Lucinda nodded.
The major-domo breathed in deeply and met Aurelia’s gaze. ‘I’m sorry too, this is my fault. I was the one who accused you. Without any proof. I was hurting. I had watched my Duke slowly waste away, then when I heard the word poison you were there, an easy scapegoat. I couldn’t accept any other explanation. But I didn’t think it through. Even now I wish it wasn’t Faibryn, but I know in my heart that it was.’
Aurelia smiled. ‘Thank you, Terietta.’ She reached out and embraced the older woman.
‘We need to talk about Faibryn,’ said Dante Tavular, cutting in. ‘Whatever we believe or don’t believe, his exclusion from this meeting is tantamount to treason in itself.’ There were a few murmurs of agreement around the chamber.
Lucinda was ready with an answer, but Nepheli’s father beat her to it. ‘If there’s one thing Argentor has always been, its controlled by the nobles. The people in this room.’ He stabbed at the stone table with a finger. ‘The Duke is a figurehead we allow to make decisions, until those decisions conflict with the best interests of the city. Faibryn is not even the Duke yet. I believe my daughter and Lady Nectris, he is a murderer. And if we believe that, then we should also believe his intention is not to defend this city. He is the one committing treason.’
Nepheli was glowing at her father.
Chancellor Larkisron was next. ‘The coronation cannot happen. If this is true,’ he held up his hands in supplication at the reaction to his words, ‘and I am also convinced it is, then the Dukedom is at an end. There is no longer an heir.’
‘The Premiers have taken power from corrupt Duke’s in the past,’ said Tavular. ‘We would be prepared to do so again.’ He was on side then, but also trying to see what he could get out of this. ‘We can hold the city in trust, until a new Duke is found.’
‘Our city’s history is littered with new hereditary lines of Dukes,’ added Ennius. ‘It is not an unbroken line of one family. Not like in Theris. We simply pick another family that we are happy to follow.’
‘And what do we do with the Marquis?’ asked Niles Fenilein, the lawyer. Aurelia wasn’t sure what she wanted to happen to Faibryn. Did she want him caught, run out of town? Jailed? Or maybe she should take the hard line, send him back to his mistress in pieces? That was how Noctiluca would have handled a traitor. ‘Legally he has no power,’ Niles continued, ‘as Opetreia put it, without us obeying him. The laws of Argentor are clear; we have never given full authority to the Duke.’
There was a mutter that spread across the chamber. No one seemed keen to make a suggestion.
Chrysaora attempted to answer the lawyer’s question. ‘Are we talking about killing him? Because I do not share this council’s reluctance. He is a traitor to your city, to all of you, and a murderer. He deserves to be lynched.’
‘That is not how we do things here,’ said Niles. ‘He must have a trial.’
‘You did not argue for a trial when it was Aurelia’s life,’ spat Chrysaora. ‘What is it, one rule for her and one for-?’ Aurelia tried to still Chrysaora’s fiery temper with a hand. She appreciated it, but she wasn’t sure it was helping.
The General stood again, cutting her off. ‘We are not talking about killing him. We find him and we place him under house arrest. Just as we did with Lady Nectris. If we survive the battle ahead, he will be put on trial.’ He looked back at Niles. ‘It will be for the lawyers to decide what happens to him.’
‘Then who leads us?’ asked the Baron, with his daughter Evangeline stood behind him. He sounded genuinely concerned. Looking at Ennius, he said, ‘Forgive me, but if I remember my history, each time we had to choose a new Duke was a period of civil unrest. Rioting, fires in the streets. Nobles were dragged from their homes and murdered. This is no time for that, not with what lies outside the city. We need a leader, we cannot run a war effort by committee.’
Nepheli nodded. ‘Baron Sepolis and my father make important points,’ she said, taking back the reins. ‘Discussing Faibryn is necessary, but if we don’t survive the coming battle, it’s somewhat pointless. This was meant to be a war council.’
‘We cannot hope to win against them,’ said Baron Sepolis. ‘You all heard the scout’s reports. Our army is too small, we occupy the low ground at the bottom of a valley. It will be a slaughter. Argentor has only survived by being many hundreds of miles from the Medusi for centuries.’
Nepheli continued, ignoring Sepolis’ fears. ‘When Aurelia first arrived, her intention was to source an army that would stand against the Medusi, an alliance that would first defend Argentor, and only when victorious, move to liberate Theris. She has never wavered from this.’ She looked over at Aurelia, her eyes almost pleading. ‘She has a plan for us to survive this.’ She looked at the Baron. ‘You asked who will lead us. We have someone here who has fought them and survived. Alone we might have been overrun, thralled even. But together, with someone who has experience of this type of battle, maybe we can prevail.’
‘But she is a foreigner!’ Sepolis spat.
Ennius answered. ‘Three of the last five Houses chosen to take up the Dukedom came from outside of Argentor. You have been run by foreigners for half your history.’
‘Don’t get fixated on the Dukedom,’ Nepheli urged. ‘This is a battle for survival. A temporary measure. For the next few days she is the most qualified for the role. And she has a plan to get us through. We can worry about the monarchy if we survive the week.’
All faces turned to Aurelia. Expectant faces, willing her to save them. Only an hour ago, she waited to be executed, now they wanted her to defend them. They had talked themselves out of a Duke and were now of the verge of talking themselves into…what was it if she led them now? Temporary emergency powers? She certainly wasn’t a Duchess? She had to help them make that final leap into agreement. Nepheli had given her the perfect springboard.
‘I do have a plan,’ she promised. She felt herself glow, finally able to pursue her original intent. ‘One that is straightforward and can be implemented in just a few short days. And I will share it with you. But I require full cooperation and unanimous commitment first. The Baron is right, I can’t have groups doing their own thing, splintered forces under different orders, getting in each other’s way. I especially can’t have anyone communicating with Faibryn. We must have a single vision, even if there are multiple moving parts.’ She decided to go all in, this was her best opportunity to achieve what she actually wanted. Not just to defend Argentor, but to fight back, to take the war to Noctiluca. She had nothing left to lose. ‘We are beginning something new here. An alliance between Argentor and Theris. We used to be in union, under an Empire that all believed in. This army will be something new, it will be the first to stand up against the Order of the Medousa. We will not be an Argentori army, or a Therian army. We will be the first army of humanity. Our enemy demands it.’
General Opetreia was the first to stand. ‘You have my sword, Aurelia of House Nectris. I pledge it to you. We will not survive otherwise.’ He drew the blade, held it out on open palms and bowed.
‘Thank you, General. Your service is accepted.’
‘The House of Opetreia also pledges its funds to the war effort. Any and all plans you have to defend this city; my coffers are open to you.’
‘And the city’s too,’ said Chancellor Larkisron, standing. ‘You have my support.’
One by one the officers behind Opetreia bowed and swore allegiance.
And just like that, Aurelia had the army she had sought since she had first followed behind the one creeping back to Argentor. It was temporary, and she would have to argue once again to take them to Theris one day, but for now it was done.
Niles Fenilein and Baron Sepolis both bowed, swearing their fealty. ‘We will rally the common men and women. They need to know who it is that’s going to save them.’
Next was the turn of the women of court. Meredith spoke up for them. ‘I don’t think we need to swear any kind of oath. We were the ones
who arranged this, on the strength of our bond with Nepheli. You still have a lot to prove, Aurelia. And should you betray our faith, I promise I will be the first to call for your blood. But we will not be what stands in your way. We will be the ones to rally the city.’
And lastly, the Premiers. Aurelia looked to Dante Tavular. She already knew Ennius’ heart. He had been with her since she was born.
‘You came before the Premier council,’ said Tavular, ‘and you shamed us. You told us the war with the Order was coming and that we didn’t want to be on the wrong side. And we ignored you.’ He stood up. ‘But today the Premiers will fight the Order once again. Their insidious tentacles have reached into the very highest echelons of our city and I will not accept it. The Premiers will support you, and the Primes I swear into your service.’ He bowed.
She had them all. Everything she had set out to achieve in Argentor was now at her fingertips. It hadn’t happened the way she’d envisioned – she’d thought she’d be a married woman at this point, directing the army through her husband, Lepitern. If it had played out that way, she might even have been pregnant by now. Funny how different reality can be from expectations.
‘I hope it wasn’t all empty rhetoric, Aurelia,’ Tavular ended with. ‘I hope you have a plan.’
Nepheli beamed at her. ‘This is unprecedented,’ she said. ‘A bloodless coup, we have willingly handed over control of our military to a former political prisoner.’ To a former enemy, Aurelia thought. ‘And only two days before a battle that could see the end of our city.’
‘Let’s not think like that,’ said Aurelia. ‘Thank you everyone.’ She looked around the chamber. She had thrown her final roll of the dice, bet so heavily on Nepheli that if her gamble had failed she would have been executed. But it had been successful. Nepheli had been convinced, in turn she had convinced the ladies of the court, who had convinced their husbands, their relatives. Now she had the army she needed. Now she could fight back. The chamber looked back at her, their newly appointed leader. Everyone was so eager for her to save them. I can save them, she knew. But can I win the battle ahead?
‘Now,’ she said, ‘is where I tell you how indefensible Argentor really is. Your city has a long history studded with just a scant few military engagements. Even the recent war was fought far from here. Your city was built for trade and wealth. You have bridges and aqueducts and beautiful architecture, but you do not have the infrastructure, the foundation for a battle.
‘There will be no siege, not like the one I maintained in Theris – you have no walls, and we can’t build them in two days. Paddy fields and hills will not stop the Medusi assault. And you know what happens when the Medusi get in amongst the buildings. You all saw the destruction just the other month, and that was just a few that made it inside.’
She thought of when she had been about to discuss her plans with Faibryn just a few weeks earlier, but had kept her own counsel. How fortuitous that decision had been.
‘I have plans for a defence, things that will only take a few days to build and put together. But the crux of this plan is that we take the fight to them,’ she said. ‘We will take the army out onto the open grasslands to the south, between the Medousa’s army and the city. We will occupy the high ground that way, set ourselves up on the ridge. We will rain down everything we have and kill as many Medusi and thralled as possible. We will keep the battle away from the people, because it’s people the Medousa wants. Its thralls she wants.’
‘Tell us what you need,’ said General Opetreia.
She knew they wouldn’t like what she had to say next; the plan was an audacious one that would be hard to swollen for fifty proud nobles.
But it was the only way. They had to accept that. It was why she’d started with how indefensible the city really was.
‘Let me show you,’ said Aurelia, gathering her strength, ‘how we will save our people.’
Chapter Thirty Seven
Totelun
Totelun felt powerless, impotent. Marched out of the court assembly shell, he followed behind the matriarchs as they led a procession over the wide thoroughfares of Reunalis. The citizens of the city had turned out to watch as Cassandra, a persecuted Medusi witch, was paraded by; the elites and the court representatives were in a minority. Fully cut off from the outside world, there was no trade into the city as there had been into Theris, there was little to make it wealthy apart from the sweat and toil of the underclasses. He saw no affluent merchants, but there were scruffy fisherman aplenty wearing the same clothes for months on end. He saw few ladies of noble birth and beauty, but every dirty corner sheltered a sad-eyed whore clutching a shawl to cover herself, or with her hand on the shoulder of a grubby-faced child. Many others had no one to hold them back, and watched the procession in slack-jawed stupor.
And everywhere the smell of decaying sea life.
A city of sweeping coral that he had thought so beautiful as he’d soared down on it from the back of a Thunwing, now seemed built on a foundation of lies, filth and archaic practices. The beauty was only skin-deep and he chastised himself that it had taken Cassandra being punished by its laws to have his eyes opened to the truth.
Kasimir, striding along next to Totelun, with his hand holding the manacle about Totelun’s wrists, caught his look of distain. ‘You look down on us.’
It wasn’t a question, and Totelun didn’t respond. The young man had lived his whole life here and would not understand what Totelun saw.
‘You are from out there,’ said the soldier. ‘Beyond our borders. Of course you look down on us. We have nothing here.’ Maybe he could see it? ‘How far do you think I have flown my Thunwing?’
Totelun looked at him, frowning.
‘I have never seen another city. I have never been out of sight of the chasm. We fly up, we keep watch, and that is all. I am the greatest rider in Reunalis, and I have only flown in circles. But you…’ He left it hanging, but Totelun didn’t pick it up. He was still too sullen, thinking on the treatment they had received, worrying about the Nepenth that they were being led too, what this execution entailed. His mind sought for a means out of this. Was there a way? ‘You fought a Celestial and killed it. You came from the Floating Islands. You must look at us and think we are small. So small.’
‘You want to leave?’ Totelun said bluntly.
Kasimir’s eyed darted to his mother and the other Matriarchs striding proudly ahead. He did not want to be overheard by them or the other escorts. He said, ‘We cannot leave. The law forbids it,’ but his words were at war with his eyes.
‘Your laws can take a running leap,’ said Totelun, angrily. ‘You want to leave? Then leave.’
‘I would not be able to return. I would be banished forever. Outcast.’
Despite his words, Kasimir didn’t see what Totelun saw. Cassandra and his arrival meant the end of their laws, they were the end of their secluded little world. He’d ruined it; these people could never go back to pretending the world above didn’t exist. They could never again stop their young men and women from wanting to see where Totelun and Cassandra had come from. They had thought that the world above was dead, that the apocalypse Totelun was trying to prevent had already happened; now they knew better. And that would destroy everything those crusty old Matriarchs still held over them.
He just had to survive, and make sure Cassandra survived, long enough for it to blow wide open. He looked at Kasimir. Maybe he can help it along? ‘Your outlook has just changed. You know there is a whole world out there now. Help me, stop this execution. Talk to your mother. Make the old one, Opal, see reason. Because if you don’t, your world will close back up around you, and that freedom you can smell out there, the fresh air above, will be taken from you.’
Kasimir said nothing, but it was clear he was thinking on Totelun’s words. There was no time to convince him further; they had arrived.
The Matriarchs led Cassandra out onto a lumpy shelf of dark and quite solid magenta coral pressed into the cave d
epths. The main entourage hung back and Totelun was forced to stay with them, as Cassandra and one young pike man carried on further. Ahead of her, Totelun could see the terrain was pocked with dark holes like the bore holes in a tree, that glistened, shiny and damp. He did not want to see what came out of them.
The pike man had a strange contraption shaped like a tube which, when he activated it, pumped out a fine spray of seawater; wherever it touched the coral, spindly tendrils as tall as Cassandra reacted, poking from the holes, wriggling toward the source of the water.
Is this whole thing the Nepenth? Are we standing on it?
Opal cleared her throat. ‘Cassandra, you have been revealed as a thrall, a grave transgression against nature and the laws of Reunalis.’ Totelun could see Cassandra straining to read Opal’s lips as she spoke, and wondered how much of this she was following. Something was about to happen to her and he wasn’t sure whether it was better she know, or remain in ignorance. ‘A thrall is an affront to everything our society values, what our ancestors sought to free us from when they founded our city. Your crime is so severe, the punishment is death.’
Totelun struggled against Kasimir, but the rider’s hold on his shoulder was strong.
‘It’s now or never,’ he said, glaring at the pilot.
Opal continued. ‘You are to be fed to the ancient Nepenth, where your magic will be nullified. Step into the fronds,’ she commanded.
Don’t step into the fronds, thought Totelun. Whatever you do.
Cassandra looked over. He was sure she was looking directly at him, but whatever message she wanted to get across was lost.
‘Now,’ barked Opal.
Cassandra turned and stoically took two steps forward. The pike man was ready to prod her if necessary, but Totelun could see she was bravely following the instruction. She stood at the edge of one of the holes, five or so tentacles writhing before her out of the dark maw.
Embrace of the Medusi (The Overlords Trilogy Book 2) Page 51
