The bell on the door jingled as they entered the Lark Trading Company just after sunrise the following morning. The shop looked similar to the General Store, but it was bright, thanks to large windows, and the merchandise was more expensive-looking and colorful. A lot of it was decorative; rugs, vases, statues, and the like.
Against the far wall, a portly man was packing a wooden crate with some beeswax candles from a shelf. They more expensive than the tallow candles commonly used, these were typically only found in temples. A tall, burly man with greenish skin stood near him, a large hammer hanging from his belt, it’s dirty handle resting against equally dirty pants. His thick arms were crossed over his chest, and his dark eyes were intent. Some would say he looked angry, but it was only the heavy brow, and the tusks protruding from under his bottom lip that gave the impression.
“That’s the blacksmith, Jorge,” Falcon whispered to Julia. “He’s a half-orc.”
She was already staring. Now she turned away to find something else to look at, and settled on a shelf filled with decorative boxes.
He returned his attention to the men. Cadin was speaking; “…heard it from Harris, who just got back last night from Oraunt. And he said that’s the king’s new decree. It’ll be in the paper tomorrow and―”
“King?” Falcon interrupted. “Kelstone doesn’t have royalty.”
“Haven’t been keeping up with the news, eh?” Cadin replied.
“No, not lately.”
Cadin rested a hand on his plump belly and shook his head. “Well, it happened a week ago. Lord Xavien Barrowmont has declared himself Kelstone’s King.”
“What about the other Lords?” Falcon asked.
Jorge gave a grizzly, humorless laugh. “Seems they all back him.”
“Not all of them,” Cadin interjected. "Just those who replaced the lords who died―all within the last year.”
“Murders,” Jorge grumbled.
“Can someone clue me in, please?” Julia asked. “What’s a lord, and who’s Xavien?”
“Don’t you know anything about the government?” Cadin asked incredulously.
“Sorry, no.”
“I’ll see you later,” Jorge cut in. “Work to do.”
Cadin nodded. “Yeah, see you for dinner tonight,” he replied, then turned back to Julia. “Well, Lords are the people who run each city and its surrounding area. The Lordship is passed down to their heir when they die; if they have no children, then it goes to some other wealthy, and therefore powerful, resident of the city. Luckily that doesn’t happen often, because it usually turns into a fight and those have been known to last months―even a year, in one case.”
“Is it only men, then?” she asked.
“No,” Falcon answered. “It’s mostly men, but there can be women, too.”
Cadin nodded, then continued with his explanation, seeming to enjoy it. “Fifteen people―the fourteen different Lords and the head of the Mages Council―make up the Kelstone Council. The Council governs over most of our world and holds treaties with the outsiders.”
“Like the elves in the Ifori forest,” Falcon supplied, “or the Ajani tribe in Wynlin Hills.”
“No laws can be passed, no decision made,” Cadin went on, “unless every single Lord is present. Then everything is decided upon by majority vote.”
“And Xavien was just one of these Lords before he made himself king?” she asked.
“Exactly,” Cadin said. “He was the Lord of Oraunt, the capital city and home of Oraunt Castle, the meeting place of the council.”
“How does this connect with the murders?”
“I think Xavien had them all killed.”
Julia frowned. “But how would that help him be king? If the Lordship is just passed down to the next in line, the new Lord wouldn’t be any more likely to agree with him than the previous one.”
“Ah! But the heirs, strangely, didn’t take up the positions,” he said with a finger in the air, smiling as if he were telling the latest twist in his favorite soap opera. “And in each case, the person who became Lord was a former resident of Oraunt.”
“And they just let them take the Lordship? Does that happen very often?”
“Never heard of before now. No doubt there was some unpleasant coercion that took place.”
“So, Xavien put allies on the council and then who's there to stop him from saying he’s king,” Falcon concluded.
“How can it be that easy?” Julia asked.
“Oh, it wasn’t easy,” Cadin replied, shaking his head. “It takes a lot of power to be able to get away with this. Probably had most of the guard in his pocket. He’s had to have been planning this for a while, gathering forces and money enough to pull this off. All done in secret, of course.” He leaned closer, now speaking in a conspiratorial tone. “But it gets better.”
They waited as he paused dramatically.
“Xavien is only nineteen!”
“How could this be the work of some teenager?” Falcon demanded.
“Maybe he’s just finishing his father’s work?” Julia offered.
“Then why was his father the first to die?” Cadin asked rhetorically. “No, there has to be someone else behind all of this. Xavien is very like his father, who was a self-serving bastard, but I suspect he’s little more than a puppet in this. No one so young―and he isn’t the brightest, either―could have done this alone.”
Falcon nodded. “So, what’s this decree?”
Cadin sighed heavily and ran a hand through his thinning blond hair. “He’s declared that there is only one god of Kelstone. He’s ordered all other temples closed; anyone who gets caught worshiping another god will be labeled a heretic and punished accordingly.”
“But I thought that interfering with any temple was illegal,” Falcon said. “Not even temples interfere with other temples. Some rule of the gods or something.”
Cadin shrugged. “Well, it’s happening.”
“I guess so. Which god is it?”
His gaze held Falcon’s gaze as he answered gravely, “Malluk.”
Falcon gaped at him.
“This is bad, then?” Julia guessed.
Falcon, shocked, seemed unable to speak right away, so Cadin answered, “Malluk is evil. He’s the God of Darkness.”
__________
They set out with Cadin’s delivery wagon and traveled north on the wide dirt road. They passed forests on the right and a lake on the left. Though it was overcast and chilly, the gray clouds luckily brought no rain.
“I don’t see how you could want to stay in a place like this,” Julia said after being quiet and thoughtful for a long time.
“Every place has its share of evil,” Falcon replied, figuring she was still thinking about King Xavien.
“But like this?” she asked. “With a government that’s so easily corrupted?”
He barked a laugh. “Didn’t pay much attention to politics on Earth, did you?”
She shrugged. “But Xavien wants to punish people just for having different beliefs.”
He glanced over at her. “Ever hear of the Spanish Inquisition?”
She ignored the question. “But they're basically enforcing devil worship.”
He sighed. “I know. But it can’t last.”
She sighed too, then fell silent for a few minutes before asking, “How many gods are there?”
“Twelve.”
“Is it like Greek mythology?”
“Pretty much. There’s a God of War, a Goddess of Love, Goddess of Justice, and all that.”
“Are they real?”
“Supposedly.”
“Then why don’t they do something?”
He shook his head and shrugged. “I don’t know.”
