Wraith Lord

by Phipps, C. T.

  “You sound more like a proper Formor every day,” Payne said, her voice raspy and cold from where her throat had been deformed by acid. The Bauchan wore a veil to hide the injury and was, otherwise, one of the more beautiful members of an already-attractive race. She had her red hair tied in a topknot and I wondered how she managed to hide such a thing underneath a dragon rider’s helmet.

  They had been two of my earliest supporters and while I hesitated to call the couple friends, I couldn’t help but think the world would be diminished by their loss. I somehow doubted Hellsword felt anywhere close to the amount of emotional strife Regina was feeling right now over the loss of her soldiers.

  “I’m sorry,” Serah said, surprising me. “I should have anticipated that he’d grown strong enough to open portals at will.”

  “Archus, I’d like you to go investigate the Lesser Yellow,” Regina said to a particularly large and brutish Formor warrior. “See if she’s still alive and if not, if there’s anything useful we might get from her. Don’t harm or frighten her if you don’t have to.”

  Archus was over six feet in height, gray skinned, and had a scaly noseless face with extra-large shark-like teeth. Formor were as hideous as Bauchan were beautiful, but had no consciousness of this fact, considering other species’ ideal of attractiveness to be hideous beyond belief. I didn’t know the dragon rider well, but he’d apparently been a warchief of the Dragonbinder clan before deciding there was more glory as one of Regina’s lieutenants.

  “As you wish, God Queen,” Archus said, walking off.

  “I might be better for meeting this girl,” Curse said. “I am less likely to terrify, at least.”

  “My orders stand,” Regina said, glaring.

  Curse shrugged. “As you wish, my Queen.”

  We were an odd collection of individuals and I couldn’t help but wonder what life would be like for us if we were able to live in peace. I would never recover the honor I’d lost during the Fourth Great Shadow War and my subsequent enslavement but that didn’t keep me from trying. Regina wanted, desperately, to be the hero of a story where the Nine were the villains. Serah was determined to be the most powerful sorceress who ever lived and now that she was close to achieving it, had no idea what she would do with the rest of her life. Curse and Payne were a sidhe and Bachaun couple, something only slightly less likely than the stars falling from the sky. I couldn’t help but wonder if the Northern Wastelands had become an island for misfits and the lost. If so, it was better company than I deserved.

  Regina turned to Serah, bringing up a topic I had all but forgotten. “You mentioned Hellsword was your lover. I’ve known you since we were newly women and this is the first I’ve heard of it.”

  “I don’t like talking about that time of my life,” Serah said, her voice quivering just the slightest bit. “I also knew the Usurpers were not something you’d like to know I had an association with.”

  Regina crossed her arms. “It seems today is a day for lies and deception.”

  Serah looked away, stricken.

  “I, for one, am not so much a hypocrite as to complain about your past lovers trying to kill us.”

  Serah smiled then pushed it away. “I’m afraid my association with Hellsword is a long and complicated story. It does, however, deserve to be shared. Are either of you familiar with the Oghma?”

  I was.

  So, too, was Regina. “My information may be out of date but in my time that was the name of the secret society of high lords and great wizards, wasn’t it? The ones devoted to preventing the King Below from conquering the world.”

  “Indeed. I know precious little more, though, even given my encounters with a few members.”

  Most scholars thought the Oghma were myths, stories of ancient heroes and legends that had no relevance to the modern day. They’d been instrumental in the protection of humanity during the Second and Third War but had been conspicuous by their absence during the Fourth War.

  I knew they were real, though, because I’d killed both Tharadon the Black and Co’Fannon the Forgemaster to seize their knowledge as part of my efforts against the King Below’s forces. Both had been reputed members of the Oghma and there had been references to the organization in their notes. If they were real, though, it actually gave me some hope the Nine Heroes might be overthrown—the Oghma were a force for good in a world too often absent of such things.

  “Yes,” Serah said, sighing. “It was an organization founded by Ethinu the Wise and other luminaries during the First War. The Oghma was broken before the Fourth War by the Prophecy of Morrigan the Lesser.”

  I grimaced. “I hate prophecies.”

  Curse suddenly looked interested. “The blood of Ethinu and her kin runs through my veins and I’ve never heard of any such prophecy.”

  “Few have,” Serah said. “I have never read it, but the Oghma kept it within its ranks and only a select few were allowed to read it. Details Hellsword allowed to slip were that it spoke of the rise of a new King Below, stronger than the last, and the end of the world.”

  Everyone looked at me.

  “Well, we know the prophecy is wrong now.” Curse snorted. “The only way he might destroy the world is by accident.”

  “Perhaps the prophecy meant Regina,” Payne suggested.

  “That might work,” Curse said, smiling. “Albeit, one might wonder if her poor taste in lovers is mentioned.”

  Neither Regina nor Serah looked amused.

  “Where I’m from, subjects are supposed to treat their kings with less insolence,” I said, shaking my head. We were surrounded by the blood of our fellows and he was making light of this.

  “Weren’t you from a village in the middle of nowhere?” a dragon rider I didn’t recognize asked.

  I glared at her. “I was speaking rhetorically.”

  Curse said, “You’d receive less insolence if you acted more like a proper…mmmph.”

  Curse’s mouth disappeared. Instead, a thin layer of fatty flesh covered its location, conjured by magic.

  Serah was holding her two left front fingers together, showing where the spell originated. “Your mouth will return when you remember to show respect.”

  Curse stared, then shrugged before nodding.

  “Please go on,” I said to Serah. “I’d very much like to know more about this group and how it relates to Hellsword.” It wasn’t every day you found out you were fated to destroy the world. I would have been worried if I believed in predestination.

  “The Oghma reformed in secret,” Serah said, looking down. Her voice changed and I was surprised at the genuine shame of it. She was not a woman who reacted with guilt, to anything. “They regarded the dangers threatening the world to be too severe to deal with in public and, instead, that it would be better to manipulate events from behind the scene. Hellsword recruited me, and, together, we became members. He was my mentor, friend, and, yes, lover.”

  Regina’s eyes widened. “Hellsword is a member of an ancient society of heroes and archmages?”

  “And so is Serah,” I said, stunned at the implications. “That explains much.”

  Regina shot me a dirty look. “In what world does this explain much?”

  “Serah has always been an exceptional mage,” I said, shrugging. “One far and above the ability of most. Besides, magicians interfere in politics. It’s what they do. When I was training in light magic at the Grand Temple, there were hundreds of fraternities, sororities, and cabals to join. Jassamine outlawed most of them with the help of Prince Alfreid, but this did little to bring them to heel.”

  I had felt isolated as a student at the Grand Temple, the son of Borderland peasants living and working amongst the children of Imperial nobility thanks to a famous uncle, but it was almost nothing to the loneliness being a god king brought. I had always wondered why so many kings and queens were shameless bastards but the nature of the crown was an evil thing. If not for Serah and Regina, I probably would have gone mad.

  Says
the man who talks to a dead god living in the back of his head, the Trickster said.

  “I liked it better when I thought you were gone forever,” I muttered.

  That was when Serah destroyed my trust in her. “Jassamine is also a member of the Oghma. Ethinu trained her, just as she trained Hellsword.”

  That was like a punch in the ribs. “What?”

  Jassamine had been my reason for living during the third decade of my life and the thought of her had been the first thing in my mind when I emerged from the King Below’s slavery. I would, and had, done anything for her. However, the gentle woman of my memories had been an illusion covering a fanatic willing to kill children to achieve her ends. I had shredded my honor by that point but there were some lines I wouldn’t cross and she merrily leaped across them. It stunned me, the monumental level of the betrayal, that Serah had known vital information about our enemy, about her, and kept it from me.

  “Why?” I asked.

  Perhaps because she didn’t want you turning on her as you did your previous lover? the Trickster suggested. You do so love to put your lovers on pedestals. I think you’d be happier if you assumed everyone was a vile scheming wretch like me. Then you might not be constantly disappointed.

  Be quiet! I shouted in my mind.

  The Trickster, remarkably, fell silent.

  Regina clenched a fist, looking ready to explode. “You have been lying to us.”

  “As if you did not keep secrets!” Serah said, suddenly shouting. “You had no intention of waging war on the continent!”

  “Do not compare this!” Regina snapped.

  “How is this worse!?” Serah retorted.

  “One is conspiring with the enemy!” Regina shouted, ignoring the uncomfortable looks of our soldiers. “How could you conceal this from us!? Hellsword was one of the conspirators behind my family’s death! If she’s part of some…” She shook her head. “Magical conspiracy then that might explain how the Usurpers gained such quick control over the southern continent! You know the names of our enemies! Hell, you might—”

  “I might what!?” Serah shouted back, trembling with a mix of outrage and offense. “Be one of them?”

  “Please!” Payne screamed, causing all three of us to pause. She was holding her husband by the shoulders as he pried at the fatty tissue around his mouth. “You are monarchs and gods; act like it.”

  I gritted my teeth, trying to gain control over my emotions. I was a ghost and what I felt was an echo of what a living man might yet what I experienced now was a mixture of white hot rage and betrayal. I wanted to smash the rocks around us or freeze the oceans or something. Instead, much to my surprise, I forced my emotions down and decided to give Serah a chance to explain. No one was more surprised than I by this turn of events, but I trusted my wife. I wanted to hear her reasons.

  “Kindly explain,” I said, clenching my fists and looking down at the gravelly shoreline beneath me. We were close to the sea and the cold sea air burned against my lungs. “Have you been in contact with them this entire time?”

  “No, never,” Serah said, taking a deep breath. “Not until yesterday did I have any contact with Fel.”

  “Yesterday,” I said, remembering how she’d been unusually nice to us that evening. Serah was no stranger to decadence but that evening she’d encouraged us to indulge in drink, food, sex, and revelry. “That’s why you brought up the issue of the invasion. You wanted to eliminate the ties to your past.” It was monstrously manipulative and it bothered me that I was, on some level, impressed.

  “I hoped the Oghma would never come up again,” Serah said, her voice soft. “Understand, when Fel found me, I was half-mad due to my shadow powers. My family’s money protected me but a succession of tutors taught me nothing but a bare minimum of sorcery. He was the first teacher to teach me how to embrace my powers and rejoice in what I was. I was also suffering unrequited love for you, Regina, and he was there to fill the void. You preferred a succession of whores, knights, and your own cousin to me.”

  “I wonder if that was not the better choice,” Regina said, her voice cold.

  Serah looked as if Regina had struck her. “Understand I have never put much stock in prophecies, but I rejoiced in the power of the Oghma. The chance to manipulate kings, queens, and lords like game pieces. It was they who made me and my brother our uncle’s greatest advisors—and prevented me from being arrested for possessing night magic. Then I met you, Jacob, traveling with Regina, and saw an opportunity. I’m sorry to say I didn’t realize who you were until much later.”

  “Who I was?” I asked.

  “A hero.”

  I snorted. “That’s either grossly inappropriate flattery or simply poor observation. What did Hellsword contact you about?”

  “Yes, Serah, tell us what you hid from us,” Regina said, her voice still low and angry. Serah’s explanation was not being received by her the way it was by me. Then again, Regina trusted far easier but felt betrayal far keener. I do not think she would hate the Anessian Empire so greatly if she had not once been its most loyal citizen.

  “Fel asked me to not intervene in an attack that would take him near our territory. Which I did not, I point out.” Serah looked more offended by her ignorance than the fact that she’d alienated us. “I do not know who this woman is, why she was being targeted, or what her role in all this is. My loyalty is to you, though, and I arranged for Midori to find out about her arrival.”

  “Through the most duplicitous means possible,” I said, amazed at her cheek.

  “It’s what makes me good at what I do,” Serah said, straightening her back. “You could not count the number of plots I have thwarted behind your back. Assassination attempts, sabotage, propaganda, and the arming of our enemies. Only the massacre at the baths escaped through mine and Midori’s network, and it was I who helped you bring your revenge down on House Rogers.”

  “Which does not make up for the ones you’ve initiated this day,” Regina said, quickly changing the subject. The destruction of House Rogers was not a subject any of us wanted to discuss ever again. “I trusted you with all my secrets and you didn’t think to share one of your own, knowing what the Usurpers mean to me.”

  Serah didn’t apologize. Regina would have forgiven her, in time, if she apologized. But Serah was a proud woman. I did not think she would do it. Regina was a raging storm, but Serah was the mountain it beat against.

  I did not know how to fix this.

  Damn.

  That was when Archus returned from his mission to check the woman Hellsword had been chasing. “My lords, the female is still alive!”

  “Thank the universe for distractions,” I said, turning around to investigate.

  Regina, meanwhile, just shot Serah a glare. “This is not over. Also, give Curse his fucking mouth back. Her spouse might need it some night.”

  Serah reluctantly waved her hand and Curse’s mouth reappeared.

  “Thank you!” Payne said, waving.

  “You’re welcome.” Regina then turned to walk beside me toward a figure that would change our destinies.

  Chapter Seven

  It was about an acre and a half of walking toward the Lesser Yellow Dragon and the woman I’d seen in Midori’s vision had, apparently, broken her leg. Regina and I both followed Archus while Serah chose to stay behind, perhaps realizing that now was not the best time to be around her bride.

  “Can you believe her?” Regina said, gritting her teeth. “Of all the double-crossing, backstabbing, Natariss-like….argh!”

  “You’re degenerating into anger-ish again.”

  “As well I should!” Regina snapped back. “I knew Serah had other lovers, but one of the fucking Usurpers? And what’s this about the Oghma? Was she spying on us the entire time? Then she has the audacity to get mad at you for your secrets…and don’t think I’ve forgotten about that. I’m still mad at you, just significantly less.”

  “Marriage,” Archus grunted. “This is why I don’t beli
eve in it.”

  Regina’s glare looked like it could cause him to explode.

  “Sorry, your godship,” Archus said, scrunching down as if he could feel her glare. “I won’t speak again.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Regina said, sighing. “What do you think of all this, Jacob?”

  I wasn’t sure how to answer but I decided to try anyway. “Truth be told, I am rather difficult to shock. Jassamine was a woman of countless secrets. That Serah kept the fact she was involved with both the Usurpers and an organization our enemies belong to secret irritates me, but I knew Serah was…”

  “What?”

  I chose my next words carefully. “Who she was, when I married her.”

  I had been attracted to her precisely because of the fact she was manipulative, power hungry, and secretive. It wasn’t the healthiest attitude to possess but, the simple fact was, I enjoyed having someone at my side who was as interested in power as Serah. Part of the reason I was so hesitant about attacking the South wasn’t just because I didn’t want to subject them to the horrors of war. It was because I liked the idea of hammering the northern and southern continents in one gigantic empire.

  I’d been spit on, derided, and loathed my entire life as the bastard son of a mixed-race fisherman and a seamstress. I’d witnessed unimaginable atrocities, horrors, and purges both during the war as well as before it. People, both noble and peasant, had shown themselves utterly unworthy of any sympathy. Crushing them all underneath a demonsteel boot had a certain appeal. Which is why I had to resist it.

  Hehehehe, the Trickster chuckled in the back of my mind. You won’t be able to.

  I gritted my teeth at the Trickster’s words.

  “Perhaps I did too,” Regina said, frowning. “But it was because of the lies, manipulations, and deceit that ended my first relationship with Serah. I decided we were better as friends—and now I wonder if she was ever that either.”

  “Serah would burn the world down for us. You know this.” I felt, curiously, like I was seventeen again and still living in my father’s house. I’d had to play diplomat between my sisters, Chastity and Virtue, like this all the time. I missed them.