by Hurri Cosmo
However, instead of stopping several miles out, Aric pushed his people several hours. They would not make it all the way to the Ice Dragon Pass. He would not push them that hard. He sent runners back to make sure they were not being followed. He also sent two men back to keep a secretive, protective eye on Diagus as well. He understood the man was confident in his past dealings with his mother but Aric was convinced she was a murderer and when she was cornered, she would try to kill again--even her own son. The survival instinct was strong. He was not sure why she would have killed King Oxys in the first place, and that would be an important thing to know, but whatever the reason, it would have something to do with remaining in power, affluence with a person or people, or the spilling of secrets. If Diagus backed her up against a wall, she would definitely lash out. He didn't like Diagus. He hated what he imagined Diagus did to Joron, but his respect for him was a great deal higher than it had been when the front gates of Blade Rain loomed before him earlier that day. If nothing else, the man did truly love his brother. It wasn't a healthy love, but he wanted to keep Joron safe and he would count the man as a friend for at least that reason.
* * * *
Erora paced the large outer room of her suite. King Aric obviously ignored her request. Who did that? The man was not only a visiting royal and, from all appearances, snubbing his hostess, but the fact he came in secrecy as well was extremely rude. It was now the next day and it was clear he had no intention of even sending a reply message to her summons, much less presenting himself in front of her.
She had looked for him yesterday when she had finally decided she had waited long enough. Oddly enough, not only did she not find Aric, it seemed her son was missing as well. Were they together? The one place she didn't check was the servant's area but she had no intention of doing that herself. Instead she called for and sent her own people, but they had yet to return. She tapped her slippered foot impatiently, so lost in her thoughts the knock on her door startled her.
"Yes," she shouted.
A servant girl slinked in. "Your majesty...um..."
"Out with it."
"King Aric left the castle last night, my queen." The girl cowered, as if she expected Erora to beat her.
"What? Are you sure?"
"Y-yes, my queen. He...left last night...after he talked to the king..."
"Why wasn't I told? Why do I only find out now? You stupid woman." She slapped the servant across the face. "Get out of my sight, you worthless piece of shit."
"Yes." The servant cried and ran from the room.
"Damn it."
But there was one piece of good news. He hadn't come for Joron. That was the other thing, too. Where was Joron? She had yet to hear from her people on his whereabouts either. What was wrong with her servants? They had him. She had witnessed that herself seeing her four loyal guards leading that skinny excuse for a man, Kinnabe, and Joron off into the castle. But since then, nothing. Aric shows up to "talk" with Diagus and all communication in the castle, a network she relied on, goes to hell?
No news is good news, her mind whispered.
No. Not in this case. The fact Aric came and left so suddenly and now, after an entire day had marched by, the fact her own son seemed to be missing was also not only strange but incredibly irritating.
It...
It was all a lie.
She let out a small cry, suddenly realizing she had been tricked. The servants had manipulated her every move! And a directive like that could have only come from one person.
Well, she was not going to stand for this. She turned, intending on finding her son, but stopped dead in her tracks when she saw him standing in the doorway.
"Oh! Diagus." She turned away. "I have to admit, it's quite a shock you would visit me twice in as many days." She tamped down her anger at him for the moment. She would not retrieve the necessary answers if she approached him in that manner. "However, I am glad you are here. I have something I need to discuss." When Diagus said nothing and she detected no movement from him, she whipped back around. "Why are you standing there like an idiot? What's wrong?"
Diagus finally moved slowly away from the doorframe and took a few unhurried steps into the room. His eyes, hooded in what appeared to be anger, never left hers. "This is not a visit, Mother. This might be labeled an interrogation, but certainly not a visit."
Chapter 6
Erora's eyes grew larger, but only for a moment. "Interrogation?" She hazarded a smile.
What could her son possibly have to interrogate her for? Had he found out about Joron? Well, the boy certainly wasn't dead yet, since she'd made it extremely clear she was to be present when that happened. But still, she was sure Diagus had discovered him missing. She also knew there could be some issues with Diagus going forward, due to the boy's disappearance, but she would, of course, have no knowledge of it whatsoever. It was all part of the overall plan. She could play the virginal innocent very well when the situation and mood struck her. There was no way he could ever blame her, even if he suspected her. There was no evidence. And if you were going to accuse a queen, you sure as hell better have proof.
But knowing how he felt about the mangy little puppy, he still could get violent. However, that wasn't an issue, since two more of her very large, very loyal guards stood at the ready and would come to her aid if she simply stubbed her toe. All she had to do was call out. They already knew to protect her at all costs, even from the king. No, no, no, all was well.
"I don't know what you mean, darling." She drew her lips into a pout, expecting she looked "put upon" for obviously being falsely accused, no matter what the king had to "interrogate" her about.
"No, I'm sure you actually don't. I am quite sure you had no intention of letting anyone, much less me, find out about your crimes." He continued his slow lazy steps until he was standing directly in front of her. "But please, let me explain. Maybe you ought to sit down for this."
He gripped her shoulders and shoved her hard into the chair directly behind her. She let out a small shout, more out of surprise than pain, although his grip would leave bruises.
"It took a bit of time for me to find all of your cohorts," he continued. "But rest assured, the remaining offenders are being rounded up, even as we speak, and thrown into prison for treason."
"My...cohorts? Who..." Suddenly she understood. She rose from the chair Diagus had dumped her into, slowly at first, but as realization hit hard, she moved faster toward the door to her rooms, having first to push around her son. "Jack? Jack. Marion?"
"They're not there, Mother. No one is there anymore, save for my people. I don't know what you did to turn Jack and Marion against the crown, but they will be executed in the morning, along with the rest of your people."
"Executed? Why?"
"Why? You have the audacity to ask why? I just told you. Treason to the crown."
"What did they do?" Her voice had gone whispery and quiet. Her mind was doing somersaults, trying to grasp what her son could possibly know.
Diagus continued. "I'm getting to that, Mother dear. Let me also tell you it took a bit of time to find out the physicians for my father are all gone. They are no longer in the castle. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but haven't they been with the Amar family for generations, sons and grandsons and even great grandsons becoming doctors, one after another? Why is it they are all now gone, Mother? Surely you must know. Can you tell me?"
Erora simply stared at her son. Slowly she was beginning to understand her son was on a path that would ultimately end in her demise. What should she do? She had to stop this before it went too far. In the past, she was able to infiltrate, manipulate, and destroy, but this was her son. What could she do? "I...I don't know what... I heard that they..."
"Stop it! No more lies. I will tolerate no more lies--not from you, not from anyone. Did you honestly think you would get away with this, Mother? Did you think you could kill Joron and walk away? Did you think you could actually murder the king of Blade Rain and simp
ly walk away?"
"Kill...kill... Oh, Diagus...who have you been listening to?" So Joron was dead? And Diagus knew about his father? How?
"Enough! How long do you think your minions will hold out, Mother? How long? I'm thinking with the right incentive, not long at all. In fact, if I were a betting man, I would wager on the fact they'll talk very, very soon. And when they do, what do you think they will say? Will they tell me you ordered the death and disposal of the physicians who dutifully did your bidding and continued to poison my father until he died? Do you think they might remember where they disposed of those bodies, too? Are you sure they did exactly what you told them? There might be evidence left. What do you think? Again, Mother, what could you have possibly promised them in order to make them do such a dastardly deed? What could you, an ugly, used up, wrinkled, old woman, possibly have offered them to make them commit murder? Not only murder, but murder of their king."
"The...doctors were..." She could still recover. The sting of her son's words about her relit the fire. She could still save this situation. She only had to make her son understand she had nothing to do with the king's murder. She was sure the doctors would never be found, and if her so-called minions talked, that alone would not be enough evidence she was involved in any way. It would be her word against theirs and she was the queen. Yes. She could do this. She could turn this. "They...murdered Oxys? Is that why they couldn't figure out what was wrong with him? They were killing him? Diagus, why? Why would they do that and how do you know?"
The look of disgust on her son's face did not change. "Save it, Mother. I know your little games. You might be able to lead other people away from the truth but not me. You have to remember, I learned from the best."
"But, darling. You have to believe me. I had nothing to do with it."
"Believe you? Believe you? Really? What grieving widow goes and throws herself into the arms of a visiting king if she had nothing to do with her husband's death? My father is not in the ground, not fucking cold, and you're out there trying to bed another man. Believe me, Mother, when I tell you I know you are the one who 'did him in,' as it says in my father's letter to Tamusi, the very letter that brought him to Blade Rain. And soon, I will have the proof."
"Letter? Oxys wrote a letter...to Aric? It was to Aric? A letter that said I--"
"Yes. Tamusi didn't believe it at first but he finally brought it to me. As much as I wished I could have defended you, I couldn't. Why, Mother? Why did you kill him? He certainly didn't care that you were whoring yourself out to anything that breathed. He was doing the same thing. Was it the very misplaced and utterly ridiculous thought you had a chance with Tamusi? Did you honestly think by killing off my father, King Aric would run into your arms?"
It was over. Utterly and ridiculously over. As the last of her hope drained away, she had heard those words and applied them immediately. Yes. Utterly and ridiculously. They truly fit.
Now what? She'd broken her back over this. She had set this up so very long ago even she had trouble remembering all the details and reasons behind it. There was so much. There were her insatiable carnal needs. There was the fact her son was not the son of the king. She had not only killed her husband but others as well, including her own lover, Diagus's real father. She was even responsible for more than one of her husband's bastards not making it into this cruel world alive. She was sure she had more secrets that were milling around in her head somewhere, but at this moment in time, at this critical, grave moment in her life, her memories failed her. It was just as well, because it was over. Utterly and ridiculously. She stared at her son. Her son. He was king because of her. He carried absolutely no royal blood but he was still sitting on the throne of the most influential kingdom in the land and only because she had done what it took to keep the secrets--all of them--even the ones she couldn't remember at the moment. Was he not grateful for that?
Well, of course, he didn't know...
But Aric...Oxys had sent that damn letter to Aric. Oxys somehow must have had a moment of clarity and that was the reason. Did Oxys figure it out?
No. Oxys never knew. Then why the letter? She should have beaten it out of VenTorry. She should have tortured the fat asshole until he told her. He would have talked. But she never gave him the chance. She killed him before she knew, and he sent the letter and it was to Aric. It was the reason Aric had come in the first place. It had never been because he was in love with her. He wasn't searching for a bride, settling for her daughter because he perceived he couldn't have her. Oh the lies I've told myself. The lies I've believed. She had naively believed life, if manipulated, if chained and whipped, would behave. That, too, was nothing but a lie. Fate was a bastard and fortune was a bitch.
Well, she would go down--it was clear--but not alone.
"You're not the king." She couldn't help but say the words, as if they were a curse. In a way, they were. She reveled in the look those words put on Diagus's face. "You are the son of a duke. A lowly duke. Oxys never even fathered your sister. I have no idea who that was. I was whoring, as you put it, with so many at the time, but I let that old fool think he was the father. If he wasn't balls-deep with his pants around his ankles, he was knee deep in the spirits, and it didn't take much at all to make him believe anything! Oh, he doubted. He always had doubts. But once that trollop, Joron's mother, died, he didn't care anymore anyway--certainly not enough to check. So, you are not the king and, if truth be told, the real king should actually be Joron. But because I did what I did, that's why you are the king. Don't you see? I had to do it. I had to take all the obstacles out of the way and Oxys was one of them. He was a terrible king anyway. You know that. The people are much better off with you on the throne."
* * * *
"Enough! That is absolutely enough. Do you think it excuses what you did?" Diagus's voice was steady, angry, loud, but his stomach turned as if whatever he'd last eaten was trying to claw its way back out. He said the words, the words a king would say, that it didn't matter the result of the crime, sin was sin. Motive was only a powerful tool of conviction, not absolution. If he was king because of a crime--no, not only a crime, but a crime of high treason--he would have to step down. And knowing his mother made it all too easy to believe.
Oh, how that hurt. All his life he'd known he was going to sit on the throne. All his life he had been groomed for the job. He had watched what his father did, and Oxys taught him what a king was, if only by what one should not do. He had also watched Joron, his grace and beauty, at how the people bowed to him and loved him. Joron was not cut out for this job. He was too beautiful, too vulnerable. The traits that made him who he was would be destroyed if he had to take the throne. But then he realized it was no longer his decision to make.
He was no longer the king.
He never was.
He looked at his mother standing there, still believing she had some sort of power. She seemed to think she was still a force to be reckoned with, when in reality she was less than those that served her, less than even the clothes she wore. It surprised him, though, that he felt nothing for her. Anger, sure, but no fear for her, no remorse she would be soon lose her head for the highest treason there was. She had long ago destroyed any love he could have possibly felt for her.
"Guards!" he called. They entered then. Four big men.
Four?
"Wait a minute." Two of the men who entered he did not recognize. "Who are you?"
He noticed his mother shrank back as well, so she didn't know them either. He immediately put his hand on the hilt of his sword, but his man turned and waved him down.
"Your majesty. They are both guards ordered back by King Aric."
"What? That little..." Well, not little anything, but it was disturbing. "Why? I told him to take all of his men with him to protect Joron."
He heard a gasp from his mother. Of course. She would have believed Joron was still in her men's clutches. His heart lifted slightly at the thought she had failed there as well. Joron wa
s safe. At least, he'd better be.
The Tamusi guard who was closest stepped toward Diagus. Though he trusted the man was Aric's, he still took an involuntary step back. "Your majesty, he did, but when they were well outside the castle grounds, he sent us back to help guard you. We both offer our swords and our lives to you." And he nodded his head deeply, once.
"Fine. I accept. Now take her into custody."
His own man had kept an eye on the queen and now he said, "Gladly, sire."
It did seem overkill when the four big guards crowded into the room. After the initial misunderstanding, three went directly to her, and one of Tamusi's men stayed nearer Diagus. She certainly wouldn't try anything with these four to contend with, but he was not above using visuals to get a point across. He ruled. Not her.
Well, he used to rule anyway.
He wondered how much the guards had heard. Probably everything. Yet they were there, submitting to his command. But of course, they would take this cold-blooded killer into custody. They didn't need a king's words to make that happen. If they heard he was not the king, they would have heard this poor excuse for a queen killed the king. So, two of them took her by her arms, her mouth hanging open in obvious shock and turned to him. They still wanted to hear his next command.
"The dungeons. Her fate will be decided in the morning." He would no longer give her the satisfaction of even being addressed.
Now she found her voice, and it was loud and shrill and horrifying. They dragged her, kicking and screaming, threatening and cursing. He had already given the word to his own men prior to ever entering the room which particular dungeon room they were to use. It was separated from the rest--a dungeon room for the elite and powerful because even they go bad, as his mother had proved. They were separated, not necessarily because they were better accommodations, but more out of the concern for their occupants protection. Prisons were not safe places for anyone and less so for the upper class. But she didn't need to know that. All she needed to know was she was going to be locked up and tried in the morning. It was cruel, but he couldn't help but be thrilled at the fact she had to be thinking she would be put in with the rest of the criminals down in the bowels of the castle. He was sure it was a place she had never been.
