Chapter 20
“You must be Riley Redond,” Queen Dyane spoke in a calm compelling voice.
“I-It’s er—” Riley found it difficult to speak at first, then she merely coughed the words out. “It’s Riley Red, my queen.”
“Mum, you have a thing for making people nervous. She just got here.” Gabriel snatched a bottle of water from a man walking by. Riley assumed he was one of them.
“No, no.” Riley jumped in, that time steadier. “I’ve always wanted to meet the queen. A woman who knows how to make a stand regardless of the consequences is someone I would look up to.”
Queen Dyane smiled and drifted her eyes towards her son beckoning to him so he would leave them alone. It all hit Riley at once. The queen was there, Gabriel and Jonathan’s mother, the late king’s fleeing wife.
“I would like to call you by your last name. Do you mind?” the queen finally said as Gabriel rolled his eyes and disappeared inside one of the cabins.
“You mean Red?” Riley asked her confused. She was walking with bare legs and holding her shoes in her hands. The grass was much smoother in this part of the land.
“Redond. I don’t believe you should be stripped of your last name because of your ancestors’ mistakes.”
Passing by the cabins, Riley squinted and struggled to focus for a sign of life, but they were empty.
“How do you know about Alifred Redond, my queen?”
“I don’t let strangers into this land, dear,” she answered as calm as before. “My son and I have known you long before you met him.”
“He told me I was recruited a long time ago.”
“Were you not a victim of the West’s tyranny?”
“My parents…” A sting of pain and sorrow that soon turned into anger inflamed Riley.
“We were watching those who had been touched by sorrow and grief, those who did not give up on life and chose to defend it.”
“That’s how you select the Phoenixes,” Riley concluded.
The queen nodded and entered one of the cabins. It was small and smelled of old rotten wood. There were leaf moulds swirling around the door handle. Its condition did not change since the Maiden Battle, Riley was surprised they were still standing after the passing years and world wars. Inside, the windows were curtained by cobwebs and the glasses were shattered.
The queen pulled a glove out of the inside pocket of her thick jacket and slid her right hand inside of it. She detached a log of wood from the wall of the cabin, her glove sticky with the sap that covered it. Behind it, there was a small mirror. It seemed dirty and broken from one side, but as soon as Queen Dyane looked into it, green dots appeared across her face and the floor suddenly clicked. Riley turned around and saw that a square of old wood, where worms slithered every now and then, was ajar. The queen pushed back the log of wood to hide the mirror, and easily pulled open the ground passage door.
When Riley bent over it, there was nothing to see. She expected a dark passage with a ladder of some sort. The queen stood on the silver surface hidden underneath the wooden ground and gestured for Riley to stand on it as well. She obeyed.
Suddenly, they were swirling down in a series of electronic steps and the passage door automatically closed on top of them. It was dark at first, but once the steps of the swirling staircase hit the ground, the queen spoke.
“Rosemary 2155,”
The lights suddenly went on, and Riley found herself in the middle of a silvery and bluish circular room with six doors around her and one scanner behind them. When the queen had her hand scanned, one of the doors opened.
“Come with me,” she told her.
Riley followed after her.
“What does the code mean?” she finally asked.
“It was the flower the king used to get me before we got married. Rosemary. I loved its aroma and to be honest Gabriel thought it would be ironic if the password that opened the doors to the revolution against him was about something he did when he was a good man. 2155 is when the Phoenix was founded by Roosevelt.”
“That’s iconic,” Riley chuckled and took in her surroundings.
When they first stepped out of the only door that slid to the left and let them enter, she found herself in a dark passage, illuminated by small blue spotlights on the ground that spread their light upon the dark grey wall. She was facing one of those walls, and to her left and right, the passage extended. There were series of doors. At the far-left end, she could see a small light creeping in.
Queen Dyane started walking to the left and she opened the first two tall doors on her right. It was all too beautiful. There was an underground recruitment of Phoenixes where they tested their weapons, challenged their strengths, and poured out their rage against the system. Weapons that only existed in the West were displayed behind glass boards. Men and women roamed around carrying loaded guns. Others were using programmed bows and practicing professional archery on mannequins that moved in defence.
“This is where you hide? Where you practice your tactics and fighting techniques?” she asked the queen marvelling at the entire scenery. It was like a painting of a well-known artist, to which she could relate and spend hours upon hours only observing its beauty.
“This is where the magic happens,” she replied with a sly smile.
They walked amongst the fighters who bowed down to their queen. They were not surprised by Riley’s visit. Instead, they were politely smiling at her or waving. They all seemed like an army, dressed in grey and black armours. With her lack of physical activities outside the circus, Riley felt herself underqualified to fight with the Phoenixes.
“We’ve used Roosevelt’s cabin to get here. Each other belongs to one of the founding Phoenixes,” the queen explained.
One of the sides of the huge training room was made of a very thick glass that was only discovered fifty years ago. It exposed the calmly moving river with its diverse creatures, some that Riley had never seen.
“Where do the other doors lead to?” she referred to the five doors that did not open.
“In case of an intruder,” the queen explained as she walked, “the scanner would immediately detect it. If they thought they brought the right handprints somehow by cloning, there are hidden scanners that inspect the body without anyone noticing. The alarms go off and one of those doors open, leading them to the pit.”
“The pit?”
“The dungeons are underneath. The doors suck in the intruders and throw them underground where they fall on a pile of mattresses in one of the dungeon’s cells.”
“Wow.” Riley nodded at one of the female fighters in respect. She was standing in front of an interactive screen, displaying a body of a sturdy man fighting her. With her moves in the air, she seemed to be an expert in self-defence. “Did you ever have to face a similar situation?”
“Not in our times. They had been tested and function well. You can walk down to it by the moving staircase we had just used.”
“Oh, that’s amazing.”
Queen Dyane offered Riley a chair to sit down. It was against the wall, where they had a good view of the entire room. Riley hadn’t realised how tired she was until she sat down.
“Are you alright?”
“I’m a bit tired,” she admitted and lied back.
With the ticking of the seconds, everything was finally sinking in.
The second door into that room opened and one of the phoenixes called in.
“Dyane! You’re needed immediately in the ring.” The man had a western accent which was odd.
She frowned upon his call and looked at her queen.
“We don’t only recruit easterners. There is the good part of the West as well.” Dyane smiled at her and glided to the doorway.
Riley immediately followed after her, though her feet were killing her. After entering the same passage, there was another door to their right. The chamber was big enough to fit hundreds of people, yet it was not as vast as the training room. In the middle, there was
a square ring with red ropes tightened around it. There were seats on the two sides. At the end, what seemed like a ladder with a seat at the top stood tall. In the middle of the ring, two phoenixes were wearing their armours and drowning in a fierce combat.
The vicious fight soon turned into laughter and a friendly handshake. The man with the blooded mouth walked down the ring and nodded at the queen then Riley before exiting the fighting pit. The man still standing inside the ring bent down a little, leaning on his knees to try and catch his breath. His muscular yet slim body gave him the shape of a growing fighter, yet his curly dark hair, glowing light brown in the dim light and barely held up by a poorly made bun, gave Riley the feeling he was struggling to look older than his age.
Queen Dyane cleared her throat. He shot his head up and smiled, his teeth untouched unlike his opponent’s.
“Dyane…” he spoke in a familial way and jumped down the ropes to head towards them.
“Haven’t seen you in a while, Keith,” the queen replied as friendly and observed him kissing her hand.
Keith… Riley gave it a thought.
“I’m deeply sorry. I had some business in the West. I’m back for good now,” he explained and wiped his glowing forehead with the towel around his neck.
“Keith Slater?” Riley finally said without realising she was cutting in.
Keith turned to her, his dark brown eyes studying her. Gabriel did talk about him but only when she saw him, something hit her. She had seen him before; she was sure of it. If only she could remember where and when.
“Riley Red.” He smirked charmingly. “Finally, nice to be introduced properly.”
He extended his hand but she shook it not.
“Whatever do you mean?”
“Nothing personal.” He wiped the rest of his sweat from his face.
“Keith,” the queen cut him off immediately. “I thought you finished your business there a month ago.”
“I did… or so I thought. I had a minor step back but I handled it.” He winked.
By the look on her face, she did not seem amused which amused Riley. Keith looked at her then rolled his eyes.
“I’ll have the full report in the conference room, detailed enough to include your daily journal,” the queen ordered him.
“My queen, with all due respect, I didn’t spend my t−”
“You have until tomorrow. Start dictating.” She began to walk away before Keith got the chance to say anything. Gabriel entered the room at the same moment.
“You seem entertained,” Keith said when Riley grinned widely.
“I don’t see why I shouldn’t,” she smugly replied.
“You’re far too confident for a newbie.”
“Thank you.”
“I see you’ve met my lad,” Gabriel said and tapped Keith on the shoulders.
“Easy, Gabe. They’re still hurting,” he replied meekly. “It’s been a while since I fought anyone, and Dany there puts up a good fight.”
“Sorry.” Gabriel removed his hand and was about to say something to Riley, but she spoke first.
“How do you trust me enough for all of this? What if I was lying?”
“You’re not,” Gabriel answered in a matter-of-fact tone. “Like I said, we’ve been looking for you a long time ago. We don’t just find Phoenixes, we pick them.”
“Well, I should take the credit,” Keith interrupted but shrugged it off and pulled a bottle of water from the trolley next to him.
“What is he talking about?” she asked Gabriel irritated.
“Just don’t mind him.” He eyed his friend warningly. “Stop bleating. You’re only doing this for princess Océane.”
“I’ll go get something to eat,” Keith said changing the subject. His face definitely turned pink.
Princess Océane was King Jonathan’s seventeen-year-old cousin. Nobody really knew how she was related to him. She was just introduced as his cousin. For being a naïve teenager, she was usually protected from the media, especially after catching her smoking pot with a group of friends from the West.
After Keith’s exit from the room, Gabriel sighed.
“Are you ready to talk?” Riley asked him.
“Are you?”
“Ever since I learned about your relation to the king a few hours back. Just tell me.”
Gabriel took a deep breath. He was finally going to break it to her, and he did not know how she would react to all of it. So far… she had been more cooperative than he had expected, seeing as his character detector raised off the alarms to stubborn, secretive, and overdeveloped trust issues when he had scanned her a while back.
“Riley, we know your mother was the anonymous designer for the royals. My mum loved Mrs. Red and trusted her. She was discovered by Lady Brennell who was a close friend of the queen and told her about your mother. Your father Knox was a good countryman; he loved his land. When he tried to defend it against a raid by the Serpents…”
At those words, Riley dropped down at a nearby chair.
“Please, stop,” she begged him.
It was enough that he knew about her past, she was not sure she was able to handle listening to the details again, especially by a stranger. She had spent all those years struggling to block it, to be ice cold towards her past. She couldn’t risk opening old wounds.
“You need to hear this,” Gabriel insisted. “When he tried to defend it, the Serpents slaughtered him and your mother. You were seventeen. They pushed you inside a van ready for an assault, but out of fear, you created a clone of yourself, an illusion that they thought they captured, and you escaped. You found the circus through Marcus and Charlotte.”
“How do you know all of this?” she asked him horrified. “No one knows.”
“Riley—”
“How did you invade my thoughts?!”
“One of the attackers was later arrested by some Phoenixes. We sort of… experimented on his mind, injected him with a few serums. They are brainwashed, Riley. They used to be normal people. But they were recruited by the West and are forced to do this. We cleared his mind and made him talk.”
“Don’t tell me you let him go,” she muttered staring at the tiled ground.
“He was too far gone. We had to put him down eventually.”
Riley remained silent. So did Gabriel. Eventually, he crouched down in front of her.
“I’m sorry it had to be this way.”
“Meeting you was not a coincidence,” she realised, but she was not angry. “Did you plant the idea of the prophecy in my head?”
Gabriel nodded.
“This woman who looked like a witch… you sent her?”
Gabriel nodded again.
Riley came to terms with the fact that the wrong son was now on the throne, and it was all her fault.
Chapter 21
The hall never seemed so quiet. After the king’s funeral and the sudden announcement of Jonathan as the next in line, Marcus felt off. He didn’t want his king to be younger than him, without the demanded experience and free to order him around. He was getting on King Christopher’s good side after the banquet. Why was it never easy for him? He always had to work hard for everything in his life. Becoming a good member of the Elite club did not seem too far-fetched. That day, it became one.
He was exhausted and only wanted to take a hot bath with his wife. A commotion in the room that he had just come to pass stopped him. Voices were raised, glasses were shattered, and more than two people were fighting inside. One of them was a woman’s voice. It wasn’t just any sound… it was Charlotte’s. Her words were indiscernible, but they bore with them a great distress he did not know of.
Marcus frowned and approached the door. It extended upwards with strange carvings on its wood. There was the King’s sigil of the lion and the two eagles with a language he did not understand.
Charlotte’s voice was rising, and she seemed to have lost control when Marcus swung the door open and glared, ready to punish whomever was hurting h
er.
“We’ve killed King Christopher, and we need to carry the consequences with us.”
To his shock, Charlotte was not there at all. In fact, the members of the Assembly gathered together and spoke loudly. No glass was broken. It was General Juan Portland who was speaking with a smug face and the rest of the members were carefully listening.
His mind was playing tricks on him. His eyes almost popped out of their sockets and his legs began to tremble. He should not have heard this and he should not have opened the door. The ruckus quieted down after the members snapped their heads towards the intruder and found Marcus Wells’ eyes jumping from one member to another.
He wanted to bolt, run for his life, and swear to never speak of this again. He knew if the word got out, his head would hang on a spike next to the gargoyles of the Royal Garden as an example to anyone who would betray the Assembly. But weren’t they the ones who betrayed the kingdom? There were few of them. If he told Jonathan, it would give him leverage on the king’s side. Unfortunately, his word was against theirs. If he were to accuse them of such a scandal, he would be the one rotting in jail. They would never have dared make such a move, if it weren’t for some sort of a strong and solid support.
The king did not die. The king was murdered. He was murdered by his own people.
Marcus stepped slowly back and quickly turned to start loping for his life when two men closed the large door shut before he had the chance to escape. It was Toby Long, the minister of Public Institutions, and Craig Ranger, the head of the Bureau of Pecuniary Affairs.
Marcus cleared his throat and looked deeply at them, his hands shivering with fright. They were all dangerous people. How could he have been idiotic enough to believe it was his wife who was in that room? There were women there… It could have been anyone and he could have escaped this without landing right inside the wolves’ den.
“You are not going anywhere, Wells.” Juan Portland stopped him in place.
The castle was still. Silence was bestowed on every inhabitant of that large useless building. He wanted to sit with his father and talk, fix things, before it all went crumbling down into dust. His father was dead… He had taken his own life… He should have known. There was something odd in his decision and his delirium drove him to speak nothing but drivels.
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