Parallel (Mortisalian Saga Book 1)

by L. J. Stock

  My fingers traced around the darker of the two figures. Even in this depiction, he had angry eyes and a snarl on his lips. They’d done well capturing a sense of evil; his furrowed brow seemed to project malice.

  “So you're the troublemaker,” I mumbled, tipping my head to the side to change the angle.

  “That would indeed be the one,” the king's voice said from behind me, obvious humor in his tone. I turned my head to smile at him as he continued. “All of the tapestries in this hall depict the story of the brothers. It's so we, as royals, will never forget that greed will bring nothing but war and destruction to us and our good people. Also, that Thánatos is still out there, always waiting for an opportunity to take us down and reclaim what he sees as rightfully his.”

  “Cheerful thought. Is he aware of the prophecy?” I asked, dropping my hand from the woven depiction of the man and turning to face my father.

  “For a while he wasn’t. He was aware there was a prophecy, one that existed only to destroy him, but not what it entailed or even if there was another being involved. We’d been trying to keep that information from him for centuries. When he learned that his fate landed on the shoulders of one person, he declared war and promised to be the cause of their demise. He just has to find who it is first.” He paused, his smile growing wider as he assessed me. “May I show you something?”

  I nodded in response and moved toward him, falling in step with him as he started down the corridor. His arms were clasped behind his back as he walked, his head turning to offer me a warm smile.

  “I'm glad you came back, Cass,” he offered, his voice filled with honesty.

  For a moment I was taken aback by the look he was giving me, but my own thoughts echoed in the back of my head. I’d decided to give him a chance. I needed to stop thinking about it so much and simply try to trust him. It was hard, given my past with father figures, but he deserved this.

  “I am, too. I wanted to apologize for my behavior the last time I was here. I don't think I was prepared to hear that. I’d always hoped I wasn't Robert's child, dreamed about it even, but when you confirmed it – I felt like my whole life had been a lie. I didn’t handle it very well, I’m afraid.”

  “There is no need for apologies. It wasn't the right way to tell you. I must admit, learning that Robert Collier treated you with such hatred made me rather irrational, and the truth didn't exactly come out as tactfully as I'd planned.”

  That made sense to me. I’d always been an emotional person; it had dictated my actions a lot in my lifetime. Whether or not it was the right thing to do often remained to be seen, but it seemed that it was a trait I’d inherited from my real father, and I wasn’t going to condemn him for the behavior I myself had trouble with.

  “Well, Mom told me that you tried to see me, and that you always had someone watching over me to keep me safe. Considering you were banned, it was quite determined of you.”

  “Diane knew?” he asked with surprise. The way he said her name was filled with sentimentality. It was obvious to me that neither of them had managed to get over their relationship, even after all the years apart. When things like that didn’t have closure, I guess they stayed with you.

  “Yeah, but she figured I needed all the help I could get.” I sighed. Thinking back on my life, a lot of things that hadn’t made much sense suddenly started to come into focus. The king was probably the very reason I was still alive. That day, when I had seen that girl’s death so vividly, I’d been pushed out of the road. I could only assume it was someone the king had following me around.

  “Cass,” my father said, pulling me out of one of my darkest memories and back into my rather skewed reality. “I wouldn't have left you there had I known you were being abused. I never thought your mother would have let him get away with treating you that way. The queen was unable to conceive and once I learned about you...”

  “Mom didn't have much of a choice,” I finally admitted, quietly. “I was finally able to confront Robert and I realized why she stayed for so long, why she didn't fight him. She couldn’t have.”

  The king stopped walking, his body turning in my direction as he tried to study my face and find the answers there. Unfortunately, he just didn’t know me that well. “Cass, are you saying...?”

  I nodded. I didn't want to say or hear the words out loud. The mental image was enough for me. I’d been too young to put the pieces together growing up. Mom, for all her downfalls, had successfully protected me from that one heinous truth. Her efforts of rebellion, though small, were to protect me, and now seemed more immense than I’d originally believed, but I couldn’t say all of that, so I went with the facts.

  “When he attacked me, it was more than obvious how he settled arguments with her in the past. She’s always hidden it well, but that visit three weeks ago answered more questions than I knew to ask.”

  I had started walking again, managing three steps before I realized the king had frozen. Pausing, I turned, immediately noticing the dark anger passing over his features. He was frightening when he was enraged. As large and imposing as he was, he was even more so with his shoulders squared and a scowl creasing his brow. I hadn't realized that Damon had stood by the agreement and neglected to mention the confrontation with Robert when he’d reported in after the visit to my mom. I imagined that the scene in front of me was exactly why he hadn’t. The palpable anger was rolling from the king in vicious waves. I just wished I’d known before I’d opened my stupid mouth.

  “Damon!” the king shouted. The sound was short, sharp, and brutal. He turned slowly to look at the door he'd just exited before mumbling under his breath. “To touch Diane... But my daughter? Damon!”

  “Yes, Your Highness?” Damon replied, appearing in front of the king with a respectful bow.

  “Robert Collier?” the king asked. I could hear the accusation in his tone, and I knew that he, too, was curious about the absence of the intel.

  Damon's glance flickered to me and I mouthed a silent apology. I hadn't known that he'd left that out of the report, but I’d never have mentioned it if I’d known he’d honored my mom’s request. I didn't want to get him in trouble, so I did the first thing I could think of that would absolve him of the blame.

  “Damon saved me, sir. I asked him not to say anything because Mom was so embarrassed about living that way for so long. The last thing she wanted was the man she loved finding out that her husband had spent years punishing her for her affair.”

  There was a small intake of breath from the king and I realized I’d just crossed another line without thinking about it. I could see it in the way he looked at me. I felt like a prize idiot for being so neglectful of the words I’d chosen. She hadn’t said those exact words to me – it was just obvious. I just hoped it wasn’t a false hope for my father.

  There was so much going on behind his eyes that I felt the sudden need to hug him and beg for his forgiveness. In my momentary desperation to keep Damon out of the king’s bad graces, I'd just made my father see something he'd missed all these years. He'd believed my mother no longer loved him, that she hadn’t even wanted to be with him. He thought she'd pushed him away because she’d hated him, and that she'd chosen her husband,and their life together above him.

  Men really were blind when it came to those things.

  Mom, however, was going to kill me when she found out I’d spilled one of her deepest and best kept secrets.

  “Damon,” the king finally said in a calmer voice before stepping closer to him. Placing a hand on Damon’s shoulder, he leaned into him and they walked away from me. The rest was spoken in a rushed whisper. When the king was finished, Damon nodded and ran down the hall and out of sight. He hadn't even acknowledged me in his haste to leave, and my gut instinct told me this wasn’t good, and it certainly wasn’t going to end well.

  My father approached me again and nodded in the direction we’d been headed before I’d opened my mouth and put my foot squarely in it. We were silent as we walked
together, but the tension from my last statement had depleted considerably, leaving us in a companionable silence.

  “Ah, here we are,” the king said softly. His voice was a little more relaxed than it had been, and his face was clear as though the storm had passed. Placing his hand on my back, he stepped forward with me to a tapestry that was so beautiful it took my breath away. There was a raven-haired girl standing with a man who was holding a child. From her hands came water and fire. There was an army on the receiving end, but there was no gruesome scene, as the fire and water hadn't yet reached them.

  I stepped forward and inspected it a little more closely before realizing what I was looking at.

  “Is that...?”

  “It's doubtful it will happen that way. The artist was a sensationalist, but yes, this picture is a representation of you.”

  I looked at the image again, my eyes wide and my mind scrambled. I wasn't sure who they'd depicted as the man in the picture. I just knew I didn't recognize him. The child in his arms had the same dark hair I had, the soft ringlets framing a face that was a lot like mine. That alone caught me off guard. How did they know what I looked like? Their depiction was accurate and it was almost unnerving to stare at for too long. So many of my features stared back at me from the scene it was like an out of body experience.

  “How did they know?”

  “You think I would have somebody looking after you without bringing me back pictures so I could see you?” King Kyros asked, his smile warm. “You're my daughter, Cass. I may not have been allowed to get close, but I wasn't going to miss out on watching you grow up.”

  My heart tumbled in my chest. He hadn't been allowed access to me, but he had still cared enough to make an effort, which was more than could be said about the man who had mocked me my whole life. A tinge of anger at my mother flared, but I reminded myself that she'd believed she was doing the right thing. I couldn't hold that against her, because putting myself in her shoes, I wasn't sure what I would have done.

  “I wish I'd known you growing up,” I mumbled, looking up into his warm eyes as my fingers traced the child’s face in the tapestry.

  “As do I,” he said, pained. The sound made me pensive. I’d suffered this melancholic reality for less than a month, but the king – he’d had to deal with this for decades. Needing to change the subject, I drew his attention back to the woven art in front of us.

  “So, who's the guy?”

  My father shrugged, the small hint of omission touching him before his eyes flickered and moved down the corridor. My gaze automatically followed his and noticed Damon returning but hanging back, not wanting to interrupt us. The king, however, let out a thoughtful sigh.

  “I was wondering if you'd be averse to meeting some people. As a royal and the only heir to my throne, I need to start introducing you to some of the more influential people in the court. I would also like to formally announce you as my heir, if you're willing.”

  Heir? Throne? He had to be kidding, right? I hadn’t even lived yet. I was twenty-four and had spent almost a third of my life in a hospital for the mentally ill. Now I was expected to be responsible enough to run a kingdom? It seemed like a really bad idea to me. Rather than simply saying no, as I probably should have, I decided to hear him out.

  “What would that entail?”

  “Well, you would need to begin learning the workings of the court, so you would be invited to cabinet meetings and war councils and receive lessons in formal etiquette for when it’s needed. We would also throw a ball to introduce you and your accession, of course.”

  I wasn’t confident about any of the information he was giving me on formalities, but one word did stand out and I really wasn’t sure how I felt about it.

  “A ball?” I asked incredulously.

  The king laughed genuinely, his hand unconsciously landing on my back in a paternal gesture. “I'm afraid so, but don't let that intimidate you. We'll wait for a little while to make sure it's what you really want to do. I don’t plan to force you into anything.”

  “You'd give me a choice?” I asked, surprised that someone with so much power would relinquish a decision like that and put it in my hands. Especially when it seemed as though there was so much at stake.

  “Of course I would. You've been brought up in a different world than ours, and your mother was always adamant about keeping you away from this life, especially this war. It's a lot to ask of you, Cass. You’re one person, and you have to understand that once you're formally announced, Thánatos will then be aware of your existence. That's a lot of pressure and even more danger for you. Most female heirs have become targets for this very reason. Thánatos knew that the one prophesized to end him was female. He also understood that their lineage would include the blood of fire and water running through their veins, so he hasn’t taken any chances. He’s murdered any female heir that’s come along.”

  I appreciated his concern and the fact that he was offering me a choice, but I knew this wouldn't be a decision I made lightly. I had a whole future ahead of me that wasn't my own, and I just wasn't sure how to feel about that yet. I still needed time. The dangers the king had mentioned were very real, and the hanging tapestry depicted just what was going to happen once Thánatos found out about me.

  Whether or not I accepted my role as heir, there was always going to be a chance I would be found anyway. Thánatos, from what I understood, had access to nymphs who were sure to hear it through the grapevine at some point. At least as the heir to the Mortisalian throne, I would have my own guards and I would be safer, and with my training coming along, I may have even had a fighting chance. Unfortunately, Thánatos was practicing black magic, something we knew about because it was the one thing that was keeping him alive. That malevolent talent of his had, I’d been told, extended to some of his guards through his own genealogy. Whatever gift of genetics I had, there was no telling if it would save me if he got his hands on me before I was able to have this prophetic child I was supposed to protect with my life.

  The whole thing still blew my mind a little, but for the first time in my life, I wasn't going to let my fear dictate my decisions. I was going to do as the king suggested and learn what was going to be asked of me before I made an educated decision.

  As we continued on our walk back to the chamber he’d appeared from, I thought about what all of this would mean for my future. I was actually willing to give it a shot. I was going to learn the ropes and decide whether I wanted to be a princess. It seemed rather ridiculous considering most little girls would have killed to be in my shoes.

  “May I ask how your mother is taking all of this?” the king asked, breaking the comfortable silence that had lingered between us.

  “She's okay, I guess.” I shrugged again. “She's worried about my brother and what Robert's been saying to him, but she's too afraid to call and find out, so it's turning into this whole snowballing mess.” I flung my arms around and rolled my eyes. “Then there’s the training. That’s been bothering her, too. She's still not excited about my decision to physically become part of this war.”

  “I can imagine not. She was never really comfortable with Mortisali.”

  “She'll get used to the idea. I had her translocate, so that's a start at least.”

  The king nodded and looked at me apologetically. I could sense an end coming to our time together and forced myself to battle the inexplicable disappointment that accompanied it.

  “I've enjoyed your visit, Cass, but regrettably, I should get back to the cabinet before they make a policy without me. I'm hoping you will come back soon so we can spend more time with one another.”

  “It's okay. Maybe you could send for me when you have some free time? We could do something together?” I offered, finding that the prospect of getting to know him made me happy.

  “I most definitely will,” he answered with hope filling his eyes.

  I gave him a brief hug and a small wave goodbye over my shoulder, all airs and graces forgott
en as I jogged down the hall toward Damon, who was thankfully smiling again. Twice in one day was nice.

  Damon didn’t say a word as I approached; he just turned and walked down the corridor toward the Great Hall. After weaving through the flock of people, he led me to a huge room at the back of the palace which had high ceilings and beautifully intricate chandeliers hanging every six feet or so. The hardwood floors were highly polished below our feet as we stepped inside. The wainscoted walls had seams in gold leaf with sconces in the same design as the chandeliers. It was beautiful, but I didn't have long to savor the look, because Damon was ready to get down to business. His smile, now gone, was replaced with a look of quiet determination.

  “Okay, your foot is completely healed now, so we're going to work on basic self-defense. We'll tackle the more offensive and combative skills once you've got the hang of that.”

  I nodded obediently and waited for him to start, trying not to drink in the way his eyes hardened and his lips pushed out, making the hair on his jaw darker, when he was concentrating deeply on something. He paced the highly polished floor for a second before disappearing and leaving me alone in the vast room to investigate further. When he finally returned, he and another guard were carrying a huge rolled up mat filled with what I could only assume was compacted straw. After rolling it out, the other guard nodded respectfully before he left us alone.

  “Where the hell did this come from?” I asked, kicking the edge of the mat and smiling up at Damon.

  “The castra’s training center,” he answered, pulling and testing the edge of it with his foot.

  “Castra?”

  “The Regius Custos barracks…where I live? We’re the only part of the king’s army that resides inside the palace. We have immediate access to anywhere within its walls. I told you this, didn’t I?”

  “You told me you lived in the palace. There was nothing about training. Why aren’t we in the castra?”