The Gypsy Queen (48 page)

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  “King Bastion!” Nico came running up. “I must see you at once!” Bastion had been sitting at the gypsy fire as evening set in, ignoring his duties in the city.

  “Speak,” Bastion said.

  “No Sire,” he said, “please, come with me.” Bastion came without hesitation. Something was clearly wrong. They got by themselves, outside the meadow camps.

  “There is an army moving on the city,” Nico said.

  “An army? Where?” Bastion said, feeling his pulse quicken.

  “Five or six miles south. Moldavians from Kaffa.”

  “How did they get so close without our knowing?” Bastion said.

  “They must have moved fast,” Nico said. “Sire, there are gypsies in their army.”

  “Gypsies?” Bastion said.

  “They are slaves. They have many slaves in the army. They probably promised them freedom if they fight against
Jedikai
.”

  “How many?” Bastion demanded.

  “Hundreds,” Nico said. “Maybe thousands.”

  Emilee and her friends came running up.

  “What is it, Captain?” she asked. Nico, the Captain, and Bastion, the former Captain, answered her together.

“A fight.”

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  Draiman sat with
Yana
. He was restless, and was encouraging her to drink, pretending to drink with her. Tonight was the night, and Otta would be here soon. If he did not get any more information, he would have to go with Otta to join their army. Draiman did not want to fight in the army, however. He wanted Bastion’s head.

 
Yana
was rambling, complaining about Bastion, gypsies,
gaje
, leaving the
kingdom
, and anything else that popped into her drunken mind. Draiman found her to be a tedious and annoying drunk. He was losing patience, and running out of time.

  “They close those city gates now,” Draiman said, leading the subject. “Bastion does that to keep you out.”

  “Some King, afraid of a gypsy girl like me!”
Yana
laughed sloppily.

  “I don’t know how he even gets out at night,” Draiman said. “He must climb over a wall like an idiot,” he mocked the King.

  “Oh no he doesn’t,”
Yana
said. “There’s a passage in the mountain.”

  “No there isn’t, that is ridiculous. You are drunk,” Draiman said.

  “I might be drunk, but there sure as hell
is
a passage.”

  “I doubt it.”

  “It’s right over there, you horse’s ass! It’s not even very far from here!” she said.

  “I don’t see it,” he said, looking out towards the mountainside.

  “Stupid. It’s down there,” she pointed. “There are two huge rocks in front of a pixie tree. You just follow the little valley inward.”

  “That is weak,” Draiman said. “I always knew they were a bunch of cowards.”

  “Maybe,”
Yana
said, “but he sure beat your ass today!”  Draiman was enraged, and almost struck her right there... but thought better of it.

  “Yeah, he sure did, didn’t he?” Draiman said, staying friendly. “Listen, you better lie down,” he said. He helped her up, as she stumbled about. She grabbed up her old bow, and the fresh arrows from the city.

  “No!” she said. “I want to go to my camp.”

  “Your camp? Don’t you want to ride out with us tomorrow?”

  “Noooo,” she slurred. “I want to go home.”

  “Come on then, I’ll take you to your camp,” Draiman said, leading her towards his wagon.

  “Thanks Draiman,” she slurred again. He got her to the entrance of his wagon, and punched her in the face, knocking her out. That felt good. When this was over, he would make sure to do it as often as he pleased.

  He tossed her limp form into his wagon, and climbed in after her. He locked shackles around both of her wrists, the other side of the chain bolted to the wagon.

  “Now you just sit tight,” Draiman said. “Don’t worry. I will teach you suffering that will make you forget all about ol’ Bastion.” He laughed.

  “In fact, after I kill him, you’ll never have to think of him again.”

______________________

The Gypsy Queen- CHAPTER 28- “Treason”

  “Otta!” Draiman said, greeting him with haste. “It’s time to move!”

  “I gave the order for the gates to open,” he said. “They will open at four bells.”

  “Well done, King Otta!”

  “Enough with that,” Otta chided him. “There’s a battle to be fought tonight, and you better be ready.”

  “We are ready,” Draiman said. “You have to get down to Degonyat’s army right away.”

  “What? No. I have to go back into the city,” Otta replied.

  “No way. Degonyat has demanded that you go there directly. Now. He has not met you, and does not trust you. If he decides to work with you, he will help you get into the city and set up the agreement for you to be King.”

  “I can’t go,” Otta insisted.

  “You
will
go,” Draiman said, “or else my men and I have orders to kill you where you stand.” Otta looked back at the city, and the things that were about to go horribly wrong. He realized that he himself would probably die on this night. Or, he would get everything he wanted. He was glad he had come out to this campsite prepared.

  “I will go,” Otta said, “but there’s going to be a real mess to clean up tomorrow.”

  “You’ll be King,” Draiman said. “You can do whatever you want. The army is about five miles, right between those two peaks,” Draiman said, pointing. “We will follow, and be there an hour behind you.”

  Otta turned to go, and then stopped. “Hey, what’s going to happen to all the gypsies out here in the west meadows, after the fight is over?” he asked. Draiman smiled.

  “We’ll take a few girls as slave
s,” Draiman said, “and kill or sell
the rest.” Otta walked away with a sick feeling in his stomach. He saw
Yana
’s arrows scattered in the dirt, as he departed. He hoped she had left- he liked
Yana
.

  And he had not ordered for the city gates to be opened at all.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  “Assemble all the black riders immediately, and meet me down by that grove of trees down there,” Bastion said, pointing. “Alert Otta to close the city gates and keep them closed. No horses.”

  “Yes, Sire,” Nico said, and sprinted back toward the city.

  “Emilee, gather any gypsy who wishes to fight for the
kingdom
, and bring them all to that grove, as fast as you can. I have an idea.”

  “Yes, Captain,” she said.

  “Fast, Emilee. How fast can you go?” Bastion challenged her. Emilee tore off at a speed he thought only great cats were capable of.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Draiman watched Otta hurry towards the awaiting army. He was excited about the night, but he did not trust Otta any more than Otta trusted him. If Degonyat didn’t like him, he would kill him on the spot, and there would be no King at all. He had no intention, however, of going to join the army from Kaffa. Nor would he storm the open gates at four bells. He had his own plan, and it involved the only two things he wanted right now.

  Killing Bastion, and stealing
Yana
.

He wanted to kill
Yana
, but he thought he might enjoy hearing her beg for her life a while. He touched his face, badly bruised from the day’s fight, feeding his fury.

  “Gunari, come with me,” Draiman ordered.

  “Where are we going?” Gunari replied.

  “We are going to the King’s passage,” Draiman said. “The King is going to come out of that passage, and we are going to give him a sharp welcome.” He brandished his sword.

  “The rest of you, make ready. When the army moves in, I want you to clear these meadows. Take whatever slave girls or children you want, and kill every other gypsy in the meadow, as fast as you can. Then go north of the Dneister river to the spot where we camp. If I am not with you, take my wagon and I will meet you there.”

  Draiman and Gunari followed the direction that
Yana
had foolishly offered. They found the boulders, and the pixie tree, and followed the valley as the walls steepened and narrowed, revealing the entrance, behind some kind of door of bushes. He was about to light a torch and enter, to get a feel for where he could best ambush Bastion, when he heard some noise coming towards them. He grabbed his friend and jerked them out of the way, leaping over some foliage, and laid quiet.

  Black riders emerged from the entrance. Draiman couldn’t see well, in the light, but there seemed to be more than he would have guessed. Twenty? Forty? No way to tell. He sneered, as he watched them go straight to their certain doom. A small group of assassins was no match for an army.

Draiman waited a while, before daring to explore the King’s passage.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

  Bastion awaited in the grove he had chosen, in the dark, and it was not a long wait. The black riders were upon him so swiftly and sil
ently that Bastion was amazed
.

  “I can see you have trained well,” he told them all, as they emerged from the shadows. Nico pulled his hood back.

  “I learned from you, my King,” Nico said.

  “And I learned from Otta,” Bastion said. “Did you find him, Nico?”

  “He was nowhere to be found,” Nico said. “I alerted the gatekeepers to keep the gates shut, and for the regulars to garrison your towers in case of a siege.”

  “Outstanding,” Bastion said.

  “Oh, and I brought you a gift,” Nico said. He tossed him a pitch-black cloak, and Bastion put it on effortlessly. Nico handed him his sword, and a dagger. Bastion suited up. Seeing King Bastion well-armed and wearing black was an inspiration for every man in the grove.

  “Thank you, Captain. You boys re
ady to set some captives free
?” Bastion said.

  “We are ready, Sire,” Nico said, full of pride. This was his friend, the man he knew, doing his business. Defending the
kingdom
like no one else could.

  Emilee and the gypsy fighters that accompanied her entered the grove quickly, at that moment, causing the black riders who were not expecting them to bristle for a fight.

  “Captain
!” Emilee said. “We are ready.” Bastion looked at them. There were only six, and they were children. All wearing black.

  “No one else has come?” Bastion said.

  “They were all afraid,” Emilee said. “They do not want to face an army.”

  “And you do?” Bastion said.

  “We want to fight for the people of
Jedikai
,” Emilee said. “We want to serve and fight under you.” Bastion looked in each of their faces. Dimmie, the young boy, Emilee, the wolf killer. Jaelle, Kizzy, and Nadya. Luba, the fortune teller and healer.

  “Gypsies,” Bastion said. “Will you take the charge to serve as black riders, under Nico’s command?”

  “Aye,” they all said without hesitation.

  “You understand that each of us will sell our own lives dearly for this cause, and that each of us could die in battle?”

  “Aye,” they said. Bastion was pleased. Nathaniel had trained them well, and Bastion admired their fortitude. They were armed, too.

  “Very well then,” Bastion said. “You are the gypsy branch of the black riders, and Emilee
is Commander of the team
.” He looked at Emilee, as she beamed from the order.

  “We are going to turn this army against itself.”

  “No one has seen Otta?” Nico asked everyone present.

  “Captain, I think I saw him tonight,” Dimmie said.

  “Where?”

  “Well, I am not sure it was him, since it was near dark, but it wasn’t a gypsy.”

  “Where did he go?” Nico demanded. Dimmie pointed the direction. It was exactly where Nico knew the army to be. He looked at Bastion.

  “If Otta has conspired with our enemy,” Bastion said, “he will be guilty of high treason. If he is found in the enemy camp, do not kill him. Capture him.”