Chương 29: The Imperial Bloodline (5)

They only had to wait for a few minutes for the servant to return. Four guards led them through a side passage instead of the main hall. The corridor floors were polished dark stone, and the walls held paintings of battles, mountains, and a dragon coiled around a large castle. Teren wanted to keep looking, but the guards around him were enough to make him think better of it.

After walking through more turns and passages than Teren could remember, they reached a set of ornate double doors guarded by two men in plate armor. After another set of questions, mainly about the presence of Teren, the doors opened into a court chamber. It was not as large as he expected. A long table stood to one side, covered in maps and sealed letters. Tall windows looked down toward the lower city. The far wall bore the duke's banner: a barren field, pale mountain, silver gate.

Duke Ordaan Rovanar stood near the table with three advisers and a tall military officer in dark mail. The duke looked to be around sixty, though his back was straight and his eyes were clear. His short pale blond hair had faded almost to white at the temples. A small gray-white beard had been combed neatly along his jaw. The military-style man beside him looked around fifty, square-faced and clean-shaven, with cropped black hair threaded with gray.

He was not huge, but his shoulders filled his mail well, and he stood with the stillness of someone who had learned not to waste movement. Teren knew without being told that this was Marshal Yaros Keld. Duke Ordaan looked from Edras to the dust on his robe, then to Teren.

"I was told you found some kind of problem in your research hall."

"I did."

"What happened?" Edras glanced toward the advisers.

"Your Grace, this is a very sensitive matter. It cannot be discussed in a full room." The advisers exchanged looks. Ordaan considered him for a moment, then looked at his advisors.

"Leave us." One of the older advisers opened his mouth, saw the duke's expression, and closed it again. Marshal Yaros did not move. Edras looked at him. Yaros glanced at Teren, then looked back.

"I'm staying." The word was calm. Edras's mouth tightened.

"Marshal—""If you require the duke to hear something sensitive enough to clear his chamber, then I'm staying." Ordaan lifted one hand before Edras could answer.

"Yaros will stay." The advisers left, and the guards closed the doors behind them. Edras raised one hand and muttered something inaudible. Thin lines of blue mana spread across the doors, windows, and surrounding walls before fading from sight. Teren looked toward the duke and Yaros. Neither man seemed surprised or concerned by what Edras had done.

Apparently, this was not the first sensitive conversation the mage had secured for them, and they trusted him enough to let him place wards around the room without question. Ordaan waited until Edras lowered his hand.

"Speak." Edras did not soften the matter.

"The boy has Corvadryn blood." For a moment, no one moved. Then Yaros's hand closed around the pommel of his sword. Duke Ordaan kept his eyes on the mage.

"What proof do you have?"

"I watched him produce a purple flame with my own eyes. The assay crystal turned purple as well, and every other test I performed gave the same result." Yaros's expression changed at that. He looked at Teren again, this time with open surprise. Teren stayed still.

"Show me," the duke ordered. Edras turned to Teren.

"Reproduce your purple flame." Teren raised one hand, then hesitated. He really wished they had practiced this first. Producing the purple flame was difficult even when nobody was watching. Now Duke Ordaan stood only a few paces away, while Yaros watched him with one hand still near his sword, clearly prepared in case this turned out to be some kind of deception. Edras stood beside Teren, certain enough to stake his name on what Teren could barely control.

"Do not force it," the old mage said after a moment.

"Draw a thread of your mana to the fingertip. No more." Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Teren tried. Nothing happened. His face warmed. Edras did not move.

"Try again. Slower." Teren shut out the room as best he could and concentrated on what the purple flame had actually felt like when it appeared before. There had been a pull of mana, followed by a thin pressure beneath his skin. He tried to find that same sensation again and guide it slowly toward his index finger. It wasn't easy, and it took a few more failed attempts, but eventually, a violet flame appeared at the top. It was small. Barely the length of a fingernail. It shivered once, then steadied.

Duke Ordaan's eyes were fixed on the tiny flame. Yaros drew in a quiet breath.

"The legendary Corvadryn fire... I never thought I would see it with my own eyes." Teren just felt embarrassed hearing that tiny flame being called legendary. Edras's expression did not change on seeing the fire, but Teren saw the tension leave his shoulders by a fraction. Marshal Yaros looked at the mage.

"How is this even possible? The imperial dynasty died out over a century ago."

"I have no better answer than you do," Edras said.

"But you have seen the proof now. No one outside that dynasty has ever been able to produce purple fires. He holds Corvadryn blood in his veins."

"You can stop now," the mage said to Teren. Teren closed his hand. The flame vanished. Duke Ordaan walked closer, stopping only two steps away. He studied Teren's face, his rags, his bare feet, then the hand that had held the flame.

"What is your name, boy?"

"Teren Marr, sir. Uh... milord." Teren gave an awkward bow, hoping that was what he was supposed to do. The duke smiled at his attempt to show respect.

"Don't worry about formalities. A Corvadryn doesn't need to bow to me."

"Where is your family?" the duke asked. Teren did not have a family in this world to remember, but he had already given Edras a story about the village and the people who had come after him there. He had no option but to keep building on that now. At least the slave tag had given him something useful to work with.

"I've been an orphan since I was a child, your grace." Yaros continued watching him.

"Master Edras, are you certain he isn't a spy?"

"No, I can't possibly be certain of that," Edras said, "without knowing everything about his background." Teren's stomach tightened.

"But I am certain about his bloodline. You just saw him produce purple flame, and every test I could safely perform supported the same conclusion." Edras paused.

"He was also the one who warned me that something was wrong near the basement. Without that warning, I might have used the lineage resonator before discovering the runic array connected to it." Ordaan frowned.

"What does that array do?"

"It is a trap meant for anyone holding the imperial bloodline. If the resonator recognizes someone of Corvadryn blood, the array changes state. After that, the next person to cross the threshold causes it to release enough stored energy to kill anyone nearby." Edras glanced toward the door.

"It is far too complex for me to dismantle safely without studying it first. I expect that will take a few months." Yaros's jaw hardened. Teren forced himself to speak.

"I did not come here to spy on anyone. I want to know what this bloodline means, and I want to learn magic well enough that the next person who comes for me does not find me helpless." Yaros gave him a cold look.

"You already know someone will come?" Teren remembered white fire cutting through the intake yard in several loops. The murder in the alley for escaping. All the different times someone had killed him before he even understood why.

"Someone already has," he said. That was safe enough to say. It matched what he had already told Edras about being chased in the village, and the important part was true even if the details were not. Duke Ordaan looked at Yaros.

"If one of our rival kingdoms had found a surviving Corvadryn, I doubt they would risk sending him here as a spy, especially with tensions running so high these days. He would be far too valuable to expose that easily." Yaros did not look satisfied, but he did not argue. Ordaan turned to Edras.

"How many know about this?"

"Only the four people in this room know the result. My assistants know there was a private test. The guards know I found a dangerous magical array in the hall and ordered it closed. Nothing more."

"Keep it that way."

"Yes, your grace."

"The boy stays in the palace for now." Teren went still. Was he really going to be living in an actual palace? Edras nodded.

"That is wise. I was going to suggest it myself. He will be far safer here than in my compound." Ordaan considered Teren for a moment.

"Then give him a room in the guest wing. Whatever else we still need to learn about him, I'm not putting a Corvadryn in the servants' quarters." Teren was not sure what to make of that. The empire had been gone for more than a century, but apparently that bloodline still meant something to the duke. Ordaan turned back to Edras.

"You should remain here as well, at least for now. It gives us a simple explanation for the boy's presence, and I would rather have you close if someone is already looking for him. Anyone who asks can be told that he is under your care and that you have brought him to the palace while your research hall is closed."

"I'll assign a guard detail to him," Yaros said.

"Choose them carefully," Ordaan said.

"Men you would trust with my own life. With tensions this high and war becoming more likely by the month, we cannot afford for word of this to spread." Yaros gave a small nod.

"I understand, your grace." Ordaan looked at Edras.

"For now, stay close to the boy. Teach him enough so he can control his magic properly and defend himself if he is attacked again." He glanced at Teren.

"And if a war does break out in the future, having a Corvadryn on our side who can actually use that legendary magic could prove very useful." Teren had expected something like that eventually. The duke might be willing to help him, but that didn't mean he expected nothing in return. Teren could hardly object to that. Edras had already done more for him than almost anyone else in this world, and Ordaan was offering him protection and a chance to learn how to use this magic.

Teren did not mind the idea of helping them in return, though he would rather find out what that actually meant before promising anything. Not that he could do much at this stage when he could barely protect himself. Ordaan turned back to Edras.

"Find out who managed to place that trap in your research hall without you even knowing about it." Edras's expression hardened.

"I intend to." A raised voice came from outside the chamber. The words were muffled by the doors, but the tone carried clearly: angry, young, and used to being obeyed. One of the guards outside answered in a lower voice. The angry voice rose. Ordaan closed his eyes for half a second. Yaros muttered, "Your Grace—" The doors opened before he finished.