[Fordim Hedgethistle]

Siamak


Siamak hurried out of the large hall as soon as the audience with the emissary was concluded. He was troubled, though he could see no reason for it, and wanted to think before he spoke with anyone. The halls of the palace were empty with the exception of an occasional servant, for all the nobles had attended the audience, curious about these strange foreigners, and they were most certainly strange. Unconsciously he reached up and fingered his black beard, its shorter length attesting to his youth. The beard, or lack thereof, had been only the first of many differences. They had been tall and of proud bearing, with startlingly blue and gray eyes. He was suspicious of them, for more reasons than their physical appearance. He had never seen men from across the Great Desert, and he didn’t know why they should be here now. What good would an alliance with Pashtia, hundreds of leagues away from the lands of the emissaries, do this Lord Annatar? It wasn’t as if any of the eastern lands had ever assaulted the west. Which made him wonder, had an emissary been sent to Alanzia as well? To Pashtia’s other neighboring countries? For all their fair words, he did not think that their motives were as noble as they were being led to believe.

His brow was furrowed in a thoughtful frown as he meandered through the many passages of the palace. The walls were richly adorned in colorful tapestries and lined with sculptures and statues. Siamak noticed none of these, however, buried in thought as he was. Subconsciously, he had taken himself towards the gardens within the palace walls. He had been raised in the palace, and knew the halls and rooms like the back of his hand, though for one less familiar it would have been easy to become lost.

The gardens were quite possibly his favorite place in the palace, especially the private ones limited to the royal family. There, he could be alone with his thoughts and away from the various court schemes for power and manipulations of the nobles to get the laws they favored passed. There were some days when Siamak thought he would be happy as a simple farmer, away from the complexities of palace life. Most of the time, though, he did enjoy his life, and deep inside he knew that he wouldn’t leave the palace for anything. He was not concentrated on this now, however, and varying thoughts of the emissaries drifted through his mind.

Siamak wandered over the cobbled pathways of the gardens, letting the chirping of birds and the trickle of water from the fountains set him at peace so that he could think clearly. He finally found a bench in a satisfactory location and sat down. It was shaded by a medium-sized fig tree and had a wide view in either direction to let him know if anyone was coming, though he didn’t really expect anyone. As far as he could tell, he was the only one who visited the gardens on a regular basis, except, of course, the gardeners.

He soon refocused on the issue at hand. The king had announced that there was to be a banquet tonight; he wanted to have his thoughts straightened out before then, because he was fairly confident that his opinion would be asked. Young though he was, at eighteen years of age, as the king’s son and possible heir to the throne, his opinion was not without weight. Nobles often times seemed to be trying to figure out where he stood, wondering if they should support him or his older sister. That didn’t mean that he would tell them his opinions, though; he was a firm believer that he could learn a lot more by listening than by talking.

His thoughts soon brought him to the ring the emissary had given his father. It was unlike any other ring he had ever seen, and if he had had a clearer view of it than many he still hadn’t seen it closely. He wasn’t sure he wanted to, either: anything with that kind of effect on people probably had some kind of magic, and he was tentative around things he didn’t understand, especially if it was from so far away... Perhaps he was just overanalyzing it. More likely it was simply a ring of great worth and beauty, two things that the culturally-advanced Pashtians certainly understood. Probably the ring was simply a token of good will. Probably.

The whole situation made him uneasy, even though he could pinpoint no reason for it. By all appearances the emissary and their Lord Annatar had nothing but good feelings towards them, and that may have been the problem. Siamak could not figure out why the Lord Annatar wanted their friendship, though he had nothing but proud feelings of his country. Their resources were many and the culture was rich and developed, but it certainly wasn’t practical to trade all the way across the Great Desert. It was simply too far. Pashtia did not want any part in foreign wars, and the transport of troops across so great a distance was unreasonable. Besides, regular communication would be near impossible.

Frustrated that he was getting nowhere, Siamak decided that it was time to go inside. He needed more information before he would be able to form a solid opinion based on facts rather than intuition. He now regretted his hasty retreat from the throne room because he might have been able to learn more about these strangers and their lands. On the other hand, it was just as possible that the emissaries had been escorted to guest rooms to freshen up after their journey leaving the nobles to gossip among themselves. Siamak didn’t like gossip very much - it was usually chock-full of rumors and half-truths, leaving one with the onerous task of deciphering how much of it was fact.

He returned to the palace building by a different way than he had come to a gate that would be closer to his personal living quarters. He had lost track of time out in the garden, and with surprise he had found it to be a few hours later than when he had come out, though there was still plenty of time before the banquet that night. By now, he had probably been missed, but he hoped not. There were very few people that he would be willing to see before tonight. He pushed through the garden gates, paying little heed to the guards there. He turned down the less used corridors in an attempt to avoid people. He knew that his own status was higher than theirs, but nobles made him nervous. They always seemed to want something, whether special favors with the king or some kind of alliance. Not that he wasn’t grateful for their support; if his father was ever going to name him the heir he would need all the support he could get. It wasn’t so much that he wanted to be king as he didn’t want his sister Gjeelea and her betrothed to rule. He didn’t like his sister very much. She was everything he was not: gossipy, manipulative, and out-spoken, and her fiancé was just as bad: greedy and brutish. In truth, he felt rather intimidated by his sister, and she was one of the people he was most trying to avoid.

Siamak sighed in relief when he reached the section of the palace that was the quarters for the royal family. Once he reached his rooms, he would not have to see anyone he did not want to, and he had only to eat a small afternoon meal, think, and prepare for the banquet tonight.