Reign the Earth

by A. C. Gaughen

  “You need an Elementa,” I told him, placing my hand on his arm. “Surely they would be able to feel something that interrupts their powers, or test that it’s there?”

  He scoffed, pulling away from my hand. “Why would one of them ever help me?”

  “There are many people who don’t seem to enjoy their powers,” Danae said. “If you paid them well, offered them an opportunity to get rid of it—I could find someone who would help.”

  He looked between us. “Very clever. I find I like you two working together.”

  I smiled at Danae, but it was false. There was an Elementa in pursuit of the elixir already, and perhaps Kata had little opportunity while Danae and the quaesitori were near, but if it could be found, she would have it in hand already.

  And if it couldn’t … I didn’t know how my husband would react to that.

  “There’s more,” Danae said, and the smile died on my mouth. “You should come to the courtyard.”

  Calix nodded sharply, striding toward the door without hesitation. I wasn’t sure if I was meant to follow, if I was part of the intended “you,” but after a moment, I followed them.

  The courtyard was nearly restored. Half of it was filled with new white stone to cover what had been lost, but the work had halted, and the gate hung open to reveal three smears of blood. Uniformed guards were dragging three bodies inside, and they stopped when they reached Galen, who was standing in the courtyard.

  I covered my mouth. They were dead, their throats slit. Executed.

  “Three of my soldiers,” Galen said, his face hard as he glared at Calix. “Tassos, Arius, and Magan.” He stressed the last name, and I didn’t understand why.

  “Tassos?” I asked, looking at Calix. The spy from Rian’s camp? Danae, too, seemed to recognize one of the names.

  “Calix, we need to discuss this,” Galen said. “Now.”

  “Get rid of them,” Calix ordered. “We can discuss this in my chambers.”

  Galen nodded and turned to issue orders to his men. I couldn’t look away, watching as the guards carried the bodies back toward the garrison until Danae turned me away from the scene, leading me back into the castle.

  No one said anything more until we were all back in our rooms, and Danae sat me beside the fireplace. I felt ill and too hot.

  “Magan, Calix?” Galen snapped, his hands on his hips. “Tell me, Danae, which of those names was familiar to you?” he asked.

  Danae stood. “Calix told me he had a spy in the Resistance named Arius,” she said.

  I gasped, and Galen looked to me. “Your wife?” he growled, pointing to me as he glared at Calix.

  Calix shrugged. “You cannot break an enemy unless you understand the enemy,” he replied.

  I blinked rapidly. “I don’t understand what’s going on,” I insisted.

  Galen turned to me, the anger fading from his gaze but the tension remaining. “You knew one of the names, didn’t you?” he said. I looked from him to Calix, not wanting to betray something I shouldn’t. “My guess is Calix told you that Tassos was a spy inside the Resistance. And he told me the spy’s name was Magan, and he told Danae the spy’s name was Arius.”

  I shook my head. “Why?”

  “Because he had three spies,” Danae clarified. “And if one of them was revealed, it would mean that we were feeding information to the Resistance. Meanwhile, the other two would be safe. However, in this instance, the Resistance seemed to have discovered all three at once and sent us a message. This is a low move, even for you, Calix,” Danae said, crossing her arms and turning away from us.

  I looked at Calix. “Is that true?” I asked. Kairos had warned me of such, but it wasn’t just me whom he’d distrusted—it was his siblings as well.

  “Do not look at me like that,” he growled at me. “Like I have betrayed you in some fashion. I needed to be sure of your loyalty to me and not to your damn brother.”

  “And were you worried about my loyalty, brother?” Danae said. She wouldn’t meet his eyes, and she sounded heartbroken.

  “All I knew was that we needed more information and you hadn’t delivered that yet,” Calix snapped at her. “You all have failed spectacularly at your jobs, and I took action. We are attacked at every turn, and my commander cannot counter it, and my spy cannot anticipate it.”

  I looked up at him. “And your wife?” I asked softly. “What job have I failed at?”

  He strode closer, leaning over me and pushing his hand against my womb. “You have failed at your only purpose, wife. Where is my child?” he growled. I felt fear rising in my throat, but refused to look away from him. “Why is your womb still cold? That is your sole value, and you cannot manage it.”

  “Calix!” snapped Galen, but Calix didn’t tear his gaze from me, and I returned it, pressed back against the chair.

  “That Abydos girl is expecting, and I have dogs that display more robust signs of intelligence. Clearly conceiving can’t be that hard, can it?”

  “Why must you vent your rage on me, Calix?” I asked him. “None of this is my fault.”

  “But Tassos is still dead, isn’t he?” he said. “Perhaps that is your fault.”

  My heart pounded. “I never told anyone about that,” I lied.

  “The only way all three could have died at once is if we were not responsible,” Galen said. “Calix, you know that. Stop threatening your wife.”

  Calix straightened up. I looked to Galen, grateful, and despite how mild his words had sounded, his chest was rising and falling rapidly, and his face was etched with tightly leashed fury. He crossed his arms on his chest, the knuckles white as he gripped his bicep.

  “Then give me a solution,” Calix demanded. “We need reliable information about the Resistance. All we know is that Rian is not the head that we can cut off. Today’s attack will give the vestai even more arrows to cast at my reign. Do something,” he snapped.

  Attack. I felt dizzy and tired and my head hurt. As Galen and Danae argued with their brother, I went out to the balcony, forgotten. The cold air helped, but I still did not want to return to the room and risk confessing that I was the traitor they were looking for, that I was responsible for the “attack.” All because I couldn’t help the way I felt when Galen touched me.

  Instead, they would use this as a reason to continue to hunt my brother, another crime to attribute to his cause. And I would let them, the silent, coward queen.

  No More Fish

  The next morning I woke alone. It was late in the morning already, and still I felt exhausted, the events of the day before weighing heavily on me. I woke and dressed and found Theron outside my door, but Adria was absent.

  “Where is she?” I asked Theron, confused. “It’s late.”

  “I’ll send someone to fetch her, my queen.”

  I nodded. “She can meet us at the Erudium; they want me to approve of something for the Consecutio.”

  “Yes, my queen.” He sent another guard off to find her, but we hadn’t even reached the gates before the guard returned.

  “Report,” Theron told him as the guard bowed.

  “My queen, Domina Viato is with the king in the Great Hall.”

  That couldn’t possibly be good news. “On what business?”

  “I don’t know, my queen. The High Vestai Thessaly is with her.”

  I shot a look to Theron, and he nodded. We turned back around, going into the castle to the hall where we had court dinners every night. Calix still sat on the raised platform, Galen standing off his left shoulder, but now Thessaly and Adria were at the bottom of the stairs.

  Buried in a throng of people straining to hear, the trivatis still saw me and slammed his staff on the stone to announce me, interrupting the proceedings and flushing heat to my face.

  “Wife,” Calix said, standing. “Come join us.”

  The people parted for me, and I climbed the stairs slowly, taking his hand. He kissed it, a shadow of Galen’s action the day before, and it embarrassed me to re
member the storm of emotions I’d felt at such a simple touch. I couldn’t look at Galen.

  Calix directed me to sit beside him, and he sat down. “I believe you were insulting my honor and prowess as king,” Calix reminded Thessaly.

  Thessaly’s face was mottled with anger, and for her part, Adria looked uncomfortable beside him. “Do not belittle my concerns, my king. My daughter could have died yesterday, and you do nothing.”

  My back straightened. Died? When? She had been with me all day. Surely—oh. He meant in the courtyard, when the stone exploded into sand. Something they all thought was an attack.

  I saw Kairos, standing in the crowd of people, and his eyes met mine with a smile and a slight nod.

  “And the fact that you are so cavalier not only about my daughter’s safety, but about the queen’s safety as well, is a blatant act of disrespect to the tenets of the Three-Faced God. Are our women not holy vessels? Are they not in need of protection and guidance? And yet this Resistance strikes at your very heart and you do nothing. I demand a response! I demand satisfaction!” he bellowed, and the words seemed to echo on the stone walls.

  Calix’s face was a dark scowl.

  “My king, might I offer a thought?” Galen asked, stepping forward.

  “Yes, Commander,” Calix said.

  “I was in the courtyard yesterday,” Galen said, turning to look at Thessaly, his face stern and disapproving and his hands clasped behind his back. “Neither the queen nor your daughter suffered any kind of injury. Indeed, half the army was there to protect them as necessary, and no action was needed. While I acknowledge your legitimate concern, let us not overestimate the nature of the events.”

  “Quite,” Calix agreed, propping his elbow on the arm of the chair.

  “But it does not remove the seriousness of the situation,” Thessaly insisted. “If the Resistance can strike at us in the Three Castles, we are not safe anywhere. They have sorcerers on their side, and clearly, they can use this destructive power anywhere and anytime they wish.”

  This caused a cascade of murmurs and voices to rush through the hall, and Calix watched it all, not quelling it.

  “What will you do, my king?” Thessaly asked.

  Calix leaned forward. “What is it you wish me to do, Thessaly? Or in your rage, have you just considered how to hurl accusations without a mind toward solutions?”

  Thessaly’s gaze turned to me. “They say Rian d’Dragyn is the leader of this Resistance,” Thessaly said. “Perhaps you need to use the leverage you purchased and send a message.”

  I gasped, and Adria’s head whipped to her father, but Calix chuckled. “You think attacking my wife is wise, Thessaly? She is the most holy of holy vessels. Besides, you are betraying your ignorance of the matter. Rian d’Dragyn is not the leader of the Resistance. So other than dangerous misinformation and egregious insult to my wife, what do you bring me for a solution?”

  Thessaly’s gaze flicked between me and my husband. “I do not have a solution, my king, because I am not the Three-Faced God incarnate. Where is your solution?”

  Calix paused, a hint of a smile on his face, his gaze narrowed on Thessaly, appreciating the moment. “You do not have a solution because it is beyond your capability to judge, High Vestai,” he told him. “You and your daughter are here as fearmongers, but my people are not taken in by such antics.” He paused again, rubbing his mouth thoughtfully. “The God relies on his people to stand against such injustice and sin. Going forward, any of my people who have information about the Resistance or a sorcerer in their midst will be rewarded in coin,” he said. Again, murmurs and gasps rose through the hall. “And my commander shall act accordingly. We will not submit to fear; instead we shall let true justice be our guide.”

  My gaze shot to Kairos. Rian had to be warned about this—he and all his organization would be at risk. Kairos nodded at me, turning and leaving the hall.

  Thessaly started to say something, but Calix stood.

  “Everyone is dismissed!” he shouted.

  The guards sprang into action, shepherding people out of the hall, and Calix sat back down to watch them leave. Galen didn’t move, and so I stayed still, watching as Adria gave me a forlorn look over her shoulder.

  The moment the doors shut behind them, Calix sighed. “I don’t want to hear it, brother.”

  “Clearly,” Galen said stiffly. “Not an hour ago you agreed that plan would tear the city apart. And now you’ve just publicly enacted it, without consulting me.”

  Calix stood, turning to his brother. “Because I’m king. I don’t need to consult you. I swear, I will find a reason to divorce that man’s tongue from his head. Using his daughter as a way to come at me—and my wife.”

  “But, Calix, people will be falsifying information for money,” I told him. “Instead of peace, you’re going to have civil unrest.”

  Calix glared at me. “He’s not wrong, you know. Think of what a reaction I would have if I flung your lifeless body off the battlements for your brother to see.”

  My stomach turned that he could even threaten such a thing so easily—and moments after he had defended me. “Don’t speak to me of Rian. He left the desert when I was a child for this Resistance. I lost him years ago. And I have left my family behind for peace between our peoples. In spite of him.”

  “Good,” he snapped. “But still. He needs to remember that we have you, and I will do with you what I want to stop him. They will collect information in the courtyard. You will be there, for everyone to see. For everyone to be reminded where my queen stands.”

  “As you wish,” I said, raising my chin. “But if I’m going to be there, the rest of the women of the court will be with me.” He opened his mouth, yet I continued. “And we’re going to give away as much food as we can purchase or spare. I won’t have our people desperate and hungry.”

  “Fine,” he snapped. “Whatever you see fit.” His gaze flicked to Galen. “See that the queen does as she’s told.”

  Galen didn’t respond. I stood from my chair and walked slowly down the stairs. Galen followed.

  “Wife,” Calix snarled, and I turned. “Don’t forget to wear your crown.”

  I swallowed. “As you wish, Calix.”

  Galen and Theron trailed me in silence back to my chambers, where the ishru helped affix the crown to my hair. It was light, but I still felt the awkward weight of it on my brow, blotting out my face and my skin and my family until all they would see were three silver branches.

  Once the orders had been given to the palace cooks, storekeepers, and women of the court, we assembled in the courtyard. Adria was there, looking small and ashamed, her mother by her side with her arm around her.

  I waved Galen and Theron away from me. I was here, and I didn’t need them by my side in a courtyard that was full of guards. The women of the court all watched as I approached Adria.

  “Go,” I ordered them. “See that everything is set up to feed our people.”

  The women scattered at this, still looking over their shoulders to see how I would react to Adria. Domina Thessaly didn’t say anything, but she was looking at me with such worry on her face.

  “How could you do that?” I asked Adria, my voice quiet and low enough that the others couldn’t hear. I kept my face as even as I could, but I couldn’t help looking at her with an accusation in my heart.

  “I didn’t want to,” Adria told me miserably. “I didn’t know he would say those things about you. He doesn’t really believe them, I swear it.”

  My throat worked and my chin rose higher. Calix would rebuke her, loudly call out her disloyalty, and dismiss her from service. He would use this excuse to get what he had always wanted.

  And in that moment, I saw the temptation of it. I could taste how sweet the words spoken with anger would be in my mouth.

  I thought of Calix making me apologize to him months ago, leaning his face close to mine and saying, That is power.

  “My queen, please—” Adria continued.<
br />
  “Stop,” I said, holding up my hand. I would never believe in Calix’s brand of power. “I’m sorry that I was so concerned with myself yesterday that I didn’t consider how you were faring. I cannot hold you responsible for your father’s actions. Do you wish to keep attending to me?”

  She looked up at me, surprised. “Yes, my queen.”

  “Good,” I said. “Then let us focus on our people, and their needs. We have so much to do, and no time for any petty thoughts.”

  I held out my hand to her, and she took it, squeezing it with a grateful look. I brought her over to the table where women were cutting and arranging bread, and let her stand beside me.

  I felt the weight of someone else’s eyes, and I looked up and across the courtyard to find Galen’s warm gaze following me. He gave a judicious nod when our eyes met and turned away, calling for the gates to be opened.

  Hundreds of people came to inform on their friends and neighbors. The bread disappeared, and more bread, cured meat, and cheese replaced it.

  Kairos came, working beside us and teasing the women, laughing with the guards, another d’Dragyn conspicuously in the king’s courtyard, doing his bidding, showing where we stood. But Osmost wasn’t on his shoulder, and I was certain that the hawk was carrying a warning to the one d’Dragyn we were supposedly standing against.

  “I think you should sit,” Kai said. It was late afternoon, and the line was only growing longer, with more people for us to offer food to as they waited to tell their tales for a coin.

  Adria nodded at this. “You do look tired,” she said. “And I thought you rather liked hard work.”

  “I do,” I told her. “So I will continue.”

  “You haven’t eaten,” she said.

  “Why don’t you rest, and I’ll get you something to eat,” Kairos said.

  “I’m not hungry,” I told him. “And I don’t really understand your concern.”

  “I don’t think it would do very well for the queen to faint in the middle of all this,” Kairos told me, raising an eyebrow.

  Perhaps he had something he needed to tell me? “Very well,” I told him, and he led me over to a stool. The moment I sat, I sighed heavily. I was tired. I pressed my hand to my stomach—it seemed a sad reflection on how little I did every day that a few hours on my feet handing out bread could exhaust me.