by EF Joyce
"No, of course not. You're right. An enemy of Sebastian's is an enemy of mine," Lies of course, but her Handmaiden would disclose every word to Sebastian. Anaka, you are too smart for your own good. I should have had you tossed off a cliff the first time you refused to report on my father. "But imprisoning Grayna solves only half the problem. We still have a traitor in the council. I want you to find out whom. No, not yourself," she responded to Anaka's furrowed brow. Send your apprentice, what's-his-name."
"Ronan."
"Right, him. And I expect a report within the week. We can try Grayna for treason and eliminate the real traitor quietly, doing away with two enemies at once." At least until I free Grayna and put you in his place. The smart thing to do would be to throw Anaka into the dungeons this very second, but she couldn't bear it.
Under storms and starlight, through darkness and death. Always.
"Consider it done, my queen."
Hours later, the setting sun casting an eerie red glow across the white stone of her sitting room's floor, Elixa paced restlessly. Since Anaka had left, Elixa had felt nothing but uneasy. She'd spent the afternoon combing through Grayna's hastily scrawled arrest papers and writing a few letters of her own. Perhaps she could not fight for the Grand General's freedom directly, but she could certainly persuade some of her administrators to take on the case. The evidence against him was all verbal, no hard proof of treason. Elixa hoped to discount it all as hearsay. If that didn't work she would free him herself, as promised.
"Anaka told me what you said," a commanding voice rang out from her chamber door, which she had heavily locked and guarded. But such things were no real obstacle for the great Ilahi. Speaking to Anaka was speaking to Sebastian. "And I agree. Grayna is no traitor, which means we still have one to deal with. If anyone can find them out, it's Annie."
"Yes, she is fully capable, but we other problems. The military is enraged over Grayna's arrest. I agree that he is dangerous, but this might be the last straw before the army completely rebels! Did you not consider that before you imprisoned him? We need the army, now more than ever. Why would you put everything at risk just to remove one man from power?"
"Elixa, sit. We have some things to discuss," he said, gesturing toward her sofa.
"No. You will not tell me to sit in my own rooms. We have nothing to discuss. Get out, now." She would save their empire without him. With Alaric's help, she would face the threats he did not even know existed. Telling him the truth was simply too risky. He sighed, mysterious, unreadable emotions moving through his black eyes.
"I was wrong and I'm sorry," he said, sincerely. Elixa wouldn't have been more shocked if he'd slapped her. Her father never apologized. To anyone. And he certainly never admitted that he was wrong, nor was he ever sincere. He only had two modes; angry and snide.
"Alright, I'm listening," she said, sitting on the sofa, her light blue gown puffing out around her. He sat on the opposite end, barely perched on the cushion, muscles tense and jaw locked in place. He had shadows under his eyes, dark as bruises on his pale skin. His usually neat black hair was disheveled and one of the buttons on his coat was in the wrong buttonhole. No matter what crises had stricken their empire, the great Ilahi never fell apart. Whatever was bothering him was more than the war, more than the military's doubts, more than anything she knew of, and that alone terrified her.
"Father, what aren't you telling me?" she asked, suddenly a scared little girl once more, looking toward her father for support and reassurance. His shadowed face was the epitome of youth and beauty, like a figure of a god carved in marble. Would she still defer to him when she was an old, wrinkled woman and he a young man? Would she still respect him? Did she now?
"There are things I have not told you. About my past," he began.
"You mean how your friend was never killed by The Nameless? How you fought and threw him into the sea?" I'm sick of your lies, father. I know more than you think. His shocked expression was all she needed to know Alaric had spoken truth.
"Where did you hear this, Elixa? Have you been speaking to Anaka?"
"Anaka?" she snapped. Of course her father would tell Anaka everything and not his own daughter, the empress herself. "No. I heard it from Alaric Eide. He has met me in dreams. He wants to stand up against his father and he believes he can unite his siblings against him," she said, speaking as fast as she could before her clearly shocked father could interrupt. "I've allied us with him and when the mind magi come, he will protect us." Elixa tensed, waiting for the yells, the insults, the fury. I am in power, not you. I created this alliance and saved our people, without your help. I am queen.
"You've betrayed our battle plans to him," he said, voice calm but jaw clenched.
"I don't even know the battle plans, as you are aware! I am a powerless, figurehead queen and I've told him as much," she snapped.
"You have handed our empire to our enemy! You believe Eide wants an alliance with you? He is lying! And you have fallen for it, idiot girl!" He rose from the sofa, pacing like a caged beast, opening his mouth to yell once more, before Elixa cut him off.
"There are seven mind magi!" she yelled. "And he said...he said that Darian released the Nameless. We either take the risk of accepting Alaric's help or we are already dead." Sebastian immediately stopped pacing, staring at her with stunned silence.
"Talia..." he whispered, almost inaudibly. "No, it's been too long."
"He said Darian unlocked the tower, and my magic is our only chance." He clenched his jaw and the weakness in him suddenly vanished, replaced with cold determination.
"I have been preparing for this war my whole immortal life. I knew this day would come and I am ready. There is no need for fear, Elixa. I've defeated Darian and the Nameless once, and will again," he said, sounding like a mantra. "You cannot trust Alaric, he's only using you to gain information."
"Alaric is on our side," she argued. He had to be. "We've already negotiated a cease fire. Haven't you been wondering why no reports of casualties have reached Yeraz? I had Grayna order the troops not to attack, to only defend if Alaric moves against them first, which he has not done. He's proven his intentions with all those ships of food he's sent."
"The supply ships?" He said, surprised, looking up at her. "I thought those came from the Osimiri stores?"
"The stores are long empty," Elixa replied. "Without his help, millions would have starved."
"So now the truth comes out," he sighed and rubbed his face, too exhausted to scream and reprimand her, even though she could tell he wanted to. "You must understand something, Elixa. Darian is meticulous, absolutely thorough in everything he does. He would not have sent Alaric here if he were not positive of his loyalty, beyond all shadow of a doubt. He is manipulating you and lying to you."
"Oh, is he?" she snapped. "Or are you? Who has the history of lies and manipulation, Papa? You sit there and tell me what to do like I'm still a child, tell me what everyone else's motives are but gloss over your own. You send me out like a weapon laying waste to armies for you, but won't even trust me to govern my own empire. I am through. You will treat me as an equal or I will make my own decisions without your council."
He sprang up from the sofa, furious, fists clenched, eyes on fire but didn't touch her. Couldn't. Not until his next daughter was old enough to take the throne. He wouldn't dare face Darian and his children without her magic backing him. She held all the cards now and he knew it. Do you like when I push you like a piece across the board? Because I surely don't.
"You cannot trust him!" he yelled. "You give that mage an inch and he will come for us! You're handing our empire to our enemies with no fight! You want to play, Elixa? Fine! Run your empire. My knife will be at the back of every one of your allies. My influence will overrule every decision you dare to make. Magic isn't everything. I've certainly learned that over the last three-thousand-years without it.
"And when Alaric betrays you and breaks your little heart, you will come running back to your Papa
with tears in your eyes. Then, and only then will I show you how to be a true empress of Yeraz." He turned and walked out, the click of the door echoing in the silence he left behind.
III
The moon was a sliver in the night sky, the distant stars dazzling her with their haunting light. The queen sat upon a black boulder, shiny and sliced like a gem, pulling the hem of her blue gown away from the ash and bone dust. She watched the craggy dark tower in the distance and about it, the king of these ruins.
"Before it became a prison, the tower was a citadel," Alaric's voice said, answering her thoughts. He pulled himself up onto the rock beside her, regal and elegant in his white mage robes, the black dust somehow repelled from staining his garments. They sat so close she could feel the heat radiating from his body, smell his scent of southern flowers.
"How do you know so much about this place?" she asked.
"My father told me. It's where the rulers of the Three Kingdoms once lived. They called it the Crystal Tower. That is until The Nameless came along and destroyed it, until Sebastian made it her prison."
"Was she really so terrifying?"
"Evidently. Thought I cannot say for certain, I've never met her." A long, somehow comfortable silence passed between them before he spoke again, and Elixa wondered why she felt so at ease in his presence. Had he used his magic on her? Why hadn't she considered that before? "Do you have any news from your father's council?" he asked.
"I do," she said, thinking over her next words. "But first I must know the nature of your magic. How do you control someone's mind? Do you possess me? Did I even choose this alliance or am I just a puppet?" The queen's voice rose in panic as she considered all the implications of mind magic. What exactly had she gotten herself into? What damage could he do to her empire if he controlled her? Could her father have been right? He at least had some power over her to call her here and block her from Dalga.
"No need to panic, I cannot control you," he said, gazing into her eyes, making her want to believe him. "To inhabit a mind, I need that person's true name. Because I don't know your father's, I don't know yours. Elspeth is a lie, a meaningless word. You don't even know your own true name and that will be of great help to you when we stand against my father. Once I know a name, I must speak it in that person's presence and then I own their mind, even from a distance I can control them completely.
"I can possess nearly five-hundred minds at once, the size of a small army. My brothers and sisters can do the same. We can pull true names from the minds of people we have, who know them. I tell you this not to intimidate you, but to make you aware of what you'll be facing. What we'll be facing."
"Five-hundred?! You can control five-hundred people at once?" Alaric grimaced, stared out the ruins and clenched his jaw as a thought. Will you answer me or won't you? How true is our alliance, really?
"Yes and no," he finally replied. "Controlling an army is simple. I give them a command: fight. They are faced with an enemy and their instincts take over. I am not with each one of them, telling them which way to swing their sword. But taking over someone completely is much different. Forcing someone to act against their own will, manipulating every facial expression and word uttered is extremely difficult and requires every bit of my magic. Even if I did possess your name, Elixa, inhabiting your mind and commanding your magic would take everything I had, if I could do it at all."
"I understand," she replied, thinking furiously. So she was safe, if he spoke truth. And seven mind magi capable of controlling 500 men each would make their army 3,500 strong. Though the true threat was not shear numbers but the prospect of Alaric turning her own men against her. However, she did have the Sphere and its devastating power. Darian had known all of this of course, which was why he'd sent Alaric first to starve her people and diminish her troops, making his victory that much more certain.
"We will be able to defeat your father," she said, finally realizing the possibilities of the limitless magic her father had given her. "My armies outnumber his, but more than that, I have the Sphere's power."
"How?" Curiosity and doubt crossed him handsome face, swirled in his pale blue eyes.
"When I became queen, my father bonded me to his Sphere. In exchange, I had to sacrifice my own magic, but I gained his. I have all of his magic, Alaric."
"His Sphere? As in, the item that contains all of his magic, his very soul? How? How is that possible?" he demanded, just the effect Elixa had intended. He clearly knew about his father's own Sphere, what it did and how it granted him immortality. "The price of their immortality is that their magic can no longer be accessed!"
"By them," she corrected. "Sebastian said he had the idea when he founded Yeraz. His child, blood of his blood, a piece of himself, can access it. I'm not sure exactly how it works, there was a ceremony when I was a child, but I was so terrified at the time I barely remember it. But I do have his magic."
"This changes everything," he whispered, staring up at the stars. "My father feared yours above all others, even The Nameless. Now he will fear you. And me, if I dare to stand with you."
"The council has commanded half our army to march to Darvaza. I hope once there, our armies can converge into one unstoppable force. The other half remains spread throughout the provinces, for defense. I am choosing to trust you, but for a price. I want Tibre returned to Yeraz."
"Your trust in me is well founded," he said, eyes deadly serious. "You may feel as if you're gambling your entire empire just by speaking to me, that I risk nothing by allying with you, but you're wrong. If my father discovers what I plan to do, I will face a fate worse than death. But it's more than just myself I worry for.
"If my father gains control of this continent, he will crush it, remake it into a stark, hopeless and lifeless world." Alaric sighed, gazing out over the ashy ruins of a once great land. "If my father wins, this is what Yeraz and Dalga will be reduced to," he said, sweeping his arm over the ruins. "In my father's service, I longed for freedom – an idea I could not even begin to understand until we came to Dalga.
"Color, scents, music, food, dancing, laughter. Friendship and jealously, love and hope, joy and sorrow. I have done more than just plan for war during my decade in Dalga. I've experienced the world; I've opened myself to its experiences, its gifts. Life is worth so much and now that I know it I cannot ever return to the darkness that my father intends it to be.
"He is a destroyer. He would burn everything just to stand upon the ashes. I don't just want to defeat him, I want to save everything – this life, this vitality, color and beauty. That may not be enough for you to trust me, but it's all I have to offer as my explanation. I accept your terms. Tibre shall be returned to you."
The Queen of Dreams peered at this mysterious man; a ruthless king who would risk everything to save flowers and dancing? Elixa had never had much use for such things, but then what would the world be without them? An endless broken kingdom of dead men and dying starlight? He could be playing her like a fool, but she found she no longer cared. He'd been sending her food, avoiding her troops at every turn and generally keeping his promises.
"Alright. My father has stationed over 300 sorcerers inside the walls of Darvaza, slowly sneaking them in as merchants and refugees. Our armies will march soon, arriving at Darvaza's gates in maybe a month's time. Once there, the sorcerers will open the gates and let our troops in. So says my father, anyway. And that's everything. No more secrets between us?"
"No more secrets," he said, piercing her with his blue eyes. "Let's remake the world, Elixa."
Chapter 17
I
"I hereby call this meeting to order," Balkin announced, beads of sweat forming on his pocked face. Anaka sat rigid in her chair, staring straight ahead, over Mills' shoulder and out the window at the raindrops spattering against the glass. She didn't dare to glance at the newly appointed Grand General, her ex-lover who had never gotten over her rejection. No one mentioned that he'd forgotten the year and the number. Balkin was a g
reat soldier and a killer, but he was no leader. Not like Grayna had been.
"As Grand General, I accept the Ilahi's proposed attack plan on Darvaza. However, I have spoken to the other leaders and they have told me that none of the men will march on Darvaza until the former Grand General Earl Grayna's freedom is assured."
"I cannot and will not allow a traitor to go free during a time of war," Stellan said firmly.
"He has not yet been convicted," Balkin countered, sweating more. Stellan had always made Quinton nervous, even from a distance. Being in the same room as his god, and having to argue with him, was almost more than he could handle. No, Balkin would not last long in Grayna's position.
"He will wait in the dungeons until his trial, and if convicted he will be punished accordingly," Stellan said.
"My lord, I beg that you hear my words," Balkin said, looking through his papers, at the floor, at his hands, anywhere but Stellan. "We cannot win this war without the army's cooperation. I am their commander and they will follow my orders in all other things but this. Grayna earned their respect and admiration, and has kept it for twenty years. They will not fight until his freedom is assured."
"Very well," Stellan said, following a long pause. "These are the terms I offer the army: Grayna will remain in his cell until his trial. If acquitted, he will resume his position as Grand General and head of the Queen's Council, effective immediately. If convicted, he will return to the dungeons until after the war is resolved. I cannot allow a traitor to wander free in wartime. Once the war has concluded, I will grant him a full pardon, with the condition that he will no longer serve the military. He will live out his days as a regular citizen. That is as lenient as I am willing to go on this issue."