Rogeth let his hand once again connect with Asten's face, "you will show more respect for the king."

"Respect for a jumped up little boy who doesn't even know what's going on inside his own palace. How could I show respect for the likes of you. You disgust me. You and your beliefs in the fruits, how can you believe such rubbish."

"I believe what I believe," Rogeth was not willing to admit to this man that he was not a total believer in the fruits or the vegetables.

"You believe what others have indoctrinated into you everyday of your life and for that I disrespect you. You have no free will, no choice of your own. You blindly follow your advisers and leaders like a sheep. Mimicking their every move and thought. I have no respect for anyone like that." Asten coughed up some phlegm into his mouth and launched it towards Rogeth.

Rogeth stood still, standing his ground as the phlegm hit his face. The king did not blink or move and only raised his hand to wipe the offending fluid from his face. "And I have no respect for people like you," Rogeth spoke slowly and clearly, never raising his voice to show anger.

Asten was visibly surprised that Rogeth had shrugged off such an assault on himself, "maybe you deserve more respect than I initially thought."

"Maybe I do," once again the calm voice which betrayed no emotion. Rogeth turned to Fraythen, "take them to separate cells. I will want you to question them later."

Fraythen stepped forward and with the guards help led the cultists away. Koflan stepped forward and stood next to the king, "that was impressive."

"Thank you," and with that Rogeth turned and walked away to clean himself up. Rogeth felt his legs shake slightly, but he had held his ground, and that had disturbed Asten more than anything.

Ertan stood in the crypt once again looking upon the sacred pineapple. The slow pulsing of earlier had becoming faster and brighter. He would have to inform Mawreth of this development. The girl could not keep a low profile and found secret meetings difficult to keep secret. Hopefully this current mission that she was on would help her become more subtle, just as long as she did not let Aneth know what was going to happen. If Aneth found out then Rogeth would surely be informed and then Ertan and Mawreth would be stopped. Ertan pulled the curtain back over the alcove and proceeded up the stairs to the temple above. It was only when he had locked the door to the crypt and walked into the main area of the temple that he noticed Styrin sitting in one of the back rows. As Ertan walked up to the chamberlain, Styrin stood.

"Ertan my good man, how's worship going?" Styrin was laid back in his attitude. "I saw the way you took on Rogeth earlier today in the council meeting and was just coming to thank you for helping my cause. I was wondering how you felt about being left out of the council meetings?"

Ertan kept walking right up to Styrin and only stopped when he was millimetres from the chamberlain's face. "I have a dagger pressed into your stomach. Get out of my temple now. You have no right bringing your immoral and evil temptations into a place of worship. You did not have my authority to come in here."

"Don't act like this Ertan, we all know your views on our royal highness."

"What views would those be," Ertan was acting the complete innocent.

"You don't like him. You don't like the fact that he wishes nothing to do with your temple."

"King Rogeth has never refused to come to my temple. He's just never been free from his work. He will be in this temple, mark my words. It'll just be when everyone least expects it."

Styrin was confused, "what are you babbling about old man?"

Ertan was brought back to the present after being lost in thoughts for the briefest of moments, "get out of my temple or may the fruits have mercy on my soul for what I'll do to you."

"You wouldn't kill me," as soon as Styrin finished those words he felt the dagger at his stomach being pressed further against the skin.

"I said leave now," Ertan pushed a little further.

Styrin took this opportunity to leave but as he walked away he spoke his last words of the day to Ertan, "I'll get you back. I'll take away your life piece by piece and there'll be nothing you can do to stop me."

Rogeth sensed the tension between everyone. He had called a meeting of all the available council members and it was trouble from the start. His intention had been to try and calm everyone down by giving everyone a chance to air their views since the envoy would be arriving in roughly two days time. Rogeth had hoped that a night to sleep on everyone's annoyances would calm them but it had not. It did not help that two of his allies were gone, Grawden and Arron. Rogeth could not even get help from Jobek as he would be trying to present an image of distrust in the king's actions.

"This meeting should've taken place yesterday," Styrin was furious. He was standing up banging his fist on the table. Rogeth looked at the man, there was something pathetic about him. The man was not evil, he just had an inferiority complex - at least that was what Rogeth hoped.

Fraythen, sitting next to Styrin in his usual seat, stared up at the chamberlain, he was not amused. "Events have been progressing faster than this council can agree. It doesn't matter anyway as King Rogeth has the final decision in whatever takes place. This council is merely a formality to debate opinions and ideas and is not for decision making. That is what we have a king for."

Rogeth looked around the table, he could almost hear the round of applause for Fraythen. Styrin was not backing down though and proceeded to pace around the table looking at everyone, "This council is here to protect the king from making foolish decisions. To maintain that power we must have some form of decision making capacity."

"Now is not the time to debate the ins and outs of how this council operates. For years we have ambled along satisfactorily with no cause for complaint," Koflan stared into Styrin's eyes as he walked past. "Today is for discussion of what we can do when the envoy arrives. We must decide what our strategy is and how to implement it."

Styrin marched across and leaned into the lead advisers face before speaking in hushed threatening tones, "as far as we know you've already decided your strategy. All those closed meetings that you've been having with our king is making a mockery of this council." Styrin pulled himself away and went to his chair whereupon he sat down.

"Now is the perfect time to debate this council," Jobek had been staying silent, waiting till the moment was right. "We have roughly two days. As far as Styrin is concerned we have a plan of action for the envoy. What better time to discuss the council, for if we do have war coming then we must have this council working together and not separately."

Oh, he is good, thought Rogeth. Jobek had effectively summed up Styrin's case and had put in a few extra points which while on the surface seemed reasonable were really scathing attacks against the king. Rogeth leaned forward and stretched, "what is it with all of you? Here we are facing what could possibly be the greatest crisis that The Kingdom has faced and you moan about whether I am doing my job properly. Why don't you put me on trial I'm sure that would increase the amusement factor no end. This bickering must end now," Rogeth was forceful with his final word. Looking around the king saw that it had actually taken a few people by surprise. "Wouldn't it just be wonderful if the Nibe envoy came in and saw this. What a gesture of strength it would be. If we can't even control our own tempers what are they going to think about this council controlling The Kingdom."

"Here, here, I agree," Koflan was sticking his neck out for Rogeth again.

Ertan had been silent throughout the entire meeting. It was unusual for the religious leader to be so consumed with his thoughts that he did not even contribute to a council meeting. Rogeth looked at him, examining his face, trying to figure out exactly what was going on in the deep recesses of his mind. At times Ertan could be so obvious but there were other times, like now, when he could keep anything secret. The world could be falling down and yet Ertan's face would probably never show a hint of anything.

It was back to Styrin, "Then let us discuss everything in a council meeting and let us take actions and decision, otherwise disband the council now."

The argument bouncing backwards and forwards was getting annoying and Rogeth knew that it had to end and there was only one way to do it. Rogeth stood and coughed once to gain everyone's attention. Looking round the table he acknowledged everyone then spoke, "very well, if that is what has to be done."

Koflan could see where this was headed and started to rise out of his seat, "Rogeth no. Don't do this, not now." The informality in Koflan's words showed just how much he was scared that what the king was about to do would be highly dangerous.

"Koflan, please be seated," Rogeth watched the adviser return to his seat and then he continued, "If disbanding the council is the only way for us to move on then so be it. From this moment I hereby declare that the council is absolved of all duties. The Kingdom is now under a state of emergency and all decisions will fall to me. No one can take any action without bringing it first to me. This meeting is now adjourned."

Everyone reacted, even Ertan, "this is madness. Now is not the time to let petty disruptions consume the council. We must stay as a whole and not let anything divide us, we will be stronger that way."

Rogeth could see that Ertan was hinting at something but was reticent to give any details yet. "Ertan, what is done is done, there will be no more debate."

It was Jobek who was standing, "you can't do this. A decision to absolve the council has to be made by all of us. Two of our members are not even here, are you mad?"

Such a blatant insult to the king would have been unthinkable from Jobek but in these strained times it was utterly acceptable. Rogeth laughed to himself, he is really trying and I would probably say that it is working. "The decision to absolve the council only needs the two senior members if we fear that war is coming and if members of the council have been incapacitated. Grawden and Arron have been held hostage by vegetable cultists and as a result have been incapacitated. Thus Styrin and myself made the decision together." Rogeth had just thrown everything back into Styrin's face. So you feel that you do not get to make many decisions, well you just made one there.

"But Grawden and Arron are not incapacitated, they are free," it was Krentar who now defied the king.

Rogeth turned and pounced on the little traitor, presumed traitor corrected Rogeth, "With the recent breakdown in council meetings that information was not available to me when the decision was taken by Styrin and myself." Rogeth was pulling together all the arguments which had been laid before him and was now throwing them back in the faces of the accusers.

"This is unacceptable," Styrin was furious.

Fraythen did not even look up at the chamberlain as he was too disgusted to really give him his full attention, "you got what you wanted."

Styrin stood for a moment the stormed out of the War room. It took a few moments then everyone started to file out of the room, Fraythen and Koflan stayed behind.

"Are you sure that was wise?" there was definite worry in Koflan's voice. "You pushed Styrin too far this time, he's angry and ready to do anything. Basically you've got him backed into a corner and are forcing him to show his hand."

Rogeth just looked up at Koflan, "I'd rather have his plan out in the open now than when the envoy arrives."

"But you don't understand, Styrin wasn't ready to act. Now he's just going to do something more drastic."

It was Fraythen who continued, "that man is mad. He believes that he will rule the throne but he hasn't made any advances to do so yet. We're in a difficult situation, we can't get rid of him as technically he hasn't done anything. However, on the other hand we all now that he's about to do something. My main fear now is that you've angered him and that may have just driven him over the edge a bit more, he may not be thinking as rationally as he was and as a result any plan he might come up with could be deadly."

Rogeth collapsed back in his chair with a heavy sigh, "running The Kingdom is an impossible task especially with Styrin constantly breathing down my neck. I don't know how my father coped with it all."

"You're father was a good man," said Koflan, "but he had allies to help him. You've got to reinstate the council and have your allies at your side."

"I can't reinstate the council, if I were to then Styrin would think I was weak and that would only fuel his insane quest."

Fraythen had left Rogeth half an hour ago and was arriving at the cells where the vegetable cultists were held. Rogeth had been briefed by the guards the previous night about Asten's claims and now Fraythen was here to gain as much information as he could. The cells were clean and well kept like most of Klonkar but they were still oppressive. Everything was kept to a bare minimum and all you could see was an entire corridor of thick wooden doors reinforced by a sheet of metal down the middle. Fraythen took a step forward and the noise echoed up the almost empty corridor.

A guard looked up from his duties and upon seeing the castellan straightened himself up. "Sir, I assume you are going to interview the prisoners."

"Yes," this was the part of the job that Fraythen did not like, he was not a violent man but interrogation had been known to bring out the worst in him. A few years ago when Grawden had been away and Fraythen had been interrogating a serial murderer who worked at Klonkar there had been problems. Fraythen had begun started to gain too much pleasure from the interrogation, when torture had become involved the castellan had almost killed the man out of pleasure. It had become readily accepted that Fraythen had been under a considerable amount of strain at the time but he knew better.

The guard started to get keys for Fraythen but the castellan shook his head, "I've got my own keys."

Fraythen signed himself in as the person who would be interviewing Asten and then walked to the cell which held him. Reaching to his side the castellan searched through his multitude of keys to find the one which would open the door. A small copper key was located and inserted into the lock. It turned easily and Fraythen noted that his staff were doing a good job of keeping everything in working order.

Swinging the door open Fraythen stepped in and then shut the door behind himself. Light streamed into the room from a small window which had thick iron bars. the castellan noted small flecks of rust appearing and made a mental note to have the bars changed at the next available opportunity. Asten was lying on a wooden bench which was affixed to the left hand wall, not once did he look up or acknowledge Fraythen.

"Good morning. I hope you had a pleasant nights sleep," Fraythen was making pleasantries.

Asten remained silent.

"I think you know why I'm here," the voice was growing harder, colder as Fraythen realised that he was getting nowhere. "You've made some wild claims about one of the council members," ex council now, "and I want to find out how true they are."

Asten never moved nor did he make a sound.

Fraythen was becoming frustrated. The memories of what he had become many times before flooded back to him and in a fit a rage he reached across and grabbed Asten. Before the cultist could react he had been thrown across the cell, his head cracked off of the wall. "I don't like being ignored. You will talk."

Asten moaned as he picked himself up off the floor, "that's a major weakness in your personality. You shouldn't let your temper flare so badly," Asten shook his finger at Fraythen.

"We have ways of making you talk," Fraythen hoped the threat would inspire Asten to talk.

Asten only laughed. The threat sounded ridiculous and hollow to him. Taking a step forward Asten spoke, "I wont talk."

Fraythen decided that he should maybe back down and try a different tact, "you seemed keen on talking yesterday."

Asten dismissed the statement with a wave of his hand, "that was yesterday. This is today. I really don't want to talk and unless you've got some magical power which can make me there's really nothing you can do about it."

Fraythen stalked towards his prey, eyeing him up and evaluating his next move. With lightning fast reaction the castellan sprung forward and placed a concealed dagger against Asten's right eyeball. The wave of fear was instant. Fraythen noticed beads of sweat forming on the cultists brow. "It isn't touching, not quite and not yet. If you don't talk it will touch and believe me this dagger is very blunt. It will hurt more than you could imagine. If I stab your eye you wont be dead either as I'll remove the dagger before it touches your brain. Imagine the pain. Fear the pain."

Asten was visibly scared but he continued to be defiant, "vegetable cultists are trained to be able to overcome pain. We no longer fear that which most mortals fear. Death no longer scares us. We are one with ourselves and can control our emotions. I will not break."

Fraythen felt himself slipping comfortably into the role of the interrogator once again. Like slipping into a pair of comfortable shoes. "You may be one with yourself but this dagger is also about to be come one with you. Co-operate or I will hurt you."

A dribble of sweat ran from Asten's forehead and down his nose. Fraythen could see that he was needing to scratch his face to get rid of an itch. Any wrong move, however, and the cultist would impale himself upon the dagger without any help from the castellan.

"What are you going to do?" asked Fraythen, his voice cold and distant.

"Ertan," Asten gasped the word out.

Fraythen inched the dagger away from his prey, "continue." The voice dispassionate and detached was the only noise which could be heard in the cell.

Asten began to relax but he could see that if he did not speak the dagger was ready to return, "he controls us. Ertan is the one who is leading us."

"In what way?"

"He operates a temple to the vegetables and is setting up some kind of force. He reckons that he can take down the king and claim the throne in the name of the vegetables. He believes that controlling The Kingdom is essential in destroying the fruits."

"How is your cult organised? What do you do?"

Asten hesitated for a moment and the dagger was lifted prompting the cultist to speak faster, "it's all separate. We're all in little sections so that nobody can uncover the entire group. We have codes and groupings that Ertan can call upon. He never makes direct contact with any of us, it's all done through messengers."

"So anyone could in fact control you," Fraythen was hoping that this news of Ertan was untrue. There were too many people vying for control of the throne and that was dangerous for everyone. "No, every so often the leaders of each section, that's what I do, I lead a section, meet with Ertan to draw up plans and to decide where and when we will strike."

At last, Fraythen was getting down to some decent information, "where and when have you decided?"

"I don't know," the fear in Asten's voice was immense as he knew that he would suffer for his lack of knowledge.

The dagger flashed briefly in the light of the window as the blade caught a glimpse of the morning sun. Then the cold metal made contact with the eye. The blunt point pressed against the tissue and then pierced it. Asten screamed loud and long as the dagger penetrated deeper. The ever widening blade causing more damage as it ripped the eye further open. Blood streamed down Asten's face and into his open mouth. The cultist had stopped screaming unable to find time to do so as his brain tried and failed to comprehend the pain coursing through his body. Asten wanted to fall to the ground writhing in pain but he knew that would only cause more damage and through sheer will managed to stay standing. The dagger stopped and Fraythen started to pull it out again, just as slowly as it had entered. The castellan could feel the eye wanting to come out of Asten's head along with the dagger, so Fraythen stopped and wiggled the dagger to loosen it from the eye.

"I don't know," screamed Asten suddenly finding the breath to speak. "I don't know, I don't know, I don't know."

Fraythen looked at Asten and concluded that he indeed did not know. The dagger was pulled free of Asten's eye with a final blood curdling scream from the cultist. "Very well, I believe you. This interrogation is now finished."

With those final words Fraythen left the cell.

Outside the guard was waiting for Fraythen wondering what had transpired in the cell, "what happened?"

With a cold curt tone Fraythen replied, "I got the information I required, however, the prisoner will need the attendance of a doctor," and with that Fraythen walked away from the cells. His body was shaking in a strange combination of fear and satisfaction. What have I just done.

The weather was a considerable improvement over the previous day and Grawden was enjoying the journey across the lands of The Kingdom. The ground here was dry and the group was making excellent progress. Even Marden seemed in higher spirits than yesterday, although he was still angry with Arron. Grawden still chuckled about the event to himself, he had had no idea that Arron could fight quite the way he had - it seemed everyone but the king had under estimated the adviser.

A horse pulled up along side Grawden, it was Angstrong, "How much further till we meet them do you think?"

"It should hopefully only be half a day away although it might be longer, we have been delayed by the weather and those cultists." Grawden wondered what was transpiring at Klonkar. As much as he had wanted to get away he actually found himself missing the place, it would be good to get back. The leader of the cultists had spoken of Ertan being a traitor though, that troubled Grawden. He knew that that king would be able to handle it and that Fraythen would be able to get the truth out of any prisoner. For a moment Grawden shivered, he was actually scared of the castellan whenever he was interrogating a prisoner.

"I hope that they're friendly," Angstrong was worried about the future. He was not wanting a reply but was just voicing his thoughts out loud.

"I hope so too," said Grawden quietly.

As Angstrong backed away from the captain of the guard Arron pulled his horse up to speak, "I see that your son's calmed down slightly."

Grawden glanced around at Marden and saw the livid bruise which was forming on his chin from Arron's almighty punch. "I think you taught him a valuable lesson."

"To keep your friends close and your enemies closer," said Arron

"Although in your case as an enemy you happened to get a little to close to him," Grawden started to chuckle. It was cruel to laugh at the misfortune of his son but he just could not help it.

"I know my hand still hurts from that." Changing the topic completely Arron's voice took on a more serious tone, "Rogeth seems to think that this could be the beginning of the end for The Kingdom."

"If his highness thinks that then he may just be over exaggerating," Grawden decided to set the young adviser on the right path.

"Sorry that was my own interpretation. I have a habit for exaggeration," Arron turned to the captain of the guard, raised his eyebrows and gave him a cheeky look. It took a moment for Grawden to catch up with Arron's train of thought and then it hit him. Arron looked surprised at the look of utter dismay that Grawden gave him. "Sorry," apologised Arron.

Ignoring Arron's comment Grawden continued, "We are in a state of crisis but there is currently nothing to fear. We've survived worse than this and I know that for a fact. The last Nibe war was pretty bad and I was captain of the guard then but as we always do, we survived."

"I hope we survive this," Arron stared straight ahead at the path that the group was following.

Grawden turned to look at the adviser, it was unusual for him to be so pessimistic, "We will lad, as long as we all do our best we'll survive and prosper. Remember the Nibe are doing something out of the ordinary, they're negotiating. Maybe King Rogeth was right and what the Nibe seek isn't war but something else."

"Maybe they've run into an crisis which they can't solve and need our help."

"Or maybe," mused Grawden, "We've something that they want and unless we give it to them they'll take it by force."

Mawreth was hurrying down the corridors of the Quarters tower, Ertan had summoned her and she was late. I need to get fit, I am not used to all this running around all over the place. Mawreth puffed and panted as she had run all the way from the King's tower on the bottom floor to high up in the Quarters tower. As she neared the site where Ertan asked her to meet him she could see no sign of the religious leader.

A voice called out, "Ah Mawreth, you've arrived," it was Ertan.

Swirling around Mawreth was about to rebuke the old man for startling her but there was nobody there.

"Mawreth you're late," Ertan again and from behind her.

Mawreth turned and Ertan stood before him, "if you do that to me again I swear to the fruits that I'll kill you."

"Do what?" Ertan seemed genuinely confused.

"Throw your voice and make me think you're creeping up from behind me," Mawreth was visibly annoyed at Ertan. I am not going to let him get away with scaring me like that.

"I have no idea what you mean," Ertan looked as though he was telling the truth.

Mawreth shivered as a wave of fear washed over her. What had she just heard and who was it that had spoken? "What did I hear then?"

"I don't know," Ertan dismissed the topic with a wave of his hand. "We've got serious problems."

Mawreth looked at Ertan waiting for him to give up the information which was locked within his brain. "Well come on out with it," forced Mawreth impatiently.

"As I'm sure you know the council has been dissolved..."

"News of that's spreading like wildfire. It's all over Klonkar and I doubt that it'll be much longer before the rest of the town finds out. What is my brother thinking? He's ruining everything. By unbalancing the status quo of the palace he's going to force everyone into showing their hands far earlier than we had initially suspected."

"That is not our main concern. The sacred pineapple is pulsing much faster. We will have to act within the next few days. Aneth must die. Not only that we have a severe problem. A prisoner is giving evidence against me, he must be stopped."

"How do you propose we do that, as far as I know the prisoners who were brought in are only to be seen by either Koflan, Fraythen or my dear brother himself."

"We must incapacitate the messenger. Take out Fraythen, it's the only way. If that evidence gets to the king then I'll be taken out of the loop and we can not allow that to happen."

"How shall I take him out?" asked Mawreth with renewed interest.

"Do what you must," Ertan turned and started to walk away then paused and turned back to face Mawreth. "Don't kill him though, just stop him from getting to your brother in time to warn him." With that Ertan turned and walked away down the corridor.

Mawreth watched the religious leader till he disappeared out of sight. Take out Fraythen, how interesting.