Page 77 of Spirit Trials
She takes another sip of her tea, and I wonder if she’s going to tell me. “My son will take the throne one day.”
I stay quiet a moment but don’t last long. “You think your husband will actually give up the crown?”
“Give up his crown?” she laughs lightly, but there’s no humor in It. "The crown will have to be pried from the king’s cold, dead hands.” I stare at her, unsure what to say. “Power has corrupted him.” She looks away, and her gaze seems to see past the stone walls surrounding us. “He wasn’t always this way. Once, he was a kind, noble king.” A slight smile forms on her face before it fades completely. “That man no longer exists. Maybe he never did,” she adds almost as an afterthought.
“The people in this kingdom seem happy,” I can’t help but point out.
“They’re happy because they’re safe, locked behind the walls of this city. But make no mistake; they’re not free.” Her voice is sharp, and I feel her reprimand. “And they’re happy because they’ve never lost a family member to banishment.” She meets my eyes. “I know you’ve seen at least one of the banished camps.”
“I have.”
“Those areourpeople. And yet, they perish out there, unable to survive, unable to feed themselves and their children. It’s an atrocity that has gone on far too long.” She stands to her feet, still graceful; but there’s a new tension in her. “The people still behind our walls have no idea what it’s like to lose a child.”
I swallow hard and study her. “But you do.” Somehow, I just know from the sorrow on her face.
She doesn’t face me, but she also doesn’t refute my words. “Rysden’s older brother, Rygar,” she pauses, taking a deep breath. A sick feeling begins to form in my stomach. “He participated in the trials three years ahead of Rysden. He didn’t produce a spirit animal.” I hardly dare to breathe as I consider what she’s telling me. “At the end of the trials, he was banished, along with all the others in his trial that didn’t produce a spirit animal. Normally, the entire family is banished, when one fails to produce a spirit animal. But,” she swallows hard. “Because he was the king’s son, they made an exception. They allowed our family to stay, but Rygar was banished immediately. Because of whom he is...was,” she corrects. She closes her eyes only a moment and then opens them. When she does, her eyes are clear, all emotion pushed away. “The banished community took their anger out on the king by going after his son. They tortured and killed him and dropped his body at the doors to the city.” I feel like I’m going to be sick. I want to say something, but what is there to say? I think of Rysden, and everything seems to click into place. The hate that he has for the banished community, how he killed Maritus when he held a knife to my throat. My throat tightens when I think of how he’d put his prejudice and hatred aside and sat with Kinsley and Harper and asked them what it was like to live with the banished. I feel my eyes water, and I blink rapidly to keep the tears at bay. I feel her gaze on me, but I don’t lift my head.
“I reprimanded Rysden for not doing anything to help the banished,” I admit softly.
She sighs. “Rysden was only sixteen when it happened. He’s carried anger and blame at the banished in his heart for a lot of years.”
“You don’t.” It’s not a question.
“I did,” she admits. “But no longer. Is it painful? Yes. A mother should never have to bear the pain of a child dying before her; it crushes the soul.” She looks away from me. “But the banished aren’t to blame for his death. The blame falls solely at my husband’s feet. Those are our people, and they belong in this kingdom.”
“Rysden says if they don’t have a spirit wolf, they aren't worthy.” I don’t agree, but I’m curious what her opinion is.
“That’s just prejudice speaking.” I nod, agreeing. “The Jaguar Kingdom allows those who don’t manifest a spirit animal to rejoin their kingdom, if they’re from that kingdom originally. It’s not perfect, but it’s a start.”
“I met the Jaguar King; he seemed nice.”
“He is. Much better than his father,” the queen agrees.
“But he doesn’t let others in, the ones from the Wolf Kingdom that fail to produce a spirit wolf?” I ask.
“No. If he did, he’d be overrun. Their kingdom is not as large as ours and wouldn’t be able to handle all the banished from our kingdom.”
“So, the banished here are only the ones from the Wolf Kingdom?”
The queen nods. “Yes.”
“What about the Dragon Kingdom?” I question.
“The Dragon Kingdom hasn’t sent a contestant to the trials in over a hundred years, and there hasn’t been a manifestation of a dragon spirit animal in even longer.”
My head is spinning with all this information. “How come Rygar and Jamik don’t have corporal wolves like Rysden?”
She shakes her head and looks out the window. “The magic of spirit animals is a tricky thing; we don’t even always know how it’s going to manifest. What we do know is that the next ruling king always manifests a corporal animal. In our history, sometimes other siblings have and sometimes not.”
“So Rygar and Jamik always knew Rysden would be the one to rule one day.” She nods. “And they were okay with it?”
She laughs. “It took Rygar a long time to be okay with it, but his love for his younger brother won out. And Jamik’s always known he wouldn’t rule anyway being that he was born of a common woman.”
I manage to keep my cringe to myself; I think. I decide to redirect the conversation away from the king’s obvious transgressions. “Why do you need me to win? I’m not from here.”
“No, you’re not, Farrah Bromean.” She takes another sip of her tea, all without looking at me.
“I won’t manifest a spirit animal,” I feel the need to point out, though it feels rather pointless.
