Chapter 10 #2
Theron miniaturized his shield and held out his seal ring for her to kiss. His cousin dutifully pressed her lips to it. The opposing Aurean soldiers exchanged panicked words and glances before swiftly getting to their knees and bowing their heads in submission.
“I’m so sorry. When we received word what Flora’s magic was, and then you sent word to destroy my beasts, I was convinced she’d violated you. News of your marriage to a Viridian princess and a Viridian army approaching only strengthened that conviction.”
Theron sighed, grateful this crisis had been averted. In truth, he could hardly blame her. In her place, he would have been just as suspicious. How could she understand just how much had changed since he’d been taken into Viridian custody? He hardly recognized himself. Was it any wonder she hadn’t?
“Rise, Batea. You can earn my forgiveness by setting to rights my reputation amongst my army and courtiers.”
His cousin had the decency to blush.
“And by killing Drakon.”
She blinked up at him, shock apparent.
“How did you know his name?”
His gut sank anew. Merciful Triad forgive him, for he suspected his wife would not.
“You see the woman dressed as a queen of Aureum on the other side of the Colonnades?”
Batea looked past him, finding the golden gown amongst the Viridian soldiers with ease.
“That tiny little creature?”
“She is Aurora, a fairy woman, my wife and a true oracle. Her homeland was destroyed by Drakon, completely and utterly. She crossed the Between to warn us of his coming and that he would lay waste to Trisia if we do not put an end to him here and now.”
Her brow furrowed.
“That’s not possible. I only created him a month ago.
The princess of Gilvus, the one I was to wed before the business with the spire, she sent along the final ingredient I needed to make him fly as a gesture of goodwill.
They heard of your treatment at Viridian hands and wanted my beasts to terrify Viridis into submission so they would cease sabre rattling at the Gilvan borders. ”
But then what had Aurora shown him? Had everything she said been a lie after all?
Had his wife been mad all along, her visions simply hallucinations?
He’d feared, the first time he’d witnessed her in the throes of a vision, that she suffered from some kind of seizure.
Had that first instinct been right? But then how could it be that she’d seen events which would take place in a future he’d experienced for himself exactly as she’d seen it?
Theron swallowed down panic as his world tilted on its axis.
Was she a mad traitor who also happened to have visions? Triad preserve them all if that were true. He would never know if anything that came from her lips was truth, madness, or lie.
“What ingredient did your formerly betrothed Gilvan princess send you?”
Please let this be what had destroyed Aurora’s homeland. Let his wife not be either mad or a traitor.
“The flying seahorse. They’re one of the last magically infused animals left in Trisia. The clouds they create to soar above the water for short periods gave me what I needed to make Drakon fly.”
Theron pinched the bridge of his nose as a headache threatened. Was it Fate who had conspired to bring Drakon to life or Theron himself? Whatever the case, the beast needed to be slain. Any weapon this formidable could be turned against those who had first wielded it.
“Nevertheless, Drakon must die. I have seen Aurora’s vision of what he is capable—throwing down molten boulders from the sky, breathing a cursed purple fire that melts people in an instant, the power to cleave a city in half. I will not have such a creature in Aureum.”
“Drakon can do none of those things, Cousin! He can fly, yes, but otherwise he is no more capable of such magic than my other serpents. What she has shown you are lies! He is bonded to me, our minds linked so that I always have control of him. Just as the rest of the serpents you see here—all bonded to true and loyal Aureans. He is less beast and more puppet, truth be told.”
“And if you die, what then? Would it run wild?”
Was it not his own death he should fear, but Batea’s?
“It would seek a new bond. It was never meant to function without one—a safeguard I created to ensure that we could control their power. I’m not so reckless as you’re making me out to be.”
That was…quite reasonable. Still, he should have it killed. It was the exact beast Aurora had shown him. And yet she’d shown him supposed memories of it before his cousin had even created it. Had her magic twisted memory with foresight? Another headache threatened.
Whatever the truth, he would not discover it at this moment.
If he wanted to do anything about Drakon and what it could become, he needed to secure his throne.
Theron could not afford to look weak from this moment until he’d regained it.
No doubt his courtiers would balk when he told them their greatest military advantage needed to be destroyed in the midst of a cycle of chaos and with the threat of war looming.
Theron needed to get back to Altanus—now.
The sooner he regained power, the sooner he could safely dispose of Drakon.
“How bad have things become in my absence?”
Batea grimaced.
“I’m shit at politics, and I didn’t get any better at it while you were away.”
“Did you at least consult Dia?”
The old head priestess at the Altanus temple of Knowledge would have known exactly how to pull the strings of the nobles. She’d done more than merely teach Theron his letters and numbers—she’d taught him politics long before his father and mother had.
“If I’d followed her advice, I would have looked weak!”
Theron glared at Batea. Foolish, hard-headed brute.
No doubt Dia had advised her to compromise, to give them just enough to keep them satisfied without losing anything of importance.
But Batea had always been more proud than wise, preferring direct action to more subtle manipulation.
She was what any honourable warrior aspired to—even if that made her a dreadful monarch.
For all she’d joked of wishing to follow Vengeance, she had more in common with the paladins of Justice than she liked to admit, except her sense of what was just tended to include a great deal more bloodshed than prayer.
“Which beasts can get us back to Altanus the swiftest? And can they carry those across the Colonnades with us?”
“You…you’re not truly suggesting bringing those Viridian swine back to Altanus, are you?”
Theron gritted his teeth.
“I would not have had to if you’d followed my instructions to bring the heads of those serpents to this very spot,” he hissed. “I made a vow to my wife—those heads for the dismissal of the Viridians. I doubt very much she’ll come along without them now.”
“Then leave her here. What do you need her for? She was just the baggage the Viridians saddled you with, was she not? And what better way to tell Flora to go fuck herself than to abandon her princess at the border?”
“Didn’t I just tell you she’s a true oracle?”
“Isn’t it more likely she’s just a very convincing liar?”
“What she foresaw came true!”
Batea looked past Theron at his wife, her gaze scanning the gathered crowd. Her lip curled. She’d spotted Orithyia.
“What is that shameless bitch doing here?”
“She…”
Had come with Aurora. Theron groaned. How was he supposed to explain it all to Batea to make her see things from his perspective?
“It’s a long story.”
“I’m not transporting her. She can walk. Barefoot.”
“I won’t object to that.”
“But your wife will?”
“Yes,” he sighed. “Listen, about Aurora, I…” He couldn’t say it.
Not his fear that he couldn’t live without her, nor that he didn’t know how much of his heart she held in her hands, just that it was more than any wise king would ever allow.
“I am…fond of her. We were wed in the temple of Passion. Myrina saw that we are bound by Fate and our thread is dyed in Passion’s red.
I am changed, Batea. I’m not the same man I was when I left. ”
“You wed in the temple of Passion?! Have you taken leave of your senses?!”
“It was the only way to escape marriage to one of Flora’s daughters!”
“But isn’t she a princess of Viridis?!”
“She wasn’t. Not until she learned of Drakon.
Then she allied herself with Flora and Orithyia.
I have spent the whole of the journey home trying to convince her that I would slay the beast that destroyed her homeland and that I would present her with its head.
My marriage is now in tatters, and she is likely falling further under the influence of Orithyia’s poison as we speak. ”
Batea’s look of utter, disgusted bewilderment aggravated him to no end.
“Listen to yourself! Do you see now why I thought you’d been soul-swapped?
The Theron I know would never have been swayed by a woman’s wiles.
Never would have wed in the temple of Passion.
If you had not…not proven yourself with…
I would never have believed you. Even now, I doubt my own sanity.
What fairy magic has she used to beguile you? ”
“It wasn’t her magic that beguiled me, but Passion’s. The binding altered me, Batea. I cannot explain it any other way.”
“Then I’ll need to have a word with my mother,” Batea all but growled.
Yes, perhaps now it would be best to negotiate the return to Altanus.
“How many can your eagles carry back to Altanus?”
Batea glared at him, her lips pursed in a mulish line.
“All of Passion’s people, all of your people, and maybe a few more.”
“Then get them ready for transport. I…need to speak with my wife.”
Batea scoffed but went off to do as he’d ordered. Now to face the true terror—Aurora’s wrath.
Theron called Nireus over.
“Get our people organised. We’re taking the beasts back to Altanus. Be ready for…trouble.”
“Your Majesty.” Nireus bowed, then hurried off to ready the lot of them.