Chapter 11

Strasi had been busy in the time since her husband had become regent to The Heir. She allowed only certain loyal servants access to Butalus, and at a certain time, after her own son was born, she switched the two. Butalus was sent to live with a gardener's children, where he was well treated and free to run and play in the fresh air with the other children. He was actually much happier, and enjoying his third year of life as he grew healthy and strong. He was no longer called Butalus though, that name became the name of Strasi and Wong's son.

Wong was fine with this as long as no threat came to the child formerly named Butalus, The new prince was even actually of the same blood as the Emperor, (as well as his own, but he did not dwell on that.) So was more fitting to be Emperor. In time. He also justified it because he felt certain that given his choice John would rather have his son than know his son was sitting on the throne of the Dawn Empire. That it was his own son replacing him, was beside the point. Besides, he was a much more fit regent to his own son, than to his former master's son. Former master, because he was now the servant to the Empire. Also, John had tried to give him his freedom once already, and he was just taking it now. He knew John wouldn't mind, as long as Butalus, or the Prince formerly known as Butalus, was safe and unharmed.

What Wong didn't know, is that Strasi had sent out orders in her son's name, to capture a certain youth, and convey him bound and gagged in a blind palanquin to a secret dungeon beneath the Imperial Palace, and to slay his companions.

John hardly needed the signal from Tuk to begin fighting the Imperial soldiers who wouldn't accept The Emperor's Own Seal on the plaque granting them free passage. He first knocked the

Captain of the Guards unconscious, for questioning, and then the four warriors began killing the 15 guards who were just trying to carry out their orders. It was unfortunate, but Tuk was outraged by their failure to obey orders signed by himself. After all, they hadn't even been gone a full year. It was an easy slaughter, since the Imperial training was all hack and bludgeon sword work. The two men arrayed against them cut through their swords as if they were wooden sticks, and the two women, well, one broke their swords like twigs, or twisted them from their grips, meanwhile slitting their throats with her other hand, and the other one kept sticking them with her sharp pointy sword after somehow causing their own blows to fall wide of their marks.

After the bloodbath was over, Tuk was slightly ashamed, but the Imperial Guards, who were supposed to be protecting him, had clearly not been intending such. In fact, their intentions had been deadly, especially toward his friend John and his wives. Upon learning from the Captain of the Guard what his orders in particular had been, he began to see the plot. Strasi, his little sister, had learned much as a spy. He would be unable to get close to The Palace with the orders in place. It was then that 'Vedeya' revealed her secret.

Vedeya was actually Liu Lee, the daughter of Tuk's nurse, and acting big sister to Tuk when he was an infant. In fact, it was she, at three years of age, who had given Tuk his nickname of Tuk, based on the sound he made while nursing at her mothers breast. While it made Tuk happy to learn of this, and of their near relationship, he hardly knew what it had to do with their current situation. Vedeya spelled it out for him. Her mother was still closely involved with the servants of The Palace. She could go to the Imperial City, and find out what was going on, since no one knew of her relationship to either John or Tuk. She would find Butalus, and bring him back to John and Zithrusa, and also any gossip as to the situation in The Palace.

Vedeya slipped into the Imperial City in a luxurious palanquin, and it was cursorily inspected at the gate. She had the porters convey her to her mother's house, where she was made much of, especially in light of the fact that she had run away to avoid a marriage when she was 14. She was now the wife of a rich trader, and she had sumptuous silken robes and a chest of jewels to prove it. She presented her mother with a special carving that John had made, and her mother appreciated it very much.

Her mother told her all the palace gossip without prompting, including the secrets she would never have told to any outsider. But this was her own daughter, and somehow the forbidden secrets spilled out of her lips, and all was revealed. Vedeya had to permit her mother to use her old name, which she didn't even think of herself of anymore- She was Vedeya, warrior, traveler, translator and wife to John!

But she was granted access to the servants's quarters of the palace, going in with her mother along with a small crowd of the day workers who lived away from The Palace and arrived every morning for their days work. She was granted an interview with John's son in a quiet spot in the Imperial Garden, and asked him if he remembered his mother and father. His recollection of his mother was fuzzy, (Probably since she had such ambitions for him and once he was the Heir Presumptive she interacted with him less, somehow feeling she was too low status to interact with her own son on too personal of a level.)