Lex reached toward her face, tucking that one piece of hair which always swung down in front of her eyes back behind her ear. “I don’t know either,” he said. “But maybe they can help.” He turned to the guard. “I’ll go with her,” he said.
“That is not permitted,” the guard answered.
Amelia grasped Lex’s hand and moved it away from her face. “I’ll be okay,” she said. “You go, and I’ll just see the healer, then come back. Right?” She directed this last part to the guard.
The guard nodded. “Assuming our healers determine you are healthy, you will be brought back here, to our guest lodgings. However, the female guests must reside in separate quarters from the males,” he said, narrowing his eyes at Lex.
“Right, okay,” Amelia said, her voice bright. “Then let’s go.” She smiled at Lex. “I’ll see you soon?”
“Soon,” Lex answered. He watched the guard lead her away, and the room felt suddenly far more empty.
One of the two guards near the doorway cleared his throat. “We will lead the rest of you to your quarters now,” he said. “Except for Rahamanash–” He stopped himself. “Except for Lytira.”
Acarius tensed. “Why not Lytira?” he asked.
The fourth guard stepped up behind them. “The princess is requested in the king’s quarters,” he said. “Though I suppose I’m expected to call you a former princess, at least for now.”
Lytira turned toward him, and her rigid posture softened. “Saro,” she said, relief clear in her voice.
Lex looked questioningly at Acarius, who leaned toward him and whispered, “He was the queen’s personal guard before she died. He used to care for Lytira when the queen was too ill to do so.”
“It is good to see you, child,” Saro smiled. “Now come, quickly. Your father is waiting.”
Lytira nodded and followed him toward the far door and up the stairs.
“Well,” Nigel said, “I guess that leaves just us… The Three Musketeers!”
“What are musketeers?” Acarius asked.
Nigel’s mouth dropped open. “What do you mean, what are Muske–”
“We will take you to your quarters now,” one of the guards near the other door declared.
Nigel shrugged. “Off we go, then,” he said, and walked toward the guards.
“I hope the quality of the guest beds has improved more than their hospitality,” Acarius said, moving behind Nigel.
Lex hurried after them, no choice but to follow.
The guards led them up a winding staircase of polished wood. As it curved upward, sunlight spilled through small, open windows carved into the outer walls. The staircase was narrow and they moved single-file, Nigel following the first guard, Acarius behind him, then Lex with the second guard taking up the rear. Probably to prevent any attempt to escape, Lex thought.
A sudden sound from outside made Lex stumble, one foot halfway to the next step. A deafening rumble shook the air. “What was that?” he asked.
“The lions,” the guard behind him answered calmly. “It is their feeding time.”
“The what?” Lex asked, but he didn’t really need to. He had just reached a window which gave a clear view of the grassy area below. Just behind the barn he’d seen earlier a pride of lions roamed, uncontained by any walls or barriers, between the barn and the other buildings. “You have lions in the city?” he asked, his voice rising in panic. He thought of the horses being led behind the barn, right where the lions were now pacing. Feeding time? His heart sank. “The horses…”
Acarius looked back. “The lions do not harm the people...or the horses,” he said. “Right?” He turned to the guard.
“Of course, Master Acarius,” the guard replied. “You are our guests. We would never allow them to harm your animals.”
“Master? You still call me that? I’m impressed,” Acarius smirked.
“You may have upset our king, but your status remains unchanged,” the guard answered.
“I see,” Acarius said thoughtfully. “But my friend is worried about our horses, so…”
“As I said, we would never allow the lions to harm them,” the guard responded.
Acarius nodded, then turned back to Lex. “See? All good.”
Lex blinked. “But… lions. They eat– in the– they’re roaming free!” He had trouble even forming the words to express the danger everyone else clearly didn’t understand.
Acarius shrugged. “Trust me; it’s not the weirdest thing you’ll see here.” He turned back toward the stairs, heading up to catch Nigel and the other guard.
“They are the king’s personal animals,” the guard behind Lex supplied. “They do not harm his people or his guests. He would not allow it.”
“Oh, right,” Lex said, “Of course! He won’t allow it. Well, that just makes it all make sense, because lions seem like the sensible type that would, you know, follow those sort of rules.”
Another roar shook the air outside the window.
“Oooh, I love that sound!” Lex heard Nigel’s voice drift down from the stairs above him.
The guard shrugged. “We feed them well. Why would they disobey? Now, may I please show you to your quarters?”
Lex squeezed his eyes shut. He suddenly felt like the most reasonable person in this place, which was pretty bad since he was an amnesiac hero raised from the dead by prophetic science-magic channeled through an energy-harnessing device disguised as a video game console. “Sure,” he said, tossing his hands upward. “Why not? Point the way!”
The guard pointed up the stairs with raised eyebrows.
Lex sighed and trudged upward toward the others.
CHAPTER 16
The guards showed them into their quarters, then shut the door and left.
Lex looked around. It was a comfortable enough room with polished wood floors, walls, and ceiling and small, open windows carved in the outer walls. There were two narrow beds in the room – I am not sharing a bed with Nigel, Lex thought – a dresser, and a small corner area separated by a wooden partition which, from the washbasin and strange, squat contraption he could see behind it, Lex guessed was probably the washroom and toilet area. He immediately wondered how plumbing worked inside a tree. Maybe it didn’t. He made a mental note to ask later, before it came time he needed it.
The room was positioned on the third floor on the front side of the towering tree-palace, and the windows provided a view of the courtyard area and even part of The Fallows just outside the front gates, visible through a gap in the branches above the city wall. However, The Fallows apparently sloped up from there – Lex hadn’t noticed it from ground level – and the room wasn’t high enough in the palace for him to see very far beyond the slope.
Nigel walked to one of the beds and climbed into it, then curled up and pulled the covers over his head.
How can he go to sleep after all that? Lex thought. But it was Nigel.
Lex walked to the far side of the room and leaned out of one of the windows, which was just large enough for his head but not big enough for his body to fit through, and looked up. To both sides, a few feet above window-level, hung the lower branches of the trees which formed that part of the city’s canopy. The tree building rose straight above them, carrying on into the canopy and then up above it. It suddenly occurred to Lex that the king’s quarters were probably camouflaged along the treetops, removed from the city as though his house was simply part of the forest.
Lex pulled his head back inside. “How does the king keep a watch on the city if his level is up above the canopy?” he asked Acarius.
“It’s both above and in it,” Acarius answered. “The king’s level is more like a two-story house, with some rooms just below the treeline and then a private office quarter for him with viewing windows above the canopy. They call it the fourth floor, because that’s where the entrance is, but much of it actually hangs down into the third floor, just above us. Some of the windows on the other
side of his quarters are beneath the canopy, and the rest are above. It’s actually a pretty cool setup.” Acarius flopped down on the empty bed. “Ah,” he said. “A good upgrade. Masha must have gotten better at making mattresses.”
Lex narrowed his eyes. “How are you so calm, and how do you know so much about this place?”
Acarius pushed up onto his elbows. “I used to live here,” he said. “In Zeriphath, I mean. Not in this exact room. I was on the fourth floor, with the royal family.”
Lex stared. “What?”
Acarius swept his legs over the edge of the bed and leaned his elbows onto his knees. He stared at the floor as he spoke. “My mother – my biological mother – died when I was a baby. I was found and sent back to my clan, but they rejected me. The Frosts found out, and took me in. They raised me, and they were the only family I knew, until the prophecy happened and you – I mean you as Marcus – came for me. Things were getting bad and the neighbors around the ranch, when they found out I wasn’t… normal… came after me. At first we thought things would be fine, and you began training me at the ranch, but after I was attacked one night, you and my father decided I’d be safer here, in Zeriphath. That ride you remember through The Fallows? That was you bringing me here. The healers here saved my life, and the queen insisted the king take me in. She’d seen me in her visions. The king agreed and I spent my teen years here, with them. They became my family, in a way, though I missed my parents and sisters back at the ranch. And the king never particularly liked me. But they were nice enough, for a while at least.”
Lex had so many questions. He decided to start at the beginning. “So, you’re… I mean, I know they call you half-blood, but you said clan, like the Sephram and Alomman. Are you one of them?”
“Yes and no,” he said. “My mother was Sephram, yes, but my father was human. I still don’t know who he was, but it was clear my clan viewed me as something which should never have been. After centuries of keeping the bloodlines pure, a half-blood was an abomination.” He shrugged. “I can’t blame them, I guess. My human side weakens my abilities, so I can’t do any of the things they can do. I’m really more human than I am one of them – but not human enough for the neighbors to accept me, apparently. When they found out I had magic in me, they wanted me dead.”
“But not the Frosts. Are they… like you?”
“No. The Frosts are human. Well, most of them anyway. One is adopted like me, but from Arcalon. Hers is a different story. But the others are all ordinary humans, though the Frost family is nothing like most humans. My dad was one of the bravest men I’ve ever known. He risked his life to keep peace between humans and the magical races, and the neighbors never even knew. They thought he travelled so much because he sold and transported horses.” He let out a short laugh.
Acarius’ answers were only giving Lex more questions, but he tried to focus. “So did I… I mean, did Marcus... stay here with you?” Lex had no memories of this place, not that he could recall.
“No,” Acarius said. “They don’t usually allow outsiders. They made an exception for me because I had some of the bloodline in me, and because the queen wouldn’t take no for an answer. She could be quite persuasive when she believed in something.” He smiled sadly. “She was a good woman.”
Something struck Lex. “So then you and Lytira grew up together?”
“In a sense,” Acarius answered. “I was already a teenager when I came here, and so was she. But for a while, we were sort of like family. Officially I was considered her adopted brother, though I never thought of her parents as my parents. I already had parents.”
Oh, Lex thought. “Is that why the king was so upset when you and Lytira…” He trailed off.
“When Lytira and I what?” Acarius asked, smirking. “What exactly do you think happened between us?”
Lex felt himself blush. “I don’t know,” he said. “But you said–”
Acarius laughed, then fell silent. After a moment, he said, “We fell in love… if you can call it that when you’re only sixteen.”
From the look on his face, Lex guessed that was exactly the thing to call it.
“But then the world outside went crazy and, well, when you think you’re the prophesied one, things get complicated,” Acarius continued. “You and I had to leave, you know, to fulfill our destiny and all sorts of glamorous things which eventually resulted in us all nearly getting killed. More than nearly for some of us.” He looked at Lex. “Lytira insisted on coming with us. You can imagine how her father felt about that.”
“Yeah, wow,” Lex said. “If today was any indication, he probably threw a fit.”
“The world’s most epic one,” Acarius said. “He threatened to ban Lytira from the clan if she didn’t stay. Of course, the queen convinced him not to, and though Lytira hesitated for a while, in the end, she came anyway.” He paused. “It would have been better, I think, if she’d stayed.”
“What happened between you?” Lex asked, not sure he should but unable to stop his curiosity.
“We grew apart,” Acarius answered softly. “We failed at our mission, her mother died while she was away, I returned to the ranch to be with my family, and Lytira decided to join the Alowen clan rather than returning home.”
“Why didn’t she–”
“Stay with me?” Acarius asked. He sighed. “I already explained how the neighbors reacted to me being not-quite-human; how do you think they would have reacted to her? After we failed, we had someone from Arcalon adjust the humans’ memories of what happened, but Lytira didn’t deserve to live a life hiding who she was, not with what she can do. She deserved to be with her own people.”
“And you?”
“I’m a half-breed. They don’t want me. I didn’t belong there. Besides, Lytira is a princess of her people. She is – was – in line to be queen one day. She needed to be with someone her people would accept, someone who could match her in power.”
Like Baram? Lex wondered, thinking of the large man at Alowen who had helped Lytira. But he didn’t dare ask it, not after how Acarius had acted when he saw the two of them together. A lot of things were starting to make more sense.
“But now?” Lex asked. “I mean, now you’re travelling together again, right? So maybe–”
“You heard what she said to her father,” Acarius answered. “She’s with us because it serves a greater purpose. That’s all. Besides, now we may have cost her her throne, her clan, everything. I wouldn’t blame her if she never wanted to see any of us again once this is all through.”
“I’m sorry,” Lex said. There seemed to be nothing else to say.
“Anyway,” Acarius said, exhaling, “we have other things we need to discuss. You do realize the attack by the wrasseks on our way here means someone is still after us, right? Wrasseks do not live in The Fallows, or anywhere near it. If they were there, they were sent there. Someone must have known we’d be heading this way.”
“Which means they know we’re here,” Lex stated.
“Exactly.”
Lex groaned. Could they never catch a break? “Who do you think it is? The Aiacs? I thought we’d killed them all.”
Acarius ran his hand over his eyes. “It could be more Aiacs, but I think it’s probably something worse.” He paused.
Lex could feel his anxiety mounting as he waited for Acarius to continue. Something worse than Aiacs?
“Lex, there’s something about the prophecy you should know,” Acarius said finally. “When the prophecy was given that I would be the one to restore stability to the Worldforce – or at least we thought that’s what it meant – the Ancients weren’t the only ones to send someone after me. While the Ancients were sending you, we later found out that another, a dark king from Galgor, was also after ‘the son of prophecy.’ Galgor had been uninhabited for centuries, or so we all thought. It was said to be a rocky, barren place home to only huge, dangerous beasts and creatures like wrasseks. No one knew who this s
udden ‘king’ was or where he came from, we only knew he controlled the monsters of Galgor, and his name – Malleck Dross.”
At this, Nigel sprang up from under the covers. “Malleck Dross!” he shouted, his eyes wide. Then he fell back, apparently talking in his sleep.
“What in the–” Lex said.
Acarius turned back to him. “I’ll explain that in a minute,” he said. “As for what this supposed king was after, we didn’t know for sure. He seemed to want to prevent the Worldforce from being stabilized, since he focused all his energy on trying to find and kill me. You got to me first, and by the time we realized someone else was after me, there was so much going on with my neighbors and other things that we couldn’t tell who might be working with him or whom to trust. The Ancients wanted you to bring me back to the Core, but you didn’t trust them. Instead, you and my father reached out to Zeriphath and arranged for me to come here. I lived here while you traveled between here and the villages being a typical hero… but after a year with no signs of anyone still after me, everyone assumed Malleck Dross had died or disappeared or maybe just given up. By that time, I was sixteen and trained well enough that you and my father felt I could return to my family’s farm… as long as you were with me, of course. We continued to train there.”
“Train in what?” Lex asked.
“Sword-fighting, mostly,” Acarius said. “I don’t have magical abilities, so it’s pretty much all I can do, but I at least wanted to be good at it. And with your palace training, you were one of the best. Everything I know about fighting, I learned from you. Before you came, I was just a horse-rancher, although the Sephram part of me does give me slight advantages, like enhanced reflexes and superior hearing.”
Lex shook his head, unsure whether to be proud of having trained one of the best fighters he’d ever seen, or embarrassed that his own skills had atrophied so greatly.
The Edge of Nothing_The Lex Chronicles_Book 1 Page 26
