Chapter Fourteen The Cobra Sends and Receives a Message #2
The ghoul shook itself like a dog emerging from the water, turned and shambled away towards the capital. On the horizon Marius saw a red line over the distant walls of Themesvar. He did not know if it was the sun rising or the abyss.
Marius did not know how much Eric could see. When he looked, Eric was crouched on the forest floor among the roots of a tree, gazing in the same direction as Marius.
They had heard the same stories. The Emperor rising from the abyss, swinging the severed head of the king with evil glee, draping the Abandon All Hope Diamond necklace around the throat of his dark bride.
The same tales, but Marius suspected they had not listened with the same feelings.
Eric said stories were all about point of view.
“Sorry if I scared you.” Eric spoke as if Marius were capable of that emotion.
“I left the city behind, but I can’t stop thinking about what happens next.
There’s the prophecy of his coming, and a prophecy of his end.
The Oracle gave us the first prophecy long ago, but she hasn’t spoken the last one yet.
If I know Rae, she will try to prevent the last prophecy ever being spoken. ”
“Do you want to help her? Or is it him you want to help?”
The Emperor. Marius had only truly noticed Key, that unruly servant, because the Cobra had warned Marius not to fight him.
You will not win.
“I’m not sure,” the Cobra answered. “When I read the books, I never liked the Emperor. Knowing someone for real is different. Seeing someone hurt for real is different. If the last prophecy comes to pass, more people than Key will be hurt.”
Eric almost wept when Key died. If knowing someone in a different way made you feel differently about them, Marius wondered how Eric felt about Marius now. He had said once Marius was his favourite character.
In reality, Marius must be a disappointment.
“Do you think you can change fate?”
“I believe some things are set in stone and can’t be changed, but I saw Rae change the story.
” Eric glanced up at him. “I saw you change the story, by making different choices. So I want to give it a try. This is how it all unravels. The Emperor offends the Oracle by not inviting her to a ceremony, so the Oracle comes down the mountains to the Palace on the Edge. A minstrel plays a mournful tune as she delivers her message. From that moment the Emperor’s fate is sealed. ”
Light dawned. “This is the minstrel you’re looking for?”
“His name is Merel,” said Eric. “He has divine dreams. One day he will be the most famous minstrel in the court. Even if the Oracle does not speak, Merel might utter the prophecy himself.”
“Do you wish to search for him now?”
If the Cobra commanded, he must obey. If some secret, cowardly part of Marius would be glad to put off his return to the manor, nobody ever had to know. That was the wonderful simplicity of the oath of blood and gold.
Eric shook his head. “We have to get to Ancilley Manor. Your sister is in danger.”
His little sister, born when he was eight years old. He used to wrap her in a war cloak as if it was a baby blanket. Eric had spoken of trouble before, but to be a Valerius was to be born to trouble. Danger was different.
“Caracalla?” Marius snapped. “What do you mean, in danger? From what? When?”
“I told you the book I read changed, so the book Rahela read was different,” Eric began.
“I do not trust Lady Rahela’s wild tales!”
Though Eric claimed Rahela had changed, Marius saw little difference. The woman was still heartless, selfish and willing to use any means to achieve her ends. Eric trusted her. Marius did not.
“I don’t think we can afford to ignore them.
Because it happened differently in the book I read, but both times, it happened.
In the books I read, you were far away and could not help her.
In the books Rahela read, you had perished, so there was nobody to help her.
In one book, Lady Caracalla was cold and hungry.
In the other, she had everything she needed, but it only brought disaster sooner. ”
Disaster. A dark fate that waited for the last living girl in a manor of ghosts. It felt as if Marius had always known this.
“Disaster,” Marius repeated. “Tell me.”
“The manor always burns,” Eric whispered. “She always dies.”
He must protect his sister. He always feared he would fail.
Eric leaned forward. “But not this time. This time, I will help you change the story. We can save her. We can save everyone. Believe me.”
Impossible to believe, against all the evidence of history and fate. But what was possible no longer mattered. This was a command.
Marius vowed, “I will.”
Eric smiled brilliantly, clearly pleased to be obeyed, so bright Marius almost smiled back.
“So, while we’re talking about changes to the story, I was thinking about Ink the stable girl.”
It was not Marius’s place to judge the Cobra. Out of long habit, his expression fell into lines of judgement. The girl was very pretty. Of course Eric had noticed.
Eric scoffed. “Not for me. She looks about sixteen.”
“That’s a perfectly reasonable age for a woman to be married?” said Marius, bewildered.
“This is one of our cultural differences,” Eric declared.
“To me, disgusting. To you, a perfectly reasonable age. Which is true, in certain stories. It even sounds like a romantic story, doesn’t it?
The beautiful girl who dresses up as a boy to go on a dangerous adventure, saved by a noble knight from peril. What do you think of her?”
“I don’t think of her,” Marius said flatly.
He wasn’t certain why Eric had chosen to discuss romance stories and stable girls. As a scholar of the Ivory Tower, Marius was sworn to ascetism.
Except he had taken up a sword and killed again. He had broken all his vows, and sworn to Eric instead.
“You don’t,” Eric said thoughtfully. “And you don’t seem to like Amelia much either.”
“She’s fine,” said Marius. “When she keeps her distance.”
Eric gave a soft, almost tentative puff of laughter. “I see.”
Far from being insulted, Eric seemed glad to hear it. Strange. Even stranger was the fact Eric seemed uncertain. Not even the worst horrors, like an entire crowd of people looking at him, made Eric falter.
He faltered now. “I was wondering if… possibly…”
Since Eric seemed to have something to say, Marius crouched beside him among the tree roots, waiting to hear what it might be.
What Eric insisted on calling their quest was almost at an end.
With Eric out of danger, the forest seemed almost peaceful.
Across a long distance, Marius heard a pack of fene howl, the abyss-touched beasts who had once been wolves not baying with hunger but calling to each other to know the pack was well.
Gnarled tree roots lay under a blanket of soft moss, like old men’s knees kept warm in green velvet.
Moonlight and morning dew together had laid a glittering silver veil across the grass.
Eric’s loosened braids were a spill of shadow, the sliding-loose collar of his sleep robe a muted gold, and his eyes avoided Marius’s to fix on the moonlit grass.
“Do you like me?” Eric asked the grass.
“Honestly, Eric, this is absurd,” Marius responded with complete scorn. Eric swallowed. “I should have thought that much was obvious. I broke vows, I turned traitor, I swore the oath of blood and gold at your feet—”
For some reason, Eric started to laugh. “Yes, all right, you don’t need to use the lord voice on me—”
“I threw my entire life into chaos. I fail to see how I could have made myself more plain. You drink too much, but surely not to the point of losing your memories—”
“I wish I had a drink right now,” muttered Eric.
Further proving Marius’s point!
Eric took a breath that seemed deep as the abyss. “Do you like like me?”
Marius frowned. “I don’t know why you just said the same word twice.”
Eric looked at him at last, eyes summer light in the cool dark night. “You keep saying I can ask for anything I want.”
“Yes,” Marius promised. “Anything.”
He was glad Eric finally seemed to realize the weight of that, and perhaps the wonder.
Few people let themselves be close to a Valerius, but Eric was close now.
Whenever Eric drew too near, Marius had to endure a sensation in his chest like a flock of terrified birds all trying to fight free of a thornbush at once.
Every time, Marius found himself almost overwhelmed by sheer physical panic.
Eric should know better. Eric should know enough to fear.
Eric leaned in, warm and unafraid, to murmur, “What do you want?”
That was simple.
Marius answered, “Nothing.”
Eric suddenly recoiled, as if the word “nothing” were a weapon.
“Right. Fine. Thanks for telling me. Sorry for asking.”
Eric’s usually expressive face had gone blank. Marius asked uncertainly, “Are you well?”
“Just tired. We should be getting back to the camp. It’s almost morning, and we must ride to the manor.”
They must ride to the manor, and save Caracalla. If fate could be changed. And if it could, perhaps some of the things Eric had told him weren’t true.
As he followed Eric back to camp, Marius looked back over his shoulder at the red line of sunrise.
If fate could be changed, Marius could fight the Emperor and win.