Chapter 25. Games with Thrones.

Dukemot reached out and grabbed the door handle, twisting before he pushed into the room. He led Manie in and stopped to let her stand beside him. “This is where I requested Sahlee put you. Everything should be just as you remember it.”

Manie looked around, noticing that everything was familiar. Her old bed, her old clothes, dressers, lounges. The only thing missing was a fireplace and a stained glass window. She saw a table where an empty jar sat beside a leather-bound book and it reminded her of Fitzel, Julius and Bree. “It’s just like my Tower.”

There was a wooden sword set on the mantle in iron holders. Manie picked it up and looked at the handle, seeing initials carved into the wood. M.D. “This is the sword I used to practice with Veronica when I was little.” Manie swung the sword, making it howl as it cut the air. “We thought we were going to be famous one day. That we’d go on great adventures together to save Talmoria from evil using magic Crystals.” She looked at the sword in her hand, realizing that the girls who’d for wished those things were no longer real. They were whispers from yesterday–dreams of a dead future.

“It seems to me your dreams became real,” Dukemot said. “You have saved Talmoria from evil.”

Manie set the sword down, feeling saddened by the sight. “Not in the way I imagined.”

Dukemot paused, then went on. “I wanted everything to be like it used to be in case you ever came home. But if you want a different room, I understand. The past can be a painful thing to remember.”

“No, I like seeing these things. It doesn’t feel all that long ago.” It was true that Manie liked remembering her past. But it was also true that remembering this world brought out a special kind of pain that left her heart feeling hollow, thirsting for a life that had gone away. She ran her fingers along the glass of the jar on the table. She picked it up and looked inside, remembering the sight of her Torch-Wings and how beautiful they had been.

Manie saw her red reflection in the glass–her red eyes, red hair. She was no longer the blue-haired girl who had belonged to these things and to this place. She was changed by time and fate. “You had to know something was wrong.” She turned back and looked at her father. “I’ve been gone for seventy years. You had to know I was…gone.”

“I chose to believe that through some miracle you would one day return,” Dukemot said. “You had to return. There was no other way.”

“No other way for what?” Manie asked.

“For Talmoria to have a future,” Dukemot said, his voice like the dying of light at sunset.

“That’s not why I’m here,” Manie replied, already knowing what those words meant. “I didn’t come to play games with thrones. I came here to… to do what’s right.”

“I know,” Dukemot said, nodding in sorrow. “It’s in your blood. That’s why this island needs you.”

“I don’t want the responsibility. I never have. Veronica was the one who was supposed to be Queen after you. Not me.”

Dukemot shook his head. “Veronica? No. There once was a time for that, but it has long since passed. She never could have handled that power, I know that now. She was too much like your mother. Always lusting for more than she could grasp.” Dukemot frowned. “When you were children I could hardly keep her from leading you into trouble.” His frown changed into a smile, then the sadness in his eyes fought the joy away. “Those were happier times.”

Manie had to bite her lip to keep from crying. Where do you want to go today Little Lightning Bolt? she heard Veronica ask in her mind. “They were,” Manie agreed. “Much happier times.” Until I destroyed them all, Manie told herself.

“I remember once, on Veronica’s fifteenth name day–just as she was ready to blow out the candles–you catapulted one of Chef Paul’s meatballs into her open mouth using a spoon in front of the entire court.” Dukemot laughed as he fought to continue the story. “I thought your sister was going to turn into a tomato–her cheeks turned so red.”

Manie laughed with her father, remembering that moment and smiling. “She chased me across the mansion for almost an hour. I thought she was going to kill me if she caught me, but I couldn’t stop laughing. When she finally found me…she just…laughed with me. And then she told me how much she loved me.” Manie whispered to keep herself from crying.

“Happier times,” Dukemot said, taking a breath as his smile lingered.

The silence seemed to swarm on Manie like a cold blanket being wrapped around her. She could hear the wind howling outside, the rain crackling against the glass doors beyond the blue curtains. In the corners, she could still hear her own and Veronica’s laughter dying away into the shadows. To Manie it felt like the whole world was shaking. Everything seemed to be closing in. She almost wasn’t sure who or where she was. Like she’d lost herself in a forgotten time.

Dukemot put a hand on Manie’s wrist and drew up her fingers. “There’s something I must discuss with you, Manie. Something important.” He looked into her eyes.

“What,” Manie asked.

Dukemot let out a deep breath. “I know you don’t have any wishes to discuss Talmoria’s succession, but I must tell you what I know is coming.” He turned, his eyes smoldering like dying embers. “Once I’m gone, the lords and rulers of Talmoria will fight to take control of the island. War will spread like wildfire when that day comes to pass. If our history takes us back to that struggle, there is a great chance this kingdom may never see peace again. A divided Talmoria will help no one, Manie. The last time Talmoria found itself locked in a similar fight, it took half a thousand years for a man like Mikhail to rise up and unite the island. We cannot leave that kind of future to chance. We must prepare. We must try to stop this conflict before it begins, before millions more die for nothing.”

“But you always know what to do,” Manie said, “and you aren’t going to be leaving anytime soon. We have lots of time before we need to start thinking about that.”

“Less time than you know,” Dukemot said, his breath like a shallow river.

Fear rose up in Manie’s heart like an icy spring. “What do you mean? What’s happened?”

“Nothing I haven’t known about for near on a century. ” Dukemot said. He looked to Manie. “A day will come when I die, Manie. I cannot live forever. You know that. No man is born to be immortal. And when my time comes, the responsibility to tend the future will fall to you–no matter how much you don’t want it.”

Manie’s eyes fell to the floor. “But the Crystals can sustain you. They can keep you from growing old.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“Not forever,” Dukemot told her, his voice as cold as the message it carried.

Manie grabbed her father’s arm. “I thought that's why you hadn’t aged.”

“No, it’s something else…” Dukemot said, his voice growing low and burning off.

“What?” Manie asked, her voice barely more than a whisper. She wanted to know the truth as much as she didn’t.

Dukemot moved the curtain aside and stared into the storm beyond the glass. “I don’t want to lie to you, Manie. Enough lies have been told in this city to last a generation. A time will come when I explain to you why I haven’t aged. But not this night.” Dukemot turned and brushed hair out of Manie’s eyes. “For now you must trust me when I say that you have nothing to fear. I’ll be here to guide your every step and make sure you're comfortable in your new shoes long before I leave this world.”

“I don’t ever want you to go,” Manie whispered. “I want our lives to go back to the way they were and stay that way forever.” All Manie had ever wanted was a home to come back to, a way to reverse all the damage she had done. But she knew now it was impossible. It was only her and her father, left in the smoldering ruins of a past long destroyed.

Dukemot grabbed Manie and put his chin on top of her head. “So do I,” he said, his voice like a soft blanket.

Manie tried to cry silently in her father’s arms. When she was able, she took a breath and said, “Talmoria isn’t the same place I remember. The Gray Death changed everything. If it keeps spreading, everyone is going to die. Nothing can stop it. The only one who knows the cure is gone, and we have no idea how to find her.” Manie remembered the sight of her mother soaring into the clouds in the grip of a small tornado. “She outsmarted us, and now the end of the world is happening as we speak.”

“It’s not the end,” Dukemot said. “There is a way to stop this.”

“What way?” Manie asked.

“A solution no one has yet seen.”

“We don’t have time for miracles,” Manie said.

“It’s not a miracle. It’s a curse.”

Manie looked up at her father, wondering what that meant.

“It will work. I just need time to prepare.”

“How much time?” Manie asked, knowing that every second was precious.

“That depends on you,” Dukemot said, looking down at her. “After we unleash this cure, someone has to take responsibility for finding it. A hero I can’t be.”

Manie remembered the devastation her father had wrought on the north, on Milly’s forest. She thought of Danyal and his son, and how they’d helped her stay hidden and safe after she’d escaped her tower–and how they’d died at the hands of her father’s army.

“The people see me as a tyrant, Manie,” Dukemot said, his voice low and full of shame. “They’ll never accept a cure from my hands–not after what I’ve done. But from yours, and the Protectors–they will. If Talmoria believes that you’re the one who saved them, and that the Protectors helped you do it, the future of our island can be reborn. I see a future in that. I know it can work. It’s how Mikhail brought Talmoria together the first time. He promised his people a future–and then he gave it to them. I know that you can do the same. You are that hero, Manie.”

Manie was overwhelmed by fear and surprise as chills raced up her skin. She believed her father was right, but she didn’t know if she was capable of bringing life to his expectations. “What if I can’t?.. What if I’m not strong enough to become that person?”

“I’ll train you until you are. And when that day comes, you’ll know you’re ready.”

“What’s going to happen to you when I become queen?” Manie asked.

“Ahh, don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.” He smiled. “Like I always am. It’s you I’m worried about–after everything that’s happened. It must have been terrifying facing down that Renjin in the North.”

“Nothing can scare me now,” Manie said, remembering Goroth, as well as her fight with the bear, and how terrifying and ruthless those creatures had been.

“Everyone’s afraid of something,” Dukemot said. “It’s nothing to be ashamed about.”

“I’m really not afraid of anything,” Manie said, shaking her head.

“Alright, if you insist,” Dukemot said with a smirk on his face.

“What are you afraid of?” Manie asked, raising her eyebrows at him.

Dukemot looked into Manie’s eyes and smiled. “I’m afraid of losing my family,” he said, touching the tip of Manie’s nose. “And you’re all the family I have left.”

Manie felt a bite at the back of her throat. “So am I,” she said, trying not to let the sadness overwhelm her.

Dukemot grabbed Manie and hugged her. Manie felt so safe and loved in her father’s arms, she wished she could stay there forever.

“You won’t lose me for a long time, Manie. I promise. And when that day finally comes, long after you're ready, I’ll always be with you, for the rest of your life. Do you remember when you were little how I’d tell you about the box of memories my mother gave me?”

“I do,” Manie said, fighting the tears pooling over her eyes.

“I’ll be in your box for the rest of your life, Manie, just the way you remember me. And you can always come and visit me there no matter what happens, and when you do, everything will be like it was before. No one can ever take those moments away from you.”

“I’d rather have you with me always,” Manie said. “So then I’d never be alone.”

“We all do, Manie. But it just isn’t the way it was meant to be.”

***

After her father left, Manie tried to sleep. She put her head down on her old pillows, tucking herself into the old red sheets from her bed in the tower, then turned and stared outside at the cold night beyond the cliffs, looking at the starry sky above the bursting sea. Now that the storm had gone, she could see thousands of little specks twinkling out there in darkness, all alone, each so far away they were almost invisible. Who’s out there? And what are their lives like? Manie wondered. “Whoever they are, I know their family loves them,” Manie whispered to herself. “Their mom and dad, or brother, or sister. Not like me. I’ve hurt everyone who cares about me.”

And then she thought of Shawn and remembered how much he cared about her, and that he’d given up his entire life just to save hers. “I’ll always have Shawn,” Manie told herself. “He’ll never abandon me. Even if I deserve it.”

She wanted to see him more than anything. It was like her lungs couldn’t find air when he wasn’t nearby. Her feet hovered over the floor when she walked, her fingers couldn’t find warmth–no matter how close to the flames she held them. She was a ghost in an empty shell without his voice there to remind her that she was real.

“I hope he’s okay,” she said, turning onto her back. She felt tears rolling down her cheeks and couldn't make them stop. “Please be okay,” she begged. “Don’t let him suffer for what I’ve done.”

As her mind settled into the silence, she remembered what her father had said. I’m going to be queen. The thought made her feel even more anxious than before. Manie rolled to her side and curled up into a ball. “This isn’t fair. Why can’t I just have a normal life?”

Manie reached out and snapped her fingers to light the candle on the table at her bedside, making a little orange ball appear at the end of the wick, flickering and dancing in the cold, still air. Manie watched it dance and felt its warmth on her face. She could see the reflection of its flame and the flame in her eyes twinkling over the window’s glass.

Manie watched the candle burn through foggy eyes, letting it fill her mind with its glow. The sight was peaceful, and calming, and the smell of wax made her tired. “Maybe I’ll see Shawn tomorrow,” she told herself. “And then I can tell him how much I missed him.”

You’re strong, Manie. You can do anything you set your mind to. Just don’t ever forget how to tell right from wrong. She heard Veronica’s voice in her mind, guiding and giving her strength. “She’s right. I have to stay focused.” It wouldn’t be long before Manie and Shawn found a cure, and then they could leave this place–if that was even still possible. Somehow, to Manie, it seemed like it wasn’t. It seemed like she’d be trapped in this nightmare forever. But even if that was true, Manie knew if she could get to Shawn, they’d find a way out together. Together they could do anything. Even the things that seemed impossible.

Manie’s eyes slipped shut and she drifted away into a net of dreams, rolling into a blue ocean of stars and warm light, gliding into happy memories of her sister and father and the past they each had shared. A place beyond the reach of darkness. A piece of time and memory that belonged to only her.