Eternal Damnation: A novel of the Amagarians

by Reid, Stacy

  She fully expected the judgment of exile, for the crimes he had committed against her family was one of the most heinous. Since the division of the three kingdoms more than two thousand years ago, there had been no fight by a usurper to oust a ruler from their throne. The laws of inheritance had been created, and he had broken seven tenets with his cruel actions. If only a penalty of death could be levied against a prince. Shilah stood. “Prince Quan tried to take over Dxyriah by circumventing the law. That is all that should matter today,” she said, holding the eyes of the Senate. “If Prince Quan wanted to challenge my rule, he should have shown his proof that I am an unfit ruler and a new head of the monarchy was needed, then demand a trial by combat if I refused. He did neither. He acted like a sniveling coward and took the lives of innocent people under my protection. I demand justice, and the Senate will render it today.”

  She glanced around the Senate, assessing their reception to her impassioned plea. Rah nodded approvingly from where he stood, and Kala offered a smile of support. Shilah moved down a few steps toward the wide-open floor of the Senate. “Prince Quan orchestrated an attack on my coronation three months and eight days ago. He murdered fifty-eight of our people in his senseless quest. I am the witness to his atrocity, and my sister, Princess Kala is also witness. You will hear our testimony in full, of how he stormed the gates of our sacred temple with his bands of assassins, you will hear how he hunted my sister and me through the underground caves, and you will find him guilty.”

  Prince Quan clapped mockingly, stood, and descended a few steps while looking across the Senate.

  “The princess has tried to remind you that you are from Dxyriah and I am from Arcadia. The princess forgets we are all Serangites. We are one people, one race, who have been cruelly divided through the archaic bloodline laws. The Symonrah family proved they were not open to a different way of thinking for the inclusion of all Serangites.”

  Several princes of the Senate nodded, glancing at each other, their expressions she did not understand. She inhaled, freezing as with her heightened senses she smelled a fragrance she could not identify. It tasted bitter.

  Deceit.

  The dark whisper deep inside felt as if it came from someone else. And she searched along the thread to find it quiet. It had been her newly enhanced senses at work alone. Her awareness seemed to sharpen with every breath she took, along with knowledge of each beating heart. Shilah studied the members of their Senate, trying to discern whose loyalty she might rely on. It was not logical to try and read their thoughts. That was an illegal act, and she was here defending the law which needed to be upheld.

  The Prince’s voice rang with power and conviction as he snapped, “We’ve become cowards. Once we traveled the stars, our borders were opened for trading, slavers docked in our ports, and we sold the best of technologies throughout the galaxies. We had a prime fleet of ships, we conquered and had colonies off-planet. What do we have now? Nothing! We deceive ourselves that we are in the Golden Age. We are a weak planet that fears the powers we were given. With my rule, we will become all that we should be. We will be Serange, and no longer a three-monarch triumvirate! A Na’Vita is rising, and, where is she? Exiled from our planet by your brother, living a life of poverty and degradation as the personal slave to the Titan King. Our people in exile are more powerful and revered than us, and this is palatable to you? To Dxyriah, to O’andor?”

  “You are power hungry and delusional, Prince Quan,” Shilah snapped coldly. “We have laws that you’ve broken. You may have hidden your psychic print, but I know you murdered a ruling Prince of Dxyriah, my brother, and preen as if those cowardly actions have no consequences. As ruler of Arcadia, you are not exempt from Dyxriah’s justice. The last Na’Vita ruled with tyranny, and we have the unedited stream records of his senseless slaughter of over one hundred thousand of our people. Men, women, children who were innocent of any crimes. Our world had been lawless, working with slavers, and mercenaries from off planet as our Na’Vita king sought to consolidate more power. Is that the rule you would wish to return the three kingdoms of Serange to? Are you so misguided you cannot see the laws have given peace to our kingdoms and our lands have flourished? Instead of warring with other planets, the brightest minds turned to develop our world, and now we have medical units that can cure diseases, reverse the aging process of our people and regenerate body parts. We have buildings that rival the greatest architecture of the galaxies. Our people have thrived and evolved, and your self-serving ideology and ambitions will not take us back to the dark times!”

  “Our people?” he murmured caustically, power humming through the air around him. “I’ve been tracking the exiles, they number in the thousands, Princess. And they wander aimlessly without a home, a planet to call their own, a people, a culture to connect with. Some are enslaved for their powers by other worlds, and they have no one to defend and liberate them for they have no people! That is what these bigoted laws have done to our people.”

  “They were given a choice!” she snapped, glaring at Prince Quan. “They chose exile!”

  “Not much of choice. A life without a family, without love. Is it different from an exile to another planet?”

  Her heart trembled. “It is just as cold and harsh, but our views on the law does not give us impunity to challenge it with murder and disgrace which you have done, Prince Quan. I judge you guilty of the crime of murdering fifty-eight souls of the castle, and I request the Senate to approve the trial.”

  Prince Quan laughed and flowed closer. “Do you believe this is why the Senate has gathered, Princess Shilah? Do you believe that popinjay by your side had the power to command the princes of the land to gather at his request?” There was a wealth of knowledge behind those cold eyes. “No…it was done by my request.”

  To her left, Prince Novar stiffened.

  “If you wish to challenge me, Prince Quan, I accept.”

  A cold smile curved his lips, as he too moved down several steps. “Do you now?”

  “Yes. I am impure,” she said softly.

  The Senate chamber blanketed with a startled silence. She waved her hands, and the empty chair to the left levitated and swept across the room. Kala’s face was white, her eyes wide with terror.

  “An Alpha in the telekinesis genesis. I know the solitary life I face with my declaration. I must submit to the law or choose exile. I believe so strongly in the laws enforced to protect our kingdoms, I declare my status to the Senate. I do not sit on the sidelines, not imagining the fate or the hardship those who are impure experience. But I have watched the recordings of our history and the long, brutal fights of the Rebellion wars. I have seen children littering our streets, their throats crushed, their eyes filled with the horrors of their deaths. We have seen the evidence, and it is our duty as the rulers of Dxyriah to keep the bloodlines separate and never allow such consolidation of powers again into our land. It is our duty,” she said fiercely, spinning around, meeting the eyes of the princes and princesses of her kingdom.

  “Well, this should be easy then, for with such a revelation she is not your next ruler,” Prince Quan said coldly.

  A prince rose up, a silent wraith, blade in hand. Shilah frowned and before she could question his actions, he slashed, and blood spurted from her throat. The entire scene was surreal, an unimaginable nightmare of violence and gore and screams echoing from the gallery. “What are you—”

  She stumbled, leaning against a high chair, gripping her throat. If not for the blood of her Darkan lover running through her veins, she would be bleeding to death. She could feel the flesh in her throat knitting from the inside, checking the flow of blood.

  Pain slashed through her side as Megladine stabbed her.

  Rah’s roar of rage was from a distance, and Shilah stared at her uncomprehendingly. “Megladine, what—”

  Another stab in her shoulder blade drove her to her knees. They were betraying her family. She did not even want to understand what the prince had promise
d them, but the entire Senate was betraying her family. Shilah’s grief was overcoming her ability to function. Pain hazed through her mind.

  Shilah lurched to her feet and stumbled back to the high chair when at least a dozen different members of the Senate stabbed her. Their attack was unrelenting, and she distantly heard Kala’s screams of denial. The pain had gone from a dull ache to agony in a few short minutes. Everything she had ever believed in trembled, and deep inside she wept. She could feel their intent to murder her, despite her family had been the rulers of this kingdom for over six generations. They had no right to covet her realm, except for the greed in their hearts and minds.

  “Do you believe I did not see your arrival?” Prince Quan said with a smile at Megladine who hurried over to his side. “Do you believe me so weak you entered this city, and I did not know? You met no resistance because I wanted you here, Princess. The Symonrah bloodline will end today.”

  Rah was held upright against the walls of the chamber by an unseen force. He struggled and screamed, but there was no give in the power that held him up. Pain and betrayal seeped from his aura as he stared at the woman he loved with his entire soul.

  Megladine stared at him, a sob tearing from her throat. “I did this for us, Rah. I love you. And they…” she waved at Shilah and Kala. “Their barbaric laws make it impossible for us to be together. Prince Quan has a vision I believe in, my love, and you will believe in it too.”

  Another wave of pressure slammed into Shilah, throwing her to her knees. Dozens of members from the senate swarmed toward her, attacking relentlessly.

  They would kill her and Kala today. A raw, savage wildness roared in response, urging her to retaliate, but she could not use her powers to murder these people. Her people. Everything around her blurred, and it took a moment to realize her eyes were swimming with tears.

  A swell of voices holding heavy grief swamped her senses, and with a sense of shock, she realized the very people who murdered her, also mourned her. They believed she and her family stood in the way of progress for their kingdom, that they held onto laws that made them weak.

  The knowledge broke her apart and shattered something deep inside. A stirring came in her mind, she closed the link with all her Imperial strength. Lachlan Ravenswood could not know she leaned against a high chair, being relentlessly stabbed. Shilah stumbled and dropped to the ground, too weak to stand. Prince Quan’s polished boot came in her periphery, and everyone held back.

  “Your death will not be in vain, Princess Shilah,” he said, something akin to regret gleaming in his eyes. “Your body and Princess Kala’s body will be mounted above the Senate as an example for those who honor the old laws. This will spark a revolution, parts of the city will burn, we will lose people, but we will be reborn in a world that is stronger than before. Our people will be unified, and Serange will enter a new era.”

  In her periphery Kala trembled, and her eyes swirled with power. Her voice echoed in the Senate, as she said, “Mercy and love shall lead the kingdom to ruins. It will come, a creature of darkness and terrifying rage and it shall slaughter, and feast…you are its anchor to the light, and your death must not come to pass.” Then Kala gasped, and trembling stumbled over to a chair and lowered herself in its comforting cushion as the vision released her.

  Prince Quan grabbed Shilah’s throat with the power of his mind and crushed. A wail of agony slipped from her, a sound that should have been impossible given the merciless hold he had on her neck. For a moment she felt as if every bone in her body would shatter. Her mind expanded, but instead of fighting him she reached out to Lachlan, wanting to see him, to feel him.

  A monstrous, remorseless fury pounded through their link with such suddenness that it was shocking. His roar of agony slammed through their connection, and as impossible as it seemed, Shilah felt the force of the speed and unremitting rage hurtling through the Darkage and towards her through the distant stars.

  “I love you!” His declaration was a garbled roar of rage and pain. “Fight for me.”

  Even at such a distance, her light and soul anchored Lachlan and gave him peace, pleasure, and love. Even if they were not together for years to come, should her thread of life snap, and their connection severed, the world would see the monster within. Her people would suffer for the darkness would blame them.

  Nothing in her life had prepared her for the siege on her senses. Lachlan’s emotions poured through their link. Rapid images of the first time he saw her, the awe he’d felt, the reluctant attraction, the fierce sense of his other half completing his soul. They morphed to his fear when she was attacked in the forest, his rage, his hope that she would walk by his side forever. The soft musical sound of her laughter as it had wrapped itself around his heart and sinking into his bones and lit inside his soul with happiness. The taste of her skin. His feelings were strong to the point of crushing.

  And then it flamed through her. Love.

  Hopes and dreams which had once fragmented around her reshaped and bloomed through her like molten lava. “I love you,” she whispered achingly to him, even as the darkness of death called to her.

  “Then do not leave me,” the quite plea had no violence throbbing in it, just anguish and love. “I am but a shadow without you, Shilah Symonrah.”

  “For you Lachlan Ravenswood, I will become.” Her promise tore at something she wasn’t even sure she recognized. It ravaged her sense of justice, the gentle teaching of mercy and love her parents had instilled, and her sense of honor and duty to her people.

  It was upon that promise of love and understanding what she meant to the man and monster, Shilah broke everything she’d ever believed in. The men and women standing before her would always try to kill her, to plot and overthrow her realm. Justice was not enough and would never be enough.

  “Queen of darkness you shall become and at your feet the blood of our people will flow,” the whisper of her sister floated on the air, mingling with the shocked murmurs of her people at the wave of power that washed across the chamber.

  Her soul shattered. A cry slipped from her, and uncaring that she might appear weak, tears slid down her cheek. And then she released the unremitting swell of her power. She crashed into Prince Quan’s mind, ripping through his memories with brutal precision finding his darkest fear and multiplying it in his thoughts. His brutal hold on her throat released, and she could feel the crushed muscles already healing. Without Lachlan’s blood in her veins, she would have died.

  Feeding a dark fear in the prince’s mind, he screamed and slapped at his head. His eyes landed on her, and she felt the buzz of his powers as he gathered them to attack. She flashed, using shocking speed to rush behind him, grabbed him with her telekinesis and slammed him into the wall.

  The princes and princesses of the Senate surged towards her, their mental waves slamming into her mind. She spun with grace, twisting to keep them in her site. “I am an Imperial,” she taunted, ignoring the blood dripping to the stone floor from her stab wounds.

  Her powers surged, and she felt the life pulse of every man and woman in the Senate. She dipped into the well of her power, connecting to the Psychic Network of her people. Shilah did not stop there. With a harsh scream, she allowed the well of her energy to spill through her veins. Then she unleashed the power that was now a throbbing beat inside her and crashed past thousands, millions of barriers into people’s mind. The energy arced and spread until it consumed every cell in her body.

  Her presence was a dark throb of energy within their minds as she connected with every citizen of the three kingdoms of Serange, a feat no Imperial telepathic had ever done. The sensory overload crushed her head in a vice and twisted hard knots in her stomach. She waded through it, uncaring that blood ran copiously from her nose.

  “I am not my brother who was slaughtered with his family for greed. I am Shilah Malia Symonrah, and all who come for my bloodline will only know death. Citizens of Arcadia, I judge your crowned Prince Quan guilty of the crime of mur
der, and treason against Dxyriah and his fellow Serangites.” She fed to their minds, her memories of his vicious attack, her fear, and the horror of fleeing to another realm. She shared everything. “I judge him guilty for his crimes against this monarchy and the punishment is death.”

  Shock echoed from several minds, denial roared from thousands, and thousands of others agreed. But what they wanted did not matter. Not in this instance. With ruthless precision, she found his thread of life, and sliced it. He dropped to the ground, his screams of terror no more.

  In her sister’s eyes, she saw the regret, the love, and the fear.

  Darkness flowed through Shilah, violence blossoming through her mind as she waded through, slaughtering, and sending a message to the traitors of her realm. Those who had not fallen hurriedly bent their knees and bowed their heads to her power and sovereignty, but she showed no mercy. And with the neural connection formed with all citizens across the three kingdoms, they witnessed it all. Their impressions flowed through her.

  The Dark Queen

  The red queen

  Queen of Darkness.

  But she remained unmoved, flashing with speed, ripping through minds, and commanding death. She stood in the center of the carnage she’d just wreaked. From the Senate, she’d kill over one hundred people. Sorrow rose in her, but she battled it down. They could not know with this sacrifice, what she had saved her people from. And what she had to save Lachlan Ravenswood from.

  Kala wept, staring at the bodies on the floor, then she pushed to her feet and stared at Shilah. There was gentle acceptance in her eyes. “I’ve always seen myself on the throne, in your stead, Shilah. I simply never knew how I got there. Now I know. I promise you, I see that I will be at the helm of a revolution years from now, and I will also be at the helm of the ashes our world will rise from. I see the peace and happiness of our citizens, and a man whose face I yet cannot see but know I will love him with every emotion in my soul. I’ve not seen you beside me, and for so long I feared it was because you died…. But I just saw a vision of you years from today, with your children and your mate beside you.”