"Kolotian," King Vayin said. His eyes had turned back to grey as he regarded Ishar who'd come to a stop on the second step leading to the thrones. The Royal Black Guards had their swords out at the sides of the bottom step and stood ready to strike at Vayin's command but for some reason he did not give it. "You have fought for your life and proven yourself a capable warrior, one deserving of the Nula Anyl.l"
It had been decades since Rehny had heard Vayin Vigon give a compliment. As far as compliments went what he'd said to Ishar was freaking praise. Rehny's sword seemed to absorb light as he held it before him. It was the sword fashioned for the Commander of the Legions from a dark metal that could only be mined in the desert far East. For most Commanders the black sword was a symbol of power, duty and a sense of pride for one's position within the hundred Legions. Rehny always thought of the sword as a malady that would be the death of him.
Still, the sword was the only thing that stood between him and the Kolotian. At first glance the boy could easily have been mistaken for a simple Kolotian peasant too young to have his hands harvested. Rehny's eyes turned to observe the Senior Inquisitor who'd crawled to weep over his brother's corpse, the man shook with silent sobs and light colored blood slid down his lips from the hole in his face where his nose had been. The Kolotian had done that, there was nothing simple to him.
The way Ishar stood on the second step, his eyes never leaving the King. There was a wildness within his violet gaze, a wildness that spoke of the boy's detachment from reality. Did he not know whom he was facing? Did he not know what the one with the Jojoh Meena could do? Rehny wondered. The King met the Kolotian's gaze and his daughter beside him did her best to emulate her father's calm demeanor. Of everyone in the throne room it was Rehny who looked tense.
Sure, the Royal Black Guards had their swords drawn as his but they didn't track the Kolotian with them neither did they appear to hold any measure of worry over their King's safety. It was evident that they had passed off the Kolotian as nothing more than a capable fighter, the Royal Black Guards always held the assumption that they were the best at combat, better than the Inquisitors by far and most of the Legion captains. They obviously only saw Ishar as a mild threat, one that was facing someone who was above even themselves, the King.
The Binorian Kings have never bled in combat, never known a broken bone or what loss was. They won and prevailed in every thing they did, the very blessing of the Goddess acted as armor that shielded them from the flaws of man. They were man at the peak of his abilities, they were the part of humanity without flaws. Only the writings of Vayd Vigon in his book, Prowess of the mind, prevented the Kingdoms of the realm from worshipping the Kings of Binoria as Gods. For the book repeatedly emphasized that all worship belonged to Meena.
The Kolotian took another step up the stairs. "Ishar," Dahli said. "You have to think about the women of Talisi whom you've sacrificed for. If you make a move to attack father he will have no choice but to kill you and then ride to Talisi and slaughter everyone." She has a point. Rehny thought. Dahli's ability to paradigm enabled her to observe things from all perspectives and to shed light on the thoughts that drove people to act as she intended them to. But why is she fighting for the Nula Anyl so much? Rehny wondered.
Rehny turned to observe King Vayin Vigon, the man had a smile upon his face, a familiar smile that he knew all too well. He'd seen it when the man had leaped from his chariot and plunged into enemy lines. He'd seen it when Vayin had decapitated three men in the span of a second and he'd seen it when the King had been cutting arrows with his sword as they came flying at him. Rehny lowered the hand that held his sword as the Kolotian took another step, drawing closer to Vayin.
"Hush, my daughter," King Vayin said, "there is a madness to him, he has heard you but his interpretation of your words is only according to what he sees. Even I can not tell what lies within him for he is twisted beyond comprehension, his perception of everything around him is so flawed that all I see from him lacks sense." Rehny took in the King's words, was he saying that the boy wasn't lucid? His eyes widened. The Mad King comes!
Ishar laughed, his eyes crinkling at the corners. "If you wish to know my thoughts you should just ask. I'm thinking about this bird that followed me here, it has shat on me once before and I've been seeing it occasionally circling above me." Ishar cocked his head to the side. "It is quite odd that now is the time I choose to think of the bird but in a way it resembles you. Oh King."
It was Vayin's turn to cock his head to the side. "In what way am I like a bird?"
"You think you're too high to reach but a time will come when you'll be low enough to be struck down by those you shat on." Ishar said and took another step up the stairs. Vayin laughed with his eyes closed and when he opened them they glowed red. He took a step forward and stretched out a hand and on cue a Royal Black Guard to his right tossed him a sword. Vayin caught the sword by the hilt without even looking at it. His eyes faded to grey.
"You know what's similar between mad men and sane ones?" Vayin asked. Ishar shook his head from side to side, coming to a low crouch as he observed the silver gleam of the blade in the King's hand. King Vayin pushed his daughter back, he leaned while extending the hand wielding the blade behind him and flung the sword at a window. Glass broke and everyone turned to the broken window that had a blade sticking out of it.
Rehny wondered what the King was doing but as his gaze left the window to where King Vayin stood the King was no longer positioned before the throne, instead he was standing where the Kolotian had stood on the stairs and Ishar lay at the foot of the stairs, dazed and on his back, blinking at the ceiling. Rehny gasped. The sword had been a diversion and the Kolotian had fallen prey to it.
King Vayin leisurely descended the steps to come and stand before Ishar, his slow descent made his earlier burst of speed seem like a thing of fantasy. The Kolotian sat up from the ground while still visibly dazed. He shook his head from side to side and tapped his head with his palm. King Vayin leaned down and grabbed the Kolotian by the neck, lifting him off the ground as if he weighed as much as an infant.
Ishar choked as his neck supported his entire weight. Vayin held him above the ground with one hand. Such strength, such speed. Rehny thought. Indeed this was proof of the power of Gods. The King was invincible, nobody could lay a hand on him. Not even Ishar whose feet dangled and kicked inches off the ground.
"The similar thing between the sane and insane is that they all face death in the same way." King Vayin said, the boy audibly chocked while gasping for air with his hands grasping and tearing at Vayin's outstretched arm. Ishar run his nails over the King's doublet in a futile effort to free himself of the King's grasp. "When you cut off the air of a sane man he will gasp for breath, suffocate and lose color as he inched closer to death. The same with a mad man."
Veins popped out over Ishar's face, his eyes bulged in their sockets and his teeth were bared in a frightful grimace. King Vayin strangled the Kolotian and whatever thoughts Rehny had held over the Kolotian's capabilities were decimated. Ishar stopped struggling, his hands fell to his sides and his eyes closed shut.
"Father." Dahli said.
"He is not dead, almost is but not yet." King Vayin said. He held on to Ishar's body that twitched occasionally till it twitched no more then he let it go. Ishar's limp body fell to the ground and lay docile upon the red carpet. "Even the mad should know to revere the King of Binoria." Vayin said and spat on Ishar's unconscious form.
"Put him in the dungeon with his fellow Nula Anyl participant. Send word to everyone in the city, the Nula Anyl*will be held two days from now." Vayin said while still staring at the Kolotian. King Vayin turned to climb up to his throne but paused when everyone gasped. From Vayin's position while confronting the Kolotian his back had been turned to mostly everyone in the room and Rehny had only been partially able to see the side of his face.
But now that Vayin faced everyone Rehny's eyes widened to the size of saucers. The King raised his hand to touch at the base of his nose, the tips of his fingers came back red. Blood oozed out of King Vayin Vigon's nostrils. Red blood similar to everyone else's. Rehny turned his eyes to the unconscious Ishar, to the boy's left hand in particular where the knuckles were caked with fresh blood.
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