The Huntsman of Adamos (Quartet)- draft

CH RETURN OF THE SHADOW WORSHIPERS

Regis appeared behind Yurieth, who was waiting for Fleur, Adamos, and the Lords of Odini to finish some task on the Tear, and murmured in a low voice. “Brother, my father has confirmed that the Blood Mages of Xelusia are curious about the blind oracle of the House of Adamos. They are working with two of the High Houses to influence the King. He believes that they are going to try to take the throne for the prince by intrigue through an arranged marriage.”

“But old Xerxes only has one surviving heir, who isn’t old enough to take the throne or be married, and I doubt Queen Eonae would marry a Xelusian after what they did to her father’s land during the occupation,” Yurieth pointed out.

“Perhaps, but if both the king and queen were dead, and the Prince of Xelusia was married to a high-ranking royal maiden, he would petition the Lord’s Council. Father says he lacks only three votes to be made interim king until Prince Xeus comes of age, and remember, Lucif’s wife was an Aetherian healer of the same house as the queen,” Regis reminded.

“I know, Eonae’s half-sister Evannae was Serapha and Demona’s mother... It would make him heir by marriage” Yurieth scowled, he turned to look in the direction Fleur had gone. “I’m going to have my brother watch Fleur, I need to go to Xelusia for a few days. Keep Prince Xeus close, we cannot risk him. Mother and Father say he must go with the Tear, only his bloodline can use the Relic of Sacred Fire.”

“Safe travels, brother,” Regis disappeared as quickly as he had appeared.

The next evening, Yurieth got off a transport outside the Temple City, the capital of Xelusia. His miner’s clothes and darker hair and trim beard hid his appearance reality, as he walked with a group of miners through the poorer part of the opulent city. It seemed so different from him last trip here in the last days of the war. Hours after dark, he found himself crouched on the same ledge from which he had once watched the Dark Queen hold sacrifices in the Blood Temples. Soon, two who owed him their lives would be here.

The air vibrated but Yurieth barely turned his head when he spoke. “Assassin Sangriel.”

“Huntsman Yurieth.” A rasped male voice answered. Neither held greeting in their monotone. “Why are you here? Did you miss your darkness from the war? You would still be welcomed into our brotherhood simply for your skills.”

Yurieth barked a laugh. “I have no taste for blood.”

“Only for bloodshed for a just cause.” A lilting female voice floated softly.

“Hipolla, how fare the female warriors of the mountains? Or do you prefer city life now?” Yurieth asked coolly never taking his eyes off those coming and going from the Blood Temple.

She snorted derisively. The Warrior Women of the Amizo Mountains had been the Aetherian’s allies for ten thousand years. “We would be better if you had not brought such worrisome news.” Hipolla sound almost child-like when she whispered. “Are you sure they wish to bring back the Siren Queen?” The Xelusians had begun referring to the Dark Queen as the Siren Queen after her death because her power had enthralled their people into every abomination.

“Did either of you know why they would be looking on Aetheria for a new host?” Yurieth asked instead of answering.

“What are you saying?” Sangriel demanded, “The Queen requires a siren priestess.”

“But what if she did not?” Yurieth pressed.

Sangriel eyed him suspiciously over his face cloth, “How have you discovered this?”

“A berserker blood warrior attempted to kidnap an oracle who is a ward of my house. She used her power on him and he confessed to us that the blood mages wanted her for the Queen,” Yurieth revealed.

“What else did he say?” Hipolla inquired, she too was watching the crowd waiting before the Blood altars with a sneer of disgust. One by on the petitioners were bled over the scrolls they brought, then the bloody parchment was thrown into a censer to burn.

“Not much after I removed his head.” Yurieth answered and Sangriel chuckled.

They were silent for a moment then Hipolla wondered aloud, “Why would they want an oracle? Their magic is so weak.”

“Not necessarily, some oracles are more powerful than mages,” Sangriel spoke before Yurieth could. “Siren’s magic and Oracle’s magic both deal with soul magic. One to harm and one to heal, but they could learn each other’s magic just as Assassins and Huntsmen share magical skills. An oracle could be taught to use siren’s magic.”

Hipolla tightened her grip on her knives. “That would be a disaster. Our people barely survived the last Dark Queen.”

Sangriel tipped his head, informing Yurieth, “They failed to find a host for the Siren Queen among all the females of Xelusia, since Princess Demona managed to reject it with Princess Serapha’s help. After the war, Prince Lucif allowed the priests and priestesses could continue to practice the religion of Shadows, but the blood mages have killed nearly a hundred maidens seeking someone strong enough. The thing gets inside the chosen priestess and they go mad with despair and grief, or with lust and blood magic craving. Half have killed themselves or just died, the other half have had to be killed. Prince Lucif finally ordered the Blood Mage priests to stop. If the mages are after your oracle, it’s a death sentence when they catch her.”

Yurieth breathed slowly, trying not to inhale the stench of burning blood and incense. “If I fail to protect her, and they bring her here, you must kill forever her. She knows of the danger and would accept this death. We believe they intend to use her power to rule both our worlds and my mother has seen war and a great cataclysm coming to Aetheria. The blind oracle has confirmed it.”

“You have my oath,” Hipolla vowed. “If they bring the girl here, she will die before the Dark Queen can indwell her.”

“Assassin’s honor, Huntsman, my debt shall be paid,” Sangriel swore.

“I care nothing for your debt to me, it does not exist. You spared children and women in the attacks against Aetherian during the occupation, and helped many Xelusians escape through our lines to safety. Meteriel would have been proud of you. My word to the king simply told the truth, your actions spared you.” Yurieth announced.

“I would have been put to death simply for what I was born to be, your words granted me life.” Sangriel retorted firmly.

They were silent for a moment then Yurieth asked, “Where is Princess Demona? I thought she was serving as a high priestess over her aunt.”

Hipolla shook her head. “Not here. The Princess spends as much time on Aetheria as her father does. She just went back last week for some royal party and to see her sister about coming home for good. The Priesthood Conclave wants them produce heirs for the throne since Lucif has failed to choose a queen and remarry.” Hipolla shook her head in contempt, snapping, “They would treat the princesses like breeding stock. Keep Serapha safe on Aetheria, I don’t know what they will make her do if she returns.”

“You should get back before Demona seeks you out, Yurieth. The Princess, I think, is still quite enamored with you,” Sangriel taunted and Yurieth groaned, “Why would you say such a thing?”

Hipolla gave him a smirk, “Because as protectors of the royal family, we, like everyone else, knows that the Princess likes her lovers to be tall, blonde, and pale-eyed, and if they aren’t, she glamours them so they are. You must be some kinda lover to keep a priestess pining for almost two hundred years.”

Yurieth gave her a baleful glare, protesting, “We were never lovers.”

“Yeah, right... two years as companions on Aetheria , and you never once mated with that beautiful, willing siren priestess.” Sangriel chucked his disbelief as Hipolla giggled her agreement with the assassin.

Yurieth just remained silent, he knew there was no point in arguing with them. Siren priestess were notoriously promiscuous and desirous of Aetherian warriors for lovers because they were rumored to have more endurance than Xelusian men. He would never prove his innocence to them. He stepped off the building and dropped into the crowd below almost unnoticed, vanishing into the masses. So many people lived on Xelusia, and there was nothing he could do to save any of them. Then he paused, he had never asked his father for anything, perhaps he could spare the children of his allies the fate of their people.

By morning, he was hidden on a transport back to Aetheria as a lumberman. Sitting and quietly carving a bird out of a knot of wood, he listened to the other lumbermen talking. His seatmate, a Xelusian lumberman named Paulos commented on his carving skill and Yurieth simply replied that his father’s friend had taught him. Yuri had saved Paulos' brother Holtos many years earlier while living as a lumberman. Another asked Yurieth a questions and they talked about the different types of wood of both worlds. Yurieth truthfully told how he had carved the woodwork of the castle of an Aetherian high house for nearly eighty years after the war. Paulos just grinned and said it was Rieth, an old alias, who first got he and his brother jobs for the lumber harvest in the Aetherian forest of the Lords of Adamos, Athenos, and Odini.

The lumbermen were a close group and were suspicious of him as a stranger even with his accent from the northlands, and Paulos as a friend. However, his woodcarving skill and knowledge of their craft eased them. Many agreed with him when he admitted to preferring working on greener Aetheria over the drier, more arid Xelusia. The laborers were grateful to be going to Aetheria to work so they would not be required to give a blood tithe every week. Yurieth assessed their complaints carefully. Something was definitely going on with the Blood Mage Priest if they were demanding blood offerings be given weekly, and not just seasonally. The shadow worshippers were saving blood, but why...

While Yurieth was gone, Fleur and Oren went to the Metalsmith district looking for supplies for the Tear. They stopped in a Jewelry Artisan’s shop. Oren wanted a gift for Cinna. Abrieth, who was escorting them, also bought a necklace for Serapha. As Oren and Fleur shopped together, they were seen by several lower ranked royals and the rumors began to spread quickly about the beautiful, blind oracle of the House of Adamos and the shy, handsome healer from the House of Odini. That it seemed they were being chaperoned by the Protector of Adamos only made the rumors more believable. As other sightings of them together were confirmed in the days that followed, the gossip evolved from a simple outing between the younger eligible members of two high houses to a pending alliance marriage between the ancient powers.

The rumors enraged Yurieth irrationally when he returned, and he struggled with jealousy for the first time in his 1128 years. It was made worse by his internal struggle with his honor over the fact that she was his brother’s future wife and widow. He hated the emotional turmoil he felt, so he disappeared into the forest for a few days. But even with the distance between them when Fleur slipped away to the work sight for a few days the weather cleared, she could feel his unrest, and sent soothing feelings toward him. When she and Adamos returned to the City of the Kings, Abrieth told Fleur of Yurieth’s struggle. It was only a week before the ball when she felt him return to the Manor. Later that night as she finished correcting a segment of complex programming Oshay had been struggling with, Fleur felt Yurieth sitting on the roof. She stepped out onto her balcony and turned to face upward.

“Yurieth, come down here.”

He dropped silently behind her. He was so quiet that if she wasn’t an oracle and able to feel him, he would have startled her.

“Why are you being this way?” She asked tiredly.

“Being what way?” he asked casually leaning against the rail with his back to the city.

“You know what I’m talking about,” she scowled at him, twisting a lock of her pale hair.

The silken tresses hung loosely almost to her waist and his eyes studied her skin as it glowed slightly in the moonlight the way his mother and father’s skin did. Fleur seemed more like a lovely apparition than the living and breathing woman he could feel with every vibration of his soul. She had no idea how beautiful she was to him, so he turned away from her.

“I didn’t want to intrude on your double engagement and planning for two future weddings,” he retorted snarkily, but his implication was clear to her. He thought it was improper to have an arrangement, even if it were false, with Oren when she was supposed to marry Kaleth someday. It mattered not that the time of her marriage to his brother had come and gone for her.

She swore, using several words he had never heard, but the harshness of her feelings made their meaning clear. Slapping her palms against the marble handrail beside him as she fixed him with a vicious glare, “Seriously! I have already grieved Kaleth for more than a century, and I would have to have a gender reassignment to be Oren’s type.”

“A what?” Yurieth sounded confused as he turned his head toward her.

“I would have to become a boy...” She explained with exaggerated slowness. She could feel his mind trying to figure it out and decided to have a bit of fun to punish him for being obnoxious. In a coy tone she added, “Besides Oren has always found you to be ... how to say this... very... very appealing...” Fleur grinned at his surprise and shock. “Don’t worry, he has a friend who shares his preferences.”

“You mock me!” Yurieth growled, turning fully toward her and drawing up to his full height. His intimidation didn’t work.

“Only because you deserve it,” She snapped waspishly, then her tone softened as she looked down, “I love you, Yurieth. I would kiss you right now to prove it, if I didn’t feel like we were being watched.” She placed her hand on his arm as she finished, fearing he would turn suddenly to look. Instead of reacting and looking around, he rotated slowly toward the city, flipping his hood back casually.

“Are you sure, Fleur?” He asked, as he sensed for the watchers. His Huntsman magic worked differently in the city, more like an assassin or master thief trying to find a target in a crowd.

“Yes, we are watched almost every night from slightly different directions. We need to be prepared to leave quickly, to get your parents and the twins to safety. I might have to borrow some tech from my time to ensure it.” She explained as she stood next to him stood next to him, facing the city. Nothing had ever been said about the attack by Lord Krux against the Summer Lake Castle of Adamos nor about his disappearance, but the House of Adamos remained vigilant against its enemies.

“Tonight, I can feel the darkness again, somewhere over there.” She flicked her finger slightly in one direction as she laid her palm on the smooth marble the topped the balustrade.

“There is a tower toward the north that belongs to the House of Baalru, Lord Crux’s house, beyond it are the dual towers of Xelusia,” he explained quietly. He could sense the watchers now. Whomever it was, they were shielding themselves, but he knew instinctively one was Demona. He could feel her eyes on them, her jealousy, her hatred. “Perhaps you should go in.”

Fleur shaking her head once, she refused then turning slightly toward the towers. Yurieth could feel her casting her power in that direction. “The twin towers... The one on the left... Almost to the top.” Her eyes popped open and she shuttered in horror. “They are practicing blood magic this moment!” She declared breathlessly and retreaded inside almost fearfully.

Yurieth followed her in surprise, he had never seen her afraid, even when she faced the dark creatures of shadow and evil. “What is it, Fleur?”

“I... I had a bad experience with b-blood magic,” she stammered.

“A bad experience? Fleur, you’re terrified,” he observed.

She snapped at him. “It was a very bad experience, all because I was stupid. Its practice had been forbidden for thousands of years. Only two people living even knew what it was and how it worked.” Fleur knelt before the fireplace her hair falling like a veil around her face.

“How were you stupid?” Yurieth inquired.

“It was an accident, we needed... I didn’t know what I was doing, only that the sharing of magic worked, and the battle was won.” She trembled as she struggled to keep from remembering, to keep him from seeing her past, but the emotions were almost too strong. Confused images of a few handful facing hundreds, fighting, coughing blood, dying, reviving, glowing.

“Fleur?”

“You have to understand, Yurieth. We have almost no knowledge of magic in my time, especially dark magic. And only the few surviving royals have any magic at all beyond books, enchantments, and potions. So much was lost that could help, that could harm, there’s so much we don’t know that you take for granted,” she whispered slowly, staring at the flames. “The dark prince tried to revive the use of blood magic, but we thwarted him. Kaleth and I and Shadz, we figured out as we went... But it cost us so much.” Tears began to run down her face as her heart cried out for the children she’d lost.

“Who is Shadz?” He asked quietly.

Realizing she said too much, Fleur swallowed, answering simply, “My daughter’s sealed one, the last mage of Aetheria. Like you in my future, he runs a school to try to regain what was lost. We struggled through so much...”

His eyes narrowed with a chance to learn more of her time. He needed to persuade her to tell him. “Fleur, I need to understand what you fear and why to protect you properly. Do you want to tell me what happened, or would you rather just show me? I won’t remember anyway...”

“No!” she answered too quickly. “It is too horrible and stop trying to read me.”

He felt her fighting her memories, hiding them from him. Quietly, she started to hum, rocking herself like a war-traumatized child he had once watched trying to sooth itself. She filled her mind with the music, and he could glean nothing more. He sat and waited, but she didn’t speak again for the rest of the night.