Cassius and Ellendarra Page 3

  “Wonderful,” Magnus replied with relief.

  “I will return first thing in the morning—”

  “I will arrange for it at midday tomorrow in the prophet’s temple here in the palace,” Magnus interrupted hurriedly.

  “Must the sun be at its highest?” Ellendarra asked curiously. Magic had always fascinated her.

  “Uh, no . . . Anyway, take time today to rest and reflect. You needn’t worry about anything,” he reassured her, quickly changing the subject. He was certain another early morning would be the end of him.

  “As you wish, Your Highness,” Ellendarra replied formally. She glanced at Japheth, paying her respects and bowing her head once again before making her way over to the door.

  Basil just happened to be entering the room as she began to leave, the two of them nearly colliding. Magnus caught an amused smile on Ellendarra’s face as she gave a quick, insincere bow to the prophet before leaving the room, completely disregarding the appalled look on Basil’s face. The old prophet smoothed out his green and silver robes as though he had just been trampled and turned to Magnus with a disapproving look on his face. Basil combed his fingers through his shoulder length, gray hair and straightened his posture. He held his head high and glanced over at the door with narrowed green eyes. His pointed nose looked even more pronounced as he did so and his thin lips formed a deep frown.

  “Should I just expect that if you cannot be found, you must be with her, Your Highness?” Basil asked with alarm once the door had closed behind her.

  “We were discussing important matters, Basil. Calm down. You will be quite pleased to find that she has agreed to a soul reading. You will finally be able to get the answers you have been wanting,” Magnus stated.

  “Pleased indeed, Sire! When I first saw her, I was inundated with feelings of dread and concern, culminating in a prophecy that was as clear to me as you are now. She will be your end if we do nothing. Only death can sever a time line. It is the only way to prevent what I know to be true.”

  “Yes, yes, I know,” Magnus groaned. He walked back over to the foot of Japheth’s bed and looked down at the unconscious captain. “And what of him? Is the curse on the dagger complete?”

  “The memory of you putting yourself in harm’s way like that on the battlefield, Your Highness, gives me chills,” Basil said fearfully and held a hand over his heart.

  “I can’t imagine why, when we know what my death will be,” Magnus grumbled and rolled his eyes. “Besides, I am far more powerful than Japheth. I was never in danger.”

  “Ellendarra was there! She could have killed you just like my prophecy predicted!” Basil exclaimed at first, then quieted as he remembered there were others nearby.

  Magnus waved his hand at Basil dismissively. “They were no match for me,” he chuckled arrogantly.

  “Well, I must insist that we find a way to execute the rest of the plan without putting your life in jeopardy, Sire. Since the day you were born, I have known without a doubt that it will be you who saves this realm from its own destruction.”

  “Then you must continue to trust my instincts as I do, Basil. If I am prophesized to eliminate the evil once and for all, then it only makes sense that we do whatever I feel we should do,” Magnus said with a smug grin on his face.

  “Of course, Your Highness. I feel I must remind you that although it was easy to enchant the dagger and incapacitate Japheth, it is the next phase of your plan that is keeping me up at night.”

  “Why? Do you feel you are unable to curse the dagger now in such a way that would draw the evil out of Cassius?” Magnus asked.

  “It’s not that, although it has taken me many years to accomplish such a feat. I wonder how you will manage to stab Cassius in the heart so that the dagger may fulfill its purpose.”

  “I’m going to ask him to let me do it,” Magnus said with another grin.

  “Sire?” Basil asked in disbelief.

  “No one wants to be rid of the evil more than Cassius does. I’ll explain it to him, and he will understand we have no choice. We are merely biding our time with this deceitful game we are playing. He has served this realm long enough under such a burden. Time for someone else to withstand the torment . . . someone with a soul as pure as his . . . someone I won’t hesitate to destroy when the chance presents itself—”

  “Cassius is prepared to die?” Basil asked, interrupting the king’s train of thought.

  “He dreams of the day death will release him from his burden. But I won’t let it come to that. I plan to heal him once the evil is in the dagger.”

  “You will not have the time! The dagger must immediately be brought back here so that we can pierce Japheth’s heart and offer up a new host. No mortal item can sustain that kind of power for long!”

  “That’s why I’ve been working on a healing potion so that he need only ingest it quickly and let the magic do its work. Healing a wound of that magnitude myself would take hours.”

  “And once the evil is imprisoned within Japheth?” Basil asked wearily.

  “We will be given the time we need to find a way to destroy it once and for all, and if that means losing a loyal captain, then I’m afraid that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make,” Magnus stated with finality.

  “Very well, Sire. I will follow you to the end of days,” Basil agreed firmly.

  “In fact,” Magnus added, “I am going to leave here now and tell Cassius the good news—that we finally have a way to release him from his curse.” The king was beaming.

  “I wish you luck, Sire. For I am not as certain as you are that Cassius will accept this plan.”

  “Nonsense,” Magnus said, laughing.

  “I will continue to work with the dagger while you are away and make every effort possible to ensure the enchantment will be successful,” Basil said and bowed before excusing himself.

  When he had gone, Magnus looked over at the unconscious captain, having forgotten he was even there. “It’s nothing personal, Japheth. Just like my brother, your good heart has made you fit to endure untold suffering on behalf of all of Evlontus.” With that, the king used his magic to vanish in a flash of blue light, reappearing outside Shadow Wood Forest once again.

  “Should you be using magic so often?” Cassius asked, laughing as he approached from within the cover of the trees when he sensed his brother’s sudden presence.

  “I don’t use it nearly as often as I would like to,” Magnus stated dismissively.

  “Do you think the people miss the magic?” Cassius asked curiously as he gazed out at a village on the horizon.

  “The elders do. But for the younger generations, the memory of it has faded with time. It has been nearly three decades since it was removed completely under my rule and repressed to some degree before that under Father’s. He lacked the conviction needed to remove the problem completely,” Magnus scoffed.

  “He believed in his people. He believed balance could be restored,” Cassius said coolly and closed his eyes briefly as he remembered the man who had adopted him and taken him in as a prince without ever differentiating between him and his own son.

  “He was an idiot,” Magnus said firmly and stared at Cassius until his brother gave a conceding shrug. “After all these years, you still think I shouldn’t have killed him,” he added with an annoyed look on his face.

  “You are the one who will save us all according to the prophecies, Magnus. I wouldn’t dare question you,” Cassius said with a smirk before walking back into the forest toward the temple. “It’s just . . . unfortunate. That’s all,” he added when Magnus caught up to him.

  “I did what needed to be done to change the future, to save us all from destruction.”

  When they reached the temple, Cassius sat on the stone bench just outside the door and stared at the ground with his hands clasped together. Magnus joined him and did the same, the two brothers sitting in silence for a few moments as memories fought their way to the forefront of their subconscious.

  “I can’t change the things I’ve done, Cassius. There is so much I . . . might have done differently. But you were the one who convinced me that there was still time to change. That I can do better. I want to begin down that path by finally releasing you from the evil you are bound to,” Magnus said.

  “How many times do I need to tell you? It is impossible. I can feel it in my veins, in my heart, my very soul. The evil and I are one. You can’t remove it, and you can’t destroy it,” Cassius said glumly without making eye contact.

  “You are wrong. For years, the prophet has been working on perfecting an enchantment that will drain it from you and allow us to imprison it in someone else.”

  “No,” Cassius said firmly and stood up to face the king, who stood up as well. His eyes were ablaze with a fierce determination that was uncharacteristic for his usually calm and collected demeanor.

  “Cassius, we have to try. You have suffered long enough, and once it is removed from you, I will focus our efforts on destroying it,” Magnus pressed.

  “Any effort to do so would risk releasing it into the realm again. I am not willing to take that chance. I have not suffered as I have since I was a boy to have it accidentally unleashed once more.”

  “I have a host—a soul as pure as yours!”

  “No. Put your personal feelings aside, and find a way to destroy me before I lose control over it,” Cassius said sternly.

  “Don’t tell me what to do!” Magnus fired back. He instantly regretted it, as it took him back to his days as a spoiled prince, and the humorous look on Cassius’s face said it had for him as well. Magnus ran his hands through his hair and stroked his beard as he paced back and forth for a moment. “So you won’t allow me to stab you in the heart, then?” he asked finally.
r />   “No, Magnus, and I hate to be the one to break it to you, but I don’t think you could defeat me in a struggle either,” Cassius stated with amusement.

  “You cheat. I don’t have an all-powerful entity on my side,” Magnus sneered.

  Cassius laughed and shook his head before patting him on the back with a firm slap that sent him forward a couple of steps.

  “Let this go, Brother. I beg of you. Come inside and have a drink with me. I have half a bottle left.”

  “There were five bottles!” Magnus exclaimed as the brothers turned and made their way into the temple.

  “I’m surprised there’s any left too,” Cassius said with a shrug.

  Chapter Three

  When Ellendarra had been brought to the soldiers’ compound five years prior, she had been met with looks of fear and concern from the townspeople at the front gate and distrust and anger from the soldiers within. But with Captain Japheth at her side, leading her through the streets, she had been amazed at how quickly the hostility had melted away. His approval meant everything to the people of Evlontus. His word was as good as gold, and it was Japheth’s wish that Ellendarra receive a full pardon and a place of honor at his side as second-in-command.

  At first, she wouldn’t dare to ask him to explain why he had put such faith in her, for fear of bringing him to his senses. But eventually, she had worked up the courage to ask him, and her eyes had grown wide when he had replied that he simply had a good feeling about her.

  A feeling . . . an instinct. She had been floored by the suggestion that such a thing was enough to discount the many wrongdoings that had come to pass at her hands under the orders of her father, Aurelius. She had known since she was a young child that her father was guided by darkness, and his opposition to King Magnus was not founded in honor and the pursuit of what was right. But it had not stopped her from doing as instructed and growing up to become a fearsome warrior—her father’s second-in-command.

  How he had wished to be inducted into the order of the Cassian soldiers, but the path to such an honor had always eluded him. He had developed quite a following, a following that worshiped Cassius as a supernatural being, or at least the idea of him. The stories that had begun as rumors and became indoctrinated as unquestioned scripture under her father’s guidance and eventual rules had detoured from the facts that were known about the man himself. Cassius was merely an idea, a catalyst in the efforts to dethrone King Magnus and what they saw as an oppressive dictatorship that deprived people of their rights and freedoms under the guise of preserving peace.

  Ellendarra had followed her father and likeminded individuals across the realm, raiding villages to accumulate wealth and increasing their numbers in the hopes that someday Cassius would appear and take them under his command to usurp King Magnus and usher in a rule that would empower the people and eradicate the repression that had drained the life from Evlontus. Instead of Cassius appearing to them, they had finally drawn the attention of the king and his army, and Japheth and a small battalion had been sent to end the threat.

  Ellendarra fought against the king’s soldiers with ease while keeping an eye on Captain Japheth during the fight. He was every bit as valiant as she had heard the townsfolk say, and his skills on the battlefield were unlike anything she had seen before. The way the soldiers looked to him was awe-inspiring, and when it was made clear that she was on the losing side of the battle, she accepted it wholeheartedly, for she had known it was a long time coming.

  When her father realized the battle had been lost, he became enraged and directed all the remaining soldiers to concentrate on Japheth in a last effort to damage the crown. Aurelius called to Ellendarra to join him as he began attacking Japheth with no regard for his own life, using a ferocious strength fueled by years of hatred and the darkness in his heart. Japheth was outnumbered and overwhelmed instantly. It was a plan of attack reserved only for when the battle would be lost. While Japheth’s fellow soldiers moved as quickly as they could to disperse the attack, they struggled to get between the ambush and their captain. Aurelius laughed with satisfaction when his followers managed to restrain Japheth. A few of them took the opportunity to strike the captain across the face before they parted to make way for their leader to finish the job and reinforce the lines that kept the soldiers from interfering. Aurelius smiled a menacing smile and charged at Japheth, the steel of their swords colliding when the captain stood his ground.

  Ellendarra had hesitated, but it took only a few moments for her to make a decision that would completely change the course of her life. It wasn’t that she suddenly felt a shift in her moral code, her heart remained indifferent, but when she looked upon Japheth, she felt sure that she was seeing the person she should want to be. She envied the simplicity of his motives. Japheth fought to protect the people and preserve peace and she realized in that moment that although she had never felt called to do the right thing, she could follow someone who did.

  When her father began to get the upper hand with the exhausted captain, she intervened, standing between Japheth and everything she had ever known. She disposed of those helping her father, turning on her own people while he grappled with what was transpiring. His eyes darkened when he came to terms with her betrayal, and he attacked her with everything he had, but she bested him with ease. Each time their swords clashed, his anger grew and his judgement clouded, making it easy to outwit him. With no regard for his own life, he struck at her with all his might and left himself vulnerable.

  Her blade pierced his heart without a second thought. She held her sword steady, their eyes meeting and his expression cycling through shock and anger. When she withdrew the blade, he fell to the ground with a thud that echoed through her mind at a decibel far greater than had been expelled in reality. Chaos ensued as arrests were made and those that would not go peacefully were defeated by Japheth and his men. Ellendarra remained expressionless, standing over her father’s dead body and waiting to be arrested and taken back to the palace for execution. But instead, there was Japheth’s hand on her shoulder and his voice thanking her for her assistance. She looked at him with surprise and when their eyes met it felt as though he were looking into her very soul and she waited expectantly for him decide her unworthy of his acceptance. He gave her a brief smile and a reassuring nod. Ellendarra looked to the ground, overwhelmed by his forgiving nature, and held her hands out while a nearby soldier began to shackle them together.

  She was brought before King Magnus himself, for ultimately, it was his decision whether to pardon her or not, and still Japheth looked at her with reassurance. She remembered the cold, empty room with gleaming, white marble that stretched from floor to ceiling. It had been only the king, the prophet, and the captain present when her case had been made. She remembered how Magnus had looked at her with such curiosity, a far cry from the disdain she had expected. He had circled her, stroking his beard thoughtfully and eyeing the blood on the front of her coat.

  “Your father’s?” Magnus had asked simply and gestured to the dried evidence of her father’s execution.

  She had nodded and maintained eye contact. A moment passed between them that she believed to be sympathetic on his part, and when he turned to Japheth and instructed him to be in charge of her redemption, she thought her legs might give out from under her. The moment would have been surreal if it weren’t for the cold, icy stare of the prophet burning into the back of her head. She felt it was his right to remain suspicious of her and accepted his hostility, for it was expected. It was Japheth and Magnus who had surprised her.