Heretic Spellblade 3

by Robertson, K. D.

  Dozens of royal knights poured into the rear of the grand hall.

  Every single one of them wore Nathan’s crest openly.

  Well, shit.

  “There’s something to be said for subtlety,” Leopold chided him, but he was smiling.

  “I didn’t expect them to wear the damn things.” Nathan rubbed the bridge of his nose.

  “We don’t pay the knights to think about politics. That’s our job. Remember that in the future. Your Champions are different, but the soldiers and knights just want to stab everything that opposes you,” Leopold said.

  Even after all this time, Nathan still had things to learn. Well, Leopold did have a couple of decades on him.

  “I see how this is,” Tharban said, a smirk on his face. “A coup.”

  Alice’s face paled.

  “Ah, yes. A coup,” Nathan said drily. “By the Imperial princess, His Majesty’s oldest friend, the royal knights, and the Spymaster. And it all took place while Bastion Maylis still controls the palace. Did you fall down the Pearlescent Canyon while in Trafaumh, Tharban? Because you’re stupider than usual.”

  “Don’t play dumb. We can all see that crest. You’ve seized control of the palace!”

  “I don’t think you heard a word I said.”

  Alice looked back at Nathan with a grimace. He gestured for her to get back.

  When she didn’t move, Fei pulled her back. The knights and Champions knew what was about to happen. The Nationalist Bastions and Champions readied themselves. The tension was thick enough to taste with one’s tongue.

  “We have no choice,” Tharban cried. He pulled a handaxe from his waist. “Fellow Bastions, we must—”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” Nathan interrupted. “This is treason, Tharban. Think for a second. Stop shouting nonsensical propagandistic bullshit.”

  The Nationalists froze. Nurevia stared at Nathan, unmoving. Unlike every other warrior in the room, she hadn’t moved an inch.

  “I’m speaking the truth, you little shit,” Tharban said, abandoning the pretentious speech he had. “The Empire must be returned to its glory.”

  “Great. Wonderful. I don’t care. Make another move and I’ll remove your head from your shoulders. The same goes for the other Bastions and their Champions,” Nathan declared, looking his enemies in the eyes. “Treason is punishable by death. Trying to dethrone an elected Emperor and seize the palace is treason.”

  “As if you can.” Tharban barked out a laugh. “Nurevia, blow his balls off.”

  Slowly, Nurevia stepped forward. She drew a hand crossbow from one of the dozens of weapon holsters strapped to her dark skin. Her amethysts glowed, and the crossbow bolt gleamed with light.

  Fei’s scimitar exploded with flames. Nathan didn’t budge. At this range, it was an effective threat given Nurevia’s gem ability.

  Nothing happened for several long seconds.

  Nathan raised an eyebrow. “Well? I’m not going to waste my time on you, Nurevia. You’re a Champion, aren’t you? Take the shot.”

  “Seriously? I’m about to neuter you and that’s your best effort?” Nurevia snapped. “You can’t even be bothered to call me a bitch or something?”

  “What the hell are you doing, you bitch,” Tharban growled.

  The dark elf rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that doesn’t do it anymore.”

  Nathan gave her a look of disdain. “I only expend effort on people who are worth it. You made your choice. Follow through on it or leave. You already did that once.”

  Nurevia grimaced. “I didn’t mean to—”

  “Nurevia—” Tharban snarled at the same time, reaching for her.

  She spun and pointed her crossbow at him. The massive Bastion recoiled in fear. The crossbow twanged.

  Sapphire gems glowed and a gleaming field of light snapped into existence around the Nationalists. Nurevia’s crossbow bolt slammed into it, then punched through, leaving cracks like a pane of glass. Tharban cursed as it cut into his thigh and he went down.

  The other Champions moved for Nurevia, but she danced away until she was next to Nathan.

  “Does that count as being worth it? I want some good insults later,” she said to him. “And a good fucking, too. I’ve been dying for another turn since the Spires.”

  “I’ll kill you! You can’t betray me,” Tharban roared. He rose to his feet, eyes full of fire. Magic poured out from the furious Bastion.

  Instantly, Nathan knew what was going to happen. A golden pentagon glowed around his back. Everyone looked at him in surprise. But Nurevia’s expression only expressed sorrow.

  “Damn. Guess I’ll have to ask for a raincheck,” she said. “At least I got to see little Nathan become big Nathan.” She smirked at him.

  He ignored her, focused on his spell. The moment it ended, he grabbed Nurevia and dove into her mind.

  A tether ran toward Nurevia’s core, past her outer defenses. It crackled with magic.

  Binding stone magic. Tharban was going to fry Nurevia’s mind.

  Nathan crackled with magic of his own. He shot past Nurevia’s mental defenses. They reached for him, but recoiled upon contact with his mental spell. This spell was crude, but it allowed him to dive into most minds without forming a gentler connection.

  Part of him knew the true use of this spell. Forcibly manipulating others. The Twins used more complicated versions of this on him, in order to try to control him. He had been testing this on them, although it was far too weak to actually work on them. Maura never let him close to her core during practice.

  But against someone like Nurevia, who didn’t know mental magic, the spell blew past her defenses.

  Nathan arrived at the core in record time. He normally worried about upsetting a Champion’s mind during a mental dive. This time, he worried about Tharban beating him here.

  More to the point, he didn’t have a ritual to support him. He didn’t even have a nearby binding stone. Obscene amounts of magic evaporated with each second. His body physically burned as he cast this spell. Something told him that using ascended magic without the binding stone had been a mistake.

  At the same time, he understood the magic far better. It clicked with his mind—no pun intended, given this was mental magic.

  Nathan hovered beside the core of Nurevia’s mind. Two satellites hovered around it, as did the tether to Tharban’s mind, which crackled with power in the distance. The clock ticked down, before that power reached Nurevia.

  Once it did, she was dead.

  Nathan lacked any experience using mental magic like this. He hadn’t learned it for the purpose of attack. Paranoia about Fyre and the unknown had scared him enough to focus on it, as he knew so little about succubi. Now it was the only thing that might allow him to save Nurevia.

  But he might also kill her. Her mind fought against him. The danger of forcibly claiming a Champion was that it might cause their mental state to reject the Bastion. If Nathan severed the connection to Tharban and created his own tether, the most likely result was that Nurevia rejected him.

  He remembered her final words before he dove into her mind. They had been soft and kind. If those had been honest, then maybe he had a chance. If he was wrong, then she was dead anyway.

  Focusing on those thoughts, Nathan committed to his course of action. He severed Tharban’s tether. The binding stone power crackled uselessly along it, finding no outlet.

  Without waiting, Nathan connected his mind to Nurevia’s. Her mind burst into a hive of activity, and her gems flared. Realizing he was in danger and burning magic at a dangerous rate, Nathan retreated.

  When he reemerged into reality, barely ten seconds had passed.

  “Nathan,” Fei shrieked, shaking his arm.

  He shook her off and held onto Nurevia. Her eyes were vacant as she collapsed to the ground. The magic from Tharban and Nathan slowly faded, but almost everyone had sensed it. The hall was packed with Champions, mages, Bastions, and spellblades.

  “Hah! The Empire has
no room for traitors,” Tharban declared, standing with help from his remaining Champion.

  Leopold grit his teeth. “You are right about that.”

  Bloodthirst filled the hall. In a second, all out battle would break out.

  “Holy shit,” Nurevia gasped out. “What the fuck just happened?”

  And just like that, imminent bloodshed halted. Everyone stared at Nurevia.

  “How do you feel?” Nathan asked.

  “Like shit. Huge headache,” she mumbled, holding a hand against her head.

  “How is she alive? I know that I…” Tharban trailed off with a grimace.

  Nathan felt power flare from the bear of a man. Nothing happened.

  Nurevia looked at her old Bastion. Then she looked at Nathan in confusion. Her hands slowly rose to her amethysts, and her expression changed to shock.

  “Nathan, you…” Nurevia fell silent, a trace of fear in her eyes.

  Beneath that fear, Nathan saw desire. How very like Nurevia.

  “I’m glad you’re still yourself,” he said drily.

  Then he stood up and glared at Tharban. “You’re attempting a coup against the Emperor. Now you just tried to kill a loyal Champion of the Imperial Army. I think that’s enough treason for one day, Tharban.”

  “I will never bow to a man who leads this great nation to its doom,” Tharban shouted.

  “Then you’re in luck, because I don’t need you to bow,” a deep voice boomed.

  The Emperor strode into the hall, flanked by a massive retinue of servants, knights, and Champions. He walked unaided, save for his ebony cane. If Nathan hadn’t seen his state over the past few weeks, he would believe the man to be as healthy as always.

  “I catch a cold, and you try to overthrow the Empire? If I visit my summer home, will you try to burn down the capital, Tharban?” the Emperor bellowed. “Enough of this nonsense.”

  “You cannot fool us,” came the response. “An election must be called!”

  “Then call it, you idiot.” The old ruler scoffed. “The Diet will sit in a few weeks.”

  “So you can lie to them about how everything is fine? You and Milgar have given everything to…” Tharban managed to stop himself from insulting Alice in front of the Emperor. “To Princess Alice. She cannot rule!”

  “Hmph. Then allow me to settle this with the Diet, not you and your thugs.” The Emperor pointed his cane at Tharban. “If the Diet is unconvinced of my health by next Spring, then I will call an election. The electors can decide if they accept my terms.”

  “You cannot—”

  “I have already spoken with the archdukes. They accepted my proposal. I doubt the Princes College will disagree.”

  The Emperor stared down Tharban.

  No further words were spoken. Tharban glared at his opponents with a fierceness that suggested he would kill them all with his bare hands if he could.

  Then he and his gang left, leaving Nurevia with Nathan.

  Once the Nationalists fled, the Emperor walked to the throne and slumped in it. Alice ran to her grandfather and doted over him along with several of his servants.

  Nathan and Leopold looked at each other.

  They now had a deadline to prepare for.

  Chapter 30

  “Should we have just killed Tharban?” Alice asked Nathan through the mirror a week later.

  The Emperor’s declaration had calmed a delicate situation. He won the support of the archdukes and dukes, and through them, the vast majority of the counts in the Empire. Not everyone was happy, but no one was screaming for civil war.

  Nathan returned to Gharrick Pass and normalcy resumed. Or the closest thing to it, given Doumahr was frozen over. The main change was that Nurevia had accompanied him on his return.

  “Tharban is a pawn,” Nathan said. “If we killed him and the other instigators, it wouldn’t stop civil war. The archdukes who back him would have used his death to rebel. They’re the true power behind the Nationalists.”

  “What about Falmir? Nurevia said that Tharban worked with them.”

  Nathan closed his eyes. That had been a deeply awkward discussion.

  Nurevia had confirmed Gareth’s presence in the city and the assassination attempt against Anna. Her words pinned Tharban as a literal traitor to the Empire. Like with Seraph, her position as Champion protected her.

  But it also connected Falmir with the Nationalists.

  “We have to assume that civil war will mean war with our neighbors,” Nathan said. “Maybe the archdukes have made a deal with Falmir. Maybe they’re deluded enough to think that Falmir won’t invade. It doesn’t matter. The moment the Empire’s armies turn on each other, we’ll be invaded.”

  “Is there another option?” Alice asked.

  “It depends.”

  “Doesn’t everything?” Her tone turned snippy.

  Nathan chuckled. “Aren’t you the political expert? You tell me.”

  “Everyone interested in the throne will come forward early. The Nationalists will find out if there are candidates who will beat theirs. They have several, but their most powerful and charismatic members aren’t eligible,” Alice droned, reciting something she had probably said a dozen times by now.

  “Tharban and the archdukes, namely. The constitution blocks them, for the same reason it blocks both of us.” Nathan smirked at the irony.

  “Yes. If they don’t believe they can seize the throne, they might try to change the constitution. But that would be impossible right now. Almost everyone needs to support it, including Grandpa.”

  “And they wouldn’t anyway.”

  “Why not?” Alice sounded confused.

  “Because it’s self-defeating, Alice. If they let Tharban run, I can run. If they let an archduke run, you can run,” he said.

  “Oh.”

  “So the short version is that they’ll mess around in the Diet for a year, try to convince people to back their candidate for Emperor, and then throw a tantrum if they know they’re going to fail,” Nathan summarized. “Milgar plans to put Anna forward.”

  “I heard.” Alice’s tone was decidedly neutral.

  “You’ve spoken to her?”

  “Have you?”

  “At length.” Nathan chuckled. “I’m aware of how badly she does not want to become Empress, Alice. The plan isn’t to run for the throne, but to frustrate the Nationalists.”

  “I know. I just feel bad that she’s being used to shield me,” Alice said.

  In the mirror, the princess played with her long hair. Nathan got the sense she wanted to be next to him again. They had spent a lot of time together recently.

  “She’s popular,” Alice continued. “The Amica dukes like her, because she’s their gateway to trade. The counts from weaker and younger families love her, because they aspire to be her. And a lot of other people know that she’s connected to me, or that something bigger is going on.”

  “That you’ll become empress, rather than her,” Nathan said.

  “Yes.”

  They ended the conversation after saying a very long goodbye. Nathan stared at the mirror for several minutes.

  After everything he had done, it all came down to civil war. Nathan wasn’t even trying to avoid it. All his efforts to avoid catastrophes had failed in the past. He had been forced to play catchup while fighting the plans of his enemies—Kadria’s boss, Torneus, the Spires, and Falmir.

  This time, he would be proactive. The Emperor had scheduled a date for the election. Nathan wanted Alice on the throne. Anything less would lead to a civil war in the future. So he prepared for one on his terms.

  Frustrate the Nationalists. Make Anna and Alice popular. Continue to build his armies and strengthen his Champions. Prepare for large scale war.

  When it finally came, he needed to crush the rebels in the Empire, put Alice on the throne, and then banish Falmir’s plans to expand its territory.

  The previous year of hard work was slowly paying off. Now Nathan needed to keep it up.<
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  For now, he had a more immediate problem that was closer to home. Much closer.

  In his head, even.

  One day, he stepped inside the black door of his office. A humming greeted his ears.

  For once, Kadria was here. She lay on top of her bed, bronzed legs high in the air as she read a book. Her body was as lacking in clothing as ever.

  He came in here reasonably often. Kadria was missing, more often than not. When he did catch her, she refused to say much about what was going on. His time with her felt more comfortable than informational.

  Or perhaps sexual, given the frequency with which she sucked his cock. She was a succubus, after all.

  “I take it you’re happy to see me,” Kadria said, her eyes focused on his crotch.

  “Well, you’re here for once, so maybe I am,” he replied, ignoring the fact she was talking about the swelling in his pants.

  “You have some permanent housemates you can use to relieve yourself. No need to wait for me,” she replied.

  “My Champions aren’t housemates,” he replied coldly.

  She rolled her eyes. “I meant the Twins, idiot. Their main purpose in life is to be pressed into the ground, legs bent over their shoulders, while they make stupid noises because they’re being fucked silly. Why not join in?”

  “I’m trying to avoid my morals being warped by theirs,” Nathan said. “They don’t seem to be going anywhere. Unlike you, they’re always here.”

  “Well, I’m a busy girl, and they’re not.”

  “So they are stuck here?” he confirmed.

  “Yes. They’re tied to your binding stone. You control the binding stone. Therefore, you control them. Or you could, if you bothered to try. They’re desperately trying to reinforce their mental defenses now that they realize how vulnerable they are to you. Until you let them out, or they find a chink in your armor, they’re stuck here. No more fun for them.” Kadria laughed.

  Nathan’s mind raced. “Is that why Maura made me an offer? She wanted out?”

  Kadria stared at him. “She what?”

  Slowly, Nathan walked over to the table Kadria had set up and sat down. “I wanted a hand with mental magic. You weren’t here. I asked you about this, and you gave me some pointers later. But at the time, Maura offered to help me directly if I formed a connection with her. It seemed like a bad idea.”