The night of the election, Armand Prasser was at the Preacherman's party to celebrate having accumulated enough votes to be elected Third Citizen. He moved from group to group, working the room. After partying a while, he searched for Zeer to excuse himself, "Good evening, Father. Duty calls. I beg your leave."
"Okay, and congratulations on your election."
"Smoothly, they switched to mental speech, "And, Thee, Father. We are in your capable hands."
"We are in the Master's hands, my Son."
"All praise to the Master."
"O main and, uh, Armand, I'd like your short list"
"List, Sir?"
"Show us the list of your replacements, sir. Ya canna be Capitaine of my wife’s Guardians and Third Citizen of the whole district at the same time, now, kin ya?"
"No, Sir, I'll have a list tomorrow, then."
"Armand..."
"Sir?"
"Show it ta the Missus. She's ta pick your replacement, not me."
"Yes, Sir...Can do..."
"Evenin' and congrats."
"Same to you, Sir." They shook hands and parted. The pressing crowd kept Zeer from thinking about the Capitain's early departure. Prasser had chosen a particularly noisy moment for that very reason.
The young captain jumped into a waiting grounder. The vehicle shot off for the edge of town. He dashed into the Hall of Guardians to a small party just starting to get going. Here, was the explanation for a lack of Par Cat males at other parties on Tarra. Each had gone briefly to the Preacherman's party and had left early. Ignoring their cries, they had taken their unhappy women home, and come by several routes to this building tonight.
Just as Armand walked in, at his entrance, an old Par Cat broke away from a chain dance weaving across the large hall, "Armand, my son, we are so proud of Thee. Hey, everybody, he's here. The Prince is here..."
Armand was quickly taken to a large, carved chair on a small riser. The people lined up and one by one they came by to kiss his ring and congratulate him on his election. He nodded and shook each hand. When they were finished, the meeting began.
He stood up and turned to face the chair. He twisted the cleverly hidden knobs in a secret pattern. With a soft click, the seat popped up. Behind him a table was brought between himself and the crowd. Praseer reached into the chair and lifted several sky blue silk bundles. As each one was placed on the table, the exitement of the crowd increased.
The crowd began to chant in their minds, "Di et wa, Ka ro wa, Di et wa, Ka ro wa." Louder and faster they chanted the ancient call of the Paronese Prince, "Di et wa, Ka ro wa."
Deftly, he pulled the bags from each item separately. As the crowd chantly louder and faster in their minds, a crown, a jewelled knife and a mummified Par Cat paw with claws extended were soon set on the table in a row.
He stopped the calls by first raising the crown as high as he could reach, "Ka ro Wa!" He called loudly. The crowd returned his call, dropped to one knee, and stared at the crown hungrily.
"You are the Prince of all Paron!"
"I am the Prince of all Paron!"
He returned it to the table. Then he raised the paw in one hand and the knife in the other and raised them high, "Di et Wa!" he howled.
The crowd jumped to their feet and returned the call, snarling like jungle cats, and flashing their claws.
"We will seek revenge from our captors."
"We will seek revenge from our captors."
"I will rule again!"
"You will rule again!"
He raised a glass of blue wine. The others scrambled to get theirs. Soon, the whole room had a glass held high. "Freedom from the Imperium." and his glass crashed into the fireplace.
"Freedom..." and all of their glasses exploded with a huge sound in the fireplace.
The prince put away the artifacts, and the meeting was over. The crowd drifted out in groups of two's and three's into the night.
Four old Par Cats stayed to talk to their young leader. He turned to one on his right, "Father, do you have the mining report?"
"The new, secret vein of Quallite that we discovered while digging the relief shaft has turned out to be richer in Quallite than the stuff coming out of the main vein," he beamed.
"Yes, the Magi did us a huge favor by putting that idiot Zzarrt in charge of the mine. He knows less than the last fool about mining. He did not even know that we had another shaft running.
Praseer turned to the next one and asked, "Uncle Jin, the building report?"
"We have dwellings built inside and outside of the fort for another three hundred families. The purchase of the area over our own mine shaft went without a hitch. A small bribe of three ounces of Qualium, and that fool was all too willing to allow us to build a `hospital' for our own people." The grizzled face of the old cat broke into a huge grin at his own joke.
The young prince and the others in the council joined him and they had a good laugh at his uncle's joke.
The old man continued, "With so many of the old miners quitting to become farmers, the ones who might have known about the relief shaft were too busy escaping from the fort to notice what we were doing. All Zzarrat wanted was commerce to resume within the fort so that he could get his piece of it. But, Colonel DeNoor is having none of that. She stripped the inside of the fort for the Empra’s new town. The rents we are paying on our developments are a tiny fraction of the new mining profits. We have had no trouble smuggling the new Q out past the guards."
"Thank you. I am pleased." Armand turned to the next one, "Uncle Monta, transport?"
"Yes sir, again the foolish rules of the Imperion work for the good of the Prince. We were only able to get twenty family transport tickets. By invoking the rules of extended family we were able to extend that to four hundred families per load."
"Uncle Jin, can we handle the overload."
"Yes, Sire, the families will be coming in bits over a two moon space and we are purchasing whole blocks of abandoned buildings within the fort space from Zzarrat every day. By the time the last of them arrives, we will have plenty of housing for the entire lot. Zzarrat has accumulated quite a stash of Q... He has continued the old Major’s policies of skimming Q for himself. Perhaps once we are settled, an anonymous note will arrive at the Magi Circle office describing the location of his stash."
"Yes...perhaps it is our civic duty. He’ll be blaster fodder before he can speak a word. The Viceroy hates people who steal from what he wishes to steal. That is a great plan for when he is of no further use to us. Uncle Signa, food and water report?"
"The first buildings purchased were the canyon wall buildings. The Little Purgatory runs right through them and out the other side. The Ssarrians had created huge water reserves in the basements of those buildings over the years. We have smuggled in filtration systems and have cisterns sunk in the floors to store water. Seven were dug, and two brought in water. The seventh brought in a fine new vein of Quallium to add to the other."
Praseer laughed, "We are truly blessed."
"Yes, Sire. As we continue to purchase, we hook our water plant to cisterns in the basements. They are filling quickly from the water pumped out of the mines. Soon, they will give us enough water to withstand a siege of six moons. We are also building up our stores of food. We are up to two moons of storage for a hundred thousand souls. We need two more moons at this rate to store enough food and water for a full complement of Guardians (all Paronese, of course) to withstand siege for a full solar cycle. It is costing us a ton of Quallium, but we can’t eat Quallium."
“So true. Very good, gentlemen. Thee have been quiet and exceedingly faithful. I pray that we do not need that much. As the Third Citizen on the Magi Circle, I can watch the entire goings on of this district. This will be much better than what I could have done as a Guardian Commander. Whom do you choose to run the Guardians in my place?" and the meeting droned on into the gray hours of the dawn.
Finally, all of their business completed, the young prince sat up
stiffly, "If that is all, gentlemen, I must make my rounds before turning in. I am still Guardian captain, after all."
The old men bowed as he got up to go. He turned, "Father, can you meet me for a cuppa before we turn in?"
His father brightened at the situation, "In an arn?"
"Probably..."
His son must need some special advice to make this public of a show, "Yes, my son, I will be glad to put off my rest for a short time for Thee."
All that had transpired was clouded from the minds of all outside listeners, even Paronese women. The men had learned to keep their society a secret from their women. This allowed them to use their attractive women as bait and information sources for centuries as they waited for their chance to return Paron to independence.
After his rounds, Praseer found his father having tea in his sitting room. They had a small snack and sat back with a last cuppa, "I think something is happening here more than we know. The Pirates that run the black market for our Quallium bids lower and lower even though the market value goes up."
"And you have found no more Verdollium?"
"No, but it makes me think that they have. If they have, they will have no more use for Quallium and the whole Emperial economy could crash except, of course, for the ones who have the Verdollium."
"Our task appears easy, then," the old man said with a gentle chuckle, "we must find the Verdollium first."
"Before the Ssarrians tell everyone?"
"Yes," he said firmly. "If we are to rule this Empire, it is the only way."
"Pray for strength and luck then."
Chapter 17