Chapter 30 Trysta
TRYSTA
THE ROSE PALACE, ATTAR
Trysta knows exactly what she saw when Selim died. Although, her memories are chaotic. Strange lights and rushing wind. A hole in the world. But something came through it. Something that went into Atticul. Some kind of monstrous demon.
The demon that Damon fights.
There are Plumian legends of a great evil Emperor, filled with darkness, who will crush the world. And he would rise because a loyal warrior broke an oath. If that is what she saw, the birth of such a creature, then she was a part of what brought a nightmare into the world.
She is that loyal warrior. She betrayed Damon. The oath of loyalty she once swore to him, shattered.
She looks over at Lukas, chained to the opposite wall of their cell in the dungeons beneath the Rose Palace.
He looks more broken than her, face bruised from a heavy whack with a sword hilt as they were dragged down here, hook removed and just the leather brace left on his arm, shirt sleeve loose around it.
But the harder beating he took, is not the only reason he looks more broken. His face is wary. He claimed to Trysta a moment ago, when she inquired again about his fearful expression that he felt good. Selim was dead and he cared not what happened next.
“And what about Elric?” Trysta says, leaning back against the rough cell wall.
Lukas looks at her. The bruise on his face has a small scuff in the centre.
A little breaking of his skin right on his cheek bone.
He does not look much like Damon, but there are some angles of his face, some of the lines of it, something about his jaw, that are just the same — so like Damon it makes her breath hitch.
“What about him?” His lie is blatant. He does care what happens.
And he certainly cares if he never sees Elric again.
“Damon will not let us die in the Punishment Square,” Trysta says.
Lukas scoffs. “Damon is too busy saving the world from demons to save us from the Empire.”
Trysta looks at Lukas. He is speaking almost as if they did not see that demon Damon fights. “He will not let me die here.”
“Even though you betrayed him by aiding me against his wishes?” Lukas raises a dark eyebrow. His eyes glitter just like Damon’s.
Trysta shakes her head. “Damon and I have long moved beyond such things as betrayal. We are each other’s blood.
Years ago, Damon fought against me and my people.
He took me as his prisoner. He was meant to slay me, but instead he let me live and made me a slave of the Imperial Army.
It was the only way he could save my life.
And I later discovered he took as many prisoners of enemy fighters as he could, rather than ending their lives.
He persuaded them to fight for the Empire.
It was not acceptable for many, but Damon always thought it better than dying in the dirt.
Like many of the warriors he brought to his battalions, I was angry with him for a long time.
But the bond we have forged is deeper than any betrayal.
He is my brother as surely as he is yours.
I came to understand that he was little more than a slave himself, with few options. ”
“There were always other options,” Lukas says coldly. “There were other paths he could have taken. As I did.”
“Damon is not the man you are,” says Trysta.
Lukas lifts his chin. “You do not know the Damon I know.”
“And you do not know the Damon I know.”
“You think so,” says Lukas. “He cares about his fine manor house and gaining favour with the Rose Court.”
“No. I spoke with him about that many times. He was loyal to the Empire because he thought that staying close to power was a better way to help more people. And he has helped many. There are many fighters in the Imperial Army who are alive because of him. Who would do anything for him. Who trust him as I do.”
Lukas looks at Trysta shrewdly. “How many men in the Imperial Army would stand behind Damon if he commanded it?”
“He had a battalion of seven thousand when we took Jur-Mattan. All of them would fight for him, I do not doubt it. And there are more who respected him over their own Generals.”
She sees it then, a change in Lukas’s expression. Perhaps the will to escape this place. She is glad to see it. Trysta says, “They plan to execute us as part of Atticul’s ascension. That will take more than a moon to plan. There is time for Damon to find a way to rescue us.”
Lukas looks at Trysta and nods. There is a small, thin smile on his familiarly shaped face.
But it does not last long.
A moment later the door is opened. A hooded gaoler shuffles in.
He walks carefully, avoiding the sides of the cell where Lukas and Trysta are chained to opposite walls.
He sets down two tin trays in the centre of the floor.
Each one holds a clay pot and a roughly torn piece of bread.
He kicks at the trays, sending one towards Trysta and one towards Lukas.
As Trysta’s tray comes skittering over the water in the clay pot splashes out onto the bread. But she is hungry enough that she grabs hold of it anyway, as soon as it comes within reach of her chained wrists. She discovers the bread is hard. The slopping water probably helped make it more edible.
“Fuck off,” Lukas snarls at the gaoler. Ignoring his bread, although he must surely be as hungry as she.
Trysta notices the way Lukas’s voice shakes.
She has seen him turn pale every time the gaoler comes in.
He has barely eaten any of the food they have been brought.
He has been in gaol before, she thinks. Something has happened to him in gaol.
She has come to know Lukas well enough that she doubts he will tell her what it was. She wonders if he has told anyone.
Trysta bites into her bread. Hoping that seeing her eat will encourage Lukas to do likewise. The bread is so hard she doesn’t notice at first that there is something in it. She hooks the item from her mouth.
It’s a piece of paper, wadded up tight. She unfolds it, glancing up to see Lukas watching her.
It takes her a moment to read what is written on the paper.
Sister, have strength. X comes for you.
She stares at the words for some time, realising why it took her a moment to read them.
They are written in Plumian.