Yorda knew little of governance. Yet she had an idea of how her mother would have taken such news. She pictured those beautifully sculpted eyebrows lifting at the words herald of darkness upon the land, and at the announcement that the children of the Sun God had declared holy war against that darkness.
Against her.
Yorda wondered if she had been frightened-or perhaps she had merely laughed. Either way, she could not take action until the time of the next eclipse, when the Dark God’s power obscured the sun. Until that day, the queen would have to quietly gather her strength.
“The queen did not respond to the emperor’s request,” Ozuma said, his voice sinking. He sounded almost sympathetic. “This, of course, deepened the suspicions of the priest-king. Even as he assembled his forces, the emperor had countless scholars and magi working to answer the question of what exactly these signs of darkness were meant to indicate. The emperor himself spent many days in contemplation and study of the revelation’s meaning. And, just recently-”
Yorda shook her head, cutting him off. “They found that the herald was my mother.”
Ozuma bowed deeply. “I am truly sorry, Princess.”
Yorda sighed and covered her face with her hands. She felt as though she had been wounded deep in her chest and bled sadness from the wound.
Yet in her sorrow she also found solace . I am not alone. I’m not the only one that knows of my mother’s pact with the terrifying lord of the underworld.
I have friends in the world outside-I hope.
Ozuma put a hand to his chest. “I am but the advance guard,” he said, though Yorda detected that there was something he left unsaid.
“In other words, you are one of the warriors of our god summoned to the cause by the priest-king. You’re here to find out what happens to the victors of the tournament-not just as the victor, but as the greatest warrior to participate in the history of the tournament.”
“It is as you say.”
For a time, Yorda was silent, feeling unease and doubt weighing on the scales of her heart. Every time she remembered what her mother had done, it chilled her to the bone, yet she did not think she should be so willing to accept everything that this strange knight told her at face value. The herald of darkness certainly sounded like her mother. Yet that was no proof that the knight’s tale was not a false tapestry woven from threads of the truth.
It was certainly possible that a cabal of individuals seeking to oust her mother from the throne was trying to deceive her. The queen’s plans were terrifying, yet an invasion was a terrifying prospect too, and not only for Yorda. It was a threat to her entire country.
To place her trust in Ozuma’s words was to risk betraying her own country.
“Lady Yorda,” Ozuma called to her, his voice like water over stones. “I had another reason for participating in the tournament and coming here to this castle. That was to meet you.”
Yorda’s eyes went wide. “Why would you want to meet me?”
“Is it not true that you have never left the castle grounds?”
Yorda nodded.
“This is because your mother keeps you confined here.”
“Confined? No, she-well, yes, I suppose she does.”
“Would it surprise you, Princess, to learn that you are not the only one whose comings and goings are so restricted? All of the people of your realm are barred from visiting other lands. Only a handful of trade routes still cross its borders, and these only by virtue of a treaty signed before the queen took her throne. Stranger still, her people do not find this suspicious or question it in the least.”
The reason for this, the knight explained, was that the queen had cast a spell upon the land.
“You mean our citizens are all under an enchantment? That’s ridiculous!”
“My sentiments precisely-but no less true for it, I’m afraid,” Ozuma said. “This is why none question why someone so important as the princess of the realm is kept here in her castle and shown to no one. They never even think to wonder about you, Princess, not even the ministers in charge of the royal household’s affairs.”
Yorda felt a chill, and she hugged her arms close about her body.
“I beg you, listen with a still heart. There is more to the emperor’s revelation I’ve not yet told you. Near the herald of darkness there is one who is aware of the darkness and possesses the power to defeat it. This one is already becoming aware of their role-and the darkness cannot be defeated without their strength.”
“You mean to say that I am the one.”
“I can think of no other. You are the true daughter of the queen, Lady Yorda. You carry her blood in your veins. It is not a stretch to imagine that you wield power yourself, such as might be used against her. That is why she does not let you leave the castle and keeps you within close reach. She bewitches her own people’s hearts so that they will not suspect or question her reasons.”
“Then why did my mother give birth to me at all?” Yorda suddenly shouted. “If she knew she would have to keep me locked up here all my life, she should never have brought me into this world. And why tell me her secret if she feared it becoming known?”
Yorda put a hand to her mouth. She had not intended to reveal that the queen had confided in her at all.
“It is a mystery, and one which you have encountered already it seems,” Ozuma said quietly.
Yorda had no words with which to refute Ozuma’s quiet condemnation.
The things she had seen beneath the graveyard tormented her even now, the fear tempered only by her sadness.
Yorda breathed a long, shuddering sigh and began to tell Ozuma everything, beginning with her ill-conceived attempt to venture outside the castle walls. She told him what she had seen beneath the cemetery, of the queen’s secret, and her pact with the Dark God.
As she spoke, she felt a weight settle upon her shoulders, and her heart became numb and empty.
For his part, Ozuma did not seem moved to fear or hatred. There was only kindness and sympathy in his face.
When she had finished her story, Ozuma knelt beside her. “Thank you for telling me,” he said. “You must’ve been terribly frightened.”
A teardrop slid from Yorda’s eye.
“Yet when you heard the truth from your mother’s mouth, it opened up the eyes of your heart. That is why you could see the lonely shades trapped in the Tower of Winds. You have awakened, Lady Yorda. And,” Ozuma added in a whisper, “the revelation was true.”
“But why?” Yorda asked, wiping the tear from her face. “Why did my mother show me those things? Why did she not keep them hidden?”
“That, I do not know for certain,” Ozuma said. “But were I to venture a guess, I would say that she was sufficiently afraid of you that she took it upon herself to strike first.”
8
“NEAR THE HERALD of darkness there is one who is aware of the darkness and possesses the power to defeat it.”
Even after a night of restless sleep, Ozuma’s words rang in Yorda’s ears. It was all real. It was not a nightmare or fever dream.
While she was preparing for the day, Yorda informed the chief handmaiden that she would be attending the fourth round of the tournament that day. She had to see Ozuma’s skill for herself.
The handmaiden raised a querying eyebrow as she tied the strings at the waist of Yorda’s dress. “The princess will be viewing the tournament?”
“Am I not allowed?”
“No, of course you are. But I thought you disliked the noise.”