I’d known it would come to this, and yet I’d be delusional enough to hope it wouldn’t.
~Chapter Twenty-Seven~
Phoenix’s response arrived a few days later. In that time, I’d informed Nillia and Arianta of the implications of this new border. They’d taken the news well, and had only requested that a rescue party be sent for their families. I’d had to refuse, knowing that any breach of the border would not be met well.
Theresa’s scouts had kept me well informed of the changes happening in the north of the country. Almost overnight, Phoenix’s troops had appeared along the border. Her scouts in Orthandrell were now trapped there.
The King’s response was terse and to the point. It was read out to me in the council chamber, along with the rest of the councillors. I’d known what was coming, but hearing my ex-fiancé’s words pierced to me to my soul.
“All those in favour of a declaration of war?” I asked tonelessly. The councillors voted unanimously. “So be it. Do not release this declaration yet. King Phoenix has amassed his troops with prior warning. We will need time to do the same.”
After the meeting ended, I headed for my favourite garden, hoping the mud people would be there. They weren’t however, and so Morrigan and I were the only two in the small space.
As we relaxed in the long grass, Morri preening my hair dutifully, I allowed myself to forget the oncoming storm of war. For a few moments, I was a girl and her bird, enjoying the weather.
“Your Majesty,” Janson appeared at the edge of the garden. “Master Ispin has requested you in the library. Immediately,” he added, seeing the reluctant look on my face.
I sighed and heaved myself off of the ground. My few moments of peace were over. The servant had already disappeared back to the palace, busy as ever.
I strode back through the palace halls, my skirts swirling around my legs. I was wearing the green over white dress that left my shoulders bare. It had quickly become my favourite, especially after I’d burnt my engagement party dress.
So lost in thought about the meeting, I only looked up when I heard a muffled squeak of a boot on a floorboard in front of me. When I did, I felt my blood run cold.
“Your Majesty,” Ryman said icily. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t bend the knee.” He was holding a knife to Seff’s throat. The little girl was pleading with me with her eyes. I could see a line of red where the blade was pressed against her skin. Ryman’s eyes were wide, his clothes frayed and limp; he’d lost a lot of weight since I’d last seen him. His hair was in disarray and he had large dark circles under his eyes. The hand holding the knife was trembling.
“Ryman,” I said slowly, clasping my hands behind my back and beginning to conjure a large fireball. “What are you doing here? Let her go.”
“I think not, Your Greatness. Also you can do away with that fireball you’re creating behind your back. You may be fast, but I am faster. Young Seffina here will be dead on the floor before it reaches me.”
I let the fireball drop, wishing desperately for my twin swords, remembering too late their demise.
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“Ah yes. You’re on your way to see your little redheaded friend, are you not?”
Seff let out a squeak, and I watched a tear crawl slowly down her cheek. “Did he ever tell you he was researching her family tree? Did he?” I shook my head, not breaking eye contact. “Your friend knew there was something strange about this little vagabond you’d brought into the palace. As did I. There was something strangely familiar about her, but before I had time to investigate it, you took up your post as Queen, and I was forced to flee my palace lest I be brought to trial for so many heinous crimes that you have imagined.
“But he found the answer. And little birdies found me in my hiding place and brought me a wonderful tid-bit of information. Shall I share it with you, Your
Wonderfullness? Shall I, Seffina?” he asked the girl. She didn’t answer. “It turns out that your little street rat friend, your little criminal protégé is the last living descendant of Queen Fleur.”
Seff’s eyes met mine as Ryman barked a crazy man’s laugh. She tried to mouth something to me, but before she could finish, Ryman had snapped back to attention.
“This is how I’m going to get my throne back,” he snarled, all traces of laughter now gone from his lined face. “Once the public hears that there is a descendant of their beloved last queen, do you think you’ll last a second? They’ll tear you off your throne and burn your palace to ash. The crazed mobs will rip you to shreds. They loved Queen Fleur. They hardly know you.”
“You’re not leaving this palace alive, Ryman,” I had two handfuls of white fire, ready to fire them off at any second.
“Yes, I rather think I will. With my little prize, as well. You’ll let us pass, or I’ll slit her throat right here in your hallowed halls.”
“And let your meal ticket bleed out in front of you?” I narrowed my eyes at him. “I don’t think you’ll do that, Ryman. If you do, you’re even stupider than you look.”
He ground his teeth. He obviously hadn’t allowed for running into me, or any of my staff; everyone in the palace now was a mage.
“Who is your informant?” I asked. My blood boiled at the idea of someone in my own palace selling secrets. Seff was trying to tell me something with her eyes, and it was then that I noticed the blood on the knife and Ryman’s hands.
“Someone you’d never guess in a thousand years,” Ryman said, his eyes wide. “They are loyal. And they have orders to hunt her down if something happens to me.”
“I can deal with your informant… trust me. Hand her over now, Ryman, and don’t make things worse for yourself.”
His trembling had increased. Seff had screwed up her little face in pain as the knife dug in further. “No!” he screamed suddenly. “You’ll not deprive me of this again. I’m sorry, Seffina, dear, but it seems as though Her High-and-Mightyness won’t let you pass intact,” he drew back and held the knife poised for the killing blow. I started forward with my fire in hand, but before I could do anything else, two solid ‘thunks’ echoed down the hallway.
Ryman paused, his expression almost puzzled. Suddenly he sagged and then fell to the floor, two long arrow shafts protruding from his back. Further down the hall, Eleanora lowered her bow.
“Eleanora,” I breathed, relief flooding through my veins. “Thank you.”
Seff ran at me and I scooped her up as the other woman started towards us. “It’s ok, you’re safe now,” I told her, stroking her hair. She kept trying to say something, but I was shaking too much to hear it. “We’ll get the informant.”
“No,” she said, and burst into tears. “He killed Ispin.”
The world spun as her words sank in.
“Where?” I heard myself ask stupidly.
“The library, please, go to him, you have to, you’re the queen, you can bring him back.”
“Eleanora. Take Seff to my quarters and bar yourself in. Kill anyone who approaches.”
She nodded and put her hand on my shoulder.
“Hurry.” Was all she said. As she and Seff hurried to my quarters, I sprinted in the other direction, shedding the green overdress of my gown as I went. It was made of heavy embroidery and therefore slowed me down.
My heart was thudding furiously as I entered the grand library. The muffled stillness was almost suffocating as I searched for my friend. The library was empty, hence Ryman’s opportunity.
“Ispin!” I cried, my voice echoing amongst the bookshelves. “Ispin, where are you?” There was someone lying in one of the study areas. I didn’t remember running to their side and dropping my knees, but suddenly my hands were on his chest, trying desperately to stop the bleeding from multiple stab wounds.
“Your Majesty,” he groaned, his glasses askew. “Seff-” “Don’t talk,” I commanded. “Eleanora has her, she’s safe, Ryman’s dead. I’m going to stitch you up, Ispin. You’re going to be fine.”<
br />
I blinked into my secondary vision. I could see his magic crowding around the wounds, trying desperately to knit them back together. I began to weave my healing magic, nowhere near the calibre of Dena’s, but it would stop the bleeding until I could summon her.
I worked steadily, my hands covered in my friend’s blood. I could see my own magic lacing the wounds together, and one by one I did them up until his torso shone with threads of my magic. I leant back on my heels and breathed out a sigh of relief. I was just about to revert to my normal vision when suddenly all of my healing unwound and the bleeding began anew.
“No,” I whispered. I summoned my healing again and started over, but something was stopping my magic from holding the wounds together.
The knife. Tears flooded down my cheeks. Ryman, the bastard, had cursed his knife before he stabbed him. No healing magic would work on these wounds.
Crying, beginning to lose control, I started over anyway. Ispin’s breathing was shallow and uneven. I was suddenly aware of someone falling beside me, and Rain’s hands joined mine in the frantic battle against the stab wounds.
“Why won’t they stay closed?” she asked, hysteria beginning to creep into her voice.
“The knife was cursed,” I sobbed. “I can’t… there’s nothing we can do, Rain.”
“You’re the queen,” she whispered, horrified. “Do something. Save him, Sky.” I clenched my fists together, Ispin’s blood squeezing from between my fingers. I summoned the lightning and stitched the wounds with that, the heat singing Ispin’s clothes. That held them together just long enough for our hopes to rise momentarily before they unravelled and the wounds re-opened.
Rain called desperately for Dena, for help, as I took one of Ispin’s cold hands in mine. His soul mate took the other.
“You’re not to be lonely,” he told Rain. “Petre loves you. You’re to be with him. Stop being so damn stubborn.”
She rested her forehead against his fingers, shaking. She nodded as tears rolled down her cheeks. “And, Sky,” he turned his eyes onto me, and I looked into their bronze depths. “There’s going to be another war. Fight with integrity, but don’t forget who you are. You will win, but there will be costs. I know you can do it.”
I nodded, fighting the urge to burst into hysterics and beg him not to go.
“Rain,” he turned back to the other girl. “I’ll always love you. You know that.”
“I love you too.” She whispered. Ispin’s eyes closed slowly, and suddenly Rain let out a cry as half of her soul was torn away. I dropped Ispin’s hand onto the rug as she cried, unable to process what had just happened.
I stood as the others entered. Dena fell to Ispin’s side immediately, but I knew what her diagnosis would be. I walked past them all, past Petre who had turned away with his hands over his face, past Yasmin who was weeping already, her hands on her mouth, past Theresa who watched silently, her expression unreadable.
My feet carried me towards the throne room, and without even processing it, I sat upon my throne in my bloodstained dress.
Ispin from Gowar, of house Sempton, who liked ships but lived too far inland to love them, who read until his eyes were bleary, who had had his hair plaited by Yasmin and stole looks at her when he thought we all weren’t looking. Rain’s soul mate, one of my closest friends, was dead.
I sat on that throne for hours, not feeling the cold seeping into my bones, not seeing the blood dry on my dress. My hands were sticky with it, and when I touched them to my face, found it there as well.
Dawn was breaking when I heard the throne room door open and close, and for one crazy second, I thought that Phoenix had returned, that this tragedy would stop the war. But when I looked up, I saw Jett waiting for me to acknowledge him.
“Rain means to sail back to the Tsalski Islands,” he began. “She would like to leave with your blessing.” “I mean to sail with her,” I said, my voice hoarse. I didn’t know when I’d decided this.
Jett frowned.
“You can’t run away from this, Sky. You have to face-” “I’m not running away,” I said sharply. I left my throne and stood on the dais. “If we’re to win this conflict, we will need the support of another country. The Tsalski Empire will stand to serve that purpose. When does Rain mean to leave?”
“Immediately,” his tone made it clear he disapproved. “Her soul mate’s body is being transferred back to his estate in Gowar, which is now in the North. Rain refuses to accompany it.”
I understood the implications of Ispin’s body being returned home, and Rain’s reluctance to go there. She might not be able to get back, and Castor was the only place ships sailed to the Islands.
“I’d best get my things together,” I murmured, and went to move past him, but he stopped me and put his hands on my shoulders.
“I’m so sorry, love.” My father held me as I began to weep anew into his shoulder. I clutched at his robes with bloodstained hands
as I felt the raw hurt of Ispin’s death and knew it wouldn’t be the last.
Epilogue
The ship was small and fast. Rain, my ladies in waiting and Seffina had been aboard for an hour by the time I arrived at the dock.
After Eleanora had taken Seff back to my chambers as I rushed to the library, she had barricaded them both in for hours. No one had come after the girl, and thus Ryman’s informer stayed hidden. I figured the only way to keep Seffina safe was to have her by me at all times.
I started up the gangway and then turned back, looking over the city I was leaving behind and my parents. They and the council would monitor the country and capital while I was gone. I didn’t know how long negotiations with the Emperor would take.
Far in the North, I could see the haze of a thousand fires. Those that opposed the King were running for the border that sliced my country in half, desperate to reach the safety of the capital.
As we were given the order to cast off, I could see desperation in the faces of those who’d come to see us off. If I failed to secure the Tsalski Empire’s support, we started off this tumult on the wrong foot.
The fresh air beckoned as we left the harbour, sweeping away the smoke of new war.
About the Author
Aprille Legacy is a twenty something who lives in Adelaide, South Australia. Soul Blaze is her second publication, following
Soul Fire (2013). Soul Inferno is due to be released 2015.
She is also eternally grateful to you for reading her book and desperately hopes that you enjoyed it.
Soul Fire and Soul Blaze can be found on Goodreads.com and on Amazon.com
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