City-state of Malensk was one of the bigger and stronger principalities in the empire, strong enough to repel raids of nomadic tribesmen from northeast and to safely guard the caravans on the Golden Road that went through its territory, bringing many exotic goods from the southern realms. But the news of Yaroslav’s hunting accident spread quickly and sensing weakness, many smaller towns that were under influence of Malensk started secretly seeking their own independence. Order had to be again established and no one knew that better than Dmitri Ryazanovich, who was in his chamber reading the messages of his spies sent from the bordering villages and towns. His enthusiasm from several days ago has somewhat wavered after reading the reports - several towns were on the verge of joining other regional powers and there were reports of an incoming invasion from Magnograd, their largest neighbor on the west. He has already sent a letter to Yaroslav yesterday (prince didn’t want anyone interrupting his sleep), but there was still no response. He opened the most recent letter he received - a letter from the High priest Seraphim Zolotoy. A broad smile appeared on his face as he read letter of support for him in case of death of Grand prince. He was now more relaxed but now he needed to convince Yaroslav to either resign or give him more power to return order into principality. Impatient with his lord’s lack of response, he started writing another letter when a knock on the door interrupted him.
Two knocks-pause- one knock-pause-two knocks.
“Finally! Come in!”
Door opened and a short, stooped maid entered the chamber with a scroll in her hands, bowing down to baron.
-“M’lord, a message from the princ-”
Dmitri swiftly took the scroll from her hands before she finished the sentence. His excitement grew as he was opening it, but his initial joy was slowly evaporating as he was reading the letter. After finishing it he was utterly confused.
-“Are you alright m’lord? You seem so pale.
-“Leave me for now…”
-“B-But what about my payment my lord-”
-“Leave! And tell others no more visits today!”
The maiden hastily left the chambers, closing the door and cursing Dmitri under breath as she ran to her quarters. Dmitri read the letter again and again, but it was all the same. It said that the council will start when Aleksandr Bogdanovich returns from the border patrol. But why? Aleksandr is just a minor noble, an associate of Kiril. Sure, he saved Yaroslav from a certain death and Yaroslav probably wanted to thank him in person, but postponing council because of him? Really? Yaroslav’s behavior was really bizarre these last couple of days, but this was his current peak of it all. He’ll just have to find out when council convenes.
***
Yaroslav’s health slowly worsened by the day, feeling that he didn’t have much time left. But his depressed mood bothered him more than the pain in his body. Bedridden and bored to death he began to recall his memories of the past. The day he succeeded his father as the Grand prince, the rivalry between his 4 brothers, his short and childless marriage with a woman he married for political gains, the battles, the diplomatic missions, meetings with warlords of all corners of Belgorod - so many things happened in the past 30 or so years. But while those memories once filled him with pride, now there was nothing. Just one big gap inside him. As if his life was completely wasted. This wasn’t the first time this thoughts tortured him, but now he wasn’t rejecting them outright. In fact, he felt there was some truth to them. Cold and austere relationship with his father, the violent death of his brothers, disastrous marriage, man who died for his glory seeking campaigns…
He felt something inside him was slowly devouring him and he began to sweat profusely. He turned to his left where was his night stand and took a small, gilded icon given to him by High priest to calm himself. He was actually surprised how quickly he reached for that icon because he was never a man of faith. For the past couple of days, High priest sent him sacred virgins to instill him hope and restore his fate, or what was left of it - for him religion was merely political tool. And then High priest Seraphim himself appeared, giving him sermons about afterlife, mercy of the gods and others things that would’ve bore him instantly, but yesterday they actually gave him a strange feeling of inspiration and a new outlook on a religion he ignore all his life. That is, until Seraphim started talking how Sir Dmitri Ryazanovich is embodiment of all godly virtues, a man that might be a good leader after Yaroslav passes away. He was so furious he felt he could stand up, take Seraphim by the throat and throw him through the window, but he decided to preserve his strength for the meeting of the council. And he will need it, because he finally decided who will be the next Grand prince of Malensk.
***
The council was supposed to start in the main hall of Toporovich palace, with Yaroslav in his wheelchair presiding over it, or at least trying to be present in spirit. He had a hard time getting proper sleep because of his incessant pain, which made him tired and sleepy. Nevertheless, this council had to convene if he wanted to give a proper chance to his candidate to take over Malensk with as little conflict and strife as possible. The main hall of the palace was richly decorated with tapestries and paintings of great men of the past, adding a touch of regal splendor to the already grand ambiance. The hall was illuminated by countless flickering torches affixed to stone walls.
In the center of the hall, three massive oak tables, laden with sumptuous feasts and goblets brimming with wine, were arranged in the shape of letter u and in the center of that arrangement was Yaroslav himself with his maidens. All major players in the city’s politics were here, each greeting their lord and taking their seat at the table. The fast itself was peaceful and joyful with a pair of flute musicians created a pleasant atmosphere. Nobles, merchants and clergymen exchanged their ideas and opinions about recent news in and out of Malensk. But although they had many different and conflicting views they all agreed on one thing - Malensk needed a new prince, one with great ambition and bigger authority than the current one. The conversations stopped briefly after the servant introduced the last guest who was a bit late.
-“Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Sir Dmitri Ryazanovich.”
Dmitri, in his fabulous purple tunic with gilded sleeves and a collar was walking slowing towards his seat with great confidence, assessing the atmosphere in the hall. Some were indifferent, many of them scoffed at the mention of his name and some men like Kiril threw their insult out loud. But Dmitri couldn’t care less, because in his head, he was already destined to take place of the Grand prince. He sat between Grand priest Seraphim and his pupil Nikolai Batutin.
-“Good evening, Seraphim, my friend. I’m glad you were able to join me this evening.”
-“Well, it is an important day for our principality, after all. May gods guide our lord Yaroslav to right decisions.”
-“Amen to that.”
Dmitri turned to Nikolai, who sat idly, drank from his cup and stared into space, completely detached from others. Dmitri elbowed him lightly to the side which startled Nikolai so much he almost dropped his chalice.
-“So Nikolai, are you ready to become a co-ruler of Malensk?”, whispered Dmitri in his ear, which startled him even more.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
-“Sir Dmitri, y-you were serious a-about that…” Nikolai stammered with a mixture of excitement and fear that Dmitri might be telling the truth.”
-“Well why don’t you ask High priest himself?” Dmitri tapped his chalice with that of Seraphim and drank from them, who then turned to his pupil with a broad smile and tapped his chalice.
-“For the restoration of the Batutin family. May gods protect you from any evil, my dear pupil.”
Nikolai stared at them in bewilderment, slowly realizing the position he would soon find himself in and that he might be under Dmitri’s control through the High Priest. He suddenly felt hot and gasped for air so he decided to go out to regain his composure, excusing himself from his table and headed for the exit. He stumbled every so often and nearly fell on one guest to whom he bowed down and apologized for his clumsiness and quickly left the hall. Many nobles laughed at Nikolai’s awkward movements, especially Kiril Ustashov who harbored a great hatred for him and his family and was currently drinking and exchanging jokes with his military officers.
-“What a joke of a man! He can’t even walk properly, let alone be a head of his family.”
-“Indeed, boss. By the way where is Aleks?”
-“Yeah, boss. Isn’t he he reason why council hasn’t started yet?”
Kiril’s face suddenly became serious at the mention of his most accomplished subordinate. Ever since he came to Malensk, Aleksandr’s achievements overshadowed all the rest of the military corpse of city, but Kiril didn’t pay much attention to him as he supposedly had no interested in scaling the ladder of politics, content with a life of a soldier. But Kiril didn’t believe him at all.
-“That guy can say all he wants, but I know that deep down there is some great ambition. And he will show it, one day.” said Kiril with severity in his voice, “But now’s not the time for low mood. Cheers, boys!”His serious face became cheerful again and drank his ale with much pleasure.
The fest dragged on for a quite a while until servant signaled his hand for the music to stop and announced the last noble. He was tall, with long brown hair that reached past his shoulders and a thick, well-groomed beard. He was dressed in a simple white tunic with gray loose-fitting trousers and leather shoes.
-“Ladies and gentlemen, Sir Aleksandr Bogdanovsky.”
Aleksandr walked slowly towards his seat,not giving attention to loud murmuring that filled the main hall. He sat with Kiril and the rest off military corpse, greeting them politely but they remained cold and silent. The murmuring stopped when Yaroslav got up, supporting himself with a cane and called for everyone’s attention.
-“Gentlemen, and ladies. Soldiers, administrator, clergymen. I thank you for showing your loyalty and support for Malensk and me, its prince. It is no more a secret, I believe, that my condition is worsening slowly day by day and that I will soon be unable to run our prosperous city-state any longer. That’s why I called for this council to inform you of my decision to elect a new leader of Malensk, or should I say, leaders.”
Members of council were taken aback by this news and murmurs began spreading again. Except Dmitri who grinned devilishly and impatiently waited for Yaroslav to announce his name.
-“Leaders? Did he say in plural?”
-“Well, it’s not really unusual in these times…”
-“Why not just one…?”
Yaroslav hit the ground with his cane three times and shouting at them to calm down. After everyone went silent, Yaroslav continued:
“This wasn’t an easy decision, trust me. I have spent last several years carefully examining each and every one of you for the place of Grand prince.”
He paused for a moment, coughing loudly and taking a deep breath.
“After careful examination, I realized what was the problem in my indecision. You see, if I pick one of you, no matter how talented or popular he or she is, the rest will gang up on him and depose him to put themselves on his place.”
Hearing this, many of the council members felt insulted by Yaroslav’s words.
-“Do you have so little confidence in us m’lord?”
-“This is outrageous!”
Yaroslav didn’t even try to respond to their questions, instead waiting for his servants to calm the council members. Several minutes passed before everyone returned to their seats and agreed to not interfere until Yaroslav finishes his speech. The only ones who were still on his seat while everyone protested were Dmitri, who feigned indifference but was actually extremely joyful and Nikolai, who still felt ill after his conversation with the High priest. After a long pause Yaroslav again continued.
-“Originally, the plan was to select three of finest men to succeed me…” Dmitri now grinned devilishly as he waited to hear his name on Yaroslav’s lips.
“But, after a long consideration, I decided to increase that number to five.”
There was no loud reaction this time from the council. Everyone sat on their place with mouth and eyes wide opened. Dmitri’s grin disappeared and was replaced by a confused face. What went wrong? None of his spies informed him about any changes. After a long silence Dmitri finally stood up and mustered courage to ask a question.
-“And who are these five individuals, m’lord?” Yaroslav started laughing, much to the Dmitri’s surprise.
-“Don’t worry, Sir Dmitri, you are among them. Leaving out the biggest schemer in Malensk would certainly be a great mistake on my part.”
-“T-Thank you m’lord. Yaroslav, you bastard.”
-“The second one is the main commander of Malensk military force, Sir Kiril Ustashov.”
-“Thank you, m’lord!” Kiril literally jumped from his seat out of joy, with his officers hugging him and congratulating him. “You can count on me m’Lord!”
-“Third one is Sir Nikolai Batutin.” Nikolai slowly got, his legs shaking uncontrollably and bowed down before Yaroslav.
-“I, um… T-Thank you…”
-“Fourth one is my good friend High priest Seraphim.” Picking Seraphim as one of the successors confused everyone. He was 75 years old, probably the oldest person in Malensk,if not in entire Belgorod. His mind was still in good condition, but his body was frail and he often needed support from others to cover longer distances. Seraphim himself at first thought that he misheard, but his deputy confirmed it was him. Seraphim stepped forward and bowed his head in gratitude.
-“If somebody else granted me this position, I would’ve probably rejected it, but if you have so much trust in me, I humbly accept it m’Lord. This body of mine is frail, but my mind is still sharp. May God give me strength to lead our glorious principality.”
-“Thank you, Seraphim. And now… the fifth one…”
Entire hall went silent, men and women waiting anxiously to hear his or her name on Yaroslav’s lips.
“Before I announce the fifth successor, I have to inform you about one other thing.”
-“Oh, no… What do you have on your mind, you wretched cripple?”, thought Dmitri to himself, biting his lower lip in anger.
-“You see, after the death of my Master of horsemen Stanislaw Skrybalski, I decided to merge his position with that of Master of footmen, a position that is currently held by Sir Kiril Ustashov. But today I decided to split this offices into two. Sir Kiril will keep the position of a Master of footmen, and our new Master of horsemen will be a man that has served me well this past couple of years but whom I had barely even noticed since his arrival. Even you knew little of him before he saved my life ten days ago. But now he will finally get a position he deserves. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Sir Aleksandr Bogdanovsky as our new Master of horsemen.”
-“Yaroslav stood up and clapped with his hands, while everyone starred in shock at their new co-ruler. Dmitri’s face was pale, Kiril was red with fury and envy and Nikolai still sat on his seat, completely detached mentally from the council, contemplating about his future as a secular ruler of Malensk.
As for Aleksandr… he just sat on his seat, completely amazed at this turn of events. Just more than a week before, he was a nobody, a minor noble who was never considered important enough to attend this council. And now, he is one of the successors of Malensk principality. He stood with his legs shaking and bowed his head before Yaroslav.
-“I… I can’t express how grateful I am right now, m’lord. You can count on me.”
-“Excellent. Now that we have resolved the main issue, let’s tackle with everyday problems of our city, shall we?”
Five successors bowed down once more in respect and headed for their places. One by one, the council members reported about current problems of Malensk and sought advice from Yaroslav and the council. Aleksandr carefully listened every report, but it was hard for him to concentrate because all eyes were on him, eyes full of envy and rage. Kiril, who sat opposite of him was bitterly jealous of his former subordinate. All this attention made Aleksandr anxious about his future - what will happen when Yaroslav dies? Will they all gang up on him to get rid off this young upstart? Will he have to engage in political intrigues to survive? This last one question awakened dark memories and feelings. He could hardly wait for the end of the meeting, which dragged on due to many problems in the bureaucracy that were a total enigma to him. As soon as the end of the meeting was announced, Aleksnadr tried to reach Yaroslav to ask him about the reason for his promotion, but he was told that Yaroslav needed to rest now and that the debates had tired him too much. He left the hall full of anxiety which was amplified by the whispers of others around him and their hostile looks. But the worst things were happening inside him. Old painful memories that he had been suppressing for the last few years came to the surface and began to show him his life’s path, which he went through with a lot of tears and rare moments of joy.