The Grim Conspiracy Read online

  As Eva scanned the landscape of open fields and floating gardens, her eye fell on a strange dark tangle of forest. The trees looked so tight the branches seemed to be woven, over twisted trunks. It was a sharp contrast to the city that fanned out across the rest of the plain covered with neat fields.

  “What is that dismal forest?” Eva asked. She addressed her mother, who didn’t answer. “It’s unlike any forest we have traveled through or even the other forest at the outskirts of the city.”

  Rasa looked at Nokmay waiting for her mistress to reply, but Nokmay remained silent. Starting to fidget, Rasa said, “That is Nokmoor Forest.” As soon as she spoke, Rasa began shuffling and repacking the items around her resuming her silence.

  Eva waited for more description and explanation as to why it was so strange. She wondered why it stood untouched when the city had consumed the rest of the land around it. She turned again to her mother. “Are you somehow connected to that forest, Mother?”

  Nokmay stopped her task and looked up at Eva. “That forest is your home, Eva. You were born there.”

  Eva stared back at the forest and shook her head. “How can that be? Why is it so evil looking?”

  “It is what it is, Eva. That is the forest of the Witch of Tigmoor.”

  Eva’s head turned slowly to face her mother. “I know father calls you a witch. I have seen you have strange powers, I’ve seen that myself. I’ve had no idea what you really are, though. I’ve heard people refer to The Witch of Tigmoor, but I never associated you with that fearful title.”

  Nokmay’s countenance as she looked up at her daughter made Eva feel cold.

  “The Witch of Tigmoor I am. That forest is our home, Eva. I took you to your father in Octar as a baby, but you were born in that forest in the cave in which I dwell. The people, even the kings of Tigmoor fear me. They dare not enter my forest. That is why it remains untouched.”

  Eva looked again at the tortured woods, “It looks twisted. The trees look locked in defiance. What could you have done to make such a place, a place in pain?”

  Nokmay hefted her pack back on her shoulders, and Rasa hastened to make the straps more comfortable for her.

  “Don’t rush to judgment, Eva. You are a part of that forest. When we get there, you’ll come to understand it better and fear it less.”

  Eva stepped back, “Get there? I thought we were going to Tigmoor. Do we have to enter that forest?”

  Nokmay glanced at Rasa who was adjusting her pack but then looked up to her mistress remaining silent.

  “We need to get moving,” Nokmay said. Her tone was emphatic.

  Eva lifted her pack but didn’t yet tug it up on her shoulders. “Must we go to that creepy place?”

  Nokmay started down the road. Rasa waited for Eva to follow.

  When Nokmay didn’t respond, Rasa said, “Hurry child, we must get to her cave in the middle of the forest before nightfall. Things live in there you do not want to come across in the dark.”

  Eva was speechless but lifted her pack on her back and followed Nokmay. Rasa followed Eva in silence. They followed a trail so scant and crooked that only Nokmay would perceive it as such. Not far along, Rasa grabbed Eva.

  “What did you do that for?” Eva asked, jerking her arm free.

  Rasa picked up a rock and tossed it onto the inconspicuous bed of leaves where Eva was about to step. A fer-de-lance pit viper shot up then slithered away into the nearby undergrowth.

  “You were about to step on it.”

  Eva shuddered and looked at Rasa, “Thanks!” She scanned her surroundings, “I didn’t think it possible, but it’s getting even darker in here. How can anyone see where they are going?” She shoved a branch out of her face. A big cat screamed a warning not far away.

  Nokmay seemed not to notice; she continued the pace.

  Then Eva was walking through a monstrous set of rib bones that surrounded her before she realized it. She jumped and stood stunned, staring at them.

  “Keep moving, child,” Rasa said. “The jungle swallows the path if we don’t keep close together.”

  Eva started walking but studied the bones above and around her as she crept along. “What kind of animal was that?”

  “I don’t know. I asked your mother about it once. She shook her head but said nothing. I think she knows but won’t speak of it. She did say once they lived before people came to this land. Hard to believe but she did say it ate plants, not meat! So you’ll know, there’s another such skeleton in front of your mother’s cave.”

  Something dark, a smoke-like vapor drifted along among the tree trunks beside them then moved away. The air was heavy, damp, and musty with no movement.

  Eva pointed, “That isn’t smoke, is it?”

  Rasa shook her head, “Best not to look at that.”

  By the time they reached the cave, the encounters had subdued Eva.

  “I’d never have survived to get here on my own. No one would.” She studied the new huge skeleton as they passed through it at the entrance to the cave. “Home sweet home.”

  As soon as the light faded, Rasa put her hand on Eva’s shoulder and pointed with the other hand. Eva looked, but there was only some straw on the stone floor.

  “Walk to the side, not in the middle,” Rasa said.

  “What now?” Eva asked irritation discernible in her tone.

  Rasa tapped the center of the floor beside her, and the stone sank into darkness. Eva stared. They moved on around, and Eva heard the slight grinding of the rock as the stone rose back up.

  “I’ll never live to see the light of day again,” Eva mumbled.

  Rasa directed Eva to a side chamber. When she dropped her pack, she joined the other two women in the cave’s central chamber. Nokmay was hovering over a stone basin of water. She thought she saw things moving on the surface like a scene but then Nokmay swept her hand over the vessel and the water turned opaque.

  “When will we be going to Tigmoor?” Eva asked.

  Nokmay stirred a pot of what appeared to be a stew. Eva glanced at Rasa, who shrugged.

  “We will eat soon,” Nokmay said. “You may wander about the cave to satisfy your curiosity, but don’t touch anything.”

  Eva strolled around for a bit then sought Rasa who had reappeared at the back of the cave.

  “What is she? I know she’s a witch, but simple spells don’t create all this. I begin to see why even the kings of Tigmoor fear her.” Rasa looked at Nokmay stirring the stew and whispered, “No one knows how old she is. My mother told me of an old witch living in these woods when I was a small child.” She looked at Eva. “She said her mother told her of the old Witch of Nokmoor Forest when she was small, too. She casts spells; you’ve seen that, but she summons things too, I think. She conjures things that shouldn’t walk the earth.”

  “Come and eat,” Nokmay said as she ladled thick stew into bowls setting them on a primitive table near the fire.

  Eva and Rasa stepped to the table. Eva sat on a basic stick chair and Rasa on a stool. When Nokmay went to a warming recess in the wall beside the fireplace for bread, Eva looked at the steaming bowl in front of her and whispered to Rasa, “What is this? We brought no meat in with us.”

  Rasa’s lips turned up, but she shook her head. She took up her spoon, sniffed the steam, and shook her head. “Best not to ask. It smells good. Eat and don’t think about it.”

  Though hesitant, Eva joined the others in eating the food and felt much better after having had a hot meal. Rasa collected the empty bowls and went to put away the leftover bread. Rasa cleared the last of the implements from the table. Nokmay watched her even as she spoke.

  “Tomorrow I will go to Tigmoor and speak with King Agmar about a position for you at his court. Your father thought we should wait, but I think it best to seek such a position now before Ickletor stirs animosities again. You must understand the nobles dislike me. They too, fear my powers. There inner circle will oppose any attempt to accommodate any request I make. This won’t
be easy.”

  Nokmay put her hand on Rasa’s shoulder. “You and Rasa will remain here. I’ll attempt to establish the best position for you that will put you close to the king. It will be up to you to seduce him to secure your future.”

  *

  The next morning Nokmay left for Tigmoor. She passed through the city where people made way for her without prompting. She approached the royal palace. Delayed for but a few moments while a guard rushed to get permission from King Agmar, the guard ushered her into the king’s presence in a private reception room.

  King Agmar stood with his arm on the mantle of the cold fireplace. The witch noted there were no chairs in the room.

  “State your business, Nokmay. I’m late for the public audience in the throne room.”

  Nokmay clicked her staff crossing the stone floor. “The High Priest of Yingnak, Ickletor of Octar has a daughter. He has sent her to me that I might assist her in securing a position at your court. She is~.”

  Agmar interrupted, “Come now, Nokmay, I’m aware that unscrupulous priest has a daughter. I received word just yesterday as to why she would seek a place here. It seems she made quite a spectacle of herself at a recent feast at King Jornak’s palace. Why should I bring such a promiscuous woman into my household?”

  Nokmay nodded her head, and the gaps in her yellow teeth showed as a smile spread across her face.

  “Your Majesty might be magnanimous in this instance. Ickletor would be most grateful. With all due respect, he’s not a man to cross. Treated well, she might be of assistance to you in your dealings with Octar.”

  “Rubbish, Ickletor doesn’t frighten me. The war is long past. My son and heir, Malladar will soon come of age. I will demand his return to stand beside me on the throne. Short of war, which neither of us wants again, Ickletor will be no threat to me. Send his wanton daughter back to him to deal with.”

  Her eyes fixed on the king as the smile turned crooked before melting from Nokmay’s face. A grim frown replaced it; her gaze turned to glare. The witch snapped her twitching fingers. Her index digit shot out, pointing at the fireplace. A sudden fire blazed on the hearth. King Agmar jumped back.

  Dark gloom then spread across the room as a charcoal cloud enveloped the sun outside the window. A lightning bolt struck the windowsill trailed by a deafening clap of thunder. Then the clacking of the stone chips smashing outside on the terrace sounded as Agmar caught a whiff of sulfur.

  “As you wish, witch, I shall find a suitable place for her. Possibly there is one among the sons of the nobles who will take her to wife.”

  The cloud dissipated. Rays of sunlight fanned into the room, and the fire disappeared from the fireplace.

  Nokmay forced a smile both knew was a sham. “Your Majesty is most kind, but I should imagine you might well find the lovely creature an asset to your retinue.”

  “My retinue!”

  Her smile began to fade as the room grew dark again.

  Agmar bolted for the door. Clutching the handle with white knuckles, he turned, “As you wish! I will give her a suite in the palace and receive her daily. No need to destroy the palace. Now be gone from here.” He jerked open the door. “Guard, escort this woman out of the palace. Be sure she doesn’t linger.”

  With that, he was gone, and the door clanged against the wall behind it. The guard bowed and pointed his spear to the hallway. Grinning, Nokmay glided out the door with head held high. She led the young man down the hall to the palace gate.

  *

  Back at the cave, Nokmay handed Rasa the produce she acquired in the market and then sat by the fire. Eva came and sat beside her.

  “I’ve done my part, Eva. Tomorrow I’ll take you to the palace where you’ll have a suite close to the king, and he’s agreed to receive you daily. It will be up to you to win his favors.”

  Fragrant steam from Eva’s hot chocolate drifted by Nokmay’s nose. Her daughter hadn’t thought to bring her mother any. Eva settled herself more comfortably in the rickety, stick chair. “How can I be sure the king will like me?”

  Nokmay shook her head. “You have a lot of experience seducing men. I shall make you a potion to add to his drink at some point if you can’t achieve your goal without assistance. You’ll need to be ready for his advances after that. I shouldn’t have to remind you, but don’t give him what he wants unless he has given you some inducement. You won’t be young and desirable forever.”

  Eva nodded. Oh, I almost forgot. She rushed over to her room and returned, smiling with something in her hand.

  “What do you have there, child?” Nokmay asked.

  Eva unrolled her fingers, displaying an article. “I found it outside by the bones of that huge beast while you were in Tigmoor.”

  Stare fixed on the object, Nokmay’s eyes swell as she gaped.

  21: The Hatching of a Plot

  Across Octar’s great plaza fights broke out at the various stalls selling the kingdom’s meager products. Ickletor watched from a less visible site on the Yingnak’s temple mound. People snapped when bumping into one another. The slightest irritation could blow up into a skirmish requiring the king’s soldiers to intervene. More and more the people cast angry faces at both the royal palace at one end of the plaza and the temple at the other.

  The atmosphere is perilously tense everywhere, Ickletor thought. I must do something.

  “They grow angrier every day,” he mumbled.

  “That they do,” Sestec said coming up behind the high priest with a mug of beer for his master.

  “I’ll go consult with King Jornak on the matter.” Ickletor waved away the beer mug and watching the mood of the people around him, crossed the plaza to the palace where the king agreed to receive him in private.

  “What is it that troubles you, Ickletor?” Jornak asked. “Be brief; I have crises breaking out across the kingdom to deal with. If your god doesn’t relent soon and send rain, the people may soon rebel and overthrow the social order of the kingdom.”

  Ickletor bowed deeply, “Majesty; the plaza seems more volatile every day. Fights break out over the slightest thing. As the crops fail, the people find less and less food available and grow frightened.”

  Jornak stopped studying the plans on his desk and looked up at the high priest.

  “Don’t you think I’m well aware of that? The captain of the palace guards reports to me daily the number of disturbances he has to put down out there.”

  “The storehouses are soon to run out of reserves, and it’s still summer. The crops are mostly husks and stubble. There isn’t enough food out there to get the city through the winter. Already I am buying grain from cities as far away as Korkufin across the mountains. Those same kingdoms may deduce vulnerability and attack us.”

  Ickletor stepped closer, “The people’s anger may soon boil over and spread across the kingdom as more than squabbles over squash. Soon they will lose faith in the lords that rule them when we cannot bring rain. The foul stench of revolution has begun to waft across the plaza.”

  Jornak walked to a window and gazed down on the throng milling about in front of the palace. He turned to the high priest.

  “Your exalted position puts you squarely in the middle between our people and sacred Yingnak. You and your fathers before you have been the living voice of the god. You have sacrificed our children to Yingnak, and yet you have not brought his blessing as rain.”

  Ickletor raised his spreading hands, “I have done all I can, Your Majesty, but still Octar displeases Yingnak. I can petition the god. I can sacrifice to him, but I cannot make him send rain.”

  Jornak stepped closer to Ickletor. “How is it that rain fell in a torrent on your lands and yours along just two days ago?”

  Ickletor stepped back away. “I have no control over where it rains, Majesty. It was a freak storm. Surely those who reported it to you, also reported the clouds formed inexplicably and instantly on the sunniest of days. I’m certain it was some form of a warning from Yingnak, but so far the soothsa
yers have been unable to divine the meaning of it.”

  “We’re running out of time, High Priest.”

  Ickletor approached the king and looked over his shoulder to be sure no one was listening.

  “Majesty, there is a possible alternative.”

  “And what would that alternative be?”

  “War, Majesty… if Octar declared war on a neighboring city, it would galvanize the people behind your leadership. A war would focus their anger on the foreigners and away for the failures at home. And a war would give you a reason to tax the people for arms while saving your treasury the expense of buying supplies through the winter. A conquest would bring you tribute and the bounty from the sale of slaves.”

  “You’d have me seize the conquered peoples’ food stores and leave them to starve through the winter?”

  Ickletor grinned. “Better them than us.”

  “I shall give the matter some thought, Ickletor. For now, do not mention this conversation to anyone.”

  As he backed out of the king’s presence, Ickletor bowed profusely. He scurried back across the plaza and up the temple mound to his private suite deep within.

  “Will you have that mug of beer now, Master,” Sestec asked.

  Ickletor thought again on the plot that had formed in his mind after witnessing the power of the simple incantation from the Book of the Underworld. It was as if something within the book; some unseen force has planted the idea.

  Yes, he thought, this new plan seems to offer not only a solution to the stone god issue but to offer me power beyond my wildest dreams.

  “I’ll have that drink now.”

  Sestec left and returned with the chilled mug.

  Ickletor glanced up, smiling, and accepted the brew. Then he walked over to the game board by the window. On it, two sets of players representing two opposing armies stood facing each other. He glanced at Sestec and laughed. Ickletor turned to the board and knocked over most of the ruling players including the king pieces of each set leaving only base fighters, a queen, and one high priest piece standing. He laughed again and waved away Sestec who bowed out trying to close the door behind him.