[Critique Group 1] Cleora's submission for September

[sitting.duck at springmail.com]

I hope this worked. If it looks strange let me know and I'll try to resend.

1920 words
Part Fifteen
The Game Begins

“Who is the message from?” asked Sitting.

“From King Almero of Anathema in the kingdom of Silent Enigma,” answered the crystal ball.

Sitting groaned. “Driver?” she called out.

Driver appeared in the doorway. “Yes, my liege.”

“You said you have a report?”

“Yes, your majesty. Would you like to hear it now?”

“Yes.”

“Enemy wizards made continuous attempts to cause storms and drought on our lands. Unfortunately, some of their attempts were successful. Thousands of our peasants died as a result. We caught thieves trying to steal our resources, but some got through. As a result, we were unable to pay our army. Still, many of our loyal troops remained and we were able to repel an enemy attack. We lost 589 soldiers in the attack. Members of the kingdom observed what was happening and sent aid. As a result we were able to maintain most of the province.”

Sitting dropped her gaze. She knew what he was so tactfully not saying. In her absence, they didn’t have what they needed to maintain the province. It had survived the best it could on the strength of the former ruler, and the confidence the kingdom had that she would return and deal with the issue. Lifting her gaze she met Driver’s eyes. “What is our current situation?”

“We have food stores to last a few days. Now that our people have assumed their true form, we have a guild of thieves, and our wizards are working to put the Wizard’s Tower in order.”

“Call Anthonee and Fire Light for me.”

A short time later, Anthonee and Fire Light appeared in her Control Center. “Gentlemen, I want to apologize to all of you for my absence.” She looked at each of them in turn. They nodded back. “This is what I want you to do. Fire light, have your team block as many spell attempts as you can, as I know you would even without my order. Put out a request in my name to the kingdom for whatever you need. Let’s send storms, drought and anything else you can on the enemy king’s province.” 

“My liege,” said Fire Light. “If I may, if the thieves guild could help us in the meantime by stealing food and get back our runes and gold it would be helpful.”

She looked at Anthonee. He was making a note. “consider it done,” he said. “May I suggest, my Queen, my thieves are skilled in propaganda. With your permission, I think I may be able to get some of the enemy army to come to our side. Intelligence has it that many of the troops in the enemy camp are not happy with the tactics being used in this war.”

“Good idea,” said Sitting. “That reminds me, gather and share any information you can about the enemy with the rest of the kingdom. I will be meeting with the rest of the rulers shortly to outline my plan and get us organized.”

Driver appeared in the doorway in time to overhear. “We are going to war, then?” he asked.

“Maybe,” she said, a curious glint in her eye.

He nodded and smiled. “The rulers are assembled and waiting for you, my liege,” he said.

“Thank you, Driver,” she said. Then, to the others, “You have your orders. Let me know how it goes.” They nodded and left. Sitting hopped down and followed Driver to the Council Chamber. 

Positioning herself on the chair at the head of the table, she looked around the room at the attendees. 

“Welcome back,” said Sir Regis. “I see you voted for yourself, the Land has given you a crown, and your subjects have their proper form.”

“Do you have a plan to get us out of this mess?” asked Sir Dragon.

“Thank you,” said Queen Sitting,” nodding at Regis. “ “Yes. I have learned a great deal about how things work while I was away. I want to thank all of you for the support you have given. That showed a great deal of confidence that I’m not sure I deserved.”

“I always knew you would come through,” said Sir Dog Breath.

“hear, hear,” said Sir Dark Merlin. “I have no doubt you will bring us through this.”

“Are all of you nuts?” said Mr. Pez gordo the dwarf ruler of Torre de queso. “We’re being eaten alive.” All heads turn to look at Pez. “All this stupid fowl has done is try to run away.”

“She’s back now,” said Sir Dark Merlin. 

“She’s worthless, I tell you,” Pez insisted. 

“She killed the dragon Silent Enigma sent,” added Regis.

“That was an accident. The fish killed it. It just happened to die on her province,” said Pez.

“She shared it with all of us,” said Dog Breath. “The parts I took were most valuable.”

“The dragon blood increased the fervor of my army tenfold,” said Regis.

“Need I remind you she needs a grasshopper to see? Look at that stupid bonnet on her head. Can you imagine meeting that spectacle in war? We’ll be laughed out of the land.” 

“That stupid bonnet, as you call it, was made by me,” bristled Dark Merlin. 

“She has no clue what to do.” Pez continued, ignoring Dark Merlin. “The only reason she’s back is because she got lost and some griffin from another kingdom brought her back here. Are you honestly going to accept her back without question? I’ll bet that she made a deal with the enemy to spare her life and she’s back to sell us out. Let’s eat her and be done with her. I’ll be happy to step up as monarch and end this mess with surrender.”

“I thought we agreed we didn't want to surrender,” said Sir Dragon.

“She called this meeting. Let’s hear what she has to say,” said Lady Doom of The Scarlet Witch.

Sitting drew in a deep breath and blew it out through her nostrils. Her eyes focused on the floor in front of her for a long time. Through Grasshopper she could see that all eyes were on her. Waiting. Finally, she lifted her gaze and stared directly at Mr. Pez. With a slight hop and flap of her wings, she lifted herself off the chair and landed on the end of the table. Striding steadily down the center of the table, she kept her eyes focused on Pez as she walked toward him. The rulers drew back their notepads and drinks to clear a path. She stepped up on Pez’s papers and stopped, the tip of her bill centimeters from his broad nose. “You are right. I have been out visiting around. I found out some very interesting information about you. During the short time you have been in the kingdom, you have done nothing noteworthy. In fact, you have sent no aid. But, you have received aid. You have made no attacks, which is interesting since you are a dwarf. Intelligence reveals that your army is barely large enough to defend your lands, and you have made no effort to protect the unusually high volume of food and gold your province produces from thieves. This is curious. Why do you need so much food and gold?” She paused, her piercing eyes boring into his. Pez glanced around the room at the other rulers. Through her link with Grasshopper she could see the other rulers glaring at him. “I’ll tell you why,” she continued. “Reports have it that thieves from Silent Enigma have been stealing you blind, pun intended. In fact, it seems the gold used to hire the dragon that recently visited our kingdom was largely funded by gold taken from your province. In short, You, my friend, are what’s known as a farm. I understand that people who are unhappy with their current kingdom can appeal to the Lords of Land of Legions and move to another kingdom. I suggest you are very unhappy here. Am I right?”

Pez’s eyes grew large, and he swallowed hard. Through Grasshopper, Sitting could see that the other rulers expressions had turned threatening.

“Um,” stammered Pez. “Yes, in fact, I was considering a move this very morning.”

“Guards,” called out Sitting loud enough to be heard outside the room. Then, in a cold whisper, staring directly into Pez’s eyes, “Now would be a good time.”

Pez looked at each of the other rulers, then up at the door as he pushed his chair back. He started to reach for his notes, but thought better of it. Two guards entered the room, and taking him by either arm, they escorted him out.

Sitting, turned, deposited a blob on his papers and walked back to the head of the table. Turning to face the group once again, she sat down on the end of the table. “Anyone else have something to say before we get down to business?” They each shook their head as she looked at them in turn. “good. We are going to need a Minister of War.” She looked at Regis. He nodded. “A Minister of intelligence, or an Arch mage and Leader of the Thieves Guild.”

“I can be Minister of the Underground,” offered Dark Merlyn.

“I would like to serve as Arch mage,” said Lady Doom. 

Dark Merlin nodded at Lady Doom. “I would be pleased to have you as my partner,” said Dark Merlin.

“Excellent,” said Sitting. Then, speaking to the group, “This is what I want you to do... .” Over the next several minutes, Sitting revealed the details of her plan. “Now, this is very important. If any of the enemy attempts to contact you, do not respond to them. Don’t talk to them or communicate with them in any way. Direct all inquiries to me.”

Everyone nodded their consent. 

Suddenly, there was a collective gasp as the tiara disappeared from Sittings head.

“Mr. Pez gordo of Torre de queso must be gone,” observed Sir Toby the Halfling rogue ruler of Walton on the Hill. “I was waiting to cast my vote to see if you would be a worthy ruler. After today, I am convinced. I will cast my vote for you immediately, and I would like to join the team as your Leader of the Thieves Guild.”

“And I will change my vote from Sir Dragon to you,” said Sir Jonny Cage the Dwarf ruler of Sykes empire.

Sitting did a mental calculation. That would give her seven votes to Dragon’s four. she thought for a moment. An idea had occurred to her before when she saw that casting or uncasting her vote would change her status back and forth.

“Thank you for your votes of confidence,” she began. “What I would like you to do, Sir Jonny Cage, is leave your vote the way it is. With Sir Toby’s vote, It will be back the way it was with me having one more vote than Sir Dragon. Then, I will be able to slip my crown off and on by changing my vote. I would like all of you to keep an eye on it and make sure that situation continues. I want to have some fun with our disagreeable enemy.”

The other rulers exchanged questioning glances, and then back at Sitting. They all wondered what she had up her bonnet, and some even felt a little sorry for the enemy.

She gave a couple of little squeaks and winked mischievously. “Let’s be about it folks,” she said.

To be continued...