The Worlds of the Sheaf

Essca - Part 4

     At breakfast the next morning, when King Lamont and all his guests gathered in the feasting chamber, the two Gem Lords were sat half way down the long tables from him between genuinely minor nobles who spent the whole meal talking about breeks.

     The two Gem Lords had read up on the subject before leaving Domandropolis, their habits and various strategies for hunting them, and were able to hold up their end of the conversation quite well, but they made no pretence of having engaged in this sport before. They knew there was no way they could have concealed their lack of experience. They told the others that, having heard tales of what great fun it was, they'd become eager to try it for themselves.

     "Yes indeed," cried the King, laughing. "And when I heard that my good friends were up for it, I invited them up here to show them what it's all about!"

     "We were honoured to receive your invitation," said Barl, bowing his head, "and accepted with what must have appeared unseemly haste. What uncultured louts we must have seemed to His Majesty!" A polite ripple of laughter spread around the table.

     "Oh nonsense! Nonsense!" cried the King, however. "Who wouldn't jump at an opportunity like this? We can enjoy ourselves and talk business at the same time, eh?"

     The others pricked up their ears at this and Tak's heart missed a beat as he started with alarm. After all their efforts to avoid drawing attention to themselves, why would the King deliberately draw attention to them?

     King Lamont knew what he was doing, though, as Barl explained to him that evening when he'd had a chance to consider the situation. The other guests weren't fools. They knew the Gem Lords could only have come to meet privately with the King. He was giving nothing away by confirming it. They would only have grown even more suspicious if he'd tried to deny it.

     Now, though, they would begin to think that it couldn't be anything all that important, nothing worth losing any sleep over, and that idea would spread until it reached the spies and agents of the King's masters. They would back off a little, not wanting to risk exposing themselves over any trivial matter, and would return their attentions to the other guests, all of whom were also subjects of intense scrutiny. And it had all been accomplished with a few cast away words! The King might have been weak militarily, but he was no stranger to the great game of statecraft.

     Sure enough, the other guests paid them less attention after that, returning to their own plotting and scheming. Each of them having their own reasons for being there which the others wanted to find out. The two Gem Lords were beginning to realise that this wasn't really any kind of holiday for the King at all. He didn't dare leave the reins of power unattended for long because of what his enemies might do in his absence. His position, already precarious, required his constant attention if he wasn't to lose what little freedom he still had.

     No, this 'hunting trip' was really just an opportunity to escape from his jailers for a little while, to conduct business away from their prying gazes. It was probably the only chance he ever got to meet the people currently gathered around the table, whom his 'ministers', really Yinnfarsian agents, would never have allowed into his presence. Tak wondered what that must be like. To be the ruler of a city, in name anyway, but needing the permission of his supposed underlings before he could make the smallest decision. Kept away from anyone his enemies didn't control. It made you wonder why they allowed him to take these hunting trips. Surely they must know what he was really up to...

     He sat up with a start of realisation. Of course they knew! And the King knew that they knew! His enemies were using these meetings to find out who the King was plotting with, who his friends and allies were. All the guests were probably there under false names, so the Yinnfarsians would have a harder time finding out who they really were. The King was probably the only man present who was really who he said he was. Was it possible that some of these other guests could be recruited as allies?