Lives of Kings

by Lucy Leiderman

  “Worse,” Stone replied. “There is nothing of any of the tribes. Not the Godelan, not the Riada, and not anyone else.”

  “What happened?”

  “Two thousand years,” replied Stone as if it was obvious.

  “No,” Donald cut in. “It was the Romans. They conquered all civilizations in the Western world, erased them, and became the world of today. At least the wealthy world.”

  Kian was anxious to cut in and ask how big the world truly was, but the man named Donald seemed erratic and spoke angrily. Kian decided he would tread lightly around this one, and bide his time. While he was sure that Stone was dangerous, Donald went from calm to raging in a breath. If anyone would kill first and ask questions later, it would be him.

  “For years,” Donald continued, “we wondered how the Romans had defeated the Riada and their warriors. But if what you say is true, if they followed us into death rather than defend our people, the seven are to blame. They are not only responsible for our deaths, but for the Roman victory.”

  Kian hated himself for remaining quiet. He listened to the three men discuss their past, nursing his drink and feeling as if he was falling further and further away from his goal. He was treading deep in the hate and evil that the Godelan caused.

  These three men had once been loyal to his father but wanted power. He could only listen in horror as they spoke about gaining magic from people’s souls and their failed experiments with raising the dead. It was a while before they remembered him again.

  “So, Kian,” Stone said, “how will you help us find the seven warriors?”

  He said it while resting on the arm of the sofa as if he was asking about the weather. Kian was stunned into silence. He had no answer. Luckily, Magician answered for him.

  “We don’t know what form they are in,” he said. “Or where they are. All we know is that he can recognize them. When the time will come for any one of them to use enough magic to trace, I can use the spell I used to find you and send Kian to fetch them.”

  “Why don’t we go ourselves and destroy them?” Donald asked.

  As Stone sighed his disappointment with Donald’s foolishness, Kian realized just how dangerous he was.

  “Because,” Magician said, “they may recognize us and use magic against us. If they have their full memories, they’ll be stronger than us.”

  “Stronger than you, maybe,” Donald retorted. “We’ve been harnessing the magic of the earth for as long as we’ve been here, pulling up every magical root we can find.”

  Magician seemed confused. “Why?”

  “Our revenge.” Donald waved his hands as if revenge was an item sitting in the living room with them. “The Romans destroyed one thousand years of our people. We will destroy two thousand of theirs. We can use the earth magic to create enough chaos to gain control — and with the magic of the seven, the destruction will be swift and complete. In that chaos, all the other truths of this world will fall away until only magic will be powerful. And we will be the only ones with it.”

  “You want to rule the world?” Magician asked. His brows were furrowed. Kian supposed Magician had wanted something similar, but the Earth was much bigger now than it was in their time.

  Magician was having trouble imagining it.

  “Why not?” asked Donald. “When everything they count on has been destroyed, we can have our own time again.”

  “That’s insane,” Kian said. The words tumbled out of his mouth of their own accord. All three men, including Stone, who had been silent, turned to him.

  “No,” Stone said. “It is unfinished business. But Donald is being a little dramatic. We won’t destroy the world and send it back into pre-history. We also won’t need to kill your kind.”

  “You won’t?” Kian asked. He looked skeptically at Magician, who was still trying to play catch-up as best he could.

  “No,” said Stone. “I, unlike my brethren, think in the long term. And in the long term, by the time we’re able to find any of the seven, they will be starting to gain magic. Our old friend is right — they will be stronger than us if they get everything back. But if the process takes time, we can nurture them, provoke them to ignite the magic, and when they are strong again, we will take it.”

  Kian knew he would regret asking, but he had to know. “How?”

  “The same way we once did it,” Stone said.

  Kian didn’t know what this was but didn’t want to ask either. When Stone saw uncertainty playing across his face, he shrugged. “It’s either take their magic or kill them. Which would you rather us do?”

  Kian squeezed his fist together until the nails were biting into his palm. “And then I can have my brother?”

  “Yes,” Magician said.

  “And we can go home?”

  “Yes,” Magician repeated.

  The other two exchanged a glance, and for a moment Kian was worried they would interject and change the agreement. He was hardly in a position to bargain. But they nodded.

  As the magicians talked late into the night, Kian was excused to wander the house and make his way to the guest bedroom. Despite the relative freedom, he reminded himself he was a prisoner. This was not the deal he had agreed to.

  The room was warm and the bed was the most comfortable thing he had ever lain on. He was exhausted, both physically and mentally, and he longed for sleep as an escape from his constant misery. He had joined the enemy and betrayed his tribe.

  Kian lay on his back, eyes wide open. He could only stare at the ceiling and replay all of his mistakes over and over.

  Finally, he couldn’t stand it. He opened the window until the room became freezing cold and lay on the floor next to the bed. He would not allow himself to sink into the luxury they offered him. It came at a terrible price.

  Kian lay on the hardwood and repeated to himself, over and over again, that he was a prisoner, that his people were in grave danger, and that he would always try to help them in any way he could. No matter how long it took.

  After another few hours of shivering on the floor, sleep still eluded him. He decided to wander the house again. Perhaps he would find something to offer him a way out of this mess.

  The house was old and every stair creaked. Kian tiptoed as much as he could, but he knew nothing about being quiet in a modern house. He paced and stopped to listen, just as he had while he hunted in the forest.

  The first room he came to was where Stone must have written letters since there were paper and books everywhere. A wide table with only one chair behind it held more information than Kian could take in. A window showed the city below. Taking in the expanse, Kian couldn’t imagine how many people occupied the thousands of lights he could see in the distance.

  Next, he found the kitchen. He walked to the end of the long room, where several metal boxes hummed and showed the time. He briefly wondered why people here needed so many reminders about the time. Probably because they were busy; that was why they moved so quickly.

  Kian had just decided there was nothing here for him when he passed a metal bar hanging on the wall. The bar had several large knives stuck to it as if by magic. The knives ranged from long to wide, but they all looked deadly sharp.

  Kian tried to see how firmly affixed they were to the bar and was surprised when one came off with ease. He felt the weight. It was heavy. He ran his thumb along the end and a thin line of blood appeared. He ignored the searing pain. His mind didn’t have time for pain. Kian considered his options.

  He could find all three men and stab them in the heart. He would have lost his tribe but at least rid the world of the Godelan once and for all and spared the seven. But Kian realized there was no way he would have the time to kill all of them before one would overpower him with magic. So he could try to kill one — but then he’d be dead and the other two would still be after the seven. They’d probably be even crueller to them, especially his brother, in revenge for Kian’s actions.

  Another option occurred to him: he could kill
himself. He would be free from his misery, and it would be a start in attempting to atone for leaving his tribe and the death of Adar. He would also then never help the Godelan find any of his people, which would give them a chance to develop their memories and full magic before being found.

  Kian brought the blade up to his neck and felt the pinch as it met skin. A hundred different scenarios ran through his head as he tried to reason that the seven, including his brother, would be better off if he wasn’t in their way. However, a small voice of reason told him otherwise.

  His conscience told him that to live and search for them would be better atonement than death for his betrayal of the Riada. It also told him that alive he could try to help the seven and prepare them, even if it had to be under the watchful eye of the Godelan. Without him, they could be caught unaware, and then nothing would protect them.

  Slowly, he put the knife back onto the metal bar and let out a deep breath, continuing his search of the house.

  Voices came from a room at the back, closed off from the hall by a set of double doors. Kian crept to it, listening. The Godelan reminiscing of their pasts and horrible deeds hadn’t interested Kian in the least; in fact, it had made him feel even worse. Now, however, they spoke of the seven.

  The three Godels spoke of their vulnerability, and Kian heard Stone thank Magician for the warning. Their voices were too muffled for Kian to hear more. He snuck closer and pushed lightly on one of the double doors, hoping it would not make a sound.

  He was lucky. It swung open just enough for him to hear and peek through. His heart raced.

  The three men ignored the fire burning in the hearth and instead had emptied a bin and lit another fire in it. Each one held a small wooden box open in front of him. Kian recognized the three boxes as some of the trinkets Magician had brought with him. He wondered how many other valuable things Magician had played off as worthless artifacts during Kian’s time with him.

  “We have to get rid of them,” Stone said. “Now that we know the seven are here, we cannot risk keeping them.” He turned to Magician. “Should we be worried about the boy?”

  “He is powerless,” Magician replied. “He can do nothing.”

  Kian’s mind backtracked through everything he had heard that night, but he couldn’t imagine what the three were trying to hide. He resolved to find out what was inside those boxes.

  “Once we do this,” Magician warned, “there is no going back.”

  Donald let out a short, mirthless laugh. “I think we’ve already made those commitments,” he said. “Let’s get this done.”

  As if on cue, all three dumped the contents of their boxes into the fire. But even as the boxes were turned upside down, nothing fell out of them. Some specks of dirt went into the fire, but otherwise they were empty.

  Still, the fire roared to life and the house began to shake. Kian tumbled to the side, losing his footing, but the noise of the old house settling was enough to keep him hidden. Suddenly a sound like all the air being sucked out of the room forced him closer to the door but also froze him in place.

  The Godelan were immobilized. Kian scolded himself for leaving the knife in the kitchen. If he had kept it, he could have killed them all now. Instead he was glued to the gap between the doors, watching. Would the spell kill them?

  It gripped them for over a minute before Kian saw the first signs of anything taking place. Slowly, painfully, shadows seemed to be torn away from the men and sucked into the little wooden box each of them carried. As the last of the shadow was encased, the lids snapped shut. The fire immediately sank back to normal and the three emerged from their strange state, gasping for air and gripping their chests.

  “That was more painful than I thought it would be,” Donald admitted. “I feel strange.”

  “Of course you do,” Stone told him, gripping his own box with both hands close to his heart. “There’s a part of you missing.”

  “What shall we do with them?” Magician asked.

  “Hide them,” Stone said.

  He turned toward the door and Kian had no choice but to bolt into another room, around the kitchen, and up the stairs to the bedroom. He ran as quickly and quietly as he could, all the while feeling the Godelan were going to catch him at any moment.

  Kian closed the door to his bedroom just as one of them came up the stairs. He lay on the cold floor again, shivering and listening intently but pretending to be asleep.

  A Godel walked up to his door.

  Kian thought his heart would break free from his ribcage as it pounded in his chest. Then the Godel walked away, sufficiently convinced that Kian was asleep. He let out a deep breath.

  Kian knew that everything from this moment on would be difficult. He was in the company of evil men, and they would probably lie to him. They might be kind to him, making him comfortable, but only to fool him. They would try to win him over, or they might be cruel. But it was all for the sake of their own twisted plans.

  He knew what he had seen tonight was only a small example of what they were capable of, and lacking magic, he could do nothing about it. But in this world, there were seven people who could. And no matter what deal he had made with Magician, he would do his best to find these people and prepare them to win.

  Chapter Nine

  We shivered in the alleyway in silence until Kian limped to some crates stacked outside a door. He sat heavily, nursing his knee.

  I took a few hesitant steps forward, afraid to get too close but not wanting to seem distant. Despite all the confusion over the last few months, I was very happy to see him. I just couldn’t let myself show it. I couldn’t let him think he was off the hook for what he had done. I had forgiven him in the heat of the moment, but the consequences of his actions still followed us.

  I had spent weeks wondering what my life would have been like without him. Would I be graduating this year? Or would the seven of us have found each other already? Or would I be long dead, soul and magic enslaved to the Godelan?

  I crossed my arms over my body as I shivered in the cold.

  “Why aren’t you wearing a jacket?” Kian asked.

  The concern in his voice nearly made me smile. Nearly.

  “I think you owe me an explanation,” I said. I could tell he was stalling.

  He nodded, staring at the ground and running a hand through his hair. I knew his fidgets. I knew he was searching for the right words, so I just waited quietly in the cold.

  “I was so young,” Kian said finally, “and so stupid when all of this happened.”

  I wanted to comfort him but kept my distance. Even after I’d forgiven him, he had left.

  “I was seven years old when my brother died,” Kian started. “Eight years old when my father died. Nine years old when my mother died. And ten years old when the Romans made our tribe leave our home. I lived for years knowing that if I could only have been born like him, I could have saved everyone. But I wasn’t.”

  He was being earnest, and I was seeing the most honest side of him. Tears came to my eyes as I imagined what the life we left behind must have been like for everyone else. When we died, we took hope with us.

  “I’ve had a lot of time to myself recently,” Kian continued, “to think about what I did and why I did it. It was wrong. And I told myself it was right for a very long time. I told myself it was right even when I had to give you up. And you made me realize I had been lying to myself.”

  I tried to cut in, to ask him what he was talking about, but he went on.

  “After you showed me more kindness than I had ever shown you,” he said, “after you managed somehow to forgive me and then save my life when they came, I couldn’t face you without offering what I had initially promised — my help.”

  There was a lump in my throat that I tried to will away.

  “Why didn’t you wait until I woke up?” I asked.

  Kian shrugged, smiling slightly. “I figured that when you came to your senses, after all the trouble I had caused you, you
wouldn’t want to talk to me. I wanted to do something to at least start to make up for things. And I think I found something. I think I can actually help to end what I started.”

  I had too many questions for the conversation to move forward.

  “You need to start from the beginning,” I told him. “What is it that you did?”

  “It’s a long story,” Kian replied. “And it’s cold. Can I tell you about it somewhere more comfortable?”

  I reluctantly agreed. My emotions were still a mess, but I was freezing, so I helped him to limp to a nearby coffee shop. I had kicked Kian in the knee, and though I knew he was trying to put on a brave face, it must have been painful. I apologized, but he only brushed it away.

  “Like I said, I deserve it,” he said, smiling.

  “You’re happy about this?”

  “It’s nice to be near you,” he replied.

  I didn’t know what to do with that so I just ignored it completely.

  “Why didn’t you just say hi? Why did you have to grab me like that?” I asked.

  Kian actually laughed. “I figured if you saw me and had time to think about it, you might have blasted me with magic or something.”

  That brought to mind another important issue.

  “You’re completely magicless now,” I said.

  He nodded. “Completely. Luckily, I’ve been stealing from the magicians for years. Saving for a situation such as this one and hiding the money in various accounts.”

  So he had known that one day he would betray them.

  “We know who they are now,” I said. “We know they’re Godels.”

  Kian’s eyebrows shot up. I could tell he wanted to ask me how we knew that and pose a hundred different questions, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he appeared to remember his promise. “After my story,” he said, “I’d like to hear yours.”

  “Agreed.”

  The coffee shop was warm, cozy, and luckily nearly empty. I paid for a hot chocolate to warm up and we found the table farthest away from everyone else.

  “Remember,” Kian said, “I told you it’s a long story.”

  I didn’t know how much time passed as he finally told me the truth — all of it. And he certainly didn’t spare himself. He told me about how helpless he had felt, how his uncle had wanted him to marry and produce more warriors, how the Romans were gaining power and the situation was on the brink of war all the time.