Portals of Infinity: Book Four: The Sea of Grass Read online

  The rest of the trip back progressed rather well, Goth started to talk to Peers and Joe the next evening and rarely stuttered anymore. She asked questions about what Hiland was like, what Feliogustus was like, what the Corporals did when I wouldn't go into any details about what I did. We reached Rivervail after more than a week of travel and spent both the afternoon and evening there at the local garrison. Goth was surprised to find out it wasn't the main Hiland city. I told her we'd be there in a few more days, and that there was a small town between the two that we would also stop at.

  I took her out and bought her new clothes, a brush for her hair, and another for her fur. After almost a week of real food, she was starting to look a lot better than she had when I first saw her, but I suspected it would be weeks, if not months, before she looked like a normal healthy child should look.

  When we got back to Hiland I took her with me to the castle, Rachel met me at the door and we embraced and kissed. I smiled at her, and looked her over; I always did whenever we'd been apart for any length of time. I still couldn't believe I was married to her.

  "So how did it go?" She asked.

  "About as expected."

  "Who is your new friend?" She asked curiously, looking at Goth who was standing behind me, holding on to my tail and looking a bit nervous.

  "One of the unexpected things," I said softly, then took a step back so Rachel could see her. "Goth, this is Queen Rachel, she is the ruler of the country, and my wife. Rachel, this is Goth."

  Goth looked a little nervous and made a little curtsey like gesture that I'd seen other women do when meeting someone important.

  "Goth, welcome to Hiland. What brings you to my country?"

  "H...He does," She said and pointed at me.

  "I rescued her," I said kneeling down and giving Goth a hug and looking up at Rachel. "She doesn't have any family anymore. I was hoping to find her a new one."

  "Hi William!"

  I looked up; it was Jeeza, our master builder.

  "Jeeza, what brings you here?" I asked standing up and touching palms.

  "Talking with her Highness about the river dam project. I couldn't help but overhear your problem." Jezza walked over to Goth and squatted down to her level. "Hello, Goth. You know, I have a daughter your age, as well as a younger one. Want to come to my house for dinner and meet them?"

  Goth looked at me, and then looked back at Jeeza.

  "I could bring you by myself, Goth," I told her. "Wouldn't you like to meet some girls your own age?"

  Goth nodded slowly.

  "Fine, it's settled, Will and I will bring Goth and come by for dinner tonight Jeeza," Rachel said smiling, and Jeeza suddenly looked a little panicked, "Umm, Your Highness, on such short notice...."

  "Jeeza, just tell your wife you invited a couple over to visit, don't tell her you invited the queen," Rachel laughed, "I'd rather have a regular meal, than a fancy one. This isn't an official visit after all."

  Jeeza nodded and smiled, perhaps a little weakly. "She's going to kill me when you show up you know."

  "I'll be sure to pardon you before we leave then," Rachel said. "Now, let's go inside, Will, Goth. We'll see you later, Jeeza."

  Jeeza nodded and left, and I followed Rachel inside, with Goth still holding my tail as she followed.

  Once inside, one of the maids took Goth in hand and took her to the bathroom to get her cleaned up for dinner while Rachel and I spent a little time cleaning each other up. I think the maids didn't like not being able to help, but personal time was hard to come by for the two of us sometimes, so we took what we could. I related Goth's story while we helped wash each other's fur.

  "That's sad about her mother," Rachel told me as we were drying off, "but she'd probably already written her daughter off as dead. Maybe if she'd seen her she would have connected with her again. After hitting bottom as a slave, being a rich male's sex toy was probably an improvement for her."

  I shook my head, "I don't get it."

  Rachel shrugged. "Some people are always willing to do as they're told, if it means safety and security."

  "But she's a slave now, sooner or later, he's going to sell her."

  Rachel nodded, "Probably. But it was her choice, and she made it, so it's not your concern anymore."

  "Still," I started.

  "William?"

  "Yes?"

  "Shut up," she said and poked me in the chest with a finger.

  "Yes ma'am!"

  "That's 'yes, Your majesty'."

  "Yes, Your Majesty," I purred.

  "Bett... Eeek!" She jumped as I pinched her.

  "I know where you sleep buster," she grumbled at me, but she was smiling.

  "And I can't wait to meet you there," I rumbled deep in my chest.

  "Damn, too bad we have to go out for dinner..." Rachel sighed.

  Dinner at Jeeza's house was rather good. Jeeza's wife Sara was rather shocked when Rachel showed up, and apologized profusely for not having expected the Queen for dinner. But Rachel put her at ease rather quickly, and Sara moved on rather quickly as well once Rachel told her not to worry. She did shoot her husband a few nasty looks however, and he definitely looked guilty.

  Goth and Jeeza's daughters got along rather well, Jeeza's oldest, Mara, was a rather friendly and engaging young girl. Sara also liked Goth, and Goth liked her as well.

  When Jeeza asked Goth if she would like to stay the night, she looked torn.

  "Goth, stay the night, its okay." I told her, "I'll be in town for a few weeks; I'll come by and visit okay? Jeeza knows where I live; it's not very far away."

  "O... Okay," Goth nodded, I could see she was having a hard time choosing, here was a family with children her own age, but I was the one who had saved her. However, I think Rachel being the queen intimidated her a little, and she knew I lived with Rachel.

  I smiled and gave her a hug, "I'll stop by tomorrow afternoon, and we can talk. Okay?"

  Goth nodded.

  We said our goodbyes not long after that and headed back to the castle. I felt a bit better about things with Goth staying with Jezza's family. She was still a pretty fragile girl after what had been done to her, and neither Rachel nor I had the time to spend helping her cope. I just hoped that whatever damage had been done could be healed.

  "Ah William, you're back!" General Holse said as I entered the council chamber with Rachel the next morning. "How was Barassa?"

  "Well fortified, with a large army," I said, and walking in I took my seat next to Rachel after she had sat down. "I don't see us moving on it for years, if ever."

  Holse nodded and the others nodded as well.

  "I hear that they're a bit short on money these days," Rigel, a new member of the council asked looking up at me. His position was a new one; it was his job to gather intelligence on our neighbors. "Is that true?"

  I nodded. "Three of the four slave markets were barely in business. With many of the neighboring kingdoms having cut back on trade, they don't have enough slaves to export to the foreign kingdoms that sail into their ports."

  "I'm sure our eastern border's increase in troops and security hasn't helped them either," Holse said with a laugh. "We've taken away a good third of their source for new slaves."

  "Which means if they're short on money, it will be harder for them to pay for troops to come up here and attack us," Rachel said and everyone turned to nod at their queen.

  "So with our biggest threat held at bay for now, what are your plans, your Highness?" Councilor Ceras asked. He was Wreth's replacement.

  "I want to push forward on Diament's project," Rachel said looking at the others. "That will be our first priority, if we can turn those grasslands to the northeast into fertile farmland, we can not only support a much larger population, but we can sell off the excess to our neighbors.

  "Second is to continue developing our army, now that we have replaced all that we lost in the last war."

  "Your Highness! What about ship building?" Sorin our port mas
ter asked.

  "I will let you start one ship this year, and it had better not be a big one. We're not equipped to compete on the seas with anyone right now."

  "Yes your Highness," he said bobbing his head up and down. I could tell he was pretty happy to finally be allowed to build something. Up to now only our merchants had been doing any ship building.

  "What about our relations with King Ruusolf?" Shellia, the foreign minister asked.

  "What about them?" Rachel asked leaning back in her chair.

  "He sent another request asking for a royal visit."

  Rachel nodded, "King Ruusolf is weak right now, after last year's battle with those troops that came up out of Barassa, Marland is in danger of falling apart, and if it does many of those pieces will end up annexed into our lands." Rachel stopped and looked around at the other councilors. "If Ruusolf wants our help, he can come to us and ask for it. Let him know that the invitation stands. My traveling to Marland would probably invite an attack from Stivik while I was there.

  "Ruusolf has sat on the fence too long, it is time for him to pick a side, and I want to see which one that is. If he picks Barassa, we will be relieving him of all those troublesome provinces of his that lie on our border. If he picks ours, we will make him an ally."

  "Are you sure about that, Your Highness?" Shellia asked surprised. Obviously she hadn't heard this strategy before.

  Rachel nodded, "Marland has survived this long by playing off the neighboring kingdoms and city states against each other. Well that strategy won't work here, and I'm not going to play into it. He takes a stand, or he loses everything. He picks us, or he loses half of everything. He's smart enough to see the options on the table, so now it's time he understands that I see them too."

  Shellia ducked her head in a nod, ears flicking. "Yes your Highness."

  "Now, I believe Brandt has our interior reports?" Rachel said turning to the councilor who had replaced Diament after his death defending Rachel's and my son.

  He nodded and started in on reviewing our food stores, farm status, and the conditions of each of Hiland's cities, and several of the smaller projects that were currently ongoing. I didn't pay too much attention to it; I was mainly here just to growl at anyone Rachel wanted me to growl at, and to help represent any of Fel's interests, along with Narasamman, the high priestess who also sat on the council.

  When the council adjourned Rigel came over to me as the other councilors were leaving.

  "Will, a moment if I may?" he asked.

  "Sure, Councilor Rigel," I said as Rachel was still discussing something with Drea, the mayor of Rivervail, and her aunt Reese who was the mayor of Hiland city.

  "Please, just call me Rigel," he said and I nodded. "Other than the slave markets doing so poorly, what did you see about the other markets?"

  "They seemed to be doing okay, though I did hear more than a few people complaining about the lack of better goods, as well as prices being higher than they were used to. Why do you ask?"

  He nodded, "A moment, what about the troops you saw? How did they look?"

  I shrugged, "They looked fairly normal, nothing different."

  "What about their morale?"

  "Seemed okay to me, though I didn't really speak to any of them."

  "And the condition of the city?"

  I thought a moment, "Well I did notice that some of the defenses were in need of repair, and not all of the guard posts were manned. Also some of the larger projects looked like they were on hold. Why do you ask?"

  At this point Rachel came over, "Yes, Rigel, why do you ask?"

  He bowed, "Your Highness, as you observed earlier if King Stivik can't afford to pay his armies to attack us, then he won't. But consider this, Barassa's money almost exclusively comes from the slave trade, it is the prime source of cash for the king. Now what happens if he no longer gets enough money to pay for all the things he must have?"

  I thought about that as I watched Rachel consider it. I knew back where I grew up the first things cut were always the police and the military. Because people might revolt if you cut their bread and circuses.

  "He'll be forced to cut his army back, and probably the city guard. As well as any new building and possibly even repairs." Rachel said looking at Rigel.

  He nodded, "And if the crown is short of money, the people are sure to be short of money as well. Which means levies and taxes are increased, making the people less well off, and less satisfied with their ruler."

  "So what does that mean to us?" I asked curious as to where he was going with this.

  "Well in the short term, it means that as our queen here noted, we won't be seeing any serious attacks from King Stivik's armies."

  "And in the long term?" Rachel asked.

  "In the long run, it means that the size and quality of his armies decrease. At first he'll probably cut the guard and raise taxes. Criminals will take advantage of the lower number of guards, crime will rise, and the people will start to get upset. So he'll have to cut his armies even further to prop up the city guard to restore order and keep his throne.

  "Less trade will mean spiking prices, lower standard of living, and less money for the people to buy things, which means, less traders coming to the city, followed by shortages, and lower tax revenues."

  "Well that sounds good for us," Rachel said nodding.

  "Well yes it does, however there is a bit of a problem," Rigel said.

  "And that would be?"

  "Well, in order for this to happen, Barassa's slave trade would have to continue to diminish, and other traders would have to decide that it wasn't worth selling their wares there as well." He looked at Rachel and me, "This is all just a theory of mine, but I do think if the slave trade doesn't recover, Barassa's power will wither away over time."

  I looked at Rachel and she looked back at me and smiled.

  "I think I know how to keep Barassa's slave trade from returning to its former levels," Rachel said. "How long do you think it would take for it to have a major impact on their kingdom?"

  Rigel shrugged, "A few years at least. Probably three or four. But they do have a reputation for being a major slave trading area, and most of their sales are by sea."

  "Yes, but they can't sell, what they don't have, now can they?" Rachel purred. "Thank you for your insights, Rigel, continue to look into this, I may have more questions later."

  Rigel looked rather pleased and bowed rather low, his ears perked in excitement, "Thank you, My Queen," he said and then took his leave.

  I looked at Rachel, "Obviously this involves me, doesn't it?" I sighed with a smile as we started walking down the hall.

  "Oh, obviously. I think I just found a new use for that 'cavalry' you have been spending all of my money on."

  "So an embargo then?" I asked.

  "What's an 'embargo'?" She asked mouthing the unfamiliar word.

  "You block someone from trading with anyone else."

  "Oh, I'm not going to block them from trading," She smiled her tail giving a vicious slash behind her. "I'm just going to make sure that there aren't any slaves ending up there." She paused a moment in thought, "And maybe discourage a few of the merchants from wanting to do business there as well. We can't blockade their ports, so we won't even try. But all of their slaves come from the continent, and we can block those."

  "Well, we can try," I said thinking about it.

  Rachel stopped and turned to look at me, "William," she said turning all queen for a moment and looking me dead in the eyes. I'd seen her do this before, but she'd never done this to me before. "You will do this. I will not accept anything less."

  I bristled a bit and glared back at her, "You won't?"

  She smiled rather slowly and seductively at me. "William, as your queen, I expect this of you. And as your woman, I demand it of you." She turned away from me and flicked her tail in the air rather playfully, continuing down the hall. "Are we clear on this?"

  I sighed and nodded as I followed, "Witch." />
  "You knew that when you married me," she said rather smugly.

  I just shook my head, because she was right, I did. I just should have realized that one of these days she was going to start ordering me around. I knew her well enough now to know that when she really wanted something, there was no dissuading her, like probably every other queen that had ever existed anywhere, she took stubborn to the extreme.

  It was late, and I was asleep, and Fel had obviously decided I didn't have enough on my plate.

  "Hi, Fel," I said smiling. To be honest, it was nice to see him, we hadn't talked in weeks.

  "So, I see Rachel finally lowered the boom on you," Fel laughed.

  I shrugged, "She has a point, if we block the slave trade to Barassa the kingdom will slowly start to collapse."

  Fel nodded, "It is a good start, attacking a country's trade always throws off their economy, and Barassa has grown way too dependent on slavery. They've focused on that for so long now, they're not really set up for anything else, and because they've come to rely on slaves as the prime workforce, their own citizens will be hesitant to pick up the work themselves."

  "So why am I here tonight? Do you want me to do this as well?"

  Fel shook his head, "No, that is Rachel's job as queen. If you weren't her husband you probably wouldn't be involved in it.

  "No, I have something else I need you to take care of for me, and it's important, so I need you to deal with it in the morning."

  I sat up, I loved Rachel, but Fel was my first responsibility.

  Fel smiled and gave me a nod, he could read my thoughts, so he knew he had my full attention now.

  "As you know, I sent out two missionaries last month to relieve the ones I sent out last year."

  I remembered the first two he had Narasamman send out. Neither one did well with the people, so they were called back to be replaced. Before they got beat to death I suspected.

  "These last two didn't get along?" I asked curious.

  "Oh they got along. They got along rather well. Problem is, they're dead." Fel grumbled.

  I blinked surprised. "How'd that happen?"