Book I of III: The Swords of the Sultan (59 page)

“How many soldiers did you bring with you
from Chaoshu, or whatever the hell was the name of that place you
just called it?” the Sultan asked most of his question seriously,
but found himself bursting out laughing at the end.

Only a moment later, more voracious laughter
erupted from everyone, except from the small group of friends.

Brishava snapped, “Father!”

Perhaps ten seconds later, the Sultan was
finally able to ask through his own dissipating laughter,
“Well?”

Very seriously, Baltor answered through the
dissipating laughter, “I brought none back with me. All we will
need to do is to unite and train all the able-bodied citizens of
Pavelus in martial arts, and then we can handle any foes that come
our way, my Sultan—no matter the numbers!”

Upon hearing Baltor’s ridiculous solution,
the Sultan immediately became enraged as he cried out, “Guards,
kill him… In fact, kill them all!”

As the guards drew their swords and began to
encircle the bunch, the Sultan quietly said to Brishava, “You will
marry the duke—do you understand me, young lady?”

What the Sultan didn’t expect was that his
only beloved daughter would pluck a small boot knife out, plunge it
straight into his heart, and then twist!

His eyes bulged out in surprise and pain, yet
without so much as a peeped sound from his lips he instantaneously
died with that look of surprise upon his face!

Brishava quickly closed her father’s lifeless
eyes, and tucked the knife under the mattress with one hand; with
the other hand, she pulled up both the silky blue sheet and the
royal purple blanket until tucked neatly under her father’s
neck.

She immediately stood up, turned around, and
commanded, “Stop—I order you! The Sultan has just died. As you all
well know, I am Brishava, his daughter—the next in line to the
throne of Pavelus. In other words, I am now your Sultaness! I
command you to stop your attack on my husband and friends!”

For a moment, the guards stopped their
original order, in order to look back over to the bed. Despite the
fact that all of the guards knew, or found to be true, all of
Brishava’s words, they also observed that their Sultan’s blanket
was now forming a small circular pool of blood, right over his
heart area!

For another few moments, silence reigned in
the room, as the guards confusedly looked around for their
officer-in-charge, General Hawkins. They came to discover that
their general was staring at their obviously murdered Sultan,
bearing his own look of shock.

Even though it was obvious to all that the
one who had been nearest to the Sultan had done the
assassinating—there were two reasons for all the confusion,
surprise, and shock.

One—even though the palace guards didn’t much
like the Sultan and his extremely obnoxious and mean behaviors, he
was actually dead. And two, the main reason, most of these guards,
including their general, had very much come to know and love
Princess Brishava since infancy, as they had watched over and
protected her—it had never before been like her to hurt even a fly,
much less kill her own father.

Once Brishava saw the looks of confusion,
surprise, and of course shock, she confidently said, “Yes, it is
true that my father has died by my hand, but all present know that
his tyrannical ways had to be stopped. Most also know that I have
been both kind and just for all of my life! Finally yet most
importantly, my husband’s plan is strategically sound that we can
save Pavelus without the duke or his men! On our own, the Sharia
Empire can become glorious.”

Hawkins ordered, “Sheath your swords,
men.”

The guards did.

Brishava then pointed to Baltor, and added,
“By my marriage to him, this is your soon-to-be Sultan, Prince
Baltor Elysian. Kneel before your ruler!”

Again, the guards looked to Hawkins. Once
they observed that he had already gone down onto his knees, they
immediately followed suit.

A few moments later, as Brishava looked over
to Baltor and saw that he looked unsure of what to say, Brishava
commanded, “You may all rise.”

Once they had risen, she added, “None will
ever speak of what transpired in this room to anyone—ever.
Understand?”

“Yes, Sultaness!”

“Good,” she replied. “Commanding-General
Hawkins, before I personally assign you to secretly dispose of my
father’s body in the furnace, though we will have a public funeral,
I would like to introduce to you all to the new Ruling-General.

“You will listen and obey every word that
this man has to say, as he has already successfully demonstrated
his skills at training and governing troops to maximum proficiency!
General Hawkins, this is Ruling-General Humonus.”

Humonus’s eyes looked a bit in shock for a
moment, but then the newly promoted Ruling General regained his
poker face as he said, “Pleasure to meet you, Commanding-General
Hawkins.”

Hawkins snapped a salute and said,
“Ruling-General Humonus—I, and my ranks, are under your command,
sir!”

Humonus replied, “Excellent. Once you have
completed the Sultaness’ command, I want you to call forth all my
other generals, and inform them that we shall conduct a meeting in
one hour. I shall need as many statistics as possible…

“How long do we have until Emperor-Sedious
Vaspan arrives? How many troops is he bringing along with him? What
types of machines of war does he have? How many troops do we have?
What types of defenses and offenses do we possess? Etc., etc.
Statistics, General Hawkins.”

“Yes, sir!” Hawkins said. He snapped a
salute, and began to walk toward the door.

Just before he had exited the room, Humonus
added, “Oh, one more thing, General.”

Hawkins stopped, turned around and asked,
“Yes, sir?”

Humonus turned his head toward Brishava. “My
Sultaness, what are you going to do about the former ruling general
Glacius? We can’t have him wandering about freely, and possibly
starting up any revolts, especially now.”

Brishava snapped her fingers as she replied,
“Excellent point! General Hawkins, I want Glacius arrested for his
crimes against humanity, which I know quite a few that he is guilty
of, but I do not want you to arrest him in front of his men…

“Instead, simply tell him that the Sultan has
commanded his presence—escort him directly to my husband and me
with two squads of your most loyal soldiers! When he arrives here,
I will personally deliver the order as the Sultaness that he is to
be arrested and locked in the dungeon with maximum security.”

Hawkins said, “Yes, my Sultaness! Because of
the commands to secretly dispose of the Sultan’s body in the
furnace, and to locate and bring Glacius here before the Sultaness,
however, it’ll take me at least a couple hours to have all the
other generals tabulate statistics for you, Ruling-General
Humonus.”

Humonus asked, “How much time will you need,
General?”

“I believe two hours, sir.”

Humonus said, “Done.”

Hawkins snapped another salute, delivered a
bow, and then left the room; the two troops that had just finished
wrapping up the Sultan’s body in the blanket followed.

Once the double doors had closed, Chelsea
looked over to Brishava and asked, “My Sultaness, I was
wondering—which room will Humonus and I stay in?”

Brishava answered, “Ask the guards posted
outside to direct you to the nearest spare bedroom on this floor.
Make sure they let me know which room you’ll be staying in, so
it’ll be easy for me to find you, okay?”

Chelsea answered, “No problem and
thanks.”

Humonus added, “I will most likely be very
busy with the generals soon enough, so I wish to spend a little
quality time with my wife first, if that’s okay with you, my
Sultaness?”

Brishava lightly laughed and said, “Go right
ahead.”

Humonus looked over to Baltor, and added with
a look of remembrance, “Oh, Prince Baltor, I have a present for you
when the time is right.”

Baltor asked with a very curious expression
on his face, “What is it?”

“You’ll soon see,” Humonus said with a small
smile, which became reflected by Chelsea’s own smile—a second
later, the two left the room.

“Guards,” Baltor said, “I want you to wait
outside for a minute as I need to speak to your Sultaness alone. I
will let you know when you can come back in.”

“Yes, Prince Baltor!”

Once the two were alone, his smile
disappeared, and he stated incredulously, “I can’t believe you
murdered your own father!”

As she stared back into his eyes, evenly and
softly, she replied in the same tone of voice as her eyes showed,
“Yes, I did. I did murder him.”

Her eyes then cast to the ground as she
added, “Remember when you first came here to this palace to
assassinate my father, and we bumped into each other? Remember the
following conversations we had?”

“Of course I do, but—”

She looked back up and interrupted, “Well,
everything you said about him was and has been true. You told me
that he is a tyrant that needed to be stopped—but that is not the
sole reason I killed him now. There are several others. For one, he
has never respected my thoughts and opinions, ever! For two, you
are my husband, and I will never have another! But the third and
main reason is that we can save Pavelus without the Duke’s men, and
make the Sharia Empire truly glorious!”

He said nothing, though his eyes squinted in
contemplation.

She added softly, after a short pause, “I
hope that you don’t think of me differently now, do you?”

He shook his head a bit to clear out the
shock, and then he answered, “I’m just incredibly surprised. What’s
to stop you from plunging a dagger into me?”

She breathed out a light laugh as she drew
near her husband, wrapped her arms around his waist, looked deep
into his eyes, and almost innocently said, “Just don’t be a tyrant,
is all.”

As he looked back into her eyes, he first
inhaled deeply. Upon release, he said, “No problem there.” He then
wrapped his arms around his wife, pulling her tightly into his
body.

A few moments later, as another thought
popped into his head, he asked, “So, where are we going to sleep? I
don’t think it wise to sleep in here with the balcony and
windows.”

“Hmmm?” she hummed as if she had awoken from
slumber.

He leaned back from the embrace, and asked,
“Where should we sleep?”

“Oh. I think it wise if we get a bedroom
without windows; that is, until we can have curtains made to block
out the light in here during the day. In fact, why don’t we just
get this whole room remodeled, my husband?”

He cocked his head to the side, smiled, and
then replied, “Good idea, my wife.”

Several moments later, still another question
formed in his mind, so he asked it, “Oh—where should we have my
bushes planted?”

“I’ll make sure they’re well taken care of
first thing in the morning, under guard of course. I’ll also ensure
that our cooks put the dried powder into a seasoning shaker.”

“You really do have everything covered, don’t
you?”

“Of course!” she replied with a giggle.

He affirmed, “I love you!”

“I love you too, my Sultan!”

After delivering a gentle kiss on his wife’s
lips, he called aloud, “Guards, you can come back in.”

The guards posted outside opened the double
doors, and allowed the two squads of guards to enter.

About twenty minutes later, Hawkins and
Glacius arrived. To make a long and dramatic story short, after
Brishava had ordered Glacius’s arrest, he pleaded for his freedom
stating he didn’t have any choice, but to follow the commands of
the Sultan! Brishava, in turn, promised that he would be allowed
trial at a later time, but that for now, he would be incarcerated
in the dungeon with maximum security. The guards, in turn, bound
him in handcuffs, and escorted the still-pleading Glacius to the
dungeon with Hawkins in the lead.

Soon after Baltor and Brishava had moved into
a guest bedroom without windows, she fell asleep upon his chest.
Though he stayed awake all night long until morning, he neither
minded, nor moved.

Come morning, just after Baltor had fallen
asleep, Brishava woke up, and six handmaidens dressed her up into
an elegant yellow dress that had small silky red embroidered
flowers hemmed chaotically abroad, from top to bottom. The girls
had finally pulled her hair into a tight weave that wrapped itself
back into the diamond-encrusted crown, which rested upon her
head.

Once done, she then entered the throne room
and took her place upon the throne. The Sultaness’ first decree
began with the order to plant the berry bushes into the botanical
gardens. She then ordered that these bushes be guarded on a
twenty-four-hour basis, and that only the cooks be allowed to enter
the area and pluck the berries, so that they could dry it into
powder, and then place that powder into their about-to-be Sultan’s
seasoning shaker.

Her second decree regarded the harem room on
the top floor of the palace, and the dozens of girls who resided
there. Her order was that the harem girls be given real jobs within
the palace, and new quarters with the other servants. As for the
harem room itself, Brishava stated that they would probably turn
this into a recreation room one day, but not for a while.

Her third decree regarded the coronation
ceremony that would be conducted for them both at eight-thirty that
night. She spent a little more than an hour giving all the
specifics she wanted for this “extremely important event” to the
Chief Foreman, whose name’s Jamar, a handsome-looking and
well-dressed man in his late twenties.

Just as Jamar was about to exit the throne
room to execute her orders, Brishava called out, “Jamar? Can you
please ensure that the invitations get sent out to all the nobles
of Pavelus, A.S.A.P.? Can you also please ensure that you do not
forget that the coronation ceremony is to be held at 8:30 p.m., for
which only the nobles are invited to attend the ritual? In
addition, don’t forget that the official welcoming of the new
Sultan and Sultaness commences at 9:30 p.m., for which all the
citizens of Pavelus will need to be notified so that they can
attend? Got it all?”