The Kingdom Rises -- Book 4 of Station Cores

Prologue – The Cordpower Company

Gavin stared the messenger down, causing the young man to drop his gaze until he was staring at the floor in deference. Or at least, some a show of deference; the head of the Cordpower Company – and now the de facto leader of the entire Kingdom – didn’t care if his people respected him, as long as they did what he wanted. He didn’t tolerate out right disrespect, but he knew that he couldn’t inspire the same loyalty as he did with the rest of his most trusted employees. 

In fact, sometimes a little defiance was good – it showed that they had some sort of backbone. It meant that they were willing to fight for what they believed in and wouldn’t hesitate to do what it took to survive and stay alive. Of course, too much defiance from someone indicated that they were a problem that his “elite squad” had to take care of – with finality.

Fortunately for the man – who appeared to be barely out of adolescence – Gavin wasn’t one to take out unfortunate news on messengers who were only doing their jobs. His need to strike someone could be indulged later, however, because he had to deal with the current situation in the Kingdom first.

“So, let me get this straight; you’re telling me that there is no sign of a single Guardian Guild member anywhere to be found in the entire Kingdom? They all just up and disappeared? Every single one? And Roscoe expects me to believe that?” he asked with a slightly strained voice, trying to keep his temper under control. He failed at his job, and now he doesn’t want to show his face; I can’t say I blame him though, he knows I don’t like failures.

Roscoe was his Chief Intelligence Agent and had been for years – just shortly after he had been recruited. His ability essentially made him a walking lie-detector as he could detect falsehoods with as little as a single spoken word; not only that, but he said sometimes that he could actually hear the thoughts of an individual if he was touching them. That part wasn’t exactly reliable, though his lie detection was always correct – even if the person telling the lie didn’t actually realize it. Which made the failure to find the whereabouts of the remaining thousands of Guardian Guild members hard to believe.

“I’m sorry, sir. That is the only message I was instructed to pass along from him,” the young man repeated clearly though quietly. “However…” he said hesitatingly, before he stopped altogether.

“Yes? Go on – don’t be afraid to speak your mind.” Although, if I don’t like what you have to say, I can’t guarantee that.

With a little more confidence, the messenger cleared his throat before he elaborated. “However, I happened to learn some information from a retired former courier friend of mine. I told Roscoe about it, but he dismissed it as – I believe he said – impossible hogwash’.”

“Go on – let me hear this ‘impossible hogwash’.” This should be good.

“Well, he told me that he had a friend that told him about meeting a member of the Guild a few days ago – right here in the Grestwinch. They didn’t have their guild symbol showing like they usually do, but his friend remembered seeing this individual before when he dealt with supplying the Guild with certain…things,” he said, though he hesitated as he expanded on that. “Certain illegal…things,” he told him with a wink. “Anyway, this friend also legally dealt with supplying foodstuffs for Army Reservists patrols and has a fairly good grasp of what is needed to survive while traveling to anywhere in the Kingdom—”

“Ok, but I fail to understand how this is supposed to help,” Gavin interrupted him impatiently.

“Sorry, sir – I’m getting to that. Now, based upon what his friend saw and what he had overheard from the Guild member, he wasn’t going to make any other stops on the way back to wherever he was holed up. Based upon the amount of supplies the Guild member had with him, however, it was much more than was needed to travel anywhere in the Kingdom – even with a little bit extra for emergencies. And it was all fresh food, so he wasn’t necessarily bringing it back for whoever he was living with – he needed it for the journey itself.”

“I still fail to see what point you’re trying to make.”

The young man actually had the audacity to raise his eyes to Gavin’s and give him a look like he thought the leader of the Kingdom was deliberately being an imbecile. This better be good, or I’ll make sure I never have to suffer such disrespect from him again. “Isn’t it obvious? Uh…sir? I mean, if they were inside the Kingdom, they wouldn’t need all that food. And if they aren’t in the Kingdom, that means they are outside of its borders,” the young messenger told him with a smile on his face, as if he had made the greatest discovery of the last decade. “Which means…they are all hiding out in the forest. Which also explains why no one has been able to find them.”

Gavin thought about it for all of two seconds – which was almost an eternity to his Inventor boosted mind – before he dismissed it. “You know what? You might be right about Roscoe – he made a mistake.” The young man’s smile grew even larger at that declaration.

“He should’ve killed you for bringing that ‘impossible hogwash’ to his attention. Bruth, show our friend here the special treatment we reserve for those who waste our time.” Gavin’s bodyguard caught the messenger as he realized his predicament and tried to use his Augmented speed to run away; unfortunately for the young man, Bruth was much faster – and stronger.

He ignored the screams and hollow-sounding cracks as he looked at a few other written reports on his desk inside the Royal Suite. He had taken it over after disposing of the rest of the Kingdom’s royalty in an “unofficial” official capacity, though it wasn’t as enjoyable as he thought it would be. He had left the majority of the Cordpower Company’s everyday business to some of his trusted employees; even with that off his plate, the management of the entire Kingdom consumed most of his day. 

He barely slept in the massive bed at his disposal, even though it was barely twenty steps away from where he worked most of the time. Kingdom resource and logistical management was more involved than even his Company; it was only after all of the nobles and all of their functionaries were killed that he discovered his first mistake. He found that – what he formerly thought of lazy, useless individuals who were only a drain on the economy – were all important cogs in the running of the governmental machine.

Granted, before making all of the plans to remove the King and the others from power, he had done his research into how the government was run; it was, in fact, similar to how the Cordpower Company was run. The issue he was having was that most of the important trusted employees and board members that were supposed to help him were either still maintaining Cordpower or out dealing with issues that arose after the Guild had disappeared. Cowardly bastards – they couldn’t just stay put and die like they should’ve.

His original plan was to increase recruiting for the Royal Army Reserve to maintain the border; while the core group of Reservists were perfect for keeping order inside the Kingdom, they weren’t necessarily suited for protecting against external threats. The original plan for the standing army was to swiftly take over the Guild’s border stations, executing the former Guardians while they were at it, and then with them gone they would speed up recruiting under the guise that the government was needing an external border force to replace the treacherous Guild.

A vital source within the Guild’s leadership had let him know that the last few years had been relatively quiet, so while he had had to speed up his timeline a bit, it was still the perfect time to enact that phase of the plan. There were thousands of young men and women who were denied a place in the elitist Guild, as well as the Royal Army Reserve when they applied; there should’ve been (and in actuality there still was) a stampede of willing recruits heading out to the border to maintain the safety of the Kingdom.

The problem was a significant portion of his available troops were patrolling the Kingdom, looking for the Guild. As a result, most of his dedicated team were doing what they could to plug the holes along most of the border – and not being available to train any new recruits. Not only that, but they had already lost half a village to the south two days ago to a savage pack of spiderwolves before help was able to arrive. And the advancement of beasts seemed to be getting worse every day.

Instead of inheriting a quiet border, it was as if the monstrous beasts in the forest had come alive and were protesting the removal of their mortal enemies – the Guild. He knew that realistically this wasn’t the case, but Gavin couldn’t help but wonder at the coincidence. 

Maybe that messenger had a point. He looked over at the mess the young man had made when he was literally ripped limb from limb while he was still alive; fortunately, all the blood had fallen on easy to clean stone instead of the rug underneath his feet. Guess it’s too late to apologize and ask more questions. Oh well.

“Bruth – when you are done there, can you send someone to fetch Dravel for me? Thanks,” he told his bodyguard absently. His mind was already on something else, but he always tried to let his employees know he appreciated their work when they deserved it. Which Bruth did, in fact, deserve thanks – he had accomplished his dismemberment of the young man faster than he thought possible. 

As a frightened servant came into the Royal Suite to help clean up the mess with shaky hands, he smiled at her to let her know he appreciated her help, as well. He turned back to his paperwork, the entire incident not even requiring his attention anymore. 

Another report of an incursion by a small beast horde to the north made him rub his temples as his head started to pound. Those useless Reservist morons are just running around aimlessly – they’re serving no purpose. He sighed heavily as he wrote an order to allocate even more Cordpower resources toward the north, where lately a lot of activity was being seen. Now if only I could trust them to do their job, it would make this so much easier. He sighed even heavier when he heard the servant throwing up in the bucket that she had brought to clean up the blood and body parts.

It’s hard getting good help these days. 

He put the thought that he would have to get rid of her after she was done to the back of his mind (it wouldn’t do to have her spreading rumors about the unfortunate “accidents” in the Royal Suite), as he saw Draven step over the mess near the entrance with a look of distaste on his face. “Another unfortunate Guild spy?” the accomplished Elemental Caster asked him with a ironically cocked eyebrow.

“Something like that. Come here for a moment, I have an important job for you to do.” As the last of the mess was being cleaned up by the serving woman with tears running down her face, Gavin locked eyes with Bruth; with a nod in her direction he got his point across. With that taken care of, he turned his full attention to the money-grubbing former Guardian Guild member who was just sitting down.

“You know I didn’t agree to be your errand boy; someone of my stature and skills is way above anything like that. You’re lucky I was just down the hallway when your pet found me – I’ve never been one to be at another’s beck-and-call, and I’m not about to start now,” Draven said before he could speak.

You may be one of the most powerful Casters left in the Kingdom, but you’re next to useless to me otherwise. Fortunately, over the years Gavin had had to deal with people like Draven and knew there were two effective ways to deal with them. One, he could casually threaten him with the same treatment as the messenger enjoyed earlier – which probably wouldn’t work because he doubted the dumb ex-Guild member would consider that a threat; or two, he could bribe him – though not with wealth.

“I appreciate you being willing to see me on such short notice. Some things have come to my attention that you might be interested in,” he started, before pulling out a couple of reports that he had ignored before because they seemed to be improbable. “We had a report a couple of weeks ago coming out from a village to the east—”

“Get on with it, I don’t have all day,” Draven interrupted him, which almost prompted Gavin to instruct Bruth to teach the insolent Caster a lesson – but he restrained because he needed his help, as much as it pained him. He resorted to giving him a silent look that he had perfected over the years of experience in corporate intrigue. He kept staring at him until the other man started to fidget in his seat, looking away for just a moment – and then he continued.

“As I was saying, a message coming from an outpost reported that they had slain two suspected Guild members that had arrived – irrefutably – from the forest along their border. While that wasn’t too surprising, what made me question the validity of the report was that my agent there claimed that it was none other than Rosewyn and Moxwell that they had killed.”

Draven scoffed at that. “Impossible. There was no way they could’ve killed those two; as much as I hate to admit it, Rosewyn alone is slightly more accomplished than myself, and there is no way I would allow the Reservist trash to even touch me. And I don’t know Moxwell that well other than in passing, but from what I’ve heard, there is very little that could actually hurt him. So your source must be lying.”

Exactly what I had thought, but now I’m not so sure… “I thought so too, at first, which is why I had dismissed it. However, with some hearsay I received this morning,” he looked pointedly at the spot where the remains of the messenger were finally cleaned up, “along with a closer look at the recent beast incursions, I believe that there might be some truth to it. I’m not saying that it was definitely those two that were killed, but there is something suspicious going on.”

Draven finally looked slightly interested, though he was trying to hide it by hiding his fidgeting hands in his robe pockets. “What do you mean?”

“After evaluating the locations of the recent attacks, I thought it was just a lucky coincidence that there were none coming from a fairly large section to the east. Along with rumors that some people believe that the survivors of the Guardian Guild are hiding out in the forest, too many coincidences are coming together that are pointing to one thing. Let me see if you can guess where this outpost is located that claimed to have killed those two,” he asked, hoping that the powerful imbecile was at least smart enough to put two and two together.

Draven looked only looked at him with a stupid expression on his face, before shrugging.

He’s even dumber than I thought. “It’s located right in the middle of the area that hasn’t seen any attacks lately. If you consider that my agent had just been overzealous in his claim that he had killed, ‘Rosewyn and Moxwell’, then it might’ve just been some random Guild members…that came from the forest.”

“Just spit it out already, I’m tired of your word games.”

I guess I really do have to spell it out for him. “Ok…so rumors that the Guardian Guild are hiding in the forest, the border along the east side is quiet – as if whatever beasts there had been there were killed before they got to Kingdom territory, and a sighting of Guild members coming from the forest…” he waited to see if any of this was making sense. When it was obvious that it didn’t, he continued with an inward roll of his eyes. “It means that it is likely that the rest of the Guild really is hiding in the forest to the east, somehow surviving without outside help.”

“Which also means that Gereld and that damnable Karn are there! I can finally kill those bastards for turning everyone else against me!” Draven jumped out of his seat, excitement in his voice. Gavin had been listening to him drone on and on about how he wanted to be the one to kill the rest of the Guild leadership because of – what the head of Cordpower thought were probably imagined – slights they had committed against the powerful Elemental Caster.

“That’s right. Since there is no sign of them in the Kingdom, that must be where they are. If you can fit it into your schedule, I would like you to take every Reservist I can spare, as well as a sizable portion of my Cordpower personnel to root them out once and for all. We can’t keep running around everywhere looking for them, just waiting for them to counterattack – we need to end them now. With your help, there is absolutely no possibility that we won’t be successful.”

Draven was practically bouncing up and down in his chair in excitement. “Yes! I’ll do it!” Then his demeanor changed in a flash. “But I’m in charge of this little expedition, right?” 

Gavin plastered a smile on his face before he answered. “Of course – you’re in charge. It’ll take a little over a week to get all the troops called back, and then you can be on your way.” There is no way I would let you be in charge of anything. If he hadn’t been such a powerful Caster with access to three of the elements, he would’ve disposed of the greedy maniac weeks ago. Unfortunately, he was a valuable tool that was best kept around for certain situations. Certain situations like this.

As Draven left – muttering under his breath about what he needed to pack – Gavin couldn’t help but feel a smidge of relief. He despised the man, but if he really did get the job done it would be worth all of the annoyance having him around caused. The more he thought of the plan, the more he was convinced that it was the right decision; he couldn’t imagine that there were more than a few hundred Guild members that had managed to band together. It was almost impossible to survive in the forest for long without outside help, so they were most likely starting to go hungry from lack of supplies.

True, they might put up a bit of a fight – and he expected them to. Even if half of his force was wiped out, it would be more than worth it to put an end to their existence. They would pay for denying him access to their elitist group when he was younger; the royal family and the other nobles had already paid for their denial of his space in the Royal Army Reserve. It was about time they got what was coming to them.

And if they ended up putting up more of a fight than he expected, they might even kill Draven for him. He was always going to eventually kill the man because he couldn’t trust him farther than he could throw him – which was essentially none.

Once a traitor, always a traitor.