A Monster Life

90 - Preludes to Wars

King Yaros entered the minister's common chambers where they all sat at the long table waiting for him, stood up, and bowed to him. He smiled in satisfaction at the sight, and sat down at the head of the table. This was what he had been waiting for ever since he realised he did not necessarily have to wait for his father to die of natural causes, although murder might count as a kind of natural cause in royal circles. 'Is the army ready?'

The ministers sat down while Parthan, the former second commander, who was promoted to full commander due to the unfortunate death of the previous one, kept standing. 'The troops stand ready to cross the nearby border, although they still think they're there for regular exercises. Only the top officers know about the real plan, and so far word of the death of your father has not reached them. I can leave at any moment to begin the conquest of Mawan under the pretence of them sending an assassin.'

Yaros leaned forward on the table. 'Then I want you to leave. The time has come to use the strength of our country to take what we deserve.' He looked at the others. 'No longer will we be looked down upon. We will be the ones to dominate all the beast folk!'

The ministers cheered, and Yaros leaned back in his chair again, the image of his expanded kingdom of Tosk in front of his eyes.

***

The rough knock on the chamber door startled Arina, and the lock turned. Ever since she and her queen had been locked up in the closed off chambers at the top of one of the castle towers, she became sensitive of any sudden sounds. She took a breath to calm herself down, and opened the door. The guard on the other side handed her a basket of clean laundry, although it had been tossed about and underwear lay scattered on top. He grinned. 'We had to make sure no one tried to smuggle anything between the clothes, so we searched it all. Some items very thoroughly.'

She ignored the state of the laundry and kept her anger inside. 'Thank you for bringing it.' she said with a hint of ice in her voice, and calm but deliberately closed the door in front of the guard's nose. The door lock turned again while she went into the smallest chamber, which she confiscated as the one for household duties, and set the basket down. She grumbled as she put her and Palesa's underwear to the side. 'Of course you'd put your grubby fingers all over those.' She took the apron from the basket, turned the front pocket inside out, used a pin to pull a loose thread out of the seam at the bottom, and pulled out the thinly rolled up message.

Palesa looked up from the book she was reading to rest her mind for a short while, at the knock on her door, and noticed the distressed look on her maid's face. 'What is it, Arina?' she asked as she put her book aside.

Arina hurried over to her and held out the small piece of paper. 'This message just arrived,'

Palesa took it and read it. 'He's going to war with Mawan? They are our closest ally.'

She sighed and leaned back in her chair. She had expected her son to try to gain more power, but to begin a full out war with the strongest neighbouring kingdom was madness. "His ambition has taken over his common sense." she thought, and looked up at Arina. 'Tell them to send word to Mawan as soon as possible. Maybe we can save a few lives that way because there's nothing more we can do right now.' Arina gave her a nod and went to write a new secret message, and Palesa's mind went over any possible method to stop her wayward son.

***

Valla inspected the latest set of silverware she had cast. She examined the fork in her hand so closely, she hadn't noticed the tat appearing in her workshop and flying above her until its message chirp startled her and she dropped the fork on the bench. Slightly annoyed at the sudden disruption, she snatched the bird, and read the message it turned into. 'What the?' she said and hesitated to do what was asked of her in case it was a bad practical joke, but she knew the sender would not do things like that. She couldn't afford delays if the message was real though, and stormed out of her workshop, heading for the small stable attached to her house and her nasr.