THE ROYAL TRIALS: HEIR

by James Tate

  Tears choked me, and I gave her a weak smile. Unable to speak, I kissed my baby on the forehead, then my governess on her wrinkled cheek.

  "Thank you," I whispered as tears streamed down my face. Before I lost my nerve, I stepped back and hit the button to close the door. I was the only one with the code, and if Magda was true to her word, my baby would be spirited away to safety before I took my last breath.

  Titus groaned again, and I stalked back over to him, placing my foot on his throat before he fully regained consciousness.

  When he did, he started laughing.

  "You're a damn fool, Titus," I hissed at him. "What kind of deal did you cut in order to borrow a god's power, huh? What did you sell? Your sons?"

  He continued laughing at me, and my anger burned hotter. I'd just kissed my daughter goodbye, and this maniac was laughing at me?

  "Tell me which one," I demanded, pressing my foot down harder. I was rewarded with the gurgle of his airway being squashed. "It's Nache, isn't it? That jealous bitch—"

  My words cut off as pain ripped through me, and I gasped.

  This was it. The moment I'd seen coming from the minute Zarina was born. The moment that had haunted my dreams over and over, warning me that my death was coming, and yet I'd been totally powerless to avoid it.

  I looked down at my chest, confirming what I already knew. The tip of a jagged blade protruded from the center of my blood-soaked shirt, and I couldn't help the agonized cry that fell from my lips.

  Despite the countless times I'd seen the moment of my death—brought forth in multiple visions in the weeks after Sal had left us—nothing could have prepared me for what happened next.

  "You..." I gasped out as my legs gave way and I crashed to the ground. I'd just seen—for the first time—the face of my killer. "How could you?"

  My voice was weak. Of course it was, I was dying.

  Betrayal burned through me like acid as I stared up at the person who'd just stabbed me in the back. "I trusted you."

  Those would be my last words. The certainty of that washed through me even as my murderer crouched low and sneered.

  "That's what made this all so much sweeter," the loathsome betrayer hissed. "You never saw it coming."

  Chapter 1

  Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess. Her parents died when she was young, but she was strong, brave, and powerful. She became a powerful queen, one of the best her kingdom had ever known, bringing peace and prosperity not only to her homeland, but also to the neighboring lands, too. Under her leadership, academics thrived and new technologies became reality every day, allowing those without magic access to all the conveniences the blessed had.

  But as with all great leaders, there were those who grew jealous and bitter toward her. They resented the adoration of her people, begrudged her the power she held. They conspired and made deals until one day, that queen was murdered and her throne stolen by blood-soaked hands.

  The story wasn't over, though. Not yet.

  The balance of the land was thrown off, and the once beautiful and prosperous country was thrown into turmoil. Drought, floods, plague, and years on years of darkness reigned. Technologies failed, mechanical transports became relics, and women became second-class citizens under the new king's rule.

  Eventually three young princes came of age, and with their blossoming magic came a small measure of peace for a ravaged land. They cured the plagues and gave the people of Teich a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

  When the king announced the Royal Trials to find a magically chosen bride for one of his sons, the people rejoiced. Not only would they have a chance at a kinder king, the Trials were a return to the old ways.

  But they didn't anticipate how the king would corrupt the sacred rituals, how he would lie, cheat, scheme, and murder to influence the outcome.

  They didn't anticipate princes dedicated to taking down their father at any cost.

  But most of all, they didn't anticipate me.

  Chapter 2

  "Let me go," Ty demanded, his voice drenched with agony and his eyes clouded with fear. His hand slipped a fraction farther through mine, and I let out an involuntary scream.

  "No!" I yelled back, even as my muscles stretched and tore. There was no way I could pull him back up. Not alone. Not without magic.

  But I'd just been able to use my magic, hadn't I? I'd just ripped Taipanus's shriveled, blackened soul from his body. Not before it was too late, though. Not before he'd stabbed Ty in the chest with an enchanted dagger, then dropped him off a cliff.

  "Lo, baby," Ty groaned, his gaze steady on me even as a black web of veins crawled across his face. "You have to trust me. Let me go."

  I shook my head, incapable of more words. My arm was howling with the strain of holding him, and I knew soon it wouldn't be a choice. My grip would fail and Ty would fall to his death on the jagged rocks below.

  Tears burning my eyes, I looked down at my princely lover. My warrior. How could I lose him, too? Zan was gone. There's no way he could have survived the bridge collapse. And Lee? Gods, I hoped Lee was safe.

  "I can't," I choked out. My heart wasn't breaking, it was shattered. What would be left of me after all this was over? "I can't lose you, Ty. Please don't make me let go."

  "Little one," Ty pleaded, then ground his teeth against some shudder of pain rippling through him. "You won't lose me. Not yet. I can save myself but only if you trust me."

  What did he mean? There was another possible outcome? Why hadn’t he said so in the first place?

  What if he was lying to save me, though?

  I bit my lip, peering down at the rocks way, way below Ty's dangling feet. Surely there was no way he could survive that fall.

  "Lo." His voice cut across my panicked thoughts. "I need you to trust me. Can you do that?"

  I almost laughed. What a simple question, but easily one of the hardest. Had he asked if I loved him, the answer would be so easy to give. But trust?

  "Yes," I sobbed. "I trust you."

  He gave me a small nod, holding my gaze. "Then let go."

  Holding my breath, I squeezed my eyes tight shut, unable to look as I forced my grip to loosen. Ty's hand left mine and my eyes snapped open once more.

  What had I done?

  Horrified, I could do nothing but watch and scream as he fell.

  Until he was no longer falling... and my mouth slammed shut in confusion. He'd only fallen a fraction of the distance between where I lay belly down on the arm of a crane and the jagged rocks at the base of the mountain.

  "Ty?" I called out, my voice quivering with fear and shock and just straight up exhaustion. My arms were like jelly from having held his weight so long, and I was pretty confident my legs would be worse if I tried to stand up.

  My half-dead lover tilted his head back to flash me a confident grin, but the way his body swayed on the tiny rock shelf had me holding my breath. He was so hurt. That dagger...

  "Ty, you need to pull that blade out," I instructed him, my hand trembling visibly as I pointed to the magical weapon still protruding from his chest. "It'll bleed faster, but it's doing something to you. Poison or something, I don't know, but I know you need to get rid of it. Fast." That wasn't just my fear talking, it was the unwavering certainty from my god-mark. If Ty didn't get rid of that blade, it wouldn't matter if he hadn’t fallen to his death.

  Seeming to be in a shocked daze, he inspected his hands, turning them over to look at the black veins creeping and moving under his skin.

  "Yeah," he replied, sounding a bit queasy. "Yeah good call, Lo. Uh, shit."

  His location, on a small rock ledge about three person-lengths below me—where I still lay on the crane arm—didn't afford me much visibility, but I could guess by the way he looked around he was searching for a way off the cliff face.

  "Just hold on," I yelled back. "I'll get help. Ropes and stuff."

  As I scrambled, trying to find my feet and not trip in my ridiculous red gown,
Ty wrapped his hands around the hilt of Taipanus's dagger and wrenched it free with a grunt of pain.

  "Holy Zryn's balls," he groaned as blackish-red blood gushed from the wound and the dagger dropped from his fingers. "That's a killer."

  "Don't say that!" I snapped back, keeping one eye on him as I cautiously—but quickly—hurried back along the crane arm to the ladder. "Keep pressure on. I'll be back as fast as I can."

  Ty pressed his palm to the wound, and agony was etched all over his face as clear as day. "I'll pass out before you even get back to the village," he panted in reply. "Just... gimme a second. I can do this." His eyes squeezed tight shut, and I could see him mentally preparing for something.

  "Ty... what are you doing?" I asked, terrified. "You can do what?"

  He held up his free hand, indicating for me to shut up. So, I did. Simply for lack of any other idea what to do. If Ty had a plan, then it was a hell of a lot more than I had.

  "Okay." He puffed out a long breath, casting a quick glance up at me on the crane, then turned his attention back to his surroundings. Slowly, so freaking slowly, he turned himself to face the rock. No easy task considering the breadth of his shoulders and the shallowness of the ledge that had saved his life.

  "Just so we're clear, babe," he called out, even as he reached one hand up and to the side, hooking his fingers into a groove so small I couldn't even see it. "If I survive this... I want a whole night alone. Just you and me. No annoying brothers or meddling gods. Deal?"

  He tilted his face toward me, and I frantically nodded. "Deal. Of course. Anything."

  A small smile touched his lips before he turned back to the rock face. "Should have asked for more," he muttered. He’d probably meant it to be under his breath, but the angle of the wind carried his words to my ears. Cheeky bastard.

  I cracked a weak smile but otherwise remained frozen to the spot. I was too fucking scared any movement from me would distract him.

  Ty tested the grip of his fingers in that little groove, then when he seemed satisfied, he took his hand off his chest wound and reached up for another finger grip.

  Holy gods’ tits. He was going to climb back up.

  My breath sucked in sharply, but I clamped my lips shut before I could make a sound and distract him. Instead I sank my teeth into my lip and watched while he systematically sought out the smallest ledges and surfaces, which allowed him to drag himself back up to safety with nothing more than his toes and the tips of his blood-slicked fingers.

  The confident, rhythmic way he moved was almost hypnotizing, and when I squinted, I could make out a pale, shimmering glow to his skin. Whatever Ty's power was, it was helping him save himself.

  After a short eternity, his hands reached the top of the cliff—the flat ledge where the ancient relic of a crane was perched—and he hauled his body over with an agonized grunt.

  Only then, when I was sure he wouldn't suddenly slip and plunge to his death, did I scramble down the rusted crane ladder and practically fly across the dirt and rubble to reach him.

  "Holy gods," I exclaimed, gently helping him roll over. He was drenched from chest down in sticky, black-red blood, and his pale face showed those dark veins with startling contrast. "You maniac," I scolded him, tearing a wide length of my skirt off, then wadding it up to press against his chest. "You almost died thirty-seven times in the last ten minutes! I feel like you just stripped at least a decade off my life." I was babbling, but it was all I could do to hold the tears at bay.

  Ty gave me a weak cough and smiled. "You were counting?"

  I scowled. "Yes. Fuck, Ty, we need help. We need to get Lee."

  Everywhere his infected blood touched me, my skin hummed and crawled with magic. Except this wasn't the wild, pure sort of magic of the storm, this was vile and repulsive. Just having it on my skin turned my stomach and increased my fears for Ty tenfold.

  "Help me up," he instructed, reaching out a grazed and bleeding hand to wrap around my neck. As much as I wanted to argue with him, tell him to wait right there while I ran for help, time was not our friend. If Ty thought he could walk, then that's what we'd do.

  It took a bit of effort, grunting, and swearing—especially when I almost dropped him again—but eventually we were both back up on our feet and staggering down the path into the town of Ironforge once more.

  What we would find there, I could only guess. Or pray for. Hopefully my killing Taipanus had somehow triggered his troops to cease their attack on the villagers.

  The blood-soaked streets, heaped with bodies, told me that it might not have made a difference... if everyone was already dead.

  Chapter 3

  The closer we came to the town square—the same place that just the night before had been heaving with drunken revelers—the sounds of living people reached us. My relief was palpable, and I stumbled.

  "Shit, Lo," Ty groaned, "please don't drop me. I don't think I'll be able to get up again." His voice was laced with humor but mostly soaked in pain. Shit.

  I tightened my grip around his waist. "I won't drop you, Ty. Not again." The image of his hand slipping from mine flashed across my mind and I flinched. "Never again."

  I just kept walking, halfway hauling Ty up the street with me. Chunks of darkness dissipated from my mind with every living, breathing woman of Ironforge we passed.

  Thank Barmzig, they hadn't all been slaughtered by the king's men. A lot had, that much was painfully clear. But based on the open, relieved smiles on their faces as they nodded to me... they'd won.

  "Your Majesty!" A woman gasped as we entered the square. "You're alive. Rita! Francis! The queen is alive!"

  I was exhausted, physically and mentally, so all I could muster up was a weak smile and half nod in return. All that mattered was finding Lee and getting Ty healed. The fact that he was still alive after everything was a miracle.

  "Lo," Ty muttered with a hiss of pain as I stumbled again. "I don't mean to hurry you, but..." He trailed off with a strangled sound, and I glanced up at his pale, sweaty face. Black veins still crawled and moved under his skin, and every now and then his eyes turned totally dark. It was scary as shit.

  "I know," I panted. "I know. Just hold on; we need Lee."

  Frantic, but trying really hard not to let Ty see my panic, I cast my gaze around the town square. All around us the women of Ironforge were battered and bleeding but breathing. So where were the guards? All the royal soldiers that Taipanus had led here on a mission of death and destruction?

  "Majesty," a broad-shouldered woman greeted me with a head dip. She had blood smeared across her face but otherwise seemed unharmed. "This way." Without fussing, she slid her arm around Ty's waist from the other side, shouldering half his weight and allowing us to move quickly through the square.

  Inside a boarded-up shop front, a makeshift medical wing had been slapped together with several stretchers holding groaning women, and even a couple of men in Lakehaven livery. Between them all, two aproned women worked quickly and silently, applying bandages and slathering on creams, while at the back of the room a dirty blond head was bowed over an unconscious woman barely older than myself.

  "Lee," I breathed, totally lacking the energy to raise my voice any higher. "Thank Sal."

  "You can say that again," Ty agreed with a pained groan.

  Just then, my strength failed, and Ty would have ended up crashing to the floor if it hadn't been for my helper on the other side holding him up. Still, I stumbled and knocked over the jug of water perched on a ledge beside the bed nearest us. The damn thing smashed on the tile, and every conscious face in the room turned to stare.

  "Calla!" Lee exclaimed, rising halfway from his seat, then pausing when he remembered his patient. His eyes flickered back down to her, back to me, then across to Ty. "Shit."

  "Yep," Ty replied, his face a scary shade of grey, made worse by those black veins. The heavy bruising from his fight with Zan the day before added to the impression of a dead man walking. "I think I need your help, li
ttle bro."

  "No shit," Lee agreed, his eyes wide and his complexion washed out. No doubt he was damn near drained of magic himself.

  One of the aproned women hurried over to the patient he'd been working on and checked her pulse before giving a sharp nod. "Good enough," she said with terse decisiveness. "She's stable again. Go tend to your brother."

  Lee only hesitated a split second before wiping his bloody hands off on a rag and making his way over to us. "This has got to be a record for you, meathead," he told Ty as his gaze ran over all the visible injuries and paused at the bleeding wound at the base of his brother’s rib cage. Ty still held a sopping wad of fabric to it, having managed to keep it in place even while the broad woman had assisted on that side.

  "Get him a bed," Lee ordered one of his other helpers. "Quickly!" The fear in his voice was unmistakable, and it damn near stole the breath straight out of me.

  But Ty would be fine. He had to be fine. We didn't just survive an army, a psychotic, power-hungry murderer, and get down off the edge of a cliff only for him to die now. That would easily be the worst ending to our story ever written.

  I tried to follow when two more women assisted in getting Ty across the room, but Lee blocked me.

  "Nope," he declared with a shake of his head. "You're only a distraction here. Go and get cleaned up; take a rest. Unless you have injuries that need attention?"

  I tightened my lips but shook my head. I couldn't argue with him, but... "You're exhausted already, Lee. Maybe there's some way I can help?"

  He gave me a weak smile and took my hand in his, squeezing lightly. "Unless you've got a bottle of wild-magic rain stashed in that dress somewhere, the best help will be knowing you're taking care of yourself." He gave me a quick kiss, but a shouted curse from Ty divided his attention.

  "Just save him," I said, my voice weak as I rose up on my toes to kiss him back.

  Lee's focus was on his patient—his brother—so he just squeezed my hand before leaving me to work on saving Ty's life.