Page 94 of The King of Koraha
Once again Neda held up a hand. “Who are you really?”
This might be the deal breaker. “I’m Shyla Sun-Kissed, leader of the Invisible Sword and the King’s emissary.” She exposed the sigil.
“Anything else?”
“I’m the daughter of Hanif Parzival and Zirdai’s new Heliacal Priestess.” And, according to the Sun Goddess, her champion.
“Well. That’s quite the list. If anyone is going to fix this mess, it’ll be you. All right. Let’s get to work.” She rubbed her hands together and glanced around. “We need to go back to the Fourth Room; there’s an entire collection of scrolls on historically significant artifacts.” She pointed to Shyla’s face. “The Eyes are mentioned in one of them.”
The woman was sharp. Good. “Then we’ll tell Kamila that you remembered a collection of scrolls on the history of the Kings of Koraha.”
“We’re going to need more help,” Neda said.
“Then gather your best researchers. They can be the first group I set free.”
After moving to the Fourth Room of Knowledge and adding six more people to the research group, they read through the collection. To avoid alerting Kamila and Fareed, the researchers called anything that might be about the pendants the King’s gifts and showed the reference to Shyla. It still took them about four sun jumps to find anything of value.
Neda set a scroll in front of Shyla, covering the one she was reading. “This mentions the King’s power to rule. Perhaps there’s something more to it.”
“Thank you. I’ll take a closer look.” Shyla clamped down on a groan. The text had been written in the language of the kings. Archaic and difficult to read, the dialect changed throughout the circuits, morphing with time, which made it even more maddening to decipher.
However, it didn’t take her too long to realize this might be exactly what they’d been searching for. Trying to keep her expression neutral even though her pulse raced, Shyla translated the text. It reported a set of pendants that were gifted to the first King of Koraha. When the people finally realized that in order to survive they needed to stop killing each other over their dwindling resources, they banded together.
These pendants were set with two different one-of-a-kind gemstones. One was a sunfire, a bright yellowish-orange jewel, which they claimed held the essence of the sun. The other held a blackfire, an opaque black jewel with a sheen of iridescence, which held the essence of the earth. And since the sun ruled the earth, the sunfire commanded the blackfire.
Shyla found a reference to the people wanting their king to have one loyal advisor. After circuits of war, the leaders were naturally suspicious of each other and it was exhausting being on guard all the time. They gave the King the means to ensure he’d have someone he could trust with his life. Therefore the King wore the sunfire pendant and his closest advisor—the one who woke The Eyes—wore the blackfire.
The description of these pendants matched hers and Xerxes’ except for the size. According to the account, the original trillion-cut jewels were approximately eight centimeters wide. That was about two times the size of the one Xerxes wore.
She remembered Fellan showing her his pendant. Same gemstone as Xerxes’ but only half a centimeter wide and with a fraction of the power. Had Xerxes cut the original jewel into smaller pieces? He needed lieutenants and that would make sense. Lonato’s piece must be bigger than Fellan’s. The man had been rather strong. She had to give Xerxes credit for risking the power of the gemstone. Cutting the jewel could have ruined the magic. And a bad cleaving could destroy the stone like what had happened to Shyla’s.
It appeared he had done the same for the blackfire pendant, cutting it into smaller stones to get the most minions as possible. She wondered how many. No wonder they were careful about who received pendants. Except why use the blackfire at all? Seemed the sunfire was strong enough to influence even those without a pendant. Then she recalled that they only used the blackfire on those who were particularly strong-willed.
Concentrating on the rest of the text, she continued the translation. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a reference to how to counter the sunfire’s influence. Shyla sorted through her memories, putting clues together.
The person wearing a sunfire pendant could use the magic to influence others. If the person proved too stubborn, then they gave them a blackfire pendant. The enslaved had to look at the gemstone in order for it to work. A painful shudder rocked her when she recalled how the jewel had tugged and captured her soul. It appeared that Fellan’s sunfire had been linked to her blackfire, and when Xerxes decided to control her, he’d yanked off Fellan’s blackfire and replaced it with one of his own, giving the original pendant back to Fellan.
How did knowing that help her? They each had a limited number of pendants to enslave people and they couldn’t be shared. And when Xerxes had taken off her necklace, she had a moment of clarity. Same with when Mojag removed hers. They couldn’t destroy the stone without fatal consequences. Perhaps they could put the pendants into a black cloth bag and bury them.
At least she had a temporary solution for freeing those enslaved. Although she now needed a way to stop the magic of the sunfire. Unless it was as easy as taking the pendant off Xerxes? But could she? The man was resistant to her magic, and his fighting skills were legendary. She might be able to trick him. Or overpower him. Nine members of the Invisible Sword could easily handle the commander.
She translated the rest of the document and didn’t find a solution. In the lower right-hand corner was a symbol that indicated the scroll had been copied. Grabbing one of the magnifying glasses on the table, she peered closer at the symbol. It matched the one on her bracelet. Did that mean the King had a Room of Knowledge? Many times not all the information was copied. It was possible there were more details there. And, if she thought about it, it was smart not to copy the details on how to counter the sunfire. The King wouldn’t want too many people to have that information.
That thought triggered another question. How had Xerxes found the pendants? According to the record, Tamburah’s advisor, who was supposed to wake The Eyes, stole the pendants and disappeared before the King could claim both magical artifacts. Another rib-aching shudder ripped through her over the thought of Tamburah having the sunfire and The Eyes.
From what she just read, it appeared that the sunfire was an added protection for the King. It made sense since his advisor wielded the power of The Eyes, and there was a very real danger of the advisor using The Eyes for their own purposes. With the sunfire, the King had both a powerful and trustworthy advisor.
In Shyla’s experience, lost artifacts were found in unexpected places or by pure chance. Xerxes had access to the castle, perhaps he’d just been lucky. Or . . . Shyla searched her memory. The old king had sent his elite forces on treasure-hunting missions. Xerxes must have found the pendants and kept them for himself.
Over the next two sun jumps, Shyla and the others read through as many documents as possible but found nothing else about the pendants. She still had three more sun jumps before she was due to return to Xerxes. All the Monks of Lyons had been freed, but Shyla promised to help Neda deal with Egan since they hadn’t found a solution to countering the sunfire. However, once Egan was neutralized, Neda and her loyal monks could deal with those who were loyal to him.
At angle zero, Shyla, her two guards, Neda, and a few monks gathered in Egan’s office to officially say goodbye.
“Ah, Little One. Have you found what you needed?” Egan asked.
“Yes, I’ve learned how to counter the King’s magic. Xerxes will be pleased.” She unrolled the scroll she held. “See here.” Moving closer to Egan, she turned it so he would pivot to see better. “This document explains exactly what we need to do,” she said.
Egan glanced at the text, but she doubted he could read the ancient language. “Excellent. Are you leaving then?”
