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At the dawn’s first light, I was patiently waiting for my fate.
“Well, well, well. If our little prisoner isn’t being the model of good behavior.” I heard Travan’s footsteps long before I heard the words drip from his lips. I kept my head lowered, my hair shielding my face as the tips of his glossy black boots entered the field of my vision. The edge of a sword propped up my chin, raising my face level with the prince’s icy stare. A flicker of something flashed quick as a blink in his eyes when I held his steady gaze and refused to glance away, but then it disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared.
“The stupid thing is probably just scared speechless. It’s not like she really had any brains to begin with, and she used up what she had while trying to make out with that little friend of hers.” Milasy’s pale hand snaked around the prince’s shoulders as she floated into view, a vision of red velvet cape and a flowing white dress against pearly teeth and narrow slitted eyes. No doubt she was enjoying seeing my current predicament. The dark figure of Angelo lingered just beyond the royal party and the surrounding Huntsmen, the attentive servant ever watchful and waiting for his master’s command. “Perhaps you shouldn’t even waste the effort of a good hunt on her. Just dispose of her now and take charge on the search for her little friends.”
“No, I want this one. I want to see if she has as much spunk as her old man did before he died a traitor’s death.” Travain thoughtfully tapped his chin with a single finger, using his other to increase the pressure of the blade on my neck till I could fell the sharp point just barely pricking my skin.
“My father was never a traitor, neither am I. It just seems that we were dealt a rather despairing hand to play, but things are seldom as they seem, even to the very end.” I said.
Angelo’s bowed head tilted just slightly, and I felt a thick coil of darkness settle around my neck, pressing inwards on my veins till a sickening lightheaded began to creep on the edges of my vision. He was trying to punish me, but it wasn’t going to work. I let a subtle flickering of magic loose, forming the image of a little mouse that swiftly traveled up my arm and began to gnaw at the shadowy bonds beneath the safety of my hair. In response to the sudden influx of my own magic, the cuffs at my wrist began to burn like I had scalded myself with hot oil, but I ignored the pain while the sharp teeth swiftly cut through the bonds and I felt the shadows writhe along my skin before retreating to their master. I did smirk just a tad as I felt the shuddering ripple of balance sway in my direction, something that Travain must have felt as well as he scowled and glanced towards his brother who simply shrugged.
“Isn’t the prisoner always allowed one final luxury before death?” I asked ever so innocently.
“I suppose that is fine.” Travain glanced back to me with a puzzle in his eyes.
“I am so sick of all this grey that I could scream, so I want to wear something red before my death. Something long and velvet, like her cloak.” I tilted my head to indicate Milasy’s long crimson cloak. The color of blood, the heavy fabric certainly wouldn’t do me any favors when trying to run, but I wanted to wear red at least one time before I died.
“What!” She clutched one slender pale hand at her throat like I had asked to sacrifice herself in my place, the red fabric crinkling beneath the strength of her grip. “Don’t you dare let her take my lovely coat, it was made from only the finest materials, something that a thing like her shouldn’t even be able to breathe upon!”
Travain snapped his fingers and one of the Huntsmen stepped forward and snatched the fabric from her shoulders, the neat little ribbon tie nearly breaking against her skin as it was snatched from her hold. She immediately set up with a howl that could have rivaled one of the Bloodwrath’s, her body lunging at the soldier with hands drawn up into claws and scratching wildly at his face. “Oh, shut up! I’ll buy you another one.” The prince snapped, his irritation showing plainly on his face as he snarled at his future bride.
Milasy rounded on him, her pale face flushed red with anger and eyes glowing with an inner fire. “How dare you just take away one of my possession to give to this pathetic piece of trash on her dying day. I won’t stand for it. I won’t!” With that said, she turned away and stomped through the crowd that had gathered to watch the argument underway. Her straightened arms pushing right through the empty eyed commoners like they were nothing more than water.
Angelo seemed to be taking all this in with a slight humor, as I could see the shaking shiver of his shoulders bobbing in time with his lightly chuckled hidden laughter. Travain shared his poisonous glare around to his underlings as he observed the crowd assembling just beyond the edge of the soldiers, each one a commoner waiting to see what the new leader of their kingdom would do with his new found power over the hated prisoner. I could see in each pair of eyes how deep the hatred ran, some even in familiar faces that I had known in passing. They all wanted me dead for what I had been accused of, but if they only knew the truth, then they would rebel. I’m sure of that.
“Unbind her and take her to the gate. We’ll be ready and waiting.” Travain strolled off with that final command, his soldiers parting a way through the crowds while two remained behind to sever my bonds with a sword and grabbed my biceps roughly. Their gloved fingers dug in deep to my muscles, worsening the damage already caused by Alec’s iron handed grip the previous evening. I looked up to the sky while we walked, a more beautiful cloudless blue sky couldn’t have been imagined except only to include the brilliant rays of the sun shining down on everyone below with all their glory.
I was forced to walk at a blistering pace to keep up with the soldiers long legs that easily outpaced even mine, furthering my belief that these two were certainly much less than the humans they appeared to be. We walked till the remains of the northern gate came into sight, being little more than just a pile of rubble and wood from the door that laid on the ground, but six horses of the strongest stallions the army had raised waited along with their riders, shortly flanked by the gazing citizens that were slowly trickling out of the rubble like flies, each one dirty and filthy but hungry for violence and bloodshed.
We stopped, and one of the soldiers slung Milasy’s red cloak over the top of my head. “If you can make it all day and night without becoming caught, then you have earned your freedom. But beware, the prince and his huntsmen will be in pursuit.” The man rumbled in a voice that was not human but contained hints of a mutated beast beneath the skin. With one rough shove to my back, I was released into the forest beyond as fast as my feet could carry me.
I stumbled and scampered across the small clearing before twisting around the thickest of the trees, I ran as fast as I could towards the thicker part of the forest where the roots buckled above the surface like broken limbs. The massive twining roots jutted up and twisted around my feet, bony fingers eagerly grabbing out to hold me back but I hopped over each one with a carefully calculated motion. If the roots could slow me down this much, than it would be even more disastrous for a horse.
“Onward, men! Let us hunt down this paltry plaything and show just what the might of the Althea kingdom can do!” Without the wall to muffle the sounds, the echo of the horses’ hooves was deafening as it bounced off the trees, sounding like thunder echoing boucing off of a series of tall buildings. I ran even faster, bounding from root to root like a lone deer bounding through the grass. Within the space of one step to the next, I actually came face to face with a soft-eyed doe, her smooth jaws rhythmically chewing a tuft of grass still soft with the morning dew. She startled and dashed away almost immediately, myself following quickly in her hip-hopping trail as she weaved through the forest with the expert knowledge of one who lived there. The hoofbeats began to slow as the horses encountered the twisting, tangling roots, achieving multiple muttered curses from their riders at the path I had chosen. Ha, ha! Just as I planned!
My forest guide continued on as the trees became thicker and thicker, the leafy canopy above blotting out the light from the sun as I entered a place very familiar but yet strange altogether. The dark heart of the forest where I had followed Stryker before. The red cape around my shoulders flapped in the breeze of my haste as I ran full-fledged towards the gigantic old tree that housed the numerous Vitare webs, the curled roots hanging full of the silken cocoons that were durable like no other surface ever created. Hidden within the secure hold of those webs was a plain brown sack, one that most would have overlooked had they not known what I had known.
Styrker had delivered his message well.
I slid to my knees and clawed at the neck of the rough fabric, the knotted rope fastened around the neck falling free in my hands as the sack peeled back like the edges of a roughened cocoon, exposing the inner beings as a high polished wooden bow strung with only the finest silver strands of Vitare silk and a quiver full of red fletched arrows. I smiled as I slipped the weapons across my shoulders and it slid perfectly in place like it had always been there.
I was nobody’s plaything.
As deftly as I had come, I slipped back into the woods on silent feet. The scarlet cloak was tied tightly around my shoulders as I slunk from the shadows of tree to tree, holding myself as still as a phantom each time I heard the thundering approach of hoofbeats and the stallion’s snorting breath. As the sounds grew sharper in tone, I stepped behind a moss covered boulder and waited, an arrow notched and pulled taught on my bowstring. The rider rode past without a sound, the horse’s snorting breath beneath his burden my only focus as I quickly relieved the weight across his back with one single arrow straight to the neck. The corpse fell off without a sound, the tendrils of shadow leaking from the armor to sink back into the earth like wriggling worms as I rushed to his side and relieved him of his bladed weapons. Surprised, the horse ambled to a stop and peered around with dark liquid eyes. Ones that didn’t seem to care as I swung upwards onto his back and urged him to trot off towards the west.
The stallion responded with an eager nicker and a burst of speed, his feet stepping strong and sure amidst the tangled mass of roots. If they followed the common maneuvers of hunting parties past, they would have all split up and galloped towards a different direction. In fact, one should be passing by right now.
As if I had cued him, one of the shadow riders passing as Huntsmen galloped past. I nudged my horse into a gallop as well, quickly falling into step behind him. I raised the blade and gave one quick chop just as he swung around to face me, the sword he was pulling from his pocket fell from his hands as he toppled over onto the ground. I had only smacked him with the flat of the blade, but striking against a pressure point in the neck was still an effective weakness that no person, magical or otherwise, could prevent.
The stallion galloped off for parts unknown as I pulled a length of rope from my horse’s saddlebags and tied the body to a nearby tree before resuming a place aboard the saddle of my horse.
The next one I found in a much similar fashion, riding not far apart from my previous victim and quickly subdued to a blow from my blade as well. I used the last of my rope to tie the body to a tree for later retrieval—or disposal whichever was needed—I had my suspicions that these were not merely men but more of the black magic mutated victims of Angelo’s dark magic. A fate that was cursed to death no matter which way things turned out, but I hoped that for now, simply knocking them out would be efficient enough.
I returned to the saddle and rode onward while mentally calculating the remaining members of the huntsmen, along with prince Travain, and their respective positions. The fourth one that I encountered was actually acting more human like than the others had, his emotionless black eyes flitting over each and every shadow and potential hiding places that I may have been crouched in if I had been hidden along his current path. I had to slow down my horse to a barely moving trot as the huntsman ambled along with his own bowstring notched and pulled taught.
Despite my best intentions, my horse stepped on a large branch that cracked loudly under his feet. I leaned down and pressed myself into the long curve of his neck just as an arrow scorched a trail right between his pricked ears and shaved a small trail through the thick velvet that covered my head. Beneath me, the horse startled and reared, his whinnied screams loud and bright in the silence of the forest and startled the birds from the nearby trees. Honing in on the sound, the huntsmen turned to pursue us with single minded efficiency, arrows raining fast paced around me like the swarming of angry hornets. I laid flat on my stomach, my arms carefully moving the least amount as possible to provide the smallest target as I could as I reached for the bow around my shoulders, notching an arrow tight in the string. I shifted my body and hooked my legs around the horse’s neck, dropping my upper body down alongside the horse’s middle and fired off an arrow. The man fell without a sound off to land in the dirt. I left the body this time as the arrow had pierced completely through his neck, the black writing shadows returning back to the ground with slithering motions.
I found the fourth and fifth ones riding together not too much further away. I paused my horse and tied his reins to a nearby tree limb, climbing up into the highest branches to where I knew I could safely hide from any stray weapons. I nestled deep into the leafy foliage, my form completely hiding as I drew two arrows and fired off one after another. The bodies tumbled to the ground with a dull thump, one on top of the other.
Now my last target was the prince himself.
Climbing back astride my horse, I nudged him into a thundering full gallop. His hooves plowing over the firm forest floor as we sped onwards towards the most likely position headed straight ahead to an open clearing, the perfect place for a trap.
When we had reached the heart of the open grassy clearing, I noticed something different about the carpet of long grass wavering slightly in the morning breeze. Pieces and portions of it had been crushed by something larger, the faint sunlight illuminating a darker stain that had dripped down alongside the crushed marks. Ones that I could easily see now were familiar, boot tracks. Specifically, the boot tracks of one I had come to recognize after scrubbing the blood free from the last ill-fated trip to the forest. Alec’s
Panic flared through my veins as quick as if I had stabbed myself with a knife. What had happened? None of them were supposed to be here, the message said that all of them were far away. Yet, he did say he was coming back for me. Did Alec somehow get caught on the way? He was an excellent fighter, but the effects of the silver must have still been running through his veins, making him prone to more dangers than I would like to think of.
I slipped down from my horse to walk alongside the tracks, the leather reins staying in my hand as I knelt down and touched the dark liquid with the lightest brush of my fingers. The red stain clung to my fingertips, still wet and dripping through the grass as if it wasn’t very old. The blood hadn’t been lost too long ago or it would have dried quickly in the warm summer sun. That meant that Alec wasn’t too far away.
I ran forward, the reins trailing from my fingers to leave the horse behind as the trail of blood grew thicker and more frequent, only to find the prince of Althea himself slumped over in a pool of blood with a single arrow protruding from the space between his shoulders. I had to stifle my fist in my mouth to keep myself from gagging at the empty eyes that were normally icy pools of nothing but hatred, but now were completely empty of all expression.
“I found you.” An eerily polite voice sang in my ear. I swirled around, an arrow finding its way to my bow with one movement, but there was no one behind me, not even my own shadow.
“You did very well, much better than I expected Lady Kyri.” The ghost of a whisper sounded from behind me again and I spun once more, this time catching sight of a swirling cloud of shadows as it drifted away from the fringes of my sight. Angelo, using his dark magic at work again. “I will admit, I had not thought that one such as yourself would have lasted so long when my magic has drove lesser minds insane with half the effort.” He broke off with a dark chuckle.
I followed his every swirling movement with my arrow, never completely taking my eyes off of the swirling mist as he shuddered and slithered across the ground like a cloud that had come to the ground. The sharpened point might not do much harm to the dark magician in this form, but I would certainly try if he so much as made an advance towards me. “Why kill your brother when you are finally getting what you want? You and your brother ruling the kingdom together without the influence of dear old stepdaddy was too much of a challenge?”
“Do you really think that I wanted to spend my life working in that pompous fool’s shadow? He was worse than his own stepfather, his only concern being him and himself only. No, I’ve got better plans than that.” The voice spoke again from the nestled core of the cloud, only to sink into the ground with a sudden descent, only to quickly return and suction tight around my neck with misty limbs cutting off my precious air. I kicked and clawed, the bow falling from my hands as I tried to pry away the slowly firming limbs wrapped tight and blocking off my air with hands burning with my own golden glow. I could feel his body reforming at my back, a chilling cold like death himself.
“And you, you’re just like your father. Always meddling in things that doesn’t involve you. My mother had more than a few choice words to say after she finally convinced that lunatic to have Mikoff executed quietly.”
“You’re mother’s dead!” I choked out while aiming a kick for his shin. Angelo merely laughed, his eyes glowing as red as burning coals fresh from a fire.
The tips of his smile curled even higher, a sinister grin that froze even the brightest of fires into smoldering ashes. “Ah! But magic never truly dies does it, Kyri? It lives on in a different form. Always waiting for just that right opportunity to strike.”
The pressure around my neck tightened as his hands crushed into my bones, a searing edge of black creeping around the edges while a burning urge to breathe scorched through my lungs. No matter how much I fought, I couldn’t gain any escape, and slowly I was losing my strength. My arms felt to my sides as weak as withered weeds in the grass.
I was dying.
No, I was free.
“Perhaps you should concentrate on learning to wield your magic truly instead of how to abuse it.” The weight against my neck was suddenly gone as a gentle arm twined around my waist and guided me forward into the shelter of a larger frame. I was panting for air, my chest heaving with every sucked in burning breath as I leaning against a frame that was so cool despite the warmth of the surroundings. Alec, scarlet blood dripping from an arrow wound in his left shoulder, had reappeared out of thin air like magic itself. The subtle slight coating of his silver magic fizzled and popped in the air, crackling with intensity and hovering just above his form like a glittering silver aura. .
“You shouldn’t speak of things you have no knowledge about, pathetic one.” Angelo spat, his shadow wrapped form whirling around as the darkness completely shrouded his lower half and leached into the ground like writing tentacles. He slammed a fist down towards the ground, summoning thick thorny vines to rear up and launch forward with a deadly whipping motion. I raised my arm in anticipation of blocking the blow, but it never came. Instead a blazing fireballs of rolling orange flame flew through the air and torched the snapping vines into nothing more threatening than a pile of greyish ash.
“Don’t worry about this one, cousin. Angelo’s always been more bark and less bite.” Thorn said with a cocky smile as he emerged from the trees, Sandra following closely at his side while the entire length of her arms blazed with the blistering power of her orange fire.
“Worthless trash, you are a pure waste of the energy it takes to create a mortal.” Angelo snarled as his gaze darted from side to side, taking in the newest threats to his power.
Thorn shot a wink and a smirk in the magician’s direction. “Right back at ya, buddy! Kyri, Sorry we’re late. Somebody had a little trouble following the directions you left.” He subtly pointed his fingers at Sandra beneath the blade in his hand. Unfortunately, that didn’t prevent his fiancé from seeing his gesture.
“I did not! It was only because you were dancing around while slicing off the shadow wraths head’s that I got confused. It’s not my fault that we got lost, our directions were perfectly straight.” Sandra declared hotly, her flaming arms coming to perch on her hips as the flames flared even hotter with the force of her anger.
“That’s it! I’ve had-“ Angelo’s speech was morphed into a spine tingling scream as I heard a slightly muffled flap of wings and then a feathery brownish dive bomb plummeted from the sky, sharp talons raking down the backside of Angelo’s head before they glided to a stop on my shoulder. Stryker, in all his puffed glory, swiveled his head and clacked his beak threateningly at Angelo, seemingly proud of his sneak attack.
“It doesn’t matter how many of you come crawling out of the forest. You can’t stop me! I will rule and use this magic as was my birth given right!” With that said, Angelo began to mumble something low and unintelligible, his shadow dripping arms raising up to the sky in a salute to the heavens, his palms and fingers spreading wide as sinister dark clouds began to cover the bright morning sunshine until the entire sky was coated with the thickened black clouds. More of those viny dark tendrils began to rise from the ground, becoming a slithering shaking mass of muscular thorn lined tentacles that struck out in all directions heedless of friend or foe.
I dove down to my feet, barely missing one of the vines that struck with enough force to take off my head, but it provided me with the opportunity to grab my bow and arrow off the ground where it had fell from my shaking hands. One of the slick, slithery things grabbed a hold of my arm but I slammed my heel into the tentacle, it quickly recoiled only for another strike to come thrashing at my chest. I dodged it by sliding in behind a tree, the leathery limb thumping hard against the solid surface of the ancient thick oak like a drumbeat and laid momentarily stunned atop the ground.
While I had no opponent for the moment, I dared to glance over at the others to see how they were faring. Thorn and Sandra were back to back, his sword slashing over and over through the thick tentacles in a gracefully dance while she kept a circular wall of fire going around and around their feet, singeing any who dared to approach into ash. Stryker had flew up high in the air, seemingly out of reach of the tentacles while he used his talons to strike any who dared to stray within his reach, his war whooping chirps ringing with a savage delight that he was finally able to deal out some of his accumulated anger. Alec had returned to his wolf form in a quick motion of popping bones and shifting skin, the bloody slash in his shoulder growing larger with his form change as he used his savage teeth and claws to bite and sever the tentacles into smaller harmless pieces.
Taking in a deep breath before diving back into the insanity, I notched my bow with as many arrows as I could fit and let them fly as quickly as I could, not even feeling the slide of the smooth wood beneath my fingers or the snap of the bowstring as it launched the missiles forward, my only targets being the way the carved point of the arrow buried itself deep into the thick muscle of the tentacle. With all our combined efforts, the ground was growing slick with a mixture of the spilled blood and ash, almost as thick as the darkened air that grew even thicker as more and more tentacles sprouted up from the remains of the old, two growing in the place of whenever one went down. Angelo’s form had vanished into the heart of the darkened mass long ago, and it was now growing so thick that I couldn’t even see my friends fighting for their lives, only faintly could I see Alec and that was only because of his pale fur against the dark gloom.
As being the only two still in close enough contact to see one another, we made our way towards each other for safety reasons. My arrows and his claws slashed and gouged against the overwhelming mass of dark magic. As an extra added boost, I lit each one of my strikes with a portion of my magic, providing a streaked golden trail through the gloom that was only a temporary reprieve from the darkness as the strike would be quickly swallowed up by more rolling boils of the darkest black, quickly erasing the trail as if it had never existed in the first place.
“Do you think you could use enough magic to stop him?” Alec panted through a double handed punch that left his clawed fingers dripping with black gore.
The string twanged as I shot off another arrow. “I don’t know. I could try?”
“Follow me and don’t fall behind.” Alec barreled through the darkness like a beast possessed, a trail of his silvery magic radiating like pure moonlight through a dark winter’s night. My own feet were following close behind, silver and gold intertwining together as we fought off the sliding tentacles of darkness with each step. I could feel the stings of their lashes opening up new wounds on my arms and cheeks, but I keep shooting every arrow I could laid my hands on, some pulled from the very tentacle like vines that had just been shoot themselves. My arrows turned into bare handed clawing if I didn’t have enough room to notch my bow. Somewhere in the distance ever so far away, I could faintly hear the high keening screams of Sandra, but I couldn’t tell if her screams were from danger or pain.
The momentary lapse in my attention provided an opportunity that I didn’t want. Something thick and strong snaked around my feet, one of the vines wound thick around my ankles and pushed me back into the waiting grasp of more slithering, writing arms. The prick of claws on skin tingled against my arms as Alec grabbed me away, his jaws bared in a blood dripping snarl and pushed me forward out of reach. The vines were more than happy to accept the substitution, taking their sweet time as they slithered over him in my place and pulling him deep into the throes of darkness.
As fast I could, I drew my bow. My hands shaking and notched the arrow to fire at the vines when golden eyes burned into mine. “No! Take him out!” Alec growled over the tentacle wrapping tight around his throat. His eyes continued to burn into mine despite the overwhelming presence of the darkness, a silent confirmation for me to do what he said despite the ache growing stronger in my chest with each heartbeat as the darkness swallowed him up. Leaving me alone to fight.
With my trembling fingers, I pulled another arrow and pulled it taught. Aiming out into the darkness for any target I could fin.
“You’ll never be anything but a worthless piece of trash.” Angelo’s voice echoed from somewhere in the darkness. First it came from my left, then from my right. Above. Below. His voice was all around me. He was going to swallow me up just like the others.
Just like my dreams had been.
It was true, I suppose. That I really was worthless. My dreams of becoming a huntsmen had died along with the ruins of Althea, but something else had grew in its place. I had friends now, ones who were more than willing to accept my eccentrics for what they were and it didn’t matter if I was different or not, I had their support, especially of one particular one with green eyes that sparkled like the morning grass studded with dew that had helped me discover something else, I could believe in myself. I could make things possible instead of just letting them happen to me.
Almost as if the actions were not my own, my hands slid upwards of their own accord, the arrow drawing back tight against the bowstring as I pulled it taught.
I closed my eyes and blocked out the sound of Angelo’s mocking voice. That repeated chant of how I was worthless.
I felt the warmth of the magic slide along my skin, filling me up to where I felt like a babbling brook about to overflow with the pure silky light.
I released the arrow into the darkness, trusting the magic itself to guide it to its proper course. The golden light radiated like the pure warmth of the sun as it sliced through the darkness towards the target I knew was there just as if it had been a knife thrown straight for the heart..
A clap of thunder rang out as the golden arrow struck deep into the Angelo’s chest. The shadows clearing as he screamed, a torturous sound like none that I’ve ever heard before as the tentacles writhed and curled, folding back over his form like they were devouring his form completely. The looser folds of the black mist swirled faster and faster, becoming a funnel of darkness before it lifted straight up into the clouds, the last remaining swirls blowing away on the beginnings of a calm breeze as the glorious sunlight returned once more.
Now that my deed was done, a sweeping sensation of exhaustion descended on my body, weighting down my limbs like they had been encased in steel. I staggered, the bow falling from my useless fingertips, I faintly registered my knees falling beneath my weight as I collapsed, my vision plunging into a shade of darkness deeper than any I had encountered so far. The urgent calls of my name rung faintly in my ears before that too was swept away into total blessed silence.