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C.O.W: Chapter 30

Deviation Actions

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Gaila and her daughter screamed and bent down to see the wound for themselves. Moss pushed himself off the ground and, as a guardsman came rushing in, Moss grabbed at the man's sword and pushed him back, not trusting anyone. Another guard ran in their direction from the other direction and Harral disarmed him and sent him packing. The cultist lay dead on the floor, his dismembered head still rolling looking upwards at Tris. The enveloping golden light flickered and shot out in all directions around him and what remaining people in the court room that didn't have a reason to stay now charged out of the door trying to save their lives. The light around Tris was growing brighter and larger as more time passed; slowly he was being dragged up into the air aswell. Moss could see red lines flashing across Tris's body but couldn't make out what they were as they zipped out of his sight as soon as he saw them. An excruciating noise protruded out from where Tris hung in the air and Keila hid behind the remnants of the table as it seemed that Tris was being put through pain. The gold light immediately became a deep red colour and Harral felt a sense of urgency for it to stop or else hurt the man more. Everywhere across his skin, on every single pore of his body, Tris could feel sharp pricking sensations forcing his hairs on end like a really powerful static charge. He moved to curl up into a ball as nature told him but a bolt of power rocketed through his body and outstretched everything in all directions. He looked down at his arm, swearing that it was on fire, burning in flames as large as he could see. Then he realised that in fact it was his eyes that were on fire and not his skin at all. Then, at once, it stopped. It all stopped and Tris got cast down onto the floor, his entire body hitting it all in one split second. He felt the thud of himself crashing into the floor then he felt a wave of cool, refreshing energy flying through his body and what pain there had been was gone. He hesitantly picked himself up off the ground and stood up, everyone looked at him.
"Something feels wrong" he said "really wrong".
"What!" Keila shouted. "My father, the king, is dead and all  father, the king, is dead and all can say is something feels wrong. Are you stupid! Of course something's wrong!"
"No" Tris replied "no, not that. Something else, I feel ... I feel ... it's hard to explain. It's like an entirely new feeling that I've never had before, something that can't be explained by mere words". Tris looked around to see if he could look for any other ways to explain. Finally his gaze fixed over a goblet with some red wine in it, he reached his hand out and, from nowhere, the goblet shot across the room and cupped itself in his hand, he didn't even need to catch that. Even looked astounded, almost scared. "I couldn't do that before", he said looking scared himself "it just felt like that was possible for me to do, so I did it". Tris looked at the goblet and then dropped it against the floor. It rolled and hit the shoe of the dead cultist. 'No' he thought 'actually, it would seem like the only way I'm able to explain this'. "The cultist" he said, Moss seemed to grasp what his friend was getting at and swore out loud.
"Do something like that again, if it just feels like you can or can't do something that what are you meant to do". Tris stared around the room again and then suddenly the entire set of tables and chairs rose of their feet and hovered in the air steadily getting higher. Once they were about ten feet in the air they wavered and suddenly dropped to the ground with a giant crash. "Well?" Moss questioned, half in awe of Tris's newfound power half in fear of it.
"I think I lost control of the situation, I don't know how it happened. I don't know even how much control I can have over anything, this all feels so ... wrong" he repeated himself. He turned back to where Harondor's body lay on the floor, the rest of his blood oozing out of him.
"Can you" Gaila began; Tris knew what she was going to say though and shook his head. "I'm sorry, I can't do anything, he's gone". Keila, already sniffling burst into tears and planted her head firmly into her father's body, her long hair covering her face completely from view. Gaila knelt down and planted a kiss on her husband's forehead and closed his eyes, a signature in Valiquet for how to supposedly allow someone's soul to be released.
"What are we meant to do now?" Keila asked her mother and the three commanders still in the room. "I don't know" came the reply. "Harondor always had a plan; in the courts, for the city, for against Sorset. He always just, knew what to do like it came naturally. Seneseral aswell, and now they're both gone it's down to you Keila". Keila looked at her mother.
"I can't become queen, I'm the second child: I don't know a thing about it". She looked into her mother's eyes and knew the truth. Gaila was not going to be able to stay in Valiquet any longer, it was only a matter of time until she was demanded to take up the crown whether she liked it or not. Keila felt her mother draw her into a hug and, grateful for the affection, she surrendered to her touch and lay her head down in Gaila's lap, unsure of what to do.
*
Tris heard a knock on his door. Gone the first candlemark in the morning, he was up in his salle area trying to work out what the hell had happened to him in the feast. He slowly made his way down the stairs of his residence and walked towards the front door. He opened it and was unsurprised to see Keila standing in the doorway with no guards around, just herself. Her dress held a literal river of tears and it took Tris well over a minute to calm her down just a little. He gestured for her to come inside and he led the way, very slowly, to the salle where he had been trying things out. From what he could work out whenever he looked at something he didn't just think what the object was. Now, everywhere he looked, at anything he saw, there were hundreds, if not thousands of different things he could do all vying for his attention. What he noticed though, as he looked at more things, was that some thoughts up frequently more and more. More and more often Tris was finding he could set something alight, immediately after doing so and upon wishing he hadn't he realised that he could then do the opposite and quell the fire with water. Part of Tris wished he could lock away these thoughts and only pick them out if he ever needed specific ones. He decided it must be something he was able to do but just took a long time to control. Everything, he cursed, seemed to come back to his control of a situation – if he couldn't keep it under his power something bad happened. His control though was getting better with time and, although he was only practicing with objects like books and suchlike it showed a trend which he hoped would come through if he had to, say, create fireballs to kill units of Sorset soldiers.
"Tris, can I tell you something" Keila said under a tear as they were just about the enter the salle, Tris nodded for her to continue. "I didn't want to say this back in the palace in case anyone thought off of it but I have to let someone know." Tris looked at her "what is it?"
"Last night, before all this, I ..." she struggled to continue "I had a dream". Tris shrugged this off as nothing, asking what happened in her dream, rubbing her back soothingly as he hugged her. "In the dream  saw everything that happened in that feast, everything except for one thing. I saw us all sitting down, I saw the cultist, I saw my father die in the dream".
"And what was the thing that happened in the dream but not actually at the feast?" Tris asked.
"The only thing I saw that didn't come true" Keila said "didn't actually happen at the feast, but actually afterwards. I saw a woman, another assassin, standing over your corpse in your salle". Tris stepped back a pace and took his hand away from the salle's door. He suddenly felt very vulnerable "it wasn't just a dream Tris, I know it. It was pre ja vu". Tris put a finger over her soft lips, wet through the tears, and dragged her away from the door. She held close to him tight, her slim hands running over his large chest muscles. "Please, don't go back in there tonight Tris, I don't know what would happen". She sounded scared, scared for him. "Allow me to spend the night here with you if that's what it takes but I don't want you to be assassinated tonight aswell". Tris nodded and she squeezed him tighter than she had yet. Tris took her by the hand again as he led the way up to the top floor.
"You're more than welcome to stay here whenever you wish" he said. "I might not get any sleep though all night now it has to be said". Tris opened the door to his bedroom and hastily closed it behind him. Making sure the window was closed aswell he bolted both and sat down on the bed, still holding Keila, where they stayed for the whole night.
Outside in the rain a figure dressed entirely in black leather dropped down from the salle window and landed in a rose patch without leaving either any sound or mark.
*
Harral looked out of his window into the night sky, whatever had happened had changed everything. He didn't pretend to know little about the situation, he was just a soldier in all honesty. Moss probably knew a little more about it than he did, Tris aswell. He just hoped that between them and Keila they could hold the sovereignty up a little longer. Peace he thought has always been illusive in the kingdoms, why let that change now? It would hardly make any difference to the politics of the country, Sorset would still be at war with us and Keila will still need to produce an heir, bless her. It just annoyed everyone how cruel fate could be in the meantime. Behind him Harral heard someone move through the room. He had never allowed any of his servants to stay in his service beyond a day when he had arrived in his residence a decade ago so he knew it must be Márriére. He had tried to get rid of her but every time he did she found a way back into the house, it was like Madame Murrier had given her a key to the house. When he'd told Moss this the commander only laughed and told him to get over his fear of the woman. He wasn't scared of her though, it wasn't that which stopped him from wanting to sleep with her, nor was it the fact she wasn't from Harrillen like him. The problem he found with the woman was that she had wanted to become a concubine. What must she have gone through to have wanted to become a concubine? He didn't answer the question, he knew she could mind read by now and, almost on cue, she wrapped her hands around him.
"Why don't you want to sleep with me Harral?" she asked. "I've told you before I chose this path. Do you not like me? Do you just not like women?" Harral got halfway through saying "I do like you, and women, I just don't want to sleep with you is all" when she continued speaking. "If you like me then you should sleep with me, besides you need something to take your mind off what happened. I'm sorry it happened Harral but I will help to take your mind off it". Harral said "no" but he knew he wasn't going to win this one, not after everything that had just happened. Harral sighed and, after years of being the stubborn minded soldier who worked solely for his next rank, he finally gave up. Márriére pushed him back against the bed and, much to his surprise, he rather liked what happened next.
*
Two weeks later
Commander Moss stood in the campaign room with Keila. He had been alone, strategising over the best places to hold the line against Sorset who were still pushing their legions forward into Valiquet. Intelligence so far had implied that they were sending in as many legions as they could as often as they could to wear out his own line which had been weak since the start. Now it is almost diminished, and still weak. Of the good things he had to say about the campaign was that they had not lost any ground whatsoever and reinforcements should be within a day's ride of Galamar by then with another five thousand volunteer's being drafted in from all over the kingdom just in the last two days. It was good but they weren't doing it nearly as fast as they should. The men they were sending off to war had had little time to train, most of them enthusiastic eighteen year olds learning how to fight on the way to their deaths so they could maybe score a woman with a bit of luck before they went. In the time which he had been defending Galamar in the first battle of the city some of the captains had drafted a mass recruitment plan. You could not go anywhere in the kingdom, he thought without seeing a chanter for people to join the army. Most were either captains already in the service of the army or beautiful women putting on an act. Many women, in a stroke of recruiting genius, had been prompted to hand men a white feather to show their cowardice and women were also, he'd heard, withholding sex from their husbands. The entire sovereignty had set itself into a psychology if defending itself from Sorset, it would be better though if they could put more into it and make one that made them look like winning the war instead of just merely keeping going. The old sort of psychology had been the reason for the last war to last an entire century; Moss personally didn't want this one to last quite as long. Valiquet just wouldn't be able to take it were it to happen.
"I know you don't want to Keila" he was saying "but you have to start looking towards the future. I've been running the country with your mother for the last two weeks from behind the throne. We each know that she could be gone in hours with the Mise-en-cors diplomat finally getting through the border. Please, for Valiquet, take the crown and produce an heir".
"'Produce an heir' Moss" Keila bit back, quoting him snarkily. "It's not as easy as it sounds Moss, and us women aren't exactly a battery farm for babies. I mean hey, it might be all fine and great for you men but for us women sex is hardly the number one thing on our list when we wake up every morning: first finding who you want, then getting them into bed with you for enough times to make sure you are pregnant is a bit beyond our limits. Before you say anything else yes I know I'm under pressure and yes, it is getting to me. But please, I know it sounds hard to do but I need more time". She hadn't meant for it to come out that bitter, that snappy, but it had and she felt bad about it. "I'm sorry" she said and moved to the door when it suddenly opened in front of her. Tris stood on the other side of the door, he motioned for her to pass after he noticed her mood: he doubted she'd be that happy again for a week when she heard what the diplomat had said.
"What did the diplomat say?" Moss asked. He braced himself, he was expecting the less favourable of the two options. "More importantly, in which hiding hole did Gaila hide from him in?" he said when he saw the look on Tris's face.
"She's not going to like this one bit, not one bit at all" he sighed. "I tried to talk reason with him Moss but all he'd keep doing was interrupting me with 'Mise-en-cors has been trying to solidify a very important allegiance with Raddalost for a long time now'" he spoke the quote in a sarcastic, almost angry voice. "As for where Gaila's gotten off too since he arrived in the city you'd have to ask the chicken bones that mysteriously lost their meat yesterday night in the kitchen and no-one saw the culprit. If anyone wants her to stay more than us it's the chefs – she's too nice with her compliments to them". The joke was intended to lift Moss's spirits, it did not. Moss felt old, as if he was attempting to do a job not meant for his bones but rather for the court. The court however have taken things so maturely he thought to himself since the assassination. Over half the noble families had left their estates in the city and had moved back to their own holdings across the kingdom. Some had thought they would be ousted from their position whilst had thought that if Valiquet fell it would give them some time to run and hey, if Sorset were beaten back, then they could always return with gifts of gold to Keila who, although was officially the leader of the country now, had not been yet been crowned queen. Can they not take a bloody risk in serving their country or are they complete corrupt single minded bastards. He could feel his anger and hatred of politics rising as he just thought about the prospect, it certainly seemed a nice thought to him to hold some of the more corrupt lords in a cell then have them hung, drawn and quartered, both as an example to other lords but also as entertained for civilians in Valiquet. Suddenly a scream rang through the palace wall's that both men instantly recognised as Gaila's.
The two commanders sprinted down the steps leading out from the castle. Fortunately Harral had already arrived and was going head to head in a battle of nerves with the diplomat who, seemingly, had snapped. He held a crossbow which he aimed at Harral's head, Harral had taken a crossbow off a guard it seemed and they faced each other, neither willing to let the other move. Behind the diplomat a score of Mise-en-cors armoured bodyguards had drawn their weapons aswell and pointed them towards a score of palace guard.
"We have the right to take her" the diplomat said. "My ass" Harral replied.
"She is a member of the Mise-en-cors house" the diplomat said. "Who was married to Harondor of Valiquet becoming a part of our kingdom" Harral replied. The diplomat nodded behind him to the bodyguards who slowly started to make their way into a carriage just inside Harral's crossbow range. Tris presumed Gaila was being held inside "I suggest you don't move a single step more" Harral threatened.
"Oh, is that so?" the diplomat jeered back then, at the last second as his bodyguard's moved into the carriage, he realised his mistake. Harral fired his bolt and it sped like a bolt into the diplomat's shoulder as he retaliated and fired back at Harral, missing as he turned and ran to the carriage.
"Cease your fire!" Moss yelled. As the man jumped into the carriage and ordered his driver to speed off down the road as fast as he could whip the horses. Everyone turned to look at him except for Harral who dropped the crossbow and marched off, the pressure getting to him from all sides as he couldn't keep Gaila in the city. "We're already at war with Sorset!"Moss continued regardless of Harral being around or not. "Thus we don't want to be at war with everyone else aswell you idiots".
"That wasn't an act of war in itself then Moss?" Keila asked from nowhere as she took Moss by surprise coming from behind him. "First my father is killed by a cultist who we suspect derives from Sorset but in truth could be from anywhere and now Mise-en-cors, 'Valiquet's allies', have taken, kidnapped even, the very link which formed the allegiance in the first place". Keila noticed, out of the corner of her eye, Tris wander off out of sight, away from it all as the world of politics degraded even more in the palace city. I do understand what Moss wants she thought this country does need someone it can look up to.
The assassination continues in the novel's 30th chapter and Mise-En-Cors show their part in an untrusty allegiance to Valiquet when Queen Gaila is taken hostage back to her homeland.

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adamsparkes's avatar
Pure awesome. I'm really enjoying reading this. After you have finished writing the novel, you will have to publish it! I want to buy it :)