An angel’s road to hell

92. Of dynamics, trials and a little bit of boldness

Cassandra Pendragon

“No, definitely not! You’ll leave with the others, end of discussion.” I caught my mum’s eye, who shot me a disgruntled glare, probably because I hadn’t talked to her before announcing that I was going to stay, but nodded once before I continued. Including every child with a sweeping gesture I said: “None of you will stay, we’ve only come here in the first place to get you back and I’ll be damned if I allow anything to happen to you. As soon as the ship leaves, all of you will be on it.” Most of the kids seemed perfectly content at the prospect but some had obviously expected to be treated as adults and went on to voice their complaints loudly and all at once:

“I’m the best healer you have, you can’t send me away…”, “I’m not leaving, the bastard had my parents killed…”, “you’ll need all the help you can get, why can’t we stay…”, surprisingly I couldn’t hear Reia’s voice among the cacophony and when I looked at her a small smile played around the corners of her mouth as she said firmly:

“My family is gone and as the last living heir I demand the right to proof that I’m fit to inherit their responsibilities. I petition the royal family for a chance to face the Trials of the Moon.” The kitsune part of the table fell silent while the rest exchanged confused glances. I couldn’t blame them, I myself had only read of the Trials in an old history book. It was a remnant from a time shortly after the cataclysm when the families had been small. Death had been a regular occurrence back then, sometimes due to starvation or sickness, sometimes due to accidents or fights. It had happened quite often that a bloodline disappeared save for an underaged child. If a family had ceased to exist, their fortune would have been confiscated by the crown and if only a minor had survived, the crown would have kept the assets safe until the heir would have come of age. In this context that didn’t mean the ceremony I had undergone when I had turned seven but rather the sprouting of a third tail or, if that wouldn’t happen, reaching a tender age of 100 years.

The Trials of the Moon were an ancient edict that allowed the heir to proof his or her competence and assume the position of patriarch or matriarch regardless of age and the number of tails. The candidate in question would have to show his qualifications in direct comparison to the royal who would otherwise be in charge of his heritage. The court would decide on three challenges as suitable representations of the duties the contender would have to face as the head of a house and if he won at least two of them he’d become a fully fledged member of the court, responsible for his own house. The idea of invoking a questionable ritual form the past in a field camp was utterly ridiculous and I was just about to say that out loud when my mum spoke up:

“The crown hears you, Reia Lightsong. As there is no court at present, the royal family will preside as judges over the trial. You may pick one of us as your opponent since there is no fixed distribution of duties, yet. Do you agree?”

“I do.”

“You can’t be…ouch,” I was rudely interrupted when Ahri pinched my side. She leaned over and whispered into my ear:

“Don’t be daft. Don’t you see what’s going on? Reia is willing to accept the old structures, the old laws. If you or any of us start questioning their validity how do you think we’ll keep those rascals in check? Your mum will allow the Trial and make sure it’s brutal enough that no one else is going to petition for it. Reia will have a couple of bruises and maybe sulk for a while but afterwards they’ll do as your mum, as their queen, says, at least for now. Don’t fuck that up!” I couldn’t believe my ears. Did they really think we could go back to how things had been? No, that couldn’t be it. Most likely we’d become a part of whatever Arthur had built anyways and I couldn’t imagine that he’d allow my mum to take over. We should just get the kids on the ship and save the lessons for a less dangerous time. Ahri pinched me again.

“And don’t frown like that. You’re thinking about it the wrong way. They just lost their families and most of them are completely alone in the world. Structure is necessary or some might lose their grip. Just imagine how you’d feel and what you’d do in their situation. We have to pretend that everything will go back to normal sooner or later even if it’s a lie, at least until they have a permanent roof over their heads and a place where they can develop new attachments.”

“How does everybody do that? Why do all my friends know exactly what I’m thinking?” She laughed softly and gently bit my earlobe.

“Because your expression changed with every word I said. It’s not hard to picture what’s going through your head once we know you a little. Don’t worry, I think it’s cute and you’re a terrible liar anyways. Maybe I’ll give you a little pointer on how to do better, once you’re old enough.” I couldn’t think of an eloquent response given how distracted I was and chose to ignore her. Additionally she might be right after all and I couldn’t change a thing about the matter anymore.

While Ahri had kept me quiet, Reia had approached my mother, passing an eerily silent crowd, and knelt at her feet. My mum, in turn, had placed her hands on Reia’s head and was just saying: “by the power vested in me as your queen, I grant your request. Whom do you wish to face in the Trials?”

“I’d like to know what the tasks are, before I make my choice.”

“A wise decision. I’ll allow it. Cassandra, Mordred, come with me. As the only members of the court present we’ll devise the challenges.” My brother and I got up from our seats and followed her. The dwarfs we passed looked at us curiously, only Golamosh seemed a little worried. The elves still wore their neutral expressions but I thought I saw Astra exchange a quick look with my mum on the way past her.

We were headed for the now empty sick tent and once inside I didn’t wait to voice my doubts:

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? Like, at all?”

“At least as much of one as you staying behind is,” my mom answered scathingly. “This serves a purpose. What do you think you can accomplish here? Except from getting caught, of course.”

“Are you serious? Do you realise that you’d be left with no one to follow your stupid traditions by now, if it weren’t for me? I meant what I said, I truly think I can delay or stop whatever Amon is planning. What do you think you can accomplish with that Trial? Except for risking injuries and delaying our departure, making it much more likely that we will get caught.” We glared at each other until Mordred intervened.

“That’s enough,” he said quietly. “What’s done is done. I’m not going to argue with either of you but Cassy, this Trial is going to happen, whether you like it or not and mother, Cassandra will stay behind, whether you curse her or wish her good luck. Now then, can we focus on what we can actually do? I hope you had an idea that goes beyond “let’s uphold an outdated tradition” when you agreed to this. I’d like to hear it.” My mother stared me down for a moment longer before she answered:

“Yes and no. I couldn’t do much but agree, otherwise half of them would have stayed here anyways, thinking they could decide for themselves. Hurt and angry as they are they’d follow in your sister’s footsteps and try to avenge their families. I’m not going to let that happen. I might not be able to make my own child see reason but I’ll be damned if I don’t get each of the kids back to safety in one piece.” Considering how furious she was I thought that that was as much of a concession that she understood my reasoning as I was going to get and I had to suppress a grin. At least I knew whom I had inherited my temper from.

“As for now, it shouldn’t be to hard to think of three tasks any one of us can accomplish better than a child. She has to lose but I don’t want to humiliate her. Any ideas?” Accepting the olive branch for what it was, I replied instantly:

“As far as I remember, the tasks were usually tailored to represent the future duties of a noble. Right now that’d include rebuilding, diplomacy and, whether we like it or not, fighting. How about a duel to the first blood, negotiating some form of official treaty with the dwarfs and organising the repairs among the two ships? It shouldn’t take more than couple of hours, a day at most, but none of us know a thing about it and Xorlosh or one of the others could evaluate our efforts.”

“Hmm, maybe,” my brother added slowly. “I’m just wondering if the dwarfs would allow anyone to meddle with the repairs and honestly, I think it’s a terrible idea to include negotiations. It’s either a farce if we don’t intent to honour the agreements or we might be bound a badly worded contract. No, the duel is fine, martial prowess has always been an important virtue, but the rest don’t work. It’s risky, but how about an expedition to the centre of the island? Explore the magical residue and find its source. Diplomacy and ingenuity. The contenders would have to find a group capable of solving the problem, let’s say 5 at the most, convince them to help and then they’d have to proof their resourcefulness in actually finding out where we are and what happened here. We could ask Erya or Viyara to go with Reia beforehand, to make sure she doesn’t get in over her head.” He smiled curiously.

“Who knows, this way the little one even stands a sporting chance and we can skip the duel. It’d be pointless since the winner would gain nothing, considering the expedition would account for two victories and I’d feel much better knowing I’m not going to have to beat the shit out of a little girl.” Point taken. My mum disagreed, though.

“No, I see your point but I neither want her to have a real shot at winning nor do I want a couple of kids to explore the island. It’s just too risk. What if they do find something and can’t deal with it? Or worse don’t recognise it and unknowingly trigger an old trap or a slumbering monster?”

“It’s unlikely that something would sleep through the battle you fought here,” I said. “And it’s equally unlikely that there’s a spell or something similar a dragon or a fey can’t deal with. I quite like the idea. We should give her a chance, if she pulls it off, she might as well stay with me. I know, that wasn’t the idea, but the longer I think about it, the more I feel like there might be a point to the Trials. Age isn’t everything. If she outsmarts one of us, she’ll be fine on her own.” I didn’t know what had prompted me to say that and my mother obviously shared my surprise.

“Have you lost your mind?” My mum erupted. “Do you even know how old she is?”

“15?” I guessed even though I imagined she might be quite a bit younger.

“She’s 12! I know you’re not stupid, so why would you possibly want her with you?” I had to collect my thoughts for a moment. Frankly, it was mere intuition. When my brother had proposed an expedition it had felt right, somehow, and now I had to rationalise something I had been strictly against not two minutes ago. A coherent argument took a while to construct.

“They aren’t children anymore, or at least they won’t be once everything that has happened has sunk in. If she thinks she’s ready to take on that burden and everything that comes along with it, we won’t be doing her or us any favours if we disregard her. We should take the Trials seriously and think of something that actually challenges her as a person. If she prevails, we’ll honour our side of the bargain and if she doesn’t, the kids will have a much easier time accepting it. Mordred’s idea works nicely, first of all it’s useful, we’re pretty much broke and everything we unearth and can sell later on is a load off of our chests. Secondly, she deserves the chance and thirdly, I could really use her help.” I raised my hand to prevent them from interrupting.

“Most of what I’m going to do in the foreseeable future is talking to people and trying to find out who is who, I’m not going to fight anybody if I can help it. She won’t be in too much danger. Mostly likely I’ll start in Free Land, I have to talk to an official form the city state anyways. She can easily get information that’s unreachable for me. Reia is still young enough that she can, with a little effort, associate with the orphans and street rats, for example. Pete is probably already too old and firmly in the “adult” category and she will have a much better time getting them to talk.” I thought it made sense, for the most part. My mum, on the other hand, wasn’t satisfied.

“Oh boy, if you truly believe that I’ll have to tie you down myself and make sure you’re onboard with us when we leave. Would you kindly tell me what made you change your mind? I’m not yet suffering from Alzheimer’s and I can recall quiet vividly how you opposed her in the first place.”

“Fine, but it’s not going to sound much better. I just have a gut feeling, that’s all. Following the Trials and including a challenge to figure out what’s going on here just seems like the right thing to do. I can’t really explain it, but when I heard Mordred’s proposal I… it’s like I listened to a lesson from dad about the value of traditions again and I finally got the meaning. Plus… not allowing her to chose for herself what she wants to do doesn’t sit well with me. I know she’s young but like I said, she’s been through enough and has earned her right to decide her own future. She’s already proven that she’s mature with how she behaved when I first found the kids.”

“Now, that sounds more like my daughter. Doesn’t mean I agree with you. I’m not going to disregard your intuition but I’m also not comfortable with the whole affair. I admit, I might be biased as I’m still peeved about your plans, Cassy, but I’ll hold my tongue if your brother’s on board. Mordred, I know it was your idea in the first place, but do you really want to send a child on a magical scavenger chase? With a lethal mission as a reward?”

“Don’t guilt trip him, mum,” I murmured.

“It won’t work, anyways. I stick with my words. We should give her a chance and I think we can make sure Reia comes out at the other end, unscathed. I say let her try and fail on her own merits.” My mother’s eyes traveled between us before she nodded slowly. “Fine, let’s tell her.”

When we came out, Reia was already waiting for us in front of the exit, the rest of the kitsune had formed a lose half circle behind her. When she saw us, she bowed deeply. My mum didn’t let them wait for long.

“We have decided. The three virtues that will be tested today are your fortitude, your ingenuity and your power of persuasion. We devised a single task that allows you to proof your prowess among all three. You’ll have to gather 4 allies to explore the centre of the island. You are to figure out what caused the magical residue and if it’s a danger we have to deal with. Now, contender, pick your opponent.” Reia straightened and sought eye contact with each of us before she replied:

“I pick Prince Mordred as my opponent, unless the royal family disagrees.” We all shook our heads. If I had the chance I’d ask her why she chose my brother, the way she had studied us made me think there was a valid reason. When she saw our reaction, Reia continued:

“I’d also like to use the opportunity to ask Princess Cassandra for her help. In case I’m allowed to take four others with me, I’d be honoured if she was willing to accompany me.”