by Ben Wolf
“When Kahn attacked, he came at us with abandon, each boom signifying a flap of his wings that propelled him forward faster than the one preceding it.” General Balena grimaced. “Our walls held strong against his wing beats, as powerful as they were, but with his near-impenetrable scales and dragonfire breath, we could do nothing to stop him. He was a flying war-engine, a destroyer of nations, billowing emerald fire and carving into our realm with his merciless talons.”
Lilly bit her lip and envisioned the horrific scene as General Balena described it.
“What he didn’t burn, he shattered. What he didn’t shatter, he burned. He didn’t even bother to swat our forces away as we attacked him. He followed his own agenda, his own plan of attack, and we were powerless against him—” General Balena exhaled a long sigh. “—until your father took to the sky.”
Lilly’s mouth hung open. “He did what?”
“Against my wishes, your father summoned the armorist and demanded the Calios, our realm’s sacred blade, and then he left the safety of the fortress to face Kahn.” General Balena shuddered. “I tried to reason with him, but he refused. He insisted that no one else stood a chance of stopping Kahn but him.
“I should have done more. I should have taken the Calios myself and faced Kahn in your father’s stead, or even restrained him myself if it came to it, but he refused to comply with my pleas. Instead, he ordered me to lead the army against the Saurian forces while he faced Kahn.”
When General Balena didn’t continue, Lilly asked, “What happened?”
“I don’t know for sure, but Kahn eventually ceased his attack and flew away. We fended off the remaining Saurians and returned to the fortress as soon as we could, and that’s where we found you.” General Balena shifted his gaze from her eyes to his feet. “And now your father is dead because of me.”
“No, no.” Lilly put her hand on her uncle’s armored shoulder. The obsidian armor that covered his body still glistened in the sunlight, devoid of anything that even resembled a scratch. The Saurians hadn’t even so much as grazed him despite all their attacks. “You couldn’t have stopped him even if you wanted to.”
“I am charged with the protection of this realm, chiefly of its lord and ruler, your father, the Premier, who now lays at the base of his throne, dead.” General Balena stared at her with the same lack of resolve she’d seen upon his initial confession. “If that isn’t failure, I don’t know what is.”
“We both knew my father. He went his own way, and he would only be persuaded otherwise if he allowed himself to be persuaded. It drove my mother crazy.” Lilly granted herself a chuckle and a small smile. “Stopping him would’ve violated your charge as well, as you would have stopped the only person in the Sky Realm truly capable of taking action against Kahn. It is precisely because you didn’t stop my father that you were able to repel this invasion.”
“But your father is dead,” General Balena emphasized. “He’s gone, Lilly, and the Calios is missing, and it’s all my fault.”
That the Calios was missing stung Lilly as well, but she didn’t focus on that at the moment. They could search for it later.
“It’s Kahn’s fault, not yours. You protected my father as far as he would allow you to do so. Would you have also saved him from old age? Or disease? Or happenstance? We’re all destined to die at some point, in some way. His death saved our people, and it’s because of you that he saved our realm.”
General Balena’s stoic face cracked, and a smile, almost imperceptible, curled the corners of his lips.
“You are wise beyond your years, Lilly, and well-suited to rule in your father’s place.” He sighed. “Yet my lingering concern rests with Condor. We banished him for his crimes, yet he has returned.”
Back to this again? Very well. “Uncle, he swore an oath of fealty to me. Falcroné and the rest of our group witnessed it.”
General Balena shook his head again. “Oaths and fealty mean nothing to Condor. He swore oaths to protect your father as well.”
Lilly was getting sick of having to defend Condor.
“Uncle, I trust him. He cares for me. He is concerned for my wellbeing. He is my Captain of the Royal Guard and will remain so until I release him from service.” Lilly’s voice hardened more than she expected, but General Balena didn’t indicate any surprise.
Instead, he just nodded. “If you trust him, then so must I—to a point. I would encourage you to avoid being alone with him if you can help it.”
Lilly gave a mirthless chuckle. “I already learned my lesson with Axel on that one.”
“Even so, Condor is infinitely more dangerous than your human friends will ever be.” General Balena sighed. “But enough about him. You mentioned that your father told you the secret.”
“He told me…” Lilly bit her lip. The Aerostone now hung safely in a pouch at her hip. “He told me that keeping the stone’s existence and its power secret was the only way to prevent anarchy.”
“And what do you think of that?”
Did Lilly dare tell him the truth? How she believed that if the impoverished Windgales who occupied the area at the base of the Sky Realm could be given the power to fly freely, without capes, that they wouldn’t have to live in poverty? How this system of control was exactly what Condor had rebelled against because he found it unjust and detrimental to the very fabric of Windgale society?
Yes, she absolutely dared.
“I think it’s a travesty, and it’s one of the great deceptions of our time. Countless numbers of our people live in poverty because they believe a lie that we have told them. And some of them die because of it.”
“It’s not nearly as simple as you or Condor would believe,” General Balena said. “Long ago, your forefathers sought to better control our population. The Premier at the time realized from the annual census that the Sky Realm was growing dangerously overpopulated.
“In order to stave off population growth, the Premier and his advisors created a plan to withhold the power of the Aerostone from certain people who could not exhibit ‘true loyalty’ to the realm.” General Balena raised an eyebrow at her. “I think you can see where this is going. Before long, the Premier and his advisors had completely reorganized our social system, and now we have castes, albeit unofficially so.”
Lilly frowned. The story twisted her stomach, but she needed to know it all.
General Balena concluded, “One thing led to another, and the tradition has continued for ages.”
Tradition. Lilly shook her head. Disgusting.
That Premier had handicapped an entire society just to keep the population at a manageable level.
“You may not like it, but now more than ever, it is the only true leverage we have over our people. Without the full force of our army, we have no way of controlling the masses.” General Balena put his hand on her shoulder. “The power of the Aerostone is a secret that must be kept safe, at all costs.
“Even Condor knows this. Why else do you think he was the only Wisp, and therefore the leader, of the Raven’s Brood? For all his noble talk, he used the very same method of control to gather forces to him and make them do his bidding.”
Lilly frowned. “He didn’t have access to the Aerostone, either.”
General Balena ignored her comment. “What’s more, your father, in spite of maintaining this ‘system of control,’ as Condor calls it, gave his life to save his people from total destruction. For all his faults, and for all our society’s imperfections, your father only ever did what he believed was best for our people. I encourage you to follow in his example.”
Lilly stared off into the great blue around them. She could see General Balena’s point of view, but she still wasn’t sure how much of it she agreed with.
Even so, to placate him, she nodded. “I intend to.”
“We have been gone long enough,” General Balena said. “We should head back inside. I suspect the soldiers assigned to searching the realm will return soon, and we must ascertain the lo
cation of the Calios. It is our greatest weapon, and it falls under your stewardship now.”
He pivoted to fly away, but Lilly caught his wrist. “Uncle?”
General Balena turned back. “Yes?”
“About Fal…” she started, unsure of what to say next. “He—I—”
“Say no more, Lilly. I will mourn him in my own way with the knowledge that he died the hero I always knew him to be.”
Lilly nodded. That much, at least, was true. “Yes. He was.”
The full weight of General Balena’s solemnity returned to his expression. “Let’s get back inside.”
Something glinted into Calum’s eye from under Avian’s body, and he approached it with curiosity leading his footsteps. Axel was already there, hunched over. Apparently he’d noticed it, too.
“Don’t touch the Premier’s body,” Condor said from across the throne room.
Axel retracted his hand and eyed Condor, but Calum didn’t move. He stood next to Axel, his eyes fixed on the shining metal protruding from underneath the Premier’s lifeless form.
When Calum crouched down next to Axel, Condor’s voice sounded again, this time much closer. “Calum.”
“There’s something underneath him,” Calum said.
“Stand back.” Condor pulled both Calum and Axel up to their feet then crouched down in their place. His eyes widened with recognition. “By the Overlord…”
Calum glanced at Axel. He shrugged and refocused on Condor.
Metal scraped against the marble floor as Condor pulled a long sword from under the Premier’s body and held it before them.
Its curved blade reminded Calum of the sword he’d taken after defeating Tyburon, but the similarities ended there. The polished ivory hilt, wrapped in crisscrossed strips of golden leather, accounted for a third of the sword’s overall length, and a golden guard—more of a thin collar than an actual quillion—separated the hilt from the blade.
At first Calum thought the blade might be made of the same translucent blue crystal as the buildings of the now-obliterated city around them, but when Condor adjusted his grip on the sword, its color changed to a deep purple hue, still translucent.
Calum blinked. Had he imagined the shift?
A smirk formed on Condor’s lips. “Incredible, isn’t it?”
The blade changed again, this time to a bold shade of yellow accompanied by a faint glow of the same color.
Calum raised his eyebrows. “What is that?”
“This is the Calios,” Condor replied, his smirk now a full-on grin. “Our realm’s sacred blade and most powerful weapon. I’ve never seen it before today, but it could be no other blade. It is said that the Overlord Himself breathed life into this blade and thus anointed it with profound power.”
“Why’s it changing colors like that?” Axel asked.
“Each color represents a different type of attack,” a gruff voice said from behind them.
Calum spun around, and General Balena and Lilly landed before him and Axel. General Balena’s right hand gripped the hilt of his sword, still sheathed in his belt, as he stepped forward. When Lilly followed him, General Balena halted her progress with his other hand and then leaned close to her, his eyes fixed on Condor, and whispered into her ear.
She nodded and stepped back with her fingers curled around the hilt of her own sword. It would certainly take Calum some time to adjust to seeing her without her cape, but she seemed to have taken to her newfound aerial freedom as easily as the transition between running and walking.
But he couldn’t account for her behavior now. He didn’t know General Balena at all, aside from the handful of times he’d observed the man in this very room, but their defensive stances now that Condor had the sword confused Calum.
“Condor.” General Balena extended his left hand, still gripping the hilt of his sword in his belt. “Hand me the Calios.”
Condor squinted at him, then he ran his fingers up the flat of the blade, now a vivid orange. “How does it work, General? Is it true that it only obeys the commands of those within the royal bloodline, like the rumors suggest?”
General Balena’s jaw tightened. “Give it to me. Lilly is its steward now.”
“Or can anyone wield it?” For a moment, Condor’s eyes widened so large that the blade’s orange reflection glinted across his blue irises. “Can anyone bend the Calios’s will to his own?”
“Condor.” General Balena stepped forward but stopped when Condor pointed the Calios at him.
“Or does the Calios bend its wielder to do its bidding, as other rumors suggest?”
“That—” General Balena nodded at the Calios. “—is not to be trifled with. As you said, it is our realm’s greatest weapon. You cannot—”
“Don’t tell me what I can or cannot do, General. My days of obeying your every command ended long ago.” Condor’s voice took on a menacing tone.
General Balena opened his mouth to speak, but Lilly spoke first. “Yet your days of obeying my every command have just begun.”
Condor raised an eyebrow at her but did not lower the Calios, even as Lilly started toward him.
General Balena reached for her as she passed him. “Premieress—”
“Enough.” Lilly brushed his hand away, then she refocused on Condor. “General Balena doesn’t trust you, Condor.”
“I don’t blame him.” Condor winked at her, and Calum’s stomach twisted at the sight.
“This is your chance to prove your loyalty to me, once and for all.” Lilly held out her hand. “Give me the Calios, and put my uncle’s concerns to rest.”
“I shouldn’t have to prove anything. I’ve saved your life dozens of times.”
“And I trust you completely.” Lilly closed to within a few steps of the Calios’s point. “Now prove to General Balena that you’re not a threat to me.”
Condor didn’t move.
Chapter Ten
After a long labored breath, Condor lowered the Calios. He shifted his grip so he held out the sword’s ivory hilt for Lilly to take.
Even as the tension in Lilly’s gut relaxed, she hesitated. All her life she’d heard stories about the Calios, mostly from Falcroné and other friends who had both asked her what she knew of the weapon and shared their own lore as well.
According to them, the Calios could fatally poison a full-grown Sobek with the tiniest scratch. It could flash a light that would both reveal foes hidden in shadows and blind them at the same time. It could lay waste to dozens of armed enemies in a matter of seconds with a cascade of water, an explosion of flames, a blast of ice, or a flurry of cold hard steel.
And now Condor held that power in his hand, willingly extending it to her as if it were any other lifeless piece of metal.
But this was the Calios, the realm’s salvation, its greatest weapon. If Condor truly knew what he held, he might not have offered it to Lilly so freely.
Then again, she didn’t truly know what it was he was offering her, either. Taking it was the only way to find out.
Lilly reached for the Calios.
Her fingers touched the end of the hilt, but no fire surged through her body, no lightning zapped her veins. She clamped her hand around the leather-wrapped ivory and slowly extracted the sword from Condor’s grasp, as if easing a honeycomb from a nest of thousands of bees—or at least one big blue-eyed one.
Then it was hers. The ivory grip conformed to her hand as if it had always belonged there, as if the sword had awaited this moment and knew how she would hold it. The blade changed from the vibrant orange to a pale-pink hue without any glow, then it faded to a white crystal, then it changed perfectly clear.
Condor’s piercing blue eyes met hers, and he smiled. “I think it likes you.”
Lilly nodded. “I think so, too.” She turned back to General Balena. “Do you trust him now?”
General Balena released his grip on his sword hilt and allowed his hands to rest at his sides. His stern gazed fixed on Condor. “More than I did three m
inutes ago.”
“Good.” Lilly stared down at her father, specifically at the bejeweled sheath hooked to his belt. She bent down and began to unfasten it. “General, you will maintain command of the army, and Condor will continue to lead the Royal Guard. As there is nothing left in the fortress to guard, they will accompany me as my personal bodyguards, along with my friends.”
“And what do you wish your army to do, Premieress?” General Balena asked.
“The army serves one primary purpose, as I see it,” Lilly said. “You are to protect the people of the Sky Realm. I charge you to find them a safe place where they can rest in the meantime and to protect and organize them.”
“‘In the meantime?’” General Balena eyed her. “What do you mean?”
Lilly locked eyes with Magnus, who tilted his head and clacked his talons on his blue breastplate. “We’re going to the Crimson Keep.”
It took Lilly a solid half-hour to “convince” General Balena to allow her to accompany Calum and Magnus to the Crimson Keep, and even then she had to give him a direct order to get him to leave the fortress without her.
She conceded to meet with the rest of the people before General Balena took them to safety, which they had determined would be in the various caves that gouged into the Firjian Foothills several miles to the southwest of the Sky Realm. The lush valleys would provide them with multiple sources of food, and abundant rainfall would ensure they never lacked clean drinking water.
Having restocked their supplies from what remained of the fortress’s resources, Lilly led Calum and the rest of the group back outside, where they found Condor, now clad in his old set of charcoal–colored armor, complete with the black insignia of the Raven’s Brood on his chest.
When Lilly eyed him, Condor shrugged. “What did you expect? There’s no time to make me a new set.”
It was a drastic improvement over the ragged clothes he’d worn since they’d rescued him from Oren’s fortress, at least.