The Calling of the Three - Ru Emerson, ebook
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ArfONG the lands east of the Herdyun Sea, the greatest in sizes Rhadaz; so vast the distances between its borders that aman astride the swiftest mare could not cross from the coastalmarshes of Dro Pent to the mountain-locked dells of Fahlia inthe southeast in fewer than six days. So vast and unwieldyRhadaz, with all its varied lands and peoples, that the great-great-great-grandfather of the present Emperor, Shesseran IX,divided Rhadaz into nine Duchies and gave control of thesesmaller kingdoms to his nine nearest friends, who founded theNine Households from which the Dukedoms all descend to thisday. Shesseran IX of course continued to take his taxes and suchother levies of goods and men as necessary; the Dukes wereaccountable to him for following Rhadazi customs, for keepingthe fests and holy days, for maintaining the standards set by theEmperor. But Shesseran left actual governing in the hands of hisfriends. He sent no special auditors, observers or spies to watchopenly or in secret. He kept strict control thereafter of only hisown massive estates and the surrounding game preserves com-posing the Duchy of Andar Perigha�and, of course, his capitalcity and chief port, Podhru.Shesseran IX was widely criticized for having entrusted somuch of Rhadaz to mere friends and not kindred�but he was ashrewd man and knew not only who was most loyal to him, buthow to secure that loyalty: All Rhadaz prospered under theDuchy system, from the merchants of Sikkre to the Zeiharriwoodcrafters, even to the meanest herders and nomad tribes ofoutermost Dro Pent and Holmaddan and Genna.In Shesseran XI's time, the Duchies were reconfirmed to thedescendants of the original nine friends, and the inheritance con-2 RU EM6RSONfirmed bloodline. The Emperor preserved his right to interferein the internal workings of those Duchies but the grandson ofShesseran IX interfered even less in Duchy business than hadhis grandsire. He had, after all, more than enough matters tooccupy his time and talents just managing his estates and pre-serves. And Podhru had become the richest and greatest tradingport anywhere on the eastern seaboard.Shesseran XTV� Shesseran the Golden�inherited wealth andpower greater than that of all his forebears together. More im-portantly, he had his forefathers' shrewd understanding of tradeand the increasingly complex politics inherent to the HerdyunSea trade routes, and the patience to deal with them.It is held that Shesseran XIV made only two serious errors injudgment during his long reign, and those were near its end,when ill health and age began to increasingly influence his de-cisions. He had turned recently to religion, spending increasingamounts of time and vast sums of money on festivals and galasfor Podhru's motley blend of gods�perhaps hoping they couldcure his ills on earth, or possibly to ensure his welcome beyondit. He left negotiations for trading pacts to his advisors so hewould have more time for the artists, poets and musicians whocluttered his court; for celebrations and plays. He no longerhunted, but pursued a lifelong interest in the breeding of gameand the tame herds on his estates. This left little time for any-thing outside Andar Perigha, but then, Shesseran the Goldencared for little outside his city, his household and his preserves,particularly so long as everything outside that worid functionedquietly and well.He maintained the trust of his many-times great-grandfatherin his Dukes, but with less cause. The men who ruled the ninelittle kingdoms no longer held immediate gratitude to the Em-peror for what had so long been theirs, and their primary con-cerns were their own well-being, their own households andfamilies, their own pockets. And there was not one of them whodid not know how great the cause would need to be for Shes-seran to interfere in Duchy matters.The Emperor's second error was held to be his relaxation ofthe five-hundred-year-old prohibition against Hell-Light and itsLight-Shaping Triads. Shesseran had not intentionally permittedthe return of Shapers, even though it had been so many yearssince the rise of Hell-Light and the resulting civil war. Some-how, Shapers had been included among other priests when theWE CALLINQ OF T:HE FHREE 3bill was presented to the Emperor, listing religions and cults thatwould no longer be actively persecuted.It seemed unnecessary to fret over Hell-Light, after so manyhundreds of years: Shapers were few, Triads extremely rare. Butseveral major trading families and at least two nobles breathedrelieved sighs that they would no longer need to hide householdmagicians who touched on Hell-Light. Certain nobles, however,kept Triads and prudently kept them still secret. One never knew.after all.It is also held that Shesseran the Golden suffered only threereversals of tuck in his fortune-blessed reign. The first was theinvasion of Podhru Harbor by Lasanach raiders and the simul-taneous attack on distant, northern Dro Pent that cut its tradelines with the Gyn Hort nomads; the second, that two Lasanachidied suddenly and woundless within Dro Pent walls. The plaguethey carried decimated six-tenths of the townspeople. Worse still:Even after the Empiric Navy and a rough fleet of Bezjerian cargoships routed the Lasanachi, the Gyn Hort were no longer onterms of trust with Dro Pent, a link not repaired for nearly ageneration.The third event was not as readily linked to the Emperor, not,until long after. In the year 770, nineteen years before the in-vasion of Podhru Harbor and fifty leagues due north in the deep-est forests ofZelharri, Duke Amami-'s horse went suddenly wildduring a hunt and threw his master. The Duke fell full into apreviously undiscovered pool of Hell-Light and wasted away overthe next four days. When he died the pool was visible day ornight and Amami was no longer even recognizable as a man.He was survived by his widow Lizelle and their two young chil-dren, the nera-Duke Aletto and the sin-Duchess Lialta. andmourned by al] his Duchy. That number included his youngerbrother Jadek. who had ridden to the hunt with him, had pulledhim from the Hell-Light without consideration of the personalrisk. He had remained by his brother's bed most of the Duke'slast days and appeared at the funeral in deepest mourning. Hisescort of fifty armsmen also wore mourning bands.Once Duke Amami was sealed in his stone cairn, however,young Lord Jadek showed no signs of returning to the landsgranted the Duke's younger son, nor of sending his armsmenaway. Two days after the funeral, he announced his betrothal tothe Duchess Lizelle�to help her, he said earnestly, with theenormous tasks of governing the Duchy until Aletto should comeof age.4 RU EM6RSONLike his brother, Jadek was handsome, easygoing, comfort-able with other nobles and his householdmen alike. Unlike hisbrother, Jadek was not greatly loved, though few people couldfind any reason why they did not like him. A set to his mouth,or the flat way his eyes fixed on them, perhaps.The betrothal raised heavy suspicion of Jadek's motives andrumor was rife throughout Zeiharri. But there was no specificwrong thing to point to. Lizelle herself had appeared with "him:pale, quiet and clad in deep red mourning. But she made noprotest at any time, then or after the wedding, which Jadek heldat the beginning of Gourding-Month, a mere nine days later.Suspicion remained high thereafter, though most common menand women had the wit to voice such suspicions in whispers, ifat all. Particularly when it became clear that men who spokelouder now and again vanished. And men who had served DukeAmami�his closest friends and highest-ranked householdmen�left Duke's Fort. Most of those left the Duchy entirely. Merchantfamilies complained of new competition or restructured taxesand fees, and moved away�many to neighboring Sikkre with itssprawling market at the center of four trade-roads; others tocoastal Bezjeriad, which increasingly rivaled the Emperor's portcity for traffic.Emperor Shesseran knew within hours of Amami's death, andof Jadek's actions after, for Zeiharri bordered the northern edgeof his Andar Perighan estates. But so long as Jadek paid theDuchy's semiannual taxes and sent the proper number of arms-trained men on request, he did nothing. And Jadek, knowingthe Emperor would not interfere without greater cause than adreadful accident and a hasty marriage, was much too clever tomake any overt move to supplant nera-Duke Aletto.After all, he knew there was no need while Aletto was still agreen boy and so barred from ruling. Until the nera-Duke passedhis twenty-fifth birthday, Jadek was for all practical purposesDuke. Even after that date passed, there had been excuses, waysto keep wealth and power, ways that did not involve a frontalattack. Particularly if one took into account all factors, includingAletto's physical condition.There was also Lizelle, of course; she had been still young,and she had already borne healthy children. There could havebeen an heir for Jadek�a boy who would not be next in thesuccession but would have a foot in the door. Unfortunately forJadek, Lizelle irritatingly never quickened.And so, Jadek waited, and planned, until the Spring of theWE CALLINQ OF FHE CTREE 5Emperor's Blossom-Month Fest�Fifth Month, Sixth Day of theyear 789. The numbers would not fall in such a pattern againfor more than a hundred years and a full moon-season of secularand religious festivals were being set. While Shesseran XIV wasso deeply involved in planning and rehearsing the Fest, the manwho had taken his brother'...
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