Ascendance

DUKEKALAS WASmost useful in controlling the mob," De'Unnero remarked to Aydrian later that day, when the city was, at last, fully secured.

De'Unnero had not returned to the castle with Aydrian but had gone to St. Honce with Abbot Olin and the entourage from St. Bondabruce, and with Abbot Ohwan to reinstate him as head of St. Honce.

Abbot Ohwan was welcomed back by many, which made Olin and De'Unnero's task of controlling the dangerous brothers of the abbey all the easier. They made no secret of their intentions to redirect the Abellican Church, to install Olin as father abbot even at the risk of splitting the Church asunder. And as they did not mince their words, they did not minimize the consequences to those who would not agree. By the end of the afternoon, a dozen brothers had been killed and a dozen more imprisoned beneath the great abbey.

But the abbey, like the castle, now wore the mantle of peace and security.

"He hates me," Aydrian replied absently to De'Unnero's statement. The young King threw a leg over one arm of the chair. "He hoped that Merwick would run me through - that is the only reason he allowed the fight to continue."

"He did not seem to hate you so much," Sadye remarked.

"Because he fears me more than he hates me."

"And that I find most curious of all," De'Unnero admitted. "Duke Kalas is not a timid man and has faced death a hundred times. Why would he shy from the prospect now?"

"Because I promised him more than death," Aydrian was quick to answer. "When I brought him back from death at the tournament, I showed him that I could destroy his very soul, or hold it and use it to my advantage. Oh, yes, our good Duke understood the truth of the spectacle this morning. He knows that it was I who tore Constance from the grave - he even likely suspects that it was I, or Constance acting on my behalf, who killed King Danube.

"But Kalas also knows that I am the way," Aydrian went on. "Or more important, he knows that there is no other way."

De'Unnero shook his head.

"What of Torrence?" Sadye asked then. "You did well in showing mercy, but I fear that one and the support he might find - support to bolster Prince Midalis, no doubt."

"He is on the road to the north, yes?" Aydrian asked.

"By all reports," said Sadye.

"Then send men out to find him and catch him," Aydrian instructed.

De'Unnero chuckled and looked at Aydrian in complete agreement.

"And when they catch him?" Sadye asked.

"Kill him," replied the King, "quietly and without any witnesses. Kill him and bury him under the stairs that lead to the lowest dungeon."

Sadye appeared shocked, but only for a moment, then she turned and started away, De'Unnero at her side.

"He is ruthless," she remarked. "He will destroy any who stand against him."

De'Unnero glanced back at Aydrian, still seated comfortably on his throne.

"I knew it from the moment I first encountered him, first battled him," the monk replied.

"Knew what?"

"The beauty that is Aydrian," said De'Unnero. "Simply magnificent."

"The son of your most hated enemies," Sadye reminded him.

"Which only makes it all the more beautiful," the monk was quick to reply.

Sadye went off then, to set Aydrian's latest orders into motion, while De'Unnero went to fetch the next order of business, returning to the throne room soon after with Jilseponie in tow.

The woman, obviously having regained much of her composure after the morning's momentous events, pulled free of De'Unnero and strode boldly right up before the young King, even pushing aside the herald who had gone into announce her.

"Are you so much the fool," she asked, "to fall into the conspiracies of this man?" She swept an accusing hand out toward De'Unnero. "Do you not know his history, of the terrible tragedies he has brought about? Do you not understand the misery you have brought upon us all this day?"

"You dare to speak to me so?" Aydrian replied with a laugh. "You, who gave up on me, who abandoned me to the clutches of the heartless elves -yes, I will pay Lady Dasslerond back appropriately for her treatment! After your own behavior, you dare to accuse me or to judge him?"

"I did not know," Jilseponie stammered, her bluster stolen by more than a fair amount of guilt. "I had no idea that you were alive."

"Then you should have found out, should you not?" was Aydrian's simple and devastating response.

"This man you name as an adviser served beside Markwart," Jilseponie accused, pointing to De'Unnero with a finger that trembled from explosive rage. "Brother Justice, he was called, a ruthless killer - and ultimately, one of the murderers of your father!"

Aydrian's bemused expression and the way he was following her angry movements with mocking gestures stopped her short, showed her that her words were falling on deaf ears.

"The throne is mine," Aydrian remarked. "You can choose to accept that or to be a thorn that I must pluck from my side."

"The throne was Danube's," Jilseponie countered in a low and even voice. "It now falls to Prince Midalis. Never did my husband intend - "

Aydrian stopped her by bringing his hand out to her, by dropping a single gemstone, a lodestone, into her hand. The young King sat back, then, and pulled open his shirt, shifting a metallic pendant he had fixed on a chain about his neck so that it rested against the hollow of his breast. "You perceive that the kingdom is broken," he said. "So fix it, Mother. One burst of magical energy and I am no more, and the way is cleared for Prince Midalis - even Duke Kalas would not deny that ascension."

Jilseponie stared at him, her gaze narrowing. She lifted her hand, and Aydrian smiled all the wider.

"One burst of energy and it is done, the lodestone shot through my heart," Aydrian said.

Jilseponie lifted her hand toward him. At the side, De'Unnero and Sadye bristled - but they did not intervene, and that told Aydrian that they had come to trust him.

Jilseponie held the pose for a long while; a couple of times, she clenched her hand and her teeth and seemed to be trying hard to inject magical energy into the deadly stone.

"You want to destroy me," Aydrian said to her, egging her on.

In the end, Jilseponie's arm slumped back down, and Aydrian reached out and grabbed back the gemstone.

"But you cannot," the young King said a moment later. "You cannot destroy that which you have created." He flipped the stone in the air, catching it. "Get out of Ursal, Mother. You do not belong here. You, with such compassion, never belonged here." He motioned to the guards in the room and they moved to flank Jilseponie, pulling her away.

Duke Kalas entered the room as she was leaving. He looked at her and nodded, dipping a slight, mocking, bow, then moved to stand before Aydrian.

"She will serve out her days in the dungeons?" he asked.

"A coach is awaiting her, to take her out of Ursal," Aydrian replied, and when Kalas started to sputter a retort, Aydrian glared at him uncompromisingly.

"She is no threat to us."

"Do not underestimate that one," Kalas said, looking from Aydrian to De'Unnero, seeking support from the dangerous monk, who knew and hated Jilseponie at least as much as did he.

Aydrian laughed and leaped out of his throne, striding across the room, out into the corridor, and all the way to the courtyard of the castle, where Jilseponie was just entering the covered coach, driver and team ready to spring away.

"Farewell, Mother," Aydrian said to her, poking his head in.

Jilseponie looked at him plaintively, and he knew that she wanted to argue with him, to try to reason with him. But she said nothing, for what might she offer to change his course?

"Take care that you never return, and never bring any trouble to me," Aydrian warned.

"You will hear from Prince Midalis soon enough," Jilseponie replied. "If you wish to avoid - "

"I embrace a war, if one should come!" Aydrian interrupted, his eyes flashing with inner fires. "But you have no place in such a war. I warn you that I can begin again the proceedings King Danube cut short."

"To what end?" she asked doubtfully.

"I can recall the spirit of Constance at any time, Mother dear," Aydrian assured her. "And I can make her say whatever I wish her to say. Perhaps you should have killed me when you had the chance, because you will desire me dead many times in the months ahead, and you will never get another opportunity to do it."

"Long live the King," Jilseponie said with a snarl.

"King Aydrian Boudabras," Aydrian replied, taking an elvish word as his surname, a word that Jilseponie surely understood.