“How dare you invade my privacy? What is the meaning of this? Speak damn you!” she all but screamed at the man as two of her personal guard raced into the room, taking their fellow by each arm.
“Majesty, I beg forgiveness!” he spoke with haste. “You must come to Palius! The woman - his woman - has killed Palius in his bed!”
For months, Erella had awaited news of Palius’ final passing into the arms of Garod, and she would have sped it along herself had she discovered his treachery earlier. His penitence saved him that fate, reaffirmed her trust in him, and likely committed his soul to the right hand of Garod. Every time an unexpected knock came at her door or a servant came to her with urgent news, she thought it would be of his death, but never had she expected this. She glanced at Cor, finding as much surprise on his face as she no doubt showed on hers.
“What?” she asked, her voice a mere whisper, barely audible over the summer breeze outside her windows.
“The woman with the bronze skin has murdered him. She burned him alive in his bed,” the man said, his breathe coming easier now. “We tried to put the fire out, but it spread so quickly. We could not help him, and when it was done, she breathed the fire away.”
Queen Erella shot from her chambers like a gossamer crossbow bolt, with a speed and agility completely unforeseen considering her apparently ancient and frail frame. Cor jumped into a run right behind her, and the guards, slightly slower to react, followed suit. The queen and her entourage charged through halls at a run, armor clanging in contrast to Erella’s softly slippered feet, as servants, soldiers and other onlookers endeavored to stay clear of their path. Cor had never been to Palius’ chambers as he had never formally spoken with the man, but he knew as the queen’s most trusted advisor Palius would not be far away from her. As such, Cor doubted it took even a minute for them to reach the destination.
When they turned a corner in the main hall, Cor knew they had arrived, for about another thirty feet down the hall stood a throng of perhaps twenty persons, mostly servants, trying to work their way through a set of double doors. As they approached, some looked up and saw their queen, immediately parting and calling for others to make way. Queen Erella, with Cor doing a fair amount of pushing others out of the way, made her way through the crowd through the double doorway. The smell of burnt wood and fabric assailed there senses, but there was also another smell, like charred meat but far more terrible.
Inside was another group of people, gawking and speaking in hushed whispers. Most of these were armored men who, upon seeing their queen, helped to clear the way for her to the center of the room. As they pushed closer, the air became replete with the terrible smell, and Cor steeled himself for what he knew was to come. As the final two bodies in their way parted, Queen Erella suddenly halted as she beheld the grim scene - the scorched and blackened remains of her friend. She stood wordlessly as tears began to silently fall down her cheeks.
Cor’s eyes did not linger long on the remains of Palius and his bed, but instead found their way to one side, to Thyss. She stood rebelliously, haughtily, as she watched with open satisfaction at her handiwork. Even though armored men held each of her arms firmly, her gaze and stance held an open challenge for any who would dare oppose her. Feeling Cor’s eyes upon her, Thyss turned her own to return his look, and he knew in that moment she had not simply murdered the old man.
“Take the witch away and secure her in a cell,” Erella ordered. “Her fate is sealed and justice will be done on the morrow at sunrise.”
“Wait! You can’t -,” Cor started as the men restraining Thyss began to move, but he was cut off by the queen’s authoritative voice.
“I can’t what, Lord Dahken Cor? I am Queen of Aquis and High Priestess to Garod, and I rule here! She has murdered my oldest advisor and friend in cold blood, and you can see in her face she does not deny it!”
Then Thyss laughed, strong and melodious, interrupting the queen. “Of course I don’t deny it you old hag! What you call murder I call vengeance, justice! Let you have your justice tomorrow, and we shall see whose dominion reigns supreme over my fate, Garod’s or Hykan’s!”
“You blaspheme witch! Be gone from my sight!” Erella shouted.
The remaining servants quickly cleared the room as the guards moved Thyss roughly toward the door. A fire grew in the pit of Cor’s belly, and he clenched and unclenched his fists anxiously. There was a sound in his ears, a low buzzing as if a small bee hovered inside them, that tensed his muscles for action and made him breathe heavily through his nose as his teeth were clamped. He hadn’t armed himself before going to Erella’s quarters, as it seemed improper, and he now regretted the choice. Cor longed for the warm feel of Soulmourn and Ebonwing in his palms; he would slay everyone in the room to free his Thyss.
“I will go with you on my own peons,” Thyss growled as she yanked her arms free.
The queen raised her hand for calm, and the guards relaxed and led Thyss from the room. As she passed, she pressed one palm to the side of Cor’s face. Her soft touch was as pleasurable as ever against his smooth shaven cheek, like the shock one felt after rubbing leather soled boots on thick carpeting and then touching steel, but it lasted forever instead of being gone in an instant. It calmed his sinews, and the buzzing abated a bit. Then she was gone, out of the room, as she was led away.
“Lord Dahken Cor,” the queen said, pulling his attention from the doorway back to her, “you will return with me back to my chambers. We have much to discuss, I think.”
“Yes Majesty. I would first speak with her, if you would allow it.”
“As you will, but watch yourself Dahken,” Erella replied softly, and she stalked from the room with her guard in tow.
Cor pushed his way past the servants who still stood in the room, and as he exited into the hall outside, a fat priest nearly ran headlong into him. Cor recognized Aidan as the fat priest he’d pushed down the hill at Fort Haldon, and the priest, the good pious servant of Garod, sneered at Cor as he passed around into Palius’ chambers. Cor resisted every urge to kill the man, though images of bashing the man’s brains against a stone wall or crushing his throat barehanded flashed through his mind.
“Lord Dahken!” Keth shouted as Cor entered the hall. The younger Dahken sprinted toward him with Marya in tow, and Cor noted they were both armed. “We saw Thyss under guard and heard -“
“It’s true,” Cor interrupted. “I need you both to follow her, I suppose to the dungeons. Stay there and watch them. I will be there in a few minutes.”
“I’ll not allow them to jail her,” Marya said with her hand on her sword.
“You’ll do nothing, Marya,” Cor said as he laid a hand on her shoulder. “I know you love her. So do we all, but Thyss will not allow any man to harm her. I just need you both there to keep an eye on things. I’ll be right there. Go now.”
The two turned and ran back the way they came, following the direction the guards had taken Thyss. Cor closed his eyes for a moment and breathed deeply. When he opened them again, he hazarded one glance back into Palius’ room to see the priest Aidan kneeling over the scorched remains and mumbling some sort of prayers. Cor snorted and walked purposefully after his Dahken, but their paths parted when he stopped at the rooms they had been allotted on arriving at the palace.
He pushed open the door to the suite he and Thyss shared and strode to the bureau beside the large bed, upon which was his armor and both of their weapons. Cor quickly strapped on the black metal, though he felt it was not quick enough. Despite the urge to move faster, faster, his fingers did not falter, and he kept his nerves about him. Once finished, he fastened his swordbelt, Soulmourn and Ebonwing familiarly at his side. Last, he lowered his bulbous black helm over his head, yet again marveling at how he saw clear through the thing. Cor picked up Thyss’ curved longsword by its sheathe, the black leather strap by which it was secured to her back pinched between his palm and the gold leaf ornamented wood scabbard.
As the Lord Dahken l
eft the plush suite, he was vaguely aware of the return of the low buzz in his ears and the accompanying warmth in his being that Soulmourn and Ebonwing always brought him.
28.
Locating the holding cells beneath the palace required little effort from Cor, just one question of a passing servant as he moved through the halls. He felt upon him the eyes of everyone he passed on his armored countenance, and he watched as the palace guards lay hands on their weapons as he approached, to relax as he passed. He found a dark stone stair that only led downward and emptied into a massive dank hall with iron barred cells that extended as far as he could see in the flickering gloom. The entire level was illuminated by only a handful of smoky torches. Cor wondered at the need for the followers of such a supposedly beneficent god to need such a vast dungeon, and he somehow thought it likely extended to lower levels.
Four men sat upon crude wooden benches at a crude wooden table. Two were armored guards with longswords at their sides, their pikes leaning against the far end of the table. The other two were gaolers he assumed, one fat and bald in an open leather jerkin and the other young, thin and scraggly wearing a brown wool tunic. The four men were intent upon a game of bones, each of them with a small pile of copper coins in front of them. The men looked up as he entered the room, but quickly returned their attention to the game, though one guard allowed his gaze to linger a bit longer as if in warning. They played with shouts of glee and forlorn moans as if the meager copper coins they wagered were actually of the most precious gold.
Cor saw Thyss in the first cell, a small enclosure that was only six feet in each dimension with old, filthy straw covering its stone floor and a wooden bucket that sat in the far corner. Thyss, her ire plain, stalked the side closest to the dungeon’s exit, walking its length, turning and walking it again with an occasional glance up at those outside. When she saw him, she stopped, and Cor wondered if the gaolers knew just how dangerous a tiger they kept caged here.
Keth and Marya stood side by side near Thyss’ cell. Keth had clearly waited patiently, impassive and stolid as ever, but Marya looked like a viper ready to strike. Cor could see the livid anger in her eyes, in every part of her being. How could a child, a mere girl of only thirteen be so prepared to kill for someone else? But the explanation was clear - she was no child; Marya was a Dahken. Cor wordlessly handed the pair Thyss’ weapon and approached the bars.
“I’ll get you out of here,” he said.
“Don’t be ridiculous Dahken Cor. I have spoken my piece to that bag of bones queen above, and she’ll not release me,” Thyss retorted.
“Tell me why, Thyss. I know your fury is as untamed as fire, but I also know you don’t unleash it without cause. What happened?”
“It doesn’t matter. Tomorrow my fate will be decided by the gods, by Hykan or Garod,” she answered.
“It does matter,” Cor said softly, reaching his hand through the bars to lay it gently on Thyss’ abdomen.
“Hey, get yer ‘and off ‘er you!” shouted the fat bald gaoler, preparing to stand from his game.
Cor did as he was told, clenching an iron bar in each hand as if he could pull them apart for Thyss to exit. “I thought you didn’t believe in fate or destiny. I thought you said the gods rarely interfered directly in our lives. What makes you think they will now?”
“Because my Lord Dahken, I can feel the fire of Hykan burning within my belly, and I know My Lord will not allow both of us to perish for the crime of justice,” she explained. “I must believe he will save me.”
“Don’t wait for Hykan. Save yourself,” Cor said imploringly. “Make yourself one with the air and blow way as you did in Losz. I will meet you back at Fort Haldon.”
“Again you are ridiculous Dahken Cor. Queen Erella would make war upon you, and even if the men of Fort Haldon followed you instead of Aquis, you could not hope to defeat her. Besides, I could not do that,” she replied, and Cor could sense deep resignation in her voice.
“Why not?” he asked.
“Because it would mean the end of this,” she said, now placing both of her own hands upon her belly.
Cor could only stare at Thyss’ face with her ever present smile and the fire that burned within her eyes, but this time it was different. The fire, normally flames of defiance, arrogance and independence now contained a different light, something he could only define as joy. He looked at her hands, still on her belly, and the full realization of her words sunk into his brain. He closed his eyes and dropped his head to the iron bars, causing a long ringing clang when his helm, invisible to his eye, hit them. Because it would mean the end of this. No, there would be no end to either.
“You never told me why you did it,” he said as he raised his head.
“The old man betrayed us. It was he who tried to kill us, both when we reached Fort Haldon and on our way here. He even betrayed his queen; he said something about using magic to speak with the emperor of Losz. He earned my vengeance and Hykan’s justice,” she said, her voice rising in the strength he knew so well, the strength with which he’d fallen in love.
“He deserved it then,” Cor said, more to himself than anyone else. He paused and sighed deeply as he considered his next words.
“I’ll have you free soon enough. You two,” he said as he released the bars and turned to his younger Dahken, “follow me.”
Thyss resumed her pacing of the cell as the three Dahken left the room and climbed the stairs. They moved through the halls of Erella’s palace at a quick pace, though they did not run. He led them straight to Erella’s chambers, outside of which now stood four armored guards. They eyed him with close suspicion now that he was armed and with two cohorts, both apparently ready for battle.
“You stay outside,” Cor said to Keth and Marya, and to the guards, “The queen is expecting me. Allow me entrance.”
Cautiously, one of the soldiers slowly opened the doors. Cor entered and crossed the first room with long strides, making his way to the side doorway that led to Queen Erella’s office. The guard closed the door behind them and moved hastily to keep up. Cor found the queen precisely where he expected, sitting behind her large desk, and the guard hurriedly announced the Dahken’s entrance, almost as an afterthought as Cor stormed right up to the queen.
“Majesty, release Thyss to me,” he said, and his voice had a hollow dimension from inside his insectoid helm.
“You dare come before me fully armed and making demands,” she said without looking up. “I am not intimidated, Lord Dahken Cor, and be careful that you do not incur my wrath. As we speak, I sign the order for the headman to end her life at sunrise for murdering an official of state. The matter is not open to discussion.”
“I’m not here to discuss it,” he replied. The tension returned to Cor’s muscles, and his hands felt naked as they longed to feel his sword and fetish. The buzzing returned, and Cor wasn’t sure that it wasn’t in his brain rather than his ears. “Thyss murdered no one. She enacted justice on a man who admitted his own crimes to her. Your advisor hired men to kill us more than once. He’s the one who was responsible for the attack on us as we traveled to Byrverus. No doubt, attempted murder of one of your lords and his subjects is as much a crime.”
“It is not for you to decide what is justice in my own palace, Lord Dahken Cor. Understand now that your authority at Fort Haldon is reliant upon my support, my rule, and we have other matters to discuss in those regards,” Erella said, clearly changing the topic of conversation.
“You must release Thyss to me; she committed no crime!” Cor shouted, and the queen’s eyes hardened as her brow furrowed slightly.
“The matter is settled, and you will hold your tone, Lord Dahken Cor.”
“It is not settled! Palius betrayed you as much as anyone, and you would murder Thyss for taking her vengeance? Wouldn’t you have ordered death for him if he had told you?” Cor asked hotly, as he leaned forward placing his clenched fists on her tabletop.
“I am well aware of Palius’ tr
eachery,” she responded quietly. “Palius repented his sins to me several days ago, and he has been forgiven in both my eyes and those of Garod.”
Cor was speechless as he looked at the aged queen, and he closed his eyes, breathing out silently. He removed his fists from the oaken desk and stepped back to gather his thoughts, allowing her words to sink into his mind. She knew already, and she had known for days and took no action against the old man. Palius had been her friend, and her murder of Thyss was as much vengeance as anything Thyss had done. No. New anger began to build in his gut, and all of his muscles began to tense as his very skin tingled oddly. Soulmourn and Ebonwing began to sing to him, as they always did when they urged him to action.
“You will not murder Thyss,” Cor said opening his eyes. “That’s what it would be, murder, not justice. It would have been justice if you had put Palius to death for his ‘sins’. But you wouldn’t kill your old friend, would you?”
Now, Queen Erella stood from behind her desk, her voice growing in volume as she spoke, “Palius was forgiven his crimes. Justice only comes from the word of law, and I am the ruler of Aquis! The bitch from Dulkur acted of her own, outside of my laws, and that is murder! She will pay for her crime!”
“No!” Cor shouted again, and his face screwed into an image of hatred, though she could not see it for the helm. “I won’t allow you to kill her, her and my child. What does your law say of that? What of Garod?”
“That is unfortunate,” the queen said, lowering her tone as she was slightly taken aback. “I hadn’t realized…”
“Then you will release her to me? I will take her back to Fort Haldon.”
“No,” Queen Erella said more strongly, setting her eyes back to his, “I’m sorry, but the course is set. She dies in the morning.”
The Cor Chronicles: Volume 02 - Fire and Steel Page 25
