Vincent
The tournament devolved into chaos, though with the way the Hyas was blustering, you’d think it was the start of a civil war.
“The bloodborn cheated,” he shouted, stalking the length of the mats. You’d passed out right in front of me, and I’d called for the medics who were fussing over you and Ashur both. “He used seduction to win,” Hyas bleated to the Council.
“Someone drugged them,” said one of Ashur’s tribesmen, a rather large and imposing man who went by the name Silenus. “Could it be mere coincidence that they were bothyouropponents?”
This only enraged Hyas further as he stomped across the floor and hissed at Aretha, still seated at my side, “This isnotwhat we agreed upon.”
Aretha silenced him with a look. Meanwhile, Mater’s face looked like a pressure cooker about to explode. Well, they started it.
“I’d like to pose this question to you all,” I said, appealing to the crowd. “If the tribes cannot be trusted to act honorably in a wrestling tournament, how can they be trusted to protect the Parousia?”
Their quiet attentiveness told me they were listening. I let my question hang in the air, then directed my next statement at Aretha. “You, yourself, said that my allegiance would be to my consort’s tribe before all others. How is that fair to the rest of the tribes who rely on my leadership in this revolution?” She opened her mouth to argue, but I cut her off. “The bloodborn have renounced their claim on me, and I now stand on my sunborn lineage alone. As the only member of my tribe, I am uniquely qualified to be impartial.”
I swept my hand over the messy scene that had played out in front us all. “I would like to ask the tribal members gathered here, who among you would have me choose one tribe over another?”
No one said a word, not even those competitors who had petitioned for my hand.
I nodded. “That’s what I thought. There will be no alliance. Not now. Not ever. I’m not loyal to any one man or any one tribe, but to the cause of our revolution, and if this does not satisfy the Tribal Council,” I waved my hand in their general vicinity, “then I will take my lands and my efforts elsewhere.”
There was no clapping or applauding when I descended the dais, but a kind of murmur rippled through the crowd. Aretha had migrated to where my mother sat and was arguing with her. Hyas glared at me with his arms crossed.
“I thought you were better than your two-faced, bloodsucking mother,” he said with scorn.
“And I thought your sister had more honor than to attempt to trade me like livestock.”
“You’re foolish to think Henri will be able to protect you. Without an army to defend you, you’ll be at the mercy of us all.”
“Are you threatening me?” I asked with all the contempt I could muster.
“I wouldn’t dare threaten theParousia,” Hyas sneered. He glared at me once more and stormed off toward his warborn tent.
“That was a dramatic exit,” I said to no one in particular.
“That won’t be the last of the warborn’s ploys for power, youngblood,” Orcus said.
“Is that a vision or an opinion?”
“Both.”
“Well, Orcus, thanks for sharing that bit of infoafterthe fact. Feel free to be a little less vague in the future. Got anything else for me?”
“Your diplomacy skills need work.”
I grumbled because I knew he was right. “Thanks for the tip. Any visions of my mother’s scheming you’d care to share?” I waited for a response, wishing I could seduce him into spilling the beans, but Orcus only stared through me with his murky, opaque eyes, leaving me, as always, with more questions than answers.
You were passedout on our bed when I arrived in our rooms a while later, so I ducked into Papa’s quarters to check on him. He was sitting by the window, poring over a book that I’d brought up the day before from Mater’s library.
“That was a long meeting,” he said. I’d not seen him since that morning.
“The Council tried to get me to form an alliance again. Then there was a wrestling tournament to decide who might win my hand. It was a whole thing.”
“And?” he said, lowering his glasses.
“Well, as it turned out, someone drugged the competitors’ water, so the whole thing got cancelled.”
“Someone?” he asked, giving methe look.
