ICO: Castle in the Mist (28 page)

“Yet the tournament has long been the only window connecting this land with its neighbors. There are some, like myself, who participate in order to gain information about this land, and others who participate to become a henchman of the queen with all the power that entails. There are many different people in this world, all with different ways of thinking. There are even those who would join your mother precisely because she is so feared.”

Yorda thought she could understand that. If it were true that the queen held enough power to destroy not only this continent but the entire world, it was better to be on her side than any other.

And yet it was foolish to imagine one could join her. The queen had no need of anyone else, nor had she any intention of sharing her throne. The only one with whom she joined hands was the Dark God.

“Yet over the many tournaments, the victors have, without exception, vanished. We never hear of their glorious achievements in battle, their rise to power after their victory. No one has seen them on the battlefields, leading the charge.”

Yorda slumped, putting a hand to her head as though she could push out her memories of the gallery of statues beneath the graveyard.

“There are those—people who want peace in this world under Sol Raveh’s benevolent eyes—who would like to know what became of them. To learn what is going on within the queen’s domain and what will happen next. Not from idle curiosity, but from a sense of dire urgency.”

Yorda looked up. “And you are one of these people?”

Ozuma’s eyes flickered to her face for a moment. “It is as you say,” he replied. “Princess Yorda, are you aware of the large country, the Holy Zagrenda-Sol Empire, that stretches from far to the east down to the south?”

She had learned of all their neighboring lands in Master Suhal’s lectures. “Yes, but I had never heard it called holy before.”

Ozuma smiled faintly. “Its name was changed only three years ago. The founding royal family of the empire consider themselves descendants of Sol Raveh and bear his sign as their family crest.”

“Not just priests of Sol Raveh, but actual ancestors?”

“Indeed.”

A few days ago, Yorda would have laughed, but now that she knew that her mother was the child of the Dark God, it did not seem quite so preposterous.

“Princess, all men worship the gods and seek connections to them in any number of ways. Royal families and imperial houses desire a close connection to the divine all the more. Creating legends and stories to spread the word of one’s own divine heritage is merely another strategy a ruler may employ. What is important is that the people believe, and they are able to display sufficient strength to keep the peace within their domain.”

In these respects, Ozuma told her, the Zagrenda-Sol Empire had been successful.

“Not only do they command a powerful army, but they have developed their lands well to make the country rich. They support merchants in their business and scholars in their endeavors. It is a place not only of material wealth, but spiritual wealth. I do not claim it is a paradise on earth, where all things proceed according to some divine plan. Zagrenda-Sol has her difficulties, as any country does—many, in fact. But these are ultimately inconsequential. No one expects us to be able to create a heavenly paradise during our lives on this earth, and a ruler would be foolish to promise such.”

“And yet they call themselves a holy empire?”

Ozuma nodded. “The cathedral of Zagrenda-Sol is impressive indeed. It was constructed over a century ago, yet it boasts a tower high enough to catch the light of the morning star, and the bell tower is wide enough to house an entire village. It takes one hundred strongmen just to sound the vesper bells.”

Three years earlier, the knight explained, the fifth emperor of Zagrenda-Sol took his throne at the young age of twenty-five. As dictated by law, his coronation took place in the cathedral, and there, the young emperor had received a revelation.

“In the revelation, the emperor learned that a herald of darkness had appeared upon the land, and that he, as the descendant of Sol Raveh, was to take a great sword of the purest light to destroy it. It was, in essence, a declaration of holy war. After changing the name of his country to the Holy Zagrenda-Sol Empire, he appointed the great cathedral as his headquarters for the coming war. He then created the position of priest-king in the cathedral and declared himself the first. Nothing of the kind had ever happened before in the long history of the empire.”

While an emperor has the power to assemble and command an army within his own realm, a priest-king is a servant of the Sun God, the knight said, with the authority to assemble a great army from believers in all lands. In theory, the priest-king could call on anyone living where the Sun God is worshipped.

“After this declaration, the emperor sent out messengers across the continent, putting out a call to arms. I am sure one came here for your mother as well.”

“My mother? Is she not feared by the people beyond our borders?”

“Of course. Even in the Holy Zagrenda-Sol Empire, they had concerns about the queen’s power. No one knew that she, and the power she wielded, was the very herald of darkness foretold in the emperor’s revelation. But as a matter of precaution they sent a messenger to ask her assistance in the coming battle. It was a test.”

Yorda knew little of governance. Yet she had an idea of how her mother would have taken such news. She pictured those beautifully sculpted eyebrows lifting at the words
herald of darkness upon the land,
and at the announcement that the children of the Sun God had declared holy war against that darkness.

Against her.

Yorda wondered if she had been frightened—or perhaps she had merely laughed. Either way, she could not take action until the time of the next eclipse, when the Dark God’s power obscured the sun. Until that day, the queen would have to quietly gather her strength.

“The queen did not respond to the emperor’s request,” Ozuma said, his voice sinking. He sounded almost sympathetic. “This, of course, deepened the suspicions of the priest-king. Even as he assembled his forces, the emperor had countless scholars and magi working to answer the question of what exactly these signs of darkness were meant to indicate. The emperor himself spent many days in contemplation and study of the revelation’s meaning. And, just recently—”

Yorda shook her head, cutting him off. “They found that the herald was my mother.”

Ozuma bowed deeply. “I am truly sorry, Princess.”

Yorda sighed and covered her face with her hands. She felt as though she had been wounded deep in her chest and bled sadness from the wound.

Yet in her sorrow she also found solace
. I am not alone. I’m not the only one that knows of my mother’s pact with the terrifying lord of the underworld.

I have friends in the world outside—I hope.

Ozuma put a hand to his chest. “I am but the advance guard,” he said, though Yorda detected that there was something he left unsaid.

“In other words, you are one of the warriors of our god summoned to the cause by the priest-king. You’re here to find out what happens to the victors of the tournament—not just as the victor, but as the greatest warrior to participate in the history of the tournament.”

“It is as you say.”

For a time, Yorda was silent, feeling unease and doubt weighing on the scales of her heart. Every time she remembered what her mother had done, it chilled her to the bone, yet she did not think she should be so willing to accept everything that this strange knight told her at face value. The herald of darkness certainly sounded like her mother. Yet that was no proof that the knight’s tale was not a false tapestry woven from threads of the truth.

It was certainly possible that a cabal of individuals seeking to oust her mother from the throne was trying to deceive her. The queen’s plans were terrifying, yet an invasion was a terrifying prospect too, and not only for Yorda. It was a threat to her entire country.

To place her trust in Ozuma’s words was to risk betraying her own country.

“Lady Yorda,” Ozuma called to her, his voice like water over stones. “I had another reason for participating in the tournament and coming here to this castle. That was to meet you.”

Yorda’s eyes went wide. “Why would you want to meet me?”

“Is it not true that you have never left the castle grounds?”

Yorda nodded.

“This is because your mother keeps you confined here.”

“Confined? No, she—well, yes, I suppose she does.”

“Would it surprise you, Princess, to learn that you are not the only one whose comings and goings are so restricted? All of the people of your realm are barred from visiting other lands. Only a handful of trade routes still cross its borders, and these only by virtue of a treaty signed before the queen took her throne. Stranger still, her people do not find this suspicious or question it in the least.”

The reason for this, the knight explained, was that the queen had cast a spell upon the land.

“You mean our citizens are all under an enchantment? That’s ridiculous!”

“My sentiments precisely—but no less true for it, I’m afraid,” Ozuma said. “This is why none question why someone so important as the princess of the realm is kept here in her castle and shown to no one. They never even think to wonder about you, Princess, not even the ministers in charge of the royal household’s affairs.”

Yorda felt a chill, and she hugged her arms close about her body.

“I beg you, listen with a still heart. There is more to the emperor’s revelation I’ve not yet told you. Near the herald of darkness there is one who is aware of the darkness and possesses the power to defeat it. This one is already becoming aware of their role—and the darkness cannot be defeated without their strength.”

“You mean to say that I am the one.”

“I can think of no other. You are the true daughter of the queen, Lady Yorda. You carry her blood in your veins. It is not a stretch to imagine that you wield power yourself, such as might be used against her. That is why she does not let you leave the castle and keeps you within close reach. She bewitches her own people’s hearts so that they will not suspect or question her reasons.”

“Then why did my mother give birth to me at all?” Yorda suddenly shouted. “If she knew she would have to keep me locked up here all my life, she should never have brought me into this world. And why tell me her secret if she feared it becoming known?”

Yorda put a hand to her mouth. She had not intended to reveal that the queen had confided in her at all.

“It is a mystery, and one which you have encountered already it seems,” Ozuma said quietly.

Yorda had no words with which to refute Ozuma’s quiet condemnation.

The things she had seen beneath the graveyard tormented her even now, the fear tempered only by her sadness.

Yorda breathed a long, shuddering sigh and began to tell Ozuma everything, beginning with her ill-conceived attempt to venture outside the castle walls. She told him what she had seen beneath the cemetery, of the queen’s secret, and her pact with the Dark God.

As she spoke, she felt a weight settle upon her shoulders, and her heart became numb and empty.

For his part, Ozuma did not seem moved to fear or hatred. There was only kindness and sympathy in his face.

When she had finished her story, Ozuma knelt beside her. “Thank you for telling me,” he said. “You must’ve been terribly frightened.”

A teardrop slid from Yorda’s eye.

“Yet when you heard the truth from your mother’s mouth, it opened up the eyes of your heart. That is why you could see the lonely shades trapped in the Tower of Winds. You have awakened, Lady Yorda. And,” Ozuma added in a whisper, “the revelation was true.”

“But why?” Yorda asked, wiping the tear from her face. “Why did my mother show me those things? Why did she not keep them hidden?”

“That, I do not know for certain,” Ozuma said. “But were I to venture a guess, I would say that she was sufficiently afraid of you that she took it upon herself to strike first.”

[8]

“
NEAR THE HERALD
of darkness there is one who is aware of the darkness and possesses the power to defeat it.”

Even after a night of restless sleep, Ozuma’s words rang in Yorda’s ears. It was all real. It was not a nightmare or fever dream.

While she was preparing for the day, Yorda informed the chief handmaiden that she would be attending the fourth round of the tournament that day. She had to see Ozuma’s skill for herself.

The handmaiden raised a querying eyebrow as she tied the strings at the waist of Yorda’s dress. “The princess will be viewing the tournament?”

“Am I not allowed?”

“No, of course you are. But I thought you disliked the noise.”

“It is noisy, granted. But at the banquet last night, I heard that there is a particularly skillful swordsman in this tournament. The Minister of Court and the Captain of the Guard were both flushed with excitement when they spoke of his prowess. I thought this must be an unusual contestant indeed, and I must admit I grew curious to see him.”

Yorda smiled, but the handmaiden’s frown did not soften. Yorda could see herself reflected in the handmaiden’s pale, washed-out eyes.

Terrified as she was of the queen’s power, the handmaiden made a convenient pawn for her mother. It was no coincidence that her mother had assigned the woman to her at the same time that she revealed the truth to Yorda. Who better to keep an eye on her daughter?

Yorda’s every deed would be conveyed through the handmaiden to the queen. She had to move carefully. Always with a smile, always pleasant.

Yorda knew there was no point in trying to get information from her handmaiden, even though the questions she had were many. She wanted to know what her mother had told the woman, what she had been shown, and why she was the only one to see it. Had her mother revealed to the handmaiden a portion of her secret to ensure her loyalty?

Tell me,
Yorda wanted to say,
and I will tell you what I know. I know that it is not only we two who are aware of the truth that lurks behind my mother’s beguiling smile. We have allies in the world beyond these walls.