Chapter 16 #3
“Healer Prestin identified the specific poisons I’d been dosed with,” Giles explained. “He was able to create antidotes to counteract the effects of the poison. It is the only reason I still stand here today.”
My eyes flashed back to Sybil, and the rage in her eyes told me everything Giles had said was true.
Holy fuck. So Sybil was still actively poisoning Giles, even now. I’d wondered if she’d given up or tried to pivot to another way to get Giles out of her way.
Giles didn’t say anything after that, and he reached out to lean on Healer Prestin’s shoulder.
“Do you have anything else to add?” Prime Minister Eriz asked.
“No, sir,” Giles answered. “I have my journal with me, if any of you would like to see the detailed records I’ve been keeping.”
“I have my notes as well,” Prestin added. “They are quite detailed.”
“I don’t think that will be necessary,” King Horus said.
Giles nodded and shuffled back toward his throne with the help of his healer.
In the interim, the crowd had exploded into excited chatter. Horus, Eriz, and Enken all shouted to try and shut everyone up, but it wasn’t until I pulled out my piercing whistle that the crowd was silent once more.
“Please, everyone!” I called. “Let’s not lose ourselves.”
“Yes,” King Horus agreed. “It’s time for the accused to speak. What say you, Queen Sybil?”
Sybil sat in her throne in the center of the ring and didn’t say anything, but she was as red as ever, and her rage was radiating off her like the noxious fumes from an active volcano.
“Queen Sybil,” Tanell said. “Do you have anything to say?”
“Why bother?” Sybil scoffed. “You’ve already decided my fate, so what’s the point in speaking anyway?”
I didn’t think she really expected an answer to that question, and she didn’t pause long enough for anyone to answer, either.
“It was a genius plan,” she cried. “Everything was going to be perfect!”
Sybil threw her hands into the air and ranted on as if nobody could hear her.
“I was to be empress!” she shrieked. “I was finally going to be rid of that imbecile! I’ve been shackled to that worthless man since the day my parents forced me into marriage. Giles has dragged me down every step of the way!”
She turned around in her throne and pointed one sharp finger at her husband.
“You are weak!” she screamed. “You were content with utter mediocrity! You didn’t care that the nobles were clawing at us for every scrap they could get their grimy hands on!”
About seven men and women who were dressed in high-quality clothing that was the height of current fashion reacted most strongly to that. I felt pretty safe in assuming they were the nobles Sybil was actively insulting.
“You were supposed to die!” Sybil screamed like a maniac at Giles. “You were never supposed to live! Why couldn’t you just die like that idiot Dadan? I could be halfway to my Tamas by now, but no, you had to endure!”
Mouths dropped open all around the crowd as Sybil outright confessed to everything we’d accused her of.
“I was to be empress!” Sybil cried, and bitter, angry tears started streaming down her red cheeks. “We were going to conquer this entire continent! Tamas still will!”
Sybil turned around again and jabbed a threatening finger in the general direction of everyone around her.
“You’ll all pay for this!” Sybil screeched, and it looked like something really snapped in her mind. “Tamas will rule this entire land! There will be no more Kestran! No Basstrum! No Zall! No Valnar! No democracy! What a fucking waste of time that was!”
She continued ranting, but the other leaders were as done with her shit as I was.
“I’ve heard enough,” King Horus called over her deranged yelling. “What say you, kings, queens, and Prime Minister?”
“Guilty,” Eriz answered without hesitation. “Of all crimes.”
“Guilty,” I echoed.
King Mannie and Queen Doria added their voices to the call, and King Horus nodded.
“Guilty,” he said. “And what punishment will we bestow upon the fallen queen?”
That question wasn’t answered as quickly.
“Execution?” Yori suggested.
“That’s too easy.” Queen Doria scowled.
Sybil had lowered her voice so she wasn’t screaming anymore, but she was still ranting about her ruined plans and throwing insults out at each of us.
“May I make a suggestion?” King Giles asked.
“As the new reigning monarch of the Silver Coast,” Queen Doria said, “I would very much like to hear your suggestion, King Giles.”
“I recommend life in prison,” Giles said. “Let her live out her life with nothing. Let her rot slowly in a small cell.”
“No, no, no!” Sybil shook her head frantically, and she dropped to her knees at the foot of her throne. “You can’t do this to meeee!”
“Who agrees to life in prison?” I asked. “Say ‘aye.’”
A series of “ayes” quickly followed, and it was decided.
“Garrison,” King Giles said.
A man in his sixties who was dressed in all black stepped forward. He had the war-hardened body and visible battle scars of a man who’d seen more than his fair share of war. I guessed he was a high-ranking soldier in the Silver Coast as well as a man Giles trusted.
“Take her away,” Giles said.
“Yes, Your Majesty.” Garrison bowed and walked over to Sybil.
“No!” she screamed. “Don’t touch me! Tamas is expecting me! I have to meet him! He’s waiting!”
But she had no say in anything anymore, and Garrison gripped both of her wrists firmly. He led the deranged-looking Sybil away, and King Giles walked into the center of the trial ring.
“I would like to offer my sincerest apologies–” He frowned heavily and bowed his head.
“I don’t think that’s necessary, King Giles,” I said as I walked over to join him.
The other rulers stood from their thrones and joined us, too.
“You were as much a victim of her evilness as the rest of us,” King Mannie said.
“More so,” Eriz amended. “She was actively trying to murder you.”
“It says a lot about your character and constitution that you survived her brutality,” Doria said.
“Where will she serve her imprisonment?” Serra asked.
“We have space in one of our prisons,” Giles said. “But I’m not certain if that’s the best option. I will need to weed through all members of my staff and armies to ferret out any remaining loyalties to her.”
“We can take custody of the prisoner,” King Mannie offered. “She murdered one of my own. There is justice in her serving her sentence in Zall, and she will receive no preferential treatment under my watch.”
“Thank you,” Giles said. “I would appreciate that. There is much work to be done at home.”
“Giles,” I said. “I hate to throw more on your shoulders, but are you willing to join us in the situation against Khorr?”
“Of course,” Giles said, and he looked surprised that I’d even had to ask. “I had no idea she was so involved in his campaign. I’d been so focused on my own situation… I intend to raid through her office and records, and I’d be happy to provide anything I uncover to the rest of you.”
“That would be incredible,” I said. “There’s no telling what kind of details she might have hidden away.”
“Khorr is a threat to this entire continent,” Giles said with a grave nod. “I will do whatever I can to help stop him.”
“Your alliance is most welcome,” King Horus said.
“I only regret it taking this long,” Giles said, and then he turned to me. “King Ken, I would like to commission at least twenty of your clever weapons for the Silver Coast, and I would like to invite your armies to work with mine… as soon as I can discern where loyalties lie, of course.”
“Of course,” I said with a grin.
“There’s one more problem,” Serra chimed in.
“What’s that, Your Majesty?” Eriz asked.
“Sybil said Khorr is expecting her,” Serra reminded us. “We don’t know when, but if she doesn’t show up, he’ll know something has happened.”
“Fuck,” I cursed.
“What do we do about that?” Yori asked.
“What is there to do?” Doria muttered.
“Um, Your Majesties?” A young maid with very blonde hair stepped forward.
“Yes, Fiona,” King Giles said. “Do you have something?”
“Yes, sire,” Fiona curtsied so deeply that I was sure her knee touched the ground.
“This is Fiona,” Giles introduced the maid. “She was one of Sybil’s housemaids.”
“Queen–” Fiona stopped herself and shook her head. “Sorry. Sybil spoke often of Khorr in my presence.”
Interest sparked in my mind, and suddenly, this young maid was the most important person around.
“What do you know, Fiona?” I asked.
“Sybil never met Khorr in person,” Fiona said. “She never sent anything but letters.”
“I don’t understand.” Queen Lucita frowned.
“He doesn’t know what she looks like,” Carissa realized.
My eyes went wide in amazement, and I turned to look at Carissa and my queens with hope flaring in my chest.
“We have a way to get someone on the inside,” I explained.
“Oh, goodness,” Serra gasped.
“We can send our own, fake Sybil to infiltrate his plans!” I said.
“They must have had some kind of timeline,” Serra pointed out. “If we don’t move carefully, he’ll figure us out.”
“Then he’ll raze every one of our countries to the ground,” King Horus muttered.
“Then we do it first,” I decided.
There was a ton of work ahead of us, but with Sybil out of the way, we had a path forward that could prevent millions of lives from being lost in an endless war.
“Who could possibly infiltrate an enemy nation like that?” Queen Laylia asked in a hopeless voice.
“I can,” Carissa declared.
End of Book 3