Chapter 20

Janna was grateful for the appearance of the small hamlets that marked the outskirts of Selemas Province. She peered through the mist that still clung to the land from earlier that morning, now mixed with an intermittent drizzle that dampened everything just enough to make the air feel clammy.

She turned her head away from the coach window and sighed, wriggling in her seat in a vain attempt to get more comfortable. Her body felt tired and achy from a two day trip that was normally done in three. But time was of the essence now. Uras had said jump, and the other Lords were simply supposed to ask how high.

She had scant breakfast that morning, but she had little appetite despite it being past midday. She was more interested in getting out the damnable coach she had ridden since before dawn. At the speed at which the coach had been driven across the country, she had felt every single small bump on the road as if it were a large rut.

Like a veil being pulled away, the coach emerged from the forest and was suddenly awash in patchy afternoon sunlight.

Janna blinked at the glare and turned away from it, directing her gaze back to the east towards the shore. She was given pause as she saw mighty stone ramparts rise up from beyond a grassy field. At first she thought it was the palace, and that she had dozed the final leg of the journey, until she realized she was looking at the ruins of Selemas Keep.

Janna stared at the sight as the crumbling edifice drifted by. Through spaces in collapsed walls and turrets she caught glimpses of the indigo ocean. Selemas Keep was history. It was here the final bloody battle had been fought between the Monarchists and the Republicans two centuries before. The Monarchists had won, and had laid down the foundation for modern Oceanus.

It had been the only palatable outcome, scholars were fond of saying. The ideas of the Republicans were too radical. Doing away with a monarchy in favor of something that gave the common man a say in royal affairs was a ludicrous notion. The common man knew nothing of government, or how to exercise power wisely. Power was best left in the hands of those that knew how to use it.

So the common thinking went.

Janna watched as the ruins slipped by. As her head turned, she felt the pain in a stiff neck muscle reassert itself. Wincing, she rubbed at it and turned her eyes forward again.

The right side had won. Two hundred years of peace and prosperity bore that out. What was happening now was an aberration and nothing more. She remembered reading that the Republicans had been fond of saying that the common man would tire of having no say in affairs and would rise up against the Imperium. Nothing of the sort ever happened, or was happening now. This was purely an internal matter. The common man would not care.

Janna felt a need to visit the ruins and see them more closely. It would have to be that day, despite how tired she was. By the end of the following day, she would step through the Portal at Selemas Palace and arrive at the heart of Imperial power. She would need all of that day to prepare herself.

Janna spotted something out of the corner of her eye.

She glanced out the window again. Up ahead, a large, flat stone was standing by the side of the road. She could see there was writing carved on it. Just beyond it, a fork in the road meandered through weeds and wildflower towards the shore.

"Driver!" Janna cried.

"Yes, my Lady?"

"There is a side-road ahead. Does that lead into the Keep?"

"Yes, my Lady, it does. It heads around to..."

"Turn down that road."

There was a brief hesitation. The driver knew that his orders had been to deliver Lady J'garon to Selemas Palace as quickly as possible. But he also knew that disobeying the orders of a Noble would not do his career much good.

So he picked a middle course. He snapped the reins and pulled on them. The horses turned at his command and smoothly left the main road at the fork. At the same time, he protested mildly. "We should consider getting you to the palace as soon as possible, my Lady," he said with utmost politeness. "It was impressed upon me that time is short."

Janna watched as they passed the stone. The weathered writing read "Selemas Keep -- North Access."

"I am aware of this," Janna said firmly. "I need only arrive in time for dinner. And I do not intend to linger here. Now, drive on."

"Yes, my Lady."

The driver subsided. He had done his duty. In the end, he took orders from whatever Noble happened to be within earshot.

The road itself into the Keep was recent, or at least relative to the Keep itself. It meandered through a rubble-strewn field that would have been one of the outer defense walls. Part of it had crumbled on its own, but much of it had been carted away. The locals had used this as a stone quarry before an Emperor with an eye for historical preservation put a stop to it. Fortunately they had confined themselves to the outer ramparts.

Yet not all Emperors were so keen. The road had fallen into disuse. The coach wobbled and bucked as it passed over old wheel ruts and splashed through large puddles left by the recent rains. The driver had to detour into the tall grasses to the side to get around a large section of a tower that had collapsed across the road.

Janna hardly noticed. Her gaze was on the walls that towered over them. She was as silent as these abandoned sentinels were. The roar of the ocean was the only sound, drowning out even the clop of the horses' hooves or the rattle of the wheels struggling over broken ground.

The coach finally shuddered to a halt. "This is as far as I can take us, my Lady," the driver announced, some relief evident in his voice.

If he had been hoping that Janna would tell him to turn around and leave, his hopes were dashed when instead she reached for the latch and pushed open the door. Knowing his duty, the driver immediately dismounted and helped Janna step down from the coach.

"Do you wish me to accompany you, my Lady?" asked the driver, already anticipating what Janna wanted to do.

She turned away from him even as he spoke. "Stay with the coach. I will not be long."

Janna crossed the road around the back of the coach and found herself facing a rocky area. She looked on ahead and saw that the road simply ended here at the rocks. On the other side were the gleaming white sands of the beach, broken only by the tall shadows of the Keep's towers. Waves rolled up from the ocean in a gentle but powerful rhythm.

The road had turned back on them, so that she was walking south the way she had come. On her left was the sea, on her right the stone edifice of the Keep. This section was largely intact, offering no way in and no way to scale it. As had been intended when the Republican fleet had attacked in strength.

Janna began to pick her way through the rocky field.

The driver grew nervous. "My Lady, are you sure you don't wish me to..."

"I said, stay with the coach," Janna called out without looking back.

Janna was sure that her driver thought she was out of her mind. To be honest, even Janna herself was not so sure the man was wrong. Though her doubts stemmed from something greater.

Her trip in the coach had left her time to think. Too much time, in fact. Time enough to come to believe that she was not the right person to be doing this. Or that it was not the right thing to do in the first place. Either way, it felt wrong. She felt like she was supposed to have answers when she did not know what the questions were.

Janna stepped onto the sands of the beach. She was very tempted to take her shoes off, regardless of how "improper" it might be. Instead, she kept to the edge of the beach near the Keep walls, where the ground was more solid. She came upon a boulder, a stone that had fallen from the top of the walls and had been since weathered smooth. Just ahead was a large crack in the side of the wall, the first imperfection she had seen on this facing.

She turned towards the sea and sat upon the boulder. She looked out over the waters and sighed. She sat there for a long time, motionless, the breeze off the waters blowing strands of hair before her eyes.

Finally she said, "I'm not ready for this."

"Yes, perhaps, but then are any of us?"

Janna leapt up from the boulder with a small gasp. She found a dapper, middle-aged man in Noble colors smiling mildly at her.

"I am certainly not ready to be startled out of my wits!" Janna snapped.

The man folded his hands before him. "My apologies. The sands and the surf tend to muffle the sounds of approach."

"Where did you come from, anyway?" demanded Janna.

The man turned and gestured towards the crack. "I saw that it was large enough for a man to slip through and could not resist. My driver would have a conniption for sure if he knew."

It was clear to Janna that this man was Nobility. Most likely a full Lord, and technically outranking her. She didn't care. It rankled her that she had come here to be alone for a few moments and had her solitude intruded upon. "And just where is your driver?"

The man turned again and gestured towards the opposite end of the beach, where a thicket of trees lay. Janna strained her eyes and now could just barely make out the coach.

"Southern access road," the man explained. "Much better maintained, but harder to see from the main road, especially in the mist."

Janna nodded at this, some of her anger ebbing. She remembered protocol and stepped forward, offering her hand. "Lady Janna J'garon, representative of Lord Duric K'garon of Keyas."

The man took her hand. His gray eyes fixed on Janna, his neatly trimmed and combed brown hair barely moving in the breeze. "Lord Tarras K'riis," he announced. "Of Carolas Province."

Tarras completed the proper protocol with a simple squeeze of her hand, but then smiled and drew it softly to his lips, planting a light kiss upon it.

Janna offered him a wry grin. "Flatterer."

"These are dark times, my Lady. A bit of softness helps at times."

"Your name sounds familiar to me, my Lord. Have I perhaps heard it before?"

"Please, you are a representative of a Noble Lord. That gives you all rights and privileges as he, thus we are peers. Call me Tarras. And yes, you likely heard my clan name if nothing else."

Janna paused for a long moment, her smile fading. In a heavy voice she said, "Bennis J'riis."

Tarras' smile remained, but his eyes grew distant and cloudy, and he looked off towards the horizon. "My son."

Janna swallowed. "I'm sorry."

Tarras turned fully towards the ocean and folded his hands behind his back. "Do not be. It was his own choice. I would have done the same in his position." A long pause. "It is... a comforting thought to think that he would have made a fine interim Emperor."

Janna took another deep breath. She let the emotion she was feeling pass. There really wasn't time for this now, and it would only make her doubt herself more. She stepped closer to him. "Tarras, if you don't mind me saying... "

Tarras turned his head and gave her a small smile. "Peers, remember? When did a Noble ever turn up the opportunity to bend the ear of another? No matter what needs to be said?"

Janna realized then what her problem was. She was feeling out of her element. Back at court in Keyas, she was never at a loss for words, nor did she feel qualms about saying whatever was on her mind.

She also thought his choice of words was interesting. No matter what needs to be said. It was as if she were anticipating what she was going to ask him.

"Are you sure it is best for you to make a personal appearance at the Imperial Palace?"

"Because my son was a traitor to the Empire? Or whatever rubbish Z'haas would say, eh? Perhaps I wish to dare him into saying something to me. Perhaps I wish tacitly to throw the issue in his face. See if he can stand before the father of the one he had executed and claim civility towards me. Or sovereignty for that matter."

Janna heard the steadiness in his voice. She also saw the shimmering in his eyes at the same time. She tried to ignore the latter. She had to act as if at court. She had to push the issues that mattered. Duric would want her to do so. "Would you make so bold a statement about him if it had not been your son that had been involved?"

Tarras gave her a tired a smile. "But he was involved. That's the thing, isn't it? So hard to contemplate what would have been. I do not know, Janna. I did not take kindly to the Emperor's saber-rattling without consulting the Nobility. That alone is a breach of ethics, if nothing else."

He turned more fully towards her. "Ask yourself this, Janna. Should the Emperor be made to answer to anyone? It's an age-old question."

Janna's eyes hardened. "It clearly states in the Charter what his powers are."

Tarras shook his head. "Never mind what the Charter says. Ever since the damn thing was signed, there have been people that have argued over what an Emperor is supposed to be. Each one makes it his own job. Each one takes a certain amount of power to himself. Some take more. Some take less. Some... take more than they ought."

"But by your own words, Tarras, who determines how much is too much?"

Tarras smiled thinly. He turned back towards the ocean. "Picture this beach two centuries ago, Janna," he said. He swept an arm out over the ocean. "A fleet of warships, covering the horizon. Magical fire raining down on the Keep until they realized it had been too heavily shielded by the defender's Mages."

He pointed to the shoreline. "And look... now the ships send the soldiers out in their boats." He turned and pointed to either end of the beach. "And now... the defenders respond, pouring out onto the beach. And there..."

He pointed to a spot halfway between the shoreline and where they stood. Here he paused, and uttered a slow, sad sigh. There was a catch in his voice when he spoke again. "And there... the clash of armies... blood staining the sands... " He paused and shook his head. "It was never about naval power. It never is. It is always about the people. The soldiers. The killing. Whoever is left standing wins. It is that simple. It always is."

Tarras took a long, deep breath, folding his hands behind him. Janna felt her heart thump as if expecting the armies of long ago to materialize around them.

"Oceanus was built on blood, Janna," he said softly. "Many nations are. But many nations have been refreshed by blood as well. Oceanus has been unusual in that it has been spared this. Perhaps it is time now."

Now Janna's heart pounded out of fear. Fear over what she might be called on to do, and the decisions she would be forced to make.

And enlightenment dawned. "That is why the Nobles have been dragging their feet."

Tarras raised a speculative eyebrow towards her. There was no reproach in the gesture, only curiosity.

"Yes, dragging their feet," Janna said angrily. "And letting the Overlords do their work for them. We should have jumped into this from the very start. But we've gone so long without having anything close to a crisis of this magnitude that everyone is afraid to rock the boat."

Tarra stared at Janna hard for a few moments, then slowly broke into a smile.

"I knew there was a reason Duric picked you to represent him," he said.

Janna appeared surprised at first, but then relaxed. "Thank you."

"I was surprised that Duric did not want to come himself, to be honest. Thought the youngster would be chomping at the bit to show the other Lords he was not the Emperor's lackey. Though I can tell you... you will have a hard time of it with the other Lords. They will see Duric's absence as tacit approval for Z'haas."

"Even after I tell them what I have told you?"

"Mmm, even so."

"But at least you believe it."

"Ah, yes. Well. Where my province is but a stone's throw from yours, I hear more over the grapevine. Like the real reason he's not attending the Caucus."

Janna's lips parted slightly, her eyes widening a touch, but she said nothing in response.

Tarras turned towards the ocean, his eyes following the progression again from warships, to landings, to battle, as if replaying the event in his mind's eye. "He's building an army, isn't he? The bastard."

Janna looked aghast. "I beg your pardon?"

"A bastard, yes. For having the courage the rest of us lack."

Janna was not sure how to react to that.

Tarras turned to her. "Yes. Good. Silence is best. Do not admit to it, and I have no cause to say I know. In fact... let us pretend we did not meet here. I am am sure neither of us was intending to have a chance encounter with another Lord before having to put up with the lot of us in the Imperial Palace."

"But... but if you understand our position, you could be an ally for us in..."

Tarras smiled and placed a finger to his lips. "You know better than that, Janna."

Janna sighed. She did. Never reveal your strengths openly. The best alliances were clandestine ones until you specifically needed a show of strength. She did that at court all the time. She needed to remember that she could apply the same tactics here. She had to stop treating this as above her. She was on par with them. She was as good as them. Or she would at least have to believe that.

Tarras took her hand. "I am sorry, Janna. I suppose this was a sneaky way of trying to initiate a newcomer. Or it was just an old fool babbling away and you were kind enough to listen. You will have to decide for yourself." He kissed her hand again. "I bid you good day, my Lady."

Janna was to stunned to reply. All she could do was watch Tarras turn and head back to his coach.

After a moment, she looked back towards the water. She wondered if Tarras had seen something out there she had not. Some sort of wisdom, perhaps. If so, she did not see it. But at least now her purpose seemed more clear.

She headed back to her own coach, moving with a more confident stride.

Amanda's thighs ached, having been held spread far apart for so long. Between them, Duric's hips rocked back and forth, driving his manhood with a slow, steady rhythm into Amanda's tunnel. Amanda hung somewhere short of climax, holding herself back as ordered, making her quiver with the strain.

Normally he would have held her ankles tightly in his hands, but they were instead busying themselves around Tanyee's breasts.

Tanyee faced her master, her knees on either side of Amanda. Her pussy sat snugly against Amanda's face. Amanda's head was tilted back, her tongue licking slowly at Tanyee's slit. Tanyee moaned constantly, her body trembling from both Amanda's mouth and Duric's fingers.

Amanda understood why she was achy and sore near the end of a day with Duric. Roquan had not had any male slaves for awhile, and her endurance had suffered for it. It was one thing to have other women licking or fingering her all day, but another thing entirely to have a cock inside her for as long. Having sex with Roquan now and then did not exercise her endurance at all.

It was getting slowly better. It had not bothered her as much after the previous session. This time the ache was more from holding back her orgasm. She was getting more of a workout in that regard at that moment largely because Duric had put something on his manhood to lengthen the time it took for him to reach climax. If she still ached after this, it would likely fade by the time she went to sleep.

Unlike another ache that she had.

Amanda closed her eyes and applied her tongue a little harder, making Tanyee squirm. Each time she did something like this for Tanyee, it reminded her of Sirinna. She missed Sirinna terribly. She was going to have to risk Farviewing her soon or it was going to drive her nuts, despite her fear of being caught.

Duric thrusted into her faster, his body slapping lightly against hers. She was jostled a bit on the bed with each dive into her. Her face was so tightly pressed against Tanyee's pussy that it didn't matter. She reached up and wrapped an arm around Tanyee and sucked hard, lashing at Tanyee's nub. Tanyee shuddered and moaned deeply, holding back her own orgasm now.

After what seemed like a long time, Duric finally uttered a loud groan and dove deeply into Amanda's pussy. She felt him start to pulse inside her. Having been told that she could cum when her Master had, she let go, her body shuddering as she moaned into Tanyee's sex. Tanyee let go as well, panting hard.

Duric slowly slid his manhood back and forth inside Amanda until it was spent. He withdrew from her and took a step back, panting a bit from the excitement. "Tanyee, you may go take a bath, as I am done with you for the evening."

"Thank you, Master," Tanyee said, lifting her hips from Amanda and carefully crawling off the bed.

"Amanda, you may clean up in the sanitary, then I wish to speak with you."

Amanda hesitated just a moment before intoning, "Yes, Master." She headed off to do as he bid.

Amanda felt a twinge of anxiety. When she was behind the curtain in the sanitary, she looked under the sink and checked that the pearl was still where she had placed it. She had thought that perhaps Duric had discovered it, and now she was going to be called to task about it. Or perhaps she had displeased one of his staff earlier that day.

She quickly splashed water on her face and cleaned off Tanyee's juices from her mouth and cheeks. She checked herself in the mirror to make sure she looked presentable, took a deep breath, and proceeded back into Duric's bed chamber.

The sight that greeted her made her pause for a moment at the threshold. Duric had donned a robe and now sat on the edge of the bed. In his lap were Amanda's scrolls.

Duric looked up and gestured before him. "Position."

Amanda stepped forward silently. She dropped to her knees, spread them apart, and lay her hands palms-up against her thighs. She bowed her head and waited.

For another long moment she heard him tap one of the scrolls against his hand, as if pausing to gather his thoughts. Or to test Amanda's resolve. She was not sure which.

"These scrolls make for quite an interesting read, Amanda."

Amanda thought she heard amusement in his voice, but it was hard to tell.