BOOK II OF III: The Reign of the Sultan (54 page)

Calitta laughed as she answered, “Ah, thank
you! But I am actually forty-five.”

“Wow,” Baltor said with a whole lot of
shock.

“Thank you,” Calitta smiled. She then asked,
“So how is your lovely wife?”

“She’s doing well,” Baltor answered. “Busy as
usual tending to all the diplomatic affairs of the Empire—I
typically handle the military affairs.”

“That’s good to hear, Sultan Elysian,” she
chimed. “I love it when a man and woman share their power
equally.”

“Me too,” he replied with a smile and a nod
to his head. After delivering one short bow, he did an about
face—the messenger led him back to the portal room.

This time, Baltor walked through the portal
alone.

Once back in the throne room, nearly two
minutes later, he saw that his wife wasn’t busy at the moment, and
so he said aloud, “My Sultaness, we have agreed to assist the
Kingdom of Thorium in their time of need…

“In return, Queen Calitta said of her own
accord that her kingdom would join under the banners of the Sharia
Empire once the Kamanite enemies are vanquished. She, having heard
the deal between King Cheo and us, wanted the same deal for
herself. I, having figured you would agree as well, did agree.”

Brishava returned the smile, and said, “Very
well done, my Sultan!”

“Thank you!”

By this time, Stormea and Tar arrived in the
throne room … both were nearly out of breath.

After saluting, Stormea asked, “Shadow Force,
my Sultan? What in the world are you talking about?”

Baltor laughed, and said, “Shortly after I
began my reign, myself, the Sultaness, and Ruling-General Humonus
established a ‘top secret special forces unit,’ otherwise known as
Shadow Force.

“Because I now implicitly trust both you and
General Tar, I feel the time has finally come to show you, my
Ruling-General Stormea. Therefore, prepare an armed escort to
accompany us to the Shadow Forces Guild, of which only myself and
your Sultaness know the location only a short distance away, and
then you’ll see.”

“Yes, my Sultan!” Stormea answered.

Within five minutes time, Baltor, Brishava,
Stormea, Tar, and a battalion of palace guards arrived at Rolsch’s
palace, which palace also contained the former thieves guild.
Rolsch had, nine years ago, accepted the invitation to become the
ambassador to the country of Linsa, and was currently in their land
on a diplomatic mission.

After they had all descended into the
basement, Stormea’s mouth dropped open upon seeing all the
black-uniformed troops training through the obstacle courses!

Hundreds of troops of varying ages from young
to middle-aged … even a few elderly were out there as well, he saw
with quite a bit of shock!

Tricia, who happened to be overseeing the
training, recognized Baltor, and immediately she began to approach.
After arriving near his location, she bowed, and sang happily,
“Greetings, my Sultan and Sultaness. How fare you this
evening?”

“Very well, Commanding-General Tricia,”
Baltor said with a smile. “Yourself?”

“Great, my Sultan!”

Getting immediately down to business, Baltor
declared, “The time has finally come for us to use the Shadow
Force! How many fully trained soldiers do we have that are ready
for combat?”

“We have exactly two thousand, five hundred
fifty-four, my Sultan,” Tricia proudly stated. “Additionally, we
have four hundred twenty-three students, and an assigned instructor
for each of them. None of these students or instructors shall be
coming with us.”

“Excellent,” Baltor said with a pleased
smile. “Have Shadow Force ready for deployment here within one
hour’s time. Understand?”

“Yes, my Sultan! I can speak for everyone
when I say that we have all been eagerly awaiting this news, in
that we shall finally have the opportunity to utilize our supreme
battle skills,” Tricia said with a smile.

“Thank you, General Tricia. Last but not
least, please give Ruling-General Stormea a tour of the place. Will
you, please?” Baltor asked with hope.

“Yes, my Sultan, with pride!” Tricia stated.
She then bowed, looked over at Stormea, snapped her salute, and
asked, “Are you ready, Ruling-General?”

Stormea returned the salute, while nodding
his head and saying, “Yes, Commanding-General Tricia. I am.”

“Very well, please follow me. I’m sure you’ll
be quite surprised to see just how enormous these training grounds
are!”

Stormea replied, “I already am!”

The two then went their way.

Brishava gave Baltor a kiss on the cheek and
said, “I know you’re going to get ready here, so I’ll just head
back to the palace. I’ve got some business of my own to tend
to.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too, Baltor,” she said, just
before giving him a kiss and leaving with the entourage of
troops.

By himself, he entered the wall-locker room,
and saw several assistants already getting his battle armor and
helmet out of his wall locker—he had two sets of battle armor.

An hour later, once Baltor was ready, Stormea
and Tricia entered the room.

After saluting, Stormea said with amazement
in his voice, “That was simply amazing! They fight almost as well
as you, my Sultan!”

Baltor smiled, and said, “This is where I
learned my martial arts skills, Ruling-General Stormea. And I
learned all mine from Ruling-General Humonus. Now, to keep with
business—Commanding-General Tricia, have the remainder of my Shadow
Forces arrived yet?”

“Yes, my Sultan,” was her crisp response.

The three then walked back out into the
training area, noting that it was completely filled with people
also donning armor similar to their Sultan’s. The one thing they
were equipped with, which Baltor was not, was a shield strapped to
his or her left or right forearm.

Baltor began his speech, “Shadow Forces of
the Sharia Empire! We are going to war, yet again. This time, we
shall be fighting against the barbaric Kamanites, whom fight and
kill without honor or compassion…

“Our battle plan is simple: to join with the
Thorium Forces inside their capital city through a teleportation
spell I will cast when I am done with this briefing. Once we have
all arrived at our destination, take a break. After all, it will
take some time to get everyone through.

“Yet once we are all there and I give the
word, shortly before sunset, we will head in a pyramid formation to
the city’s walls at the front gates, which is the only thing
keeping the Kamanites out. While they try to rush in, we—as a
single unit—will move our position onto the bridge. Do not worry
about the few Kamanites that get passed us, as they will be taken
care of by the soldiers of Thorium. I shall personally be leading
the assault! Is that understood, Shadow Forces?”

“Yes, my Sultan!” the troops declared with
passion and excitement.

“Good…” Baltor said. He turned around, drew a
teleport sigil into the air, and a large portal opened up. Looking
back over his shoulder, he called out, “Forces—follow the ruling
general in columns of three. Ruling-General Stormea, order the
soldiers to ‘march.”

Without another word, Baltor opened the
portal.

“Forward, march!”

With Stormea and Tricia in the lead, the
troops followed in columns of three.

All arrived inside the courtyard within
Politesse over the course of the next thirty minutes,
four-in-a-half hours before sunset.

Baltor ordered the troops, “Shadow Forces,
continue to remain at ease. We assume battle formation following
mine and Ruling-General Stormea’s return.”

The soldiers relaxed—the next thing Baltor
ordered was, “In case anything happens while I’m gone,
Commanding-General Tricia is in charge. Understood?”

“Yes, my Sultan!”

“Ruling-General,” Baltor said, “Follow
me.”

After responding, Stormea did as ordered,
following his leader into the throne room of Calitta’s palace,
which took twelve minutes of time to get there.

“Greetings, Queen Calitta,” Baltor said.

Calitta replied, “Greetings to you, Sultan
Baltor.”

Baltor declared, “In about an hour or so, I’m
going to need the city gates opened. I will let you know when I am
ready. I want to welcome the enemy, of who will most certainly
plunge in with all they have! They won’t be expecting my Shadow
Forces to be waiting inside the courtyard and coming out onto your
drawbridge, however. The few Kamanites that get through, have your
forces decimate, and we shall have a quick and easy victory, Queen
Calitta!”

“Very well, Sultan Baltor,” Calitta
responded.

With one final smile, Baltor and Stormea
exited for the courtyard, which took twelve minutes longer.

“Commanding-General Tricia,” Baltor called
out. “Assemble Shadow Force behind me in pyramid formation. We
march for the city gates now. Ruling-General Stormea, I would
suggest you stay in the rear of the formation, watch, listen, and
learn.”

“Yes my Sultan!” they yelled in turn. Tricia
assumed her place right behind and to the left of Baltor.

“Soldiers, forward march!”

Within twenty minutes, they arrived at the
city gates. Baltor next called out, “Open the city gates!”

As the gates began to slowly rumble open, the
highly surprised looks on the faces of the Kamanites could clearly
be seen on the other side. All were five-to-eight-foot tall,
donning dirty beards and dirty furs for clothes. All were armed
with sharp swords, axes and/or bow-and-arrows! Within seconds, tons
of animal horns began to blow outside the city gates.

After drawing out both swords and holding
them in the shape of an “x” over his head, Baltor called out,
“Remember your training and we shall win, no matter the
numbers.”

“Yes, my Sultan!”

The Kamanites, seeing their window of
opportunity, began rushing in … even though that shiny and
reflecting “x” they saw began to plague their minds! Despite their
suspicious fears, within thirty seconds time, battle was
engaged!

Wave after wave of Kamanite forces smashed
against the Shadow Forces shields and swords—and leading the
assault was Baltor himself, whose swords expertly spun in every
direction possible, taking three or four Kamanites every single
second!

Once the war was finally over, within five
hours time, and thirty percent of the Kamanite forces had fled,
Baltor had Tricia count out his own losses—one hundred thirty-five
of his own troops had died and four hundred injured—the Kamanites
had lost more than twelve thousand! Dead bodies were
everywhere.

“Victory,” Baltor yelled out.

“Victory!” everyone else cried back,
including every last Thoriumite.

For the next several days, Baltor and his
forces stayed and celebrated in Politesse—of course, Brishava was
able to arrive within the first hour, so they could all celebrate
together. Once the celebrating was over, every one of his or her
own accord was allowed to utilize the portal on his or her own this
one time.

Baltor and Brishava were the first two to
return home two days later, after Calitta had given them “a
wonderful tour of their equally-shared kingdom.”

Two months later, even Valakan united with
the Sharia Empire with Yaush as the governor—so only one last
independent nation remained upon the entire continent, which was
called the Fiefdom of Gargon. This nation was located at the
southeastern corner of the continent, and consisted of three minor
towns, and one major capital city.

When Lord-General Thorax Nimbi, the ruler of
Gargon, had heard word about the rebuilding of Chao-chu-sha-maen
five hundred miles to the north of his northernmost borders, he
immediately sent an ambassadorial convoy north to discuss peace and
trade between the two nations.

Cheo and Chelsea, who spoke on behalf of the
Sharia Empire, easily established that peace and trade.

From travelers near and far, Nimbi quickly
began to learn all about the legendary Sultan Baltor Elysian, and
the staggering reports that he had more than five hundred thousand
soldiers under his command…

Five years after the Kamanite War, Gargon
peacefully united with the Sharia Empire, and Nimbi’s title
willfully changed to governor.

Moreover, the Sharia Empire had additionally
created and fortified three brand new cities spread throughout the
continent, so that travel between all the cities became much easier
for all.

A year to the day later, the ambassador from
Valakan paid a visit to Pavelus, most unexpectedly, via one of the
dozen portal-mirrors. As soon as the guards had authenticated
him—they did this with everybody but their Sultan and Sultaness—a
couple of them escorted him to the throne room.

After entering, the ambassador noticed—with a
whole lot of surprise—that even though Baltor was nearing his
forty-fifth year of life, he still remarkably looked in his early
twenties, and had all of his powerful muscles.

As for Brishava, who the ambassador knew was
four years younger than her husband, the contours in her face had
definitely matured like a fine wine, but overall, her appearance
was still quite youthful and very-very-very beautiful.

Despite his surprise, the ambassador
gracefully bowed, rose from the bow, and declared with sadness in
his voice, “My Sultan and Sultaness—it is with great sadness that I
must inform you that something is seriously wrong with Governor
Yaush—he may be dying.”

The smiling faces of Baltor and Brishava
instantly contorted to looking both shocked and scared. A second
later, he looked over at his wife, and said with a whole lot of
concern, “Honey, I think we should make a trip to visit Yaush as
soon as possible. What do you think?”

“Yes, I totally agree, my love,” she answered
with a nod. Looking over at a few servants also standing nearby,
she ordered, “Servants, pack our belongings for two week’s time. We
depart for Valakan in one hour.”