Chapter 940: Fading Past
“Earl Luoxi! That coward — how dare he—” Appen spun from the window and swept his gaze across the hall. “Ministers! Where are my ministers?”
The chief guard hesitated long enough to make the answer obvious. “Lord Kerlong said earlier that he was going to… handle some matters.” A pause. “I don’t believe he’s coming back.”
Appen stared at him.
“Lord Wirant left as well,” the chief guard said. “And ‘Gold Hourglass’ Neal. Your Majesty — everyone is gone. Only I remain.”
He looked around the hall then, and saw it: the vast room reduced to a handful of servants and one loyal guard. He had agreed to let them go, one by one, each with a reasonable-sounding duty. Check the stone wall’s defenses. Supervise the inner court staff. Manage the preparations. All of it legitimate. All of it an exit.
His ministers had abandoned him before the attack even reached the gates.
“Traitors.” The scepter hit the floor. “Every one of them — traitors. My reign is ruined by traitors.”
“Your Majesty, those cowards will be punished in time. But right now you must withdraw—” The chief guard stepped closer. “The mercenaries won’t hold them for more than an hour. The imperial guards couldn’t last longer. If we don’t move—”
“No.” Appen pushed him away. “Go to the underground cell. Bring me the head of Otto Luoxi.”
“But—”
“That is your king’s command.”
The chief guard stepped back and bowed. “Yes, Your Majesty.”
After he left, Appen stood alone in the enormous hall.
His fingers were trembling, faintly. His vision had a reddish cast to it — not blood, exactly, more like the eye’s own heat when rage and exhaustion met. He sat on the throne and looked at his hands.
He pressed them flat against his legs to make them stop.
It was over. He had known it when the mercenaries on the wall simply turned and ran — not repelled, not broken in a pitched fight, but dissolved, like salt in water. After that, the arithmetic was simple. Earl Luoxi’s betrayal was almost beside the point. The outcome had been written before the first horn call.
What he could not understand — and the question kept returning no matter how hard he pushed it aside — was why. Not why Horford Quinn had moved, that was obvious enough. Not why the Tokats had supported him: Quinn was clever and the Tokats were pragmatic. But why Earl Luoxi had chosen this moment to risk his son’s life. Why the three families — whose interests had always diverged at the crucial points — had moved as if coordinated by someone they all trusted. There had to be a person at the center of it. Someone who could reach all three at once.
Appen could not find the name.
He was still sitting there when the hall doors opened.
A team of warriors filed in. He hadn’t seen them before — not palace guards, not mercenaries he’d hired. Their weapons were still wet. Their armor carried dark spatters. And yet their faces were calm, the specific calm of people for whom the last quarter-hour had been, at most, a brisk walk. Not winded. Not cautious. The chief guard had said an hour before the defenses broke; in reality it had been perhaps fifteen minutes.
Behind the warriors came Horford Quinn.
And behind Quinn: two others. Earl Tokat, and — Appen’s stomach tightened — Otto Luoxi himself. Walking under his own power. Alive.
When Appen saw Otto, he understood that the revenge he’d intended was already gone.
“Why is this—”
“Are you surprised that Otto is alive?” Oro Tokat stepped forward. “Two warriors hidden in the palace’s secret passage. Ordinary iron gates and standard locks are not difficult for them. As for how they entered the Castle District in the first place — the guards, in their panic, may not have checked the members of an acrobatics troupe carefully enough.”
Appen’s pupils contracted. “If that’s not a bluff — they could have entered my bedroom at any time?”
“Yes.” Oro spread his hands. “The King of Graycastle needed to create a demonstration. Otherwise you would have been dead before today. Truthfully, I’m disappointed in you, Your Majesty. I thought you kept Otto imprisoned out of anger. I never imagined you would use him as a threat against his father, and then plan to kill him.” He sighed. “I thought — even if we were no longer friends — you wouldn’t forget who we had been to each other.”
“Roland Wimbledon.” Appen said the name like a stone dropped into deep water. The rest of Oro’s words had not reached him. “All of this was his doing.” He looked at Horford Quinn, then pointed. “Do you understand what you’re doing? You’re serving a demon’s instrument. You’ve betrayed your ancestors and sacrificed your kingdom and your people to him — for what?” His voice climbed. “Do you think you’ll actually sit on that throne? You’re a puppet, Quinn — nothing more. If they could topple me today, they will topple you tomorrow. Don’t tell me you haven’t seen this.”
“You’re wrong.” A voice from the doorway — a woman’s voice, unhurried.
Appen began to respond before he had registered her face. Then his voice stopped.
She was barely standing without assistance — someone had a hand at her elbow. She was pale, visibly spent, her body giving out the signals of a person who had pushed through their limits and was surviving the aftermath on will. But the face, the pale skin, the long blonde hair, the bearing beneath the exhaustion—
It was someone who belonged to a time he had put away.
“Andrea Quinn,” she said. “It’s been a long time, Appen.”
The answer came to him whole, in that instant. Not piece by piece — whole. Why both families had trusted the same person enough to risk everything. Why the Tokats had followed without hesitation. Why Otto’s father had gambled his son’s life on the promise that he would be protected. There was only one person who could have reached all three families with that kind of credibility.
She had been the center of the young generation once — the Flower of Glow, the earl’s brilliant eldest daughter, the girl that Oro and Otto and Appen had each, in their own way, loved.
The anger went out of him like a flame pinched off.
What replaced it was something older and simpler. He had been angry for a year: at Roland, at the defeat, at the nobles, at the world’s arrangement. But this was different. This was grief wearing the face of the future he’d been denied.
Why, he thought, did you choose them and not me?
If he was going to lose to Roland Wimbledon regardless, why had she also abandoned him? He could have given her more than Roland ever would. If things had gone differently — if that one accident years ago had not happened — she would have stood beside him. Would have ruled with him. Would have made him into something worth remembering.
He managed one word: “Why?”
Andrea read the rest of the question in his face. She always had.
“Because I’m a witch, Appen.” Her voice was steady. “A Fallen. One of those who deserves to die, in your world.”
Chapter 940: Fading Past
Translator: TransN Editor: TransN
“Earl Luoxi! That damn traitor, how dare he —!” Appen, who was watching the battle from the top of the castle, furiously said, “I’m going to kill him and his son! Ministers, where are my ministers?”
“Your Majesty, Lord Kerlong said earlier that he was going to… handle some things,” after a while, the chief guard hesitated to reply, “but I think… he may not be back.”
“What did you say?” The King of Dawn turned suddenly and gasped at the latter.
“You agreed,” said the chief guard hesitatively. “In addition to Lord Kerlong, Lord Wirant and ‘Gold Hourglass’ Neal also left. Your Majesty, everyone is gone but me.”
It was only then that Appen noticed that only the chief guard and several servants were in the huge hall.
He instantly understood what the chief guard meant by saying “may not be back.”
“Traitors!” He threw the scepter to the ground and said, gnashing his teeth, “Traitors, traitors… My reign is ruined by these traitors.”
He consented to their departure indeed, but what were their reasons? One said that he was going to check the defense of the stone wall, another said that he was going to the inner court to supervise the maids preparing for war. Those were originally their duty, but they now turned out to be their excuses!
Were his ministers ready to flee before the enemy had launched their attack?
“Your Majesty, those cowards are bound to be punished in the end, but the immediate priority now is to withdraw from here as soon as possible!” The chief guard approached and said, “Those mercenaries won’t win us much time. Even the imperial guards could not withstand the enemy for over an hour. It’ll be too late then!”
“No, I want to see the traitors be punished!” Said Appen, pushing the chief guard away, “Go to the underground cell and bring the head of Otto Luoxi to me!”
“But…”
“This is your king’s command!” He yelled at the top of his voice.
“Yes, Your Majesty,” the chief guard took a step back and bowed.
After his only subordinate left, Appen felt that his fingers were slightly trembling, and his eyes seemed to swell and even his vision was covered by a layer of light red.
He slowly sat on his chair and stared at his hands, hoping to tear the traitors alive!
It was over.
When the mercenaries on the top of the city wall fled for no reason and gave up the stone wall, his failure had been assured. The rebellion of Earl Luoxi was insignificant. But he could not understand why Earl Luoxi would risk losing his eldest son to betray him. Why would Horford Quinn get the complete support of the other two families? He was unable to explain it. Though the three families in the City of Glow were seen as a whole, their respective interests were not exactly the same. In this challenge which might cost their lives, he could not figure out who would be trusted by them to such a degree.
Appen found that he did not know the city or the three families so deeply as he had thought.
In the end, he did not get the answer of the chief guard.
A team of warriors, whom he had never seen before, opened the hall door. Their weapons were still dripping blood, and their armor was also splashed with blood stains. However, there was no trace of exhaustion on their face. They were so relaxed, as if they had just gone through a street fight.
The chief guard declared that they could resist for an hour, but, in reality, they failed to even hold out for a quarter of an hour.
The rebellon had overwhelming superiority.
Then he saw the usurper, Horford Quinn, who had vowed to always support the Moya family.
In addition to Earl Quinn, two other traitors entered the hall together, along with their successors: Oro Tokat and Otto Luoxi.
When he saw the latter, Appen knew that the revenge he wanted had become impossible.
“Why is this—”
“Are you surprised as to why Otto is still alive?” Oro interrupted him, “It’s not too hard to hide two warriors in the secret path of the palace, not to mention that the ordinary iron gates and fences could not stop their actions. As for how they got into the Castle District, you’d have to go to ask the guards. I don’t think those guards, in their panic, may care much about the members of an acrobatics troupe .”
Appen’s pupils suddenly shrank. “If that’s not a bluff, does that mean that they could have entered my bedroom at any time?”
“Yes, just as what you think.” Oro spread out his hands and said, “The King of Graycastle needed to create a tribute; otherwise, you would have already been beheaded by them. To be honest, I’m so disappointed in you, Your Majesty… I thought you imprisoned Otto just out of anger. I had never expected that you would use him to threaten Earl Luoxi and even intend to
kill him.” He sighed and continued to say, “I had thought… Even if we’re not friends anymore, you would not forget the days when we were.”
“You mean Roland Wimbledon? So that was all his doing?” Appen did not care about the second half of Oro’s words, as “King of Graycastle” mentioned by Oro had attracted all his attention. He said,”Do you know what you’re doing? You’re helping a demon. You not only betrayed your ancestors’ vows but also sacrifice your kingdom and subjects to him! You’re foolish!”
He pointed angrily to Horford Quinn, “And you! Do you think you can really sit on this throne? In fact, you’re just a puppet! Haven’t you thought about it? Why did he start the mutiny? Why did he fight against me if he were not attempting to annex the Kingdom of Dawn? Don’t forget, since these people can easily overthrow me today, they’ll easily push you into the abyss one day!”
“You’re wrong,” suddenly a woman from outside said, “he did it for two reasons, to save Otto and to protect the witches.”
“Absurd—” Appen was ready to scold her presumption and ignorance, but his voice was suddenly stuck in his throat, “You, you’re…”
She seemed to be very weak and could not stand up without the help of others. Even so, her superior beauty could not be hidden. Her long blonde hair and vaguely familiar face reminded him of a person who only existed in his memory.
“Andrea Quinn,” her reply confirmed his guess. “It’s been a long time since we met, Appen.”
For a second, all the questions in his mind were answered. The reason why the Tokats supported Earl Quinn and why Earl Luoxi took risks— indeed, there was one person who could gain the trust of both families at the same time. That was because both of their children had been in love with her.
The anger in his heart was quenched and replaced by desperation all of a sudden. He murmured for a moment and finally asked, “Why?”
Why did you finally choose them and not me?
If I’m doomed to be defeated by Roland Wimbledon, why did you also betray me? I can give you more than he does. If it were not for that accident, you would have ruled the kingdom with me.
Andrea seemed to read his mind and replied, “Because I’m a witch, Appen. A Fallen who deserves to be killed in your mind.”