Book 6: Showdown (The Kid Emperor of Occultoria)

Chapter 4 - Showdown with the King of Celio

They were about to enter the palace when the fluffy doors opened.
A figure wearing a crown made of clouds was standing in the entrance.
"Why are you here again?" asked the King.
Max stood up tall. "I will not give up. I will not go away until you are a part of the Occultorian Empire again."
The King shook his head. "Not this again."
When Max saw more weather spirits gathering, he gestured behind him. "As you can see, more and more weather spirits are rallying behind me. They are not listening to you anymore."
Then, he showed him the Enchanted Whistle. "I have this."
The King raised one arm menacingly. "And I have this." He stared at the stable. "Where's my Ice Phoenix?"
"It ran away," said Max.
The King scowled.
Summoning all his courage, the young Emperor said, "Now bow down before your sovereign lord."
"Over my frozen body," retorted the King.
Max had an idea. He knew that the King of Celio was bankrupt. Maybe he could trick King Yun to kneel by dropping some coins.
So, Max casually dropped some gold coins onto the ground.
Like an animal reacting out of pure instinct, the King knelt down and picked up the coins.
Max smiled. "That's a good vassal."
 His face reddening, the King realized that he had accidentally knelt down before the Emperor of Occultoria, so he quickly got up.
Max said, "Now give me your Imperial Puzzle piece and return to the Empire."
The King opened his mouth and was about to say something, but he was drowned out by a vociferous roar.
Max looked up.
The Ice Phoenix was coming back.
He took out his box of matches again and prepared to use his fire powers, but something very peculiar happened.
The mythical bird wasn't heading toward Max and his gang.
It was diving straight toward the front doors of the palace, straight at the King of Celio himself.
When the King realized that he was the intended target, he tried to turn around and run away, but it was too late.
The Ice Phoenix exhaled a blast of icy air and then flew away with a screech.
The King of Celio was now frozen in a thick slab of ice.
Shocked, Max went up to the frozen King.
Ariel said, "He really should have treated that bird better. I heard he kept it in a caged stable and never let it roam around. No wonder it turned on him."
Max asked, "Should I use fire to melt him out of it?"
 She was about to answer his question when the slab of ice suddenly broke apart, splintering into a million tiny pieces.
Max raised one arm to protect himself as the debris flew in every direction.
The three of them were shocked to discover that the King was no longer whole. The King, along with the ice, had broken into a million tiny pieces.
Jordan asked, "Where'd he go?"
Ariel answered, "I think he's dead."
They took a moment to process that statement.
Max wasn't really sad that the King was dead, although no one deserved to go like that.
He made the sign of the Ergon by tracing an eye shape in the air. Even though he disliked the King, he still kept a reverent respect for his spirit.
A silent moment passed.
Then, he asked, "Who's the heir?"
"He didn't have one," said Ariel. "All his relatives begged him to appoint one, but he refused, because he didn't want to divide his family."
Max said, "We have to act fast. I want to appoint a viceroy, someone who will answer directly to me."
Throughout his study of the history of the Supernatural World, he realized that appointing a viceroy when a royal throne is vacant was a good idea, particularly because the viceroy would be loyal, since he owed his position to the Emperor.
Max's eyes landed on Jordan. He was reminded of how bravely Jordan had fought to distract the Ice Phoenix and to protect his liege lord.
"Jordan," said Max. "How would you like to be the Viceroy of Celio? It'll only be until we work out who the next King of Celio is."
Jordan's eyes lit up. "It would be my pleasure, Your Imperial Majesty."
Max looked behind him. A huge crowd of a variety of weather spirits had gathered behind him. There were rain, lightning, thunder, cloud and various other spirits.
The Emperor drew himself up to full height as he addressed his subjects. "I want you all to swear fealty first to Viceroy Jordan."
The spirits all bowed down.
Max nodded. "And then to me."
The spirits all bowed down and murmured their undying allegiance.
Then, Max turned to Jordan. "As Viceroy of Celio, you are my substitute in Celio. You will speak with my authority. You will be my eyes and ears in this province. You will answer directly to me. Govern well, Viceroy Jordan. You will have the title of Your Imperial Excellency. Please prove to me you deserve it."
Jordan knelt down. "I swear my undying allegiance toward you, my liege lord."
 Satisfied that everything was in place, Max nodded.
Although he was glad that he was finally reconquered the Province of Celio, he was dismayed to see that Jessica was not among the many weather spirits who had been summoned to him.
He whispered to his cat, "Where's Jessica?"
"I don't know," Ariel replied.
"Shouldn't she have been summoned when I blew the Enchanted Whistle?"
"Yes," said Ariel, scanning the crowd. "But she's not here. Keep in mind that the Enchanted Whistle is flawed. Sometimes, it works and sometimes, it doesn't."
"But then how did she get summoned back up here when we were both in the Throne Room?"
"My guess is that since the other half of the Enchanted Whistle was lodged in the throat of the Ice Phoenix, the creature blew on it accidentally while it was still in the throat. Since it was only half of the Whistle, it didn't work properly because it had only half the strength. It must have randomly summoned various weather spirits to Celio. Jessica happened to be one of them then. But now, she should be here. But clearly, she isn't."
Max was filled with mixed feelings.
On the one hand, he was thrilled that Celio was finally, after three attempts, a part of the Empire again.
On the other hand, he was disappointed that he had lost Jessica again.

***

Viscountess Jessica was a rain spirit, and like all weather spirits, had to answer the summons of the Enchanted Whistle. When she heard it the first time sitting next to Max in the Throne Room of the Imperial Palace, she had been summoned before an Ice Phoenix. When she realized that half of the Enchanted Whistle was lodged in the Ice Phoenix's throat, causing it to randomly summon half of all weather spirits, she was disappointed that she had been torn away from Max.
Fortunately, she got away from the fearsome bird just in time. She ended up wandering Celio, waiting for a storm to brew so that she could fall down to Earth as a raindrop and see Max again. She liked him a lot and wanted nothing more than to be his Imperial Consort, as Empress Consort of Occultoria.
So when she heard the summons again, she was rather apprehensive. She assumed that it was the Ice Phoenix again, but when she found herself in Magicka instead, that was when she knew something was very wrong.
She found herself rising out of a bubbling cauldron. Soaked, she coughed up some water and allowed her eyes to adjust to the darkness.
She raised herself out of the cauldron.
She was in a small dank prison cell. The wooden ground was covered with hay. A barred window allowed soft light to filter in.
A high-pitched snooty voice exclaimed, "Yes, it worked!"
Another voice, this one lower and calmer. said, "Of course, honey. Mommy's spells always work. The key ingredient was prenglas juice. Good thing I stole some prenglas from the Emperor's orchards before he kicked us out."
Jessica peered through the wooden prison bars.
She could make out two figures.
Princess Sanchia and her mother were standing there, both with smug looks on their faces.
Horrified that she was being kept prisoner by those two, Jessica cried, "Where am I? What am I doing here? Let me out!"
Duchess Elizabeth smirked. "Our Ducal Palace in Magicka. And you're not getting out of here anytime soon. You are too valuable to us. "
"What do you mean?" Jessica asked.
Princess Sanchia smirked too. "You are our bargaining chip. You see, as long as you're in the picture, Max wouldn't even begin to think of me as a suitable bride. But if you're suddenly out of the picture, then I have a shot of being the next Empress of Occultoria."
Jessica grasped the prison bars with both arms. "Let me out of here!"
She shook the wooden bars, but they were too heavy and wouldn't budge.
Sanchia threw her head back and laughed.
Growing scared now, Jessica said, "How long are you going to keep me here?"
"Just until Max loves me again and forgets all about you," replied Sanchia.
"He will never love you," Jessica spat out. "He never did."
Sanchia twirled a stand of her hair with her finger. "I have my charms. And if all else fails, I'm a witch. I can make a love potion and feed it to him. He'll fall in love with me forever."
"But you don't care about him," said Jessica. "You just want to be Empress. I'd like him even if he weren't the Emperor."
"I care more about him than you might think," said Sanchia. "And now, we're going to go and leave you to rot in here."
She turned around. She and her mother moved to a private area to talk.
The Duchess said to her daughter, "You do know that there's no such permanent love potion. The only one we know of works for only a couple minutes and it's highly legal. If you're ever caught, the Religious Police will have your head and not even Mommy could protect you then."
"Don't worry, Mommy," said Sanchia. "We'll use the potion only as a last resort. I have my charms. It was working until Jessica came into the picture."
"True," said the Duchess. "Well, come along now, my darling. Let's get you well rested for your eventual return to the Imperial Court."
"So soon? But Max hates me right now."
"We'll give it some time. Wait a few weeks. Then, when Max realizes that his precious Jessica has disappeared forever, he's going to need some comforting. And who should be the first and only person to comfort him?"
She paused, then said, "You, of course. You'll be there in his time of need and use your feminine charms on him. Before long, you'll be back in favor and you'll send for me. You'll continue to charm him and before long, he'll want to marry you again. Then, bam! You're the Empress of Occultoria, the most powerful woman in the Supernatural Natural, after the Matriarch. Then, you could help your family out. Grant some favors and ambassadorships and all that. Exalt your family! Make us great again!"
A big grin spread across Sanchia's face. "I like that. I like that a lot."
Back in her cell, Jessica listened to the receding footsteps.
A sense of desperation overwhelmed her.
She scanned her cell for any means of escape, but there was none.
It looked like she was trapped.
Now, she had never been the kind of girl to just wait for her knight-in-shining-armor to save her, so she decided she would keep looking for a way out.
In the meantime, she would try to send a message to Max to alert him of her location.
But how?
Her hand accidentally brushed against something hard in her pocket.
She took it out.
It was the qinee that Max had given her, the musical instrument that was a cross between the guitar and the violin.
She knew it wasn't a medium of communication, but maybe it could be useful.
She began to strum her fingers along its strings, playing a short melody.
Small vibrations began to emanate from the qinee. They rocked the air somewhat.
She strummed the strings again, playing the same short melody.
The sounds shook the wooden prison bars.
An idea came to her.
She strummed the strings for a third time, playing random notes, but nothing happened.
Again, she played the qinee, using the same short melody.
The bars shook again, harder this time, sending bits of sawdust splashing through the air.
To her amazement, the powers of the qinee to destroy worked only when she played a melody.
If she could learn how to play the qinee - even just a simple song - she could blow the bars apart and then escape.
She smiled.
Because she didn't know how to play a melody on the qinee, she needed to practice, but lucky for her, she had all the time in the Supernatural World to learn.