A Grace of Crowns | ☑ Queenkiller, Kingmaker #1

[00.0] Before

[Theurgy] begins to manifest during or around the start of puberty. Few individuals, commonly known as late-bloomers, manifest at a later age. Even fewer still – early-bloomers – demonstrate signs of theurgy before puberty. It is from amongst them as well as the Graced that the most powerful and famed theurgists have grown.

—Corthair's Compendium of Theurgy

↝ BEFORE ↜

Woods of Ang Kur, Surikhand
the year 326 pos forma

First came the whistles. Not the sweet music Papa would make every morning as he pushed his boat out to fish, but the whistling of a reed dart. The kind Isla used to hunt rabbit. Only there were hundreds of darts now, slicing through the air, drizzling over the roof of her carriage. Isla shrunk in her seat and swore she would never hunt again.

She glanced out the window at the thrum of steel. 'Watch the boughs!' came the command. Shields were raised, arrows streamed down. Shadows swung from the thick canopy with weapons at the ready, descending upon their hireguards as a flock of ravens unto scattered corn.

Her coachman was first to fall, plunging off the side of the carriage with a shaft in his neck. His horse kicked up in response. Isla jolted in her seat. She clutched her handmaid's skirts, wishing for her mother; but Mama was in the other carriage, taking care of Tam Mai. She had to be brave. 'What's happening?'

Her handmaid drew her away from the window. 'They are just bandits, little miss. Nothing our trained hireguards cannot overcome.'

Isla was not convinced. The sounds grew louder and more urgent: clashing steel, angry shouts, the splash of something thick and red against their window. Her handmaid reached across her, pulling the curtain shut with a force that ripped it off its rails.

Isla had heard of bandits before, but always in the warmth and quiet of her bed, with Papa stroking her hair as he read out to her. How she wished he was there now to stroke her hair, but he, too, was with Tam Mai. It was not fair. They always favoured her younger sister.

A woman wailed above the sounds of battle, a child screamed. Isla shot to her feet, soon crying with them. She often made her sister cry, but never like this. Isla reached for the door, calling for Mama, calling for Tam Mai, but Noi pulled her back and silenced her with hugs and caresses.

'Check this one!' a voice commanded over Tam Mai's screams.

Footfalls approached their carriage door, Noi squeezed Isla tight. 'Stay still, little miss. As still as you can,' she whispered. 'Hush, now. Quiet. It will be all right, I promise.'

Isla nodded, looking upon her handmaid for solace, at the yellow stones in her ears, glimmering faintly like a star. Papa had taught her about the gods; how they had ascended into the stars. Sometimes they look down and grant our prayers.

Noi looked like she was praying. She had her eyes rooted on the door; almost handsome now, when she was not animated and smiling. The handmaid did not so much as twitch, even when finally the door slid open with a bang.

Three men stood by the carriage, attires red as the blades in their hands. Isla bit her tongue so hard she tasted blood.

'Anything valuable?' asked a fourth man behind them whom Isla could not see. 'Well? We have to hurry!'

'There's nothing here,' said one of the bandits. 'It's empty.'

'Empty?' Their leader pushed through them. He was dressed in better clothes than the others. Even the sword he carried was bigger, longer – and on his shoulder, slumped over his back, was a little girl.

It took all Isla's self-control to keep from jumping or crying out.

The leader frowned, leaned in to inspect the corners of the apparently empty carriage, but he came no farther than the door before two hireguards knocked his men aside.

A blade came swinging down his face, cutting a length across his lips, enough to send him cursing and screaming away. Grasping his wound in one hand and his quarry with the other, he turned and fled for the trees. His men held off the hireguards, whom were slowly clearing the carriage and pushing them back into the woods.

And behind them— 

Isla's father was suddenly by the door, looking in, wiping a bleeding gash on his forehead. 'We are outnumbered!' he said, leaning against the carriage and still gazing inside, although his eyes never latched upon the handmaid's or where she sat, huddled with his daughter. 'Noi, you must take Isla. Get one of the horses. Cross to Elingar when the ship departs, whether or not I am there. They have –'

He blinked, his face softening. Isla could imagine his surprise to see them suddenly appearing before him, there in the corner of the carriage.

'They have Tam Mai. I cannot leave her.'

Isla jumped off her handmaid's lap and rushed towards her father.

'It will be all right, Isla,' he said as he took her in his arms. 'But you have to leave now. We will meet you at our new home.'

Noi gathered their bags, passing the smallest ones for Isla to carry. 'Is the mistress –'

'Chani is ... unconscious. For now,' he added quickly off the look on Isla's face. 'I've left a hireguard with her. The other two we have left have already gone after Tam Mai.'

'What do they want with Tamma?' asked Isla, her voice rising.

He avoided her eyes and shook his head. 'I have to go now, Isla, while they are not too far. I love you.' And with that, he was gone, running off into the woods, following the sounds of scraping swords and a child's distant cries.

'Come,' said Noi. They peered outside. Several bandits were still tangled against the remaining hireguard defending Mama's carriage. Noi reached out for Isla's hand and pulled her out.

'I want to stay!' Isla sobbed as they ran for the nearest horse.

'We will have none of that.'

'We can take Mama.'

'We could never carry her.' Isla followed Noi's gaze to Mama's carriage, and even she could see the hireguard was fighting a losing battle.

'And Tamma –'

Noi lifted her onto the horse. 'Your father will get your sister back, and then he will come for your mother. Rescue her, like one of those brave maharaji you like to read of so much. We will see them all again in Elingar.'

'We can wait in Biripor. Take the ship together.'

Noi tied their bags to the saddle. 'The ship is due to sail; we are lucky if we ourselves make it there.' She clambered behind the young girl, grabbing the reins in her hands.

The horse did not need much prodding before it was off in a gallop, kicking dust and foliage in its wake. Isla's cheeks were wet with tears when she looked back at the remnants of her company. The last she saw before the trees closed in behind them was their last hireguard falling, a blade struck through his heart.
  

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