Falling Kingdoms

  “You already have.”

  “Compared to your normal lifestyle, anything would be a hardship, your highness. But you’ll be safe here.”

  “For how long?”

  “A few days. A week at the most.”

  She looked around the shed’s interior with horror. “Here?”

  “My sister and her husband have agreed to watch over you. His friends will guard the door in case you think about trying to escape. You’ll be brought food and water daily.” He thrust his chin to her left. “There’s a freshly dug hole over there for her majesty to use when she requires. It’s not a golden bejeweled chamber pot, but it’ll suffice. These would be considered luxurious accommodations for a Paelsian, princess. You have no idea.”

  “You are a horrible savage for keeping me here. My father will have your head for this.”

  Jonas took hold of her throat again and pressed her up against the wall.

  “I’m not a savage,” he snarled. “And I’m not a heathen.”

  “And I’m not an evil bitch who rejoices in the deaths of others.”

  “A few days of adversity won’t break you. They might even do you some good.”

  Her aquamarine eyes flashed. “I hope you’re torn apart by wolves on your trip to Auranos.”

  Jonas would expect no other reaction from her. Anything less would be a disappointment.

  As he moved toward the door, he looked over his shoulder at her. “I’ll see you again soon, your highness. Try not to miss me too much.”

  Magnus needed answers. And he needed them now.

  He’d waited for his father to rage about the witch’s death after he’d swept Lucia out of Magnus’s chambers. Instead, all had been eerily calm. Sabina’s scorched body had been quietly taken away and discarded. No funeral was planned. No one, not even the servants, seemed to be gossiping.

  It was as if the king’s mistress had never existed in the first place.

  But Magnus didn’t give a damn about Sabina Mallius, alive or dead. Only what she’d told him about Lucia’s origins. He needed to know if it was the truth.

  The next morning he sought his father out to demands answers but learned that the king had already left on a journey to Auranos with Chief Basilius. He wasn’t expected back for two weeks.

  Sabina’s words echoed in Magnus’s mind, but he didn’t know what to believe. The witch had been a deceptive, manipulative woman—which had been proved without a doubt on the night of her death. As Magnus had watched the woman burn, he hadn’t felt a single ounce of pity. She deserved exactly what she received.

  But now there were so many questions.

  The king had already arranged for a special tutor to be at the ready to help Lucia with her elementia once it awakened. It was an old, withered woman who knew much of the legends and the prophecy. His sister spent nearly all of her waking hours now with this woman, on direct orders from the king.

  His sister.

  The question that burned brightest inside him was if what Sabina told him was true—that Lucia was born to a different family and brought to the castle as a baby to be raised as a full-blooded Damora. Since he was not yet two years old when the queen allegedly had given birth to her, he had no memory of this.

  The second day after Sabina’s death, Magnus couldn’t hold any of this in a moment longer. He needed answers. And staring at his sister’s face across the table at dinner last night without being able to speak to her about this possibility had proved too much for him to bear. With his father absent there was only one other person in the castle who’d be able to tell him the truth.

  “Magnus,” Queen Althea greeted him outside after his archery class. With war looming, his lessons had increased at the king’s request in number and intensity, but he’d been able to keep up. He was ready for a fight—and if it was one guaranteed to spill blood, it didn’t bother him.

  His mother enjoyed taking afternoon walks around the palace and through the icy gardens directly next to the cliffs. When he was a boy, she’d stare out at the seemingly endless Silver Sea and tell him tales of what was on the other side—realms filled with strange people and fantastical creatures.

  His mother had long since stopped telling him such amusing stories. Along with Limeros’s climate, her personality had steadily grown colder over the years. The warmer moments now were barely noticeable.

  “Mother,” he said, casting a glance at the swirling white-crested water crashing to the rocks far below.

  “I was about to look for you. There’s a message waiting for you from your father delivered earlier by falcon.” Her long gray hair was loose and swept back by the cold wind from her aging face. She wore a full cloak and her normally pale cheeks were bright with color from the chill.

  He got right to the point. “Did Sabina Mallius steal Lucia from her cradle in Paelsia and bring her here for you to raise as your daughter?” he asked.

  Her gaze snapped to his. “What?”

  “You heard me.”

  Her mouth worked, but no words emerged for several moments. “Why would you think such a thing?”

  “Because Sabina told me so herself before Lucia set her on fire.” He tried to enunciate his next words so there would be no misunderstandings. “Lucia is not my blood sister. Is this correct?”

  “Magnus, my darling—”

  “Don’t Magnus, my darling me. The truth is all I seek from you today, Mother. If that’s even possible. It’s a simple answer—yes or no. Is Lucia my sister?”

  The queen’s expression filled with anxiety. “She is your sister is all ways but blood. As she is my daughter.”

  He had his answer. And it was as if the world quaked beneath his feet.

  “But not from your womb.”

  She did not reply to this.

  Magnus’s heart pounded hard. “Why didn’t you ever tell me?”

  “Because it’s not important. This is how your father wanted it to be. Perhaps he planned to tell you the truth eventually, but it was not my place to do so.”

  He laughed, a sound as sharp as the edge of a sword. “No, of course not. If he said for you to raise her as your own, that’s what you must do. I wonder sometimes, Mother, if you also fear the king’s wrath. Or if you were one of the few that managed to escape it.”

  “As king, your father only does what he must.”

  Magnus once loved his mother, but as she sat back and allowed the king to heap abuse upon him—both physical and verbal—this love had greatly faded.

  “You can’t tell her. Not yet.” Her voice was heavy with worry. “She’s a sensitive girl. She wouldn’t understand.”

  “If that’s what you think of Lucia, it only proves just how little you know her. No, the girl you raised as my sister may not share my blood, but she is a Damora. With that label, any sensitivity must be burned away as soon as possible if one wishes to survive. And Lucia now has the ability to burn many things away should she choose to.”

  “I only did what I had to do.”

  “Of course.” Magnus turned from her and began to walk away, leaving her standing at the edge of the cliff all alone. He had the answer he sought. The was no reason for further conversation. “As we all must.”

  He went into the castle to find the message delivered from the king. It was written by his father’s own hand, which meant it was too confidential to trust to a servant. Magnus read the message twice through.

  Princess Cleiona from Auranos had been captured while traveling through Paelsia and was being detained there. The king instructed Magnus to take two men with him to retrieve the princess and escort her back to Limeros. The king stressed it was an important assignment he was trusting his son with, one that could turn the negotiations with King Corvin to Limeros’s favor.

  While unwritten, it was clear to Magnus that
his father meant to threaten the girl’s life in pursuit of his own goals. It was to be expected from the King of Blood. This possibility didn’t trouble him. In fact, he was surprised that King Gaius hadn’t thought to send men directly into Auranos weeks ago to kidnap the girl from her own bed if it would mean an easier way for him to get his hands on King Corvin’s land and gain more power for his kingdom.

  His first inclination was to turn his back on this and sulk, waiting for his father to return so they could have it out about truths left unspoken.

  But this was a test he couldn’t ignore.

  Magnus, no matter what, didn’t want to lose his claim to the throne on the off chance the king claimed another bastard as his rightful son. The possibility that King Gaius might have eventually meant to do this with Tobias had never been spoken between them, but it hung in the air like the foul odor of a cesspit.

  The trip to and from Paelsia, to the location noted at the bottom of the message, would take four days. Four days to prove his worth to his deceptive and manipulative father.

  Unlike the answer he’d demanded from his mother, this question didn’t have two possible answers. It only had one.

  King Corvin was nothing like Jonas expected him to be.

  Paelsians widely believed him to be a devious and manipulative man who ignored their squalor while those in Auranos lived lavishly and opulently, with no heed to how much they spent or how much they wasted. Jonas had hated King Corvin before he ever laid eyes on him.

  The king was a formidable-looking man. He was tall, with heavy muscle like a knight slightly past his prime. His light brown hair, peppered with gray, hung to his shoulders; his beard was short and well groomed. His blue-green eyes were keen and sharp—and, Jonas couldn’t help but note, the exact same color as the princess’s. At first glance, and despite his glittering palace inlaid with actual gold, King Corvin didn’t look like a man who encouraged hedonism and self-indulgence in his people.

  Appearances could be deceiving, Jonas reminded himself.

  At Chief Basilius’s compound, they’d met King Gaius and his men and traveled together to Auranos to show that they were now allies.

  King Gaius was also a strong-looking man. Short black hair, dark eyes, tight skin on his sharp cheekbones. A thin mouth. He looked stern and severe. But there was something in his eyes, a wickedness that betrayed the rest of his orderly appearance. Jonas wasn’t sure if he appreciated that edge or if it made him even more distrustful of the man.

  He’d heard many tales of how King Gaius ensured his subjects behaved themselves—by heavily policing them with a trained army ready to uphold the strict laws the king set forth. His was a reign painted in blood. Jonas would never underestimate someone like that, even if he wasn’t sure how many rumors were true.

  King Corvin did not turn them away. He invited them into his palace and into his great hall to meet with him. This was where Jonas and Brion now sat, on either side of the chief. King Gaius and his men sat at the other side of the large square table. Behind King Corvin positioned on the dais were two guards.

  They all had even numbers present. But there would be no violence today. Today was for discussion only. And Jonas had been advised to let King Gaius do the talking on Paelsia’s behalf. He was shocked and dismayed that the chief had agreed to this.

  “Who are these boys?” King Corvin asked, referring to Jonas and Brion. He didn’t ask the same of Gaius’s men. Since they wore the dark red uniforms of Limerian palace guards, it was obvious to all that they were the king’s bodyguards.

  The chief nodded at each of them. “This is Jonas Agallon and Brion Radenos.”

  “They’re your guards?”

  “More than that. Jonas is soon to become my son-in-law.”

  Jonas felt Brion’s surprised gaze land on him.

  Son-in-law? A sick feeling churned in his gut. Perhaps it would be wise to end things with Laelia sooner than he’d planned. She obviously had the wrong impression about their future together. Jonas heard a sound. He thought it was a muffled snort of laughter coming from Brion’s direction even though there was nothing remotely funny about this. He kept his eyes forward, not leaving King Corvin for a moment.

  “Must we feign civil conversation?” the king of Auranos said tightly. “Say what you came here to say and be done with it.”

  “I consider you a very good friend, Corvin.” King Gaius offered him a warm smile. “I know I should have made more of an effort to keep our ties strong.”

  “Were they ever strong?”

  “We have so much in common. Two prosperous lands flanking that of Paelsia. Three lands that could be very strong together. Close friendships will make it even stronger.”

  “So you’re offering me friendship today,” the king said thinly and with distrust etched into his expression. “Is that it?”

  King Gaius nodded gravely. “Friendship above all. Family above all. I know what it’s like to have a young family. To hope for a brighter future for them. Paelsia, however, has fallen on much harder times than we have.”

  “And you wish to help them.”

  “With all my heart.”

  King Corvin glanced at Chief Basilius. “I know that Paelsia prides itself on being a sovereign state. You’ve not asked for any assistance, nor have we offered any. But I truly didn’t realize how difficult times have been for you.”

  Jonas found this impossible to believe, but he swallowed back any poisonous comments that rose in his throat.

  “We are a proud people,” the chief said. “We tried to resolve our problems by ourselves.”

  King Gaius nodded. “I’m overwhelmed by how courageous the Paelsians have been through these lean years. My heart bleeds for their suffering. But the time has come to change all of that.”

  “What do you propose?” King Corvin asked, with a noticeable thread of distaste when speaking to the Limerian king. “Should we begin a charity for them? Collect money? Clothing? A food drive, perhaps? Allow more open travel between our lands? There’s been a great deal of poaching here from Paelsians over the years. Is this something you think I should simply turn a blind eye to?”

  “If our borders were fully open to each other, poaching would not occur. It would not be stealing then.”

  King Corvin templed his fingers and looked across the table at him steadily. “I’m certainly open to discussion on all matters.”

  “Yes, well, discussion would be lovely,” King Gaius said, “if this was twenty years ago and my father still ruled. But times have changed.”

  King Corvin regarded him with barely veiled distaste. “Then what do you want?”

  “Change,” King Gaius said simply. “On a much grander scale.”

  “Such as?”

  King Gaius leaned back in his chair. “Chief Basilius and I want to take Auranos and divide it evenly between us.”

  King Corvin was quiet for a moment, holding the other king’s gaze. Finally his lips peeled back from straight white teeth and he laughed. “Oh, Gaius. I forgot how much you enjoy joking around.”

  King Gaius didn’t crack a smile. “I’m not joking.”

  King Corvin’s expression went cold as ice. “You want me to believe that you’ve aligned with this chieftain to take my land and split it. You must think I’m very stupid. There’s another reason. What’s your real goal here? And why now, Gaius? After all this time?”

  “When better?” was all King Gaius allowed.

  King Corvin cast a pitying look at Chief Basilius. “You trust him with something this important?”

  “Completely. He proved himself to me in ways that very few ever would dare to. He honored me with a true sacrifice. That is worth its weight in gold to me.”

  “Then you’re an unforgivable fool.” King Corvin pushed back from the table and got to his feet. “This meet
ing is over. I have more to worry about right now than listening to nonsense.”

  “We’re giving you this one chance to agree to our terms,” King Gaius said, undeterred. “You would be wise to accept. Your family would be treated well. You would be given a new home. An allowance. There doesn’t need to be any blood shed because of this.”

  “Everything you touch becomes stained with blood, Gaius. That’s why you haven’t been welcome in my kingdom for ten years.” He turned toward the door and a guard pushed it open.

  “We have your daughter.”

  King Corvin’s shoulders tensed and he slowly turned around. His annoyed expression had shifted to something much more dangerous. “I don’t think I heard you right.”

  “Your daughter, Cleiona.” Gaius enunciated the words perfectly. No room for misunderstanding. “Seems that she was found wandering through Paelsia without protection. Not very wise for a princess, is it?”

  Jonas tried very hard to keep any expression off his face. This was what he’d waited for all this time and why he hadn’t killed Cleo himself. Instead, the promise of her continued life would be used to ensure a brighter future for his home and family.

  “You really shouldn’t let your youngest travel to other lands without proper protection,” King Gaius said. “But don’t worry. I’ll personally ensure her safety.”

  “You dare to threaten me?” King Corvin’s words were edged in poison.

  King Gaius spread his hands. “It’s very simple. Surrender your kingdom when we return with our combined army at our backs. And no one will have to suffer.”

  King Corvin’s grip on the edge of the doorway was so tight that Jonas was sure he would tear off a strip of wood from it at any moment. “Harm my daughter and I will personally tear you apart.”

  King Gaius remained calm. “How could I wish harm to your youngest, Corvin? I know the love a father has in his children. My eldest, Magnus, for example, is proving his worth in so many ways. Even right at this moment. I’m very proud of him. As I’m sure you’re proud of your daughters. You have two, do you not?” The Limerian king frowned. “The older one, I’ve heard, has fallen quite ill. Will she recover?”