The Destroyer Book 3 (62 page)

"No, of course not." She smiled and released my hand carefully. "You currently have a Council of nobles that supports a single ruler. There are votes for major issues. I would like a seat on the Council with either you, your uncle, or your cousin on the throne."

"Nanos would be next in line for the throne. It flows from firstborn to firstborn. My uncle cannot serve as king."

“These things can be changed, Jessmei. We do not have to abide by the old rules. It would be beneficial for us to determine who the best person to serve your country is, regardless of the past and your rules. I am asking you to consider a friendship between our people. I know I have wronged you, but can you bring yourself to forgive me on behalf of my people?” She seemed sincere and I knew that her story had some truth in it. I imagined that she had no need to come to us with a peaceful proposition. If she wanted, she had the power to enslave all of the humans on this planet and coerce me into helping. Still, Kaiyer’s words sounded in my head and I feared trusting her completely.

In any case, what she was proposing was better than the alternative. I imagined she would torture me, Nadea, Greykin, and my uncle until I agreed to help her. If I went along with her under the guise of friendship and cooperation, I might be able to learn enough to make a deal with the clans later and avoid violence for now. I had little choice. Kaiyer was gone and without him we were powerless against these Elvens.

"I want peace, Empress."

"Excellent!" She clasped her hands together and smiled, just like Nadea. "This will herald in a golden age for our races. I am delighted." She raised her glass of port to toast and I smiled and matched her cheer.

"I envision us as partners, sisters even, working together for the benefit of our people," I said.

"Your words match my heart, Jessmei," the empress said with a sigh of relief. "I am glad we could come to this point."

"I am worried that some of my people might not accept this peace, especially after what has happened.” She frowned and nodded at my words.

"I cannot be confined to my room during my stay here; it sends the wrong message to my people. Can you provide me with one or two of your best guards as an escort? Then I would feel safer in my home." I tried to summon a relaxed smile. I wanted to visit Nadea and my uncle, but I doubted that Telaxthe would let me roam around the castle alone this early in our negotiations.

"Gladly. I have one in mind that I believe you will like. I will have her come see you once I leave. Speaking of which." She looked over her shoulder at my balcony. The day had changed to dark night, and the wind was now a chill whisper. "I would have liked to speak to your cousin Nadea privately, but it must wait until tomorrow. I feel I have been rude to her since she arrived earlier this morning and I have been keeping her waiting." Telaxthe stood up from the table and I rose from my chair. "I will leave you for the night. We can speak more tomorrow. Would you be available for lunch?"

"Yes of course, lunch would be wonderful. Thank you for visiting me," I said and I remembered my manners and produced a curtsey for the Elven woman. She matched it with a bow and then pulled me to her chest with a warm embrace.

I was surprised by the movement, but her warmth comforted me. I hugged her back and tried not to let my mixed emotions come to the surface. My heart should hate her, but it didn't. I felt empathy and sadness that her history forced her to come to our world seeking blood instead of peace. We parted and then looked at each other again. I smiled at her and blinked to keep my eyes from becoming too moist. I felt as if everything really would turn out for the best. If it did not, I'd learn what I could from the woman and then use my magic to strike a deal with the clans.

"You should speak to Nadea tonight. You will like her," I said.

"Kaiyer told me that I would enjoy speaking to her. He thought very highly of her. She is probably asleep now."

"She reminds me of you." I smiled.

"What do you mean?" The empress raised an eyebrow.

"You both look very similar and have mannerisms that match. She looks more like you than your sister, even though she is human." Telaxthe’s face rapidly lost some of its color that had been reflected by the candles. Suddenly she looked like her pale Elven sister.

"Your uncle oversees the east side of Nia, correct?" Her words sounded hollow and empty. Her smile was gone and her eyes had lost their sharp focus.

"Yes." I was puzzled by her sudden change in demeanor.

"His keep is at the foot of the Teeth Mountains, is it not?" Her voice was now unmistakably angry.

"Yes. Did I say something wrong? If so, please forgive me."

"Oh no, Jessmei." Her face quickly broke into a smile and the color seemed to return to her skin. "You have done nothing wrong." She took a deep breath and brushed her hand over my cheek. "I will go visit Nadea now. Thank you for telling me about her."

"Of course, and I will see you for lunch tomorrow?" I asked to confirm.

"Yes. I look forward to it. Thank you again. This meeting has been more bountiful than I could have imagined." She bowed slightly as she edged toward the door, then she opened it and disappeared into the hallway.

I walked back out onto the balcony. I no longer thought about flinging myself off of the edge. Tomorrow morning, I would see Nadea, and then we would go speak with Beltor. I'd tell them about what the empress was proposing and we would figure out what to do. Kaiyer was gone from me forever, but as long as I had the rest of my family, life was still worth living.

I sat with his body for most of the night. The wood coffin was freshly cut and nailed together with obvious care. The smell of sap oozing from the timber mixed with the pine needles and powerful herbs on the bed of the casket. The fragrance reminded me of fresh rain and new beginnings. It was a comforting scent that my friend would have appreciated. He often would burn these types of incenses when his sickness grew to a point where the Earth could no longer quell the pain and he sought other remedies.

We were so desensitized to death that we no longer dwelled on ceremonies and grief. We could not. All of us had friends or family who had perished as slaves at the hands of our Elven oppressors. All of us had seen our comrades fall in battle. Death was part of training. We thought about the fallen, remembered who they were and honored their sacrifice, and then moved onward in our quest.

But Entas was different. I glanced away from the small brazier of orange coals and examined the old man's peaceful face for the hundredth time this night. It looked like he was smiling, the same expression that he had given me countless times, often after he had gifted me with some tiny fragment of advice that I did not understand, but would a few days later. I used to think he enjoyed mocking me, but that was just my ego lashing out. In reality, my mentor had always wanted me to find the answers myself.

Thayer approached the tent and pulled back the thick canvas flap. His movement exchanged warm, sap scented air for a wintery mountain breeze. Although he was as wide as he was tall, and looked like he was made of rock, my friend possessed grace granted to him by hours of physical training. So when he slid around the tight space and sat down across from me without making more than a whisper of sound, I wasn't surprised.

"We almost died that day on the foothills. Remember, Brother?" he said after a few minutes of careful silence.

"Aye." I nodded and smiled at my friend.

"If not for Entas, this army wouldn't be here. He was a great man." I nodded again. Thayer was a remarkable swordsman, warrior, trainer, and battle strategist. He had never been gifted with words, so the effort he made now to comfort me, despite the awkward feelings it must have given the burly man, was even more meaningful.

"I did not spend enough time with him over the past few years. We had grown apart."

"You run the army, Brother. We are all focusing on what needs to be done. Entas gave us the tools to be successful. No regrets, eh?" He smiled and the sincerity behind his expression made me feel better. I remembered all those years ago when Thayer and I had been training as empowered warriors for the Elvens. Our masters pitted us against each other until we became hated enemies. Then we decided that we would escape together and flee into the wilderness.

"Your words are true." I smiled back at him. "We don't just owe our lives to him; he gave us the means to be free."

"So we will be free." He shrugged and his grin widened. "Our forces cannot be stopped. We will crush the Elvens." I nodded but lost my smile. We still had so much more work to do. There were thousands of Elven tribes and we had only destroyed a handful.

But that work could continue tomorrow. Now I just wanted to grieve. Maybe it was selfish of me to want this time with my mentor. I still had an army to manage and there were too many places where my attention was needed. I was a fool. I should have spent more time with him while he was alive. I should have expressed my gratitude. I should have learned more from him.

It was the last fact that upset me the most. I had not relied on him for advice as much lately, but just knowing that I could had given me confidence to make decisions. This admission twisted my feelings. My friend was gone, and all I could think about was how this would hamper my attempts at winning this war.

I was an asshole.

"He knew this was coming." Malek's voice pulled me from my memories of the old man. I hadn't heard Thayer leave or Malek enter.

“He had a way of predicting the future.” I remembered Entas visiting my tent after I first met Shlara. He had been right about her, as had Malek.

“I know you are upset that the two of you had grown apart.” I frowned, but he knew me well enough to speak the truth. "But he didn't feel that way, Kaiyer. He loved you like his own son and spoke often of how proud he was of you. Entas was happy that you were coming to him less for help. He said that you were fulfilling your destiny."

“He often spoke cryptically of my future. It bothered me, but now that he is gone, I wish I had asked him more about what he meant.” Pain hit my heart again.

"I am thankful that he left peacefully, after a long and meaningful life. We got to speak with him one last time."

"Our last conversation was not the best. I was angry afterward. I even told you that we would not be lost without him. Now he is gone and I regret those words." I sighed. "I took him for granted."

"He didn't feel that you took him for granted," Malek said. I looked over at my handsome friend and nodded. His words did help me feel better.

"I wish I had known him as long as you did. He taught me much in the last few years."

"Now it is up to us." The words lacked my usual conviction, but I didn't think my friend noticed.

"In a way, that is comforting. He had stepped back long ago before I even joined your army. We know what to do. If there were any secrets, he would have told you about them."

"He often spoke to me in riddles. As if there was some joke he knew that I didn't."

"What do you mean?" Malek sat forward and looked a little confused.

“It was just his method of instruction. He would ask me if I remembered how to do something just before setting about to show me how to do it. The first time I learned to harness Air, he got a bit frustrated because I did not remember how.”

"That would anger me." The handsome man nodded and the gray hair around his temples reflected the firelight like silver coins. “But anger motivates you. Entas was insightful. He knew the best way to teach each of his students. He would sometimes ask me to figure topics out for myself but never spoke as if I should already know the answers."

"It isn't important anymore." I leaned back and uncrossed my legs in front of me. My body was begging to go exercise. I normally didn't sit this long.

“There are still a few hours before dawn. I will sit with him if you want a break. I’ll ask my team to prepare the pyre.” Perhaps once upon a time, our people had a ceremony for their departed loved ones. But the army had no traditions to honor our dead. Most deaths occurred on the battlefield. If we could recover the bodies, we would, then return them to the earth with either a burial or burning. There was no ceremony or grieving. There was no time.

I’d elected to burn Entas’s body. We would scatter the ashes with the rising sun. Besides myself, Thayer and Malek were the closest to the old man, so we would speak before the gathered when dawn broke.