A Shade of Vampire 39: A Rip of Realms(7)

“Where do you suggest? I was thinking that we could send scouts out—find the kingdoms that are least destroyed, and hope that they’re willing to take us in,” Ash offered, his tone doubtful.

“Take in the Hellswans?” I smirked.

“The villagers, at least?”

They might have a chance of being accepted elsewhere, perhaps if the Memenion kingdom was still secure, but they would be unlikely to accept our ministers or our guards. For too long my father had alienated the surrounding kingdoms, and while he had been respected as emperor, he had been hated. I doubted that those long-standing feuds would be eradicated in the face of a disaster—even one as severe as this.

“There is the summer palace,” I replied, ignoring his suggestion. “It is the only place I can think of. If it has survived the earthquake, then it will be habitable—sort of.”

Ash raised his eyebrows. “I have never been.”

“But you’ve heard of it?”

“Yeah, but I was never asked to work there.”

“We didn’t go after my mother’s death. The palace belonged to her family, and was given as a gift to my mother for her dowry. It’s located by the North Coast, far from the Acolytes’ temple. If no one knows we are heading there, we may manage to stay out of their way until we can come up with a plan.”

Ash nodded.

“But if you wish, we can take the villagers to Memenion,” I continued, thinking out loud. There wouldn’t be much space for us all in the old palace—perhaps Ash was right, better to get the villagers somewhere safe, away from the harm that I suspected would follow us.

“He is dead.” Ash’s words were barely above a whisper.

“At the Fells?” I asked, my throat tightening.

“He dropped…into the ground. There was nothing I could do.”

“Did he know about his son?” I asked, hoping that his dying moments weren’t ones of regret and shame over his offspring’s allegiance to Queen Trina and the Acolytes.

“Yes.”

I swallowed, not wishing to discuss the matter any further. With Memenion gone, our kingdom was truly isolated, as were our efforts to battle the entity. My mind drifted to Hazel once again. She was my primary concern. Keeping her safe would be the one outcome that I would not compromise on. If she survived this, even at the expense of every other soul in Nevertide, including my own, then I would have accomplished my goal; the entity would not have taken everything from me—would not have succeeded in destroying the one thing that mattered.

“What of the Impartial Ministers?” I asked. “Did any of them survive?”

“I saw one of them die—I don’t know what happened to the others. I wouldn’t have thought that they would concern you?”

“They don’t. You becoming emperor does,” I retorted. “It will be the only way that we’ll be able to read the book; I hope it has the answers we need.”

Ash eyed the remains of the castle.

“The book is kept in Hellswan castle?” he asked despondently.

“We’ll just have to pray it survived.”

I hoped that the book was protected by the same magic that the Impartial Ministers seemed to have access to. I recalled the way, during the imperial trial, I had emerged from the hallucination with the bloodstained sword in my hand. Those ministers were obviously tapping into a greater power somehow. With any luck, the book had remained intact.

“Isn’t there another way? Do we have to have the blessing of the Impartial Ministers?” Ash asked.

“I have a theory,” I replied, telling Ash what I thought about the magic of the Impartial Ministers. “If the book is in any way linked to them, if we appoint you emperor without their blessing, then I doubt that the book will be able to be read. We will have a hard time proving the credibility of your claim with the other kingdoms as well.”

“Ruby once asked me if we had witches here. I laughed at her,” he replied in astonishment.

“I’m not talking about witchcraft,” I snapped. “Just power—old, ancient power that neither of us have a conception of.”

“All right,” he muttered stiffly. “I was just saying.”

“My apologies,” I replied curtly. “It irritates me that we were never told of this power—that it has been kept in the domain of the Impartial Ministers, those least worthy to wield it.”

Ash shrugged off my apology, shuffling his feet in the dust.

“Perhaps it’s a good thing that your father couldn’t access it,” he replied.

Touché.

“Perhaps.”

“It sounds like heading out to the summer palace is our best plan,” he continued. “Then we can search for the Impartial Ministers and get one of us crowned.”