“I suppose it isn’t safe for me to simply walk in myself.” Vosraan stroked his chin and made a face. “Distasteful as it is, I think I will send you two—” He pointed at Chelka and then at Edmath. “—In ahead of me, to tell the lower emperors that I have returned. Lady Zasha will remain here to protect me.”
Chelka sat up straighter and then bowed to the emperor.
“As you wish your Grace.”
She climbed off her moth, looking even more tired than when Edmath had seen her by the window that morning. He followed her toward the city, fully aware that the two of them looked quite strange, as she wore her wedding dress without a cloak, and he, his torn and bloody tunic. All-in-all he thought it could be worse. If Brosk and the others were not alright, it would be worse.
They made their way through the southwest gate. He and Chelka followed the road to the Imperial Palace at the edge of the hill. There were few people in the streets on the way there, but it was the second end-day, and thus, many would be asleep already as night had begun to fall. They slipped along the red-tinted streets as the sun sank, reaching the palace gates without a word passing between them. Chelka became quiet, clearly thoughtful. Edmath had rarely seen this side of her, even over the years at Lexine Park.
The gates were closed and the white and brown banner of the Moth Nation still hung from the wall beside the green white and red of the Empire of Zel. Edmath gave a sigh of relief when he saw it and glanced at Chelka.
“At least they appear to have repulsed the attack.” His voice sounded hollow, ringing in the empty street.
“I see.” Chelka nodded her head and looked sorrowful. “I just hoped the wars would be over, Ed. I mean, I joined the War Empress’s court to stop this sort of thing from happening.” She turned toward him, tears in her eyes.
“You didn’t get a chance. I know you didn’t.” Edmath reached out to her with both hands and she lowered her head. She sniffed back her tears. He took her shoulders. “Don’t worry. Of course, there will be troubles. That’s the role we chose as Imperial Saales.”
“I know, Ed. I can handle it.” Chelka wiped her eyes, her voice hardening. “As long as we’re together, I can handle it.” She turned to the gate, then lifted the great steel knocker and struck it against the bell near the base of the door.
A guard in moth legion livery appeared on the top of the wall. “Who goes there?”
“Imperial Saales, Lady Chelka Benisar, and Lord Edmath Benisar.” Chelka’s voice carried though she did not bellow. That would not have suited her anyway. But the sound of the bell had been little louder than her clear call. “We have come with good news for the ears of the lower emperors only.”
Edmath worried for a moment that the coup plotters had somehow taken the city but left the banners up to fool them. The guard put a hand on the top of the wall.
“I will open the gates at once. I’ve heard rumors. The two of you were feared dead.” He vanished from sight and then a few moments later the gates began to turn inward, each pulled by a tethered greater elk. He hoped the audience would be immediate. Then an escort would go meet the High Emperor.
In the hall of the War Empress within the High Castle, Chelka described the previous night to Marnaia Hayel. For her part, the youngest of the three emperors seemed glad to hear of the survival of the Vosraan Loi. She let Chelka finish the story and then raised her hand. Chelka glanced at Edmath as Oresso Nane and Morior Lem approached the high-backed throne the War Empress sat upon. They conversed with her softly, until finally, she waved them away.
“Prince Nane supports your story.” She stroked her chin. “I believe you as well, Lady Benisar. The attack was so strange, I have heard little from the other lower emperors about their search. The Roshi Ambassador and her party have fled. His Grace’s champion, Lord Bovet has already left the city to raise an army.”
“Forgive me, Excellency, but why the army now?” Chelka said. “The enemy has been beaten and pushed back, have they not?”
“I am afraid they crossed the central western border last night with a large Crab Tribe Army, and also faster forces from the Fox Tribe and the Hare Tribe. King Onoi’s betrayal has now made much of the Worm Tribe our foe for the time being as well.” Marnaia Hayel let out an audible sigh before continuing in her high, fine-pointed voice. “At the moment it is unknown who Queen Dayull of the Swan Tribe will side with, but the other peoples have put their armies at our disposal.”
“Thank you, Excellency.” Chelka made a sweeping bow before the throne. Edmath watched her rise.
Hayel nodded to them.
“I will send a contingent of my personal guards to escort High Emperor Loi back to the palace. At least with him, we will be united. You may go, Saales. I know you have other business to attend to.” Marnaia Hayel hung her head and let her elbows rest across the arms of her throne. Chelka and Edmath turned and walked back out of the High Castle. On the way, Oresso Nane met them and matched their paces. Edmath’s eyes narrowed at him.
“Prince Naopaor is alive,” Oresso said quickly. “Everyone else made it through alright as well. Brosk definitely got the worst of it.” Oresso winced at his apparent thought.
Edmath couldn’t help but give him a dirty look.
“How bad is the worst, Lord Nane?”
“Both his legs were injured and quite badly too. He will walk again, the healers say, but he may not run or fight for some time.”
Edmath felt simultaneously sour and relieved with the news. Brosk would surely recover eventually. After being in a full battle with Ursar Kiet and his mirache that outcome could be considered lucky.
Edmath, Chelka, and Oresso made their way out of the High Castle and into the North Garden. Summer was well into the middle month and the fruits of the trees here were thoroughly ripe. Edmath walked over to one of the greatest of the apple trees near the path, an ancient and well-grown giant with branches reaching toward the ground. Edmath leapt up and snatched an apple from the lower branch. He had not eaten all day, and the hunger gnawed at him.
“Of course, I don’t think anyone will mind,” he said in answer to Chelka’s surprised expression. “I feel as though we have earned it.”
Despite it coming from Oresso, the news of Brosk’s survival had lifted his spirits considerably. He hadn’t known how dark the world could be until he feared for his friends.
“You’re right, Edmath.” Oresso shook his head and smiled as he followed Chelka over to where Edmath stood under the tree. “I don’t know of anyone who deserves it more.”
“How gracious.” Chelka’s voice was distorted by the shifting of the back of her head as she assumed her Squid Tosh.
Edmath had seen her transform before and the strange beauty of the tosh had some appeal to him even though he’d admit that it shocked him the first time he’d watched her change. Her arms lengthened and grew an extra joint while a pair of long tentacles emerged from her back, reaching upward to pluck another pair of apples. Chelka dropped one of the fruits into Oresso’s open palm and kept the last one for herself.
Edmath walked to the tree trunk and slumped down beside it, pulling the stethian that had belonged to his father out of the loop of his belt where he’d kept it, and setting it on the grass beside him. “I have grown tired today. Moths are soft-skinned animals, but not easy to ride.”
Wind played with Chelka’s hair as she transformed back out of her tosh. “Too true.” She sat down beside him, dropping her stethian beside his.
The smoke from the previous night had turned the sphere on the end of Chelka’s stethian white with collected ash. Saales were thought to have only strikers as magical tools for some time. These devices served to remind everyone of how little humans of recent days truly understood.
Both stethians had served them well last night. Edmath had watched Chelka kill one of the villagers and the attached protean sphere and she had not been ill at all. He was certain. She had been well enough to celebrate their wedding
night with him, later on. The stethian must have taken the loss for her.
His had yet to smoke, so he assumed he had not yet used it properly. Or perhaps it was because he had not dealt a mortal wound. With all the excitement of the previous day, they would need to slow down and examine these tools. If the stethians really did allow a Saale to take lives with magic they would be aptly called weapons.
“Ed? What are you thinking about?” Chelka’s hand touched his shoulder.
“Small things, dear. Just wondering how these devices work.” Edmath ran his fingers over the broad side of his stethian. He took a bite of the apple he held in his other hand. The crunch of the fruit was supremely satisfying.
Oresso Nane walked over to them, tossing his apple up in the air and catching it. “I’ve picked up a few pieces of information about mine.” He touched the sheath on his belt. “It surely smokes when a life is taken by magic, and I believe it provides some sort of fuel, making it easier to perform greater spells. I suppose the how is still missing in this.”
Edmath nodded and took a bite of his apple and chewed it. He remembered using the forest sign the previous night. If Oresso was right then without the stethian he would have been exhausted of all his magic with that spell. Of course, he couldn’t be sure if the device had worked or not. He had broken Chelka’s fall, so it had been enough.
“You may be right.” Chelka picked up her stethian, the one that had belonged to Edmath’s mother according to Kassel Onoi, and turned it over. “Also, it may be hollow. It echoed when I blocked that Roshi woman’s sword last night. Likely the living element is on the inside.”
Edmath looked at her, tracing the outline of her face with his eyes. She looked younger now, more like the girl he had met at Lexine Park once again. Time haunted his thoughts. Together, he and Chelka moved toward the war with Roshi. He had always been told another war was inevitable. He had not wished to believe it.
Oresso Nane stopped walking a few paces from the tree and looked at them. His eyes were alight. “The sure thing about them is they give us power. I know it kept Yezani and me alive last night. My coral mirrors have never been so clear, and my walls, never stronger.”
“Did you see much fighting?” Chelka looked down at her apple before biting into it.
“Not as much as you from the look and sound of it.” Oresso furrowed his brow. “The creatures I saw were barely human. Protean spheres do horrible things to those they inhabit.”
“I know, I know. Of course, I’ve seen it before. These villagers from Beliu on Dreamwater have become monsters. I doubt anything could save them now.” Edmath clenched his hand on the apple.
His hand was still scarred where the Roshi dueling blade had bitten into his skin and the bones had been broken by Ursar Kiet. Besides that, the healer’s job had been commendably done. He felt no more pain from those wounds.
Oresso looked soberly down the gentle slope of the garden toward the Saale Palace. His deep blue eyes took on a distant appearance in the darkening evening.
“Brosk told me about what happened to that village. The people there must have been desperate. Who knows why they would submit to becoming what they are now.”
Chelka glanced at Edmath with a question in her eyes. Edmath had not had a chance to talk to her alone for some time, and he had not told her about the boy who had died on the levoth the day after they’d left Lexine Park. She deserved to know, but he hadn’t wanted to mar their union or reunion with such darkness. Now there was no avoiding it.
“I’m sorry I didn’t see a chance to tell you,” he said. “If I’d known they’d come here, I would have been open with it. But what happened at that village on the Dreamwater, I do not really know.”
“It’s fine Ed.” Chelka’s tone was chilly, her annoyance apparent. “For now, I have to worry more about Roshi.”
They finished eating their apples with only the crunch of their chewing to fill the silence. Edmath hoped she could forgive his secret. He had not really meant to keep it, regardless.
Oresso walked back up the path to the High Castle without a word, leaving Edmath and Chelka under the tree. They sat that way for a while, wind tugging at their hair and regas. Finally, Chelka took the grip of her stethian. She stood up, arms folded against the cold wind.
“Let’s go get some rest, Ed.”
“Good idea, Chelka.” Edmath got to his feet and picked up his stethian while wishing the wind would stop blowing.
He knew it would not bow to his desires. He tentatively put his arm around Chelka as they walked and when they reached the Saale Palace, she put her head against his.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I should have told you about the villagers sooner.”
“That’s true, Ed. Yet, we survived. I forgive you.”
“Thank you.” He almost choked on the words. He felt as if he needed to cry. “I’m a mess.”
“You know, I think you only look better now,” she whispered in his ear.
Edmath gave a blink of his eyes. “I should bathe, at least.” They walked up the stairs into the hall with Edmath’s room. “I’m not sure about you.”
“What? his smell doesn’t bother you?”
“Except for the hints of blood and violence? No.” Edmath pushed his door open. “To be sure, I’m having a problem with that dress, two days in a row for wedding garb. That is just bad luck.” He slipped around in front of her and they touched noses, then lips, then hands.
“Maybe we should tell our families we’re alright.”
“Maybe the War Empress will take care of that, my dear.”
“For now we could leave it to her.” Chelka nudged him backward toward the bed. “Trust me on this, Ed.”
“I trust you.” And they kissed again.
A palace cat slunk out from one side of the bed and looked up at them. “New mates,” said the cat in the cat language. “Insufferable.”
Chelka frowned at Edmath. “What did it say?”
“Oh,” Edmath smiled at her. “He wishes us well.”
The cat stalked to the door, nosed it open, then slipped outside. As the animal went, Edmath heard him murmur, “Insufferable.”
The next day they awakened together. Chelka borrowed a fresh set of clothes from Razili Nane, while Edmath changed into a short-sleeved tunic for the humid day. They went to visit Brosk in his chamber of the Great Hearth. They were met halfway there by a messenger from Zemoy Benisar, who gave them a look of disapproval after they told him when they had returned.
“You know, your father was very worried, good Lady.”
Chelka grinned at Edmath.
“He will forgive me.”
Edmath chuckled.
“I daresay he will.”
She shrugged a shoulder.
“I am married now. Tell him not to worry so much.”
The servant gave a nervous smile and looked between Edmath and Chelka.
“Very well, my lady. Forgive me for overstepping my bounds.”
Edmath wondered if the messenger, a commoner with a black sash, dared say what he really felt to Chelka.
“Just don’t do it again.” Chelka didn’t stop grinning. “It could get tiresome.” She walked past the nervous servant and they made the rest of their way to the Great Hearth.
Zemoy Benisar came out of the doors followed by Chelka’s brother, Jeref, and her oldest sister, Bassa. They all took turns hugging her and telling her how relieved they were. Every time they asked what had happened to her and Edmath since the wedding, she replied with a simple wave of her hand.
“We protected his grace. He came back with us, and we are well.”
“You returned too late to abate our fears so easily, sister.” Bassa rolled her eyes at Chelka.
Chelka frowned.
“It was a mistake, Bassa.”
Edmath stepped forward.
“Of course. We were tired, far too tired. After arranging an escort for his grace, we planne
d to see Prince Naopaor, but our weariness was too great even for that.”
Zemoy laughed and slapped his thigh with a huge hand.
“Still, we weren’t high on your priorities, were we, son?” He laughed again, huge frame shaking with mirth. “I understand completely. Come inside. Young Brosk is probably anxious to see you.”
“I was worried about you, Brosk. Now I see you only injured yourself to make time for entertaining women.” Edmath stepped through the door to Brosk’s chamber where Zuria Mierzon and Yezani Rumenha sat in chairs on either side of the bed.
Brosk propped up his head and gave a pained chuckle. His legs were tied in slings that hung from the ceiling on ropes, and there were small bandages on both his face and chest.
“You should talk, Ed.” He laughed. “You went to save the High Emperor on your wedding night, you know, like a hero.”
“But not quite an actual hero,” Edmath said as Chelka came through the door. “At least, I’m not old-fashioned enough to fight alone.”
Brosk gave a theatrical sigh, followed by an honest groan as he looked at his broken legs. “Well, I’ll recover. The merciful thing about Ursar Kiet’s spell is that at least it makes clean break. If you would be kind and tell me how you escaped with his Grace, I’d say you made my day.”
Edmath and Chelka related the story for the three others in the room. When they were finished, Zuria put her hand on the bedstead and looked at Edmath over her shoulder, a frown on her face.
“I knew there must be some reason that little girl, Keve, would be the High Emperor’s only Saale. She has an ability no one else living possesses.”
“Of course, I was surprised too, but it was lucky she could move us all.” Edmath walked to the window on the opposite side of the room and Chelka sat down in a chair by the foot of Brosk’s bed. “It seemed to take all she had, though, for she collapsed upon our arrival in Hessiom.”
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