Rogeth wandered the palace corridors of the King's tower, the eight tower and the tower where the royal family lived. The plastered walls were a change from the rough stone walls of some of the other towers. He reached out and ran his hand along the smooth wall. One day this will all be mine, he thought. Rogeth's mind began to leave the dinner with his father behind. Thoughts of Mawreth's arrival back from Aunt Iren were also dissipating. Only thoughts of Aneth and the future remained.

The sound of his footsteps echoed down the corridor eerily. The King's tower was almost empty for most of the servants had retired to the Quarter's tower, the sixth tower, for the night. Only a handful of servants remained to serve the family, should they require anything. Rogeth walked past a wooden door, it's dark colour contrasting with the light colour of the plastered walls. It was his father's study. Rogeth had been wandering aimlessly but he had ended up here. The prince wondered what had lead him here. It could not have been some desire to speak to his father because he knew that he was still in the dining hall.

A noise echoed from the room. A dull thud which sounded as though something had fallen - or had been knocked over. Rogeth was unarmed but unafraid to enter. This was the king's private study and people were only allowed in there with permission from Joleth himself. Rogeth reached out to the metal handle. It felt cold in his hands. There was another noise a muffled voice. There was definitely somebody in the room and Rogeth knew that they did not have the permission of his father. Suddenly his heart jumped into his throat and all of Grawden's training bled from his memory. This could be an assassin sent to kill my father. The thoughts were racing through his head, pictures of knife wielding Nibe assassins waiting behind the door ready to pounce on anyone who entered. Rogeth tried to dismiss then images as products of an over active imagination.

Rogeth began to turn the door handle and felt it slipping in his hands. He was sweating, a product of fear brought on by his imagination. The prince held the handle more tightly and opened the door quickly. Rogeth had hoped that the sudden act of bursting into the study would give him the upper hand against his opponent but there was no one there.

Rogeth stepped into the room. It was meticulous, everything in its place. the old study desk sitting in the corner. The shelves filled with books. The shutters were open. Rogeth noticed the one thing which was out of place in the room. The shutters were open. His father never opened the shutters, he said it made the room too cold to work. Rogeth walked across the stone floored room. His father had never believed in living in any more luxury than he needed to and had refused to have this room plastered along with the rest of the King's tower. The room was cold and Rogeth shivered.

As Rogeth reached out to close the shutters he heard the sound of the door closing behind him. Swirling round the prince saw Mawreth standing there, she had been hiding behind the door. Rogeth cursed himself for not checking there and made a mental note that he would never be so stupid in the future.

His sister stood before him wearing only light flowing silk clothes. The silk was settling down after being disturbed by Mawreth's sudden movement. Then Rogeth noticed something that was more shocking, his sister was wearing nothing under her clothes. Her silk dress was very finely woven and you could see through it.

Mawreth took a step forward and reached under her brother's chin. Her delicate hand reached out and she traced her finger up Rogeth's neck. "Do I tantalise you?" asked Mawreth in a seductive tone...

Rogeth threw himself awake. His breath was heavy and he could feel the sweat dripping off of him. He instinctively reached to his right to where Aneth slept but found only an empty bed. Rogeth tried to forget about the dream but he knew what it signified. All of these memories flooding to him had caused this one to re surface. He had to tell Aneth what was happening, otherwise their marriage would be as doomed as it had been only a year and a half ago.

The king's thoughts turned themselves to earlier that night. He had spoken to Arron for a while longer then he had left his friend to go to dinner. On his way around to the King's tower where the dinning hall was Rogeth had felt the wind picking up and knew that storm was coming, if not by tonight then by tomorrow morning.

During the meal Aneth and Rogeth had sat at opposite ends of the table. Not unusual in itself, but tonight it felt as though an enormous gulf separated them. Then Mawreth had entered and the tension between Aneth and Rogeth had risen another factor. The meal had been eaten in silence and then Aneth had left. she had told Rogeth that she was not going to be sleeping in their bed chamber tonight and was instead going to sleep in one of the guest quarters in the Queen's tower, the seventh tower. Rogeth had protested but Aneth had insisted. Mawreth watched intently the entire time. Rogeth knew that what Aneth had said was stupid because if his sister was trying to cause friction between Aneth and himself, then this public display of anger would only fuel Mawreth's cause.

Rogeth eased himself out of bed and walked to the dressing table. There was water sitting in a plain glass jug, Rogeth poured himself a cup. The water was at room temperature and was beginning to taste stale but it helped ease his dry mouth. Standing up, Rogeth took himself to the window where he opened the shutters and let the cool night air into the room. The view of the city was magnificent, because of the positioning of the towers none of the interior towers, save for the cloud tower, had an obstructed view. Rogeth noticed with some wonder that there were several small fires in the village. Possibly to celebrate the new king or a portent of his downfall.

The cool air revived Rogeth and cleared his mind. Tomorrow would be spent with his team of advisers, Grawden, Fraythen the castellan and Styrin the chamberlain. Rogeth then sighed, Ertan would be there also. Ertan, the great religious leader, annoyed Rogeth immensely, from his pompous, arrogant attitude to his beliefs that every single thing that ever happened resulted directly from either the fruits or the vegetables.

Rogeth was in no mood to be in conference tomorrow especially since he knew the topic would be on the Nibe. Battle plans and strategies would be drawn up. Fraythen would be consulted to determine if the town and castles resources were up to a siege. Ertan would shout about worshipping the fruits more often which would send the Nibe threat away. Koflan would try to tell Rogeth that whatever he and his team had thought up was the one and only correct strategy. Grawden would be reinforcing his points of this afternoon, their discussions being only a precursor to the meeting tomorrow. Then there would be Styrin, trying to convince the king to do what he believed was right. Styrin was the second in command in the castle, he made all the small decisions which left the important ones for Rogeth.

Rogeth looked back at his bed, it was not the same without Aneth and he knew he would not sleep. He knew that if he did close his eyes he would only be troubled by unwanted thoughts of Mawreth. Why had he let the situation get so bad? Why had he not told Aneth about the situation with Mawreth and his father?

In frustration Rogeth threw the cup of water he was holding out of the window. Launching it far into the distance, he watched satisfied at his outburst. It had a calming effect. suddenly Rogeth's head started dropping and he jumped with a start. He was tired and he knew that, Rogeth walked back to the bed and climbed in. He pulled the sheets up to him but was uncomfortable and threw them across the room. a delicate vas became entangled within the cloth tentacles of the bed covers and fell onto a woollen rug which covered the floor. The vase did not break much to Rogeth's relief.

As the king settled down he felt sleep slowly take him in it's grasp and rock him gently into the world of dreams.

Aneth lay sleeping in one of the guest quarters in the Queen's tower, the tower where all the important guests and dignitaries were placed. Her slow rhythmic breathing showed that she was in a deep sleep. Her long auburn hair lay across the pillow in a directions, the only reflection of the chaos and turmoil through which her emotions were currently going.

The walls of the Queen's tower were plastered like the King's tower and rugs had been lain down to cover the cold stone floor below. Out of the shadows of those walls crept a figure, her long flowing black hair blew in the wind which was coming through the open window. A thin slither of moonlight shone though the clouds in the night sky and illuminated the bed where the sleeping queen lay. The woman crept closer to the bed and knelt down at its side. Her hand delicately reached out stroked Aneth's hair, arranging and sorting it into a more ordered form.

"Not tonight my sister in law," the voice was filled with the calm precision of Mawreth. "Soon though you'll feel the cold release of metal in your heart."

At that Mawreth stood and melted into the shadows.

Black. Oval. An oval black shape hung suspended roughly a foot off of the ground. It was about two feet wide and six feet tall. The object was completely flat and two dimensional. It was the same from the back as it was from the front. Rogeth walked round the device again, and again, and again. Then his hand involuntarily reached forward to touch the shiny black surface and the object rippled. The oval radiated light but at the same time all light was consumed. Rogeth felt himself being pulled in to the oval, he tried to resist. Grabbing the door handle Rogeth dropped his lantern. The light smashed upon the ground and the room went dark. Not just dark but pitch black.

Hands. Rogeth could feel hard callous hands running across his body. Grabbing his arms and legs, wrapping around his waist. His hands were being prised open by these hands. Finger by finger, his hands unwrapped from the door handle and Rogeth was dragged screaming into the oval.

For the second time since going to sleep the previous night Rogeth threw himself awake panting. Unlike the last time, this dream was no memory returning to haunt him but a nightmare he had been having ever since he first clapped eyes on the oval.

The oval was the mysterious object which inhabited the Cloud room and it terrified Rogeth. Fear itself seemed to emanate from the oval. Rogeth did not understand the oval and when he had first seen it he had been curious about it. That was when the nightmares had begun. He had gone to the Cloud room a second time, this time not out of curiosity but to confront the oval and to try and convince himself that he had nothing to fear. Upon visiting the oval Rogeth had only been filled with a terrible sense of dread. Then the nightmares had become worse, they did not come every night but were often enough so that Rogeth was left feeling ill at ease.

Nobody knew exactly what was in the Cloud room or how it affected Rogeth. People had guessed that there was something in the Cloud tower, by the fact that only certain people were allowed in the Cloud tower and only with the king's authorisation. The king himself was allowed to climb the tower to the top and enter the Cloud room. Not even Arron knew of the existence of the oval. He suspected of the existence of an artefact like most other people, but he did not know for sure.

The guesses were that some jewelled fruit lay in the Cloud room, a present from the fruits. Ertan was a proud believer of that particular rumour. Nobody had even come close to the truth. Nobody. The Cloud room was the only matter to which Rogeth lied to Aneth about. It was the only lie Aneth had ever accepted from Rogeth, in fact she expected it, every ruling king or queen before Rogeth had kept the contents of the Cloud room a secret. Even Koflan, when he was acting as reagent, was not allowed access, only those of rightful heritage and who currently ruled The Kingdom were allowed to see it.

Joleth had never spoken of the oval to his son. Rogeth understood that if it had the same effect on his father as it currently had on him then Joleth would most probably never have wanted to speak of it - ever.

Rogeth washed and dressed himself and then collected his thoughts for the upcoming meeting. He did not fancy his chances of reaching a satisfactory conclusion in the meeting but maybe he could get the others to see some sense.

"The plan you propose is completely nonsensical." So much for trying to make them see sense, but that was typical of Ertan. The old man more than 65 years of age was stubborn at best and completely immovable at all other times.

The group sat around a round table in the war room. Everyone could see each other and could contribute to the meeting. Styrin sat directly across from the king. To Rogeth's right sat Grawden, then Ertan and finally Fraythen. To his left sat Koflan and his team of advisers, Jobek, Arron and Krentar.

The meeting had started well, everyone was being reasonable. The unpleasantness had started when Grawden had outlined the various options open to them. Koflan and his adviser had agreed that war was inevitable. Ertan was proclaiming that the time of the vegetables had struck. Trust that religious maniac to resort to bringing in talks of religious events at a meeting to discuss possible strategies in the event of a war. Styrin was agreeable to going to war, in fact he was urging it as though there were no other options available. Styrin had arrived at Klonkar a soldier and had risen through the ranks to control one of the most powerful positions in The Kingdom. Only Fraythen was the least bit concerned about the thought of war with the Nibe. It was with the castellan that Rogeth's last hope lay.

"Fraythen, what are Klonkar's resources? Could we withstand a siege if it came to it?"

Fraythen looked at his king and sighed, his face ashen and grave. "Your majesty our resources are at an all time low. The harvest this year was poor and our food supplies are way down. If we were to go to war the figures show that our resources would take a massive drop. We would be a starving kingdom, moral would drop and no doubt we would loose the war. A siege would decimate our resources. What ever happiness failure seems inevitable."

It was then that a silence fell across the meeting. Rogeth had suspected right, everyone was re-evaluating their stances. Then Styrin spoke, "Why was this information not released to us before the meeting. We could have been better prepared." Styrin was not asking a question he was making a statement, trying to cause unrest again.

It was Ertan who spoke next, "Why was this information not told to us? Are you trying to fabricate this so that we are frightened off of attacking the Nibe?"

Rogeth rolled his eyes - typical Ertan. "Why is it so difficult for you to see. Any war effort is doomed, we must sit and wait." Rogeth was trying to be commanding but he knew that he had just dodged Ertan's question and he could see from the religious leaders face that he knew it as well.

"You are purposely ignoring my question," Ertan was becoming annoyed. "You are our wise king - you should be able to answer," sarcasm was threaded through every word.

"The report was not made public earlier because it was not available earlier. This is the first resource report which I have received since becoming king. I do not wish to annoy anyone by saying who is to blame for the lack of resource management. Everyone else in the room, except Rogeth turned and looked first at Koflan and then at Fraythen. Rogeth sympathised with Koflan, it was not his duty to order resource reports when he was in command, that duty should have fallen to Styrin who was more than used to his job. Rogeth decided to make a stand even if it would annoy some people. "Please turn your attentions away from Koflan and Fraythen. If you understand our system as you should all do then you would do well to be annoyed with Styrin. Ordering resource reports is his duty, and you should all know that Fraythen can not do a full resource report unless he has permission from our Chamberlain."

Rogeth could see Arron flash him a warning look. It should have been enough to tell him to be quiet but now was not the time. Rogeth continued to speak, "Since I am king I have the final decision of whether we go to war or not and I say no."

"This is madness, we've got to strike now to avoid a long drawn out conflict," Grawden was struggling to get his words of protest out fast enough to interrupt Rogeth.

Rogeth looked at Grawden despairingly, "surely you must understand. If we attack now, we are declaring war and what will ensue is a 'long drawn out conflict'. Don't you see that if we wait we could carefully build up our forces and resources so that if, and only if, the Nibe were to strike we would be able to defend ourselves better. If we attack now we just don't have the resources available to win. Not only that the public reaction to such a loss would result in me loosing the throne to Mawreth and none of you here can say that my sister getting the throne would be a good thing."

There was an outbreak of murmuring around the table, Rogeth let it subside before he spoke again. "Now if there are no further irrational outbursts to take place then this meeting will be adjourned."

As everyone began to file out Rogeth sat back in his chair and closed his eyes. The council was against him, and with the lack of sleep the previous night, his patience was wearing thin.

"The crown weighs heavy upon your head."

Rogeth sat bolt upright and opened his eyes. Ertan stood there, his grey wispy hair poking out at vantage points across his head. Grey beady eyes peered over his hooked nose.

"If you came to service a bit more often then perhaps this crisis could be averted."

"Ertan," began Rogeth, "I am not in the mood to hear more of your religious talk today. I think I've had to put up with enough today."

Ertan seemed to ignore the Rogeth's snide comments and walked forward to Sytrin's council seat. Rogeth watched with interest as Ertan ran his hand over the carved wooden back of the chair and then sat down. "Styrin wouldn't be happy at me sitting in his chair. He might even shout at me. Not a very moral person is he?"

It was a question which required no answer. Just as well because Ertan was not waiting for one. He continued, "you know if you came to the services then perhaps you would benefit from the advice and teachings of the fruits. I mean, I don't understand why you don't come that regularly anyway, you're a very moral person, unlike the good Chamberlain Styrin here."

"What are you getting at?" Rogeth was confused. Ertan was displaying a whole new side to himself, full of vague mutterings and confused ramblings. Perhaps the religious leader was becoming senile in his old age.

"Oh nothing, except Styrin wouldn't be welcome at the services. He's far to immoral. Not the sort of person the fruits would wish to teach at all." Ertan leaned forward and spoke in low conspiratorial tones, "you on the other hand. Well you are a very moral person. You would be very welcome at the services, very welcome indeed."

Rogeth was confused with Ertan and was away to ask him something. Ertan did not leave the king any time though, as soon as he was finished speaking he stood and left the room leaving Rogeth to try and figure out what had been meant. Rogeth sat back and cursed the fruits for being so obscure, then he closed his eyes, relaxed and began to slowly fall asleep.

Aneth stood on the bridge connecting the Queen's tower to the King's tower and looked down. It was a long way to fall. If she were to take three steps forward she would be falling to her death. An exciting exhilarating rush before the end. She could see near the Guard's tower a build-up of troops. There was something happening here. Something that Aneth did not know about. That would change, she would speak to Rogeth and sort everything out. There was something coming and Klonkar was preparing. Could it be news about the Nibe. Whatever happened Aneth knew that the end was coming soon. The end was only three steps away - for everyone.

Falling through blackness with nothing to support him. Rogeth screamed. Fear and anxiety washed over him. He was drowning in this sea of emotions. He felt hands moving over him. The hard callous hands of the oval. running over him, rubbing his body. Running up his neck. Running their fingers under his chin. Touching his lips. The hands felt different, soft and delicate yet ice cold.

A voice rang out in the blackness, "Do I tantalise you?"

Rogeth was startled awake, his back was sore. He had fallen asleep in the war room, of all the places. Shaking his head to clear the grogginess Rogeth wondered how late it was and what had caused him to wake up. It was then that he heard the commotion.

Rogeth ran forward to the door and threw it open. Jobek, one of Koflan's advisers, stood there. He seemed somewhat startled. "Your majesty," he panted out of breath, "I've been searching all over for you."

"What is it?" asked Rogeth suddenly very concerned.

"We've just received word. An envoy has been dispatched. The Nibe have sent someone to talk."

"This is unprecedented!" exclaimed Rogeth the Nibe had never been known for diplomacy.

"The envoy is expected to arrive in three days time." Rogeth looked at Jobek utterly shocked.