The Cor Chronicles: Volume 02 - Fire and Steel (30 page)

“And brand yourself a traitor?”

“If I must. My salvation shall be that one last act of loyalty. Perhaps I was wrong about Lord Dahken Cor,” Palius mused. “No doubt he would lead our armies in battle.”

“Let him come! I have my own Lord Dahken, and he wields power the likes of which your pitiful Cor has never seen,” Nadav shouted arrogantly. He turned to look to his left as he said his next words. “Come boy, meet the architect responsible for the fall of the Shining West.”

Nadav’s image moved slightly to one side of the mirror as if to share it, and another form entered the glass from the right. He was indeed a boy, scarcely older than sixteen and relatively small of frame, dressed in silver silk finery similar to that of Nadav’s. The boy had sharp features, rigid cheekbones and a pointed chin with a hawk nose. His eyes carried large dark rings underneath them, as if the boy hadn’t slept in days, but his gray skin, the pallor of the grave, told Palius everything he needed to know about the boy.

Palius gasped and said quietly, “I recognize you. You were with Lord Dahken Cor here in Byrverus. He saved you from Losz.”

“And now I have returned to Losz,” the boy responded. “I am Lord Dahken Geoff, and the Dahken will follow me or die at my hands.”

“And who do you serve?” Nadav asked, never taking his eyes from Palius’ face.

“I serve Sovereign Nadav, Emperor of Losz and soon all of the West.”

Palius knew his mouth hung open in shock, and shocked he was. For perhaps the first time in his life, he had no idea what to say. He had no well thought out plan to place into action, nor a sudden reaction from his quick mind. He was utterly speechless, and Nadav chuckled softly while his Dahken smirked wickedly. Palius regained his senses and grunted as he flung the mirror across the room, watching it shatter satisfyingly against a stone wall. This possibility had never occurred to him, but why had it not? He should have known better, he should have known that a Loszian could never be trusted, much less the Loszian emperor. Blinded by his loyalty to Aquis and Queen Erella - nay, blinded by loyalty to their power - Palius may have just handed all of the Shining West to the Loszian Empire.

He could not allow it to happen; if he confessed it all to Queen Erella now, she could mobilize in time to stop it. Also, any grievances she had with Lord Dahken Cor must be set aside immediately. Cor would be eager to fight the Loszians, even take the fight to them, and Queen Erella would need his strength.
By Garod,
Palius thought,
Dahken Cor was never the enemy
. Assuming his queen did not execute him for treason, Palius would also confess his deeds to Cor himself. Perhaps Garod would still accept him in death.

He stood from his desk and wheezed and coughed his way across his chambers to his main doors, his disused muscles screaming in agony with every step. Once there, he pushed one open to face the two men who constantly stood guard outside. “I need to see the queen. I implore you to find her and tell her Palius needs her. It is a matter of the utmost importance,” he said. They searched his face for a moment, and one of the men turned and marched down the corridor.

Palius barely made it back to his bed without collapsing, and it was several minutes before his coughing subsided enough that he could again breathe. His mouth was dry and tasted of blood and phlegm, and Palius prayed that he lived long enough to tell the Dahken of the boy called Geoff. As his breath returned, he searched his memory, for he knew he had seen the boy here in the palace; Geoff had even said as much. Nadav said that Geoff was powerful, and there was something Palius had heard through the whisperings in the halls. The boy had turned into a ghost, or perhaps that he had summoned a ghost? Regardless, he knew it had something to do with a ghost seemingly made of blood. Palius must speak with Cor; Cor would know.

Mere minutes later, his queen glided in silently with a grace that still amazed him considering her advanced age, but her face was flushed as if she had run the halls to reach him. Great concerned showed across her features, almost to the extent that she looked as if she may cry at any moment. No doubt, Erella thought Palius called for her because he was at his end, and in a way, Palius wished that was the case if only to avoid telling her what he must now confess. She approached his bedside quietly and sat down next to him, placing her hand over his.

“No my queen,” Palius said, unmoving, “I am not dying just yet, but I fear that time is close.”

“Then what do you need, my old friend?” she asked softly. No relief came to her face despite his statement.

“My queen, I have never been a religious man,” Palius confessed, “but in the end, I fear and trust Garod. My loyalty lies with my country, not just Aquis but the Shining West. Though more than anything else, I love you Queen Erella of Aquis, and I’ve loved you since the first time I saw you. I’ve sacrificed every life I might have had to serve you, and everything I have ever done, I’ve done for you.”

“I know,” she said as she moved from a chair to sit on his bed with him. “Do not be afraid. In death Garod will grant you everything you may have once wanted - wife and home, children and grandchildren. His loyal servant deserves nothing less.”

“Majesty, I’ve not always done the righteous thing, the moral thing in Garod’s eyes. I have sins on my conscience and blood on my hands. I have made decisions and ordered horrible acts so that they would not stain your purity, and I am afraid that I must confess one of them now.”

“Palius, you mustn’t speak of it,” she said, briefly placing a finger over his chapped lips. “Garod knows all, and he will forgive your sins for the light in which you committed them. I have often wondered how I reigned free from strife and unpleasantness, and it is because you protected me from such hardships. You have aided me to rule justly, and the people of the West have benefited greatly from your sacrifices. Garod will not condemn you for this.”

“Erella, you must listen,” Palius said. Never once over the decades had he ever called her by name, and it caused her to become silent. “I attempted to murder Dahken Cor, not once in fact, but twice. You know of the attempt on his life when he reached Fort Haldon. When you told me weeks ago of his disrespect of Aidan and that you had sent for him, I paid Larnd no small sum for a heavily armed force to intercept his party. I don’t know specifics, except that Dahken Cor brought only a few with him, and Larnd’s people were defeated soundly. He has become powerful, and you will need his strength for what is to come.”

“What is to come…” she repeated. It was not a question, but he understood it as such. In fact, Erella still tried to comprehend the extent of Palius’ connections and his attempted murder of a state official, a lord.

“I thought Dahken Cor to be the greatest danger to the Shining West in centuries. I thought he would bring down Aquis and everything it stood for in his challenge to Garod and the accepted order. I feared for your power and the power of the priests over the people of our nations. I know now I was wrong; your reign is not about power.

“I found Cor too resilient, too difficult to kill. After the failure to assassinate him at Fort Haldon, I sought an ally. Years ago, I uncovered a spy here in the palace who used a device, a mirror to contact his master on Losz.”

“Who?” she asked with trepidation. Erella was shocked, and she found herself growing numb with each confession Palius made.

Palius paused long, his eyes searching her face. He sighed and said, “Sovereign Nadav.”

“The Loszian Emperor!” Erella gasped.

“Yes, my queen. Cor had already gallivanted through his lands and killed one of his lords, so I thought he would be a willing ally. I explained the Dahken’s plans to train his people and invade Losz. I besought him to raise a small army, cross the Spine and attack Fort Haldon to rid us of a common enemy. While Lord Dahken Cor fended off the invaders, a small force of our loyal soldiers would end all of the Dahken once and for all.”

“Palius, I -“

“Please, my queen,” he interrupted. “Let me finish.”

“I can hear no more!” she screamed at him. She stood from his bed and turned away from him, and Palius could hear the soft sound of her crying.

“You must listen!” he said, raising his voice as loud as he could with the rumbling of the phlegm and blood in his throat. “Nadav plans invasion of the Shining West, and he has his own Dahken to lead his armies.”

“Palius,” she said, and her voice was hard as granite. She turned, and he could see the tears that streamed freely down her lined face. “I will pray for your soul. Rest now, and may Garod accept you.”

Queen Erella of Aquis left him then, and as he watched her glide from the room as gracefully as she had come, Palius knew it was the last time he would see her in his life.

26.

“Marya can heal,” Keth explained. “I’m not completely sure how it works, but by pressing her own wound to another’s she can heal both. We’ve tried it a few times after she discovered the power, and we’ve figured out a few things. She must be wounded for it to work, and her blood must mix with the other person’s. It seems to make her weak.

“I didn’t want her to heal me,” he said as he looked over her still form. “I was afraid it would kill her.”

“It didn’t, but she still sleeps,” Cor said. “She saved your life. If she hadn’t done it, you would have died.”

“She may yet die, and I’m not sure I can live with that,” Keth said, lightly touching her cheek.

“I’m sure she’ll be fine,” Cor said. The statement didn’t sound overly confident, but he was fairly certain that if Marya were going to die, she would have already. An idea struck him, but it sounded hollow even to his ears as he voiced it. “If Marya does die, she died to save you. Make her sacrifice worthwhile.”

They had been in the forest for several days before Keth showed signs of improvement. He began to stir and eventually lifted his head and opened his eyes just slightly to try to make out his surroundings. The effort drained him, and his head fell back unmoving for close to another hour before he began asking for water with a parched croak of a voice. Within a few hours he was sitting upright and eating, though he looked exhausted and felt worse.

Later, after Keth seemed more recovered and had taken full stock of their situation, Cor asked, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Keth looked at him uncomprehendingly. “About me and Marya? Or?”

“That she can heal others with her blood,” Cor clarified.

“Oh. Honestly,” Keth said while scratching the back of his head, “it never occurred to me. Perhaps Lord Dahken, if I may be so bold as to say so, you should spend more time with your people instead of looking over drawings and plans.”

Cor’s eyes flashed angrily, and he set his jaw to bite back angry words. He briefly felt the urge to draw steel, an impulse he fought and beat down with consideration of the speaker of the words that had angered him. He saw the look of concern on Keth’s face that perhaps he had gone too far, and Cor used it to soften his own reaction. He held Keth’s gaze for a moment and then dropped his eyes to the ground beneath his feet.

“You are right, Dahken Keth,” he said softly with a sigh. “We will wait here through tomorrow. If Marya is not up and about by the next day, we will have to find a way to hold her on horseback. It may be slow going, but we must start moving again soon. I feel an itch to get back to Fort Haldon as soon as possible.”

“If she still sleeps, she will ride with me,” Keth said. “I’ll hold onto her. We’ll switch out our horse every couple of hours to not be too hard on the beasts.”

It was the last night they slept in the ancient forest. Keth stayed near Marya into the evening hours, eventually arranging his bedroll and moving Marya into it before sliding in next to her. When Cor awoke, he saw their two forms intertwined and snoring loudly. Keth was slow to rise, waking only when the sun was well into the morning sky, and Marya crawled from the bedroll shortly after he. She felt exhausted and weak, hungry and thirsty, but she was overall well and able to travel. It was midday before they emerged from the trees and crossed the disused and overgrown field to again travel the road to Byrverus.

* * *

“Lord Dahken Cor, Her Majesty was most concerned for your well being,” the armored man said. He wore gleaming steel plate from head to toe, shining mirror like in the sunlight and marked with the seals of the queen. “She expected you some days ago. Upon hearing of your arrival, Her Majesty has cleared the court to receive you immediately. I’ve been instructed to bring you to the palace directly.”

“We need no escort to the palace; I know precisely where it is,” Cor responded. It was unfortunate that this man would feel his ire, followed by that of the queen, but Cor was done with having demands placed upon him. “Inform Queen Erella that tonight I will sleep in a bed of my own choosing, and that tomorrow I will come to meet with her.”

“Sir, Her Majesty is unaccustomed to being disobeyed by anyone, especially one of her loyal subjects, peasant or lord.”

“Then inform her that I am unfortunately becoming accustomed to attempts on my life and those I love. Even still, I will not simply walk right into another such trap. I will come at my convenience tomorrow.”

The visor on the man’s plate helm was up, and his face showed a range of emotions that turned from shock to outrage to anger. The four stood before him with wide stances and arms crossed in defiance, and not one of them budged or said another word as they stood and stared him down. Finally, he sighed heavily and his face took on a look of sullen disbelief. He turned and marched back the way he had come.

“Was that wise Lord Dahken?” Keth asked.

“I don’t really care. If the queen or someone in her court is behind the attempts to kill us, marching right into her hands at a time she expects us is the worst thing we can do,” Cor reasoned.

“Wouldn’t they simply hold springing the trap until we arrive tomorrow?”

“Probably,” Cor said, and he turned to show his companions a mischievous smile, “but at least this way we spring the trap when we choose.”