Page 13

T heron glared up at the enormous statue of Knowledge.

In Her temple, he could feel Her presence in every breath he took. Like the lone mourner at a party, the black columns of the temple were a distinct incongruity in the colourful capital of Altanus, the dark robes marking the initiated devout, tapestries the shade of midnight billowing in the breeze, the glittering black floors like an endless abyss. But the temple and everything inside it, though sharing the same hue, had been embellished with the occasional sparkle and vein of silver, making him feel as though he’d been thrust into the night sky. It was as though he were a tiny speck in the universe.

Knowledge, She of the fathomless gaze, stared back, obsidian gemstone eyes glittering.

If She were present, why did She despise him so? He’d lavished the temples with all due respect and offerings. He’d constructed a statue of himself to be placed at Her feet, hands clasped, so that a part of him would always be here, praying for Her favour. And yet that bitch Orithyia blighted his lands in Her name.

“Some might consider a stare that hateful blasphemous, Your Majesty.”

“Head Priestess Dia.” Theron lifted the aged priestess’ hand, touching her obsidian ring to his forehead.

“How is my naughtiest student?” she asked, a gentle smile on her wrinkled face. So deceptive, her smile. He remembered all the times she’d rapped his knuckles with her cane as a boy when he’d dared mouth off.

“Vexed. I came for your counsel,” he answered.

“Follow me,” she said, leading the way to an inner courtyard. It was a spot of living colour in the middle of the endless black of the temple. She lowered herself into a seat in the shade with some difficulty. Theron placed himself across from her.

“If this continues, there will be war,” he began.

“There is no warring with bad luck, Your Majesty.”

“This blight is her doing, Dia. It began the moment the spire was constructed,” he insisted.

Dia sighed. She’d heard this argument from him many a time, refusing to place the blame where it so obviously belonged. Was it stubborn loyalty, or was he truly mistaken? Dia was a woman of tremendous intellect and wisdom. What was he missing that she saw?

“Now that the spire has fallen, I suppose you will discover the truth of your suspicions.”

“And if I’m vindicated, what then?”

“Why do you ask, when you already know the answer?”

“Because I would hear it from you, the priestess who taught me as well as any could, a woman I trust.”

“There are formal processes for deposing a high priestess. Processes, I hasten to add, that have only been used twice in the history of the temples.”

“She should have already been taken to task for interfering in matters of state. She whispers in the ear of the Viridian Queen.”

“As I whisper in yours, Your Majesty? As Myrina does?” Dia asked, a brow raised.

“That’s different.” He frowned.

“The temples have long provided counsel to monarchs when it is sought. There is no crime in that.”

“You are the most stubborn person to ever live.”

“I shall take that as a compliment, from the second most stubborn person to ever live.”

He scowled, slouching in his seat.

“What am I to do then, Dia? My people sicken and starvation will soon follow. I’ve made every sacrifice and appeasement possible to the spirits in these lands. I have prayed to the intangible gods in the temples, I have made offerings to the tangible deities of the mountain, lakes, rivers, fields, cattle, sun, sky, winds, clouds, rain, and even those of every crop. I have pleaded with the spirits of every corner of this realm. I have done everything within my power to end this thrice-damned blight and pleaded to the divinities for that which I cannot do myself. Why am I being punished? My power is unmatched. My piety is unimpeachable!”

“Perhaps it is your humility which could use a little work?” she suggested, a devilish glint in her dark eyes.

“Do not mock me,” he warned her, his anger rising.

“Your temper as well. You always were a hothead.”

His wild magic writhed inside him.

“You think this is funny?” he demanded, pounding his fist on the arm of his chair.

“Maybe your humour too.” She stared pointedly at his fist, unaffected by his outburst.

“You are lucky that drawing the blood of a priestess is punished by the goddess,” he fumed.

“The Triad were wise in that.” She nodded. “Have you considered taking a queen? If you had the magic of another monarch to help settle the spirits, perhaps many of these issues would be solved. I know the Lady Ino is eager to play the part.”

Theron scowled. He didn’t need anyone else’s magic to help him do his sacred duty to the land of Aureum. Everything had been fine before that damned spire. And in any case, he wanted the Nivean princess and the alliance that would bring, not Lady Ino.

“I am not so weak as to need another monarch’s aid, especially if it means putting a crown atop that harpy’s head.”

The lady in question had long set her cap at him, frightening off all her Aurean competition for his hand. It had worked in his favour during the years he spent waiting for one of the Nivean king’s daughters to come of age and prove herself worthy.

“I’m sure Lady Ino would be most aggrieved to hear you call her that.”

“Lady Ino is a cold, calculating, manipulative snake and she would laugh at any who thought otherwise.”

“Ah, so the issue is that the two of you are alike in nature?”

“Did I come here for you to insult me, Dia? Is that all the help you offer when I sincerely ask for your advice?” He sighed. Had even Dia turned against him?

“Many innocents died when the spire fell.”

She suspected the truth. Of course she would be angry with him. He’d done it knowing there had only been acolytes and initiates inside, not priestesses. They had been servants of the goddess, but none were important enough to warrant Her divine protection—or retribution.

“And I sent my cousin to save those who could be saved.”

Of course, she’d returned with only corpses.

“Hmmm. Quite the gallant figure she cut, racing up the mountain on the back of her beasts.”

Beasts that had probably feasted on the flesh of the fallen, given how few bodies she’d come back with. It was only a shame she hadn’t returned with any evidence of Orithyia’s scheming, seeing as how all of his had been utterly destroyed.

“She always did love a show,” Theron said.

“She’s not the only one,” Dia retorted.

The stalemate dragged on as they stared at each other, neither giving an inch. But he knew from many years of experience that Dia never flinched first. He was wasting his time here.

“This has been a pleasant diversion from my duties, but it’s time I get back to seeing to the needs of my people. Blessings of the Triad on you, Dia. I’ll see myself out.”

“Triad preserve the sun of Aureum,” she replied, tone carefully neutral.

As he neared the edge of the courtyard, she spoke.

“Wait, come back here.”

He paused, eyes widening in shock. Had she just blinked first? Had the Tapestry unravelled? Theron had never had such a golden opportunity to tease his former teacher. He smiled.

“A king does not take orders from a priestess, even one as venerable as you, Dia.”

“He does if he recalls what happens to naughty schoolboys.”

Theron took his time to return to her side and seat himself, drinking in this unprecedented victory. If only a court painter were present, so he could have the moment preserved for an eternity.

“Your smugness is unbecoming.”

“What is a monarch, if not a person wrapped in smugness?”

But she didn’t take the bait of his jest. In fact, her expression was neither reproachful nor placid. Her brows were knit with concern, her knuckles visible as she gripped the head of her cane.

“I received word that the sinister planets have fully aligned. There have also been omens. Very bad omens. I catalogued some of them myself. A cycle of chaos will begin soon. High Priestess Orithyia believes the first monstrosities will appear at The Colonnades Of The Colossus.”

His stomach dropped to his knees.

“When?”

“Soon.”

Fuck.

His shipment of grain was currently sitting on the other side of The Colonnades Of The Colossus, at the edge of the Queen’s Road. The grain his people desperately needed. The very same grain Queen Flora and Orithyia had been trying to deny his people. If his enemies arrived there first with a few legions, who would stop them from taking that grain for themselves, commandeering it during a time of crisis, as was their right during a cycle of chaos?

Not only that, wherever the monstrosities first appeared during a cycle of chaos became a tainted place, one of deep superstition, the kind that drove people away from it for years to come. Monstrosities usually reappeared there many times unless the place was immediately purified by divine magic. That narrow land bridge was the only easily accessible land route for trade into Aureum. If monstrosities appeared there and were not dealt with swiftly, he could kiss that trade route goodbye for at least a decade.

His merchant fleet was woefully unprepared to pick up the slack. Already forced to sail through Viridian waters on the way to Gilvus and Roseum, stalked by pirates and bled dry by extortionate Viridian tolls at every harbour, it was not a viable option. He would be forced to drain the royal treasury just to bring in half of what the Colonnades did. He supposed he could use the mountain pass through to Niveum, but if King Enalos of Niveum had already refused to wed his daughter to Theron, what was the likelihood that he would help build a proper road through the pass so that traders were not deterred by rough terrain, bandits, and wild beasts?

No, he needed to protect the Colonnades at all costs. And his grain shipment.

“Does King Enalos know?”

“I suspect his priestesses have informed him as well.”

Then there could be a total of three different royal legions marching to the end of the Queen’s Road. It was one of the only places where three realms of Trisia met—Aureum, Viridis and Niveum. Three different royal legions who could lay claim to a king’s ransom in grain. King Enalos of Niveum was an honourable man, but he would be a fool not to take such spoils for himself.

“Then I must make haste. Thank you, Dia.”

He rose from his seat, lifting her hand in his to touch her obsidian ring to his forehead. If he wanted to beat the other monarchs and their legions there, he would have to use his cousin’s beasts to do it, and she was likely to try to haggle with him for some problematic privilege or favour. That alone could take an hour he didn’t have to spare.

“Be careful, Your Majesty…” She paused as if she were hesitant to say more. What had come over his teacher? Since when did she hesitate in anything? No one had walked through life more assuredly than she.

“Don’t keep me in suspense.”

“It would be…inconvenient if you were wounded by a monstrosity, Your Majesty.”

“What have you read in the omens, Dia?”

He would take those with divine magic with him, paladins from the three temples, along with weapons and armour blessed by those with divine magic. Even if he were attacked, between his martial skill and the magic of those on hand, he should be in no danger. After all, monstrosities weren’t known to be intelligent, merely ferocious. But if he were injured openly, in full view of his soldiers, they might worry it was an ill omen and demand that a high priestess should see to his wounds. A king touched by such evil was considered tainted, his judgement corrupted until a high priestess had blessed him.

Normally, he would not concern himself with fear over that. A king should lead from the front. And the High Priestess Myrina, his aunt, resided in Passion’s temple here in Altanus. She at least had no interest in meddling in his affairs, unless they were matters of a passionate marriage alliance, which he had always shot down for the foolish fantasy it was.

“Only that you may be absent for some time.”

“But I’m expected to return?”

“Knowledge has not seen fit to reveal that to me.”

He clenched his teeth. Was he fated to die? But what was he supposed to do then? Let the Colonnades be tainted and his grain stolen? Unacceptable. He would not cower in his palace, dishonouring the royal blood flowing through his veins. He was the king of Aureum. If he were fated to die, then he would face his end with defiance.

It was only too bad that he’d needed to wait so long for one of King Enalos’ daughters to mature and show promise. If she’d been but a few years older, they might have wed before the spire had been constructed, with an heir to the throne already born. But Fate was rarely so kind.

And if Theron died? Queen Flora would soon follow.

“Then I will meet my fate head-on. And if anything happens to me, I will give Aureum to Batea. And woe to Viridis then, for I am all that stands between them and her bloodthirst.”

If Theron must drink from a poisoned chalice, then he would ensure his enemies choked on his blood.

Dia’s eyes widened with alarm.

“You cannot mean that.”

“Oh, I think I do. Pray for my safe return, Dia.”

Theron strode from the temple in high spirits. A race and a battle lay before him. Just the thing to get his heart pumping. As much as he enjoyed court intrigues, sometimes a good fight was just the thing to let off a little steam. And if this was to be his last? Well, he would make it spectacular enough to live on in songs and legends.

But it was a melancholy thing to think he might never return to his great city. Altanus was the jewel of Trisia. Here, even the lowliest peasant had a roof over their head and food in their bellies. Its streets were lined with fragrant flowers and towering trees giving shade to all. Clean water glistened from beautifully sculpted fountains, surrounded by buildings decorated in the most saturated hues. Merchants dressed as richly as nobles from other realms, courtesy of mines overflowing with precious metals and gemstones. His nobles were fat off the abundance of their territories, and his treasuries were overflowing. Only the blight had dulled some of his city’s shine, strained his coffers, and cast a pall over the countryside. Hopefully, soon, that sad chapter would come to an end. He only wished he would live long enough to see it.

Theron walked through the streets on his way to Batea’s palace, a bevvy of guards and aides at his side, his people stepping aside for his entourage and bowing in his presence. As he gave Polydorus his instructions for advising Batea in his absence and sent his aides off with orders for the upcoming confrontation at the Colonnades, they rushed off to the various palace offices, barracks and temples. He arrived at Batea’s palace and took the steps up to her home two at a time, his coming welcomed by every member of her staff. When he found her at last, she was in her courtyard, sharpening her swords.

Clearly, she was in a good mood and content to receive visitors. When she wasn’t, she allowed her beasts to prowl the courtyard—most vicious amongst them were her chickens. Had Theron not the wild magic of healing, he would have the scars to prove just how spiteful the fowl could be. Luckily, he didn’t need those particular creatures today.

“I need your beasts.”

“I thought you hated my beasts,” she replied, never taking her eyes off her blade.

“A cycle of chaos is beginning.”

“Oh? Hopefully, the first monstrosities appear in Boreas. Preferably in Orithyia’s bed. While she’s in it.”

“The omens say they’re going to appear at The Colonnades Of The Colossus.”

She looked up from her task then.

“The grain.”

“The trade route,” he added.

“Shit.”

“Exactly.”

“I’ll go. I have just the beasts for the job. I can be there in a matter of hours. How fast can those temple rats be readied?” She stood, sheathing her blades and grabbing the bronze cuirass she’d finished polishing nearby.

“You’re not going.”

She had just secured the first strap of her cuirass when she paused.

“Then who?” she asked, furious.

“I’m going. You’re staying here.”

Her nostrils flared with anger.

“Then you can’t have my beasts.” She glared, defiant.

“What if I gave you war as your reward?”

She raised her brow, interest piqued.

“You have my attention.”

“Dia’s omens tell her I will be gone for some time. In my absence, you’ll be in charge of Aureum. And if anything happens to me…”

She shot him a dark look.