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“Now let me show you first my father’s kingdom and how clever he’s been in holding hi
s reins tight.”
As she flew south, she reached a long stretch of land that burned hot with enormously tall flames, but didn’t produce smoke.
“I don’t understand what this is,” Duncan said. “What am I looking at?”
She rose higher and higher into the air so that eventually he saw that the fire ranged the entire width of the land, from the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean.
“It’s a barrier,” she responded. “Isn’t it clever?”
“You mean Chustaffus keeps the land divided with fire.”
“Exactly. The local inhabitants can’t break through and most of them don’t have enough essential power to fly over the flames. It’s an excellent means of control.”
As she continued to fly south, the ridges of fire appeared at regular intervals, perhaps every hundred miles or so.
“I get it,” he said. “The people could never join together to form an uprising.”
“You never lacked for intelligence, Duncan. You’re just absurdly stubborn in your refusal to align with me.”
Yolanthe continued in her flight and the land suddenly opened up, though there were massive walls this time, like the Great Wall of China.
“This doesn’t make sense. Why not use fire consistently?”
“Because my father didn’t create this wall. The Prince did.”
“The Prince? You’ve mentioned him before.”
“A thousand years ago he fought my father for supremacy over our world and he won a third of the land, though scattered among all the continents. Afterward, he took careful pains to cordon off his kingdom with stone.”
Duncan looked at the land and saw that there were roads and towns, even large cities. In other words, a land of structure and commerce. He was pretty sure that The Prince’s world was a free world, a thriving kingdom. The slave world Chustaffus had built was seriously underdeveloped.
“There is no slavery in The Prince’s lands, then?”
“No. But the man’s an idiot. He’s constantly beset by ambitious men, who frequently approach Chustaffus about joining forces. Up to this point, The Prince has fended off every rebellion, but one day he’ll fail. Then my father will rule Third Earth again, and that day is coming soon. You’ll see.”
Duncan considered this. “What does Chustaffus want with Second Earth or Mortal Earth?”
“What do all ambitious men want? To rule, first and foremost. Because other dimensions exist, Chustaffus wants them. But he also wants the resources of your larger populations.”
“For slaves?”
“And to create death vampires to add to his army.”
For the first time since Duncan had been caught in Yolanthe’s trance, he began to see some value in being here. “Chustaffus must have one hell of an organization to be able to do all that he does.” Fishing for info couldn’t hurt.
“He has help.”
“From you?”
She chuckled as she flew. “Unfortunately, though I’ve offered a hundred times to be of assistance, his opinion of women is almost as low your own father’s was. So, you see we do have that in common.
“But he has three of my brothers in tow who do his bidding. Each is working with…” she broke off and stopped midair, flapping her wings slowly and looked directly at Duncan’s voyeur window, meeting his gaze. “So, you’ve grown curious all of a sudden?”
“Of course I’m curious. I can’t agree to your terms unless I know what the hell I’m getting into.” Would she buy it?
“I’m not a stupid as I look.” She tilted her head slowly, her eyes moving about as though considering his words. “No, I don’t think I’ll tell you anything more than that. Just let me show you the world my family controls. When you finally submit to me and become my prince consort, you will in effect enjoy all the honors and riches that fall to me.”
