Chapter 20 #2
The man, who by his ashen robes was a lower-ranking servant than the steward, bowed quickly and offered a stuttered explanation.
“His Majesty sent me to find something for him—his journal,” the servant added when Bran glowered at him.
He held up the book in question, finely made but garishly appointed with gemstones.
Bran held out his hand, and the servant relinquished it without hesitation. “I oversee such matters. A servant of your station should have come to me immediately.”
“Yes, head steward,” he said with another bow, and where the light hit his hair, it shone peculiarly. It had a red tint to it, like a ruby. This was notable, as the only hair colors any Zephyrian had were either a brown so dark it was nearly black, or inky black.
“Where are you from?” I asked the servant.
“From the Spine,” he said, which was a mountain chain on the eastern coast. Although part of the Zephyrian Empire, the people there spent most of their time tending goats. Very few traveled beyond their territory, and even fewer could be found at the palace.
“You’re a long way from home,” I said.
“Yes, my family is very proud that I have the honor of serving the emperor as a servant in his palace,” he said with a bow.
Bran narrowed his eyes. “How lovely for you all, but they’d be prouder if you did your job and remembered your place.”
“Yes, head steward,” he said with another bow.
“Be gone with you,” Bran said, and he hurried away.
“I’m sorry for the delay, Commander,” he said to me.
I shook my head dismissively before continuing to Altair’s study. I knocked once at the wide door, the steward just behind me.
“Talon,” Altair said when he saw me standing in the doorway. “Come in.” He caught sight of the head steward behind me and sighed. “What is it?”
“Majesty, I have your journal that you requested.”
Altair held out his hand, and Bran hurried over to place it in his palm. Altair looked at the steward’s face for a moment. “Didn’t I send someone else?”
Bran laughed nervously. “Yes, Majesty, but I…I was accompanying Commander Talon here anyway, so I told him I would bring it.”
Altair waved his hand. “I didn’t need that long of an explanation. Please leave us. I have something I must discuss with Talon.”
Bran looked like he wanted to say more, and he shot me a pleading glance once more before bowing and doing what the emperor ordered.
“He keeps irritating me with stories about missing servants,” Altair said with a roll of his eyes. “I’ve told him that it’s his problem to deal with people not showing up to their posts.”
“Majesty,” I said, “it does sound strange that seven are missing. I could see one or two, but—”
“Oh, not you, too,” Altair said with a groan, leaning back in his chair and throwing his head back dramatically. “Why should I care where they’ve gone?”
“These are the people who serve you. It’s your duty to care.”
“I’m far too busy. Why don’t you figure out where they’ve gone?”
“I will if you’d like,” I said. “The head steward would like your permission to search for them in Naharu and the palace.”
“Fine,” the emperor said with another dismissive wave of his hand.
I gestured toward one of the servants waiting nearby. “Go and tell the head steward that the emperor has given his permission to search for the missing servants.”
The man bowed and hurried out the door.
“I have a more pressing assignment for you,” Altair said, leaning forward and resting his hands on his desk. “I want you to guard the future empress.”
I was afraid he’d ask this of me. Despite what we’d gone through together during our childhood with his father always comparing the two of us, Altair took comfort in having me around. I was familiar, I suppose. A remnant of a time when Altair hadn’t been emperor. “Guard her from…?”
“It’s more that I want you to keep an eye on her. After she so readily called that wind power in the middle of my throne room, I’m not sure she can be trusted.”
“She wanted to gain control of her horse.”
“Yes, well, now we will use her horse to control her. You will need to report any future instances of her using that power. I can’t have her using it against us here.”
“I don’t think she will—they seemed ready to give anything for peace,” I said. “This concern doesn’t seem like one of your own. It seems like something Lord Heron would worry about.” I glanced around the room to be sure he wasn’t slinking around in the dark corners somewhere. “Where is he anyway?”
“Last I saw him, he was leading Zara to her rooms,” he said dismissively.
“What?” I said sharply. “How am I supposed to guard her if you let that snake be alone with her?”
“He was my father’s most loyal adviser.”
I didn’t respond to that since there were too many problems with trusting that man, namely, that he always put his own interests first, and they very rarely benefited the rest of the empire.
“You should also know that the Children of Earth informed me that there are more with the power to control the wind, and if anything should happen to the First Daughter in violation of the treaty, they will retaliate against us.”
He looked taken aback by that, but he didn’t question it further, thankfully. “Lord Heron merely escorted her to her room.”
I wanted to immediately go to her, but Altair was in a talkative mood. Better to question him about Ozul while I could.
“And what does he think of that creature you’ve allied with? Do you even need its help now that the war is over?”
“Lord Heron thinks the same as I do. Ozul is key to helping me expand this empire beyond our continent.”
I stared at him as his words slowly penetrated.
Expanding the empire meant more fighting, more war.
Just when I thought it was all over. “Forgive me, Majesty, but haven’t you said before that our resources would soon be depleted by the war with the Children of Earth?
Wouldn’t continued expansion drain them further? ”
He looked disgusted with me for asking. “Ozul has promised to lend me his power to conquer other lands.”
“Then Ozul must be incredibly strong if it can make up for a lack of resources for an entire army,” I said with a pointed look.
“I think it’s time you told me how you even came across such a sorcerer.
Neo and I were away fighting this endless war, and when we returned, you had already allied yourself with Ozul. ”
He looked introspective for a moment before finally responding. “I’d heard whispers of a powerful sorcerer deep within the mountains, so I sent men to see if the rumors held any merit. They saw signs—scrying bowls and animal bones—so I went myself and persuaded him to ally with us. Ozul agreed.”
I doubted it was that easy. I knew Altair hid the full truth from me. “Yes, but how did you persuade it?”
“I can be persuasive when I want to be,” Altair answered flippantly, and I crossed my arms over my chest.
“Whatever the price of an alliance, it’s too high,” I said, worried for not only my cousin’s soul, but for everyone here. We could all be in danger.
Every instinct in my body said we should throw that thing out of the palace and back into whatever dark depths it crawled from.
“We both know that thing is known by a different name,” I said, wondering if I pushed Altair hard enough, would he admit what he was still keeping from me?
Altair just glared at me, but I stared calmly back.
It could call itself whatever it wanted, but I knew it for what it was.
The Devourer. It was why we lived in the mountains but never ventured too far into their depths; why we stayed safe in the skies and never below.
It was a creature from the Old World, one that had seemed to follow us here.
As far as I knew from the stories passed down, there was no other like it in the world.
“He has only ever said to call him Ozul,” Altair said.
“And where does Ozul stay when it’s not terrifying horses in the throne room?”
Altair’s gaze shifted to his father’s portrait for just a moment. “The west wing.”
My eyebrows lifted. “Your father’s chambers?” I didn’t like the sound of that—this creature holed up in the former emperor’s rooms.
Altair seemed to retreat into himself, and I knew I didn’t have much longer before he refused to speak about this at all.
“Ozul is more comfortable there where he isn’t disturbed.”
“Altair, it sounds like it’s setting itself up to be emperor. You must know that. Break ties with this creature—before it’s too late.”
His expression hardened, and just for a moment, he looked like his father. “I don’t remember asking for your opinion. Go and do the job I assigned you.”
“What’s to stop it from taking over?” I pushed.
He pointed to the door. “That was an order, Commander.”
Irritation flashed through me as I stiffly saluted him and left.
There was no way I could let this go. This being threatened the empire, and my cousin was too blind to see it. Clearly, he wouldn’t listen to me, so I would have to find another way to free Altair from its influence.