Their guard responded immediately, men and women dressed in blue-stained armour falling into step around them, surrounding the two Sovereigns in a ring of steel. The guard in the lead glanced back before they started down, and Lukys glimpsed a cheeky grin on Travis’s face. Lukys’s fellow recruits and their Tangatan partners had seemed the logical choice for their guard. They were family now, the only ones either of them could trust.
When they didn’t immediately start down the steps, another face looked back. “If you two are quite done dawdling, I believe you have a pair of crowns to accept.” Dale grunted.
Lukys drew in a breath and nodded. “Let’s get it over with then.”
“About time,” Dale muttered.
Their guards went first. Silver spears and kite shields in hand, they advanced down the stairs to the floor of the amphitheatre, clearing a path for the new Sovereigns. Silence gave way to whispers as the crowd parted before the blue-garbed warriors, their heads lifting in search of a glimpse of their new rulers.
Lukys shivered as they descended the great steps. The unpredictable Perfugian spring had chosen to gift them with a rare day of sun, but he couldn’t help but feel exposed as they approached the floor of the amphitheatre. After months of war and battle, he was used to a spear and shield in hand. To stand before so many in nothing but a simple robe, defenceless…he felt naked, though with Sophia at his side, he knew no human assailant would dare attack.
And the gift of the Sovereigns had added something to Lukys as well. Not the raw strength or speed of the Tangata, but another sense almost, an awareness for their surroundings that neither quite yet understood, but which he hoped might aid them in times of need.
Certainly, Lukys’s own talents as a Melder seemed amplified by the Sovereign gift. And so as they approached the crowd, he reached out with his mind to examine the aura of his people. They flickered before his inner vision, multicoloured hues augmented by their colourful clothing. Purples for fear and courage shone, pinks for love and greys for doubt, even some blues of sadness shimmered in the minds of his new subjects. Thankfully, the reds of anger and greens of hatred were blessedly rare.
It was surprising, the power of truth.
There had been resistance, of course. For centuries, the Sovereigns had spread tales of the barbaric Tangata, of a monstrous species that sought only to destroy humanity. But the reality Lukys had discovered in the south could not have been further from that lie. Sophia and her companions who stood with them now wanted nothing more than a life of their own, a chance to raise their children in peace, to create, rather than destroy.
And those they’d left behind in New Nihelm…well, that was a worry for another day.
Lukys did not doubt there were still those who disbelieved the revelations, who refused to accept their Tangatan ancestry. But from what he glimpsed of those below, the people who had come here did so out of curiosity, rather than anger. Afterall, the public had never been invited to an inauguration for their Sovereigns. Perhaps that alone had been enough to quench their trepidation at Sophia’s presence.
Or maybe they just wanted to see the monster.
Lukys’s head whipped around at Sophia’s whisper.
No, he said immediately, catching her gaze. To see the Lady and her partner.
A smile touched her lips at his words and they continued down the stairs, doing their best to move in what they thought was a regal fashion. The long robes were more than just uncomfortable—Lukys feared they would actively hinder them should it come to a fight. Only with his friends and their Tangatan partners around them had he agreed to the ceremony—and even then, only because Nguyen had pressured them. The King of Gemaho insisted that an official coronation would help the people to accept their strange new rulers. Much to Lukys’s irritation, the crowd below suggested the old king had been right.
He caught a glimpse of the man himself now, standing amidst his Gemaho guard. Nguyen had shaved the unkept beard he’d grown over the past weeks, though he still looked more the part of a scholar than a king. The man kept his face carefully blank as they approached, though Lukys could see the sheen in his eyes, the amusement behind the mask. Even as he watched, the king gave a subtle wink.
At Lukys’s side, a snort of laughter came from Sophia. He shook his head, a smile of his own tugging at his lips. The pair had formed an inexplicable bond, even before Sophia learned talk. Since their ascension to the Perfugian throne, the king couldn’t hear enough about her people and their past, their wants and dreams. It seemed Nguyen was as fascinated with the past as the Archivist Erika had been, though no one had heard news of the woman in weeks. Nor of Cara, and Lukys was left wondering what had become of their quest to find the City of the Gods.
Again a memory tugged at him, but they were approaching the floor of the amphitheatre now, and quickly he pushed it aside. Hand in hand, Lukys and Sophia stepped onto the stage and started towards the stone slab that had been placed in its centre.
A shiver touched him as they walked amongst the crowd, the line of their blue-garbed guards keeping them back. He couldn’t help but remember another day just a few weeks ago, when their fate had seemed far grimmer. Standing alone in a ring of swords and Melders, Lukys, Sophia and his friends had faced off against the old Sovereigns—and convinced them to cast aside their hatred.
The bloodshed might have ended there, but for one of
