“Don’t listen to him, Visola,” Vachlan said through gritted teeth. “This is how he works. This is how he got under my skin and sent me away from you.”
The redhead turned back to look at Vachlan blankly. Her husband usually had all the answers in his eyes, but this time, they were too clouded with fury to be of any assistance. She shook her head listlessly. “I don’t care anymore. If that bomb kills me here and now, the twins will probably be better off. I welcome it.”
“Wonderful. And that’s all it took to disable the knights on the chessboard,” Kyrosed announced. “Death hasn’t slowed me down any, has it?”
“Actually, I think it has,” Princess Yamako said. “You missed fifteen years of technological advancement—and you weren’t too tech savvy before that, old man.”
“Excuse me?” Kyrosed rubbed his injured leg in nonchalance, ignoring her input. “I don’t need your paltry lesbian commentary.”
“Actually, you do. You see, your bomb fucking sucks, King Kyrosed.” Princess Yamako rose to her feet and advanced on him as she spoke. “It’s kind of an old fashioned design, no? I could have hooked you up with something much better.”
“Silence, bitch!”
“I’m just saying,” she said viciously, glancing at Aazuria and Trevain. “The trigger probably won’t set it off immediately. There will be a five second delay. And I could probably disarm that bomb in under five seconds. So you can go ahead and kill this sonuvabitch.”
There was a light in Trevain’s eyes as he lifted his weapon, and Aazuria ran to retrieve the trigger held by the man who was standing at Elandria’s side. But in that instant, the king made a game-changing move that forced them both to pause in the middle of their movements.
King Kyrosed picked up his steak knife and sliced Yamako across the throat.
“No!” Sionna screamed. “Yama!” She rushed to the woman’s side, applying firm pressure on her lover’s neck. It was futile—her hands were swimming in blood.
Everyone around them moved into to action. Queen Amabie rose to her feet, blinded with wrath. Visola stirred from her stupor, realizing that her momentary depression over her own daughter had possibly caused the death of her dear friend’s daughter; her sister’s beloved. Her hatred at herself for this moment of weakness began to return strength to her muscles, and she knew exactly where to direct her anger.
Sionna began to sob uncontrollably as she turned to the other doctor in the room. “Dylan—help me. There was poison on the steak knife.”
Chapter 15: Edge of the Hurricane
Out in the middle of the snowy city, Varia struggled to walk while carrying a bawling Ronan. Glais led Ivory by the hand as Kolora and Kaito lingered behind, walking slowly.
“What if the bomb goes off?” Ronan was asking “Will Mommy and Daddy die?”
“It’s going to be okay,” Varia told him. “Don’t worry.”
“Tell him the truth,” Ivory said sourly. “All of our mommies and daddies will die.”
“No way! That’s not going to happen,” Kaito said firmly. “Stop saying it. Stop thinking it.”
“Can we stop and rest here?” Kolora asked quietly. “Are we far away enough?”
“A little further,” Glais insisted. He noticed that Varia was growing tired of lugging the large toddler, and he reached over to take him from her arms. “Hey, champ. I’ve got you—things are going to be fine, trust me!”
“Why!” Ronan shouted. “Why should I trust you—you’re not even a real grown up!”
Glais smiled at this and glanced at Varia. “Even if it did happen, we would be okay,” Glais assured the younger children. “Princess V and I would take care of you guys.”
“Don’t talk like that, Glais,” Kolora said sharply. The teenage girl sat abruptly down in the snow, refusing to take another step. “Don’t start making plans for the aftermath like they’re already gone! We have to talk about something else.”
“Fine,” Glais said, lowering himself to the ground close to her. The other kids followed his example and made a circle around an invisible campfire. “Let’s talk about how the narwhal Vachlan got for Ivory is the most awesome thing ever and how I’m totally jealous.”
Ivory felt her lip quivering at this reminder. “Who cares about Tuskany if I lose my daddy? I would trade all the narwhals in the world to get him back. And the Spice Fish too.”
Ronan looked to his sister woefully. “Ivory? What are we going to do without Mommy and Daddy?”
“It’s not going to happen,” Kolora said, covering her ears. “Shut up. Shut up, all of you.”
“I don’t know why she’s so upset,” Kaito said grimly, poking Kolora in the arm. “Her dad isn’t even in that room. Both of my moms are in there.”
“Seriously, guys. Relax,” said Glais. “I lost both of my parents and I’m okay. Whatever happens, we’ll get through it together. It’s like Queen Aazuria said—we’re all family here, and we’re going to take care of each other. No matter what. I’ll be there for you guys.”
Everyone nodded solemnly in agreement.
Kolora leaned to the side to give Glais a small peck on the cheek. “Thank you, Glais,” she said softly. “You’re so brave.”
“Ewww, why’d you have to kiss him for?” Kaito demanded. “I’m brave too! I even went back to tell them the secret of how to kill the zombie, just in case they forgot.”
The older kids laughed lightly at this. Varia sighed and stood up, beginning to pace around the circle restlessly.
“What? No one ever gives me any credit!” Kaito complained. “Seriously, it’s really important to go for the brains. I feel underappreciated.”
“I appreciate you, Kai,” Ivory said at once. “Zombies are tricky and it was good of you to warn them.”
Ronan nodded in agreement.
“Where do you think he came from?” Kolora asked. “King Kyrosed, I mean.”
“I don’t know,” Glais admitted.
“Auntie Sio brings people back from the dead!” Kaito said proudly.
“But she wouldn’t have brought him back,” Glais said. He suddenly noticed that Varia was missing. “Shit!” he swore, bolting off the ground and running back through the city. He moved like lightning through the buildings, heading back for the palace; he knew that it would be where she was heading. When he turned a corner and saw a flash of deep auburn hair, he wasted no time in increasing his speed to catch up with her.
He tackled Varia to the ground. “What the hell do you think you’re doing!” he shouted.
“Let go of me!” she cried, struggling against him. “Let me go back! I can help—did you see? Did you see how I moved him, how I made him agree to let us go? I can influence him! I can—I can change his mind. I can save Auntie Elan. I can—”
“You can seduce your own grandfather? Yes! You can, Varia. You can do anything—oof,” Glais said as he struggled to restrain her arms. “But that doesn’t mean you should. Someday, you’ll be responsible for Adlivun. Maybe for all of Oceanus. But not now.”
Varia wrestled Glais fiercely, shoving her elbow into his face. “You don’t understand! He uses what he knows about us as a weapon. What do we know about him? He has only one critical weakness: young girls. He doesn’t care if they’re family—in fact, he seems to like that. I’m perfect! I could exploit this. It’s brilliant—you know it’s brilliant!”
“Varia,” he said sharply. “Yes, it’s brilliant. But you can’t sacrifice yourself like that.”
“Why not? What do you care?”
Glais suddenly stopped wrestling with her. He pulled away, physically recoiling in anger. “I cannot believe you just said that to me. If we had time, I would be pissed at you for a week and avoid you and give you the silent treatment. What do I care? What do I care?!”
“I’m sorry.” Varia bowed her head in shame. “I don’t mean to lash out at you—I’m just so scared.”
“I know,” Glais said, reaching out to take her hands. “Just leave things up to yo
ur mother. Please, Vari—let her take care of you.”
“And who takes care of her?” Varia snapped. “She already died once. Is my useless dad going to save her? Her useless so-called bodyguard, Minister of Defense—who, by the way, is heavily intoxicated? Vachlan, who only acts in his own best interests but somehow convinces everyone that he cares about them? I can do more than all of them! She needs me, Glais. I have to go back.”
“Why would you say such mean things about them?” he asked with a frown. “Those people took care of me when they really didn’t have to. You know you love them all.”
“I do!” she said, fighting back tears. “That’s why I can’t let them get hurt! I want to be responsible for Adlivun someday. Not today! Not in five minutes!”
“And if you go back there, and you get yourself killed, then all of Adlivun is lost. You’re the one person left who can keep everything together, Varia. You’ve been cramming your brain filled with all kinds of information necessary to run a country…”
“Stop. It can’t end up this way. I can’t think—I need to act! All I know how to do is act!” She stood up again and headed for the palace, but Glais grabbed her ankle, causing her to fall to the ground. She caught herself and twisted around in the snow, trying to break free.
“No,” he told her firmly, restraining her body against the ground. “Sorry. But if you go back to the palace, I’m going after you. And if that explosion wipes everyone out—well, Ronan and Ivory are going to be all alone. Kolo and Kai aren’t mature enough to take care of them yet. It’s all on us, Varia. You and me—we’re the adults here and we have to act like it!”
“You think I’m an adult?” she said, blinking away tears. “Just a few days ago you said I was a little kid.”
“I change my mind about what you are every single minute,” he confessed. “All I know is that you’re everything to me, and I won’t be able to go on without you.” He lowered his face by a few inches, and for a second, she thought he was going to kiss her. His nose barely brushed against hers before he paused. “I swore to your mom that I’d take care of you, and that’s what I’m going to do in her absence. I also owe it to Vachlan and Visola to take care of their kids if anything happens to them. Please don’t make this difficult on me, Princess.”
She searched his amber eyes for reassurance, and finally nodded in submission. He moved off her, releasing her arms from where he had pinned them. He rested beside her in the snow, looking up at the darkening sky.
“What a mess,” he muttered. “We were all having such a good day.”
Varia exhaled, allowing the tension around her to dissipate “It always seems like when we’re the happiest, that’s when things are about to take a turn for the worse.”
“It was the calm before the storm. We knew it couldn’t last, living on the edge of a hurricane.”
“Why shouldn’t it last?” Varia asked. “Why should Ivory and Ronan have to go through this?”
“I don’t know. But it’s happening, so let’s deal with it. We better get back to the kids.” Glais raised himself to his feet and extended his hand to her to help her up. Varia took his hand to lift herself off the ground. As soon as she was standing, she noticed that Glais’ face had become suddenly illuminated with light.
It happened in less than a fraction of a second. The air around them grew deathly still before the deafening sound of an explosion filled their heads. A hot wind swept over their faces. Varia froze, staring unblinkingly at Glais. There was recognition in both of their eyes as the thunderous sound sent vibrations through their entire bodies. Debris and ash began to drift to the ground all around them. Her head turned toward the palace, and she began to stumble forward as though magnetically drawn to the flames and great billows of black smoke.
Glais blocked her path, holding her face in his hands. “Varia, look at me. Look at me. We have to get back to the twins—they’re going to panic. They need us.”
She shook her head in refusal. “That bomb was strapped to my Aunt Elandria. Everyone else was standing so close to her…”
“Varia...”
“Glais!” she shouted, suddenly finding her authority. “I order you to go back to the children and make sure they’re safe.”
He nodded slowly.
She turned and began running back to the palace.
Sionna could not remember the last time she had performed a surgery while crying. Her vision blurred as she tried to close the artery. Sniffling, she turned her head to the side and wiped her runny nose on the shoulder of her dress.
“I believe I’ve administered enough of the antidote,” Dylan said as he checked the contents of the syringe he was holding.
“Where the fuck is my transfusion?” Sionna said as she applied pressure to the break in the vein. “Naclana should be back with my blood by now.” Since both her hands were busy, she tried to lean her head back and shake her tears away, blinking rapidly to clear her vision. She returned her gaze to the inside of Princess Yamako’s neck, and immediately burst into tears again. “Dylan…”
“I’ve got this,” he told her, gently taking the instruments from her hands. His strong and steady fingers immediately went to work. “I could do this in my sleep,” he informed her.
Meanwhile, Empress Amabie was struggling to pound King Kyrosed into the ground. Both of them were panting from engaging in hand-to-hand combat.
“You’ve gotten slower,” Kyrosed remarked.
“Not so slow that I can’t defeat you,” the Japanese empress declared. She swiveled and picked up a chair which she promptly smashed into the king’s leg—where Trevain had already shot him.
The man winced and staggered. “That may be so—but my strength was never in my body. Princess Yamako was not physically strong, but she was important.”
“Why would you harm my daughter?” Empress Amabie said as she wielded her chair viciously. “Why, Kyrosed?”
“Your majesty, should I release the trigger?” the servant asked King Kyrosed, holding Elandria in one hand, and the device in the other.
“If this bitch keeps yipping at my heels,” Kyrosed told him. “Aazuria! Call off your dog or I’ll burn your sister and everyone in this room to ashes.”
Aazuria swallowed down a lump of bile. “Empress Amabie, please stop attacking him.”
The Japanese woman turned back to Aazuria obediently, understanding that she could not avenge her daughter in the current situation. There were tears in her dark eyes. “As you wish, Queen Aazuria.”
“I am sorry,” Aazuria whispered. “There’s still a chance to save my sister.”
King Kyrosed frowned. “You don’t believe that I’d really kill her, do you Aazuria?”
“No, Father. I do not. I know you—and I know that you’re looking for a reason to change your mind. I’ll give you that reason. Whatever you want from us to preserve Elandria’s life, I’ll give it to you.”
“You don’t know me, child. You never did. The only person in the room who truly understands me is Vachlan.” King Kyrosed turned to look at his old advisor. “My power lives in my legacy. Our bodies crumble, fade, and perish. But the fruit of our minds outlives us, inspiring or poisoning the next generation. Even as a dead man, I had—and will have—more influence over the world than many who are alive and breathing.”
“This is true, old friend,” Vachlan quietly agreed.
“Even if I don’t survive the day, I do not die here. I’ve planted my seeds in the world, and I’ve twisted my seedlings into the shape of my choice. Even the tender shoots barely pushing through the earth, the children of my children—they will not escape my sway and direction. Even this country, and these new cities, and this new empire! I have twisted it all with the strength of my mind, just as I have twisted my children. The future belongs to men like you and me, Vachlan. It always will.”
“You’re not wrong,” Vachlan responded.
“I see that we’ve reached a stalemate here,” Kyrosed remarked. “None of you are eag
er to snatch up the trigger from my servant and disarm the bomb any longer. I suppose it would be futile with Mrs. Advanced Technology bleeding to death.”
“Yamako’s going to be fine,” Dylan told them. “Don’t worry about the princess—she’s in good hands.” Naclana had returned with the blood transfusion, and the two doctors were working to stabilize her.
“Nevertheless, she is useless to you all in this situation,” Kyrosed observed as he leaned against the table, rubbing his sore leg. “I will have to assume that Naclana alerted the castle security to the situation in this room when he went for supplies. But I don’t care—none of them will do anything rash as long as I hold Elandria hostage.”
“This ends now, Father,” Aazuria said quietly. She could see that her sister was having a nervous breakdown. “State your demands and take the bomb off Elandria.”
“All I want is you, child. I want to punish you for being such a bad girl.”
“Then I’ll come with you,” she said, moving forward. “It’s done. Let’s go.”
“Aazuria,” Trevain said sharply, lifting his grandfather’s gun again. “I will shoot him in the head if he tries to take you. I would rather risk killing everyone in this room than losing you again.”
“Don’t be foolish,” she told him. “I’ve decided. I want to go with him. He’s my father, and I wronged him. I deserve anything he does to me.”
“That’s right, my dear,” said the old king. “You certainly do. I will remove the bomb—I’m happy we could settle this like civilized folk.” When Kyrosed moved over to Elandria and began to undo the device from her chest, the other adults in the room looked at each other awkwardly.
Aazuria made eye contact with her husband. “Tell Varia…” She hesitated, thinking of what her final words to her daughter should be. She closed her eyes tightly. “You don’t have to tell her anything. She already knows.”
“Varia will never forgive me,” Trevain said quietly. “She already blames me for everything that happened to you. She’ll blame me for this too, and she’ll be correct. I’ll never forgive myself, Zuri.”
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