Kings Game

Chapter 81 - Ashes [End of Part 3]

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Roran sat cross legged staring at the gravestone. It was big and opulent, just like everything else that had been in the Prince's life. So much had happened the day of the invasion that it still didn't seem real. One moment, Roran had been holding Vass's hand, the next he'd been running through the street, cutting people down.

The worst of the invasion had been over in a couple hours. The initial rush had been used to secure as many high ranking diplomats as possible. They were still counting the number of dead and missing people, but they estimated that a few dozen diplomats had been taken from the city, flown out on the same ship that had taken Darling.

The Army had tried to send ships after it, but many of the ports had been sabotaged. The ships that hadn't been crippled had been too busy fighting the few invading vessels to chase after a lone ship that was fleeing.

Roran had expected them to shoot the invading ships down, shredding them to pieces directly over the city. The Army had been smarter than that. They'd maneuvered over the ships and dropped battalions of soldiers right on top of them. A couple of Champions had even joined the fray, tearing the invading ships apart from the inside out.

The ground forces had been another matter.

The Uhlaran loyalists and the Esmun Republic had spent the last year sneaking in over a thousand agents. Everything had been meticulously planned out. The Esmun Republic had been working towards this invasion for years, the fall of Uhlara had simply been a good excuse to actually go through with it.

The invaders alone had been bad enough, then they had released all of the prisoners from under the Crucible and given them weapons. That's when the real bloodbath started. Those freed from the underground dungeons had been hungry for revenge. They didn't care if they were killing civilians or innocents, they just wanted to see their captor's blood flow in the streets.

Once the ships were dealt with, the rest of the Army focused on clearing the streets. Between the Army, the Champions, and the Kings roaming around and killing the invaders, the worst of it had died down by nightfall. Fires were still burning, those burned all the way until sunrise, but the worst of the fighting was over.

Sarah was still gone. After she'd manifested Karyn for a final goodbye, she'd completely disappeared. She probably wasn't the only lyhlim to vanish during the battle. Roran guessed that all of the lyhlim in the city would be busy for a while.

Since their home had been destroyed, Roran, Kell, and Nul had moved into Darling's mansion. Matriarch Gwendalyn had been stopping in regularly to check on them. Once the bodies were gone, she'd set the kids to work helping clean the place up. "For when Darling comes home," she said.

Roran shifted. His legs were falling asleep. He'd been staring at the gravestone, lost in thought, for over an hour. He didn't want to go back to Darling's mansion. It was officially the Cataegis mansion, giving Kell ownership of it, but they all still thought of it as Darling's.

Kell had moved into Karyn's old room. Roran had hardly seen her at all since Karyn died. When he had seen her, she'd been completely drunk or miserably depressed. Nul had moved into one of the guest rooms. They'd barely said a word since.

Roran had watched Nul try to patch Karyn's heart over and over again, failing each time. Nul would close up one section and then another would rip open, the quivering of Karyn's own heart ripping itself apart under Nul's hands. They'd kept going until Sarah told them to stop, her body a mangled mess of glimmering cracks.

Nobody went into the office anymore. There were still bloodstains on the carpet. The only thing that wasn't covered in blood were the tattered remains of Roran's white robes, the ones Vassilian had given him. They'd washed out clean, just as they always did.