by L. M. Roth
“Am I an honorable man?” he repeated.
Then his voice gained intensity.
“Yes, I am an honorable man. So honorable that I wish to know why I was sent to Eirinia in the first place!”
“Take care, Marcus! I am warning you. Though I look a frail woman I am of an uncertain temper. Take heed that you do not rouse it!”
“I have already seen your temper roused. Indeed, I endured months of bondage at your hands, and have seen my home fettered in chains as well. I ask again, why? What quarrel do you have with the family of Maximus to merit such punishment?”
Aurora glared at Marcus. Her jade eyes hardened and narrowed, like the eyes of a snake about to strike, and the flame of her hair seemed to surround her very being as though she was engulfed by her own rage. She made an effort to control herself.
“What my quarrel is does not concern you; it is no business of yours. But as for sending you to Eirinia, I thought it a fitting punishment as it was your great-great-grandfather Ovidius Maximus, who brought about the surrender of the Eirini to Valerium!”
“What do you mean, punishment? My great-great-grandfather was a valiant soldier. He was a hero.”
“Yes, certainly, a hero of Valerium. But he is not loved by the Eirini. For many years we attempted to subdue them, but they fought on. It was Ovidius, after a long, fruitless campaign, who suggested that we starve them out by burning the grass their sheep fed on, by setting fire to the forests where they hunted game and found nuts and berries. And it was Ovidius, who suggested we torch their villages where their women and children died, their screams for mercy piercing the night, unheeded by their gods.”
Marcus had once, as a small child, fallen from his pony and hit the ground, hard. As he lay on his back looking at the puffy clouds in a clear blue sky, they seemed to swirl in a mad dance. Now, he felt the same sensation. The face of the Empress seemed to dance before him, her words ringing repeatedly through his head, “their screams for mercy piercing the night, screams for mercy piercing the night, piercing the night..”
“No!”
Forgetting himself he leapt to his feet. He knew he could not stand until the Empress did but he forgot protocol in his shock and horror.
The Empress sprang to her feet with the swiftness of an arrow shot from a bow.
“Sit down, I have not released you!” she spat out.
Marcus recovered his sanity and did as ordered.
“Pardon, Your Grace, but you must be mistaken. My great-great-grandfather was a noble warrior. He would never have ordered the murder of innocent women and children. Never!”
“Why, Marcus, who said anything about murder? Your great-great-grandfather won a mighty victory for Valerium. He subdued a proud and savage tribe who refused to submit to our great Empire. And for that he was promoted to the head of the Imperial Army.”
“But you said I was punished by being sold to the Eirini.”
“No, Marcus, your father was punished. I simply felt it a fitting sentence that you slave for the Eirini, since it was your great-great-grandfather who brought them under our yoke. Do not waste your pity on them, Marcus. They should not have resisted us in the first place.”
Aurora’s lips stretched in a cold smile that didn’t reach her eyes. They were hard, and glinted like a frozen pond touched by the first icy rays of the morning sun on a winter morn.
“Now, as for you, young man, as you have escaped your captors, I must devise another sentence for you. I have thought on this since the news was brought to me of your return. And I have found a way that you can serve me and buy your freedom if you are successful.”
Marcus tensed. He sensed whatever the Empress was going to say was not going to be to his liking. He raised an eyebrow inquiringly.
Aurora picked up the thread of her thought and continued.
“I have not always lived in Valerium, Marcus. When I was first married, and indeed until the news of my father’s death was brought to me, my husband and I lived in one of the outposts of our mighty Empire, where my father the Emperor felt it necessary to send a show of his presence to keep the peace. That was in the province of Gaudereaux, a most delightful country, full of deep forests, rolling green hillsides, and water so clear it refreshed one to drink from the springs.
“We lived there many years, and over the course of time, I heard of a legend, one I have never forgotten. It was said that there is a great Pearl, a gem of marvelous and terrible beauty. It was said that it is more costly than gold, more precious than silver, more glorious than any other jewel to be found in all the world. And it was said that any one could buy it, but the price of it cost all that one possessed. Have you ever heard of this Pearl, Marcus?”
“No, Your Grace, I have never heard of it.”
“I have been obsessed with the thought of possessing that Pearl since first I heard of it. I sent messengers far and wide for further news of it, of where it might be found. But no one could tell me more. Yet I know it exists; of that I am certain.”
Aurora leaned toward Marcus, gripping tightly the arms of her throne. Her jade eyes glittered with a greedy light in their green depths.
“I want that Pearl, Marcus. I will never rest until I possess it. And I want you to find it and bring it back to me.”
“But, but…I would not know how to find it, Your Grace. Indeed, I would not know where to begin.”
“Why, you just simply start in the land of Gaudereaux, and go from there. You are a resourceful young man. Anyone who could escape from the Eirini could surely find a way to the Pearl.”
“What of my parents? My journey may be a long one. What of them? How long must they be your prisoners?”
Aurora lifted her head slightly and shot Marcus a dazzling smile. Then she laughed a tinkling laugh like the jingle of silver bells.
“Oh, did I not make it clear to you? The release of your parents depends upon the success of your quest. No Pearl, no parents.”
Marcus struggled for breath. He stared at Aurora blindly, the room spinning around him once more.
“I want that Pearl. You go and get it for me. Then we will talk about releasing your parents. But, Marcus, you bring me that Pearl.”
Chapter IX
A Most Enlightening Interview
He would never forget that door. Of sturdy oak six inches thick it was carved, with iron bars bolted across it, heavy nails studded from top to bottom holding the planks together. Set in a wall of cold gray stone, the door was the most forbidding sight he had ever laid eyes on. Behind that door was his father.
Marcus inhaled slowly. What lay behind that door? Would his father be as he had always been, strong, dignified, and stately? Or would he be weak, cowed, and stooped from the months of imprisonment?
The guard poked his side roughly.
“A quarter of an hour. That’s all the Empress allows you. I will be right outside this door, so I would not attempt an escape if I were you!”
He snarled and spat on the floor, then pushed Marcus into the room. The door creaked as he slammed it shut behind him.
It was dark in the cell, lit only by a torch held in an iron bracket in the corner of the high ceiling. This shed only a meager light, and it took a full moment for Marcus to adjust to the darkness. Somewhere he heard a steady dripping from some leak in the outer wall. Drip, drip. Drip, drip.
Then he saw slumped on a cot the figure of a man. He was bent over, his head in his hands.
“Father! Oh, Father, how I have longed for a sight of your face!”
Marcus hurried to him and knelt at his feet. He removed his father’s hands from his head and placed them on his own cheeks so that they cupped his face between them. It was an old gesture of endearment between himself and his father, one that Marcus remembered from his earliest childhood days. His father used to say to him as he cupped his face, “In these hands I hold the dearest treasure I possess save for my beloved wife.”
As Marcus now cupped his face between his father’s hands, Val
erius stirred and fixed his gaze on the figure who knelt before him.
“Marcus? Marcus, my son! Is that truly you? I never thought to see you again!”
A stifled sob racked his body and he doubled over as if in pain.
“Father! Do not weep or distress yourself! For truly I am alive and well.”
Marcus slid his father’s hands from his face and placed them upon his shoulders. He placed his own hands on his father’s shoulders. Valerius straightened his back and looked Marcus steadily in the eye. It was the closest to an embrace that they shared, for the Valerians were of a stoic nature and did not believe in demonstrating their feelings.
“But, Marcus, I was told you were dead these many months. Long have I lain here and grieved for my son.”
“No, Father. I was taken captive and sold into slavery, but I am most certainly not dead!”
And Marcus informed his father of all that had happened since that far-off morning in June when his world was destroyed and all hope nearly snuffed out, like the waning of a candle whose wick is nearly spent. He told him of the journey by sea to Eirinia, of the bondage to Cadeyrn, and his release as a debt of gratitude. Valerius listened in anguish at the suffering of his son, then with visible pride as he spoke of slaying the wolf. He held his breath as Marcus related how Cadeyrn had freed him in debt for saving his life.
“Who would have ever thought that an Eirini could have acted so nobly? For truly, my son, they are some of the most savage people I have ever seen.”
“Savage, yes, but…Father, Empress Aurora told me that it was my great-great-grandfather who brought the Eirini under subjugation to Valerium. Is that true?”
“Why, yes, of course, it is true. He was given great honor and promoted to the head of the Imperial Army. And I now hold that position just as he did. Or I did hold that position.”
His face darkened and he tightened his lips. He clenched his fist impotently in the gloom.
“Is it also true that my great-great-grandfather ordered the grass and the forests to be burned, to starve the Eirini? Is it true that he ordered their villages to be put to the torch? For their women and children to be burned alive?”
Valerius sat in silence. He appeared to hesitate, then to come to a decision.
“Marcus, you have always wanted to be a soldier. From the time you were able to walk you delighted in playing at drill, in marching proudly with a toy sword at your side. But, truly I say to you, that you do not know what war is like. You have never known the heat of battle, the clashing of metal, the screaming of the wounded and dying. You have never faced a foe with the knowledge, even in the horror of the revelation of that knowledge, that it is a matter of your life or his.
“Yes, your great-great-grandfather was the one who devised the torching of the grasslands, the forest, and the villages. But he was a Valerian soldier, a great Valerian soldier. And the Valerians have never been known for weakness.”
“Weakness? No, for it was utterly ruthless!” Marcus burst out.
“Ruthless, I grant you,” Valerius agreed. “Yet if one wants power, one must seize it. It will not come to you; you must grasp it. That is what has made Valerium a great Empire, the greatest empire the world has ever known.”
Marcus felt suddenly a heavy weight descend on his shoulders. He admired and esteemed his father dearly. All of his life he had been proud to be his son, to be a citizen of Valerium. He loved to hear his name whispered in the marketplace, to be greeted with awe by the humble plebs who saluted the son of the great Valerius Maximus. But now he felt a taste in his mouth as bitter as an orange not yet fully ripe.
He decided in deference to his father to not disagree with him. He did not wish the parting from him to be an acrimonious one, to be spent in useless words that could only bring pain to both their hearts.
For Aurora had granted him this one wish: to be permitted to take leave of his father before venturing on his quest. He wanted proof that his father was still alive, and to also assure him of his safe return. The thought of Aurora brought another question to his mind.
“Father, what quarrel does the Empress have with you that she should imprison you? What harm have you ever done to the Empire?”
Valerius flinched and turned his gaze from Marcus. His hawk-like profile was presented to his son as he stared at the floor as though deep in thought. Then he cleared his throat and faced his son. He squared his shoulders and lifted his chin.
“To the Empire, I have done no harm. I have ever served it faithfully, honorably, always proud to be a soldier of Valerium.
“But between Empress Aurora and myself there is another matter, one that lies in the past, in the days of our youth. For we knew each other then, knew each other quite well. My father was esteemed by the Emperor Beatus, her father, and I was one of the young men he favored for his daughter’s hand.”
Valerius paused and glanced questioningly at Marcus, who was astonished at his father’s revelation.
“You, but, my mother,” Marcus blurted.
“I had not yet met your mother. And at the time I did find Aurora beautiful and charming, always light-hearted and quick to laugh. We spent many hours in one another’s company; walks in the woods where Aurora seemed as free as a spirit of air come to grace this plodding earth, in moonlit courtyards where her beauty seemed to eclipse the loveliness of the stars, and at formal banquets which were but a setting for her glory, like a jewel set in a crown. Oh, yes, you see her now and she is an aging woman, but in the glory of her youth she was as radiant as the dawn.
“Yes, I courted her, knowing that if I won her I would be elevated to the highest position in the land: the Emperor’s son-in-law, and the husband of the future Empress. Yet, there was that about her which I found disturbing, not appealing in a wife, and that boded ill for the future. Aurora had a greedy love of gifts, almost like a little girl who wanted what she wanted and must have it at once. And woe to the person who possessed what she must have and was loath to give it up!
“I remember an occasion of a military parade when the Emperor honored a legion just returned from a great victory in the Rebellion of Secelia. The whole of the city turned out to greet them. One of the horses, a black steed with a coat like satin belonging to one of the soldiers caught Aurora’s eye. How she wanted that horse! She ordered the solder to give it to her. He respectfully refused, saying that he and that horse had been through many battles together and he depended on him as he would a trusted friend.
“No one, but no one, ever said “no” to Aurora. Without her father’s knowledge she dispatched four of her trusted men servants to the soldier’s villa. There they bound him, took him to his stables and whipped him until his back ran with blood. Then they seized the horse and took it to Aurora.
“Yes, Aurora had a temper! She could be as giddy as a little girl one moment, then the laughter would vanish and rage erupted as violently as a summer thunderstorm explodes in the mountains. I was troubled by these traits, and held back from promising any commitment.
“And then one day, I met your mother, and in her I found all the gentleness and generosity of spirit that Aurora so sorely lacked. Honoria was so sweet, so selfless, that I knew without any doubt that in this woman lay my future happiness. By the very excellence of her nature she exposed all that was false in Aurora.
“Beautiful? Yes, but only on the surface, no deeper. It was merely a veneer. To contrast Aurora with Honoria was to compare fool’s gold to the genuine object. No one who has seen the deep gleam of real gold could ever again be deceived by the shallow glitter of the counterfeit.”
Here Valerius paused and shut his eyes as if in remembered rapture of his long ago courtship. Marcus waited for him to continue. When it appeared as though Valerius were lost in reverie, he gently nudged him.
“What happened then, Father?”
“When I announced the news of my betrothal to Honoria, it unleashed all the mad fury of which Aurora was capable. Oh, publicly she played the perfect lady, affe
cting indifference and even feigning friendly congratulations to Honoria. But privately, when she begged an audience with me alone, she was a whirlwind of wrath, striking out at me, throwing any object that was near at hand. She shrieked at me, saying I was a scoundrel, that I made a fool of her and insulted the dignity of the Imperial family. She would remember this, she would not be mocked.
“I emerged from that interview a shaken man, but grateful for my narrow escape. For to be hated by Aurora is a terrible thing and even strong men quake at her fury, but to be loved by her would be more terrible still. She cannot let go of anything she wants or possesses, but guards it as fiercely as a dragon guards its treasure hoard. She would destroy any who try to take it from her. And to destroy any who try to escape from the prison of her love.”
Marcus shook his head as he pondered on his father’s words.
“So that is why you were seized, for the insult of refusing her love. But why now, why not long ago?”
“She could not have done this had her father the Emperor Beatus lived. He was a just man and would never have left me in this prison. Aurora would have been merely humiliated if she seized me only to be forced to release me at the command of her father. If you take note of the timing, I was imprisoned barely two months after her father’s death, and only one month after the death of her husband.”
An idea suddenly came to Marcus. A dreadful idea, but one which must be addressed.
“Father, is it possible that Liberius was murdered? Surely the deaths of Aurora’s father and husband so closely together is too much of a coincidence to be true!”
“Hush, Marcus! Watch your words in this place. But, yes,” Valerius lowered his voice. “I have wondered about that myself.”
A new thought tore at Marcus’ heart.
“What about Mother? Do you think Aurora would harm my mother in revenge?”
Valerius grabbed the hands of his son.
“Marcus, do not torture yourself with imagination. I have not seen your mother since the day of my imprisonment. But know this and mark it well: if any harm comes to Honoria at the hands of Aurora, she will not live long to regret it. For then it will be her turn to see my fury unleashed.”