Dream of Darkness and Dominion

by Hilary Thompson

  Jyesh was sitting shirtless in bed with rumpled hair and a mug of steaming tea clutched in his hands. He blinked at her groggily. “Hello, sister. I seem to have had a bit too much of that glorious Riatan wine last night.”

  Coren glanced to Dain in question, but he gave nothing away. “I’m sorry we haven’t spent much time together. I mean to change that.”

  Jyesh took a sip of tea and waited, his face blank.

  She forged ahead. “I know you want to rule here. But your methods of ruling were taught by Mara, and I want to make a new Riata. One that’s fair to all its citizens. One that doesn’t conquer other countries just because they are small, or because they have something desirable.”

  “And you think the court will agree to that?” He laughed. “They don’t care about he citizens of enemy countries. They just want the wealth and luxury Mara has placated them with.”

  “They may also want a life free from the fear of cruel backlash,” she countered, even as she recognized she and Jyesh weren’t going to agree. “But we can discuss those matters later. I came to tell you that as it stands now, I could take full reign of Riata by force and have you chained in the dungeons before afternoon tea.”

  His eyes rounded at the unexpected threat, but then a sly smile hitched a corner of his lips. “Aggression. Now that, sister, I can respect.”

  Coren let out her breath. Maybe she knew her twin better than she’d thought. She hated to admit that Resh had been the one to inspire her threat; he enjoyed her power so much because he wanted his own. “But I’ve decided not to take Riata by force. Today the court will vote whether they want me as Queen.”

  Jyesh looked less interested in the idea of a vote. He set his mug aside and stretched, yawning.

  She glared at him, falling easily into big-sister mode, despite how many years it had been. “If you agree to help me and not go behind my back again like yesterday, I will allow your name on the ballot as well.”

  “Yesterday? I meant nothing by that.” He flicked his wrist as though it had truly been nothing.

  “Lying is nothing to be proud of.” Before he could sense her intent, she shifted a slim dagger from the bedpost beside his head and aimed it at his heart. As it hovered there with nothing more than magic, she rounded his bed.

  Grinning, Jyesh sat up. His deliberate movement pushed the dagger against his bare skin. “Do it,” he taunted.

  Coren wrapped her fingers around the dagger and pushed its tip a little harder, her eyes fixed on him. “I don’t take orders from you,” she bit out. Shifting the wooden weapon into nothing but dust on the blanket, she stepped back. “But again, I will ask for your help.”

  Jyesh cocked his head. “All right. Put my name on the ballot as an equal, and I’ll stop stirring the pot.”

  Coren turned to Dain. “How many are in the upper court?”

  “Four,” he replied. “And the four Generals.”

  “I want just those eight get votes - not the masses from dinner. Maybe in the future we can expand, but after yesterday’s attack, we all know this needs to be done quickly. If that works for you,” she added, looking at Jyesh.

  “It does. Now, I must get dressed, so leave. You should get dressed, too,” Jyesh said, standing and pulling the blanket around his naked waist.

  Coren looked down at her plain navy dress. “I am dressed.”

  Jyesh snorted. “You are not naked. But neither are you dressed. Take a cue from your Second Son lover and dress for the throne you want.”

  Coren struggled to resist a smile. Resh’s plan was working. “Fine,” she said. “What would you suggest?”

  “Riatan style, of course, so you appear more like them. Send for a Lady, flatter her, and borrow a dress. Or shift hers right off her back. Now go.”

  It didn’t take long to find a fancy Riatan dress, once Coren decided to ask for one. Soon, she and Jyesh were escorted to the throne room by a quad of guards, Sy and Resh following behind.

  The banquet tables had been cleared, and only the King’s throne sat on the dais. Coren realized the pile of black wood shoved to the side was Mara’s throne, and she smirked.

  “Bring two regular chairs, please,” she said to one of the guards. Of course, Jyesh had found heavy black robes somewhere, the edges encrusted with dark red crystal. His face, throat, and long, elegant fingers were pale for a Weshen. Against the black and white of the throne room, his haughty expression and dark, swept-back hair looked very much the part of a pampered prince.

  The guard added two chairs to the dais, and they seated themselves. Coren adjusted her dress nervously. The ridiculous thing draped low across her shoulders, heavy with beading and layered skirts, and the bodice laced tightly up her back. To think she had once coveted such dresses just for the luxury of impracticality.

  She admitted Resh’s grin when he saw her was almost worth the discomfort. Almost.

  The Generals and upper court arrived, sitting in a line directly before the dais. Sy and Resh stood near the guards, and Coren noticed both held tense grips on their weapons.

  As she scanned the eight faces before her, she struggled not to shrink from their gazes. She felt very young and inexperienced before them, and she wished she’d allowed the anonymity of the large crowd instead.

  She’d met Cusslen, Harben, and Noshaya by now. Lord Gernant, of course. The Lady and two other Lords were barely familiar. None of them were friends, except for Dain, and he was now just a single vote of eight.

  “Thank you all for coming,” Jyesh began, shooting her a pointed look.

  “Yes, thank you,” Coren repeated, noting he actually seemed to be helping her.

  Jyesh stood before she could continue, and she cursed her nerves. Maybe it would be better to let him speak first, though. Then she could counter whatever he said.

  “Friends,” Jyesh said, smiling like an old friend. “I spoke to several of you yesterday after the attack. Please remember, Queen Mara is likely to return. She will not let Riata go easily. Although my sister and I both have a blood claim to the throne, your Queen is unlikely to retaliate against me - her own protegee. But if she arrives to Corentine on the throne... she will not forgive the one who attacked Aram and stood by while Zorander was murdered. Your city will suffer for my sister’s deeds. Aren’t I am better suited to deal with Mara? Better experienced with the Brujok and with everything that comes my way as a normal course of ruling? I love my sister, but she is not suited for ruling.”

  Coren broke in, a firm hand on his shoulder as she pushed him aside. “I also spoke to you yesterday. I spoke to you hours after I gave everything I could in battle to save your city and your armies. I fought alongside General Watersend, and I saved many of his soldiers. Riata has spent decades antagonizing others. Certainly, those people will rise up and strike back, now that Mara is gone. While I was in battle, Jyesh was hiding. While I was telling you the truth of what happened on the docks, he was drunk in his bedroom. I don’t promise to be perfect. I was never trained to lead, and I will make mistakes. But that is what my upper court is for. That is what my Generals are for. Do you want to be lied to and placated and threatened? Or do you want to help me shape this kingdom?”

  She locked eyes with Resh across the room, and his intensity pulled a shiver across her shoulders. He smiled, and she nearly forgot what she was doing. She blinked away, her skin heating.

  Dain was nodding, and Noshaya was smiling as she bent to whisper something in Harben’s ear. A Lord and Lady were conferring in low voices. All were stealing glances at her, and so many of them looked impressed.

  Coren didn’t want to sit - she wanted to soar into the sky.

  She beckoned to a servant to begin handing out crisp, creamy ballots to each of them. “Cast your votes, please.”

  Dain was the first to push his folded paper beneath the lid of a carved wooden box, followed by Noshaya and Harben. Noshaya nodded at Coren as she passed, and Coren felt a thrill of triumph.

  Cusslen huffed and stood. “I
don’t wish to vote for either of you,” he said, and tossed his blank paper next to the box.

  “Oh, Cusslen, you old grump,” Noshaya said, laughing. He glared at her, but he sat back down.

  One of the Lords was arguing with the Lady, trying to write something on her ballot.

  “I didn’t marry you because of your mind. I have one of my own,” she retorted, ripping her paper from his grasp and flouncing to the box. She wrote Coren’s name on the ballot and held it up, smirking at her husband. Jyesh scowled, and Coren tried not to laugh.

  The Lord shambled to the box and grumbled something under his breath. The Lady gasped and snatched his paper as well, writing Coren’s name on it, too.

  “If you ever want to see anything besides my mind, you’ll vote for the girl,” she threatened. He turned as red as the Riatan flag, and she tugged him back to the chairs.

  Gernant rose, followed by the final Lord, and all the ballots were cast.

  “The decision has been made, sister,” Jyesh said as he slid her a tight, combative smile.

  Coren met his gaze. “Jyesh, I will always ask your opinion and expertise as someone who has spent time ruling. But for the sake of this kingdom, I pray they didn’t vote for the Lord of Witches to rule them. You’ve known too much cruelty to show them kindness, I think.”

  Though necessary, the words were hard to say, and their effect even harder to watch. Jyesh shuttered himself from her, anger marking every movement. Coren didn’t want dishonesty between them, but it seemed the truth only drove them farther apart.

  “Shall we count?” Noshaya asked, reaching for the box. The others crowded the dais as she opened the papers. It hadn’t exactly been anonymous, but at least everyone had been given a say.

  “Four votes for Corentine to rule alone,” Noshaya said, separating the papers. “Three votes for them to share power equally. And one blank.” She rolled her eyes at Cusslen.

  “Since it’s not a large majority, can we compromise?” Lord Gernant said. “Perhaps Corentine can rule as Queen, but Jyesh can be First Son. This way, if anything befalls our new Queen, we have a plan at the ready.”

  Coren didn’t like the tone of his words. It insinuated that something would happen to her. But the idea was sound enough, especially since she wasn’t planning on producing an heir anytime soon.

  “I’ll agree to that,” she said.

  “We weren’t asking,” Cusslen said gruffly. Noshaya elbowed him.

  “Anyone opposed?” Dain asked. No one spoke up, and he grinned at Coren. “All hail the Queen.”

  Her head spun, and she sank back into her chair. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jyesh had stomped off the dais and was nearly to the doors. Sy and two guards were heading after him.

  She looked back to Dain. They’d done it.

  By the Magi, she really was going to be Queen of Riata.

  “Are we free to go?” Gernant asked, breaking into her thoughts. “Most of us actually have daily tasks we attend to.”

  “Of course,” Coren said, shaking the daze from her head. She raised her voice. “Thank you all for the trust you’ve put in me. Please ask me for what you need, and I promise to seek your counsel very soon as we plan for the coming weeks.” Her voice was weak, and she cut the speech short.

  Gernant was halfway to the door anyway.

  The others began to scatter, forming pairs or trios as they made their way to the door. Some discussed heatedly, and others seemed to be only making jokes.

  Coren watched them all go, feeling suddenly out of place, like she had won a hollow victory. She would not be a puppet for any of these people, though. They may not feel like they needed her now, but she would not be a figurehead Queen.

  Resh sidled next to her. “It looks like you’ll need to rebuild that second throne,” he said, chuckling.

  She smiled. “I think I’ll keep Graeme’s. But I guess I can make one for Jyesh.”

  Resh made a dismissive noise, but Coren pulled the broken boards to her anyway. The remaining guards watched her with interest, but they made no move to stop her.

  She began to assemble the boards, fitting the large pieces with her hands and shifting their edges smoothly together. She copied the design from the King’s massive chair when she needed.

  But something wasn’t quite right when she’d finished. Her nails dug into the painted wood of the arm, and she became aware of an odd discrepancy in the sources between her fingers. She sensed the fibers of the wood, the slick sources of the lacquer.

  But there was something more. Her magic followed the contours of the carved arm and then stopped.

  There was a hollow cavity in the arm. “What are you hiding?” she murmured to herself.

  “What is it?” Resh asked, angling his body so the guards couldn’t see.

  Closing her eyes to concentrate, she found a cavity. There were other sources inside the wood - something hidden inside the chair itself. Her fingers spread the sources apart, dipping into the wood as though it were water, curling around something cylindrical and definitely not wooden.

  She drew it out and quickly shifted the arm of the chair back to its original state. She glanced to Resh. His eyes were shining with excitement. The object was an old journal of sorts, rolled and bound with thick twine. Her fingers struggled with the knots for several seconds before she huffed and dissipated the twine altogether. A puff of dust rose, and she rubbed at her eyes.

  The journal was too stiff to unroll easily, and the leather of its cover cracked as she tried to smooth it. The pages inside seemed blank but shadowed, as though someone had rubbed away the words long ago.

  There was an odd pulse to the book - a magical signature of sorts.

  “A talisman?” Resh asked, curving his fingers around its spine.

  “Would it have made Mara more powerful?” Coren asked. She knew little of talismans. She’d had her whip her whole life and never realized it was one.

  Resh shrugged. “We need to look at it more closely. Hide it from the guards, and let’s go.”

  Something in her clung to this discovery, though, wanting it just for herself. She quickly lifted a layer of her skirt and shifted the fabric beneath into a sort of pocket, hiding the journal. As she arranged the skirt to hide her find, a soft whisper seemed to sigh in her ear.

  She was Queen now. Queen of everything.

  The words danced in her ear, and she shivered. “Let’s go,” she agreed.

  The guards led the two of them back to the small bedroom. Almost as soon as they’d arrived, Dain delivered dinner and an apology. “After the coronation tomorrow, you’ll be free to move into any room in the palace,” Dain said. “The guards will be sworn to protect you, so you’ll be safer in that regard. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have much to attend to.”

  “Thank you for everything,” Coren added, reaching to squeeze his fingers within her own. He reddened, and his eyes flicked down. Coren tugged on his hand again, and he met her eyes once more. “Truly. Thank you,” she repeated.

  He nodded, a smile spreading across his handsome face. He pulled his fingers from hers and slipped out the door, and Coren breezed past Resh.

  “This dress has seen its last day,” she announced, swishing into the bath and clicking the door shut behind her.

  Hands trembling, she retrieved the journal from its hidden pocket. She knew she should share this with Resh, but she wanted it for herself, and the pull was irresistible.

  Shifting the dress apart at the seams, she stood naked in the bathing room. She didn’t really want to take another bath, but it would give her the time she wanted. Wrapping herself in an over-sized towel, she turned the faucet on and leaned against the wall with the book in her hands.

  Its pages fell open of their own accord, already much flatter than before. Coren bent her head to the pages and sucked in a breath as symbols began to form beneath her touch, rising to the white pages like soap bobbing to the milky surface of a bath.

  As the symbols became clear
, Coren marveled that they were both unfamiliar and readable.

  There was powerful magic in this book, and it called to her, stronger than anything she’d felt before.

  It felt neither dark nor light - simply powerful. She didn’t think it was a talisman. She guessed it was a tool.

  The water was high enough in the claw-footed tub, but Coren just turned off the faucet and slid to the floor, wrapping her shoulders in a towel as she flipped page after page, wondering at the slow appearance of each letter or symbol. Some were warped versions of numbers and letters she recognized, and others were tiny drawings of leaves or flowers. She saw one that looked like a sandjasmine flower and another like a bitebud.

  “Spells,” she whispered suddenly, realizing what she was looking at. She’d found a book of spells hidden in Mara’s throne. She barked a laugh and then clapped her hand over her mouth, hoping no one had heard her.

  Stiffly, she stood. The water in the tub had chilled, and she hurried to pull on a pair of loose pants and a long tunic Giddon had left for sleeping. Her stomach growled, but when she peeked out of the bathroom, she saw night had indeed fallen. The room was dark.

  A single candle burned on the table, where several plates of food were spread, along with enough dirtied dishes for her to know Sy had returned and they’d both eaten. She could just barely make out a form on the bed and another on the floor.

  Her heart twisted with guilt at how she’d ignored her friends so completely, and she vowed to tell them her secret soon.

  Padding to the bed, she quickly shifted a pocket into the edge of the mattress, just beneath her pillow, and she shoved the book inside.

  Chapter 14

  BURYING THE HUNDREDS of bodies had taken its toll on Nik, and he desperately needed some time to himself to let the emotions settle.

  The women had gathered in the kitchen for the night, and Nik suspected some of them had been drinking the fine liquor they’d found in Ashemon’s study. Nik didn’t blame them, but he wanted no part of liquor and the memories it always evoked.