"No, milord. His appet.i.te returns but he still has pains when he moves."
Brolle lead him out of the palace and down the main road to Duke"s residence. Hard to believe it has only been three weeks since I walked this very path with guards at my back to order Duke to the palace. Now I give the orders and Duke is a trusted friend. Duke"s guards opened the residence"s gate on cue so that he didn"t have to break stride.
The courtyard was a very busy place. Two new hay carts had been shined and polished, their sides replaced with a fine-grained wood, oiled and rubbed to a beautiful rich look. The wheels had been painted a glossy black with red trim. If it weren"t for the gruesome materials being carefully arranged on the first cart he might have taken it for a party cart for an extravagant celebration. Instead, one cart was being loaded with the severed heads of the Nhia-Samri after a slip of paper had been rolled and inserted into each of their mouths.
The second cart held just as strange a sight. Four blacksmiths had been called in and instructed to use their thickest gloves in handling the oda.s.si blades. They worked in pairs. Each blade was carefully lifted by one blacksmith and held in an exact position on an anvil. The second blacksmith would then position one of the commander"s oda.s.si at a specific angle so the angled straight-edge at the tip was squarely across a symbol on a copper band that was at the base of the oda.s.si blade. Then the two blacksmiths would look at each other to be sure each was ready. Finally the one holding the commander"s oda.s.si would strike the back of the blade with a hammer, driving the commander"s blade through the copper band. The effects of this were dramatic to say the least. The commander"s blade would spark and glow red; the second blade would make a sound not unlike a cry of pain. Fire would explode from the symbol and the copper band would snap open; the blade fractured in a perfect line down the middle. When complete, the commander"s blade looked as if nothing happened. The other blade was split, and the copper band remained attached but with its edges curled outward. The broken blade would be placed in the cart reverently and then the process repeated. On the side of the yard were some other tools Duke had special-ordered, which would be used to break the band of the commander"s last blade when the last oda.s.si band had been split.
Not really sure what it is about those blades, but seeing this I am not sure if I should be more afraid of them or that Duke knew how to do this. The boy ran ahead a little to open the door for him. Once again he walked through the beautiful foyer, which was a complete contrast to the scene in the yard. Following where the page pointed, he walked to another set of doors, which the page jumped ahead and opened for him. Stepping through the doors, he was in a grand hallway that lead to Duke"s private rooms. He marveled again at the size of the doors and the unique large handles that would allow Duke to open and close them himself if he wanted to. Everything in this place is scaled to Duke, which makes it just grand by design. Two guards were stationed at both ends of the hall as well as a pair flanking the large double doors to Duke"s sitting room. A guard quickly opened the door for him, letting him walk in unimpeded. The level of service Duke commands is amazing. These people serve him with a speed and rapidity I didn"t think possible, and they all love him, which tells much about that old wolf.
Ladro was sitting at a secretarial desk with two stacks of papers, one on each side, with a single sheet of paper before him, all destined for the mouths of those heads. Ladro put Duke"s seal on the one in front of him, placing it on the left stack and taking an identical paper from the right stack and carefully reviewing it. You really have a flair for dramatic overkill. I can imagine the effect of receiving a message stuffed in every mouth of the severed heads of their own men. Thank the Lord and Lady you are a friend and not an enemy.
Duke was lying propped up on his side on a pile of pillows in a large mound against one wall. The wolf"s head came up as he walked in. "Ah Lord Dohma, thank you for coming directly."
"Excellency, I live to serve. What do you require?"
"I thought you should like to take a light snack with me and listen to a report I am about to get."
Dohma noticed that a table had been placed near Duke"s head with a comfortable chair. The chair sat on the wall side of the table, angled to be able to observe the room as well as comfortably speak with Duke. "Both sound far more entertaining that what I was doing."
Duke chuckled then winced. "Oh don"t make me laugh, my innards are still re-aligning and it hurts. I take it you were doing your administrative duty."
Dohma took the initiative and sat down. "If that is a polite way of phrasing "boring paperwork", you are most correct. I cannot imagine why any pirate would desire to take over a country. It is far too much work."
Duke put his head down on a pillow that kept his head significantly raised. "And that is why Damega and possibly most of his ancestors ran away at every mention of resuming the throne. He felt he could serve people better by being with them, and he got to have an adventure or five." Duke pinned him with a serious stare. "You, sir, need to learn to delegate."
It was Dohma"s turn to laugh. "I know how to do this. I was Captain of the Guard after all. I know well the usefulness of empowered people. The problem is we still haven"t sorted out who we can trust. My family will not allow corruption to reign in our government again."
Duke looked at him quietly for few moments. "Dohma, close your eyes." It was a sign of how much he trusted Duke that he complied instantly without even thinking about it. "Now listen carefully, do not a.n.a.lyze anything. I want you to answer my questions with the first thing that comes to your head. Do not talk except to answer my questions."
"Do you understand?"
"Yes."
"Good. Now, what is your name?"
"Dohma Gerani."
"How old are you?"
"Thirty-five."
"What is your sister"s name?"
"Ellua Garana."
"How old is your sister?" Duke went on, asking simple question after question. Every time he answered, Duke asked the next. There was no pause. Finally Duke asked. "Who should be Dockmaster?" Dohma answered instantly, "Baroness Morthan." His eyes snapped open, looking at Duke, who was smiling.
"There you go - name Baroness Morthan Dockmaster. That is one job you can forget about."
Dohma shook his head. "But we have not yet validated her family is not a pretender line."
"You will find that Baroness Morthan herself comes from a true line. That she might have married a pretender line is not important. I believe her husband is dead, so her t.i.tle remains from her marriage. She is likely a countess in her own right. Nonetheless you can trust her and her progeny with responsibilities. Does she have any adult children?"
Why did I name her? I don"t even know her. I think I met her once, maybe twice, for only a few moments. I did like her though. Thinking for a moment he recalled, "She has two sons, both serving as officers in the guard. They have both been favored by the weapons master with personal tutoring." Which is why I made sure to meet the Baroness at a celebration party for the guards.
"So what should her sons do?"
"Well, Eorji would do well to oversee the tax enforcement office, and his brother Illiam really should remain in the guard. He will be an excellent career officer." Wait, why did I say that? He looked at Duke, confused.
"I told you trust your instincts; they"ll be right. All you have to do is listen to yourself. Feel free to accelerate your research into these people to confirm your hunches, as it will make you more and more confident in your hunches in these matters. Now you have a Dockmaster and a head of tax collections. That should reduce the paperwork considerably." Duke smirked at him.
"Sorry Excellency, this really is going to take some getting used to."
"Oh of course it is. Now eat."
Dohma looked down and the once-empty table was loaded with food and a selection of drinks. When did this get here? Duke"s staff is efficient... and too quiet sometimes; I guess when you have to keep from waking a wolf while working it"s only natural you"d get good at moving quietly and efficiently. He helped himself, as he really was hungry. While he was eating he looked around. Aside from Ladro continuing to check every page before affixing Duke"s seal, the room was empty. Duke was resting with his eyes closed, breathing softly and evenly. "Didn"t you say something about a report?"
"I did, but you came faster than I expected. It will still be another half-mark at least before Elades gets here with the report. So relax and enjoy a little rest, you"ve earned it. By the way, I have wanted to say you did a very stupid, commendable, brash and courageous thing leading your guards into the fight. It saved the day and many of our people. Thank you, but please don"t do it again till you have some rugrats."
Dohma choked on his bite. Oh ya, I need to ensure the line. That will take some getting used to, too. "I had a hunch."
Duke chuckled and grimaced again. "Ouch. More like you didn"t like being left out of the fight. You were in the right place at the right time, and willing to do what was needed. You"d have made a good Dagger."
He enjoyed the swell of pride that came with that. High praise from Duke. He really takes Daggers very seriously. Dohma chewed on his food for a while, thinking about the Daggers and guards. "Excellency, I have been meaning to ask you. Did you really start the Daggers with Damega, like the pretenders said?"
Duke smiled. "I didn"t start them, I just continued them."
"You can"t just drop that, it demands an explanation."
Duke looked at him with a serious look in his eyes. "The Daggers are continuing an honorable and proud tradition of military service that goes back further than you would believe."
"My ability to believe has had a lot of exercise recently. Try me."
Duke moved to get more comfortable. "We have time, so alright, you get your wish. Just the short version though. Daggers, like the knives they are named after, are not just born - they are forged by masters over time with great care. If anything goes wrong they don"t become Daggers. All Daggers start learning a profession as they grow. All are very knowledgeable, and some are even learned scholars. Because they are the people they are, they see to the physical as well as the mental, and tend to end up getting some military experience in a guard or army somewhere. Then, if they want to be Daggers badly enough, are right in the head, and haven"t been perverted by their a.s.sociations, they get picked up for more training by an experienced Dagger."
Duke was looking at the ceiling and he lost himself in his explanation. His voice changed slightly, getting softer and somehow more dramatic. It seemed as if Duke were actually travelling further and further away and leaving only his voice behind to tell what had become of him. Dohma noticed that Ladro had not changed papers yet and was holding very still, with his head shifted to hear every word of the coming tale.
"Long ago I was just such a man. I was born to a family that had an honorable tradition of being Daggers so far back it was already lost in time and legend. h.e.l.l, one of my ancestors earned a Dukedom for his service. But although this made our family rich, he made sure his children grew up with the right values of honor, courage, and commitment; his children did the same. So it was that in my family we all served when our time came - woman or man, we served. I enjoyed the work, and though not necessary made a full career of it, rising to a very high rank before I became as you see me now." Duke chuckled ironically. "In fact it was because of my commitment to the Dagger ideals that I stuck my nose in where I wasn"t supposed to and ended up as you see me now.
"You see, a disaster of a magnitude you would find hard to imagine was in progress. All our lands and those of the peoples of magic, including those of the G.o.ds, were threatened with total destruction. The G.o.ds, with the secret aid of our government, were trying desperately to find a way to save everyone or at least some. The result was that our people, along with many of our creatures, were migrated to many new lands with the help of the G.o.ds and the peoples of magic. This was no small task, and it cost all dearly in lives as well as cultures and resources.
At first our original government and civilization held together and we worked with the G.o.ds, elves, and dwarves to build cities and establish ourselves in this new land. It was then we discovered the unexpected results of living with magic we spoke of earlier. Our populations began to shrink and the resources needed to sustain our old ways were simply not feasible, given what was left in knowledge, power, and people to do the work. The old government and militaries started to break down. We did all we could to create a sustainable, safe society, and thus a new empire was born."
Duke"s eyes glossed over as he went back in his mind. Dohma had one of those feelings. He is going to reveal something important. I must concentrate, this is a key.
"Eventually even that empire was too large to sustain itself and it began to fall. As a final effort to prevent total chaos, the Emperor created the concords which established the smaller kingdoms you now know. Damega learned all this and much more. It was he who showed me what I didn"t understand before. Damega was the one to finally break through my optimism for humanity and proved to me the true state of things. People are people, and a few thousand years wasn"t going to change that. It was humanity"s struggle against its greed and thirst for power which caused empires to fall and change. People are born with certain behaviors and att.i.tudes built-in, which are filtered by their experiences through childhood events, resulting in adults of all types. Most are good, yet some are bad, and enough are really evil. Without a proper balance the majority of good people suffered at the hands of the truly evil controlling the bad. From time to time a hero emerged. But one person was not enough to balance the world. We were missing an organization of men and women with the abilities, training, and commitment to do whatever it took to do what was right. People committed to a higher standard, who could be looked up to and trusted by the majority of good people and feared by the bad and evil, keeping them from making bold sweeping moves. An organization that had to reach out across kingdom borders to touch all realms. That is when I realized every world needs Marines. You see, the three tenants of a Dagger are honor, courage, and commitment.
"Daggers are required to live and exemplify an ultimate standard in honorable ethical and moral conduct. Honor encompa.s.ses and requires many traits and behaviors. A Dagger must never cheat, steal, or lie, but that is not enough. Each Dagger must cling to an uncompromising code of personal integrity, accountable for their actions and holding others accountable for theirs; and above all, honor mandates that a Dagger never sully the reputation of being a Dagger.
"Then there is courage. Courage isn"t just blindly doing idiotic things for glory. For a Dagger courage is honor in action, a moral strength, willing to do what is right, regardless of the conduct of others. Courage means willingness to take a stand for what is right in spite of adverse consequences. Every day a Dagger can wake up and smile, knowing they did right and will do it again.
"Finally, Daggers have commitment, which is a total dedication to the Dagger ideals and to the world as a whole. Some call it "all for one and one for all". But that is too simple an explanation, because commitment includes the ideal that if you want a job done right you give it to a Dagger. To a Dagger, commitment is a combination of a relentless dedication to excellence and selfless determination. Daggers never give up, never give in, never willingly accept second best. Excellence is always the unachievable goal that must never be forgotten or abandoned. There is no such thing as an ex-Dagger - once a Dagger, always a Dagger, because commitment never dies.
"I was a career Dagger officer and I tried to live by that standard always. But after coming here I had become the hero, just one soul, who could only be one place at a time. Damega showed me we needed Daggers everywhere.
"I taught him all I was, all I knew, and he embraced it like none I have ever seen before or after. He was an unbelievably good template for others to work towards. I was only the trainer; Damega was this world"s first true Dagger, son."
Duke sat silently and Dohma noticed tears beading off of Duke"s eyes. He misses Damega. If Damega was the first Dagger then Duke probably thinks of him as a son; which means he had an argument with his son and went away, only to... Dohma sat up as the realization hit him. The pretenders said Shar-Lumen delivered Damega"s dead body. Oh Lord - in Duke"s eyes Shar-Lumen killed his son! Worse, he killed him before they made up. Dohma sat respectfully quiet, watching Duke in his silent remembrances of things long past.
Duke pretended to adjust the pillow, but Dohma knew he was cleaning his eyes. Duke"s ear twitched. "Ladro."
"Yes, sir?"
"Get back to work."
"Yes sir." Ladro smiled and put Duke"s seal on the doc.u.ment in front of him, grabbing the next.
I wonder if Ladro knew this all before. Still there is something I wonder, which will distract him from his mourning of Damega. "Why did you call them Daggers instead of Marines?"
Duke"s eyes snapped open and he looked at Dohma for a minute. "How do you know that name?"
"You said, "That is when I realized every world needs Marines.""
Duke chuckled and grimaced again. "I need to watch it around you. After nearly fifteen thousand years this place had forgotten that name and many others. There was a pattern here of calling mercenaries Blades, brokers Hands, and so on. So using a name like Green Berets, Seals, Star Legion or Marines would not have invoked any special feeling, and h.e.l.l, I haven"t seen a beret since just after the migration, why the h.e.l.l would I want to introduce that silly headwear again? Damega came up with the idea of sticking his dagger in the table to call attention to himself over other mercenaries. Those we started training did the same, so calling them "Daggers" just made sense."
Thankfully, before Duke could go back to remembering, Elades stepped into the room. Duke looked at him and nodded.
"Excellency and Lord Dohma, we have broken the code used by the Nhia-Samri. We have deciphered most of the materials captured when we took the Llino Outpost."
Duke smiled. "First, what was that bird carrying?"
"Sir, the bird"s message was "abort and track.""
"So the whole mess with Ticca at the gate would not have happened; which means we wouldn"t have been able to track them down so efficiently. Excellent, this will make sending the commander"s oda.s.si home so much funnier as they won"t know he didn"t get the order. Continue."
"The majority of the materials are expected logistics. We now are aware of two other outposts nearby. One is situated to record all merchant traffic."
Duke nodded. "That is not surprising. Monitoring the merchant traffic will reveal much about who is in favor and not. Anything else?"
"Two items of extreme importance, sir. The first is that we have answered two of your primary objectives. Specifically, who killed Magus Vestul and why." Elades pulled out a paper and held it to read it directly. ""Llino Outpost, you are instructed to intercept Magus Vestul before he meets with Duke. He is carrying vital information on his person in his pouch at all times. The pouch is to be seized and sent to Hisuru Amajoo unopened. In no way is a Nhia-Samri to come into direct contact with Magus Vestul, and anyone not Nhia-Samri involved is to be eliminated without a trace.""
Duke started a low rumbling growl. "That answers why but not who."
"Sir, according to the reports, the second-in-command, by the name of Ossa-Ulla, hired a Knife named Keelun who vanished at the same time Magus Vestul did. They suspected Ticca intercepted him since she publicly wore Magus Vestul"s pouch the next day. She trapped them by hiring a mage named Lebuin who blocked their a.s.sa.s.sination attempt on her to recover the pouch. They were not sure if Magus Vestul was dead or alive. The final report, addressed to a Warlord Maru-Ashua, written for delivery when the doc.u.ments were recovered, suggests the theory that Magus Vestul hired Ticca prior to coming to Llino. Ticca arrived early and pretended to be inexperienced while making similar arrangements with Magus Lebuin, who they also suggest is a Guild special operative, perhaps even a Dagger himself. Ossa-Ulla is blamed with falling for the entire trap and exposing their presence; the commander also accepts blame for not more directly overseeing Ossa-Ulla and allowing this to happen."
Duke"s tail wagged in spite of the growling. "This is very good news - one of ours completely foiled them. But if correct, she failed to protect Magus Vestul. She could not know of the Nhia-Samri element until too late and that would throw any Dagger for a loop if unexpected. h.e.l.l, I didn"t know they were here. This has been a very surprising trip. But why didn"t she just report to me if she was working with Vestul? We have confirmed she is carrying his pouch, so she must still be operating under some instructions we are unaware of. He was coming to give me something important. Now we know it is some kind of data, most likely that d.a.m.ned research project he has been so secretive about for the last few decades. But how did Shar-Lumen learn about it when even I didn"t know?"
Elades looked slightly worried. Duke picked up on it. "There is more, what is it?"
"Sir I don"t think we killed Ossa-Ulla. The local commander wanted to kill him for his mistakes but Warlord Maru-Ashua wouldn"t condone the request. Instead he was demoted and the commander sent him out on a mission outside Llino the day before you started the hunt."
Duke did not look happy. "Details, please."
"Sir, Ossa-Ulla was ordered to take an additional agent and proceed to Algan to burn Magus Vestul"s home to insure any possible copies of the information sought would not fall into your possession. He was to then proceed to Rhini Wood and gather intelligence on just who Ticca is, before reporting back to the outpost just east of Llino. He left via the Delivery Channel using something they call a breather."
"G.o.d d.a.m.n it! When the h.e.l.l did they get scuba gear? We have been letting ships out since before the hunt after careful inspection. If they have scuba gear there is no need to be on or near the ship he could just wait at the gate."
"Sir?"
Duke looked at Elades. "Sorry. Scuba gear allows one to carry a supply of air underwater. There is no need to surface and one can stay underwater a very long time undetected. It is pretty complicated and I thought forgotten."
Elades frowned "Sir, Ticca was supposedly heading to Breorchy and that is in the general direction of Algan."
Duke"s eyes went wide. "She is going to Algan to recover everything! Ossa-Ulla and another Nhia-Samri are also going there. I bet he is p.i.s.sed off enough to try to trap her. How good are Nigan and Risy? And didn"t you say Lebuin was still in town?"
Elades nodded. "Lebuin is at his father"s merchant house with his servant. They haven"t been able to arrange a ship due to the blockade and such. As to Nigan and Risy, they are good but probably not good enough yet."
"Fetch Lebuin now." As Elades darted out of the room Duke looked at Ladro. "Ladro, arrange a covered wagon with four post horses and fill it with pillows. I am going to go to Algan as fast as possible."
Ladro looked up. "Sir, you need to heal."
"d.a.m.n it! I"ll heal en route. In fact, I"ll likely be able to move faster than the wagon on my own in another week. Time is wasting, go now." Ladro grabbed the stack of sealed papers and exited quickly.
Dohma was thinking when Duke interrupted his thoughts. "Have you finished reading the city instructions?"
"I ran through them quickly, but I couldn"t quote you any of it."
"You need to be able to open and close the gates and turn off the defenses when you are ready; any issues with the commands?"
"No, I know where to look and the p.r.o.nunciation guide is straightforward enough."
"I would like for you to see me off to the gate. I want to make sure you can open and close it. I"ll be taking this Lebuin with me. He is central to this somehow. Oh, and for all the G.o.ds" sake, do not ever cuss and request something of the city. In fact tell your whole family that cussing is not allowed ever again for them. I cannot be sure what the city will do if you get spitting mad and start yelling out commands in any language."
He looked at Duke, confused.
Just then the guard opened the door and all four blacksmiths were there.
Duke looked at him. "It would take too long to explain. I"ll explain it later, if not to you, to your great-grandchildren." He then looked at the blacksmiths. "Tell me you cut the correct one last?"
"Yes Excellency. We took special care before doing it."
One of the smiths produced another split oda.s.si. "We brought both for your inspection." They brought the two swords close to Duke so he could inspect them.
"Very good. All the others are done and counted?" The smiths all nodded. "Good, any final questions on the last process?"
They all looked worried but answered. "No, we understand."
"Very good, everything else is proceeding well. Go ahead, there will be no further need of that."