by K. A. Linde
But it wasn’t Cyrene. It was Vera.
“Hello, Vera. How can I help you? Is everything all right?”
“Might I have a word in private, Captain?” she asked solemnly.
He frowned. This couldn’t be good. “Of course.” He gestured for her to enter his tent. But she didn’t. “Were you thinking somewhere else?”
“I was thinking on the way to our dragons.”
The furrow in his brow deepened. “Certainly.”
He gave a short order to continue to spar and then went with Vera out of the Eleysian army and to where Ameerath stood with his dragon, Halcyon. It was still amazing to him that he was back here at all. He had crossed the bridge to Domara and spent years there, earning his own magic. It had been mere weeks in this world. He’d had no recollection of his past, only the strong sense of purpose to acquire magic and claim a dragon. After he’d won the dragon tournament, he’d returned here with Cyrene, only to reclaim his stolen heart from the sea nymphs at the entrance to the bridge and have his memories return in a rush.
Weeks—at most, months—since everyone thought that he had abandoned his sister to try to reclaim her throne. But years to him. They still saw him as the untried young captain. He knew that he was anything but. He almost wished that he could forget his years in Domara the way he had forgotten Eleysia. It seemed a fair trade.
“What can I help you with?” Dean asked. “Has something happened?”
“The war council has turned against Cyrene. They’re making Gwynora the commander of both armies and told Cyrene that, if she couldn’t fall into line, then she should leave.”
He understood before she said anything else. “She left.”
Vera nodded. “She did.”
“And they just let her?” he demanded, his voice low and calculating. “After everything she had done?”
“They did not stop her.”
A roaring boomed in his ears. Those bastards had done this. His sister and her bloody politicians. Even Darmian, who saw Dean the most as that blind young captain with a quick smile and light heart. He did not know the new person he had become while gone. The hardened warrior that he’d had to find within himself.
“Thank you for telling me,” Dean said as he stepped toward Halcyon and jumped on his back. “Fly.”
He left Vera far behind as Halcyon took to the skies. They were to the other camp in a matter of minutes. Dean hopped down and took off at a run into the heart of the camp. He hadn’t had time to be here for Cyrene. He’d sent Darmian in his place, believing that he would take care of his interests and keep the dirty politicians in check. But he should have known better. He couldn’t delegate these matters.
He didn’t wait for the Network guard to get out of his way. He just barreled straight forward into the tent. “What in the Creator’s name have all of you done?”
Shocked faces stared back at him. Even a few guilty faces. But they all looked as if they didn’t understand what he was doing here. When it was clear that they knew.
“You sent her away?”
Gwynora straightened considerably. “We did not send her away. We had a meeting. She offered an ill-advised plan to defeat Malysa. We agreed we needed more time. She wouldn’t listen. So, we voted for me to run this. And Cyrene could not accept that. So, she left.”
“Are you all insane?” Dean asked with a shake of his head.
“No,” his sister said. “Dean, we’re not insane. We’re trying to do the right thing here.”
“You have no intention of doing the right thing,” he shot back. “You hate her. You blame her for something that she had no part of, and now, you are taking it out on her when she is not only our ally, but also our only way of winning this war.”
“Dean, she wasn’t acting logically,” Darmian said softly.
He turned his eyes on his closest friend. “I sent you here to look after my interests. How does this serve anyone’s interests?” His eyes kept moving to Orden at the table and Avoca standing against the tent. “And you two? You just let her walk out?”
Orden said nothing. Avoca just glared at him.
“The decision has been made,” Gwynora said, snapping his attention back to her at the head of the table.
His magic crackled in his palms at her idiocy. He could feel the electricity burning through him, ready to unleash as his anger mounted. He’d learned to harness it. Learned to unleash it. He was still learning to restrain it.
“Cyrene is the strongest magical user in all of Emporia. She has done everything to fight this battle, and she makes one mistake, and you all turn your backs on her?” His gaze shifted around the room, going from Gwynora to Orden to Avoca. “She is your friend. She would die for you. Gladly fight battles for you to save you any suffering. And you cast her aside. You have all made a huge mistake.”
He shook his head at the entire lot of them. His anger a torrent in his veins. His magic trying to burst out of him. Desperate to release.
He spat one more word at them in the silence, “Faithless.”
No one spoke. Fear shone on the faces of the politicians. His sister and friend finally seemed to see him for who he was. Fenix seemed as if he didn’t care about this outburst, but Gwynora and Orden looked guilty. Avoca was still a hollow shell.
“I’m leaving,” he announced, turning away from them.
“Where are you going?” Brigette spoke up.
“To serve the true queen.”
Then, he strode to Halcyon and took to the skies in search of Cyrene.
8
The Red Dress
They continued to travel north over the forest. The skies gave Cyrene time to think. To think about her failure. And how she could learn more in hopes of succeeding. It was late the next night when she finally came to a conclusion.
“Before we go farther, I want to link with you and access the spiritual plane. I think that I need to talk to Serafina one last time.”
Do you feel well enough to cross that divide after the last time? I approve of adventure, but I would not want to purposely put you in danger.
“Yes, I can cross,” Cyrene said with certainty. “It was Vera who was the weak link. Together, we are strong. Malysa will not be able to break between us.”
Together, we are strong.
Cyrene grinned at Sarielle’s arrogance.
Then, let us begin.
Cyrene settled into the grass and closed her eyes, reaching within herself for that sense of right. She felt Sarielle’s presence, the bond, and her answering link. For a moment, Sarielle’s wild energy suffused her. The part of their personalities that were so very the same.
Then, she released from her dragon and stepped out of her body into spirit. She felt secure here. Much more secure than when connected with Vera. That had been a disaster that she should have foreseen. She would not let Malysa into her sacred bond with Sarielle again.
When she felt calm settle over her, she pressed against the liquid divide that separated her from the spiritual plane. She stepped out into nothingness and conjured the inside of her parents’ home. The hard wood under her feet. The enormous spiral staircase that led to the bedrooms up above. The hallway where Elea had first given her the Doma book.
She sighed softly at the sight. She hadn’t thought to come back here in so long. She wondered who lived there now. If anyone did. With her parents dead and Elea gone, who claimed ownership of the premises? She shook her head and cast the thought aside. It was not a problem that she could fix at the moment. And she had long ago learned her lesson to focus on the task at hand as best she could.
“Serafina,” Cyrene called into the silence and empty halls.
A moment later, her figure appeared, wrapped resplendent in a red gown. “Hello, Cyrene. It is good to see you. Though the circumstances are dire.”
“Yes. Malysa has escaped her imprisonment. She is among us. Set on destroying us.”
Serafina nodded and began a small circuit of Cyrene’s home. “I know. I am
so sorry, Cyrene. I did not know that you would have to face her in the end. I tried to keep anyone from having to face her once I realized what she was.”
“Others do not understand the real threat with her. They are too focused on the immediate and not looking to the future. I don’t know how to convince them of the path that I am on.”
“You don’t,” Serafina said simply. She faced Cyrene again. “This is your family home?”
Cyrene bobbed a nod. “It’s where I grew up.”
“It’s beautiful. I can sense much happiness here.”
“I had a wonderful childhood,” Cyrene admitted. “But why do you say that I shouldn’t convince them?”
“Because you cannot. Words are pointless now. Only actions can sway those muddled by Malysa’s influence.” Serafina sighed. “Her forte is the darkness, the place within us that despairs and is greedy and angry. She amplified those emotions in the ones who had come to her, like me, like Viktor. Now that she is out, I suspect she can draw out hate like a poison.”
“How do I defeat someone who can infect the minds of my whole army?”
“The two most powerful things in the world—hope and love.” Serafina touched her shoulder. “You bring the energy of this home with you and cast out the darkness.”
Cyrene had no idea how to do that. How to take an energy with her. She knew how to slice into minds. Kael, of all people, had taught her that much. But it was a violation. What she was saying was the opposite of that taint. It was clearing the shadows and showing them there was a chance of winning. She just didn’t know what she could show them that would actually do that. But she had to find a way.
Serafina must have agreed with whatever she saw on Cyrene’s face because she smiled. “I think you’re ready.”
“Ready for what?”
“For the last part of my story.”
Serafina waved her hand, and Cyrene’s family home disappeared. A second later, they were back within the large chamber that held the Doma court, where her own Hymn of Remembrance had been conducted. But this time, instead of it being full of the court, it was utterly empty, save for the lone figure in red standing before what had once been her place of honor—the chair of the Domina.
“This was after the fall of magic,” Serafina said, staring at her past self. “I’d worked with Viktor to help it happen, thinking we were moving toward equality. But Malysa’s hold on him was too strong. The blood magic had corrupted him too fully. I’d helped him, he had killed all of my people and gone after my daughter, and I was all but a prisoner in this tomb.”
Cyrene frowned as she reconstructed the image before her. No longer the Domina. A willing Consort. But now, a beaten prisoner.
Viktor Dremylon strode into the room then. Serafina didn’t even turn to greet him. She just clenched her heart as if she could feel the ache of his betrayal and wondered why she still loved him.
“Sera, darling,” Viktor said, “have you made a decision, my love?”
Serafina cringed at the words. The words meant to make her work for him, for his affection again. “No.”
“No, you haven’t come to a decision?”
“No, I will not work with you any longer.”
“I don’t understand why you keep refusing me.” He touched her arm, but she jerked away.
“You don’t understand?” she growled low. She whipped around to face him. “You betrayed my trust. I thought we were working toward equality between Doma and humans. Not genocide!”
“There was never going to be equality,” he spat back. “The Doma never wanted to work with the humans. They never gave a shit about us, and you know it!”
“So, the answer was to slaughter them all?” she shouted back.
“It’s no more than they would have done to us.” He reached for her again.
“You are infected. It’s disgusting,” she said, pulling away. “Don’t touch me.”
“Just work with me here, Sera,” he pleaded. His eyes were round and the blue-gray that Cyrene knew too well were from the Dremylon line. “I want you to rule at my side.”
Serafina laughed. “This old line? You already have a queen and several children in line for your throne. I will never rule by your side, and I no longer want to.”
A darkness rose up in Viktor at the words. Inky black at his fingertips. His eyes darkening right before her eyes. The whole room seemed to be filled with his dark energy. “I love you, Sera. Why do you doubt that?”
Serafina shook her head in despair. “What have you become?”
He straightened. “Powerful.”
“If you love me, Viktor, then release me,” she told him.
“I can’t release you, Sera. We’re meant to be. I just need your cooperation. I need you to give me the Domina diamond. I know that you have it.”
Ah, so that was what he had been after all along. The realization flickered across Serafina’s face. “The diamond is lost.”
“No, it’s not,” he said. “I know that you have it.”
She swished the bottom of her long red gown and turned her back on him. “It’s gone, Viktor. You couldn’t use it anyway.”
“Don’t turn your back on me.” He gripped her arm, and Cyrene saw the glow of Serafina’s magic rise up within her in response.
“Release me,” she snarled.
And, to Cyrene’s surprise, he did.
“I hate you in that color. Why must you wear that insufferable red? Why don’t you wear the white of your position?” he sneered.
Serafina turned to him then with a look of pure sadness on her face. “I failed my people. There are no more Doma left for me to rule. I might have access to all four elements as well as ether, but I am no longer the Domina. So, I shall never wear the white again. I take the red for all the blood you have spilled in your conquests, Viktor. For the blood of my people. And the lives you have taken. Red is the only thing I will ever wear again.”
He glared at her. “I will forbid it. Ban the color.”
She laughed at him. “Do it. No one shall ever wear red again because a Dremylon boy can’t face the blood on his hands.”
“I am a king!”
“To me, you used to be,” she said sadly.
“Give me the diamond, Sera.”
“You will never get it.”
“Then, you will never leave this room,” he ground out and then marched back out of the chamber.
Serafina followed him with her steady dark blue gaze. A tear slipped down her cheek. “I love you, too,” she breathed. “So much that I hate you for this.”
Then, with a wave of her hand, the diamond appeared, suspended in space. Cyrene’s eyes bulged.
“How did you do that?” Cyrene gasped.
The spirit Sera sighed. “There is much about the spiritual…the ether…that you do not understand. I hid it in the in-between.”
Cyrene turned back to watch Serafina do something to the diamond and then looked up once more in pain. As if she had come to a decision then and there.
“I’m sorry, Viktor,” Serafina whispered. “I gave you everything else, but you can’t have this.”
Then she began to glow, brighter and brighter. So bright that she was blinding. Until there was no difference between the woman and the diamond and the shining light.
Cyrene could feel it then. The sheer amount of energy Serafina was pulling into her. Too much. Way, way too much.
“Oh Creator,” Cyrene breathed.
Then the energy exploded. Cyrene ducked as if the magic could hurt her, even here in the spiritual plane. A wave hit every surface in the chamber, and then, when Cyrene looked back up…Serafina was gone. And the diamond with her.
Cyrene rematerialized in a cottage on the water. Serafina stood over the crib where her daughter, Anne, lay fast asleep. Her best friend had sacrificed her own child so that Anne could live. So that Cyrene could one day be born. So that this could all be ended. And after watching Sera’s last act, they had come back here. To the one pl
ace she had known true happiness.
“You…sacrificed yourself to destroy the diamond?” Cyrene asked.
Serafina smiled and shook her head. “No, I sacrificed myself to save the diamond.”
“I don’t understand.”
“The diamond is still in that chamber.”
“But…how?”
“I sealed the room and put the most powerful spell in existence on both entrance to the room and the diamond. No one but my blood can access it. No one but those worthy of the Domina can hope to get in. Sacrifice is powerful. It will remain there into perpetuity.” She glanced at Cyrene. “Unless you go get it.”
Cyrene blinked. “You want me to get into the Byern castle? The place where Kael Dremylon resides? Where Malysa’s dark forces have always found a foothold? Where I would die if anyone saw me?” She sighed in exasperation. “I used to live there, you know. You could have sent me then.”
Serafina shook her head. “You weren’t ready.”
“And I am now?” Cyrene asked in disbelief.
“That’s what you have to find out, isn’t it? If you’re truly ready to not just lead”—Serafina affectionately touched Cyrene’s cheek—“but to rule.”
9
The Break-In
This is a very bad plan, Sarielle mused on the banks of the Keylani River three days later.
“Do you have a better idea?” Cyrene asked. “Because I’m all ears.”
You ride on my back into the heart of the city, and we burn any who stand in our way.
Cyrene rolled her eyes. “Any ideas where we don’t end up destroying my home or killing innocents?”
You didn’t give specifics.
“Well, not everyone in Byern is deserving of your enmity. Kael Dremylon is responsible for the problems here. He has given Malysa access to our people. His blood magic is what draws out his insanity, just like it did Viktor. He will pay for what he has done in time. But not today. Not at all if it means the destruction of Byern.”
You could just go kill him, Sarielle suggested, as if killing Kael would be so easy.