Chapter Twenty-Three #2
Donan noticed that the Askarra Guards remained poised for a fight, their weapons aimed at the Horadrim and Adreona’s warriors. He wondered if they would stand down on the order of their queen or if Myrina had so consolidated her power and influence that the silks now answered only to her.
“Who have you defended me against?” demanded the queen. “Who has claimed that I am unfit?”
Myrina shook her head, looking at her mother now with unvarnished contempt. “Why could you not have stepped down?”
“Stepped down?” The queen spoke the words as if they were incomprehensible to her.
Myrina went on as if she and her mother were alone in that garden. “When the reapers attacked, you did nothing. You hid here in your palace. I came to you, do you remember? I begged you to lead us in defending our city, our people. But you refused. Instead, you ordered us to defend you. ”
That indictment silenced Etara.
Myrina continued. “That was when I knew you were no longer fit to rule. But I couldn’t depose you. I couldn’t act against my own mother.”
“So instead, you acted against your own people?” Adreona asked, sounding bewildered.
Myrina snapped a glare in her direction.
“I wanted the queen to see that she isn’t strong enough to face the challenges confronting our islands.
I hoped she would realize that her time is over.
” She turned back toward Etara. “I hoped you would recognize all that I have already done in defense of our people, and you would see that my time has come. But you have forced my hand, Mother.”
“ You are the traitor,” Queen Etara said, breathless. “To think that I—”
A deafening roar shook the city, causing the ground and the walls of the palace to tremble.
Donan knew that sound, but it took a moment for him to realize how it differed from the last time they had heard it.
Instead of rising from the depths, the monster’s voice echoed with terrifying clarity, free of the water.
Then the sounds of screaming and the booming demolition of stone and masonry rose up from the metropolis below.
“The titan,” Tyrael said. “It has come.”
They all raced from the garden, silk and Amazon alike, their differences momentarily forgotten.
Adreona led the way, charging from the courtyard through the palace and the great basilica and out onto the portico.
Donan kept track of Alenia in the rushing throng, wanting to make sure she was safe, and together they looked down on the harbor.
The titan had climbed out of the water, as long as three of the largest warships destroyed in its wake.
Donan struggled to make sense of its shape and anatomy.
It moved with the lithe and lethal speed of an eel, rows of fangs lining its gaping mouth, eyes as red as liver.
Thick plates of armor covered it like a crustacean, and massive claws and legs ran down the length of its monstrous form. Donan had never faced such an enemy.
“How can we fight that?” he said to no one in particular.
As the titan whipped and scrambled over the city, it crushed the buildings beneath it, tearing through the stone walls as if they were made of paper and straw.
“It’s coming this way,” Adreona said.
She was right. The beast seemed to be climbing upward toward the palace, even as the city had begun to defend itself.
Amazons and Askarra Guards around its limbs and belly hurled spears and shot arrows, but nothing seemed able to penetrate the titan’s shell.
Even the heavy missiles from catapults and ballista appeared to bounce off without causing any damage or even slowing it down.
Its roar and its smell overwhelmed the senses, but Donan finally collected himself.
He took Alenia by the shoulders and pushed her away from the portico. “You must hide!” he said, thinking of that night long ago in his mother’s shop. “Go! Quickly! I will protect you!”
“But—”
“Go!” he shouted, and she did as he asked, scurrying away into the city. Then, without forethought, he rushed from the palace portico toward the beast, ignoring Lorath’s shouts behind him, and descended the streets to get within range of the titan.
In the chaos of the attack, with frantic townsfolk rushing to escape, the labyrinth of alleyways disoriented him, but he followed the sounds of destruction, catching darting glimpses of the monster above the rooftops and down arched passages.
Eventually, he found a terrace street overlooking the titan, where he decided to make a stand.
He used his staff and shouted the most powerful spells he knew, assailing the beast with violet flames.
His magic found its mark, striking the pocked and barnacle-encrusted armor, but no flame could take hold of it.
The titan continued to climb, seemingly unaffected.
But Donan refused to give up. He pursued the creature upward, striking it again and again until he had utterly exhausted his font of will and energy.
His limbs had little strength left in them, and it felt like he couldn’t suck in enough air.
Though reeling and forced to pull back his attack, he staggered up the mountain, dodging the debris sent tumbling downward by the titan’s ascent.
A cloud of smoke and dust lay over the city by the time the thing reached the uppermost tier, where Adreona, her Amazons, and the Askarra Guard had mustered an impressive fusillade of missiles and Askari fire.
Donan witnessed the barrage, which at first seemed to finally halt the titan’s advance, but not for long.
The enraged beast charged straight at the palace, where it scattered warriors, ripped through the main gates, and crashed into the basilica.
Donan stood in mute horror, legs wobbling, hands shaking so badly it was difficult to hold on to his staff.
He could do nothing, and he believed Skovos had come to its end, but then he witnessed the titan burst from the basilica in retreat.
At first, he doubted what he was seeing, but it soon became apparent that something had cowed the creature and driven it backward.
Then Captain Myrina emerged from the splintered palace gates wielding her mother’s spear.
Inexplicably, the titan acted as if it were afraid of her.
She led a large force of Amazons and Askarra Guards, and they appeared to follow her with the same terror and befuddlement that Donan felt.
“Go back to the abyss!” Myrina shouted at the titan.
Then she threw the spear at its face, where it lodged in the softer flesh of the beast’s cheek.
Not a deep wound, and certainly not a lethal injury, but the titan nevertheless turned back on itself, roaring, and then slid down the mountain along the path of wreckage it had just carved through the city.
When it reached the harbor, it slunk into the water and vanished.
In those first moments after the attack, the city of Temis seemed to hold its breath.
That was how it felt to Donan. Nothing moved.
No one spoke or made a sound. The screaming had stopped.
Then, one by one, the Amazons and Askarra Guards standing behind Myrina all dropped to one knee, heads bowed toward her.
She turned to face them and spoke in a loud, commanding voice that carried in the silence.
“Hear me, Askari! My people! Queen Etara is dead! She was slain in her throne room by the beast! Though we mourn her passing, I am ready to sit in her place upon the throne! I swear upon my mother’s memory that I will defend our islands from all threats and dangers, just as I fought that beast of the deep!
Together, we will restore Skovos to greatness! ”
The crowd before the basilica had only continued to grow, and when Myrina had finished her speech, the mob applauded and cheered her, including the warriors who had witnessed her supposed defeat of the titan.
Donan lumbered through the throng, searching the faces until he found Alenia, who shuffled toward him covered in dust. In relief, he took her by the shoulder, supporting her, and together they located Lorath and Tyrael, standing at the edge of the gathering with Adreona and Tavie.
“I guess it was your turn to go looking for a fight,” Lorath said as they approached.
Donan could only shrug, still exhausted.
“I am relieved to see you unharmed,” Tyrael said, clasping his shoulder.
Lorath turned back to watch Myrina. “None of us are buying this, right?”
“Of course not,” Donan replied. The attack and Myrina’s victory had obviously been staged. He was reminded of a line from the prophecy given to him by the Oracle. “ One queen shall call the beast, ” he said. “Myrina has the scepter. She used the titan to kill her own mother—”
“That thing didn’t kill Etara.” Adreona limped forward a few steps, leaning on her spear and favoring her left ankle, which had apparently been wounded in the attack. “Myrina is responsible, and she must be stopped.”
“How?” Alenia asked. “With that monster at her command…”
“We need to get the scepter from her,” Lorath said.
“No.” Adreona’s lip almost curled into a snarl. “I just need to kill her.”
“I have no objection,” Lorath said. “But just how do you propose to do that?”
Adreona looked at Tavie in a knowing way, and something wordless passed between the two.
“But you are wounded—”
“There is no other way,” Adreona said. “I am a captain of the Amazons. I have sworn to protect my people against all threats, and today the enemy is one of our own. This is my duty, in service to the virtues we uphold. It must be me, and it must be now, before she fully seizes power.”
“What are you going to do?” Donan asked.
“I will challenge her,” Adreona said. “By ancient custom, I will fight her for the right to rule Skovos.”