The sky was getting dark. The sun had long since fallen past the ring of mountains and the stars were just starting to shine through. It was a beautiful night. He decided to change the subject.
“I see what you mean about not trusting anyone. That council meeting felt more like a nest of vipers.” Alexander took a deep breath, “Isabel, I didn’t know until your father announced it that I was the heir to the Ruathan Crown. This is all happening so fast I feel like I’m struggling to keep my head above water.”
“But how could that be?” she said. “My father said you’ve been trained your whole life for this.”
Alexander shook his head, “Maybe Darius was trained for this, but I wasn’t. I didn’t know about any of this until two weeks ago.” The memory of his brother’s murder ghosted across his face.
“I don’t understand? Who’s Darius?” Isabel seemed slightly alarmed at the revelation.
“He was my big brother. He was murdered by the Reishi two weeks ago.” Alexander couldn’t help the tears that filled his eyes. He hadn’t allowed himself to mourn his brother properly and it was starting to eat away at him.
Isabel covered her mouth with her hand as she stared at him with wide eyes, shaking her head quickly from side to side in denial while reaching out to take his hand. Her eyes filled with tears that spilled out and tumbled down her cheeks when she blinked.
“Oh, Alexander, I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine the pain you must have bottled up inside you. If one of my brothers were killed I’d curl up into a ball and cry for a month.”
Her simple human understanding and sympathy was all it took to undo Alexander’s carefully constructed bulwark of emotional control. He sobbed once into the growing darkness. He tried to draw it back in, to regain control. When Isabel took his head, drew it to her shoulder, and gently put her arms around him, that was all it took. He broke down and cried for the loss of his big brother. The pain welled up in him like a torrent, and he let it. He didn’t try to stop the flow of anguish. He cried unabashedly on her shoulder for several minutes until he felt like a great weight had been lifted. His sense of inner calm felt like it was restored as he released his grief.
When he looked up into Isabel’s eyes in the growing moonlight, he could see the streamers of tears glistening down her cheeks. He sniffed, trying to regain his composure and smiled at her almost sheepishly. “Some king I turned out to be, huh?”
At that she forcefully took him by the shoulders and held him out at arm’s length so she could look him directly in the eye. “Any man who would not cry for the loss of his brother is not worthy of being called a king.” Her piercing green eyes glistened with tears and intensity.
He smiled gently, “That sounds like something my mother would say. She would like you.” He sniffed again and took a deep breath to clear his head. “Thank you, Isabel. I didn’t realize how much I needed that. Since the day he died I’ve been running for my life. I’ve kept everything all bottled up inside. I feel much better now.”
She wiped the tears from her face and stood, turning to face the city below. “We should get back. My parents will be expecting us at dinner soon.”
Almost on cue, Erik called out from below, “Isabel, are you up there?”
She smiled at Alexander as if to say, “I told you so” and called down to her brother, “We’re on our way down.”
She led him through another maze of corridors, passageways, and rooms until they reached the Alaric family dining hall. Just before they entered, Isabel stopped and took a good look at Alexander. She gently wiped a single tear from his chin and nodded her approval before opening the door.
Chapter 23
Everyone was there and already seated around the table. Erik had just arrived a few moments before them. Hanlon and Emily Alaric sat to either side of the empty chair at the head of the table. Lucky, Abigail, Jack, and Anatoly all sat around the table looking at Alexander when he entered. The only person he wasn’t sure of was the wizard in the charcoal grey robes.
“I was just giving Lord Alexander a tour of the palace,” Isabel said with perfect innocence. Abigail gave him a look. He knew she would have questions later.
Not a moment after he took his seat, the servants started bringing platters of food to the table. It was a simple and wholesome meal of roasted venison with potatoes, carrots and onions served with thick, flavorful gravy, a green salad, and fresh bread still hot from the oven with plenty of rich yellow butter. Alexander realized the moment he smelled the roasted venison that he was starving.
Apparently, everyone else was hungry as well because the meal was enjoyed in near silence except for the occasional request for more gravy or another slice of bread. When the meal was done, Alexander sat back and took a deep breath.
“Thank you, Lady Alaric, for this meal and for your hospitality. For the first time in two weeks I almost feel safe.”
Emily Alaric frowned slightly, “Almost?” she questioned. “You have nothing to fear in my home.”
Alexander smiled a small smile, “Those nobles have to be around here somewhere.”
Hanlon and Anatoly looked at each other and laughed out loud. “Your Majesty,” Hanlon started to say when Alexander raised his hand and cut him off.
“Hanlon, please call me Alexander.”
The Forest Warden shared a brief look across the table with Anatoly and nodded his agreement. “If you wish, but only in private. In public, your authority must not be questioned. The nobles don’t like your presence. They’re happy with the way things are and feel threatened by the change that you represent. It’s vital that you be recognized as the King of Ruatha if we’re to have any chance against Phane.”
“Agreed,” Alexander said, then turned to the wizard. “I know everyone at this table except you, Wizard. Please introduce yourself.” Alexander decided that this was the time to get his questions answered.
“I am Master Wizard Mason Kallentera, Chief Counsel to Warden Alaric and I am at your service, Lord Alexander.”
“Very good, I have a number of questions. First, Anatoly, how long have you known that my bloodline is the true Ruathan line?” There was a slight edge to Alexander’s voice that brought everyone into focus. What had, a moment before, been a fine meal was now a King’s council.
“I’ve known your entire life and longer,” he answered the question without hesitation and held Alexander’s gaze as he did.
“Why was I not told of this sooner?” Alexander tried to keep his building anger out of his voice.
“I took an oath to keep that knowledge secret until such time as the Keeper of the Royal Bloodline named the heir, plus your father forbade it,” Anatoly answered openly. “He said he wanted you to grow up without the weight of the world and the burden of such terrible responsibility resting on your shoulders. He felt that there would be plenty of time once you’d grown into a man to reveal the truth to you.” Anatoly hesitated a moment before continuing. “Also, this responsibility was never supposed to be yours.” He looked down for a moment to wrestle with his own grief at the loss of Darius.
Alexander glanced at his sister and saw she was struggling to maintain her composure so he decided to change the subject. He knew she hadn’t yet taken the time to grieve and he knew from recent experience how much weight that placed on her heart.
“Who is Nicolai Atherton?” he asked no one in particular.
This time it was Hanlon and Wizard Kallentera who shared a look.
It was the wizard who spoke. “If I may, Nicolai Atherton was Barnabas Cedric’s first apprentice. He was an arch mage of great power in his own right and the person who succeeded in killing Sovereign Malachi Reishi, although at great cost to himself. May I enquire about the source of your interest in Mage Atherton?”
Alexander nodded and answered offhandedly, “His ghost is haunting me.”
The table fell silent. All eyes were on Alexander but it was Wizard Kallentera who spoke first. “Are you certain?”
“Quite certain,” Alexander said, nodding. “The first time he came to me was the night Darius died, the night this mark was burned into my neck. He appeared right in front of me while I was standing on the tower of Valentine Manor. I was so startled that I stumbled backward and nearly fell over the wall. He grabbed me and pulled me back. The next time was early the next morning. He appeared in my room just after I woke. He told me that I was in danger and that I must find the Thinblade. The third time he appeared in our camp the night after we left Southport and warned us that Phane had summoned nether wolves to kill me.”
Abigail spoke into the deadly silence that followed. “I saw the ghost at camp outside Southport. If he hadn’t warned us about the nether wolves, we would have been caught out in the open by the beasts. His warning saved us.”
Lucky, Anatoly, and Jack nodded their agreement.
Wizard Kallentera started to ask another question, but Alexander cut him off. “How did Mage Atherton die?”
Wizard Kallentera took a deep breath and began. “Mage Atherton captured a book of necromancy spells during an attack on one of the Reishi strongholds. Within, he found a spell to summon a creature from the netherworld called a shade. A shade is a creature of surpassing power. It has no physical form in this world but instead appears as a shadow in the air. It can possess a person and use his body for as long as he remains alive, then move on to possess another. It can also move into the aether, and that is the power that Nicolai Atherton summoned the shade for.”
Alexander interrupted, “What’s the aether?”
“It’s the plane of spirit. It’s the place your soul goes when you die, before you move on to the light or the darkness. It exists in the same space as our world but it has no substance. The aether is the place where ghosts live.” He let this last statement settle in before he continued.
“It was said that some few, very rare wizards, could send their minds into the aether. If such a thing is possible, none alive today can do so. What the shade could do was much more dangerous. It could take a person’s physical body into the aether and that is why Mage Atherton cast the spell he found. He knew that if Malachi Reishi died, the Sovereign Stone would remain. Prince Phane would claim it and the war would rage on.”
Alexander raised his hand and interrupted him again. “What’s the Sovereign Stone?”
“The Sovereign Stone is the source of Reishi power. It’s a blood-red corundum of unusual size suspended from a gold chain. It was created by the first Reishi Sovereign and served as the badge of the Sovereign of the Seven Isles for nearly two thousand years. The full extent of its power is unclear but the one thing that is known is that it contains the life memories and personalities of the previous Reishi Sovereigns. Using the Stone, the current Reishi Sovereign can confer with his ancestors.
“The power of such a thing is enormous. All of the magical knowledge coupled with all of the political secrets known by all of the previous Reishi Sovereigns was available to the current holder of the Sovereign Stone. As long as the Stone was in this world and a Reishi still lived, the world was in jeopardy. That’s why Mage Atherton took such a dangerous and desperate chance. He summoned a shade to push Malachi Reishi physically into the aether, Sovereign Stone and all.
“What he didn’t count on was the malice of the shade, and not being trained in necromancy, he failed to understand the nuances of the spell. He paid with his life for that failure. The shade possessed him and used his body to mount the attack against Malachi Reishi. Nicolai Atherton, possessed by the shade, seized Malachi Reishi and shifted them both into the aether. A physical body cannot survive for more than a few seconds in the cold and airless aether. Once the shade had done as it was summoned to do, it went back to the netherworld and left the souls of Malachi Reishi and Nicolai Atherton trapped forever between the world of life and the afterlife. His desperate actions ultimately won the war but at great personal cost. As long as his body remains in the aether his soul cannot pass into the light.”
Alexander sat quietly and stared at the table for a moment, deep in thought. Such desperate choices had been made to end the Reishi War. Such terrible powers had been brought to bear. He had no magic to compete with the things that Phane could do. He started to wonder again what he could really do to live up to this impossible inheritance. He’d barely survived the trip to Glen Morillian and he hadn’t even considered his next step. Ultimately, he would have to assemble an army under the banner of the House of Ruatha, but he wasn’t even sure he could convince the minor nobles of Glen Morillian to follow him, let alone bring the ruling houses of the various Ruathan territories under his command.
“Where’s the Thinblade?” he asked without looking up.
Wizard Kallentera started to answer, “It was lost…” when Hanlon interrupted him.
“I believe that it may be in the catacombs of this fortress.”
All eyes were now on Hanlon Alaric. He cleared his throat and marshaled his thoughts before starting to explain in his deep and rumbling voice. “Glen Morillian was built by Barnabas Cedric, known to those outside of this valley as the Rebel Mage, to be the home of the Rangers. The Rangers were created to give cover and strength to the Keepers of the Royal Bloodline. One of the secrets entrusted to the Keeper is a vault hidden deep in the catacombs beneath this palace. It can be opened only by the Bearer of the Mark. I do not know what’s inside that vault but I have often wondered if the Thinblade was thought to be lost because Mage Cedric had hidden it away for your arrival.”