Silvertree Chronicles Bk. 08

Trilia smiled, "The Queen will be waiting for you."

He nodded and then kissed her. He walked out and knocked on the door to the room her mother had, Madame Mind, was in. Madame Mind was her coded name in the service. She looked at Charlus, "Get to the palace and give them hell."

He walked out and stepped out front and closed the portal. He nodded to the guard who unlocked the teleport blocker and he teleported to the entrance to the palace district and one elf yelled at the guard, "What is the delay?!"

Charlus walked up to him, "I am the delay. Commander Silvertree. I did an assessment yesterday. Not only did I get in from the main gate, through this gate, into the palace and in front of a Guard Captain. All in altered form. I also took down someone in the court before the guards even knew there was an issue. I have been gone 20 months and the fall-off on security is being fixed at the direction of the Queen based upon my findings!"

He looked taken aback. Charlus presented his tube and the guard waved him through. He teleported to the palace and walked inside and the Queen smiled and nodded to him.

He walked up to the line, "Hello, Your Majesty. I had a momentary delay explaining to a citizen why we instituted procedures that slowed their progress getting into the district."

She nodded, "Was he satisfied with the answer?"

Charlus smiled, "Your Majesty, I think he was more concerned about what I might do if he did not stop giving the guards a hard time for doing their jobs properly."

She nodded, "Welcome back Commander Silvertree. You have not met King Rosenthrawl and his General."

He bowed to him, "Your Majesty."

He looked at Charlus, "Where have you been?"

Charlus looked at him, "Your Majesty, I spoke with the Queen yesterday on my findings of the state of the world as a part of her Diplomatic Service. Traveling to parts that Queen Majisa deemed to be safe areas. That discussion is not for the open court by the direction of the Elven Queen.

I work for the Queens Diplomatic Service and she would have to clear you for different aspects of my mission, King Rosenthrawl. Thus far I have not received those directions."

He looked put off, "I want to question him about his activities."

The Elven Queen seemed to be waiting for this, "Commander Silvertree please take a knee."

He did so and she walked up, "A medal from the Dwarven King for rescuing over 700 dwarves when the last major earthquake struck for ensuring the safety of the Eternal Forge and the Dwarven Paragon.

The forge is operational again and your efforts were appreciated. I also have 2 for service to the elven kingdom. One for your diplomatic assessment across the world that you undertook for us. The second one is for your spontaneous security evaluation here, Alliance Overwatch, Overwatch, and particularly at Base 1.

Where they found 3 humans, 3 wearing necromancy half-dragon rings, and 2 human slavers including the commander and his aid in my Palace yesterday. The commander who was seeking your job. Having supposedly been vetted by our human allies already. Your service as always is appreciated. Please stand."

Charlus did so and there was applause going around and King Rosenthrawl found himself on the defensive. She pointed, "I would like to get that detailed assessment and what steps you have taken to address the issues since your return yesterday."

He bowed to her and she left with the two humans following and he followed them out to the Queen's Audience Chamber and followed them in. The Queen sealed the room.

She looked at Charlus, "Speak freely."

Charlus nodded and walked up to the corner of her desk and dumped the bag of rings out on the desk. He looked at the King. "Taken off of the man that was sent here to pursue my job while in service to the Elven Queen. Over 1,000 rings of necromancy."

He looked at Charlus, "He could have captured those."

Charlus nodded, "Possibly but the tattoo behind his left ear denoting him as a commander in the Hanged Man Guild; slavers guild. That was problematic. Unless you are saying you have an alliance or agreement with slavers who take elven people for consumption and breeding of half-dragons. In which case you have bigger problems within the Alliance as a whole.

His aid wearing one of these rings and being a hidden half-dragon, problematic. Two of three humans at Base One being half-dragons, in this case, is problematic. The third was apparently another slaver taken to be evaluated by a mentalist specialist in Dragon lands by my direction after being reinstated.

This was done by the Dragons who seized them. I knew they were lying at the base. I dumped these rings on the floor and they reported back no presence in the elven palace. Infiltration of the Alliance Overwatch system, MY system, problematic.

I had an elven asset confirm that we, in fact, had working equipment. I also know your Kingdom is overrun with these damned rings yet again. I had it scanned immediately to ascertain just how bad you were infiltrated...yet again!

I have Dragons Overwatch now scanning your Kingdom as you appear to be unable, unwilling, in league with, or just plain incompetent in keeping these threats out of your kingdom.

You know of me or heard of me as a communication specialist for the Queens Diplomatic Service and this is accurate. I developed the communication systems for shelter 64 and the Lighthouse used during the last engagement.

What you like to call the Alliance Monitoring system is, in fact, a limited expansion of the Dragon Overwatch system that I helped to design and install for the Knights. It is NOT the Alliance Monitoring System. It is Alliance Overwatch; you have no authority over that decision, period.

All while upgrading the Dragon's Overwatch system. The people who worked the shelters for the Lighthouse and bunker 64 are my siblings. As a family, we have a lot invested in these systems. I paid for them all out of my own holdings.

As such I do have the right under elven law to claim ownership of them. I have never relinquished ownership and your desires in how they are manned will be considered, but they will not be dictated to me by you, EVER.

Not after the failure in these candidates including the one you proposed to replace me with. The ones you submitted and allowed my bases to be infiltrated with while I undertook this mission for the Elven Queen as a part of her Diplomatic Service.

Not your Diplomatic Service and it is not your system, in any way, shape, or form. I use them to do monitoring for all of our allies. Given yesterday's findings Queen Majisa has taken over examining human lands.

Checking for any more signs of these necromancy rings. Expect to hear from her on how she wishes to neutralize the infiltration you have allowed to continue. Your actions appear to align with your idiot mother in this matter and that is troubling.

I also designed and built the system known as Overwatch which does to a smaller scale what the other system does only over the Elven Kingdom. I requested and recalled my trainer out of retirement after the security failing yesterday to spend time overseeing the training of those working Overwatch.

I build it also from my own funds. The Queen bought that system, during my training in the Diplomatic Service. Before I became an adult. I have a gift for encryption, linguistics, and a limited amount of high-end enchanting that has aided not just the elven people but also our allies. This does not count my memory with which I have over 40,000 books memorized and indexed."

He turned to the Elven Queen. "Is he allowed to know any Elven Diplomatic Service Secrets. Anything I have revealed to you, Your Majesty? Both yesterday and the last war?"

She sighed, "He should know. It might help him to keep from stepping on his own anatomy in my court."

Charlus turned back toward the King, "Yesterday, I briefed both Queen's on the travels I did through human lands." He stood there and started cycling through human forms. "Areas the Dragons have been breeding a half-dragon army over 500,000 and closer to 1 million strong.

They are working on completing the last of the warships they need is 6-7 months with which to attack us yet again. I just realized that is inside of the 10-year window humans might consider taking action on a matter, because you cannot see threats beyond that time frame.

While there I went into slaver bases and killed the captors and freed over 20,000 slaves. They took to calling me the Stealth Butcher or Butchers. Because I got in and killed. That was the easy part. Cutting up their dead guard and using the parts to spell out in the local dialect that 'slavers will suffer death and damnation' was another matter.

I did not go in with a strike team. Everyone believes and will continue to believe that I am just a diplomat. Just a communications expert. I am the one who designed and activated the security systems in the last war. Most were experimental and unknown even to the Queens as they were for 'far fetched paranoid' contingencies.

I stop the Storm Giants and I activate the system that decimated the enemy army at the staging ground. Including the titan champion that was on the field. Every shelter that is a part of this network was positioned and built by me.

There was a reason for that. When they are god-locked into place the key to those shelters after I am gone is my family sword. The sword that would have been in the hands of my champion sister if she had not been born infertile.

They separated the Champion from the sword in the last war. Because of that feature, I can help the royal families gain access and set the new owner to their secure shelters, or those that hold the forge and any others built by my ancestors.

Any number of over 80 shields and shield traps I had built out of my own pocket for the last war. Your mother was mad as hell when she learned we built one in her area without her knowledge. She was shocked when we captured that mountain.

She was sickened as she watched thousands of half-dragons trying to penetrate the security of that shelter and falling into the bottom section of the shelter like a bowl of chunky soup. While as a diplomat I worked with the Storm Giant to affect a rescue.

To secure their invaded shelters. I am also the designer of the security network over our allied lands. Some of those systems were built by my ancestors. I have had them upgraded to new shelter designs with the enhanced security we did in shelter sixty-four and set them up for voice activation. I will be working on a new mobile security system.

One to deal with things like an armada of ships loaded with half-dragons that will come in 6-7 months. As I formally ask the Queen for conscription of 12 of the enchanters who worked with me previously. In order to get this system in place in time.

I was the, not agreed upon by the human Queen, Field Marshal of the last war and you saw how short I made that. I would also point out that the border wall and fortification work appear to have stopped. It needs to resume, my recommendation, Your Majesties."

The King and his general looked white as a ghost. "I should also mention I have never hurt or killed an ally of ours unless they have been possessed by those necromancy rings. This is why it should be an imperative to clear your lands of them, Your Majesties."

He handed him a book, "This group existed twice before and it is what I am trying to build again. Those human lands know little but constant warfare since the return. This will be occurring years after your grandchildren will be sitting on the throne. Base 1 and 2 are Knight bases with a tie into the Dragon Overwatch network to allow us to monitor activity around the world and here in our own lands.

Those bases are positioned into an area not in dwarven, elven, human, or dragon lands. By my design. It is an independent force to bring balance to the world. I did build Overwatch here as a child to show The Dragon Queen Majisa what I could do. She asked me what it would take to keep me from building another network like their own.

I built the upgraded consoles and displays used in those bases. At the time the Dragon Queen told me she felt like she was 'being extorted by a child.' When she saw what I did and helped to even upgrade their system in the process that sentiment was lost. We restricted down what we were getting at the Knights bases in the design.

The dragons look for a lot more things than I am allowed to disclose. I am but one person, but with the right enchanters and a mind that holds over 40,000 books in it. I can tell you there is nobody more qualified to run those bases, your Majesty."

He pulled out 3 massive books. "Your Majesty, my written report of my activities and observations over the last 20 months in unallied human lands. Feel free to read it Your Majesties. Most of it is irrelevant now."

She sighed as she looked at the giant books. She looked at Charlus, "Will this help me beyond the verbal report I have gotten?"

He shook his head, "Alliances and leadership change too rapidly in some parts of this 'safe zone.' I spent 2 months in one town and watched the province go through 4 warlords in that time. It was chaos and it was better to be an enfeebled old man living in a small hovel than travel during that time-frame. That has not changed, it is in a constant state of fluctuation.

I traveled by horse and foot with the occasional boat. I did most of my killing with blades but rarely had to resort to open combat. They usually did not even know I was there until they were dying, Your Majesty."

She nodded, "It might help the Knights?"

He nodded, "Some. I did establish some agents and if the King is insistent on wanting humans working out of a base.

I brought a group back from the Far East. They are agents I would train for that role. Both in Base 2 and in the field. No, they are not your subjects, but they are human and former slaves that I saved.

Right now, I don't trust your subjects until we vet them, including psionic interrogation. Base 1 is my home and I will allow only those I would trust with my family access to Base 1. Specific humans would qualify eventually, once vetted.

No humans will be within those bases again until I have vetted them personally. That was a complete failure of your Diplomatic Service King Rosenthrawl in vetting those people. As it stands, I have no faith in your evaluation process for people to work there or anywhere."

Charlus looked at the Queen, "My wife will give birth any day now, Your Majesty."

She nodded and Charlus looked at King Rosenthrawl, "I will answer any question put forth. From your General and lover to you, Your Majesty."

He looked shocked that Charlus had that information on him. He wanted to deny it but knew better than even acknowledge the fact. He simply looked at Charlus, "I still find time to fill my ever-growing family of 7 now. Some men have certain needs."

Charlus smiled, "My needs went 17 times in 9 hours on my wedding night. She asked me to ravish her and I did. I have 4 children due from that night, Your Majesty.

I spent 20 months in the field channeling that sexual energy into combat skills, tactics, and at times unbridled rage."

He looked at Charlus, "How do I know you will not turn into some power-hungry military force to overtake our lands?"

Charlus sighed, "Your Majesty, may I?"

As he put his hand on Varus'Nor. She nodded. He put a hand on it and drew it slowly. He held it in front of him. "This is my Family blade. A Moon Blade. A relic over 11,000 years old.

It is a living and breathing weapon with a mind of its own. Its mission, my mission, is to keep corruption out of my family house and protect the elven people at all costs. I fail to do that and the blade will kill me. It has that power. I do not seek titles or wealth. I do not seek power for the sake of power.

Only in the course of protecting the elven people. You will never cross blades with this weapon as long as you are loyal allies with the elven people. The same holds true of the dwarves and dragons. This is one of 14 blades still in existence out of 24 made on the Eternal Forge during the time of the first Dragon War. Over 11,000 years ago.

I expect your people will be a big part of the solution to this world as you work to expand your kingdom, with the southern border being reopened. That is why the defensive walls and fortification of the alliance should come into place but at some point, your people will do what your ancestors did.

Migrate further south and build large cities and a 'true castle' fit for a King. Instead of the Keep, you live in now. No leadership can be relied upon in those lands I visited. They are steps away from being back to barbarian hordes traveling to kill and plunder.

This is not my opinion. It is an observed fact written about in 112 books in different eras by humans, another 83 by elven, dwarven, and dragon authors who have watched the cresting and ebbing of human societies.

At which point that wall and fort become central to protecting trade with the other three kingdoms to the north. Your farmers have already started that migration on both sides of the wall's construction site. All with no force protection, Your Majesty."

He put the blade away slowly. "That is why the Queen trusts her Moon Blade Wielders enough to investigate her death and enact provisions of her will if the death is found to have been an assassination. A means to avoid corruption in the elven Royal Family."

He looked at the Queen who nodded to him. He looked at Charlus, "How do I know what you say is true about these books in memory?"

Charlus smiled, "Test me if you wish. Do you have a book with you would you prefer or one of 187 off the Queen's bookcase on the wall to the left? I have read them, all of them are in the Silvertree library."

He pulled out a book from his bag.

He looked over, 'The Harlot's Heart."

Charlus looked at him, "Which year and edition? It will be represented by a small letter after the year. A through E. The last being a rarer find because it goes into an alternate ending into which the Harlot Tresema marries the King. The King is a bisexual sadistic voyeur and enjoys watching his wife get used and abused by the men AND women he puts before her.

She then fucks anything that moves in the castle from his brother, the son from his previous wife as a coming of age present in the presence of the King, while the King fills her nether hole. She just craves sex. As the King gets his filled by his manservant Freden. All culminating in a fuck fest in which the King gets fucked in the nether-hole by..."

The King held up a hand, "Stop. This is an E-edition. I was told there were only 6 in existence."

Charlus nodded, "We have versions A through E in our library. It was one of the rarer books we found. Closer to 600 than 6; there were that many in the bookstore when my mother bought it. My mother was concerned about the cost because we had versions A through D already but she was just as curious to know what was changed in the E version. She spent 8,000 gold pieces for that book because it was so rare. I count those five books as one by the way.

I preferred version B as the best of the 5. However, the alternate ending to E did stir the imagination. All of the mothers liked that one the best. As did two of my sisters and my Duke brother who is also into males, your Majesty. I can recite the book page for page if needed."

He shook his head and put the book away. The elven Queen just smiled at Charlus. King Rosenthrawl looked at Charlus, "You are a strange one."

Charlus smiled, "In the Defense Service I was referred to as Enigma."

He nodded, "That name is fitting."

King Rosenthrawl sighed. "We will allow the scanning of the kingdom for these rings. We prefer the dragons to handle the removal of those issues and not you. We will consider removing our objection to the border wall and defenses. I would like to be kept apprised of this new system you have. I do want humans inside the bases. Both of them. If these humans are worthy of trust then I want to meet them."