Shearing Season

— Leonardo Odemira, King of Lavradio —

The outburst was as shocking as the disconnect was abrupt. The meeting had been somewhat informal, but that was no reason for Taylor to think he could click off so rudely.

Jorgo sneered victoriously. "He'll be back, and we'll get improved terms."

Prince Estevan was pale. Mother had that appraising look she wore when she was judging people. The queen pursed her lips in disapproval.

"I don't think he will," said Estevan, "he's done with us. There's no reason for him to talk to us now."

Jorgo straightened the pages in front of him. "Because of one little comment? He shouldn't take things so personally. It shows how unprepared he is to negotiate at this level."

"Or it shows how unprepared you are to negotiate with him. He didn't take you personally; he took you literally. This family already killed him once, and he didn't stay dead. He's a powerful disciple. Do these facts not add up to anything for you?"

"He'll be back," repeated Jorgo, but less sure this time.

"You think he's sitting in a corner, sulking. I promise you he's not. He's deciding if he should send the nearest cadre to rescue Gonzo or if he should come here himself. You've never seen him when one of his people goes missing. He's probably debating how much of the palace to tear down when he gets here."

Leonardo thought his younger brother was too alarmist. Maybe he was too close to the so-called Eldest Brother. "He wouldn't," he said, "it would damage our future relationship."

"You're holding his friend hostage over a few goods. That's not a good relationship. Why would he want to keep it?"

"That was Jorgo being difficult."

"He was speaking for you." Estevan made a sign of impatience. "Why won't you take this seriously?"

Why wasn't he? Jorgo had been with him since they were children, destined from a young age to serve the future king for the rest of his life. He had taken pride in serving a royal. Sometimes, that pride led him to push others down harder than he had to. Occasionally it was a problem, and a correction was required. Sometimes, the problems were expensive to fix. Vanni seemed to think this was one of the expensive times.

Leo had been king for only half a year, but this scene had become familiar. Jorgo had a special contempt for commoners and merchants, and Leo had fielded complaints about his secretary from all quarters. Recently, the palace had acquired a bevy of noble go-betweens to insulate the king's ministers from the contemptible mercantile class. These nobles needed payment for their time, and the palace's costs had risen accordingly. Leo didn't know the extent of the problem until Estevan had shoved an auditor's report into his face and made him read it over breakfast. Higher prices. Longer lead times. Other knock-on effects, none of which were good. The only beneficiaries of the new regime were noble middlemen who rented access. And Jorgo, who didn't have to see his least favorite people swanning around the palace like they belonged there.

"Our king doesn't bow to foreign upstarts," said Jorgo with a smile that savored, like he always did, the consummation of an act of petty bullying.

"Enough, Jorgo. Be quiet and take notes."

Leonardo tried to think. How worried should he be? "How sure are we he died? How do we know he wasn't faking it, and Inez let him escape?"

"Multiple people handled the body," said the dowager queen. "By the time Inez took him away, he was growing cold. And there's precedent in scripture for disciples coming back from the dead."

"More recently than scripture," said Queen Farava. As a First Family daughter, she knew her church lore. "This isn't widely known, but Juca DeSintra had to be killed three times. The second time, they burned her body to be certain, and a month later she was back again. Matrix Lucia defeated her for good, but it cost her. There's a reason a great disciple like her was retired to a little temple in Lavradio." She sighed wistfully. "I wish I had known her better. We only spoke twice, but she was confident of the young man's talents. From the little I've seen, I have no reason to doubt her. He made the fragments, which no one thought to see again. That alone is proof of his extraordinary ability.

"And, Nexus has killed several Enclave disciples now. Every contest between them goes poorly for the traditionalists." Farava's eyes gleamed with memory. "They won't, as Nexus likes to say, 'learn their lessons'. They grow weak, while Nexus grows strong. Encle will lose because they can't change."

Leonardo looked at his mother. After Joaquim abdicated she continued as a royal advisor. To the extent Leo's uncle had done anything well during his reign, it was by her influence.

"Someone else would have held Joaquim's deeds against you or sought vengeance, but he never did. He worked with you. This was a careless way to dispose of so much goodwill, freely given, and I wouldn't count on getting that back for cheap. He's never forgiven me, and I was only following orders."

"Francisca's going to fleece me for this." Leo rubbed his eyes. It was getting late, and he had started the day early. This wasn't going to be settled tonight. "Jorgo, you're excused. Guards, wait at the door. Vanni, how do you turn this thing on?"

"Your Majesty shouldn't trouble himself with the troubles of low-born rabble … "

"Enough, Jorgo! I don't know who or what you think you're protecting, but it isn't me. Go to the waiting room at the end of the hall, and wait until I call you."

They got the link turned on but received only silence. That the other side didn't answer immediately was of no real concern, but as the minutes dragged by, and jota was served, and jota was consumed, Leonardo began to think he should leave an underling in the room. If Nexus ever answered they could make a proper appointment and not do this at night. Just as he was considering whom to leave in place, Francisca's voice was in the room with them.

"I'm back, alone this time. Who's on the other side?"

The new conversation started with Francisca's explanation of her limits and that she had sworn a stack of oaths in a fragment's light, and Taylor had promised her privacy by the same. She cautioned them not to test the limits of her oaths or she would report their subversion directly to the Eldest Brother. It had taken her an hour to convince him Lavradio was still worth talking to, so they should respect the Nexus boundaries.

"Before we talk about the Monforte situation, you should hear about something that happened this morning," she began, and relayed to them the startling events just after dawn when another world had tried to summon him and failed, with spectacular effect, and the mark that Taylor had left on the desert floor.

"Today wasn't the first time it happened. Other worlds are attempting to summon him to be their hero," she concluded her report. "He walks in firestorms and emerges from them unbothered. He has many followers and admirers but no friends, nobody his age who could ever be his peer, except the youngest son of Baron Fringe. And that is who you casually threatened today."

"We get it," Leo practically moaned, "Jorgo stepped in it, and now you want to use that to squeeze us."

"No, Leo, you stepped in it. If you had reprimanded him immediately, Taylor would have overlooked it. But you didn't, and the threat stuck. Remember that time one of the errand boys got cornered and pummeled half to death by the other children because of things that Jorgo said? He's always had a nasty streak and vents it on people you like when he thinks they're unworthy of you.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"Remember Clarise of Miletos, who was tossed out of the palace on her backside when she had legitimate business with you? And that pimply teen who got locked in a basement for a week, who turned out to be a Carregado? Those were costly incidents, and they were instigated by your secretary. He's been doing it since you were children, and you're still letting him do it.

"You always minimize Jorgo's abuses as spirited hijinx, but this time he antagonized someone who has an army of disciples at his beck and call. He's a force, Leo. He's everything you hoped he'd become and more, and you'd better start treating him like it. He saved your kingdom twice, and he's only ever been punished for it. If you want to be on the right side of Nexus, it's time to make things right with Taylor DeLanion."

"That's a nice speech, Francisca. I'm nearly moved. It's smart of him to send you here to use family lore against us. But I remember a princess who thought those little tortures were deserved."

"I grew up," she said, "maybe Jorgo should, too. And Taylor didn't send me, I had to make the case that it was worth my time. If Nexus didn't need so much charcoal, I wouldn't be here giving you a second chance."

"Excuse me," Estevan wedged himself into the conversation, "when did we hope he'd become a major force? Did I miss something?"

"That's for our brother the king to decide."

Leo crossed the room, opened the door, and ordered the guards to move down the hall. The meeting room was soundproof, but there was no sense in taking chances. A year ago Leo wouldn't have trusted his youngest brother with this knowledge, but he was much changed since then. It was high time he learned some things.

"This information doesn't leave the room, understand Vanni? You know that scripture says ancient people lived underground and then followed the Chosen One to the surface, right? He writes down the prayers that Olyon gives him, and the power of those prayers enables them to survive."

"That's not quite what it says, actually," added Vanni.

"But it's close enough," said an annoyed Leonardo. "Our ancestors, the Odemiras, along with the Frenzios, Porches, Carregados, and all the other old families, came from an underground city," he pointed at the floor, "directly under the palace."

Vanni huffed. "Taylor figured that out ages ago. So what? It's all emptied out from Enclave raids, isn't it? Whatever they didn't take, our father and grandfather sold. Like the summoning room. Father got a fat sum for it, and Enclave couldn't wait to break it into tiny pieces."

Leo shook his head. "There's more. Much more. What the church got was just the top layers, the levels that weren't sealed off. Junk, mostly. There's a whole city under us, with residences, libraries, machines, tools, and all kinds of things that haven't been seen in hundreds of years."

Estevan's eyes sparked with curiosity. "Amazing, but what does it have to do with Taylor?"

"It's all forbidden knowledge. After Bahram reformed the church, his next big move was to bury all ancient knowledge. He forced people to speak only the Unity language, confiscated books, tore down old buildings, and raided caches of ancient tools. Supposedly, he was storing it all away somewhere. His successors instituted Alignment. They didn't just ban the past; they erased it.

"But, despite signing the treaty, the kings of Lavradio have kept the city sealed and unspoiled."

"Wait!" Estevan gestured at Queen Farava. "Should we be talking about this in front of your wife? I mean no disrespect Farava, but you're from a Unity First Family."

"This is how we met, discussing the senselessness of Enclave. One day," she reached for her husband's hand, "I hope we'll unseal the city together."

"Just so. Anyway, the kings have passed down a set of books, mostly journals, that tell about the millennial sun cycle, how to open the city, and where to find the libraries and the most important machines. When the time comes, we'll move as much of our population underground as we can, and hopefully survive the next cycle.

"But there are major problems. Many machines are broken, and we've lost the ability to read ancient text. Great-Uncle Abelaird was the last true custodian, someone who could read and speak the old tongue of Lavradio. We have generations of work ahead of us: first to decipher the old language, and then to fix the machines that support life underground. But as soon as the church finds out we're messing with the ancient machines, they'll encourage our neighbors to attack us."

"We need the church to disappear," understood Vanni. "When you exiled Nexus, you set them free to terrorize Enclave. If Nexus wins, we can study the ancients."

"Every nation could study them," corrected Leo, "in an open forum like the Nature Society. That's how we make rapid progress. And Taylor had just saved us again. If they want his head they'll have to do it themselves. If we're lucky there will be someone out there who knows the ancient language and is willing to share."

"It's a shame you alienated Taylor. He can read at least one of the ancient languages." The room stared, in baffled silence, at the sounding board. "Is that so surprising? He learned Unity in a little over a week, according to Mother's reports. He's hunted monsters in five realms. And he has a knack for discovering things, as we all know."

"So he can read an ancient language," said Leo, cautiously. "Assuming that's true, how do we know it's our ancient language?"

Francisca was using her 'family' voice, familiar, with traces of concern mixed in. "You don't. And as things stand right now, you can't ask him. He's more than just a little angry, Leo. He didn't expect this from you, and I think it … surprised him. He thought you understood each other, despite everything that's happened between him and our family. But now he thinks he was a fool, and you're just another Joaquim.

"By mid-winter, Nexus will be the only source of healers and disciples. Count on it. It'll be the center of everything that's going to change the world: religion, inscriptions, research, everything. Taylor will be Hierarch Phillip, the most influential person in the world. No one else is even in the running.

"So Lavradio has to decide: does it want to be counted as a friend, to be the first to share in everything that happens in the new order of things? Or does it want to be at the bottom, next to Dace and Kashmar? When this is over I don't want us wallowing with Dace."

"Another fine speech, Francisca. But I'm still waiting to hear what you want. I hear a lot of reasons, but no requests. How much is this going to cost? What are you asking for?"

"I'm asking you to fix this, Leo. Figure out what a friend would do right now, and do that."

A vision came to Leo unbidden, of a gurantor train overturned on a thickly snowing day. Nunio was missing and Malisa was dying. They needed help, and a brindle-haired boy had appeared out of the falling snow, with a pack and spear and little else, and claimed to be a disciple. Jorgo tried to turn the boy away, and almost he succeded. If Leo had not intervened and called out to him, then Malisa would have died. And maybe Nunio would be dead, too, frozen while unconscious in the snow.

It must have been soon after he had risen and, thinking back, the boy had marked them for who they were. He knew that Leo was the nephew of the king who killed him and the son of the queen who had managed the deed. And yet he healed Malisa, found Nunio, sheltered them all, and fed them lavishly. Taylor, newly in the guise of Phillip the Younger, had shown exactly who he was that day. Jorgo, damn him, had shown exactly who he was. And who had Leo shown himself to be, then and now?

"Tell Taylor his friend Gonzo is safe. Jorgo shouldn't have said what he did, and I shouldn't have let him. That was my mistake. I'm going to make this up to him."

Francisca clicked off soon after that, with assurances to their mother that she was safe and fed.

What would a friend do right now? The answer was as simple as it was frightening.

But what would a king do? For centuries, the Odemira line had kept the city hidden. But the city was broken. The ancient Lavradians hadn't left because the surface was safe: they left because the machines had failed. Somewhere in the old library, prominently displayed so it would be easy to find, were instructions on what they had to do to make the city livable again. But if it were easy, his ancestors would have done it themselves. It was meant to be the work of generations.

Leonardo could keep the city hidden until the fight between two churches was finished. But, what if Nexus lost? Leo often worried that Lavradio's time had run out already. Without the ancient language they had years of work ahead of them to reach the starting point. And, even if the ancient city could be livable again, it wasn't large enough to hold everyone. But Taylor had ideas. He was filled with otherworldly knowledge. Nexus was the spirit of invention; of possiblity. Anything could happen as long as he was alive.

If Nexus lost, then Lavradio wouldn't have enough time to simply wait for them to fall before embarking on their national project. He'd end up facing the Unity Church, and their rotten First Families, and likely losing.

A king of Lavradio would seize the best chance his nation had to get free of Enclave. And what made good friends, anyway? Shared purpose. Common goals. Mutual understanding. Mutual support. It was time for the Odemiras to do some things for DeLanion for a change.

"Vanni, I need letters to the ambassadors of Ullidia and Gallia, summoning them tomorrow for the morning session. Do you know the form?"

"I remember. Mother made me practice it often enough."

"You cried so hard, Vanni. 'I'm not gonna be king! I don't want to call the smelly ambassadors!' And who was right about it being useful?"

"Mother, be appropriate! We're on the king's business now!"

"Write the letters," said Leo, laughing, "and bring them here for signing. Leave no tearstains on the paper. But first, have someone find Jorgo and send him here. Mother, Farava, you're excused. Let's continue this in the morning's council."

"If His Majesty doesn't mind his mother poking her nose in, what are you doing about Jorgo?"

"I'm going to fix his loyalty, or I'm going to break it."

"And the ambassadors are being called because … "

"Because a good friend would take sides, while a great friend would bring more friends."