“How could you allow Braga to kill my father? He was your friend.”
“I tried to stop it,” Sauly told her. “You must believe me when I tell you this. The moment the test was done and your father implicated, I called for an emergency council of the church, but Braga couldn’t be stopped. He refused to listen to me and said I was wasting valuable time.”
Fears of her own murder fled and anger filled the vacuum. She stood up, fists clenched, her eyes filled with hate.
“Arista, I know you are upset, and have every right to be but let me explain further,” the archbishop waited for her to sit down again. “What I am about to tell you is the most highly guarded secret of the Church of Nyphron. This information is strictly reserved for top ranking members of the clergy. I am trusting you with this information because we need your help and I know you will not extend it unless you understand why.” He took the glass of wine, sipped it, then leaned forward and spoke to Arista in a quiet tone. “In the last few years of the Empire, the church uncovered a dark and twisted scheme whose goal was no less than to enslave all of humanity. The conspiracy led directly to the Emperor. Only the church could save mankind. We killed the Emperor and tried to eliminate his bloodline, but the Emperor’s son was aided by Esrahaddon. His heritage contains the power to raise the demons of the past and once more bring humanity to the brink. For this reason, the church has sought to find the heir and destroy the lineage whose existence is a knife at the throat of all of us. After so long, the heir might not even be aware of his power, or even who he is. But Esrahaddon knows. If that wizard finds the heir, he can use him as a weapon against us. No one will be safe.”
The archbishop looked at her carefully, “Esrahaddon was once part of the high council. He was one of the key members in the effort to save the Empire from the conspirators but at the last moment, he betrayed the church. Instead of a peaceful transition, he callously caused a civil war that destroyed the Empire. The church cut off his hands and locked him away for nearly a millennium. What do you think he’ll do if he has the chance to exact revenge? Whatever humanity he might have possessed died in Gutaria Prison. What remains is a powerful demon bent on our destruction—revenge for revenge’s sake; he is mad with it. He is like a wildfire that will consume all if not stopped. As a princess of a kingdom, you must understand—sacrifices must be made to ensure the security of the realm. We deeply regret the error that occurred in respect to your father, but hope you will come to understand why it happened, accept our apologies, and help us prevent the end of all that we know.
“Esrahaddon is an incredibly intelligent mad man bent on destroying everyone. The heir is his weapon. If he finds him before we do, if we cannot prevent him from reawakening the horror we managed to put to sleep centuries ago, then all this—this city, your kingdom of Melengar, all of Apeladorn will be lost. We need your help Arista. We need you to help us find Esrahaddon.”
The door opened abruptly and a priest entered.
“Your grace,” he said out of breath. “The sentinel is calling the curia to order.”
Galien nodded and looked back at Arista. “What say you, my dear? Can you help us?”
The princess looked at her hands. Too much was whirling in her head: Esrahaddon, Braga, Sauly, mysterious conspiracies, healing potions. The one image that remained steadfast was the memory of her father lying on his bed, his face pale, blood soaking the covers. It took so long to put the pain behind her and now…had Esrahaddon killed him? Had they? “I don’t know,” she muttered.
“Can you at least tell us if he has contacted you since his escape?”
“I haven’t seen or heard from Esrahaddon since before my father’s death.”
“You understand, of course,” the archbishop, told her, “that be this as it may, you are the most likely person he would trust and we would like you to consider working with us to find him. As Ambassador of Melengar you could travel between kingdoms and nations and never be suspected. I also understand that right now you may not be ready to make such a commitment, so I won’t ask; but please consider it. The church has let you down grievously; I only request that you give us a chance to redeem ourselves in your eyes.”
Arista drained the rest of her wine and slowly nodded.
———
“Do you think she is telling the truth?” The archbishop asked him. There was a faint look of hope on his face, clouded by an overall expression of misery. “There was a great deal of resistance in her.”
Saldur was still looking at the door Arista exited. “Anger would be a more accurate word, but yes, I think she was telling the truth.”
He did not know what Galien expected. Did he think Arista would embrace him with open arms after they admitted to killing her father? The whole idea was absurd, desperate measures from a man sinking in quicksand.
“It was worth it,” the archbishop said without any conviction.
Saldur played with a loose thread on his sleeve, wishing he had taken the remainder of Bernice’s bottle with him. He never cared much for wine. More than anything the tragedy of Braga’s death was the loss of a great source of excellent brandy. The archduke really knew his liquor.
Galien stared at him. “You’re quiet,” the archbishop said. “You think I was wrong, of course. You said so, didn’t you? You were very vocal about it at our last meeting. You were watching her every move. You have that—that—” the old man waved his hand toward the door as if this would make his fumbling clearer, “—that old handmaid monitoring her every breath. Isn’t that right? And if Esrahaddon had contacted her we would have known and they would be none the wiser, but now…” the archbishop threw up his hands, feigning disgust in a sarcastic imitation of Saldur.
Saldur continued to fiddle with the thread, wrapping it around the end of his forefinger, winding it tighter and tighter.
“You’re too arrogant for your own good,” Galien accused defensively. “The man is an imperial wizard. What he is capable of is beyond your comprehension. For all we know he may have been visiting her in the form of a butterfly in the garden or a moth that entered her bedroom window each night. We had to be sure.”
“A butterfly?” Saldur said, genuinely amazed.
“He’s a wizard. Damn you. That’s what they do.”
“I highly doubt—”
“The point is we didn’t know for sure.”
“And we still don’t. All I can say is I don’t think she was lying, but Arista is a clever girl. Maribor knows she has proven that already.”
Galien lifted his empty wine glass. “Carlton!”
The servant looked up. “I’m sorry, your grace, but I can’t say I know her well enough to offer much of an opinion.”
“Good god man. I’m not asking you about her; I want more wine, you fool.”
“Ah,” Carlton said and headed for the bottle, pulling the cork out with a dull, hollow pop.
“The problem is that the patriarch blames me for Esrahaddon’s disappearance,” Galien continued.