On the small, lopsided planet Courtimie, there has not been a war for two hundred years. Above all else, the planet's diverse inhabitants value peace. They appreciate the world's rulers for maintaining peace. But this warless calm does not mean everything that happens on Courtimie is honorable. Orno Tremsmel is a modest, elderly man who lives with his young life friend, Shemsmell, in a country where everyone believes that no girls have been born for decades. When Orno is invited to accompany his nation's king to the nation of Thro and visit Princess Zeringe on her wedding day, he is immersed in an influential environment he's never been invited into before. Suddenly this world reveals to him a dark secret and a conniving aristocracy, which bend their own rules to ensure their existence. On a planet that values the preservation of peace above all else, the deception that Orno witnesses unveils new responsibilities to him. He takes on the challenge to combat the manipulation that exists where Courtimie's inhabitants believe there is only serenity.

The Peaceful Queen

By B. A. Rothwell

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2011 B. A. Rothwell
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4620-5201-1

Chapter One

A Common Man Meets His King Our planet is not so large that everlasting peace is beyond our reach. We have embraced tolerance and acceptance, swallowed our pride and valued the good times. We are eleven nations and we are eleven friends. We are 15 Kings and Queens, we are a million brothers and sisters. Not one person, not one nation has the power to break the peace of our world, not if every one on it wants peace to last till the end of time.

King Durrate of Thro Excerpt from The Peace of One for All

On the morning I left my Shemsmell, I found myself boarding a gigantic sea vessel. There were people everywhere all dressed either in tailored suits such as myself or clean and pressed uniforms with the Olum Shell crest on their breast, showing that they were being employed by the king directly. The vessel was called Futura, it was wooden, and as I found out later, made in Mt. Tinga.

Mt. Tinga is a small nation on the southern-most tip of the nation of Court. It's the highest point of our world and covered with rich forest which is Mt. Tinga's most abundant resource. Wood artisans from Mt. Tinga are very much sought after. People from Mt. Tinga are very shy but peaceful when around foreign persons so we do not know a lot about their culture. They are separated from the rest of the world by a mountain range in the north and a sea surrounding the rest of the nation. We know they have bright red hair and pale skin. They are skilled hunters and lumber jacks and favor dressing in dark browns and greens to be in unity with their environment. Their royalty dresses in the same manner to show their pride and solidarity with their people.

When I found my way aboard, I glanced more intensely at the wooden railing and realized it was indeed of high quality: strong and sturdy, the grain dark and in deep contrast with the pulpdeco. The railings were carved in a pattern with bumps to mimic calm waves of the ocean and I could not honestly tell when one plank would end and another would start.

I was so entranced by the wood it took a couple of shoves from passersby to bring me back to reality and show me that I was in the way of the traffic wanting to board and get to their quarters. As I moved to a crevice, captivated by the stylish people passing by, one man who was making his way from behind me tapped my shoulder.

"O. Tremsmel," he said. I turned and saw an Olum man of my age but rather short. He was well dressed in a tightly fitting dark blue uniform, a white braided belt secured with an Olum shell buckle. He knew my name and of me without even seeing my face.

"I am Olson, your guide for the journey, anything you need you just ask me. Now may I show you to your quarters?" He said, guiding me physically, because that was the only way you could guide someone on this loading deck. We pushed our way through the crowd, through a portal, and into the lobby. When were finally out of the way of the people, he asked me, "Am I right in saying we don't have to wait for a companion?"

Here the confusion with me traveling alone, without Shemsmell, continues and it is something I was sure I would have to face for the rest of the journey on the Futura. So now I take a moment to finally explain why it is so important that I take Shemsmell with me on this adventure and everyone's dismay on my breaking the norm:

Three hundred years ago, during a time when most of our world was still at war with each other, and about the time our world was running out of resources to be at war with each other, our world, Courtimie, shivered. It lasted only a half hour our scientists say. It was a sonic wave that started at Courtimie's core and passed through our little planet to the sky. At first, the sonic wave took the form of gigantic waves from the ocean and shaking soil to create mudslides but soon the sonic wave escaped from Courtimie's surface to inflict damage on all the living creatures of the planet. Reports from that era say people just went deaf and lost their wits so they just stood in one place until it was over. But everyone could feel the wave pass over them. It made it hard for them to breath and their hearts had to strive for a pump of fresh blood. After twenty minutes the wave passed into the atmosphere. Some flying birds dropped dead to the ground but that was just the beginning of hell to reign from the sky. Next, there was a lightning storm like no one had seen since and sparing no nation. Clouds all over Courtimie collapsed and dropped all their moisture upon us and floods devastated all that the sonic wave spared.

After all the floods passed, more destruction occurred. You see the sonic brace that held our human hearts was enough to kill the very weak. This included the animals, plants, and humans. Numbers of the very old and the weak young were killed initially just because their hearts failed. All the nations' crops were shattered at this time and everyone was forced to ration their diets on reserves. Women couldn't become pregnant and babies couldn't be born for an entire year. Add to this our own guilt; our entire species had been fighting amongst each other for just about two thousand years nonstop. Our resources where already strained because of the war; then the sonic wave came, and we lost all hope of ever moving on. The very poor were on the brink of starvation before spring came the next year. Then we discovered that the curse was only to last for a year, for our crops came back, along with our young, most of our young that is.

This is where my nation of Olum's curse truly began. You see Olum was hit by the very same sonic wave. It cleared a year later, our crops began to grow and our babies came again and the remnants of a dead creature showed themselves. The Olum shells, which not one person had ever seen, they must have been living at the very depths of our seas, all died during the shock waves and washed up on the beaches of our own, and just the one nation. These shells were beautiful and coveted by the entire world, were swirled with white and rainbowed iridescents and streaks of gold spectaculars. But all know it was through these shells that Olum's curse came, because after that initial year, our babies came—but not our girl babies.

A year of not having any girls was a strange absence. Two years, a strange coincidence. Three years, a dreary doom. After ten years, most of our women of child bearing years lost their fertility. For the next thirty years it was a mad scurry to find one of the remaining Olum women to bare an Olum man's child but in another 10 years even all the women born just before the shock were now infertile through the evilness of time alone.

Our great nation made accommodations. With our depleted population we went out and sought new mothers. Even after leaving Olum, our seeds were still cursed and we could only bring male babies home. Our favorites, for their closeness, were the surrounding island nations: Shelc, TieShel, and Selc, of these Olum was equally in the middle. Finding women to bear our children turned out to be fairly simple especially among the poorest island populations. The Olum shell was highly sought after and soon became a common currency all over the world, enabling Olum men to buy what ever they wanted the most—and that was the next generation.

Paying women to have our babies was certainly not our first plan. We tried desperately to recruit wives to come and live with us in Olum. Too many of them were scared. The few that were brave enough to come to our cursed land became so appalled by our new all-male culture, they abandoned us directly. `To-each-his-own' fit fairly well for all of our countries though. It became acceptable for women to bare Olum men's babies, provided they were paid for them and they did not become so attached to the babies or to the Olum men that they broke from their own families.

This business relationship between Olum men and the other island nation's women flourished and grew sturdy over the years. This was not so politically. Before this curse, Olum, TieShel, Shelc, and Selc were known as the island nations. Our kings appeared at all the world events together because, even though we were 4 nations, we were one spot on Courtimie, separated from the rest of the world, yet grouped together in the Carishel Sea. We all had relatively the same sized island, living off the same fish from the sea and same fruit from the land. Not one nation was better or had more resources than the other. But this sudden all-male weakness in Olum struck fear in the rest. Our unexpected Olum shell wealth sent jealousy through the other island nations. When the shells came, a power developed and Olum held it. A little of the wealth and power trickled down to the other island nations through Olum shells but if another nation chose to seize on Olum's vulnerabilities, by breaking the peace, the trickle would stop. Nobody mentioned the power shift officially but, after the shells started coming, my king never traveled with their kings anymore. Olum started being a separate nation then, alone in the middle of the Carishel Sea.

As for the common men of Olum, we tried to stick to our own culture as much as possible as well, with a few modifications. We certainly needed someone to raise the babies while the men were at work. Some men proved themselves very adequate as nannies, and a guild started because of it. We found that families were run more smoothly with two parents rather than one and life friends became almost necessary to all. Some men just like sharing a household with another adult, some like a more intimate relationship, whatever the case, we do not ask and just accept.

Having a life friend shows the world our uniformity and shows our nation that we haven't given up on our culture. Once a union with our life friend is finalized we are never supposed to travel without them. To do so would imply there are troubles in our home and our new way of life as a culture, and therefore our nation. Our nation had to maintain its appearance of strength because, unfortunately—and even in this era of peace—a weak nation was susceptible to being taken over by another nation. It was everyone's responsibility to portray their nation as a solid, invulnerable, and peaceful entity.

As for me, I am one of the unlucky few, one hit with a more horrible curse. I have tried very determinedly to have children. I visited TieShel three times. Eventually TieShel would not take me anymore because after two visits with no results and one visit where the poor woman did have my baby but died at child birth along with the baby. News of the extra cursed men spread quickly from one island nation to another and soon I was banned from all three. It was after this I decided to visit Salpel, quite a bit farther away but a beautiful nation just the same. A most beautiful common woman agreed to have my child for 3 large Olum shells but her fate was sealed with my curse, and she died the same as the last woman and I was left alone.

I found Shemsmell to ease my loneliness. He has never had the courage to visit past the beaches of Olum to even explore what a woman looks like, much less to ever father a child. He was much younger than I, and my friends were impressed that I found such an attractive partner until of course they found out about Shemsmell's queerness towards water. Ultimately Shemsmell and I became perfect together because of our modest means and we both being childless and because I have the patience of a caregiver to hunt him down for his weekly bath.

I explained Shemsmell's peculiarity to my new friend Olson as best that I could and as peacefully as I could. Olson reacted in the same manner as other men to whom I have told my story. Though he looked upon me with reservation initially, soon he sided for peace, accepted me and embraced me.

After seeing to my belongings for the long trip and freshening up, it was time for us to set sail and I joined my mates on deck as is customary. All the passengers met on port side and watched the ship leave our quaint country. Normally it would be seen as a happy and progressing, symbolic event for our nation: a boat sailing to bring Olum men to distant countries, to bring babies back home. Though this wasn't that kind of voyage it was still a happy event. A princess was to marry some fortunate soul and our king was going in person to congratulate her in the name of world peace.

There were 15 other passenger guests packed on this royal vessel. These were the King and all of his immediate servants and guards and counsels and all men of the most peaceful sort. I tried to make do with small talk with the more common of them and Olson. Mostly asking about how fair our journey will be and about the ship's construct.

The first evening at sea was a big event for me for it was the first time I would have dinner with and would have met my king. I had decided to wear my best green suit with the tailor's signature, a stick pin in the lapel with an Olum shell fragment at the head of it. Olson escorted me to the dining hall when we could be adequately on time; only two men were missing besides the king. It was a large hall and the table and chairs were of the same thick wood that made up the vessel. Candles were lit and were hanging from the ceiling sporadically to offer all the brightness possible and avoid burns to the vessel. The air was as humid as the sea, as to be expected, and smelled of the sweetness of boiled vegetables and spices and wine. I was directed to the seat of the highest honor, right next to our king's seat at the head of the table. The men around me were of considerable wealth. Even in my newly tailored suit, I felt out of place. There was a man at the other end of the table who was wearing an off-green suit, which made me feel a little at ease. But before long the room darkened to dining mode and all of our clothes appeared black and our features were shadowed. In the end it didn't matter what any of us wore.

I was self conscious the whole of the time while I waited for our king and the queer man beside me did not help. He made no point in disguising his stare on me. I felt his stare on my ear then at the side of my face. At first I turned to him and found his eyes not budged but focused now on my nose; not a remarkably unusual nose for Olum—large and bulbous.

He was a meek and elderly man who sat low in his seat, having to peer up over the table or at the men sitting next to him. He had whiskers pointing out in all directions all over his face, from his ears to eyebrows, the tops of his nose to particular places on his chin and cheeks he didn't quite shave. His eyes were as grey as the Selc people are, which shows that his mother was from Selc. For being such an old and meek and untidy man, he was dressed in an extravagant manner in a thick blue suit that bulged around the lapel in his sitting position. The royal crest was on his breast pocket so I assumed he was directly working for our king.

I introduced myself to him in a pleasant, peaceful manner and he said he was "Colton," the "Major Ambassador." But even as he said this I knew him to be lying. It was no matter to me what would be the cause of this. I was not offended, just merely struck with a curiosity. I showed the man a knowing smile and turned in my original direction but as I did, something caught my eye.

This man, this so called "Major Ambassador," had scarring on his right earlobe. It was then I realized this Ambassador's true profession. He was an Authenticator. The fact that one was aboard the vessel was of no consequence. They travel with Olum men where ever they go and sometimes authenticators get rented out to other nations when work is slow. They identify children that belong to Olum men. Authenticators have been trained for generations how to do this so that no other nation could pull off having someone else's child and getting paid for having an Olum child. I should have realized it by the way he was staring at me before: studying my features—probably because he had nothing better to do at the moment. But this man was lying, and not very well. For what peculiar reason did he have in doing so? Even with his extravagant earrings and other jewelry, nobody aboard this vessel would have given him a second thought. There was no time to think about it before our king arrived.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from The Peaceful Queenby B. A. Rothwell Copyright © 2011 by B. A. Rothwell. Excerpted by permission of iUniverse, Inc.. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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