Bacorium Legacy (45 page)

“Like I'm just going to let you leave!” Luca shouted. He took a step towards the doorway, only to be stopped by Brand grabbing his fur cloak.

Brand shook his head. “Let him go,” he whispered to Luca. “Something is happening. Just let things play out for now until we know what's going on.”

Luca scowled, but he did not move. Trunda continued on his way, leaving the library and heading into the palace halls.

Gera remained at the doorway, fear and dread written in his features. The young prince shook, clutching the dagger in his hands.

“I have to... I have to get away...” he said in a low, panicked voice. “I have to - kill the witnesses.” He raised his dagger high and ran towards Luca.

“Can I at least deal with him?” Luca asked Brand. A nod confirmed.

Luca sheathed his sword. He stepped forward and grabbed Gera's wrist in mid-swing, the clumsy attack nothing to a trained fighter like Luca. He then made a fist, and delivered a punch right to Gera's jaw. The prince stumbled back and fell onto the library floor, unconscious.

“This explains a few things,” Brand said. “That guy was an Acarian agent, but he was working with the prince all along.”

“But for what?” Luca asked him. “What was the point of all this?”

“My guess is that Gera thought the plan was to capture Selphie,” Brand said, looking to Emila. “But the Acarian clearly wasn't after the same thing. I think he knew he was going after the wrong girl the whole time.”

Emila nodded slowly. “That makes sense. He chased me at a very leisurely pace, and he had a few opportunities to catch me, like just before you showed up, where he just loitered.”

Wiosna stirred, but did not awaken. Emila looked down at her patient with a strange expression, then she wiped her hands clean of blood and stood up.

“It did seem strange that he would make such a huge mistake, in thinking Emila was Selphie,” Luca muttered. “And when he beat me, rather than killing me, he just locked me up in a dungeon, knowing full well that I could easily escape. You're right, his heart was never in it. He was just playing a game, causing a commotion and waiting to leave.”

“And it seems it was all to back stab Gera,” Brand said, looking to the unconscious prince.

“Luca! Brand! Emila!”

They turned back to the library entrance once more to find Selphie rushing in, with Jared at her heels. Following after them was King Marcus, and half a dozen guards behind him.

“Uh-oh,” Brand muttered. “We're gonna be in trouble now.”

Marcus pushed past Selphie, looking first at Wiosna, lying in a pool of blood, and then at his unconscious younger son.

A great rage filled his eyes.

Chapter XIV

True Companions

It started to rain.

The morning had come with grey clouds, but Luca had found himself hoping the storm would not break. The mood was already sombre enough at the gates of the Serenite palace without rain. It was like a funeral - in a way it even was. Nobody said anything. They just stood atop the steps, waiting for King Marcus to emerge. Many townspeople were gathered outside, watching from the bottom of the steps. At the top of the steps, all the members of the court were gathered, the various lords and nobles who controlled the kingdom of Saeticia. The queen and her first son, Halt, were there. Selphie and her company were there too. Luca wasn't sure why they were staying to witness this. Marcus clearly wanted them gone as soon as possible.

The falling raindrops helped to wash the blood away. It flowed down into the iron grate, the very one Brand had pointed out when they had first arrived. There had been twelve executions already - one for each of the guards who had been on duty. They had all admitted to taking bribes from the man they called Devith to ignore his actions that night. All of them, from the gaoler who Brand had knocked out, to the guard who had been escorting Selphie and Jared back to their rooms, they were all put to death as traitors.

There was one execution left, but the executioner could not carry this one out. Prince Gera was of royal blood, and only the king was allowed to end his life.

So they were waiting. Waiting for Marcus to come out of the palace and kill his son.

Luca turned to Emila, who was staring at the grate, just as he had been a moment ago. She was staring at the blood. She looked tired, still needing sleep after the eventful night. Her cheeks were a bit wet from the raindrops...

No. Those were tears.

He placed his hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him. He knew what troubled her. Emila, who valued life more than anyone he had ever met, had just watched twelve people die.

They didn't say anything. She just moved very close to him, resting her head on his shoulders. He pulled his fur cloak over her, to keep her warm and dry.

Why in the world was Selphie making them watch this?

Luca looked to Selphie, who was staring at the gate of the palace. She was waiting for Marcus. She would likely not have any other chance to speak with him.

The others in their group - Brand, Jared, and Wiosna - they looked no better. Everyone was tired, cold, morose, and soon to be wet. Wiosna in particular looked troubled - Luca noticed the occasional worried glance at Emila. Her wounds were treated and she was fine, but she looked very miserable. Luca wondered what had happened in that library that had the usually bright and cheerful girl so concerned. Perhaps she was worried for Emila? He would have to talk to her later.

Wiosna noticed his staring, and she quickly looked away.

Everyone on the steps looked up as the front doors of the palace swung open, and Marcus emerged at last. Nobody spoke, nor did the crowd of people gathered cheer. His eyes were hard and weary, as he strode out into the rain. His sword
Altair
was sheathed at his side.
 

Selphie watched him with an expectant, yet pleading expression. He turned his head to her for the briefest of moments, offering nothing more to her than an emotionless glance. He then continued on his way down to the grate, where Gera was bound and waiting.

“My son,” he said to Gera. “You have been brought here for the crime of treason. You made a secret alliance with the Acarians, and plotted to aid them in war against us. You betrayed the Alliance, you betrayed your home kingdom of Saeticia, and you betrayed your kin, the royal family. Do you deny these charges?”

Gera shook his head. “I do not.”

Marcus' eyes narrowed ever so slightly. “Then tell me. Why did you do this?”

Gera looked over to where his brother was watching. “My brother Halt is the cause of this. Being the eldest child, he is promised to be the next king of Saeticia.” Gera turned away from Halt, and looked out to the crowd of people. “But my brother is not fit to rule this land. Neither were you, father. Saeticia deserves a king who is wise and fair and just. A king who will look to the future, rather than dwell on the past. The Way of Uro, which you brought with you to the throne, and raised up Halt to believe in, will bring Saeticia to its death. The old ways only cause pain and weakness, and a paladin should never have sat on the throne.”

Marcus showed no visible reaction to this. “And you would have done better?”

“I could have saved Saeticia,” Gera replied, his voice certain and resolute. “Instead, it will now die under Halt's rule.”

“I see,” Marcus said. “So you do not even regret what you have done. So be it. I will not regret what I am about to do.”

Marcus drew his sword from it's sheath, and a powerful wave of mana flowed through the area. Marcus' mana flowed into the sword and radiated through it, wrapping the blade in white fire - manaflame, the same power Luca had briefly seen Zinoro use. Everything Marcus channelled into the sword was amplified tenfold by the blade's ancient power.

Luca felt it, light-form mana, just like his own. His hand went to the hilt of
Siora
, without him being aware of it. What he was looking at was one of the nine fragments of Rixeor. However, unlike Zinoro's mana, which radiated vile dark corruption, Marcus' was a strong purity that certainly did not reflect his soul.
 

Luca could almost feel the scar across his cheek tingle faintly.

Marcus slowly raised the blade and placed it beside Gera's throat.

“For your treason, I sentence you to die.”

Marcus swung the blade with both hands, though there was no need to - the blade would have cut through solid rock with mana surging through it like that. Gera's head was instantly separated from his body, flying up high in the air. It never hit the ground - by the time it would have, both it and the body had vanished into mana. Gera's clothes were all that remained, lying on that grate, stained red.

Marcus wiped off his sword, tossed the rag aside in disgust, and sheathed the blade. He then turned, without looking at anyone who was on the steps or watching from below, and started to walk back towards the palace gates.

But Selphie would not let him go. “King Marcus,” she said almost nervously, taking a step forward. Her hair was soaked at this point from the rain.

Surprisingly, he stopped and looked at her.

“King Marcus, please,” Selphie pleaded with him. “I know what you're thinking. My father, he-”

“To hell with your father,” Marcus spat, causing everyone at the steps to exchange glaces and hushed conspiratorial words. “To hell with peace and to hell with Zinoro. This man corrupted my son, filling his head with delusions of grandeur and turning him against me. Because of Zinoro I just had to murder my son. And you still expect me to go along with whatever plan your father has to delay war with this man another few years?”

“He isn't just-”

“Had Zaow finished the job twenty-one years ago and followed the Acarians over the mountains, none of this would have happened. Instead, he let them flee and regroup, to groom up Manorith's son in preparation for the next war. Zaow is lying to himself with this peace nonsense. There's no way out of this war, and there will not stop being wars until everyone who calls themselves an Acarian is dead. Vengeance is something they never forget. And it is not something I ever forget, either. I will have justice for what has been done today. So go crawling back to your father and tell him that Saeticia and Torachi are demanding he join us to invade Acarian. If he refuses, he will be next.”

And with that, Marcus returned inside the palace, followed shortly by the queen and prince, and then by all the lords and nobles of the court. Finally, the only ones who remained out in the rain were Selphie's company, and a few guards.

Luca looked to Selphie, and in her eyes he saw a look of hopelessness. Jared went over to her, said something quietly, and she nodded. Jared seemed to be trying to cheer her up, but she looked no happier. She turned to everyone else there - Luca, Emila, Brand, and Wiosna - and she spoke.

“Let's go back to the inn.”

<> <> <>

Trunda had apparently caused quite a fuss on his way out.

Naturally, after giving Marcus the full story, he ordered the guards to go after the Acarian spy. Bribed or otherwise, they could not ignore a direct order from their king. The guards had managed to catch up with Trunda out in the city streets, where they had attempted to arrest him.

Attempted, anyway.

In total, eighteen different guards had tried to stop Trunda on his way out of the city. None had died trying to do so, thankfully, but they all suffered injuries of varying severity.

When Selphie and her company arrived at Serenite's local inn, a few such guards were there, wrapped in bandages and drowning their pain in alcohol. They looked up as she entered, giving her looks that were not quite friendly.

“It seems I'm not longer welcome here,” she said quietly.

The person that she was there to see, Tranom, rose from his seat as soon as he saw her and approached. Luca looked around the room, noting the presence of many of the Allman survivors. He did not see Ash among them.

“I've just heard about what happened,” Tranom said to Selphie. “I'm very sorry, Princess. I should have stayed with you at the palace, instead of here at the inn.”

“It wouldn't have made a difference,” Selphie said, waving away his apology. “We've come to the conclusion that this was all part of Zinoro's game anyway. They never actually wanted to capture me, they wanted to make a scene and reveal their presence here.”

“For what purpose?”

“To reveal the treachery of Prince Gera,” she explained. “To push Marcus into rage. To make him hate Zinoro, and the Acarians. He'll never hear my father's plea of peace now, not after losing a son to this. Zinoro wants a war with all three nations of the Alliance, it would seem, and he's manipulating Marcus to make that happen.”

The guards' scowls deepened at her words. Tranom looked over at them, giving them an intense glare. After a moment of token defiance, the guards looked away, finding their drinks more interesting.

“You probably shouldn't linger in the city, Princess,” Tranom told her. “These people - things are very tense right now. The prince was just executed, an Acarian traitor was revealed in the palace, and everyone in the city is just waiting for the formal declaration of war they all know is coming,”

Selphie blinked. “What do you mean? Will you not be accompanying me back to T'Saw?”

Tranom frowned, looking very guilty and torn. “I'm sorry, Princess. I really am. The students have been talking. They want to go back to Torachi, and aid Edmund in the war. They want to avenge the friends they lost in the attack, and I can't deny them that. As the last master of Allma Temple left, it's my responsibility to protect them.”

Selphie smiled, and nodded, but in her eyes she looked absolutely crushed. “I see. Very well. Thank you for everything you've done so far. I-I...” She was trying very hard not to cry.

Jared stepped up, glaring at Tranom for a brief moment, before placing his hand on her shoulder. “Perhaps we should get going, Selphie.”

She nodded, and forced herself to keep smiling. “Take care of them, Tranom. They're the last remnants of a great temple.”