Tales of Fire and Ruin - Chapter 28: Chapter 28

Oleander was inside the palace. A palace that stayed eerily silent.
I would have expected screams or yelling as Oleander dragged the queen into her own home with a dagger pressed to her throat. I would've expected someone to raise the alarm, ringing bells to summon all in the city who heard it to rush to their queen's aid.
Maybe this was a bad dream after all. I squeezed my eyes shut, willing myself to wake up. But as I blinked my eyes open again, Endris was still standing in front of me. His worried, tense face told me I definitely was not imagining things. This was real.
"What do we do?" I asked Endris. "What can we do?"
Endris always had the clever plans and knew Wildewall inside out. If he didn't have an answer, I wasn't sure anyone did. The flicker of doubt in his dark eyes made my blood turn to ice in my veins. He didn't know.
Endris didn't respond to my questions, instead turning to the unconscious or dead guards in the flowerbeds. Crouching down, he pressed his fingers to the neck of the closest guard.
"No shots in the head..." Endris mumbled to himself, a frown creasing his brow. "That would have been much easier."
"What do you mean?" I asked, following Endris as he walked to the next guard and carefully turned him onto his side.
"I mean, they're not dead," Endris replied. "Neither of them. Yet, they fell unconscious... Oleander must've used poison. A mixture to put them down, which seems like a lot of trouble to go through if he only wanted to attack the queen."
Endris glanced up at me. "I don't know what Oleander wants, and I don't wish harm to befall the queen, but I'm not going inside the palace and get involved in this any more than I already am. And neither should you."
"So I should just stand here and wait," I replied incredulously. "Or leave?"
Endris narrowed his eyes. "I can't risk my people. And if you step inside this building, you can't choose Oleander's side. If you hesitate to stop him when you have the chance and someone sees, they will consider it treason. Do you understand?"
A jolt went through my body as I realised Endris was right. Nobody would hesitate to kill Oleander. None of the guards, the servants, or even Endris. To save the queen's life, they'd cut him down. I was likely the only one on the palace grounds right now who wouldn't outright kill Oleander, so I had to be the one to stop him.
At the realisation of the grim future, I promptly started running, dashing past Endris towards the entrance of the palace. Endris made no attempt to block my path, nor did anyone else. The queen's gardens were empty, and so was the palace's entrance hall.
I ran past extravagant decorations—tapestries, vases, statues, and flowers — that I might've stared in awe at in any other situation. My footsteps echoed on the marble floor as I ran past banners and paintings into a wide, round room with stairs leading up, three hallways leading further into the palace, and closed doors. There was no trace of Oleander passing anywhere. Cursing under my breath, I slid to a halt, looking left and right to find any sign of where I should go.
A soft groan behind made me made jump and whirl around. Hidden in the shadows of a large, leafy plant, a young, blonde servant cradled Ezra Dagon in her arms. Blood seeped into a white towel as she pressed it to Ezra's abdomen. A trail of reddish spots led into another dark, long hallway.
"Master Dagon!" I called out, striding over to him and the servant.
The servant girl whimpered and made herself small as she tightened her grip on the towel and looked up at me with wide eyes.
"I'm not here to hurt you," I attempted to soothe her with two raised hands before turning to Ezra. "I'm here to stop Oleander. Where did he go?"
Ezra groaned in pain as he shifted a little further upright to face me. "Treasury. Oleander is here for the elven artefact," Ezra said between raspy breaths. "The one on the queen's staff. He wants it back."
"The artefact?" I repeated. "You mean the red gem on the staff?"
As I mentally revisited all the times Oleander had mentioned wanting to see the queen's staff and cursed myself for not realising why, Ezra coughed and nodded. "If he gets what he wants... You need to get out of the palace, lord Montbow. As do I. We're all in danger of the walls collapsing on top of us."
I darted a glance at the solid stone walls above. I didn't see them falling apart any time soon and shook my head. "I can't. Just tell me where I find the treasury."
The corners of Ezra's mouth tugged up. "Very well, storm-touched," he wheezed. "I don't know for sure where they are, but the queen's treasury is in the cellar vault. That is where the staff is kept when the queen doesn't carry it on her."
Ezra raised a shaky finger and gestured at the hallway adjacent to us.
"Thanks," I told Ezra curtly, turning into the hallway he'd pointed out. Unlike the entrance hall, in this new passage there were obvious signs of Oleander's presence. Guardsman swords lay haphazardly discarded on the ground, and I dashed past a few unconscious men. I didn't stop to check if they were dead.
Oleander's trail of destruction was easy to follow down the stairs into a dead-end hallway with a set of double doors at the end. But I was not prepared for what awaited me there.
As I burst into the treasury, it was clear the occupants of the room weren't prepared for my arrival, either.
I entered a pool of reflected lights. Glittering jewels and gold was stalled out in a large room lit by candlelight. In the centre of the room, a dozen guards surrounded Oleander, who still had his knife pressed to the queen's throat. One guard had a wooden staff with a crimson red gem embedded in the curving branches at the top in his hands. It seemed he'd been on his way to Oleander until I interrupted.
All eyes in the room shot to me.
I had made it in time. Oleander didn't have the staff yet, which Ezra warned me could lead to ruin, and he wasn't dead. But what was I expecting to do now? I should've known we'd be surrounded by many guards. Guards I wasn't willing to strike them down with my thunder for doing their job either, which was the only way to ensure Oleander would leave this place alive.
It almost seemed like Oleander himself didn't care if he'd leave the palace alive or not. His eyes had lost their sparkle. His face was devoid of all emotion as he stared at me. He was like a stranger.
"Oleander, stop this," I pleaded one more time in my desperation, despite knowing stopping wasn't an option for Oleander because he was dead the moment the tip of the dagger was no longer threatening the queen's life.
Oleander breathed in and out deeply. "Laurence, get out of the palace."
"No!" I snapped. "I'm not leaving here without you."
"Laurence," Oleander repeated lowly through gritted teeth. "Get. Out."
As I opened my mouth to tell Oleander no again, a hooded figure suddenly lunged from the corner of the room and dove for Oleander.
They used the distraction I'd posed by speaking to catch Oleander by surprise, and in a blur, he and the hooded stranger hit the ground with a thud. The knife shot across the room as the stranger kicked it away from Oleander's hand. They were left grappling as the closest guards immediately grabbed the queen and pulled her away from the fray.
The other guards didn't waste time diving on top of Oleander, restraining his limbs with their full weight. Oleander wriggled and fought to free himself, but it was five against one—he didn't stand a chance.
"Wait! Don't kill him!" I yelled.
My protests fell on deaf ears as one of the guards on top of Oleander lifted his sword, its sharp blade glinting menacingly in the light of the candles.
They were going to kill Oleander.
Shockwave rippled through my chest, spreading to arms and fingertips. My mark felt ablaze as magic charged itself. My mind knew it was treason to help Oleander, but my body acted on its own, guided by the thunder god themselves. My magic chose to shield Oleander.
But the guard's sword never fell.
As if suspended in time, the guard kept his sword raised, gaping down at Oleander below him. A moment later, I understood why. In the struggle, Oleander's hat had fallen off. His pointed ears were in plain sight for all to see. A few of the guardsmen recoiled, crawling away from Oleander while muttering prayers to the gods.
"Do not kill him!" I demanded again, stepping closer with magic pulsing through my mark. I was ready to strike the moment that sword moved.
Regardless of my storm-touched powers, however, the guards didn't look at me for orders. They looked at the queen and ignored me.
The man who'd almost cut Oleander's head off with his sword roughly grabbed Oleander by the next and yanked him upright to present him to the queen while two others held Oleander's arms twisted on his back. "An...an elven man, your highness," he said with clear surprise and disgust in his voice. "What should we do with him?"
I turned to the queen. "Please, lock him up, but don't kill him outright," I pleaded with her. "I would want one talk with him. Just one talk. That is all."
"Silent!" A guard snapped at me. "You will not address the queen."
Queen Idonia only glanced in my direction in a daze, not really seeing me. Her crown was lopsided on her head and a drop of dried blood marred her neck. For a moment I worried she was about to faint, but then she slowly turned to the hooded figure, her gaze gliding past Oleander as if he were air. "You. You are the one who saved me," she said. "Remove your hood. Show us your face."
"Yes, your highness," a familiar woman's voice replied. The cloaked figure took off her hood and revealed her face.
"Gisela?" I gaped at my sister, who elegantly bowed for the queen. "What are you doing here?"
Gisela quirked a brow at me. "What?" she asked, crossing her arms. "You thought we'd let you travel to Wildewall all alone? No. Conrad and I drew straws, and I won, so I followed you from a distance. For good reason, it appears. I saw the attack and snuck myself into this room while everyone was distracted with the staff."
"Gisela from house Montbow it is, then?" the queen asked.
Gisela made another bow, even deeper than the first. "Yes, your highness. My name is Gisela Montbow, first daughter of Uwe and Etta Montbow."
"Gisela," Queen Idonia repeated, her fingers brushing against the wound on her throat. "I am in your debt. Name your reward, and you shall have it."
"Your highness," Gisela said, keeping her head down, her gaze politely trained on the floor. "The Montbow family stands accused of murder. But I must insist, from the bottom of my heart, the Montbows did not lay a finger on knight commander Ytel. In fact, it was likely this monster hiding in our midst." Gisela nodded at Oleander. "I would ask that the Montbow family's name is cleared."
Queen Idonia nodded. "Consider your family name cleared, and the charges dismissed, Gisela Montbow."
"Thank you for your generosity, your highness," Gisela replied.
"Gisela!" I mouthed at my sister, pleading her with my eyes. "Please. I need to talk to him."
Gisela seemed to ignore me at first. But then she rolled her eyes and shot me the most exasperated look before turning back to the queen. "And, if is at all possible, I would be most grateful if you could allow our heir, lord Montbow the storm-touched, to have one last conversation with the elf before he receives his punishment."
The queen hesitated as her eyes flickered to Oleander, but then she nodded. "Make it so," she ordered her guard captain. "Interrogate the elf. Find out what he wanted with that staff and if there are others. But do not spread his existence anywhere. That counts for all in this room. We don't need panic in the city."
"Yes, your highness!" the guard captain replied.
Queen Idonia opened her hand and raised her palm. "Give me my staff."
The guardsman holding the queen's staff almost tripped over his own feet in his haste to bring the queen her staff. She curled her fingers around the wood, seeming lost in thought for a moment as her eyes rested on the red gem. Then, with one last glance cast our way, the queen strode out of her treasury with four of the guards hastily following her.
"You are under arrest for breaking into the royal palace, attempted theft of an invaluable artefact, and an attempt on the queen's life," the guard captain gruffly summed up Oleander's crimes.
My fists balled as the men tied Oleander up much tighter than what was necessary and certainly rougher, but Oleander took it all in stride. He didn't try to fight the guards anymore and laughed mirthlessly. "And now you will execute me at your temples as well?" he asked. "How predictable."
I flinched as the guard captain twisted Oleander's arm on his back, making Oleander groan in pain. "Eventually you may get executed, elf," the guard captain snarled. "If you're lucky." He let Oleander's arm go and shoved him towards two other guards. "Take him to the dungeons."
"I still get to talk to Oleander!" I reminded the guards, fighting my urges to free Oleander from their grasp now.
"And by the grace of queen Idonia, you will, storm-touched," the guard captain replied, but his sneer evinced he didn't agree with the queen's orders. "Come to the dungeons in a few hours. I'll make sure the elf can still talk, at least."
"Bu—" I started protesting.
Gisela pressed a hand to my mouth as she shushed me. "Not now, Laurence. Not now," she hissed. "Don't make this worse than it already is!"
I fought Gisela's grasp half-heartedly, but she didn't relent. I had to watch the queen's guards drag Oleander away, likely to the deepest dungeon where he would remain until his execution.