Chapter 62: The Duke’s Boys
Duke Morely had two sons, Beaux Morley, a suave and sophisticated scholarly young man. Beaux was the archery champion and horse riding champion amongst the children of the Nobility. Many of the Kingdom's women found him to be the most handsome of all the eligible bachelors. Duke Morely's second son was Lucas he was much like his older brother Beaux, an expert archer and horse riding champion. The boys were known to be selfless to the point of stretching if not breaking the law in favor of the people who live in the area around their Morely estate. One particular night Beaux and Lucas were told by some of the peasants who worked the Morely lands that they weren't being allowed to keep enough of their food in order to feed their families.
Beaux and Lucas decided to take matters into their own hands and raided the town's food reserve using a wagon stole from the House Harmon Sheriff. The Sheriff and his men ruthlessly road after the Duke's Boys until Beaux tricked them into jumping over a small creek which the sheriff's horses couldn't quite make it over injuring the horses and the Sherrif's men.
Ever since that night, House Harmon had been eager to deal with the Duke's boys, but their father was too powerful to touch. When the Nobles assembled House Harmon was always against the Duke and had slowly been building a coalition Nobles who also didn't care for the Duke. This was why when the Messenger burst into the meeting on what to do about the King's capture they couldn't hide the pleasure on their faces, "Duke Morely has been assassinated!"
Baron Davis was the first to his feet staring at the men from House Harmon, " As if we don't know who had the Duke killed!"
Marquis Markes was the next to stand, pointing at Sheriff Harmon and Count Harmon from House Harmon, "Those two have been trying to get support to have the Duke's title removed for months!"
More and more of the nobles stood up to point the finger at House Harmon when Duke Hassard stood up and yelled out, "Quiet! Unless you have proof of their involvement keep your opinions to yourself. The Loss of Duke Morely couldn't have come at a more inopportune moment. We have just received a message from the Emperor of Injia." Duke Hassard opened a box to let everyone see what was inside.
"What is that in the box, part of an animal?" Someone asked.
Duke Hassard unfurled a scroll that was presented with the box. He began to read, "Greetings to you fine gentlemen of the Windsor Kingdom. King Andrew recently decided to attack my Empire. I gave him the option to pay a small ransom in order to allow his men and himself the freedom to leave. He chose to try and run from battle instead, putting the lives of my people in peril during his mad escape. For his crime, he paid the price of losing his balls. Since he clearly wasn't using them anyway."
A sharp intake of breath was heard all through the room and one man even spoke out loud, "Those are his..."
"Quiet!" Duke Hassard cleared his throat and went on, "We are willing to release the prisoners and wounded captured during your cowardly King's frantic retreat at the cost of one Sprite per man and ten thousand pounds of Gold for your castrated King. We have in total, six hundred seven thousand soldiers. You can have his balls for free as a gesture of goodwill. Sincerely, Emperor Asoka."
Everyone sat heavily at the table. Count Harmon spoke up first, "Prince Andrew stole the throne from the Princess anyway. Why should we continue to let that madman keep his stolen throne!"
Another Noble spoke out, "The City of Connaissance makes our Kingdom seem cheap and poor in comparison now. If we had supported The Princess like we should have that could have been our Kingdom that was building an Airship fleet that even the Church is afraid to confront!"
*****
Lucas came running into the mansion tears running down his face, "Murder! Our father has been murdered, Beaux!"
Beaux stood up stiffly and rushed over grabbing his younger brother by the shoulders, "Lucas, calm down, what happened, tell me all of it!"
Lucas was panting heavily as he tried to talk without crying, "Father was on his way to court... And... His carriage and escort were attacked by men with crossbows. Only one of the guards survived, he... Brought this back from an assassin he grappled with." Lucas handed over a short crossbow.
Beaux looked down at the weapon, "This is one of the weapons the Sheriff's men use." Beaux's hands shook and then he yelled at the top of his lungs, "House Harmon you dare!" He raced over to his room and grabbed his bow and arrows. He called out, "Lucas, grab your bow. have the men gather outside and saddle our Chargers. If we don't kill every last Harmon tonight my name's not Morely!"
A pretty young woman with dark hair and alluring curves stomped right up to Beaux and Lucas's path, "Beaux, Lucas, you are being unreasonable. If you take the men over to attack House Harmon you'll just be giving them what they want, an excuse to kill you!"
"That's enough Lilly!" Beaux shouted, "You may be our cousin, but you are not involved in this, it was Lucas and I who started the feud with the Harmons and we intended to finish it tonight!"
"How do you two even know it was the Harmons? The Duke was acting as the King, you know all of those old men had reason to kill him in order to get that power!" Lily stomped her foot, "You two need to stop and think. Beaux, you'll most likely inherit the lands and title of the Duke, do you want to throw away your father's legacy without knowing the truth!"
Lucas turned to Beaux and said, "She's right Beaux, I didn't see it myself, and the only man we have that did see it said they were wearing masks. It won't be too late to act if we cool off, for now, dig around a little and wait for them to make a mistake. Once you are the Duke, you'll have the power to truly suppress House Harmon."
*****
Emily paced around her office leaning heavily on her cane. Jon Alexander burst into her office and took his usual seat, "Roger said he can put you into the palace, but you'll need the Nobility to back you and what's left of the military to back the Nobility."
Emily stopped pacing and stood in front of Jon, "What should I do with Drew?"
Jon shrugged and said, "He killed your father and mother. He stole your throne. That's enough for most men to go crazy with bloodlust, but your way seems to get much better results, so I would say trust your instincts."
Emily frowned and then said, "I wanted to stab him in the eye with a salad fork the last time he was here, but I ended up smiling and laughing at his jokes instead. "
Jon thought for a moment, "Well, I am going to guess that if you take the throne now if he does come back, he probably won't laugh and smile at your jokes. If you want my military opinion, you should let him rot there and then kill him should he escape back to the Kingdom."
Emily nodded and then said, "I'm going to wait and see what the Kingdom's nobles choose first. If it's something I can agree with, I'm going to support them. If it's going to be a succession war, then I will take charge."
Jon shook his head and said, "His Majesty King William would never have wanted you to give that throne away to Andrew in the first place. I know why you did it and I respect what you have done here with Connaissance, I just constantly wonder what you could have done with the Kingdom."
Emily sighed, "Honestly? Not nearly as much as I have done here. The Nobility is much more of an obstacle than the wealthy business owners here in Connaissance. I would rather deal with a thousand Mr. Dukes than have to deal with any of those Noble Dukes from the Kingdom. Those private armies they hold... It was stupid of Andrew to use the Knights and the Kingdom's forces the way he did. Those forces are there primarily to protect the peace of the Kingdom. Keep the Nobility from fighting each other."
Jon nodded and said, "If you gave Roger the army Drew took to Injia, he could conquer all of Eurment."
Emily shook her head and said, "Don't say that around Teslaimia, she'll think you are being serious and assume I want to rule the world."
Jon laughed, "If you end up as the Queen of a combined Connaissance, Windsor Kingdom, will you make this the capital?"
Emily nodded and said, "The Nobles will be unhappy with that since they have their homes near the palace which are much better than the penthouse units here in the city."
Jon smiled and asked, "How will you handle the Nobility, they all have lands and fiefs granted by previous rulers? That sort of system doesn't really work here in Connaissance."
"I might dissolve the Kingdom, and only take the capital city and the lands between there and here granting each of the nobles their own miniature kingdoms." Emily shrugged, "Most of the Windsor Kingdom is rural lands without much value aside from growing food and minor resource production."
Jon shook his head, "The fellas here have been hoping you would take those lands so they could expand you know. A couple of the villages are already starting to become proper towns."
Emily frowned and said, "I haven't gone on a proper tour of the expanded city yet." She was looking out the window thinking and then blurted out, "What the fu..."
*****
The Indomitable had just started reloading coal and lift gas when two crewmen left the boiler room complaining, "Queeg had us do another double shift last night calling it a drill. I am dead tired."
"Yeah me too, after working the double we have to top off the coal hoppers too? It's too much. I need a smoke, how about you?"
The other man nodded and said, "I know the best spot, there is a small supply room just past the airlock, no one ever checks it out while we are in port."
The two men walked into the small storage room and one of them struck a match to light the cigars they were holding. Unfortunately, right at that moment one of the outside crewmembers who was attaching the Hydrogen line to the exterior coupler slipped and fell on the dock pulling the line free causing hydrogen gas to pour out into the inner walkways of the ship.
A few seconds later the gas ignited into a massive fireball that filled the ship until it hit the bag room and the massive hydrogen bags went up in a colossal fireball.
The people on the dock only saw the ship there one moment and then a fiery cloud the next moment. The men working on the ship screamed out as they burned alive until the oxygen burned away leaving almost no sound other than the roar of the flaming explosion.
The Airship port went up next as the fire shot down into the massive hydrogen refill tanks. Hundreds of men and women ran out of the burning structure, from a distance people could be seen jumping to their deaths trying to escape from the upper floors and the docks.
The massive Airship port building became a pillar of fire clearly unsavable.
*****
"...ck..." Emily stared out the window until she felt her legs go a week and the blood rushed into her ears, her vision going black.
The last thing she heard was Jon shouting, "Emily, look out!"
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