Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Ryker
My head swiveled toward Luna. I had no idea what she’d meant, and judging by the confused looks on everyone else’s faces, neither did anyone else in this room.
“Some children will resist their teachings,” Luna continued.
“But others will comply. They’re young and malleable.
And what’s going to happen when they start coming for the children under eight?
When they start coming for your toddlers and infants?
When they can raise them from the very beginning and make them their own before sending them back?
“Why would they keep you around to possibly interfere with their training when they’ll have allies they’ve created since birth? Allies who will go on to rebuild the population of Tempest by creating more allies.”
Everyone in the tavern paled as her words sank in. I couldn’t imagine the appalling future she’d spun of generations who did nothing but toil for the nobles, who were taught not to fight, and given no possible hope for the future.
It was a nightmare landscape far worse than anything in the Revenant Woods. While it was a possible future, I didn’t think it was ours.
“Luna has a point,” I said. “But even the children they forge into soldiers from birth might one day question everything they’re taught. Also, my father enjoys a fight and loves making others suffer. It wouldn’t be much fun for him if he filled Tempest with a bunch of mindless drones.
“While I never rule anything out with that man, I don’t think filling Tempest with a bunch of mindless automatons is his goal. He’d enjoy it far more if he turned your children against you before sending them home to watch the chaos unfold. To him, it would be pure joy to watch.”
They all paled further at this scenario which, while it didn’t involve their imminent death, was worse than Luna’s. No one said anything, but a few patrons lifted their drinks with trembling hands before gulping them.
They all looked ready to break as the hope of the carisle we’d given them evaporated. I had to give them something to cling to before we left here.
“The only thing he succeeded in doing with me was turning me against him,” I said. “And believe me, he did everything he could to destroy me. Some of your children will stay steadfast against him too.”
“But you are his only son, only child, and at the time, the only lightning bearer in the realm. He couldn’t kill you,” a woman whispered.
“Yes, he could have, but he chose not to. Leo would have been angry with him if he’d killed me as a child, but he also could have hid it from the king… just as he hid the truth of my mother’s death.”
A small inhalation went around the room. I was sure those who remembered her hadn’t considered her death to be anything more than what they were told… an attack by a vicious troll.
“My father had her killed to keep her from me, and to punish me,” I told them.
“He didn’t kill me because he was convinced he could break me.
He saw me as a tool for him to gain more power.
In some ways, he was right. The aristocrats gave more respect and others feared him more because of me, and he relished that. ”
“And what will he do if he captures the female lightning bearer?” the woman next to me asked before her gaze fell to the ring on my left hand. “Your wife.”
“You know what he’ll do.”
The woman studied me for a minute before lowering her eyes and shuddering. “It will be worse for her because she’s with you.”
My teeth ground together. “It will.”
“So, you are married then?” the bartender inquired. “We heard the rumors, but you can never be certain about the gossip in Tempest. We didn’t know if it was wishful thinking from some amsirah.”
“We are married.”
“Two lightning bearers have married,” a man whispered.
A low murmur of excitement ran through the crowd. They didn’t have much to be enthusiastic about anymore, but this gave them hope again. Two lightning bearers had rarely ever even existed at the same time, never mind married. It was as unheard of as Ellery herself.
“Soon you’ll probably hear whispers that she can control all five weathers,” I said.
The patrons exchanged a look as some of them chuckled. “We’d know that would just be gossip,” a waitress said.
“Except, it’s not,” I replied. “Not only is she a lightning bearer, but she can control all of the weathers.”