The Empire (The Lover's Opalus) (14 page)
Read The Empire (The Lover's Opalus) Online
Authors: Grayson Reyes-Cole
When the Codices revealed to Lanus and Raeche their cryptic pages for the next thirty-six rings of the Empire, they decreed that Eynow’s Personal would be Prince Louhandro of Trrahpa, a small but wealthy parcel steeped in all that was savage for its nearness to the border to the South. Though the Empire knew next to nothing of Trrahpa or its heir, none considered disputing the word of either Codex, for their words were absolute. The Empire embraced the serious boy with the dark features of the East who, though only in his twelfth ring, already grew large and strong like the ancient invaders from the West. It was on this day that Handro first laid eyes on Rucha and took an oath to protect Eynow, to serve the Empire.
On the night of Rucha’s ninth birthday, her mother Raeche wallowed in melancholy in Lanus’s arms.
“Our beautiful girl is growing yet she has nothing from me. Even I have my terrible mother’s looks.”
“Lannelorree looks very much like you.”
Raeche cast him a brilliant, proud smile. “She is more beautiful than I am, calmer, so much smarter. I love her dearly, but today is Rucha’s day and I feel as though I have nothing to offer her.”
“Heart of mine, that is not true.” He kissed the top of her head then pushed back so he could cup her face in his hands. “You have given her love and the counsel only a mother can provide. You have given her passion.”
“Temper.”
“And will.”
“Temper,” Raeche insisted. “I do not bring you peace.”
He started to say something but could not seem to keep his lips from hers, his tongue from demanding she reciprocate both the love and heat he felt for her. “You bring me peace, heart of mine. You bring me fire. I want to burn from your kisses, even when you are angry at me.”
“I am never angry at you.”
“You are
frequently
angry at me. Disappointed in me. Convinced that our daughter is too young to hear tales of sex, violence and politics while I teach her to cheat larger foes. To throw dirt in their eyes, to pinch, to scratch at their nethers, to–”
“Must you be so bloodthirsty?” Raeche groaned.
“Indeed. For her. I have been in the library tower. The tower teaches each Emperor what the next will face. What could be. What faces our daughter requires her to cultivate the beast within her.”
Raeche’s lips trembled. She began the conversation neither of them had been brave enough to start before that day. “The Codex says she will wed a monster at the dawn of our deaths. But I know you would not allow such a thing, my love. Besides, she is already promised to Eynow, and his Spirit could not carry the weight of monstrosity. Some stones harden beneath the pressure of a mountain, others shatter beneath the weight of a seed. We know Eynow is of the latter ilk.”
Lanus measured his words. “When he refuses to wed her, our daughter will start a war. Then she will leave the throne. Lannelorree will be left to reign in her stead.”
“Our Lannel is the very Spirit of Quiet, Calm, Reason, Delicacy. She is too soft to be the Empire.”
“Yet that is what she will be. The Jewel and the Sweet will bring peace. She is even now twisting in her bed with worry over what she senses brewing in her sister.”
“The Spirit Timra coiled ready to bite, to infect Rucha with the Rage.”
Lanus nodded. “Pretty, dark and delicate like you, she will maintain this land until Rucha is free from the Rage and we are free to return.”
“From the dead?”
Lanus shrugged. “I cannot puzzle through the Codices.”
“Sometimes I believe they are written by–”
Lanus pressed a hand to her lips. “Do not say it. Our centuries-old Empire is not based on malevolent game-play from the South.”
“But a monster, Lanus? The Rage? What exactly will befall us that we are powerless to prevent this? No Emperor has experienced the Rage in a thousand rings. Why should she?”
“No Emperor had performed the Amu’Wey in a thousand rings, either.” He lowered his eyelashes and kissed her softly. One hand stroke the tender side of her breast.
“Do not distract me. Tell me what this means.”
Instead of answering, Lanus pulled her into a kiss filled more with desperation, love and a masterful, near-undetectable push of Spirit than with honesty–which was fine with her. For the moment.
Raeche would not receive an answer to her question for nine rings.
About Grayson Reyes-Cole
Grayson is obsessed with language, love and the fantastic. She is intrigued by the complexity of relationships people build and what makes them work.
She considers herself a quintessential Southerner who loves to cook, paint, and travel. She speaks–brokenly for sure–a smattering of languages: a fair amount of French, a little Spanish, German, and Tagalog. It never takes much convincing to get her to share stories of her adventures across Europe, Asia, and Central America.
A lover of every type of fiction, Grayson floats between dark fiction and just plain old delicious romance in her writing. Explore her many sides on her site.
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