by Emily L K
Like waves on rocks, a deafening roar rose to meet her. Below the balcony in a large public courtyard, hundreds of people were gathered.
“Oh my,” she said in awe. The square below was so full that they spilled into the streets beyond. Dressed in everything from rags to velvet, the residents of Bandar Utara reached out their hands and cheered her name. Cori thought there could easily be over a thousand of them.
Rowan stepped up beside her and another roar rose from the crowd. His face was passive as he observed his subjects and Cori wondered for the first time if he had shut out his emotions in the past, not because he was bored, but because it was the only way to cope with the fervent admiration. The crowd had started up a new chant of ‘Karalis’ and Cori stood stock still and watched them, fascinated.
And then there was something else there, something that cast a shadow over her mind; immense and foreign. And familiar.
Karalis, Karalis, Daiyu chanted along with the crowd, though mockingly, I know you, Karalis, come. Come, come, comecomecomecome.
Cori felt smothered by the dragon’s presence. She tried to find a way to escape it but she couldn’t. She was floating through blackness and Daiyu was everywhere.
Ro-, she flung out her Hum, trying to find Rowan.
Don’t, he cut her off abruptly and she was startled to find his presence was very close. Don’t say my name.
Now that he was here, Daiyu turned her attention on him. I know you, Karalisss, she hissed.
No, you don’t, he replied calmly and then he was gone.
In the confusion that followed his departure, when Daiyu searched furiously for him, Cori was able to weave a song to block the dragon out. As her barriers snapped into place, she returned to her surrounds with blinding speed.
Like the crowd below, the stone floor of the balcony roared up to meet her.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Oh ho! Watch out!” Strong hands caught her and propped her upright. She grabbed hold of the balustrade to steady herself. Tobin moved to stand beside her, but kept his hand firmly on her shoulder. Only seconds had passed, but it felt like an eternity.
“Too much!” Cori gasped. Tobin grinned, mistaking her breathlessness for excitement.
“Oh yes, It’s a fact I’m very proud of; Resso knows how to pull a good crowd! Do you agree, Karalis?”
“The biggest I’ve ever seen,” Rowan agreed quietly from Cori’s other side. Her vision trailed as she turned her head to look at him. He was standing as he had been before; a mild expression on his face as he observed the crowd and his hands on the balustrade, fingers splayed. His fingertips, pressed into the stone hard enough to turn his nails white, was the only outward sign that their confrontation with Daiyu had distressed him.
He whirled suddenly, his eyes flicking over her face before they came to rest on Tobin’s.
“Cori and I will need to leave in the morning and continue north.”
Tobin’s grin faded to a look of dismay but he quickly schooled his expression as he glanced at his wife. Jhanna nodded and left the balcony, re-entering the throne room. Tobin turned back to his guests.
“Well, I suppose we have a lot to talk about before you go.”
Rowan nodded and allowed Tobin to lead them back inside, much to the upset cries of the crowd that watched them go.
Cori wanted to ask questions. She knew she couldn’t say anything in front of Tobin, but she was reluctant to lower her barriers to speak mind-to-mind with Rowan. She could still feel a taint of Daiyu’s presence searching for them.
Tobin took them through the throne room to a smaller receiving room. The table within was set for an evening meal.
Cori had expecting Tobin to invite some of his lords to dinner to show off his guests, but only his family filed in behind them and took their places. Cori found herself across the table from Rowan and in the long moment before Tobin asked them to be seated, they stared at each other. Rowan’s expression, as always, gave away nothing. But Cori was sure the panic on her face made up for both of them.
Dinner was served, and the conversation was light-hearted and inconsequential. Tobin explained all the renovations that had gone on at the keep since the last time Rowan had been there (almost three hundred years ago). Rowan joked about the Hearthian army on the other side of the river and how Tobin’s men had been so slow to open the gates that it had almost taken his head off. Jhanna talked about her pregnancy and Elia reminisced on her days in court as a young woman. Even Orin spoke proudly of his lessons at the local school. He hadn’t been selected to attend the School of Auksas.
Finally, when the tables had been cleared, rum and tumblers set out and Jhanna had excused herself for the evening, the mood turned serious. Tobin relieved all the servants of their duties and asked his son to fetch a map.
“Tell me what you’ve heard,” Rowan requested as Orin unrolled a large sheaf of parchment and arranged it in the middle of the table. Tobin pointed at the dot that was Bandar Utara.
“Most of the Hearthian army is here, but not all. I think Shannyn has sent a contingent down to Lautan.” Tobin’s finger jumped down to Hale and Shaw. “The Advisor has become the self-appointed Karalis, even though he needs the unanimous vote of the states to be officially given the title. Hale has backed him fully and their army is camped in Lautan to protect him.
“Shaw has conducted some border skirmishes with varying levels of success. Hale have more Hiram soldiers than Shaw, and so don’t need as many in their patrolling parties.” His finger moved back up the map, trailing the coast.
“The Islanders have rallied their army but I don’t think they’ve shipped the main body of them yet. They’ve had small parties roaming the countryside looking for you. I’ve heard Daze is among them. Unwise, but I understand he is their strongest.”
“Daze was executed yesterday,” Rowan said thoughtfully, his eyes not leaving the map. “The Islanders won’t be a problem anymore.”
Tobin’s eyes widened, and he glanced at his mother. An unreadable look passed between them.
“Executed you say,” Tobin began slowly. “He was strong, that’s true, but there is still that advisor of his, and his army’s captain who is also his brother. Would they not carry -?”
“I killed them too.”
The look that Tobin gave his mother this time didn’t hide his concern. Orin watched the exchange with fascination, unaware of the sudden tension in the room.
“The war has well and truly started then,” Elia observed.
“Well and truly,” Rowan agreed. He looked at Tobin. “Tell me about your army.”
Cori watched the exchanges in a stunned silence. It sounded as if they had been expecting this war for some time, that they‘d been planning for an uprising in Lautan. It had never been about her and her golden eyes, or her argument with Quart. The realisation made her feel at once both selfish and insignificant.
She’d thought they’d fled the palace because her attack on Quart had caused the riot but even as she remembered back, she realised that Rowan had planned to leave before that. He’d told her to wait in the kitchens until he came to get her. That should have been a trigger; he never came to her, always she had gone to him. He’d known something would happen, and the timing had just been coincidental.
Everything was suddenly clear, and she didn’t know how she’d been so blind. She was stupid. No, worse than stupid, she was a complete idiot. The more she thought about it the more it made sense, and not in a secretive behind locked doors sort of way, but out in the open clues as to what would happen.
Rowan had obviously known for a long time, perhaps even longer than she’d known him. Something he’d once said to her floated back to her, something that at the time confused her but now made perfect sense, “the world is changing, and you are at the centre of it. You are the pivot point and I no longer feel inclined to hold the world, or you, back. It is almost time to finish the war. Can you not feel it?”
Oh yes, she could feel it now.
The undercurrent of anticipation was heavy in the room, in the crowd they had greeted earlier, in the army at Resso’s gates and in the rioting Hiram at the palace. Even in the mind of the black dragon that loomed over them. How had she missed it?
“- Half a day’s ride northeast,” Tobin was saying and Cori tried to return her attention to the conversation. “They’re assembled and ready to go with minimal notice. So far we’ve been able to fool Hearth into thinking we’re staying out of this war.”
“Good,” Rowan said, he traced his finger along the map from Bandar Utara down the river. “Is that barge still down at Wolfman’s crossing?” Tobin nodded and Rowan continued. “Take a contingent down there and prepare to cross. Draw the Hearthians east then take the rest of the army over the bridge and surprise them from behind. We’ll be back in a week and a half, we’ll ride south to Lautan with you.”
Rowan sat back with a sigh and rubbed his eyes. Tobin and Orin took a swig of rum from the tumblers. Cori followed suit. Rowan sat forward again. He looked tired, but he had a small smile on his face.
“It was a good idea of yours, to put Cori’s heirdom to a vote. At least we know who our allies are,” he told Tobin. The Head of Resso smiled at the praise.
“Almost. Shannyn voted for Cori as well, remember? And now he’s camped up outside my gates.”
“Shannyn is indecisive, even now,” Rowan waved his hand dismissively. “I have no doubt that if we sent someone over to Tengah on our way south again that he couldn’t be persuaded to join us.”
“What was really brilliant,” Elia piped up for the first time, “was that you had the foresight to put an heir in place. The Advisor’s hold on the throne is illegitimate at best.”
Well, that stung. Cori stared into her tumbler and tried to keep her face neutral. She should have guessed that there was a reason for Rowan to put her on the throne beside him. He was always one step ahead, and she was just a pawn on his game board. She half expected Rowan to deny Elia’s reasoning but he smiled at the older woman and nodded.
“Indeed,” he told her. “It wasn’t difficult to have Antoni chair the graduation ceremony in the Advisor’s place. He’s always hated that duty most of all.”
“And where is Antoni now?” Tobin asked. He gestured to his son who stood and refilled everyone’s glasses, except for Rowan who placed a hand over his tumbler as Orin got close.
“I told her to go to Shaw with any servants who escaped. Cori’s sister hopefully led them to Bretton.”
The conversation turned back to Resso’s army and what they would do when they got to Lautan. Cori continued to stare at her glass of rum, feeling an embarrassed flush creep up her neck. Antoni had known what was going on. Even Saasha had known to some extent. Rowan had them both on side and they probably hadn’t needed it explained to them as bluntly as he was explaining it now. She wanted to feel relieved that Rowan was confident that Saasha was alive, but she’d been there when they’d parted ways. How did they even know Saasha had made it out the kitchen door? The triple betrayal cut at her like a knife. Could not one of them have said something to her?
Cori stood. Everyone stopped talking and looked at her.
“I’m going to bed,” she said abruptly.
“Wait a minute,” Rowan told her, “I’ll come up with you.” He left her standing by her chair while he spoke to Tobin.
“We’ll leave before dawn tomorrow. We’ll go the same way we came in; one horse and a pack. All of Bandar Utara know we’re here so let them think we’re still in residence for a day or so. We don’t want Hearth to know we’ve moved on.” He rose slowly and Tobin and his family stood with him.
“Before dawn then,” Tobin agreed. Rowan nodded then gestured that Cori should lead the way out of the room. They walked in silence back to the living quarters, the guards trailing along behind. When they reached Rowan’s door he stopped.
“Come in for a moment?”
Cori almost declined, but she saw the steely glint in his eyes and decided against it. She stepped into the room and he closed the door behind them.
“Don’t do that again,” he said dangerously.
“Do what?” She snapped. She was in no mood for his lectures.
“Leave a war council without my permission, and so discourteously too.”
“WHAT?” She exploded. She flung her arms out and the shawl fell from her shoulders. “Do you expect me to sit there and listen to everyone discuss me like I’m just your game piece? A pawn on your board? How you made me your heir simply to thwart the Advisor? I won’t do it. My mother died for -“
“Oh, stop it. Yes, I expect you to sit there and listen, and I expect you to do it with a smile on your damn face. Do you think I would tell them the full reasons of my decision? Use your head, Cori, and stop jumping to conclusions!” He turned angrily away from her for a moment, but spun quickly back to face her.
“And stop using your mother as an excuse. Yes, she’s dead, and yes, it’s upsetting. I would have stopped it if I could but I wasn’t quick enough, all right? But you have to stop sulking like an insolent child and pull yourself together. Do you think Saasha would be doing this? Right now she is sitting on the war council in Shaw, I know that because I put her there. Do you think she‘d sulk because she didn’t like what she heard?”
Cori knew he was right. Saasha was prone to jealous fits and moody snapping but she would never resort to that sort of behaviour in a situation such as this. Even at their mother’s death she had done what Rowan requested without question. She hadn’t dragged along like a sullen child; she‘d jumped at his commands like a soldier. Rowan was right, but she wouldn’t admit that to him. Instead, she changed tact.
“And that’s another thing, why wouldn’t you tell me about Saasha? About Antoni? Don’t you think I had a right to know, being your heir and all?”
“No, you didn’t have a right to know,” he snapped back. “You were too busy out getting drunk and high with your friends. I couldn’t trust that the information I gave you wouldn’t fall into the wrong hands. A slip of the tongue and you might have compromised Antoni, you might have compromised myself. Or Bretton or Tobin.”
“I get it!” she yelled, and she couldn’t quite hold back the tears that threatened to overwhelm her. “I get it, Rowan! Quart was a bad idea. I made a mistake, don’t you think I regret it?” She paused and took a shaky breath, forcing her hand to stay at her side and not rise to press at the ache that was building in her chest. “And don’t you think if you’d told me the truth, if you’d just trusted me, that I would have broken it off with him? Or not gotten involved with him at all?”
She stopped, unable to speak without crying. Rowan didn’t say anything either. He looked resigned. There was nothing more to be said. Cori put her hand on the door handle.
“The reason I made you my heir,” Rowan said, making her pause, “was not to pre-empt the Advisor’s bid for the throne - though that was a convenient coincidence - but because I need you by my side. I need you to be my strength so that I can be theirs.”
“I don’t think I can do that,” she whispered. The door clicked open under her hand. “Not if you can’t trust me.” Then she left him there, standing in his room while she returned to her own.
Chapter Twenty-Three
She had expected him to follow her - he didn’t like to leave things unfinished, especially when he didn’t have the last say - but he stayed away. She stood at the window and gazed across the lit up city. She felt strangely empty, as if all the conversations of the evening had put to rest her unanswered questions and she had nothing left within her to contemplate. With a sigh, she approached the bed. She should try to sleep if they had to be on the road before dawn.
She lay on the bed, not bothering to change her clothes or pull back her covers, and stared at the dark ceiling. It would never have worked with Rowan, she told herself forcefully; they were too different, and always at odds. It was not as if he‘d acted on his declaration of love even though they�
�d been together and alone for almost three weeks. Perhaps he no longer meant the words he’d said or perhaps she‘d taken them entirely out of context to begin with. She rolled to her side and stared at the wall but sleep still didn’t take her.
It was a strange feeling, to have her barriers up and not be able to speak to him. It made her earlier words to him all the more final. Severing the possible romantic ties with him was for the best, she supposed, but why did she feel so hollow?
For hours she lay and deliberated - going back and forth on what could have been and what had not yet happened - and finally, in the early hours of the morning, she gave up on sleep and got up. She changed into her travelling clothes, freshly laundered, and left her room. She wanted to speak to Rowan before they left, to discuss a revelation that had come to her in the night, but when she reached his room, she found only one guard outside and the door slightly ajar.
She pushed it open and peered inside. The bed covers were in a tangle and a book - Jarrah’s book - was on the bedside table. It looked as if he hadn’t been able to sleep either. She considered lowering her barriers to find him but she’d been feeling Daiyu’s presence brushing across them all night and she didn’t want to risk the dragon finding her.
She left the room and headed to the lower floors of the keep. The guard followed her, which she found unnerving. She didn’t like that someone, whether it be Rowan or Tobin, had set someone to watch her. There was no one in the throne room when she arrived but that didn’t matter, she wasn’t looking for anyone in particular. She went to the archway and out onto the balcony. The guard stopped at the door, leaving her on her own.
She was standing at the balustrade watching the bluish light of pre-dawn permeate the city and river beyond when she heard footsteps behind her. She had expected it to be Rowan, so it surprised her when Orin moved alongside her, his shoulder brushing hers.