The Cor Chronicles: Volume 02 - Fire and Steel (31 page)

* * *

Queen Erella hurled a vase across her office in unrestrained fury. A host of vile oaths came to her mind, and she desired to say at least one if not all of them. Unused to such language, she hesitated, unsure as to which curse would be the most appropriate under the circumstances. She had to take what satisfaction she could from the frightful crash as the crystal shattered against a granite wall, spilling water and flowers across her plush carpet.

This man, this Dahken was the source of so much chaos. She had ruled for a hundred years without so much as a hint of disruption in Aquis and the Shining West, and yet Cor had caused a near total loss of control since the day he was born. He defied her at every turn, yet he had such lofty morals and goals for his people. His very existence and the lack of order it implied had led her greatest and oldest advisor and friend to betray her. It was too much; the Dahken must fall in line with her rule at any cost.

She closed her eyes and lowered her head, breathing deeply over and over in the hopes that Garod may help her find peace. When her heart no longer thudded, and she no longer felt the need to throw breakable objects, Queen Erella of Aquis opened her eyes to behold the two men in front of her. Lord Aidan sat red faced in his chair, outraged, and he looked as if he may burst at any moment. The guard she had dispatched to bring Lord Dahken Cor to the palace stood at attention, though he looked like a puppy that was afraid of being kicked by its master.

“You have no fault in this Captain,” she said to him, and while he still stood straight, relief was apparent in his being. “I will not see Lord Dahken Cor tomorrow as he intends. When he arrives
at his convenience
, you will show him to the suite we have prepared for him. Make sure another suite is available for the other two. They will sleep there tomorrow night, and I will meet him at a time of
my
choosing the following morning. You are dismissed.

“Lord Aidan,” she said as the armored man clinked away, “you will now be of the greatest service to Aquis.”

“How may I serve Majesty?” he asked as he lifted his ponderous bulk. The redness of his face had begun to fade, leaving red splotches.

“You will now be in control of Fort Haldon. Lord Dahken Cor is nominally its lord; however, he will answer to you. I will dispatch you to Fort Haldon with the Lord Dahken and several hundred loyal soldiers. You will carry with you a royal edict that will fully explain the situation to Commander Thom once you arrive. Lord Dahken Cor and his people will learn fealty to the crown and Garod, even if it takes years.”

“Yes Majesty,” Aidan said quietly, with a mix of satisfaction and resignation. He stood quietly as she wrote out her commands, and when she was finished, he took them and left her with a bow. Once outside of her chambers, Lord Aidan of Byrverus groaned forlornly.

27.

It was all Palius could do to lie in his plush bed, propped up by many soft pillows, awaiting death. He knew his time was short now; the rumbling wheeze in his chest grew louder and deeper with each breath, and he could scarcely move. He owed one more apology, one more recantation of his sins before his death so that he may meet Garod with a clear conscience. Rasping for breath with every few words, he could not call forth one of the guards outside his chambers and instead rang the small bronze bell. Palius besought the guard to find Lord Dahken Cor with all haste, for he did not know if he could wait any longer.

The dying old man waited, and every minute felt like hours as he watched the sands slip from the top half of his glass to the bottom. The glass held sand enough for twelve hours, and after having watched it spill time for so many years, Palius knew it would again need to be turned in about two hours. He doubted he would have the strength to turn it again when the time came. Palius felt as if he watched his own life slip through the tiny eye in the middle of the glass, and his time would be done once the last grain of sand finally fell.

His outer door opened, pushed in from the outside, and Palius looked that direction, moving only his eyes and not his head, as that would require what felt like massive effort. He expected the gleaming, black armored countenance of Cor, Lord of the Dahken, but instead found the golden haired Thyss of Dulkur entering his chambers. Palius watched her cross the room, sauntering with her arrogant gait toward him to stand several feet from the left side of his bed, arms crossed before her and feet set wide apart defiantly. She was as beautifully dangerous as ever, and he found himself staring at the slight bulge in her abdomen.

“Yes, I am with Cor’s child,” she said, her voice breaking him from his reverie. “What do you want?”

“I called for the Lord Dahken,” Palius rasped, and he had to pause every few words for breath. “Why did he send you?”

“Cor meets with your beloved Queen, and the guard you sent said it was most urgent. I thought it better to come myself,” she replied.

“Very well. Then I must ask you to pass this on to him, for I am afraid I am at my end.”

And as such, Palius told her everything. He explained how he had arranged their attempted murder when they first reached Fort Haldon, as well as the attack upon them as they came back to Byrverus. He told her of his duplicity in colluding with the Loszian Emperor and that several hundred of the men at Fort Haldon were prepared to turn on them when battle was joined against the Loszians. As he spoke, Palius watched her beautiful, bronzed face change from surprise to anger and then seething hatred. He didn’t care if she hated him, or if they all did, so long as she listened.

“But there is one more thing you must know, one more thing you must tell Lord Dahken Cor.”

“I need not hear any more, old man!” Thyss screamed at him. “I will sacrifice you with fire to Hykan, and you may repent to Him in eternal flame!”

“Please, Cor must know!” he pleaded. But she had stepped back to the middle of the room, and Palius didn’t think she could even hear his weak voice. Using the last of his strength, he pushed himself to sit upright and reached his open hand to her in supplication.

Thyss spat phlegm in his direction and raised her arms exultantly, palms open and up toward the ceiling. As she closed her eyes and turned her face upward, she thought she could hear the old man begging for something, his life she assumed. The temperature in the room grew quickly and raw untamed fires burst forth from the bed, igniting Palius’ bed sheets and robe. The entire bed was engulfed in a column of flame, and immensely hot, it burned blue in the center. Despite being near death, Palius experienced pain and suffering unlike anything he’d ever imagined, and it lent him strength to flail his limbs and scream in a most horrific, heart wrenching way.

Mere seconds had passed when the guards threw the doors open to behold Palius barely writhing within the raging inferno. Cries went up of fire within the castle and the need for water, and Thyss merely stood in the center of Palius’ bedroom as he moved no more, feeling the horrible warmth on her body and reveling in the ecstasy of it. She was vaguely aware of people with buckets of water, soldiers and servants alike, attempting futilely to extinguish the flames that now spread to carpets tapestries and drapes.

A set of cold, gauntleted hands grasped Thyss by her upper arms, and the sensation brought her back to consciousness of the here and now. A soldier held her, trying to force her arms down, trying to force her out of the room as it was full of heat, smoke and fire. She jerked away, and the sudden motion broke her free from the metal grip. The guard thought twice about trying to catch her again, and instead he turned and fled toward the open doors.

Thyss held her open palm before her face and blew across it just as she had on the road only a few days ago, but this time a cold wind instead of more fire gusted across the room to extinguish the blaze as easily as if it were a lone candle. The gale left as quickly as it came and with it out the rooms’ open windows went the heat and smoke, leaving a smoking charred ruin where Palius’ massive bed had once been. One could barely make out a blackened fetal form in its center. His hourglass lay shattered on the floor.

With the roar of untamed fire now gone, servants and palace guards slowly filtered into Palius’ chambers to behold the gruesome sight. Over a dozen stared in disgusted awe, silent except for the sounds of their heavy breathing, and many still held buckets of cold water, which they set upon the floor. One, the armored guard who attempted to subdue Thyss and pull her from the room, looked in mixed fear and anger at the golden elementalist. He roughly turned another to face him.

“She did it!” he declared, pointing at Thyss. “Find the queen. Tell her the foreign woman has slain Palius. Go now!”

* * *

Aggravated, Cor sat in a plush chair off to the side in the chamber that served as Queen Erella’s official office. He’d been sitting in the uncomfortably soft seat for over an hour, ever since he arrived for their meeting. When her guards announced him, she made a point of asking him to have a seat while she dealt with any number of seemingly mundane and pointless tasks of state. After a short time, Cor began to fume as he shifted endlessly to find a comfortable way to sit and pass the time. Queen Erella was trying to break him down, weaken him so that she may establish dominance in the fight that was to come. It only angered him.

It seemed that Queen Erella had only one type of clothing in her wardrobe - white robes of the purest and highest silk. Her robes had varying degrees of heraldry, badges of office and symbolism of Garod, Cor supposed depending on the tasks of the day. They always maintained a high degree of dignity and elegance for Aquis ruler. Today she wore the simplest, plain white robes that covered her from foot to neck and a simple single starred tiara as opposed to the unwieldy, golden jeweled crown she wore officially.

Erella had only just called across the room for Cor to come stand before her when a palace guard suddenly burst through her doors with much surprise and shouting from those stationed outside. The man skidded to a halt on her plush carpeting and panted heavily as if he had just run a great distance in his plate and chain armor. Erella’s aged face changed to that of great anger, and Cor could see it flash like lightning in her eyes as she stood from her desk with great strength and presence.

“How dare you invade my privacy? What is the meaning of this? Speak damn you!” she all but screamed at the man as two of her personal guard raced into the room, taking their fellow by each arm.

“Majesty, I beg forgiveness!” he spoke with haste. “You must come to Palius! The woman -
his woman
- has killed Palius in his bed!”

For months, Erella had awaited news of Palius’ final passing into the arms of Garod, and she would have sped it along herself had she discovered his treachery earlier. His penitence saved him that fate, reaffirmed her trust in him, and likely committed his soul to the right hand of Garod. Every time an unexpected knock came at her door or a servant came to her with urgent news, she thought it would be of his death, but never had she expected this. She glanced at Cor, finding as much surprise on his face as she no doubt showed on hers.

“What?” she asked, her voice a mere whisper, barely audible over the summer breeze outside her windows.

“The woman with the bronze skin has murdered him. She burned him alive in his bed,” the man said, his breathe coming easier now. “We tried to put the fire out, but it spread so quickly. We could not help him, and when it was done, she breathed the fire away.”

Queen Erella shot from her chambers like a gossamer crossbow bolt, with a speed and agility completely unforeseen considering her apparently ancient and frail frame. Cor jumped into a run right behind her, and the guards, slightly slower to react, followed suit. The queen and her entourage charged through halls at a run, armor clanging in contrast to Erella’s softly slippered feet, as servants, soldiers and other onlookers endeavored to stay clear of their path. Cor had never been to Palius’ chambers as he had never formally spoken with the man, but he knew as the queen’s most trusted advisor Palius would not be far away from her. As such, Cor doubted it took even a minute for them to reach the destination.

When they turned a corner in the main hall, Cor knew they had arrived, for about another thirty feet down the hall stood a throng of perhaps twenty persons, mostly servants, trying to work their way through a set of double doors. As they approached, some looked up and saw their queen, immediately parting and calling for others to make way. Queen Erella, with Cor doing a fair amount of pushing others out of the way, made her way through the crowd through the double doorway. The smell of burnt wood and fabric assailed there senses, but there was also another smell, like charred meat but far more terrible.

Inside was another group of people, gawking and speaking in hushed whispers. Most of these were armored men who, upon seeing their queen, helped to clear the way for her to the center of the room. As they pushed closer, the air became replete with the terrible smell, and Cor steeled himself for what he knew was to come. As the final two bodies in their way parted, Queen Erella suddenly halted as she beheld the grim scene - the scorched and blackened remains of her friend. She stood wordlessly as tears began to silently fall down her cheeks.

Cor’s eyes did not linger long on the remains of Palius and his bed, but instead found their way to one side, to Thyss. She stood rebelliously, haughtily, as she watched with open satisfaction at her handiwork. Even though armored men held each of her arms firmly, her gaze and stance held an open challenge for any who would dare oppose her. Feeling Cor’s eyes upon her, Thyss turned her own to return his look, and he knew in that moment she had not simply murdered the old man.

“Take the witch away and secure her in a cell,” Erella ordered. “Her fate is sealed and justice will be done on the morrow at sunrise.”

“Wait! You can’t -,” Cor started as the men restraining Thyss began to move, but he was cut off by the queen’s authoritative voice.