Firefly Light

Chapter 8

"Your highness." said the voice...... then it repeated itself.......he knew the voice, but... darkness came again.... a hand gently shook his shoulder. Detaching himself from the dream he began to swim up toward consciousness, his senses concentrating on the voice. "Sire, sire, I'm sorry to bother you, please wake up. It's Jeremy. Colonel Manheim is waiting for you in the entrance hall. He says he's sorry about the time, but you ordered that you be informed any time there was news from the scouts. He wants to talk with you." "Yes, yes, of course." yawned Joseph, still not fully awake, "Tell him that I will be there momentarily." "Very good sire," said the butler and he turned and left the room.

It had been two weeks since the Kondos had left. He looked at the clock. "Shit." he moaned. 3:40 AM.....a little later would have been ok. Beside him, Sophia began to stir. "Is something wrong hon?" She asked in a barely audible voice. "No sweetheart, actually something has gone right, it's just that its timing could have been better. Go back to sleep." He leaned over, parted the glossy black curtain of hair over her face, and kissed her. She smiled, mumbled something, her head dropped back to the pillow and she was gone.

After dressing, he hurried to the entrance hall of his personal apartment. The Otani family lived in the top floor, the 8th floor, of the Royal Otania. The entire floor was reserved for their use and contained all of their personal living spaces. Colonel Manheim sat in one of the comfortable leather chairs in the hall, jumping up when he saw the king approaching. "Good morning, sire, sorry about the time, but you wanted to know as soon as we had new information." greeted Victor. "Yes, I did, and thanks for doing so. Now what's the news?" asked the king.

Victor had clearly been hustled out of bed himself. He was unshaven and his blond hair looked like it had been combed with his fingers. This was not the impeccably groomed officer that Joseph was used to seeing. They started to walk to the hallway to the elevators. "Field Marshall Mitchell has declared an emergency staff meeting. We are trying to get everyone up and to the meeting now.  Last night a messenger came in from the 2nd Legion. A pair of the scouts we sent out to the Organ Cave area have returned with a positive report. Then, just an hour ago, a second rider came in with information that another pair of scouts had just returned from the Lost World Caverns with a similar report. Mitchell felt the information was compelling enough to call an emergency meeting." "Very well," said Joseph, "Let's go."

Diana was impatiently waiting in the staffroom when they arrived. She smiled and greeted both of them, but was clearly anxious to get things rolling as soon as everyone was there. She said little as the others, in various levels of appropriate military attire, stumbled in. "I'm sorry, sire, I hope that you don't mind that I called this meeting without your approval first. New information leads me to believe that an immediate reaction by us may be needed against the growing threat posed by the eastern brigands."   He responded, "I trust your judgment, Diana. I know that you would only call an emergency meeting for a good reason."

Finally, all of the necessary people were in the room. The Field Marshall called everyone to the table and brought the meeting to order. She began, "We have just had our scouts sent to the caverns area return to report their findings. Both caverns are occupied and both appear to be ruled by branches of the same group of brigands." She pointed to the 'Organ Cave' area on the map on the table. This is our primary target. The cavern itself and town built outside of it are relatively heavily populated, estimated to be at least sixteen thousand people. The people themselves are ruled by over three thousand armed men and women, probably a gang that took over the community from the original leaders and have been preying on them since. The scouts said the signs of oppression are fairly clear and the people seemed to be a pretty miserable lot. They were able to determine that the current name for this location is Deephaven, so that is the name we will use from now on." The stick was then placed on the other cavern. "Again, about the same story here. About nine thousand population, gang members estimated to be about fifteen hundred. Name is Morgans Retreat. Both towns are partially built in the caverns, partially around the openings. They have, relatively crude, wooden walls built to protect the areas outside of the caverns themselves. These are almost certainly the sources of the raids from which we have been suffering."