Chapter Twenty-Six- The War Came to Us #2
“Who has been victimized by his greed? Giving your hard-earned crops away while you starve!” I add. The crowd goes wild.
“This King has let nobility terrorize our hard working citizens, and some of those very noblemen are here now,” I say as I step forward. “You will be granted mercy only if your victims see fit,” I sneer.
Some of the king’s personal guards push past the black lanterns and grab Reese screaming, “Traitor!”
It is Thorne who swings his sword swiftly, engaging with the bigger of the two knights before kicking him in the chest and sending him sprawling from the platform.
“Tie them up!” Reese roars at the Black Lanterns who do so with what appears to be spelled rope.
“You may have these traitors on your side but you know you are nothing,” King Dreven hisses through his teeth at Thorne. “A bastard, a murderer, a—”
I punch him so hard that his head snaps to the side with a violent crack and he crumples to the side. He passes out, but his unreasonably strong Stygian magic quickly revives him. I feel Thorne gently grasp my hand as if he needs my touch in order to endure Dreven’s reckoning.
When the King wakes, he sends out a torrent of dark magic—not to me or Reese, but directly towards Thorne.
The magic wraps him like dark cobwebs, digging into his skin instantaneously until it bleeds.
Rage turns black in Thorne’s gaze, eclipsing the whites of his eyes by shadow. He pulls his hand from mine.
“I am no longer yours to tame,” he strains and throws his head back. He breaks apart the dark magic webbing with spells of his own. I know if I look closer, I would see raw untamed Stygian magic undoing the King’s spell. It should be impossible, but Thorne is stronger than the King now.
Reese tugs a potion of some sort off of his belt and wrenches the King’s head back, prying his jaw open viciously. Dreven kicks and thrashes but his kneecaps are still shattered, his hands bound behind his back. The dark liquid is shoved down his throat until he gurgles and chokes on it.
“What is that?” I ask, perplexed.
“Truth serum. His lying tongue will be forced to do what it never has,” Thorne looks at King Dreven in disgust. Then he slinks past me with the poise of a house cat to crouch before the King. “Tell your people how you silenced their Queen.”
King Dreven’s eyes go wide and he shakes his head. Murmurs erupt from the crowd, for there has never been a more beloved queen than she.
“You veiled her!”
“Why wouldn’t she speak!”
People scream over one another, moving closer to the makeshift dais, desperate to hear his words. The Black Lanterns make it their priority to hold people back while the King confesses.
King Dreven bites his tongue until it bleeds as his body tries to force him to answer the question.
“I spelled her into silence!” He finally roars. “I veiled her in hopes she would fade away. I made it so she couldn’t leave this place. So that she may rot here in silence with her shame,” he sneers.
His face is contorted in disgust. To take someone’s autonomy like that… to take the Queen’s autonomy in such a way was to slap Xeusis himself.
“Kill him!” Someone screams.
“Did he kill our Queen?” Demands another.
These people don’t know what he’s done to Thorne.
“Not the least of his sins either! He has spent years torturing his own son!” I announce over the chaos. Thorne turns to me with wide eyes.
“That thing is not my son!” The King can’t hold back his innermost thoughts anymore. He thrashes against Reese.
The crowd is deathly silent for a moment. So silent that I can hear the war raging on the north side of the palace.
“End him!”
“End him!”
“End him!”
Chanting starts from the crowd in unison. As a whole, they have heard the King’s decree about Thorne and disagreed. They have chosen Prince Thorne. I see him tremble with the weight of it.
“We intend to restore Netherhelm to that of Xeusis’s time.
Where Arcanists can live in harmony, where everyone has what they need, and no one goes hungry.
We can all share the magic and defend our home, we need not horde resources while others suffer.
The same goes for food! I know your bodies are starved for your beloved magic, for precious nutrients…
” Prince Thorne speaks and it silences the expansive library once more.
“You can’t!” One of the noblewomen cries. I recognize her as Lady Braker, an advisor to King Dreven.
“Prince Thorne wishes only to usher in an age of prosperity so that senseless deaths may stop!” I bellow over the crowd.
“Prince Aleksander will not stand for this!” Lord Matthias tries to push past a Black Lantern. He is also in the King’s cabinet.
“Prince Aleksander is not here!” Reese tightens his grip on the King. But the lord is right, he is a factor. They just don’t know we plan to put him down, too.
“What is this!” A voice cracks from the entry to the room. A familiar voice. “Father?” The King’s eyes come alive with hope as he turns his graying head towards the voice.
Julien is pushing through the crowd, panicked and confused.
Titans bleed me.