Page 132 of The King of Koraha
Rendor raised his hand to open the mural, but she grabbed his arm. “Wait. Do you see that?”
“See what?”
“Just look.” She didn’t want to influence him. It could just be her imagination.
“It’s…the sun and the black orb is…our world…
I think…they’re inside a sideways blue eight.”
“I think that blue color means it’s a river and the shape is an infinity symbol.”
“Oh, right. Does that symbolize how we’re all connected?”
“Probably.” She stepped closer and touched the mural. Except it wasn’t glass. The colors had been cut from gemstones. And the sun’s pieces— “It’s a sunfire!” She pointed.
Rendor tapped on Koraha. “Blackfire.”
“And the blue?”
“I don’t know, but we can ask the King.”
Remembering about the meeting, they hustled to shut off all the lanterns and get into position before Najib arrived.
After the advisor left, they joined the King. Najib had been priming the King for the bad news about Shyla, dropping hints of incriminating evidence he’d been collecting.
Once they dissected Najib’s comments, Shyla asked the King about the mural. “You said the oath is used in place of the pendants, but the panels of the mural are made from thin slices of sunfire and blackfire. The scrolls said the pendants were lost. When was the mural constructed?”
“When they moved the castle to Qulsary.” He hesitated then seemed to make up his mind. “After Tamburah went power crazy and was assassinated, the next ruler, Queen Malin, packed up and moved to this location. She built the mural to prevent the pendants from being stolen. It’s harder to move a mural. And, before you ask, the artifacts were reported to have disappeared, but they weren’t lost. They were repurposed. I figured the ones Xerxes has had to be copies. But I knew it didn’t matter if they were the originals or not, they worked the same and we needed to figure out how to counter the magic.”
That made sense.
The King sighed. “I should have told you, but I’d been warned to keep this information secret.”
“If we’re to stop Xerxes, we need to know everything. What else can you tell us about the oath and the mural?”
“When they search for the next king, two children are found who both have the power to move the water. When they turn eight circuits old, they are brought to the mural. Their palms are cut and pressed to the heart. One child will get the crown scar, and the other will be marked as their primary advisor. The advisor then loses their magical ability.”
That was new, and it gave her a bit of hope. “If you die before the next generation is old enough to command the water, would your advisor be able to regain their magic?”
“No. Once it’s done, it’s set. Then there’s no temptation for the advisor to take the King’s place.”
“Or Queen’s, except there’s only been one in our history,” Rendor said. “It’s not really a surprise that the old king was chosen over Yiesha.”
“Actually, Captain, there have been many kings of all different genders throughout our history. They are referred to as the king and ‘he’ has been the traditional pronoun used. Except for Malin; she insisted on being called Queen and, after Tamburah’s atrocities, Korahans welcomed the change. However, gender makes no difference to the Sun Goddess.”
Shyla’s opinion of the goddess rose another notch. But they still didn’t have a way to counter the sunfire. “Where did Xerxes get his gemstones?”
“There have been other gifts from the sky that have been discovered in the sands of our world. Perhaps Xerxes found them on one of his treasure-hunting missions and figured out their significance.” The King rubbed a hand over his face. “It still doesn’t change the fact that we need to block the sunfire’s power. Have you had any success?”
“Not really.” She explained what she’d learned.
“Dying is a form of freedom,” the King said. “But not the solution in this case. What’s next?”
“We can see if there’s information about the loyalty oath,” she said. “Since it works the same way as Xerxes’ pendants, maybe if there’s a way to break the oath, we can apply that to his sunfire.”
“A change of heart clause?” the King joked.
“Can we also get a set of guard uniforms?” Rendor asked.
