by Jake Yaniak
'And this is why you brought me to see Hashias?' Volthamir asked, bringing the whole conversation to the point. 'You gave them a great deal of gold, and it was not the first time you have shown that sad family kindness. But since it is not for them, why do you give it? What end of your own does it serve?'
Lord Havoc laughed, a menacing laugh. 'You are an excellent student,' he said gleefully. 'You are more clever than your uncle, that is certain. But my reasons for that must remain secret for the time being, even secret from you.'
'Do not forget your promise, Lord Havoc. You have said that you will answer all of my questions.'
'I did so promise, and even so I will fulfill my word. But only after I have answered every other query will I tell you my final secret. You owe me at least that much, my prince. You have followed me here, feeling entitled to whatever answers you might desire, to justify all the confusion and darkness of your childhood. But I have a claim against you as well. I have saved your life on several occasions, and I think you owe me at least this much: That you will not pry into such matters as I have kept hidden, until you have learned all the other things that I have to say.'
'Fair enough,' Volthamir said with a voice heavy with frustration. But after a few moments his arms relaxed and he turned his mind to another matter. 'Since I will not get an answer from you until all other questions have been asked, I may as well begin anew with another inquiry.'
'Very well,' Lord Havoc said, seeming somewhat relieved. 'Ask me anything. But remember what I said on the first day of our discourses: "I will tell you all, but it must be in the proper order."'
'Tell me, Lord Havoc, 'Why did you poison me, on the eve of my twelfth birthday?'
'Poison!?' Lord Havoc said with a voice of amazement. 'Poison? My prince, I am Lord Havoc, Knight of Amlaman. Had I poisoned a child, that child would be dead. Do you doubt me so, that you would think I would bungle a simple thing like poisoning a little boy? Further I should ask why you would consent to following me at all if you believed that I had tried to poison you!?'
Volthamir smiled slyly. 'I did not think that you had poisoned me,' he said calmly. 'But you made me quite sick in those days, and I feel that an answer is due. You have done many things to me over the years, and I have understood only a few of them. I followed you here because I wanted two things: Answers and the knife; the knife you promised to return to me. The latter I have received already, but the former I am still trying to pry from your firm grasp.'
Lord Havoc laughed. 'You are bolder than your uncle imagines. That will serve us both quite well. I made you sick so that you would survive the Cup of Trial. For if your body could learn how to fight a little drop of the dreadful poison they use in the ceremony, it would remember well enough to overcome an entire trough of it when you had recovered.'
'You knew then? You knew that all of those people were going to die that night?'
'I knew that it was a possibility. But I did not know that there were any others called before Agonistes on that same night. The Cup of Trial is a show, it is a sham altogether. The priest poisons and spares as he sees fit. He kills whom he hates and vindicates those he loves or finds useful. In your case, the priest himself meant to kill you, and free his master King Vulcan from the threat of your discontent. But the old priest could not have imagined the outcome! He and the king believe they witnessed a real miracle that night! But you were spared for this purpose: The king's suspicions against you are now public. And so is your vindication. Therefore all the men of Amlaman and Ramlos will soon know that the king is wroth with you without cause, and has gone so far as to humiliate you through subjection to a superstitious ritual. But even further, my prince, the people have now seen that the dark god has moved on your behalf and spared your life alone from the Fateful Cup!'
Volthamir looked darkly at the old man. 'What is it that you are trying to accomplish, Lord Havoc?' he asked hesitantly. It seemed to him as though the room suddenly grew hot and the air still and thick.
'What I want is not your concern. The question has always been; What is it that you desire? Whatever the answer, my prince, all that I have done has only served to bring it within your grasp. Follow me, and learn from me, and you will be like the Black Wolf of Heyan, the one who survives, and takes what he wants, leaving his enemies smoldering in shameful ruin.'
Chapter VI:
Leonara
Her Father
We must pause our narrative here, and turn our attention now to the daughter of King Vulcan, whose fate was soon to become entangled in the schemes of Lord Havoc.
King Vulcan, after he had slain his cousin, was given the Dual-Crown of Amlaman and Ramlos; the first king to possess it since the reign of Joplis, the founder of Amlaman. His crowning was soon reported throughout all of western Weldera. It became known how he reluctantly came to confront his cousin Voltan, whom he slew, thereby taking from him the dominion of the southern kingdom. His act was a welcome one though, and the people, with a few notable exceptions, submitted themselves to his rule willingly and even joyfully. He brought with him food and supplies, such as the people needed. He stripped Voltan's many children of their pensions and replenished the royal treasury. But what he took into the treasury he dispensed again to see to the needs of the people.
His kindness won him the loyalty of his grateful subjects. Yet it remained that Vulcan had usurped the throne, and slain his kin to do so. This act of injustice brought about so many good consequences that the people soon felt the need to make the injustice into justice. So the theory arose that the people had a right to overthrow their lord and master if he turned into a tyrant. There was a saying that became popular in those days which said, 'I have never heard of a king being murdered, only of a tyrant being punished.' Which meant to say that the gods would never allow a just king to be killed, but if a king became unjust, then the gods would raise up a savior to overthrow him. And to the people in those early years, King Vulcan was just such a savior.
After ruling for less than a year, King Vulcan began to rebuild and restore the ancient religion of Amlaman. This was all at Lord Havoc's advice, which the king very seldom ignored. But he was not, at that time at least, truly a believer. He was willing to go along with his fearsome benefactor's wishes, but he was not terribly interested in the whole design. But as he was not the sort of person that does things part way, he soon found that the greater part of his efforts turned toward matters of doctrine and religion.
The Temple of Agonistes had been restored and the people made a commitment beneath the terrible firelight, that they would be faithful to the dark god of their ancestors and bring revenge upon his enemies, Lord Pelas in particular. Thus bound by oaths and sacrifices, the people returned year after year for the feasts and celebrations and sacrifices. All throughout the land there was now talk of the will of Agonistes, revenge on Pelas, and the blessing the god had bestowed upon their once hurting land.
At the center of all these events was King Vulcan and his lovely daughter Leonara. Not long after her third birthday, Leonara was dedicated to the dark god. At every holiday she was present in the temple, as the Shining Jewel of Amlaman.
Despite his own reluctance, his daughter's importance in the ceremonial life of the Temple drew King Vulcan deeper into the world of religion. So much so that the world of politics began to suffer as a result.
As a father, though, King Vulcan loved his daughter dearly. He adored her, and he would have given up his kingdom for her sake, had he ever the need. But despite this he remained somewhat aloof from her. King's are not typically the most affectionate parents, as might well be imagined. When there are nurses and servants at hand, there is little need for the royal hand to set aside the scepter and pick up the wash-rag.
Despite what boldness he acquired when Lord Havoc was present, he was otherwise timid. This pushed him even further from his daughter, because it ultimately drove a wedge between him and Lady Marel, who seized upon this weakness in character to have her own will done
throughout the land.
Her Mother
Lady Marel, on the other hand, was a believer. Her own family had long prayed to the dark god in secret, even before the Temple and the cultus were restored. She scarcely ended a sentence without including an, 'Agonistes be praised,' or some such benediction. She was distantly related to High Priest Achil, which she never failed to mention upon meeting someone for the first time. Nay, she rarely failed to mention her distant relation to the holy man in any of her conversations it seemed.
Little is known about her own childhood, aside from the fact that her family was not very wealthy and that she was a distant relative of King Voltan. At a relatively young age, however, she began to be groomed for royal life (and ultimately for Voltan's harem, as all eligible young maidens were in those days). But the death of Voltan came too soon and she escaped the fate that so many other young women of Amlaman suffered in those days. That is, exile with an infant and a pension to the marches of the kingdom.
It was quite a turn of luck for her, then, to suddenly move from such a sorry position to being the queen of a united kingdom. If she realized her good fortune, however, she never let on that she did. Her own personality was somewhat strong, and she was able to absolutely dominate her husband's will, even setting him against Lord Havoc at times. As the years passed they saw less and less of the famed knight, and she gained more control over matters political.
The Strange Situation
I said she was a believer. And there is a sad irony to be found in the marriage of Lady Marel and King Vulcan. Lady Marel loved Agonistes with all her mind and spirit, but ultimately she spent more of her time in the palace, ordering the kingdom, while her husband, who could scarcely tolerate the new religion, spent his time away from the throne ordering the details of the daily worship.
This strange circumstance arose partly from Lady Marel's resentment of the Sacred Virgins of Agonistes who served in the Temple. These young maidens were selected from among the most beautiful young girls in Amlaman and Ramlos and were brought up in the temple under the guidance and instruction of Achil, the high priest. It was a part of the worship that she accepted very reluctantly, and at times openly criticized. Going up the mountain to the Temple and seeing those infamous girls, dressed in white and looking to the people like so many brides was more than she could handle. King Vulcan soon learned that he could expect a sour temperament from his wife for a full week after each and every holiday feast.
But as the religion required on many occasions, the King's presence at the Temple, the only solution was to leave his wife behind at Japhrian, where she would take it upon herself to manage the affairs of the state, and avoid the unrest that followed her visits to Agonistes' mountain.
Contradiction
There are some who say, and who say wisely, that the greatest sin of all is hypocrisy. For in hypocrisy all the pretensions of mankind at wisdom and virtue are betrayed. It was through hypocrisy that Princess Leonara eventually came to despise her parents. Her parents were, to her, simply walking contradictions, creatures that spoke and acted in conflict with themselves and with one another.
She began to resent her father's timidity. He looked stately and regal in his great Hall, bearing an iron scepter in his hand. He was strong and fierce; it was well-known that he had slain his own cousin. But despite his strength and might, his spirit was very diminutive. He caved in to every counsel of Lord Havoc's and when he was finished doing the old knight's bidding he would turn to serve his domineering wife's wishes. He could spill his kinsman's blood under the command of Lord Havoc, yet he could not look his wife in the eye.
Her sentiments for her mother were little better. Her mother could turn her whole attitude and demeanor in an instant. She could go from wrathful and vengeful to charming and graceful in a mere moment. She might scowl at her husband or curse his name, but in a moment, when she perceived that there were others present, she would reform herself entirely and bless him with a smile. This drove Leonara to view her mother with contempt and suspicion.
All the conflicts of the parents had the effect of making the child likewise conflicted. Leonara soon learned to pretend, as her parents did, that everything was well and that there was no angst between them. She pretended to honor her father, she pretended to love her mother, and she pretended to believe in the religion of Amlaman.
She also came to have a conflicted view of her own person. She felt in many ways better than her parents, but she felt worse at the same time. She felt beautiful and homely in turns and she felt both clever and foolish in a cycle. Pity and pride, hope and despair whirled around within her soul with the strength of a tornado. From one bad premise, many false conclusions will follow, and many true ones as well. From her parents' hypocrisy and foolishness she became a physical example of this very thing. She was lovely and despicable at the same time; but all of this was shrouded by her feigned grace and and false innocence.
The only thing in her life at that time that was not absolute fiction, was the affection she bore toward her brother Volthamir.
Volthamir
Volthamir alone, in her mind, was without contradiction. He didn't pretend to believe in Agonistes, he didn't pretend that Vulcan was honorable, and he would have nothing to do with the queen, a woman who occupied a place that had once belonged to the only kind soul he had ever known.
In him alone the princess saw no contradiction. Throughout her youth she looked up to him, both loving his stalwartness and envying his freedom. In her hopeless estate she began to see him as her only hope. Only if he could come and somehow make an end of her parents' rule, taking his rightful place upon the throne of Amlaman would she ever be able to shake off the shackles of tradition and live her life without the veil of pretension under which the whole royal family hid themselves.
But as the years passed her hope grew dimmer, and the more she wished to see him the less she did. By the time she was twelve years of age, he was rarely seen south of Heyan and by the time of her fourteenth birthday he came not to Amlaman at all. His fame came, and the many stories of his daring deeds and heroic battles came to the halls of Japhrian, but never the prince himself.
But in her fifteenth year, Volthamir returned to the palace for one brief visit. But this visit did as much to terrify her as it did to give her hope. When she left the Meeting Hall of Japhrian that night, her heart pounded and her head swirled. She did not know what to feel or what to think. But she found herself suddenly flanked by armed knights in her every move. Her father looked upon her with pity and there was a shadow of fear upon his face from that day forward. In her mother's eyes she saw nothing but envy and spite.
The Dark Gods Move
Every time that Princess Leonara was brought to Daufina to partake in the ceremonies at Sten-Agoni, she unknowingly passed by the mighty spirit Gheshtik, who now kept constant vigil on the Temple of Agonistes.
It had been fifteen years now since the day that the dark gods took council in the woods under the smoke of the temple while all of Amlaman and Ramlos were gathered around, and it had been more than eight years since Volthamir was forced to drink the Cup of Trial. Since that time Gheshtik had not left the mountain unwatched or unguarded. In ancient times he, conspiring for a time with Lord Pelas, had placed a mighty guard, a Gigas named Thewar, at the entrance to the Razzun Highlands. 'Let nothing pass; whether soul or flesh, do not suffer anything to slip by your unblinking eyes,' Gheshtik charged him. Thewar said nothing, but bowed his head low and took up his vigil in the wastes.
But even though he had set such a mighty guard in the place, he could find no peace. Zefru had returned to Sten-Agoni three days after the temple was rededicated with shocking news.
'The Gigas is gone, my lord, he was nowhere to be found.' Zefru was almost in a panic as he spoke. 'I sped off to Razzun with all the speed I could muster. The Gigas was not at the gate, nor was he near his usual marches. I searched the borders and the hilltops for the giant, but to no avail. My feet carried m
e through lands no mortal man has seen, and into dark places where even immortals fear to tread. I saw Death's Door and the Valley of the Dead, where no living thing dwells over which birds cannot even fly without falling into the wreaking bogs like stones. Yet for all this I saw no sign of the old giant.'
'This is ill news,' Gheshtik said quietly. 'Do not tell anyone of this, Zefru,' he commanded. 'Not yet. For the spirits still fear Agonistes, and many of them would be only too eager to place their necks under his yoke once again. But as for you and I, we know that fell Agonistes has no love for rivals.'
For fifteen years he had waited, but as time passed he grew more and more fearful and more and more certain that the dark god would return to Amlaman. 'He was too great to be lost in the subterranean worlds for so many years,' Gheshtik said. 'And he bears too much hatred toward Lord Pelas to leave this land without repaying his ancient grievances. He will return, and when he does he will strike at the throne of Pelas and at the sons of the Hero who bore Pelas' sword against him so many years ago.'