Chapter 47 June 404 AD Savannah-Enmity (Patreon)

                A week after his meeting with king Shimbir, Kusen the journalist was still furious with the young boy for making him look stupid. He knew he wasn’t the only journalist that was furious with Shimbir, but they had their own masters to go see.

                It took a week for him to reach Red City. It was a city next to the Zambezi River, in the savannah, built with red bricks, just after the founding of Paulsland. It was built with bricks instead of stone, because back then they could not get stone in sufficient quantities to the cities on the savannah. Kusen was here because his boss, Malkia, was here. She was here because she fled the capital because it was the destination of Kush’s army, and Jinka’s army. She planned to return to the capital once both armies left, but the dregs of Kush’s army made it dangerous to travel around the capital, so Kusen was traveling instead of Malkia.

                When he reached the temporary Paulson headquarters he was told to wait, and so he waited half a day before he was brought into a meeting with the most powerful woman in the country. As soon as he walked into the doors Malkia said, “I am very busy Kusen, this had better be good.”

                Kusen asked, “Did you get my message?”

                “Yes. You said that there was a problem with the meeting with the king. He is ten, I do not understand what possible problem you could have with that child.”

                “I was informed that he was completely ignorant of anything except the little animals he was given to play with. Turns out that not only does he know how to read, write, and do arithmetic, he has already finished history twelve, and I would assume all his other twelve courses.”

                Malkia went pale and asked, “What? How? WHY DIDN’T YOU LET ME KNOW SOONER!?”

                “Did you want me to send the message, “King Shimbir isn’t as stupid as we thought”, across the communication tower network? Everyone over the age of ten knows how to read the messages as they are flashed.”

                “We have codes for secret messages.”

                “The only codes I had let me tell you that there was a problem with our meeting with the king without alerting the entire nation to the problem. Respectfully Mrs. Paulson, but If we have codes that let me send you a message saying the king isn’t as stupid and ignorant as we thought, then I don’t know them.”

                Malkia began growing angry, and so Kusan added to mollify her anger, “I am on your payroll, and I am going to do whatever you tell me to do and I do not want to be fired, so please don’t kill the messenger. As far as I can tell Jinka betrayed you from the start. It’s the only thing I can figure since that kid was completely loyal to Jinka. In fact he said that everything we said about Jinka was a lie.”

                It took Malkia a few seconds to process what he said, but as soon as she did so she said, “He is playing both sides. Jinka told us that he was keeping Shimbir ignorant and stupid, when in fact he was making inroads with the king. Now he is acting as the king’s commander of the military. If we are not careful Jinka will destroy the seventy families, and once we are gone he will betray the king and take his throne.”

                “That’s diabolical.”

                “We need to save the seventy families, and Paulsland.”

                “How?”

                “Through the paper. I need you to make enmity between Jinka and Shimbir. Write a story about how Shimbir blames Jinka for his lack of education, and how Shimbir was offended by Jinka’s theft of his funds.”

                “But that’s not true. What will we do if Shimbir finds out and starts telling people the truth?”

                “Don’t worry about that, I will send my personal guards to take over the stewardship of Shimbir. Go write your story, and send it to me for edits.”

                “Yes, Ma’am.”

                As Kusen left he heard Malkia demanding that all her guards come to her immediately, including the night shift, even if they were still sleeping. After her meeting she sent a coded message to the other seventy families telling them that she was replacing the staff at the king’s castle, and they should instruct their people still in the capital to assist. The other seventy families reluctantly agreed, until their own journalists reached them. Once they heard the full story they enthusiastically agreed, and were glad the ball had already started rolling in that direction.

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                Two weeks after Kusen’s meeting with Malkia the seventy families’ forces showed up at the castle. These forces were made up of guards, cooks, maids, and high-ranking managers of the corporations owned by the seventy families. The seventy families were careful to make sure none of the people that showed up were directly related to the seventy families.

                When they showed up at the door of the castle they were recognized by the guards, as they were the people that assigned them to the castle in the first place. These managers simply told the guards that they were being reassigned and replaced. The castle guards instantly obeyed the orders and left. They knew who their pay masters were. With that in mind they began making their way through the castle and replacing all the nighttime guards, before heading to the castle barracks, waking the guards and letting them know they were being reassigned and replaced. The guards didn’t dare grumble, each one of them needed the jobs provided by the seventy families.

                The reason why these guards were chosen was because all their family members worked directly for the seventy families. In fact, in Paulsland nearly fifteen percent of the population worked directly for them. Nearly eighty percent of the population worked in agriculture as some type of farmer. The castle staff was carefully selected so that none of them had family members that owned a farm. The seventy families did not want a castle staff member to have a place to go if they betrayed them.

                While they were making their way through the castle, other managers, and their helpers were making their way to the homes of the castle staff, homes owned by the seventy families. They let them know that they were being reassigned and that their helpers would help them pack and leave the capital as the new staff would now live in their homes.

                Inside the castle the last place the representatives of the seventy families went was the king’s quarters. It was a simple living room with several side rooms attached. It wasn’t unique in the castle, and it was far from the largest living quarters in the castle, but it easily housed Shimbir, Hani his maid, and his personal guard Kono.

                Two hours and nine minutes after they arrived, at four o nine in the morning, they lightly knocked on the door, hoping the king would stay asleep.

                Kono answered the knock seconds later and whispered, “What is the problem?”

                Standing at the door was one of the managers of the seventy families. Behind him were ten guards. He simply asked, “Do you know who I am?”

                “Yes. You’re….”

                “Don’t say my name.”

                Before he could ask why two doors inside the living quarters opened less than a second apart. Hani was stepping out of one, and Shimbir out of the other.

                When Shimbir saw the strange man he asked in a sleepy voice, “Who is that?”

                The man said, “Good morning young king. I am a simple manager in charge of replacing some of your staff.”

                “Replacing staff?”

                “Yes, it is routine. Replacing staff allows your castle to be run more efficiently.”

                Shimbir yawned and asked, “Who are you replacing?”

                “Don’t worry about it, I bet you won’t notice.”

                The nonanswer immediately caused concern in little Shimbir. The book on leadership said there was usually a problem when someone avoided a question, so Shimbir asked, “Are you taking away Kono or Hani?” The man paused and looked away. That was all Shimbir needed to see so he put his foot down and said, “I am the King. Kono will stay as my guard, and Hani will stay as my maid.”

                Kono looked very uncomfortable as he heard the words, and Hani moved to stand between her King and the new man.

                The man turned to Kono first, “You are being transferred to Madagascar. If you refuse this transfer, your daughters and daughters-in-law will be removed from company housing before the sun is up.”

                Kono paused for a second before saying, “I will comply.”

                Hani yelled out, “You are betraying your King!”

                Kono turned around and sadly said, “I do not know what is going on here, but my sons and my daughters’ husbands are following Jinka to the north to fight the Romans. If they are tossed out of their homes they don’t have any men they can rely on. I have to put my family before the King. I am sorry.”

                Hani was stunned speechless, but Shimbir nodded and said, “Family comes first. Do what you must.”

                Kono said, “Thank you. I will not forget this.”

                “Neither will I.”

                That’s when the manager cut in and said, “Hani, you must leave as well.”

                “No. My place is beside my King!”

                Shimbir said, “You may not take my maid.”

                “Hani, if you do not leave then we will strip your father’s position from him.”

                “He is an elected official, all elections are paused until our war is over.”

                The nameless man laughed and said, “Election? We will just bring charges against him. Your father has committed many crimes. If you do not come with me then your father will be executed.”

                Hani paused, considered his words and said, “If my father has broken the law then he deserves to be punished. If staying with my King means that my father pays for his crimes then he has reaped what he has sown and the nation is better off.”

                The nameless man frowned, turned his head and told his men, “Drag the maid out of the castle.”

                Shimbir grabbed ahold of his maid and yelled, “NO!”

                He told his men, “Do not harm the king. He is ten, you should not have a hard time prying his hands off of the maid. If you hurt him you will die.”

                Several men called out, “YES, SIR!” as they stormed into the living quarters.

                In just moments ten armed and armored men came in and charged Hani and Shimbir who were so shocked they just held onto each other. In moments two them cautiously pulled Shimbir away from his maid, and they were careful not to harm the boy. As for Hani, one of the men violently jerked her hair back, while two men pulled her arms behind her back, and another lifted her feet off the floor and began carrying her out of the living quarters. She struggled as best as she could but it was useless.

                Meanwhile Shimbir struggled and as he struggled he screamed, “I AM GOING TO TELL THE WORLD WHAT YOU ARE DOING!”

                The nameless man yelled out, “STOP!”

                The guards instantly stopped what they were doing. As the guards stopped Shimbir and Hani stopped struggling and fighting.

                The nameless man turned to Shimbir and said, “It would be very unwise for you to attempt to tell people what we are doing tonight.”

                Shimbir asked, “Why?”

                “Because you have things you care about.” Then the nameless man turned to the guards holding Hani and he said, “Flog her.”

                Shimbir cried out, “NO!”

                The nameless man said, “Yes. You have to see that when you do not obey orders then the things you love will be hurt. Tonight it will be Hani. The next time you disobey it will be your monkey that faces our wrath. After that it will be your dogs, then your horse.”

                “Why would you do this to me?”

                “My dear king, we are not doing anything to you. It would be treason to strike you, as striking you would be the same as striking the ivory throne. But if you do not play ball then your subjects will be hurt. If you do not do what we say then tens of thousands of the citizens of Paulsland will be hurt, Hani, your monkey, dogs, and horse are just an example we will use to show you the pain that you are causing the rest of the nation when you do not do what you are told to do.” With his speech to the king done he turned to the guards and said, “Give her forty strikes.” Then he turned to Kono and said, “Watch. I need a witness able to say that we never struck the King.”

                Kono turned to Hani and said, “I’m sorry.”

                “Don’t tell me your sorry, tell our King that you are sorry.”

                Kono didn’t say another word as the guards began striking Hani. That said he refused to look at the young king as both Kono and Shimbir began to cry.

                As the guards held Shimbir, he discovered that he was not the King. Sure, he had the title but he did not have the authority. He was just a bird in a cage. He was powerless for now. That said, he could not help but notice that these men did not dare strike him, which meant that although he was a bird in a cage, and still powerless, his powerlessness was only temporary. At least that’s how he consoled himself as his mother figure was beat in front of him. He had to believe that one day he would obtain power so he could have all these men skinned alive as an apology for what happened to Hani.

                Oddly enough Shimbir did not realize his world was being turned upside down by the seventy families. He was well aware that Kingsminister Jinka was his steward, so he assumed Jinka was at fault for this. Shimbir had heard of the seventy families because he was a member of the Paulson family, and grandson of the head of the Saul family. At this point in time that meant he assumed he was one of them. In contrast Hani and Kono knew exactly who had taken control of the castle, and would have told Shimbir if they had the chance, but they were not given that chance.

                Once the beating was over Kono immediately left, full of guilt and shame. Hani was dragged out, like a mother being pulled away from her only son. The rest of the strange men left the room leaving Shimbir alone to cry. When he tried to leave the room the guards would not let him, nor would they talk to him. They could only give him the answer yes and no when he asked them questions. Shimbir was completely alone again.

……………………………..

                One month after Hani’s beating, halfway to the north eastern border, one of the Paulson newspapers reached Jinka’s fast moving army. When he read about how Shimbir denounced him in the capital, Jinka’s view of Shimbir went from ambivalent to hatred. He never considered that the papers lied about what Shimbir said. With that in mind he had his own papers write another story denouncing Shimbir as a terrible student intentionally chosen by the halls of representatives because he would be easy to control. With that the people of Paulsland were told one story about their King, from the seventy families, and Jinka’s propaganda. The story was that their king was an idiot.