Forgotten Embers

45. Blood of Kings

'It's no good: all of this death, all of this hurt. I won't allow it any longer. How long will this darkness prevail?'

He stood alone in the library hall. They were all gone. They had left him according to the words of his request. There was only the stairwell, a clever means of slipping away into an underground world, which remained open to him. This had been his home, and those whom he had loved as family and cherished as friends he had hidden away within its walls, held in the safety of its depths.

'I appreciate your devotion and your sacrifice, truly, I do, but, this time, as I said, it is my turn to give to you.'

He stretched forth his hand and let out a slow breath of air. Fire flew from his fingertips and impacted the carved stone of the wall, closing the entrance to the stairs and concealing it neatly beneath the bookshelf. He lowered his arm, content to have procured the safety of his companions.

'If I die, I die, but none shall perish beside me. For, if a man must die today, let it be my life only and naught of the people.'

He watched the doors as they opened, thrown violently by Zahaynei and the soldiers who accompanied him. There were five guardsmen who rode with their Captain and entered the hall. Three of the men held swords, and the other two were bowmen who remained back in the entrance as the other men entered.

He kept his eyes on them with great intensity, fiercely determined to see an end to their chase, and he stood before them, unmoving.

"Well, that was rather unnecessary, wasn't it?" Benjamin told them dryly. "I would have let you in, you know? You could have knocked."

Zahaynei stopped, his eyes fixed on Benjamin with ire. He put up his hand to signal the guardsmen, keeping their place, and his eyes darted to either side of him, surveying the room. When he was satisfied, his attention turned again to Benjamin.

"Caliphus." He spat out the name as if it had left a bad taste.

"Captain," Benjamin acknowledged.

"Would you consider it irony?" he asked with some irritation. "Here, I've spent the past two decades of my life hunting for you. Yet, now..." he paused, his eyes searching the grand hall, "you're not the one I want and here you stand before me."

"I consider it providence," Benjamin told him. "But tell me, Captain, is the King in good health?"

"He is quite well, as you know," Zahaynei sneered, filled with suspicion.

"And he sent you here after the Kingsmen Representatives. What? Is my life not enough for you now?" Benjamin earnestly commented as he posed the question with boldness.

"You, also, know of our plans, then. You, young Caliphus, are far too small a fish for us. We're on to greater things - a Kingsmen reform with Zephyr as their King! The first order being the death of the Ambassador and the Seer along with him," Zahaynei said, almost gloating.

'Of course. When Zephyr became King, he restructured the Royal Court and its positions. Of the twelve, there were only two which he eliminated entirely - that of the Kingsmen Ambassador and that of the Seer. Those seats which Zephyr removed, those which I have retained... the same are those whose lives he seeks... to snuff them out in a show of public humiliation and triumph. For what? A statement. He will say that he is King to exult himself over Himmel. The man is mad. It will not happen. Their lives are mine to keep, and I will not give them over into darkness.'

"A war with Himmel, then," Benjamin surmised and contested. "You might tell Ramus that his plans are pride and folly. He has chosen the path of bloodshed, and the blood to be shed is his own. His life shall be required by my own hand and none other than I shall slay him!"