Aura, the original capital of the Queendom of Pyra, sat atop Pyrmont’s highest peak. It was built around the Everlasting Flame, a massive pit filled with the same god-made flames that had tested Nefyra a thousand years ago. It continued to burn long after her trial, constantly fueled by gases leaking from holes in the mountain.
Stone filled with veins of precious metals surrounded the Everlasting Flame, and the Pyraeans slowly excavated temples and statues from the living rock. Fissures of gold reflected the firelight, gilding every surface, leading to the name “Aura,” the Golden City.
The Pyraeans slowly spread over the highest peaks of the mountain, able to live and build in places where only those with phoenixes could ever reach. It wasn’t until the Everlasting Flame went out that the Riders went in search of new lands and new prosperity. Many saw the extinction of the Everlasting Flame as a sign that Axura was displeased with them and that they had fallen out of favor. Every phoenix ever hatched until that time had been incubated in the Everlasting Flame, and it was an integral part of everyday life for the ancient Phoenix Riders. In that divine fire, lives were birthed and dead bodies burned; festivals and celebrations, weddings and ceremonies, all were done in the light of the Everlasting Flame.
Newly crowned Queen Elysia knew her people needed more than a new home. . . . They needed a new start. After years of maintaining and defending Pyra’s borders—which had grown to encompass all of Pyrmont and the surrounding Foothills—Elysia set her sights on expansion and exploration. She maintained that was their true purpose—to spread Axura’s light into all corners of the world.
There were battles and alliances, treaties and new boundaries, and soon Pyraean queens married valley kings and established the Auran—more commonly called Golden—Empire, never returning to the highest reaches of their mountain home.
—Myths and Legends of the Golden Empire and Beyond, a compilation of stories and accounts, the Morian Archives, 101 AE
She called it betrayal. I called it justice. A poisoned cup for a poisoned cup, a death for a death. A queen for a king.
- CHAPTER 11 -
SEV
SEV SOON CAME TO regret his deal with Trix—if it could even be called a deal. Blackmail, more like. He thought often of reporting her, but he didn’t doubt she’d make good on her threats. He hadn’t built up any amount of clout or goodwill with the other soldiers, and he knew from experience that Trix could be very persuasive.
The fact of the matter was, the woman was smarter than him, and he couldn’t afford to cross her. Trix knew about his little escape attempt and would probably keep an eye on him at night to ensure he didn’t make another run for it. If Sev refused to help her, well, she’d reveal his secret—and frame him for any number of other things as well—and he’d find himself in bondage, or worse. Being an animage in hiding was one thing, but being an animage hiding among the empire’s precious ranks of soldiers was something else. Most bondservants were forced to serve until they’d “paid back their debt to the empire,” which really just meant paying back lost taxes. That usually resulted in a term of at least ten years, depending on how old the animage was and what exactly they’d been caught doing. If they were running a booming business thanks to their magic—breeding Stellan horses or training expensive hunting falcons—without paying the magetax, the empire would have lost out on piles of gold, so their term as a bondservant would be much longer. Children and poor folk tended to serve shorter terms, but their families usually suffered without them. And once they were released from their bondage, they were taxed twice as heavily for the rest of their lives.
Traitors who were captured after the Blood War—animages who supported Avalkyra Ashfire—served for life or were deemed too dangerous to live and were executed. Sev expected to be lumped in with the traitors if he were discovered, but he wasn’t sure if his crime would be considered bad enough to get him killed. The empire took its military seriously, and Captain Belden was not an understanding man. Plus, Sev had been a convicted murderer before he enlisted—in the face of his treachery, they might decide to unforgive that crime, take his head, and be done with it.
He was stuck; Sev knew it, and Trix knew it too. For better or worse, he was a part of her scheme. Since her plans would get him out of his life as a soldier, their goals aligned for the time being.
Still, joining her, trying to “bring these filthy empire assassins down from the inside,” went against everything Sev had learned about survival. Heroics were for fools, and what was more heroic—or more foolish—than a handful of servants trying to bring down two hundred soldiers?
She’d already been at the task for weeks, and Sev was just one of many moving pieces. Trix’s role as a bondservant was to manage the messenger pigeons, and Sev had no doubt she read the captain’s letters. She had the cooks and the craftsmen, the young runners and the old washerwomen—people from every facet of camp life—reporting to her, including Captain Belden’s personal attendant. They gave Trix every scrap of information they had, and she weaved them all together like Anyanke, goddess of fate, spinning her tangled webs. Everyone in the camp was caught up in it, including Sev.
“What makes you think you can even pull this off?” he asked her several days after Trix had first recruited him.
The only time Sev could really talk to the woman was late at night, when everyone’s duties were done and most of the soldiers were either passed out or so deep into their cups that they didn’t notice a soldier fraternizing with a bondservant.
Fires were still forbidden, but the bondservants had set up an area to sit and work, with logs ranged in a rough circle in the barest scraps of moonlight filtering through the trees. Trix was seated there, humming to herself, and Kade was next to her, mending a bit of broken harness. Though his hands were large, they were graceful, too, and capable of delicate work. His head was bent over the strap, a tool held between his teeth as he carefully took the buckle apart.
Despite Kade’s apparent focus, he snorted at Sev’s question.
“What makes you think I can’t?” Trix asked, grinning slightly. Sev gave her a sidelong look, taking in every inch of her bent, gray, and less-than-intimidating form. Sure, she was a good gossip, but gathering information was one thing, and acting on that information was something else.