Oath of the Alpha - Eva Dresden Page 0,18
mages were fractured then, unwilling to come together as one. Difficult to beat one who took an Omega’s power to begin with, but as a splintered faction? Pah! They were hunted down then. The younger the better, until babes were snatched from their mother’s arms. More than one taken from her belly.
“You see, they were too strong as adults. The young were easy to shape, though more chaotic. Some power lost but easier to steal. Then Omegas started disappearing. Less and less of them born every season until a mage had to use more power than he gained to find one. Traveling all over the continent and the islands beyond for a single child that often turned out to be sickly and weak. No good, then.”
“But Otaso found me…”
“Chance was all. No one knew it, other than your parents and the nursemaid who was there when your mother pushed you out. He’d been set to sacrifice you then and there, make your father watch. One look and he knew. Those eyes are what gave you away.”
“Why would he want to murder my parents?” Aida tossed the core away, wiping the back of her hand across her lips. “Were they servants of that King you spoke of? Ketsam?”
“Did I not tell you to listen, girl?” Marilsa shook her head, tossing another small branch into the flames to build them higher. “King Kistsam, your father. You have his looks, you know. Your mother was all milk and honey, though not half as sweet. Never liked her much.”
“M-My father was a king?”
“Yes, girl, and they named you Strissina after the goddess of spring and sunshine.”
“If no one knew all of this, how do you know it?”
“Ah, but it was my sister who was your nurse. Never could keep her mouth shut, much like you.” Marilsa grunted, twining the long grass between her knotted fingers. “She spilled her courtly stories to her poor wretch of a sister, never questioning what I might do with that knowledge.”
“What did you do with it?” Aida turned her attention to the bag, her hand delving deep inside to fish out a piece of dried meat. It smelled of smoke and spices, none of the sour rot Rhyn’s had.
“I told the fortune of a boy with a twisted foot that should he be offered riches beyond his imagining, he should accept.” Marilsa’s clawed fingers played a jerky trill through the air, her smile made gruesome by the firelight. “It was his death. My sister’s, too.”
“I don’t understand. You had them killed?” Brow furrowing, Aida stuffed a large bite of meat into her mouth, chewing with a satisfied groan that she stopped at Marilsa’s snort.
“Otaso killed them.” Waving a bony hand at Aida, she returned her gaze to the fire. “This is not about me. It is about you.”
“Why?” Aida plucked at the worn edge of the tunic she wore, stealing furtive glances at Marilsa. “Why are you telling me all of this? You do not care about me, what happens to me. You said yourself you would have killed me.”
“Look around you.” Jerking a narrow shoulder, Marilsa held a crooked twig to the fire until the end took, holding it up as a candle. Her lips twisted to the side, pursed tight as she considered the warm glow seeming to float in midair. As Aida’s cautious gaze slipped around the now lush forest floor, Marilsa murmured, “It used to all be like this. Alive, well. Thriving with the endless cycle of life. When Otaso came, he fouled it all. Stripped what he could, leaving behind something dark and vile. Evil things happen when a people are cut off from the land. You’ve seen the unlucky ones, those who show their scars plain as your pretty eyes. Mages all, their power stripped from their very souls. Unable to even dream of power anymore.”
“What does that have to do with me?” Aida asked, curling her knees tight to her chest, food forgotten as cold dread inched its way up her back with icy fingers.
“You could make it all like this again. Go to Oscara, return it to its former glory. Become a queen if you’ve a mind. Beautiful and terrible if you’d like.” Marilsa shrugged again, thinned lips twitching in a smile that held little humor. “Destroy it and everyone who ever laid foot on this bit of ground if that is your preference.”
“I couldn’t do that,” Aida breathed in horror. Cold and suffocating, fear settled over her. She couldn’t understand,