Free BOOK II OF III: The Reign of the Sultan by J. Eric Booker

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closer to Baltor.
    Once Jensa had gotten to about seven feet
away, he stopped in his tracks and suggested in the form of a
question, “If I do kill you, with all of these people as witnesses,
can I be the Sultan of the Sharia Empire?”
    “The Sharia Empire is not mine to give,”
Baltor replied truthfully, “as it really belongs to everyone…so the
answer is no, Jensa.”
    No longer able to hold his anger and hatred
in check, Jensa leapt forward into the air, while jabbing his sword
straight down as if it was a dagger at Baltor!
    Baltor instinctively rolled to his right out
of harm’s way—while coming out of the roll, his legs performed a
back sweep behind Jensa’s kneecaps as hard as he could!
    As a result of the contact into the back of
Jensa’s knees, his sword flew out of his hands, spun around in the
air several times, and finally stuck itself into the ground several
feet away from Baltor!
    Furthermore, Jensa’s body did a back flip as
it too flew out of control, and a moment later, the back of his
head slammed so hard into the ground he was instantly
unconscious.
    Right away, every thief, guard, and even the
former ambassador, all burst out into enthusiastic cheering!
    A moment later, Baltor was back on his feet,
and while looking all around, he yelled out, “Any other
objectors?”
    Everyone stopped cheering, and then they
began to look at each other to see if Baltor’s question rang true …
not a single thief, as they discovered, raised an objection! In
fact, most were shaking their heads negatively.
    Perhaps ten seconds later, Baltor called out,
“Good…the name of this new Special Forces Guild is, ‘Shadow
Force!’”
    “Hooray!” was the most common word used by
the thieves, as they began to cheer and clap.
    Once the applause had subsided, about a
minute later, Baltor briefed, “Mistress Tricia, tomorrow night at
nine p.m., I will need you to come to the palace. We will need to
discuss the changes, which are actually quite few. Also, I need you
to bring the two-pieced world map that is rightfully mine.”
    After taking a deep breath, he added, “One
last important thing I need to say before I go. I do not know who
the Secret Chief is, nor do I care. The only thing I care about is
that you let this person know that if he or she has any objections,
please feel free to have him or her visit me anytime at the
palace.”
    Without hesitation, Tricia responded, “My
Sultan, the Secret Chief is not amongst us, nor has that
person—whom I’ve been sworn never to reveal—been around for the
last five years!
    “Nevertheless, I promise you that when that
person does return, I will relay all of your commands…don’t be
surprised to see the Secret Chief coming in the dead of night, and
without invitation!”
    With a nod to his head and a pleased smile,
Baltor donned his cape, put on the hood, left the Shadow Guild, and
began the journey back to his own palace.
    He realized that by the time he would arrive
in his bedroom, he would only have ten minutes to get back dressed
into all the clothes he had worn at the start of his action-packed
evening.

CHAPTER IV
     
     
    Precisely two hours after the time that
Humonus had left his Sultan’s bedroom, he and his wife entered the
royal dining hall, only seconds before the exterior guards shut the
main entryway doors.
    Now they were dressed in formal attire—he
wore a “Class A” officer’s uniform, completely black in color
except for the golden buttons holding his suit jacket together, as
well the shiny, five-gold-star pin on each shoulder. She wore a
very elegant and beautiful, sky-blue dress with a thin platinum
necklace that had a small ruby amulet hanging off it.
    Besides all the other luxurious couches and
coffee-tables spread throughout the room, they simultaneously
observed that there was only one dinner table in the room’s middle,
which square-shaped table had been covered with a red tablecloth:
evenly spread on it were four sets of