Gunpowder God (29 page)

“So with Lysandros dead, will Selestros become the next great king of Hos-Harpahx?”

Dard sighed. “It’s not that simple, Sirna. Captain-General Kyblannos is on his way to Harphax City to kill Great King-Elect Selestros, then bring his head back to Phidestros.”

“What? Has this whole time-line gone mad! Phidestros was the one who seated Selestros onto the Iron Throne; why would he then turnaround and have him killed?”

“He has no choice. While Phidestros was off in Hostigos, Styphon’s House attacked Besh Town and took Princess Arminta prisoner. If the Prince wants his wife back, he has to provide them with Selestros’ head; it’s all politics, Sirna. Styphon’s House wants to do away with Selestros, who’s an avowed Dralmite, before he can aid the war in Hos-Agrys.”

Sirna shook her head. She had to fight the feeling that Arminta was getting her just desserts. After all, if she hadn’t married Phidestros, he would still be unmarried and with Sirna. And none of this madness would be happening.

Somehow that didn’t make her feel any better; deep down she liked Princess Arminta and the poor woman was pregnant, to boot. Her own claims to Phidestros were short-term and selfish.
And who was going to tell Great Queen Lavena?

“That’s terrible,” she replied. “Queen Lavena’s going to be hysterical when she learns that her husband is dead; for some reason she really loves that arrogant idiot she’s married to. When’s Kyblannos going to arrive?”

“He just left Besh Town with a company of Iron Band soldiers. They won’t be arriving for at least two to three days at the earliest.”

“What should I do? I can’t tell her that her husband is dead.”

“No, that would be Paratemporal Contamination. All I suggest is that you be there when Kyblannos and his men arrive with the news of Lysandros’ death. That’s when she’ll really need your support.”

As soon as word came that Kyblannos and his party had arrived, Sirna quickly made her way up the staircase to the Queen’s bedchambers. Lavena had been suffering from dizzy spells and confined to her bed. Sirna reached the upper stairs only to hear the Queen’s screams of grief ripping through the corridors.

Sirna ran to the bedchamber. The door was open and several of the Queen’s Ladies-in-Waiting were backing out.

“Get out, you she-witches! None of you care; I can see it in your eyes!”

As Sirna rushed through the doorway, Lavena called out, “
Sirna, he’s dead! They’ve killed my husband!
”

Lavena was half out of her bed, her belly bulging out as she fought to push aside the bearskin bedcover. Sirna ran over to the Queen and helped put her back into her bed. Forcing herself to speak in a calm voice, she said, “You can’t leave. If you fall again, it could hurt the baby.”

The Queen’s head bobbed up and down. “I know it, it’s that I’m in so much pain! How could the gods have done this! I loved him and now he’s gone.” Lavena began to wail like a bobcat caught in a bear trap; her voice was so loud it literally hurt Sirna’s ears.

She reached over and held her in her arms. “You have to let go, Lavena. Crying and screaming to the gods are not going to help. You have to start thinking about the baby.”

Lavena, tears streaming down her face, cradled her belly. “What if they come to murder me and my baby?”

Sirna shook her head. “They won’t. I won’t let them.” She pulled the hideaway pistol out of a pocket in her skirt. “They’ll have to kill me, first.”

“Thank you, oh thank you, Sirna. You’re the only friend I have in the world.”

Sadly, Lavena was right. The poor woman had been living a nightmare ever since she’d arrived in Harphax City.

“Great King-Elect Selestros hates me! I know he does. He’ll be the new king. What will I do?” She began to sob again.

Sirna sighed. “No. He’ll be dead, too. Captain-General Kyblannos is outside the City Gates and once he reaches the palace, he will kill Selestros.”

“How do you know this?”

“I have friends who tell me things. It won’t be a secret for long.”

“What will happen to me, then?”

“After Selestros’ death, you and your baby will be the two most important people in the Kingdom of Hos-Harphax. That’s what will happen.” What she left unspoken was:
“If someone doesn’t stick a blade between your ribs first.”

Kyblannos noticed that the streets of Harphax City were strangely quiet, even more deserted than during the aftermath of the riots. There were two-man patrols of Iron Band soldiers at every street corner. They saluted Kyblannos and his banner as his party made their way to the Royal Palace. For a people whose hated ruler had just been dispatched, the townspeople were strangely subdued; it was as if the City was holding its collective breath while waiting for events outside their scope to unfold.

He wondered what their reaction would be when Selestros had his head chopped off and they were faced with a new successor.

The Palace gates were well-guarded with a score of Iron Band soldiers. Their welcoming smiles were the first he’d seen since arriving at the city gates. He was escorted by his own guard to Captain-General Geblon’s office. The Great King-Elect’s personal guard were not in evidence and he suspected that was Geblon’s way of keeping Selestros in his proper place.

He was announced at the door by a captain and left his guard outside. Inside, Geblon was sitting at a table covered with parchments which his scribe was sifting through. He rose up to clasp arms with Kyblannos. “How goes it, comrade?”

Kyblannos laughed. “It’s all upside down.”

“You’re laughing, but you’re not smiling. I take it things are not going well?”

“You’re right,” he answered. “I need to talk to you in private.”

Geblon dismissed his aides and told the guards to clear the hallways. “Things must really be up in the air. But they can’t be too bad, or you’d have brought an army with you.”

“Strange times, indeed, old friend. We had no trouble with Lysandros’ Army. Taking his head was as easy as stealing milk from a kitten. His army was half-starved. Right after we arrived it broke up like a limestone rock under a sledgehammer. The trouble started when we returned to Besh Town. During our absence, the Styphoni made a surprise raid on Besh Town and captured the Princess.”

“Princess Arminta? Oh, by all the true gods, what a cock-up! The Captain must be beside himself!”

“I’ve never seen Phidestros so Dralm-damned pissed off. He was ready to take the entire army down into Hos-Ktemnos and raze Balph to its very foundations!”

“I don’t doubt it. How did you stop him?”

“Told him if he did, it would seal the Princess’ fate. Those Styphoni manure eaters would kill her in a heartbeat. He knows it, too. So, for now, we’re doing what the Temple demands.”

“What’s that?” Geblon asked.

“We’re going to give them Selestros’ head.”

“What? After all we went through to seat him on the Throne!”

“That’s Styphon’s Voice’s price for Arminta and the baby,” Kyblannos answered.

“That going to cause no end of problems around here….”

“Not our problem, but it might be yours.”

“What do you mean, Kyblannos? Stop being mysterious.”

Kyblannos guffawed. “Well, Prince Geblon, with Great King-Elect Selestros shortly arriving in Regwarn, you’re going to be the new Prince-Regent of Hos-Harphax.”

“By Galzar’s Mace! It’s bad enough the Captain made me Prince of Harphax. I don’t want to be Prince-Regent; I want to go back to being a soldier.”

“You know the Cap’n. He doesn’t trust civilians. It’s his decision.”

Geblon bent his head. “I know. I don’t regret all the things Phidestros’ done for me, but I miss the old times….”

Kyblannos grinned. “I don’t. Things are much more interesting these days.”

“What does he have you doing now?” Geblon asked.

“I’m going to be the emissary to Styphon’s House and bring the Princess back.”

“Now, that’s a job I don’t mind not having,” Geblon said. “What if Styphon’s Voice kills the Princess anyway, even after you deliver Selestros’ head?”

“Phidestros’ll slash and burn every priest in the Five Kingdoms. Styphon’s House will never know what hit them!”

Geblon nodded. “You’re right there. And we’ll be at his side! These damn bully priests, they all wet their robes when you draw a sword. So I’m to be the new Prince-Regent … By Galzar’s Mace, we don’t even have an heir, yet.”

“One of your jobs will be to keep watch on Great Queen Lavena.”

“What do you mean by that, Kyblannos?”

“Phidestros wants you to wed her before the baby’s born.”

“Me and that She Devil! No doubt she’s a panthress in the sack, but her nails draw blood, too.”

“Better you, than me,” Kyblannos smirked.

“We’ve never seen eye to eye, me and the Queen. Why should that change now?”

“Because, Geblon, she’s a realist. With Lysandros dead and her a widow, she only has one protector—the Cap’n. He’s already married so that leaves one of his trusted captains. I’m married, too; so, who’s left?”

“What about Cythros?”

“No. He’s only been with us a couple of winters; besides, he was the one holding Besh Town when the Styphoni army came. It’ll be a while before that storm blows over. I’m sorry, old friend, but you’re the last man standing. Or should I say, Prince-Regent.”

“You old son-of-a-she-goat!”

“Stop your belly-achin’, Geblon. You’re the one who’ll be acting Great King of Hos-Harphax in all but name. There are nobles that would kill their first born for that gift!”

“Talk about killing. You’ve got a head to harvest.”

“Thanks for the reminder. I’ll see you later. Meanwhile, you’ve got a Queen to console.”

“Your Majesty, the Styphoni refuse to surrender,” Captain-General Alkides reported. “They’re some kind of tough bastards—if they weren’t Styphon’s Own Guard, I’d admire their courage.”

Kalvan took a moment to rub his hands together for warmth before taking out his telescope, or what the locals called his farseer, and studied the besieged City of Nythros. Long ago the City had actually been three smaller cities which is why it was usually called the Nythros City States; now they were all joined together by a twenty-five foot high curtain wall. The stone walls were crumbling in a score of spots and showed breaches in several places where their guns had taken advantage of breaks the Styphoni hadn’t completely repaired after their own siege.

Kalvan had ordered storming parties to attack the City at several different breaches, but they had been repulsed by ferocious counterattacks from the Nythrosi and Styphon’s Own Guard. The Styphoni would order their Nythrosi auxiliaries to hold the gap and put a Temple Band of Guard behind them to kill any of them that tried to surrender or retreat. Casualties to the Nythrosi spearmen and crossbow-men had been horrendous. His own orders had been to pull back at any significant resistance, since there was no reason to waste good veteran soldiers on a siege that was foreordained.

If we have to, we can always starve them out
.

The army garrisoning Nythros was a strange mixture of Temple Guardsmen, Hos-Ktemnoi mercenaries and local auxiliaries, mostly former Nythrosi regulars pressed into Styphon’s House’s service. Kalvan’s Army of Aesklos outnumbered the Red Hand and their local allies by a factor of more than two to one, not counting some four thousand Nythrosi volunteer auxiliaries.

The Hostigos Fleet had cut off all resupply to Nythros from Port Itya, Varthon Town and elsewhere around the Aesklos Sea. There was no hope of reinforcements from Hos-Ktemnos or Tarr-Ceros to the southwest. The Styphoni were surrounded and short of supplies; yet, they continued to fight. One had to admire such courage, even as one damned it as futile, as well as a waste of good soldiers.

What happened here, regardless of the end, would have little impact on the final resolution of the Fireseed Wars; unless Kalvan himself were to take a deadly shot from a crossbow, as Richard the Lionheart did outside a French castle.

Still, it was important for Nos-Hostigos to keep the southern edge of the Aesklos Sea free of Styphoni strongholds. If Styphon’s House were to return to the Upper Middle Kingdoms—and the odds were Dralm-damned good that they would—he wanted them to have to spend their soldiers and treasure retaking every inch of territory they’d lost. He knew in his heart that the Fireseed Wars would only come to an end when Styphon’s Own Voice was shot out of a cannon and the last Styphon’s House temple was sacked and burned to the ground.

Kalvan wondered if Anaxthenes’ plot to kidnap Princess Arminta had been successful. Either way, it would put the Temple at odds with the strongest Prince in Hos-Harphax.
Is it possible that we can come to some kind of accord with Prince Phidestros?
he wondered.

The ground below him, beaten into clay by the passage of men and horses, shook as another volley of gunfire sounded. The Army of Aesklos had ten of the big thirty-two pound guns in his siege train and when their collective shots slammed into the walls of Nythros, stones and mortar blasted out in a burst of deadly hail. The noise hit his ears like a thunderclap.

The air was thick with brimstone and Kalvan had to narrow his eyes to see through the fog of smoke and dust. There was some movement at one of the gaps, maybe a sortie?

Someone cried out, “It’s a parley!”

Alkides shouted, “Perhaps they want to surrender, Your Majesty.”

Now Kalvan could see that several men were coming through the gap with helmets raised on swords. One was wearing the wolf headdress of an Uncle Wolf. He hadn’t realized there were still Uncle Wolfs with the Styphoni since the Ban of Galzar.
Are the Styphoni surrendering the town? Or maybe he’s trying to get out while the getting is good
.

The Uncle Wolfs took their calling of tending to the battle-wounded very seriously, but that did not include suicide.

Or was he here to parlay, to get relief for the City’s women and children?
That could put me in a ticklish position
, Kalvan thought.
I don’t want to be known as the Butcher of Nythros, but neither can I leave this nest of Styphon’s vipers at my back
.