The New Guard (Crossroads Book 1) by Matthew M. Johns

Author:Matthew M. Johns [Johns, Matthew M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-06-09T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 19

Just south of Council Rock lay the hamlet of Ven, the true seat of power in the Seventh Kingdom. Here the people lived solitary lives, doing in public what must be done and then retreating to their homes. In the least assuming house, near the town’s storage silos, resided a small man of great girth. He was known by the townspeople as the Bean Counter, as it was his job to monitor the intake and outflow of the food silos. No one doubted his honesty, as nobody was left wanting and the castle proper just over the hill never sent complaints about the flow of food. However, people were not quite comfortable with him and were often polite, yet guarded, in his presence.

The townspeople didn’t know that he wasn’t a man or even a person. They didn’t know that the Bean Counter was a demon commonly known as the Manipulator (or called by his master, Falsifien). They didn’t even suspect that such a deception could occur. Neither did they know that the Manipulator fed them more than grain; the demon also served into their lives vices that kept them cloistered in their homes. These vices, fueled by lesser and greater demons, kept the people quiet and let the Manipulator do his true work of undermining the Seventh Kingdom.

Everywhere else in the Seventh Kingdom, the abundance of food was lessening and the coffers of the local lords were growing. The king’s spies reported that the lords were selling crops without reporting income and hoarding excessive quantities for themselves. Monies were entering the kingdom, but no taxes were being paid. The king sent out collectors to call out the local lords, but the landholders denied any wrongdoing. They provided faked ledgers, accused the gaeders of failing to maintain crops, and accused the Void’s forces of stripping fields. The cycle continued with Falsifien feeding Lord Avrant the truth and then making sure the local lords could provide irrefutable evidence to the counter.

Then the Sword Bearer arrived. Instead of becoming undone, Falsifien welcomed the challenge. The demon knew the Truth Wielder’s brood were to be the new rulers of the Crossroads and whispered as much to the king. The other lords were not given the truth; however, the story they were fed involved a threat to their position within the governance of the kingdom and their properties. To them, the Truth Blade represented an accounting of their actions that they could not falsify. The local lords acted predictably. Local garrisons were armed, bulked up with sell swords, and prepared for the eventualities of war. All, Falsifien smirked, orchestrated from an unassuming little house in the town of Ven.

*

A week passed. The remaining the council members had finally arrived. Council was now in full swing, but the lengthy bickering and observance of tradition seemed to multiply and the true purpose of the council was yet to be discussed. David, being a working man and not a politician, tried to quietly endure until he felt he was needed.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.