“No, no, no, no, no!” Callida cursed as she fought her way to the platform.
“General–”
“Converge on the tower! Prepare to catch if they fall!” she shouted at Vir on the run. She didn’t wait for his acknowledgement but did register him shouting his own orders somewhere behind her. As the panicking nobles made their escape, those that were left stood in silent shock, and soon the ballroom became unearthly quiet.
“The moment is at hand!” Someone began a speech from above her, and Callida was doubly disturbed by how many people cheered throughout the room, but mostly from the tower itself. Verum flinched against the knife digging into his neck. “The fulfillers of prophecy have been found!”
“Hurrah!”
“The Lost Tribes are restored!”
“Hurrah!”
“And the bloodlines of the five are one!”
“Hurrah!”
“Now we prepare the way for the unification of the tribes!” Screams of excitement split the air. “The powers that be must fall, and the Great Unifier shall rise from the ashes!”
Above her, Flore wailed with despair, and Verum doubled over, clutching his gut.
“NO!” The room stilled and turned to where Callida stood trembling, hand still on the hilt of her sword. Adrenaline pumping, Callida went to the tower stairs lined with armed men. How in the world so many men with weapons had cleared all the checkpoints, she had no idea. “You will let me pass,” she snarled, and to her great shock, they reverently bowed and stepped out of her way. It was surreal. Men with insanity in their eyes fell into step behind her as she climbed.
“My lady, the Mother of Prophecy,” someone declared and took a knee in front of her, and Callida recognized his voice from the earlier speech.
“You will call me ‘General’,” she snapped viciously.
“Yes, General. I am pleased to–”
“What do you think you are doing?!”
“We meant no offense, General. We wish only to help you ascend–”
“By stealing what is rightfully mine?!” Callida wasn’t entirely sure where this was going as her mouth was running faster than her brain, but it seemed to be working. “It is my destiny to unite the tribes. Not yours.”
“My sincerest apologies,” the man groveled.
“Get out of my way!” It was a terrible moment to panic, but it was hard not to with dozens of Primordialist extremists on every side. She turned to find Verum sweaty and pale on his hands and knees, his hand stained scarlet from a stab wound in his side. Poor Flore was sobbing, unable to help or comfort her husband in any way with a dagger still at her own throat. “Give me your knife!” Callida demanded of the man restraining Flore. “They’re mine!” He surrendered his knife to her reverently, almost giddy to have been singled out by this request. “Now back off,” she ordered, still shocked when all men in the immediate area respectfully backed away, giving Flore the opportunity to tend to Verum.
There was no way to safely get the royal couple down the stairs. Callida fought herself not to tremble as she stepped to the very edge of the platform and glanced down, checking that her orders had been followed. “Stand up, Your Majesties,” she hissed, adopting a cold, emotionless timbre.
“What?” Flore squeaked.
“On your feet,” she spat a bit more loudly.
“But–”
“Up!” Callida brusquely yanked Flore to her feet and then Verum behind her. Verum groaned in agony, and Callida set her jaw to keep herself from becoming visibly emotional. “Now listen closely. You’ve been good friends to me. It is with no small amount of regret that I have to do this to you, so I’ll try to make it as quick and painless as possible.”
“Callida?” Verum gasped in dismay and confusion, his pain preventing him from thinking about her words in any way beyond the superficial. She changed tactics.
“Cross your arms over your chests.” They both hesitated. “DO IT!” Callida bellowed, and Flore’s tears grew heavier again with a growing sense of betrayal and fear. “Now close your eyes.”
“Please, General,” Flore begged shakily, tears rolling down her cheeks as her eyes closed, “don’t do this.”
“Now trust me one last time, and lay out as you fall.”
“Callida?”
“And give my regards to Commander Vir.”
“Callida?!” Verum cried one last time before she shoved them both off the platform. The rumbling crowd below screamed collectively.
“VIR?!”
“WE HAVE THEM, GENERAL!”
“VERUM?! ARE YOU GOOD?!”
“WOULD APPRECIATE… A LITTLE MORE WARNING… NEXT TIME.”
“GET HIS MAJESTY TO A DOCTOR!” Satisfied, Callida turned at last to face the enemy.
“You betrayed us!”
“I don’t even know you,” she snarled. “And are you really so diluted to think that I’d actually thank you for assassinating two of my best friends?!” She drew her sword.
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And that was the moment they all realized just how badly they’d screwed up. Their triumphal shouts were exchanged for shrieks of terror. The men on the stairs began a frantic race back to the bottom where Commander Vir was waiting for them with his force of palace guards. Those bottlenecked at the top of the stairs were no match for the fury they’d stoked in their “Mother of Prophecy”. Callida spun into the fray, brutally dealing tenfold what they had done to Verum to anyone unfortunate enough to be in her way. And, yes, it was fun twirling in her fringe-layered skirt. Those who weren’t cut down by her sword were unceremoniously kicked off the platform, but there were no soldiers waiting to catch them as they fell.
Callida slashed her way back down the platform, meeting Vir at the bottom, her gown as much scarlet as gold. “Report, Commander!”
“All is in hand, General. We’ve taken a few prisoners, and the rest of the assassination force is dead. Mr. Yudha is tending to His Majesty as we speak.” Vir gestured to one corner, and Callida caught sight of Rogue kneeling over Verum on the floor with Gravis standing sentinel.
“What happened, Vir? Where’s Pius and Sal? How did all of these men get in here without anyone noticing?!”
“We’re investigating, General. What I can tell you is that Pius and Sal were found unconscious in that narrow space behind the platform.”
Callida frowned. As her adrenaline waned, her emotions began to take over. “This was a well-coordinated attack. This was premeditated and expertly executed. Vir, there could be more of them elsewhere in the palace or on palace grounds. They wanted to topple the Rex dynas– Primordials, Optatio! The nursery!”
Panic-stricken, Callida began an indelicate sprint to where her own sons were also being tended. She only ran faster as she passed bloody bodies strewn about the hallway leading up to the nursery. Moving with too much momentum to stop in time, Callida collided with the door and tried the handle. It was locked.
Bang, bang, bang!
“Rapax?! Arum?! Adju–”
“Shh!” Baca flung the door open to hush her. “You’ll wake the babies! I take it that our message never got to you. Everyone’s ok, but we–” Baca got hugged with Callida devolving into ugly tears of relief.
“Thank you.”
***
“How is he?” someone asked. A female voice. Familiar. Trusted. Verum relaxed a little.
“He was lucky.” Male voice. Less familiar. Trusted by default. “Just a bit higher, and we would be planning a funeral right now.”
“Primordials…. Will he be alright?”
“It’ll take some time, but I expect that he’ll make a full recovery, contingent upon his infection not getting out of hand.”
“The wound is infected?!”
“He’s running a fever, but I’ve sterilized everything thoroughly. Give it a couple of days. He’ll pull through.”
Verum heard a small whimper, like maybe someone was crying. “Primordials. This is all my fault,” the female voice croaked.
“How is any of this your fault, M’lady?”
“I knew something was off, Rogue. I knew something was off, but I let my guard down anyway, and now–”
“Callida, it’s not your fault! None of this is your fault. Do you hear me? None of it!”
The room around him went quiet enough that Verum thought he might have drifted into sleep again, but a few moments later, someone’s fingers were lightly brushing his hair off of his forehead to place a cool compress in its place. “I’m sorry, Verum.”
***
Verum’s rest was fitful, marred by pain, feverish chills, and the jittery discomfort of lying still for too long, though he wasn’t sure exactly how long was too long. He’d never been injured this badly before, and it was a harrowing experience to say the least. Despite that, Rogue and the other palace doctors remained optimistic for his recovery; that was the good news. He just had to trust that they knew what they were talking about, because Verum could honestly say that he’d never been in worse pain in his entire life. And Qiangde was stingy with the pain medications — for valid reasons. But still.
Apart from his reluctance to distribute heavier medicines, Qiangde was an attentive and competent doctor. Verum was fascinated by his healing talents. The Alpha wolf host could, essentially, sedate someone with little more than a touch and without the side effects that were inherent to drugs. In lieu of heavier pain relievers, Verum was taking full advantage of this low-risk form of relief. Consequently, he was spending a lot of time sleeping.
Today when he woke up, he found Callida sitting in the visitor’s chair, dozing a little as she waited patiently for him to stir, her chin resting in the palm braced by her elbow against the armrest.
“Callida?”
She blinked awake. “Verum! You’re awake.”
“So are you.”
“Right. How… how are you feeling?”
“Remind me of this moment the next time I downplay any of your injuries,” Verum replied snarkily. “I’ve been better.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You didn’t stab me, Callida. In fact, I should be thanking you. Except for shoving my wife and me off a two-story tower, you did save our lives. So thank you for that.”
She scoffed gently and leaned forward in her chair to bury her shaking head into her hands. “Verum, I came here to talk to you about…. Primordials. The nobility is clamoring for my head. The gate-dwelling fanatics are growing in numbers again and becoming evermore insistent. The fires are springing up faster than I can put them out! And I can’t…. Verum, there are more crazy people. The number of factions in this religion are astounding, and–”
“What are you trying to say, Callida?” Verum cut her off with a stern frown.
“I… I can’t protect you from all of it. Verum… I can’t protect you or Flore or Optatio from these people indefinitely, and it’s only a matter of time before some of them try something like this again. You got lucky this time, but next time you might not be.”
“I still don’t understand what you’re getting at. Why are you telling me this? What’s your point?”
“I’ve been giving it a lot of thought. I could take them with me, draw them away from here. Your council certainly wouldn’t complain about killing two birds with one stone.”
“What?!”
“Don’t worry. I have someone in mind to replace me. You’d have to train him up a bit, but he’s got a good head on his shoulders. More than that, I’d trust him with my life… with my sons’ lives. He’ll make a good Lion General.”
“Callida, what…? Are you saying…?”
“I need to talk it over with Rogue still, but I wanted to let you know that I’m seriously considering this.”
“You’re resigning?!”
“Pending a conversation with my husband, yes.”
“You can’t do that!”
Drawing close and clasping one of his hands in hers, Callida sniffed sadly. “You nearly died. My presence draws these people here, and I can’t truly protect you from them in any other way, Verum. It’s never been me against you, and I’d like to keep it that way.”
He had no words. Nothing. Just blank, balking nothingness.
She stood up to head for the door as he absorbed the impact of her proposal. “Get well soon, Verum. I’ll return shortly with a decision.”