The Cursed Prince - Fire and Ice (Book One)

Swords and Wine

They dined by the candlelight.

"Wine?" Jezreel lifted the jug.

Terra's head still throbbed from the drugged wine. "No, my lord." She sat with the crowned King in his dining chamber. The room was barely warm from the glow of the candles and dark shadows danced against the stone walls. Even the colours had faded into nothing.

"What of Ariel?" he asked, stabbing his meat with his fork and deftly slicing it up.

"The drug still flows through his blood. The healers are washing its remnants from his blood."

"Do you know of the person who gave you the drug?"

Terra winced. The drug still throbbed at her temples, robbing her mind of memories and any thoughts. "No...my lord." Even such a thought made her brain throb. She had not touched her food, instead, ran a finger along the gilded woodwork on the arm of her chair.

"Nor the servant who was found with a butter knife in his heart?"

Terra lifted her surprised eyes to her King. "No, my lord."

Her fork fingered at the venison on her plate. Strange. To find a man simply murdered in the prison. A butter knife of all weapons.

"What of the murderer?" she asked. The food lay uneaten.

"I have sent emissaries with messages to the four corners of the Garden. A young lad who worked in the stables claimed a maiden stole a horse and fled to the Sun Mountains."

"Will she die, or banishment?"

"Banishment?" His eyes furrowed. "Our Law states that such a one is not responsible to live."

"Our Law states that for her, even for Elaena?" she asked.

The candles flickered in a draft passing through the window beside her. The blood-red curtain fluttered fitfully as he gazed out at the plains. "The last time I was with her, I told her the truth and destroyed the last sparks of her fire. Does what I have done not disgust you?" 

"No. War disgusts me."

"War? What, a battle and the slaying of thousands or millions?"

"No, the loss of so much life. The physical touch of the loss of millions of lives. That disgusts me."

"Does not the touch of crushing her soul make you shudder?"

"No, I once saw a bear cornered by hounds: The sound of the baying sent shudders through me, my lord. Not you crushing her soul."

"Did I not smother her fire? Does it not mirror my soul with evil?" His voice overflowed with regret and bitterness.

"The wicked deeds of the Stone-hearted mirror their souls. What you have done is not evil, my lord." Her voice, which had sounded gentle, hardened as she continued. "What the Stone-hearted have done, lusting after their desires, is evil."

"I have given her fire a death worthy for myself."

Terra lined her fork beside her plate. "My lord, as long as the Fires of Eden burn, she lives."

True, the flicks of flames whipped and twisted with the blue night air. Its glow alighted the air with its golden whispers of fire.

"Is such a sign of fire worthy of the fire within her heart?"

"Believe me, my lord. Even though the death of a single fire; all it takes is one spark to start a fire. And once it is started, a fire can be unstoppable. As long as it has enough fuel, it will burn forever, hotter and brighter, until it is extinguished."