Dark Lady Rising

Chapter 1

The cloaked figure edged closer to the throne. Zarin watched him carefully. Trained warrior that he was, little escaped his attention.

Courtiers, nobles and other people filled the castle's spacious main hall, all preoccupied with the trial taking place. Boring really. For Zarin, who thrived on combat, these legal proceedings were like the worst kind of torture. Actually, that wasn't quite true; torture he could handle. How had he gone from warrior-king to politician so quickly? This cloaked figure seemed a better distraction than the fate of the two soldiers before him.

The case was quite a simple decision actually. Two sentries had opened up a bottle of wine together to keep warm one cold night. This in itself was not uncommon amongst Charnell's sentries and normally Zarin would have ignored it. But the two fools drank themselves into a stupor while on duty. And that was a bit more serious. With war looming and his neighbours reinforcing their borders, Zarin could not afford lax discipline in his ranks. He would have to set a strict precedent with these two.

He sighed, hating his role as administrator. The battlefield was really where he wished to be. It called to him. It was there that a man could prove his worth. An enemy in front of you, armies at your command - that was the seat Zarin truly craved. Not this overstuffed cushion he was supposed to sit on. He was a warrior after all. He sighed again. The cloaked figure edged closer.

"Enough!" he called, finally interrupting the needless babbling.

"But my lord!" the mouse-faced man who was his Chief of Legal Affairs interrupted. Scurrying over to Zarin's side he tried to explain, "the law dictates that you must let them plead their case. You must-"

"I am the law!" answered Zarin forcefully. "I will decide what I must and must not do." He glowered at the small man, who cringed as if he had just been caught with stolen cheese.

"You!" he barked, pointing to the two condemned men. "I will not tolerate your kind in my empire. For failing in your duty to protect your King, your Land and your People, you will have your eyes removed."

Zarin turned to one of his guards. "Place their eyes on a pole at the border crossing into the Land of the Five Plains. They will guard our borders until they rot. Then, since they were so afraid of the cold, take them to the forge and chain them there. They will never be cold again."

Content with his decision and having had enough of the Royal Chair, Zarin stood to dismiss the crowd. It would not only alleviate his growing frustration, but it would force the cloaked figure to make his move. The little legal advisor however, had a different plan in mind.

"My lord, the next item of business is the dispute between the nobles of Estonagen..."

Oh, how he despised the little rodent of a man. But he was good at his job. "Misk!" he barked cutting off the skinny man's nervous twitterings. To his delight, the court official cringed again as he often did when Zarin spoke to him. "Misk, I am not interested in the nobles of Estonagen, or their dispute. I will see no more people today!" he ordered.

"But, but," the little man stammered. "It's not in the rules!" he finally cried.

"Very well. You sit and hear their case. Let all who hear me know that Misk will hear all my cases and speaks with my voice." The silence quickly erupted into a loud crescendo of surprise. Misk squeaked something non-verbal as Zarin smiled. That was a good way to delegate, he congratulated himself. The tiny man, useless on a battlefield, knew more about court politics and procedures than anyone else anyway.