Islands: Queens Isle Prologue

[AlterVex]

Chapter 1:
New Beginning

Many faces appeared among the trees and growth that lined the sandy beach. Here was something they had never seen before, a massive fleet of wooden monsters gathering just off the coast of their humble island. Smaller wooden beasts had already landed on the shore and the men that rode them were rushing about in a flurry of activity as they unloaded various objects and began erecting tents. The faces amongst the trees had gone unnoticed and they had no inclination to make their presence known as these strange men, some shirtless with pale white skin and others shining in the sun with metal clothing, continued their activities. Finally a larger wooden boat landed on shore with a decorated canopy and out stepped a tall white haired man wearing a dark blue robe and carrying a gnarled wooden staff with a large red jewel embedded in the tip.

The robed man gave a sweeping glance of the treeline, his expression unreadable. After a few moments he turned away and looked instead to the sea where the fleet of ships remained in anchor. They were an incredible sight to behold, but his sharp gray eyes instead scanned the distant horizon for any hint of pursuing ships. Satisfied with what he saw, or rather didn't see, he spoke to the men on the decorated boat, “Bring him to his tent and let the healers tend to him there. Try not to wake him, he needs plenty of rest for now.” The men acted immediately and carried a covered litter to the biggest tent and vanished within along with a procession of well dressed people. Meanwhile the tall robed man had gotten the attention of a large metal skinned man, after a few seconds the metal skinned man called several others to him and they started towards the forest. They were still thirty feet away when the last face vanished back to the depths of the island.

It was after nightfall and within a separate large tent the tall robed man held audience with several impressive looking men in their finest clothing and one very downtrodden woman. Though dressed well and wearing makeup it had since run down her face from crying and even now she seemed on the verge of tears, yet restrained herself in present company. Only two of the men wore armor while the others had on rich fabrics of elaborate decoration and seemed more agitated and frightened than anything. They had been arguing, debating, pleading and glaring for the last two hours and now all was silent as no party wished to concede their point nor to continue fighting. All in the tent seemed defeated, the only difference being how they responded to this defeat. The two armored men fighting it, feeling insulted and eager to move on to the next skirmish in which they might regain some lost honor or die trying. The others simply lost sheep afraid of what they will do without a proper shepherd and even having designs of being a shepherd themselves. This collection of individuals was all the old wizard had at his disposal to make some sort of order and attempt to save their lost kingdom one way or another.

Standing with arms folded Arkin Tollis was facing the small fire that was warming the tent, having his back to the rest of the gathered leaders of his king's court. He wore the same armor he had on during the last battle where they were chased out of their own capital. A general in the Argosian army he was considered the king's right hand, aside perhaps from the wizard, but a wizard is only good for so much as this one has proven time and time again. Reflecting on his many chances to betray the king and secure a position in another court he felt deep regret for choosing loyalty over personal advancement. He would make every effort to ensure his children benefited from this lesson at least, they would never find themselves tethered to a king and forced to share in his downfall. He spoke to the room at large while continuing to gaze into the fire, “The kingdom is shattered whether the king survives or not, we will split the ships and men then take our separate paths. There is no discussion to be had, that is what should happen and that is what we shall do. Good night.” With that he left the tent ignoring any protests or comments.

Solanis Spire, the other armored man, watched Tollis leave with grim satisfaction. “Perhaps now we can get something decided,” he said in a low growl. The wizard sighed, “If he is allowed to leave he will take half the army with him. There are natives on this island we may need to fight at some point, our enemy may still seek us if they wish to solidify their claim and the affect on morale of losing Tollis along with King Argos would be too much for the men.” The woman, Queen Silvis, broke down into silent sobs and one of the men, Coltis Drake the minister of industry, spoke. “It's true then Galdin, he's beyond healing?” Galdin, the wizard, shook his head. “That's not what I meant, the King is doing better and has a good chance of surviving. The arrow hit his heart but the healers got to him fast enough to stop any major damage, his recovery is compounded by all the stress.” Coltis nodded, “Of course it's difficult and no one wants to think of this. It must be said though, Tollis is right that if the king dies then we have no reason to remain together.” Silence fell again and Galdin leaned back in his chair looking up at the felt covered ceiling.

After a moment Solanis spoke again, “I have no designs for my future other than to serve my king and in the event of his death my service will transfer to his family. Perhaps there is no money to be made doing so, but I am committed and will not abandon my charge.” He gave the minister a disgusted look and then turned his gaze to Galdin who hadn't spared him a glance during his proclamation. “What of you wizard, are you going to make good your oaths,” Solanis said this with a mocking tone. Wizards aren't particularly popular among humans and Galdin had never gone out of his way to rectify this. He cared little for the resentment of his peers, but he did feel duty-bound to see his plan through to secure the Argosian interests as long as he was able. Funny how humans hate wizards until a well dries up, crops begin to fail, a plague strikes or they start losing a war and want fire to rain from the sky upon their enemies. He's capable of all these uses of course, but the circumstances that prevented him from saving the Argosian kingdom is as simple as the fact he was now an old man.

For just under a thousand years he had been caretaker of the Argosian line, chosen by the wizard archive council who foresaw some great thing from an Argosian descendant. Such a vision warrants protection, normally removing families to a safe location to be protected. However in the case of a ruling family they are awarded a personal wizard for their court without any explanation for why they are there. In all that time no Argosian had ever done anything to warrant such protection and so Galdin could only assume that his job was not yet done. At first the threats of a distant army was nothing to worry about, he was more than capable of discouraging any human army from rousing him. Unfortunately it was only when they attacked the castle that he realized they had a powerful wizard among their ranks. Every spell he cast was easily countered and in the end it took every ounce of his magic simply to keep the Argosians alive and ensure their escape. In truth the fight had shaken him up quite a bit, he used too much magic and may have damaged his abilities indefinitely. For now he needed to appear as powerful as ever, if there was a mutiny against the King's family he might not be able to save them.

Solanis commanded just under half the army and would be able to keep the king relatively safe, unless Tollis decided he wanted to take everything or even name himself king. Not hard to picture really, but Solanis would gladly fight Tollis to the bitter end and Tollis wouldn't further weaken himself for so little. Finally the two of them butting heads will benefit the kingdom, they can keep each other in check while the King recovers unless Tollis makes good his threat and leaves. True that Tollis regrets his current predicament, but setting out on his own is far from a sure path to riches. For now it is in Tollis' best interests to wait and see how things play out before deciding what he will do. Coltis Drake minister of industry and his counterpart Tarkin Ciln, minister of agriculture have no sway over the military and without the backing of soldiers will have great difficulty attempting to take any cut of the loot saved from the castle treasury. In short they were stuck here unless they could convince Tollis to take them with him, which would greatly amuse Tollis, but even they wouldn't be stupid enough to think they're safer with him. So where does that leave him, time, all he has is time and when that time is up he better have something to say that will convince them to trust their King and his old inept wizard.

“General Spire, your loyalty shames us all as none can claim such selfless interest to our charges. Whether it is the King or his son I shall remain and give all I have to see them through these difficult times and help find our new path to once more become a great kingdom.” Coltis snorted, “Great kingdom? Pray tell where is this great kingdom, surely you don't mean for us to return and kill ourselves upon the walls of our own castle!” Galdin smiled and shook his head, “Of course not, that kingdom is lost and gone. We should look at is as a model now, a trial and error to determine how our new kingdom will work.” Drake and Kiln scoffed at this with Drake shouting, “ The Argosian Kingdom lasted over eight centuries, a trial and error? A model! How will we rebuild that and where, where will we build a kingdom of that magnitude without conquering an enemy or inspiring the envy of someone who might simply take it on a whim.” Galdin continued smiling, “Why we've already found our land, this island is quite suitable for our needs and should prove isolated enough to allow us to build in peace.” Shaking his head Coltis stormed out of the tent with Ciln on his heels. Queen Silvis had long since stifled her tears and gracefully got to her feet, gave a nod to Galdin and Solanis and left the tent as well.

Wizard and general were alone, Galdin went back to looking at the felt covered roof while Solanis stared at the wizard. Solanis spoke his tone grim, “We need to talk about Tollis.” Galdin shrugged and said with a sigh, “He has a great deal of influence, but he also has a great deal of common sense and interest in self-preservation. I don't see him acting impulsively, he will wait and see what direction we take before making a real decision.” Solanis slammed his fist on the table, “How many times do you have to underestimate him! I know it's you that tells the king to trust him, I know it's your advice that has allowed him to maintain his position for so long. He is a snake and the longer you toy with him the more likely he is to bite!” Galdin sat upright, entwining his fingers together he now looked directly into Solanis' eyes. “What would you have me do then? Perhaps we should have removed him earlier before given this opportunity to harm us, but now we are stuck. To remove him now would cause instant mutiny and no matter what you believe he is a brilliant general and inspires the men. He is a powerful ally, especially at this juncture as we will need his support to make this new kingdom happen.” Solanis crossed his arms, but said nothing. He knew Galdin was right, but he didn't have to like it. Galdin sighed again standing up, “I must ask that for now you put your rivalry aside and keep Tollis happy. If this is not possible then simply avoid him. This is no reflection on your own worth as you too are invaluable, but you are also easier to please and committed, therefore less of a priority. Now let's get some rest, we have a long day tomorrow.”

So in the second chapter I skip ahead about thirty years, I thought this would be just a neat little look at what happened to create the present situations. However I realized that this was hardly the way to end it as it leaves a lot of questions unanswered. At the same time I didn't want to extend the prologue any further as it is more an interesting history lesson than relevant to the story. I considered removing this prologue altogether and making the second chapter the prologue as it is the introduction of the main character, but I couldn't bring myself to hit delete. What I have decided to try now is to skip back and forth between present to past until I have completed this history portion of the story at around chapter ten and then proceed with the regular story from there.

Let me know what you think.

[spknoevl]

If this is merely a prologue you need to shorten it and make it more concise. Also, I would eliminate the first paragraph showing the landing from the native's point of view. You're best best would probably be to shorten the whole thing to just a few paragraphs that flow together more naturally and either use one characters point of view for the entire scene, or better yet, use a omniscient POV and tell the prologue in the third person.

[Fel_Editor]

I'd second the POV comment. IT is disrupting to have the POV change like that. However you could get awway with a *** break. JUst enough to signal to the reader.