Chapter 17 Boudicca's Revolt

Grand Prince Jason grew up in the Palace of Illium watched over by his grandmother Nalia during evenings after visiting the temples, caring for her horses, and tending her gardens. He never sensed Nalia as a prisoner of his mother. Young Jason spent most of his days running lose over the palace with guards and servants bowing

to him. He viewed murals in the guard towers and questioned the soldiers on why none of his father’s family in the murals ever visit. The soldiers gave vague and confusing answers. He did admire a young woman named Kia he saw in a tower mural sitting next to his grandfather Emperor Rurick, guards say it was moved here from Minerva’s declaration to make it leave her sight. He listened carefully to soldiers and city dwellers tales of General Kia winning battles in a faraway place to honor Blythe. Jason normally dresses in low class clothes as he wanders the streets of Illium by himself. His mother

believes her son only need to wear fine robes during public appearances. He made friends with homeless children living on the streets and played games where they slept. The holy temples no longer take in orphans until manual labor is needed. Few people

donate money to keep up the temples and feed the poor. Jason and his comrades adore watching ships dock in the harbor and admire the treasures of Anaki being taken into the palace.

As a guard recognizes Jason, he secretly slips a few Anaki coins to him since Her Majesty selfishly keeps much of the tribute for herself and selected advisors. He buys his buddies a meal at a tavern and gets invited to an impoverished home of a child whose relatives reluctantly allowed him to live in their home. Jason learns early on how different the poor and rich live. Few acknowledge the dirty prince as he plays in the streets. They are not accustomed to royalty looking like a ragamuffin beggar. When asked his name, he gives the name Rurick after his heroic grandfather. Once he said his name was Dion, but a merchant shuttered and told him his name will bring him misfortune. He never again gave that name. Jason loved his privileged life as a prince and a prince in disguise, until Queen Boudicca came to call on Empress Minerva.

Late one morning, dressed as an urchin, he wondered around the quiet streets trying to find his friends. He did notice many of the guards and soldiers aligning the palace walls and snuck out by way of a secret passage Empress Nalia told him about. Suddenly, the old man who runs the tavern he often eats at pulled him around a corner to warn him of Boudicca’s fires burning outside the city. He told Jason of sailors entering the city looking for the Grand Prince. The tavern keeper believes they were sent by Boudicca to kidnap Jason so she can be Empress of Blythe. Frightened, Jason follows the old man down to the docks where city dwellers were jumping onto ships to flee Boudicca’s army. The old man placed Jason in a barrel smelling of fruit beside a ship to hide from the kidnappers. A young man near the ship picks up the barrel and carries it to the lower level of his ship. A weasel-like creature jumps up onto the barrel and squeals at the young man.

“Yes, Linos. I will fetch Alexis.” replies the sailor.

When the man left, the weasel transforms into a Blythan adolescent and lifts the

barrel lid.

“Hello, Jason. I am your uncle Linos. Your father was my half-brother. Do not worry, nephew. We came to keep you safe during the destruction of Illium.”

Linos next changes into the tavern keeper who pulled Jason off the street and then a weasel again to scamper away. Jason remains hidden in the barrel until Linos raises the lid again.

“You may come out now. We are at sea.” assures his uncle.

He arises out of the container to find two strange looking men staring at him. He is introduced to Alexis the Sky Fox and a Kadacian commander. They comment how Jason looks so much like his grandfather Rurick. Linos lifts up Jason out of his hiding place and sets him down at a small table covered with aromatic food. He dines with the sailors and later gazes at a nearby island on deck. They enter a town called Adea. Linos informs Jason that it is a Kadacian ruled island so he must conduct himself with utmost manners. Adea looks beautiful in the eyes of Jason. He notices Kadacian and Blythan soldiers in the town. Linos also informs the boy of the return of many soldiers from Anaki because Empress Minerva had ceased sending supplies to uphold the conquered territories of Anaki and Helos. The last tribute ship had entered Illium two months ago. Tribute paid to General Kia’s army is now being kept by the soldiers from lacking supplies. Linos explains how General Kia is withdrawing her army legions slowing out of the Anaki and Helos. Kadacian towns are busy welcoming the returning soldiers. Jason could not believe his ears of the empire falling apart under his mother’s reign. Linos neglects to say the returning soldiers are part of the plot to overthrow Minerva. Jason was all too eager to meet this infamous Kia he heard stories about conquering territory with Emperor Rurick.

“Perhaps someday you will meet her,” encourages Linos.

Grand Prince Jason watches a Kadacian sunset into the sea. Torches are lit for tonight’s celebration of returning heroes. The men parade on horses down the main street of the village to a marketplace where tables are ready to serve a feast. Cheers echo into the dark starry sky. Fair maidens in their most stylish gowns smile at the soldiers as music fills the air. Jason laughs at Linos dancing erratically in front of a group of pretty girls. Throughout the night, his guardians remain nearby to introduce Jason as a stowaway they discovered on their ship.

The next morning, Alexis guides the ship around the mainland to Kara where Alexis’s cousin Damon and Princess Sophia live. She is relieved Jason is safe. Fleeing Illium residents has spread stories of Queen Boudicca attacking the city, but lets unarmed refugees go. They spend two days in Kara trading goods off the ship and stories. They hear of Kadacians attacking Blythan villages along the Anasazi border. Sophia worries over her half-sister Tatiana in Sarai and younger sister Dyna in Ronace. Alexis assures the edgy princess their warrior husbands will keep her sisters safe. Alexis next takes the princes up the coast to Narva. Hadrian, Eurick, and Lilia welcome Jason like a long lost relative. Hadrian learns much of what has been occurring in Illium from Jason. Kali and Oden show Jason the forest and creatures humans only hear about. Alexis returns to Laurel to tend his shipping business. Enki stops for a visit to see Rurick’s grandson. Lexie splashes water at Jason and gave him a string of seashells. Lilia gives him a free omen for his benefit.

“You will meet the infamous General Kia you desire under dire circumstances. I see many troubles as you become king. Suspicion growing of another queen has you returning here and your heir living in exile. Do not fret over your future, young prince, much of your life is happiness.” recites the prophetess.

Months later the sounds of soldiers gleeful of destroying Illium come to pass along the coast. Lexie found out that Empress Minerva escaped so Queen Boudicca could not completely seize Illium for herself. She simply gutted the city and seized whatever treasures her army could haul into their ships. Eurick in the form of a Blythan man and Prince Linos escort Jason back to Illium. Alexis guides his ship close to the harbor, but stopped short of entry. They step into a desolate city scorched from Boudicca’s fires. Merchants, nobles, peasants, and shipbuilders are busy reconstructing their city and painting over soot. Few notice the returning prince as he passes by his working subjects. Empress Nalia in her garden petting one of her dogs is the first to greet the missing prince back to the palace. Jason introduces Eurick and Prince Linos as saviors after he was discovered in a barrel. He said he was taken around several cities in Kadacia and Blythe until Queen Boudicca retreated. Nalia told them of escaping through tunnels under the palace and staying in a glen until word came of Boudicca’s retreat. They worried continuously what happened to little Jason. A guard sent to find him was found dead in the courtyard. His family prayed to the gods that he was safe. Many fled the city so they hoped he was with them. The city fell so quickly because Minerva dispatched soldiers to cease the invasion of Queen Anamosa on the Anasazi border.

Nalia takes Jason to Empress Minerva in her throne room ordering her officials in repairs of the palace. Full of hope at the increase of soldiers coming from Anaki, Minerva believes these Kadacian renegades will be stopped by her armies. She quickly learns these returning warriors expect to come home and raise families, not fight their ally. Minerva embraces her son carrying a cat named Eurick on his shoulders and glances at the ferret named Linos gazing up at her from the floor. Relieved he was not kidnapped by her enemies, she orders new clothes for her son to commence the celebrations of defeating Queen Boudicca. Great celebrations in the streets of Illium make the ruined city great again. Eurick and Linos change forms again into Blythan men to escort the Grand Prince through the streets. Jason samples food stands, games, dancing, and listening to a harp play an ode to the palace general that saved Illium. Nalia gives the prince and the pauper new armor and weapons for their service protecting Jason during Boudicca’s Revolt. Minerva’s lover hailed them as heroes during the festivities giving sacks of gold and armbands in the shape of falcon spreading its wings, Minerva’s symbol. Day by day more soldiers from Anaki arrive to ecstatic crowds. Jason begins his education with a tutor Nalia appoints. Jason can tell

this priest worships war god Eris and sky god Andos heartily. His tales of the gods omit much of what he heard in the Haunted Forest.

Young Prince Jason learns how to read the symbolism on pottery and murals. Once as he inquired about General Princess Kia, the priest stopped short of the heroics of this heroine. The priest confides how the adopted Kia was raised by royalty, but retained her common roots by drugging men into submitting to her lustful behaviors. Princess Tatiana was indeed a wretched bastard child who only received status in society because her father was the emperor. The priest firmly believed that Tatiana is receiving punishment for her low birth by being attacked by the Kadacians along the Anasazi border. When last Linos heard, Tatiana and her husband were supplying Kadacian troops along the border and profiting immensely. The priest never mentions

Sophia or Dyna. News from Lotan arrives from sailors that Grand Prince Rodric has remarried Kazaria Persephone and she is expected to have a child within a year.

These mass departures from Anaki infuriate Empress Minerva when she realizes tribute from these areas has ceased. An administrator acknowledges Empress Minerva stopping supplying her soldiers, yet expects tribute to come anyway. The honest man is tossed in prison for his incompetence in enforcing her policies. The ferret Linos helps him escape. The jail guards naturally neglect to inform the empress of his escape, not that Minerva recalls everyone she had jailed, beheaded, or flogged. Within a year, Illium restores itself to normal and flourishes in increased labor power of the soldiers desiring occupations. A paved road from Illium to the estate Ashleigh outside of Illium is laid. Many soldiers brought back tales of many roads between Helos cities being paved with stone. One day, Eurick receives a short message from his father: Your twin girls have been born. Eurick uses his grandmother Amalia’s mirror to transport quickly to the Haunted Forest. Goddess Lanie is present holding one of the girls. His father Hadrian was most displeased at Lilia’s pregnancy just as Eurick left for Illium.

“What do you mean my twin girls have been born? I am not married to Lilia. They can not be my daughters.” pleads Eurick.

“Then son, please tell me how these half-goddess, half-elf girls look exactly like elves. Someone with elf blood must be their father. The only elf around these parts is you.” responds his angry father. Eurick hangs his head.

“I am sorry, father. What would you have me do now?” asks Eurick.

“You may ask for Lilia’s and Lanie’s forgiveness for soiling Lilia’s upstanding reputation.” answers Hadrian. “No one will betroth himself to her now.”

Eurick enters Lilia’s home behind Aurora Falls and disappears for a long time. Lilia appears to notify them that Eurick left for Illium in Amalia’s mirror. Tears stream down her cheeks as she explains Eurick’s refusal to marry her and plans to marry Elmo’s daughter Circe when she becomes of age. She weeps into the night beside her

great-uncle’s campfire. If Eurick believed Circe would not hear of the goddesses Ishtar’s and Cassandra’s birth, he thought wrong. Circe waved in a bitter storm from the sea with high waves drowning Illium residents too close to the coast. She blew into Eurick’s bed chamber as he slept through the storm. She cursed his indiscretion and revoked their betrothal. Heartbroken, Eurick pled his case to Circe to have her curse him more for his arrogance and lies of loving her since birth. She refused to give into sympathy for the lost soul and fled to her father’s home in the sea. Jason and Linos sought out Eurick many days before finding him at the abandoned Ashleigh estate sadden from

losing two loves.

Linos is a happier tale during these months. He met a girl in the Kadacian city Noor called Mae. When Queen Anamosa acquired enough territory from Blythe, his fair maiden boarded the first passage to Illium. Mae was awestruck at the sight of this village ten times the size of Noor. She walked across paved walkways towards the palace. She announces her engagement to Prince Linos to the guards to be told the prince had been banished long ago. She immediately presents an armband with Empress Minerva’s falcon symbol on it. Mae is swiftly slipped into a guard tower and someone retrieves Prince Linos.

“The banished Prince Linos is living under Empress Minerva’s nose. Her Majesty will be most displeased.” declares a guard. The ferret Linos alters into his original Blythan self.

“That is why I never reveal my true self in front of Her Majesty. Now that I see you have not rushed to tell her of this, you are expecting payment to keep Mae a secret.” replies Linos.

“You are bright, Linos.” claims the guard.

Linos gives the guard a few coins and the guard clears his throat. Rejecting the gesture for more coins, Linos negotiates.

“Let us just say I owe you a favor if Her Majesty has you arrested.”

“Just tell me General Kia is planning to come home to her people. We soldiers can not believe Her Majesty is foolish enough to think she can simply banish the general without revenge for killing Emperor Dion.” begs the guard.

“Do not fear, the general has not abandoned her loyal soldiers.

“She fully intends to come back.” answers Linos.

“I have no fear of Her Majesty. Your betrothal will be kept secret at the Blue Ogre Inn.” responds the guard.

“Take me to her,” orders Linos.

Linos is guided to the guard tower when Mae is hidden inside a storeroom. He embraces his love and scorns her for coming here without warning. Mae declares her love to him and desire to marry him. He promises a speedy wedding within two weeks and requests her staying at the inn until he fetches her. He gives her a pouch of coins and kisses her good-bye. The guard brings her to the Blue Ogre Inn on the outskirts of town. He visits her at nightfall to confide his plans of their secret wedding. He insists that she stay at the inn after they marry until General Kia returns. He returns to the palace at sunrise to relieve Eurick of his guard duty. Mae enjoys shopping in the marketplace to order her wedding dress made and asks the bill be sent to the prince’s bodyguard Linos. Her wedding night arrives as Linos sneaks to the inn to take her to the Temple of Aphrodite. With Eurick and Jason in attendance, Linos and Mae are married in the moonlight. A feast is given by the owner of the Blue Ogre. A surprise

guest attends the banquet. Empress Nalia, hearing from her grandson of the wedding celebration, comes to give the bride Princess Mae a beautiful trunk to keep her new things in. Mae embraces the empress.

Months go by with anticipation when General Kia is going to come rescue her people. Mae gives birth to a boy at the inn. Excitement is embraced by the guards and Linos shows off his son around the guard towers. Joy turns into grief during a meal in the great hall when Linos storms into the great hall and chucks a dagger into the table near Empress Minerva.

“General Aiken, if you murdered my son I will kill you now.” declares Linos.

Minerva’s lover stands up and removes the knife from the table.

“I had my orders. Now you shall join your wife on the executioner’s block. Seize him.” replies Minerva’s lover. Soldiers surround Linos.

“Prince Linos!” exclaims Minerva. “Son of that wretched General Kia. Why did you come here? I knew something was amiss when Jason said you took him to the Haunted Forest to see that evil wizard. I ordered your wife arrested and son dropped in a well. You can go be with your wife.”

“Come with us, Your Highness.” requests a guard. Prince Linos is led away.

“Mother! That man saved my life from Boudicca’s arrows. You must set him free.” cries Grand Prince Jason.

“He is my enemy, son. I can not spare him no matter what he did for you. Some day you will understand.” Jason tears out of the hall with Eurick chasing him.

“Jason, you know of the great celebration the guards had when Oskar was born. They did not drop him in a well.” assures Eurick.

He retrieves the prince’s nightwear and recites a story before tucking him into bed. He closes the shutters and blows out the prince’s bed chamber candles.