The Warden Threat

  ~*~

  When Donald got back to his room, he found a large, brown paper envelope on his writing table. Inside were the reports Barter had mentioned at their meeting. There was one from the Department of Intelligence and one from the Department of Culture.

  Well, it wouldn’t hurt to flip through them. Neither of the two held more than fifty pages, and he did not expect he would fall asleep anytime soon, anyway. They might even help cure his spell of insomnia.

  Donald got out of his robe, hung it in the chifforobe, and eased himself under the blankets. He carelessly tossed the two reports on the bed next to him.

  The first one, grabbed at random, was the report from Intelligence. He flipped through some painfully dull pages. It reminded him of some of the things his former tutors had made him read. This one even included lists, charts and flow diagrams, the bane of any student with an imaginative frame of mind. As soon as the text said, refer to figure one, he tossed it aside and picked up the other report.

  The second one seemed better. He saw no graphs, but it did have footnotes. These presented no problem. He could ignore footnotes. Nobody ever read those anyway.

  The Gotroxian language is difficult to master, it began. Donald knew this well enough. Reading it was not too bad, and hearing it was fine once you got used to it, but speaking it could be a throat straining activity.

  The first part described the richness of Gotroxian literature, and it even mentioned The Veridical Tales of Rolf the Obstreperous. He wished he had seen this before he left the castle on his tour of the kingdom.

  He flipped past the sections on theater, music, art, and religion and stopped at a part called, Current relations with Westgrove.

  This section covered cultural exchanges between the two kingdoms. Apparently, Gotroxian opera was gaining some following in Westgrove. Donald had been dragged to a Gotroxian opera by one of his tutors once, and once, as far as he was concerned, was more than enough. The experience resisted any kind of coherent description, but could be compared to being forced to sit for four hours watching amorous pigs in a catfight.

  He skipped ahead to a paragraph on craft shows.

  Craft and trade shows have been one of the most enduring cultural exchanges between the two kingdoms.

  He thought he remembered hearing something about one of those recently.

  It went on a bit about the history of the shows before he came upon a paragraph, which he read over twice.

  The Gotrox Mountains, with their vast resources of iron, coal and other minerals have allowed the people of the region to develop an unparalleled skill in iron working that stretches back generations. It is widely acknowledged that Gotroxian metal smiths are unsurpassed, and Gotroxian metal goods have always been popular with the people of Westgrove. A steady decline in domestic production has led to an even greater demand for their products.

  A footnote appeared at this point but Donald ignored it.

  He recalled Barter saying something like this. Donald searched his memory. We have become increasingly dependent upon Gotrox for our manufacturing resources, he had told him.

  Donald flipped through the pages of both reports to see if he could find anything else mentioning this. He could not, and there was no report from the Department of Trade. One might have been helpful. Why did Barter leave it out?

  He went back to the report from the Department of Culture and found the passage. He grudgingly read the footnote.

  According to a recent report by the Barter Foundry and Ironworks Company, the depletion of Westgrovian Iron deposits may make large scale domestic production of iron goods uneconomical in as little as ten years.

  The Barter Foundry and Ironworks Company? This must be how the Barter family originally achieved its great wealth and position. If Horace Barter felt loyalty to his heritage and his family… This was the answer! This is why Horace Barter wants to invade Gotrox. It makes sense. Barter wants to subjugate Gotrox to ensure Westgrove will have access to the minerals it needs. Donald knew his father would dismiss his allegation as more idle speculation and conclusion-jumping, but he never felt more certain about anything in his life. His understanding about the Chief Adviser’s motivation to start a war made no difference by itself, though. With his resources, connections, influence, and the almost unquestioned trust of the king, Barter could still succeed. Somehow, Donald had to stop him.

  ~End of Part One~

  This story continues with The Warden War, available at fine online booksellers worldwide.