The Last Guardian by Shane Johnson

Author:Shane Johnson [Johnson, Shane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-77995-3
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2011-04-13T00:00:00+00:00

17

Far from Luracayn, in another place, another country, President Shass was not considered a miracle man, nor blessed, nor chosen.

An older, strapping, slightly balding man, Victus Torboul sat alone in his darkened office, hunched over the heavy wooden desk he had come to know so well. Exotic hand weapons and huge murals of great military battles, bathed in the focused light of ceiling-mounted fixtures, surrounded him, silently fueling the inspired pride he felt for those victories. Immense stone portraits of past leaders, carved into the walls millennia before, stared from the shadows with unseeing eyes at the man as he bore the burden of his office.

Mounted on the wall above him, huge silver wings were spread wide, the insignia of the most powerful man in all of Sethii. He had fought hard to gain those wings, and he had fought even harder to keep them.

Torboul had been Sethii’s unquestioned ruler for almost seven decades. Under his leadership, the country’s military had grown stronger and its borders had become more secure than at any time in its history. The wealthy had prospered, bringing him the support necessary for political survival, yet he had gained many enemies as well. Dozens of attempts had been made on his life, both by those who wanted his position and by those who wanted his country—all of them falling short. He had been the Sethiic leader for longer than any other man, and he had built a tremendous political machine around himself in the process. His protection was impeccable, his men among the most loyal on the planet.

That night, Grand Premier Torboul sat looking over the thick pile of documents he would sign in the morning. Things were working well in Sethii, and the last thing he wanted was to have to answer to a single world leader.

“Drosha has chosen him,” some people had insisted, looking on in amazement as the miracle man, via the media, declared that under his leadership the entire globe would thrive.

The former ruler of the neighboring country of Kamir, King Daricis, had died only days before under mysterious circumstances, leaving his underlings to founder in a flood of indecision and fear. The tiny, financially struggling monarchy, suddenly without direction, had bowed to the pressure Luracayn was exerting, giving its support to Paull Shass and his one-world movement. Sethii would not make the same mistake, not while Torboul was in charge of things. His vision for his nation left no room for shared power.

The newly created proclamation that he held before him, once ratified and made law, would ensure that the government of Sethii would continue to function as an independent entity. He had labored on it for months, ever since Shass had intensified his unified-world campaign with persistent innuendo that military “persuasion” of the other nations was not out of the question.

Torboul hoped, despite the audacious man’s bravado, that Sethii’s armed force was such that even the mighty Luracayn would not risk an attack, not when the backlash would be so severe.

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