The Queen Revealed
Read The Queen Revealed Online
Authors: A. R. Winterstaar
The World of Evendaar
Book Two
The Queen Revealed
♕
A. R. Winterstaar
Copyright © 2015 by A. R. Winterstaar
All rights reserved.
This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Cover Illustration by Anastasia Ward ([email protected])
First Edition, October 2015
Evendaar Publishing LLP
Contents
The Prophecy of the End of the World
Prologue
“A Storm Rises”
“Blood and Bad News”
“Webs of Deceit”
“Shelter From the Storm”
“There’s No Place Like Home”
“No Good Sense”
“Wicked Steps Come Softly”
“Sweet Love Speaks Softly”
“To Look Upon Hope and Smile”
“To Curse the Lover of the Beloved”
“The Next Adventure in Love”
“Lunch in the Glassroom”
“Sometimes Magic Is Simply Sweet”
“And Sometimes It Is Wicked”
“When Love Does Not Stay Behind”
“The Unrequited Distance of Circumstance”
“It Always Rains Here”
“The Belvoir Estate”
“What Lurks Behind Doors?”
“And What Hides in the Light”
“The Carnival Begins”
“Footsteps in the Night”
“The Swirling Pain of Power”
“The Price of a Dark Past”
“Fear’s Intrigue”
“Surprising Sources of Cool Hope”
“When Loyalty is a Curse”
“And Loyalty is a Promise Made to Be Broken”
“Decepting as Love Tastes”
“Anticipation is the Fuel for Love’s Fire”
“And Look How it Burns”
“Running Out of Time”
“What Comfort There Lies in Dreaming”
“Passions Stirred and Emotions Tumbled”
“Time Travels Backwards as Well as to the Side”
“I Think That’s What It Is”
“Sometimes Love Just Tastes Like Loyalty”
“Up Until the Stars”
“And Back Down to Hell Again”
“Innocent Dreams of Safety”
“One Fine Morning”
“A Devil Came Creeping”
“And Creeping Around the Corner”
“But Even Devils Can Be Sorry”
“And Wish to be an Angel Instead”
“But Devils Don’t Have Wings”
“Deep and Dark is the Rage of Betrayal”
“Down We Go Into the Darkness Below”
“Where is the Fire to Light Up the Darkness?”
“The Fire is Deep Within”
“Fire Lights the Way as it Burns”
“But When the Fire Goes Out”
“And They All Lived…”
“Outrun the Storm, Little Queen”
The Prophecy of the End of the World
Seek this Hidden Child when the three Signs of the End of the World appear...
…Only the Hidden Child shall defend the Throne from the Favored and cast the Shadows into the Light to restore the Glory of my Chosen Ones on the Throne of my Kingdom.
Beware and rejoice for only in the greatest darkness does the brightest light shine.” …….
“The Empress of a Dark God will want to burn the blood of the Lost Child Hidden.
The Child must sacrifice a fear of the Dark and go without a Magek to save the World from an evil pestilence that will destroy all Life in its path.
All who defy the Child shall burn to ashes, and those ashes shall feed the North Wind.”
Excerpts taken from “The Prophecy of the End of the World”, printed by Pere Manus and dictated by the Child Prophet Celestina and Voice of the Goddess Serena. Translated from the old tongue by Pere Raindor Marchant.
The image in the mirror crackled and skipped, making the young man curse. The Magic of that damn Queen was getting more powerful by the day, and her aura was now interfering with his ability to spy on her through the Magic Glass. He could even see the green haze that drifted about her in a cloud, creating static and hiding her face from him.
The young man sat back and chewed his bottom lip. His long fingers drummed the table in front of him in an impatient tattoo as he thought hard.
This new Queen was a puzzle and a problem for him.
He had been watching her closely ever since High Wizard Ohren had dragged the woman across the Universe with her three children in tow, to land in the world of Evendaar just weeks ago. Though initially she had appeared as frightened and innocent as a kitten the Blood Ceremony had revealed her true identity - a half-St Lucidis, half-Marchant bastard! And no misbegotten creature of The Blood, with it’s evil, reeking, green Magic, could be allowed to keep the Throne. She had to be gotten rid of, that was certain. But carefully.
The first attempt on her life had been during her mission to Sandar to retrieve the Fire Orchid Stamens from the Empress Sanda’hani. The Sandarian Mage had promised that he would kill her in the underground Holy Caves where the Queen’s Magic should have been at it’s weakest. But the young man had only watched in horror as the little Queen had called on the filthiest of all dark Magic and had drained the Mage dry, killing him outright in his own temple.
The young man narrowed his eyes at the Magic Glass and glared at the Queen riding her chestnut horse along some dusty patch of the Kings Highway. Soon she would return to the Golden Palace holding aloft the life-saving Fire Orchid Stamens and casting herself in the role of savior of the Unisian people when the Summer Influenza was beaten back for another year.
But no, he could not allow it!
Already the Queen had a dangerous amount of power at her disposal, and whether by accident or design, she had formed strong personal bonds with both High Wizard Ohren and the Immortal Marchant Prince Rainere. To allow her a political stage to garner more support would be fatal to the status quo in the Kingdom of Unisia. The status quo
he
had worked so hard to maintain all these years. So, the Queen needed to be removed yes, but he would not underestimate her as the foolish Mage of Sandar had. First he would destroy those powerful relationships of hers, then he would destroy the woman herself.
With a flick of his wrist, the Magic Glass went dark. The young man stared at his reflection in the polished surface. His electric blue eyes shone above his smooth cheeks and his lips were rosy after he had been chewing at them. He smiled and the beautiful reflection smiled back. He loved this face.
Pulling up the black silk scarf at his throat, the young man covered the lower half of his face and said a name aloud. The Magic Glass lit up again. This time a dark-haired boy stared back at him. The background noise behind the boy went quiet as he moved into a dark corner of some tavern room and gazed at the young man.
“Yes, Boss,” said the boy, flicking his long fringe out of his eyes with a sharp toss in a pathetic attempt at nonchalance. The young man could see the boy’s terror as clear as day.
“I have a job for you,” said the young man. “You must meet me in the usual place.”
The boy swallowed and his cheeks paled. “Now, Boss?”
The young man smiled behind his scarf. “Yes, Charlie. Now.”
Chapter One
Prince Rainere paced the floor of his laboratory, glass shards crunching under his feet where the wall of windows lay smashed and scattered on the floor. Their destruction was the most violent symptom of his concern for the Queen’s wellbeing in Sandar. The wind blew in the broken windows, tangling his long hair and blowing it in his eyes. He wore two spots of color high on his cheeks and his eyes blazed with ill-contained fury.
“Where is she, Grotto?” snarled the Prince, as he swung about to continue his pacing in the other direction and impatiently pulled the hair out of his eyes. “I haven’t heard from that nasty little Spider, Schiss, for almost four days. He should have reported back to me on the Queen’s whereabouts by now. Anything could have happened to her!”
“Perhaps your Queen Adelena killed him, like she did his older brother?” replied Grotto acidly, as he pushed himself off his knees, carrying a pan of broken glass in one hand and a brush in the other. “That would explain his tardiness.” He dumped the glass into a waste basket and returned to the floor.
Rainere stopped to consider the option for a moment before striding on again. “No, I told him to be careful with her. He would not have shown himself after what she did to Oki. No, something is wrong, I am sure of it. It’s this cursed Prophecy, Grotto! I was certain that the Wizards had sent her after the wrong Empress, but now...?”
The Prince drifted off, distracted, as he watched the heavy rainclouds billow and chase each other across the skies above the Dark Forest. “If only I knew that Adelena was safe. If only I could see her…” Rainere’s voice was rough, but Grotto could hear the tortured yearning in it. “If only there was a way I could bring her to me, to have her close again…”
With an impatient growl, Rainere turned from the windows and stalked out of the room, slamming the door so hard behind himself that more glass tinkled to the floor from the broken frames.
Grotto sat back on his heels and dropped the pan of shattered glass onto the floor. Now alone, he could let out the deep, soul-weary sigh that had been building in his chest.
His Master, the last Marchant Prince, had good reason to be fearful for the full moon was only a scant eight days away. How was the Prince to marry the Queen and ascend the Throne of Unisia in such a short amount of time, thereby fulfilling the Prophecy of the End of the World and upholding his oath to the Spider Empress Ka-kik? To make matters worse, the Spider Empress was furious with the Queen for killing her beloved son, Oki, just weeks ago. The Goddess only knew what she would do now that her time of mourning was almost over! No doubt the Spider Empress would scream for the death of the Queen after all that she had done, complicating everything all over again.
Though his Master was a terribly powerful and intelligent Warlock, his poor mind was altogether too fragile. Yes, he had won the heart of the Unisian Queen Adelena, but then he had also foolishly gone and given her his own.
Grotto shivered in the chill wind that blew through the laboratory. Deep down in his gut, Grotto feared that this imposter of a Queen could well be the death of his Immortal Master and the fact that he was powerless to prevent it made Grotto hate her all the more.
* * *
Prince Rainere stalked up the dimly-lit staircase of the stone tower, his long legs taking the crooked steps two at a time. At the top of the staircase, a little wooden door, leading to the outside, rattled on its hinges as strong gusts of wind buffeted against it. Rainere shoved the door with his shoulder, heedless of its rusted joints and smashed it back against the wall of the tower. He strode to the edge of the palace roof and looked out over the landscape in front of him, resting his hands on the low wall. The stone was cold to the touch and rough with the embedded grey crystals that gave the palace its name.
The grounds of the Grey Palace weren’t large. One could easily see the front boundary fence from the roof. Huge wrought-iron gates marked the entrance and opened onto a white-pebbled road lined with skeletal linden trees. The road led up to a gravel semicircle in front of the palace steps. There was room for twenty carriages to sit there, but as no one ever visited, or was invited to the Grey Palace, Rainere had never seen such a sight.
Several stone dragons guarded either side of the dozen or so front steps, their stone jaws carved into fiercesome snarls. The great, black-lacquered front doors of the Palace were pristine, despite the years that they had stood, and almost hummed with the countless spells and curses that had been set on them to prevent intruders from entering when they were not welcome.
The Prince pulled his hair back as the wind whipped it across his face and cast his gaze out beyond the boundary to the thick forest surrounding the palace on three sides. Away, deep in that dark and forbidding place, the Spider Empress sat in her Nest weeping for the death of her son, and probably plotting some kind of evil revenge against the Queen. But what that would be, Rainere couldn’t hope to guess. Certainly the Empress would not risk taking Adelena’s life before she could fulfill the prophecy by marrying him and making him keep his first promise as the King of Unisia of freeing the Spider People from the Under Lands. Rainere knew that was too important to the Spider Empress, even more so than retribution.
Rainere raised his eyes to the Black Mountains behind the palace and stared sightlessly at the sharp and jagged peaks. They were as familiar to him as the features of his own face, but he had never ventured into them, save once. The Marchant Eldars had taken him to the summit of he knew not which mountain, to carve the Immortality Spell into his unwilling flesh.
Rainere closed his eyes as the memory of the pain they had inflicted washed over him. His mouth formed a hard line. One hundred and fifty years he had lived in this cruel world and never had he known the joy that Adelena’s love had given him. At first, she had only haunted him in his dreams, making him mad with desire and unsure of his wits, but then she had arrived in Evendaar, brought over from her world by the Wizards Council of the Golden Palace, and they had finally found each other. Now nothing could keep them apart. Not the Wizards Council or the Prophecy, not even the Spider Empress herself. He and Adelena were fated to be together. The Goddess Serena had told him so herself.
“But
where
is she?” muttered Rainere as he scanned the horizon and scratched his fingertips against the stone beneath his hands. He had felt secure, though not happy, about letting Adelena journey to the coastal nation of Sandar with her children. He had figured that there, she would at least be safe from the Spider Empress and free of the influence of the High Wizard Ohren, and his dangerous meddling with the Prophecy of the End of the World. Unfortunately for Rainere, the Wizard’s interpretation of Adelena’s role in the Prophecy was the exact opposite of the Spider Empress’s and therein laid the greatest danger for Adelena, as both sides sought to force her to follow their paths.
Rainere was so deep in thought, that he almost missed the sound of the squelchy
pop
from behind him. The Prince spun around to come face to face with one of the children of the Spider Empress. His short, skinny frame was more emaciated than was usual for his breed and his large eyes bugged out with exhaustion.
“Schiss! Where the devil have you been? I have waited four days for you to show up!” Rainere yelled, advancing on the tiny man and grabbing his arms to stop him from leaving again.
Schiss rapidly blinked his big eyes and cowered in Rainere’s grasp. “Don’t be angry, m’liege,” he stammered. “I couldn’t… and it took days… then she…”
Prince Rainere forced himself to let go of the terrified creature and asked him the only question that mattered. “Is the Queen alright, Schiss?”
Schiss looked like he was going to pass out, and swayed on his feet as the wind blew him about. He looked up at Rainere with a slightly crazed expression.
“Queen Adelena lives, m’liege. She and her children are riding back to the Golden Palace now. They’ve been on the road for two and a half days and are passing the turn for the Dark Forest today. I had wanted to return to you sooner, m’liege, but I was captured in Sandar by a Mage. Such a nasty, nasty Human. He kept me in a box until…until…” Schiss swayed again and Rainere put out a hand to catch the little man before he fell.
“I almost died in that box, m’liege. The Magic was so thick, I couldn’t breathe at all, but then she came and she saved me.” Schiss smiled up at the Prince. “She told me she would never kill me, ever. Then she let me go with her blessings. I tried to travel the portals back here, but I was too weak, so I jumped aboard her carriage for a couple of days until I got to the Dark Forest and could come back to you.”
He grinned again. “She is so beautiful, your Queen, m’liege, and so gentle and kind.”
“She is over there,” Schiss pointed to the distant edge of the forest. “Right there on the Kings Highway, just past your lands, barely half a day’s ride away.”
Prince Rainere dropped the man-Spider and turned to gaze in the direction of the Highway.
So close!
He thought as a desperate joy bubbled up from deep inside him.
So close, I can almost feel her.
He closed his eyes and raised his face into the wind, as if to catch the very scent of Adelena, his love.
When the Prince’s eyes snapped open again the silver ring that circled his black pupils spun and undulated with the power of his Magic. Rainere raised his arms above his head and shouted the incantation that would release his Magic into the sky. Hot green explosions of energy shot out from his hands and up into the domain of the North Wind, who shrieked for joy at being given such a dangerous gift and blew with raucous fury on Prince Rainere, reveling in the uncontained power zig-zagging across the sky.
Terrified, Schiss dropped to the stone floor of the roof and crawled to safety in the doorway of the nearby tower. The tiny man-Spider whimpered as the wind howled past his ears with a voice like a devil from the beyond and the air crackled with green sparks of energy. The feeble afternoon sunlight deepened to twilight as heavy black clouds dropped low over the land. Schiss looked up in fear and saw more gigantic clouds scudding across the sky to cover the Grey Palace. He shivered as the first flakes of snow began to fall and pulled his thin shirtsleeves down over his hands.
Schiss had heard that in the days of old, Marchant Royals had discovered the Magic to control the weather, but he had never seen proof of it up until now. Cautiously, he stuck his head out of the doorway to watch Prince Rainere, but a sharp crack lit up the sky, followed by an earth-trembling rumble, and Schiss cowered back into his shelter with his hands over his delicate ears.
Prince Rainere stood as if transfixed. His arms raised to the sky and a look of intense concentration on his white face. Only his lips moved as he strengthened and re-strengthened the incantation to bring on the wild and terrible storm. The ground shook as another deep rumble thundered through the sky.
Slowly, Rainere came back to his senses and lowered his arms. Looking about, he watched with satisfaction as snowflakes danced in the eddies and gusts about him. A tiny twitch at the side of his mouth almost suggested a smile.
There is no way Adelena can stay out in this storm
, he thought.
She will have to seek shelter now and my home is the only refuge for miles in all directions. Her Queen’s Guard will have no choice, but to lead her here.
She will be with me again soon.