Page 118 of Poisoned Kingdom
The broken mage attacked once again, corrupted aether flooding me. My body seized, every nerve an inferno, reducing me to a shrivelled, tormented knot, no longer caring for the world as I prayed for the pain to stop. The magic in my blood responded, exposing my deepest memory—one I shouldn’t have been able to remember: the moment of my birth, when the aether filling our world had blessed my first breath.
Words formed in my mind, and I realised what they were: Everything I had been, everything I was, and everything I would ever be. The simple phrase that anchored my soul to existence.
S’eteto te sue me carer lumiere, verites a met ser viller laner.1
My geas.
As I whispered them, ashen lips forming the words, the Veil listened. The entity within, finally satisfied, slowly withdrew, releasing its grip on my soul.
I sighed with relief, taking one last breath as my heart stuttered to a halt.
1. Clothed in twilight, bearer of the dawn, her touch changes how fate is drawn.
Chapter 42
Reynard
The door bounced off the wall of my office as Riordan burst in, Tova in tow. ‘You must stop them. That bloody healer’s lost his mind, hiding this from me!’
Distracted by the sudden interruption, my hand shook, and a massive drop of ink fell from the quill onto the trade agreement with Lumivitae, the light fae kingdom. I hastily threw blotting sand on it, hoping to salvage the document, before looking at the two expectant lunatics standing before me.
‘Could you spare me the hysterics and explain what’s going on?’ I said, wondering what had prompted their dramatic entrance.
‘They arrested Sana and took her to the mages, so shift your royal arse and get her out of there!’ the dwarf shouted.
‘What are you talking about? Who took her?’ I frowned, questioning whether I'd understood him.
Sana has been worried about the consequences of losing control in Ostrava, but I hadn’t thought the council would do anything with Ciesko pushing so hard for her geas trial.
‘The council decided to take action after the Ostrava incident,’ Riordan replied. ‘They’re putting her on trial! I’ve already sent for my grandfather, but only you can contest the verdict. Gods, you knew she was a vivamancer, and you didn't tell me?’ He gave me such an accusatory glare that I nearly shrank back. ‘Rey, if they see her as a threat, they’re going tokillher.’
The rustling of a piece of parchment falling on the floor was the only sound as I rose from my chair, hands crushing the precious document I’d tried salvaging a moment ago. My lips curled in a snarl so vicious that the two men took a step back.
‘What . . . thefuckare you talking about? What trial?’ I carefully enunciated every word, holding back the berserker’s rage by the thinnest of threads. If I went there now, I would kill every soul blocking my path and let the necromancers ask questions later. ‘Explain.Clearly. Before I drown that wretched council in molten srebrec.’
Riordan’s eyes widened as he took another step back, and I scowled at his flinch when I reached for my sword and buckler. I shouted to the guard manning the door, my voice echoing as I methodically fastened my weapons, ‘Tell the stables to saddle three horses!’
‘Rey, you can’t storm over like this. You can’t attack the council,’ he started, but I raised my hand, silencing him while reaching for a set of daggers.
‘No, Ri, if there’s one thing I can’t do, it’s lose her,’ I said. ‘Everything else can burn.’ A threat to Sana’s life from the peoplesupposedly helping her was my breaking point in this political death trap I’d found myself in. ‘I’m done doing my damnedest for all these people who think they can rule this kingdom better than me. I’m the War King of Dagome, and if they won’t bend to my will, I’ll enjoy watching them break.’
‘Fucking finally,’ Tova muttered, and when I looked at the dwarf standing quietly by the door, he had a hand on his axe and an eager expression on his face that didn’t bode well for those threatening his drah’sa.
Riordan looked at me in horror. ‘Rey, don’t let your the wild—’
I thrust a half-filled goblet of wine into my flustered friend’s hands. ‘This isn’t the berserker speaking, it is the king. A king who wanted to be loved, not feared—but as I can’t achieve the first, I’ll excel in the latter. Now tell me all you know, and start making sense, or I swear I’ll punch you.’
‘Yes, sire.’ Riordan bowed, then drank the wine while I drafted an order.
Send the garrison to the city. Surround the Court of Aether.
A few simple words to the captain of the guard, ensuring the mages understood me.
As we walked out of my office, I passed my orders to the guard before gesturing to Ri.
‘Talk.’
‘Vivamancers have always been treated like abominations despite their magic being rooted in life. There are rules—laws that forbid the creation of new life, but no one has seen a vivamancer in centuries,’ he said, his robes rustling with each step he took as he rushed to keep up with me. ‘You should have told me as soon as you knew. Those old pricks are out of their depth, and I don’t know what they'll do.’
