His Favored Empress

Camp On Notice

In the middle of the camp, a young soldier barreled through a group of soldiers squatting around a campfire. Metal and charcoal scattered all over the ground burning several soldiers that were unfortunate to be too close. He himself tripped over one of the men and the two of them rolled into a ball for a dozen feet.

"What the hell!"

"You messed up our lunch!"

"Can you pay us for our lost rations?"

"Take it out of his flesh."

The frazzled soldier put his hands together in a prayer motion and bowed repeatedly. "Brothers, forgive me. I'll repay you later. I have to get to the lieutenant."

One of the men snatched him up by the collar of his tunic and gave him a shake  with his legs dangling in the air. "What's your hurry, little bunny?"

"Let me go." He tried to twist his tunic out of the man's iron grasp. "I need to report. The empress is here."

The man let him go and he tumbled to the ground. "The empress!?"

One of the soldiers cleaning up the charcoal liquid mess dropped the sludge in his hands and stood. "For true?"

The soldier nodded his head. "Yes, sir." 

The men cleared a path and he rushed all the way to the lieutenant's tent.

"Lieutenant, quick!" Ignoring military protocol, he barreled into the tent. "The empress is here!"

In his mid-forties, the lieutenant had been in the military since his early teens. He'd served under the previous emperor and had been in several wars. He was ambivalent towards the younger emperor and looked down on him for marrying a doujshua and making him the empress.

Annoyed at the lack of discipline and respect of the young soldier, he was even more annoyed at what the soldier said. He threw his steamed bun down on the table and rose from his chair. The table and its contents rattled from his momentum. He grasped his sword and tied it to his belt. "What does he think he's doing showing up in a military camp? This isn't his harem where he can just run around flaunting himself."

The soldier tried to appease the lieutenant. "The empress was a healer. Maybe he came to speak with our doctors."

The lieutenant snorted. A healer was not the same as a doctor. A doctor had formal training and was certified and tested by the best doctors in the empire. A grassroots healer was nothing but a quack. "For what? He's never cared before. Selfish aristocrats. The emperor dotes on his pets too much. His ass should stay in the palace warming the emperor's bed like he bloody belongs."

The soldier's jaw fell to the floor. He could never be so bold to say such nasty things about the empress.

The lieutenant picked up a cup of water and downed it in one gulp. His finger tapped with impatience on the side as he stared off into space.

The soldier shifted from one foot to the next as he waited in the tense silence.

After some time, the lieutenant's eyes narrowed and the finger stopped tapping. His voice was low and deep. "The general should be back shortly. We'll let him deal with this nosy little duju."

"What do we do with him in the meantime?"

"The same thing we do with those nosy little court ministers that come to visit. Show him around, give cursory information, tell him a sob story or two." The lieutenant chuckled and stroked his goatee. "Maybe we can milk a few extra coins out of our oh so benevolent empress."

*******

The first thing that struck Shaugn was the ineffective layout of the camp. Just inside the gate was a barn on one side with all the horses and on the other side appeared to be a meeting area. Beyond that, a sea of tents with fires here and there filled the eye. With his hands behind his back, Shaugn walked around and inspected a few tents and spoke with the shocked soldiers.