The King's Seal

by Amy Kuivalainen

  Editor: Chelsea Cambeis

  Proofreader: Jamie Rich

  THE KING’S SEAL

  Copyright © 2021 Amy Kuivalainen

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, please write to the publisher.

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Published by BHC Press

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2020940645

  ISBN: 978-1-64397-242-8 (Hardcover)

  ISBN: 978-1-64397-243-5 (Softcover)

  ISBN: 978-1-64397-244-2 (Ebook)

  For information, write:

  BHC Press

  885 Penniman #5505

  Plymouth, MI 48170

  Visit the publisher:

  www.bhcpress.com

  THE MAGICIANS OF VENICE

  The Immortal City

  The Sea of the Dead

  THE FIREBIRD FAERIE TALES

  Cry of the Firebird

  I want to acknowledge the excellent works of Professor Dame Averil Cameron, especially her translations of Eusebius’s Life of Constantine, and Professor Meredith K. Ray’s Daughters of Alchemy. Without their incredible historical research, this book would never have been written.

  “For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.”

  — Ecclesiastes 1:18 —

  MILOS WAS A small, picturesque island surrounded by the Aegean’s topaz blue waters, and Kreios hated every moment he had to spend on it. Out in the world, he was able to move about; he could go into a café and pretend for a few precious moments that he wasn’t bound, body and will, to a madman and a demon.

  Milos was the monster’s lair, and every step he took, Thevetat’s presence pulsed like a toothache. The locals had learned to look the other way, dismissing the opulent mansion, its owner, and the constant stream of visitors as the lifestyle of a man with too much money. Kreios made sure that the visiting priests, acolytes, and vessels that frequented the island supported the locals and behaved themselves. Those that didn’t behave were dealt with severely by Kreios, and they were not tempted to step out of line again.

  Kreios stepped into the produce store that was also a post office and tourist gift shop, and grabbed a handful of postcards. He greeted the owner, Rhea, with a cheerful smile before pulling out his pen.

  After what happened in Venice, Kreios had convinced Thevetat that they needed to limit their digital communications—Galenos was far too skilled in tracking them—and had presented the idea of sending cryptic instructions on the back of postcards. No one ever paid much attention to the scribbled messages, especially if they were written in a dead language.

  Kreios hummed to himself as he jotted down the latest orders, the addresses known by heart. Thevetat would never bother to check Kreios’s memories of such a mundane task, but he hadn’t survived as long as he had because he was careless. He couldn’t risk using shielding magic, not when Thevetat was so close, so he chose the simplest way to cover his tracks. He shut his eyes, wrote the one-line message on the postcard, and slid it in amongst the others before opening his eyes again. When he was done, Kreios handed the pile of cards over to Rhea with some euros and left the store.

  Kreios had long stopped believing in hope, but something akin to it flickered in the pit of his guts. Whether death or freedom met him first, he didn’t really care. All he knew was that within a month, the nightmare he’d endured for the last ten thousand years would be over.

  eVER SINCE DOCTOR Penelope Bryne had met the magicians of Venice, she’d been forced to believe more impossible things by breakfast than Alice in Wonderland. That was why when they said things like, “Constantine the Great is still alive,” Penelope had learned to pause, take a breath, and then ask her follow-up questions. Sometimes, the answers she received were more confusing than the impossible thing itself.

  It had been a month since Penelope returned from Israel, and she was still having trouble reconciling everything that had happened there. Some days, her grief for Tim was like being pulled to the bottom of the Grand Canal by her ankles. Most of the time, her anger lay like a sleeping serpent in the pit of her stomach, and she did her best not to disturb it. She had work to do; the seal ring of King Solomon wasn’t going to find itself. But first, Penelope needed to find Constantine.

  It didn’t matter how much research she did or how many time periods and historical figures she identified in the record of Tim’s visions; she needed a proper starting point. Most of all, she needed to know if the ring actually worked.

  Penelope was willing to allow some of the legends to have elaborations if the core truth was that the seal ring of Solomon could exorcise a demon. But they couldn’t waste time searching for a trinket based on some kind of allegory when they could be using their resources to track down and destroy Thevetat by other means.

  Besides, if Constantine was alive, what was to say he hadn’t tracked the ring down to get it back?

  Alexis understood, but there wasn’t much he could do to assist Penelope in locating the emperor’s whereabouts.

  “I haven’t spoken to Con in centuries, cara. Aelia will be able to help. From what I can tell, she has always kept tabs on him.”

  “That’s great, but she won’t tell me. Every time I approach her about it, she walks away. I tried asking Phaidros, who grunted at me, and as for Zo? All he did was blush furiously and say he couldn’t help either.” Penelope threw her hands up in the air. “You’re all impossible. Can’t you use some of that Donato charm on Aelia and get her to spill?”

  “I’m surprised you believe Aelia would be susceptible to my charm at all. I’m still holding out hope that we won’t need to involve Constantine. I doubt any good can come of it,” Alexis replied without looking up from his book.

  “Fine. I’ll force it out of Aelia myself.” Penelope stood from her office chair.

  They had gone back and forth on the matter for three weeks, and Penelope’s mind remained unchanged; they needed to talk to Constantine. They could research until Thevetat had a new body and sank Venice into the sea, and they would still be no closer to finding the seal of Solomon if it adorned Constantine’s finger. Alexis was being stubborn because he was still hurt over what had passed between them centuries beforehand—yet another thing he refused to elaborate on.

  Alexis held out his hand to Penelope, and she moved to his desk, letting his arm curve around her waist.

  “Careful with Aelia. Constantine has always been a delicate subject,” he said, his lips against her shoulder.

  “Alexis, if I tried to dodge every sore subject with you magicians, I’d never get a chance to talk at all. I’m going to get her to tell me, or I’m going to make her life difficult until she does.”

  “Poseidon save me, you sound so much like Nereus sometimes. It’s like she’s found the perfect way to order us about from beyond the grave.”

  Penelope bent down so she could kiss him lightly, the soft stubble of his beard tickling her lips. “And yet, you still love me, Defender.”

  Alexis’s indigo eyes glowed hot, and she knew she had to get away before her self-control went out the window.

  “I do love you, cara. Now, go and talk to Aelia before I find a way to keep you down here,” he said, a hint of her favorite
wicked smile lingering at the corner of his mouth.

  MOIST, SALTY air hit Penelope as soon as she stepped out of the Archives elevator. April had come and gone, and with May, the sticky promise of summer had arrived. Penelope knew where Aelia would be without having to ask. The magician had claimed a stretch of the garden that overlooked the Grand Canal. In the past few days, she had nearly caused two boating accidents by strolling too closely to the stone retaining wall in her bright orange bikini.

  Currently, Aelia was sunning herself in another barely-there swimsuit, her hair caught up under a matching pink turban, with a sweating pitcher of spritz positioned on a small table beside her.

  “Ah, Penelope, pull up a sun bed and take off those clothes. The weather is far too pleasant to waste.”

  Penelope dragged another sun bed over to the shade of an umbrella but kept on her top and the jeans she’d cut off at the knees. Aelia lowered her sunglasses and gave her a critical once-over.

  “Are you here to ask me to come shopping with you?” She eyed Penelope’s improvised summer wear with distaste.

  “No, I’m here to ask you about Constantine.”

  “Oh.” Aelia repositioned her sunglasses.

  Penelope reached for the pitcher and poured herself a spritz. She had a feeling she was going to need it. “I’m never going to understand your reluctance to find him unless you talk about it.”

  “You are young, Penelope. I doubt you’d understand even if I did explain it to you.”

  “Then you need to weigh up whether you want revenge on Thevetat and Abaddon more than you want to protect your own pride as far as Constantine goes.”

  “That was a horribly low blow.”

  “I don’t care. I’ve tried to be patient, but I’ve had it with all of you. I need the ring to stop Thevetat. Abaddon killed Tim. I know he wasn’t the greatest of friends in the end, but he was still my family, and I want payback. I’ll bug you until my dying breath if I have to.”

  Aelia moaned. “Poseidon save me, you are a pain in the ass. Drink a spritz and calm down.”

  Penelope leaned back in her chair, drank, and watched the ferries drive slowly past. When Aelia was still silent five minutes later, she said, “It’s okay, Aelia. I’ll ask Phaidros. I know he won’t hold anything back.”

  Aelia bit her lip and looked away from her. “Please don’t. It will only antagonize him, and we’ve been getting along so well.”

  “Then spit it out. I’m not asking any of you to make a phone call or come with me to see Constantine. I’ll do it myself. I only need to know where he is.”

  Aelia’s laugh tinkled across the canal, and the ferry load of people turned toward the sound. “Sweet, darling bambina, if you think the Defender will let you anywhere near Constantine without him, you are sorely mistaken.”

  “And if you think Alexis will be able to stop me, then you are sorely mistaken. Constantine is just a man. I don’t know what the problem is.”

  “You say that because you’ve never met him.” Aelia sighed and mumbled something under her breath.

  Penelope cupped her hand around her ear. “Scusi? I missed that.”

  “Dubrovnik,” Aelia repeated. She sat up and refilled her glass.

  “The city? What about it?”

  “The last time I saw Constantine was in Dubrovnik, 1998. We had been to his villa in Niš.”

  Penelope waited, but when Aelia didn’t elaborate, she asked, “It ended badly?”

  “If by badly you mean I drove his Maserati 320S into the ocean, then yes, it ended badly. It always does; that’s the problem.”

  “Dare I ask why you drove his car into the ocean?”

  Aelia lifted a shoulder in a lazy half-shrug. “He wanted me to marry him; I said no. He got insistent, so I drove his car into the sea. It happens.”

  Penelope wanted to point out that such a thing would only happen if you were Aelia, but she didn’t want to piss Aelia off when she was talking for the first time in weeks.

  “You think he might still be in Niš?”

  “He could be anywhere. He has always preferred the east to the west.”

  “You don’t have a mobile number for him?”

  “We fought. The number I have, even if I could find it, would be over twenty years old.”

  “Fair enough. I’ll ask Zo if he’s heard from Constantine since ’98. As you said, it’s been twenty years. I’m guessing if he wanted to talk to you, he would have reached out by now.”

  “Hmm, you would think, wouldn’t you?”

  Broken hearts are not your forte, Bryne. Back out while you still can. Penelope downed the rest of her spritz. “Thanks, Aelia. I promise not to bug you about Constantine anymore. I’ll understand if you don’t want to come with us when we go and see him.”

  “I never said that.”

  “Why would you want to come along if you two have been fighting for the last twenty years?”

  “It might be a good chance to catch up, let him know the world could be ending—you know, that kind of thing.”

  “Uh-huh,” said Penelope, not buying her act for a second. “Maybe you should stay here. I don’t want you starting arguments before I can get any useful information out of him.”

  “All depends on how we decide to argue.” Aelia’s lips curled into a smutty smile.

  “You know what? I don’t want to know.” Penelope got to her feet. “I’m going to talk to Zo. Enjoy the sun.”

  “I’ll make a few calls and see what I can shake loose. No promises,” Aelia called as Penelope walked away.

  PENELOPE FOUND Zo in the sprawling entertainment room, fighting Phaidros on the PlayStation.

  “Aelia knows where Constantine is. She’s hesitating because she’s fighting with him,” said Phaidros.

  Zo punched the buttons on his controller with fervor. “You want to go and meet Constantine? Alexis is going to hate that.”

  “So everyone keeps telling me. It doesn’t change the fact I still need to talk to him.” Penelope flopped down on the couch between them and watched as Zo’s character dodged the arrows Phaidros was firing at him.

  “Alexis is smart. He’s stayed away from Constantine because he’s poison,” Phaidros said. “Now you’re going to force him to break his promise to never see Constantine again. Alexis will do it too. As much as he’ll hate doing it, he’ll hate the idea of you alone with the emperor even more.” He cursed Zo in Greek and threw his remote at the other magician.

  “Don’t be a sore loser,” Penelope said.

  Zo roared with laughter. “Oh no. You’ve hit the metaphorical nail on its head there, Penelope. Phaidros is a terrible loser; that’s why he hates Con so much.”

  “Screw you.” Phaidros stormed from the room.

  “That reaction seemed rather extreme.”

  “You should know by now, sorella, that Phaidros is always going to be extreme when it comes to his Aelia.”

  “That’s so stupid. They aren’t even together! Neither are Aelia and Constantine. Why is everyone acting like this? I feel like I’m living in a crazy house.”

  Was one straight answer too much to ask for?

  “Penelope, you are living with magicians. Of course it’s like living in a crazy house. As for Aelia and Constantine—that’s complicated. It’s what happens when those blessed with an abundance of life fall in love, and make no mistake, Aelia is in love with Constantine. She’ll always be in love with him.”

  “Then what’s the problem? Why not be with him if that’s how she feels?”

  “Because she’s also in love with Phaidros. She doesn’t dare admit it to herself or to him. As for Constantine…well, he’s Constantine. It’s hard to explain until you meet him for yourself. Everyone is in love with him, even Alexis, the straightest man the gods ever created. Why do you think he hasn’t talked to him in so long? He’s heartbroken, bella.” Zo leaned back into the cushions beside Penelope and took her hand. “We are hard to live with, I know. There is too much history between all
of us to ever be able to wrap your head around, so it’s better if you surrender to the flow and don’t become too frustrated with us when you don’t understand.”

  “You seem to be the most levelheaded at the moment. Maybe you should be the one to come with me to meet with this paragon of virtue I keep hearing about.”

  “Absolutely not. Constantine. He’s…” Zo placed a hand over his heart with a sigh. It said it all.

  Great, another one in love.

  Zo smiled as if reading her thoughts. “It’s so unrequited it hurts. If Alexis is the straightest man created, then Constantine comes a close second, but I can’t help but be in love with that man. You should read his poetry. Dio mi salvi!” Zo sighed dreamily.

  “He writes good poetry too? Is there anything he’s not good at?”

  “Not much. Constantine’s not a paragon of virtue, so you should dismiss that idea at once.”

  “I wasn’t serious,” Penelope said.

  Zo gave her hand a quick kiss. “Good. Because he might be a saint, but he’s certainly not virtuous.”

  MARCO COULD TELL that Adalfieri was pissed off by the way he chewed the corner of his mustache as he read the form in his hand.

  “Four weeks is a lot of time, Dandolo,” he said when he finished reading.

  “I know. However, I do have ten weeks owed to me. I haven’t taken time off in nearly three years,” said Marco. He didn’t want to antagonize the older man any more than he had to.

  “What brought this on? I know you’ve been busy since the bombings—we all have—but it’s a part of the job.”

  “It’s not about the bombings or the workload. I need a break, that’s all. Isabella and her wife, Guilia, have been trying to get pregnant, and it’s taking a toll on the family. I need to give them some space. And I need space myself.”