The Paladins of Naretia

Chapter 10

Aria stumbled down the last of the jagged mountain alone. Her worgen companions released on her command, she frowned until the muscles in her brow began to ache. Not sure it was such a good idea to allow the worgen to go free, a fierce argument between her reasoning and her gut instinct, raged inside her mind. Something had changed during her encounter with the worgen which saw her reasoning win out over her instincts.

She had always known that her actions would have consequences, but seeing them up close when Lobok had taken his own life, made them tangible and real. Luscious could have easily commanded his pack to tear her to pieces as she descended. But the air carried no sound of four legged beasts pursuing her, only the lonely songs of hardy winter birds.

Luscious had promised, under the amulets influence, to use his formidable tracking ability to find Aramus and the wizard. Aria expected that he might not return to her at all, and take it upon himself to kill the winged man by some other means instead. But as he had mentioned before, there was a reason people came to the queen to seek help.

Luscious wanted Aramus dead almost as much as Aria, but he couldn't kill him by his own hand. He had to trust that Aria would be true to her word and she had to trust him in return. But something about Luscious's behaviour on the mountain didn't strike her as true.

She had had her sword at hand and Aramus was surrendering, but yet, Luscious wasn't satisfied to allow her to kill him on her own terms. It was almost as if he wanted to bite the winged man for no apparent reason at all. If he had intended to kill Dantet's son himself, why not strike a fatal blow by tearing his throat out instead of biting his shoulder? Aramus was unarmed, and unable to protect himself. 'Surely Dantet's hold on his followers could not be so fragile as to allow one of his minions to defy him, could it?' she thought.

Now more than ever, Aria wished she hadn't frozen Edwel in the ogre camp below. He had always been her compass, and was infuriatingly always right in his judgment of others. He had tried to stop her cruelty toward Tarra, but Aria hadn't listened. Now, because of her rash actions, a new enemy of hers walked Naretia, biding their time until her usefulness had come to an end.

Aria strode into the ogre camp, her shoulders slumped and her eyes fixed to the methodical movement of her feet. She was so distracted by the day's events it took her a moment to remember why her army was so quite. Like a gathering of hideous statues, the ogre's stood where she had left them a few hours before, as did Edwel. She wandered in front of her army and examined the golden amulet around her neck for a moment.

A treasure found in the vaults of Lothangard's castle, which had allowed her to break free from the overbearing reigns of the wizard caste. For so long they had controlled everything, including the King's Guard; the whispers of their seers overruling her authority. The all-knowing, all-powerful wizard's regime was absolute, and all those who questioned it were excommunicated from society. Not even she had been immune to their iron fist when she demanded Aramus be found and executed. Her defiance saw her stripped of an army, and her influence.

"Why should I allow it to continue?" Aria whispered aloud, still examining her amulet. "I am the ruler of Naretia, not them. I am the one who people should look to for protection and guidance. But the wizards took that away from me. Why allow Aramus exemptions that the rest of us are not privy to?"

The golden amulet glinted in the morning sunshine. The head of a horned monster with amber eyes glared back at her from the triangular base, an image of Dantet himself. In the palm of her hand the metal felt hot, as it always did, like someone had put it into a bowl of boiling water. The weight of it was disproportionate to its size, making Aria wonder if it was the magic inside that made it so heavy.