Descendants of the Kings (Book 2)

Ch 19: The game of the Gods

CW: For blood, violence

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Ever since Ella had stepped into the library for the first time, she'd known there was something different about it.

She wondered if it was that the room had once been a temple, and a certain mystical element of the house of Gods remained. She wondered if it was the mere age of the building, home to the first King of Gerrathea, Faolan the Warrior King.

Now, she knew that aura of timeless eerieness had more to do with the statue in front of her.

Four metres high, it was an imponent sight. The Mother, in all her splendour. A sheer gown clung to her figure, and vines crawled up her calves and arms. Her features carved so finely they seemed real, bore down on them, all-knowing, ever-present. In her hands, a globe.

They had all been staring at the artefact for several tense moments, so quiet, the pitter-patter of the rain was the only sound.

"What... is it?" Valren was the first to speak, brows puckered as she stared at the sphere.

"A globe," Aedion answered. "A platinum globe."

"Yes, I see that," Val huffed, waving a hand. "But what is it supposed to do? I don't understand what we're looking for here."

"It's the answer to the riddle," Blaise said quietly, his keen eyes boring into the silver, a fervid sheen to his hungry gaze. "The Queen's riddle."

He pulled out a wrinkly scrap of paper from his pocket, the ink smudged from the constant touching. They huddled around Blaise and read over his shoulder, the words that had been haunting them for months.

I am a maiden, fresh as dew

My hair is green, my body blue

I have no legs and yet I wander

I stretch my limbs to wide blue yonder

I have no womb, nor can I nurse

Yet many children have I birthed

My roots are ancient, wide and deep

And many secrets do I keep

"Earth," Ella answered slowly. "The answer is earth. The globe. That's brilliant."

"I knew that was the answer but I couldn't understand why," Blaise said, his normally placid tone picking up in excitement. He took a step forward and rounded the statue, examining it with narrowed eyes. "I couldn't understand what earth had to do with the book. What clue it would give us. Earth is the globe. Earth is the missing piece we have been looking for.

"Everything we need is right here," he finished in an awed whisper, his hand barely hovering above the orb, not daring to touch it. "This holds all our answers."

"But... how?" Ella squinted at the smooth surface of the orb, barely marked by those web-thin lines. "Are we supposed to cast a spell on it? Try to break it?"

"Good luck with that," Aedion snorted. "That ball is made of solid platinum. You'd have a better chance trying to crack the castle walls."

"Perhaps if we try to glamour it," Blaise said consideringly. "I know a few spells that might-- Val, what in the nine hells are you doing?"

Blaise's eyes bulged alarmingly as Val balanced on the marble platform of the statue, hand braced on the Mother's shoulder, as she tried to shove the orb off her hand.

"Trying to take it down, obviously."                

"Have you gone insane," Blaise hissed, yanking on her shirt. "That statue is a priceless relic, a one-of-a-kind artefact from before the great demonic wars. If you so much as dent it--"