Chapter 24 #2
His parents had been livid when he’d told them.
Tisander had never heard the call when he was alive, but that wasn’t uncommon for one born into royalty.
Yet when Theron had told them he’d heart the dragon’s heartbeat, it only poured salt in the wounds that had festered between them.
They’d blamed him for Tisander’s death once more, accused him of letting Tisander die so he could usurp his older brother’s rightful place. Theron pushed it from his mind.
“Why do you look so sad?”
Had his expression changed?
“It is a story that can wait for another day. And this is a good day, Aurora. You’re not going mad. The dragon’s heart has chosen you to serve.”
She wiped the tears from her eyes.
“That doesn’t make any sense.”
“That day in the marketplace, you felt the spirits of Aureum. Their grudge. And tasting your magic quelled their anger.”
She frowned.
“But if someone like me can do that, why are you the only one expected to? Why doesn’t everyone help? You said yourself most people have wild magic.”
There, that was better. Tears gone and her mind engaged.
“Not just anyone can sense the spirits. Many have seen them, been infected by their touch or lured by them to their doom, but few can feel their wrath. And only a select few are capable of pacifying them in a meaningful way. While any diligent farmer can make offerings that might appease the spirits or wards to protect their homes, only the monarchs of Aureum or the clerics of the elder gods can quiet them when they’re enraged enough to cause that level of mayhem. ”
“I’m already an initiate of Knowledge. Are the elder gods allowed to steal someone from the intangible gods?” Her brows pinched in confusion.
“I admit, that is a very strange situation, but the idea of someone possessing wild magic entering the temple as a cleric is unheard of. And since Knowledge never granted you divine magic, whereas Aureum is promising a great deal of it to you, I should think the elder god takes precedence.”
“What do you mean it’s promising me magic?”
He smiled. She would likely enjoy this part of the process.
“I told you once, didn’t I? A monarch is empowered through their connection to the land, and in turn provides their magic to the land through rites to pacify the spirits, among others.”
“So if I become queen, I might be given enough magic to defeat Drakon?” Her eyes sparkled with excitement.
“Possibly. Whether you could safely wield it given your lack of experience is another matter.”
“I…I’ll have to think about it.”
He suspected that there was little thinking about it to be done. When one was called by a god, tangible, intangible, or elder, there was no denying. One simply served.
“If you entered the temple of Knowledge, and the goddess made you Her avatar, would you need to think about it? Would you be able to refuse?”
“O-of course not.” She blushed.
“Then why do you think you can refuse an elder god?” he asked, amused.
She chewed on her lip, looking away once more.
“The cult of the elder gods is a fringe cult in my time. I knew nothing of spirits or rites that weren’t just easily dismissed stories in ancient texts. I never considered that the elder gods were active. I always assumed they were either just myths, or they were gone.”
Theron opened and closed his mouth a few times, at a loss as to what to say to that.
She truly thought the elder gods were gone?
From what he’d learned of her time, it already sounded like a nightmare.
For the elder gods to be thought nothing more than a myth was as absurd as it was terrifying.
He took a calming breath before he replied.
“I assure you they are very real. They are as powerful as the Divine Triad, more so if you count the number of those who bear their magic as evidence of their strength. If there is anyone in your time who possesses wild magic, it is because of the elder gods. It is they who call people to their wellsprings. It is they who are the fount of wild magic.”
“Oh,” she said sheepishly.
He shook his head at her.
“You have much to learn.”
“I like learning…” she said, trailing off.
“What is it?”
“Are you certain I’m not going mad?” Her voice softened with her vulnerability.
His queen should never feel like that.
“Yes. Let me prove it to you.” He slid out of bed and offered her his arm.
“Where do you think you’re going in nothing but your loincloth?” she asked peevishly.
“Afraid someone else will lust after me, my wife?” he teased.
She shook her head.
“Now that’s just rude,” he chuckled.
“I’m afraid someone else will stab you,” she murmured, wrapping herself in the covers.
Oh. His heart warmed at her worry. Theron knelt by the bed.
“We can’t stay abed forever, my love.”
“Have you ever tried?”
He smiled.
“I will have only trusted guards nearby the whole time.”
“We look dreadful. We couldn’t possibly leave the room looking like this,” she said, stalling.
But he couldn’t let her cling to that fear. If she was to become a queen, she would be thrust into a life where she would be forced to confront every fear and doubt head-on or be dragged to her death.
“I assure you, Aurora, you are a vision of beauty.”
“I just—”
“We won’t be going far. Come, don’t you want proof you’re fully sane?”
Every fibre of her radiated reluctance, and yet she reached for his hand and let him lead her. They wrapped themselves in himations and startled the guards on duty as they opened the door.
“Your Majesty, Your Highness, allow us to escort you.”
“To the sanctuary,” Theron informed them.
Aurora’s hand was clammy in his own, and yet she kept pace. When she looked up at him, worry evident, he squeezed in reassurance. He wouldn’t allow his future queen to be afraid to walk her own halls.
When they stepped inside, the miniatures of the Triad had a great many more offerings. Likely from those who had lost loved ones to the traitors, praying for their threads to be respun into the Tapestry, or for the strength to go on in their absence. But it was not the Triad he sought here.
“I can feel them,” Aurora said, relaxing. She paused, bowing her head in prayer. When she was done, he tugged her along.
“Come. Where we go now only members of the royal family and the clerics of the elder gods are allowed.”
“But I’m not…” she said, stuttering to a stop as they neared a dark corridor. She froze, gasping.
“Do you hear it?” The echoes of a thunderous heartbeat poured out from the dark. Aureum called to its monarchs. It was louder today than it usually was. Perhaps there was more good news on the way.
“I…do you?”
“Yes. This is the heartbeat you heard before, is it not?”
She nodded, speechless.
“There’s more you should see.”
This time, when he bade her to join him, her expression was one of wonder rather than fear. Better. The hallways were pitch dark, but he’d walked these corridors for years and knew them by heart. It was time to assume his role as a cleric of the elder gods and educate the woman who would be queen.
“Most believe the throne room to be the heart of the palace,” Theron said.
“But they’re wrong. In ancient times, it was said a great monolith rose from the ground here in Altanus, and that the very first king to unite Aureum under his rule built the palace around it.
True or not, the monolith rests at the true heart of the palace, beating.
Only Aureum’s chosen can hear it. In ages past, the title of monarch was passed not to kin, nor given to spouses, but only to those who heard the heartbeat. ”
“But it wasn’t just the heartbeat,” Aurora said, squeezing his hand. “I had a terrible nightmare.”
“Dreams are powerful tools of communication with the elder gods. In the days leading up to a coronation rite, chosen monarchs will dream of the founding stories. The dream will affect how your coronation rite will play out.”
“What did you dream of?”
“The story of the dragon gifting wings to his unicorn lover so that they might fly across the skies together.”
“And what did it mean?”
“It meant my rite involved gifting something precious.”
“What did you gift?”
“A golden toy given to me by my aunt as a child.”
“I dreamed…well, it was terrifying. Something was hunting me in the skies. I was running for a forest full of monsters to escape it. Before I could reach it, the beast in the skies grabbed me and swept up into the sky so high the fall would have lasted a lifetime. And every moment it dragged me further and further from home. I fought but I couldn’t get free.
When I woke, I could still feel its talons wrapped around me, still hear the wind screaming in my ears and the cold biting into my skin,” she answered, laughing nervously.
“Are you certain Aureum doesn’t mean to kill me? ”
“I’m certain,” he replied calmly. “Do you know why we enact the bride stealing ritual?”
“I…no. It’s just an old ritual. To be honest, I hadn’t ever given it much thought.”
“It is to mimic the beginning of the great romance between the dragon and the unicorn. One day, the great dragon was flying over the lands that would become Trisia when he spotted the most beautiful creature he’d ever beheld—the unicorn.
Coveting her for his own, he snatched her from her dearest friends, the great fairy and the giant. ”
“And then?” she asked.
He smiled. Of course his little scholar wanted to know the rest.
“Before he landed, he made a bargain with the unicorn. If he could win her heart in a single year, then she would be his, and if he failed, then he would allow her to pierce his heart and kill him. Given the story is a great romance, not a tragedy, I think you can guess how that turned out.”
“So then…I’m supposed to run for my life? Why did you get the nice dream and I get the horrible one?”
Theron laughed.
“It won’t be horrible, I promise. And you won’t be running for your life, per se.”
“That still sounds like I’ll be running,” she grouched.