Book 6, Chapter 24: A Triangle of Fallen Trees
Serce stared at me for a long time, hands together, white clothes billowing in the breeze. Save for the wind, silence across the field between and around us. Soldiers remained kneeling, heads bowed, clouds passing overheard, wind picking up. Not a few nearby soldier’s lips were moving, prayers spoken only for themselves.
Finally, he took a step forward, hands on his hips, eyebrow raised, crooked smile on his face, “Princess Cayce, are you offering me a marriage proposal?”
Right arm reaching across my sword belt, hand resting over the hilt. I took a step forward. The lead horseman, our guide, dared a glance up then quickly cast his gaze down. Serce paused, looked to either side, saw that no one had risen to guard him. He wasn’t wearing weapons.
Taking the leather strap, I pulled it through the buckle, dropping the belt, sword and dagger hitting the ground, dust puffing up and trailing off in the blowing wind. “Serce, come. Bring the wizard.” Turned on my heel, headed toward the forest.
I had no idea where I was going. Or what I was doing. But he didn’t know that, and I couldn’t let him. I didn’t look back. And holy crap, I really, really, really hoped they were following, or this would be the most embarrassing walk of my short life.
Maybe I should have yelled at those terrified troops to seize him, put him in irons and simply assume power. No idea if these men represented the whole, though, and if they didn’t, whether their fellows would support me. Nor how long fear would motivate them.
I could have killed him, easily, with the sword. But some would question why a goddess used a weapon. I sure hoped no one questioned why a goddess needed an empire. Well, pharaohs existed, and they had empires. Perhaps it’d be easy for men to believe gods would like nothing more than to play at being human and rule over them.
What oh what was I doing?
I didn’t want to rule those soldiers who clearly remembered and feared me. I wanted to apologize, beg their forgiveness! Wished I could heal them as I healed my own men. Yet healing was a power of my past, no longer something I could offer them.
Pushing these thoughts from my mind, I tried to calm down.
The day was warm. Into the forest I walked, never looking back, hoping and hoping they were following me. If they weren’t, I was making the slowest escape in history. But their feet crushed leaves, broke the occasional twig, behind me. They’d listened, obeyed, perhaps out of curiosity, and followed.
When I came across an open area under the canopy, a triangle of dead logs to sit on, I waited, not turning around, my back to these men I’d beckoned. A new emperor I was about to take power from. An errant mage I would help to find his.
And all I had to do was bluff my way there.
“Princess Cayce, is this to be our meeting place?”
Still, I did not turn around.
I heard one of them sit.
Talaren’s voice from below and to my right, “Will you take my life now as you did my fellows?”
Turning, I looked at Serce, into his light purple eyes and said, “Empress. I am your empress and you, well, I haven’t decided what to do with you. But we, us three, have work to do. Much, much more important than worrying about who leads an empire.” Slowly, I sank to the log, sitting.
Only Serce remained standing, and he asked Talaren, “What do you mean she killed your fellows?”
The mage folded his arms across his chest, leaning back a bit and said, “For an emperor, you’re a little slow. This girl you call Cayce, and whom I know by Sarah, killed every last mage in existence except for me. She is . . . a goddess.” Turning to me, bowing his head and holding out his arms, he said, “Your worship, please remove my bindings.”
“Prince Serce,” I said, glancing at the fallen tree, “sit.”
The scowl on his face went away almost as quickly as I saw it. And then he sat. “I know you as a girl on the brink of adulthood, learning flirtation and men. Not as,” his eyes darted to the wizard, “a goddess.”
“What’s left of Otholos and his army?”
He straightened, crossing his arms over his chest.
I continued. “You know. They’ve informed you. Maybe you don’t believe them. It doesn’t matter. Serce, we both know Laemacia is weaker than it’s ever been.”
“Nonsense. We’ve come here as a show of force. I know your armies are broken!”
“They are being remade. I healed all my troops before coming here.”
“Even were that true, before your main army was defeated, your forces were already smaller than ours. Losing Otholos and his great army was, indeed, a setback, but it is your kingdom that grows weak. You have, I assume, come for an alliance.”
“Laemacia no longer has mages. Otholos marched with too many of your young men. Judging by your army here, it’s clear you’ve had to combine the remnants of his with your reserves. No, Serce, you’re not here as a show of force, you’re here because you’re desperate for this single individual,” I opened my left hand to Talaren. “The last mage.” I watched him for a bit.
He scratched under his short beard, “You’ve grown, Cayce.”
“It’s been a rough summer.”
“And you expect me to . . . give you the throne?”
“You told me yourself, when visiting my lands, that I was the sole remaining true heir.”
“And that you could solidify Otholos’ power through marriage! Nothing more. You’ve no connection to the nation . . . Laemacian politics are convoluted. Opaque. You have no support, you won’t be able to retain control of the throne.”
“What did your men describe to you, from that battlefield? Did you visit it later? If you have, you’d have found the ground burned and charred, melted, mountains laid waste and their rubble strewn across the valley, endless bodies and bodies.” I closed my eyes, wincing, wishing these images away.
“You mean to rule by fear?”
Talaren laughed. “I have to admit, I’ve never seen a man try to bargain with a deity before. Perhaps you should offer her a game of chess for your soul. Former Emperor Searcian, this girl you see before you, this being, killed over five hundred mages. Political power be damned.” He turned to me, “Empress Cayce is it? What would you have of me? Why drag me off to this meeting? Why go through the entire ruse of pretending to be an assassin in the first place?” A puzzled look crossed his face, “Are those monsters yours?”
Looking at the ground – an ant was carrying a much larger beetle carapace across brown and dead leaves – I took a deep breath. Let it out slowly. “Talaren, the beings you wizards captured and keep locked away in the Trap. What do you know of them?”
“Surely you know more than I.”
“They aren’t like me.”
“No, I suppose not. Somehow you escaped. And they remain trapped.”
Leaning forward, I said, “I fear they are escaping, too. Or, rather, their prison is eroding because, I think, partly because I killed the mages. No one is draining their power anymore.”
“And you need me to use magic to weaken them? I’m only one mage.”
Serce shifted in his seat, white robe probably getting dirty from the tree he sat on, “What exactly are you two talking about? How do wizard issues affect Laemacia?”
Looking at him, I held up a finger, “A moment. Just listen for now, you’ll understand soon.” Then, directing my gaze back to the mage, I said, “Talaren, you said you tried to convince the grand magister to let you communicate with the Others. To try to bargain with them to return to their, uh, realms. I want you to do that. I want to help you do that.”
“I see. Was it necessary to kill every last mage to achieve this goal?”
Sitting back, crossing my arms, I glared at him.
He said, “I . . . apologize. If, if they can escape the prison, and they know they can escape, I don’t have much to bargain with.”
“Yes. In case the attempt fails, I need you to use the spells that created the prison to begin with. You need to shore it up, build it stronger, remake it.”
“To do that, I’d need the mages’ library. That you destroyed when you melted our conclave.”
I sighed. This was not an easy mage to get along with. But none of them really were. Thankfully, I didn’t have to get along with any more of them but him. “There’s another library at the Temple. Surely they have information about the topic, being part of the prison as it is.”
“Possibly, but the grand magister didn’t trust the order of women guarding it. He may not have left them such information.”
“He didn’t trust them for good reason.”
“Princess Cayce,” Serce leaned forward, “I fail to see how this discussion pertains to the Laemacian throne. If you wish to be restored to power, then I suggest we begin marriage negotiations.”
“I held your brother by his neck while I burned him entirely to ash. His skin, flesh, even his bones all burned away before me.”
He blinked. Looked away for a moment, then back. “And I thank you for it. He was a brutal man and won’t be missed. Nevertheless-”
“No, Serce. Prince Serce. No wedding, no negotiations. Laemacia is mine, the throne is mine. I will need you to govern, though, as my emissary to the people.”
“Emissary?”
I stood up. “No more petty wars. Laemacia is joining my kingdom under my rule. You’ll have a voice in it, as I . . . as I’ve declared. We no longer have time for such distractions. We have to prepare for the Others breaking out of their prison. Nothing else matters. If these beings escape their prison, they will bring devastation and horror to this world. Talaren, fill him in.” I then turned my back to them, looking into the woods, hoping I wasn’t trembling, hoping Serce wasn’t thinking of ways to test me, hoping he wouldn’t demand proof, a show.
I was building a house of cards and standing on its flimsy roof proudly dancing, probably naked.
Yet it looked like he was acquiescing. After this, we’d head back, organize the power structure around me, send messages to my army, to Morry, and explain we were headed back to the Temple. Where I’d been imprisoned, where that mirror I so desperately wanted once again to see waited for me to touch it, rest my hand on its shining, welcoming surface once more.
Closed my eyes, clenched my fists. Another temptation to avoid.
No, we had to go to unleash Talaren, search the library, find some way to shore up that prison. I knew the mage couldn’t bargain with them. They wouldn’t see him as an equal, wouldn’t care about any promises made, any words uttered.
And the other problem, the one I couldn’t face and had no solution for. My brother was in there.
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