XI.
The legend of Kang's Treasure has a long history in the Barrens. Kang is a romantic hero in the highest traditions of theatrical tragedy, the pure-hearted outsider who fought a desperate struggle against a merciless barbarian enemy, and died at the moment of his triumph. Taking with him the secret of a lost Legion's buried treasure. As Your Majesty has expressed such an interest in the truth of the tale, I have searched the Royal Archives most diligently, and complied a short summary of the story and a history of its setting, the Barrens themselves. I trust this will satisfy Your Most Royal Highness's curiosity, and that we may return to the more pressing matter of the Sandstep boundary dispute tomorrow.
Crown's Barrens was always the farthest flung of the Zenni Empire's provinces, and it was the first to be lost as that empire fractured and faded into history. The Zenni had first come for the iron ore in the northern arm of the Zarhast mountain range, and then stayed for the tin they found in the foothills on the western side. The Barrens also acted as a natural barrier between the iron mines and the twin threats of the plains tribes to the west and the lizardmen tribes of the Great Swamp to the south.
Crown's Barrens flourished under Zenni rule. Slaves and colonists from the coast came; to work the mines, to build the roads and towns any new province needed, and to farm the uplands sheep that flourished in the chilly climate. Wool, slaves, tin and gold dust flowed out of the province to be eagerly sucked up by the centre of trade for the Western world, the Zenni capital Tantras. From there, trade went eastwards across the sea to the Shifting Isles, and from thence to the lands of the elves.
The frontier role of the Barrens never changed however, and the province provided the Imperial army with a steady stream of recruits wanting to escape the crofting life of their parents. Seen as a half-barbarian backwater on the wrong side of the mountains from the capital, the province was permanently under-defended by the later Zenni Emperors.
As the empire slid into civil war and dissolution, the last Emperors had better uses for their soldiers at home then in defending the frontiers of the empire. So when the Beshtel nation, fleeing their own calamity, arrived in the southwestern corner of the province, there was only a single Zenni Legion left to face them. A warning from history that Your Majesty has taken to heart.
Kang, whose name will be forever associated with the Barrens, was a half-elf from the Shifting Isles, and a priest of Shan, the goddess of nature, nurture and growing things. The cult of Shan is not generally a militant one, and it is unusual for a priest of the Green-Eyed Goddess to serve in the military, even as a healer. Kang however, by all accounts an unusual character, took it upon himself to see as much as possible of his patron power's domains. Lacking the wealth to do this on his own, he signed up to the Legions, and travelled the empire, wherever his postings took him.
Fatefully for the Crown's Barrens, Kang's legion was the Hiladic 8th, the survivors of whom were sent to garrison the Barrens by the crippled Emperor Bandermir the Hunched, as punishment for opposing him during the civil war that put him in power. When the Legion met its final end at the hands of the Beshtel three years later, Kang had risen to the rank of Cleric-Captain.
After the disastrous defeat, Kang and his small cavalry squadron apparently managed to extricate themselves from the routed Zenni, and fight a ferocious rearguard action against the tribesmen. Kang is supposed to have summoned a swarm of locusts to drive back the most ardent tribesmen, and personally killed their spiritman. In fact, the tribesmen had most probably stopped to loot the bodies of the dead, a habit that plagues Your Majesty's own men unless they are watched most carefully.
With Kang vanished the Legion's reserve cohort and the baggage train it had been guarding. Kang reappeared the next spring, leading a flying campaign of raids against the Beshtel with a ragged force of hillmen, ex-legionaries and colonists. But the treasure from the Legion's paychest, its gathered tribute, its store of magical weapons, and the revered Legionary standard itself all vanished. Many claim it is still buried out somewhere in the mountains, supposedly in Kang's 'secret mountain stronghold', the name of which changes with the teller. A more worldly man would suspect that in reality the gold went to feed and pay hungry soldiers, and the magic weapons to bribe mountain chiefs.
In any case, the raids eventually provoked the Beshtel Ban, Valens, to gather all his tribesmen at the Bright Rocks, where upon he laid siege to nearby Zhanna Monastery, in the hope that Kang would be forced to come to the relief of his allies. The Ban had guessed correctly, and three days before high summer, Kang and his army arrived in the hills above the Bright Rocks. In the ensuing battle, both Ban Valens and Kang were killed, and although the Beshtel fled the field in disarray, there was no figurehead left who could drive them completely from the Barrens.
Today, the Barrens are populated by descendents of both peoples; Zenni colonists and Beshtels have merged seamlessly into a patchwork of half-civilised clans. Only in the Zarhast range itself can you still find truly barbarian tribesmen. Ironically, the mountain strongholds of Kang have become the land of his enemy, but the cleric did preserve a touch of civilisation in the foothills and vales themselves. For example, the people there speak a dialect of Classical Zenni that an educated man can struggle through. I believe Mitran merchants have long traded for goods from the west through the natives as a result.
Royal Report from Court Historian Gurion to Hardin Great Queen Janis IV
"Ahhhh, you've just reminded how young you really are," Hunnah laughed, "I always get fooled by the size of you humans sooner or later."
"Laugh if you like!" barked Coin "But I know what I'm doing here, and I can prove it! You think that just because I'm young, that I'm stupid enough-"
"Certainly!" she gloated "And it's no more then you deserve! Jothanial has led you around by the nose through your own greed, chasing after a treasure that's been scattered for nearly two hundred years. If it ever existed in the first place!"
Coin spoke through gritted teeth. "The treasure exists. Don't doubt it. The stone and I made a pact."
"You're very sure of yourself Coin," she replied "But I remember how much Jothanial Kauld's pacts were worth when his clansmen were burning down our villages. He's using you for his own ends, ones you can't even see yet. And at the end, when he's finished with you, you'll be die. And you won't even know why."
"Do you think I am so stupid I would simply put my life in the hands the first mad wizard to spin me a story about lost treasure? We made a pact, I told you! I swore a Priest's Oath: to take him out of his clan's holdings, to protect and keep him safe until we reach a new land, and never to let him fall into the hands of his daughter. You know what would happen to me if I broke my word."
"I do," she said quietly. The priest's magic was bound to the oath. If it were ever broken, his own power would strike him down. "I would have warned you against giving it."
"Ah, but then how could I be sure he would have kept his promises to me Sidon?" Jothanial spoke suddenly "It would be so easy to break them, would it not? I am not the man I was, after all."
"I questioned him for a long time," said Coin "I cast a truth spell, and listened to his answers. They were quite clear, he answered them all and with no evasion. Then I cast a divination spell." His voice became certain "Fir answered me. Kang's treasure exists, and Jothanial knows where it is. My oath only binds me if he leads me to the treasure."
"How," she asked sceptically "Can a stone show you where a two-hundred year-old treasure is buried?"
"Because I was there two hundred years ago when it was hidden, halfling. I served in the Legions," Jothanial spoke softly. "With a certain Cleric-Captain Kang."