Chapter 4 #3
“Most legends are born from the truth.” She didn’t look at me, instead studying the food on her plate.
I realized most of it was untouched. “Your pantheon is six gods and one goddess, yes? Aloisa and her husband had six sons together. It’s theorized that once Aloisa received her Lurae, the rest of the population began discovering their own magic.
It would make sense if, long ago, someone took the story and twisted it to believe she was the cause of magic. ”
Astrid waved a hand, calling our attention to her. She signed and Freja interpreted aloud, “Where did the magic come from, then? If it wasn’t gifted by the gods and it wasn’t something she was born with, how did Aloisa get her Lurae?”
I realized I was leaning forward, resting my elbows on the table as I waited to hear what the queen would say.
I pulled myself back, putting my mask of disinterest back on.
But…I hadn’t been born with magic either.
Volkan had never even heard of a Lurae manifesting after the age of nine.
Yet here was a story from across the sea that felt oddly familiar.
A girl desperate to rescue her friend. A girl forever changed afterward.
The queen sighed, running the pad of one thin finger around the lip of her wineglass. “Our scholars are the best, but despite it all we do not know everything. If the story is true, then something must have happened when the pair were underwater. It’s not as if we were there, after all.”
I leaned back in my chair as Volkan added his own opinion to the fray. The queen was small in stature, unassuming when she wanted to be. I had no doubt she was used to being overlooked and underestimated. She likely expected us to treat her similarly.
But she didn’t know I was already familiar with her game. I didn’t trust the Hellbringer anymore, but like the queen herself had just reminded us, the best stories came from the truth. I did not doubt that Anja was willing to manipulate those who stood in her way.
And this story? The entire direction of our conversation? It felt off, somehow. Even though I’d been the one to ask for the history lesson.
But I was utterly lost as to how her story about Aloisa and her sons might push us closer to the queen’s end goals.
And though I hated to admit it, I liked the idea of Aloisa being a powerful woman, not a true goddess. The knowledge slid smoothly into place alongside my other beliefs. After all, I’d never truly embraced the idea of gods, especially ones who thought of me and my friends as less-than.
Hearing my name brought my focus back to the conversation at hand.
“Whether we believe it or not is irrelevant. Revna is queen and the priests have been banished from Bhorglid. She will decide whether their religion is allowed back into the country again.” Freja folded her arms as she finished speaking and signing.
The queen turned her bright gaze to me once more.
I interjected before she could speak. “And decisions regarding such will be made after the treaty is signed. This peace between our countries has been a long time coming—I’d love to hear what motivated your people to seek the end of the war, Your Highness. ”
Volkan sat forward in his seat next to me, squeezing my hand approvingly beneath the table.
He’d been training me in political small talk all week, helping me learn how to rephrase my typical blunt questions into more palatable ones.
Before I wore the crown, I’d have held my dagger to the queen’s throat and demanded she tell me why she’d wanted this alliance to begin with.
Why she’d forced the Hellbringer to kidnap me and train me to win the Trials, even when he so clearly hadn’t wanted to.
But queens did not threaten their future allies. And they certainly didn’t ask for the information they wanted outright.
“Quite simply, I was tiring of dealing with your buffoon of a father.” The queen laughed, but there was no humor in it.
Once again, my Lurae song came alert. I had been the one to kill my father.
There was no love lost between us. But her tone spoke of a hidden insult to me as well.
“I had a vested interest in seeing a woman on the throne, taking the power she deserved. And look at you now.”
She’d woven her answer as deftly as I’d spun my question. My fingers itched for a weapon I didn’t have. There was more she wasn’t saying, and it made me want to scream.
My mother’s lullaby happily took up the cause, tempo and volume rising until I couldn’t hear myself think.
We’d come here for answers, for the chance to solidify an alliance, but the queen had no interest in telling us the truth.
It gave her an easy advantage, one she would use to manipulate us without hesitation.
You’re helpless, my mind whispered. Perhaps you once triumphed on a bloody battlefield, but here? You cannot protect your friends or your people when you’re useless in a political arena.
“Indeed.” I managed to keep my voice level even while the song in my head screamed, twining with my thoughts. “Look at me now.”
“And how has ruling been so far? Everything you’ve ever dreamt of?”
I held my tongue, biting back the truth—that I’d entered the Trials to help make a change only for nothing to make a difference; that now I found myself floundering with unfamiliar magic and no true purpose; that I would give up the throne and my new Lurae if it meant things would go back to normal.
But every time the thought crossed my mind, I remembered that normal had been terrible, too.
“It’s been excellent,” I told her, taking a sip of wine. “Incredibly busy, as I’m sure you’re aware. There is much to be done when filling the void left by a dictator-led theocracy.”
“And your people?” The queen leaned forward in her seat. It was a subtle move, but I was on high alert already. “How are they taking to new leadership?”
Warning bells sounded in my head—I didn’t need the nearly imperceptible headshake Volkan sent me or Freja’s narrowed gaze to tell me the queen was fishing for weakness. “Change is difficult for everyone. It will be some time before all have adjusted to the new ways things are done in Bhorglid.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Volkan relax slightly. The Hellbringer uncrossed his arms to lay his palms flat on either side of his place setting. His right index finger tapped lightly against the wood there.
“You misunderstand,” the queen said. “I mean to ask whether there is civil unrest among your people. Do they accept your rule, or are you challenged?”
The silence following her invasive question felt eternal.
I was certain the queen already knew the answer.
S?ren had been a spy in the city once. Surely there were others.
My thoughts whipped through my mind. The threads of my Lurae appeared, stretching between myself and everyone at the table—my friends.
The one connecting the Hellbringer and me was thicker than the rest. Did it recognize our past, intertwining so unmistakably because of the connection we’d once shared?
Panic surged, immutable, as the image of Halvar’s body in a pool of blood joined my thoughts.
Desperately, I grasped for a coherent response and heard myself say, “I’m not sure why that’s any of your business.”
Volkan looked like he had swallowed a bug. Freja chewed her lip, eyes darting back and forth between myself and Anja. Astrid pushed her plate aside and pulled out a small, thin dagger, which she spun in lazy circles on the surface of the table. Even Arne tensed visibly.
The Hellbringer’s finger stopped tapping.
To her credit, the queen didn’t laugh. I would have understood if she did. With a single sentence, I’d confirmed everything she wanted to know.
“It is, sadly, very much my business. If I am to sign a treaty with your nation, then it is important to know whether that nation may see another quick change in power shortly thereafter, in which case I’d wake to find an army on our doorstep.
” She’d settled back into her chair, lounging casually now while still managing to look regal.
It was a threat. She hadn’t even bothered to veil it in pleasantries. We’d come all this way to negotiate a treaty, and now she planned to pull the rug out from beneath me.
For a single, brief flash of time, I hated her.
Hated that she had been a monarch for so long that she knew exactly how to play this political game.
Hated that despite her machinations to put me on the throne, all to end the war, she was still holding the treaty just out of reach, using it to her advantage in every way.
Hated that no one in her country opposed her rule enough to try to assassinate her.
Was this all a ploy to catch us off guard so Kryllian could win the war?
“Of course there is civil unrest,” Freja spat.
I frowned, surprised she would speak up—and with an anger that sounded nearly equal to my own.
“For generations, Bhorglid has been a kingdom run by extremists. And now, after three weeks, you expect Revna to have somehow turned the entire population in her favor? If you’re such an adept queen, then you should know the kind of finesse required to make change without inciting violence.
Are we here to sign a treaty? Or for you to toy with us before you pull it from our grasp? ”
“What Freja means to say,” Volkan cut in smoothly, before the queen, the Hellbringer, or soldiers standing throughout the gardens could erupt in outrage, “is that Queen Revna’s goals are lofty.
She has faith in her people and their ability to change for the better.
Unfortunately, these kinds of changes do not happen overnight.
There is civil unrest, yes. This is to be expected when power changes hands so drastically.
We are taking every measure necessary to ensure the people are taken care of and the dissenters are dealt with quickly.
I, for one, have no doubt things will return to peace shortly. ”
Well, at least one of us actually knew how to talk like a politician. I spared a brief thought of bitterness for my father, who had never bothered teaching any of us how to navigate political waters. Why bother when he could strong-arm every other country into subordination?
The queen turned to me. “Does the young prince speak for you now, Your Highness?”
It was impossible to miss the demeaning nature of her tone. Her cool and calm persona was gone now, replaced by an air of superiority. I straightened. “Volkan is one of my closest and most trusted advisers. When he speaks, it is with my permission and with the best interests of Bhorglid at heart.”
She huffed a laugh. “My, my. Some people are raised for a throne, and it’s clear to me you weren’t one of them.”
A distorted voice interrupted before I had the chance. “Was winning the Trials not enough?”
The entire table, including the queen, froze. The only movement was the gloved fingers of the Hellbringer’s right hand, which all tapped a steady rhythm against the table now as he observed us.
I knew exactly what expression he wore beneath the mask, and I hated myself for it.
His lips pursed in disapproval, a single brow raised.
If he took the helmet off now, his hair would be mussed along the top and sides.
I wondered if it had grown out since I last saw him, then shoved the thought back down, down, down into the depths of my mind, where it would not find the light of day again.
This was the difference between S?ren and the Hellbringer—one was a loyal protector with a smile that lit the room; the other was a predator who watched everyone around him, searching for cracks in their armor where he could strike.
But why would he strike at his own queen?
He continued with that deadly voice, so casual we all knew it was dangerous.
“You were the one who ordered me to train Revna for the Trials. You wanted her on the throne, enough that you sacrificed the time and attention of your general on the battlefield to do it. If you required more from the new ruler of your potential allies, perhaps you should have sought another instead.”
I couldn’t tell if he was insulting me or not.
Either way, he’d come to my defense and…
my Lurae was twisted up in the knots of my emotions, the strings between me and him begging to be pulled.
When I used my magic to tug at the threads holding a person together, they were thin.
Nearly imperceptible. But my connection to S?ren—the Hellbringer, I corrected myself internally—was different.
The anxiety of the day was wearing on me, the high stakes of current conversation sending me back and forth across the spectrum of fear, anger, and uncertainty faster than I could account for. My heartbeat pounded in my ears, and my rogue Lurae, sensing my weakness, lunged for control.
In one instant, three things happened at the same time.
I stopped breathing, holding all the air tight in my lungs like it would stop my Lurae from escaping.
The thread between me and the Hellbringer lurched wildly, like I had tugged sharply on it from my side.
And his hand, which had moved to toy with the stem of his untouched wineglass, jerked toward me, spilling the dark red liquid all over the white tablecloth.
He pushed away from the table, standing back to keep the wine from staining his dark uniform. The queen rose slowly and turned to me, an unreadable look in her eyes. “We will reconvene for negotiations in the morning. It’s late—rest will help us all come to the table with clear heads.”
The sky had indeed darkened while we spoke, the warmth of the wind now rescinded into a chill.
I wanted to demand she sit down, demand we hammer out the specifics of the treaty now, under the moonlight if we had to.
But my Lurae was ready to snap again and I couldn’t allow it to do so.
Couldn’t put my friends in the way of my pride.
So I nodded. “We’ll speak in the morning.”