The king's eyes crossed the Promenade and lit upon the sprawling, interconnected buildings that made up the royal court, the seat of Cormyr's bureaucracy. Just the day before, he'd received a report that the royal tax collectors expected a rise in income this year from tariffs levied on merchants.
"No, Vangy," the monarch said firmly. "I can't tell you the invasion has ruined our economy. In fact, the Tuigan have had little direct effect upon our trade."
The paunchy wizard nodded, as if prompting a student to develop a single correct answer into a more complex conclusion-as if Azoun were still a young prince in his tutelage. When the king only continued to gaze out at the city, Vangerdahast sighed.
"Come now, Vangy," Dimswart said as he leaned forward. "You know as well as I that trade with Ashanath, Thesk, and Shou Lung is only a small part of Cormyr's shipping industry."
Vangerdahast moved away from Azoun, toward one of the two large tapestries that hung on the circular room's cold, white walls. The finely crafted hanging depicted a joust, complete with heavily armored knights wielding ornamented lances. One cloth warrior, his silver thread armor looking faded with age, leaned forward on his mount and pressed his lance against the splintering shield of his adversary. The other, a gold-clad warrior, seemed to be slipping off his horse, frozen eternally on the brink of defeat.
"We don't have strong ties with the Shou people," the wizard noted absently as he stood between the knights and his king. "Not yet, anyway. That was the reason Azoun and I attended that trade conference in Semphar last year, the one that was supposed to solve the problems the Tuigan were creating for commerce."
"It could have been a very productive conference, too," the king added. "Representatives from Shou Lung and many of the western nations interested in trading with them showed up. The whole thing was pointless though; a barbarian general-I believe his name was Chanar-took the city hostage, surrounding it with armed troops."
Azoun laughed bitterly. "General Chanar wanted to deliver an ultimatum from the Tuigan leader, their khahan. We were supposed to recognize this barbarian, Yamun Khahan, as emperor of all the world."
"What an unwashed brute that general was," Vangerdahast said with a chuckle, tracing the figure of the golden knight in the tapestry with his finger. "You could almost see the fleas hopping around on him."
Smiling at his friend's sarcasm, Azoun walked to the wizard's side. "I'm sure General Chanar had just ridden for days, Vangy. He was a warrior, not-" The king paused, then waved his hands in front of himself, motioning toward his silk tunic, fine, purple surcoat, and expensive, perfectly crafted dragonskin boots. "He wasn't a politician."
"Speaking of politicians, Your Highness, do you think one of your enemies is stirring up the guild masters?" Dimswart asked. The sage leaned over the chessboard and started to rearrange the pieces, setting up for a new game.
The paunchy wizard dropped his hands to his sides and slapped his thighs. "Perhaps the Zhentarim are baiting the guild masters. That doesn't mean their objections to the crusade are unfounded. The trappers will gain little revenue from the venture. In fact, they'll end up paying for the crusade in higher taxes on the furs they bring to the city for sale." He scowled and shook his head. "Your Highness, I can only imagine the damage that you'll do to yourself politically by running off to the other side of the Inner Sea to look for a war."
Vangerdahast's shoulders sagged then, as if his anger had fled suddenly. "I've heard your arguments, Azoun, and I can see that they have some merit. However, I still don't understand why you need to rush off."
"Have you forgotten my duty?" Azoun asked, a touch of pride in his voice.
Vangerdahast shook his head. "Your duty is to Cormyr, not Thesk or Rashemen. I've told you a thousand times before, you-"
Laughing, Dimswart cut in, "Vangy, you miss the point completely."
The king's eyes grew dark again. "We've had this argument before. Cormyr is more than the lands that lay between lines on a map. We are only one country, one power amongst a dozen in Faerun. If one of our neighbors falls, then we fall, too. My duty to Cormyr demands that I help avert a crisis that could threaten any part of the continent."
The wizard turned away from Azoun. "As I've I told you every other time you've wanted to help the Dales or Tantras or Ravens Bluff, you shouldn't go looking for trouble."
After reaching into his pockets, Vangerdahast dug out the components to a spell and muttered an incantation. "Look," the wizard cried as a glowing map of Faerun appeared, superimposed on the tapestry he had been studying only moments before. Rivers and mountains, deserts and glaciers, cities and countries all appeared faintly in the air, the armored warriors from the hanging showing vaguely through them all.
The kingdom of Cormyr lay on the northwest end of the Inner Sea, also known as the Sea of Fallen Stars. To Cormyr's north were mountains, then the arid, inhospitable Stonelands and the vast expanse of the great desert, Anauroch. The merchant kingdom of Sembia, equal in size to Azoun's domain, was located directly to Cormyr's east. The Dales, to the northeast, were a loose confederation of small farming communities. Unlike Cormyr, with its hereditary monarchy, and Sembia, with its merchant oligarchy, the Dales were strongly democratic. Together, Cormyr, Sembia, and the Dales made up much of the "Heartlands" of Faerun.
With their varied political outlooks, it wasn't surprising that the three core countries in the Heartlands often suffered long disputes. The multitude of independent city-states-places like Tantras and Hillsfar-that were located close to the larger nations often found themselves caught between bickering giants. Still, Cormyr, Sembia, and the Dales were lands where peace flourished; their disputes were never serious enough to create permanent rifts.
And they always agreed when it came to matters involving Zhentil Keep. Though only a walled city just to the north of the Dales, Zhentil Keep was the focus for much of the evil in the Heartlands. Only out of necessity did Azoun and the other lawful rulers deal with the dark priests who controlled the Keep.
But it was not to Cormyr or the Dales or even Zhentil Keep that Vangerdahast pointed when the magical map came into focus. The wizard's finger drifted east of the Heartlands, across the land of Impiltur, to the eastern end of the Inner Sea.
"For the horsewarriors to get from where they are now," the wizard began, directing their attention to a spot hundreds of miles beyond even the end of the Inner Sea, "to our forests, they'd have to go through Thesk, Damara, Impiltur.. "
With each new nation or free city he mentioned, Vangerdahast unfurled another of his pudgy, large-knuckled fingers. Azoun and Dimswart merely waited for the royal wizard to finish his tirade.
"And depending upon the route they take," Vangerdahast concluded, turning sharply to face his king, "it's conceivable that Yamun Khahan, 'emperor of all the world,' could lead his barbarians through Zhentil Keep before he came south to the Dales." The map disappeared, and the wizard stood in front of a plain tapestry once again.
"That's a fine hope," Dimswart noted after a few moments. "It would be nice to see the Tuigan try to storm the black walls of that wretched, evil place. However, it's more likely the Zhents would join the Tuigan-or at least guide them toward the Dales and us. For all we know, the Keep might have struck a deal with this khahan already, like the Red Wizards of Thay did last fall."
Azoun considered that possibility for a moment, then shuddered and dismissed it. He could only hope that the leaders in Zhentil Keep had more sense than to believe the Tuigan would leave them alone if they appeared to offer no resistance. The messages he'd received lately from Lord Chess, the nominal ruler of the Keep, all indicated that the Zhentish would support any sane plan against the raiders. Azoun knew that Chess could be lying just to keep the Dales and Cormyr off balance, but he had to hope otherwise. Even a rumor that Zhentil Keep planned to cooperate with the Tuigan, like Thay had done a few months earlier, would give the guild masters who opposed the crusade a stronger argument.