Chapter 42 Eder
EDER
E der stood before the sacrificial bowl clutched in the frozen hardstone altar of hands and lifted a knife to his throat.
“One cut,” he whispered. “One cut, and I will kneel in the presence of Father.”
He felt the ground tremble so slightly beneath his feet, as if the many runestones quivered with excitement. Once the blood flowed, they would flare with life, crimson and hungry. The Tower Majestic would awaken. His kingdom’s purpose, become fulfilled.
The knife pressed harder. Death was familiar to him. He feared nothing. A slice, an opening, and then all else would proceed as intended. If only he could find the courage. If only he could muster the will.
His hand shook. The knife relented, not a single drop of blood spilled.
“Damn it!” Eder screamed, and he slammed the knife to the ground and then slumped with his back pressed to the sacrificial altar. He buried his head in his hands, and he wept as much as he raged.
Eder would never sacrifice one of his beloved siblings. If it must be anyone, it must be him. And yet… and yet…
He looked up to the night sky, wishing he could take comfort from those false stars. Or did he truly know them to be false?
“How great is your faith, truly, if you fear the death that would take you?” he whispered to himself. “How ardent your beliefs if you cannot give everything to see them fulfilled?”
Three words. He had built a kingdom on three simple words, spoken by Father, and heard amid the death and dark. He had told himself his reasoning was sound and his faith absolute. There were no other possible interpretations.
Lies, told to himself beneath the stars. However strong his faith, it wasn’t enough. And so he would fail, here and now, at the final step of his journey.
Eder pushed to his feet and made his way to the platform down. He needed rest. His mind felt raw, and the burdens of Luminary heavy on his shoulders. A pull of a lever, and the lift descended. His exhaustion only deepened when he found his Celebrant waiting for him among the rafters.
“Luminary,” she said, bowing her head in respect.
“Is something amiss?” he asked as he led her to another lift, one that would take him down to his home upon the Privileged Heights.
“I pray you forgive my forwardness, but we must discuss matters of the Astral Kingdom’s defense.”
Eder carefully hid his flinch.
“Are we not safe here in Racliffe? The walls of the White City shall protect us.”
Madeleine shook her head.
“It is not Racliffe that is the issue. It is our regents. I’ve been inundated with communiqués from both the north and south.
They want to know why we aren’t forming an army to meet the protectorate on the field of battle.
Some are… insinuating you are content to let Queen Isabelle trample our lands and lay siege to the coastal cities, so long as Racliffe is spared. ”
“Racliffe will not be spared, because Racliffe is their goal,” Eder said as the pair stepped onto the chosen platform. The liftmaster bowed his head to the floor before turning the enormous gear to lower the platform.
“That does not justify complacency,” Madeleine said, and when he glanced her way, she paled.
“That… that is their argument, my Luminary. And I fear it goes beyond words. Our preachers are reporting rumblings of rebellion, dissidents claiming that if the Astral Kingdom shall not protect them, they will protect themselves. General Sid’s departure has only made these rumors worsen. ”
That was a surprise to Eder, and he fully turned his attention to the diminutive woman.
“Sid left us?” he asked.
“This morning,” Madeleine admitted as the platform swayed slightly. “He has taken a thousand soldiers with him to reinforce the Twin Gates. All volunteers, I believe. It is how he bypassed our standing orders.”
Eder shook his head. General Sid Alafus had been with Eder since the earliest days of the Astral Kingdom. Eder had expected Sid to helm the defense of Racliffe, but it seemed that might not be the case.
“Should I muster the rest of our forces to bring him back?” Madeleine asked as his silence stretched.
“No,” Eder said. “Let him do as he wishes. It will not matter. Nothing will stop Isabelle’s army from arriving at our gates.”
The platform’s descent slowed, the Privileged Heights nearing.
Enormous slabs of hardstone both above and below had broken during the tower’s initial collapse ages ago, lending this particular level significant isolation.
It was here that members of the Church of Stars resided, afforded privacy and freedom from the far more crowded environs elsewhere.
Homes were built of stone brick instead of wood, another luxury for those considered chosen by the church.
A handful of men and women awaited the platform’s arrival, and seeing Eder, they quickly stepped back and bowed their heads.
“We will soon begin austerity measures for Racliffe,” Eder said, forcing himself to assume a mantle of leadership. “Our soldiers will be prepared to meet the coming threat, I assure you. The Bastard Queen’s army will shatter upon our walls like the waves of the ocean do against the Tower Majestic.”
Madeleine hardly looked convinced, but she curled her little mouth into a smile.
“Of course,” she said. “I hold faith in Father to protect his children from the savages. Sleep well, my Luminary. I will come in the morning with reports from our regents, if you are willing to go over them with me?”
Eder paused before a rare sight within the Tower Majestic.
It was a garden growing in the heart of the Privileged Heights, positioned so that its wide oval of transported earth received a large amount of sun from the gigantic nearby window that opened up across the wall just above their floor of hardstone.
“Of course I am willing,” he said, and made sure his smile was more believable than hers. “Farewell, Celebrant.”
Madeleine hesitated, bowed low, and then departed, leaving Eder alone within the garden. He walked its rows, observing the little flowers. Nothing too large or demanding, just tiny elder blooms, yellow caps, and violet irises. Eder knelt before them, his fingers brushing their petals.
“How do I tell her?” he whispered aloud. “She doesn’t know. She could never know.”
Eder had not mustered a defense because victory and defeat no longer mattered.
Oh, he suspected he could crush the protectorate if he gathered the Astral Kingdom’s entire might, but to what end?
Faron and Sariel would not be stopped. There would always be another rebellion.
Another alliance. And if that didn’t work, then Sariel would slink through Eder’s kingdom, whispering words of sedition.
His radiance would seep into even the most loyal, turning their hearts. Civil war would follow. More bloodshed.
It would not stop. It would never stop. And the longer they warred, the more likely that their missing sibling, Eist, would return from their mysterious isolation.
Or Aylah would emerge from whatever life she had spent the last decades living, furious at their warring.
She had been Crownbreaker once. Might she become that person again?
Eder grabbed one of the irises and ripped it free of the potted earth. The soft petal withered at his touch, blue flame burning away its beauty. If only he could awaken the tower! If only there was a life whose blood he was willing to spill.
“Come, then,” he whispered, imagining the faces of his brothers. “Come to my tower, and condemn me for breaking vows I never swore. Tear down the walls of my city. Fill its streets with blood. I will not surrender, not to you. Never to you.”
He opened his hand. Ash fluttered away. His tongue felt dry, and his heart much too heavy.
“Come to me, and prove you have the necessary will.” He tilted his head so the moonlight spilling through the distant window of the tower could fall upon his tears. “Prove that, when your faith is challenged, you have the strength to shed the blood of our family, for I do not.”
He closed his eyes, ashamed of his tears.
“Father,” he whispered. “Father. Where are you?”
Silence in the garden, his only answer.