Princeps' Fury (Codex Alera, #5)

by Jim Butcher

Isana stared at Gaius for a moment. Then she said, ‘How can you live with yourself?’ The First Lord stared at her for a moment, his eyes cold. Then he spoke in a very quiet, precise, measured voice. ‘I look out my window each day. I look out my window at people who live and breathe. At people who have not been devoured by civil war. At people who have not been ravaged by disease. At people who have not starved to death, who have not been hacked apart by enemies of humanity, at people who are free to lie and steal and plot and complain and accuse and behave in all manner of repugnant ways because the Realm stands. Because law and order stands. Because something other than simple violence shapes the course of their lives. And I look, wife of my son, mother of my heir, at a very few decent people who have had the luxury of living their lives without being called upon to make hideous decisions I would not wish upon my worst enemies, and who consequently find such matters morally appalling when they consider them - because they have not had to be the ones who dealt with them.’

Gradash shrugged. ‘Respect is elder to convenience.’ ‘And besides,’ Tavi said drily, ‘if you didn’t respect them, they’d eat you.’ ‘Survival is also elder to convenience,’ Gradash agreed.

He winked at her. ‘I’ll be fine.’ ‘Of course he will,’ Maximus said. ‘If there’s a lick of trouble, Tavi will set something on fire - it’s easy to set something on fire, believe me - and I’ll see the smoke, knock down all the buildings between him and the dock, come get him, and we’ll leave. Nothing simpler.’ Kitai gave Maximus a steady look. Then she shook her head, and said, ‘And the truly incredible part is . . . you actually believe it.’ ‘Ambassador,’ Max said, ‘in the course of my life, I have more than once been too ignorant to know that something was impossible before I did it anyway. I see no reason to jeopardize that success.’

He mused over it for a moment, then discarded them entirely in favor of a lesson his uncle Bernard had taught him on the steadholt: that hardly a man ever made a fool of himself by keeping his bloody mouth shut.

‘Aleran,’ she said quietly. ‘True power has nothing to do with furies.’ She pressed her thumb firmly to the center of his forehead. ‘Strong, stupid enemies are easily defeated. Intelligent foes are always dangerous. You have grown in strength. Do not permit yourself to grow in stupidity.’ Her hand moved to caress his cheek. ‘You are one of the most dangerous men I know.’ Tavi studied her seriously. ‘Do you really think that?’ She nodded once. ‘I am frightened, Aleran. The Vord frighten me. What they might do to my people terrifies me.’ He stared into her eyes. ‘What are you saying?’ ‘Fear is an enemy. Respect it. But do not let it conquer you before the fight has begun.’

When he reached her, Isana drew back and smacked him coldly across the face. Hard. Raucus’s head rocked to one side, and when he looked back at her, his lower lip had been cut against one of his teeth and was bleeding slightly. The surprise in his eyes began to be replaced by more anger. ‘Antillus Raucus,’ Isana said, in the instant of unbalance. ‘I accuse you of cowardice and treachery against the authority of the First Lord and the honor of the Realm. And here, in front of these witnesses, I formally challenge you to the juris macto.’ She drew in a deep breath. ‘And may the crows feast on the unjust.’

She rode in silence for a time, then said, the words rushed together, ‘I’m frightened, chala.’ Tavi blinked and stared over his shoulder. She shrugged. ‘What fool would not be? What if I lose you? What if you lose me?’ She swallowed. ‘Death is real. It could take either of us, or both. I cannot think of living without you. Or of you without me.’ Tavi sighed and leaned back slightly against her. He felt her arms tighten around his waist. ‘That isn’t going to happen,’ he told her. ‘It’s going to be all right’ ‘Fool,’ Kitai scoffed gently. ‘You do not know that.’ ‘Sometimes you don’t know the most important things,’ Tavi said. ‘You believe them.’ ‘That is completely irrational.’ ‘Yes,’ Tavi agreed. ‘And true.’

At one time, Tavi would have been terrified by his situation. He was completely surrounded, outnumbered by implacable foes, and cut off from any of his support. Oh, certainly, Max and Kitai and the Canim were only a hundred yards away - but that was far enough to prevent them from intervening over the next several seconds, which were quite possibly all he had. He would have been helpless to prevent his fate from being decided by someone else. Tavi still found the situation terrifying; but he wasn’t nearly so helpless anymore.

Fire filled the skies over Alera Imperia. Cyclones of flame spun away from the city, deadly funnels that seemed to lift everything they touched from the ground, only to incinerate them to ashes. The ground beneath the city and for miles around began to buckle. Falling walls and buildings added their own gravelly screams to the night’s cacophony. The Vord died by the thousands, the hundreds of thousands, devoured by insatiable flame and ravenous earth. With a final scream, Alera Imperia collapsed into the earth, lowered like a corpse into its grave and consumed by the fires that raged there. So died Gaius Sextus, First Lord of Alera, his pyre lighting the Realm for fifty miles in every direction.

Raucus nodded sharply. His horse danced a step sideways, evidently picking up on his rider’s excitement. ‘I recommend we wait, Your Highness,’ he said. ‘Let them advance another mile down that causeway, and I’ll leave those ugly things in pieces.’ Isana felt the confidence flowing from him, and arched an eyebrow. ‘You’re sure?’ ‘They’re coming with maybe thirty thousand troops. I’ve got three standing Legions, three Legions of veteran militia, better than a thousand Knights and every bloody Citizen in Antillus. Pieces, Your Highness,’ Raucus replied, vicious satisfaction in his voice. ‘Little ones.’ ‘As you think best, High Lord Antillus,’ Isana said. He threw back his head and laughed. ‘Hah! That’s a good one.’

Give me passion - and compassion - any day.

‘Any man with a brain in his head looks for three things in anyone he’ll follow: will, brains, and a heart.’

‘Septimus, my friend, chose you. And chose well.’ He bowed his head to her, and said, simply, ‘I am yours to command.’ ‘Your Grace,’ Isana said. ‘Highness?’ ‘These creatures have destroyed our lands. Murdered our people.’ Isana lifted her chin. ‘Pay them for it.’ When Antillus Raucus looked up, his eyes were hard, cold, and clear. ‘Watch me.’