lives in the process. Yours, prince, is as yet a failed life.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The League Council had been clear: Sire Dagon needed to find out everything he could about Aliver Akaran’s being alive. Such a thing was unthinkable, and yet here they were, forced not only to think about it but to weigh just what it meant for them and decide how to respond. If it was true, Corinn had reached into dimensions she should not have interfered with. Either she was more powerful than they knew, or she was more foolish.
Or both, Dagon had thought at the time. Or both.
Finally summoned to the palace for a meeting of the Queen’s Council, Dagon sat impatiently through Rhrenna’s opening remarks. As always, she called on the spirits of the first five Akaran kings to instill the council members with wisdom. What rubbish! The only Akaran kings to demonstrate wisdom had been covertly removed or manipulated by the league. Well, Dagon thought, considering it that way, yes. By all means follow their examples.
He kept his face expressionless as Rhrenna went over routine matters. Sigh Saden sat, feigning composure as well, looking down his aristocratic nose, vaguely bored. He was neither composed nor bored, though. The tremulous way the index finger on his left hand tapped on the edge of the table said as much. Old Julian was more honestly at ease. Dagon knew that he had actually spoken with whoever it was they all believed to be Aliver. Obviously, Julian had been convinced. He had been close to Leodan. Perhaps he was one Agnate who honestly wished the Akarans well. Balneaves Sharratt just looked hungry, Talinbeck full of questions, and General Andeson subdued. Baddel, the Talayan, bubbled with energy. He looked as giddy as a ten-year-old girl on her name day.
Dagon would have continued his examination of the councilors, but happily Rhrenna concluded her opening routine. The queen began without further delay.
“I know what you all want,” Corinn said. “You want to see Aliver. We’ve to discuss what happened in Teh and the coming war and the vintage and all manner of other things. But what you want to know is if what you’ve heard and seen can possibly be true. Well, judge for yourselves.”
Corinn pointed toward the far end of the table. Only then did Dagon realize the seat facing Corinn had been left vacant. He must have been truly distracted not to have noticed that earlier. Sigh Saden had been accustomed to sitting there. Perhaps that explained his agitation.
On cue, Rhrenna intoned something about welcoming his royal majesty, brought from the dark lands to light again and so forth. Dagon was not listening, for a man had stepped through the open door. He walked toward the end of the table, popping in and out of view as he passed behind the far row of seated councilors. Dagon did not get a clear view of him until he reached the vacant seat and turned, smiling on the council.
Aliver Akaran. He was older than when Dagon had last seen him, but Aliver had only been a boy then. This was a man, slim and well formed. His cheekbones and jawline cut stronger angles than before. He held himself with a trace of his old stiff posture. He was a little darker than Dagon remembered, with wavy hair pressed neatly to his head by the jeweled leather band that circled his forehead.
“Hello, councilors,” he said.
They answered with a frayed chorus of “Your Majesty.” Dagon bowed his head, though less from deference than from a desire to hide his face. It was really true. Not just rumor. Not a clever illusion. Not an impostor. He knew all these things with certainty already. Part of him wanted to fly from the chamber and seek communion with his fellows, to tell and show them everything with his mind. That would have to wait, though.
He did his part in the clamor. Praising the queen. Wondering at Aliver. Baddel even rose and ran around the table, clapping his hands as he went, and embraced Aliver. “Will you become king, Your Highness? Oh, there will be so much rejoicing! All Talay will celebrate! This is just the thing to bring the tribes together again. Just as we were when you rallied us to war against Hanish Mein!”
Nedona, a new councilor from the Ou trading family of Bocoum, shoved Baddel away. Then he pulled Aliver close and whispered in his ear. That could not go unmet. Soon the entire council was afoot and jostling to make contact. These jackals are quick to start nibbling, Dagon thought, staying seated and decorous.
It was some time before the council returned to order. “How…” Saden had a question but did not seem to know how to phrase it. “How… are you to govern now? I mean…” He gestured to the queen, then across to Aliver, and then he wriggled his fingers. Not at all a clear illustration of his question, but they all understood it. “There’s no precedent. The Senate will have to-”
“The Senate will do what it does,” Corinn said. “They have no role in this. Aliver and I will rule together.”
“But we can’t have two monarchs!” Talinbeck exclaimed. The idea seemed to horrify him. He looked to Jason, the most scholarly among them. “Has that ever happened in all the generations of the empire?”
The scholar took his time in answering, but not because he needed to search for it. He just seemed stunned. “No,” he said, “there is no precedent. But I don’t recall any record of the dead being returned to life. It’s all…”
“Unprecedented,” Corinn said. “Yes, that much is confirmed. So we will rule together.”
“There will be a coronation, then?” Baddel asked.
Corinn deferred to Aliver with a nod. He answered, “Yes. At the winter solstice. I know-that’s not when it’s usually done, but it’s what we have to do. We’ll be at war this spring. No time for the ceremony then.”
“Your first order of business,” Corinn said, “will be to help Rhrenna put together the guest lists. Quickly. We’ve but a month.”
“Send birds today,” Aliver added. “Shout it to the world!”
“It will be a week of festivities like none the empire has seen for years,” Corinn continued. “My coronation was a bit muted. So much mourning and death, the aftermath of the war and all that that entailed. None of us had been in a mood for a grand display. This time it will be different! We’ll assure the people of the greatness of the Acacian Empire. We’ll show them strong leadership, power beyond their imaginings, and-”
“Food!” Aliver said. “We’ll feed them food!”
Before the astonished eyes of the council, both siblings doubled over in laughter. The two of them, Dagon thought, are like children suddenly out from under the heel of their parents, gleeful at the idea of discarding the old rules. He said, “That is truly gracious of you, Your Majesty.” He looked to the queen. “Your mastery of the song astounds us all. What you did on the fields of Teh I scarcely believed when I heard it. Now I don’t doubt it. Aliver is evidence that you are truly heir to Tinhadin himself. Is there a limit to your powers?”
“None that I have yet discovered.”
But you cannot read minds, can you, bitch? Dagon thought. He said, “Wonderful. May I ask you to detail how you come to these powers?”
“No,” Corinn said. “I’m sure you have theories, notions. You may even have the truth. But don’t ask me to show my hand entirely. The league would never do that, correct?”
“Ah,” Dagon said, leaving the expulsion of breath as a neutral response. “May I ask if Aliver will take up the study of sorcery as well? He went in search of the Santoth before. Even brought them into the battle with Hanish Mein, yes?”
Corinn did not defer to her brother this time. “Aliver has other skills. He works magic with the populace. All Talay worships him. That’s what he will focus on, preparing the Known World’s forces to fight the Auldek-assuming Mena does not rob him of that glory.”
“Good that you mention the war,” Dagon said. “A great part of my joy in seeing the prince returned is knowing that he’ll be with us during the coming war. Perhaps we should consider that issue and its many faces. I would very much like to hear the prince’s thoughts. I’m sure we all would.” He tented his fingers. In truth he did not care that much about discussing the war, but he needed to see how Aliver addressed such matters.
The long conversation he sat through convinced him of two things. First-and he tested this several times- Aliver Akaran said nothing that differed from his sister’s opinion. The vintage? Not a protest. He saw no problem with the common people of the empire being drugged into faithful reverence once again. Mena’s choosing Mein Tahalian as a base to train her army through the winter? What a fine idea! Corinn’s hope that she could sing Elya’s children into accelerated growth and make them winged mounts by the spring? A pleasing possibility. Strange that nobody had thought of it earlier.
