Elias understood that kind of sentence.
“What do you want?”
The prince looked at him.
“To save my mother.”
“Queen Selene?”
“Malrec took her.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Tal stepped forward.
“I do.”
Queen Selene carried another branch of old blood.
Not enough to awaken Guardians.
Enough to open the Gate if sacrificed.
Aldric had not known.
Malrec did.
Corvin’s face changed.
“My mother…”
“Is alive,” Tal said.
“For now.”
Corvin drew his sword.
“Then we go.”
Elias looked at him.
“You take orders badly?”
“Terribly.”
“Good.”
Mira groaned.
“Now there are two princes.”
They reached Valoria before dawn on the seventh day.
The city gates were closed.
The walls packed with soldiers.
Malrec’s banner flew beside the royal flag.
Serah looked through a spyglass.
“Aldric has lost control.”
Corvin stared.
“Father still lives?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“Balcony.”
The king appeared.
Thin.
Unshaven.
No crown.
Malrec stood beside him.
The Chancellor raised one hand.
Archers aimed downward.
Aurion stepped forward.
Elias stopped him.
“If you attack the wall, people die.”
The Guardian waited.
Malrec’s voice carried through a horn.
“False prince!”
Elias hated the phrase.
“Surrender yourself and the city will be spared.”
Mira laughed.
“No one believes that.”
Some people probably did.
Elias looked toward the thousands gathered behind him.
Then toward the wall.
He had no speech prepared.
So he told the truth.
He walked forward alone.
Serah grabbed his shoulder.
“What are you doing?”
“I need them to hear me.”
“You’ll be shot.”
“Probably.”
“I hate that word.”
“So do I.”
He moved beyond Aurion’s protection.
Archers tracked him.
Elias shouted.
“My name is Elias!”
His voice seemed small.
Then the valley carried it.
“I grew up inside those walls.”
People leaned from battlements.
“I stole bread from your markets.”
Mira muttered, “Excellent royal credentials.”
“I slept beneath your shops.”
Elias continued.
“I don’t know how to be a prince.”
Aldric stared down.
“But I know what it feels like when people with power decide your life is too small to matter.”
Silence spread.
“I’m not asking you to fight for my crown.”
He looked at Corvin.
“Or his.”
Corvin nodded.
“I’m asking you to open the gate so we can stop what’s under your city.”
Malrec shouted.
“Fire!”
The archers did not release.
He turned.
“Fire!”
One captain lowered his bow.
Then another.
Malrec drew a dagger.
King Aldric grabbed his wrist.
For the first time, the king resisted him publicly.