The Last of Her Line

by Valerie Veden

  "Why am I here?" I asked what had been nagging at me for the last six months, "What do you want from me?"

  Nothing in Mervin's expression showed he had heard me speaking.

  "I wonder," he said flatly. "You were taught by the best teachers this country had to offer, yet you chose to throw all that on a whim and almost got yourself killed. Tell me, was it sheer stupidity or a bout of madness?"

  I felt my cheeks flame with both embarrassment and indignation.

  "So?" he prompted.

  "I... It was... " I took a deep breath and began anew. "Half a year, alone! You locked me in, left me with nothing to do and nobody to talk to! I just wanted to escape your damned prison!"

  Mervin answered my tirade with a scornful stare.

  "I hadn't expected a princess of Shorall to risk her life over such trivialities."

  "I feel terrible here," I said quietly. "Mervin, let me go."

  The taheert's pale face twisted in a grimace. Was it anger? I didn't catch the exact expression before his usual mask of indifference slipped back.

  "No," he said flatly.

  "Mervin." I tried to speak calmly, but my own anger began growing. "Mervin, please understand, this can't go on. This is unbearable. I'm the king's daughter and –"

  "Not anymore," he interrupted.

  "What?" I blinked in surprise.

  "You were the king's daughter. You are nobody now."

  "What...? How dare you...?" I jumped to my feet, feeling the hot burn of blood rushing to my face. The taheert made a brisk gesture, and the air fell heavily, making me collapse to the bed again. Then Mervin began speaking, and though his black eyes were still devoid of any emotions, the words dripped with poison.

  "I see you haven't yet comprehended, my dearest Princess, what I am now and what you are."

  I stared at him, not able to believe my ears. Mervin had never talked to me like that. Not with a voice so full of hatred! Not to me! Never to me!

  My anger fled, giving place to confusion and growing fear.

  "I will explain, Princess," the taheert went on, "and correct your mistaken perception. Half a year ago, the Great House of Shorall, twice damned by the dragons, was finally destroyed. The kingdom of Shorall is no more. The country has been divided into a dozen provinces with all the rulers wearing similar signs." Mervin paused, pointing at the head of a dragon embroidered on his jacket. It seemed his gesture made the image come to life: dragon's gem eyes stared at me now, judging and condemning.

  Shuddering, I looked down. What if the real dragon, whose image the embroidery depicted, could see through the gem eyes? I didn't want to meet the Lord Dragon, or any other dragon, ever again. Doubtful that I would survive it the second time.

  Our kingdom could have been broken on the Lord Dragon's order and controlled by his governors, but I knew my people. There must have been resistance, perhaps an open war. At least now I understood why Mervin returned home so rarely.

  I didn't look at Mervin when he resumed speaking, and I didn't need to. The taunt of a cold smile was too palpable in his voice.

  "As a payment for my devoted service, the Lord Dragon gave me back my ancestral lands that had been appropriated by the Shorall; he appointed me the head governor and also gifted you to me - as a trophy." Mervin paused again.

  I couldn’t believe that. I couldn’t believe he had just said that I was to be his trophy, not even a hostage, but almost a slave. I raised my head and looked into Mervin's eyes, and he stared back, cold and emotionless. I wanted to shout at him, to order him to stop and tell me he hadn't meant it, that it was just a stupid joke. His eyes told me it was no joke. Mervin didn't do jokes.

  I drew a deep breath, fighting to remain silent, to keep a little dignity. If it was like that, if it really was like that... I squeezed my hands into tight fists, and the sharp pain of my nails pricked my palms. I was still a Shorall. I couldn't and wouldn't let myself break down in hysterics like some poor commoner.

  "Do you wish to know why the Lord Dragon is so benevolent to me? Why am I the only el'Tuan among his governors? Come on, girl, do you have any ideas?" Mervin's voice sounded almost soft.

  I shook my head mutely.

  "Do you remember the night you were captured?" he asked.

  Yes, I did. It wasn't something to forget easily, if ever.

  Everything had started in the evening, a few hours before sunset, when the air felt so peaceful and quiet. A human servant found me in the royal garden and slipped me a note from Mervin. A week before, the taheert had gone missing from the palace, leaving no traces behind; nobody could tell me what had happened to him. In the note, Mervin asked me to meet him in the inner forest of the palace and promised to explain his recent disappearance. I agreed. I was too happy to know that he lived to think twice about the strangeness of the request.

  There was an ambush less than twenty steps from the place named in the note. I didn't expect an attack and had no magical shields up and no weapon. They were vampires, all Gifted, all unmarked. The shock of seeing them froze me and cost me the few precious seconds I could have used to escape. I tried to fight, more out of desperation than any hope to succeed. But the attackers had come fully shielded, knowing how to deflect everything I was able to send at them.

  The vampires tied me up and brought me back to the royal palace. It was then that I saw the night sky broken into halves by a giant black dragon coming through the Gate. The dome of his power descended around the palace. It was a full blockade, and no Gates or Portals could be opened. Nobody could escape.

  I saw the winged monster destroy our magic defenses, melt white towers one after another, kill our people with both his power and his fiery breath.

  I saw slaves' happiness when they celebrated their noble masters' deaths. I saw the beheaded bodies of my father and of Kamir. I saw Renard turned into black ash… Terrified, burnt with grief, I finally passed out.

  "I was there that fateful night," Mervin's tone changed, became almost wistful. "It was I who helped the Lord Dragon break through the Barrier-between-the-Worlds. You wouldn't know, Princess, but in Terrine it is possible only from the Shorall palace. Was possible. Now the Lord Dragon can come wherever he wants."

  My vision blurred and I blinked, trying to get rid of the useless water filling my eyes. The anger had gone, now I felt only pain.

  "If not for you," I whispered, "my family would still live."

  He raised his brow.

  "Who knows, Princess, who knows? When your father gave shelter to the Chaos Adepts, he angered the Lord Dragon greatly. Because of them, the Lord Dragon lost his only brother, and almost lost his nephew."

  I remained silent. He was right. Mum had asked Father to break up with those fanatics. It was among the few things they had argued about, but Shorall stubbornness was stronger than all her words.

  Mervin gave a tiny, wry smile and continued.

  "Let's not forget about the raids on the Twin Worlds led by your brothers. Three raids during the last five years. And the most recent raid, as far as I remember, was conducted together with the Chaos Adepts - two offenses at once."

  I swallowed thickly. I didn't know about the last part. What had Father been thinking? Had he intended to rile all the priesthood against himself, against us? What benefits could have justified making the open worshippers of Chaos, the worst heretics imaginable, our brothers-in-arms?

  "Besides," Mervin went on, "the Lord Dragon's heir was greatly surprised by our old custom of turning prisoners from the Twin Worlds into slaves. I think he was even a bit upset."

  Mervin's eyes, gleaming with mockery, made me glance away again. Before the last battle, I had no idea the slaves hated us so much. It had never occurred to me that they - humans, vampires, beasts - were unhappy to serve. We hadn't considered them equals. Would anyone care whether animals liked their cages?

  "It was I who brought the king's head to the Lord Dragon," the taheert said, smiling again. "But Kamir's head I preferred to keep for myself, as a re
minder of our lifelong friendship."

  These last phrases brought me out of numbness, made me feel a scorch of anger - so fruitless now.

  "Traitor." That was all I could say. We had lost because of Mervin. Why had I interceded to stop my brothers from hurting him? I should have let them kill him! Perhaps Father had wanted exactly that: he had never stopped Kamir.

  Yes, Mervin would have died and my family would have survived. Perhaps. Because the taheert was right: the Lord Dragon wouldn't have forgiven those who had wronged him so. He might have come anyway, breaking the Barrier without inside help as only dragons were able to do, and burn not only the royal palace but the whole country, as his ancestor had done. Or not. I didn't know. I just felt a burning pain, tearing at my heart, the pain and a hollow despair. It was as if something vital broke inside me.

  "From now on," Mervin said curtly, "you will do whatever I tell you to do. You will leave your room only with my permission."

  I didn't argue. I had only two things on my mind: the word "traitor" and the memory of Father's beheaded body. I was too afraid to think about Mervin's plans for me.

  His gaze lingered on me for a while but I didn't say anything.

  Before going, he added a number of visible spying spells to the room decorations. Those spells looked like a rainbow of countless cobwebs; some of them glued to the walls and to the ceiling, while others floated in the air.

  When he left, I let suppressed tremors run through my body. Wrapping my hands around myself, I leaned on the back of the bed, not daring to raise my eyes. It seemed as soon as I did that, the walls moved, threatening to smash me.

  Half a year ago I had woken up here, in this room, in an unfamiliar house, with my Gift blocked, but only now I did grasp the real essence of this place, a deception it presented. A prison cell deceivingly bright, spacious and filled with fresh air. Why bar the windows if magic threads served the same purpose without spoiling the view? Why lock the door if you couldn't get out of the castle?

  I crawled from the bed and into the corner of the room as if it were able to hide me from the harsh reality. I couldn't help but recall the last night I saw my family alive. The memories of their cruel death circled over and over in my mind. I didn't want these memories. I tried to force them away. I couldn't. In my mind the white walls of the palace crumbled down, bodies turned to piles of black ash, the cries of dying el'Tuans deafened me, and the acrid stench of dragon fire burned my lungs.

  And I hoped and prayed to the Creator that the death of my parents and brothers had been quick and painless.

  Chapter 4.

  Two years ago...

  I went down to the taheert lab humming, quite loudly, a verse that had stuck in my memory. For the Purification Day, the king had invited a band of Sveille musicians, and all the court had been celebrating tirelessly. Almost everybody.

  At first glance, the lab looked empty, but Mervin was there, hiding in the shadows and casting some spells on the armor. My arrival didn't make him look up, nothing unusual there.

  But I was fearless as the worthiest of aristos had been plying me with compliments for the whole evening. Besides, I had managed to drink a flute of sparkling wine and keep it a secret from Mum. I didn't care about my age, barely fifteen, or the fact that the wine had been enriched with the Storm Valley herbs, which made it literally sparkle with power. A princess from the Great House of Shorall was allowed to do whatever she wanted!

  I put a half-empty flute of wine (the second one) on the table. The flute tried, for some unfathomable reason, to fall over but I didn't allow such disobedience. Then I came up to Mervin, so that he couldn't go on believing in my non-existence.

  "Have you arrived with the sole purpose of annoying me, Your Highness?" the taheert asked.

  Clearly, Mervin was going to be his polite and cheerful self. For a couple of seconds I wondered if showing I had been hurt by his words would accomplish anything. No, definitely not. In fact, he was likely to become even more insufferable.

  "I have come to ask why you are here. Everyone is celebrating."

  Mervin glanced at me darkly.

  "If participation in the noble jamboree hasn't been decreed obligatory by the king, I shall stay here."

  I frowned. Even for him, the most unsociable taheert of our kingdom, that much poison in his voice was unusual. Not that my comparison meant much. Taheert was such a rare profession that the number of them in the whole country couldn't have been more than two dozen.

  I had to unravel the mystery of his new bout of gloom.

  "I may ask Father to give such an order!" I exclaimed with false cheer.

  "Stop it, Princess!" My teacher grimaced as if he had a terrible toothache. I sighed.

  Unlike other el'Tuans, I had a personal acquaintance with toothache. Renard, my second-older brother, had once given me a piece of candy with a stone core under its chocolate cover. Mum scolded him and Father punished him, but I had to endure the ache of the broken tooth for a whole week until it grew back on its own. Father said I deserved that pain for accepting presents without checking them with magic and forbade healing.

  "Kamir has also asked about you. He wanted to come down here himself."

  I was lucky only the Ancients knew how to kill with a glare. It seemed, my eldest brother did play a nasty trick on Mervin again. Honestly, I could never understand the reason for their eternal war, the odds of which had never been in Mervin's favor. Kamir was usually the first to start something new; Renard seemed happy to join the baiting; Sedd, my third brother, rarely cared one way or another; Miyo, my fourth brother, preferred to watch from the side. Father never interfered.

  What could I do? My presence kept Kamir from doing really disgusting things; but then Mervin got angry, saying he didn't need a stupid girl to defend him. Such words made me want to leave him be. But I couldn't. He was my taheert! Mine! Nobody was allowed to take, or hurt, what was mine!

  I knew what I would ask as a time-honored gift for my first age of majority. Not what, but who: Mervin. The king wouldn't be pleased but even less would he be inclined to break the tradition, and Mervin would become my vassal. I knew it would take five more years of waiting because our first age of majority came at twenty, but I already anticipated that moment.

  The only thing that bothered me about my future request was the thought of Mervin's reaction. Yet even his expected anger, as I didn't doubt he would be furious, wasn't enough to undermine my resolve.

  "If you have finished, Princess, I won't hold you any longer," Mervin said, interrupting my thoughts. I bobbed a curtsy but didn't go. I still wanted to give him some kind words but, unfortunately, nothing came to mind. Finally, accepting the defeat, I sighed and turned to the door while Mervin watched me with an unreadable expression in his eyes.

  Later, the taheert did come to the ball, though he didn't dance. Mervin never danced. The man stood aside from the main crowd, watching everybody and listening to the music, while I, glad to have him out of his cave, enjoyed myself.

  Chapter 5.

  When I opened my eyes, the window showed the sun sitting high in the sky. It must have been the noon of the next day, though I couldn't remember taking all the pins out of my hair and getting to bed. My last vague memory was of my huddling in the corner with tears still blurring my vision.

  I got up, came up to the door and pushed.

  Nothing. Of course.

  Mervin's magic signature was all over the place, even stronger than yesterday with all those invisible spying threads. My prison had shrunk from the whole castle to just one chamber.

  I circled the room, wondering how long Mervin was going to keep me locked up. The room, which had seemed spacious, shrank in size, the walls pressed at me.

  I took a silk ribbon from the vanity table but it slipped through my fingers. Frowning, I tried to pick it up again. The second attempt ended the same way. So, Mervin wasn't satisfied with locking me up and keeping hundreds of spies in my room, he had to take away the last means
of escape.

  I wasn't in any way eager to kill myself, not at all, but I continued to check. The ribbon situation repeated itself over and over with all the other things that could theoretically be used as a stranglehold. Mervin's magic worked in a funny way sometimes. It appeared, for example, that I could put my belt around my waist but couldn't bring it even one inch closer to the neck.

  Feeling unhealthy excitement, I tried to tear the sheet up. Nothing. The blanket, nothing. All the dresses, nothing.

  Exasperated, I collapsed on the bed, but quickly sat up again and looked around, wondering what he could have missed.

  A pretty crystal vase from the Twin Worlds, full of fresh flowers, stood in the corner. I threw the vase into the wall and it bounced back like a rubber ball with all the charmed flowers ending up on the floor, none of them losing a single petal.

  I burst into hysterical laughter which quickly changed into sobs. I grieved for my family and for my whole world, once so bright and beautiful, now ruined and burned to ashes. I grieved for myself. The real princess of the Great House of Shorall had died six months ago, and the girl who survived was a nameless orphan. A nobody, just like Mervin had said.

  I buried my head in the pillow, stifling the sobs. I thought it might be better if I were to really die.

  *****

  Eight months ago...

  My seventeenth birthday was quickly approaching, but three weeks ago, when the royal court held a reception in honor of our allies, the Kadaries, I had spilled wine on one of them. It was an accident, honest, but the unlucky guest turned out to be the Regent himself. The Kadaries stiffened with shock and Father, being upset about something since that morning, shouted at me in the presence of the whole court. Surely, no wine-soaked outlander warranted such treatment of the king’s only daughter. So, forgetting about any apologies to my victim, I politely, although a bit loudly, disagreed with the king and tried to explain to him his mistake.