Equimancer's Realm

  She slowly walked up behind Tarquin, and whispered while she produced a dagger from the folds of her skirt.

  “A warm summer night. Brother and sister entwined like lovers…,” she cut the rope around Tarquin’s wrist.

  “Poor Rica sobbing as Mordan takes her against her will…” she pushed the knife in Tarquin’s hand and stepped back.

  As soon as Tarquin felt the weapon in his hand, he lunged forward.

  “Your time has run out, Prince Mordan,” Noerelle exclaimed.

  Mordan saw the blade glinting in Tarquin’s hand.

  He pulled the trigger and shot.

  Again and again, until Tarquin didn’t move any more.

  Mordan stepped to the desk on shaky legs to get rid of the pistol, when he heard Noerelle scream.

  “Oh no, King Scypian, he’s coming for you. Prince Mordan has lost his mind! Defend yourself.”

  Scypian, who had been following the exchange from behind the desk, was stunned for a second.

  Then, he pulled out his own gun and aimed it at Mordan.

  Mordan had no time to think; he pulled the trigger again, and shot Scypian right between the eyes.

  “He could have killed me, you bitch,” was the first thing that came to his mind, after Scypian fell to the floor.

  “Don’t be ridiculous, I would have shot him myself if he was any danger to you,” Noerelle replied calmly.

  Mordan tried to process all that happened.

  He turned to Noerelle, and pointed the gun at her.

  “Oh Mordan, Mordan,” she said in a disappointed voice, looking at him. Suddenly, his knees buckled.

  He dropped the gun, and collapsed on the floor.

  He could feel his will to live leaving him.

  He prayed it would. But it didn’t.

  Noerelle stepped lightly towards him, and picked up his gun, as well as Scypian’s and the dagger from Tarquin’s dead hand.

  She then took a seat, picked up a glass, and raised it towards Mordan.

  “You have done well, my friend,” she said admiringly.

  “Fuck off, Noerelle,” he muttered.

  “As much as I would love to obey you, we have work to do,” she replied.

  “No, that was it. I’m done. You’ll never see me again.

  Maybe one more time; when I come to kill you,” he said.

  She smiled.

  “Just tell me this. Why?” he whispered.

  “Leverage.”

  “To what end?”

  “We need you. And we don’t want you to quit.”

  “We? Who the hell is ‘we’? On second thoughts, I don’t care,” he stared at the floor. Suddenly he had a thought.

  “How did you know? About what happened in the camp?” he looked up at her. One glance, and he was certain.

  “You knew it would happen. You let me sleep with my own sister…

  No… You arranged it. What kind of a depraved monster are you?” he moaned.

  “Well, if the World found out you killed your brother and your father, there’s no court that would spare you the most severe punishment. Whichever story you pick, it ends with you killing a member of your family. Patricide, fratricide; unforgivable crimes.

  But for many, not as much as incest.

  The rape of your virginal sister.

  One anonymous letter to the office of the Prosecutor, and you’re done.

  You know that there is nobody who can lie to him once in the court room. Which, by the way, will definitely happen, should any harm come to me.”

  “Why do you hate me so much?”

  “Oh, you misunderstand. We don’t want you to get caught. All this here,” she pointed around the room, “I can make it go away. Nobody will ever find out. As long as you really commit to our cause,” she emptied her glass, and stood up.

  “Almost time to go. By the way, the next time you see me, you may call me Queen Noerelle,” she smiled.

  “Why on Earth would I do that?” Mordan asked, even though he wasn’t interested in the least.

  “Because Sylvain and I have eloped. We got married a week ago. It will be made public once the invites go out for the official ceremony.”

  Mordan didn’t have the energy to shout anymore.

  “You won’t rest till you have destroyed everybody’s lives, will you?”

  Noerelle ignored the question.

  “I will leave you now. As a proof of our goodwill, I’ll show you that you do have a choice. I leave you this gun and this envelope. You either end it here, or you choose us, and follow the orders of my letter.”

  She silently closed the door behind her.

  Mordan sat on the floor, occasionally shaking his head.

  Suddenly, he broke out in a hysterical laugh.

  All he had ever wanted was being a part of nobility.

  All the things he had done in the past year, was to make him become one of them.

  “And all the time… ha-ha… ever since I was born… ha-ha-ha…

  I was nobility… all the time… hilarious,” he laughed, while he wiped away his bitter tears.

  Royal Palace of Stinger, Realm’s Heart Island

  Gloria took a last look at her reflection in the mirror, and then at the clock on the wall. She was on time. Just. She didn’t plan to let Andarian and Lexandros wait.

  She was about to descend the main stairs, when she could hear a commotion coming from the entrance hall.

  She quickened her steps. Then, she could hear Linka’s scream.

  “Oh no, Prince Olivier!”

  Gloria ran down the stairs.

  Two men of the Realm Guard stood in the door. One of them with her son’s limp body in his arms.

  Her hands flew to her mouth.

  “Is he…?”

  “He’s unconscious, but alive, my Empress. We found him sprawled out in one of the side streets,” he said, placing Olivier on an ottoman.

  “I’ll go and fetch a healer, my Lady,” Linka exclaimed, and left in a hurry.

  Gloria knelt down next to her son, taking his hand. She looked up at the Guard.

  “What happened?” she whispered.

  “We don’t know yet, my Empress. It could have been an accident… an unlucky fall, or something dropping on his head… maybe a kid’s brawl turning ugly, but we cannot exclude the possibility of an attack,” the second man said.

  “Please rest assured, my Empress, there will be a full investigation,” the first guard added.

  Soon, the healer arrived. By then, Olivier had been carried up to his bed.

  A few minutes later, he opened his eyes. The Professor had established that thankfully, he wasn’t seriously injured.

  “He will be fine, my Empress. He has a concussion, and will probably be a bit confused for a while. Apart from that, he’s unharmed. No broken bones, nothing to worry about.”

  Gloria sobbed with relief.

  Her planned meeting slipped her mind completely.

  The House of Houses, Realm’s Heart Island

  “I thought this was my day off,” Dax muttered to himself, wondering why he had been summoned to the House of Houses. As he wasn’t told, just out of spite, he didn’t portal straight away. Instead, he chose the moving stairs of the Central Tower. He was glad he did; he hasn’t used this means of transportation for years. He marvelled at the sparkling blue skies and the breath-taking view over the city, as he approached the highest point of the Structure.

  As soon as he jumped onto the platform leading to the seat of the Government, he heard it.

  The hearty, booming laughter.

  “I’ll be damned. It’s Prince Hugelocks,” he huffed when he spotted the man wildly gesticulating to Andarian and Nocturnia, who both seemed to dissolve in fits of giggles.

  Brother Ledonius Goldmane stood up to greet him.

  “You haven’t grown a fraction of an inch since I last saw you,” he boomed, tousling Dax’ hair.

  Being over six feet tall, and in
his mid-thirties, it would have been an admirable feat of the Chief Prosecutor if he could manage to grow any further. He squinted at Goldmane.

  “What happened? Did you drink Euposia dry? Did the World run out of ladies who you could rob of their most valued treasure? Or did some higher power close down all the brothels Worldwide to make you return to the stagnant backwaters that is the Realm?” he looked at Ledonius, who was at least three inches taller than him.

  Goldmane did the one thing that annoyed Dax most; he threw his head back and laughed.

  Andarian’s head fell to hit the top of the table he sat at.

  “The entertainment tent on Wintersky Square is short a few clowns. I’m sure they’d love to have the pair of you,” Nocturnia giggled.

  Andarian straightened up.

  “The whole of the Realm doesn’t seem to be big enough for the two of you. Nevertheless, can you please stop?” he asked pleadingly.

  “He started it; he could never forgive me that my team beat him at the Sharknball semi-finals a little while ago,” Dax said sulkily.

  “A little while? That must have been at least fifteen years ago,” Nocturnia shook her head at her former fellow students.

  “So, we all agree then; increased export of embermoss in exchange for shiny new steamcarriages. The delivery of two tons for twenty vehicles, on a monthly basis, free on board parity,” Andarian rubbed his hands, continuing from where he had been, when he was interrupted by Dax’ arrival.

  “I can’t wait to get my butt in one of them,” he added.

  “Agreed,” said Nocturnia.

  “Hell yes. It’s not as if we’re ever running out of the stuff,” nodded Ledonius.

  “Andarian, why is he here?” Dax turned to the First Servant.

  “Because I’m the Fourth Servant,” Ledonius grinned.

  “There is no such thing,” Dax huffed.

  “There is now,” Nocturnia chuckled.

  “Andarian, why, oh why did you do that to me?” Dax rolled his eyes.

  “Because there’s just not enough excitement in my life,” the First Servant replied with a straight face, collecting his papers.

  “There are too many worrying happenings in the Realm lately, and both of you are away so frequently. We need to take some security measures,” Nocturnia looked at Dax and Ledonius.

  “Fair enough,” the Prosecutor sighed.

  “Meeting adjourned,” Andarian announced.

  “Which way you going, Brother? Just to make sure I go the opposite way,” Dax turned to Goldmane.

  “Stop wasting my time. You’re both going the same way.

  Now. Get. Out. Of. Here.

  Empress Gloria and Emperor Lexandros will be here in a few minutes,” Andarian snapped.

  “On your head be it. I might push this one off the moving stairs,” Dax muttered.

  “As if you could make me budge an inch, little man,” laughed Ledonius, nodding farewell towards Andarian, and disappearing through the Archway leading into the main tower of the Structure.

  Dax waved his hand at the First Servant and followed Goldmane.

  “What do you think Empress Gloria wants to discuss?” Nocturnia asked.

  Andarian was wondering the same.

  “Whatever it is; it seems to be rather urgent,” he shrugged his shoulders.

  “Do you want me to stay?” she asked.

  “No, thank you. You better watch those two, before they seriously injure each other,” Andarian smiled at her.

  She quickly kissed him on the cheek and left.

  A few seconds later she popped her head in.

  “Are you sure I shouldn’t stay? Maybe she wants to propose to you,” she grinned.

  “Oh, by the Creator, just go. I promise, you’ll be the first to know what we talked about,” he threw a pen at her.

  He could hear her snort of laughter when she stepped through the Archway.

  Andarian took a look at the clock on the wall, and then he heard the shots.

  He ran to the door that led onto the platform in front of the House of Houses, and tore it open.

  The hot-air balloon, that transported the Government’s members up here, was slowly swaying in the early summer breeze.

  As soon as he took another step, he could see the body on the floor.

  He hurried up to it, and kneeled down.

  Emperor Lexandros lay in a pool of blood, bleeding from both his stomach, and his chest.

  Andarian closed his eyes for a second, and then began channelling positive Earth onto the wounds.

  He knew that he didn’t have time to establish whether Lexandros was dead or alive.

  While he willed the molecules of the Emperor’s body to rearrange themselves to stop the bleeding, he also channelled positive Fire to increase any life force that might be present.

  Andarian cursed himself for not letting Nocturnia stay; her Earth Aptitude was much stronger than his, she could have closed his wounds much faster than him. Besides, the two of them could have done so much more.

  For a second he thought he could hear Lexandros breathing again.

  He listened intently, never stopping to channel all the positive abilities he could.

  Then, he could hear someone’s thoughts nearby.

  ‘Don’t think; just do it. Don’t think; just do it.’

  Andarian looked up towards the source of the thought.

  It came from behind the securely tied hot-air balloon.

  Suddenly, he realised the absence of a ballooner.

  That was when the first shot hit him in the shoulder.

  He saw a man stepping in front of the aerial vehicle.

  “Master Grimdor,” he whispered when the second shot came.

  Then, darkness.

  The tremors started faintly; at first nobody noticed.

  They increased by the second.

  A rumbling noise rippled through the whole of the Realm.

  The Earth started to shake.

  “Earthquake!” people from all over the Realm left their houses in panic.

  Until they noticed that the violent tremors didn’t merely come from the ground.

  They were all around them.

  “The waters have turned to blood!” The first to notice the dark crimson liquid in the Channels was hysterical, making everybody around them stare in horror at the Waterways of the Structure.

  “The sky is bleeding!” another Realmer shouted hundreds of miles away, pointing upwards.

  The citizens of the Realm either ran amok in panic, or fell to their knees to pray to their chosen deities.

  “We’re doomed,” some resigned to their fate.

  “It’s the end of the World,” others tried to grab whatever and whoever they loved, and ran blindly.

  Suddenly, silence set in. The Earth didn’t shake any longer.

  For a few seconds, everything seemed to calm down.

  For a few seconds, everything seemed to be back to normal.

  Except for the Structure.

  It had always been a transparently shimmering feature of everybody’s lives in the Realm.

  But now, the Structure had turned red.

  Appendix

  An Excerpt from the Book of Gods

  In the beginning there was Chaos, therefore the Creator, that is the Original Source, decided to bring Balance and Harmony into the World.

  In Its infinite wisdom It created this our Earth, Father Sun and Mother Moon.

  Sun and Moon joined, and from their union five Gods were born; the Warrior, the Sage, the Lover, the Preacher and the Hermit.

  The Creator, both male and female and neither male, nor female then split into two, the First Man and the First Woman.

  They joined, and from their union the four Elements - Fire, Earth, Air and Water – were born.

  Fire spawned three sons; Warhorn, Sunflare and Archer.

  Earth spawned three daughters; Bullsblood, Wheatfield and Mountainborn.

  Air spawned t
hree sons; Breeze, Windscale and Wintersky.

  Water spawned three daughters; Moonstone, Stinger and Seafoam.

  Father Sun then spoke, “Sunflare, you shall represent me on Earth.”

  Mother Moon then spoke, “Moonstone, you shall represent me on Earth.”

  The Warrior then spoke, “Warhorn and Stinger, you shall represent me on Earth.”

  The Sage then spoke, “Breeze and Wheatfield, you shall represent me on Earth.”

  The Lover then spoke, “Bullsblood and Windscale, you shall represent me on Earth.”

  The Preacher then spoke, “Archer and Seafoam, you shall represent me on Earth.”

  The Hermit then spoke, “Mountainborn and Wintersky, you shall represent me on Earth.”

  Warhorn, Moonstone, Windscale and Mountainborn then spoke, ”We shall begin your work.”

  Bullsblood, Sunflare, Stinger and Wintersky then spoke, ”We shall uphold your work.”

  Breeze, Wheatfield, Archer and Seafoam then spoke, ”We shall conclude your work.”

  The Seven Gods then spoke to their children, “Go forth and bring Balance and Harmony to the World. Take our gift and use it as best as you can”.

  Then, the Seven Gods created the Structure.

  Acknowledgements

  In no particular order I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart and express my utmost gratitude to the following humans and non-humans:

  - My wonderful husband, David Robertson, whom I've nagged into oblivion in the past months. He has tirelessly read and re-read my book and provided me with his support, and helped me blokify the girly bits.

  - Kay Fleming, who entirely selflessly and absolutely thoroughly edited all the versions of my book.

  - My beloved parents, Zsuzsa and Imre Bódogh and my brilliant in-laws, Lesley and John Strang, who all helped us through the past years with their support.

  - All my fantastic friends and family-members, who kept encouraging me from the start; especially Valéria Tamás, Gabriella Tápay and Attila Kertész, and of course my auntie, Katalin Pall. Special thanks to Stewart Mckirdy, who inspired Sulli, Son of Redbeard and his handy weapon.

  - My past and present cats and dogs, just for being themselves; particularly Atlasz Fleur de Bourbon, reincarnated as Professor Atlas Swiftfin and naturally, Jake and Maisie, featured as Nocturnia's dogs, Jack and Messy.

  - Every fantasy book, writer, game, gamer and fellow-geek who made me fall in love with this genre.