Page 21 of The Final Battle

“Your Majesty, we the Viceroy of Sheca surrender our knowledge to you. May it help your reign be fruitful as you guide our people,“ Lawrence said as the men set the leather bound tombs on the conference table before me.

“I thank you for your many years of service to these people and to the protection of the throne. Now that you have ended your terms as viceroy, I would like to extend the offer of becoming advisors to the crown,“ I requested.

Mathew stepped up and bowed. “It would be my honor to advise you.“

Eleazar and Lawrance both responded the same way, leaving Sal to answer. He walked up and bowed but surprised me when he took my hand in his. “Your Majesty, it would be my honor to advise you, but I feel that I won’t be much use to you. I don’t have the same knowledge as these other men do, not having lived in Sheca. If you feel that I will still be a benefit, I ask that you consider me as secondary counsel.“

“If that is what you wish, then I accept your request,“ I answered, covering his wizened old hand with my own. “You will always be a man who I hold in high regard for his sound wisdom and logic. With the way my reign is starting out, I will need people I can trust to turn to.“

Sal kissed the back of my hand and stepped back with the others. I turned to the attendant in the room and signaled for him to let the others in. My men filed in along with Ballard, Aldred, and Crown Prince Phillip. To my surprise, King Thomas also appeared, taking a seat at the table.

“Your majesty, while I am glad you are here, I hope you didn’t feel forced to leave your wife if you need to be with her?“ I inquired.

King Thomas waved off my question. “She is sleeping peacefully thanks to your healers, and there was no need for me to be there when her personal maid is there as well. This will be good to keep my mind on matters that I can make a difference with.“

“I’ll trust your judgment on that, and I’m grateful to have you here with us as we strategize,“ I said motioning for one of the other room attendants to lay out a map of the land on the table.

Another passed out paper, writing material, and set out refreshments. I didn’t see us leaving this room anytime soon and wanted everyone to be comfortable. While we couldn’t plan the way I wanted to in dealing with the Lost King, there were other plans to protect the kingdom that could be set underway.

“Aldred, what is our current situation with patrols?“ I asked getting down to business.

“As of right now, we have three dragon riders patrolling by air, each stationed at different points north, south, and east. They fly to patrol their section every hour and note any changes that we might deem necessary,“ Aldred answered. “I’ve also sent out rotating groups of men in various places along the main pathway to the valley and surrounding mountain range.“

While Aldred talked I took notes, needing to see the information before me as I thought through everything else. “Alright, that’s a good place to start. Do we still have eyes on the mountain hideout the mercenaries used?“

“We do, but there has been no activity,“ he answered. “My thoughts on that would be they know everyone is here already, so there is no need to infiltrate that location.“

“I would have to agree with him on that,“ Ballard spoke up. “We left nothing there for them to use or gain more information with. With the help of all the dragons, we could remove all the written information we had in the Raven Rose clan and copies protected there. It would be my suggestion not to waste people watching an area that is no longer deemed helpful to any of us.“

Tapping my fingers on the table, I processed their arguments. “Ballard, how many dragons can comfortably stay in that area? I know it had its own roost but I never was told how large it was.“

“I would say a hundred or so, your Majesty,“ Ballard answered.

An idea was beginning to form as I wrote down more notes to refer back to. “Prince Phillip, Gavin, do you know how many dragon riders that Norden had in their military?“

The brothers seemed to confer with each other for a moment, before giving me their answer. “There are roughly a little over a hundred dragon riders, but those of which are female are not trained for battle like the men. They are more for correspondence between kingdoms and in the case of a war they would transport goods and information back and forth. So, with that being said, I’d guess somewhere around sixty to seventy dragon riders who could fight. Many of which are on the older side. Previous generations had better luck with dragons picking a pair-bond.“ Gavin answered.

“So we easily outnumber them, but what we don’t know is how many dragon riders there might be from the other kingdoms. King Thomas, was that something you had your spies keep track of?“ I inquired.

“That isn’t something I asked for them to look into, but my spymaster would get various reports and only share with me what he thought was important, or the answer to the question I had them out there for in the first place,“ he admitted.

“Paxton, did you in your work for Creisal share that type of information with your spymaster? I am just trying to get a feel for if we went to them when we visited, or if we would even find the answer,“ I explained.

Pax leaned across the table and rested his chin on his hand, thinking. “Many of us reported things that the spymaster didn’t always think were important enough to write down. While we disagreed on things, many of us kept our own journals of information because there may be a day that they needed it and we could sell it to the spymaster for a pretty penny. It helped the spymaster save face and kept us on our toes, looking for information to trade on.“

King Thomas looked shocked to hear this but to me it made perfect sense. Having gone through my training with the mercenaries and being a strategist by nature, I understood the value of juicy tidbits of intel. Spies were sent to gather information, whatever that information might be, there was always something else that landed in your hands along the way.

“So, if we called a gathering of the spies there might be quite a bit of information we could learn,“ I mused. “Thank you, Pax, that was extremely helpful to hear.“

“Always a pleasure to be of assistance, my queen,“ Pax purred, giving me a wink.

I couldn’t help but smirk at his childish ways, even if it drove others mad, it brought a smile to my face. Taking a moment, I looked over my information so far and came to a decision.

“As long as Queen Catharine is up to it, I would like to leave for Creisal in the next day or two. There seems to be a wealth of information we can find there. I would also like for every person in this room to come with as well, but for the exception of Ballard and Aldred,“ I announced. “Ballard, I would like to pick up your role as steward of the crown once more in my absence. Aldred, I would like to move some of our people around and double the dragon patrols, only further out from Sheca. On top of that, I would like a hundred of our dragon riders to move to the hideout in the Restless Mountains. I don’t want our military all in one location in case there is an attack.“

“Your Majesty, while I understand your thinking, is it wise to move so many while you are away from the throne?“ Aldred questioned.

“My choice would have been the same whether I was here or not. We need to send out some of our own spies to get a feel for what the Lost King is doing. We’ve been avoiding drawing his attention so he didn’t find Sheca, well that ship has sailed. Now, we need to know what we are truly up against. I would also ask that one dragon rider be sent to Utros and another to Errit, taking stock of what is happening in those countries while the Lost King is staring us down,“ I ordered. “These might seem like requests, but let me assure you, I’m not really asking for permission here.“