The Queen of Ieflaria

by Effie Calvin

  Still, it would impress Esofi and that was the most important thing, or perhaps the most important thing was protecting the city against the emperor and impressing Esofi was only the second most important thing. Adale decided she wouldn’t get tangled up in the details. Leaving her waiting ladies behind, she set off for the Temple of Talcia.

  The Temple District was never very crowded, even though it was home to the great temples of almost every deity worshipped in Ieflaria. There were a few notable exceptions: the Great Temple of Inthi was located in Inthi’s District, where the craftsmen and smiths of Birsgen worked, and the Great Temple of Merla was not in Birsgen at all—it was a hundred miles away on the eastern coast, in Valenleht.

  Adale didn’t have far to walk because the temples of the Ten were closest to the castle. She traveled slowly, enjoying the morning sunlight and mild breeze. The Temple of Iolar was busiest, with a few elders conversing on the steps—Adale guessed they’d been at the sunrise service and had nothing to do for the rest of the day. A priest argued vehemently with a paladin, and she suppressed a small laugh.

  Across the street, dressed in full plate and wielding massive battleaxes, a few priestesses guarded the entryway to the Temple of Reygmadra, Goddess of Warfare. They were stoically ignoring their neighbors, the priestesses of Dayluue, who called hopefully to them as they tended to the roses growing around their own temple.

  Adale arrived at the Temple of Talcia soon enough, crossed the courtyard, and entered the sanctum. She knew the students were in the main room where services were usually held, and when she went to the door, she could see the new mages doing…something.

  “Can I help you?” asked a sharp voice.

  Adale turned, and the priestess who had spoken gave a little start.

  “I’m sorry, Crown Princess,” she said quickly. “I didn’t recognize you. Are you here to observe the training?”

  “No,” said Adale, casting another glance into the room. Esofi was at the front, smiling and watching one of the instructors explain something to the students. “I was actually hoping I could look at the temple’s library.”

  The priestess gave a nod. “Of course. It is upstairs—let me show you.”

  Adale let the priestess lead her away from the sanctum and up a flight of stairs that she’d never truly noticed before. The walls were painted with scenes of the night sky that darkened as they ascended.

  Upstairs was a wide-open room that looked like it was used for meetings. On both sides of the room were doors, one set plain and ordinary and the other oddly embellished with a familiar pattern. It took her a moment to realize where she knew the design from—it was identical to the tattoo on Esofi’s back, or at least, what she’d seen of it.

  “What is that?” asked Adale, pointing.

  “Oh, it’s noth—nothing, Crown Princess,” said the priestess, but the lie was clumsy in her mouth. “Please, come this way.”

  “What’s behind those doors?” demanded Adale.

  “It’s only unused rooms,” said the priestess. “Nobody’s been in there in an age.”

  “But the marks on the doors—what do they mean?”

  “It’s only the phases of the moon,” said the priestess, moving toward the opposite doors, the plain ones. “Don’t you want to look at the library?”

  “Tell me what they mean,” said Adale. “That’s an order.”

  The eyes of the priestess hardened, but Adale met her glare evenly.

  “It is the mark of the Silence of the Moon,” said the priestess at last. “But there is no Silence of the Moon in Ioshora, and so the rooms stand empty.”

  “What is the Silence of the Moon?” asked Adale.

  “It is another way of worshipping Lady Talcia,” said the priestess. “Wholly unnecessary—the temple has always been enough.”

  “If the temple is enough, why is there a room set aside for it in here?” countered Adale.

  “The members of the Silence of the Moon dwelt in the wilds. They felt they were closer to Talcia that way. When they were called to Birsgen, the temple allowed them to stay here, out of respect for our shared devotion. But the Great Mother and the archpriestess frequently disagreed, and so the visits were never pleasant.” The priestess frowned. “But you have seen their marks before?”

  Adale froze.

  “You have seen the marks before,” repeated the priestess, but this time it wasn’t a question. There was a curious, calculating look in her eyes, and Adale could not allow this affront to Esofi’s honor to stand.

  “I never touched her!” she protested.

  “Is that what you think this is about?” said the priestess, eyeing Adale as though she were a particularly foolish child.

  “What is it about, then?” asked Adale.

  The priestess pressed her lips together and shrugged. Adale realized that there was no order she could give that could force the priestess to give a truthful answer, and pelting her with gold coins probably wouldn’t get her very far, either. She would have to try negotiating instead.

  “If you tell me what you know,” said Adale, “I’ll tell you what I know about the princess.”

  The priestess turned away and walked into the next room, gesturing for Adale to follow. As she shut the door behind them, Adale looked around. This was the library, not nearly as expansive as the one in the castle but still full of potential.

  “Queen Gaelle of Rhodia is the Great Mother of the Silence of the Moon in Thiyra,” said the priestess in a very low voice, drawing Adale’s attention back to her. “She thinks that allows her to command the Temple of Talcia. And that may be the case in Rhodia, but it will not be so in Ieflaria. Princess Esofi may have brought magic back to our lands, but we only take orders from our archpriestess and our goddess.”

  “Esofi isn’t like that,” protested Adale. “She doesn’t want to command the temple! She just wants to protect everyone from the dragons.”

  The priestess didn’t look particularly convinced.

  “I mean it,” said Adale. “She isn’t going to try to undermine you. She’s been nothing but respectful of the temple, hasn’t she?”

  “That means nothing,” said the priestess. “You’ve seen how the Temple of Iolar struggles with the Order of the Sun. The Temple of Talcia is not nearly as strong. We could not withstand that sort of opposition.”

  “Esofi isn’t going to oppose you,” insisted Adale. “And even if she was—which she’s not—but if she was, she wouldn’t have the kind of power that the Order of the Sun does. They’ve existed here for centuries. It takes time to build up that kind of influence from nothing.”

  Still, the priestess was silent.

  “And besides,” Adale went on, “Esofi—she—her mother—they don’t…they’re nothing alike. Even you can see that.”

  “Perhaps,” granted the priestess, but she still sounded wary. She began to turn away, but Adale realized she had another question.

  “Talcia’s worship,” she said. “Why did Ieflaria abandon it?”

  The priestess looked a little surprised at the question. “Why do you think? It is extremely difficult to convince people to worship the one who brought monsters into the world.”

  “But I thought the dragons only started attacking us after we lost our magic?” pressed Adale. “We were able to fight them before that.”

  “The people of Ieflaria felt that, if they were pious, there was no reason they should ever need to fight dragons,” said the priestess. “Or so it was, back in the days your grandfather ruled. It was a slow thing, at first. Worshippers blamed Talcia when dragons attacked, and so the gifts of magic were not granted as often. Without new mages, the attacks worsened, and so did mistrust of Talcia. It is a cycle that must be broken if we are to survive.”

  “I think someone already has broken it,” said Adale.

  The priestess tilted her head in a half nod. “Perhaps. But now I will leave you to your reading. Try not to make a mess.”

  “EMPEROR?” SAID ESOFI.


  “That’s what they told me,” confirmed Adale.

  It was just past noon, and Adale had somehow managed to convince Esofi to pause her training so that she could eat while Adale told her of her findings. She also had a pile of notes that she’d written at the temple, and now she sorted through them, trying to find the most useful bits of information.

  “Were you able to find anything else about the emperor?” asked Esofi.

  “No,” said Adale. “But I want to go back and take a closer look. Their library isn’t nearly as large as the one we have here, but the books are all more useful. I’m sure if anyone has written something down about the emperor, it’s in that temple.”

  Esofi’s shoulders slouched, and she pressed one hand to the side of her face. “I wish I hadn’t killed him,” she whispered. “He could have told me…”

  “Sorry, have you forgotten about the part where he was trying to kill you?” Adale interrupted. “If he’d wanted to live, he could have started off by talking, instead of flying around breathing fire at the city watch.”

  “I know,” said Esofi, but she sounded no less miserable. “Still, killing them never troubled me. Why should it have? Farmers don’t worry when they eat a chicken. Guardsmen kill wild boars and bears for our protection. The royal huntsman brings carcasses for the castle cook, and he is proud of his work. I was no different from any of them.”

  “You’re right, you’re not,” said Adale. “There was no cruelty in your heart when you killed them.”

  “But all this time, I’ve been wrong. They weren’t animals, and I don’t even know how many of them I’ve slaughtered!”

  “Esofi, you couldn’t have known,” said Adale. “In fact, it sounds like they’ve been doing it on purpose. What did the dragon say to you? He was following orders. Their emperor has forbidden them to speak to us.”

  “But what could they stand to gain from that?” asked Esofi. “It defies reason.”

  Adale shrugged. “I don’t know either. But I’m going to keep researching.”

  Esofi gave a small smile. “You know, I never took you for an academic.”

  “I know. My potential was squandered by tutors who insisted I study boring things,” said Adale. “For example. Did you know a dragon will shed its skin once every few years?”

  Esofi laughed. “Yes, I did. They’re eerie when you find one intact.”

  “See? And all my tutors wanted to talk about were wars and great-grandparents and what might happen if Emperor Ionnes gets bored of fighting with Masim.” Adale leaned back in her chair and sighed heavily. “He’s never going to, by the way. And even if he did, Ieflaria is too cold for him.”

  “You’ve met him?”

  “We went to his wedding… What was it, five years ago now? He spent more time talking about what his troops were doing than anything else, even with Enessa Eusicybr right there. His own mother yelled at him in front of everyone for ignoring his fiancée. The ceremony didn’t go on for too long, but the party afterward lasted a week.”

  “My family was invited, but they decided not to make the trip,” said Esofi. “I’d hoped they’d send me with the ambassador so I could meet your family, but my mother didn’t want Ionnes thinking we cared about what he was doing.”

  “Oh, but that would have been fun,” said Adale. “There was so much to do, even for children. I think the entire country shut down to celebrate.” Adale suddenly looked introspective. “I just had an idea. What if Emperor Ionnes is the dragons’ emperor?”

  Esofi burst out laughing. “Adale, really!”

  “No, I mean it! Everyone knows he wants to take over the world. If he found a way to control the dragons—”

  “If he found a way to control the dragons, they would be attacking Masim, not Ieflaria,” said Esofi. “Besides, the dragons have been pretending to be animals for centuries now. He’s barely thirty.”

  “All right, yes, but what if it’s a family tradition, passed down through the generations in secret?”

  “No, Adale,” said Esofi, gently but firmly. “Emperor Ionnes is not the emperor that the dragon was referring to. His family could not have kept that kind of power secret for so long.”

  Adale made a disappointed sound. “It can never be the easy answer, can it?”

  “I’m afraid not,” said Esofi with a wry smile.

  Adale suddenly realized that she had actually been enjoying herself. “Where are the twins?”

  “Oh, they didn’t tell you? They’ve gone home,” said Esofi.

  Adale missed her mouth with her drink. “They…what?”

  “Oh, not forever. They promised they would be back in less than a week. They said they had to retrieve something.”

  “From Valenleht?”

  “I think so. Or…no! They said they were going to visit their mother’s estate. But they wouldn’t say why.” Esofi smiled. “It’s a surprise.”

  Examining her feelings, Adale realized that she was oddly unbothered by this. Let the twins have their schemes. She was doing important work.

  “Is it safe for them to be running around with almost no training?” asked Adale.

  “I think so,” said Esofi. “I hope so. They’re both very talented. As long as they don’t lose their tempers, they’re easily the best in the class.”

  THE LITTLE LIBRARY kept by the Temple of Talcia was not as organized as the Royal Library. There was evidence that someone, at some point, had attempted to group the books by subject. But it seemed the collection had been neglected for a very long time, and so Adale was left with no choice but to examine each book individually.

  She was not so disciplined that she could simply begin with the first book on the highest shelf and work her way across. At first, Adale selected the books with interesting spines and bright colors, with dyed leather covers and gilt edges. Unfortunately, most of those texts were too modern to be of any great use, and had nothing at all to do with dragons.

  Never one for moderation, Adale decided instead to look for the oldest, rattiest, crumbliest pile of parchment and dust that she could find. She found a likely looking tome after a few minutes, sliding it off the shelf carefully. A thin stream of dust fell to the floor in its wake.

  Adale brought the book to the table and opened the cover, which made a terrible cracking sound and immediately detached itself from the book’s spine. She looked around hastily but was alone. Perhaps the priestesses would believe that it had been broken before Adale got to it. Perhaps they would not notice at all.

  As she turned to the first page, Adale’s heart sank when she realized she could not read the title—it was in some ancient dialect that she had never seen before. But the illustration just below it was promising. It was a drawing of a dragon, silhouetted against the moon.

  Adale chewed her lower lip, thinking. Perhaps one of the court historians could make sense of it, or one of the priests at the library. But for some reason, the thought was unappealing. They were probably all doing whatever it was they did for her parents that kept Ieflaria running. She shouldn’t bother them with her silly whims…

  It’s not silly. It could be the key to defeating the dragons.

  Or it could be nothing but useless nonsense.

  The sound of footsteps ascending the stairs outside made Adale turn a few more pages rapidly, hoping they were enough to hide the detached cover. As the door opened, she arranged her face into what she hoped was an innocently neutral expression.

  But it was not a blue-robed priestess that stood in the doorway. Instead, it was Esofi, her skirts threatening to catch on the doorframe.

  “Princess?” asked Adale. “What are you doing up here?”

  Esofi glanced around the little library. “I could ask you the same thing. Are you still searching for information?”

  “Yes,” Adale said. “Are you surprised?”

  Esofi gave a very small smile. “A little, though perhaps that is unfair of me—I do apologize.”

  “How is the training com
ing along?” Adale asked. “Or have you grown tired of it already?”

  “I needed to rest my mind,” admitted Esofi. “But our newly blessed students have excellent instructors and so I do not think my absence will be any terrible loss. And I was curious—I have never been in this area of the temple before.”

  She had to have seen the doors, the ones with the carvings that matched the markings inked onto her back. But Esofi said nothing about them, and so Adale did not raise the subject.

  “Well,” said Adale, “I think this book looks promising, but I can’t read it—the dialect is too old. I was just wondering if it was worth troubling the court historians over.”

  Esofi came over to look at the open page. She squinted at the words for a long moment and then shook her head in defeat, her curls bouncing with the movement.

  “I could not begin to read that,” she said.

  “Some of it looks a little familiar, here and there,” said Adale. “See…I think that word is egg. The…egg…something, is hatched, maybe?…and is…I don’t know that word…the dragon—ahh, that word is dragon, maybe that will help…”

  “Would it help if I took dictation for you?” asked Esofi.

  “Maybe,” said Adale. “I think it’s easier to understand if I stop thinking and just say the sounds as they appear.” She began to flip through the pages again. “But that will take an age. Stop me if you see anything that might have to do with the emperor.”

  To Adale’s surprise, Esofi took a seat and settled in to help. But even with the princess’s help, it was several hours before they happened upon anything particularly interesting.

  Despite her expectations, Adale had fallen into a sort of rhythm with the old dialect. It was strange in her mouth, but she was able to determine the meaning of most of the words. With her eyes half focused and mouth relaxed, she found she could make her way through entire pages—far more than she’d ever believed possible when she’d first opened the book.

  “…in that time, Mother granted the blessings of the Moon to her children alone. The foremost of her blessing was the…glittering…darkness that can be shaped to all things. But Mother saw her…husband’s children, and she was…compelled. She began to share her blessing with the…hatchlings of Man, and the Men grew to love her and call her Mother just as we always had…” Adale looked at Esofi. Esofi stared back at her, clearly thinking the same thoughts.