A King's Vow by Xander Tracy

Author:Xander Tracy [Tracy, Xander]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

The vial shattered with the sharp sound of breaking glass. Adonias cursed. The precious contents of his potion hissed and smoked on the glowing coals. This was his third attempt to craft a cure this morning. Each time he'd directed his energy into the vial to activate and meld the ingredients of the potion, he'd been surprised by the erratic amount of power that responded. Now he was destroying the potions left and right. The frustration seething inside him made him want to smash something.

And even that was strange. Smashing things had always been more Naxar's way. Even angry, he could not remember the last time he'd had the urge to actually break something. It was as if part of his mind believed the cure was deliberately thwarting him and he had to make it pay for its insolence. Perhaps he wasn't getting enough rest, especially after all that had changed inside him.

"Patience," Gralius said softly. His voice was weaker than it had been, and he'd been coughing since two guards had escorted him to the laboratory this morning.

That was another thing which had Adonias's temper near boiling. This great man who had given himself to teaching Adonias and to helping Ashwall had been left to languish in a dungeon cell for no reason. Yes, Naxar had upheld his word and convinced the king to release him, but his father had only released him this morning. Out of spite, no doubt. To teach a lesson. Adonias was tired of those kinds of lessons. More than tired, he was angry.

"How can I have any patience?" he demanded. "Every time I fail, I think about one of my people out there starving." He turned and glared at one of the workbenches. On it were piled rice plants, pond apples, and dewberries. All the plants and fruits were covered in places with a thick, pus-like liquid. The blight. The disease indiscriminately killing the crops. If he were to pick up one of those fruits or plants and clean off the skin of liquid, the flesh beneath would be black. Eating it would make him sick. Many commoners and peasants, driven by hunger, had tried eating blighted food anyway. Some of them had died from it.

Gralius coughed again, holding a square of linen to his lips. The cough had a wet sound to it that Adonias did not like at all. Curse his father. So ready to believe this kind old man had hurt him when it had been Adonias who'd made the choice and downed the elixir.

"The solution will come to you," Gralius said. "Right now you're a man whose strength has multiplied a great many times who is trying to pick up a delicate crystal chalice. You will shatter it many times before you have the fine control you need to lift it properly."

He wanted to smash it. If there were a thousand crystal chalices in front of him right now, he'd shatter them all with a word, a thought of

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