Page 80 of The Oracle of Dusk

“Given your current state, perhaps you shouldn’t be so quick to give advice. Perhaps you should be open to receiving some instead. Sign the declaration, or I’ll ensure Orithyia remains too busy to purify your blasphemer’s mark. Without that, you’ll never wear the crown again.”

If that were to happen, it would be because Orithyia had already planned it as such. It was true that no one would accept a man tainted by a goddess’ wrath on a throne, not unless he’d been purified by a high priestess. The threat was all too real, and yet, she’d just left herself vulnerable.

“You would dare interfere with the duties of a high priestess? How would you propose to stop her? Or does Orithyia do your bidding?”

That stopped Flora. If she could command Orithyia so easily, then was it Flora who had ordered a tower built in his lands, interfering with his guardianship of Aureum? That was as good as a declaration of war. Anyone with sense knew that without the proper rituals, building in such a location would anger the mountain spirits. Rituals that had most definitely not been conducted, seeing as those were the purview of monarchs and nobility.

“Orithyia is like a mother to Viridis, and every mother worth her salt can identify a threat to her child when she sees it.” Flora glared at him.

“Regardless, I will have to decline your offer of advice. I’ll never sign that document. First and foremost, it’s full of lies.”

“The only liar here stands before me in commoner’s rags.”

“I murdered, at most, ten soldiers. The rest fell to the monstrosities. A mere fraction of the soldiers you killed during your failed conquest, for which your punishment was an apology and monetary compensations to the victims of your unprovoked hostilities,” Theron continued as if she hadn’t spoken.

“And as to these commoner’s rags, as you so eloquently put it, am I to believe that the queendom of Viridis is so impoverished that even the royal palace cannot provide suitable garments for a king? A pity indeed, if so. For I recall that you were given everything befitting a princess when you stayed in Aureum.” When she tried to speak, he held up his hand.

“As for my lack of any adornment, when I crossed into Viridis, I wore only my armour and my seal ring, which was stolen by none other than your General Stentor. I would appreciate its return, lest it fall into the hands of someone who might consider using it to sign that spurious document without my consent. I hope you will see fit to have it returned to me. Lastly, I would rather give up my crown than cede the Dragon’s Flank to Viridis. It’s worth far more than the lives of ten Viridian soldiers, and pretending otherwise is an insult to the intelligence of everyone gathered here. I will pay reasonable monetary compensation for my transgressions, but you will not have my kingdom.”

Flora pointed at him, her ire flashing in her eyes.

“You dare to stand there, a blasphemer and a murderer, and dictate terms in my court? You falsely accuse an honourable man of theft, and a queen of valuing the lives of her soldiers too highly? Your shamelessness knows no bounds, Theron!”

“The only shameless thing in this room is that document. I have told no lies, nor made false accusations. As for your soldiers, what is the price a Viridian noble pays to the crown if he kills a soldier? According to your own law codes, he pays the man’s weight in coppers. Silvers if he is of a middling rank. Am I mistaken?”

“Those laws apply to the citizens of Viridis. Not to foreigners.”

He had her on the retreat now.

“Then allow me to offer to pay the weight of each slain soldier in gold as compensation. That is fair by any measure.”

“And what of the servants of the guest palace? What will you pay for terrorising them?” She raised her brows.

Flora really was making misstep after misstep. Her vivarium was a gross insult to the sacred concept of hospitality. After all, a host was judged based on the welcome they gave their guests. That she was too blinded by her own arrogance to see it spoke poorly for her ability to remain on her throne.

“Nothing. They gave the first insult. Unless it was you who ordered them make indecent demands in return for basic necessities? I was incredibly lenient, given the magnitude of their insults against me. In Aureum, such disrespect would be met with a whipping, at least. But perhaps making vulgar demands of royalty is merely your custom in Viridis.”

“Oh, then perhaps you would like to follow the Aurean custom for captured royalty? I believe it is to be paraded through the streets of the capital in chains.”

“Which your general Stentor already did. And that is the custom for captured war leaders, yes. But I neither declared nor initiated war.”

“Your actions at the Queen’s Road were as good as a declaration. That I have not marched on Aureum is due to my magnanimity.”

And her wariness of starting a war during a cycle of chaos. If she’d really wanted a war, she would have had him beheaded the moment he’d arrived. It could still happen, but she wanted the Dragon’s Flank instead. If she got it, she would cut him off from Aureum’s only profitable port and its most accessible trade route. Flora was, as ever, a bundle of contradictions. She wanted revenge for her failed war, but needed to humiliate him and Aureum before she could be satisfied. Her weakness was her sadism. Rather than deal with the threat he posed in the most expedient of ways, she needed to toy with him.

Had Queen Flora been brought to Aureum for the same crimes, he would not have let her lead him by the nose in his own court. He would have forced a public audience only once he’d beaten her down in private. But she was so needy for his humiliation that she’d not considered he would turn it against her. Flora expected him to be fearful and humbled by his circumstances, as she had been. That she could not conceive of a worldview different than her own was an astounding oversight. It made it all the clearer that the one who truly ruled Viridis was not this petulant creature, but the cunning high priestess. Without her mistress keeping a firm hand on her leash, Flora was a dog chasing her own tail.

Just as he’d long suspected.

“My actions at the border were a result of divine madness. Surely your general relayed this to you.”

“Princess Epicasta, Your Majesty,” the guard at the door announced.

The queen’s sycophants looked grim as the princess swept into the room. She didn’t spare him a glance as she approached her mother wearing a gown in the deep red of mourning along with a silver and green tiara atop her dark, veiled hair.

“I heard you were entertaining a guest, Your Majesty,” Epicasta said, her gaze flicking over him.

“Hardly. This is King Theron, a shameless blasphemer who dares dictate what his punishment should be for killing Viridian soldiers in my queendom.”

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