Dream of a Vast Blue Cavern

Chapter 14: A New Crown: Medoc

 Medoc stared at Tejusi’s retreating back for a moment, ignoring his own admonitions to haste, watching his former King bob away on his shoulder. After he and the two Officers accompanying him had passed out of sight, Medoc glanced one last time at the abyss of lava below him, and then walked calmly to the throne and stood before it, facing Renault and the King’s ten honor guards. He had told the Ice Queen that the King’s Guard followed the throne, not the man. That was true. If they did not believe the man held the throne, they would not follow him. The fact that they had not acted against him yet gave Medoc confidence.

 “Your army stands ready, my King,” said Renault, stepping forward and kneeling. “The attack shall commence at your command.”

 “Try not to think of it as an attack, Renault. We are not to attack our people. We are keeping order while the Nobles come to accept my rule. We are ensuring that none other is raised in Dynat's place.”

 “Yes, my King.”

 In spite of his words, Medoc knew he was painting an elegant lava picture over rough, scarred rock. There would be resistance, and he would have to kill some of his own people to secure his power. Bolv had been working tirelessly to shift the favor of the Nobles to his cause, but there were some who simply had deep loyalty to Dynat and would not change. Some were deeply religious, and truly believed Dynat was the Fire Spirit made flesh. Others he had inherited from his father, King Bretle. Medoc was one of those. The Nobles who could not be persuaded or purchased would be executed, their children sent to the orphan tunnels. That was what happened in shifts of power. Medoc had seen it many times.

 “Are the guards in place with the Kinyara?”

 Renault sneered, unable to hide his distaste that Medoc would keep the current Kinyara rather than consigning her to share Dynat’s fate, but he did not give voice to his opinion. “They are, my King.”

 “Then pass down the command. Secure Chraun for my rule.”

 Renault bowed and left. Medoc watched him go down the tunnel. He itched to join the man, to lead the fight. But he was no longer a General with that privilege.

 The King’s Honor Guard still stood before him, and Medoc saluted them with a very faint inclination of his shoulders. They stepped forward and knelt. Then, moving as one, they took up their positions in the hall again.

 Medoc turned and looked at the great throne in the center of the room, staring at the crown attached to the seat, where Dynat had left it last. He stood without moving, a pillar of certainty among the thin stalam. Though he raged inwardly, wanting to pace and twitch, he resisted the urge. Being a King was much like being a General, he reflected. It was all about waiting. Unless something went horribly wrong in the next few hours, Medoc was now King of Chraun.

 He pulled T'Jas from the intense heat in the room and used it to detach the crown. It was a simple, gold circuit studded in the very front with the emblem of Dynat's house, a crouching slink, also in gold. Medoc sat down on the throne and laid the circuit in his hands, running them over the emblem. He poured T'Jas into the very molecules of the metal, shaping and changing it.

 Footsteps came up the hall, and Medoc tensed. It had been nearly an hour since Renault left; he would not be reporting so soon unless something had gone awry. His Guard’s positions did not change, but Medoc sensed a readiness in their postures. He drew T’Jas and waited.

 Tejusi burst in. His armor was melted into misshapen lumps, his hair singed off. He knelt briefly at Medoc’s feet and then looked up with wild eyes.

 “Forgive me, my King, she has escaped.”

 “Stand and report, Cad—Luten.”

 As the Flame obeyed, Medoc saw him wince. The Luten had not wasted time healing himself completely. “We were passing the baths when a soldier recognized his cloak. The little Ice Fairy was foolish enough to show herself. I ordered my men to attack them.”

 “Did any escape but her?” Medoc asked sharply.

 “No, my King. I was the only survivor, and myself barely. I was lying on the tunnel floor, trying to heal myself enough to stand when she slipped past. I tried to stop her—“

 “What of the K—Dynat?”

 “She took him with her, my King.”

 Medoc felt a moment of relief that Dynat was not lying outside the baths, perhaps waking even now, but it was only a moment. If Stasia were captured, everything would fall apart. Dynat would wake, and the truth would come out; Medoc would be executed, all of his loyal Flames thrown into the river after him.

 Even if she made it through to her people, the little Ice Queen could cause him trouble. What if she refused to clean the Lake? What if she revealed Medoc's hand in Dynat's defeat to the rest of Chraun? She knew everything Medoc knew, intimately. She had plundered his mind. And she hated him intensely, hated all Flames. She could use her knowledge to wreak havoc in Chraun for years to come.

 Medoc cursed himself for not throwing them both in the lava river when he had the chance. He had not had the strength. He had still been thinking of his carefully laid plan, perfectly timed and executed.

 “Go to the Kinyara,” Medoc said slowly.

 “My King?” Tejusi looked nervous.

 “Have her heal you. She’s trustworthy—or as close to it as we’ll come. Assemble two patrols of Flames as loyal as you can. Warriors who won’t talk. Search the Spiral top to bottom. She can’t have gone far, especially not carrying him.”

 “Yes, my King.”

 “Kill them both and leave their bodies to feed slink. I’ll have to negotiate with someone else about the Lake.”

 It was too dangerous, having the Ice Queen running around with all his secrets in her head. It had to be done. It was the only way to keep his power, and more importantly, to keep Chraun whole.

 Tejusi was bowing and leaving. The time to rescind the order was passing. Medoc refused to feel regret. Two more deaths were small in the face of the sheer numbers of citizens of Chraun dying outside these doors, he told himself. He thought of the tallies from Ritnu’s ascension, and Bretle’s. Had it been ten thousand, with Ritnu? Or was that the King before him? Would it have been better to let things continue as they had under Dynat? No. The Kingdom had needed change, and if Medoc did not provide it, someone else would, and their overthrow would have been just as brutal, if not more.

 He uncovered the emblem on the circuit. It was no longer a slink; he had shaped it into the perfect hexagon of his house. The band and the emblem gleamed in the platinum of Medoc’s official color instead of Dynat’s gold. He lifted the circuit to his brow, and placed it over his greying hair. It settled heavily around his head, and his brow wrinkled under the pressure. He set aside the doubt plaguing his heart, and became the King of Chraun.