Chapter 4 Part 3

When Dylan awoke, he discovered Gage sitting right where he had been when Dylan had settled down to sleep. The elf greeted him with a nod and gestured wordlessly to the steaming pot of porridge. “Did you stay up all night?” Dylan asked.

“No,” Gage answered. “We elves sleep very lightly and very little.” He rolled his blanket and tossed it in the back of the wagon. “You, on the other hand, have a bad habit of snoring.”

“I snore?” Dylan asked stunned. No one had ever complained before.

“Yes you do,” Cindy added as she stirred. “You kept us awake half the night. What happened? You didn’t snore when we were roommates.”

“I rarely went to sleep with you mad at me then,” Dylan told her. He silently crossed his fingers. He had to get back on her good side first thing or else the day would be terrible. “I guess I just can’t sleep well when you are mad at me.”

“Really?” Cindy asked quietly. Then she smiled. “Well I guess if I am ever going to get a good night’s rest, I’d better not get mad at you any more.” Then she rolled up her own blanket and stored it in the wagon, whistling merrily as she did so.

Dylan caught a motion from Gage and was rewarded with an approving nod. “You are definitely learning,” the elf whispered as he walked past the small boy.

It was almost two weeks before they began to see signs that they were approaching Seron. During that time, Dylan had found himself drawn more and more deeply into the history of the king’s family. He did not fail, however to spend adequate time with Cindy, as doing so could make life on the road unbearable.

When they reached Seron at last, Gage took a little time to book room and board for the three of them. He directed them to bathe thoroughly and then report to him in the commons room of the tavern for a hot meal. The plan was to spend only one night in Seron and depart the following day.

When Dylan and Cindy finally joined Gage at a table near the fireplace, the journeyman drilled them each in turn about their reading assignments.

Dylan listened as Cindy answered questions about the fall of House Blackheart. Secretly Dylan envied her. He had heard those stories so often that he would have had no trouble answering them.

“Finally in the year of the Creator, zero, the many gods disappeared and the Overlord destroyed the godeater called the Abomination. That was in the one thousand two hundred and seventy third century of the Godking’s rule,” Cindy concluded. “On that day we began counting the years from zero again because it was the beginning of a new age.”

“How did House Blackheart come into power?” Dylan asked curiously.

Gage drank deeply from his cup. Then he wiped a drop of the purplish wine from his chin. “Long ago,” Gage began, “before the Pact of Quatar was signed, all of the cities were separate kingdoms. The world was always in turmoil and the cities were fighting between each other. Keron was nothing but a fishing village back then. Only Allentown remains very much the same way now as it was back in those times.”

“I read that it was the signing of the Pact of Quatar that created the City States League,” Cindy interrupted.

“That is correct,” Gage agreed. “Out of the violence and chaos of the Dark Time as those days were called, there came the voice of a monk of the Brotherhood of Dreams. They were a sect of philosophers and thinkers who believed that the mind was the ultimate tool.”

“Were they correct?” Dylan asked.

“Yes and no,” Gage digressed. “Someday they will be right, but at present the mind is not yet great enough to do what they thought it capable of.”

“To continue: This monk, named Anthilus Habberdeen suggested the concept of the Pact of Quatar. All this was done at a time when the gods were still young and only the gods of good were interested in the affairs of the mortal realm. Because of that, the temples endorsed Anthilus’ proposal and all the leaders of the many cities traveled to Allentown to meet. There they agreed to a single ruler. He was Fandatian the Red, ruler of Haganaw. He was a fair and strong man so no one had any objection to his being the king. There was, however much debate as to where the king was to live.”

“Fandatian wanted to stay where he was, I suppose,” Dylan offered.

“Actually no,” Gage corrected. “His second wanted him to stay in Haganaw, but Fandatian wisely offered to relocate to a place that was of no importance to any of the powers at that time. That is how Keron was selected.”

“What has that to do with the rise of House Blackheart?” Cindy asked.

Gage smiled and took another swallow. “Patience my child,” he urged. “Any story worth telling is worth telling correctly.”

A young man with long black hair and a finely trimmed goatee set three plates of fresh vegetables and baked fish upon the table. Gage thanked the man and passed the food around. “Let us eat and I will finish the story as we do so,” he instructed.

“The kings of the cities all bowed their crowns to Fandatian and he in turn awarded them titles of nobility according to the importance of the city over which they ruled. The only exception of course was that of High Branch and Pandara; for those were the militant cities and were classified differently.”

“That is why cities like Allentown and Haganaw and, recently, Tycho were made into dukedoms. Aspberg, then called Waycross, because of its place in the river and crossroads, was much larger and considered by many to be the most important city in the East, but Fandatian awarded the ruler, the title of count. This infuriated the inhabitants of that city for they felt insulted, but the king had spoken and there was little that could be done about it.”

“Then, several centuries later, a minor noble named Hector the Asp--for the quickness of his rapier--found himself next in line of succession to the throne of Waycross. The circumstances surrounding the death of the other heirs was ridiculously suspicious, but Hector was as quick with his tongue as he was with his rapier, and managed to avoid the noose of the gallows.”

“In any event, when the Count of Waycross died, Hector assumed the throne with the endorsement of the present king who was named Bollian the Brave. Hector rallied his people to turn Waycross into an economic power and began exerting his influence on the crossroads and river. He levied taxes and duties and soon became so popular that the city was renamed Aspberg by the people he ruled.”

“Now the other city states were angry for the duties that were being charged to move goods through Aspberg’s territory, and so came the first major challenge to the Pact of Quatar. There was great unrest in the Senate of the States and many cities threatened to break the alliance if the king did not take action.”

“So King Bollian ordered the armies of High Branch to march upon Aspberg and the city was placed under martial law. Hector was publicly reprimanded and forced to repeal his economic strangle hold on the rest of the world. Then he was returned to Aspberg and Bollian thought the whole matter resolved. That was his fatal mistake.”

“Hector could not be removed from the throne because the Pact of Quatar has no power over the ruling structure inside the walls of a sovereign city state. Hector waited patiently for the whole affair to be forgotten, then about eighteen years later while Hector was visiting Keron, Bollian was killed by the blade of an assassin. The blade was a replica of the fang blade that Hector was famous for carrying. It had a hollow core and a tiny hole in the tip where poison could be stored and insure the death of a victim.”

“The entire world was in an uproar, but Hector cooperated with the investigation and still possessed his original fang dagger and had been elsewhere in the palace with many witnesses when the act had been carried out. It was decided that in addition to killing the king, the assassination was also intended to lay the blame on Hector.”

“There remains much speculation as to whether or not Hector was actually the man behind the deed. Though it was not his hand that took the life of the king, it may have been his money that paid that hand. But there was never enough evidence of that to warrant anything more than simple suspicion.”

“In any event, to show his grief for the death of the king, Hector took to wearing black. From that day on, he and all his descendants always wore black as a constant denial of their involvement with the assassination. After a while the name of Blackheart was attached to the whole family by their enemies. But it was not until almost five hundred years ago that the Countess Cryptia first adopted the name publicly. So the Countess Cryptia Blackheart was the first name recorded using the Blackheart surname. And though she never married, she did have two sons. Toral and Grim Blackheart were the beginning of the Blackheart Dynasty.

It was Toral that ascended the throne in Aspberg and began the long reign of evil that followed, for Toral was an evil man. But his brother, Grim, was a kinder and gentler soul who joined the Brotherhood of Dreams. Toral feared that someday his brother would try to overthrow him, so he had his agents, a band of fanatics called the Yarim, slaughter the entire monastery which was half the distance between Aspberg and Keron.”

“The Yarim were hunted down and killed for their crime, but there was never any connection found to link them to House Blackheart. That also began the tradition of protecting the purity of the Blackheart blood. They adopted a practice of killing all female children and allowing only one son to live to assume the throne.

The single exception to that was over one hundred years ago when Murda Blackheart, having been told by a seer that he had been cursed and would not father a male heir, ordered the sparing of his newborn daughter. He had her placed in a convent to the god Set and raised in ignorance of her heritage. When she was fourteen, he had her bound and left overnight naked on the altar of the Set. She conceived of the seed of the Godking and brought unimaginable power to the family line in the form of Serpent Blackheart. Serpent was so named to show his alliance with the god Set, who was the lord of snakes. It also reflected the motto on the Blackheart Coat of Arms which reads: ‘Stealth and Strike’.”

“It was about the same time that the Godking also took an elf maiden and she too gave birth to a son. Morteous was of the same father as Serpent though not of the same mother. But the identity of the elf maiden has never been known and if Morteous knew his true heritage, he never mentioned it. All that is known is that Serpent and Morteous were commanded by the Godking to be brothers and Morteous was adopted into the House of Blackheart.”

“The rest you know is recent history.”

“Wow,” Cindy gasped. She had hardly touched her food. “That’s a great story.”

“Now you know why Dylan has been so interested in reading,” Gage told her.

“But I’m reading about the rise of House Rigel,” Dylan pointed out. “It occurs right after the assassination of King Bollian.”

“Tell us about it,” Gage suggested.

Dylan paused to organize his thoughts. He tried to recall accurately what he had read. “After King Bollian was killed,” he began, “the throne remained unoccupied until the Senate of City States could chose a new king because Bollian had no heirs. If I remember correctly, it took almost six years before the Senate decided to have Nokani Rigel, the second born son of Chastain Rigel of Haganaw assume the Throne of Keron to rule. Apparently Nokani was only twelve years old, and so he was placed under the advisement of Lord Terriagn of High Branch. Lord Terriagn served as the Steward of Keron until Nokani was seventeen years old. Then Nokani became King Rigel the First.”

“Since that time, there’ve been eight different kings who’ve gone by the name of Rigel, about a dozen who’ve gone by the name of Nokani and several others who’ve taken on the name of Terriagn. There’ve been a few miscellaneous other names, but Rigel and Nokani are the more popular names.”

“Do they change their names when they ascend the throne?” Cindy asked.

“Oh, no,” Gage told them. “By tradition the first born prince is named Nokani and the second is named Rigel. After that it is left up to the king and queen as to what to name their children.”

“That’s how King Rigel got his name,” Dylan interrupted. “His older brother was named Nokani but died before he could ascend the throne.”

Cindy asked Gage if she would be allowed to read more of the history of some of the Great Houses. She was assured that she would, and Gage expressed his satisfaction with his students’ enthusiasm with both reading and history. He directed them to finish their meal and return to the room and go to sleep. He wanted to be on the road early the next morning, and they still had a long way to go.

When the next day arrived, they passed quietly through the streets of Seron and slipped away in the morning twilight unhindered. Cindy expressed her disappointment that they did not have a chance to observe Seron in the full activity of the day, and felt unhappy that she was so close to home and yet had to move on so soon. Gage simply indicated that she would have plenty of time to see cities when she completed her studies at the Academy. He added that he had no desire to get bogged down by mid morning traffic as wagons and merchants began moving around in the confined space within the city.

Several hours later the wagon and its occupants passed a merchant train. Apparently the primary cargo was lumber as most of the wagons were tarped but the shape of the cover betrayed the contents within.

“Will we be stopping in Aspberg?” Cindy asked one evening.

“The city is now called, New Aspberg,” Gage informed her, “and, yes, we will be stopping there.”

“Why did they change the name?” Dylan wondered.

“Aspberg was a place of great evil,” Gage told them. “After the Blackheart clan vanished, King Rigel assigned Baron Vincent CyKet the stewardship of the city. Baron CyKet changed the name to symbolize the change in attitude of the city. He relaxed the taxes and many of the strict laws. As a result, New Aspberg has been growing steadily in economic power.”

“Gee,” Cindy admitted. “I was always told that it was a terrible place and to always stay away from it.”

“Things change,” Gage explained, “but a bad reputation is hard to get rid of as you can see.”