PROLOGUE
This is not about the traitor. The traitor who leaped from the roof where the meeting took place and took shelter in the hands of the enemy. Took shelter from the wrath of the Alliance, the very Alliance he once loved. Now his hatred for them was boundless, as was there's for him. Their hatred was as cold as shattering glass. This is not about the man, who, with his treachery, cracked the firm, sturdy, bonds of the Alliance and turned the peace to war.
This is not about the one who banished all hope.
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This is about the woman with blue skin and silver hair through the blood and the death and the killing on a black path that burned behind her. Who rode straight into the very inner circle of the Alliance and shocked everyone, broke all the rules, opened their eyes and said,
“This is it.”
THE EPIC OF KEERTANA
Or
PARAVAI TUROKI
Book One: The Book of the Koru
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Chapter One
Sahathor and the King
In the days of Taj's eye, the land was split up three ways.
The first section to the Té, who chanted spells over the soil and made things grow, turning this new land to a place of beauty and greenery.
The second went to the Shi'i, intoning their enchantments as the gazed out over the distant hills.
And the third went to the Koru, who grimly sharpened their weapons and proceeded to build two walls, both impossible to be penetrated.
The first, surrounding the palace.
The second, surrounding the mind of the King, ensuring that he would have nothing to do with the land of the Shi'i and the land of the Té. Ever. Which meant that the land of Koru would have nothing to do with the Shi'i and the Té. Ever.
In a sense, the second wall was the more difficult to construct, but it was eventually achieved, mainly by a man called Sahathor. As the King's chief adviser, it was easy for Sahathor to plant any sort of idea into the his head. This one had proved harder; the King was maddeningly reluctant.
Saha (as the King called him) had started on the King shortly after the start of winter. The air was slightly chilly in the palace and the floors of stone were cold. Saha could feel the chill seeping up through the thin fabric of his slippers on his way to his meeting with the King. When he reached the conference room, the King of Koru was already sitting at one end of the great table, his straight-backed chair making his posture stiffly erect.
His Majesty Birendra was an older man. His dark hair had long begun to turn grey, but his eyes remained sharp and ever-alert, darting back and forth like the little silver fish in the pond behind the palace. Today he was dressed in rich orange robes sewn with thick silver thread and a marble-sized ruby as the button, along with crimson pants of the same velvety material and, lastly, his liver circlet. There were tiny, glittering garnets inlaid in the surface. Catching the sun from the windows set high in the wall, the garnets sparkled in Sahathor's eyes, making him squint slightly. He bowed respectfully, touching his forehead to the floor.
"Saha." The King's voice was low and quiet. "Saha, my friend. Please sit and we will discuss this...problem you think has arisen.
"Your Majesty," he murmured politely in reply, then rose and sat down in the chair that faced the King directly.
Sahathor was a rather blunt man. He had decided it was best to just start on the wall right away: this was going to take him a while and he knew it.
"Your Highness Birendra," he began. "I've been thinking and I've realized that the neighboring lands of the Té and the Shi'i potentially pose a threat to you and your people. To Koru."
The King's eyebrows had shot up.
Sahathor pushed on relentlessly. "Everyone knows that both are strong in sorcery, and although the Té use their magic for growing useless plants, they are as strong as the Shi'i in a sense. But we have the power. We have the weapons, the armies, the organization. Which makes us dangerous, and they know it. If the Shi'i and Té made and alliance, it would be to finish us. And do you know how they would do that?" He paused. "By gaining our trust. To the point that we were foolish and unwary. Being unusually generous in trading, pretending THEY were the ones in an alliance with US."
He stared at Birendra.
"Trust will be your downfall. Trust is everyone's downfall, in the end. Trust nothing, Birendra. Trust nothing and nobody and you are safe.
"You need to see how dangerous this situation is. What it could turn into. Right now it's in the kingdom's best interest to have nothing to do with our neighbors. Nothing."
I have more, but I'll post it later. I need a break from typing.
I just realized: I wrote liver instead of silver. Sorry! :D
ReplyDeleteI wrote liver instead of silver...sorry. :)
ReplyDeleteoh whoops. said that already.
ReplyDeletesorry again!
YES YES YES YES YES YES YES!!!!!!!!!!!!
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