20. Amarhuk （Rook）
AMARHUK (ROOK)
Izzy’s speech did not continue. There was too much to clean up, too many dead to continue with a speech about hope.
Looking at the devastation, the fire inside me burned with rage. Izzy had been the primary target of the assassins, that was clear, but it seemed sowing doubt and fear by killing any in their path and as many innocents as possible had also been an objective.
Koar got Izzy to safety, while Vyns and I stayed behind to help with the cleanup. And Safir… Fuck. His body had slowly disintegrated on stage, a blackened, festering husk.
Kanali poison was nasty stuff. One of the few toxins to which elves were vulnerable.
It also wreaked havoc on any other natives of Seial, which had been most of those in attendance.
Dwarves, dryads, nymphs, hobgoblins, and pixies were the most vulnerable with undines and tritons having a greater resistance.
While those of us from Urval or Elysial were immune.
And the assassins had unleashed several aerosol bombs of the poison into the crowd in addition to their weapons being coated in the stuff.
By the time evening had set in, we’d sorted through the bodies: one hundred attackers in total, all dead, and nearly seven hundred others killed in perhaps the worse way possible.
It was a gruesome scene.
The assassins themselves were mostly shifters, with a few pixies — known for their illusion magic and tricky ways — and a smattering of sylphim, dwarves, and elves, who’d probably been the leaders.
By that point the cleanup was well underway and handled by others, so Vyns and I could go, but I lingered, staring at the black stain on the stage where Safir had died.
He’d probably saved Izzy’s life. We’d all been fighting to protect her, but despite our best efforts some of the assassins had managed to get close and Safir had sacrificed himself to save her.
This was war. The horror we had ahead of us.
Valnea wouldn’t play fair. Izzy would never do anything like this… but a part of me wondered if she didn’t, would we still win?
“Come on, let’s go,” Vyns said, a hand on my shoulder, a boost of spirit helping to tear me away from my contemplation of Safir’s sacrifice.
When Vyns and I returned to Izzy’s residence, we told her what we’d discovered, and she was baffled.
“Shifters?” she breathed. “Why? Why would they still fight for Valnea, die for her, when I was promising a better life, where they didn’t have to live every day in fear of death?”
“They probably had no clue who you were,” Koar explained. “There are cabals of shifters who live their whole lives in seclusion, training as assassins for the crown, perfectly expendable and trained to be completely loyal.”
“Ugh!” Izzy grunt-shouted. “I just… can’t even!” She paced, distraught and frustrated and furious.
Vyns and I exchanged glances, both thinking the same thing. For all of Izzy’s spirit and desire to change this world, she really had no clue how dark things got here.
“There’s probably far worse than that going on in the depths below the capital,” Vyns said, voicing what I’d been thinking. “This is the depravity you’re fighting against.”
Izzy stopped. “Could any of the audience be saved?” she asked, clearly concerned. I couldn’t imagine the empathy it took to worry for so many others, who you didn’t know at all. It blew my mind.
“About twenty,” I said. “Though surviving Kanali poisoning is a life sentence of pain and chronic injury.”
“Of course it is.” Izzy threw her arms up and began pacing again.
“Remind me to have the stuff banned when I’m queen.
Oh… and to have a war-crimes tribunal for any who were involved in this, who survive the war.
” She stopped again, vibrating with rage.
“I’m going to win this war, no matter what. I have to. This is just… intolerable!”
It was… and it was also what we’d all lived with our whole lives. To us, this was another day under the brutal regime of the elves. None of us said as much to Izzy, though.
And seeing Izzy so worked up and ready to fight made every instinct inside me want to pull her close and fly away with her, keep her safe.
Now that I’d accepted my feelings for her — as much as it pained me to be monogamous — I was afraid all the time, worried something would happen to her and my heart would shatter.
I was terrified of losing Izzy. I don’t think I’d ever fought as hard as I had today. I couldn’t let anyone hurt Izzy, but also… I couldn’t die knowing the pain she’d feel if I did. I’d been more motivated than ever, all because of a dread fear of loss.
I couldn’t lose her. I didn’t know what I’d do. I’d seen how Izzy had reacted when Myel had died, so lost and broken and even though Izzy and I didn’t share a bond like that, I had a feeling I’d not be much better.
At the same time, I couldn’t let her lose me either. If she cared for me as much as I did her… then how could I ever leave her and have her face that devastating pain.
But we were going to war for fuck’s sake!
People were going to die.
I had to somehow make sure Izzy and I weren’t among the dead, and that no longer seemed as easy as it had yesterday.
I tuned back in to the conversation as I sensed a change in Izzy’s thoughts, moving from rage and ranting to cold determination and planning.
“The dwarves and undines have to come to our side now, right?” she asked. “Some of their kind were killed. Won’t they see that as an act of war and retaliate?”
Again, Izzy didn’t know this world.
“No,” Koar said before I got there. “If anything, they’ll further retreat into their cowardice. This attack was meant to show them they could be reached anywhere, anytime.”
“Fucking hell, really?” Izzy shouted. She shook her head. “No, I won’t accept that.” She turned to me. “Get Svokol here, now. I need to talk to him.”
Before I’d even gotten out my phone, she’d continued on. “And Rook?”
I paused in dialing. “Yeah?”
“You’re part concubi and salmaeri, right? Do you think both races would listen to you if you went and talked with them?”
Me?
I shrugged. “They might. The dwarves are their masters, though. They probably wouldn’t go to war unless the dwarves commanded them to.”
“No more masters, no more commands,” Izzy stated. “Tell them as much. Tell them if they come and fight for me, they’ll be free to do whatever they wish after this.”
“The dwarves—” I began to protest.
“Can suck balls for all I care,” Izzy shouted over me.
I had to smile at that.
“If they don’t like it, they should have been a part of this from the start.
But if they’re going to go and hide in their caves, and wait for the outcome, knowing that one of those outcomes is me winning and liberating everyone, then they have no recourse if I happen to liberate their forces a little early. ”
“That might turn the dwarves against you,” Koar warned.
“Oh, don’t worry, that’s why I need Svokol.
He’s going to take me to see the leaders of the dwarves, and I’m going to tell them how it’s going to be.
Their choices are simple: fight for me, alongside those they’ve commanded for so long, or fight against me and I’ll steal their followers out from under them to fight against them, because who wouldn’t fight their oppressors for freedom.
Or they can stay out of it, but I’m still taking their followers.
Either way, they’re going to lose their so-called minions.
Hopefully they’ll see that fighting for me means they’ll be better off afterward. ”
I finished dialing Svokol. And while it rang, I marveled at how incredibly sexy it was to watch Izzy take control and tear down thousands of years of hierarchy.
“Rook?” Svokol answered.
“Get to Izzy’s residence now.” I hung up and felt a tad guilty about not giving the man an explanation, but I also was getting caught up in Izzy’s fervor.
Svokol was a good man… but he’d also been my master.
And all of that was going away. He didn’t control me anymore, not that he’d ever been controlling, but still. I felt… liberated in Izzy’s presence.
“Vyns.” Izzy was on a roll. “You head to Elysial, offer the same thing to the seraphim. I don’t think any sylphim will listen, but if any do, great. I’m not going to wait. I’m liberating folks now. If they’re willing to fight for me, they can do it as free men and women.”
Vyns nodded. “Will do.”
This was happening.
Izzy was tearing down walls and freeing people who’d been beholden to others for thousands of years.
Izzy had said in her speech that she didn’t want to rule, didn’t want power.
I’d sensed her thoughts at the time, about how she wouldn’t know what to do with power if she had it.
But it seemed she knew exactly what to do.
She was taking control now, stealing it from the dwarves and the elves wherever she could. Izzy might not want to rule, but she’d be damned good at it, always fighting for the freedom of others.
The woman before me was a queen in truth, if not crowned yet.
And overcome by this realization. I fell to one knee, head bowed.
“It’s damned sexy to watch you work, my queen,” I said.
Izzy’s thoughts stuttered.
“I’m not…” she stammered.
“Oh, but you are,” Vyns said, and he knelt as well. “I will do as you ask, my queen.”
“I will stand by your side, my queen.” This from Koar as he knelt as well.
I looked up, seeing Izzy a bit dazed by this.
“This is… too much,” she whispered.
“If you think so, then you haven’t been listening to yourself, my queen,” I said. “You’ve just vowed to take control of two armies and undermine thousands of years of authority… and… I’m pretty sure it’ll work. That’s the act of a queen.”
She blinked. “Huh… I guess… so?”
I loved that she was so humble she couldn’t see it.
Svokol burst through the door behind me. “What’s wrong?” he panted. He must have sprinted here.
I craned my neck to look behind me and couldn’t help my smile when Svokol, seeing we three men all kneeling… slowly sank to his knees.
“What… do you need of me?” he said, his tone turning submissive, compliant.
Izzy laughed. “I need you to stand up, then I need you to take me to see the dwarven leadership. I have a message for them I’d like to deliver in person.”
Svokol stood. “Yes m’lady,” he said without hesitation. “I’ll make arrangements to leave first thing tomorrow.” Then he rose and left.
Izzy sighed heavily. “Tomorrow,” she echoed. “Which means… this is my last night with you three… together.”
I caught the shift in her thoughts, she needed us, needed a distraction from everything.
“I don’t suppose you’d consider helping your queen forget the shitstorm that is her life?” Her tone held a note of weariness. “I really could use a break from being the boss and thinking about the death and destruction at my doorstep.”
The three of us rose and went to her, three pairs of arms wrapping around her.
“Just never forget the boss-bitch you just showed us,” I whispered to her. “That’s who you really are. We all know it. Hopefully you do too.”
“Thanks for saying that. I’ll try not to forget her, but that’s not how I want to be with you.” She looked around at the three of us.
“Out in the world, we serve you,” Vyns whispered.
“But here, when we’re alone, we’re whatever you need us to be,” Koar finished.
“So… what do you need?” I breathed playfully.
“I need to forget. I need to be naked and screaming. I’ll leave the details to you,” she replied.
I had a feeling we could make that happen.