Lingering Shadows-Chapter 2

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Chapter 2-Continuing the Legacy

     When Artham entered the council room, he was greeted by a wave of sound and heat. Maybe a hundred Annieran officials filled the room, which was warmed by a huge, crackling fire. A few turned toward him right away, and he set to greeting enough of them so that they could continue the meeting as soon as possible without disturbing diplomatic relations. 

      There were quite a few people there though, that he was genuinely glad to see, such as Lord Conan, Lord Bren, (though Drustan had yet to make an appearance, which made sense since he technically wasn’t a member of the council) and Natan the Royal Bard. To be honest, Artham didn’t know how exactly Natan had managed to get into the conference, as he also wasn’t a member of the council, but Artham was very glad that Natan was there with his family. Especially Arundelle. Esben was glad too, and had spent nearly the whole day before with Cador ans Sheridan. After a few minutes of murmured greetings, Artham found Esben and stood next to him for a moment at the head of a large oak table, huge enough to accommodate most of the visiting officials. His gaze swept quickly across the crowd and he fingered his sword automatically. Then he heard someone say, 

     “I’m glad you could finally make it, your Highness.” Artham turned and saw Bonifer Squoon, who, as Esben’s chief advisor, sat on his other side, just opposite of Artham. 

     “Oh, um, thank you, Bonifer. Sorry I was late.” Bonifer smiled and nodded at Artham, then resumed shuffling through a stack of papers. Artham resumed scanning the crowd.

      “Come sit, Arth,” he heard his brother whisper. Artham looked at Esben and realized that most people had already found their seats. With a sigh of relief that he had finally reached the conference, he sank into the large chair next to the High King’s more ornate one. Esben smiled and leaned toward Artham as the rest of the council settled in. 

      “I guess you found them, huh?” He whispered.

      “Yeah, how could you guess?” Artham responded drily.

      “Only because Lord Senan came in here spitting mad. He glared at everyone so hard I was surprised when they didn’t catch on fire. What happened?”

       “Oh, you know Senan. He loves to make a big deal about every little thing.” Artham heaved a sigh and said dramatically, “I guess we’ll just have to give up on any civil interaction with the town of Rutran…” He smiled when Esben stifled a laugh and said, “I’m just kidding, he’ll have gotten over it by tomorrow. Are you ready to make the announcement?”  Esben nodded. 

      “As soon as everyone settles down. Do you have the documents for them to look at and the other books we’re using?”

      “Right here,” Artham responded, patting his satchel and hoping the pages inside wouldn’t be too wrinkled when he passed them down the table for examination. Esben nodded and stood up, waiting for a moment while Artham took his designated place standing behind him on his right, and while the council quieted down. 

     “Ahem, attention please, everyone.” He paused for a moment while the last murmurs of conversation died down. 

     “Thank you. Now, we have convened here for the purpose of discussing several things with all of you, rulers and officials of Anniera’s towns, cities, and provinces. We greatly appreciate your presence here, and believe that this conference will be beneficial to Anniera in general. The principal topics of the next few days will be…” Esben paused and glanced down at a few papers he had on the table. “Certain matters of taxes, property, education, the militia, foreign trade, and diplomatic relations with certain countries such as Skree, Yorsha Doon, and the Green Hollows, among other things.” Esben paused for a moment and leaned forward earnestly.

     “All of these topics are very important, and we will discuss them thoroughly, and in due time, but my brother and I have a proposal to present to the council.” Esben paused to let the hum of surprise work its way through the crowd. 

     “As you all know, nearly a year and a half ago, my father the King, along with the Queen and Throne Warden, passed away unexpectedly in a shipwreck. Due to the suddenness of that tragedy, many of their ongoing projects were either put on hold indefinitely or canceled while my brother and I resumed their roles. Unfortunately, the King’s projects were in a state of relative disorder when he left, and because of this, many of those projects may never be put into action.” Esben paused for a moment, allowing the crowd to absorb what he had said. 

     “Many things were important to my father, his family and his kingdom first of all. Yet there was another work that he had dedicated a large portion of his last few years to, and his vision for it has been planted in my heart and my brother’s.  As the High King and as Throne Warden, my brother and I propose to continue what my father started in the translation of the First Books.” 

     The hall erupted into noisy chatter as the officials reacted to the brothers’ proposal. Many of them leaned forward to catch Esben’s next words with excited smiles. Bonifer suddenly sat up very straight and looked at Artham and Esben, his eyes wide with surprise. As the noise died down, Esben nodded to his older brother and stepped back. As he set down his satchel on the table, Artham tried to make eye contact with as many people sitting around the table as he could. 

     “We believe, as our father did, that the ancients preserved these books because they are an invaluable treasure, holding great hidden power. We believe that these books contain some of the great wisdom of the Maker, and that it is vital for our kingdom to once again restore them to the people and translate them to the common tongue. 

     “We brought up this topic on the first day of the conference because we hope that we can get everyone who had been assisting my father in the translation involved again. In fact, we are planning a long overdue trip to the Hollows both for diplomatic reasons and to get their assistance in translation, because many of the First Books are in a language resembling Old Hollish.” Artham pulled several papers out of his satchel and passed half the stack to his brother, and the other half to the man on his right. He also pulled out one of the thick books and opened it close to the middle. 

     “Because of the disarray of my father’s affairs when the shipwreck occurred, we aren’t sure who all was involved. These are some of the papers he left that had at least some notes on who was involved and how he planned to proceed. Kadru, would you mind passing some of those papers down for everyone to see?” The duke on Artham’s right nodded and began passing down the papers. Esben continued where Artham had left off. 

     “We would be grateful if everyone who still wants to help could meet us sometime this afternoon. Meanwhile, if anyone has any questions on the subject, we can discuss those, and then we can move on to the regular agenda.” 

* * *

     Approximately four hours later, Artham and Esben, among with a number of other officials, walked out of the council room and made their way to the dining hall, chattering and stretching their legs. Artham was feeling very satisfied with everything they had accomplished that morning. 

      Many issues had been resolved, several arguments avoided, and Esben had only drawn three little doodles on his palms and shirt cuffs, which meant that the meeting had set a record for being remarkably un-boring. 

     Esben talked quickly and excitedly, walking backward so that he could see Artham’s face. He had already almost fallen twice, so he allowed his brother to steer him while he chattered. 

     “…and I didn’t expect to be talking about it for so long. Did you see how excited some of them were? I think we can get this started really soon! Almost everyone who helped Papa with translation wanted to be involved again! I can’t wait to get started! Artham, when-” 

     “Hold on Es, you’re about to walk into a wall.” Esben looked over his shoulder and turned away from the wall.

     “Thanks. Anyway, when can we start?” Artham had been smiling as he listened to Esben chatter. When Esben was happy it made him glad in a way almost nothing else could. 

     Except maybe Aru, Artham thought. He smiled again and his thoughts began to wander but then he saw Esben looking at him expectantly.

     “Oh, when can we start? Es, we’ve already talked about this some. There’s a lot of things we need to be doing right now, and then there’s also our trip to the Hollows. I don’t think we can start untill maybe a month or so after.” 

     “Oh.” Esben’s smile dropped and he paused, looking at the floor for a moment. 

     “Well,” he continued, “I don’t have to wait for all those official slowpokes, not you of course, I’m really thankful for how much you’ve been working on this, but anyway, I bet I can get a group together to work on it really soon. If we start working maybe next week, we can probably have a lot of the Old Hollish separated from other languages by the time we visit the Hollows!” Esben looked at Artham expectantly, waiting for his response. 

     “That’s a great idea, Es. You know I’m here to help. Let me know when you have that group together. But remember this, I’m not letting you skip out on other things because of this project. It has to be once we don’t have other priorities.”

      “This is a priority, Arth.” Esben said. He realized that they were getting close to the dining hall and stopped walking backwards. 

      “I know, Es. It is a priority. But you can’t exactly erase your whole schedule for this.”

      “Would I do that?” Esben asked, feigning innocence as he looked up at his brother, one eyebrow raised. Artham laughed. 

      “Yes you would,” he said. “I can see it in your face that you want too. Don’t worry, I’m as excited about it as you are. I’ll help you get this off the ground as fast as I can.” 

     “Great!” Esben exclaimed, bumping into Artham and punching him playfully. “Have you seen Bonifer? I want to talk to him about some of this.”

      “Oh, um…” Artham scanned the group of people they were walking with to see if he could spot the old councilor. 

      “I don’t see him.”

      “I’ll find him later,” Esben said with a sigh. “Let’s go to lunch, I’m starving!”