“Are you surprised?” Kristoff asked him. “After I told you about the three attempts already made on my Lady’s life—one of them right outside your Council Room yesterday? And to that I must add a fourth as her drinking vessel exploded in her hands yesterday just as she was about to take a sip of langra tea.”
“All this is most shocking and dreadful,” Head Councilor Tannus interrupted, frowning. “But it is not the reason we are gathered here in the Great Hall today. We are here that the Trials of Ascendancy may be completed by both candidates for Goddess-Empress. Are the candidates ready to begin?”
I could see Kristoff scowling at the way the Head Councilor was ignoring the issue of the many assassination attempts that had been made against me. The youngest Councilor still looked outraged and I thought a few of the others looked distinctly uncomfortable. But no one moved to contradict the Head Councilor when he changed the subject to get down to business.
Eucilla stepped forward, brushing a lock of platinum blonde hair gracefully out of her lovely face.
“I am ready to prove I am the True Incarnation, oh honorable Councilor,” she said in a clear, well-modulated voice. She held her chin high and today she was wearing a pure emerald dress that set off her eyes perfectly. Her feet were strapped into extremely high heels that made her six inches taller—she towered over me in my bare feet, making me feel like a shrimp.
“Remember,” Kristoff murmured in my ear. “You are the True Incarnation, Charlotte. Step forward and claim your place without fear.”
“I’m, uh, ready too,” I said, taking a step forward as he’d said and trying not to sound as nervous and unsure of myself as I felt.
“Very well.” The Head Councilor banged on the podium-table with the fist-sized pink crystal which seemed to be a kind of gavel. “Then let us adjourn to the Testing Suite, which has been made ready for you.”
My honor guard surrounded me once more and with Kristoff by my side, we all marched out of the Grand Hall and then down the broad main hallway for what seemed like forever.
At last we came to a smaller offshoot—a dim side passage that looked like it didn’t get much use. Here the Head Councilor stopped the whole procession and raised a hand over his head for silence. The crowd of Majoran nobility slowly stopped talking and waited expectantly.
“This is the corridor of the Trials,” he said, his voice carrying surprisingly well in the packed hallway. “It is forbidden for any save the candidates, their companions, and the Council of Wisdom to enter and see the Trials.”
There were grumbles of disappointment but I got the feeling the Majoran nobles and Royals weren’t that surprised. Myself, I was relieved. I didn’t want all these strangers watching me do…whatever it was I was going to have to do. Plus, there was no Earthly way they could all fit into the much smaller passageway we were about to enter.
“Come,” Kristoff said, taking my arm firmly as the Head Councilor led the way into the dim corridor.
We were behind Morbain and Eucilla and they were so tall I couldn’t see around them but soon we stopped and the Head Councilor turned to face us.
“Back, please—away from the Trial doors,” he said, motioning peremptorily at us.
Once everyone took a step back, against the right wall of the corridor, I saw that the left wall had three doors in it at widely spaced intervals.
“Three Trials of Ascendancy have been ordained for the finding and delineation of the True Incarnation,” Head Councilor Tannus said, his bushy blue-black eyebrows drawing low on his forehead. “They should be sufficient but if for some reason there is no clear choice…we do have the fourth.”
Some of the other Councilors sucked in their breath at this and looked at him uncertainly. I looked at Kristoff to see if this meant anything to him but he merely stared straight ahead, his handsome face impossible to read.
God, I really wished he would have briefed me on what was about to happen!
“And now for the first Trial,” the Head Councilor said. “That of the Orb and Scepter.”
“I believe Eucilla should be allowed to go first,” Morbain said, stepping forward.
I looked at Kristoff to see if he was going to object but he simply nodded serenely. “Let her.”
“Very well.” Casting a somewhat uncertain look at Kristoff, Prince Morbain stepped forward, holding Eucilla by the elbow. “Go, my dear—claim what is rightfully yours. What you have already claimed once before,” he said, raising his voice grandly so that it carried out to the waiting nobility beyond the small corridor.
“As it is agreed, the Lady Eucilla shall have the first Trial,” the Head Councilor said. Stepping forward, he opened the wide, black door outlined in gold. “And Lady, ahem—I am sorry, what was your name again?” He stared down his nose at me.
“Charlotte,” I said, beginning to get sick of his arrogant bullshit. “Charlotte Walker.”
“Yes, well—Lady Charlotte then—you may stand in the doorway and watch. After Lady Eucilla has had her turn, it will be your time to enter.”
“But what are we supposed to do in there?” I asked as Eucilla walked through the door, as stately as a queen. “I don’t know anything about any of this.”
“You require an explanation?” His bushy eyebrows went up in disbelief.
“I’d like one, yes,” I said, trying to keep the irritation I felt out of my voice. “Along with a little courtesy. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”
“Oh, very well.” He rolled his eyes as though I was being childish by asking. “Within the first Trial room is the royal Orb and Scepter—those implements which the Goddess-Empress holds as she sits upon the Golden Throne. The Orb and Scepter are imbued with sentience and they long for the touch of the true Goddess-Empress’s hand. In fact, it is said that they will fly from their pedestal to the hand of their true mistress the moment she steps into their immediate vicinity. Watch,” he added, motioning at my competitor.
Eucilla had taken a step into the long room which was bare except for the rich gold and crimson pattern that completely covered the walls and made it look like the inside of a Faberge egg. At the end of the small, jewel-like area was a pedestal with two black silk cushions on it.
On one cushion was lying a large gold implement about the size of a baseball bat. It had a ruby as big as my fist on one end. On the other cushion was what looked like an immense crimson-red pearl about the size of a soccer ball. It was encrusted all over with diamonds and trimmed with gold, making it glitter and gleam like an exotic, expensive fruit in the dim, warm light.
“Wow,” I breathed, looking up at Kristoff. “And those are supposed to fly to my hands the minute I walk in the room?”
“They will fly to the True Incarnation’s hands,” the Head Councilor sneered, correcting me rudely.
“Charlotte is the True Incarnation, Councilor,” Kristoff said, his voice filled with quiet menace. “I’d have a care how I spoke to the future Empress if I were you.”
The Head Councilor opened his mouth to retort but just then Eucilla took another step towards the pedestal and both the Orb and Scepter jerked up from their black silk cushions and flew to her waiting hands.
“You see?” Morbain exclaimed triumphantly. “And that is exactly what happened yesterday! Which is why we should stop this travesty right now and invest Eucilla as the True Incarnation.”
I looked at Kristoff whose rainbow eyes were narrowed. What was going on here? He’d told me that I was the True Incarnation of the Goddess-Empress. So then, why had the Orb and Scepter flown to Eucilla?
“Let the Trial continue,” he said, frowning at the Head Councilor. “It is now time for my Lady Charlotte to enter the chamber.”
“But…” I looked at him uncertainly. “But they already…” I gestured at Eucilla, who was standing there holding the Scepter in one hand and the Orb in the other, looking unbearably smug.
“Go on, Charlotte,” he said in a low voice. “All will be made clear. You will see.”
>
Hesitantly, I stepped into the small room. The floor and ceiling were the same gold and red pattern as the walls, which only contributed to the feeling of being inside a Faberge egg or else a very large jewelry box.
I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to do, since the Royal implements had already flown over to Eucilla. So I just took a few steps inside the door and stopped there, staring at her.
“Put out your hands,” Kristoff instructed me. “Call them to you.”
“Um…okay.” Feeling like a fool, I turned towards Eucilla, who was giving me a distinctly unfriendly look, and held out my hands to her—or rather, to the objects she held.
“Here guys,” I said, looking at the golden baseball bat and the diamond encrusted soccer ball. “Come here now.”
I sounded like I was calling dogs at the park and for a minute I felt ridiculous. Then something strange started to happen.
I saw Eucilla stiffen and quiver. The knuckles of the hand holding the Scepter tightened and went white and she clutched the Orb to her chest, her long fingernails digging in between the diamonds. Her whole body seemed to shake all over, as though from effort.
And then, suddenly, the Orb broke free and came whizzing at my head like a bad pitch gone wild.
I gasped and ducked but it didn’t hit me. Instead it waited until I straightened up and then nudged my arm gently, like an animal wanting attention.
“Oh…okay.” I held out my open hand and it settled in my palm like a tame bird. I ran my hands over it wonderingly—I had never seen so many diamonds all in one place in my entire life—except in movies about the mob, of course.
Aside from the diamonds, there was something strange on the Orb. I frowned as I brought my hand away and a thin string of nearly invisible, gluey substance extended from the Orb’s jeweled surface to my fingertips.
“What the—” I began to mutter but just then I heard a muffled shriek and looked up.
Eucilla was still trying to hold the scepter—hanging onto it with both hands now as it whirled around like a possessed baseball bat.
“Don’t let go!” I heard Prince Morbain hiss at her in a low voice. “Don’t let go!”
But the Scepter apparently decided that it had had enough. Rising up high, it came straight down, giving Eucilla three sharp raps on the top of her head with the sharp ruby-knob on its end. Since she was still holding it by the handle, it looked bizarrely like she had decided to hit herself in the head with it, but I didn’t think that was the case.
At the last blow, she gasped and let the Scepter go free. It came whizzing at me too, just like the Orb had. I almost ducked again, but then I decided to hold my ground.
Sure enough, the Scepter came to a stop before me, hovering in midair, and nudged me very gently on the arm. I held out a hand and the long golden handle of it fitted neatly into my palm.
The Scepter was very heavy and I noticed that it, too, had the same gluey strings that had been on the Orb. But even as I opened my palm to examine them, the sticky strings melted away, leaving no evidence that they had ever been there in the first place.
“Nothing. This means nothing!” Prince Morbain was declaring as Eucilla rubbed the top of her head and glared at me as if I had knocked her over the head with the Scepter myself. “Let the Trials continue! It is our right to have all three Trials!”
“Of course he says that now,” Kristoff said, coming up beside me to murmur in my ear. “Though I’m certain it was a different story yesterday when he somehow made it appear that the Scepter and Orb had an affinity for the imposter.”
“There was some kind of transparent, gluey strings on both of them,” I said, nodding down at the implements in my hands.
They hummed with life and I felt as though I was holding two very excited dogs who were just barely keeping themselves under control. You know how it is when a dog is really, really happy to see you but you tell it to stay, so it does, but its tail is still wagging like crazy? It was like that.
“That would certainly explain how Morbain made it appear that the implements had an affinity for Eucilla when they didn’t.” Kristoff sounded thoughtful.
“My Lady Charlotte,” the Head Councilor interrupted, giving me an irritated look. “If you would be so kind as to place the implements back in their respective resting places so that the Trials can continue?”
“Oh, sure. Sorry,” I said. Going back to the pedestal with its golden lighting and two black silk pillows, I placed the Orb and the Scepter gently back in their places.
Both of them popped up again and began to hover after me, for all the world like dogs that can’t stand it when their master is about to leave.
“No, no, you guys,” I said sternly. “I need you to stay. Stay.” It should have felt weird to be talking to inanimate objects except these objects weren’t inanimate. I got the distinct impression that they had thoughts and personalities. Not very complex thoughts, to be sure, but still, they weren’t your ordinary, run-of-the-mill Royal implements either.
The Orb and Scepter stopped in mid-hover and then slunk back to their cushions, like dogs with their tales between their legs.
“Good boys,” I told them, hoping to take the sting out of my scolding. “I’ll see you later, I’m sure.”
“You mean you hope you will,” Eucilla hissed at me. She had stopped rubbing the top of her head but her lovely mouth was twisted up as though she’d been sucking lemons. “The only way you’ll see the Orb and Scepter again is when I am holding them as I sit on the Golden Throne,” she added.
“I don’t know,” I said blandly. “I could be wrong but it didn’t seem to me that they wanted to be held by you. I mean, if that whole knocking you in the head thing was any indication.”
“You…you little off-worlder beggar,” she spat, as though it was the worst insult she could think of. “You’ll see—I’m the True Incarnation! I’ve known it since I was a child. I was raised to be the next Goddess-Empress.”
“Indeed you were, my sweet. Now come, the second Trial is about to begin.” Prince Morbain took her by the arm and led her from the room.
Kristoff took my arm as well.
“What’s next?” I asked, under my breath.
“You’ll see,” he said obliquely. “Just remember that you are in no danger. Do whatever is asked of you and do not fear.”
It was the second time he had told me not to be afraid, which made me really nervous. The Orb and Scepter Trial had been easy but we still had two more to go—three, if the Councilors decided to include the dreaded fourth Trial, whatever that was. What was coming up next?
I didn’t have long to wonder.
“This is the Trial of Flame and Scale,” the Head Councilor intoned, when we were all standing before the second door. “Within this chamber lives the Royal fire drake—a living symbol of the unbroken line of succession dating from the very first Goddess-Empress, Sundalla the First. The drake will tolerate only the touch of the True Incarnation. Your Trial is to go into the chamber and touch the scales of the Drake, then return.”
“Once again, I feel Eucilla should go first,” Morbain said importantly.
“Actually, both candidates may complete this Trial at the same time,” the Head Councilor said. “But it is absolutely forbidden for anyone else to enter the chamber.”
“A fire drake?” I said, turning to Kristoff. “Is that what I think it is? I mean, it’s been a good long time since I went to the Renaissance Fair but that sounds an awful lot like a dragon.”
“I don’t know what a dragon is,” he murmured back. “But I do know that nothing in that chamber will hurt you, my Lady.”
“But—”
“Are you ready, candidates?” the Head Councilor asked, his hand on the golden doorknob.
“Yes, of course we are, Head Councilor,” Morbain said smoothly. He turned to Eucilla and I heard him murmuring, “Remember, it’s most likely sleeping. Just go in quickly and quietly, touch the tip of its tail, and come straight back.”
>
“But why must I be quiet?” I heard her ask petulantly. “I am the True Incarnation—you said so yourself, Morbain! Surely the drake will not hurt me.”
“Just do as I say,” he hissed. “And be quick about it.”
The Head Councilor opened the door and Morbain all but pushed her inside.
Of course Kristoff didn’t push me—I stepped across the threshold myself, with no idea of what I could expect to find.
Inside it was much larger than the first, small jewel-box room. In fact, I estimated it was about the size of a football field. There was nothing in it but a high, green hill that gleamed in the dull light, with two large trees on either side of it.
I looked around for the fire drake but I didn’t see anything even remotely resembling a dragon. Could it be in the branches of the trees? Or maybe on top of the big green hill?
Eucilla was walking purposefully towards the far end of the large room, heading for the hill and trees, so I did too. I was pretty sure she knew more about this Trial than I did since she had someone to brief her. I wished again that Kristoff would have at least given me a clue as to what I was supposed to face during these Trials instead just deciding, for whatever reason, that it was better to let me figure them out on my own.
The floor of the large room was carpeted in some kind of dark blue-green moss which felt soft and cushy to my bare feet. It was a pleasure to walk on—for me, anyway. Apparently not so much for Eucilla, though. She was tottering in the high, stilt-like shoes strapped to her feet. Their sharp heels kept getting entangled in the moss and causing her to almost trip. If I had been her, I would have kicked the damn things off, but that wouldn’t have looked very dignified. And I had a feeling that looking dignified was very, very important to Eucilla.
Despite her shoe troubles, she got to the huge green hill and the trees on either side of it before me, though not by much. I was about to say something to her when a flash of motion in the branches of the tree beside me caught my eye.
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