Chapter 50 #2
‘Uzra knew my father,’ Kyor begins by way of explanation. ‘Knew the man he truly was, not the one I wanted him to be. I believe it will help, having him here. That he may be able to add details I’m not aware of. And a different opinion will be useful.’
Caz and Benny exchange a look, lips pursed, and I feel mine do the same.
Outside of very few instances, what we’re about to discuss has stayed between us since the very start, but maybe that’s been the issue.
Maybe if other people knew about the Rottings, about Korvane’s lies, this world would be a far better place.
‘I will not tell a soul what happens inside this room,’ Uzra assures us. ‘Not unless you wish me to. I can take a vow if—’
‘No!’ we all cry out in such perfect unison it’s almost comical. If only any of us felt like laughing.
‘No, no more vows,’ I add more calmly, looking back at Caz for reassurance.
‘Uzra’s telling the truth … for now,’ she says.
‘And he is a man of honour,’ Loch adds. ‘I have not heard a bad word said about the general since my arrival here. Other than by Ranveeg and Stefan, that is.’
If I needed any more convincing that he was a good man, that was it.
‘Okay, Uzra stays,’ I say.
We all settle into seats, save Kyor, who stands before us, the wolves, who are sprawled on the floor, and Uzra, who, other than at the banquet that first night, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen sitting down.
Anticipation prickles the air as we wait for Kyor to speak.
Benny shakes his head. ‘It better be damned good information to risk your life, Ky.’
His use of Ruben’s nickname for Kyor makes my breath catch unexpectedly, and though I keep the sound muted, it doesn’t stop the sting behind my eyes.
Kyor nods solemnly. ‘I swear it is. I’ll start at the beginning.’
He takes a deep breath.
‘My father sealed me to secrecy when I was sixteen years old, just before I first went to fight at the Hirathean Pass. Told me of the existence of the Rottings, bound me never to speak of them. But the truth is that all of this began long before that. Benny, you said yourself about the magic fading, right?’ Kyor continues. ‘Kids being born with less and less?’
‘This has to do with that?’ Benny’s eyebrows rise in surprise, and he leans forward.
‘Yes, I think so … and so it’s hard to work out where it starts. It’s like there are all these pieces that I’ve been given, but they’re not in the right order, and trying to sort through them… And with more recent events, like me being kicked out of the fourth trial—’
‘For striking the priestesses,’ Benny asserts.
‘Yes, but the fact is I didn’t strike them,’ he fires back. ‘I know I didn’t.’
I grab his hand, hoping it might offer a modicum of comfort. ‘Just take your time,’ I tell him. ‘We’re in no rush.’
He nods, a muscle twitching in his jaw.
‘I didn’t hit any of the priestesses. They were never at risk. You’ve all seen me fight. I have absolute control over my magic, and I’ve never hit anyone I didn’t mean to. Not once.’
‘So why were you kicked out?’ Benny asks.
‘Because High Priestess Mila didn’t want me to win.’
‘High Priestess Mila?’ Uzra questions, a look of surprise on his face.
‘You know her?’ I ask.
His lips purse. ‘She wasn’t High Priestess when I was in Wrohelm, but yes. I always thought it strange that she spent more time in the palace than at the temple.’
Kyor chews on the inside of his cheek and I anticipate that we’ll soon have more reasons to be wary of the priestess.
‘How do you know she didn’t want you to win?’ Caz asks, voicing the question I was about to pose.
‘Because I confronted the bitch herself about it,’ Kyor replies. ‘I told her what I was going to ask Etta for, what would happen when I won, and rather than helping me, rather than revoking the expulsion, she put a fucking bind on me. A priestess’s binding. Another vow, in addition to my father’s.’
‘What?’ I flinch. ‘I didn’t know they could even do that without your permission.’
‘Without saying a fucking word,’ Kyor snarls.
‘One minute I was there, yelling at my father, no words spared, and the next minute, after I confronted her alone in the corridor, I couldn’t say the fricking R word.
Couldn’t mention the Rottings. The same as my father’s blood vow.
My throat sealed shut if I even tried to mention it.
It’s why I couldn’t even speak of them, couldn’t tell you what we were going to face in the forests.
Why I trained you to fight, keeping distance from your foe as best you could.
You thought I was training you for the Issen, but I was training you for the Rottings. ’
‘But why bind you?’ Caz asks again. In another life, she’d make an excellent interrogator.
Kyor fills his lungs slowly before he speaks.
‘For my gifting, I wanted the world to be as it should be,’ he replies wearily. ‘I wanted the Rottings gone, peace in the kingdoms, and the end of the wars. And most of all I wanted my father to find the Crystal of Aemnoy so that our people’s waning magic would once again be restored.’
‘The Crystal of Aemnoy? What the hell is that?’ Benny asks, a frown marring his forehead.
Kyor clicks his knuckles, but it’s not him who speaks. It’s Loch.
‘It’s what they were looking for.’
My head swivels around to look at the Eastern Islander.
‘Some nights in the forest, it was all I could hear them talking about,’ he continues. ‘That’s all that mattered. The crystal.’
‘Who?’ I ask. ‘Who was speaking of it?’
He shakes his head. ‘Everyone. Well, that was what it felt like. In every direction, that’s all I could hear. It felt like even the trees wanted to find it.’
‘When I was sixteen, my father told me about the waning magic in the kingdom.’ Kyor takes the conversation back.
‘Morathkians were being born with less and less power, he said, and it was this that was making us more vulnerable to the Issen. At the time, I believed him. He said it was essential that we fix it, for the good of the entire kingdom, and that the priestesses had found a way to restore the magic and ensure he was the most beloved, revered king ever to rule.’
‘Well, not letting people starve might’ve been an easier solution,’ Benny mutters, but we all ignore him as Kyor continues.
‘He said he was searching for something. Searching for something that would restore balance. That would end the time of the Rottings.’
‘He knew of the Rottings even then?’ I question, aghast. How long have the Rottings been a blight on the earth? And how has Korvane kept it secret for so long?
‘It was on our journey here,’ Uzra says quietly. All eyes in the room turn to face him. ‘The Rottings, they are the undead, yes? We encountered one.’
‘One?’ Benny laughs bitterly at the comment.
‘Yes, but it’s possible he faced more on his return. I wouldn’t know.’
‘Well, there are a lot more than that now.’ I sigh.
Silence begins to settle, but before it can, Kyor is speaking again.
‘The thing is, they’ve never come close to Wrohelm.
You’d think, if they’re as mindless as they appear, one or two would have stumbled into the slums and turned hundreds of our people.
But they haven’t. I’ve long wondered if the dire wolf patrols are enough of a deterrent … or if it’s something else.’
‘Something else?’ I whisper.
Kyor’s eyes fix on mine. ‘If they’re being controlled somehow.’
Every hair rises on my arms as goosebumps claim my skin. And I know I’m not the only one who feels it based on the way Caz’s hand covers her mouth and Benny reaches out as if to steady himself.
As Kyor pauses, I try to collate all the information that he’s shared so far, but everything he tells us just prompts yet more questions.
‘Okay, so your father knew about the Rottings and was hunting for this crystal to put an end to them, but the priestesses didn’t want you to succeed in ending the Rottings threat?’
Kyor nods. ‘That’s what it felt like. The High Priestess didn’t want me to, anyway.’
‘Because she wanted your father to find the crystal? Get the glory?’ I hear the hesitation in Caz’s voice. ‘Why would that matter if the Rottings are gone and magic is restored?’
‘My question exactly.’ Kyor inhales deeply then releases the breath as a sigh. ‘Maybe it was because they were screwing. Are screwing. I don’t know.’
‘The king and the High Priestess?’ Caz’s jaw drops. ‘Can they even do that?’
‘Physically? I imagine the logistics are fairly standard,’ Benny remarks drily.
A warmth blooms in my heart at the comment. It’s hardly his wittiest repartee, but it’s something.
‘Priestesses are celibate. Or they’re meant to be,’ I comment. ‘If she really is screwing your father, there must be a reason.’
‘Exactly what I thought,’ Kyor says darkly.
Loch fiddles with the neck of his shirt. ‘But now they’ve found the crystal?’
‘Yeah, according to one of my soldiers, they have,’ Kyor confirms.
Abruptly, my mind flits back to a conversation that Kyor had when we were in Galreck. A conversation he tried to get me to remember. It was with one of his knights, Ryne, who told him they’d found what they were looking for. Kyor had been overjoyed, picking her up and swinging her around.
It’s obvious now that they’d been speaking of the crystal.
‘Okay, so they’ve found it. Isn’t that good news?’ Benny says tentatively.
Thessa’s voice cuts through the room in answer. ‘They’ve found the crystal, yet the Rottings remain. That alone should tell us something is wrong.’
Silence follows.
‘Kyor?’ I look solely at him.
‘Thessa is right. It’s too soon to know if the balance of magic has returned, but the Rottings are definitely still here. And we know from your slips that even more have joined their ranks. Not only that, but they were moving. That’s what you saw, right, them moving?’
I nod, trying to swallow the lump that’s wedged tight in my throat.
‘I don’t understand what you mean by these slips,’ Uzra asks, ‘but is there any chance they were moving somewhere that could destroy them? I don’t know, to the sea to be drowned or something?’