SWNOVELS Chapter Epilogue
Cirillo was pacing in the huge circular room. The representatives of the New Alliance (they started calling the Alliance of the Three like this a few weeks ago, when - to their biggest surprise- Etealind joined the alliance too) were settled around a round ebony table. The small council-like group included all three kings (Allerick, Dragomir and Xaun ) and Lord Vortigern, Prince Áedh, Lady Merle, Lord Chavdar, and obviously, Cirillo himself, although he wasn’t sitting anymore.
He gave up sitting still nearly half an hour ago, when he heard that the search parties, which were sent to look up any trace of Ivelle, came back, once again, with nothing. It seemed that she was indeed dead as the rumours said. After the reports, the small council decided that they had to give up their search and focus their forces on stopping whoever was behind the attacks, and although it was hard to accept, he realised that they were right.
It had been nearly two months since they found out that Ivelle was dead. Two very long months, which were filled with both doubts and hope for everyone. His brother Hagan was still out there with the last search party. As their messenger said they had to stop by a village that had been ravaged by the dark soldiers.
He sighed and sat back to his seat and looked at each member, examining their faces. His father, Allerick was no different than every other day: he sat there with a stoic, collected and very composed expression, concentrating on every single detail. Next to him, King Dragomir managed to keep his anger more or less under control, but he couldn’t control his body language: he was fidgeting with his fingers, and there was a stern and furious expression on his face. Áedh looked tired but was more successful to keep a stoic expression. Vortigern and Merle sat with straight backs but had a mix of nervousness and fear written on their faces. King Xaun was no different than Allerick. He sat with his back straight, and with a stoic, collected expression on his face.
Lord Chavdar was speaking. He rested his elbows on the table and locked his hands in front of him like he had been praying. He was a human soldier around his late fifties and the captain of the research parties. He joined the council a week before in great secret and against the order of his king. He had a stern expression and was always ready for a battle. Cirillo sighed again and forced himself to concentrate back on what the man was saying.
“... And now, that we have no intention on continuing the search of Lady Ivelle, we could concentrate on another very important thing.” there he paused for a minute looking into the eyes of each and every member “Prince Adrastos.”
“What about him?” asked Alleric more or less curiously. The name made Cirillo curious too, so he bent forward paying more attention now.
“He’s the son of Erebos, no wonder he’s behind the attacks.” he explained looking around the table.
“I would agree,” started king Xaun “if he wasn’t dead.” he said these words matter-of-factly, not caring to look at Chavdar “He died a month ago when they tried to ravage a village in the North Mountains. One of the villagers shot him with an arrow, and he fell into a ravine. There were plenty of eyewitnesses. As a conclusion, if he really was behind the attacks, someone had replaced him.”
“And don’t you think it’s suspicious that a few weeks after Ivelle died, the only Dark Prince dies too?” he took a deep breath “And don’t forget, we thought he was dead after the War too. If he managed to fool us once, I’m sure he can do it again.”
“We can’t be sure that he’s the only son of Erebos.” said Vortigern looking at Chavdar “As I’ve already said there were plenty of rumours about another prince.”
“The son of Delaney and Erebos.” nodded Merle “I wouldn’t be surprised if it was true.”
“We don’t have the time nor the resource, to chase phantoms and rumours.” Allerick stood up “I agree with King Xaun. There's plenty of evidence that Adrastos is dead. Now we must find who really is behind the attacks and stop them, or our world will burn.” A sudden a very ominous silence fell on the room. Noone dared to look at the other, not because they didn’t want to show their fears, but because they were scared to see the same fear in the others’ eyes. No one said a word. They knew that Allerick was right.
The silence was broken by the creak of the door. Padráig rushed in and stood in front of his king.
“Excuse me for the inconvenience, Your Majesty.” he bowed quickly “But a messenger just came from Abonwan. Their north border was attacked by an unknown army. They have already destroyed several villages. Abonwan asks for our help.”
The royals looked at each other all waiting for the answer of the others. For several minutes everybody was silent.
“So it begins.” was all King Dragomir said. Everyone nodded in silence. The war was there and no one could stop it. Noone.
“You must be willing to wield a sword, even if you are a shopkeeper at heart.” ~Robert Green~
Author’s note:
I would like to say thank you to everyone, who read my story. I hope you enjoyed it. Book 2 is coming soon, until then feel free to leave some feedback and/or review.