“Nathaniel, do you have family in the city?”
“Yes sir,” he answered, giving me an odd look.
I met his eyes and tried to convey my seriousness. “You should take the day off and stay with them. No one will miss you here. You might consider telling the other servants and guardsmen within the same thing.”
His face took on a look of disbelief so I left him and walked onward. He and his fellow guardsman rushed to open the door before I reached it. Rose and I resumed our leisurely walk after they had it open, but one of them called out behind us, “Let me call an escort for you your Lordship.”
I ignored him and we kept going. I remembered the way perfectly well. As we went I warned everyone we met as I had the first guard. I hoped they would listen and pass the word along. Despite my reputation I had a feeling most of them would stay at their jobs but there wasn’t much I could do about it. Hopefully things won’t get that out of hand, I thought. In truth I didn’t care anymore. My warning was a habit of kindness rather than a genuine desire to help them.
As we progressed toward the audience chamber I could feel a heavy foreboding in the air. My senses were alert and focused but I could find no cause for the feeling. Surprisingly many of the people in the near vicinity were already making their way out of the palace proper but I could find no reason for my sense of dread.
When we reached the final doors leading into the throne room I was surprised to find Adam, the servant who had greeted me on my first stay at the palace. He was waiting by the doors. Adam bowed perfunctorily and moved to open them for us but I motioned to him to stand away.
“Don’t you wish to enter Lord Cameron?” he asked.
I could sense two figures within and it was easy enough to identify them. The first was Edward, and the second was his ever loyal servant Cyhan. “Thank you Adam, but no, I prefer to open these doors myself.”
Something about my expression must have warned him because he backed rapidly away from the heavy double doors. “You should probably give yourself the day off Adam,” I told him and then I faced the doors.
The moment had arrived and I felt Rose’s hand tighten on my arm. Lifting my staff straight up I brought it down to strike the iron shod heel hard against the stone floor. “Borok Ingak!” The words rolled out from me like a breaking wave and shattered the massive double doors. The room within was showered with flying splinters and bits of wood. When the dust settled the only thing left of the doors within the frame were the iron hinges that had held them there.
Stepping forward Rose and I entered the room. I was mildly disappointed to see Edward sitting calmly on his throne rather than cowering. I suppose some things are too much to hope for, I reminded myself.
The room itself was impressive for its size. It was much larger than the small informal meeting room that James and I had met the King in a few times previously. This was a room used for state functions and as such it had a high vaulted ceiling, rising up some forty feet above our heads. It stretched thirty yards or more from side to side and the distance from the doors I had just destroyed to the throne at the opposite end of the room was at least thirty yards as well. Long rows of benches were arranged between here and there, to allow the nobility and clergy ample seating during major court events. There were two exits, aside from the way we had entered, in the form of two normal size doors leading from each of the two corners of the room behind the throne.
The throne was positioned atop the dais at the far end and Edward seemed quite composed as we neared it. If my destructive entrance bothered him he didn’t show it. He smiled as we approached. “Ahh! My dear Count di’Cameron, we are pleased indeed to see you this day.”
I stopped before reaching the dais and addressed him from some twenty feet away. “The feeling is not mutual.”
“You seem out of sorts Mordecai and you have arrived almost two hours early for your audience. Perhaps you have received some distressing news this morning?”
I ignored his goading. “Let’s dispense with the games Edward. You have one opportunity if you wish to live through the rest of this day and that is to deliver my wife, Penelope Illeniel and her guard Sir Dorian Thornbear to me now, safe and unharmed.”
His eyebrows shot up in mock surprise. “Bold words from such a young man, are you certain you have thought this through properly Mordecai? You really shouldn’t threaten the man that holds your wife and unborn child’s lives in his hands.”
My eyes narrowed at his words. “And you shouldn’t attempt to use hostages against a man who can kill you on a whim,” I replied.
The King laughed as he answered, “If I die you will never see them alive. You can count on that! Do you understand? You’re playing at games you are ill-equipped for, boy.”
“Your threats do not hold power when those you threaten no longer fear you,” I replied.
“Careful child, your words here will determine the fate of your loved ones,” he said sternly but I could detect a flicker of uncertainty in his eyes. He was beginning to realize I had moved beyond the point of being coerced.
“That is the first and most basic lie used by the corrupt to assert their will via threats and extortion. I will not accept responsibility for your actions. If I cannot stop you from harming them I will at least make certain you never repeat your evil deeds against others,” I declared.
Edward sneered, “Such noble words from a man who is dooming his wife and child to death at the hands of another.”
“Your twisted delusions have made you incapable of ruling. I doubt now that you ever understood the nature of a ruler’s power,” I answered, deliberately goading him.
“You seek to lecture me on the basis of power? I rule by the divine right of kings. None of your feeble words can change that and your ‘magic’ is insufficient in the face of the power of a nation,” he replied.
“That is where you are mistaken. The ‘divine right of kings’ is a farce. A wise man taught me the true source of a ruler’s power,” I said remembering Dorian’s words from the past. “It lies in the people that serve him. The strength of his people is a gift that a true king must cherish and nurture, and in that you have failed. None of this would have been necessary Edward, but for your constant failure. Failure to put your people first, both during the war with Gododdin and again when you forsook the people to make a deal with the shiggreth. And for what? The chance to coerce and control me? If you had been a good king I would have served you without coercion.”
As I spoke I could feel Cyhan’s eyes boring into me. Rose was watching me as well, and I had a feeling there were others, though my mind could not find them. There was another presence in the room, and it lay heavy upon the air, like a great power held in check.
Edward had to know by now that I wasn’t bluffing. I had come to kill him. Yet he still showed no fear. “You fool!” he shouted at me. “You spout that tired old philosophy at me and yet it still isn’t true! My power is from the ‘consent of the governed’? Lies! My power is granted me by the gods themselves!”
I had had enough. My decision had been made before I entered the room and our conversation had merely served to reaffirm his madness. Lifting my hand I held a small pebble on my palm. I had picked it up from the road during our walk to the palace. “This stone will be your end Edward. I would not waste anything more on you now, and in truth even this is more than you are worth.” Raising it to my lips I blew upon it and said the words that would send it hurtling with lethal speed at the King, “Tielen striltos.”
A flash of golden light, visible only to my arcane senses, flared near the King, and my stone struck an invisible shield in front of him. Where before he had stood alone with only Cyhan beside him, there were now two more figures. The golden glow emanated from a young woman and I could feel the shield she had erected around herself and Edward. She was either a wizard or a channeler. Cyhan still had made no effort to move. He was still and silent.
“Where did they come from?” Rose asked beside me.
“I don’t know, but it appears that Edward has reinforcements. You should leave now Rose,” I told her. “This isn’t going to be pretty.”
She spat at the ground in the most unladylike gesture I had ever seen from her. “I’ll be damned first.”
The woman standing beside Edward was slender, with light brown hair and fair skin. Examining her more closely I realized she was hardly a woman at all, but rather a tall teenager, still gangly and awkward. She was dressed richly in a dress made of golden satin but her face gave away her lack of experience.
The second figure was that of a well-built man, tall and perfectly formed. He kept his face hidden in the deep recesses of a hooded cloak but there was a sense about him, an air of menace I couldn’t yet define.
“Who is the girl Edward?” I asked casually.
He smiled, “Allow me to introduce Elaine Prathion. I suspect you may have met her father already, have you not?”
I winced inwardly. Now I knew why Walter’s daughter hadn’t been there when they liberated the rest of his family. I ignored the King and addressed her directly, “Elaine, listen to me. This man has no hold upon you, not any longer. Your father helped your mother and brother escape early this morning.”
Her eyes were slightly unfocused as she stared back at me and I could hear Edward’s laughter as she replied, “Celior has told me of you. You are a pestilence that will bring the destruction of the world if you are left to fester unchecked. I serve the true King, Edward, for he has been ordained by the gods to lead us through these dark times.”
Stretching out her hand she said something I couldn’t hear and a searing beam of light lanced from her hand toward me. Unconsciously I strengthened my shield but I needn’t have worried. Although her power was strong it was nowhere near enough to penetrate my defenses.
“Elaine, stop, you have to believe me. This man has been using you to control your father for years.” I pleaded with her, hoping she would hear me.
“She will not listen to you,” said Edward looking past her. “She listens only to me, and her god.”
“Very well then,” I replied and raising my staff I threw my power against her shield in a manner meant not to pierce but to crush. My aim was to overwhelm her so quickly that she collapsed from the strain rather than die trying to match me.
For a moment it appeared my plan would work. Her shield buckled and her hair flew back as she fell to one knee under the sudden strain. My respect for her grew however as she stabilized her shield and slowly stood back up despite the pressure. I could see the muscles in her jaw clenching and sweat was beading on her brow but she wouldn’t surrender easily. Clearly she was stronger than her father.
I briefly considered using my staff to focus a line of fire that would slice through her shield, but I knew that would be instantly fatal and I really didn’t want to kill Walter’s daughter. My hesitation cost me precious seconds however and she regained the initiative. Gesturing at the ceiling above she made a pulling motion with her hand and I looked up to see part of the ceiling collapsing inward; tons of granite were falling toward my head.
Trying to stop that much stone with just my shield would probably have been immediately fatal and even if I succeeded it would certainly render me unconscious. Instead I spoke and gestured at the floor around myself and Rose. The giant blocks that made up the floor swung up and over us to form a shallow arch. I had positioned them to brace each other and I added my shield to help hold them in place.
Thankfully the massive bulk of granite absorbed much of the impact, and my shield managed the rest. Without waiting for the dust to clear I located Elaine with my mind and tried a spell I had once used with great effect against Cyhan, “Grabol ni’targoth.” A hole opened in the stone beneath the teenage girl and suddenly bereft of support she fell losing her grasp on the shield around her at the same time.
With another word I sealed her within the stone. I was careful to avoid injuring her and I knew the tactic wouldn’t hold her for long. Crawling forward I drew Rose with me until we were free of the massive pile of stone rubble that had fallen over us. “Is she dead?” Rose asked as we emerged.
“I’m trying not to kill her.”
“Fool!” she shouted, “This is your only chance to kill the King. If you play nice that girl will kill us and then Penny and Dorian will die for nothing!”
I ignored her and focused on Elaine. An explosion of rock told me she had escaped from my stony prison but she vanished as she emerged. She had taken refuge in the Prathion’s famous invisibility, a few months prior I might have been helpless to predict her movements, but having known Walter I knew a lot more about the ability now. If she was invisible to the eyes she couldn’t see, if she was invisible to magesight she couldn’t sense anything magically, and if she was invisible to both she was effectively blind.
She wasn’t deaf however.
“Thank you Elaine!” I shouted at the air. “Now I can finish what I started with the King.” Raising my staff I sent a massive bolt of force hurtling through the air.
She reappeared instantly, dropping the invisibility and throwing a shield up in front of the defenseless king. My attack hadn’t been directed at the King however, I had aimed it at the area where she had vanished. Knowing she was blind I had figured she wouldn’t go very far so I had kept my attack broad and unfocused, and the bludgeoning force of it swept her unprotected form across the floor. She struck the wall with a resounding ‘crack’ and slid unconscious to the floor. I worried that despite my efforts I might have killed her anyway.
Straightening up I began walking toward the King. “I was already angry, but every time I think you can’t sink any lower you find new ways to surprise me,” I said as I approached him. “Using children to fight your battles is about as low as a human being can get.” Hefting my staff like a spear I gripped it in the middle and swept my hand from the tip of the iron shod heel and out into the air. “Thylen ingak ni’lyet,” I said, and a three foot blade of pure shimmering force appeared from the end.
Edward flinched back as I swung it back toward him and he cried out in fear, “Celior defend me!” He flung his hands up as if to ward the blow but I knew the blade would slice through flesh and bone until it had cleaved entirely through his rotten heart. Victory, bitter though it might be, was mine.
There was no way I could have anticipated how mistaken I was.
The cloaked man drew back his hood and the golden locks of his hair fell free as a luminescent radiance filled the air. Before then I had felt a fearful hint of an unknown presence; I now found myself overwhelmed by the stranger’s sheer blinding power. The very air had become heavy with it and though I struggled I could not move to finish my blow, so heavy was his crushing presence.
Knees buckling I fell to the floor, genuflecting despite myself. The stranger’s features were so bright I was forced to bow my head to shield my eyes from the light and I knew without doubt that I was in the physical presence of one of the shining gods. The experience was different than when I had faced the gods before. In the past they had been channeled, limited by their human vessels. Now I stood before Celior himself, and there was no limit to his power.
A voice so beautiful that it drove my heart to tears spoke, “Only now do you understand the folly of your ways Mordecai.”
I struggled to clear my mind. I still held my shield tightly about myself but Celior’s power seemed to bleed through it like contagion, seeping into me despite my best efforts. Gritting my teeth I contracted my shield and put everything I had into sealing my mind. You may take my body you bastard but you will never have me!
Celior laughed. “Look Edward! It thinks it can defy me! You are an insect mortal, your death will mean nothing to me and yet I will relish your despair.”
With my mind clear I found myself able to stand again, though it still felt as if I had a giant standing upon my shoulders. Drawing myself up I looked to Edward in desperation, “What have you done?”
The King however was lost in a fit of divine ecstasy. He was kneeling with his head raised and a look of frenzied euphoria on his face. A few feet behind him Cyhan still stood but his expression was even more fearful to me… tears streaked his cheeks and his eyes held a look of sorrow so profound I wondered if he were even the same man I had known.
At my side Rose was still on her knees and her face was drawn in an expression of pain. My eyes met hers for a moment and I could feel her terror and despair. What we faced now was beyond human comprehension.
I seemed to be the only one left in the room that retained a modicum of sanity. Celior’s presence had deprived them of their reason as well as their dignity.
The shining god spoke again, “My arrival is not by your rightful king’s doing, but rather by the hand of that sweet girl, who shall be revered above all women.” Celior’s hand swept out to point at Elaine’s unconscious form and he began to laugh. “She was so desperate. Her imprisonment led her to despair of ever finding freedom, or safety for her family. Without the guidance of her father she called to me and offered me passage here, to your world, if only I would grant her justice!”
My tongue finally found its will and I slowly ground out a reply, “You’re no better than Edward.”
Celior smiled and the beauty of his face seemed to light the room. “Is that what you think?” The god turned and addressed the King, “Rise o’ King, I would seek your counsel!”
Edward stood slowly. “What would you have of me?”
“This man will die, but he must suffer first. Tell me how you would increase his anguish.”
Edward smiled, “His wife and friend lie below the palace, in a hidden vault, bring them here and let them watch.”
Celior looked at Cyhan, “Fetch them here mortal.”
I struggled to move, to do anything, but it was all I could do to remain standing. It took everything I had just to keep my mind clear and I was barely succeeding at that. Try as I might the only freedom left to me was the power of speech. “You’ll regret this Celior,” I said slowly.
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