Ashtium: City of Sun
Mother's Court

ENOCH

We searched everywhere for Greta. There was no way I could convince Urdmin to let me separate from him and his scouting guards. He may has well have chained me up to him.

Urdmin wanted another temple built to honor our guardsmen and soldiers. I was already using our family’s materials and laborers to work on the new street plans though. It’s common knowledge the city roads needed upgrading. Every few years they need broken down again and replaced with a new layer of marble because of the tectonics of the desert floor below.

I don’t get much say in what is built or not anyway. The real man they should hold their grudges against is the emperor.

I sigh in agitation following Urdmin into the palace to face mother and report the news of the “spy”. I tried to convince Urdmin otherwise. I knew he called Greta a whore, but now he has changed his mind which he frequently does. It’s just one of his endless shortcomings.

We pace down the aisle of diamond-shaped grey and white marble. Morning has already come and gone.

Light shines in through the steep narrow windows of the palace courtroom where mother speaks with her court maidens. They are seated in a row with mother in the center on a taller, black marble chair. Her hair blends in with it making her face appear even paler.

The ladies seated on either side of her are considered her equals in court, but the moment they leave the palace walls they are nothing more than ordinary citizens. To mother, they are just dear friends who lend help in court matters with the troublemakers of our society. People don’t break laws often because most are satisfied with their ordinary lives aside from the slaves.

One of the guards at my sides taps his sword impatiently on a nearby column. Mother looks down at us from her perched position on her throne. Her ladies follow her gaze.

“Empress! We have discovered a spy. May we use the war horses for tracking purposes? I grow tired of relying on my feet and my guards as well,” Urdmin announces sounding urgent.

“They aren’t a spy. It was a citizen I was getting information from. Urdmin is just trying to stir fear.”

My confidence falls flat when mother tilts her head to the side as if not hearing me clearly.

She whispers something to the court lady to her right. Urdmin taps his foot impatiently, but he has already spoke out of turn. As an advisor, in my presence, he is not to speak until I or mother have first. In private, he never follows this law, but in a public place of law in the presence of others, he is more inclined to act more appropriately.

When the emperor is around, he doesn’t have to wait for me or mother to speak first.

It is rare for all of us to be in the same room at once besides when we eat together. So, the rule doesn’t bother me that much.

“Urdmin, would this be the same woman who attacked you?”

“Yes, my great empress Femke! It was her,” Urdmin explains while licking his lips. He gives me a sideways glance pushing his luck. “The street whore who attacked me. I caught her tramping around your husband’s temple last week and now again today!”

Several of the court maidens gasp, and stand up, lifting their skirts as they step down from their elevated seats.

They gather around a long table at the foot of their line of thrones and begin recording Urdmin’s encounter with Greta now that he has captured their attention by using such ridiculous descriptions. His goal was to paint Greta in the worst way possible before jurisdiction and he has been successful.

I know better than to argue against it feeling mother’s stare on me. I had told her about the spy and normally spies do not evade the eyes of our kingdom for very long. I’m sure she suspects I am keeping things from her now.

“Enoch, you are being very quiet. I thought you had this problem under control?”

“There is more than one spy. If we wait, they will all come out of hiding eventually,” I reason while watching Urdmin. “The civilian is no spy. Urdmin accused her of treason before giving her a chance to speak. I was asking around for any suspicious activity in the area. Urdmin ruined my interrogation and had his guards chase and attack her.”

“Was my husband present?”

“Well, uh, no empress. He was in his temple,” Urdmin mumbles.

The empress rests her head against a closed fist while twisting a strand of her hair around a finger. “Did he not hear the commotion I’m sure you all caused?”

“I’m certain he would have had to,” I answer. “I was getting information from a civilian and he must have heard us talking outside, but Urdmin arrived before he could approach safely. The rest, you have already heard. As I said, I was hoping to gain information about the other spies. The civilian is no spy.”

Father must have been entertained by the idea of seeing a peasant whipped tonight. I know he was silently cheering on Urdmin from the safety of his throne. He would have had a good view of the event from his temple too. It wouldn’t be the first time he witness someone beaten to death by the advisor.

Urdmin turns his glare on me. “Oh, is that so? How can you be certain? Don’t think I have forgotten the very fact I found you talking with her in secret. Empress Femke, the prince was calling after the woman as if he knew her. He commits treason! If she were innocent, she would not have run from me!”

Mother laughs at his comment. “Settle down, Urdmin. Do not forget your place. My ears are closed to your hearsay much because I have yet to be brought this troublesome woman. Until she is brought to me, I cannot condemn her actions or assume her to be a spy. I will say this, I doubt she is a spy,” mother begins to say, “Women do not travel the desert by themselves and live. I presume her to be a citizen in need of correction.”

“Apologies, my empress. I should not be one to judge. I only came to alert you to the situation.”

I scoff at his lie. The damage is already done. The court women have written down the sighting, and it will be saved to be referred to later, should someone report seeing Greta again.

By the week’s end, father will have read through their book of jurisdiction as he does every week. It’s his way of keeping up to date on mother’s sentencings, so he can keep an eye on our city’s domestic affairs alongside her.

Urdmin already made him aware of Greta, but he didn’t seem to be bothered by the incident. However, at the time, the old advisor did not accuse Greta of being a spy. When the emperor reads about the encounter...no. I won’t give him the chance to. If he thinks Greta’s a spy there will be no hope for her to have any sort of future here. The moment that book touches its shelf, I will snatch it up and tear out that page.

I’ve done it before – for the sake of my friends. No one noticed. I can do it again.

One of the court maidens, Olga, picks up the heavy book after closing it. The rest of the lawmakers follow her out of the room heading straight back to the library at the end of the long open hallway behind us. Technically, the buildings are separate, but there is a prismed roof connecting them together. The library is built into the main portion of the Ashtium palace. Most citizens refer to the courthouse as separate.

After her court ladies disappear behind us into the library, all the way down at the end of the hall, Mother steps up from her throne.

“I’m on my lunch break now,” she announces in dismissal.

Urdmin abandons his men and follows after her like a lost dog.

“Permission to leave the court, prince Enoch,” one of his guards asks since the empress of Ashtium has walked off in an area they are not permitted to enter.

Only our family and mother’s lawmakers are allowed in the library. Most of the other rooms in the palace are free for the guards to enter. Technically, Urdmin is breaking the law following her into the library, but father is not here to stop him. I don’t think he would mind since Urdmin is his closest advisor.

“Permission given,” I smile.

It is fun to sometimes boss them around. To think one day, I will no longer have to wait for people to come and go to demand what I want. I have seen what that kind of ability has turned people in power into. I do not wish to become my father, but someone has to remove him from his position.