The Kingdoms of Eden

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: The Great Game

As Elizabeth stood in front of the two towering, black doors that barred her way to the inside of the palace, she was suddenly struck by a feeling that she had not experienced in many lifetimes. The sensation went beyond the worry and uncertainty that she felt as she left the safety of her own city. It was a feeling of utter dread, and it ran hot through every vein in her body. She felt trapped and try as she might to pass the blame for her quandary onto her old friend and mentor, John Dee, she knew that it was a trap that she alone had willingly walked into. Her lack of sleep and the pain in her legs melted as the doors swung open with a lazy groan, but the trepidation stubbornly persisted. The monstrous wooden features creaked and groaned as they continued to move with torturous weariness. She steeled herself. She knew only too well of the danger the demon behind those doors held for her, and for everyone she cared about, or had ever cared about, but there was a seductive inevitability about that moment that she simply could not resist. John Dee's voice cried out from inside her head—run! Yet through it all, she held her nerve. It was a self-destructive compulsion, but she did not have the strength to rile against it. This was her fate. It had been the better part of five hundred years since the demon made her an offer that she was too weak to refuse, but with the help of John Dee and the others she had mange to resist the evil as it called out to her in her dreams, night after night, year after year. With her support now gone, she could resist no longer.

She gasped.

"Elizabeth," said Saturn. "I have waited for an eternity for you to come back to me."

The twisted and contorted face of evil she had been expecting did not speak the words. The creature that stood before her was superficially perfect, and every bit human. His appearance did lift some of her fear, but the sentiment behind his words instilled a quiet anger in her heart. His tone confidently suggested that the moment was predictable, but the truth was much more complicated and uncertain—until that day, after hundreds of years of contemplation, she had never once considered returning to the arms of the demon. The creature had tricked her into giving away her humanity when she was a young woman, and it had attempted to trick her many times over many years, but this was her choice—her eyes were wide open, and her heart burned white hot with betrayal. That Saturn somehow felt that he had won a clever victory over her gnawed at her pride.

"I have come back to you, but that does not mean I have given myself to you," she said, with strength and poise.

Saturn laughed.

"I would expect nothing less, Highness," said Saturn. "Please, come inside. We have much to discuss. There is an ocean of bad blood between us, and much of that contention is not of your making, nor of mine. Give me a chance to explain why I chose you and why I built this city as a refuge for all creatures that wish to avoid the wars my brothers would have us fight. That's all I ask of you."

Elizabeth grinned.

"New face, same old lies?" Elizabeth quizzed.

"No lies, Elizabeth, just truth. The purest truth."

"You speak of peace. You say it is, their wars? If it is, their wars, why do you need an army? Why is this city a fortress? I don't know why I have come here. I know what you are and what you are capable of; but here I am. The most I can offer you is a promise to hear you out. I will weigh your truth against that of your brothers, and I will reach my own conclusions. Those are my terms. And one last thing... Your wars will never be my wars, and I address that truth to all of you."

"I do not want any part in the wars my brothers wage, but that does not mean that my brothers will not bring their wars to me. In truth, they will, and I will protect what I have created until my last breath. I do not need or want you by my side in battle. All I want from you is to bear witness to what unfolds. The truth of it and not some story spun by the victor; whoever that may be."