Chapter 29 Chancellor Vindar
CHANCELLOR VINDAR
THE ROSE PALACE, ATTAR
Chancellor Vindar is walking through the winter gardens with his son, on the morning of the first day of a new age of the Azurian Empire.
Vindar spent his boyhood in Ceruleum, far in the north.
Attar never gets as cold as Ceruleum used to during Lex moon, snows are rare, but the wind today is cool enough that both he and Umbert wear woollen cloaks.
Vindar looks down at his son. He is six summers old, crouching on the neatly kept gravelled pathway, looking at a beetle crawling along, trying to get it to scuttle onto a stick he holds.
Selim is dead and Prince Rafus is dead too.
A great and tragic dawn has broken this day for the proudest empire the world has ever seen.
Word arrived this morning that Rafus was killed by bandits in the back streets of Ceruleum.
The reason why a man like Prince Rafus, Duke of Northern Azuria, was wandering alone around the frozen city he’d made his home this last year is a mystery, although many, Vindar included, assume he was heading for a brothel or somewhere else where he could thrust his cock where it did not belong.
These events, though solemn, do clear Atticul’s path to the throne.
Rafus had already abdicated his position in the Royal Line after his dispute with Selim, but it is now purely conjecture to imagine what Rafus would have done if he had lived to receive news of his brother’s death at the hand of one of his own sons.
With Rafus’s death confirmed, there will be two funerals.
Preparations have already been made for Selim to be commended to Zai on the morrow Prince Rafus will follow as soon as his remains arrive in the Jewel of the Empire.
Both bodies will be entombed in the Royal Crypt beneath the Rose Palace with two hundred years of Darek rulers. From Sarelik to Erond.
Atticul will join them too one day. Atticul is emperor. He will officially ascend in a matter of moons and when he does, Umbert will be named crown prince and heir apparent. He has to be. Atticul has no children of his own.
And he will have none if Vindar’s plans follow their course.
There is no one else to challenge the Royal Line.
Vindar has ensured none of Rafus’s bastards would claim the right to rule ahead of Umbert.
None of his plans went in the exact way he meant them to, but all are disposed of.
Dead, exiled, under sentence of death or far, far away.
All except that abomination Jemel, but no one would consider him a potential Emperor even if his lineage were known.
Everyone who knows about him has been sworn to secrecy.
His mother is lucky to have survived his birth. Although she is out of reach of any of Vindar’s attempts to dispose of her.
If Jemel declared his parentage himself, he would be executed, especially now Gelen Zain is the High Word.
Vindar crouches down beside his son. His knees protest loudly enough that Vindar grunts. “Are you trying to kill that creature?” he says, looking at the beetle.
“I’m trying to help it off the path,” Umbert says, looking up. His cheeks are ruddy, chapped from the wind. “Someone might tread upon it if it stays here.” Umbert pokes at the beetle with his stick again, trying to urge it towards the edge of the path, back into the scrubby bushes.
“You will be emperor one day, doing such things for your subjects,” Vindar says, placing a hand on Umbert’s shoulder.
Umbert looks up at his father. His little face is quite stern with concentration. “Father,” he says, “that is not my path, just as this is not the path for the beetle.”
Vindar stares at his son, a little shocked to hear him pronounce like this. “Such things,” he says, standing straight with a grunt, pressing down on Umbert’s shoulder, “our paths are not for us to decide. It is the will of Zai. And you must do your duty. As I must.”
Umbert stands up. “I will not be Emperor,” he says.
Vindar shakes his head. “Come, let us speak with your mother.”
Vindar takes Umbert’s hands and leads him away, down the path to the arbour, taking a moment, unnoticed by Umbert, to crush the beetle with his boot.
In the arbour — a small circular area of neatly raked gravel surrounded by rose bushes, bare and cold so far from the season of blooming — Princess Ferra the Lilac Doe reclines on an iron swing, surrounded by cushions and covered with furs.
Three serving women attend her, seated on small wooden stools. She looks pale, as ever.
When he sees her, Umbert drops Vindar’s hand and races to his mother, climbing onto the swing with her to nestle on her lap.
Vindar watches, thinking that his son is too old to do that.
He ought to start martial training in the summer.
But he doesn’t say anything. Not now. This is a momentous day and he ought to be marking it with his family.
The family he has given everything for. The family that will rule the Azurian Empire.
Unless Atticul has a son.
The fact that Prince Atticul had reached over thirty three summers without taking a wife and siring any children was often remarked upon in the Rose Palace.
Atticul had long decided he would marry no woman but Inez of Swen.
She had been promised to Atticul, but her family had petitioned Selim, asking she instead be wed to Damon Darekul.
They had chosen the perfect moment to make such a request. Selim, always quite enamoured of Damon’s fighting skill, had been looking for a reward to persuade Damon to continue fighting for the Imperial Army after his period of indenture ended.
Inez had been that reward.
Vindar had done his bit to ensure Inez and Damon were wed. It served his purpose well. The rift between Atticul and Damon deepened and Atticul, angry with his uncle, refused to wed any other woman.
When Damon was exiled Atticul tried to take Inez once more, but Doroth Zain blocked his path.
Vindar is sure that Doroth Zain’s proclamation that a man wedding a woman who had lain with his brother was against the will of Zai is the reason Doroth Zain lost his role as High Word when Atticul came to power, the reason he has been told not to return to Attar from Ceruleum.
Atticul has already demanded that the Lady Inez be brought to the Rose Palace.
Vindar has managed to delay the request for some days, claiming that it would not be prudent to demand such so soon after Selim’s death.
He hopes that such a delay will give Inez enough time to flee the city.
Seven moons of mourning is correct for the monarch.
But Vindar doubts Atticul will wait that long. And if Inez does not flee in time…
Atticul will want a son and so will Inez. Vindar will have to consider how he deals with this.
He has disposed of everyone else in his path. He will surely find a way to dispose of Inez too.