Flower of Bulann

Chapter 22

Vior looked up at the shadowy figure beside his father, only a pair of eyes visible through the black shroud.

"Your father has ruined everything!" the shadowy figure shouted at his father. "His impatience has united the lords against you, the Faden are doomed."

Vior noticed his father look away, he knew that whatever his grandfather had done was the reason his entire family were now dead.

"Is there no way we can come back from this?" his father asked, though his tone of voice gave away his defeat.

"None, the shadows of Hyenta are withdrawing their aid. Your father was insane to declare himself emperor, especially when the other lords are at relative peace," the shadow replied in a matter of fact tone. "Should any of your line live when this is over, the shadows may back a worthy man."

Vior's father nodded and the shadow receded back into the darkness.

"You shall survive me, Vior. The last champion of the people."

Vior woke up in Kinna's arms, his wife's perfect body pressed against him. Again these nightmares stuck with him, the feeling had been so real again, were these truly dreams, or memories?

He turned his head, believing he had caught something in the corner of his eye, but the room was all darkness.

He squeezed Kinna tight to him, his old fear of the darkness returning. She mumbled in her sleep and he kissed her forehead, at least one of them should sleep well.

Vior had gotten up at first light, he hadn't been able to sleep once more and simply watched Kinna sleeping peacefully. There had been something restful in that, even if thinking about it now made him seem a little creepy.

After dressing, Vior slid open the door to their room, finding Hinata and Ovinna asleep in the adjoining room. The handmaidens awaking as they heard the door.

"You may join your lady, but be quiet, she still sleeps peaceably," he told them, the girls eagerly getting up and kissing his cheek in turn.

Vior smiled, Kinna was lucky to have so many people that loved her so.

He began to head down to the main yard where he would begin training the most prominent and talented men, these forty men would form his and Kuan's bodyguards.

Kuan had begged to join in with them, desperate to match Vior's skill with a blade. He had been denied of course, it would be unseemly for a lord to be taught with the peasantry, though they had been Rassan's words.

"I am glad I caught you, lord Vior," Tanahashi said with a polite bow. "My horse is ready and I was about to leave."

Vior clasped forearms with his friend, their bond stronger than steel, forged in the trials they had faced together.

"I am sad to see you leave, lord Uzada. But I realise that your father will require your skills soon," Vior said as he clapped a hand upon Tanahashi's shoulder guard.

"I too am saddened to be leaving your side, but your message to my father is of great importance. So I feel great honour in that responsibility," Tanahashi replied, bowing once more. "Until we meet next, lord Vior."

Vior watched Tanahashi leave before descending the rest of the staircases, the staggered placement of them made tactical sense, but made his rooms on the top floor a chore to reach.

Reaching the training yard took several more minutes, a gust of wind swirling the sand that covered the grounds floor. The walls were over seven feet high and lime-washed white, a crude black dragon head upon each panel.

"All hail, lord Vior Faden!" called out a collection of familiar voices and he smiled.

All forty of the men were mercenaries he had served with or under in his seven years away from Kinna, and here they were again.

"I thought you said you would never serve under a lord?" he asked suspiciously, resting his hands upon his katana and tonto.

"Well," Guroji answered with a childish grin, his thick black beard typical of the ronin in the north, as was his bald head. "Once we heard that our Vior had taken up his birthplace, well, I and the lads got to thinking. And we thought, we aren't getting any younger, and you being a good, honourable sort. Well... what I'm saying in a roundabout way, is that we trust you, lord Vior."

Vior threw aside Rassan's lecture about lordly etiquette and hugged his friend and teacher.

"It is good to have you all back, forgive my mistrust of you all. I feared you would sell Kinna back to her father," he confessed, for he had never kept secrets from them.

"No need to forgive you, Vi... I mean, lord Vior," Hibussa said with a wolfish grin, his long hair tied back. "Before we came here, we certainly would have sold her back."

Vior looked at them with disapproval, especially Hibussa who was only a little older and Vior had always been compared to him.

Wishing they'd stayed quiet about their probable behaviour Vior wanted to admonish them. But he had been their friend, ward and son for so long it was difficult to stay mad.

"At least I do not need to teach you sword skill," he said with relief, for the day was warm and training would be laborious, especially after his sleepless night.

"Are you kidding?" Guroji asked, rapping his wooden sword. "We need to test out our Vior, make sure he's made of lordly material."

Vior smiled, placing his swords down by the doorway, Luwen his personal serving boy collecting them and standing nearby.

He had rescued the dark-haired boy from death upon the streets, finding him as he rode through the town below. His parents had died in the wildlands and he had hidden away in a wagon until arriving in Totstnir where his castle stood vigilant.

The boy bore several scars upon his face, and welts upon his back, probably from repeated beatings, but Vior didn't want his people to suffer and he would put them to work rather than see them starve or resort to crime.

Hibussa stepped up first and Vior smiled, for they had ever been rivals. And Vior has never lost to him.

"Lord Vior!" called out a runner from the gatehouse, he bore a letter in his hands that bore the Hyenta seal.

Vior broke open the seal immediately, all thoughts of the fight fleeing his mind.

The letter proposed an alliance, and with favourable terms for him.

Lord Hohin Hyenta would send four divisions of troops to aid him, and that in itself was generous for the whole Faden realm could muster but five divisions.

In return, he only asked that he would not interfere with his conquests west of Bulann, nor aid the Liu's.

Vior took a quill and ink from the messenger, quickly scrawling his response upon it. For more than anything written upon the paper, the Hyenta clan would recognise him as lord of Faden, he would be legitimised across the country.

"Bear this with all haste," Vior told the messenger, re-sealing the wax.

Leaving his guards in confusion he raced back to find Kinna, for once her father had news of his agreement Kinna could surely see him again.