Chapter 16 #2
“Yes, I suppose they do. But royalty also doesn’t need to sneak out of their bedrooms under their husband’s noses and beg favours from high priestesses.”
“And do high priestesses usually have to sneak into kingdoms using not-royalty to do it? Or were you not barred from entering Aureum before I demanded you be allowed entry?”
Orithyia smiled then.
“It looks good on you, this hardness. Much better than the wailing sop who first broke into my quarters in Boreas.”
Aurora gritted her teeth.
“If you refuse, know that I will have you kicked out of Aureum once more.”
“Oh? Will you now?”
Aurora shrugged.
“My husband would rejoice if I gave him a reason to do it.”
“And are you on such good terms with King Theron that he would listen to what his mad little wife says?”
Oh, is that how she wanted to play? Well, too bad for her, but Aurora already knew how best to appeal to Theron’s thick-headedness. She clasped her hands together, letting her eyes go misty.
“You were right, I’m so sorry Theron. I allowed that wicked woman to lead me astray.
She told me everything I wanted to hear.
She poisoned me against you. I let her convince me that the only way to defeat Drakon was to harm myself—that you were a liar and a betrayer.
Please, send her away. I’m afraid of what she has the power to do to me—to us. ”
When she was done with her performance, she sat back in her seat. Orithyia’s grin had fled, replaced only by a sour expression.
“You weave lies so masterfully, Your Highness.”
“Weren’t you the one who said that the Triad would understand my use of lies, given the purpose They sent me here for? Or was that itself a lie, Your Holiness?”
“And what of my purpose, Your Highness? Did you think yourself the only one with a holy mission?”
“Drakon is the mission.”
“Drakon is but one mission. My mission is to defeat the dualists plaguing Aureum. Have you not heard what transpired before your attack on the kennels? Or has your darling husband kept you in the dark once more?”
Aurora clenched her teeth. So there was more he was keeping from her? She shook herself internally. She could deal with that later. Orithyia was focusing on the wrong problem.
“Whatever your issues with the dualists are, they come second to dealing with Drakon.”
“Not if our missions are entangled with each other. Not long ago, I unseated the former head priestess from this temple. She was an agent of Lies, a fact proven before your husband in his throne room. Her seal ring was made of onyx. And the former head priestess was your husband’s tutor from the time he could walk.
She was Batea’s too. And Batea felt such sympathy for her former tutor that she unleashed her other flying serpents on me and my paladins.
Drakon was not her first, or her last, such beast.”
“That’s absurd.”
And yet Leukos must have known, because he’d said she was away from her palace after an incident in the throne room. He should have told her everything.
“Is it? Ask the king or any of his advisors if you don’t believe it. But when you realize I speak the truth, I want you to consider this: what is it that has put you at odds with your husband?”
“Drakon and his lies, among other things.”
“Ah, that is it exactly. And after you and the Viridians attacked the kennels, Drakon flew off. But ask any in Altanus and they will tell you what also happened that day—Batea and Dia, who your husband had locked up in his palace, fled on Drakon’s back.
An agent of Lies and a heretic sympathizer.
On the back of the beast that will become Trisia’s doom if you don’t fulfil your destiny.
So perhaps you see now that sending me away will not further your cause but hinder it. ”
That was news to her—if she could trust it.
And in her own time, Orithyia had told her Drakon was an agent of chaos worshipped as the champion of the sinister Triad.
If Drakon was now in the hands of those who worshipped the sinister Triad…
No, but Hyllus was also a dualist, and he had nothing but determination to kill the beast. Mind spinning, Aurora set that aside.
She still needed an ally. Even one as distasteful as Orithyia.
And who said she couldn’t use the high priestess now and discard her later?
“And what would you want in exchange for your assistance? Will it be another maiming at your hands? Was destroying my eye in Boreas not enough? Or will you try to take my other leg? How much blood will you demand I spill for your schemes? Because thus far, not one of them has truly benefited me,” Aurora scoffed.
“I have not forgotten. At the time, I thought it the best course of action. Unlike some, I do not possess the benefit of magical foresight. But I am sorry you suffered, especially when all your pain was for naught.”
Anger simmered in her gut. Sorry she’d suffered? She’d never once apologised properly for all the horrors she’d put Aurora through.
“As I have said to others, an apology usually begins with ‘I’m sorry’ and continues with a rendition of what you did to wrong me,” she growled.
“Then I am sorry for whipping you, attaching the artefacts to you to produce visions, and for counselling you to ally with the Viridian nobles who did not respect you. It was not well done on my part. I have spent much of my life disciplining a queen bent on bloodthirst, a princess who wished to flee her destiny, and a horde of nobles determined to play sycophant to that same bloodthirst or plunge a whole queendom into anarchy for the sake of their ambition. That is not an excuse for my actions, merely an explanation. I have wronged you, it’s true, but now we come to a point at which we must make alliances, however unlikely, for the good of Trisia.
I am willing if you are, Your Highness.”
Orithyia held out her hand.
Damn her, but Aurora had blessed few allies and needed every one she could get. She’d apologised exactly as Aurora had demanded, and now she offered an alliance. But this time, she wouldn’t be fooled. There would be no alliance until she knew the full cost.
“What are your terms?”
“Help me hunt down the dualists, the agents of Lies, Death, and Vengeance. I fear they will rally around Batea and her beast. She cannot be allowed such allies.”
Perhaps some of them would, but they were normal people, the same as Aurora. And who would wish destruction on the very land they lived? To what end? Most were likely appalled by Drakon.
“How?” she asked.
If there was some way to get what she wanted while only pretending to help Orithyia, she was inclined to take it.
“You say you wish to spare the Viridian soldiers punishment? Then we will frame them in the light they deserve—that of useful soldiers dedicated to the divine mission of Fate and the Triad. We will demand they be given land for their bravery, which will appease Queen Flora, but only if they bring back Drakon’s head, something that will ensure they do as they must before anyone is rewarded.
Your husband will be pleased to isolate you from Viridian influence.
Then we will work on bringing you and your husband back into each other’s good graces. ”
It had all sounded rather reasonable until her heart caught on the last detail.
“No. I refuse,” she said instantly, pain already lancing her heart.