Empress Aurora Trilogy Quest For the Kingdom Parts I, II, and III Revised With Index (Quest For the Kingdom Set) (59 page)

For Marcus, it
was too much. He would have thrown himself on Decimus and fought him to the end
had not the door burst open to reveal Gerontius Hadrianus, Silvia Lucius, and
several of the leading men of Lycenium.

Gerontius took
in the scene, and saw Tullia with her mud drenched garment, his son with drawn
dagger, and the wounded Felix.

“It is true
then, what I was told,” Gerontius whispered in a broken voice. “Oh, my son, I
did not want to believe it of you. How could you have done this vile thing?”

Decimus was
not accustomed to having his dark deeds made known, and he stood with the
dagger dangling loosely from his hand as he stood with head hanging down before
his father.

Marcus turned
his back to them and left it to them to sort out. He rushed to Felix who was
now cradled in his mother’s arms, as her tears fell gently on his face.

Tullia and
Kyrene also clustered around Felix and wept. As for Marcus, he took one look at
the gaping wound in his friend’s chest, heard the gasping for breath, and knew
it was mortal. He was the son of a solder, and he recognized death when he saw
it.

“Felix,” he
crooned as tears welled up in his eyes. “Oh, Felix, you took what was intended
for Tullia. And for me.”

“You saved me,
Felix,” Tullia said through the tears choking in her voice. She kissed his
brow.

“And you saved
me, my friend,” Marcus gasped as he struggled for composure.

“Well, then,”
Felix panted. “I am absolved now. You and Tullia. For your mother, and your
father. My debt is paid.”

Silvia held
him in her arms and kissed his curls, and Felix breathed his last.

The days that
followed the death of Felix were some of the most wrenching that Marcus was
ever to know. What hard blows were these; to discover the murder of his mother,
witness the death of his father, and to have his own life and that of the woman
he loved spared by the sacrifice of his dearest friend. Sleep eluded him, his
appetite deserted him, and tears seemed his daily lot as he agonized over the
loss of those whom he had loved the longest in his life. Truly, it seemed as if
the threads of his past were cut and its fabric utterly gone, and a new and
uncertain life lay before him, whose pattern and design he could not see.

A few days
later, when the sky was overcast and leaves of brown and gold drifted slowly
from the trees, Felix was laid to rest on his uncle’s estate in Lycenium.

Before the
last rites were given for Felix, Marcus with a heavy heart, had consulted Logos
for a word of comfort, some way to ease the pain in his heart.

“Love is as
strong as death; jealousy as cruel as the grave. Its flames are flames of fire,
a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love. Nor can the floods drown
it. If a man would give for love all the wealth of his house, it would be
utterly despised.”

And so, Marcus
thought as he stood by the grave of his dearest friend, it was true, as Kyrene
said: Felix had never stopped loving Tullia, even though she loved another.
What a selfless love was that, to give expecting nothing in return. And thus
the word Kyrene had spoken to Felix when they first met was brought to pass:
Felix had found true love, when he loved the One whose heart was true. For in
laying down his own life to save Tullia, he had demonstrated the deepest love
of all…

By the same
standard of selflessness, the Empress Aurora’s love for his father was exposed
for what it really was: merely a lust for something that had been denied her, a
woman whose every wish had always been gratified, and who did not know the
meaning of the word deprivation. It was on the same footing as the cruelty of
Decimus to Tullia; what was denied him willingly he ruthlessly attempted to
take by force, even as Aurora did by imprisoning Valerius and leaving Honoria
to die.

As for his own
love, Marcus recalled the words to the ballad he heard in Gaudereaux:

“It was she
and she alone I sought...”

He turned to
smile tenderly through his tears at Tullia, standing next to Kyrene, whose hand
she held in comfort. Tullia returned his smile through her own misted eyes, and
slipped her other hand into his.

Yes, his lady
loved him. And him alone.

Quest
For the Kingdom by L. M. Roth is a 7 book series divided into 2 sections.

Books
1 through 3 comprise the Empress Aurora trilogy and the tale of the young
Marcus Maximus.

Books
4 through 7 consist of the Chronicles of Logos and recounts the fate of the
fabulous Sword. It also continues the saga of Marcus Maximus, his friends and
their teenaged children, and reveals how the decisions of the next generation
impact the Kingdom for years to come.

Individual
titles for the series are also available, listed below.

Quest
For the Kingdom Part I The Legend of the Great Pearl

Quest
For the Kingdom Part II Conquering the Domain of Darkness

Quest
For the Kingdom Part III Invitation To Eternity

Quest
For the Kingdom Part IV A Stranger Among Us

Quest
For the Kingdom Part V Rise of the Time of Evil

Quest
For the Kingdom Part VI The Sorceress and the Seer

Quest
For the Kingdom Part VII A New Kingdom Rises

Other
titles by L. M. Roth:

A
Knight’s Guide To Spiritual Warfare

Abelard
and the Dragon’s Vapor

Arise
My Love The Princess Who Fell Asleep

Christmas
Cheer

Disenchanted
In the Land of Dreams Come True

Lights
In the Mist and Other Original Fairy Tales and Fairy Tale Spoofs