Chapter 55
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
Papa.
—From Lyvia’s list.
Fires blazed on both ends of the large chamber.
The king’s council room was crowded and filled with the scent of unwashed bodies and strong wine.
I couldn’t peel my eyes from Olienna as she stood at the head of the table, draped in a mauve traveling dress, her long gray hair rippling over her shoulders as she told her story.
Not only was she the most powerful mystic alive, Olienna was possibly the most powerful being in the Realm of Vael.
Enya had tried to tell me. Had tried to show me in those visions. Look. Watch, she seemed to say. The Bellator had barely aged a day. A Bellator here in Sultira, all along, under Saros’s nose the entire time. Trapped in the Lumerians and then caged in the dungeons of Mount Telum.
“So, the gods are coming for their powers. And Daimos has plotted their return in hopes they’ll share power with him?” Carina’s voice held a surprising edge of authority to it as she questioned the unseated queen of Nivis.
“When the first Bellators prepared to fight against the Embodied and their armies, Daimos saw his opportunity. As did Saros,” Olienna continued, her smooth voice carrying across the room in easy confidence.
She stood at the head of the table, leaning forward and tenting her feminine hands over the maps.
“The war waged for years until Lelyth destroyed the doorway they used to enter this world, shattering the land between Sultira and Lotrennia.”
“You were right,” Nerissa murmured under her breath. “Enya didn’t do it.”
Nerissa had stayed close in the hours that followed Olienna’s transformation, uneasy yet curious. Olienna nodded to her.
“Indeed. Lelyth had the power to move planets and other celestial objects, to break or create them. A dangerous power, but one that changed the fate of the War of Ruin. Despite what you may think, it was a war won by the beings on Vael. We did not lose.”
“Couldn’t you just give the gods their powers back? And then they’d leave us alone?” Kresida asked, the dim light glowing softly against her dark skin.
“They are not gods,” Olienna said, her soft gray waves bouncing as she shook her head.
“They are impostors. Beings that took this power ages ago, with the sole intent of finding and draining other worlds of it. The Bellators were only able to harness it with the help of the People of the Stars, and even then, only to defend our world.”
“The People of the Stars are a myth,” Carina cut in, adjusting her glasses as she leaned forward on the table. “A people with the ability to transfer power. To literally give and take it away. There’s been no evidence of their existence other than the mention of them in fairytales.”
Olienna’s brows pinched up as she gazed at Carina.
“Oh no, my dear Princess. They were very real. The Starlings are out there somewhere.”
Something stilled inside me as I listened, the air warming, as if some cooling breeze had vanished.
“Regardless of these people,” Astraeus cut in, stepping toward the ornately carved table, “What does this have to do with Daimos? What else is he planning?”
“I don’t know,” Olienna continued, “but whatever it is, we need to prepare the world for a second war. The second coming of the Embodied. Everyone suffers with their return.”
“A weapon, maybe?” Nerissa asked.
“Perhaps,” Olienna said.
Ronan spread a large map of the realm on the table, covering the smaller map of Sultira.
“Our powers,” she continued, turning toward me and Nerissa, “are but a sliver of what the Embodied hold. And they wield it without conscience. They’re not beholden to the ideals of men and elves.
Good and evil, it doesn’t exist in their minds.
The essence of who they once were, whatever type of beings they came from, dissolved in the taking of their power. So, no, we cannot just give it back.”
Olienna turned once more to Kresida, whose dark brows narrowed in response. “The War of Ruin brought winged beasts of hell, demons of other worlds you could scarcely imagine…”
My mind drifted to the carvings in the amphitheater in Rhashtai. Fire and ash, fangs and claws. “We need armies. Armies with the powers of the Bellators.” Olienna strode around the room as she spoke, her dress swishing.
“And what are those powers?” I asked the question Drystan signed from the corner, doing my best not to stare at the space on his chest where the Advetis Bone sat hidden.
A cautious reluctance had grown in his eyes since the stone container had opened, presenting him with the Advetis Bone. His attempts at harnessing the power were continually unsuccessful.
“Eight powers were taken from the Embodied. Obscura, darkness and death, as demonstrated,” she said, motioning to me. “Along with the Transcindiel, which I am not sure how exactly ended up in your hands. Or rather, chose you. You’re unlike its previous bearer, Ordell.”
For whatever reason, her words hit like an insult. I squashed the flare of irritation.
“Soleia, split between the Ravindra twins.” Olienna waved a nonchalant hand toward Nerissa, who bristled. “My own, Palaega, is the power of the mind. As many of you know,” she murmured, grinning at Nerissa, “I can speak to whomever I’d like, mind-to-mind. And I have the ability to influence sleep.”
“The others, we must track down. I held onto the Celestyn Bone until Saros captured me. I left it with some friends so as not to let Saros get his hands on it. Celestyn was Lelyth’s power.”
I blinked. Those creatures that had found Evony. They had a bone of power. Gork had it. It’d been right under our noses the entire time.
“We must find them,” Olienna said, more to Ronan than the rest of us. “It is vital we find the Celestyn Bone. I must insist you send out a party searching for the creatures at once.”
Ronan murmured his agreement before she continued.
“Advetis, Faron’s power, was that of travel. He could transport himself and others across immense space in the blink of an eye,” Olienna explained.
I kept my gaze locked on Olienna as she spoke, in awe of the new power and resisting the urge to look at Drystan. We’d agreed to keep the discovery of the bone quiet, unsure of our trust in Olienna.
“Ramadiel, the last I knew, was taken by Daimos. The power to heal will be vital.” Olienna’s eyes scanned the thick scar on my neck. To heal… We would need this power for Lotrennia with the deaths that had spread.
“That leaves the Aeterna power,” Olienna said, glancing down at the simmering orange Bellator Bone resting at the edge of the map. It sat in the center of the intricate celestial setting atop King Saros’s staff for hundreds of years.
“The power of everlasting life. We all know who held onto that for the past two thousand years.” Olienna pursed her thin lips.
My mind’s eye flashed to those last few moments of extended life in King Saros’s eyes before death lunged, as if it’d been hovering, waiting for him for thousands of years.
“Why would we need the Aeterna power?” I asked, eyeing the strange Bellator Bone, my mind drifting to the visions Enya had shared. I shifted, uneasy with it sitting here in the center of the room.
“These wars last hundreds of years, if not thousands. We need people who will remain to see it through. So that the information gleaned is not lost among the generations that come and go.”
My stomach knotted as I remembered the fleeting conversation between Enya and Lelyth. They’d disagreed.
“So, we need armies,” Ronan muttered after a long silence.
“Half of the Sultiran forces are marching south from Stynguard. The commanders from the Rellenor Fields have yet to surrender. Word will have spread by now that Saros is dead, but Lord Pavel’s fleet hasn’t been seen since they chased off Nivis in Stynguard.
We need to find him. Our forces are scattered, and their allegiance is uncertain. ”
“We need every army of the world,” Olienna continued. “Sultirans, Nivisians, Lotrennians, Votruvians, and the fleets of Marisarma.”
I chewed on her words for a moment, weighing whether I should mention anything about the Rhashtai in the Death Dunes. I caught several eyes of others in the room, waiting for me to mention the deadly bone tribes. Olienna’s violet gaze slid to mine for a moment before continuing her speech.
A wave of apprehension, followed by another, anticipation, rushed toward me, and Nerissa looked up. Aquila and Tiberius were nearby.
I am looking forward to meeting your caelumas. Though I suspect Aquila won’t remember me.
My heart leaped into my chest as Olienna’s sing-song voice trilled in my mind. Nerissa went deathly still, keeping her eyes on the queen as lightning flickered in their depths.
“High Steward,” Olienna said aloud, turning toward Ronan, who blinked once and pinched his light brows.
Olienna grinned. “Well, I suppose that’s who you are now, correct?
With Queen Galena and King Saros deceased, their little one is the sole heir of the Kingdom of Sultira.
As leader of the Rising and your history as queensguard, I would assume you are now the leader of Sultira until the young prince comes of age. ”
Ronan’s throat bobbed as his eyes shot to Nerissa.
“Indeed,” he said, his voice ringing clear and confident across the large chamber as he stood and pulled the maps from the center of the table.
My lips remained shut, as did Nerissa’s and Vulcan’s, as I was sure they recalled exactly what Ronan had shared with us. That Galena’s child was certainly not sired by King Saros.
Carina’s gasp interrupted the murmured conversation that followed.
She leaped up and leaned forward, placing her palms on the table to get a better look at the large, glowing orb that had been concealed beneath the map.
Gold and white writhed within the orb as if something living stirred in a pool of liquid sunlight.
“What’s wrong?” Ronan asked, his eyes shooting to the orb in the center.
“You’ve seen this before,” Olienna murmured, her eyes studying the princess.
Carina nodded, disbelief showing on her face. “In the Gilded Fortress… My mother’s chambers.”
Nerissa stilled as we processed her words.
“Cunning Saros,” Olienna mused as she stepped beside Carina and floated her hand over the glowing stone. “This is the Aelius Orb. One of what’s rumored to be five.”
“What is it?” I asked, leaning forward.
“Much mystery surrounds these orbs,” Olienna explained. “And though we know they are powerful, the full extent of their might remains a mystery. We know they can communicate with the masters of the other orbs.”
My mind spun. King Saros held an Aelius Orb, and Queen Antares held another. Had they been communicating with one another? Carina’s face drained of color.
“Try it,” Ronan murmured as he stared at Carina. “We’ve been cut off from Lotrennia for six months now.”
I glanced at Nerissa, who’d gone pale.
Carina held her small hands over the orb for several moments as the room stilled.
She murmured something beneath her breath, and a bright, white light flashed, as if responding to her words.
As her fingers touched the orb, the swirling light paused, and the orb turned opaque and then as clear as crystals, reflecting what looked to be an ornate room, with flowering vines lining the walls.
“My gods,” Carina breathed.
The room froze as we peered into the Gilded Fortress.