by Morgan Rice
“Enough!” King Claudius roared. “I have defended you at every turn, Lucious. I gave you this command because I thought you might be the one to put down this rebellion the way it deserves to be put down. But it seems you weren’t capable of dealing with it, and now I must be the one to deal with our city being under siege.”
“Not Thanos?” Lucious said with a smirk. “It’s almost as if you don’t trust him when it comes to Ceres, or something, Father.”
“Thanos is as loyal as any man,” the king declared. “And at least he knows how to command properly. He survived Haylon, and the Stade. Give me one good reason, Lucious, why I shouldn’t send you from this room in disgrace and give him your command under me.”
Lucious almost didn’t say anything, but his anger had gone from something burning red to something cool and white and dangerous. He’d spent a lot of gold learning everything he knew, and to miss an opportunity this good would be far too foolish.
“I think you might want to reserve judgment, my king,” Lucious said. “At least until you’ve heard what I have to tell you.”
“And why would I do that?” his father said.
“Because then, you might change your mind about who you want in charge of your armies, and who you trust.”
***
Thanos sat, looking at his wife, feeling amazed that his life could have taken the turns it had. She’d said she had things to tell him tonight, and he was trying to guess at what they might be. He knew Stephania liked to collect secrets.
He was still wondering about it, dining quietly with Stephania, when the servants hammered on the door to his rooms.
“Prince Thanos, come at once. The king requires your presence on an urgent matter.”
“Ignore them,” Stephania said, reaching out to close her hand over his arm as if to hold him there. “There are things I need to talk to you about, and tell you.”
Thanos heard more thudding fists on the door. “Prince Thanos, the king said that there can be no delay.”
Thanos made a face and leaned over to kiss his wife. “I don’t think we’re getting a choice in this. It’s probably to do with whatever’s got the army in front of the city. And you keep saying that I can’t afford to anger the king.”
“No,” Stephania agreed. “Try to remember that.” She looked down at her relatively simple day dress. “Give me a chance to dress properly, and I’ll come with you.”
Thanos waved that away. “You shouldn’t have your evening ruined for this.” He took her hand and kissed it. “I’ll be back soon, then you can tell me whatever your news is. I bet it will be better than the king’s.”
“It will,” Stephania promised.
Thanos rose and headed for the door. He wasn’t really dressed for an audience with the king, in just a relatively simple tunic and breeches, but it sounded too urgent for anything more formal.
The men outside weren’t servants, but members of the royal bodyguard.
“What’s this?” Thanos said.
“It’s a vital matter,” one of the men said. “We need to hurry.”
So Thanos hurried, half expecting to be led in the direction of the king’s private chambers. Instead, though, he saw that they were heading in the direction of the throne room, hurrying along at something just short of a run.
“Is it something to do with the army?” Thanos asked, hoping to understand what was going on. He figured that fighting men might at least give him a clue.
“Forgive us, Prince Thanos,” the bodyguard said, “but the king said he would explain once you got there.”
Thanos wasn’t sure what to make of that, but he knew there was no point in testing the loyalty of the royal bodyguard. Besides, thanks to the speed they were walking at, they would be at the throne room soon enough.
They reached it, and the guards at the doors let them inside. Thanos could feel straightaway that something was wrong. There was a hush there that there shouldn’t have been, even if the king had demanded quiet. The nobles there looked shocked, even angry, as they stood to either side of the hall. He heard the sound of the doors slamming shut behind him like a tombstone falling over.
Something had gone wrong.
“What is it?” Thanos demanded. “What’s happened?”
Then he saw Lucious’s face; saw the look of triumph there, and he understood. By that point though, the royal bodyguards had already formed up around him with their swords drawn. There would be no chance to run, and unarmed, even Thanos couldn’t fight so many.
King Claudius sat perfectly still, and to Thanos, he seemed caught halfway between anger and sadness. “What happened? What happened is that you betrayed us.”
“And who says that?” Thanos countered. It was his only chance now. “Lucious? You know he’d say anything to cause trouble. He’s probably just looking for revenge for beating him senseless, still.”
“That’s what I suspected,” the king replied. He gestured to one side of the court. “Until Lucious brought me this man.”
A ragged-looking man stepped forward from the crowd, wearing a soldier’s uniform. It was too new to be original, and Thanos guessed Lucious had given it to him for effect.
“Say again what you told us,” the king said. “Say it.”
“Prince Thanos joined the rebels on Haylon,” the man said. “He helped them to burn our ships and attack our men. Do I… when do I get my reward?”
“You hear that?” Thanos said. “He’s only saying it because Lucious paid him.”
“That is possible,” the king said, “but when he came forward, others brought forward their suspicions. A guard mentioned that you had requisitioned gold from the treasury for the army, but there is no record of it reaching them. A bird from Haylon has arrived informing me of General Haven’s progress there, when I’m sure I sent Olliant. At the same time, a junior member of my chamberlain’s staff tells me that you were in his office the morning that fleet sailed, and Lucious says he saw you out there. Of course, I will have this wretch tortured to ensure he is telling the truth, but we both know what he will say, don’t we? After all, you have already tried to murder my son!”
The king stood then, and with the added effect of the dais, he loomed over Thanos.
“You are a traitor, Thanos. Admit it. Or maybe I’ll make you watch the torture. You’re soft enough that I’m sure you wouldn’t want that.”
“I’m soft?” Thanos said. “Maybe it’s just you who’s forgotten what it’s like to have any humanity. You ordered General Draco to slaughter men, women, and children on Haylon. You’ve had Lucious butchering your own people in the name of putting down the rebellion. It’s evil, and it needs to be stopped!”
“So you’ve been helping to stop it?” the king demanded.
Thanos stood proudly, because there was no point in trying to deny it anymore. “Yes. Yes, I have. And you might kill me for it, but there will be a dozen more to take my place. A hundred. The more brutal you try to be, the more the rebellion will rise up, until you and everyone like you are swept away!”
Thanos saw the king, his father, bring his hands together, looking down as though searching for some kind of answer. Then he shook his head.
“A fine speech, but an empire like this exists only because there is order within it. Only because it is strong. I tried to explain that to you once before, and you failed to learn the lesson. I gave you a chance, and you have thrown that chance back in my face! Even now, I suspect that you would cut me down if I gave you the opportunity.”
Thanos looked him squarely in the eye. “If it is the only way to stop you.”
“Then you are the one who must be stopped,” King Claudius said. “Take Thanos to a cell. Tomorrow, he will be taken by boat to the Isle of Prisoners. Once he is there, I will decide a suitable way for him to die.”
Thanos tried to struggle, because he couldn’t not struggle. He swung a punch at one royal bodyguard, then tried to grab a weapon from another. There were too many, though, and they pil
ed in together, dragging him to the ground. Even some of the nobles joined in, as though wanting to show their loyalty. They punched and kicked at him: people he’d known, former friends.
Then Lucious was there, holding a weighted club. “I’ve wanted to watch you fall for a long time. Now I get to.”
He swung it, and darkness exploded through Thanos’s skull.
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
The nobles of the North Coast had looked at Ceres with respect before, but now it felt more like awe as she sat amid the campfires and the hastily erected tents. Half of them didn’t seem to dare to speak to her after what she’d done to the Last Breath, while the other half treated her as if she were something far more than human.
Then again, she supposed she was. It was just that it took some getting used to.
Right now, she was sitting around a fire with Lord West and a few of his men. The fire wasn’t anywhere near as intense as the flame-filled trenches had been, but even so, it was a reminder of them. The lord of the North Coast had fetched Ceres a platter of trail bread, venison, and beans himself, and had tasted it before he’d handed it to her.
“You don’t have to do that,” Ceres tried to tell him, but the older man shook his head.
“I do,” he insisted. “My family swore to lay down their lives if necessary for your ancestors, and there are more than enough poisoners around Delos for it to be a risk. We cannot afford to lose you.”
“These are your men,” Ceres said. “They fight for you.”
That just got another shake of Lord West’s head. “They fight because you are here, my lady. Because you have shown them that there are powers out there greater than the strength of the Empire.”
“It’s not as though I could take on the Empire alone though,” Ceres said. It might have been nice if she could have turned all of their opponents to stone, taken all the risks for herself rather than pulling others into it, but her powers didn’t work like that. They took effort. “We’ve only come this far because you’re all here.”
“I just hope the rebellion is waiting for us,” Lord West said. “We cannot afford a long siege.”
“Lucious won’t dare bring his men out to face us now,” Ceres said. “Trust me, he’s a coward at heart. He’s nice and safe behind a wall, and he’ll stay there until someone pries him out.”
“With respect, my lady,” Lord West said. “That’s all he needs to do. We are horsemen. On open ground, we can run down the strongest foes, but horses cannot climb walls. And they need to eat, just as their riders do.”
Ceres understood then. “Lucious has been ravaging the countryside for a long time now. There won’t be any food to find. I’m sorry, Lord West. I’ve fought in the Stade, but I’m not used to how armies work.”
Lord West gestured to the others there. “You’ve got us this far, and you did best Lucious’s man. If he’d taken the challenge himself, we might not have this problem now. But if you wouldn’t mind my saying, my lady?”
“You don’t have to ask, Lord West,” Ceres said, taking a bite out of her food. After all that had happened today, she was ravenous. “I don’t want to be someone like King Claudius. Someone people are afraid to say things to in case they don’t like them.”
“That’s good,” Lord West said. “Then you have to understand that there are more problems than just the food, although that is significant. Delos can outwait us. And when it comes to winter, it will be hard. But it might not last that long. My hope was that the rebellion would rise up when we reached the city, and we would have it in our possession before any of the other legions of the Empire’s army could come to reinforce it.”
“But now, with us stuck outside the city, we’re easy prey,” Ceres said. “Caught between the hammer and the anvil.”
“Exactly,” Lord West said. “My men have shot down what messenger birds they could, but we cannot be certain they got them all, and we do not control the docks.”
“They could simply send a messenger that way, or even bring reinforcements back by boat,” Ceres said. She understood the magnitude of the situation now. They needed to take the city quickly. “All the gates will be well guarded, so we can’t just slip into the city, but—”
“What is it?” Lord West asked.
“There might be a way,” Ceres said. “The rebellion has always had secret ways into the city, and I know some of the old ones, from when Rexus was alive.”
“We wouldn’t be able to sneak the army that close to the walls,” Lord West said. “With this many men and horses, someone would spot the movement, and doing it by night is dangerous anyway, simply with the numbers of the men.”
Ceres stood. “I’m not talking about sneaking the whole army in,” she said. “Just me.”
“You?” Lord West shook his head. “What if something were to happen? No, we need you.”
“To sit out here with you until the rest of the Empire’s army arrives?” Ceres said. “No. I got you into this. I should be the one to get you into the city, too.”
“You’re too valuable,” Lord West said.
“We’ve already established that I don’t really know how to command an army,” Ceres said. “But I do know the ways into the city, and there will be people in the rebellion who trust me.” She thought of her brother, and her father. Of Anka. “Hopefully, people I’ve wanted to see for a long time now. They’ll listen to me, but if you or one of your men goes, what will they see? A noble trying to give them orders? I’m the best person for this job, while you’re the best person to ensure that when I get one of the city’s gates open at dawn, your men are ready to respond.”
“I still don’t like this,” Lord West said. “I should send men with you.”
“You know that would only increase the risk,” Ceres said. “The best thing you can do right now is trust me. It’s not as though you can stop me, unless you’re going to have me guarded day and night.”
Lord West hesitated for several seconds and then stood, clasping her hand. “Very well. But if you’re not back by noon, my lady, I will assault the walls to get you back.”
“You’ve already told me that horses can’t climb,” Ceres pointed out.
“They can’t,” Lord West said. “So you’d better make sure that you succeed.”
***
Ceres crept toward the city’s walls with only the faintest points of light to guide her. There were the dying embers in the fire pits outside the walls, the pinpricks of starlight above, and the glow of torches belonging to the sentries the Empire had set on Delos’s walls. Ceres was grateful for the last of those, because at least it told her where the watchers were likely to be.
She was grateful that it was a moonless night, too. It meant that, wrapped in a cloak, she barely left a trace as she crept across the open ground between her camp and the city. She hoped that any watcher would just see one more shadow against the grass, and not catch any glimmer from the armor that lay beneath.
She’d padded that so it wouldn’t make a sound as she moved. The last thing Ceres wanted was to be all but invisible, but to make so much noise that the Empire’s sentries could find her anyway. She picked her steps as carefully as she could too, feeling for twigs or broken ground that might give her away.
“I just hope there’s someone there when I get there,” Ceres murmured to herself.
When Rexus had led the rebellion, there had been set points where its members would look out for people who wanted to enter the city secretly, and set signs to let them know that a friend was approaching. Ceres had known all of them, because Rexus had made sure that she knew.
Now, though, Ceres had no way of knowing if the spots were still the same. The signals might have changed, or worse, the Empire might have found some of the routes and started watching them, capturing any rebels foolish enough to still use them. When Rexus had been in charge, they’d had to change several of the routes for exactly that reason. Ceres had no way of knowing which ones were still current.
She
kept on toward the walls. Perhaps someone else could have done this, in spite of what she’d said to Lord West, but the truth was that she was the one with the best chance to persuade the rebellion.
Ceres skirted around the edge of one of the fire pits, and heard a noise somewhere above. On instinct, she threw herself flat.
“What’s that?” someone said from a spot on the wall that had seemed dark and empty a moment before.
“Probably nothing,” another voice said. “You’ve been jumping at shadows all night.”
Ceres saw a guard then, lighting a previously cold torch. She could imagine him looking out over the grass beyond the walls, and tried to stay as still as possible, hoping that the darkness of her cloak would hide her.
“You see? There’s nothing there. Now, we need to get back to our patrols. The captain will kill us if he catches us playing dice.”
Ceres dared to move again as she saw the light move off, but she didn’t move quickly. Instead, she crawled her way toward the base of the wall, not caring how long it took. She couldn’t afford any more risks.
It seemed to take forever before her fingers touched stone and mortar, and even longer before Ceres found the spot she wanted. Above, there was a section where a gate for goods might once have been that now looked walled up. The bricks could still be moved from inside though, and when she’d left, the rebellion had sent people to watch it at night.
Ceres whistled, following a pattern of long and short notes she hoped she’d remembered correctly. The noise seemed far too loud against the silence of the night air. Ceres waited, pressed flat against the wall, hoping that none of the guards had heard.
She kept on waiting, counting her heartbeats, trying to get some sense of the time that was passing. At least a minute went by with no sound from above, and now, along the wall in the distance, Ceres could see the steady light of a torch moving in her direction. She didn’t think it was because someone had heard. It wasn’t moving fast enough for that, but the light would still be enough to see her by.