Page 1 of The Kingdom's Reckoning
Prologue
KAGE
Kage ranhis fingertips across the thousands of glass vials littering the shelves of the frigid storage room. The collection had grown into something quite outstanding, something beyond what he initially dreamed up decades ago. He paused at a section where a thick layer of dust had collected. He swiped a finger across the glass, wiping away the dust particles.
Most people feared anger. They ran from it, hid from it. They stuffed it down, tried to ignore it, and waited for it to fade away. To an extent, Kage understood their fear. More often than not, anger and rage were untamable beasts that could wrap their tendrils around your throat and choke you if you weren’t careful. The king of Ardentol, however, was not afraid of his anger. He did not ignore it. He did not will it away or pretend that it would disappear on its own. Instead, he embraced it. He let it fester within him and build and build and build until he needed it most. Until he could use it to its full potential.
He hadn’t always been this way, of course. Kage could vaguely recall a time in his life when he was like the rest of the world—when he, too, would run away from someone’s anger andhide from his own. Those years, thankfully, were lost to time, and Kage Domitius was not in the business of going backward.
He plucked a vial from the shelf and spun the glass tube between his thumb and index finger. The liquid sloshed against the sides of the glass and splashed onto the bottom of the cork, soaking it.
While Kage hadn’t anticipated the two prisoners escaping, he always had a plan in case things didn’t go according to schedule. He hadn’t gotten this far without creating contingency plans, after all.
"Sir," the captain of the King’s Guard called from the entrance to the storage room. "She’s ready."
Kage grabbed a second vial and handed both tubes to the young healer standing nearby. "Prepare the table. This should only take a moment."
With blood from the most recent transformation soiling his apron, Dr. Stone eyed the two vials warily as he took them. "Are you sure you wish to go through with this, Your Highness? Once we start, we cannot stop."
Kage tilted his head to the side.
When Dr. Thorne was training the young healer, Kage had done his best to stay as far away from him as possible. With Thorne’s death, Kage no longer had a choice in the matter. The young man lacked the same quiet resolve the former healer had adopted in Kage’s presence. Instead, Dr. Stone preferred to ask questions, to dig deep into the weeds of the experiments and the obstacles that they had faced over the years.
Kage stepped forward, and his nostrils flared at the iron coating Stone’s apron. "Do not question my decisions, Dr. Stone."
The healer quickly bowed. "Of course, Your Majesty."
Huffing, Kage strolled past the healer and said to the captain, "Let’s go, Lundril."
The door swung shut behind them. With the captain a step behind him, Kage made his way through the damp hallways beneath the castle. When he reached the secluded cell, Kage halted.
"Open the door."
Lundril slipped the key into the lock and twisted it, the mechanism clicking. As he opened the door, the hinges creaked. Torchlight spilled inside the small room, illuminating the prisoner within.
The seer lifted her head, the chain around her neck screeching as she moved. Leaning her head against the wall, Lysanthia squinted, her eyes adjusting to the sudden flood of light. "Is it time already?" she croaked.
Kage ignored the seer’s question and stepped inside, his gaze sweeping across the four bare walls. The cell reeked, and his nose scrunched in disgust. "After all this time, I have to ask, do you enjoy being in this cell? Have the chains become a source of comfort?"
Lysanthia stared at him, her light gray eyes ghostly. Her thin, pale skin was even ghastlier.
"Not in a talkative mood today?"
"Ask what you seek, Kage," she said.
He sighed. There was usually more bite to the seer. Kage typically looked forward to their conversations. Lysanthia was one of the few people who ever dared challenge him. Even as the chains wore into her wrists and weighed her body down over the decades, she somehow maintained her spite. It was perplexing. Admirable, even.
He supposed he did have a schedule to keep. "You can see the future. You already know what I wish to know."
"There are many things I know, and many paths yet to be written," she answered as if bored.
"Do you ever grow sick of the riddles?" he asked, curious.
She cocked her head, and her greasy black hair fell to the side. "Not even in the slightest," she said with a saccharine smile.
There she was.
"It did not have to come to this, you know," Kage said.
