Empress Aurora Trilogy Quest For the Kingdom Parts I, II, and III Revised With Index (Quest For the Kingdom Set)

by L. M. Roth

  “Farewell, then,” Kyrene said.

  “Farewell, it is,” Felix agreed.

  Before they took their final leave of the Eirini, Marcus had one last word of admonishment for them.

  “Be ruthless,” he told them, “to root out the Astra. Go to every sacred grove, every holy hill and cleanse them from the land. For if you do not drive them out from among you, they will ensnare the souls of your sons and your daughters, and turn their hearts away from Dominio.

  “Do I have your oath to do this?” he challenged them.

  “Aye, you have our oath!”

  And they drove them out that very hour. To every sacred grove and holy hill they went, tearing down the altars where they poured the blood of their victims as a libation to the Tuadan, declaring the land to now be sacred to Dominio, and under the lordship of Alexandros as part of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.

  Chapter XXXIII

  News From Lycenium

  Now they were back at sea, and the shortened days were chilly and laden with clouds. Although it was still October, the winter would quickly be upon them and it was none too soon to be finished with their task and returning to Valerium.

  Marcus fretted to be home once more, and give to the Empress the objects she had requested. And to see the faces of his parents once more! The prospect of such joy made the journey even more irksome in his eagerness to return.

  How quiet their little troop seemed now. Marcus missed the chatter of Cort, and Dag’s unspoken support. The boat seemed much larger without his broad shoulders and long legs filling it, but it was an empty space without his presence.

  Talk was desultory and sporadic. There was a sense of a mission fulfilled, with only the formal conclusion to end it. Kyrene seemed wistful, no doubt missing Cort, for she had been as a mother to him. Marcus expected her to return to Solone once they had reached Valerium. While they were still in Eirinia, there was an occasion when he walked through the woods early one morning, only to encounter Kyrene, who had taken the same notion in her head.

  They walked together beneath the brilliant foliage in amiable silence, occasionally smiling companionably upon one another, until Marcus turned to her on impulse.

  “Kyrene,” he inquired, “what will you do when we leave Eirinia? Will you continue on with Felix and me?”

  “I will go to Valerium with you to see you through to the end of your task, Marcus,” she replied.

  Then she turned to look him full in the face.

  “Then I shall return to Solone,” she said firmly.

  For a moment their eyes locked in a questioning gaze. Marcus hesitated, but decided to satisfy his curiosity.

  “What about you and Felix?” he ventured. “Is there any chance…”

  “No, Marcus,” she interrupted him in a voice firm in its resolution. “I know what some have been thinking, but it will not be.”

  “But why not?” Marcus asked, the words rushing to his lips. “I sense there is something between you…”

  Kyrene interrupted him again.

  “Friendship, Marcus: that is what is between us. Only that.”

  “I’m sorry, Kyrene, but I thought the two of you rather liked each other, and I know his mother would be delighted if you made a match. She likes you very much; it is so obvious that she regards you almost as a daughter already.”

  “Marcus, it takes more than two people liking each other to make a successful match. Felix has become a dear friend, and I could have cared for him; that much I will admit to you. But his heart is given to one and one alone. For him there is no other.”

  Marcus felt a rush of jealous anger surge inside him.

  “Tullia!” he exclaimed.

  “Yes,” Kyrene answered. “Maybe we could have been more than friends. But once he saw her in Lycenium, I knew that it was she that he still loves. And always will.”

  “Well, he is wasting his time in hoping for a future with Tullia!” Marcus exploded.

  “Maybe he is,” Kyrene agreed. “But true love need not be returned for it to be real. It exists without reason, endures every trial, and is eternal in its undying devotion.”

  What would become of Elena he did not know, as he did not expect Kyrene to retain her services as a maid, having no need of one.

  He fell to wondering about the former slave girl. She said little, yet he had the uncomfortable feeling that her eyes missed nothing. And did he detect at times a sense of malice? She had witnessed all of the miracles that Dominio had wrought, yet was still an unbeliever as far as Marcus knew. How could that be?

  The days flew by, for it was not a long journey from Eirinia to Valerium, and on an afternoon when every tree along the shore appeared clad in glowing robes to welcome them home they arrived safely and pulled into port.

  They secured their trusty little craft at the pier, and walked to the Lucius villa, where they were greeted with delight by Justus and Silvia. They were overjoyed to see the young travelers again, and made much of them. Felix and Marcus were swallowed in embraces by Silvia, who then tenderly greeted Kyrene and inquired after her welfare. She was a little more reserved in her greeting to Elena, a fact which Marcus noted with curiosity. Was it because the girl was somewhat aloof, or was Silvia perhaps not as fond of her as she was of Kyrene?

  For it was obvious that both Silvia and Justus had taken Kyrene into their hearts, and Marcus caught many speculative glances between them. He wondered if they had designated her for their son. If so they were wasting their time.

  Marcus lost no time in explaining his need to see the Empress Aurora at the first opportunity. Justus sent a messenger to the Palace, who soon returned and said the Empress would grant Marcus an audience the next morning. It was decided, therefore, that they would all spend the night at the Lucius villa, and finalize their plans after the audience the next day.

  After a sumptuous dinner that warmed and sated all of them, Silvia drew Marcus aside from the rest of the group, who were holding an animated discussion in the family sitting room, and requested a moment alone with him. She took him to her private sitting room, a small and cozy room where the frescoes were of lush pink roses and green stems on a pale cream background, and the mosaic floor mirrored the theme in tiles of rose, green, and cream.

  The room reminded Marcus of the roses in the garden of his father’s villa, and the morning he was seized there and forced into slavery. He remembered also, with bitter pain, the rose he had given Tullia when he proposed marriage, and how heedlessly she had dropped it into the swirling stream. Would roses always be a source of pain, a symbol of loss, to him?

  But now Silvia was speaking and holding out a scroll to him. He had not heard her words and asked her to repeat them.

  “I was given this when I visited Lycenium over the summer, and entrusted to give it to you when next I saw you.”

  She paused a moment as if uncertain how to proceed. Marcus waited, one eyebrow slightly lifted, curious about her hesitancy.

  Silvia exhaled slowly.

  “It is from the daughter of Drusilla Octavius.”

  Marcus felt the breath go out of his lungs, and for a moment swayed on his feet.

  “Tullia! It is from Tullia?”

  “Yes,” Silvia answered. “I do not pretend to know what it contains. But she came to me one day while I visited her mother and requested that I give it to you. I was somewhat surprised, for her mother and I were discussing her pending betrothal with the son of Gerontius Hadrianus. I was puzzled, therefore, why she should send an address to another young man.”

  She looked an inquiry at Marcus. But he had no answer to enlighten her with. Seeing his blank face, she rose from her chair and drew herself erectly.

  “Indeed, I wish I knew what it contained, for the very next day she disappeared and has not been seen since.”

  Marcus did not respond, but Silvia knew from his reaction that he already had news about Tullia’s unexplained disappearance.

  “I shall leave you to read it then,” she m
urmured softly as she left the room, closing the door quietly behind her.

  Marcus’ hands were shaking so badly that it was with some difficulty that he slit the wax from the scroll and unrolled it. He wondered what more Tullia could have to say to him, having so firmly rejected him the summer before.

  “Dearest Marcus,” he read. “I know not how to tell you this, yet I must. When last we met you honored me with an offer of marriage, which I in my folly refused. For I was mistaken, Marcus: I know that now.

  “Because of the change in your circumstances I felt a future between us was neither possible nor wise. I therefore encouraged the suit of Decimus Hadrianus, son of the great Gerontius Hadrianus. For truly Governor Hadrianus is a great man: honorable, gallant, and wise. I therefore assumed his son would be likewise.

  “Alas, he is cruel, weak, and given to folly. Decimus is also, as I have discovered, a spoiled and selfish bully, whose only desire in life is securing his own pleasure.

  “My father and mother expect me to accept his forthcoming proposal. My mother is already preparing my wedding clothes, and my father is allotting my dowry. It will grievously disappoint them when I refuse Decimus. Yet refuse him I must, for life with him would be intolerable.

  “For it is you I want, Marcus. My brave, valiant, and noble Marcus! How could I have been so cruel to reject you when you needed me the most? I have reflected on all that you told me last summer, and I want to tell you that I will wait for you, my darling.

  “Decimus has asked me to walk with him in the woods around his father’s villa early tomorrow morning. I am to be unaccompanied by my maidservant, but to come to him unattended, for he wishes to speak to me alone.

  “He shall propose; I know this. And I shall refuse him. For you are all that my heart desires, my brave Marcus.

  “I have heard from Silvia Lucius that you have departed on another quest for the Empress. When you have finished that task, come to me, whether in Lycenium if my family lingers here, or back home in Valerium.

  “Come to me. I will wait for you.”

  Marcus could not decide which shock was the greater: the news that Tullia had changed her mind and accepted him, or the fact that she had vanished from sight the very next day.

  The next day. She was to meet Decimus alone…

  Quick as lightning to strike the tallest tree, Marcus made the connection: Decimus! Tullia was going to refuse him. And now she was missing. Had he harmed her in some manner?

  Where was Tullia? What fate had befallen her?

  Chapter XXXIV

  Encounter With the Empress

  With a jaunty stride Marcus entered the Imperial Palace. The now familiar stone of black veined with blood-red did not appear so intimidating today. Marcus had faced too many angry natives howling for his blood this year to fear these walls. Now he had fulfilled his quest, and his own life would be spared, and he would at last behold the faces of his beloved parents and win their release from their long captivity.

  Before he left for his audience he consulted Logos in preparation for whatever might happen. He knew well the volatile nature of the Empress Aurora, and thought it best to be prepared. It would be just like her to change her mind on a whim or send him out on another quest if she was pleased with the success of this one!

  He drew the Sword from its scabbard. He prayed a brief thanksgiving prayer to Dominio for His help in his task, and then asked Logos for a word to prepare him for the audience.

  “Vengeance is Mine. I will repay,” were the words that appeared on the blade that seemed filled with a light of its own.

  Vengeance? Marcus thought. Vengeance for what? Why? His quest was successful this time, and the release of his parents assured, the restoration of their estate all but a certainty. Why would he want vengeance now?

  Marcus pondered over these words while he and his friends waited. For they had insisted on accompanying him, saying they had been involved in the task as well. Marcus could not refute such logic and therefore relented.

  In truth, it was with eagerness he waited, so exhilarated was he at the prospect of reunion with his beloved parents, his return home, and then on to Lycenium to search for Tullia.

  The Empress Aurora greeted Marcus with green eyes glittering in greedy anticipation.

  “What have you brought me, young Marcus?” she all but salivated as she ran a small tongue over her full red lips.

  “Show me the objects I sent you to procure for me!”

  “First,” Marcus demanded with an assurance borne of success, “I wish to see my parents; for I long to see them both again!”

  Aurora frowned and made a grimace with puckered lips. She hesitated a moment, then her face brightened.

  “I shall bring your father up from his prison chamber,” she smiled. “Then you will show me what you have found.”

  “What of my mother?” Marcus inquired. “She shall be brought also!”

  Aurora ignored him and clapped her hands. An attendant was quickly dispatched to fetch Valerius, who promptly appeared and was ordered to stand before the Empress. Aurora gazed at him with eyes that were almost tender, if that characteristic could possibly have been applied to one of her nature.

  “Hail Valerius Maximus,” she said softly, and looked at him as though the two of them were alone with none to hear her words. “How like you my hospitality? Will you regret leaving these walls? Will you regret leaving my company?”

  Her voice broke, and in it Marcus heard all the longing he himself felt for Tullia. Was it possible that the Empress truly loved his father still?

  Valerius stood before the Empress in silence. He ignored both her words and the presence of his son. It hurt Marcus that he would not look at him. The Empress, rebuffed, turned her attention back to Marcus.

  “I am waiting,” she warned him.

  Marcus knew that tone of voice and knew to put her off longer would be folly. He turned to Felix, who handed him one by one the precious objects.

  Marcus held up a vial filled with clear water.

  “As requested, the Fountain of Youth. For it was taken from a stream where those who bathe in it find healing from the infirmities of age.”

  Aurora’s eyes gleamed with a hard light, and her delicate face gloated over the vial.

  “Give it to me!” she ordered.

  Marcus handed it to her and continued.

  “The Rays of the Sun,” he announced as he cradled in his hand the clear orange nugget taken from the cave.

  Aurora snatched it from his hand and held it to her throat, obviously picturing a pendant from the stone.

  “Next,” Marcus said, well pleased with Aurora’s satisfaction, “is a star from the sky; for it fell on a night when many stars fell from the heavens.”

  Aurora looked at the cold gray lump in Marcus’ hand. Clearly, she was not as pleased with this offering.

  “That is not a star!” she pouted. “Stars are shiny and flash like diamonds. That is a mere lump of rock!”

  “No, my lady,” Marcus insisted. “I witnessed its fall. It was hot when it fell, but cooled in good time.”

  Aurora did not answer, but looked at Marcus with an expression that did not bode well for the outcome of this audience.

  With some trepidation he presented the final object.

  “And last of all,” he announced, “the secret of Life.”

  Aurora examined it.

  “A seed? A seed!”

  She rose to her feet so rapidly that Marcus involuntarily jumped back.

  “What kind of fool do you take me for?” she screamed in a voice that pierced him to the soul.

  Marcus stood his ground.

  “Yes! A seed; for whatever a man sows that is what he shall reap. Even as a maple seed becomes a maple tree and not an oak tree, so too a man’s deeds whether for good or evil will reward or punish him.”

  “Well, your deeds shall punish you!” Aurora screamed at him, stomping one foot for emphasis.

  But Marcus did not flinch.<
br />
  “Where is my mother, Empress? You promised the release of both of my parents. Where is she?”

  Aurora looked at him blankly for a moment; a wary look crept into her eyes, then a slow smile spread across her face.

  “Honoria? Hmm, what did I do with Honoria?” she appeared to ask herself, tapping a finger on her teeth, a frown of concentration on her face.

  “Oh, yes! I remember now.”

  She straightened up and smoothed her robe about her and looked at Marcus with the wide eyed gaze of a little girl.

  “Honoria,” she said, as she twisted a tendril of flame colored hair about her finger, “is dead. Yes, she is dead.”

  Marcus could not breathe. He clutched his abdomen. Valerius also was shocked out of his silence and a gasp escaped his lips.

  “Dead,” Aurora repeated.

  “But how, you said, I thought,” Marcus stammered.

  “Well, with so many matters to attend to my servants simply forgot to feed her,” Aurora replied, and shrugged her shoulders with a casual air. “What can one expect with such a vast Empire to rule over? Mistakes can be made and some things are overlooked. Fortunately she did not suffer long; she only lasted about a month of her imprisonment,” Aurora stated in mock regret.

  “A month?” Marcus repeated, in a voice barely above a whisper. “You led me to believe that both of my parents were alive when you twice sent me out on a quest! And all this time my mother was actually dead?”

  “Yes! And you failed me on both of those quests!” Aurora spat the words out at him. “And after the fool you have made of me on this one I have a mind to send you to join her!”

  Marcus saw one long green sleeve fly up in the air like the wing of a dragon, and a flash of silver blazed in the air. The Empress lunged at him with the knife, but before he could move Valerius leaped between him and the crazed Aurora. Marcus heard the groan from his father’s lips, and saw him fall under Aurora’s hand.