A King's Caution by Brennan C. Adams

Author:Brennan C. Adams [Adams, Brennan C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dual Publishing LLC
Published: 2017-11-03T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

Most people assume the figure to hold the most power in the realm is the one who wears the crown. I laugh at those assumptions. The monarch may be the one to decide policy, but who are the ones to carry out those decisions? The monarch is the director of our puppet show, but we, the advisors and ministers, we’re the puppeteers who hold the strings.

-Pierdriel, Minister of Finance, Ada’ir

Once again, Eledis contemplated the problem of Raimie. Two years and he hadn’t devised a plan to kill the kid or at least, not one which ended with him alive afterward. Raimie was simply too well protected. He had his Hand, the five highly trained spies who stuck to him like flies to fruit whenever the kid allowed it, and his Eselan friend, Kheled, who was an inordinately powerful primeancer as well as a spectacular swordsman.

Sure, the Eselan was away more often than not, ranging Auden’s fringes in pursuit of his singular obsession to find the missing Dark Lord, but he frequently returned to the palace, and when he did, it was always at the most unexpected of times and places. Sometimes, he came through Uduli in a blaze of light, but others, they’d have no idea he was there until he wearily trudged into a meeting and sat down.

Of course, Eledis also had to consider the matter of Raimie’s primeancy. In the last two years, the kid had exponentially grown in strength. Towns destroyed by Harvest had been restored by his hand, and without batting an eye, he walked through shadows from one end of the kingdom to the other in an instant.

Eledis had thought perhaps he could use Raimie’s flagrant use of primeancy against him. Wielders of Ele and Daevetch were widely regarded with mistrust and hate because of Doldimar’s oppression, and he’d hoped the vast throng of commoners would turn against Raimie when they saw what he could do. The kid and his friends could render many threats harmless, but they’d have difficulty staying in one piece when under a mob’s care.

That plan had died with a whimper when Raimie’s first visible act as claimant to the Audish throne had been to destroy the pits, the second highest source of terror for the common man. They’d loved him for it, and he’d built on that adulation by insisting he address the most challenging of public works himself. With his service, the hearts and minds of the Audish populace had firmly yielded to Raimie’s control.

And so, Eledis was left to rely on Gistrick, the cowardly Zrelnach commander who insisted he could fix their problems via mysterious solution. The vague hope didn’t stop Eledis from scheming when he could.

Huffing irritably, he returned to his work. He currently struggled through a report regarding the state of Auden’s coffers. It was dismal reading at best. Eledis couldn’t understand what had driven Doldimar, but keeping the nation afloat had certainly not been his goal.

Thank Alouin for Kaedesa and the alliance with Ada’ir!

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