The Invisible Chains - Part 2: Bonds of Fear by Andrew Ashling Read Free Book Online

take
    command of the army unopposed. When the time comes, show him
    the charter. He will be completely blindsided. If he doesn’t bow down
    to the royal will, arrest him, but treat him with all the respect due to
    a prince of the royal blood. Remember, he is still lord governor of the
    Northern Marches. I have no intention of taking that title from him. I
    want him chastised, not broken. I want him to learn. Send him to fort
    Nira under armed escort. See to it that he travels, not as a prisoner,
    but under his own banner.’ And that was about it.”
    “How is that possible?”
    “Beats me, to be honest. I’ve been thinking about it ever since,
    and the only conclusion I can come to is that we do have an informer,
    but not a traitor.”
    “Your little plan to smoke him out misfired.”
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    Andrew Ashling
    Anaxantis smiled wryly.
    “Yes, and it was such a clever little plan too,” he said, mocking
    himself. He shrugged. “You can’t win them all, I suppose.”
    “So, it was all for nothing?”
    “Oh no, on the contrary. The strange thing is that the informer
    played right into my hand. Father is convinced now that his ploy with
    the secret charter will be sufficient to prevent me from confronting
    the Mukthars. Ha. Well, let him think again. So, he plans to have me
    arrested and escorted to Fort Nira? We’ll see about that.”
    “It’s a bit of a mixed bag, but are your worries laid to rest, at least
    a little bit? Pass the cheese, will you?”
    “They would be, if we were on the eve of war — here you go
    — but there is still too much time left. I know him. He will fret and
    niggle and mull things over and over, and if he hasn’t a backup plan
    in place already he will devise one.”
    “So, what now?”
    “I’m not sure yet. At one point I considered closing my southern
    border and checking everybody who tries to get in. But I can’t spare
    the men. I can’t start dividing up my army before it is well and truly
    formed and operational.”
    Hemarchidas looked at him with amazement in his eyes.
    “Anaxantis, can you hear yourself talk?”
    “Huh?”
    “My border. My army. You’re talking as if you were an independent
    sovereign. That’s the first time ever I heard you do that.”
    Anaxantis smiled uneasily.
    “Just a figure of speech, my friend, nothing more.”
    Bonds of Fear
    51
    “Am I, though? Am I considering myself a reigning sovereign? Am
    I on the verge of secession?”
    “The informer,” Hemarchidas resumed. “What about him? How
    are we going to find out who it is?”
    Anaxantis shrugged.
    “By accident or when he decides to come forward. It’s the
    damnedest thing. I almost have the impression that, instead of
    having a spy in our ranks, we have an undercover agent in the king’s
    private counsel. I’d swear, whoever he may be, he is working for us.
    Not against us.”
    “Don’t exaggerate. We don’t know anything for sure as of yet.”
    “You’re right, of course. But, Hemarchidas, I can’t live this way. I
    am not going to try to second guess my friends anymore, searching
    for plots within plots. There is no absolute certainty to be had. I am
    going to operate from the premise that my friends love me and want
    the best for me.”
    “Hm. Many a king found himself with a knife between his shoulder
    blades for abiding by that noble sentiment.”
    “Maybe they deserved it then. And, by the way, who’s making
    regal claims now?” Anaxantis laughed.
    “You can laugh all you want,” Hemarchidas thought, “but I’ll be
    watching your back nevertheless, since you yourself will not. I am
    not as generous or as trusting in human nature as you are. I’ll make
    it my business to see to your safety, my credulous little prince.”
    “But I am not naive,” Anaxantis mused. “What I will do is try to
    take their vulnerabilities away. And of course my own.”

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    Andrew Ashling

    “Damn it. Why did it have to start raining hags and crones, as we
    say in Ramaldah, just when