Chapter 6

We had time that evening for a dip in the ocean. Both Anslee and Sinola wanted to sample the ocean, but they were bodyguards, so there was some consultation before they went into the water. They discussed it with me, and I discussed it with the chief of the bodyguard detail. We agreed that my wives could go into the water one at a time as long as the other stayed close to the queen. Dammit, the situation got complicated when the queen decided that she wanted to go into the ocean. The problem was that if the queen went swimming, they king just had to go, too.

I had no interest in going into the water. Hell, I couldn't swim. Fortunately, one of the other bodyguards could swim, and he volunteered to go into the water with the king. The aggravating thing about all of this was that I now was going to have to learn to swim. Shit! People keep finding ways to mess up a perfectly good job.

Anslee spent about 15 minutes in the water and had all she wanted of it, so Sinola had her turn. Sinola was just leaving the water when one of Sir Grayly's staff shouted, "SEA SNAKE ALERT! EVERYBODY OUT OF THE WATER!"

I didn't know what a sea snake was, but I was willing to believe that it was dangerous if people who lived at the water's edge believed that it was. I ran to a lookout platform and looked toward the water. I saw a dark shadowy figure swimming toward the beach just under the surface. My God, the damned thing had to be at least 15 feet long and two feet in diameter. Suddenly, there was a head that was mostly teeth that broke the surface. Hell, it scared me enough that I drew my revolver and fired a series of shots at it as fast as I could aim and pull the trigger.

I managed to get off four shots at it, and blood burst from its head at the third shot. Only moments later, Anslee and Sinola were also shooting. I could not tell if either one scored a hit, but the snake shivered over its full length and seemed to relax. It floated to the surface and we finally got a good look at its mouth. It looked to me as if the mouth was so crowded with teeth that there was no room for a tongue. A shiver ran down my back when I got a good look at the thing.

A couple of the women staff members fainted, probably from relief, and several men of the staff refused to get close to the thing as it washed toward the shore. In a few minutes, four men armed with axes ran out and chopped the head off the beast. That was what it took to convince several of the people there that the creature was safely dead. The head was thrown onto the beach well away from where any people were standing, and a rope was tied to the beast's body so that it could be dragged to shore.

Sir Grayly called his thanks to me for killing the creature and said that I would have the choicest cut for dinner tonight. Before going in to dinner, someone told me that the sea snake was highly poisonous, and the poison took only seconds to kill a victim. That was enough to convince me that I wanted nothing to do with eating meat from the animal, no matter what its exotic flavor. Instead, I offered the piece saved for me to Sir Grayly's wife, and she accepted it with considerable grace and what looked to me like relish. Well, I didn't care. There was no way that I was going to take a chance on taking a single bite of sea snake, no matter how delicious it was reputed to be.

My wives and I also decided that there was nothing in the ocean attractive enough to make us want to go swimming if we did not have to save a life. We had had all of the ocean we cared for. Fortunately, the next day was a working day for the king and I had to accompany him. The queen was scheduled to tour some of the interesting sights of Crystal Island, so Anslee and Sinola would be traveling with her.

The next morning, the king was ushered to one of the ground-transportation versions of the flier, and he headed off for the conference. Perforce, I had to join him in his vehicle, and I was 'treated' to what amounted to a scenic tour of the island. Frankly, I got bored with the scenery very quickly, but I did remain alert just in case an assassin showed his head. There was no problem with that, and we reached the conference site on schedule.

Dammit, there must be a conspiracy to bore me to death! This was a boring meeting from the moment it opened. The king listened to five local knights present their cases for keeping the mine closed. Following that, he listened to presentations from his own people about the technical and economic advantages of reopening the mine.

I had to agree with the locals that the open pit mine was an eyesore, but Horurie had so much to gain from reopening the mine that it would the height of foolishness not to reopen it. New processing techniques could use the old tailings from the mine for additional ore. That would clean up some of the mess and relieve a part of the eyesore. Furthermore, reopening the mine would produce many new jobs, and Crystal Island could certainly use the economic boost.

By the time the presentations were finished, it was time to shut down for the day. The king promised to consider all of the presentations before he made up his mind, but he wanted to have a private meeting with the five objectors before he made a final decision. That sounded to me like he was stalling, but it did make the objectors believe that the king was trying to be fair about the whole thing. I expected the king to use his remarkable persuasive powers during those private meetings.

As a concession to the locals, the king would visit each one at his estate for the private discussion. In that way, each knight would have the honor of entertaining the king while he was having his arm twisted. All of us connected with the palace already knew how the king was going to rule on the matter. All that he was doing now was trying to sooth ruffled feathers.

Most of the entourage would remain at Sir Grayly's estate while the king, the queen, and the bodyguards traveled about the island. That would not put a strain on the hospitality of any local knight, and would give him the bragging rights of having had the king and queen reside in his mansion overnight. That was a big deal among the high society types and would do wonders to increase their local status. Of such simple things, major battles were won.

It was necessary for my wives and me to move with the king from place to place, and we spent our nights in a variety of suites. All of them were more than acceptable, but some were more grandiose that others. However, none approached the sheer gaudiness of the Grayly estate.

We were just leaving the fourth estate and heading for the fifth when the unexpected happened. The king had done the expected job of convincing the first four knights whom he visited to drop their complaints against reopening the mine, and we all expected the same result at the fifth call. We were riding along the road when we were suddenly attacked by three fliers. They appeared to be civilian vehicles, but they all carried Gatling guns.

I was in the vehicle with the king and queen, and it happened that my wives were also there. The other vehicle which was smaller carried the remaining members of the bodyguard detail. There were six of us in the vehicle, and it was a miracle that the only person killed by the strafing was the driver of our vehicle. The other vehicle with the rest of the bodyguards was completely destroyed. As soon as our driver was hit, I jumped to take his place and pulled us off the road up to the edge of a forest.

I had everybody jump out and hide in the trees while I sent the vehicle back to the road under control of its autopilot. The vehicle was destroyed the moment it reappeared from under the trees, and the attacking fliers switched their attention to a kind of random strafing of the trees. They probably figured that the king and queen had jumped out of the vehicle and were hiding among the trees.

While I was programming the ground vehicle's autopilot, I yelled at Anslee to summon our flier from Sir Grayly's estate. She did so, ordering it to fly at maximum speed to our location. At that speed, our flier reached us in about 15 minutes. Our flier's appearance at our location was enough to break the run of strafing and to send the three attacking fliers off to hide.