| |
This was not the plan.
Nervously, he made his way to his study. Nobody bothered him as he moved from his apartments to his study.
That’s not how it used to be. Previously, the Raja had constant companions. Besides his various advisors, secretaries, ministers, and the like, he’d also had courtesans, sycophants, and lovers always with him.
Now, he didn’t know who to trust anymore. It had all come apart.
That was not how it was supposed to go in the least. No, the plan had been too brilliant, too well orchestrated to have unraveled as thoroughly as it had.
But here he was, alone, uncertain who he could trust, and frequently jumping at shadows.
Lkahn Am was supposed to be the greatest Raja in the history of the Protelna Raj. Without firing a shot, he had made the Kingdom of Shardealia his puppet and established favorable trade relations with the Karvama Union. The Raj would grow and flourish as it never had before.
But then, it didn’t.
The destructive invaders called the Ditufgne had never been a threat to the Protelna system. Yet, the danger they posed had unsettled Lkahn Am like nothing he’d ever known before. But now, the reports on the HAEN and news from his own people told him their threat was no more.
Somehow, they had been persuaded to surrender and were now going to be placed in a singular solar system somewhere within the bounds of the new Interplanetary Interspecies Treaty Organization.
The IITO was another unknown that distressed the Raja. Though he was given to understand nations in the organization retained their sovereignty, they still would have shared defenses and various other matters that he could not imagine would fulfill his visions of an expanded and empowered Protelna Raj.
But Shardaelia had signed onto the treaty.
He could not help the growl that escaped his throat whenever he thought of Shardaelia. His puppets had been discovered and removed, and the kingdom was now under democratic rule. The new leaders, in turn, rejected most of what the Raja and his co-conspirators had put in place, then swiftly signed onto the IITO.
How, he wondered, would this unprecedented body of mixed Human and alien races impact the people of Protelna by their exclusion from it? The glory of his vision was naught but ashes.
One reason Lkahn Am was no longer constantly surrounded by people was that he did not know who he could trust. He was terrified that one of them would likely plot his downfall, and what little of his world remained would come crashing down around him.
What’s worse was that it already was.
Before the scheme with Shardaelia had come apart, and the Ditufgne threat had materialized, Lkahn Am loved the gossip and petty struggles among his advisors, ministers, and courtesans. The intrigue of his court used to provide endless hours of entertainment to him.
No more. Between his plans failing and the uncertainty of the Ditufgne threat, Lkahn Am had withdrawn from the frivolities of his life.
Lord Dzstan, his most trusted advisor, was dead. Perhaps Dzstan had been a friend, too, but that didn’t matter. His death was at the hands of Lady Akharn Shi.
Lady Akharn Shi had been his chief of internal security when Ashira Aeshar had survived the Raja’s attempt on her life and infiltrated the citadel. The new protocols she had implemented immediately, as well as her long service and apparent loyalty, had kept her alive.
Lkahn Am knew that she and Lord Dzstan had not always seen eye to eye. But he had not expected for her to kill his Vizier.
He had seen a video of their altercation with no sound. An argument that had turned physical. Though it was clearly an act of self-defense, Akharn Shi had killed Lord Dzstan.
Though Lkahn Am had no idea what led to their fight or other power struggles, he had been too distressed to investigate it more closely. She had brought the brawl to his attention immediately, and apologized for Dzstan’s accidental death. Thus, Lkahn Am allowed Akharn Shi to remain in her place as chief of internal security.
He had not named a new vizier to take Lord Dzstan’s role. Instead, he had turned to the military.
Okharn Haj, commanding officer of the Protelna Raj Armada, never wavered. She was steadfast and strong and impressed on the raja again and again that his salvation - and that of the Raj – could only be at the hands of the military. The weak civilian government had always been unreliable and unsustainable. The Armada and Okharn Haj would keep the Raja and the Raj strong.
Who Lkahn Am could trust was always in question. He was uncertain of everyone and everything. He was only just beginning to recognize that his paranoia was interfering with his life in too many ways.
The Raj was suffering. Lkahn Am was not making decisions that would be of much help to his people and economic matters. But he couldn’t be bothered to worry about that.
What he was worried about was where the betrayal might come from. He was on guard for it constantly. He was convinced it was only a matter of time. That was why he was alone as often as he could be.
There was a knock at his door. Startled, he noted the time and knew who it would be.
“Enter,” he called.
Akharn Shi and Okharn Haj entered his study. As they did so, he noticed that the hallway outside seemed unusually dim.
He sensed something was not right. “What is happening?”
Akharn Shi grinned. But it was not pleasant and chilled the Raja. She said, “The time, Your Grace, has come.”
“What do you mean?”
Okharn Haj stated, “The Raj, Lkahn Am, is done with you. We have bided our time and kept you necessarily off balance.”
Akharn Shi said, “When your ambitions for the Raj proved too much, and it all came apart, we knew it was only a matter of time before you came apart. We made our plans so that we’d be ready when that day came.”
Lkahn Am licked his lips. His dagger/pistol had been left in his apartments. Still, he was the Raja and in control. He said, “What do you think will happen now?”
The two ministers parted, and someone else entered the room.
Lkahn Am never wanted to see her again. He felt his heart squeeze as fear dominated all his senses.
Ashira Aeshar looked much as she had. And the confidence in her step was just as strong as it had been on the day that he’d murdered her spouse and made an attempt on her life, too.
“This is all your fault,” he practically spat.
“No, the responsibility is all yours,” started Ashira Aeshar. “All your schemes and plans and plots to make your Raj, your sector of space, so much grander that it was, have come to naught. Every thread has been pulled, and the tapestry has unwound completely. You, Lkahn Am, are done. The CSA is here to arrest you for the murder of Petra Aeshar, illegal manipulation of trade, falsified records, and lots of other extremely serious charges stemming from your convoluted conspiracy.”
The lights in the hallway returned to their normal brightness. More than a dozen uniformed CSA agents were there and began to enter the study.
Lkahn Am was frozen in place with a mix of uncertainty and fear. There was nowhere to go.
“I want you to know,” Ashira continued, “that this will be much worse than you could possibly imagine. Thanks to your associates,” she nodded to Akharn Shi and Okharn Haj, “the IITO has been made fully aware of your incredible mismanagement of the Raj and the harm you have done its people. Further, they have negotiated a deal to save the people of the Raj in spite of you.”
Ashira Aeshar stepped closed, and Lkahn Am found himself leaning away, distressed by her presence. She said, “You killed the love of my life. You endangered my son. So, I am happy to see that you will lose the thing that matters most to you apart from your own life. The legacy you sought so hard to leave behind will be exactly opposite what you intended. For you see, with your removal, the Protelna Raj will be joining the IITO. But not as an independent nation. No. They will be a protectorate of the newly democratic Kingdom of Shardaelia.”
She moved around his desk and got even closer. Lkahn Am was certain that his life was about to end.
Ashira said, “While I personally would love to make you pay by taking your life, that’s too easy. Instead, I think it will be a far greater justice for Petra and the Aeshar family line that you will live, but not be free. Never free again. The evidence against you is compelling and frankly overwhelming. You will spend the rest of your life in prison. And that suffering you will experience – the fall this represents and the pain you will no doubt endure because of it - that will be true justice.”
She backed away. For a moment, Lkahn Am felt relief and dropped into his chair.
The moment passed as a trio of CSA agents helped him stand from his seat and cuffed his hands behind his back.
Lkahn Am knew with certainty that he would not be the greatest Raja in the history of the Protelna Raj. And with a knot in the pit of his stomach, he also knew that he would be the last.