The Flame of Wrath (13 page)

             
The Queen clenched both her jaw and her fists. “Soren,” she breathed hatefully. Oh how she hated him.

             
Angelos IV nodded sadly. “Yes, that druid has bewitched my father for years. It began after my mother---” He stopped then cleared his throat, forcing away those childhood memories. “It was never as evident as it was last night. Why else would he not bless the marriage of his only daughter to our Queen?”

             
Autumn's eyes dulled to a weary gray. “How dare you! Have you no shame?”

             
“I speak the truth,” he countered self-righteously.

             
“You are speaking treason.”

             
“Against whom?” he huffed.

             
“Against the High Lord of Angels,” Autumn fired back. She glared at him with unrelenting fury.

             
“And what of your Queen?” a voice queried gently.

             
Autumn froze. She turned to gaze into the blue eyes glistening with tears.

             
“Two men were conspiring against not only your Queen, but the woman you intend to marry,” Aurea whispered. “Does that not warrant the term 'treason'?”

             
Autumn took the smaller woman tenderly into her arms. She held her close then spoke softly into the satiny golden curls. “My Love, you have my loyalties,” she vowed. “You know this, but this is my father. He and Soren would never---”

             
“Perhaps your father wouldn't,” Aurea argued, “but Soren would. He hates me.”

             
“Soren hates no one. He is a good man.”

             
Her revulsion was clear as Aurea pressed her hands against Autumn's chest. She wriggled and pried herself from the woman arms, suddenly not wishing to be held.

             
Angelos IV placed his arm around the shaken Queen. Gently he ushered her toward the stone archway leading out of the courtyard. “I will speak to her,” he said quietly. “Don't worry. The wedding will happen as you wish, Highness.”

             
Aurea nodded wordlessly. She left the courtyard almost aimlessly. Her face was blank. She stopped suddenly within the east wing. Though no one seemed to linger about, she spoke aloud. Her eyes continued to stare forward. “Find the High Lord,” she commanded.

             
“As you wish, my Queen.” Galen's voice responded in a whisper somewhere from the shadows.

Aurea’s fist tightened with rage as if to seal around the life she wished to quell.

********             

             
The siblings stood as separate isles amidst raging seas. They were silent, thrashed by all the chaos moving around them.

             
Breaking beneath the might of silence, Angelos IV moved closer to his sister. “Do not anger Aurea,” he warned. He leaned forward speaking in a hushed tone. “It's obvious that she has some kind of hatred for the druids. Your love of them could ruin what you two have.”

             
“Don't pretend to care about my happiness, brother,” Autumn uttered. “Or even to presume you know how to nurture it. As I look at you now, I don't think you've ever known a day of it your entire life.”

             
The nobleman winced at his sister's words. “That's not true,” he said. He took her into his arms and held Autumn close. “I've known so much happiness.” He embraced her more tightly. “Much of it with you.”

             
At first, she seemed to be made of ice and stone. Then slowly, his sister began to thaw within his arms. He caressed the back of her head, gently smoothing her hair.

             
“You're wary of me now, I know,” he said. “I understand. I have shown an ugly side of myself and you don't like what you have seen, but your sheltered life ends today. I think that very soon you will see the world you prayed for—-” He watched over the woman in his arms as if she were Djidjiga, herself. “The peace you were given.... it is because others granted it to you. It's false.”

             
Autumn stared into the bubbling waters of the fountain. She watched as they pitched high into the air then fell with graceful splashes into the pool below. This courtyard, second only to her beloved lake, had always been a place of serenity for her. It had never ceased to remind her that there was a certain bright hopefulness in the world around her. And now for the first time, she found herself terribly frightened of what might exist outside of her sanctuary.

********

              The General sat quietly beneath a tree. He was a beautiful statue of tragedy and loss with something broken in the blankness of his cold eyes. With a lowered head, he stared down at his hands. A vision of them stained by his own blood raced across his eyes. He blinked rapidly, attempting to banish the sight from his mind.  He swallowed hard at his fears. He forced them away causing them to compress inside his abdomen. They gathered there, knotting with great heaviness.

             
“You are a hard man to find,” he heard, realizing that he was no longer alone within the royal gardens.

             
Angelos lifted his eyes. They were pale and weary. “Find implies that I was lost,” he answered in low voice. “Clearly as you see me sitting before you, I am not lost. I am within the comforts of my own home.”

             
His eyes watched over the petite young woman moving gracefully to sit upon a stone bench near to him. With the sunlight washing over her, she appeared almost surreal. Still, he saw her for what she was. He was not fooled by the outward splendors of her face.

             
“What is it that you wish of me, Highness?”

             
Aurea smiled beautifully. “I've come for your blessing of course.”

             
“Oh but you will never have it,” the High Lord answered calmly. He lifted a bottle of wine to his lips and drank heartily from its contents. When he had finally pulled the bottle away, he stared at the manner in which the light danced against the colored glass.

             
Thoughtfully, he mused aloud. “I have seen enough serpents in my lifetime to know when one is preparing to strike.” He looked away from the crafted glass to the Queen. “You already know that you don't have my blessing so what is it that you really want from me?”

             
Aurea's smile fell away like a mask no longer necessary. It crashed to the ground at her feet. Her eyes were ruthless and burned with a white-hot flame. “What promises did the druid make to you?”

             
Angelos III frowned. “What promises?”

             
“Don't play me for a fool, Angelos,” she hissed.

             
The man rose unsteadily to his feet. He laughed under his breath, fanning the flames inside of furious eyes. “I know why I am making little sense. I haven't slept or eaten and I've had far too much wine.” He took another long swig from the bottle, hoping to drown out the screams of war found in his vision. Cautiously, he began to stagger away. “What is your reason?”

             
“Don't turn your back on me,” Aurea warned.

             
Angelos released a bellow of dark laughter. He turned to face the Queen with a sad smile. “Or what? What will you do to me in my castle, in my province---?”

             
“In
my
land,” the Queen interjected. She rose to her feet with a dangerous slowness. Her eyes held him relentlessly. “I was attempting to give you a means of salvation because you are Autumn's father, but clearly you don't have sense enough to accept my kindness.”

             
The General returned her gaze. He found his hatred for Aurea rising to levels he had not thought he could possess for anyone other than an enemy upon the battlefield. He knew better than most that while locked in mortal combat, one could experience the deepest kind of hatred.

             
His thoughts cleared. Was this not precisely what was happening now? This woman was threatening to destroy his life as he knew it. This was mortal combat.

             
Aurea found herself unnerved by Angelos’ eyes. She realized that his eyes said that he saw through to something deep inside of her. They said that they knew far too much for her liking.

“I will not forget this...” Aurea said, beginning to tremble with rage. She continued on through gritted teeth. “---Any of this!”  She inched forward with tightening fists. “Now, I am leaving this cursed place and I am taking Autumn away from here. I will not give you the opportunity to turn her away from me.”

              Angelos III froze. His face blanched. Then he suddenly began to smile. That smile did something the others did not. It actually reached his eyes, tainting them with hope.

             
The Queen felt herself growing leery of the General's nonsensical actions.

             
“Take her from here?” he repeated. The High Lord smiled knowingly. “Oh but that implies stealing and stealing from a High Lord is a crime... even for you, Highness.”

             
Aurea's eyes flashed. “What?”

             
“You should have taken the time to study the old laws which you have spurned,” he answered lowly. Angelos' voice rose to a mighty boom. “Guards!”

             
From every direction men burst into the gardens. They wore crimson kilts which flashed but never as brightly as their swords. Their impassioned eyes scoured for their enemy but saw only their Lord and the Queen of Pyros.

             
“Your time in my province has ended,” Angelos III warned clearly enunciating each word.

             
“Knights!” Aurea cried desperately.

             
The royal guards leapt down from the garden walls with weapons drawn. The three siblings looked alive in a way that they had not since arriving within the province. This was where they excelled: in battle. Their blue eyes were alight with the prospect of it.

             
The guards and the royal defenders looked from one another, waiting in wonder as they longed to see who might falter first.

********
             

             
“Guards!”

             
“Knights!”

             
Autumn lifted her head in unison with her brother. Each sibling paled fearfully. They knew those voices. Together, they sprinted in the direction of the cries, hearing the sounds of steel on steel growing louder in the clash of battle.

********

              The guards of Angels were falling with a speed that left their comrades speechless. The warriors of Shadow Reign, though few in number, were plucking their opponents off one by one.

             
Markus removed another two knives from the leather strap at his chest. He extended his hand mightily. From its certainty, his prey was decided. In the light, silver streaks seemed to speed from his palms.

             
Loud cries filled the air. Two men launched backward before impacting mercilessly into the earth.

             
Olivia pointed to the sky with a warning word. “Reinforcements!”

             
Shadows fell over the gardens. From the heart of their darkness, shimmering figures descended to land in the midst of the bloody tempest.

             
Aurea's eyes widened. She stared out from behind the shoulders of her warriors. She could see the women in silver armor and flowing white skirts. Immediately, she recognized the captivating woman who had permitted their entrance into the city the evening before.

             
Galen clutched more fiercely to his staff. He surveyed the odds with a dire sense of foreboding overtaking him. “We are overwhelmed,” he said for only his siblings to hear.

             
“Then we will die protecting our Queen,” Olivia uttered with conviction.

             
In that moment, the mighty female warriors advanced. They burst through the heart of the royal knight's defenses, leaving Aurea exposed.

             
Aurea was backed into a corner. She held her breath fearfully as she watched everything around her slow painfully.

             
The Queen could clearly see her knights taking on two and three warriors at a time. They had been forced to spread out, leaving them weakened. Through their once strong line, she witnessed the almost seductive way in which the woman in white seemed to saunter through the forced opening. Aurea’s eyes followed the rise of a silver trident as it prepared to give a fatal blow. In the sunlight, it was blinding. It was the brilliant lightning bolt from the hand of God, meant to strike her down. As it began its descent, Aurea closed her eyes, unable to see the end coming for her.