelsea replied, “My
only hope is that ten thousand will be enough.”

Calitta looked back over at Lennick, and then
replied, “Make it twenty thousand.”

After delivering a bow, Lennick said, “As you
wish, your majesty.” He then left the room to execute his
orders.

Three days later, the girls were still
brooding hard over the map in the lounge room. That evening just
before dinner, however, they finally reached a deal they were both
happy with, which entailed that two-thirds of the stolen lands be
returned to Thorium.

Strangely enough, it was just as Calitta and
Chelsea were about to exit the lounge room and head for the dining
hall that they ran across a soldier bearing the rank of lieutenant
on his sleeve.

After a low bow, that guard reported, “My
Queen… You may not believe what I’m to tell you, but I swear on my
honor that it’s true! I’m the only survivor of Outpost Three—all my
comrades are dead…

“The army that attacked us consisted of
strange looking humans—they had black skin, white hair, and very
pointy ears and teeth, had magical weapons, and somehow managed to
surround the ground with black clouds, even though we had posted
lit torches everywhere!

“I only survived the onslaught because I was
in the outhouse and watched the massacre from inside…thankfully
they never searched the outhouse before they left, or I would be
dead”

Chelsea, who was sitting next to Calitta in
the lounge room, gave a knowing look, yet said nothing.

Calitta replied, “Thank you for your report,
Lieutenant.”

She looked at a messenger standing nearby,
and added, “Bring me Superior-General Lennick. I shall inform him
that the Thoriumites are going to ally with the Sharia Empire, and
we will help to decimate this gnome army…”

Approximately ten miles northwest of the city
of Scarthan—3 days later…

On this particular day, Baltor’s army had set
up camp an hour before sunrise—thankfully nothing notable happened
all day long.