Richard Tuttle - Island of Darkness

“How would you do it?” asked the general. “How could you turn the information from the council into profits?”

“Well it depends,” Cherri replied. “Do you remember the burning watula fields near Campanil when Alazar was the Katana?”

“I do,” nodded the general. “Food prices shot up very high then, although not as high as they are now.”

“At that time I would have had you purchase large quantities of watula before the news broke,” explained Cherri. “We could have sold the watula a week later and doubled your money.”

“Amazing,” remarked General Kapla, “but where would we have stored it all?”

“We would have never even seen the watula,” chuckled Cherri. “I would buy it and request delivery be held for a week. When we sold it, we let the new buyer receive it.”

“And you can do such things?” inquired the Minister of Defense.

“I do it all the time,” smiled Cherri. “I like gold very much. Having a lot of it makes me very happy.”

“Then we shall try it,” smiled the general. “I will come here after the next meeting of the Katana’s Council, and we will see if you can find a way to profit from what was discussed.”

“That is wonderful,” smiled Cherri. “It will make me happy to make you a lot of money.”

The servants brought in a whole roasted clova garnished with onions and green beans. The overweight general stared at the cart as the servants rolled it into the room. He closed his eyes in delight and smelled the flavor as the cart rolled by him.

“This is going to be sumptuous,” he commented. “I can almost taste it now.”

“I met some of the wives of the other ministers today,” Cherri said casually as the servants served the food. “They said that many people felt that Larst was not himself since becoming the Katana.”

“I have heard the same,” nodded the general as he placed a piece of clova into his mouth.

Cherri waited patiently as the general chewed his food. She knew the dinner could be a hard setting in which to interrogate someone, as their mind tends to wander to various topics. She was skilled, however, in bringing them back to the topic that she wanted to discuss.

“This is absolutely wonderful,” remarked the general. “I could not imagine such splendor on a plate. Your cooks are to be congratulated.”

“I am sure that they will be pleased to hear of your compliments,” smiled Cherri. “Larst attends the council meetings as the Katana. Do you think he has changed?”

“He has,” nodded the general as he cut another piece of clova. “Especially where the Sakovans are concerned. He was the biggest proponent of peace with the Sakovans when we were searching for the Katana. Now he stands almost alone in forcing war against them. I cannot imagine what set him off on such a rampage.”

“It is a shame,” responded Cherri as the general bit into another piece of clova. “It seems like this war is on, and then it is off, and then it is on again. It makes the people think that their leaders don’t know what they are doing. It is hard for people to have confidence in such leaders.”

“The people have no say in this matter,” declared the general. “Even the Katana’s Council has no say. Larst will permit no discussion of it other than accepting plans for the defeat of the savages.”

“What are the current plans?” Cherri asked innocently. “I heard that General Romero’s army had to retreat from Alamar.”

“He did,” nodded the general, “but not because of the Sakovans. In Alamar the disease is spreading to the people. His scouts saw thousands of graves and huge fires for burning the dead. He could not move his army into such an area. He has been recalled to Okata.”

“So the war is off then?” questioned the Sakovan spy.

“Oh, no,” General Kapla shook his head. “His armies will be rested from their travels while General Valdey’s army invades the Sakova from the west. There is already an advance group of over a thousand men deep into the Sakova. There has been no resistance at all.”

“The Sakova is a large place,” mused Cherri. “Maybe the scouts are looking in the wrong places?”

“It is large,” conceded the general, “but we will find StarCity. We will comb every league of the Sakova until we find it. It will just take some time.”

“But I thought the idea was supposed to be a quick victory to get their food supply?” questioned Cherri. “If it takes too long to find StarCity, won’t the troops go hungry?”

General Kapla’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the beautiful woman across the table from him. “You mustn’t say such things in public,” he warned. “The food supplies are getting very low. In another month, we will not be able to feed the troops. The Katana has sent the mayor of Gatong over the mountains into Khadora to try to buy food. If he is successful, Khadoran food will flow down the entire coast. That will allow us to take our time searching for the Sakovan food supplies.”

“Clever,” smiled Cherri. “What ever gave him that idea?”

“General Didyk proposed it to me,” the general said boastfully, “and I recommended it to the Katana. General Didyk has befriended one of the members of the Lords’ Council of Khadora. He foresaw that we would need Khadoran help in wiping out the Sakovans.”

“How fortunate for Omunga to have had such foresight from their generals,” Cherri said dryly. “Do you think that the Katana is possessed by a magician?”

“Possessed?” echoed the Minister of Defense. “Where did you hear such nonsense?”

“Nonsense?” retorted Cherri. “Surely you know that there are magicians capable of such deeds? I heard about it years ago.”

“You have heard of such things?” the general asked with concern as he pondered the implications to Omunga if the thought were true.

“I have,” Cherri nodded forcefully. “It is a dark art, but who else would seek to ruin a country except a dark mage bent on power?”

“Do you think Larst is trying to ruin the country?” questioned General Kapla.

“I can’t say for sure,” shrugged Cherri, “but if this war with the Sakovans does not go as planned, Omunga may well cease to exist. Remember, General, Omunga has been trying to conquer the Sakovans for a thousand years. They have not succeeded yet.”

“I seem to have lost my appetite,” frowned the general as he pushed his plate away from himself. “The end of Omunga is a most distressing subject.”

“I do not mean to distress,” brightened Cherri. “Let’s talk about something else.”

“Like what?” asked the general.

“How about gold?” grinned Cherri. “It has always been my favorite topic.”

The ship glided across the calm sea to the northwest as Lyra sat on an overturned barrel gazing at the rugged coastline. The craggy cliffs rose vertically over a hundred paces high. It was an impenetrable wall that stretched as far as she could see in both directions.

“It is the Wall of Mermidion,” declared one of the Omungan sailors as he approached and sat on a bucket. “It cuts Duran off from the rest of Omunga.”

“I have heard of it before,” nodded the Star of Sakova, “but that is not the same as actually seeing it. It is massive. The ancient scrolls say that it was formed by the ground Kaltara took away from the river when he created the Wound of Kaltara.”

“I have heard of the Wound of Kaltara,” commented the sailor. “I have not seen it and cannot imagine a canyon as massive as it has been described.”

“It is wider and deeper than anything you can imagine,” smiled Lyra. “The power of Kaltara is awesome.”

“This Kaltara is your god?” asked the sailor.