Darkness of Magic (Soul of Magic Book 2)

FOUR

Dressed in a white dress, Kyra walked through the doors to the throne room to find the meeting she had long be waiting for already in full swing. Thing is, Richard had informed her when the meeting would be starting a long time beforehand. But the Soul of magic thought that she still had the time to take what she presumed would be a short nap; the nap, unfortunately, turning out to be anything but short. And hence, her lateness.

"Lady Kyra, it's so nice of you to join us," said Richard immediately he looked up to see her come in. He paused the proceedings so that he and the other occupants of the table around which the meeting was going on could to stand up to welcome her as was the Cyriani custom. He offered her a seat right next to him and she took it with a thankful smile.

Kyra noticed that the other occupants of the table were actually the seven Commanders of the forces of the great houses of Cyrian. She had met all of them at one point or the other during her many visits to the Capital since the alliance between the wizards and humans became official. But she didn’t know any of them on a personal level and so, she kept her attention solely on Richard. Besides, he was the reason why she had even known about the meeting to begin with.

"Please forgive my lateness, your Majesty,” she apologised as soon as she was settled. “Unfortunately I was more tired than I realized.”

"No need to apologize, Kyra. I think everyone at this table understands how occupied you've been. And greatly appreciates your contribution to the peace too," Richard replied with a smile before returning straight back to the matter they were discussing before she arrived. "So, where were we?" he asked.

A man at the end of the table stood up and Kyra immediately recognized from his red cape and flowing black hair that he was Commander Roan of the great house of Winchmore. "Everything’s proceeding considerably well at Serpentspire, sire," he said; Serpentspire was the capital of the province the ruling great house governed. "The wizards are living harmoniously with the humans in the province, and they've been greatly helping us in whatever capacity they can. Unfortunately, we still suffer minor attacks from the nefarious Dark Hearts Coven and their sympathizers every now and then. And although we never let them deal any irreparable damage, all our efforts to stop them for good haven't experienced much success."

"Those darn wizards!" one of the other commanders suddenly shouted as he slammed his hands on the table so hard it startled the others. His blue cape and unicorn crest identified him as Commander Milton of the house of Tramenton. He was a man of about forty-seven years, his black hair turning grey at the roots. He was battle-hardened too; tales even had it that he and the former king Nicolas the Vanquisher had rode side by side into battle on countless occasions.

But as nice as the story of Milton was to the ears, the old commander had proven himself times without number to be no friend of the wizards. Gossip even had it that he was at the forefront of a lot of wizard-killings during the great conflict, an achievement that earned him highly coveted favours from the late king. But Richard was no longer into killing wizards nor granting their killers any favour; and Milton had shown he didn’t like that.

Nevertheless, Richard asked him, “What do you have to say, Commander Milton?”

“Those wizards, your Majesty. They’re going to be death of us all,” he replied.

"But not all wizards are bad, Milton," Commander Roan countered him. "Besides, the Soul of magic is already addressing the issues of these unruly wizards."

"She has no idea how to control them!" the old commander returned, the look in his eyes daring Kyra to deny it. "Listen to me all of you, these creatures are coming for us. They’re nothing but wild animals and all we're doing is giving them enough space to carry on their mad rampages!"

Kyra didn’t know when her eyes turned all-white in rage of the man’s words and she would have unleashed her power against him if not Richard suddenly touched her shoulder and she calmed down. The king must have noticed her demeanour and intervened before things got out of control.

But Richard wasn’t prepared to let the words slide just like that either; not when it was filled with so much hate that could hurt the peace he and Kyra had fought so hard and almost died to bring into reality. "Commander Milton, I'll have you remember that Lady Kyra here, the Soul of magic, is Cyrian's esteemed guest. And the wizards are our allies," he said, giving the commander such a murderous glare that he turned pale on the spot. "So the next time you feel so hard-pressed to release your vile speech out into the realm, I strongly suggest that you don’t. Make that mistake again and wild animals or their rampages will become the least of your problems, I promise you."

Richard didn’t once raise his voice but the moment he was done, not even breeze made a sound. Everyone felt the power behind his words, not just Milton; and it dawned on them that while the king may not show as much as his father did, he certainly was to be feared as much as the late king was.

"Forgive me, your Majesty," the old commander whispered after a while, all the vigour suddenly gone out of him.

"All better now, Commander," Richard replied and smiled as if the past minute hadn’t even happened.

The meeting ended without any other incident but it was obvious that none of them could forget what Richard’s change in demeanour earlier and none could shake the chill that crept up their spine either; not even Kyra who knew very well that she had nothing to fear from him.

"You know that I could have handled it myself, right?" Kyra said to him after the doors had closed behind the last of the commanders to leave.

"I know," he replied, pausing to look at her from over the scroll he was perusing. "I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to be a little villainous. I was pretty convincing though, wasn't I?"

Kyra remembered the look in his eyes and laughed. "Yeah, pretty much," she replied, nodding.

"Actually, Kyra, the reason I called you back to Cyrian wasn't all because of the meeting," he said, his face suddenly taking on a more serious expression.

Kyra noticed the change in his demeanour again although this time he wasn’t trying to be scary. However, that couldn’t keep away the worry from her face as she looked up to see the extreme serious in his eyes; whatever he had called her for wasn’t going to be easy in the slightest. "What's the matter, Richard?" she asked. "You can tell me."

"Actually," he stood up to face her squarely, "I think it’ll be much better if I show you."

***

Their footsteps echoed as they walked down the dungeon's corridor, no words passing between them as they went. Several times, Kyra had been tempted to ask Richard where they were going but the king didn’t seem to be in the mood to talk and so, she stopped herself. Besides, she knew that he knew what he was doing; all she had to do was be patient and all would be revealed in time. Easier said than done, she realised by the passing seconds. She wanted Richard to tell her what was going on and she wanted him to tell her there and then.

"We're here," Richard said just then and Kyra pulled herself out of her thoughts to see where they were.

They had stopped at a cell where a young woman was kept. Her hands and feet were bound to the wall by very long and heavy chains, the metals looking as ominous as the black dress the woman wore. She looked hardly alive as she did nothing, her chest wasn’t even heaving like she was breathing. She hung her head low and hid her face behind a mass of dark brown hair.

"Who is she?" asked Kyra, a very curious portion of her mind compelling her to move closer. "Why is she here?"

"We don't know who she is," Richard replied from her side; he had moved closer too. "But she claims to be a member of the Dark Hearts Coven."

Kyra's heart suddenly lurched as she heard that and she reflexively took two steps backwards. For so long, she had been dreaming of the moment when she would finally put a face to what had become the greatest mystery of her life. But now that a face had come, the Soul of magic realised there was only one thing she could feel; fear.

Just then, the woman up raised her head and Kyra found herself staring into the bluest eyes she'd even seen. "Hello, Saviour," she said in tone so chilling that the environment seemed to become cold all of a sudden. "I think it's about time you and I got acquainted."