“Don’t you know?” she said, smiling strangely. “You’re always noticing everything. I thought you would have seen. But then you never see what you don’t want to, do you, Cyric? We’re the same in that. Only I’ve…” She narrowed darkly, then blinked up at me. “What Lox told you, about Ellia. Have you thought about what he means by it?”
My brows dropped lower. Not because she’d been listening to us, she’d said that much. Because I couldn’t remember ever having heard Veera call Lox by his last name. “He’s realized she won’t join Akadia,” I answered robotically. “He doesn’t expect me to try and convince her to anymore.”
“That’s all?” Veera asked.
Other things passed through my mind. I considered Veera again, the instability in her posture. “It doesn’t matter what he decides to do. I’ll obey him.”
“Whatever it means? Do you want to end up alone?”
The words rang in my ears. “I’m not alone. I have Lox.”
Veera’s face suddenly contorted; she looked as if I’d slapped her. Part of me wanted to grab her shoulders and hold her up, because she seemed weak enough to fall over any second. “This is my fault,” she chanted to herself, “My fault as much as his— Cyric, if you would just speak with him, it might help. It might affect what he decides.”
“I don’t even know what you’re talking about. Speak to him about what?”
“About your feelings. About Ellia.”
My blood flamed through me. It was one thing to know what Veera thought but quite another to hear her say it out loud. And her suggestion? I scoffed at the idea.
“Then at least make sure he doesn’t hurt her,” Veera urged.
I wanted to argue that he wouldn’t, but I didn’t have to; it was simpler than that. I turned on her with venom in my tone. “You’re talking about disobeying Lox. I don’t disobey Lox.”
“No, I only mean that you should question what he decides,” she argued. “Haven’t you ever thought that you should consider his commands, Cyric? Over anything he told you?” Her tone was too severe, too entreating. She grabbed my forearm. I looked down at it, then spared a nervous glance at the door, then just looked away, images flashing through my head, things I never wanted to think about again.
“You shouldn’t be saying these things,” I said.
“But you know what I’m speaking of, Cyric?” she begged. “Tell me that you know what I’m speaking of.” She sounded fully desperate now; her grip tightened on my arm.
The sky had grown completely black. I found my balcony again. Ellia was still looking up. For a moment I remembered the temple in Echren, the way the stars were, some dim, some bright; all blazing. All of them alive. It was the first time I could actually imagine what Ellia was seeing when she looked up like that. And I knew that’s what was really there. A whole sky full of them.
I didn’t give Veera an answer.
ELLIA:
I heard the door open behind me. I assumed it was the guards, coming to take me to the party, which I’d already been told I would be attending. But when whoever entered only closed the door then waited inside, I thought it must be Cyric. Despite myself, I swung quickly around to face him.
But it was not Cyric.
The man standing in front of the door was large, and thick with a red-silk tunic, with dark watery eyes, over-sized fingers, and the stuff of my nightmares. He stood casually leaning to one side. He watched my face a moment, then grew a smirk. “Expecting someone else?” he asked.
My chest rose swiftly up and down. I forced it still. I brought to mind who I was, a Cirali Warrior, and the princess of Shaundakul, while this monster was nothing. I made myself show no fear; I would not fear him.
He stepped slowly around the bath. Without hardly thinking I moved back the opposite way, towards my bed, not wanting to be trapped in any direction. I thought of the knife in Cyric’s table, but Lox was now blocking me from that space.
He laughed suddenly. “Shall you force me to chase you like a mouse? I wish only to speak with you.”
“I know what you do with your words, Lox,” I snapped. I managed to make my voice much braver than I felt, but it was my neck that Lox watched, pulsing wildly as it was, and it made him keep his grin.
“My boy has been telling me about your defiance in Echren. Can you guess how this displeases me?” He stopped not two yards from me. I had begun to shake and was overwhelmingly grateful that he had stopped at all.
“I shall— I shall be more glad than ever for all I did there then.”
Lox retained his cool demeanor, but I saw the flash in his eyes. “Do you know that you remind me of a pet of mine, princess? It didn’t want to obey me. I thought of killing it. But I’m a persistent man and everything can be broken. I will break you.”
Something about his tone made my skin crawl. His gaze on me and manner felt too personal. “I will not be broken by a pig,” I rebutted.
“In that case I’ll have you killed,” he said, “Do you doubt that?”
I did not. I had said Lox would kill me eventually; only one person was clueless enough to think otherwise. I raised my chin. “Have you told Cyric you’ll kill me?”
“Cyric?” Lox repeated. In the pause that followed I wished I hadn’t said it; I didn’t know why I’d brought up Cyric at all. I’d been so sure that he wouldn’t bring me back to Akadia, hadn’t I? But he had and who was I to say now that he wouldn’t let Lox kill me.
Very suddenly, Lox threw back his head and laughed. “You still believe he would defy me for your sake? After everything?”
“You must have your own doubts to come threaten me yourself instead of sending him.”
“Princess, you’re very amusing, but if there’s one thing I’m certain of, it’s that Cyric Dracla will never betray me.”
“Then tell him yourself that you plan on hurting me. You’ll see. He’d kill you first. You would end up dead.” Despite the fears and worries I’d endured these past days, I’d never been more certain of my own words. I felt a sort of self-satisfied high, standing here with that knowledge. But Lox seemed undaunted.
“Didn’t you say something similar when I attacked Tobias? But it was I who Cyric obeyed then, not you.”
“He wouldn’t kill him when you asked.”
“A triviality. He still fought for me.”
“Cyric didn’t know who Tobias was then. He didn’t understand why you were really killing him. If he had, he would have stopped you.”
Lox narrowed darkly. His black eyes flamed, then he used two quick strides to approach me. He grabbed my chin between his fingers, turning my face up “What did you say, girl?”
I didn’t answer him. I struggled to break free from his hold, but he only gripped my chin tighter and then squeezed one of my wrists so harshly that I cried out. When I was still, he searched my eyes. Then very suddenly he laughed and released me completely. “So that’s why that fool Molec has been throwing such fits? You spoke with him of Amalia. And after he’d been so long convinced that I’d had her murdered.” Lox went on scoffing. I watched him with a low brow, wondering that he could find such humor in what he spoke of. “Well, you’ve proved to be quite the troublemaker, Princess. And you’ve told Cyric as well? You’re trying the end of my patience.”
Despite the fact that Lox was now facing me with a fearful snarl, my mind was frozen on his words. He spoke as if he’d never told Cyric about Tobias. Had he not? Had I truly been the one to tell Cyric that Tobias was Molec’s son? I couldn’t even remember when I had. I knew I’d mentioned it in Echren; had that been the first time? I nearly grew a smile at the realization that I’d succeeded in revealing Lox’s deceptive ways to Cyric.
“You should have taken more care,” I said, strength returning to my voice. “Now Cyric knows you didn’t tell him about Tobias; it won’t be long before he realizes everything else.”
Lox scoffed. “You speak as if my world would end should Cyric turn on me. Don’t you know he’s just one of thous
ands that I command? I have dozens of specialists, men that I’ve collected from other countries, and Akadia itself. Cyric is no different.”
Without even thinking to—just at the idea of what it would mean to Cyric to hear this—I screamed and lashed out at Lox. He caught my arm again, squeezing it as tightly as ever. Anger replaced his light tone.
“No one will save you, princess, so it’s best that you start fearing me as you should. From the moment I invaded your city, your people have been nothing but a strain on me. Stupid, resistant. More than half of them have been sent belowground, did you know that? Do you realize that I hold their lives in my hand as I hold yours? If you continue to defy me, I will begin killing them, one by one before you.”
I meant to attack him again, but his words drained my strength. I used all I could to still my tears. I had not known what he’d just told me, and that very fact that I hadn’t filled me with shame.
“You will obey me,” Lox spat. He gave one last squeeze on my arm so hard that when he released I bent down to clutch it.
After that, he spoke for a time about the constellation animals. How I would go. And how I would request of them to help on behalf of Akadia. But he didn’t have time to finish before he was called away by the party, so he left with a promise to speak with me of it again tomorrow.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
ELLIA:
The Akadian party was held on the highest level of the palace. Though the space was smaller than the throne-room, it was just as grand, just as gold. It was a squarish shape, with pillars along its edges, pressed against the walls, creating a number of coves and then in the middle a wide polished floor. The floor looked as if it were made of different cuts of stone, but perfectly fitted together, and perfectly smooth; all the same type, a gold stone, with thin slits of white and bright yellow in it reminding me exactly of dragon skin. Gold tapestries hung everywhere. One wall held a number of bunched gold curtains set on either side of doors that led out to a terrace, the sky, and a view of the sparkling city.
But these doors were closed now; the night had grown too cold, it had been hours since the party had first begun. Molec sat opposite that wall, beside his queen in an alcove set with two thrones. Lords and ladies surrounded them as they watched the dancers ahead. The floor was filled with dancers, most of the party’s attendees, and they seemed never to tire of it. Though the celebration was open only to members of court, council, and the highest ranking soldiers, there were hundreds of people here; enough elegantly dressed handmaidens to fit every lord or soldier. Music and bright flames filled the room. Wine flowed freely.
Not even in my days of Shaundakul had I ever attended a party of such decadence, but if I could, I would have left it. I’d tried, a dozen times already, now I stood near a wall beside the throne, people clustered all around. In the beginning of the night, I’d been approached one person after another, lords and ladies, most having the nicest things to say about my kingdom, or my dress, or my crown, some chiding me for not attended more banquets, others asking me to dance. I refused of course. And in the case that Lox decided to force me to, I had the appreciated excuse of not knowing any Akadian dances anyways.
Someone laughed, loud and abrasively, rising above the hum of the party. Whoever it was stood close to the king’s throne, some lord, but he addressed a soldier.
“So then Nain told the king he couldn’t make an alliance with him, because he didn’t consider him a ruler at all. Then the king threatened to put him back in the prisons, and Nain said he preferred it there anyways. So what does King Molec do but send him underground. Not the prisons, mind you. The caves. Perhaps he’ll run into old Tarful.”
His listeners chuckled. I gripped my fists.
This wasn’t the first time I’d heard this story, but just like before I gave a glare to Molec. And just like before, he refused to pay me any attention. Anytime I thought he caught me looking at him, he deepened his hunch in his throne and turned more resolutely to a conversation with one of his subjects. Looking at him, I thought of Lox’s words, that he had thought Amalia was dead before I’d told him otherwise. I remembered the urgency with which he’d sent his friends from the room when I’d mentioned her. I thought it was possible that he cared for her, but he did not care for his sons, and now he’d hurt Nain.
I felt another wave of dizziness, the sort I’d been experiencing all through the party. I decided I couldn’t stand still anymore. I headed for the table lined with wine goblets, thinking that no one would stop me from getting a drink at least. I passed Veera on the way, laughing in the midst of a group of lords, but I avoided her. The dizziness was accompanied with strange flashes; caused, I could only assume, by what Lox had told me about my people, and his threats to kill them. I saw things like the Akadian palace crumbling to pieces, the people inside of it falling, Molec, soldiers. It was too terrible. I did not think that it was vengeful, only the expression of what I felt was going on around me. I did not know what was holding Akadia together. Not its king. Not goodness.
I stopped in an alcove beside the table of drinks. The dancers on the floor spun and dipped as they finished their current dance and started a new one. From this position, the corner to Molec’s left was almost opposite to me. And that was where Cyric stood. He wore his armor, as few men here did. For most of the night he had stood there. Not near Lox, not near other soldiers. Men went periodically to speak with him, but they never talked for long. Women had given up asking him to dance after being shirked for the first hour. It was different than he had behaved at the parties I’d seen him in thus far. He didn’t drink, he looked steadily from place to place, his expressions were stern.
I thought that it should have given me hope, but most of what I felt was anger, and I did not look at him long.
CYRIC:
The party was as dull as palace celebrations always were, or at least this was what I was trying to convince myself. The truth was that nothing was normal and it was becoming so obvious that I was having trouble ignoring it.
It had begun normal enough—with the declarations of the victory. Acknowledgement to Scanth for the final battles, Lox for most the others, and Lox’s new weapons for the destruction of so many chimera. After this: dancing, congratulations, music, the usual slew of Akadian songs. Ellia had been there since the beginning, but there was nothing strange about her behavior; glaring from under her crown, sulking against walls, dodging Akadians as if they bore a plague.
It was Veera first; she was drinking too much. She generally never drank at these sorts of parties, she was usually busy attending to something for Lox, or else attending to Lox himself, but the one time I’d seen her near him it hadn’t been for long, and then it was the other lords she’d gone to, or any men really. Dancing, touching, retaining none of her usual couth. Then there was Molec. Molec always acted the same way at events such as this: either watching the dancers or using the excuse of the party to keep the finest handmaidens around him. Now it seemed he talked more than he ogled, and there was something frantic about the way his eyes darted. His closet allies—some nobles and council members—stayed close to him. He drank little. I thought it might just be me; be what I’d learned about his sons and Amalia that made him seem different. Nothing he was doing was really exceptional; I knew it probably was just me.
And Lox was the same as ever. Standing mostly in one place, speaking with the highest ranking of the soldiers, ladies, lords—a clear favorite of the party, but he always was, and this was more his celebration than anyone’s. Thane stayed close to him, but I didn’t much care. I had no intention of standing beside Lox tonight. After what Veera had said before the party, on top of everything I’d learned in Echren, I didn’t want to be near him. By tomorrow, I would make myself forget it. I didn’t have a right to do anything else. Veera just didn’t understand.
These thoughts, and more, kept crowding my mind, and I wasn’t really sure that anything strange was really happening. Since returning from Echren, Akadia had seem
ed too bright, too loud; the Echrian rulers were sorcerers, I thought they’d probably just done something to my head. Really nothing was going on and eventually all of it would wear off.
I decided to just ignore everything and this led to me watching Ellia. She’d moved just a while ago to the opposite end of the hall, near the drink table. She hadn’t tried to talk to me once since the party had started; also I never caught her looking at me, which was a vast change from her previous behavior. She stood now with her arms crossed, her brows dipped towards the nearest soldier, her chin high. The dress she wore was a Shaundakulian one. Turquoise, silk. I recognized it; remembered what I’d been thinking of the last time she’d worn it; maybe even decided as far as I used to decide things back then. It had been the last dinner in the great hall before the goblin attack; I’d already received my orders for the battle.
It seemed like the best idea then to go get a drink, so I started walking along the edge of the dance floor towards the table. Past red-faced Molec, past Veera freaking out. Ellia’s attention didn’t turn to me once, which I found annoying. She scowled at a servant offering her a drink, and actually waved him away with her hand. Here I hesitated, because on her wrist there was a mark, dark and blue. It showed out from under the sleeve of her dress. I felt my chest rise, but before I could get any closer, a hand dropped to my shoulder.
“Cyric, I’ve hardly seen you son,” Lox said pleasantly.
I swallowed. I looked back at him and he was smiling.
“This is such an important night. Where have you been hiding?”
“I’ve been here,” I answered. “You were busy with Thane.”
Lox hesitated, his expression shifting, his eyes very much on me. “Yes, well, he helps to remind me of the names of the nobles,” Lox laughed a little; it felt normal and reassuring. My body relaxed into it.
Lox nodded his head towards the thrones. “Did you hear about Prince Nain? Just like Molec to lose his temper, isn’t it?” This time when he chuckled, I started to match it, but then when I saw Molec I went stiff. Lox looked me over thoughtfully, then he leaned close. “Cyric,” he began, his tone light, “It’s come to my attention that you may have heard some rumors about the king. Involving an old Akadian captain?” My gaze found his and he held it easily. I struggled not to show surprise; I hadn’t expected him to bring this up, and I didn’t know how to respond. When I didn’t, he went on.
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