Chapter 2
Nxälina
My heart leapt at the sight of my forgotten brother, Mäeruvax, the one I had thought had slowly left my mind as the years dragged on.
"Brother?" I whispered, stepping forward. "Is this really you?"
"Who else would it be?" His lips curved into that old dangerous smile that had never changed. "By the great goddess, I am home. Finally home, sister!"
The words should have brought joy to me, but instead, tears burned my vision, throttling me with grief for all that had happened when he was away. I wanted to speak, to tell him I'd just been running for my life, when his lips moved.
"The bloody war took him, did it not?" he asked.
"Yes." My shoulders slumped, as though the weight of the realm would collapse on me. "Since you left, the land has been familiar with only war. Father strived to maintain peace with the Tvärdlynians, but he was answered with insult. A Tvärdlyn messenger, filled with rage, spat in front of Father's throne. Father executed him, as the law of Säli demands. Alpha Txakailu of Tvärdlyn flew into rage and declared war on us."
I stared at his face, probing for sorrow, for warmth, but found instead his lips curled into a smile.
"Why such excitement, brother?" I questioned.
"Because with Father's death, that makes me next King. Mäeruvax the Ninth!"
"King?" I stared at him warily. "Mother is not dead! And you cannot be King."
His black eyes darkened. "I know, and by now... Mother would most likely be dead."
"What?"
His words landed like a brick striking me with strong force. Without warning, I turned around, stumbling into the dim halls. The corridors were littered with bodies of sentinels.
No... No... No.
As I stepped inside the throne room, my legs buckled. Inside, blood ran like a flood down the stairs. Mother lay sprawled across them, her head gone, sliced from her shoulders. A Tvärdlyn warrior stood above, his sword red with blood. And only then did I realize that the Tvärdlynians had escorted my brother here, not as hostage. They were allies!
"Does that make me King now?" I heard my brother's cold voice from behind.
The world faded to the sound of my heartbeat. I felt my heart give out until there was nothing but the lingering pain of Mother's death. I stumbled towards the body, falling to my knees beside her. Pain masticated my chest as though I had been impaled with the sentinel's sword. Tears streamed hot down my cheeks, then I turned around to look at Mäeruvax.
"How dare you?" Pain and anger warped through my voice. "You killed Father, did you not? For what? Tell me, brother. For what gain?!"
"For the throne." He smirked. "Father should not have sent me away. That was his biggest mistake. He should have named me heir."
"Whether or not you rotted in Nxüvalain, they would have still chosen me," I said. "I carry the blood of Säli. It is my blood that guards this realm from darkness."
"Darkness?" he spat. "You call the great goddess, Iya Naxixis, darkness?"
"She is corruption," I replied. "Cast away from the realm. Why do you speak of that name?"
He ascended the stairs and sat upon the throne, the chair my mother had warmed earlier with her presence.
"Säli has no dominion here," he said.
A wave of anger swept through me as I looked at Mäeruvax. Why was he named after Father? He was nothing like him.
His mouth moved to say something, but my mind had simply silenced the world around me. I did not hear the guards as they approached. My gaze was fixed on Mäeruvax. I longed to strike the smirk away from his face.
I was already moving before I knew it. My hands clenched into a tight fist. My blood boiled with rage.
But I had barely taken three steps when rough hands seized me. They dragged me down to my knees before my brother, Mäeruvax.
"Release me now!" I commanded, thrashing against their grasp.
"Your Highness," one of the guards spoke. "What shall we do with her?"
"I need her alive," were the words the guards needed to hear before they struck me unconscious.
...
Resting my head against the pillow, I stared at the wall. I stared at the paintings of my father and mother when they had once been alive. Their eyes looked down on me with warmth. I longed to weep, but grief had since emptied the tears from my eyes. My eyes and nose were sore.
For ten days, I rotted in my room, refusing to step beyond the chamber. Txänuwan had visited me five, ten times—or was it more than that? I had lost count. She came with tidings of the battle. Twenty guards had been killed when Mäeruvax came to usurp the throne. Dxülaen was among those attacked, but yet Säli had saved him. Now he was tended to by healers, who reported that he might yet live but to serve Mäeruvax.
Wine was my only solace. I drowned myself in it, chasing worries away from my head. It gave me temporary peace that allowed me to sleep. I might've kept drinking more every few hours if Txänuwan hadn't forbidden the maids.
It was during one of her visits that I learned how Mäeruvax hadn't been in Nxüvalain these past years. Ten years ago, he had succumbed to madness, a condition that wasn't uncommon in my ancestors. It ran deep; it was the poison of inbreeding.
Long ago, when Nxälina the First received visions from Säli, she was shown a path to conserve the realm from intruding darkness: her bloodline must never be broken.
For that, my ancestors inbred for purity. But this caused genetic defects. Some of the royal children were born weak, deformed, and unfit to rule.
The high priestess saw this and approached the Queen with a solution: the use of magic to cleanse the unborn children while in the womb. Her magic would ensure perfect heirs were born instead of malformed ones. For centuries, this worked. Healthy, strong heirs came from the royals. Over time, the constant use of magic on the unborn babies corrupted the bloodline. The heirs appeared strong physically, but their minds were corrupted. Some were driven into madness, sudden frenzies where they killed their own kind.
My father and mother came out luckily without these effects. They'd been siblings married to each other. But when Mäeruvax, my brother, was born, his face was malformed. He was called a beast by other Alphas because of how he looked. He also carried the darkness inherited from our bloodline. It rotted his flesh and mind.
It began with the killing of royal pets, and he blamed it on the servants. When he was eventually caught, he never tried to hide it again. He killed his tutor for speaking ill of Iya Naxixis, the darkness that had once encroached on this realm.
When his madness grew even worse, the King and Queen decided to send him away to Nxüvalain so the scholars and physicians there might find a way to rid him of the darkness. They named me heir, hoping that when Mäeruvax returned, we would get married as custom demanded.
Father even promised to arrange his arrival after the war was over.
But who would have known he wasn't in Nxüvalain pack all these years? That he was in Tvärdlyn plotting to claim the throne.
A knock drew my attention to the door. Just before I could mutter anything, the door opened and a guard came in.
"The King, Mäeruvax, demands your presence in the throne room," he spoke rudely.
"The King?" I snapped. "I will not see him."
"It is an order," he replied. "Now that he has been crowned, he ultimatums you bend your knee and swear an oath of loyalty."
I exhaled sharply, feeling my breath falter. Pain and rage careened through me, twisting coldly inside my chest. He had crowned himself King, defying Säli's law. Did he not fear the darkness that threatened to return?
Though I wasn't surprised.
It was an old custom in Mätleklavs. The madness drove them into murder of siblings, mothers, fathers, and even children!
"So you refuse to swear allegiance to the King!"
"He is not my King," I said, praying to Säli to help me. When I saw the shape of sharp claws drawing from his hands, I quickly relented. "Lead me to the King."