Reign the Earth (The Elementae #1)(70)

Calix straightened up. I looked to Galen, grateful, and despite how mild his words had sounded, his chest was rising and falling rapidly, and his face was etched with tightly leashed fury. He crossed his arms on his chest, the knuckles white as he gripped his bicep.

“Then give me a solution,” Calix demanded. “We need reliable information about the Resistance. All we know is that Rian is not the head that we can cut off. Today’s attack will give the vestai even more arrows to cast at my reign. Do something,” he snapped.

Attack. I felt dizzy and tired and my head hurt. As Galen and Danae argued with their brother, I went out to the balcony, forgotten. The cold air helped, but I still did not want to return to the room and risk confessing that I was the traitor they were looking for, that I was responsible for the “attack.” All because I couldn’t help the way I felt when Galen touched me.

Instead, they would use this as a reason to continue to hunt my brother, another crime to attribute to his cause. And I would let them, the silent, coward queen.





No More Fish

The next morning I woke alone. It was late in the morning already, and still I felt exhausted, the events of the day before weighing heavily on me. I woke and dressed and found Theron outside my door, but Adria was absent.

“Where is she?” I asked Theron, confused. “It’s late.”

“I’ll send someone to fetch her, my queen.”

I nodded. “She can meet us at the Erudium; they want me to approve of something for the Consecutio.”

“Yes, my queen.” He sent another guard off to find her, but we hadn’t even reached the gates before the guard returned.

“Report,” Theron told him as the guard bowed.

“My queen, Domina Viato is with the king in the Great Hall.”

That couldn’t possibly be good news. “On what business?”

“I don’t know, my queen. The High Vestai Thessaly is with her.”

I shot a look to Theron, and he nodded. We turned back around, going into the castle to the hall where we had court dinners every night. Calix still sat on the raised platform, Galen standing off his left shoulder, but now Thessaly and Adria were at the bottom of the stairs.

Buried in a throng of people straining to hear, the trivatis still saw me and slammed his staff on the stone to announce me, interrupting the proceedings and flushing heat to my face.

“Wife,” Calix said, standing. “Come join us.”

The people parted for me, and I climbed the stairs slowly, taking his hand. He kissed it, a shadow of Galen’s action the day before, and it embarrassed me to remember the storm of emotions I’d felt at such a simple touch. I couldn’t look at Galen.

Calix directed me to sit beside him, and he sat down. “I believe you were insulting my honor and prowess as king,” Calix reminded Thessaly.

Thessaly’s face was mottled with anger, and for her part, Adria looked uncomfortable beside him. “Do not belittle my concerns, my king. My daughter could have died yesterday, and you do nothing.”

My back straightened. Died? When? She had been with me all day. Surely—oh. He meant in the courtyard, when the stone exploded into sand. Something they all thought was an attack.

I saw Kairos, standing in the crowd of people, and his eyes met mine with a smile and a slight nod.

“And the fact that you are so cavalier not only about my daughter’s safety, but about the queen’s safety as well, is a blatant act of disrespect to the tenets of the Three-Faced God. Are our women not holy vessels? Are they not in need of protection and guidance? And yet this Resistance strikes at your very heart and you do nothing. I demand a response! I demand satisfaction!” he bellowed, and the words seemed to echo on the stone walls.

Calix’s face was a dark scowl.

“My king, might I offer a thought?” Galen asked, stepping forward.

“Yes, Commander,” Calix said.

“I was in the courtyard yesterday,” Galen said, turning to look at Thessaly, his face stern and disapproving and his hands clasped behind his back. “Neither the queen nor your daughter suffered any kind of injury. Indeed, half the army was there to protect them as necessary, and no action was needed. While I acknowledge your legitimate concern, let us not overestimate the nature of the events.”

“Quite,” Calix agreed, propping his elbow on the arm of the chair.

“But it does not remove the seriousness of the situation,” Thessaly insisted. “If the Resistance can strike at us in the Three Castles, we are not safe anywhere. They have sorcerers on their side, and clearly, they can use this destructive power anywhere and anytime they wish.”

This caused a cascade of murmurs and voices to rush through the hall, and Calix watched it all, not quelling it.

“What will you do, my king?” Thessaly asked.

Calix leaned forward. “What is it you wish me to do, Thessaly? Or in your rage, have you just considered how to hurl accusations without a mind toward solutions?”

Thessaly’s gaze turned to me. “They say Rian d’Dragyn is the leader of this Resistance,” Thessaly said. “Perhaps you need to use the leverage you purchased and send a message.”

I gasped, and Adria’s head whipped to her father, but Calix chuckled. “You think attacking my wife is wise, Thessaly? She is the most holy of holy vessels. Besides, you are betraying your ignorance of the matter. Rian d’Dragyn is not the leader of the Resistance. So other than dangerous misinformation and egregious insult to my wife, what do you bring me for a solution?”