Larni trotted from the large hall, and in her absence, I stared out across the stone floor, not seeing the large door through which the public would spill to bring their troubles to their monarchs, nor the enormous tapestries on the pillars. While I waited, my hands twisted my hair up into a messy bun, not really fit for a queen, but I was past caring. I knew what I was about to do would drive a rift between my soul mate and I.
I knew I still had to do it anyway. Larni came back sooner than expected, towing with her two servants, a man and a woman, and Seff, who peered up at me curiously.
I stood and headed down to meet them. They bowed and curtsied respectively.
“Your Majesty, this is Janson and Freida. And Seffina, as you requested.”
“Thank you, Larni. Dena?”
“She’s on her way. May I stay?”
“Of course.” I turned to Janson and took his hands in mine. He wasn’t much older than me, with curly blond ringlets and dark golden eyes. He would have a stunning shade of magic.
“Janson, are you a non-magi?”
“Of course, Your Majesty.” He responded, dipping his head modestly.
“And if you have the chance to be a mage, would you take it?”
He looked up, meeting my gaze, obviously confused.
“I… I’ve never thought about it before, Your Majesty. I guess I would… Yes. But-”
“And you, Freida?” I asked the middle aged woman standing next to us. Her eyes were almost silver, similar to the hue of the house of Lyon. Right now, she’d narrowed them at me suspiciously like I was making fun of her.
“Non-magi from birth, yer Majesty. And if yer askin’ me the same question, yes I would quite like t’ be a mage, would certainly help with scrubbin’ pots and the like.” “Seff?”
The little girl was bouncing on the balls of her feet excitedly.
“Yes! Yes I would!” I heard a door open and close as Dena entered the hall. She looked from me to the servants and back again as she reached us.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
I turned her away from the group and walked a few paces.
“I need you here if something goes wrong,” I said, my voice low.
“Goes wrong? What are you talking about? Sky, what are you doing?” I ignored her questions and headed back to Janson who was looking at me apprehensively. I took his hands in mine again, inhaled and closed my eyes. When I opened them again, I could see his spark of magic nestling next to his heart. I heard those present exclaim, but I continued on, too caught up in the moment. I called a thin thread of my magic up and fed it slowly into his skin. I felt him jolt, but he didn’t pull his hands away.
My magic wound itself around his. The spark suddenly bloomed, awakening, and then fire was racing down his veins, soaking into his blood. He gasped as I blinked my vision back to normal and I could see small golden sparks dripping from his fingertips.
“What did you just do?” Dena demanded, sounding frightened. Janson was looking at his hands like he’d never seen them before.
“I awakened his magic. You’re a mage now, Janson.”
He met my gaze, trembling.
“How?” he managed to whisper. I turned to Freida, who held her hands out, her gaze stony. I twisted my vision to locate her magic, and again heard murmuring from the others. I prodded her magic into being as well, and when she broke away, a small grey fire was sitting in her palm.
“Everyone has magic,” I said finally. “The Testers were lying to us.” Larni covered her mouth with her hand, and Dena didn’t move. I knew what was running through her head, all of the implications and complications that I’d spent most of the night churning through. Freida and Janson were looking at the fires in their hands, disbelieving. Seff grabbed a hold of my hands eagerly.
“Me next!” I grinned and touched my magic against hers, the little spark I’d observed the night before. Immediately, flames burst into being on her arms. My smile vanished as Dena gasped again.
Her magic was green. I knew some other mages that had green-shaded magic’s, but they were few and far between, and the green was usually mixed with another colour like Theresa’s pale yellow green.
Seff’s green was exactly the same hue as mine, a mossy green which made one think of forests. There was no mistaking it.
“Mine’s the same as yours,” she announced, completely missing my consternation. What could this mean? Was she the next Queen? No, it was a line of reincarnation, and unless I was grossly mistaken, I was still alive. How was this possible?
I shook myself out of my thoughts. I had to continue this. I couldn’t stop now. “Larni, Janson and Freida, if you would be so kind as to round up the servants in the palace who would like their magic reinstated, please arrange for them to come to the throne room immediately. I will help those who arrive.”
Larni stayed behind as Janson and Freida nodded sharply and headed from the room. “Do you know what this means?” Larni asked, her voice low. I’d seldom seen my friend so serious. “This means everyone has soul mates. Not just you lot from the Academy. Everyone.”
Of all of the thoughts that had raced through my head since Icarus’ visit, the soul mate issue had been one that I was yet to be able to answer. I knew that we’d had to have a special ceremony to find ours, is that what everyone else would need? How would we go about organising something that big?
“I know,” I replied. Dena looked incapable of speech. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“How long have you known about this?” Dena finally managed to ask. I quickly explained to them the events of last night. I held nothing back, not even Phoenix’s decision. They listened in silence.
As I finished the story, servants came filing into the hall, and I turned to greet them as my two closest friends mulled over what I’d just told them. Shoving Phoenix to the back of my mind, for he was weighing heavily, I instead drank in the excitement of the non-magi as they eagerly lined up to have their magic ignited.
After the first dozen, I began to feel the drag on my magic, but I pressed on. When one non-magi came forward wearing glasses, I got to see what had caused such a stir when I twisted my vision.
My irises glowed white when I looked into someone’s skin to pinpoint their magic. It caught me by surprise the first time I saw it, but fifty new mages in, I forgot about it again.
Finally, near the end of the day, the palace staff had been converted to mages. As my vision returned to normal, I staggered, and Dena was there to catch me. She guided me to the throne as the new mages filed from the hall, bowing and curtseying as they did so.
“Drink,” Dena said, holding a cup to my lips. I drank the water greedily, uncaring that it trickled down my cheeks and neck. I’d just wiped my mouth with the back of my hand as Phoenix opened the main door to the throne room.
Larni and Dena exchanged a look and then left hurriedly. Phoenix was looking dark, and I stood as he approached.
“What have you done?” he said quietly.
“What I felt was right. You were so sure of yourself, you wouldn’t listen to me.”
“Don’t try to make excuses for yourself.”
I let anger flash through my eyes.
“I’m not. I mean what I say.”
“You will stop what you are doing.”
I clenched my fists.
“I won’t. I refuse to.” We stared at each other across the room for what felt like an age. When it became clear that neither of us were going to break, he spoke again.
“Then you leave me no choice.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, my heart heavy. “If you won’t stop what you’re doing willingly, I am forced to stop you myself.” His eyes were pleading with me but his mouth was hard. “I’m returning to Norrimoor.”
I felt my heart shatter, but stood unmoving on the throne dais.
“I wish you a safe journey.” I heard myself say. He nodded formally and then turned to leave. I could tell that both of us were w
aiting for the other to cave and call out, but when he reached the doors and continued, then disappeared through them, it became clear that neither of us were going to. When the doors closed with a final thud, I felt the tears growing hot in my eyes. I didn’t stop them from cascading down my cheeks as I sank to the floor, clutching my head.
For a moment I’d allowed myself to think that everything was perfect. For one glorious moment I’d seen Phoenix and I ruling Lotheria in peace. I’d seen us married, a loving husband and wife and a fair King and Queen.
Now he returned to the North in opposition to me. The floor was hard and cold but I didn’t feel it. When my friends came in, hours later, I was still sitting on the stone dais with tears running down my face. Only them would I let see my distress. They surrounded me, and as Dena held me in her arms, leant against me or rested a hand on my arm to let me know they were there.
After a while, I refused to show anymore tears, and wiped my eyes on my sleeve, uncaring for the material.
“He’s returned to Norrimoor,” I whispered croakily sometime later. “I think Lotheria is going to war again.”
~Chapter Twenty-Five~
I told my parents and the council of the turn of events, and Phoenix’s abandonment. My mother told me later that I’d been twisting my engagement ring around my finger the entire time.
My ladies in waiting had been informed before I got the chance to tell them myself. Arianta and Nillia were on the verge of tears when I saw them, but Sojaya merely patted the hilt of her broadsword.
“If you need me to cut off his head, I will.” She told me earnestly. Nemoidia had disappeared as soon as she heard that Phoenix had returned to her homeland. When I thought about her ‘comforting’ him, I had to adjourn to the training arena, where I practiced controlling my lightning, as well as reducing several training mannequins to ashes.
A week later, reports began flooding in from the North. Citizens en masse were fleeing to the South, as Phoenix instated himself as King of the North. When they realised what was happening, and after hearing the tales of those out of Castor – the new mages – they packed their bags and headed South for the safety of my leadership and my army.
But Phoenix had an army as well. It seemed as though more mages than Iain and Netalia had previously thought had remained in the Shayde Mountains, training under the tutorship of rogue mages. My stomach churned as I remembered Aloysius, Phoenix’s step-father and his attack on the Academy to get Phoenix back. He must’ve known then that his step-son was going to be king. I didn’t doubt that I’d be seeing a lot of the older man in my future, as he would be a sure campaigner in the war; it was everything he’d dreamed of, after all.
Every day, citizens poured into the throne room to receive their magic. At the end of each day, I headed into the small garden where Phoenix had proposed. On the tenth day of doing so, I was laying on my back in the long grass, looking up at the sky and wondering if the clouds above would gift us with yet another storm, when I felt a weight on my foot. I sat up quickly and spied a small mud person sitting atop my boot.
“Hello,” I said, feeling only mild surprise at seeing them here. Not much could stir a reaction from me lately. “Is the rest of your clan around?”
They were. They emerged from the long grass and shrubs to come and sit on me as I sat up. The little chief greeted me with a salute of his leaf hat, which had changed to a small red leaf similar to those of the area. I shook his little arm/hand gently, one leader to another.
“I suppose you’ve heard about what has happened.” I told them. A chorus of shaken heads informed me that they hadn’t.
I told them the shortened version of the events that had transpired. While I was talking, I couldn’t stop the tears that filled my eyes as I recalled Phoenix leaving the throne room. Another mud person, a female from her attire, patted my hand solemnly, her little eyes sad. The chief expressed his feelings by pounding one small fist into the other, making it rather clear what he wanted to do to my ex-fiancé. The female who had patted my hand punched the chief gently in the shoulder, and I gathered from their interaction that she was his wife. They confirmed this when I asked it of them.
“Here,” I told her, pulling my engagement ring off of my finger and holding it out to her. “I should’ve gotten rid of this ages ago.”
She took it gingerly in both hands, and then sat the diamond ring on her head, where it made a circlet similar to mine. The mud people clapped their hands together, making a sound like wet dirt hitting the ground.
I continued my story, rubbing the spot where my ring had been. When I told them about the war, the chief immediately lifted his spear in support. The other mud people did the same.
“Are you offering your allegiance?” I asked, trying not to sound too amused. The chef nodded fiercely. “I thank you. Will you stay here in this garden?”
More nods. Already they were wandering towards the stream to start setting up camp. That night, I lay in my empty bed, tossing and turning. The storm had broken about an hour ago, thunder and lightning flashing overhead. I felt my magic pulse in my blood with every flash of lightning, and so sleep proved impossible.
I swung my legs out of the enormous bed, wondering if I could request a different room to be made up. This one was haunted by my ex-fiancé. I dressed in breeches and a clean shirt, watching the rain stream down the windows. My heart thudded in my chest as thunder boomed overhead.
There was a knock at my door. I paused in the act of pulling my boots on, just long enough that the person on the other side knocked again, and there was no mistaking the urgency.
“Come in.” I commanded, tucking my hair behind my ears. Dustin entered, and I realised this was the first I’d seen him since my coronation. He and Raven had continued their studies in the city, and so I never saw them around the palace.
“Your Majesty... Sky,” he began, apparently not fazed that I was already up and dressed. “The city...”
“What’s going on?” I demanded.
“It came with the storm, from the sea... please, hurry.” He watched as I grabbed up my swords, swinging them onto my back. I noticed he had his scythe with him, as I fastened a sheathed dagger onto each hip.
“Tell me what you know,” I said, as we marched down the hall. “It’s some kind of sea serpent,” his voice was shaking. “It was first spotted in the harbour, and when the storm really began, came up onto land. It hasn’t attacked anything yet, but... you’ll see.”
The palace was on a slight rise above the rest of the city, affording us an uninterrupted view of the capital as far as the west wall on a good day. Tonight, in flashes of lightning, I could see a tall dark figure, looming over even the tallest clock tower. I felt fear beginning to creep into my veins.
“What is it?” I asked Jett, who strode up the terrace to meet us. “A legend,” he responded, his voice almost lost in a boom of thunder. “Only a few sightings of these have been reported, mostly by sailors around the Tsalski Islands. They were thought to be a myth only.”
We all watched the tall figure sway and lurch about. I couldn’t even begin to estimate how tall it was.
“Why has it come here?” I asked my father.
He shrugged. “I honestly have no idea. It could be a result of the world shifting balance. I suspect the Du’rangors of a few years ago were the beginning of the shift.”
“Does it have a name?”
“The Tsalskinese call it Ularair, which loosely translates to ‘water snake’.” ‘Water snake’ was an understatement. We watched the serpent loom over the buildings closest to the docks, and in another flash of lightning, I saw it bare its teeth.
Every window in the city rattled as the thing screeched. Even this far away, I felt the sound reverberate through my body.
“Gather the city guards,” I instructed Dustin. “Dad, we’re going down to meet it.”
“It can’t be reasoned with,” he told me, trotting down the slope next to me.
“I’m not goi
ng to reason with it. I’m going to kill it if it so much as looks at a building wrong.” He didn’t respond to that, and so we continued out of the palace gates. Luckily the rain had driven everyone inside, but even so, we could see people pressed against their windows, having heard the Ularair scream. I could feel adrenaline beginning to pump through my veins, and the lightning flashed overhead, responding to it.
We emerged at the docks, only a short distance from the Ularair. Griffin and some of the other guards had beaten us there.
“What shall we do about this, Your Majesty?” Griffin asked me, his eyes on the serpent. “Be ready to take it down,” I told him, my voice loud enough that it carried to the other guards. “I’ll not have it threaten the city.”
The Ularair shrieked again, and then lurched forwards. We watched for a moment, stunned into silence, as the beast began to move into the city, holding its upper body aloft as the rest of it emerged from the harbour. This thing was enormous. I blinked rain from my eyes and then drew my swords.
“Begin evacuating people from their houses,” I yelled to Griffin over the thunder. “Alert the palace to let them know that refugees will be arrived.”
I heard a small shriek, and then Morri landed heavily on my shoulder, buffeted by the storm.
“Morri, fetch Petre, Sojaya and anyone else you think can help. Tell Dena to prepare the hospital.” He flew off into the storm, riding a squall until he disappeared over the rooves. Griffin was watching me, waiting for me to decide how we were going to handle this. He’d sent runners to the palace with my message, but I didn’t know how fast we were going to be able to evacuate this section of the city.
“Follow it,” I ordered. “Don’t let it approach citizens.”
He nodded.
“What are you going to do?” he yelled to me over the storm.
I looked to where the Ularair had disappeared amongst the buildings.
“I’m going to climb it.” I said. As the guards began to follow it, I made for the nearest house. It was one very similar to what Eleanora had lived in prior to joining the guard barracks. Finding the front door unlocked, I started running up the inside stairwell. As I passed doors, residents began poking their heads out, then quickly disappeared back inside as the Ularair shrieked somewhere out in the storm.
Soul Blaze Page 21