It was an unnerving sensation, bringing back memories of Audric and his madness.
Sergei took a long sip of the wine and, with his free hand, reached into a pocket of his bashta. He retrieved a smooth, pale pebble. He rubbed its polished surface between his fingers. Wine sloshed over the rim of his glass with the motion and threw bloody droplets on his bashta. He didn’t care.
“Marguerite, we both loved this city and this empire so much that we were willing to do anything for her. Anything at all. I wonder.. . Did she love us back for our passion and our faith? Did she care? Did you sometimes regret your life the way I do? Hmm… Somehow, knowing you, I doubt it. You were always so sure of yourself.” He lifted the goblet to her in salute, then brought it to his mouth and tilted it, draining the wine in a long gulp. He set the goblet down on the table next to him and reached for his new cane, lifting himself from the chair with a grunt and a moan. “You’ll have a new relative to stare at tonight,” he told Marguerite. “Let’s hope he’s a good one, as strong as you were.”
He realized he was still holding the stone. He held it up to his ear. “I don’t hear anyone,” he said. He tapped the stone on his nose, listening to the ring of stone on metal. He laughed, weaving slightly as he stood there, and placed the stone back in his pocket. “What becomes of us when we’re gone?” he asked the painting. “Does Cenzi really wait there to judge us? I’d appreciate a sign, Marguerite. I really would.”
The painting stared at him in the firelight. Marguerite’s painted gaze refused to let him go. Finally, Sergei rubbed at his nose and sniffed. “No answer, eh?” he said. “You always did keep your secrets. Well, I suppose I’ll find out soon enough.”
He bowed to the painting, nearly falling as he did so. He patted the stone in his pocket. He left the room, leaving the goblet on the table, and, stumbling, made his way down the back stairs again. As he reached the servants’ corridor nearest the Hall of the Sun Throne, he could hear the noise of the revelers, still chattering. He went in the other direction, making his way out into the garden. The cool night air seemed to clear his mind. He could smell the odor of ash and woodfire-far out in the gardens, servants were raking and spreading the coals of the pyre. He shook his head, rubbed at his stubbled cheeks. He walked around the side of the palais toward the Avi a’Parete, still crowded with pedestrians and carriages even this late. Across the Pontica a’Brezi Veste, he could see the tower and walls of the Bastida.
He took a long breath. The tower was dark against the moonlit clouds, and a small light glistened in one of the upper windows, seeming to beckon to him. Sergei’s hand, in the pocket of his bashta, touched again the pebble of the White Stone.
He sighed, and he began walking the other way.
Epilogue: Nessantico
A NOTHER KRALJIKI SAT on the Sun Throne, bathed in its golden light-yet another relative of the great Kraljica Marguerite. The Holdings were unified once again, with the new Kraljiki also holding the title of Hirzg of Firenzcia. A new Archigos sat on the throne in the Archigos’ Temple, where Archigi had sat for centuries, but this was an altered Faith and a weakened Faith, and many who walked Nessantico’s streets were no longer believers.
In the far west, across the Strettosei, there was a new Tecuhtli, with a young Nahual beside him.
A child who had become a powerful young man had become little more than a child again. And the White Stone had vanished once more, perhaps to return or perhaps gone to oblivion entirely.
Nessantico-the city, the woman-didn’t care. Such movements didn’t trouble her. The story was not done. There would be more strife, more conflicts. Thrones would pass. Victory and defeat, the rival twins of war, would contend against each other with new players.
She didn’t care. The story was not done because the story never ends. It could not.
The people moving in her streets had been born and would die to be replaced by others. The Sun Throne would feel the weight of dozens of future Kralji yet unborn, and they would be good leaders or bad, but in time they would all-no matter how good, no matter how bad-eventually pass from the long, endless tale.
But she never would. She had been in the tale from the beginning. The tale was hers, and it would not end until she ended, and she…
She was deathless.
Her fortunes had risen again. From a shattered kingdom, a new and stronger one would arise. The face that the A’Sele reflected back to her would change. Perhaps even one day the line of the Kralji itself would vanish. Perhaps.
But not her. Never her.
She would continue. Nessantico would stride into that long future: living, breathing, eternal, the central character of the land’s story. Her face would be rewritten, her old lines stripped away to be replaced by new ones. She would age; she would be renewed, again and again.
The tale would not end.
That tale could not end until she herself was gone.
And that, she told herself, could never happen.
APPENDICES
(alphabetical order by rank, then family name):
Varina ca’Pallo [Vah-REE-nah Kah-PAHL-low] A’Morce (Head) of the Numetodo, and member of the Council of Ca‘. Wife of Karl ca’Pallo.
Sergei ca’Rudka [SARE-zhay Kah-ROOD-kah] Advisor to Allesandra and Ambassador to Frirenzcia.
Allesandra ca’Vorl [Ahl-ah-SAHN-drah Kah-VOORL] Kraljica of Nessantico; Jan ca’Ostheim’s matarh.
Brie ca’Ostheim [Bree Kah-OHST-hime] Jan’s wife and Hirzgin of Firenzcia
Jan ca’Ostheim [Yahn Kah-OHST-hime] (nee ca’Vorl) Hirzg of Firenzcia, son of Allesandra.
Nico Morel [NEE-koh Mohr-ELL] A former teni, now defrocked and the charismatic leader of a fundamentalist movement.
Rochelle Botelli [Row-SHELL Bott-TAHL-lee] The half-sister of Nico Morel, operating as the “White Stone,” an assassin-for-hire.
Niente [Nee-EHN-tay] The Nahual (chief spellcaster) of the Westlanders.
(alphabetical order by rank, then family name):
The Ca’:
Karrol ca’Asano [CARE-ohl Kah-ahh-SAH-noh] The Archigos in Brezno.
Valerie ca’Beranger [VALL-err-ee Kah-BEHR-enn-jer] The A’Teni of Prajnoli.
Audric ca’Dakwi [AHD-ric Kah-DAWK-whee] Kraljiki from 544-548.
Simon ca’Dakwi [See-MOHN Kah-DAWK-whee] member of the Council of Ca’.
Armen ca’Damont [AHR-mehn Kah-DAH-mon] Starkkapitan of the Firenzcian Garde Civile.
Anais ca’Gerodi [Ahn-ahh-EES Kah-ger-OH-dee] Member of the Council of Ca’.
Edouard ca’Matin [EDD-ooh-ard Kah-Mah-TEEN] Member of the Council of Ca’
Karl ca’Pallo [Karhl K- PAHL-low] (nee ca’Vliomani) A’morce, head of the Numetodo in Nessantico; husband of Varina.
Caelor ca’Ostheim [KAY-lohr Kah-OHST-hime] Third child (son) of Jan and Brie, age 8.
Elissa ca’Ostheim [Eh-LISS-ah Kah-OHST-hime] Jan and Brie’s firstborn, a daughter, now 11.
Eria ca’Ostheim [EHR-ree-ah Kah-OHST-hime] Youngest child and daughter of Jan and Brie, age 3.
Jan ca’Ostheim [Yahn Kah-OHST-hime] Second child (son) of Jan and Brie, age 9. He is usually referred to as “Kriege” rather than Jan.
Soleil ca’Paim [Soh-LAY Kah-PAYM] A’Teni of Nessantico.
Jager ca’Schisler [YAY-ger Kah-SIS-lehr] Ambassador of the Coalition to the Holdings in Nessantico.
Ana ca’Seranta [AHN-ah Kah-sir-AHN-tah] Former Archigos of Nessantico
Henri ca’Sibelli [AHN-ree Kah-Sah-BEHL-lee] Member of the Council of Ca’.
Eleric ca’Talin [EHL-eh-ric Kah-TAHL-inn] Commandant of the Garde Civile in Nessantico.