Spirit of the Sword: Pride and Fury (The First Sword Chronicles Book 1) (87 page)

Michael did not wait for the herald to kneel before dropping to one knee himself. He needed no servant centuries dead to tell him that here stood the Empress herself. Everything about her proclaimed it to the world.

She was a commanding woman, tall and seeming taller for being mounted. Her eyes were deep purple, her look sharp, her gaze imperious. She had that quality that Gideon possessed, of being able to see right through a man, exposing all pretence, save that she possessed that sense in an abundance that even Gideon lacked. In her eyes Michael felt all his defences shrivelling away, and he stood naked body and soul before her.

Her helm was tied to her saddle, exposing her long purple hair that looked so beautiful. Her skin was pale, her features sharp. She was armoured as a soldier for battle, in a mail coat and manicae, with a sword at her hip and a shield upon her arm. All that remained was for her to pin up her hair and put on her helmet and she would be fit to face any foe or peril.

Her winged unicorn mount had a coat the colour of shimmering samite, and it shone bright in this sunless fog. The feathers of its wings looked softer than the finest goose-down, and its mane was long, flowing and purple as the hair of Aegea herself.

A wolf near as tall as Michael trotted at her heels, with grey fur and dark eyes, baring its large, sharp fangs. They were the same wolf and unicorn, Michael realised, as were depicted on the Imperial standards of the Legions, the same beasts he had seen on the colours of the Thirty Fifth at Davidheyr.

Of course, not even the unicorn seemed to shine as brightly in this place as did the Empress herself. It was not, Michael realised, that this world was without a sun. In this world Aegea herself was the sun, walking in absence of it and giving day regardless. She radiated majesty, command; Michael wanted to run and flee from her in awe and terror, but since he could not he settled for burying his face in the ground and averting his eyes from her. There was something in her, some quality he would have gladly called Majesty and Mistress had they met in living circumstances; there was another quality he might have called Mother too, had he dared to do so.

"Raise your eyes, son of the Empire," Aegea commanded  him in a tone that brooked no dissent. It was a voice to which orders seemed natural, yet from which coldness would seem strange. A voice for command, yet a voice for passion too. "Herald, you are dismissed. Thank you."

"I am at Your Majesty's service."

As Michael looked up, the herald disappeared before his eyes.

Aegea laughed at Michael's confusion. "Those who have dwelt long in the spirit realm soon learn to use its nature to their best advantage." She dismounted, patting the unicorn on the snout. It snorted appreciatively.

"I am Aegea the Great, Aegea the Founder, Aegea the Ascended; by the right of victory and the grace of heaven I am the Divine Empress of All Pelarius, Triazica, Liandra and any lands that lie between or may be found beyond. I am Mistress of the Legions, Defender of the City and Mother of the minotaurs." Aegea strode towards him, her boots trampling down the grass which sprung up again as soon as she moved on, "Why do you imagine I have brought you here, Michael Callistus?"

"In truth, Majesty, I know not."

"You are here so that I may do this," Aegea said as she struck him hard across the face with an armoured hand.

Michael had never imagined that something could hurt after you were dead. He was sorely mistaken as that blow which knocked him on his back hurt more than a lot of things had while he was alive.

"I suppose you have no idea why you deserved that?" Aegea asked.

"Majesty, I know that I have done many-"

"Oh spare me the rhetoric of nothing that is your endless round of self-loathing deprecation. I would say that I hoped you realise that it is all but another form of aggrandising yourself by the size of your flaws, but of course you do not realise that and that is precisely the point. You are the most wretched, cowardly, weak-willed, selfish, arrogant, vainglorious creature it has ever been my misfortune to encounter."

"Selfish?" Michael said. "Selfish? I sold myself into bondage for my sister's sake, since when did such sacrifice become decried as selfishness?"

"Since you sold yourself for your own pleasure, not for hers," Aegea replied. She gestured with one arm, and phantoms of Michael and Miranda when they had both been younger appeared before the two of them.

"Don't go Michael, I don't want to be all alone," Miranda pleaded with him on her knees.

Michael stood with his back to her. "I must go, Miranda. Better to have coin than be a poor maid with a poorer brother at your side. You need money more than you need me."

"No I don't! I need you, I want my brother! Michael!" Miranda reached for his hand, but Michael stepped forward so she missed, nearly falling on her face instead.

"One day you will thank me, little sister," Michael said calmly as he walked away.

"Clearly you were suffering greatly," Aegea remarked flatly.

"I just wanted her to be happy," Michael replied.

"Of course you did, that's why she was crying as you went to spend the next seven years of your miserable life indulging your heroic fantasies while she was all alone. You were freed from all cares and responsibilities and were able to play the warrior to your hearts content. Miranda had to learn to raise herself in a world that gave her little thought and cared less for her wellbeing. Who do you really think was worse off of the two of you? Be honest, for the first time in your life."

Michael shook his head. "I had never thought of it that way."

"No. That does not surprise me. Have you ever thought of anyone but yourself? Did you consider how she would feel as you courted death in the arena?"

"She wouldn't have cared, she didn't want me by then," Michael said heatedly.

"Then why did she offer you freedom more than once?"

"Because, because..." Michael scowled. "I don't know. So that everyone could see how virtuous she was."

"Now you're lying to yourself, and very poorly at that," Aegea said. "Why did you not speak to Amy at your brother's funeral?"

"Because I was afraid."

"Afraid of what?"

"Afraid of being blamed for Felix's death," Michael said.

"So instead you allowed Amy to take the blame, in her own mind at least, because you were afraid?" Aegea waved her hand again, and this time the illusion was of a young Amy, sobbing into her father's arms.

"I didn't mean for anything to happen," she cried. "I never wanted Felix to...why doesn't Michael believe me? He thinks that it's my fault and I...is he right? Is it my fault that Felix is dead?"

"A terrifying opponent to be sure."

"There are times when tears are harder to face than swords," Michael replied.

"Not for a man as chivalrous as you claim to be," Aegea said with acid on her tongue. "A gentleman of Old Corona indeed. When Gideon told me that he hoped you would succeed him as First Sword I thought he was mad. I pointed out to him how weak you were, how unreliable, how you cared for nothing but your own happiness. But he thought that he could change you, bring out your better qualities. He had faith in you. And you repaid that faith with betrayal."

"I was loyal to Gideon until my death," Michael said.

"Yes, your death," Aegea snarled. "You set off from home to save your sister and the Empire itself from Quirian. Heavy burdens possibly, but not too heavy for the Last Firstborn of Old Corona to bear. Along the way, you acquired companions willing to make great sacrifices for the cause in which you were engaged. Tullia Athenaeum and Princess Fiannuala sacrificed their very lives to achieve victory.

"But the burden had become a little much for your shoulders, you were starting to find the weight wearisome. And so you decided to abdicate your responsibilities once again, this time for good."

"I had to atone for my mistakes," Michael said.

"Atonement lies in living with the mistakes we have made and working to correct them, foolish boy," Aegea snapped. "You will correct no errors from this realm. I don't suppose you even bothered to consider the effects of your death. What of Miranda?"

"Gideon and the others will protect her now."

"I meant her grief," Aegea said. "What of the tears that will flow, what of the laments she will cry, what of the hole in her heart, what of them? For that matter, what of the others: Gideon, who so believed in you, Jason, Amy, what of them?"

Amy's tears fell down upon Michael's face, "You said...you said to me, when we were kids, that all I ever had to do was cry and you'd come running. That was what you said to me; just cry, you said, and I'll come help you. Well I'm crying now so where are you?" She pounded her fists upon his chest, then laid her head upon it, letting her tears flow.

Michael backed away, "I never realised, I never thought..."

"No," Aegea said. "Because you never think of anyone but yourself, do you? Have you ever cared for anyone but yourself?"

"Yes!"

"Then it would grieve you to see them this way," Aegea showed him another vision, of Amy and Jason wounded and defeated, with the Voice of Corona about to slay them both, and Gideon and Wyrrin too. "This is happening as we speak."

"No," Michael cried. He turned to the Divine Empress, daring her blazing fury, "No, please, you can't let them die. Do something, save them!"

"I can do nothing for them," Aegea said calmly.

"Why not, you're a god," Michael fell to his knees, grasping hers in supplication. "You are right in everything that you accuse me of: I am weak, and a coward. I sold myself a slave for my own benefit. I died for my own benefit. I abandoned my friends, my family because I would rather end it all than try and do better another time. I complained that I had not been born a better man rather than trying to make myself a better man. All this I own to but do not let them suffer on my account. Save them, please."

"I can do nothing," Aegea said. She looked down at him. "But there is something you can do."

Michael blinked. "I?"

"You are in many respects a worthless maggot, but in others you are not without the qualities that would justify the faith that Gideon placed in you. You have confessed your faults, but words you have spoken before. Are you willing to prove with deeds that this time you mean what you say?"

Michael nodded. "I will do anything to save them."

"Then cast aside the worst part of yourself and live the purer with the other half," Aegea said. "Live. I have the power to send you back to life, to defend your comrades, but you must live from that day on as selflessly as you claimed to do in days past. No more courting of death, no more vainglory, no more fury. You must live a virtuous man in my name, and devote yourself wholly to a higher cause than your own aggrandisement. That is the bargain that I offer you, do you accept?"

Michael said, "The path your majesty asks of me is high and hard, will you help me walk it?"

"If you will have it," Aegea replied.

"Then I will go."

Aegea smiled. "Would you live in a world of honour and chivalry, Michael Callistus? A world such as your fantasies came from?"

"I would, Your Majesty, but that world does not exist."

"Then make it exist," Aegea said. "There was no Empire when I came to the throne as Princess of Eternal Pantheia, but I and my descendants made an empire out of squabbling city states and petty kingdoms. Make the world that you would live in, whether by words or by swords. And on the way you may find that life is not so ill a state in which to while away the years. And now you must go."

"No," a man shouted angrily from behind him. A hooded man upon a pale horse who gestured at Michael with a pale hand. "He is not yours, Aegea, to hide him and to cheat me of my rightful prey. He is not yours, you have no power over him. Leave to me that which by right is mine!"

"I would sooner leave you a bone to choke on," Aegea said. "Be gone, Lord of the Grave, he stands under my protection."

"He is not yours," Tanuk shouted. "No god may protect from me any but their own worshippers. That is the law laid down by my cousin, and a mere demi-god such as you would not dare traduce."

"Would not dare?" Aegea's yelled as her eyes flashed with anger. "I am Aegea the Great, Empress of All Pelarius, there is nothing I would not dare. Now go, lest you would fight against the power of the Empire itself."

"The power of the Empire?" Tanuk laughed. "You have less than a thousand believers left in all your Empire. With what power shall you oppose a trueborn god?"

"Try my patience and you will soon discover," Aegea replied.

Tanuk hesitated, then snorted angrily. "There will be repercussions from this. Mark my words!"

As he rode away Aegea turned to Michael. "You must go quickly. There is not much time." She placed a hand upon his forehead.

Michael ran, his feet pounding over the ash. The gate of gold lay before him, at the end of an ashen path up a grey hill. Through the gate, he could see Amy fighting for her life against the Voice of Corona. He would reach her in time. He had to.

Michael heard pounding hooves behind him, the angry cries of Tanuk. He did not look back. He had no time to look back. He would not fail, not this time, not when his family was in danger.