Three Broken Kingdoms-Book 1 of the Lost Continent (Completed)

Chapter Forty-Six: The Doom of A Crown

The air was tense and sharp. Her mother stood at the helm with the war-leaders beside her. Everyone seemed to be eying the others nervously, on the edge of speaking first before they remembered that Medea would not respond well to their questions. They were waiting for another, she had said. Whom that other was, Lysandra had no idea. Perhaps they were waiting for the valkyries to march in and slaughter them?

The Crimsith Court and Army (what was left of it) were not taking their doom very well at all. The news of Cobalt had shaken them to their core. For thirty years their reign had been almost entirely peaceful. The valkyries and elves had been so distracted with their own war when they took the empire that they had barely heard about the battle going on in the south. The rebels could hardly be counted as disturbing that peace.

Well, until now. Until the rebellion had miraculously acquired impossible numbers and strength and was now rallying with the valkyries against the Crimsiths. The others were puzzled, but she was not. Tarua Teris. They're behind all of this.

If only her tongue wasn't so tied. She had learnt more than all of Medea's spies had in mere weeks. The things she knew what rip the rebellions apart, though it wouldn't truly matter now that the Empire was about to fall to its knees. At best it was petty revenge, vindictive and pointless, and at worst it was a distraction that would destroy any hope of some terms of surrender that wouldn't end with the Crimson family dead.

When at last the unnamed guest arrived, everyone in the room turned to look at him. Who was it that the Empress cared about so much? She certainly wouldn't delay the meeting for anyone of them.

A gasp spread around the room.

General Hadlow walked through the door, his brown eyes so dark they looked black. They used to be hazel, she thought. The thought was chased out by another: Hadlow was meant to be dead.

"Y-you died." The stuttering was from a young warrior hoping to earn Hadlow's place. "The valkyries-Myra-"

"Myra burning Isidore didn't kill me, you oafs. Though she came a little close and is certainly going to be bleed for it later."

"All the reports-"

"The messengers-"

"The valkyries declared-"

"My cousin said he saw your body-" this speaker drew her mother's attention.

"Your cousin seems to have lied," her mother hissed at him. "Who is he?"
"L-lord E-Edmond, Your Imperial M-Majesty," he stuttered out.

"Has he told anybody else what he claims to have seen?"

"I-I-no, your Majesty."

"Very well then. Hadlow, I assure you, is not dead. He appears to be walking amongst us now, doesn't he?"

Edmond's cousin was silent.

"I asked you a question. Is General Hadlow walking amongst us now?"

"Yes, yes, Your Majesty."

"Thank you for clarifying that for us. Hadlow, are you well?"

"Quite well. Though it rains cats and dogs in the Isthmus."  Hadlow replied. The Empress laughed, like it was some private joke between them.

"Sit, General," she smiled, and he obeyed. "As you know the valkyries have taken Cobalt. Briefly, I can assure you." Medea did not bother to acknowledge the insurgence in her typical fashion. Derision was her main strategy of combatting the rebellion.

"With what army do we take it back?" Lysandra retorted, feeling bold. The others stared at her in open shock. Nobody questioned the Empress at all, let alone like she had. Not even Markus. Her mother had already caged her, and she couldn't get rid of her entirely, so what did she have to lose?