by Ben Wolf
Calum stood abruptly, and his face hardened to stone. “That’s enough, Axel.”
Lilly’s hand clasped Calum’s, and she stood with him, also glowering at Axel.
Axel held up his hands. He’d known it was a cheap shot, but he had to get his point across somehow. “I’m just saying, we can’t trust the King. Look to your own pasts and tell me who in your lives has ever really told you the truth. The whole truth, unsullied, unfiltered, unashamedly. I guarantee you the King is not gonna be on that list.”
Lilly kept staring daggers at him, but Axel didn’t care. He’d said what he needed to say, and that was good enough for now.
“Go on.” Axel motioned toward the two of them. “Sit down. The excitement’s over. Now, either of you got anything to share?”
Reluctantly, Calum and Lilly did sit back down, still clutching each other’s hands.
“I learned something,” Lilly said. “That dome over the garden? It’s made of diamond, not glass. The King told me it was impenetrable.”
Axel frowned at her. “So?”
Lilly glared at him again. “Pardon me—I forgot that you’re neither good with strategy nor flight-capable. I had considered launching an aerial attack and entering Valkendell’s interior through the garden, but that’s no longer an option since the dome isn’t glass. I doubt even Magnus could break through it.”
Axel ignored her slight and shrugged. “When the time comes, we’ll get inside another way. That’s all.”
Axel had to admit—it felt pretty great to be in charge of something for once. He’d led this little gossip session from the beginning, and they’d actually made some progress.
Well, he’d shared something useful, anyway. Lilly’s dome-construction information was pretty much worthless. Or at least it was until Calum spoke up.
“There’s a secret door at the back of the garden,” he said.
Chapter Thirty-Three
“It’s hidden in the back wall, and I think there’s a hidden path along the rock face that lines the back of the fortress and the city,” Calum continued. “There must be. I saw the King returning through that door early this morning.”
Axel’s eyebrows rose. Now that was something worth mentioning. Perhaps Calum wasn’t so worthless to the war effort after all.
Calum described what he’d seen in more detail, including how he’d been unable to get the door to open again or to even really find it, but he swore up and down it was there.
He didn’t have a reason to make any of it up, so Axel was inclined to believe him. Even so, a door no one could find or access wouldn’t do anyone any good.
Then again, just because weak little Calum couldn’t figure it out didn’t mean Lumen, the General of Light and arguably the most powerful being in Kanarah, couldn’t. Either way, it was something they could share with Lumen, and perhaps it would help in some way. Axel stored the information in the back of his mind for safekeeping.
“That’s good. Very good,” Axel said. “Anyone got anything else?”
They both shook their heads.
“Then Lilly, you’re gonna need to take this information to Lumen right away,” Axel directed. “Hop out this window and fly out to meet him and his army, then tell him what you know. We can finish up here without you.”
Lilly tilted her head at him. “I’m… not doing that.”
“What?” Axel frowned at her again. “Of course you are. You wanna win, don’t you?”
“I’m not doing it,” she repeated. “I made an agreement with the King, the same as both of you, that we would stay and negotiate with him for three days. It’s only been one full day so far. I’m not going to break my promise to him.”
Axel couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He scoffed at her. “You’re joking, right? If you are, it’s not very funny.”
“I’m stone-serious, Axel,” Lilly said. “I’m not leaving until we all leave.”
Axel turned to Calum. “Why don’t you get your girl on board, here, Calum? Maybe remind her what’s at stake, not just for her people but for all of Kanarah?”
“I agree with her, Axel,” Calum said. “And we know what’s at stake. That’s why we’re here.”
Axel’s eyebrows rose again. “Clearly, you don’t.”
“We absolutely do,” Lilly insisted. “What do you think will happen if we break our agreement with the King?”
“That’s why you need to get out of here and go tell Lumen now,” Axel said it slowly and quietly, as if trying to instruct a stupid child.
“Watch your tone when you talk to her,” Calum growled.
“It’s very cute and chivalrous of you to defend your lady, Calum, but you’re not intimidating or impressing anyone here.”
Calum stood again and started toward Axel, but Lilly caught him by the hand again and held him back.
“I said I’m not doing it, Axel,” Lilly said. “So stop being a jerk about it.”
“Like I told your boy before you came in,” Axel said, “I’m not being a jerk. It’s just that I have a personality, and he doesn’t.”
“I think this conversation is over.” Calum turned to Lilly and helped her to her feet. “We’re going for a walk. Feel free to stay in here as long as you like, though.”
“Whatever. Bye.” Axel folded his arms across his chest and shook his head at them as they departed Calum’s chambers, leaving him behind.
He should’ve expected they’d be too dumb to realize what an opportunity they’d been given. This information was critical, and he’d find a way to get it to Lumen one way or another. Lumen would finally reward him the power he was owed, and together, they’d win the war and free Kanarah from the King once and for all.
Until then, though, Axel was still in Valkendell, so he might as well try to uncover anything else that might be useful. He left Calum’s chambers behind and found Calum and Lilly standing in the hall before none other than Valerie.
“Wonderful,” Valerie said, her smile as bright as the morning sun and as white as the walls around them. “You are all here. The King has recommended that I give you a brief tour of Solace, our fair capital city, prior to meeting with him for lunch. He believes it will be instructive and informative with regard to the conversations you continue to share with him.”
Axel had been curious about Solace and what it was like since before they’d been captured, and now he’d finally get to see it up close. He’d expected his first encounter with the city to involve fighting and killing soldiers both outside and inside its walls, but a casual stroll with a beautiful woman—and two morons—would also be nice.
Maybe he could even sneak off and find a way to smuggle the information he’d gleaned from the King and from Lilly and Calum to Lumen. But even if he couldn’t, at the very least he’d have the chance to learn the layout of the city for when Lumen’s army finally attacked.
Axel grinned at Valerie and extended his arm for her to take, which she did. Then he cast a sneer back at Calum and Lilly and said, “We’d be delighted to.”
The city of Solace reminded Lilly of Kanarah City, but easily triple the size in just about every way. From the ground level, it seemed the city’s streets would never end. Buildings made of white stone like those of Valkendell and capped with gray-shingled roofs rose anywhere from one to four stories tall, and some she could see in the distance looked to be even taller.
A mix of light- and dark-gray cobblestones, worn smooth over time, formed a nearly perfectly flat surface throughout most of the city streets. And all along those streets vendors hawked their wares, merchants sold goods from inside shops, and citizens made their lives inside their homes.
Behind them, the central spire of Valkendell loomed over everything except the distant mountains. Its four other towers extended much higher than any of the other buildings in Solace as well, but the spire itself was by far its most impressive feature.
The streets were not devoid of poverty, but from what Lilly saw, there wasn’t much of it to be foun
d, either. When she did happen upon the occasional beggar along the street, she found an ample selection of gold, silver, and bronze coins already in his satchel.
The people of Solace seemed to be the generous sort, and it made her regret her family’s disregard for the Windgales who’d languished at the base of the Sky Fortress for so long. She could’ve done better for her people if she’d been told the truth—or perhaps if she’d been unwilling to take everything her parents told her at face value.
“You alright?” Calum squeezed her hand.
“Yes,” she replied. “Just thinking about home.”
“We’ll be back there soon,” Calum assured her. “Together.”
The thought brought a smile to Lilly’s face. “You’ll have to learn to fly, then. Can’t rely on everyone else to carry you around from place to place in Aeropolis.”
Calum gave her a nervous grin. “I’ll, uh… I’ll do my best.”
Lilly pulled him close and squeezed him tight. “I’m just teasing. I promise you won’t be stranded on one single platform for the rest of your life.”
“I appreciate that.” Calum embraced her in return.
The other element of Solace that Lilly hadn’t expected was the profound crossover between the various races of Kanarah. Where she’d seen a handful of Saurians, Wolves, and Windgales in Kanarah City, here, all three races intermingled with humans throughout the course of everyday life.
A Saurian worker hefted a huge stone up to another Saurian atop a home that was undergoing repairs, and together with a human worker, they positioned the stone in place.
A Werewolf merchant wearing fine amber-colored robes haggled with a pair of Windgales at his cart in the street as they tried to agree on a price for a trio of shining steel swords.
A human guided a cart pulled by a donkey through the streets while a black Wolf with gray paws lay in the back, napping atop some blankets.
The harmony of the four races working together to this degree surprised Lilly. She’d grown up solely with Windgales and only interacted with the other races when envoys from Reptilius visited the Sky Fortress to confer with her father, and that only happened once or twice a year, at most.
The Wolves had never sent an envoy, as they preferred to be left alone. By contrast, she’d seen the most humans of anyone while growing up. Though they primarily lived across the Valley of the Tri-Lakes, visits from human merchants with fine wares to sell were relatively common.
The only other time she’d encountered so many people of each race in one place was in Lumen’s army, but even then, the individual races mainly stuck to their own kind, with the majority of the overlap happening at the highest levels.
Condor, Generals Balena and Tolomus, and Lilly represented the Windgales, Calum and Axel represented the humans, and Magnus and Riley represented the Saurians and Wolves, respectively.
She hadn’t even really considered that the races might interact with each other as they now did here in Solace, mostly because the Saurians had done such lasting damage to her people’s way of life, destroying their homes and killing so many.
The thought of her people co-mingling with Saurians seemed as impossible as dying and then coming back to life. Yet here in Solace, it was an everyday reality.
“How come the King didn’t join us?” Axel asked.
“The King has a sort of… attraction to him, you could say,” Valerie replied with her usual smile. “Whenever he graces the streets with his presence, the people tend to flock to him, hoping to hear his voice, or touch the hems of his clothes, or simply get a glimpse of his face. He is always quite flattered by the response.
“As such, he does not venture out as much as he used to,” Valerie continued. “He prefers to do his work from within Valkendell, as he is able to do more good from his seat of power than down here on the streets of his fair city.”
“Maybe he oughta come down here more often. Then he’d actually know what’s going on with his people,” Axel countered.
Valerie, who’d been walking with him arm-in-arm almost the entire time thus far, stopped, pulled her arm free, and faced Axel. Her smile remained, but her green eyes carried a sternness that Lilly hadn’t seen from her before.
“I assure you, the King is well aware of the condition of all his subjects the world over,” Valerie insisted. Then her countenance brightened again. “Which is why you are all here, of course. To help him realize your mutual goal of improving conditions for everyone in Kanarah.”
Axel pursed his lips and gave a modest nod. “If you say so.”
Valerie took his arm again, and they continued to walk down the street with Calum and Lilly in tow. “We, his servants, are tasked with aiding those less fortunate than we are. Here in Solace, we take care of each other, and the King’s soldiers are his primary emissaries of goodwill throughout the city as they preserve order and provide care and resources for those in need.”
Axel scoffed at that one. “That’s definitely not how they behave where we’re from. Right, Calum?”
To his credit, Calum kept quiet. Lilly appreciated that he had a strong sense of when to keep his mouth shut and when not to.
“It is difficult to leave your home behind, along with everyone there who loves and supports you, and then go to another place and try to do everything precisely right,” Valerie said.
“So that’s supposed to be some sort of excuse for their behavior?” Axel pressed.
“Of course not. The heinous actions of the King’s soldiers that you have detailed are a travesty, a betrayal of the highest order.” Valerie’s smile still lingered when she glanced back at Lilly. “And such behavior will be met with the proper punishment, as should any sort of abuse, whether in the public square or in private chambers.”
Then Valerie turned back to Axel and looked up at him. “We must all be held to account for our actions. Mistakes, whether serious or otherwise, yield consequences. Do you not agree, Axel?”
Even from behind, Lilly could see Axel’s face turn red. Apparently, Valerie had somehow learned about Axel’s attack on Lilly back at the Sky Fortress. Lilly had long since forgiven him for it, but she had to admit the pleasure she was deriving from watching Axel squirm under Valerie’s scrutiny.
“Yes,” he finally said. “I agree.”
“I knew you would.” Valerie’s smile broadened, and she gave Lilly a wink. “It is time for us to return to Valkendell. The King has prepared a special lunch for the three of you.”
Lunch came and went, and to Calum’s pleasure, the conversation primarily focused on how the behavior of the King’s soldiers needed to change outside of Solace’s walls.
As Valerie had promised, the King actually had prepared a special lunch for them, with the vast majority of it coming directly from his garden, where they once again ate and conversed. Fresh fruits and vegetables, tomatoes and peppers, and thinly sliced roasted pork atop warm bread with gravy filled Calum almost until he was ready to burst.
He’d never had a meal so good in his life. But as he sat there, staring at a red pepper the size of his fist laying on a platter before him, he couldn’t help but think back to the finger-sized red peppers Axel had pilfered for him back when Calum was still working in the quarry. He’d gone hungry so many nights, yet here, in Solace, there seemed to be more than enough.
Once lunch concluded, Matthios took Axel, Valerie took Lilly, and Calum stayed with the King. At first, the trio refused to be separated, but when Matthios told Axel he’d have the chance to spar with some of Solace’s strongest warriors, he couldn’t resist.
Lilly was all the more hesitant to leave Calum, and he didn’t want her to leave, either, but Valerie insisted that she and Lilly had plenty to discuss as it pertained to the role of the Windgales and the Sky Realm in future relations with humans and Eastern Kanarah.
“If we cannot find a way to bridge the gap between East and West, I hardly think you boys will fare any better,” Valerie had said with her perpetual smile. Then she’d
whisked a wide-eyed Lilly away, leaving Calum alone with the King in his immaculate garden.
The two of them sat there for a long time, just staring at each other across the entire length of the stone table in the garden, neither of them saying a word. It wasn’t because Calum had anything to prove; he just wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say.
Meanwhile, the King teased at the curls in his dark beard, delving into Calum with those vibrant green eyes.
They still unnerved Calum, but he had to admit he’d grown more accustomed to them over the last day-and-a-half since he’d first seen them. They no longer stirred up every single emotion in Calum’s body like they had back in the throne room, so that, at least, was progress.
At long last, the King stood and motioned with his hand for Calum to follow him. “Walk with me.”
Under normal circumstances, Calum would’ve been terrified that the King had invited him to stroll through the garden, but he’d decided that for the time being, at least, they didn’t have to be enemies. Perhaps the King thought he and Calum could make progress just chatting on their own.
Calum obliged him. They walked through the garden together, the King with his hands clasped behind his back and a little bit hunched over, and Calum walking normally. Well, he tried to walk normally. When walking next to royalty, the definition of “normal” tended to shift.
He tried to have good posture, tried to take steps that were both casual but also large enough to match the King’s longer stride, and, most importantly, he tried not to trip over anything, whether errant plants or his own two feet.
It was positively exhausting and nerve-wracking.
They left the stone table behind and advanced toward the spot where Calum had tried to assassinate the King. He’d expected the King to make a comment about the attempt, but instead he stayed silent.
Calum glanced down at the pale-blue mushrooms near the edge of the path and decided to keep his distance. No need for a repeat of last time.
He walked with the King for close to ten minutes, and he soon found he was actually enjoying himself. Occasionally, the King stopped at a particular plant and gave it more consideration.