“How?”
Your mother.
Aren’s heart stopped.
“My mother?”
Elara came to the Stone Throne twelve years ago.
Oren stood.
“What?”
Gaelor continued.
She understood the old bond was wrong.
She rewrote the final command.
Aren stepped closer.
“What command?”
No Stone shall obey blood unwillingly.
Silence.
Corvin looked toward Aren.
“That sounds like her.”
“You knew her?”
“No.”
He almost smiled.
“But I wish I had.”
Aren asked, “Then why did you kneel?”
Gaelor’s answer was simple.
Respect.
Not obedience.
For Elara’s child.
Aren looked away before anyone saw how much that mattered.
His mother had not merely tried to preserve a claim.
She had changed the ancient law.
For him.
Or perhaps for everyone.
Then Gaelor said something worse.
The Shadow wakes.
Oren’s face drained.
“Where?”
Beneath the palace.
Aren remembered the voice.
At last.
“The thing I heard.”
Yes.
Corvin looked toward the west.
“My father is sitting above it.”
Gaelor’s eyes brightened.
Not for long.
They returned to Eldoria six days later.
Not as an army.
That was what Aren insisted.
Gaelor followed at a distance.
So did two other awakened giants.
Word spread ahead of them.
Villagers came to roads.
Some bowed.
Aren hated it.
Some threw stones.
He hated that less.
At least stones were honest.
Oren carried copies of the birth record.
Corvin carried his own testimony.
The Abbey keeper sent letters to temples.
By the time they approached the capital, thousands of people knew King Aldric had lied about the boy.
The gates remained closed.
Royal soldiers lined the walls.
King Aldric stood above the central gatehouse.
Queen Maris beside him.
Aren saw bruises on one of her wrists even from below.
Prince Corvin went rigid.
“Mother.”
Aldric raised one hand.
“My son.”
Corvin shouted upward.
“Open the gate.”
“Come home.”
“I said open it.”
Aldric looked toward Aren.
“You brought monsters to my walls.”
Aren looked back at Gaelor.
The giant stood half a mile away specifically because Aren did not want terrified soldiers firing.
“He’s waiting.”
“Because you command him.”
“No.”
Aldric laughed.
“You expect me to believe that?”
Aren raised his voice.
“I told him to stay back.”
“And he obeyed.”
Gaelor’s voice rolled across the plain.
“I AGREED.”
Every soldier froze.