Riddle Of The Owl - YA Fantasy

Chapter Twenty

    There was a golden star printed upon the carpet marking where those who spoke with the emperor had to stand. He had brown eyes that were set deeply within his face and adorned by soft folding wrinkles. But while he did smile what was doubtlessly a perfectly gracious smile, she couldn't see anything of the man that lay within, beyond his eyes.

"Your grace, I am eternally within your service," she chanted the words according to ceremony, bowing. The injury in her throat, now healed but still occasionally painful, gave her a sharp reminder that it was there. She flinched ever so slightly.

"Rise, daughter of the mighty empire of Varrenan," the emperor said, only the emperor was allowed to speak the holy name of the empire. Alleria felt slightly disappointed that his voice didn't boom, nor echo. It was even a little on the high and hoarse side of the voice spectrum. She lifted her eyes to meet his gaze.

He blinked, for a moment some expression she could n't read passed over his marble features and then was gone. "You're that child, then, who has surpassed in wisdom many men older than you that thought themselves wise."

It sounded almost like an accusation. Alleria fought the urge to stare at her shoes. She had chosen to become a Scholar, to move up in the world and play with the sharks. Maybe she hadn't fully understood at the time what that choice entailed, but she was already committed. "I love to read, your Grace. And I love numbers, too. I love knowledge, wisdom, people and peace." A small smile somehow found its way onto her face, she didn't know how it got there. "Those are the things that brought me here."

The emperor smiled at Alleria, a smile that, if she were not mistaken, looked genuine. "Love is a worthy value to bring one so small this far," he said. "I've heard many curious things about you, Miss Bellencreek, not all of them were in your favour."

The smile they had been exchanging vanished without a trace from both of their faces. Alleria felt how knots were forming in her heart. The thin shell that held her presence of mind began to crack. "Not in my favour, your Grace?"

"The Revered Candle-bearer himself has sought my ear on the matter. Not only are the tidings he brings dark, but also contradictory. I do wonder if you will be able to satisfy my selfish curiosity. Which are you, a child touched by our benevolent God or by the Devils of the shadowlands? The Church cannot seem to agree with itself on the matter."

Never had Alleria had to fight so hard against the weight of tears. Every word the emperor spoke was a hard, cold slap against her nerves. The surrounding nobility whispered like a hive of angry wasps, everyone knew what she was now. She stood there, naked, exposed, they all saw it, how she was Other.

"Must I be one or the other, your Grace?" she asked quietly to mask her trembling voice.

The emperor leaned back into his throne and regarded her. Again, she couldn't understand his expression. Understanding others was hard enough as it was. As the man standing on the top of the world, the emperor's every move was subtle and calculated. "My thoughts exactly. It needn't be one or the other."

What did that mean? She wondered what the point of this exchange was. She looked at him with her eyes round and wide in her face but didn't know how to respond.

Luckily, he inclined his head in the smallest of nods. "It was interesting conversing with you, young Miss Bellencreek. Perhaps we will meet again."

Alleria knew when she was dismissed. She felt it with tangible relief as if a taunt cord that had been holding up her spine had just been cut. She bowed, ignoring the bite of her painful throat. "Being in your presence has been the greatest honour, you Grace."

And it was over, she was released from her audience with the emperor. She continued down the path of the emerald carpet as it led her towards the left side and through a door that took her down a corridor and to a small room. The room featured the same emerald carpet and was sparsely furnished with a few high-backed polished wooden chairs and a couple of side tables. She didn't doubt for a moment someone would arrive soon with instructions of what she should do next. In the meantime, she was alone. She leaned against the wall, feeling as if she needed to catch her breath.

"Walk with me, Miss Bellencreek," said a man's voice.

Alleria straightened so fast she nearly tripped over her own feet, her ankles protested painfully to the sudden jerking movement within the high-heeled pumps. The ginger-head man that entered the side-chamber wore the light blue robe of a Scholar with a golden sash round his waist marking him as the grand vizier.

Maddox Banel was young for a grand vizier, only in his fifties, but he was known for his cunning and sharpness. He stood in the doorway with his arms crossed and a placid expression on his face.

"Yes... sir?" Alleria grasped at straws, her etiquette lessons didn't cover how one conversed with a grand vizier. There were ways to speak with royalty, ways to speak with nobility and ways to speak with high-class people — but there were no rules of how to speak with a commoner who had been elevated to a high position.

It felt like speaking with Zalee Salah in the way that the rules didn't apply properly.

Barnel made no comment on her lack of ettiequte. With his hands intwined behind his back, his brow wrinkled thoughtfully, he turned on his heel and began striding slowly back towards the Hall. Alleria hurriedly fell into step beside him. He didn't seem to notice her awkwardness. "There was a..." he paused, apparently searching for the right word. "A drama. A big drama surrounding your admittance." Barnel wriggled his fingers in the air as if demonstrating the extent of the turmoil. "Your last essay was..." — he grinned approvingly — "scandalous." The grin vanished. "There were some hellbent on making your life miserable for your blasphemy. Others who are yet undecided and a few who approve of you and your methods. Lucky for you, these few numbered among them his Excellence, Emperor Tarris."

Alleria chose the option of silence. She decided to wait until his speech reached its conclusion before drawing any of her own.

"What you've witnessed today was a statement," Barnel went on. "For you it may have been a tad embarrassing, for Emperor Tarris this was the announcement of next move on the chess-board."

They reached the end of the corridor and walked into the Hall. Barnel continued to step deliberately, neither slowing nor hurrying his pace. His walk appearing almost casual, almost friendly. Anyone watching would be convinced their conversation was amiable. But his tone was precise, his words sharp as needles. "You are now the property of the Academia and the Bureaucracy, Miss Bellencreek, which means, you are the emperor's asset. Half the Church now screams for your death while the other demands your life, they will have to content themselves with neither as long as you are one of us."

He turned his head and fixed her with a piercing stare before resuming to look forward. "The immediate danger has passed, but you are not safe. Do you understand me, Miss Bellencreek?"

"The danger is never over," Willum had said.

"I understand." Alleria's voice was low and laced with meanings her words had never contained before. She wondered if she even knew the person who said those words.

"Good."

They arrived at one of the round tables. There would be a feast tonight to mark the occasion. Alleria saw Zalee sitting and looking on towards the emperor's dais. She started when she noticed Alleria and Barnel standing over her.

Barnel turned to Alleria, he extended his hand. "I trust I will see you again, Miss Bellencreek," he said.

She shook his hand. "Who do you stand among, Mr. Barnel?" she asked.

"I beg your pardon?"

"The some, the others or the few?"

A grin similar to that of a cat's broke across Barnel's features. "I stand with the empire." And with only a nod in way of farewell, he left.