Chapter 56
Chapter
Fifty-Six
Elias took one last look around Gerard’s room. He’d finished packing. He should inform the servants to transport his belongings back to his room in the quarters for the royal family of Voltaria and Zephyrias.
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He did not want to go back. He did not want to leave Gerard’s space.
A knock sounded on the door.
Elias sighed. “Who is it?” he said rather sharply.
No answer. The knock sounded again.
“Who is it?” A servant should respond. But maybe they were new. Or maybe it was a monk who’d taken some sort of vow of silence. Did the monks here take vows of silence?
The knock sounded again. Elias huffed and walked to the door. He turned the handle and opened it. He frowned. “What are you doing here?”
In the hallway stood two Zephyrian soldiers, Empress Emmeline, and Prince Beau.
“What is going on?” Elias asked.
“You must come with us. Immediately.” Empress Emmeline turned and strode away. The others followed.
“Why?” Even if there was some sort of Zephyrias and Voltaria last-minute meeting, she would never be the one to summon Elias.
“It is an emergency, and you are required.” Empress Emmeline wore a sleek black dress, not her usual colour.
She also wore unusual black jewellery over her right hand and wrist. Black metal claws slotted over each finger.
Black chains connected the claws to a central red stone on the back of her right hand.
More chains from the red stone connected to a thick metal band wrapped around her wrist. The black band had been engraved.
She’d never worn something like that before. Nor had Empress Emmeline ever worn a brown leather belt around her waist with four daggers hanging from it.
Elias didn’t move. But every single muscle in his body tensed.
“Elias, just do what you are told for once!” she snapped.
Still, Elias remained exactly where he was. He looked down the corridor, past her and the other Zephyrians. No guards from Draconia stood watch. Not a single one. And a figure dressed in grey robes and a black mask stood down the end of the corridor, watching.
Elias pulled on his powers. He lifted his hands. Sparks flickered across his fingers. But he did not attack. Not yet. “Why are you in these quarters? Where are the guards? Where is anyone from Draconia?”
If she didn’t start answering, Elias would draw the answers from her whilst she writhed on the floor screaming in pain as the electricity singed her nerves.
She raised a single brow. “What are you going to do, Elias? Zap me with your little sparkles?” She laughed.
The others joined in. All except the robed figure who stood still, masked face unreadable. But Elias would bet that no mirth showed even beneath the mask.
“Your sparkles won’t help you, Elias. But then, when have they ever helped you?” his stepmother mocked. “And unfortunately the Draconian guards won’t help you either.”
She strolled away from him, down the corridor, the others following. She paused in an open doorway that led to a sitting room. She looked inside. She smiled. “Want to see what has happened to them? Come see for yourself.” She gestured into the room.
For several seconds, Elias didn’t move. But finally, his curiosity won out. Refusing to relinquish his power, he stepped forward. However, he waited until Emmeline and the others had moved ahead before approaching the doorway.
Elias sucked in a breath. Draconian guards lay on the floor. Eyes blank and unseeing. Chests unmoving.
“What have you done?” Elias asked as he pulled on more power.
“We took the air from their throats.” The empress smiled.
Wind sorcerers could cut off someone’s air. They just stopped it from being drawn into someone’s lungs. If they did not stop, their victim would collapse and die.
Actually, that power had been minimally useful during the war against the dragons.
It required the Zephyrian sorcerers to be very close to their target.
And dragons flew so far above and moved so swiftly that the wind sorcerers were better off attempting to fling a dragon into the ground or cliff and injure them that way.
Then Elias remembered. He’d heard unusual footsteps in the corridor as he packed. But he’d been too consumed with Gerard leaving to pay proper attention. Had that been when the guards were killed?
Throat tight, Elias asked, “Where is Gerard?”
She smirked. “Your dragon warrior cannot save you. He is not here. He is my prisoner now, and I have sent him away. If you want to see him alive ever again, you will behave and be a good little boy for once. Now will you do what I say?”
Elias hesitated. But what choice did he have? He needed to find Gerard, and he had no idea where he was. He dropped his arms. The sparks disappeared.
“Now hold out your hands,” she instructed.
When he did, her smile turned almost gleeful. Beau stepped forward and tied his hands with rope. The strands bit into Elias’s wrists. Elias grunted. Beau chuckled and tied the rope tighter.
The rope would do nothing to stop his powers. They’d not bothered with magic shackles or the like. After all, they thought him practically powerless.
“Now come this way.” She swirled away, black skirts sweeping across the floor. Elias and the Zephyrian soldiers, who walked on either side of him, followed her. Beau and the strange, robed figure came behind.
They passed through the Draconian quarters. Men and women dressed in ragged clothing moved within the rooms.
“What is going on?” Elias asked.
“That’s none of your fucking business,” Beau snapped. “Just shut up and keep walking.” He shoved Elias in the back.
They passed Colette’s room. The door was open. Nobody was inside. “Where is Colette? And where is the Draconian royal family?”
“I said shut your fucking mouth and keep walking.” Beau shoved him again, harder this time.
Elias stumbled and righted himself. He passed more of the poorly dressed individuals. Who the fuck were they, and why were they here?
Then they walked into a bedroom. He’d never been in this room before. The robed figure walked towards a panelled wall. They pressed against two points on the wall. The panel swung inwards. A hidden passage lay beyond.
Without pausing, one of the Zephyrian soldiers entered, carrying a torch. The empress followed. The others, including Elias, came along after. They walked and walked, twisting and turning through the tunnels. No one spoke. Eventually they came out into an alley with a carriage.
They climbed in. The empress, Beau, and the robed figure sat opposite Elias. One Zephyrian soldier sat beside Elias. The other got onto the front of the carriage.
The carriage rattled through the streets.
“Your desire to turn on me, and I’m assuming Voltaria, is not unexpected,” Elias said.
“However, I’m surprised you’d work against the peace treaty.
You always argued for its creation. And you always despised Warden Flint.
” Those were the main reasons Elias had never thought her part of the conspiracy.
It rankled how wrong he’d been.
She huffed, smoothing her skirts with long, elegant fingers. “I never worked with Warden Flint. He was an arrogant fool, blinded by his desire for a total victory against the dragons.” She sniffed. “No. I couldn’t stand the man.”
“So you aren’t working against the treaty?”
“No.” She shook her head. “But sometimes opportunities arise. I am doing this to put Zephyrias in its rightful place.”
Elias scoffed. “And what is its rightful place?” Although, Elias did not need to ask.
“Above Voltaria.” Her cold gaze met his.
“Voltaria will still have a place, of course. It will just be as a part of the Empire of Zephyrias. As it should always have been. There will be no joint and equal kingdoms or some such nonsense. Zephyrias will once again be in its full glory.” She lifted her chin.
Elias almost laughed. The battle with the dragons was only just over. The peace treaty wasn’t even finalised. And already the empress was trying to bring Voltaria down.
“Moving forward, there will be just one true ruler. Me.” She leaned back, resting her hands in her lap. “The Empire of Zephyrias will happily enter into this peace treaty.”
Elias scoffed. “You took the dragon warrior prisoner! You think you can still make a peace treaty with Draconia?”
“But that wasn’t us.” She laughed. “That was bandits. Did you not see? Bandits found a way into the Draconian quarters. They ransacked the rooms. They killed the guards. You saw them.”
Was that what those ruffians were meant to be? Bandits. “Did you hire actual bandits to do your bidding?”
She waved a hand at him. “You don’t need to concern yourself with the details. At the end of the day, the story told to the world will be that bandits killed you all.”
Elias kept his face still. So that was what she had planned. “Is Gerard still alive?” he asked, unable to stop himself.
“He is. For now.” Emmeline glanced out the window. “I thought that maybe with you in Draconia, I could move ahead with my plan for Zephyrias and Voltaria. But alive, you would always be a symbol for Voltarians to rally around and revolt. And of course, you could plot with your husband against me.”
She shook her head. “No. It is better if you and your father are both dead.”
“My father?” He’d assumed she’d keep him around. After all, she could probably manipulate him into anything, even making Voltaria part of the Empire of Zephyrias and to give up his throne.
“I am so tired of having to deal with him. Manipulating him is wearisome. I’d prefer him dead.” She pressed her lips together. “I’ll make it look like a suicide. Perhaps a result of the grief caused by his son’s extremely violent and painful death.”
She smiled, grey eyes dark and hard. She stared at Elias, as if imagining all the horrors she’d enact on him.
She wants me to suffer. He’d wondered why she’d not killed him immediately. It made sense now. She’d spent years hating him. Now she wanted him to feel agony before he died.
Well, if it bought him time, he’d take it. He needed to find Gerard and get him free. He needed to work out her plans and thwart them. And before she died, he’d make her wish she’d disposed of him straight away.
“And who else are you working with? Who is this?” Elias jerked his head in the direction of the robed figure.
The individual turned their masked face to look at the empress.
She sniffed. “You don’t need to know that.” She looked out the window.
Elias stared at the two of them. She’d revealed a lot to Elias so far. No doubt because she wanted to boast and make it clear to Elias how she’d beaten him.
But why not tell him everything? Why hide who this person was?
The masked figure turned and stared straight at Elias. Elias stared back.
Who are you?