Someone Else's Kingdom, BOOK II - Scene LXXXV

The King of Tunid stepped out ready for war, his aging frame far from impressive in the heavy, finely wrought armour. The long sword by his side shining with underuse. As he headed to join his cohort there was a touch of commotion in the damp air.

"Everyone should stay," pleaded Prince Estorie, his son - who looked much more robust and warrior-like in his own battle garments. His normally quiet voice finding force in the pre-war ferment.

Liofia, Goola and Julen stood there, listening, knowing that they themselves were bound to leave. Along with a multitude of others, who preferred to press their fate on the dangerous waves instead of the sinking craggy island.

"It's our duty," continued Estorie, "We all need to fight. We have to fight this."

His words were strong, but few paid real attention. Apart from Box, who, like a stray cat watching a stranger offering food, felt the pull of the plea. She'd already made up her mind to stay, but the words gave an added conviction. Though it barely lessened the sadness she felt for Goola and Julen, especially Goola. It pressed deep down in the winey depths of her stomach, far from the thinking mind. She tried to force a necessary coldness, but it was a coldness heavy with feeling. The feeling was mirrored in the stomachs of many of the others who stood waiting to leave.

As the King of Tunid ambled into the crowd he made a beeline for Colm. The old man's bearded figure looking dim and small beneath the tall masts of the harboured ships. Their sails flush and white as the provisions kept being loaded.

"People shouldn't be leaving," lamented the king.

"Why? The gods will not like it?"

"They will not."

The king hesitated a little as he heard his own words fall from his lips. They sounded somewhat ridiculous in the cold light of day. He doubted them himself for moment, but the moment quickly passed. He then added flesh to the strange bones.

"If hundreds ..thousands, try to leave, and head outwards - especially in a frenzied rabble - it will just whip up this tempest and carnage further."

"Perhaps you too are just duped by your own myths," replied Colm, benevolently, noting the hesitation in king's reaching response. The wild words only giving a greater confidence that the ships were indeed right to leave. That at least some may be saved from the slaughter. For a moment he wished that he himself was leaving as well, but he knew his role was to stay on the beleaguered island.

"You don't believe me, do you? Not even in the slightest," sighed the King of Tunid, looking ever more forlorn and unready for the coming battle.

"No ..say I did believe you though, what would you expect me to do?"

"To do our duty, to at least try to restore some order. To put these dangerous things away. To think of the whole world, and not just our own circumstances."

"And what about those on Tunida?" asked Colm, "What about the queen and the rest of your family back home? Will they do their duty when war comes to your island, or will they too sail for the safety of the lands that they know about, that other do not - or did not?"

"She will do her duty. Just as I, and my son, will do ours here. If I had the numbers I would physically stops these ships from departing, but as I don't I must simply try as best I can to hold back this tide of war from the mainland. As my brother, Prince Reach, is doing right now in the east."

The deliberate tone from the King of Tunid gave Colm a jarring pause of doubt, but it didn't fully move him.

Suddenly, as if manifesting from this very doubt, there came a flash of light. As, far off in the distance, giddy lightning left heavy black clouds. Followed, many seconds later, by the deep and disturbing rumble of thunder. Colm looked with concern at the harboured vessels. The women, children, and the men that would be boarding to protect them. The black powder, cannon and shot - as black as the clouds in the sky. The weather would indeed be as dangerous to them as any standing army.

At this point the ship's boy came back down the gangway of the nearest tall ship. His natural optimism again on display, replacing the disquiet he'd first felt when Colm had ordered him to leave, and then later when Liofia had spoke to him of storming Tunidan palaces.

Everything was looking shipshape he declared, and besides the weather, he was confident of success. He then left the men-at-arms, and headed towards the little Coo-Cal.