~
The plan is forming, but I am unsure whether it will work. I know I cannot defeat him, and his guard, alone. But I must protect my Freya. I must protect us all. It is the want of power that will consume us. The want.
The script was shaky, many of her words hard to decipher. Ominous.
I had no choice but to escape. I would need a distraction to have any chance. I went to the village to find my young Noble. I didn’t expect what was there.
On my way in, I found the spot where we had met so many days. I almost didn’t recognize it—bare of growth, the dirt patted down from years of wear. And then I saw him, the man in tattered clothes, hunched with his face in his hands. He heard me approach and raised his head, the awe all that was recognizable.
“You’re back.” His voice was trembling, feeble. It was my Noble, young no more. He had been waiting here for my return.
He was an outcast of the village; no one believed his tales of magic, the mysterious woman he claimed to meet here. He confessed to spending years trying to find me. He’d thought I was angry with him and that was why I’d not returned. He was afraid to leave this spot in case I were to change my mind, forgive him for whatever he’d done.
I pushed the guilt aside when I recalled why I’d had to come here. For my Freya, to save her. What my father had done to me, to my mother, I would not let him do to her.
I approached the grieving man and reached out to him. As I held his hands, I closed my eyes. I could not watch as I snapped his neck, the way I had with the small boar as my first show of magic to him so long ago. I placated myself by remembering he would soon be gone, his life so short.
I held him until the daylight began to fade, and then carried his lifeless body into the village. Proof they would be attacked and killed, proof they must fight the elves. It was not hard to incite a riot. They were fearful creatures. I convinced them to raid the castle, gave them direction.
And then I returned. I knew I would have time to prepare. They would be slow to gather and make the journey. I was thinking of Noble as I resolved to wear the dress meant for our wedding, with its dramatic shape and deep meaning. I remembered when he’d given it to me, explaining the white stood for innocence. I had stifled a giggle then. I could find no humor now. Yes, it would be fitting.
I knew what was coming. But what I had read so far was much more horrifying than I’d expected. I didn’t want to continue. How could I have been so stupid as to forget it was my mother who had destroyed the northern clans, taken the families from everyone I knew? As they stood protecting me, the betrayal I’d felt before was gone. In its place was a new hurt, a heart-rending sorrow.
They heard my sobs. I was aware of their eyes on me before they uncomfortably turned away again. Chevelle approached me warily as I lay curled in a ball on my blankets, the book positioned in front of me. He tossed it aside but I no longer cared. He sat behind me and pulled me into his arms, holding me as I wept. It was more right than anything had been in a long, long time.
I woke with new resolve. I stood, prepared to make things right, but something was… off. The group surrounded me, tense. I glanced around but couldn’t see why.
And then, from nowhere, I was thrown into the air. I landed hard against my back. I slid down, barely standing on my feet. Someone was in front of me. Ruby. I threw my hands back to steady myself. It felt like a wall of stones behind me. I didn’t look back, though, because just as I’d regained my footing, I heard the howls.
Before the next breath, a new sound—a closer sound—filled my ears. Shoosh, shoosh, shoosh. It took longer than it should have to realize they were arrows. My mind couldn’t seem to process the scene fast enough. Before I could distinguish the threats, they were changing. The hands I’d splayed against the wall of stones for support were now in bonds. I forced myself to look away from Ruby’s back, her arms stretched out defensively, to see what was holding me.
My breath came then, fierce and gasping. Panic. Long vines were wrapping tightly around my wrists, reaching out for my legs. I burned my right wrist free, fighting to reach my sword before they grew back. Large thorns burst from the vines on my legs and pierced my skin like daggers. I barely had the capacity to hope they weren’t poison. I sliced at them furiously, but I wasn’t fast enough. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of lightning and it confused me for a moment; no storm was near.
A vine wrapped my shoulder, jerking me back. I was trapped. I looked to Ruby, but she could not help me now. Beyond her, a line of long flowing robes marched through the mist… coming for us.
The sight gave me strength, or courage, or blinding stupidity. I didn’t know, but I went with it with everything I had. I was trapped against the wall, unable to move, but there was one thing I could do.
The sun broke through the clouds and I saw precisely what I needed. A shadow crossed the ground in front of us, a hawk flying overhead. The corner of my mouth pulled up in a smile as I closed my eyes to join him.
The scene from above was just as incomprehensible. I focused on one thing at a time. Directly below me, I saw Grey. He was caught, wrapped in vines as my own body was. But there were flames circling his feet. I followed his gaze to find his opponent, and then dove.
I hadn’t put much planning in this, but I was still running on adrenaline. I decided the fastest course of action was pecking his eyes out. It worked. He threw his hands up, covering his face, screaming. But he did not attack me. As I rose back to find my next target, I saw the wolves. They were also not being attacked, fighting with no opposition. And then I remembered what Chevelle had said. They would not kill the animals.
As I laughed, the hawk screeched, and Chevelle and Steed glanced up at the sound. They were fighting, almost back to back, the bodies of councilmen strewn around them. I surveyed the land, searching for a stronger animal to jump to, something more harmful. I ran through my options—where was a quill pig when you needed it?—but I wasn’t able to find anything near. Evidently the fight had cleared the mountain. All right, so it was just the hawk. And the horses. I quickly passed through their minds, urging them to stampede, and then returned to the sky.
When I entered the bird again, something was wrong. It wasn’t only the bird, someone was there. Someone else. The shock of it threw me back to my own mind. My eyes shot open and I scanned the scene again.
I forgot what I was looking for when I recognized a face, hooded in a cloak, fighting against her own. Junnie. She stared back at me for one brief moment before she turned to fight some invisible foe.
The stunned moment took the last of the borrowed courage from me, and I drew in, afraid, as my body remained encaged in vine and thorns. My legs were wet with blood, arms deadened to the pain and cold. I became aware of an unbroken chant, a voice I didn’t recognize, and I turned, stunned again, as I saw Asher. He wasn’t in the battle. He stood back, seemingly a bystander as the words flowed from his barely moving lips. Then he ran.
Confusion again as Junnie followed after him. Chased him.
Ruby’s whip cracked in front of me and I knew the advance had gotten too far. And I was tied to a wall. Why hadn’t they killed me already? I waited for the flames.
What came instead was far more excruciating.
I expected to collapse as my body disconnected from my mind, but the vines held me in place. I saw a few final flickers of the battle before my eyes looked toward the sky, rolling back into my head. I had no way of forming a coherent thought or I might have been afraid.