Empress Aurora Trilogy Quest For the Kingdom Parts I, II, and III Revised With Index (Quest For the Kingdom Set) (40 page)

Here Marcus
stopped. He had shared all that was in his heart. He waited for a response from
Valerius. It was not long in coming.

“Do you
realize, Marcus,” he began, “that you reject everything our Empire is based on?
Are you aware that you reject
me
, a soldier, a General who led the
Imperial Army on the orders of first Emperor Beatus, and then his daughter,
Empress Aurora?”

Valerius now
began to laugh, but not with good nature.

“Look at you!
My son! You who wanted to be a soldier like your father!”

The voice of
Valerius rose to a dangerous level as his fury was at last unleashed.

“Well, a fine
soldier
you
would make!” he mocked.

Marcus flinched
and stared at his father, stung by the mockery in the eyes of Valerius, who had
never shown any feeling but love and pride in his son.

“No soldier
would forgive his enemy! To do so would be to commit treason to his own
government! No soldier would do good to those who hate him. Such an action
would unman his pride!”

Valerius rose
to his feet and grabbed Marcus by the arm, jerking him to his own. So violently
did he seize him that Marcus’ teeth involuntarily clamped together and he bit
his tongue, bringing tears to his eyes.

Marcus gulped
but did not flinch from the wrath of his father.

“Listen to
me,” Valerius said in a deadly voice. “You could have bought
any
pearl
and brought it back to the Empress to secure my freedom and that of your
mother.”

Marcus
interjected.

“But that
would be lying, cheating the Empress!” he protested.

“What does that
matter?” Valerius bellowed. “Has she not robbed
you
, selling you into
slavery? Has she not robbed your mother and
me
, imprisoning us for a
trumped up excuse? Has she not robbed us
all
by confiscating our home?”
he thundered.

“But, Father,
it would be wrong to cheat her! It is never right to return one evil for
another!”

Marcus and
Valerius stood face to face and stared at one another with the incomprehension
of two strangers who have only just met for the first time. Valerius gave one
long measuring look at his son, and shook his head.

“Very well,
Marcus. You have chosen. This Kingdom of Heaven you wish to follow has a
greater hold on your loyalty than your own father and mother. Such being the
case, I leave you to follow it. You are no longer any son of mine. Be gone from
my sight!”

And with that
last utterance Valerius turned his back on his son.

How he made it
out of that room Marcus never knew. He took one last look at his father’s unyielding
back through tear-filled eyes, noting the soldier-erect posture, the feet
spread slightly apart in battle stance. Marcus made no plea: Valerius was not
known for changing his mind.

Blindly, he
stumbled into the corridor, where an armed Guard waited to take him to the
Empress. Marcus followed the Guard, hardly aware of where he trod, looking
neither to the right nor the left. So must he do now; the past was over. He
must never look back.

Neither the
spurning of Tullia nor the treachery of Felix had wounded him as deeply as the rejection
of his father. To Marcus, Valerius was his hero. All his life he had wanted to
be like him. His father’s scorn had cut to the core of his being.

Numbly, he
thought of what awaited him in his audience with the Empress. He did not fear
her wrath nearly as much as he had his father’s. All she could do was to kill
his body: she did not have the power to destroy his spirit, as his father’s
rejection threatened to do.

And yet he
knew that the whim of the Empress would decide the fate of them all.

The green eyes
were even more opaque than Marcus remembered. They never blinked nor changed
expression as he told the Empress of his travels. He spoke of the hospitality
of Governor Urbanus, described the wealth of the Ashkani and the fabulous city
of Koohyaram, and related the shipwreck that had followed the great storm.

At last Aurora
interrupted him.

“What of the
Pearl?” she abruptly demanded in a voice of steel. “Where is it, Marcus?”

The words
escaped his lips faster than thought.

“I do not have
it, Your Grace,” he groaned. “Alas, it does not exist.”

Aurora looked
at him through narrowed eyes. For one long moment she neither moved nor spoke,
as if unable to believe the truth of his statement. Then she rose slightly to
her feet, her hands upon the arms of her throne.

“Does not
exist?” she echoed him. “Did you say the Pearl of legend does not ex
ist
?”

Marcus nodded
sadly, and then remembered his manners and whom he was addressing.

“Yes, that is
what I said, Your Grace,” he answered. “The Pearl you seek cannot be found. For
it refers to something of greater value.”

“What,” she
intoned in a voice laden with menace, “could be of greater value? Answer me,
Marcus!”

Feeling that
the worst that could possibly befall him already had, Marcus told Aurora the
story of Alexandros and the Kingdom of Heaven. Not once did he pause, not once
did she interrupt.

When he had
finished, the silence was deafening. He glanced at Aurora. She was looking at
him with doubtful eyes, as she idly drummed her fingers on the arms of her
throne.

Then suddenly
she broke the silence with peals of laughter. It was not her usual delicate
giggles, nor was it the mockery of Valerius. Aurora burst into gales of genuine
amusement that resonated like the ringing of a silver bell, and brought tears
to her eyes. For several minutes there was no other sound but the roar of her
laughter. Marcus waited uneasily for his sentence.

At last Aurora
collected herself and daintily dabbed the tears from her eyes with a bit of
white linen that she drew from the folds of her peridot green robe. She took
several deep breaths before she addressed Marcus.

“Well,” she
said as she inhaled once more, “I must thank you for bringing back such an
amusing tale. You have at least succeeded in entertaining me, if nothing else.”

Aurora nodded
her head as she looked at Marcus. Then her green eyes glinted coldly like some
reptile creature that eyes a potential prey.

“However,” she
spat out in a swift change of tone, “you did
not
succeed in bringing
back what I sent you to find. You have failed in your quest, Marcus.”

Marcus hung
his head, dreading to hear his parents’ doom spoken by the lips of the Empress.

“Hmmm,” she
purred, “I seem to remember a condition that accompanied my request. Do you
recall what that was, Marcus?”

He glanced up
at her hastily. He licked his lips, but his tongue felt as dry as his mouth. He
could barely speak the answer to her question.

“Yes, Your
Grace,” he responded, “I remember.”

“Yes, it was
your life and the release of your mother and father for the purchase of the
Pearl, and I recall telling you if you did
not
give me the Pearl, I
could not give you your parents.”

She paused for
a moment, and gave Marcus the watchful look of a cat playing with a mouse. A
glimmer of ice stirred in the depths of her jade green eyes.

“Well, what
shall we do now?” she asked in feigned bewilderment. “I do not desire to be
cruel, but you have not fulfilled the mission which I gave you. How can you
possibly buy the release of your parent if you have nothing to give? And how
can I possibly allow you to live when you have failed me in the task I set you
to do? Why, I might be perceived as weak, and that would
never
do for a
ruler, would it?”

Aurora smiled
at Marcus; a smile that never reached her eyes. His heart pounded violently in his
chest, and a throbbing beat answered in his throat, rendering speech
impossible.

Aurora sighed
in bogus despair. She shook her head as though saddened by what she must do.

“A ruler must
keep their word, Marcus. We made a bargain, you and I; but you did not keep
your part of it.”

The Empress
paused. A shadow crossed her face; and for a brief moment Marcus thought he
detected hesitancy on her part.

“I think,” she
said slowly as though searching for words, “I must have a little time to decide
what is to be done.”

Marcus could
not have been more astounded by her wavering then if the sun had suddenly
appeared in the midst of a pelting rain storm. Was there hope to be had after
all?

Aurora gave
herself a little shake, as if annoyed. She gazed into the distance, then
whipped her glance back to Marcus. She picked up a small bronze bell at her
side and rang it vigorously. The Guard quickly entered the room from his post
outside the door.

“Take him away
to the ante-chamber,” Aurora ordered.

Turning back
to Marcus she gave him one level look from her enigmatic eyes.

“I will send
for you when I have decided your fate.”

She stood
before him with her arms akimbo, her hands slipped into the long hanging
sleeves of her robe. The rubies in her crown flashed with the red fire that to
Marcus appeared as drops of blood on her head; the blood of the innocent,
condemned by her hands.

A cold tight
smile crossed Aurora’s face as she considered Marcus. She slowly inclined her
head toward him.

“I have
decided your fate, Marcus,” she announced in her silver-smooth voice.

Her tone was
as casual as though she were but discussing her choice of food at a banquet. It
was clear to Marcus that his fate was of little importance to the Empress.

“Yes,” she
nodded as she gazed at him with gleaming eyes. “I have decided to allow you to
live.”

A gasp of
astonishment escaped Marcus. Before he could speak Aurora raised one hand.

“Do not
interrupt your Empress!” she warned him, a stern frown creasing her brow. “Or I
may regret my leniency.”

She paused to
allow her words to penetrate. Marcus bowed slightly and waited for her to
continue.

“Good boy,
Marcus,
very
good indeed! I see you have been shorn of some of the
arrogance with which you addressed me before you set out on your journey. That
pleases me; that pleases me indeed!” she laughed softly, then continued.

“I must say
that I respect your courage in returning to face me, knowing that you failed.
You could have stayed away to prolong your life. You could have purchased
another pearl to palm off on me as the Great Pearl and pretended to have
fulfilled your quest. Yet you did not.”

Aurora paused
and glanced at Marcus with a strange look in her eyes that surprised him. Was
it respect?

She nodded her
head.

“Yes, I
respect courage. How like your father you are, Marcus!” her voice faltered and
broke as she said this last.

Her face
twisted suddenly, and Marcus thought he saw a glint of tears in the jade eyes.
Quickly she recovered herself.

“Because you
are so brave, I wish to give you one more chance. If you fulfill the task I am
about to give you, I will grant your freedom and release your parents.”

With renewed hope
inflaming his soul, Marcus dropped to one knee before the Empress.

“Your Grace,
what is my task?” he asked in a voice that shook with emotion.

Aurora bid him
rise, and removing her hands from her sleeves, stood erect before him. Marcus
had to confess to himself that in her dignity and beauty she looked every inch
a queen.

“Your task,
Marcus,” she pronounced, “is to travel far and wide and bring back to me four
objects that I desire most ardently: I want the Fountain of Youth, a star from
the Heavens, the Rays of the Sun, and the secret of life. That is your task,”
she said in a tone of dismissal.

On hearing it,
Marcus bowed and prepared to take his leave. Aurora’s voice called him back.

“There is one
more thing I require of you, Marcus: do not fail me a second time.”

Quest For the
Kingdom

Part III

Invitation To
Eternity

By L. M. Roth

Copyright ©
2012 L. M. Roth

All Rights
Reserved

Preface

Judoc looked
at the fire for several moments, as if mesmerized by the dancing flames. When
at last she looked away, she glanced at the faces of all in turn before she
spoke.

Instead of
answering Marcus’ question, she posed one in turn.

“Do you recall
the day when Brenus ran off the path, and I called him back?” was her
unexpected query.

“Yes,” Marcus
promptly replied. “You seemed concerned beyond all reason, I thought.”

“I had good
reason,” Judoc quickly responded. “For you see, they live in the wild places
and we must not stray from the path.”

“They?” Felix
echoed, as he glanced aside at Marcus.

Marcus hoped
Felix would not mock Judoc, who was deadly earnest.

“They,” she
answered without hesitation. “The Tuadan.”

“And who are
the Tuadan?” Marcus coaxed her to further disclosure.

“They are the
rulers of the wild places,” Judoc continued, her eyes once again riveted on the
fire. “They once ruled from the heavens but they did what was forbidden and
were diminished and fell to earth. There, they were banished to the hills and
valleys, the trees and the fields.

“Some say they
walk in the places where no man has set his foot, and they guard their domain
with fierce and jealous anger, punishing the unwary. And it is they who bless
the crops or curse them at their pleasure. It is not wise to stray from the
paths, for there are those who have done so; and never returned.”