The Bane of the Empire

Chapter 34

Ilaburn

"Bring her in"

He had spoken to the man in front of him and watched him duck before leaving the room. His drink was sitting untouched as he listened to the faint clink of heels come down the hall.

"You called?"

He looked at her immortal beauty. The way her hair cascaded down her back outlined the gentle curve of her body. He could remember the first day he met her. Her beauty had left him breathless and when she told him that his deepest desired could be his, he leaped at the chance.

Regarding her now with distain he said, "They escaped. And I still do not have the new lock."

A dangerous smile spread on her face and he flinched as she cocked her head and the pressure built in his arm.

"Things such as this cannot be rushed."

The woman, if she could even be called that, walked around the room surveying the map opened on his table.

"Are you preparing for war, Your Highness?"

He scoffed as the pressure reduced to a dull throb. Rising he walked around to stand beside her. Her eyes never left him, and he too was not foolish enough to take his sights off such a beast. She may appear to be naught but a woman, but he knew what lay beneath the surface, had seen it two decades ago in this very room.

"War is coming. Whether it comes now or later. It is coming."

After the riot that broke out at All Souls the streets of Ilaburn were reduced to rubble. The men who had started the riot had spread to the streets, breaking and looting the poor, all the while screaming, "tyrant King". Many had believed the lies and had fled the royal city. Now all who remained were the poor with no means to buy passage and the men who now staked claim over the streets of Ilaburn.

But it was not the men that occupied his thoughts. He looked at the small figures spread out over the Lands. Tenense and Tradepoint had been secured, those trying to flee the Continent had been stopped and told to return to their homes. Tensions were growing and the blind faith he had built in the people of Ilaburn and the rest of the Lands was breaking. If he did not secure his seat, he would lose the very throne he worked for all those years ago.

He gritted his teeth, that Rentradie bitch and the Prince were to be put down. But before he could do that, he needed the new lock.

"Don't waste any more time. You were called here for the lock. Make it and leave."

He knew he had made a grave mistake in choosing his words because the pressure in his left arm grew to a searing pain. He groaned as a trickle of blood moved down his arm from the wound that opened at his shoulder. She had found him in his chambers when they had fled. Using her abilities, she stitched closed the wound but made it so that she could, with the slightest thought, open it again.

"It is best that you remember your place Arnoldus. The throne you love so dearly was given to you by me."

The woman looked down at him as the blood continued to flow. He had been reduced to a whimpering man, kneeling before the woman who regarded him with a sneer.

Gasping he said. "The men you sent to look for the tome returned with one of the riders dead. They never found his body." She broke the mental hold she had on his arm and stepped away from the war table. Without another glance in his direction, he watched as she said over her shoulder, "I suggest guarding your mountains," before sauntering out of his chambers.

Letting out an unruly sound, he called for the attendant to bring him fresh wrappings. She thought herself above him but when the time came, he vowed to deliver her the death she deserved.