‘To sow the seeds of victory before the fight begins, we must play with expectations.’
She kept her eyes closed and body still, even as part of her screamed that she had to act. Finally, she lifted her head and saw Solon return to the Ark of Revelation and heave at the handle. The lid came up. Rainbow light now bathed his face in a glow of rippling color. His expression was triumphant as he held the edge of the lid high with one hand and reached inside with the other.
High above her, the one-eyed silver dragon and its shiny black opponent flew apart, then collided again. Chloe saw torn skin on both of them, blood dripping from ugly gashes.
She saw the sword, resting on the ground between her and Solon. There would be no better time.
Chloe climbed to her feet and stumbled over, grabbing hold of the hilt and lifting the weapon. It was suddenly light in her hands and she knew what she had to do. Solon was consumed with the ark; his eyes feverish as he took hold of whatever was in there.
‘You want your enemies to be distracted. Then, when you take action, be bold,’ Tomarys whispered in her ear.
She came up behind the sun king and gazed at the thick yellow silk of his robe, at a place directly between his shoulder blades. She thought of Princess Yasmina’s terrible fate. Most of all, she remembered her friend, Tomarys.
‘Let me end the pain,’ Chloe murmured.
Solon whirled at the sound of her voice but she didn’t hesitate, she thrust in hard, plunging the sharp blade into the center of the sun king’s back, feeling the steel make contact and then slide in with little effort. The point emerged out the other side as he screamed in pain. The lid of the ark crashed closed and the rainbow light immediately vanished. He clasped his hands over the blade as if trying to pull it out through his chest. Chloe let go of the hilt as he stared at her with eyes so wide she could see their whites.
The sun king opened his mouth to speak. He staggered for two steps, clutching the sharp steel as he glared at her. Crimson liquid spurted from between his lips.
Finally he fell to his knees and then toppled to the side. Solon shuddered and then died, eyes gazing sightlessly as his lifeblood welled around his body. Chloe looked at her shaking hands. The Oracle’s prophecy had been fulfilled. The sun king had died in the thirty-first year of his reign. But it hadn’t been the sickness in his chest that killed him.
Hearing a roar of frustration, Chloe saw the one-eyed dragon release its grip on its enemy and fly away. Unable to open the ark himself, Triton’s plans had been defeated. The black dragon came down from the sky, flying unsteadily to the cleared space between the temple’s columns, one of its wings moving with jerky movements. It shuddered as it finally landed a short distance from the cliff edge.
The creature’s chest heaved as the angular eyes regarded Chloe with strange sorrow. Despite the fact that it had saved her life, she felt a shiver of fear as she looked at it.
Mist suddenly clouded the black-scaled dragon, thickening before it began to shimmer. She forced herself to approach. She didn’t know which of the eldren it was who had saved her, but she had to thank him.
But when the mist cleared, Chloe felt her entire world crashing down around her. She knew her face was filled with horror. She refused to believe what she was seeing.
Dion lay facing her with his head on his arms. There were gashes on his face and lower arms, and his tunic pressed up against more wounds on his body. He shivered and trembled.
He had his eyes closed, but then they opened wide.
He was looking at her.
‘Dion . . .’ Chloe said. She didn’t know what she was going to say next.
He clambered to his feet. His white tunic was red with blood. His dread-filled eyes met hers and then he looked at the cliff edge.
‘No!’ Chloe cried.
He ran to the precipice and leaped off. Chloe told her muscles to move but she stood transfixed. She waited for the splash as his body struck the surging sea far below.
But it never came.
62
The journey from the Temple of Aldus to the base of the stairway embedded in the cliff seemed to take an eternity. Chloe was forced to pause every few steps, gasping for breath and fighting a trembling in her limbs that wouldn’t stop.
When she completed her descent she put a hand to her mouth.
Bodies lay scattered around the agora and along the summit of the sloped bastion, too many for her mind to encompass. Soldiers of three nations littered the city’s main square, their faces twisted in final expressions of agony. Phalesia had survived, but at a terrible cost. Chloe wondered if the horror would ever end.
She stumbled to the embankment and saw Captain Amos, an ugly swelling on his forehead, issuing orders to his men. Concern filled his face as he saw Chloe approach.
‘The sun king’s body is up there,’ Chloe whispered.