The Games for Nihon (BOOK THREE)

Chapter 16 - The Queen of Epoch

They were welcomed by a woman who was so extraordinarily tall that Sofia worried she would hurt herself, bump into things or simply lose balance and topple over. She introduced herself as Crusâd and got right to it without even asking their names.

"Is this your first time in Epoch?"

Sofia and Ami nodded with wide eyes, and Orì said, "as a toddler."

"So, yes," Crusâd said, and to the disciples, "What about you?"

Two of them had been to Epoch. Dafne hadn't. Somehow Sofia felt like it was a bad sign that her ally was the one who had traveled the least. She remembered Dafne's admission to being not all that talented, and she was dismayed.

"There are rules in Epoch," Crusâd continued. "These rules are not optional. Their reasonableness is not for you to question or to discuss, especially not in front of the queen. Never in front of the queen."

She eyed them carefully as if trying to burn the information into their heads. Her eyes were triangular and blank. Deep beneath, there was fear.

They nodded almost as a reflex.

"If the queen tells you to stand on one foot, you do it," Crusâd said. "You don't ask her why she wants you to do this. There is no why in Epoch. There is only the queen's will."

Orì leaned over to Sofia.

"You're going to be in trouble," she whispered.

"So are you," Sofia whispered back.

"And no whispering," Crusâd said.

"I could have told you that," Ami said to Sofia and Orì.

"And no commenting," Crusâd said.

Sofia and Orì stuck their tongue out at Ami.

"And no sticking out tongues," Crusâd said.

"What about me?" Mornas asked. He had been standing in the background, guided invisibly by one of the disciples. Until now he had been silent. When Sofia had looked at him, his expression had been one of both deviance and surrender. He didn't seem scared, rather unhappy.

"You go back to where you escaped from."

A visibly shudder went through Mornas' body.

"She doesn't even want to see me?"

"She'll deal with you later."

With those words, Mornas was taken away by guards to whose presence Sofia had been oblivious. From Orì's and Ami's startled reaction, she could tell that they hadn't noticed them either. They emerged from the wall as if they had been camouflaged into it. As she watched Mornas walk away without turning back around, she wondered if this was the last time she would ever see him. She also wondered if she even wanted to see him again.

From his words, she had pieced together that he was a hunter whose job it had been to search for especially gifted children. He had a rare talent for looking into a person and sensing their abilities and their future potential. The Queen of Epoch had been using him for decades to find people to add to her collection, or she had rented out his services to other rulers who paid handsomely for it. But apparently, he no longer cherished his vocation. On the other hand, it had shaped his nature, and there was something greedy and purposeful about him that had quickly surfaced when they had first met him and he had assessed their worth as if they were cattle.

"Nobody is allowed to tower over the Queen," Crusâd explained, listing the most important rules. "You must make yourself shorter than her in her presence. You must not speak before she does, and when she asks you something, you must answer right away. When she tells you to do something, you do it. You must not lie to her, because she will know. You also must not mock her in your thoughts, because she will know, too."