A Rip of Realms (A Shade of Vampire #39)(6)

Tejus





Since I was a child, Hellswan castle had invoked mixed feelings in me. It had been my home, the only one I had ever known. Although the gray walls and the strict, unyielding rule of my father had made me long for escape—even causing me to stay in the Seraq kingdom for an extended period of time—seeing it reduced to nothing but rubble and dust was physically painful.

I stood next to Ash, both of us gazing at the destruction, almost as if it would suddenly start to mend itself, a twist in the universe making the stones reassemble, turning back time till it was once again the oppressive, impenetrable hulk that Hellswan castle had always been. The feelings of powerlessness I had been experiencing ever since I’d learnt of the entity’s rise started to return; what could I do—what could the kitchen boy do to stop this? If the entity was capable of such mass devastation, how would two sentries—both riddled with faults and flaws that clouded their judgment, with a limited army behind them and no closer to finding answers regarding the true nature of the evil that faced them—ever hope to defeat it?

Ash cleared his throat.

“What do we do now?” he asked, quietly.

I looked up at the sky. It was mid-morning now, and as long as the sky didn’t rip further to expose the night, we would have a decent amount of time before sundown.

“We need to get everyone somewhere safe—relatively safe,” I muttered, thinking of the few options that we had available to us.

“Where do you suggest? I was thinking that we could send scouts out—find the kingdoms that are least destroyed, and hope that they’re willing to take us in,” Ash offered, his tone doubtful.

“Take in the Hellswans?” I smirked.

“The villagers, at least?”

They might have a chance of being accepted elsewhere, perhaps if the Memenion kingdom was still secure, but they would be unlikely to accept our ministers or our guards. For too long my father had alienated the surrounding kingdoms, and while he had been respected as emperor, he had been hated. I doubted that those long-standing feuds would be eradicated in the face of a disaster—even one as severe as this.

“There is the summer palace,” I replied, ignoring his suggestion. “It is the only place I can think of. If it has survived the earthquake, then it will be habitable—sort of.”

Ash raised his eyebrows. “I have never been.”

“But you’ve heard of it?”

“Yeah, but I was never asked to work there.”

“We didn’t go after my mother’s death. The palace belonged to her family, and was given as a gift to my mother for her dowry. It’s located by the North Coast, far from the Acolytes’ temple. If no one knows we are heading there, we may manage to stay out of their way until we can come up with a plan.”

Ash nodded.

“But if you wish, we can take the villagers to Memenion,” I continued, thinking out loud. There wouldn’t be much space for us all in the old palace—perhaps Ash was right, better to get the villagers somewhere safe, away from the harm that I suspected would follow us.

“He is dead.” Ash’s words were barely above a whisper.

“At the Fells?” I asked, my throat tightening.

“He dropped…into the ground. There was nothing I could do.”

“Did he know about his son?” I asked, hoping that his dying moments weren’t ones of regret and shame over his offspring’s allegiance to Queen Trina and the Acolytes.

“Yes.”

I swallowed, not wishing to discuss the matter any further. With Memenion gone, our kingdom was truly isolated, as were our efforts to battle the entity. My mind drifted to Hazel once again. She was my primary concern. Keeping her safe would be the one outcome that I would not compromise on. If she survived this, even at the expense of every other soul in Nevertide, including my own, then I would have accomplished my goal; the entity would not have taken everything from me—would not have succeeded in destroying the one thing that mattered.

“What of the Impartial Ministers?” I asked. “Did any of them survive?”

“I saw one of them die—I don’t know what happened to the others. I wouldn’t have thought that they would concern you?”

“They don’t. You becoming emperor does,” I retorted. “It will be the only way that we’ll be able to read the book; I hope it has the answers we need.”

Ash eyed the remains of the castle.

“The book is kept in Hellswan castle?” he asked despondently.

“We’ll just have to pray it survived.”

I hoped that the book was protected by the same magic that the Impartial Ministers seemed to have access to. I recalled the way, during the imperial trial, I had emerged from the hallucination with the bloodstained sword in my hand. Those ministers were obviously tapping into a greater power somehow. With any luck, the book had remained intact.

“Isn’t there another way? Do we have to have the blessing of the Impartial Ministers?” Ash asked.

“I have a theory,” I replied, telling Ash what I thought about the magic of the Impartial Ministers. “If the book is in any way linked to them, if we appoint you emperor without their blessing, then I doubt that the book will be able to be read. We will have a hard time proving the credibility of your claim with the other kingdoms as well.”