Vonlorisen wheeled around, his mantle flaring out, and pointed an accusing finger at the Priest. “What did you do?!”
The Priest did not respond, as if he had no interest in anyone except the Queen.
“I told you, sire. They are magic users.” I pointed to the barrier all around me. “This is a shield, meant to keep me in place. If I touch it, it will cause me quite a bit of damage.”
Since I responded, Vonlorisen turned his attention to me. “You recognize this?”
“Not entirely. I’m basing most of my assumptions off of shields that I have encountered before. This feels similar to a magician’s weapon’s barrier. This particular shield doesn’t feel very old,” I frowned at the floor for a moment, trying to pinpoint its age, “so I would guess that they put the spell into the floor after my last visit here.”
Vonlorisen rounded on the Priest again. “Take it down!”
The Priest only cast him a glance. “I will not. He is a well-known magic user. As such, he is under our jurisdiction. I have the right to arrest him.”
“
If you won’t do it,
” Night snarled, tossing his head in an irritated gesture, “
I will!”
Uh-oh. Night’s hopping mad. With a cautious look at him, I moved to the far side of the barrier and ducked down a bit, crouching on the floor. Night pivoted on his front legs, hind legs lashing out and impacting against the barrier with a sharp snap. For a moment, it sounded almost as if he had hit glass. I could even see cracks in the barrier for a split second before it exploded and dissolved in every direction.
The Priest flinched back, folding in on himself, the staff dropping to the ground from nerveless fingers. Before he could recover, I folded some of the stone flooring over him, locking him firmly into place. “Thanks, Night.”
He snorted in satisfaction, dancing a little in place.
The Priest started squirming on the floor, trying to either reach for something, or just get out of his stone shackle, I wasn’t sure. Either way, he wasn’t going anywhere. I snuck a peek at Vonlorisen as I stood back on my feet. He was staring at the captured Priest with disturbed fascination, as if he had never seen the man before. Even after my explanation of blood magic, it apparently took a live demonstration for the facts to really sink in. Vonkaraan rose to her feet, regarding me with blatant revulsion. I noticed a fine tremor to her voice, however, showing just how much my actions and the defeat of her pet Priest had rattled her. “Loris, what is the meaning of this? How can you possibly welcome such evil into your court?”
“If there is any evil in this room, woman, then it is of your doing,” Vonlorisen responded so coldly that the fine hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up.
Her head snapped around to stare at him, face resembling a gawping fish. “Me?”
“Yes, you! There is no other name for it but evil, to sacrifice your only grandson simply for the sake of your superstitious dogma. I’ve had as much of you as I can stomach. From this moment onward you are banished from Chahir—” There was a fierce, dead look to his eyes that spoke volumes of his determination to be rid of her.
She screeched in wordless denial, expression twisted and ugly. The crowd roiled with surprise, some people gasping, the others quickly muttering something behind their hands to their neighbors.
“—never to return. Magus Rhebengarthen will take you into custody and escort you to the place prepared for you. It is there that you shall live out the remainder of your days.” Vonlorisen nodded solemnly for to me to continue.
I barely managed to take a single step before she started screeching again. “Guards! Guards, restrain this man!”
“Halt!” Vonlorisen commanded with a sharp downward slash of the hand. “She has no authority to order you!”
There were roughly twenty or twenty-five guards stationed in the room, lining the walls at regular intervals. Of that number, five responded to the Queen’s order. The rest remained at their posts against the walls, looking at each other in obvious confusion. They weren’t entirely sure whom to obey.
I felt sorry for the five that advanced on me. Not only did they just prove where their loyalties lie—which would most likely get them kicked out of the guard and arrested later—but they didn’t stand a chance against me. I randomly started snapping my fingers. With each snap, a small, circular cage would pop up from the stone flooring, encircling each startled guard.
One of them was quick enough to dodge my attempt to cage him. Huh. He was nearly as fast as Shad—but only nearly. I could still stop him. With him, I simply turned the floor into the consistency of quicksand, halting him in his tracks. He started sinking, flailing about with his hands, and voicing a wordless exclamation of alarm.
Vonkaraan stumbled back, eyes wide with terror, as she looked around her. “Impossible,” she breathed.
“Hardly,” Vonlorisen observed in dark amusement. “His power is something that cannot be contained by mere mortals.”
And that made me, what? A demi-god? I snorted at the idea.
“Magus, I don’t mind you protecting yourself, but you
can
undo this, can’t you?” Vonlorisen waved a hand to indicate the caged guards and Priest. “I don’t have magicians handy like Guin Braehorn does to clean up this mess.”
“Of course, Your Majesty,” I responded in overly polite tones. “But do make sure they’re restrained after I release them. Otherwise Night will respond to protect me, and he’s more straightforward and…permanent in his methods.”
Vonlorisen nodded in understanding and gestured to the guards still on the wall. “Arrest them and shackle them once the Magus releases them.”
When I was sure that those soldiers would obey the orders given to them, I released my cages, letting the stone slowly sink back into the earth for effect, and solidified my make-shift quicksand bed. The five guardsmen were quickly disarmed, chained, and hauled unceremoniously out of the room.
Straightening, Vonlorisen looked at the jittery crowd, people nervously shifting from foot to foot, anxious to be away. His expression hardened.
“As you have seen with your own eyes, the Star Order are hypocrites. They are magic users, just like every other magician that is born in this country. They have hunted their own kind for centuries. Worse, they have killed or driven off any magician that would have stood up to them. They have abused their authority. We will no longer tolerate their actions. As of this moment, the Star Order is ordered to disband. All authority, power, and position they hold is forthwith stripped. Any Priest found to still be hunting magicians or in any way exceeding his status of a normal citizen will be arrested and promptly stripped of his magic.”
After the revelations of the past five minutes, I don’t think anyone in the room knew how to react to that. A stunned silence blanketed the room.
Vonlorisen nodded to Saroya. “Deal with him.”
Saroya gave a short, curt bow of acknowledgement. I shifted the stone back into its proper place so that the Head of the Special Forces could haul the ex-Priest up and drag him out of the room.
With all of the distractions gone, I turned my attention back towards Vonkaraan, with a confident look on my face.
“You wouldn’t
dare
.” Her expression and posture was haughty and aloof. She was brimming with self-righteous indignation, the very picture of an ice queen who felt assured of her position in life.
A false self-assurance, in this case. I shifted the bon’a’lon about until it I could point it toward her in clear threat. I certainly didn’t need the weapon, but seeing the alarmed panic on her face gave me a perverse satisfaction. “Woman, it requires no daring on my part.”
She drew in a shaky breath, chin lifting to a more arrogant level. “I am Queen of Chahir—”
“Perhaps the shock has compromised your hearing. You have lost all right to that title,” I cut her off coldly. Anger brimmed over in me. This woman had not only sicced a Priest on me, but she had to have plotted against me after my first visit here. The barrier on the floor was clear proof of that. Every muscle in my body tensed, radiating with the urge to deliver violence. “You have forgotten, in your arrogant pride, what true power is.”
“You think magical power is true power?” she spat back venomously.
“Hardly. I’m not referring to the type of power, but to the very nature of power itself. True power is not the might of dictators; it does not suffer the needs of greed or baseless anger. You’ve forgotten that a monarch only reigns at the sufferance of his people. The moment they misuse that power it
will
be taken from them.” I shook my head wearily. What good would it do to stay mad? She wouldn’t understand. Even Vonlorisen, who was honestly trying to shed the prejudice against magic, hadn’t really believed me until he saw it with his own eyes. “You forgot that your position as Queen was only appointed to you; it is not yours by right. You were chosen as a steward of this country. You have not proven to be a wise or a worthy steward, and hence you shall now be removed.”
“No,” she whispered hoarsely, eyes wide with horror. “No! I am Queen! You do not have the right!”
I crossed the last five feet separating us with a steady pace. The silence in the room was so absolute that my footsteps sounded like death knells echoing off of the uncaring walls.
She frantically spun about, hand outstretched in a pleading manner toward her husband. “Loris!”
Vonlorisen looked back at her with a face turned to stone. “In a choice between you and my grandson, Nolan will always win. You cannot expect any mercy, woman, since you were unwilling to give it yourself.”
The last hope and expectation just drained out of her, leaving her as limp and powerless as three day old fish. It was obvious that she had been shaken to her core by being so publicly shunned in this manner. Her already pale skin turned deathly white, her eyes lifeless.
Vonlorisen turned back to me, radiating power in almost visible waves. “Magus, We request and require your help in disbanding the Star Order. Our first task to you is to gather the means necessary to strip them of this heinous magic. And if any dare oppose you…I leave them in your hands.”
I gave him a respectful bow. “I shall do so, Your Majesty.”
“Very well. Take her away.”
Without a further word from anyone, I wrapped us up in magic and dropped onto the earth path.
For perhaps five minutes it was silent, as if sound had never existed. She didn’t say anything and refused to even look in my direction. I actually preferred it that way. Since she was being so docile, I figured I didn’t need the bon’a’lon out. I let it fold back into itself and snapped it back onto my belt.
“Where are you taking me?”
Rats, she’s going to talk to me? I cast her a dismissive glance as I answered concisely with just two words, “Coven Ordan.”
“Coven Ordan,” she repeated with a breath of panic. “Why there?!”
“Someone there is willing to be your jailer; no one else would take you.”
She grabbed my arm, fingernails biting into my skin. “Where are we now?!”
“On the earth path.” When she blinked at me blankly, I rephrased, “Underground, and moving fast. Let go of me,” I intoned coldly.
She didn’t let go. If anything, her grip tightened. “Underground?
We’re underground?!
”
“Yes,” I responded with a brief gesture to the passing real estate outside of the bubble. “That’s how I travel.”
“Devil!” she accused me, stumbling away and clutching her hand to her chest. “Only a demon can enter the ground like this!”
I didn’t bother to respond to her. As my grandfather used to say, it’s all a matter of opinion, and her opinion didn’t matter.
“Did you hear me, devil?! Let me out of this accursed place!”
“And so I will,” I responded with false mildness, “in another two hours or so.”
“NOW!” she demanded wildly.
I could feel my temper fraying. I’m not in the habit of intimidating people—that’s more Shield’s line than mine—but in this case I was making an exception. I bent the most murderous glare that I could produce on the ex-Queen. “Woman, it is because of you and your minions that I was forced to flee Chahir for my life. I had to evacuate my family, leaving almost everything they valued behind, in the dead of night. You authorized the murder of thousands of innocents, whose only crime was they had an inherited gift for magic.
My
choice would be to leave you in the depths of the earth and let it act as your unmarked tomb. Your husband chose to be lenient and simply exiled you. Keep in mind that I am under
no
obligation to obey him. I can do as I choose, and there is no one who could stop me.”
Her mouth snapped shut, but she edged a step away from me. “You won’t kill me.” The statement sounded more like she was trying to reassure herself.
My smile had a feral edge to it. “If I am truly the devil you say I am, then human life holds no value for me. So which am I, woman? Devil or man?”
She had no ready response to that.
“
Garth,”
Night’s voice was a little strained, “
would you mind regaining your temper now? Please? That glare you’re sporting is starting to unnerve ME.”
I glanced at him. “Really?”
“
I kid you not. This is the first time I’ve really considered you formidable. And the ground around us is starting to shake.”
I’d bet it was the last part that was actually making him nervous. I’ve never looked formidable a day in my life. I let up a little and focused back on where we were going.
An uncomfortable silence descended. I infinitely preferred it over her talking though, so I made no attempt to come up with a topic of conversation, and I didn’t bother looking at her.
It stayed perfectly quiet until I reached the mountains where Coven Ordan was situated, and rose up out of the earth. As she looked out over the city, Vonkaraan actually started shaking in fear. “T-that’s the magicians’ city?” she asked in a thin, reedy voice, too much of the whites of her eyes showing.
“That’s it,” I agreed with a brief nod of my head. Now, focusing on more immediate matters, would I have to construct another bridge for us to cross the isolating chasm, or was Raile keeping an eye out for our arrival? Although if I did make a bridge, it posed the question of how I was going to get the ex-Queen to cross it. Short of knocking her unconscious and carrying her inert form like a sack of grain, I couldn’t think of a way. I seriously doubted persuasion would do the trick. Traversing a magically-created bridge, that was suspended over a three hundred plus foot drop, would be a hard sell for a woman that didn’t trust any brand of magic.