by Rosie Scott
“I apologize for the climb,” Altan told us, as we finally reached the top floor of the castle, each of us breathing hard with the effort. “But Queen Tilda likes to be high up in the air, and queens get what they want.”
Jakan chuckled. “All of us love being high up,” he commented.
Altan snapped his fingers at the thief. “This is true.”
Kirek led us to the right and down the southern hall. The landings here barely felt like floors at all, since we were kept from falling through the many levels of the castle only by sheets of glass held between metal railings. It was as if we were floating over the rest of the palace on slabs of stone. I felt Azazel's hand come to my back, keeping me balanced as he noticed my dizziness of heights was getting the better of me.
Once we were out of the main hall and in the southern wing, however, some walls rose up on either side of us, leading to various rooms through steel doors. Everything was either stone or metal here, it seemed. After all, Jakan had told us that there were no forests in Eteri, and the country was blocked off from the wildlands in the south via a thick wall which was overlooked by two watchtowers. Even if the Vhiri had wanted to use the wood of the trees in the swamps to the south, it would have been inconvenient to do so. I had seen paper here, however, leading me to believe that most of the parchment in Eteri was gained in trade.
Vhiri guards lined the walls as we followed Kirek to the last door of the hall. The Sentinel came to a stop before it, before waiting a moment, and then knocking twice.
There were no words. A guard simply opened the door for us a moment later, and Kirek walked past him without a word, followed by Altan, and then our own group. A large room revealed itself around us, full of light, windows, and a group of people at the far end of it.
Queen Tilda's throne room was longer than it was wide, stretching far ahead, its huge windows along the walls of the castle making it feel as if we were in the midst of the clouds. A long table sat in the center of the room, which forced us to walk around it to get to her. It seemed as if the queen placed a lot of responsibility and pride on her Sentinels because it was almost like the extra seats in the room made it theirs as much as it was hers. Sconces were bolted into the actual glass of the windows, allowing the place to be well lit at night, which was helpful now as evening fell. To our left was the east, where the skies were darkening into a deep blue. To our right was the west, where the sun was boasting corals and oranges as it fell, making the entire room have a pinkish glow. As I watched, one of the men near the queen's throne turned to pull shades down over the windows, blocking out the worst of the sun's glare.
Queen Tilda was clearly many centuries old, for her skin was wrinkled with age, and her green eyes oozed wisdom and confidence. She watched us as we approached, unblinking. There were guards along the walls of the room, of course, but other than that, there were only two men. Mentally, I thought back to when Altan had said the names of the Sentinels to Kirek, and I'd remembered that he had listed three of them that should have been here in Mistral. Including himself and Kirek, there should have been five in the room, but there were only four.
I glanced behind me to the door, but the guards were closing it. Despite the queen requesting the presence of all of the Sentinels in Mistral, there was one missing, and no one seemed to care.
I felt Cerin's eyes on me as he tried to understand my concern, but I didn't wish to voice anything to him yet. We would have a chance to talk about this later.
“Kai Sera,” the queen smiled warmly, though it was only the warmth of faux politeness. Her voice was deep and calculated. “It is wonderful to finally make your acquaintance.”
I bowed slightly, as I had done many times in T'ahal. “The pleasure is mine.”
The queen lifted a hand toward my friends. “These are your renegades?” She questioned.
“They are.” I waited as the others introduced themselves.
“Ah,” Queen Tilda smiled as she looked over Cerin. “Cerin Heliot. How badly Sirius wants you dead. You nearly fooled me with your human ears.” When Cerin did not reply, the queen went on, “Tell me, Mr. Heliot...how long did you live in Glacia?”
“I have never been to Glacia,” Cerin replied. “My Icilic mother escaped it to live in Chairel with my human father, with whom she fell in love.”
The queen's smile did not fade as she asked, “Your people do not take kindly to such things. Where is your mother now?”
“She is dead,” Cerin replied shortly.
“And your father?”
“He is dead as well.”
“How do you feel about your people?” The queen questioned him next.
“I don't feel as if they are my people at all,” Cerin replied, moving a hand toward me and the others. “These are my people.”
Queen Tilda nodded slowly before she looked at me for a moment. Then, she swept an arm to the side, where the other two Sentinels waited. “Introduce yourselves to our guests.”
A light-skinned Vhiri man stepped forward first. He was slightly over six feet tall and had long blonde hair that was so light it shone white, and it was pulled back in a half-ponytail. He currently held no weapons, though the muscles of his arms gave away the fact he usually wielded a heavy one. “I am Uriel Anemone, the sixth Sentinel. I wield life magic and a spear. It is nice to meet you all.”
As Uriel stepped back, the other man came forward. He was slightly shorter than Uriel, though he still stood above six feet. His skin was a light gold which shimmered in the nearby light of the sunset. He had a head full of chocolate brown hair which was just long enough to fall before two blue eyes that were so light they nearly appeared silver. “My name is Cyrus Anil,” he said, his voice strong but reserved. “I am the second Sentinel. I wield water magic and katars.” With a nod, the man returned to his place.
I racked my mind for recent conversations of the Sentinels in Mistral. Bhaskar was the only one I hadn't seen who was supposed to be here. I decided not to stay quiet about it. My friends and I may have been kept in the dark about some things, but I wanted the queen to know I was able to pick up on the slightest details.
“Will we get to meet Bhaskar, as well?” I questioned.
The queen stared at me a moment before her eyes moved behind me to Kirek. I didn't hear the Sentinel say anything, though I noticed the two share looks. “In time,” the queen finally said, before a smile. “You are eager to begin diplomacy, I see.”
“I am eager to talk about how we may help each other,” I replied.
“Tell me, Kai...” Queen Tilda glanced down at the arm of her throne, where one long fingernail trailed over the stone. “What is it you seek in this war? The diplomats from Chairel told me many things, but quite frankly, I believe most of them to be bullshit. I have never liked your country, Kai. A country of mere humans cannot claim to be superior.”
“I am no mere human,” I replied.
The queen chuckled, liking my answer. “Ah. So I have heard. You are a goddess, correct? A goddess who seeks the extermination of the rest of her race?”
I lifted one eyebrow. “I do not seek the extermination of the gods. They seek my death, and I have defended myself.” I cleared my throat. “Kirek sounded surprised to hear of my accomplishments over the past few years because she claimed nothing had been heard of me since I left Nahara. How have you become aware of my fights with the other gods?”
Queen Tilda blinked once, then twice, before she decided to only smile again. “You have come to Eteri seeking a partnership in this war of yours, correct? Perhaps you should not be surprised we are powerful enough to have our eyes all over the globe.”
I waited a moment to reply, letting her words sink into my head. I thought of the gods we'd come across so far. Two of them had found me on this continent below the border separating Eteri from the wildlands, and as far as I knew Vertun headed back to Eteri after attempting to sink the Galleon Stallion farther south. It was suspicious that Vertun had known where we'd been at all.
“Why would you be working with the gods to kill me?” I finally questioned. “Surely a country as powerful as Eteri has no need of Sirius's gold.”
Queen Tilda laughed boisterously as if that was the funniest joke she'd ever heard. “We do not work with the gods, my dear. I will tell you this: we have been propositioned by a god or two for our aid in killing you.” The queen said all of this as if it were of no concern. “I told them the same thing I will tell you. There is no reason why Eteri would want you dead. At least, there never was a reason until Chairel decided not to take us at our word that we hadn't a clue to your whereabouts and declared war. If I were a vindictive woman, I might have wanted you dead simply for dragging us into this mess, but I am not. I love warfare, Kai, and that is something you and I have in common.” She paused. “I told the gods to take their offer and shove it because they have offered me nothing. You, on the other hand...” She trailed off, and one fingernail scraped audibly along the arm of her throne before it abruptly stopped. “You can offer me a great deal.”
I said nothing for the moment, a little perplexed by the conversation. The world had changed so much since the Battle of the Dead, and I had been blinded to most of it while underground.
“I have tens of thousands of soldiers under my command,” Queen Tilda continued after a moment. “I would gladly offer my aid to you in your takeover of Chairel, but I would expect much of you in return.”
I hesitated. Given how quickly the queen seemed to want to negotiate with me, I felt a little guarded. “What is it you would ask of me?”
She smiled. “Well, first of all, I would require you to work with my engineers to prepare my warships for a war unlike any they've ever seen. You have extensive knowledge of all schools of magic, so I've heard. My people deal only with elemental magic, and I have had a hard time finding someone who can create magic shields for my ships which will allow the giants to join us in war outside of my country. You are the goddess of magic, are you not? This is something you could do.”
I nodded slowly. “I will do my best. I have created spells before. I know illusion and alteration magic as well.”
Queen Tilda snapped her fingers. “Precisely what I wanted to hear, Kai! But that is not all I would expect of you.” She looked off to the side before she grinned. “You are aware that Chairel is allied with Hammerton. What is it you wish to do with that alliance once the dwarves rebel against you for your necromancy?”
“I will do nothing with the alliance,” I replied. “I will let it sit until the dwarves take action themselves, and then I will defend the land.”
“No no no no no,” she rambled, before a chuckle. “You cannot let yourself be so weak, my dear. You have a love for death magic, Kai, and the dwarven hatred of it runs deep. They will fight you for as long as they are able.”
I observed the queen carefully. “What is it you suggest I do?”
“Disable them, dear.” Queen Tilda lifted up an arm, before slicing a finger across her throat. “I can aid you in this war. With my armies, your necromancy, and your other allies, we will take Chairel by storm. But before I give you access to thousands upon thousands of battle-ready men and women, I want access to your skills, your loyalty, and your allies.”
“You want the dwarven land,” I murmured.
“I want every fucking inch of that land, dear.” The queen smiled at me as if we were old friends. “It will aid the both of us, you know. With the dwarves exterminated, Eteri will receive no further resistance from them, and they will not be able to resist necromancy's spread. And if Chairel does not have the aid of Hammerton, you will find it much easier to take.”
My head started to pound with an encroaching ache. “You are talking about wiping out an entire culture of people.”
Queen Tilda cocked her head toward me before she chuckled. “Yes. Yes, I am.”
Five
Ale was biting and sour as it slipped down my throat, the golden liquid following the same path of many gulps before it. I stared through the glass at the alcohol, attempting to dull the thousands of thoughts which flew through my mind, all fighting for precedence.
“Do you want me to stop you, or are you trying to get drunk?” Cerin questioned beside me, concerned. An ache grasped onto my heart. I hadn't meant to disappoint him. I hadn't been drunk for a number of years, ever since the talk Cerin and I had had in T'ahal about his father's alcoholism. In a way, my actions were constantly reminding the necromancer of his parents, and I felt shame for that. If I wasn't offering myself up in battle to try to gain an advantage in the same way his mother had died, I was turning to alcohol like his father.
I pushed the mug away from me so abruptly the liquid sloshed over the lip of it, before leaving a foamy trail down the glass and to the stone table. I felt everyone's eyes on me, and the conversation between my other friends had come to a stop.
Queen Tilda's words were at the forefront of my mind. I hadn't given the queen an answer yet, which was uncommon for me. Throughout the past few years, I'd heard nothing but positive things about a possible partnership with Eteri. I'd been told they would be quick to join me, for they loved their war. I'd been told that many of their goals aligned with mine. I knew that they would request many benefits from me because I couldn't expect access to their armies without offering them something in return. I just hadn't expected the cost to be this great.
I watched as Azazel turned my hand over to look at its palm since it sat empty on the table now. When the archer saw that the yellowing of my skin had subsided in the preceding weeks of sunlight, he let go, satisfied.
“Kai.” Anto's deep voice spoke from across the table, where his green skin was cast in a beautiful golden glow from the fire lights of the inn's tavern. “Something bothers you,” the orc went on. “Share your thoughts with us.”
I flicked my eyes over to Jakan and Nyx, who both had been joking together without a care in the world before the shoving of my mug had alerted them to the fact that anything was wrong. “I don't wish to be a downer.”
“But you will be one until you talk about it and get our take on things,” Nyx retorted. “If anything, telling us is only right. If all of us are considered members of the Seran Renegades, we deserve to know.”
Nyx knew just what to say to get me to act. She was right. Each of my friends risked their lives for me in this war; they deserved to know each and every one of my reservations.
“I desperately need Eteri's aid,” I murmured. “And Eteri wants to commit genocide.”
Cerin spoke up beside me. “Hammerton wants to commit it as well. Remember Vallen's story of the Narangar Conflict?”
“Yes...” I trailed off, uncertain.
“Are you unsure about this because of Bjorn's relationship with the dwarves?” Anto asked me, remembering our conversations in Thanati of Bjorn's upbringing. “Or is it the idea alone that bothers you?”
“Both,” I admitted, before a frown pulled my eyebrows toward one another. “Bjorn's love of the dwarves rubbed off onto me as a child. They are a hard-working, friendly people. They have their problems, but everyone does. Perhaps it was idealistic of me, but I hoped to eventually reason with them after the war.”
“Our alliance with Nahara will be strained if you do so,” Cerin reminded me. King Adar and the Naharans had a long history with the dwarves. It was one of the main reasons Nahara and Chairel had never been allies even when they'd had a peaceful relationship. Hammerton was more militarily powerful than Nahara because they were mostly safe from the beasts of the south due to the Border Mounts which served as a natural barrier between the lands. Nahara, on the other hand, had only ever had desert. It was a harsh enough land as it was, and they'd always been preoccupied with the beasts. Our presence there had alleviated that for a time, though I was sure the problems with the beasts were far from over. Most of the conflicts between Hammerton and Nahara were over land and resources, and Chairel had been smart about its role by offering the dwarves an alliance and offeri
ng the humans of the desert trade. That way, Chairel could emerge as the benevolent party of the three while reaping only the benefits.
That meant Cerin was right. I could not hope to keep peaceful relations with Nahara if I intended to become friendly with Hammerton unless the two countries were to form their own agreement, which was highly unlikely.
“Forgive me if I'm wrong,” Azazel spoke up, hesitantly, “but I didn't think the dwarves were a peaceful people. Everything I've heard of them leads me to believe that even if we were to attack them first, it would not be genocide. This is war. We did not kill all of those women of the underground because we wanted them eradicated, Kai. We killed them to remove a threat. The women who surrendered were spared.”
I nodded slowly. “You're right.”
“The dwarves will fight back. They're already fighting,” the archer continued. “Kirek said they are preparing to march on Nahara. You have spoken fondly of Hasani before. I am assuming you would seek to protect him like you guard us.”
“Yes.” My stomach clenched as I thought of Hasani having to deal with this threat alone. If I were to attack Hammerton with the armies of Eteri, it would alleviate the pressure on Nahara as the dwarves were forced to retreat to defend their land. I would be honoring two alliances at once, assuming I could work out a deal with Queen Tilda.
“Kai,” Nyx blurted, calling my attention to her. “You once said that Sera would be the hardest city to take in war. Why is that?”
“Its defenses are many and varied,” I replied. “In times of war, Sera is able to close its gates and defend its wall with a variety of things. Hot oil at the gates, towers holding archers and mages, not to mention the entire city sits on that mountain, so most of it is unreachable until you breach the walls to begin with. And it makes starving the city during a siege nearly impossible, though many have tried in the past. Their water reserves are gathered from the mountain run-offs beneath the city, and the food reserves are high given the constant tourism. Sera also has access to a variety of gardens which can continue to feed its people.” An exhale blew through my lips, causing a lock of bright red hair to float away from the burst of air. “As much as Bjorn wanted Sirius to keep dwarven siege weapons there, the request was never granted. Though I'd have to imagine that the war might change that, once Sirius becomes convinced that I will make the final move on Sera.”
