Bacorium Legacy (67 page)

Luca looked to Selphie and Zaow. They too, were waiting. Selphie noticed his gaze, and nodded. But his eyes shifted over to Zaow. There was nothing in those old eyes. The Sonoian king - the man who would have had him tied up and shipped to Zinoro as a gesture of good will.

He thought of Emila, who had been crying into his shoulder not too long ago. She was hurt, and it was Zinoro's fault.

So much was Zinoro's fault. The Allmans had lost so many because of him. Emila's entire town, and her family, were gone because of him. Arlea was gone. Lodin was gone. Countless others, slaughtered so that Zinoro could raise them again as mindless puppets.

The man was evil, and he needed to be stopped. And this was their chance. Zaow would have them throw that away.

“Well?” Edmund said. “King Marcus asked you a question. We all want to know, has Zinoro really made himself an army of dead men?”

“He has not,” Luca lied.

The smile dropped from Selphie's lips.

“Much of what the princess said is true,” Luca said to everyone. “Zinoro is certainly a dangerous man. He does carry a Rixeor Fragment - I saw it when he used it to stab my father through the heart. But Zinoro is not some sort of shadowy monster. He does not have the powers of a demon or an army of unstoppable wights. He is a man, as mortal as any other, and he can be stopped. And he can be killed. I, however, cannot die.”

“Nonsense!” Edmund exclaimed.

“It is true,” Luca said. “When Allma Temple was attacked, I fought at the front lines. I was stabbed through the heart by Zinoro's acolyte, and yet I live. Since then, I have received other mortal injuries, and I have survived them all.”

Edmund looked to the others, a sceptical look on his face.

Marcus slowly said, “It is true. I heard the rumours shortly after the attack, and they were confirmed by the Allman survivors who stayed in my city. These people saw it with their own eyes. The boy cannot die.”

The various lords and nobles began to murmur amongst themselves. Edmund beckoned to the red-haired woman beside him, then whispered something in her ear. She nodded, then stepped down from the dais and disappeared.

“You managed to escape from Allma Temple's destruction,” Edmund said. “You agree that Zinoro is enough of a threat that he destroyed Allma Temple, one of the greatest training places in Bacoria?”

“Zinoro won the battle against Allma Temple because he has had the element of surprise working in his favour,” Luca replied. “All of his other victories were against defenceless hamlets. If the three kingdoms of the Alliance were to work together, and march out to Acaria where he could not strike from the shadows, he would have nothing.”

“So you do not agree with King Zaow and his daughter?” Edmund asked him. “You think we should fight?”

Luca glanced at Selphie. The princess looked hurt. Her eyes pleaded with him, begging him to say no.

“Yes,” he said. “Zinoro is a monster who has caused many deaths. Not only of my father, but of people I knew, and people close to my friends. And if he is left alone, he will continue to kill and grow in power until he has enough to destroy Sono. And when he is done with Sono, he will turn his attention to Saeticia, and then to Torachi. He will never stop, because he knows nothing but destruction.”

“Let me ask you something,” Marcus said. “Why do you think King Zaow is so hesitant to go to war with Zinoro, when he so easily won the war against Manorith?”

“Because Zaow did not win that war,” Luca said. “His men fought in it, but it was the mercenaries of Allma Temple, and Dori the dragonrider who won the battles. And it was my father who killed Manorith. Zaow preached peace while those who followed him did the dirty work and shed blood, but he did not hesitate to take credit for killing Manorith when my father offered.”

Now Selphie was angry. Zaow, however, looked down at the table with regretful eyes.

Luca did not stop. He was saying what needed to be said. “Zaow fears that he cannot win a second time. So he would rather push it off until he passes, and it becomes someone else's problem. That way, he can at least die with a clean legacy.”

“Bold words,” Edmund muttered. He turned to Zaow. “Is there anything you would like to say before we put it to a vote?”

“No,” Zaow said slowly, his voice tinged with regret. “I think Luca has said all that was needed.”

“Very well. Then let us begin.” Edmund cleared his throat. “I am Edmund, king of Torachi. I vote in favour of war with Acaria.”

Zaow sighed, and said, “I am Zaow, king of Sono. I vote against war with Acaria.”

The eyes of everyone in the room shifted to Marcus. His hands clasped in a steeple before him, the last king thought for a moment. Finally, he spoke.

“I am Marcus, king of Saeticia. I vote in favour of war with Acaria.”

The crowd around them broke into hushed chatter. Selphie gave one last look at Luca, her eyes burning with hatred, before she spun on her heel and marched out of the hall. Her father simply bowed his head slowly.

“The vote is two-to-one,” Edmund said with a smile. “King Zaow is overruled and judgement has been made. On the morrow, the Alliance will march as one to Acaria. And to war.”

Chapter XXII

The Night Before

Luca stepped outside, and immediately heard the sound of footsteps on the stone steps, drawing close to him. He knew who it was without looking. He didn't move, nor face the person approaching him. He simply stood there, and waited.

He felt her hand strike him hard across the cheek. So hard that he stumbled back. Touching his sore cheek, he looked up to see Selphie standing before him, her hands clenched in fists and her eyes narrowed in anger.

“How could you do this?” she demanded.

He straightened himself out, and faced her. “I did what I felt was right.”

“You lied,” she spat. “You lied to them about the revenants. You made my father and I look like fools and liars.”

“It was for the greater good,” Luca said to her, matching her gaze. “They might have changed their minds had I told them the truth. But I needed them to know a different truth. I needed them to know that Zinoro can be stopped, and must be.”

Selphie blinked, looking at him as though he were mad. “I can't believe this. I trusted you. I thought you believed in the mission.”

“The mission?” he repeated. “That preventing the war would save lives? Indeed it might, for a time. But ultimately, Zinoro's army will grow, and the death toll would be greater in the end. He needs to be stopped now.”

“But this isn't the way,” Selphie said. “Attacking him on his own land is just...” She trailed off, and sighed bitterly. “What's the point? I see now who you really are. You're the same person you were when we first met back at Allma Temple. All you care about is your revenge. So long as you have that, you don't care what happens to anyone else. You don't care who dies for it.”

“I'm not doing this for myself,” Luca said. In his mind, he saw Emila and Tranom and the others. He saw those who had died - Lodin, Arlea, Dori - and he thought of all the others who might die before the end.

“No, you probably don't think you are,” she said. “You've warped things around in your mind, and you've justified your actions somehow. You think you're doing it for someone else, but you really are just doing it for yourself.”

“You're wrong.”

“I can't believe I trusted you,” Selphie said, not quite directed at him anymore. “I can't believe you would betray us like this. After everything we've gone through - it meant nothing to you.”

“
What
?” Luca said through his teeth. His fists clenched and he glared at the princess. “You hypocrite. How could you possibly say something like that, and live with yourself?”
 

Selphie's anger had faded a bit, replaced with confusion. “What...?”

“I knew,” he said to her. “I knew what you and your father were planning. I saw the letter he sent to you in Eccador. Your so-called peace? How could you possibly justify that I've ended it when you were planning to sell me out to Zinoro if that could get it for you? How could you possibly accuse me of betrayal, and of our friendship meaning nothing, when you were the one who put the dagger first in my back?”

She stared at him speechlessly for a moment, taking in his words. Then, just as quickly as it had faded, her anger returned. “You idiot. You don't know the half of what you speak of. That
plan
- that was all my father's doing. He suggested it in T'Saw, and I argued against it. I was so eager to leave the city because we did not agree on that. And when I saw
him again, here in the valley, I told him I would never agree to such a thing. He accepted that, and put an
end to that foolishness. You have no idea how ashamed I was that my own father expected me to betray my friend.”
 

“If that was true, then why didn't you tell me?”

“Because of the shame! Because I could not have possibly told you something like that and lived with myself. I'd hoped that you would have never even known.”

“I had the right to know.”

Selphie turned away from him, her own fists now clenched. “Even now, it's all about you, isn't it? This isn't about my father, or the things he was willing to do to protect his people. It's about why you would go and ruin everything we were working for.”

“The only people who seem to want this peace are you and your father,” Luca said. “Everyone else I've spoken to agrees that Zinoro deserves to be punished for what he's done.”

“He does!” Selphie exclaimed, exasperated. “I've always agreed that he did, especially after you told me about the revenants! But this isn't the way to do it! Don't you see, this is what he wants! He wants us to march out into Acaria!”

“Well it's what he's going to get,” Luca said. “And he'll pay.”

Selphie turned back around, looking at him with disgust in her eyes. “How could you be so blind?”

She started down the steps, quickly disappearing into the darkness. Luca was left alone with only his thoughts.

No - he wasn't quite alone.

Turning back to the entrance of the temple, he saw the soldier who had escorted him there leaning against the stone exterior wall, his gaze averted from the argument. Luca approached him.

“You heard all of that?”

“I'm sworn to hold my tongue,” said the soldier. “Have no fear, I'll tell no one.”

“I suppose it matters little, anyway,” Luca muttered. “Soon, everyone in the valley will know that war is coming.”

“Many already do,” the soldier said. “We've been ready to leave since midday. The question was whether we would be going to our respective home countries, or uniting as one and marching to Acaria. On the morrow, we will most likely set off - with or without the Sonoians.”

“You don't think they would dare refuse? Sono would be traitors to the Alliance if they did. Once Torachi and Saeticia were done with Acaria, they would invade Sono next.”

“It's not my place to say,” the soldier said, after a heavy sigh. “But many of the others have little faith in Zaow. It is an inevitability that many will die in the coming battle, and Zaow values his own men far more than the men of the other kingdoms. If he could find a way out of this, he likely would.”

Bold words for a petty soldier, Luca thought. He did not care what this man said, but trouble could come to him if others heard him say things like that.

“Take me back to my tent,” Luca said.

The soldier nodded. “As you wish.”

However, before they could start down the stairs, the doors of the Elder Hall swung open. King Marcus emerged from within, his son Halt close behind him.

“Return to the camp and begin making preparations,” Marcus said to his son. Noticing Luca, the king smiled and approached him. “Luca, son of Lodin. Might I speak with you for a bit?”

Luca hesitated, but he could not say no. “Of course.”

The soldier with the torch frowned, and glanced at the sword by Marcus' side. Seeming to decide the king could protect himself, he instead accompanied Prince Halt, leaving Luca and Marcus alone.

“What is it you wish to talk to me about?” Luca asked him.

Marcus chuckled. “Still, you address me without titles. You are your father's son, indeed.”

Luca frowned, remembering the disrespectful way Marcus had spoke of Lodin back in Serenite.

“Come with me,” Marcus said, starting off. “Others will be coming out of the temple soon. Let's go somewhere, away from their prying eyes.”

Marcus did not descend the steps back into the valley. Instead, he walked to the left of the entrance of the temple, on the stone walkway that circled around the mountain. Luca followed him, wondering what this was all about. The king led him to another part of the mountain, where they ascended a smaller set of steps and reached a stone balcony high above the valley. They stopped there, and waited in silence.

A few minutes after their arrival, the clouds parted, and starlight illuminated their view. Before him, Luca could see the impressive mountain range to the north of the Elder Hall. The peaks stretched on as far as the eye could see. Luca knew that they continued on all the way to the northern ocean, beyond which lay the Arimos region from which his journey had started.

“Look to the north-west,” Marcus said, pointing in that very direction. Luca followed, and in the distance, he could just faintly see the beginning of a massive forest.

“On the other side of Acaria, there is another range of mountains, just like this one,” Marcus told him. “The mountains cover Acaria's east and west borders. Acaria's north is guarded by the frigid waters of the Arimos. And their south is blocked by those great forests, through which no army could easily pass through.”

“I know the geography,” Luca said.

“Indeed,” said Marcus. “Everyone knows it. Acaria is unique among the lands of Bacoria in how well the natural terrain protects it. You can bet that Zinoro knows it as well. That's why he will not come out and attack Sono as he so clearly wants to. That was what his father did, and he found T'Saw to be an impregnable fortress. And Zinoro is much smarter than his father. He knows Acaria's strength is best when fighting against an invading force. That's what this has been all along. He wants us to invade his lands, and not the reverse.”