The Princess Summoner

The King's Tribute

         In the town of ShadowCrest, citizens were in their beds. It was past curfew. Not a light was on. The King’s Court was marching through the slightly rundown, mostly maintained streets with their military apparel, wearing their shock stun g*n gear. The drones were on infrared monitoring. Combing through the villages and squares in the town, periodically in a zigzag pattern. The King’s Court operated in lock step with each other in that six guards would march down one section of the street while the other six would be marching down meeting them and then turning. It was very intimidating to some people. Thankfully, some people had other plans. In the comfy bedroom of Donavan Tuley, a small light is on just enough, so he gets a message out. Donavan “Teresa…Come on Teresa, stop dodging me, this is important. Please pick up. Your father is worried about you and quite frankly so am I. You’ve never been gone this long. Please text me…” He is worried about his friend because they had never gone this long without a text. Just then he hears one of the guards “Attention citizens! Even though we are in the King Herold’ lockdown, we implore all of you to embrace the King’s generosity and become one of us! You will be granted all rights and freedoms within our power and live among the elite and wealthy! I repeat embrace the King’s generosity and you will have your wishes desire!” Donavan “Yeah…no thank you. You mean give up my freedoms and be a slave in the King’s army…I’ll think I’ll stay here….” (into his vidphone) “Come on, Teresa, pick up. I can’t handle this by myself.” He sees one of the lights of the guards shine on his window. It is raining out there. The guard’s light flickers. Donavan sees his vid window’s picture is shining on the wall of his bedroom. He immediately shuts off the camera. After a couple of seconds, the lights turn back to the street. Donavan “Whew.” He texts Teresa “Please vid me to see if you’re all right!” He plants a pleading face emoji with a worried face emoji. And presses send. 

               Inside the ShadowCrest castle, the King’s men are on alert because nighttime is different than daytime. The King has had not an easy time dealing with the royal duties of being in authority with the opposition knocking on his door almost on a weekly basis. And lately the opposition has not stopped with raids to his many war chests. His men are bunkered outside one of his many vaults strewn across the inner cities. And they are waiting for word that the “raiders” have arrived.  His enforcement squad are made up of 10 elite task force squad members. These squad members are extremely trained at what they do and regard the King’s wellbeing as the top priority. Each these members radio each other when they get in trouble. Especially in the dark.

 Ray “ This is squad leader Tycho. I have a possible intrusion at the northwest corner of the castle. Derek “ Roger that, Tycho we will see you there in five.” Ray proceeds into the bunker slowly, slowly walking to the door. He opens the door and it is barely lit with the smell instantly hitting his nose. Ray”…Oh. Stale air… No ventilation. Little to no lights. You would think this king would spring for some lights, man.”  He walks down the huge lengthy steps, with a flashlight in hand to the vast open and separated region that he was walking towards. What separated him was an underground cavern beneath the castle which he saw as the main vault of the King.

    The King had amassed great wealth in the current time. It resulted from many societies bringing their wealth upon him as he gave them food and troops for being an ally with him. Many dignitaries and representatives to other societies sacrificed to what they could to show loyalty to the King and Queen. It was not an easy task for them. This continued for a long period of time. Until…The King suggested that they double their tribute for the same amount of protection and care. Through some battles that became almost impossible. On one occasion, one king brought himself upon King Herold’s throne room. The King’s Court threw him in there and closed the doors. King Tobias “Your Honorary…I know you must think we all appreciate your generosity; your wisdom is beyond compare. and everyone in my Kingdom respect you for everything you’ve done…” King Herold “ Yes…?”  King Tobias “But these tributes… are too taxing for my people. You see we have taxes that we must deal with ourselves. And it wouldn’t be right to tax my people needlessly for the generous sum…” King Herold  “Silence!” the royal King stood there in awe. The leaders did little to pressure him into their way of thinking. Quite simply because they were afraid of him.

      He had the largest army in the known seven kingdoms. Two of those Kingdoms were presumed extinct. Two of them were had been taken over by warring tribes and the other three were led by King Tobias, King Herold and King Breslin. King Herold made sure that the other Kings knew that he ruled the roost. He was powerful and influential in terms of keeping his people from disobeying and turning against him. He had even used his troops to help the other kingdoms from turning into chaos themselves by getting rid of “the vermin of the North” in the Eastern Kingdom. He felt they owed him a debt by giving him their most precious jewels, gold and silver. He believed it was an honor to be bestowed upon them when they visited him from other places of the world. King Herold declared “I give you food, I give shelter to your people and make sure these other warring factions don’t cause damage to your cities and villages, and all you have to say to me is it wouldn’t be right to tax your people? The people I feed and clothe? Tell me again who was the person who rescued you from the horrible Gora Goras’? They were ready to ravage your people. They were barbarians… Weren’t they? King Tobias “…Yes, your majesty. We humbly acknowledge your generosity.” King Herold stated, “And who was it?”   King Tobias again said, “You were, your highness.” King Herold declared “Who was it who took you under their wing and showed you how to feed your people, give you the tools to make weapons to fend off those tribes that were looking to skewer you through?!!”

King Tobias humbly tells him “You…were, your highness, but…there were reports that those tribes were not looking to eat us. They were only protecting their homes that we were intruding on.”

   King Herold stood again in defiance “…You doubt my wisdom?”  King Tobias said “No…your highness, but…” King Herold declared “NO buts!! I am…Therefore I say! I am not impressed with your decision, Tobias. Therefore, I demand you triple your tribute immediately. By sundown, if there are not six treasure chests full here, I will put all of your people in contempt! Prison for refusal of payment in absence. That is all!! Leave me. Leave.” The King’s Court took him back to his caravan of people in the Deserted lands. After that, the King calls his most loyal attendant to get his “scien-tician” and his world man. The attendant does. An hour later in the battle room of the palace the battle tacticians were telling him of the war tribe called the Fantas, The Fantas were born from a mixture of different tribes that had lived previously in the years past. It was born of different cultures that had integrated into the seven Kingdoms.  One of them had a falling out and had decided through outright rejection that it was not going to go along with the alliance.      

       The King saw this as blasphemy. As out right ruler of his kingdom and the Deserted Lands, he decided to cut off the Fantas to receive any additional crucial medical supplies to their families. The Fantas reacted viciously by going straight toward the ShadowCrest border and did attack. The King sent out hundreds of his men out on the battlefield. The King’s men did everything they could to fend off the borders, they did but it cost them dearly. Some of them lost arms, hands, a chopped foot, and a blind eye. The c*****e that had ensued was b****y. The King had his people clean up the mess outside of the cities, and conveniently the drones had no video showing the Fantas chopping off soldier limbs and the injured Fantas being carried off the field. It was all a bloodless win. It showed strength and unity in the army and in his authority. The King watched it on his monitor and breathed a sigh of relief. King Herold “Those b****y inconsequential rodents! Get me an ax or a sword! I’ll give them a one two right now! Those greedy nasty miscreants can’t get at us! This is my world! I run this! Now…Who’s Next?”

      One of his aides had hinted that to ease fears of reprisals of tribes retaliating the aide suggested inviting them to a festival. To assuage fears and misconceptions. King Herold stated “Really…? It would?” The aide replied “Very much your highness. King Herold “ Then we will.” The king smirked. “Make the announcements to all the kingdom.” Aide “ That I will do.” After the aide leaves… King Herold “A festival means people in my kingdom which means more tributes, which means countries that will do my bidding! And if they don’t….Off with their heads!!! HA HA HA HA”

Back to current day…

Ray walks further into the cavernous room that is 50 feet in scale. It is barely lit with several on wall candles, but he sees the outline of what appears to be several heaps of bags of treasure just lying there on the steps next to the vault. “This is not supposed to be here. Did Treasury forget to put back the extra bags before they closed up?” He sighs and turns on the communicator.

Ray “Tycho, this is Alpha. I’m right behind you. Treasury is not usually this negligent. I’ll check upstairs. To see if there was someone laying down on the job. Tycho, this is Alpha …”

After several minutes, the radio transmission is full of static. He can hardly hear the person on the line.

Thomas “…We have…two…immediate evac…AAAAAGH…!!!”

The line goes dead.

Ray “What the… What was that?!”

Derek “Trouble. Deep Trouble.”