Realms of Valen - Blasphemous Crusade (War of the Gods Book 2)

by Rickk Berry III

  Kai turned away from the window when there was a knock on her door.

  “Come in,” she said. The door opened and Echo stepped inside.

  “They're ready for you, dear. Though I'm not sure if the city is ready for the party afterward,” the kyrian said with a chuckle.

  “Oh?” Kai inquired.

  “Yes. Your father and Zathias have hit it off nicely and have been talking about arm wrestling. Your mother is frazzled, but hiding it well. Rykar's jokes are getting dirtier by the minute, and Malcade is only encouraging him. Also, Thorgrimm has already had three ales and I'm not even sure where he got them,” Echo reported, looking a tad exasperated.

  “We may have to rebuild Corrana again after tonight,” Kaidia joked.

  “That's what I'm afraid of,” Echo replied.

  “I'm sure it'll all be fine,” Kai reassured the kyrian.

  “Really? We have elven nobility in the same room with a dwarf who's well on his way to being drunk, a king of a rogue city-state, and, as soon as you walk in there, a damned god,” Echo said, her tone deadpan.

  “Don't forget good old King Rykar,” Kaidia added.

  “Don't remind me,” Echo groaned, then sighed, and looked Kaidia up and down. “At least you'll turn heads.”

  Kaidia glanced down at herself. Her black leather boots were brand new, as were the matching leather pants that were tailored to fit her, and the sleeveless tunic she wore was black with her rune, stitched in silver over the left side of her chest. It was a simple but striking ensemble.

  “Saying I look good?” Kai asked as she looked back up.

  “Yeah, I am,” Echo said with a saucy smile as she stepped closer. She was dressed similarly, though her clothing wasn't brand new and her tunic was bright red with long sleeves. Kaidia met the woman halfway across the room and hugged her close, a hand slipping down to stroke the kyrian's tail. Echo returned the embrace and huffed softly as she felt Kai's hand on her tail, but she couldn't keep the smile off her lips. Generally speaking, it annoyed her when someone touched her tail, but Kaidia had a free pass on that.

  Pulling away with a bit of reluctance, Echo sighed.

  “Time to do your thing,” she said.

  * * *

  Silence fell over the main chamber of the Dragon Temple when Kaidia made her appearance from a doorway at the right rear corner of the room. Generally, the tall, broad chamber with a vaulted ceiling was left devoid of furniture, but tonight, several long tables had been brought in, complete with a great many chairs for all of the guests. At the back of the room, centered for the best view of the chamber was an elevated dais. Kaidia ascended the stairs and stood in the middle of the raised platform. She felt mildly strange about the reverence shown toward her presence, but she brushed it off and beckoned to Nadia and Sae-Mirra.

  The pair separated from the crowd, holding hands as they walked up the steps of the dais to Kaidia. The god smiled at them.

  “You sure you're both ready for this? I mean, Sae, this is your last chance to save yourself,” Kaidia jested.

  “I think that ship sailed awhile ago,” Sae retorted with a light tone.

  “I think I should be insulted,” Nadia grumbled.

  Kaidia laughed, then beckoned to one of her acolytes who stepped forward with a folded, long black ribbon in his hands. He held it out to Kaidia who took it with a nod. The acolyte stepped away. Kai unfolded the ribbon, revealing that its ends were capped with polished silver. The very center of the ribbon bore a silver medallion that was etched with Kaidia's rune.

  “Alright, you two, left hands at your sides, clasp each others' right arms,” Kai instructed, her strong voice easily carrying to every corner of the chamber. Nadia and Sae clasped arms, each gripping the other's forearm near the elbow. Kaidia placed the center of the ribbon on their joined arms and slowly wrapped the ribbon around their forearms, symbolically binding them together.

  “With this ribbon, I, Kaidia Valengaard, God of Dragons, join you, Nadia Valengaard and you, Sae-Mirra of the Clan Riix, in a union of mutual love and respect. I wish you long life filled with affection, happiness, and prosperity for all your days,” Kaidia said. She had no set of words memorized, she simply spoke from the heart. “You are officially recognized as wife and wife.”

  Nadia and Sae both had silly grins born of happiness on their faces. Kaidia leaned in and whispered to them softly.

  “This is the part where you kiss with such passion that you make everyone in the room borderline uncomfortable.”

  The two women didn't need to be told twice, they leaned into one another, their free arms wrapped around one another, eyes closing as their lips met in a deep kiss that was long and sweet. It was met with a roar of approval and applause from the gathered crowd.

  Echo and several others with sorcerous skill were capturing the moment from several different angles to lay down on parchment for the happy couple. Kaidia stepped backward from them for a moment, emotions warring briefly within her. She was ecstatic for her sister and her friend, but she was feeling a pang of sadness as she thought back to the day she had been joined in a union ritual with Ashlin. She brushed it away, intent to not cast any sort of shadow on her sister's happiness.

  * * *

  Kaidia stood by herself near the doorway to the living quarters in the back of the temple. As her eyes scanned the room, she couldn't help but smile a little. Zathias and her father, Boreth, were arm wrestling at one of the tables that had been brought in for the feast that followed the union. The food was all but gone, however, plenty of drinks remained.

  Even the elven nobles had loosened up and were cheering with the rest of the crowd that was watching the contest. Both Zathias and Boreth were red in the face and seemed to be evenly matched. Kai's gaze moved on to Rykar and Thorgrimm sitting by themselves, drinking bottles of mead, and apparently deep in some very heavy conversation. On the same side of the room as Kaidia, but at the other end, Echo, Nadia, Sae-Mirra, Sage, and Kai's mother, Syren, stood in a circle, deep in discussion. About what, Kai didn't have the foggiest idea, but she was glad to see that Echo and Sage were getting along with her mother.

  Echo broke away from the group, walked over to Kaidia, and pecked her on the cheek.

  “What are you doing over here, all on your lonesome?” the kyrian asked.

  “Thinking,” Kai replied with a faint smile.

  “About?” Echo pried.

  “The war, the fight with the twins, and all that entails,” Kaidia answered.

  “Ah. And have you come to any grand conclusions?” Echo asked.

  “Yes, but that's a long conversation,” Kai responded.

  “We have ti-” Echo started, but was interrupted by a great crash. She and Kaidia both turned to seek out the cause of the noise. When they spotted it, Kai groaned and put her hand to her forehead.

  “Of course,” she muttered.

  The table on which Boreth and Zathias had been arm wrestling had given out under the strength of the two outrageously muscled men. It lay in splinters on the floor and both the Lord of Vortha and the King of Anklis looked rather surprised. Rykar, upon seeing the result of the arm wrestling match burst into a fit of laughter. Syren looked less than pleased and Sage was holding back a fit of her own laughter, silver eyes alight with amusement.

  “I don't think either of them knows their own strength,” Echo remarked.

  “Sure they do. They just don't know who's stronger and I don't think we have a surface in the whole city that would stand up to that test,” Kaidia retorted, a hint of a laugh in her voice.

  * * *

  Long after the guests had cleared out, Sae and Nadia had gone to make their bonding official, and everyone else had gone to sleep off the night's party, four people remained in the chamber. Rykar, Kaidia, Sage, and Echo sat at the end of one of the long tables, drinking and talking, enjoying the moment of not having to be a king, a god, a metalsmith, or a general.

  “I see rebuilding the city is going well,” Kaidia com
mented.

  “Aye. With help from a lot of mages, a lot of soldiers, and a lot of the people who live here. We should have it all back together this spring,” Rykar reported, obviously pleased.

  “Good. The people deserve it,” Kai said.

  “They do. And after the city is built, I'll be focusing on some building of my own,” Rykar said with a meaningful look to Sage, who returned with with a smile.

  “Going to make your relationship official?” Kaidia asked with a raised brow.

  “We might. But, we're having a child first, more than likely,” Sage said. Kaidia blinked, surprised.

  “You don't look pregnant,” she stated.

  “My kind never do,” Sage replied.

  “Your kind?” Echo asked, curious.

  “Yes. While I look human, I'm not. Not exactly, anyway. I'm one of the “deep people”, the Hrazengar,” Sage said.

  “That would explain your hair and your eyes,” Echo remarked. Kaidia sighed softly.

  “Okay. Someone fill me in. I've had way too much on my mind lately to keep up with everything,” Kaidia said.

  “The Hrazengar are people who live deep in the mountains and mostly underground. They're human, but different than your average human. They live longer, their eyes are metallic colors, their hair is always metallic, as well. It's said to be from all the minerals and metals deep in the mountains. They've lived down there for so long that they've adapted to such elements of their environment. They're skilled miners and metalsmiths, like the dwarves. You don't see many out in the world but they're not unheard of. They have to trade, after all. And some find they like it here and stay,” Echo explained.

  “And when we have children, it's difficult to tell when our women are pregnant, and the pregnancy only lasts a few weeks. We're a very industrious people and over time, things like pregnancy have evolved to be expedited in us,” Sage elaborated.

  “We'll have a little prince running about,” Rykar said, proud.

  “Congratulations, you two,” Kaidia said, then took a drink of her ale.

  “Thank you. So, when are you two going to be bonded?” Sage asked, looking between Echo and Kaidia.

  “I don't think we're there yet. Taking it slow,” Echo said.

  “Good idea. Get her too excited and everything starts exploding,” Rykar said with a chuckle. Kaidia fixed the man with a glare, which only made his grin broaden. Echo and Sage laughed.

  Silence settled on the group for a little while with each person drifting into their own thoughts before Rykar spoke up.

  “Kai, you seem more preoccupied than the rest of us. What's troubling you?” he asked, eyeing the woman.

  “I keep thinking over the events with Adathir, with Khamora and that army. It all seems a little strange to me,” Kaidia answered.

  “Strange, how?” Rykar asked.

  “Well, we've had how many centuries of peace, and then suddenly, out of the blue, two major events that threatened to turn the whole of Valen on its head. Something is off there. It's almost as if someone or something were prodding and pushing these events, molding them,” Kaidia explained.

  “I'll grant you, it's all been rather curious, but who or what could possibly shape such massive events?” Rykar inquired, looking around the table.

  “I don't know,” Echo stated.

  “Nor do I,” Sage agreed.

  “I can only think of one person with that kind of power, Kaidia. You. And we all know you weren't doing all that. So, we're back at square one,” Rykar said.

  “I suppose you're right, but I'm going to look into it,” Kaidia said. “Call it a gut feeling.”

  “Do what you have to. If you find something credible, you have the full backing of the crown, old friend,” Rykar said with a half smile.

  “Thank you,” Kaidia said before finishing her ale.

  “When and where will you start looking?” Sage questioned.

  “I don't know, but something will come to mind,” Kaidia said.

  “And I'll be there to help you,” Echo said, lifting Kai's hand and pressing a kiss to the god's palm.

  “Don't you have an army to be a general in?” Rykar asked.

  “My rank isn't the same to my people as it is to your own,” Echo replied. “If I am needed, they know how to get ahold of me.”

  “Ah,” Rykar acknowledged with a nod.

  Another short period of silence fell over the four, only to be broken by Sage.

  “It's late... or rather... very early. I think I'm going to head to the palace and turn in,” she said.

  “A wonderful idea,” Rykar said and stood after finishing his drink.

  “You two have a good night's sleep. We'll see you in the morning,” Sage said with a nod to both Kaidia and Echo. Kai raised her empty mug in return, Echo gave a nod. Together, they watched Rykar and Sage walk from the temple.

  * * *

  In Kaidia's quarters in the back of the temple, the god stood at the center window at the back wall of her room, staring out over the snowy city. Lights glimmered all over the place, the snow reflecting their brilliance and never quite letting night settle over the capitol of Haelstross. Her mind was busy, pondering over just where to start her search, what could possibly be the cause of all the calamity lately.

  Her brooding was halted by Echo's arms wrapping around her shoulders from behind, the warm embrace soothing to both Kai's mind and body.

  “Leave your dark thoughts, dragon. Come to bed with me,” the kyrian purred in Kai's ear. “I promise to keep your mind busy with much more pleasant contemplation.”

  Echo's fingers lifted the hem of Kai's shirt, exposing the god's flat, taut stomach to the air. Her fingernails shifted into sharp, long claws that she gently dragged along Kai's exposed skin in an attempt to seduce the woman away from the thinking that had soured her thoughts and mood.

  Kaidia smiled, appreciating the attempt with all her being, but shaking her head.

  “One thought keeps recurring more than any other, dear,” she said.

  “And what thought is that?” Echo asked, nibbling at her lover's shoulder.

  “That all this fighting and war that I've been through in the past few months is just the beginning. That I'm just getting started.”

  “After everything you've done in the past few months, who would be crazy enough to raise your ire?” Echo asked, taking Kaidia's wrist and pulling the god to the bed. Kai didn't have an answer until hours later, long after Echo had drifted off to sleep and left Kaidia staring into the shadows.

  “I don't know.”