by Pedro Urvi
“In Issoli, my village.”
“Isn’t it just a village of farmers?”
“But the Proxy of Issoli has a stable behind where he lives, with quite a few horses in it.”
“Proxy? You want to steal horses from a Proxy?”
“Not exactly. I’ll ask him nicely first.”
Romen shook his head firmly. “Have you lost your mind? How are you going to ask a Proxy? You’ll be put in jail immediately.”
“This Proxy helped my brother. He might help me too.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
“We´ll steal his horses.”
“At least if he doesn’t imprison us first,” Romen said.
She smiled mischievously. “What would life be without a bit of excitement?”
Romen rolled his eyes. He was about to reply, but Kyra ran off down the field.
“Oh hell,” he protested as he ran after her. “This is going to end badly for us. Very badly…”
Chapter 12
The door opened with a barely audible creak. Adamis glanced over his shoulder and saw the Champion of the House of Eret coming into his quarters. For an instant his mind played tricks on him, and with a surge of happiness he thought it was Rotec. But sadly his friend would never come to see him again. A stinging pain pierced his heart, as if this absence were a dagger soaked in acid. Tears pricked at his eyes.
“Excuse me, your Highness,” Teslo said with a brief bow. “Your father the High King awaits you in the Throne Hall.”
Adamis went on gazing at the landscape revealed from the open balcony. From that height he could see the whole southern part of the First Ring, with its palaces, monuments and translucent buildings, extending in a semi-circle of shining glass forms until it reached the turquoise blue of the sea. Ships swayed in silence at their moorings. Ever since he was a boy Adamis had had the impression that if he dropped a pebble from his balcony it would roll downhill and shatter the glass buildings on its way to the water, where it would vanish in its depths. But that was just an optical illusion, since the glass was robust, just as his wish to escape and follow that pebble into the depths was an impossible illusion. He was the Prince of the House of Eret, and there was no other possible fate for him, except death.
He took a long breath and went on staring out. To the east he could make out two of the great marble and granite bridges which joined the First Ring to the Second, the house of his sworn enemy. One day they’ll pay, Rotec. They’ll pay for robbing you of a thousand springs of joy and life, I swear.
“Your Highness…” Teslo insisted softly.
Adamis turned. “Forgive me, Teslo, I was lost in thought. You may hand me my armor and cape.”
“Right away, my lord.”
Adamis finished dressing. He wore a white dress tunic with silver embroidery, and over it the armor of golden scales which covered him from neck to thighs. It was too showy for his taste, but he knew the occasion required it. His limbs were covered by greaves and gauntlets, also of gold. A white cape, almost transparent, hung from his shoulders. He hoped his father would approve. He was a very traditional figure, with fixed rules which had to be respected at all times.
After checking his attire he looked closely at his new Champion and Protector. He was young, his skin gave off reflections of still-healthy gold, and he was very tall, at least a hand taller than Adamis himself. His shoulders were as broad and muscular as Rotec’s. To have been crowned Champion he must certainly be a remarkable warrior. His head was shaven except for the long braid which hung down his back, in the style of the Soldiers. His face on the other hand was very different from Rotec’s, much more angular, with eyes dark as night. This had surprised Adamis, as it was not very common in his House, where light eyes were the norm.
“Are you happy with your new position?”
Teslo stood to attention. “It is the greatest of honors, your Highness.”
Adamis smiled. “That is not what I asked you…”
“Of course… yes, your Highness, I am very pleased. The highest aspiration of a Soldier is to reach the rank of Champion of his House, to become a protector of the Royal family and lead the army in battle when his King commands it.”
Adamis looked at the impressive soldier and nodded with the trace of a smile.
“Let us hope my father never asks you to, for the good of all… Only dreamers and poets praise the virtue and nobility of war, and only a madman or a fool goes to it with blind eyes and spellbound heart.”
Teslo narrowed his eyes. “I do not know that saying…”
“I am not surprised. It is by an old philosopher, Utrumis, who lived some five thousand years ago. His texts fell out of favor with the nobility, particularly among the Royal Houses. All Alantres turned against him. His views on many subjects important to society were considered… let us say, subversive. He had many problems… and one day he disappeared, or else he was made to disappear; it will never be known which. Luckily his works have been kept in the common fount of knowledge. I have always been fascinated by his essays. He reminds me of the reality we face and how close we always are to making a mistake without intending to ‒ or even with the best of intentions ‒ and thus launch ourselves into an abyss of pain and death. Like the one you, my Champion, want to bring about.”
“I do not understand, your Highness…”
“I have heard the rumor. I know you are hoping to challenge Iradu, the Champion of the House of Aureb, to a death duel, to avenge the death of your predecessor Rotec.”
Teslo lowered his head, and his long braid fell to one side.
“The wish does you credit, and I know you do it for the honor of our House, but let me assure you it is a mistake. For two reasons: first, at this critical moment it would bring about war, and that is something my father has forbidden. And second, you would lose.”
“I can defeat him, my lord, I assure you! The offense cannot remain unpunished!”
“No, you cannot. You are too young and inexperienced to face him. As for the offense, I will deal with that, at the appropriate time.”
“But I am the best warrior in the House of Eret!”
“You are indeed, but unfortunately the best of my House cannot defeat Iradu. That I know.”
“Allow me to show you.”
“No. I forbid you to dare Iradu, I forbid you to let your actions cause offense to our rival House. You shall not draw your weapons without my permission.”
“I live to serve you. I will obey your command, your Highness.”
“Then that is that,” Adamis said with a friendly slap on the warrior’s massive shoulder. “And now let us go and see my dear father. I believe he is impatient to give me an exemplary punishment.”
Adamis walked uneasily into the throne hall. With slow steps he crossed the hall, which was eternally covered by a low mist, glancing at everyone there, and bent one knee before his father the High King, who was waiting on his throne. His Majesty was accompanied by his wife the Queen, who sat beside him on the transparent Ethereal Throne. When he saw his mother Adamis was even more upset; she only came to the throne in the case of some very serious matter for the kingdom. He noticed Notaplo standing to one side. There was no-one else in the chamber, not even the Guard of Honor. They were alone.
This gets worse by the moment, he thought as he eyed the old Erudite’s worried face.
“Did you call for me, my lord King?” he said with the respect he truly felt.
The High King did not answer, so that Adamis was obliged to look directly at him. As he did, he realized this was exactly what his father was looking for. He found the High King’s eyes fixed on him, eyes of such light grey they reminded him of morning mist on a silvery lake. A mist which hid the King’s well-known intelligence deep in that lake which was his profound and prodigious mind.
Laino nodded, watching his son very carefully as if he did not recognize him, as if he were somebody else.
Adamis bore the scrutiny stoically, although there was
a knot in his stomach which was growing and would soon force him to bend double.
“What were you thinking of?” the King asked faintly, with a voice as soft and distant as a murmur from the faraway continent of the slaves.
Adamis looked away, ashamed and troubled. “Always of the wellbeing of my House,” he answered, as he knew he ought.
“My ears hear the correct answer, but is it truly so?” Laino said. There was doubt in his soft yet penetrating voice.
“You know it, my father and King. You know me well.”
Laino clasped his fingers together and watched his son in silence for a long moment.
Adamis turned pleadingly to his mother, but she was looking elsewhere. The Queen would not help him, not before the High King.
“There was a time when I knew,” Laino murmured, “a time when I thought I knew my son, my heir. I would even have wagered my honor on it, even my life if it came to it… and yet now I am not so sure.”
“Father…” Adamis tried to explain, but Laino interrupted him.
“What happened in my absence is profoundly grave, and the trust I always placed in you, my only son, is now in question.”
“Allow me to tell you what happened ‒”
“The facts speak for themselves, Adamis, Prince of the House of Eret. Your words of defense would neither change them nor justify them.”
“But they might explain…”
“Explain?” Laino repeated. He threw his head back and gave a long sigh. “How can you explain that in my absence, my heir shed Royal Blood of a rival House?”
“Let me make you understand…”
“What should I understand? That you were on the point of not only losing your own life, but of causing a war between the Houses?”
“Father, I can assure you that was never my intention. The events unfolded that way, but I was not the one who shed the first blood.”
“That is beside the point,” Laino said coldly. “What happened is unjustifiable, and worse still unforgivable. It should never have happened. You should never have let yourself get involved in a situation like that. I believed my son was bright enough, intelligent enough, skillful enough, to deal with difficult situations. I thought I had educated my heir well, that I had taught him to use his head either to avoid these situations or else to handle them. I believed he shared my vision, understood the values of our House, of our civilization, of everything that is at stake.”
Adamis closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. These words had opened up a hole in his heart.
“Who is the Regent of the House of Eret in the Lower Cycle, when the High King hibernates?”
“I am, as Prince Heir and by your will as High King.”
“And what is the Regent’s principal obligation?”
Adamis swallowed; his father was lecturing him as he had when he was a small boy, and the bitter unease in his stomach was rising to his mouth. If he would just let him explain … but he would not. His father had already made his decision, and no matter how much Adamis might try, nothing would make him change his mind.
“To secure the wellbeing of his House and protect it in the absence of the High King,” he said, reciting the sentence like a creed.
“And is that what you think you did?”
“I did what according to my judgment I considered to be best, given the situation I was faced with.”
“Best? Your judgment?” Laino shook his head. “Has my son lost his mind in this last cycle, while I was sleeping?”
“No, father, I have not lost my mind or my judgment.”
“You almost caused a war against the House of Aureb, a war which would have started had the cycle not ended.”
“Asu shed blood. I merely defended myself.”
Laino stroked the ancestral medallion on his chest, the sign which identified him as High King, and gave a long sigh. A whitish mist surged from his breath and expanded before him until it surrounded Adamis. On contact with the arcane mist he felt a deeply painful void, sharp, wounding, as if it were robbing him of his essence of life through the pores of his golden skin. He looked fearfully, at his father, not understanding. Why was his father draining his life from him? Could he be going to kill him? He turned an imploring gaze on his mother in the hope she would intervene, but she looked away.
“Are you going to shed blood, Adamis?” Laino asked in his distant, cold, almost threatening voice.
“No, my lord Father… of cour… not… I cou… nev… do it.”
“You will not? But if you do not defend yourself you will die…” The High King’s voice was icy now.
Adamis shook his head as he doubled over with pain. His father’s Power was consuming him. His body would not be able to withstand the touch of that lethal mist.
“Never… I will die if necessary… but I shall not raise my hand against my father.”
Laino nodded slowly. At a word the mist returned into his body through his mouth, as if a spirit which lived inside him were returning to its lair. Adamis shivered and shook himself in an attempt to rid himself of the feeling of death and pain that was torturing him.
“That ought to have been your answer. That ought to have been your course of action. Never to shed the blood of Asu. Do you understand?”
Adamis nodded, shuddering. “I understand.”
“I thought you had learnt that lesson long ago. The House, the Kingdom, comes before anything else. You have failed us all, your family, your House and me. And not just that: to my greater dishonor, I have had to use all my influence and leave myself in debt in order that you would not be condemned at the trial. And I assure you that you would have been if I had not intervened. High King Gar would have made sure of your death. Nothing would have pleased him more, leaving me between the sword and the wall. He nearly had me there, and I would have had to choose between your death or going to war against the other Houses. That is what was really at stake in that trial.”
“I am sorry, Father.”
“The political balance between the Houses is extremely fragile. It might break at any moment. The peace we enjoy is the result of the constant efforts of the High Kings, of alliances, of the game of power and of fear of the rival Houses. Whoever fails to play his cards well risks perishing. In a not-too-distant past there were seven Houses, and before that there were thirteen. Do you know what happened to those which are no longer with us?”
Adamis quoted the History of Alantres he had learnt as a child. “They were conquered. The High Kings, the Royal families and the court were executed.”
“True, but not completely exact. Notaplo?”
The Erudite raised his head and scratched his temple. “Not all were annihilated or annexed. One House was banished and another was disbanded; their members fled so as not to be executed. They are believed to wander in distant places, hiding. For a long time they were hunted, but not anymore.”
“The History of Alantres is both rich and bloodthirsty,” Laino went on. “Never forget that. Do not drag your House to the abyss through your ineptitude, pride or vanity, for we would all perish with it. And believe me, nothing would make High King Gar and his son Asu happier.”
“I understand, and I know what you mean, my King.”
Laino rose, and as he did so an unnatural silence filled the chamber, muffling all sound. The ever-present mist on the floor intensified and Adamis felt its bleak touch on his legs. The High King advanced, looking straight ahead. As he did, the incredible Power his being gave off darkened everything behind him, as if night herself followed him as his escort. Adamis felt himself shiver in the face of his father’s immense Power.
“But that is not what has affected me most in this whole situation,” Laino said, and there was sadness in the distant murmur that was his voice. “What really worries me is what, although you denied it at the trial, we both know to be true.”
“The Ceremony of Vivification,” Adamis admitted. He knew that lying at that point would be useless. His father was too intelli
gent to let something like that escape him. Besides, Notaplo’s presence and his worried face could only mean the Erudite had been interrogated first and already knew the truth of it all. Notaplo would never lie to the High King.
“It is preposterous. Why? I cannot understand it. Why would a Royal heir, Regent of one of the Five Houses, interfere with the most sacred of our ceremonies, that on which his own father’s longevity depended? Why?”
At that moment his mother turned her head and looked at him questioningly. It was not a caring look, but a reproachful one.
“How could you do a thing like that?” the Queen asked, shaking her head.
“I only wanted to make sure the slave girl would not die. The ceremony was never defiled, nor were the High Kings in any danger at any moment, You have my word on that. I would never do a thing like that.”
Notaplo intervened. “I can assure you the Prince’s words are true. Only a speck of the girl’s life essence was preserved, that is all.”
The Queen put her hands to her face and rolled her eyes in disbelief. “That is treason all the same!”
Notaplo fell silent and lowered his head.
“For a slave…” said Laino. He gazed thoughtfully at Adamis. “I cannot understand it. You have always had a weakness for the slaves, ever since you were little. It is something for which I never judged you, even though it is frowned upon among us. Perhaps that is where I went wrong. Slaves are a necessary evil. They sustain our economy, they help our civilization advance towards its glorious goals. They are a source of wellbeing, of power for the Houses… We even have the possibility of experimenting on them and learning about their race, as Erudites like Notaplo do to further scientific developments. But do not misunderstand me, my son, they are and always will be slaves. They are inferior beings, without Power, primitive and wild. If we let them be, they would tear each other to pieces, like the animals they are.”
“Perhaps if you knew them you might discover they are not necessarily like that, that they are capable of great things, if they had the chance…”
“Your mother and I do not share your view. Neither does our House.”