* * *
They were not in the throne room, but in Ligeia’s own quarters, now turned into a messy utility room where people came and went, carrying and taking warm clothes, tools and giving news. The queen herself was sitting on what must’ve been her bed, cross-legged and with her braids loose on her shoulders; her eyes were sunken, her lips pale.
* * *
Evandro, a gray shadow at her side, lowered his head as if to say ‘here we go’. And who was Leo to blame him? Facing a queen, if dethroned, and suggesting to blow up the remains of her town required a good dose of courage and nerve. Currently, Leo was running short of them both.
* * *
“Your majesty, please, let me explain. If we dig a trench across the field leading to Nikaia and…”
* * *
Ligeia closed her slender fists on her knees and shot Leo a look so icy and outraged it almost (almost, because Leo had other things in mind at the moment) made her uncomfortable.
* * *
“I said no,” she repeated, her jaw set to a hard angle.
Leo groaned loudly in frustration. She was not one to think highly of kings and queens, but she kind of liked Ligeia. She was a brave woman, she loved her people, and Leo didn’t doubt she would’ve gladly died to save everyone.
Her Epidalian stubbornness, though, was turning out to be the fiercest of enemies.
“Yes, I heard you the first time, and your ‘no’ was rather explicit, thank you,” Leo growled between clenched teeth. “You have all the reasons to say so.”
“Tell me something I don’t know. I don’t need someone to confirm that I’m right.”
“Fine. Apologies, then. But… see, we just need to cripple the Asares’ army! If we’re lucky, they’ll think we’re too tough an enemy to fight, and if not we’ll buy the people some precious time to make it to safety!”
“And you’ve said this all three times already. My answer is, and will always be, no.”
Only dignity prevented Leo from stomping her foot on the floor in frustration. She didn’t like this game: what made her furious was not the denial in itself, but Ligeia’s refusal to listen or explain.
“Lady Ligeia, the idea is not bad,” Larsa said. Leo wanted to hug her in gratitude. “If only…”
Hurried footsteps trotted at the door. Ampelio entered, with Gaiane behind him.
“Here we are, as requested!” he panted with a wide grin on his face.
Gaiane dropped a curtsey at Ligeia, but quickly joined Leo. Their hands brushed in the movement, and she smiled.
Leo closed her eyes.
I didn’t even ask her first. She might say no, and hate me, and this all will be in vain. And what if she says yes and something happens to her?
The thought made her sick, and the sight of Gaiane’s loving, trusting look twice as much.
But she couldn’t stop now. This was their only chance.
“Your majesty,” Gaiane blurted out, “I have a plan. Ampelio briefed me on our way to your--er--throne room? And I know how to save everyone!”
Leo blinked. This was not what she was expecting, and according to everyone else’s look, neither did they. Ligeia massaged her temples and waved her hand, tired.
“We shall remember this as the day of strategic madness. Go on, I guess…”
Gaiane’s eyes brightened up and she paced around the place.
“As you know, I’m an extremely educated person. I read, I studied, and I’m proficient in nearly every field of knowledge. This, and I’m aware it may surprise you, includes warfare. Are you familiar with Obertenghi’s review on the most prominent battles of the past five hundred years?”
With a sigh, Leo looked away.
Why am I so sure I won’t like where this is going?
But Gaiane beamed at the perplexed expressions and continued.
“The author analyzes in depth the most successful strategies behind every victory. I’m sure you know the answer…”
Nobody mirrored her encouraging nod. Ampelio just shrugged.
“I don’t know, magic?”
“The fleet!”
A deep silence, and Ampelio snorted in a failed attempt at hiding his laughter.
“T-The fleet?” Ligeia repeated, blinking.
“Yes! The mere bulk of a fleet of warships surrounding the city would be enough to discourage even the…”
“Gaiane, Nikaia is in the middle of a plain,” Leo said.
“The nearest river is dozens of miles from here,” Evandro continued, but Gaiane dismissed them both.
“Well, it’s been done before. A skillfully designed set of canals to surround the city would ensure us a stronghold position. Just imagine: a wall of hulls shielding Nikaia from any possible attack.” She crossed her arms and grinned. “Impenetrable.”
“You’re… asking us to dig canals around the perimeter of the city,” Ligeia murmured.
“Exactly. They would never expect it.”
“Of course they wouldn’t, it makes no sense! We have no time--the latest reports indicate that a small contingent of Asares riders is approaching already, they’ll be here in days!”
Leo felt a surge of tenderness for Gaiane’s wounded pride. The princess deflated and pouted, her face on fire. Leo stepped closer and brushed her arm.
“In a different situation it would’ve been a good idea. For real,” she said, and Gaiane sighed softly.
“I’m sorry, I thought…”
“Enough of this nonsense,” Ligeia resumed. “Gaiane, your mother’s guiding her troops, did you know that?”
Gaiane’s face shot up, white.
“No! I didn’t…”
“We must be prepared for the worst. If they’re around here, chances are they’ll come this way. Gaiane, you know if your family will come looking for you here?”
“Yes,” the princess whispered, lowering her gaze. Leo squeezed her hand.
“It’s all good. Maybe you’re giving Epidalio a chance to be free, if you’re willing to cooperate.”
Gaiane’s face lit up like a candle. She smiled, and Leo’s heart sunk some more.
“It’s… it’s dangerous, and I should’ve asked you in advance and not in front of everyone like this, so if you don’t feel up to the task remember we can find another way, so…”
* * *
“I’m a mage. Out there, the most powerful one that has ever existed. Do you think they stand a chance to hurt me?”
“Fair point,” Evandro said. Ampelio giggled, and the knight’s somber face brightened a little.
Leo, too, breathed more easily. She hadn’t considered this.
“Fine. Right. Well, you… you should wait for your family’s troops out there, in the field we came from. The sentries’ system is enough to give us some advance, as we’ve seen when they ambushed us and took us in. We’re going to…”
She hesitated. This, from Gaiane’s point of view, was treason. She was moving to destroy her family.
What if she said no?
“Burst the ground under the Asares. That’s her brilliant plan,” Ligeia snapped.. “It’s madness.”
“It’s not! It’s an idea, the only one we have! Except for the fleet,” Leo pressed on. Gaiane held her hand, steady enough to suggest she was on her side. Even now.
I don’t deserve her.
“I have families to evacuate, Althea is preparing Rea already. I can’t spare forces to dig: it would take time.”
“Not that much. One day tops, if I can borrow your strongest workers, and we’ll be done.”
But the queen just covered her face with her hand.
“We’re doomed,” Ligeia said, standing up. “It can’t work. It’s too dangerous.”
“You don’t want it to work! Because then it would mean that you owe an Asares princess, and you can’t accept it!” Leo snapped, and immediately regretted it when Ligeia glared at her.
“What if it is? The Asares have taken enough from me and my land, I won’t let them take anymor
e!”
“Stop talking as if I weren’t here!” Gaiane stomped her foot and crossed her arms to her chest.
Ligeia fell silent and sneered at her.
“Let’s hear your opinion on the issue, then. From nobility to nobility.”
“It’s not a matter of nobility, but of chances of success. I can help, and I will.”
“Gaiane, you don’t need to, it’s…”
“Thank you, Leo. You’re very sweet, but it’s my turn now. I’ve been used as a weapon before. I caused so many deaths without a say in the matter. Now I want to make things right.” She threw her hair back and stood upright. “I choose to fight, if you’ll have me.”
A deep silence fell upon the room.
“They’re both pretty badass. I should be taking notes,” Ampelio muttered. Eventually, Ligeia sighed.
“I can appreciate that, Gaiane. I really do. But if you want to help, you can protect the refugees.”
“I can do that!” Leo jumped up. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but the Asares rely heavily on magic, right?”
Gaiane frowned.
“Yes, they do. But…”
“Now more than ever. They’ll unleash on us all the power they have to make sure they can reach us wherever we are. Unless I’m with you,” and she pointed at herself with her thumbs. Larsa grinned and nodded.
“Schatten,” she said, and Leo pushed her chest forward.
“I can’t do magic, but I’m not useless. I’m just different, and I can make a difference.”
More silence. Ligeia’s eyes were coals and embers into hers, and Leo bore her stare. Her brow was damp with sweat and her hands trembled. Gaiane touched her knuckles again, and Leo searched and found her fingers.
The queen covered her face with her sleeve and sobbed quietly.
“I can’t believe it’s happening…”
A muffled whisper, and Evandro placed his hand on her shoulder. Ligeia gently shrugged him away.
“Eight years. Eight years hiding and praying nobody found us, and then you happen--all of you! Lost knights and princesses and stubborn girls. And you take all our certainties away.”
“Your majesty,” Leo said, but Ligeia’s mouth twitched in a smile. When she dropped her arm, her eyes were dry.
“I wasn’t ready. I’ll never be. But the future won’t wait for me to be ready.” She rose and walked to Leo, putting on hand on her shoulder and the other on Gaiane’s. “It’s dangerous.”
“I know,” Leo said.
“And if queen Cibele really is leading her men, she might get hurt, too. Your mother.” Her voice dropped, almost sweet.
Gaiane swallowed and squeezed Leo’s hand harder.
“I know,” she replied barely moving her lips.
The queen took a step back and examined the two of them for a long moment.
“Maybe it’s due time Epidalio and Zafiria form an alliance. Not for power, but for their people.” She turned to Evandro. “Send word to every able man in town. We need to dig.”
Leo closed her eyes. Hadn’t Gaiane been holding her, she would’ve fallen.
We’re doing it. For real.
Chapter 21
As a kid, the walls of Nikaia were one of his favorite places. They were the best spot to gaze into the horizon, counting the villages buried in the woods and the farms peeking among the fields. Standing on the bastions made reality feel larger. It felt like standing on top of the world.
It still felt the same way, but this world was empty and barren. Evandro puffed a strand of hair from his nose and leaned against the battlements. Below him, following Larsa’s directions, some twenty people were digging and burying, sweating in the scorching hot morning. Leo was among them, and every now and then she emerged from her trench and consulted with Larsa, only to resume her work with twice as much energy.
Evandro smiled despite the burning weight in his chest. She was a smart girl, and he envied her stubborn enthusiasm.
He heard the steps up the stairs and didn’t even turn around. He knew who to expect.
“News from the outposts?”
“Phew! You could at least let me catch my breath--I’ve just returned and no, no news yet.” Ampelio rested his back against the battlements and wiped his brow with the back of his hand. He smelled like horse’s sweat and dust. “Blackberry is a nightmare, you know? My back hurts, and he almost dropped me twice, I…”
“Blackberry?”
Ampelio grinned. His cheeks and the tip of his nose were pink from the sun.
“Your horse. You never named him, so I did it.”
“You won’t call my horse Blackberry,” Evandro grunted. Ampelio shrugged.
“Too bad, he seems to like it and already answers to it.”
“I hate you.”
“No you don’t.”
Evandro turned away and smiled. No, he didn’t. Ampelio was the closest thing he had to a friend—to say the least—and having him by his side made this moment of tension almost bearable.
To the point that words bubbled from his throat.
“Remember when we were on our way to find Gaiane after she left Nikaia?”
“You mean that time I saved your life in the most heroic way?”
Evandro snorted and almost smiled.
“You wanted to hear my story. I didn’t want to feed you details for your works.”
Ampelio grabbed his shoulder and shook it, his face oddly serious.
“My promise of not using anything that personal for my tales was sincere, I thought by now you…”
“I do. I believe you. That’s why I think you’ve earned the right to know what made the Dawn Star this… this wretched parody of a knight.”
“On that, I disagree. But this is where I’m supposed to shut my mouth and let you do the talking, right?” He dropped his hand, and Evandro peeked at him from the corner of his eye.
Ampelio looked nothing like Eliodoro. They were roughly the same age as when Evandro had last seen his prince, but other than that they had nothing in common: Ampelio was bright and good at pretending to be light-hearted, with nothing of the Laskaris gravitas.
Evandro was so happy he was different. Ampelio cast no shadow but those Evandro himself couldn’t let go of. Maybe it was time to shed some light on those, too.
“I spent the past eight years wishing I was dead. Like the king I’d sworn to serve. Like his son, the prince I’d grown up with.” A deep sigh, and he looked down to his hands. “Like Ligeia and her baby, whose survival had been my last task. One I thought I’d failed.”
In the distance, he saw a man lean heavily to his shovel, and a second one approach quickly, offering him some water. The pair laughed together, exchanged some banter, then resumed their work.
Ampelio didn’t say a thing, only waited, his shoulder almost touching Evandro’s.
A smile touched his lips. For the first time, the thought of Eliodoro was bittersweet, and not just the fiery burn of salt on an open wound. Words came easily.
“I loved him. In secret, I thought, but apparently he’d known it all along, and Ligeia, too. I was so confident in my discretion…” He drummed his fingers on the battlements. “He told me he knew the moment he ordered me to leave him and save Ligeia. I was furious at the time, because I felt like he was using my secret against me—but I was wrong. He couldn’t love me back, because his heart belonged to his lady. It doesn’t mean I wasn’t dear to his heart. And this affection is something I’m learning to value more than I can put into words.”
Silence followed this simple confession. No weight lifted from Evandro’s chest, because there had never been one for the past weeks, but now a new light shone on Eliodoro’s memories. Breathing was easier, even if it wasn’t over yet.
He nodded to himself and resumed.
“There’s more to this story, and I promise I’ll go into details of how I escaped the siege if we make it out alive. But this… I needed you to know that it’s getting better. I’m not good yet, but…”
Evandro looked at him, and his heart swelled with solace in the smile Ampelio gave him.
“Thank you for walking this path with me.”
Mischief sparkled in the depths of Ampelio’s eyes, and in a heartbeat the young man with more guts than common sense was back.
“It’s far from over. And maybe, after this heart to heart conversation, we should focus back on what lies ahead. But I took a mental note, and if we live, you owe me a retelling of the siege. And that, my friend, will make for the most epic tale ever!”
Evandro laughed and playfully shoved him, but in a moment their attention shifted back to the field.
He focused again on the working people. Bundles of fabric and casks were lined around the field, and he could see flies buzz around one of them. He shivered: one body, several carefully disguised exploding barrels. Leo jumped from the trench and trotted to a large ball of twig. She gingerly lifted it and carried it to the trench, keeping it far from her face.
Their fuse.
“Hey, may I tell you something?” Ampelio moved to Evandro's side.
He chuckled under his breath.
“Would it matter if I said no?”
“You know, I can shut up. Just tell me to get lost and I will. You don’t need to be that snarky every time…”
Evandro hung his head and peeked at him from the fall of his hair.
“Am I so terrible?”
Ampelio's eyes brightened a little.
“Even worse.”
“Apologies, then. I’m just… not exactly used at people thinking they like me.”
“I do like you. Er--well, I just… I…”
“Speechless? A victory!”
“Shut up!” Ampelio blurted out, poking his side with his fingers. Evandro dodged and laughed. After a moment, he shook his head.
“Look at us. Laughing and joking right before the riskiest thing we could’ve come up with…”
“That’s exactly what I wanted to tell you. Things might go south in thousands of different ways, but I’m happy I got to meet you. And be your friend, maybe?”
The Other Side of Magic Page 29
