Page 51 of The Oracle of Dusk

“When?”

“Soon.”

Fuck.

His shipment of grain was currently sitting on the other side of The Colonnades Of The Colossus, at the edge of the Queen’s Road. The grain his people desperately needed. The very same grain Queen Flora and Orithyia had been trying to deny his people. If his enemies arrived there first with a few legions, who would stop them from taking that grain for themselves, commandeering it during a time of crisis, as was their right during a cycle of chaos?

Not only that, wherever the monstrosities first appeared during a cycle of chaos became a tainted place, one of deep superstition, the kind that drove people away from it for years to come. Monstrosities usually reappeared there many times unless the place was immediately purified by divine magic. That narrow land bridge was the only easily accessible land route for trade into Aureum. If monstrosities appeared there and were not dealt with swiftly, he could kiss that trade route goodbye for at least a decade.

His merchant fleet was woefully unprepared to pick up the slack. Already forced to sail through Viridian waters on the way to Gilvus and Roseum, stalked by pirates and bled dry by extortionate Viridian tolls at every harbour, it was not a viable option. He would be forced to drain the royal treasury just to bring in half of what the Colonnades did. He supposed he could use the mountain pass through to Niveum, but if King Enalos of Niveum had already refused to wed his daughter to Theron, what was the likelihood that he would help build a proper road through the pass so that traders were not deterred by rough terrain, bandits, and wild beasts?

No, he needed to protect the Colonnades at all costs. And his grain shipment.

“Does King Enalos know?”

“I suspect his priestesses have informed him as well.”

Then there could be a total of three different royal legions marching to the end of the Queen’s Road. It was one of the only places where three realms of Trisia met—Aureum, Viridis and Niveum. Three different royal legions who could lay claim to a king’s ransom in grain. King Enalos of Niveum was an honourable man, but he would be a fool not to take such spoils for himself.

“Then I must make haste. Thank you, Dia.”

He rose from his seat, lifting her hand in his to touch her obsidian ring to his forehead. If he wanted to beat the other monarchs and their legions there, he would have to use his cousin’s beasts to do it, and she was likely to try to haggle with him for some problematic privilege or favour. That alone could take an hour he didn’t have to spare.

“Be careful, Your Majesty…” She paused as if she were hesitant to say more. What had come over his teacher? Since when did she hesitate in anything? No one had walked through life more assuredly than she.

“Don’t keep me in suspense.”

“It would be…inconvenient if you were wounded by a monstrosity, Your Majesty.”

“What have you read in the omens, Dia?”

He would take those with divine magic with him, paladins from the three temples, along with weapons and armour blessed by those with divine magic. Even if he were attacked, between his martial skill and the magic of those on hand, he should be in no danger. After all, monstrosities weren’t known to be intelligent, merely ferocious. But if he were injured openly, in full view of his soldiers, they might worry it was an ill omen and demand that a high priestess should see to his wounds. A king touched by such evil was considered tainted, his judgement corrupted until a high priestess had blessed him.

Normally, he would not concern himself with fear over that. A king should lead from the front. And the High Priestess Myrina, his aunt, resided in Passion’s temple here in Altanus.Sheat least had no interest in meddling in his affairs, unless they were matters of a passionate marriage alliance, which he had always shot down for the foolish fantasy it was.

“Only that you may be absent for some time.”

“But I’m expected to return?”

“Knowledge has not seen fit to reveal that to me.”

He clenched his teeth. Was he fated to die? But what was he supposed to do then? Let the Colonnades be tainted and his grain stolen? Unacceptable. He would not cower in his palace, dishonouring the royal blood flowing through his veins. He was the king of Aureum. If he were fated to die, then he would face his end with defiance.

It was only too bad that he’d needed to wait so long for one of King Enalos’ daughters to mature and show promise. If she’d been but a few years older, they might have wed before the spire had been constructed, with an heir to the throne already born. But Fate was rarely so kind.

And if Theron died? Queen Flora would soon follow.

“Then I will meet my fate head-on. And if anything happens to me, I will give Aureum to Batea. And woe to Viridis then, for I am all that stands between them and her bloodthirst.”

If Theron must drink from a poisoned chalice, then he would ensure his enemies choked on his blood.

Dia’s eyes widened with alarm.

“You cannot mean that.”

“Oh, I think I do. Pray for my safe return, Dia.”

Theron strode from the temple in high spirits. A race and a battle lay before him. Just the thing to get his heart pumping. As much as he enjoyed court intrigues, sometimes a good fight was just the thing to let off a little steam. And if this was to be his last? Well, he would make it spectacular enough to live on in songs and legends.

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