BOOK II OF III: The Reign of the Sultan (51 page)

After many more fond farewells became
exchanged, Baltor teleported Yaush, Jimnee, and the remainder of
the Valakanese back to their home. Once there, he and his wife
stayed in Valakan for an additional two weeks, before going back
home.

The very day after their return to Pavelus,
Jamar revealed the information to the Sultan and the Sultaness that
the fifty-foot-tall bronze statue of Humonus was finished in the
Town Square; ready to be unveiled two hours after sunset. Following
the unveiling, there would be a small commemoration party.

On this day, Baltor and Brishava went to bed
and slept together. That evening, while eating dinner in the royal
dining hall by themselves, the guards opened up the door, and in
walked Darius and Traes.

Both men had a very proud smile on his face.
Darius began, “Guess what, my Sultan and Sultaness?”

Traes continued, “Leshava has just produced
seven eggs!”

Darius added, “We should expect the
hatchlings in twenty-eight to thirty-five days!”

“Most excellent news,” Brishava exclaimed
happily. “Are either of you gentlemen hungry? There’s still plenty
to eat.”

“Sure,” both Darius and Traes answered. With
that, servants brought in two more chairs, and together, they all
shared a very nice dinner.

For the next month or so to pass, both Baltor
and Brishava remained unbelievably busy with domestic and foreign
affairs in their empire—still, despite these hectic times, she soon
after began to notice that Cheo and Chelsea were hanging out with
each other more and more often!

Of course, Brishava privately mentioned this
trivia to Baltor in their bedroom, but Baltor nonchalantly replied
that very few people, other than the remaining Chao-chu-sha-maen
villagers living in one single lavish home in Pavelus, knew the
sign language. Each villager had been offered his or her own place,
but they preferred to live together.

Three non-exciting weeks later, Chelsea
finally began to experience labor pains during dinner she shared
just with Brishava—Baltor, Cheo, and Cheo’s people were “out on the
town!”

After a messenger was sent to retrieve at
least Baltor and Cheo, Brishava and her handmaidens assisted with
Chelsea in delivering the baby in Chelsea’s bedroom.

Once the two men had returned, as well all
the other villagers, they all excitedly waited in the hallway.

It was then that Baltor turned to his friend
and asked with a little smile, “I’m just curious, but is something
going on between you and Chelsea?”

With a slightly strange look upon his face,
Cheo signed, “What do you mean?”

Baltor answered, “Well, Brishava mentioned to
me several weeks ago that the two of you were hanging out more and
more often, yet only now am I really curious if there is something
going on between the two of you.”

“Well, she and I like each other very much,
but there’s been no talk of a romantic relationship, if that’s what
you mean,” Cheo answered with an innocent smile.

“I see,” Baltor said. He said nothing more
about it.

Instead, “casual conversation” occurred
between the large group of friends ... until, about two hours
later, the sounds of a baby crying erupted in the bedroom.

A moment later, the interior guards opened
the doors, and Brishava called from within, “Come on in guys—it’s a
beautiful baby boy!”

As Baltor and Cheo excitedly ran into the
room, as well everyone else, they heard Brishava ask, “What are you
going to name him?”

Though Chelsea looked extremely exhausted,
she breathed out, “Humonus Jr.!”

Right away, more servants came in bearing
cigars—but anyone that wanted to smoke had to go back out in the
hallway, per the handmaidens’ orders.

A month later, during the course of dinner,
which Baltor and Brishava shared with Cheo and Chelsea, the latter
two delivered the “official word” that they were now engaged to be
married in a year’s time. Of course, the first two offered their
support and blessings, Brishava even offering to help pay for all
the expensive wedding costs.

And so, after a hectic-but-successful-year
for the empire, Chelsea and Cheo became married. Right away they
departed on their honeymoon to a secluded cabin in the mountains of
Thorium. Though Humonus Jr. remained behind in Pavelus, he was
always under the protective and loving care of Baltor or
Brishava.

After the newlyweds had returned from the
honeymoon two months later, Baltor teleported them, Humonus Jr.,
the masons, the soldiers, and the remainder of the tribe back home,
but this time much closer to the eastern sea called Prolusina.

Two weeks later, Baltor and Brishava returned
for home…

Nearly a decade passed, and peace and
prosperity continued to prevail throughout the lands of the Sharia
Empire, spreading from one side of the continent to the other. Only
a few other small-to-midsized countries remained on this
continent.

Throughout all these years, Baltor and/or
Brishava, teleported often to all of their cities, and most
especially to Chao-chu-sha-maen, which was fast becoming a
successful trade city that had fortifications similar to
Mauritia—portable thirty-foot-tall blocks of stone that surrounded
the inland city shaped like a circle.

To date, there were more than six thousand
people who had immigrated there from other cities, lands, and
continents, and became citizens.

Moreover, only six months prior, Chelsea and
Cheo just had their own first child—a baby girl named Rhea. Her
half-brother, Humonus Jr., was ten years old and remarkably looked
and acted just like his father! Baltor, of course, promised Jr.
that when the boy turned twelve, he would teach the martial arts he
had learned from Jr.’s father.

Additionally, by this time, Yaush and Jimnee
had two boys of their own—their oldest boy named Thar was eight
years old, and he had blonde hair and blue eyes. The younger boy’s
name was Rex—he was six years old with flaming-red hair.

Yet, despite all the progress in the Sharia
Empire, problems slowly began to develop between Baltor and
Brishava—mainly because she hadn’t gotten pregnant, despite all
their best efforts that happened almost every day.

Brishava was increasingly becoming distraught
over this fact, though she always bit her tongue and never spoke
about what was really bothering her—she really-really wanted her
own child and an heir to the throne! Most likely because of this,
Brishava was increasingly becoming upset about the way that Baltor
just “casually ruled.”

After all, Brishava was all about dotting the
“i” and crossing the “t” with absolutely everything, while Baltor
didn’t seem very concerned with politics at all anymore.

On the contrary, he preferred to spend his
focus and time upon the training and the progress of the
army—regular, shadow forces, and knights—or reading all the books
he could find upon the subject of magic, which information nearly
always proved false.

Baltor had, only two years earlier, developed
two dozen permanent magical teleportation mirrors, which was what
allowed them all to instantly teleport supplies, troops, and/or
themselves between their cities.

Teleportation mirrors had also been
distributed out not only between all their cities, yet between all
friendly nations, including the Kingdom of Thorium and Valakan.

One particular night just after sunset,
Baltor awoke to see Brishava sitting at the edge of the bed—the
look on her face clearly revealed that she was pissed!

With a concerned look in his eyes, Baltor sat
up in bed while asking, “What’s the matter, honey?”

Brishava cast “the look” over to Baltor,
before asking, “You want to know what the matter is? You didn’t
write that new trading contract I asked you to do yesterday, did
you? ”

Baltor nonchalantly replied with a shrug of
his shoulders, “No—I got tied up with the army all night long,
honey. I’ll do it tonight!”

“I figured as I looked around for it
everywhere, but couldn’t find it anywhere. I need it in an hour! At
that time, merchants from all over the world will be assembled in
the throne room, and they will need to not only to listen to our
proposed tax law, but to sign upon the official document if they
want to do business in the Sharia Empire!” Brishava exclaimed.

“If it’s so important, why didn’t you do it
today?” Baltor asked.

“Because…” Brishava seethed out angrily,
“like I told you yesterday, I had to tend to political diplomacies
all day long today with the Ambassador to Larius to ensure the
peace between our two countries! That is why I asked you to do it
for me.”

Baltor casually said, “Fine—I’ll start right
now.”

“Even if you start now, you’re not going to
be able to have it looking official and proper by the time they
arrive,” Brishava snapped.

For the first time in a very long time,
Baltor’s face contorted angrily. Pointing a finger menacingly at
Brishava, he was about to say something nasty, but changed his
mind.

Instead, he got out of bed, and sighed, “Get
me Jamar—he’ll help me make the contract, and make it look official
and proper by the time they arrive, okay, Hun?”

“Fine—but from here on out, when I ask you to
do something and you agree to it, you better do it! After all, what
kind of a Sultan will you look like to our people if you can’t
produce your words?” Brishava asked.

Baltor’s face once again contorted to that of
anger—this time he did not hold back as he yelled, “What the hell
does this have to do with our people? This matter is between me and
you!”

After Brishava had stood up, she exclaimed,
“Everything—you and I are the figureheads to the Sharia Empire!
When you and I don’t have effective communication, the Empire does
not have effective communication!”

Baltor yelled, “Just get me Jamar and shut
the hell up!”

Angrily, Brishava stormed out of the
room.

Fifteen minutes later, Jamar arrived in the
room with parchment. He immediately noticed that Baltor was still
in his sleeping robes, and still looking quite upset—just like his
Sultaness had only minutes earlier.

After nervously clearing his throat, Jamar
sat at the desk, picked up a feather pen, dipped it into the ink,
cleared his throat yet again, and then asked, “Are you ready, my
Sultan?”

“Yes. Okay, write this,” Baltor said, just
before he spoke the edict—Jamar wrote it. Fifty minutes later,
after Jamar read it aloud, the edict was finished.

Baltor then ordered, “Jamar, the Sultaness
should now be in the throne room with the merchants. Please deliver
the edict to her. As you can clearly see, I’m not dressed for the
occasion.”

After delivering a low bow, Jamar said, “Yes,
my Sultan.” He then exited the room.

Baltor took a nice bath, dried off, dressed
into his undergarments, and then called out, “Assistants, dress me
in my battle attire.”

The servants came in, and did so.

Once completed, and the assistants had left,
Baltor donned the black cape, moved the drapes to the side, nodded
to the two guards posted on the balcony, hopped off, stealthily
departed the palace grounds while climbing over the eighty-foot
high wall, and headed over to the Shadow Forces Guild. For most of
the night, he oversaw training.

Arriving back at the palace approximately a
half hour before sunrise, he stealthily arrived back into his royal
bedroom, squeezed between the very thick curtain and the wall, and
observed that Brishava was sleeping in bed. After he had released
the straps holding his armor in place, he quietly set the armor
onto the floor, walked over to bed, climbed in, and went straight
to sleep.

The next day, just nearing two in the
afternoon, Baltor had been blissfully sleeping away in his royal
bedchambers, as usual; that is, until
something
forced him
to wake up, though he did not know what that
something
was!
In fact, this was the very first time he had woken up before sunset
… ever since having become a vompareus.

Because it was daytime, he felt much weaker
than normal. Still, as he always relied more upon his skill, speed,
and dexterity than upon any power, he tiptoed to the part of the
wall where he knew his swords were stored in their sheaths during
his sleeping hours.

After drawing the swords, his body set itself
into a position of defense, while his mind attempted to ascertain
what his instincts had just set into motion.

From somewhere within the pitch-black
chamber, a voice whispered only a second later, “My, you are as
quick as they say—though a little too slow. I could have killed you
already.”

Baltor immediately twisted his body around,
until he and his swords faced the direction where the voice
generated.

It was only then that he realized that what
had awoken him from slumber was a slight stinging sensation across
his neck—though he no longer felt any pain at all!

‘Was I cut?’ Baltor thought to himself with a
bit of shock, as he cautiously checked his throat with the back of
his sword-bearing fist.

Even though there was no longer any evidence
of blood or pain, he still wondered for a moment if this
unscheduled visitor had actually cut his throat!

Before the next moment had even passed,
Baltor realized that he or she must not only be very good to have
been able to slip past all the defenses of the guarded palace,
perhaps even the guards posted outside on the balcony, but
extremely good to have been able to slip past his own personal
defenses.

He therefore decided, as the palace guards
couldn’t stop her, he would handle the matter himself, and so he
rose to his feet standing in his bed.

In order to learn the current position of his
visitor’s whereabouts from where he was, he growled in a low tone
of voice, “Who are you?”