Eternal Kingdoms (Throne of Gods Book 5) by J.A. Culican

Author:J.A. Culican [Culican, J.A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dragon Realm Press
Published: 2024-04-25T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

EIGHTEEN

If there was any silver lining to be found in the recent destruction of the Fire Kingdom, it was that Xira had more time throughout the day to think. Business about the kingdom was still in a state of flux, with only the most emergent news making it all the way to the royal complex. With most of the citizens engaged in quiet recovery and the military handling the clean-up, there was precious little for Xira herself to do about the palace grounds.

This was not to say that she remained idle; quite the contrary, she spent long hours assisting in the clean-up, saw to it that the homeless were given shelter and that the hungry had their fill of food. She went for long treks about the city, as much to soothe her own anxieties as to keep apprised of the progress, and she did all she could to lend her ailing people her strength.

On this particular day however, the free time available to her felt almost like a curse.

Xira had too much time to think. With the meeting on Olympus some hours away, she spent her day traveling the kingdom while persistently jousting against her deep-seated fears. This battle was unlike any other she'd ever fought, and the fact that it was unwinnable in the traditional sense filled her with terror.

Every foe you've faced has been killable, she told herself. And yet, here is a monstrous power that cannot be ended by death. It can only be resisted, distracted and—eventually—locked away. But Zeus, though very ancient and wise, can't remember how to subdue the thing. Dione, also, gave no hints. Me and my allies are clueless, and for all her wisdom Athena is also grasping at straws. In the meantime, the giant walks the Earth, promising destruction wherever it goes.

Xira spent a brief time in her quarters, toying with the Hydra's Tear. Though she stood beneath the skylight in the fountain room, the glow of day would produce no effect in the glassy orb. Dione had told her as much—it could only be used in the light of a newly risen moon or the glow of a new morning. At present, it was nothing but impotent glass, useless.

The mere existence of so strange and wonderful an artifact as the Hydra's Tear highlighted the gulf between the ancients and her own generation. Some long-forgotten craftsman had fashioned this mysterious orb of glass. The techniques he'd used in making it were surely lost to time, and though she inspected the thing closely the young queen couldn't begin to guess how it had been made or why it functioned the way it did. It was a marvel far beyond the scope of anything modern craftsmen could create.

If only they had left us something behind—a legacy to inherit, she thought as her mind turned to the old gods. They thought they would reign forever, and so they didn't preserve their secrets. If me and the others survive this battle... then we must commit to leaving something behind for our heirs.

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