Chapter Thirty Night

Desperation

ELEANOR

Eleanor paced the grounds of her private chambers and the very act reminded her of the villains from those cheap penny opera stage plays who had a flair for the dramatic. Her reason for doing so, though, was not unwarranted, as she had legitimate concerns that were plaguing her troubled mind.

Her prized prisoners that she had prided herself on luring into her trap had disappeared. The Snow Queen who was supposed to be executed by Hans had escaped his grasp. The other two sorcerers whom she had also captured were gone too, out of the blue. The guards keeping watch outside their separate cells had been found unconscious or simply dead.

And what angered her most was that the traitor, the mercenary whom she had hired to lead the First Imperial Guard, had been rescued from execution by the very sorcerers that had once been her prisoners. And all this had happened right under her nose. How could she have allowed it to happen? It angered her so, but in a way she was somewhat satisfied to know that her opponents were worthy enough to give her a real challenge. After all, what fun would this entire campaign be if everything was easy?

A knock came at her door of her chamber and she bristled. What was it now? A guard come to tell her that the king and queen of Denmark had been whisked away from their prisons too? If nothing else, at least she still had them as leverage. The people of Denmark and this elusive rebellion would not dare try anything for fear that their monarchs would pay the price. Don't tell me they're gone now too.

Eleanor glanced at the First Imperial who moved swiftly to answer the door, and smoothened out the creases of her crimson dress. If it was Hans, then maybe he would provide some solace with his presence…

"Your Imperial Majesty." The guard said. "There's a messenger with a telegram."

Eleanor frowned and crossed the room without waiting for the messenger or the guard to bring it over. Anxiety nipped away at her as her haughty eyes rested on the young messenger wearing the uniform of an Exonian courier. He bowed nervously as she snatched the telegram out of his hand and tore it open on the spot.

Sister Eleanor. The fishing shack at the docks of New Town. Third house. Come the moment you receive this telegram. Urgent.

- Brother S.

She stiffened. This wasn't good. If Brother Salvadore wanted to meet, then that could mean only one thing. That Lord Magnus and the Crimson Order knew of the sorcerers' escape. She cursed under her breath. How the hell did they even find out about that when the news wasn't even anywhere near widespread?

"Your Imperial Majesty." The guard said. "Are you unwell? Shall I fetch the doctor?"

"No," Eleanor snarled. "Get my carriage ready. I'm going down to the fishing shack down by the New Town docks."

"Yes, Your Imperial Majesty." The guard and the messenger hurriedly retreated away from the temperamental Empress after giving a hasty bow to carry out her orders.

Eleanor put a hand to her forehead, the other crumpling the telegram in hatred. She detested being in alliance with the Order as High Priest Lord Magnus could pull her strings at any time and she would have to obey him like a puppet. After all, she did owe him for helping her get rid of her parents and giving her all the power she could ever want. And now he had come calling. This was not good.

###

The fishing shack at the edge of New Town was every bit as horrendous as she imagined it to be. Even though it was called New Town, this portion of the kingdom was just as run down and ill-maintained as the entirety of Old Town across the Sulge River. The houses along this motorable track were dilapidated and looked like they were about to crumble.

These belonged to the fishermen obviously, and they had fled to the safety of Old Town when the Imperial Horde had invaded the city. Now, they were the home to every creeping thing that lurked in the shadows, and in this case, the proxy of the Crimson Order's High Priest.

Eleanor dismounted from the carriage without waiting for her Imperial servants to lay out the steps, and lifted a stiff finger when her guards were about to follow her.

"Your Imperial Majesty, we-" A sergeant protested.

Eleanor whipped round and gave him an icy cold glare, and he quietened down. So did the rest. They could tell when their supreme leader was in a foul mood, and thankfully too. She didn't exactly want to obliterate anyone out of existence…not today at least.

When she was a good way down the uneven track, she flicked her eyes back to her escort waiting a good distance away. Good, they were far enough. No one else needed to know that their ruler was actually a subordinate of a higher, scarier authority in the shadows. It would certainly undermine her image of the most fearsome conqueror and ruler on the continent.

She ducked into the third house down the road, and kept clear of the rusty metal and the splinters of wood jutting out from every which way. The place reeked of rotting fish, and a few flies buzzed about in front of her face and around her ears.

Swatting them aside, she inched deeper into the house, and squinted hard to make out what was in front of her. The house had no windows apart from tiny slits between the wooden planks, and it wasn't exactly bright outside either. Storm clouds were ominously present in the sky, as if marking that this moment was a dangerous one, warning her to tread carefully. She was going to heed that advice.

"Sister Eleanor."

She almost jumped out of her skin, and whirled round to find the voice which echoed throughout the room with an eerie, condescending whisper.

"Where are you?" She asked impatiently.

"Here." A figure moved in the dark silently without even making a sound on the creaking floorboards beneath their feet.

"Brother Salvadore." Eleanor said tightly. "You asked to meet?"

"Yes."

"You are aware that I have an Empire to run." She tried to exude an air of importance to impress upon her displeasure of being in his presence. Her voice was deliberately strained, but without any overt signs of disrespect or hostility.

"Of course. This won't take long." Brother Salvadore said calmly in his heavy, irritating Bastrus accent.

"What do you want?"

"Lord Magnus wants a word with you."

Her heart sank. He knows.

Clearing her throat, she dipped her head haughtily, trying to conceal her fear.

"Very well." Salvadore whispered something in Bastrus, sending chills down Eleanor's spine. Then, his hands flew out and a thick, grey mist rose in front of her as a cloud. Then came the form of a man in a dull grey cloak, and she could just about make out the eyes of a dangerous man.

"Your Eminence." She steeled her voice.

"Eleanor." Magnus said in his grating, weathered voice. "You disappoint me."

Was there any use in playing dumb? She didn't think so. Eleanor swallowed hard and kept her eyes on the misty figure.

"First you lied to me about getting rid of the sorcerers." He growled. "And then, you allowed them to escape. How do you think I should reward this incompetence?"

"Your Eminence." Eleanor started. "They were my prisoners, to begin with. I saw it fit that they should suffer and watch the fall of their homes. I didn't think-"

"I didn't ask you to think." Magnus snarled vehemently. "I asked you to obey. And you failed miserably. You betrayed the Order. You betrayed our holy mission. For that alone, I should have Brother Salvadore take your head this instance."

Her eyes flicked over to Salvadore, who was still calmly watching by the side. She tensed her hands, ready to strike if the need should rise.

"It was my mistake," She said stiffly, wanting so badly to scream in his misty face. "I let my personal emotions and judgement get the better of me. I apologise."

"And because of your personal judgement." Magnus continued acidly. "Now the sorcerers are roaming free again. Free to poison the earth with their vile, wretched magic."

She kept silent, not wanting to provoke the wretched High Priest any more than she already had. At the back of her mind, she longed for the day when she would no longer be indebted to the Crimson Order, but she doubted that that day would come any time soon.

"When you first approached the Crimson Order and presented your grand campaign of expanding Exon's borders, I was impressed at your ambition. I saw the potential in you as a member of the Order." Magnus went on. "Sad to say I believe I was misled. You're no Empress. Just an angry little girl trying to prove her parents wrong, and failing miserably."

"Your Eminence, I have the opportunity to crush them once and for all." Eleanor felt her temper rise, and fought hard to suppress it. "And I will crush them this time. We're taking measures to-"

"I don't care how you do it." Magnus waved a hand irritably as if he couldn't care less about how she got things done, and the mist flew a little at his flippant gesture. "I want those sorcerers dead. The League of Sorcerers are too dangerous an entity to be left alive. And after you're done with them, I expect your army to destroy what's left of the remaining sorcerers around the continent under the guise of your conquest."

"Yes, Your Eminence." Eleanor grimaced. "I won't fail again."

"No, you won't." Magnus said. "Otherwise, you know what will happen. I can make all your power disappear with a single thought. Don't force my hand, Eleanor. I'm warning you."

"Yes, Your Eminence." She dipped her head, her blood boiling furiously in her veins.

The mist vanished with a poof, and the room was once again quiet. Letting the silence set in for a moment, Eleanor then turned to her fellow member of the Order.

"Is that all, Brother Salvadore?" She gritted her teeth.

He dipped his head, and she swore that in the darkness she saw a tiny curl forming on the edge of his lips.

###

"Lieutenant Dolan is here, Your Imperial Majesty."

Eleanor extended her hand without a word, gesturing to the guard to show the lieutenant in. She was glad to be back in the safety of the castle, even though technically it wasn't hers. Well actually, it was, now that Denmark was part of the Empire. She had gotten out of the fishing shack as quickly as she could while trying to remain dignified, leaving Brother Salvadore to linger behind in the darkness.

In her mind, she imagined that he vanished the moment she had left. Those demon hosts were a strange and creepy lot, though she couldn't exactly judge them since she bore a demon herself. But she wasn't complaining. The demon granted her the power to get as far as she had thus far.

Lieutenant Dolan strode into the court and sketched a bow.

"Your Imperial Majesty."

"Rise, Dolan." She waved her hand dismissively.

He unbent and drew himself up. "You wanted to see me?"

Eleanor shifted on her throne. "I haven't had the time to make things official, but I'm sure the First Imperial Guard has been running itself ever since that traitor abandoned his post as the captain."

"Yes, Your Imperial Majesty."

"I guess I should make it official." She favoured Dolan with a crooked smile. "I'm promoting you to Captain of the First Imperials."

"Thank you, Your Imperial Majesty." Dolan bowed again.

"Things have been running wild recently, as I'm sure you've noticed." Eleanor stood up and clasped her hands behind her back, walking past Dolan. "The prisoners are escaping, the rebels are running loose, and the citizens are getting…agitated. These pests in Old Town have been a thorn in our side for far too long. I want you to restore order and do whatever it takes to destroy the rebels. I want them burnt to the ground. Sweep every inch of Old Town and smoke them out."

"Consider it done." Dolan said. "And what of the traitor?"

"The same." Her tone was acid. "I want him dead. No one betrays the Empire and lives."

"Yes, Your Imperial Majesty." Dolan looked pleased, and bowed a third time before inching away. "Excuse me. I have preparations to make."

Eleanor neglected to regard his exit, and stared out the large, glass windows of the court. It was raining outside, and it looked like this was going to be the trend moving forward. The weather was dark and foreboding, as if a threat to her reign was making itself known. But no, she wasn't going to let anything stand in her way.

Not the Order, not the rebels, and certainly not the League of Sorcerers.

"Eleanor."

She turned sharply. "Who dares enter without-"

HANS

"Eleanor." Hans walked across the room. "It's me."

"Hans." He watched her features softened and the frown on her forehead disappeared. "I didn't mean-"

"It's alright." He said smoothly as he gazed into her enchanting green eyes. "I know you're on edge. Who wouldn't be, after their prisoners escape and their kingdom runs rampant?"

"It's all a mess." She dug her palm into her forehead. "Everything is falling apart."

"Not everything, surely." He frowned and parted her hand gently, placing a delicate kiss on her forehead. "We still have each other, don't we?"

"Of course." She closed her eyes. "It's just that everything I've worked for, everything I've sacrificed, and now it feels like it's slowly slipping away. And then I would have proven my parents right. That I'm nothing, nothing compared to what my wretched sister would have been as ruler of Exon."

"Eleanor-"

"They're wrong." Eleanor's voice caught in her throat. "I'm not a failure. My sister isn't better than me. She's dead and gone."

"Hey!" Hans raised his voice slightly, which worked in bringing her back to reality.

"Nothing's slipping away." Hans said a little more gently. "This is just a minor setback, is all. We'll show them, won't we?"

Eleanor nodded and raised her head with a deep breath.

"How did things go with the Snow Queen? How did she manage to escape?" Eleanor looked up into his eyes.

Hans sighed. He had just gotten back from the desert, a little the worse for wear, but other than that, he was alright. Apart from being outrageously cheated of killing Elsa once and for all.

"I had her." Hans said. "She was dying, and I could feel her giving in. But then one of her sorcerer friends came out of nowhere and blasted me with her magic. By the time I got up, she'd taken Elsa and fled."

"Are you alright?" Eleanor put a hand on his jaw, where there was a thin scar at the side where he had fallen and scraped his skin.

He flinched away from her touch. "I'm fine. But when I get my hands on Elsa again, I'm going to-"

"You'll get your chance." Eleanor traced her hand down the muscles of his arm. "I just sent Dolan to prepare a clean sweep of Old Town. We'll get the rebels and when we do, Elsa is all yours."

"I'm not finished with her yet." Hans said dangerously. "I'm going to make sure I finish the job this time."

"First things first." Eleanor said. "I want you to meet Kane's runner. He's carrying a progress report from the Imperial Horde."

Hans nodded. "I'll set up the meet."

"And assemble the senate, the ministers and the key Exonian personnel. I want a meeting with them." Eleanor said. "It's time to get things back on track and show the people what happens when they mess with the Empress."

He placed a kiss on her forehead again. "Leave it to me." And when all the errands are run and the war is fought, I'm going to make sure Elsa dies this time.