Descended Read online

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Kristoff

  “This proves nothing—nothing!” Morbain declared, his voice ringing in the small corridor. “Eucilla is the True Incarnation and you cannot prove otherwise!”

  I stared at him in weary disbelief and Charlotte shook her head.

  “Did you see what happened in there?” she whispered, looking up at me.

  I bent down, the better to hear her words.

  “Yes, I saw,” I murmured. “You were beyond brave, my Lady. You have the courage of a warrior.”

  “Only because I trusted you,” she said softly, looking into my eyes. “You told me nothing would hurt me and I believed you.” She frowned. “Although I wish you would have given me a little warning about what was waiting for me. I was pee-your-pants-scared in there!”

  I had to stifle a laugh. Her way of talking tickled what some would have said was my nonexistent sense of humor at times.

  But there was nothing humorous about what was taking place now.

  “She caused the Fire Drake to burn Eucilla,” Morbain was shouting, pointing at Charlotte. “She confused the beast with her off-worlder scent and caused it to behave wrongly.”

  “That’s so like you, always twisting the truth, Morbain,” I said, glaring at him. “Charlotte saved Eucilla from certain death not once but twice when she put out the fire on her head and stopped the fire drake from killing her!”

  “She did no such thing! She is an imposter and should be disqualified at once!” Morbain bugled, his eyes bulging with rage. “Head Councilor Tannus, I demand satisfaction!”

  The Head Councilor frowned and I wondered again if he was in Morbain’s pocket. I wished I could have Charlotte touch him—even for an instant—to use her La-ti-zal powers of Knowing. It would be good to know if the male had been paid off or if he was just being stubborn because he didn’t want another strong Empress to ascend the Golden Throne. He had never liked my old mistress, Sundalla the 999th because he had been unable to control her. Though the Goddess knew, he certainly tried.

  “Head Councilor Tannus,” I said to him. “I think it’s very clear what happened in the chamber of the Second Trial. Two candidates walked in and only one walked out unscathed. Look at my Lady Charlotte—there isn’t a scratch or a burn on her. While Morbain’s candidate…well…” I gestured at the still-smoking Eucilla who was pouting, with her ash-covered arms crossed over her chest. No words were needed to convey the obvious—or so I thought.

  At last the Head Councilor made a decision.

  “It is the ruling of this Council that the first two Trials are inconclusive,” he said, glaring at Charlotte and myself. “And so we will continue with the Third Trial, if both candidates agree.”

  Words of outrage rose to my lips but Charlotte tugged at my arm and shook her head.

  “Don’t,” she whispered when I bent my head to hear her. “Don’t bother. I’m not afraid to go through another Trial.”

  “I do not fear for your safety, my Lady,” I told her softly. “But for your honor. Morbain seeks to discredit you.”

  “Let him try.” She lifted her chin and looked at the Head Councilor. “Councilor Tannus, I don’t mind doing the Third Trial but I want Eucilla to have some medical attention first,” she said calmly. “She has second degree burns on the back of her neck and her scalp. They need to be treated or they’re only going to get worse. Also, she got a bite on her finger from one of the baby dragons. That needs to be disinfected and bandaged too.”

  For the first time, the Head Councilor looked surprised and I saw some of the other Councilors murmuring among themselves in apparent shock. I wasn’t surprised, though—Charlotte was first and foremost a healer. I had seen back on her home planet of Earth how seriously she took her profession. That she demanded medical attention, even for the imposter who sought to take her rightful place on the Golden Throne, was just part of her nature.

  “Well,” the Head Councilor began. “I suppose we could wait while the other candidate goes to the medical wing of the palace…”

  “No!” It was Eucilla, her red eyes narrowed, her lovely mouth twisted down into a pouting frown. “She’s just trying to get rid of me! I’m not going anywhere.”

  “I’m trying to get you treatment before those burns start suppurating,” Charlotte said sharply. “You must be in pain, Eucilla. Let the doctors or healers or whatever they call them here treat you!”

  “I’m not leaving!” The other female’s eyes flashed. “I am the True Incarnation. And I’m staying here to prove it!”

  Head Councilor Tannus shrugged.

  “Very well. Then let us proceed with the Third Trial—the Trial of Fruit and Stone.”

  He led us down the corridor to the third and final door on the left-hand wall. Without ceremony, he threw it open, revealing a room only a sixth the size of the last chamber. In the center of the room grew a single tree with long, flowing branches, crowded with glittering fruit.

  “Behold, the Tree of Wisdom,” he said, motioning to its spreading branches, some of which hung so low their fruit was only inches from the mossy ground. “On it grows the Royal fruit—the oppols of gold.” He indicated the bright, glossy golden-skinned fruit. “Only the True Incarnation of the Goddess-Empress can pluck and eat this delicacy. All others—”

  He didn’t get to finish because Eucilla had already rushed into the room and was grabbing for the fruit.

  “I am the True Incarnation,” I heard her muttering to herself. “I am—I can do this! This is easy!”

  It didn’t look easy, however. Though the fruit had looked so accessible when the Councilor first opened the door, now it seemed to hop away from her seeking hands, going from branch to branch just as she was about to pluck it.

  With a cry of pure rage, Eucilla grabbed one low-hanging branch and shook it, wrestling it as though it was a living opponent. After a moment, she stood up, shaking herself free of the curling leaves and holding out one of the large, gleaming oppols.

  “I got one!” she shrieked. “I got one! I’m the True Incarnation! I am—me! Not her—me!”

  Then she opened her mouth and took a massive bite out of the fist-sized fruit in her hand.

  Or tried to, anyway.

  There was an audible crunching sound, but not of fruit being bitten into. It was the sound of bones breaking—of teeth breaking, I thought.

  Eucilla gave a muffled shriek and pulled the oppol away from her mouth. There was a bloody stump where one of her front teeth had been. As for the fruit, it was completely unmarked except for a smear of blood on its glittering golden side.

  “As I was about to say,” the Head Councilor said waspishly. “Only the True Incarnation of the Goddess-Empress can pluck and eat the fruit because to all others it has the consistency of stone.”

  “It’s not stone!” Morbain exclaimed. Grabbing the Royal fruit from Eucilla’s hand, he wiped the blood off and held it out. “This fruit is clearly unripe. That’s why it hurt Eucilla’s mouth. No other reason!”

  “Charlotte, you know what you must do” I murmured to her and she looked up at me with understanding.

  “All right,” she whispered back. “But it seems kind of mean—like rubbing salt in her wounds.”

  “You have to,” I told her. “There must be no doubt that you are the one and only True Incarnation.”

  She sighed and nodded, then stepped quietly into the room. She walked over to the Tree of Wisdom but before she could even reach for an oppol, one fell neatly into her palm. The commotion at the door had stopped and even Morbain had fallen silent as the onlookers realized what was happening.

  “Come, my Lady,” I said to Charlotte, raising my voice so that it carried. “Take a bite of the Royal fruit.”

  Charlotte brought it to her mouth and took a large bite. There was another crunching sound—this one the sound of teeth sinking through the crisp flesh of a ripe fruit—and she held the oppol up so that everyone could see the bite she’d taken from it.