Chapter 64
Chapter
Sixty-Four
Elias stared at Gerard, willing him to turn around and look at him. Any look. Some sort of sign to give him a hint of where they stood. But Gerard just kept watching his father with the grand healer.
“Well, I am glad you, Prince Gerard, and King Alaric survived. You fought bravely, Prince Elias,” the grand monk said. “Today could have been a dark day if you had not.”
Elias reluctantly tore his gaze from Gerard. “I am glad to be of help, Grand Monk.”
“And you have been injured.” The grand monk’s eyes fixed on Elias’s forehead and then his shoulder. He glanced at one of the healer doves. “Healer Hawes, can you attend to him?”
The healer stepped forward. “Of course.”
“In a moment.” Elias turned and took a step in the direction where Gerard and his family had been with the grand healer seconds ago. He frowned. They were all gone. Now there was just an empty stool.
He looked out over the crowd still milling around. He could not see Gerard anywhere.
“It would be best if you are seen to immediately,” the grand monk said. “In case any of your injuries are serious.”
Reluctantly, Elias nodded.
Several minutes later, he strolled down the corridors. Dawn had yet to arrive. Guards, nobles, royals, and monks passed him. Several tried to stop him to talk. But Elias had a duty to attend to.
He wanted to go and find Gerard. But before that, he’d need to deal with his own father. And Elias did not think sharing the occurrences of the night with him would be easy.
He rubbed a hand over his face.
What will happen now?
Elias and Gerard had survived the night. But everything had dissolved into disorder. Draconians had betrayed Draconia. Voltarians had betrayed Voltaria. Zephyrias had turned against Voltaria.
At least when there had been a war with the dragons, one knew who one’s enemy was!
And tonight the dragon king had been hurt. What would happen if he had been severely injured? He’d seemed … okay. But not well. What would be the fallout from that?
Something also niggled at the back of Elias’s mind. There was far too much chaos in all this.
The plotting of Empress Emmeline appeared to have nothing to do with the plotting of Warden Flint of the Grey Mountains or Princess Lantana of Botanial. And yet it seemed far too coincidental that all these separate plots were being enacted here at the peace assembly.
And there were others involved too. Those robed figures. He hoped he’d find out more about them when their corpses were brought to the monastery.
Elias’s feet dragged as he walked. He struggled to see how the peace treaty could be salvaged now. Peace had seemed so fragile before. How could it survive such a blow?
He reached the apartments for the royal family of Voltaria and Zephyrias. He supposed it was just the quarters for his father now that the empress and his half-siblings were dead and Elias and Colette had left.
The guards opened the doors. Elias entered and walked down the hallway, steeling himself for the conversation he dreaded having. But thankfully, Elias did not have to be the one to break the news to his father.
The emperor sat sobbing at an empty table.
One of the Voltarian councillors stood beside him. “I am sorry, Your Majesty, to be the bearer of such wretched news.” Councillor Everdeen clasped her hands behind her.
Elias could not believe that the news had already reached his father. But he supposed Elias had spent several minutes being tended to by the healer.
The councillor looked up at Elias as he approached. Councillor Everdeen had of course pandered and bent to the empress’s will. But despite that, she’d always seemed to want what was best for Voltaria. And she hadn’t been involved in tonight’s betrayal. As far as Elias knew.
The emperor shook his head. “It can’t be true!” he cried. “She can’t be dead!”
The councillor looked to Elias.
“Thank you, Councillor Everdeen,” Elias said. “I’ll take it from here.”
She bowed and left.
“I am sorry, Father.” Elias stepped forward, struggling to find the words. However, he did not have the energy to try to sugar-coat it. So he just said the truth. “Empress Emmeline, Beau, and Anais dead. I saw them die myself.”
Elias left out the part where he had been the one to kill them. Of course, his father would eventually find out. But Elias didn’t need to say it now.
The king wailed.
Elias’s chest tightened. Because even though the man had let him down over and over throughout his life, the sight of his father crying with despair gripped his heart.
“Councillor Everdeen said Emmeline was a traitor and that she and Anais and Beau tried to kill you.” Tears streamed down the emperor’s cheeks. “But that can’t be true! That cannot be possible!” He looked at Elias, as if begging him to refute the report.
“Unfortunately it is true,” Elias said, trying to keep his voice calm. “I promise you, Father. I was kidnapped by the empress. I was bound. There is no misunderstanding that. She planned to kill me. She told me so herself.” He paused. “She tortured me.”
“No!” The king banged his fists on the table.
Elias flinched.
“No! She would not do that. Emmeline was loving and kind and wonderful! You are wrong!”
“She hated me!” Elias said. “Always has. Even since I was a nine-year-old boy. And today she and Anaias and Beau tried to kill me.”
“You just didn’t accept her,” his father said, voice hoarse. “She never was anything but a loving mother to you.” His voice echoed in the small dining chamber. “You’re a liar!”
Elias reeled back as if slapped. He pressed his lips together. He wanted to shout. He wanted to yell at his father about the empress’s plans to grind Voltaria into the dust.
Furthermore, he wanted to point out how the emperor had failed in his duty to protect and care for Voltaria. And his son.
His father gripped his shaking head in his hands, bending low. He tugged on the white strands. “It must be a mistake. You have misunderstood. She, Anais, and Beau are alive and well and have done nothing wrong.”
Elias turned and stared out the window. The dark sky had started to lighten. “She also confessed that she ordered Mother’s murder so she could marry and control you,” Elias said, voice flat. “And today she told me she planned to murder you too. She said she was weary of you.”
A garbled noise escaped his father. “Lies! You’re a liar! A liar!”
Elias didn’t look at him. Perhaps he should have been kinder. Perhaps he should have been softer in revealing to his father what had occurred. After all, he’d just lost a wife and two children today.
However, at that moment, Elias could not care for a man who’d showed so little care for him. Elias had been kidnapped and tortured by the emperor’s wife and children. Blood, wounds, bruises, and grime covered him. And his father had shown not a slip of concern for him.
The emperor sobbed and wailed and shook. “You’re a liar! You never accepted her! You never loved her as she loved you! You were jealous of her!”
Elias had heard enough. He’d done his duty. He’d told his father what had occurred. Without saying another word, he turned and walked away.
Right now, his father’s world was collapsing. Some might think that Elias should be there for him as a good and loyal son. But when Elias’s own world had collapsed after his mother’s death, his father had been too busy falling in love with his mother’s murderer to be there for Elias.
So Elias just kept walking. He’d give his father the same support and love that his father had always given him.
In the days to come, more of the story would come out amongst the public. His father would find it harder to deny the truth. But Elias could not find it in him to care.
His father’s wailing followed Elias as he approached the doors, leaving the quarters for the royal family of the combined Kingdoms of Voltaria and Zephyrias.
Part of Elias thought he should feel bad. But as the doors closed behind him, muffling his father’s cries, all Elias wanted was Gerard.