Daggeuro sat in the antechamber, casting a curious look over at the frog-like men guarding the throne room doors. They were good men, Walton and Terad, but of all the Royal Guard, they were the least imaginative. Having a conversation with them was a task akin to trying to decide how best to watch grass grow. Daggeuro remained silent as such, waiting to give the King his full report.
Everything about the incident the night before played itself over repeatedly in his mind. He had lost a good man in Harwin, and beyond his stalwart abilities, the man had two pups who would never see their father again. Daggeuro had already handed over the duty of informing Harwin's family, something he used to handle personally. But he couldn't do that in Harwin's case. Daggeuro had been the one responsible for getting Harwin into the Royal Guard in the first place. The man's wife might attack him in her grief.
Finally, the doors of the audience hall opened, and the guards stepped aside. The gotrin Hamiel, the King's new Record Keeper, had inherited the job from his father, who had retired only six months earlier. Like his father, Hamiel wore a traditional butler's attire and powdered white wig, along with white gloves. He was just as officious as his father had been, though younger and with eyes not as cynical to Daggeuro's assessment.
"His majesty King Ovin shall see you now," Hamiel announced. He led Daggeuro into what had once been the manor's formal dining room, the diminutive fairy who was his King hovering over his ornate blackwood throne at the rear of the chamber. Daggeuro approached to within ten yards and knelt down, head bent.
"My Lord King Ovin," he said loudly. "I, Sir Daggeuro, High Knight of thy court, Lord of the Watch, Blademaster of kennin, santo of divars, wielder of Boon and Bane, come to give witness." It had not escaped his notice that five of the kingdom's representatives were standing against the walls. The provinces each elected a representative every ten years or so to come to the capital and legislate on their behalf. All laws still had to be cleared by the King, but Ovin had said long ago that he could not rule alone.
Daggeuro didn't care for them being here, though. It didn't bode well, either, that all five present were men who he'd never gotten on with very well. One of them, Councilman Stahg, a fellin mage specializing in wind magic, had on numerous occasions put forth a proposal to remove Daggeuro from having the potential to become ruler of the kingdom. The cat-man had reasons unknown for this until six years ago, when Daggeuro discovered that he'd been responsible for arresting Stagh's sister on charges of necromancy. King Ovin had outlawed the practice nine-hundred years ago.
King Ovin pressed his aura of peace through the chamber. "Rise, Sir Daggeuro, and give witness. What did you find?"
"Sire, we discovered some kind of specters, the likes of which we have never encountered before. They may not even have been specters, but they were neither faerie nor spirit. Their scent was strange to me."
"Describe your encounter." Daggeuro told the gathered members of the court of their battle, beginning with how the seven knights had followed accounts given them by Rangers in the Jorep Province, men and women who had seen from a distance strange lights and sounds out in the plains. They had camped in a village some five miles from the fields where the activity was heaviest, observing them at night.
There had finally come an evening when all light seemed to be drained away from beyond the village's borders, sealing it in pure darkness. Daggeuro had led his men out of the village, Sir Chorn using mage light to guide them towards the source of the darkness, following strange screams to the trees.
When he got to the part about Harwin, Daggeuro hesitated. "My liege, the chain could not be broken. I struck it with Boon, and was repelled as though I were but a pest. All efforts were to no avail."
"And you saw nothing other than these trees out there," King Ovin asked.
"I didn't think so at the time, my Lordship, but I've had time to meditate on that. I believe the chains wrapped about the tree were binding something to it. I saw a hand, reaching out from the trunk. It was momentary, but I know I saw it." King Ovin raised an eyebrow at this, nodded. "Finally the darkness receded, and the trees were simply gone. They didn't even leave a trace of their power behind."
"Perhaps not one you or your people could detect," Councilman Stagh interrupted haughtily. He sneered at Daggeuro with his arms crossed over his chest. "All power leaves a trail."
"Mayhap the honourable Councilman would like to go south and look for himself," Daggeuro shot back, his voice trembling with raw anger. Stagh took a step back toward the wall, eyes wide. "Or he could keep his tongue in check when he is not the participant in a dialogue."
Stagh lowered his head, properly chastized for the moment. Ah, but he'll come at me again, privately, Daggeuro thought with disdain. Politicians, feh! What a miserable bunch.What do they know of the situation on the ground? There were a few he could tolerate, such as the King, Councilman Falstaff, and Councilman Korek, but they were exceptions to the rule. They put the good of the kingdom first in all things instead of their own personal agendas.
"Sir Daggeuro," the King said, regaining the room. "Allow me to confer with my sages regarding this incident. I shall send a missive to you shortly, hopefully with answers to the many questions we all now have. You are dismissed with honours, sir." Daggeuro rose, saluted, and made his exit. The sages would, no doubt, need several days to do their research into the matter. Until they had answers, he had other duties to tend to, one of which he was not looking forward to.
He had a wedding to help plan.
Kathy zipped the suitcase shut with a grunt, arming sweat from her forehead. "I hate packing," she grumbled.
"You remembered my bowls, didn't you," asked Tigger, lazing on her pillow at the head of the bed. "I detest those ceramic things Lady Barnick had me using last time."
"Don't be picky, and yes, they're in my backpack," she said, giving him a withering glare. "Try not to pee on anything this time too, if you could."
"I explained that," Tigger said, narrowing his eyes at her. "He startled me. Man that size is about to sit on you when you're just waking up from a nap, it's bound to do things to the system."
"If it helps you sleep at night," Kathy said with a shrug. She wore loose blue jeans and a pink and white argyle sweater under the long, hooded green traveling cloak she'd been given by the court during her first trip to the Ether. On her feet was a comfortable pair of low-top black hiking boots, ideal for travel on unpaved roads. Since there were only a few roads paved in all of Ether, they were a prime choice.
She took from a sheath at the small of her back a black dragonbone dagger, which she used to carve a rift in the air with. She had become proficient enough with the tool to carve straight to the Ether, bypassing the layer of reality known as the in-between which acted as both buffer and adherent to the Planes. Through the rift she could see and hear the busy streets of Celia, capital city of Amermidst Kingdom.
She and Tigger strode through, leaving the Motal Plane behind for the time being. The scent of baking bread greeted their arrival, an aroma that pressed like a comfortable, cool pillow against her olfactory sense. "Oh, that's awesome," she sighed.
"Quite nice, yes," Tigger said. They took another deep breath, then adjusted themselves to the flow of foot traffic around them. Creatures of all kinds flitted hither and thither, the street markets enjoying a flush trade on a sunny midday. They picked their way through several crowds, turning down side streets and crossing through alleys until finally they arrived at the home of Selena Barnick.
Kathy was about to knock when she noticed, sitting off to one side of Selena's front steps, several pots with various floral arrangements in them. The pots all had a different number painted on them. "Hmm. Wonder what this all's about." Tigger was sniffing the flowers as she knocked on the door. From inside she heard a guttural shout, and for a moment she thought she might have the wrong house.
A moment later, pounding footsteps, heavy and full of aggression. As Kathy readied herself to apologize to whatever orc or minotaur she'd disrupted, the door flew open inwards, revealing a harried-looking Daggeuro in plain white cotton pants, a blue tunic top with white blade images crossing over the chest, and sandals. He looked somehow crazed, his left eye twitching as his face split in a huge, mad grin.
"Kathy Potts," he exclaimed, arms held wide. "Oh, it's wonderful to see you!" Before she could react, he swept her up in a bonecrushing hug.
"Where's the pod and what did you do with Daggeuro," she grunted.
"It's me and you have got to get in here and help me," he growled under his breath, setting her down. He looked down at his feet, finding Tigger winding in and out of his legs. "Ah, Tigger too. Good to see you again."
"Likewise," Tigger said, returning to Kathy's heel.
"What's going on here," Kathy asked as Daggeuro led her inside the mud room. She began unlacing her boots.
"Well, Selena's having something of a meltdown," Daggeuro said with a sigh. "We're planning our wedding, you see, and-" he said, stopping as Kathy grabbed him by the shoulders and squealed. She golf clapped her hands together rapidly, smiling so wide it exposed most of her teeth. "Yes, well," he began, but Kathy bulldozed past him into the house. He followed right behind, catching up in the kitchen as Selena, dressed in a simple but elegant green house dress, held up her left hand. She and Kathy grabbed one another's hands like two people about to play mercy and squealed in unison, hopping up and down together.
Tigger sat down by Daggeuro's foot. "I'll never understand it either," he mused aloud. The kennin proceeded over, the cat beside him.
"So did he do the whole bended knee thing," Kathy asked, as if Daggeuro wasn't standing right there.
"Oh, Kathy, it was spectacular," Selena said, bustling herself with Kathy over to sit at the kitchen table. Daggeuro said nothing, but busied himself preparing three cups of tea. "First, he took me for a krickaren ride over the plains and Cerik Woods, all the way south to Lake Moheff. And there, on the lake, he had arranged for ten-thousand fairies to cast magelight in the words 'Selena, Will You Marry Me'."
"Awwwww," Kathy cooed, patting Selena's hand. "I never would have thought him capable of such a grand gesture. He doesn't strike me as the romantic type." Daggeuro set down Selena's tea before her, then Kathy's and finally his own on one side between the ladies, as straight-faced as ever.
"I'm full of surprises," he said dryly, sipping his tea like a proper gentleman. The whole affect struck Kathy as oddly cartoonish, something out of a Disney animated feature. "In any event, allow me to ask what brings you on a visit, Lady Potts."
"Oh, yeah, that," she said, somber once more. "Something happened last night, something Ether-related." Daggeuro and Selena sat quietly as she related to them the incident in the office building the previous evening. When she was wrapping up and mentioned the chains, Daggeuro nearly choked on his drink. He wiped his snout with a kerchief hurriedly.
"Describe the chains again, Kathy," he commanded, his eyes glowing orange, his voice oddly twinned. As a member of the Royal Guard, he possessed a power known as the Word of the Knight. While using it, he could detect all falsehoods, and could issue irrefutable commands to those whose willpower was weaker than his own, which was nigh-godlike.
"They were huge links of black iron, and they looked edged," she said, now more worried than before. Daggeuro knew something about the creature she'd seen, had to have, and it clearly made him nervous. "Why?" He then related to her, and for the first time to Selena, the tale he'd told the court earlier that day. When he was finished, Kathy sucked in air through her teeth. "So we probably saw the same critter, or two different but allied things."
"That the incidents are related is hardly in question," he said. "We must call for an emergency hearing with the King." He turned to Selena then. "Can you make sure nobody in the Council hears of this?"
"The staff in the Council Hall still owe me favors," she replied. "Consider it done. Kathy?"
"Yes?"
"Sit with me a minute and catch up while he gets ready. And when you two go, you can leave your bags and Tigger with me." She looked down with a deadly serious expression at the feline. "So long as he can try not to piss on my couch again."
"I'll do my best," he replied.
Kathy sat in one of the entrance chamber's overstuffed chairs across from Daggeuro, tapping her foot. She looked over every now and again, catching one of the frog-man guards grimacing at her. It was akin to American tourists trying to get Beefeaters, the royal guards in Britain with the tall, fuzzy black hats, to crack a smile or talk to them by being a nuisance.
When finally the doors opened, it was an elven guard who let them in. The pair walked briskly up to the throne, where Ovin sat, a plate of finely minced pears next to him on the cushion. He chuckled merrily, his aura of happiness flooding the room. It reminded Kathy of why she adored the diminutive monarch. "My apologies, your audience coincides with one of my only chances to enjoy a snack. Fair welcome once again to thee, Lady Potts, Friend of this court," he said regally.
Kathy curtsied, holding out imaginary skirts. "And I thank you for having me, King Ovin," she said, as practiced. She related to the King the events of the previous evening, after which he sat quietly for a few minutes, ignoring his food.
"This news is grave indeed," he said gravely. "I shall have to relay it to my sages. It may help in their research. For now, take to the company of Sir Daggeuro and his bride-to-be, Lady Barnick. Await my further word. May you both be dismissed with honours." They bowed to him in unison, and exited the manor.
While walking back to the gates which divided the city into inner court and outer city, Kathy couldn't help but notice messengers being steadfastly refused entry into several Council member houses by cleaning staff. These messengers, running the gamut from elf to goblin and several other races between, almost all gave her and Daggeuro looks dripping with venom.
"Any reason they're all so nasty-looking today," she asked.
"Most Council seats are up for election in a few months," Daggeuro said. "Each one is jockeying for information to use in their political schemes back in their home provinces. When they leave to do their last-minute campaigning, this part of the city will be gloriously free of them."
"What about when the elections are over and they come back," Kathy asked.
"Oh, no, it doesn't work like that," Daggeuro said. "I forget that there's so many differences between your country and mine. After elections, the Council is recessed for three months. King Ovin hates it, but it also clears him of their machinations for a time."
Kathy took this in, considering it as the Royal Guard on the inner city gate opened it for them, the huge iron barbican sliding upward. They passed through and returned to Selena's, where the elven woman bombarded Kathy with all manner of questions, seeking help with planning the wedding. It was four months away, but to hear her speak of it, it was only four days.
It turned into an interesting first afternoon back in Amermidst for Kathy.