Mist & Whispers (23 page)

With both their assailants focused on the girls’ questions, Anya began to wriggle her feet, slowly and one at a time, making only small movements so as not to attract attention. ‘So how did you get out?’

‘A business arrangement.’

‘With him?’ Anya said, sneering at Eleazar.

‘Not quite. Both myself and Eleazar had much to gain from the arrangement; we’d have been fools not to take the opportunity when it was presented to us.’

‘Presented by who?’

‘He didn’t reveal his name.’

‘And what did he get out of it? He had to have got something, otherwise why would he have bothered?’

‘Well, why is any man driven to madness? A woman, of course. He had a particular interest in the Queen.’

‘Morcades, I think it’s about time you stunt that tongue of yours. Let’s get these two back to the castle. The Princess will be waiting for you.’

One of Anya’s feet was almost free when the mention of Theone’s sister – the woman who had the jewel they needed to find their way home – rendered her too shocked to move. ‘What, Princess Abeytu is in on this?’

‘Ha! How laughable!’ Morcades snickered. ‘The Princess of purity conspiring with dark minds! Of course she isn’t, otherwise I wouldn’t have had half the difficulty in convincing her to be my queen.’

Anya’s sneer at the Self-Proclaimed King turned to pure detest. ‘You sold out your sister and your brother’s wife for some stupid castle? You’re sick!’

‘I’ve been called worse, your opinions mean nothing to me,’ he said, seeming to brush off the comment without a care, though the roots tightened around her chest at her outburst.

‘But if you’re the God of the Damned,’ Steph said, ‘why don’t you just kill her? Then she’d be with you in the hell or
Damnare
or whatever you call it.’

Anya twisted in her binds, trying to give Steph a little nudge with her elbow. ‘Don’t give them ideas!’ She narrowed her eyes at her friend, seizing another opportunity to keep Eleazar and Morcades looking in one direction whilst in the other, she shook off the last few roots, completely freeing her feet.

‘Ha! You really are funny, little birdy. As if that hadn’t occurred to me. All fluff and no brains,’ he said, patting her on the head. ‘If I were to take her life, her innocent soul would go to the other place, and I’d lose her forever. Besides, I don’t want to just
take
her. I want her to give herself to me, willingly. Then I really shall have won.’

‘Morcades!’ a frustrated Eleazar shouted.

‘Yes, yes, don’t get your wings in a flutter,
Sire
. Well, girls, it appears we shall have to continue this back at the castle.’ He approached the girls, lingering over them and breathing in their presence. ‘Do... Do I detect magic?’

Anya remembered the mageium on her vambrace and bit her lip. Even if she did manage to break free, if they took her vambrace she’d be left powerless and unable to defend herself.

‘Wait here,’ he said to Eleazar. ‘I shall return with the Dark Blood in a moment.’ Morcades shimmered into nothingness, and Anya decided now was the only chance she had. With her feet unbound, she kicked through the roots connecting her to the ground and threw herself at Eleazar, both of them tumbling across the forest floor. The roots around her upper body loosened, and she managed to wriggle free enough to turn. ‘STEPH, RUN!’

Steph tried fighting against the roots, kicking repeatedly, but her strength was no match for Anya’s.

Eleazar’s clammy and callous hands seized Anya, but he struggled to keep a good hold on her. Her elbow connected with his groin and he bawled, relinquishing his grip on her and clutching the spot where she’d delivered the pain.

She used the seconds it gave her to roll away to Steph’s aid, but as she pulled at the botanical chains, more roots slithered towards them. From every possible angle, they were cornered.

‘ANYA, JUST GO!’

‘No, I won’t leave you!’

The new roots were already replacing the ones Anya had pulled off Steph before she’d even finished breaking the originals.

‘It’s no use, get out of here while you still can, you can get help!’

Steph’s plea went unheard. Eleazar was on his feet, and he roared – a roar that sounded as if it came from the depths of Damnare itself. A force followed; an almighty power that knocked Anya off her feet and flew her through the air like shrapnel after an explosion.

She smashed through the forest, the trees bowling over in her wake. She felt herself descending, and she could hear Eleazar’s frustrated screams die with the distance as she hit the ground. But she didn’t stop there. As she crashed, she began to tumble, down, down, down, hitting bushes and tree branches as she coursed down a steep brake in the land.

She landed flat on her chest when she finally reached level ground, the wind escaping her body and disorientating her.

Gasping and spluttering, she slowly rose to her knees, hand to chest, the fire inside burning intensely, and she looked back in the direction from which she came.

She had to get back to Steph. She couldn’t leave her behind.

Then time stopped, and the words Lysippe had not long spoken returned to her.
“A moment is coming soon where you need to go against your instincts. I need you to remember that sometimes you must leave things behind to move forward.”

Really?
Anya thought.
This soon?

Against every moral fibre knitted into her soul, she turned and ran into the darkest part of the forest.

As she ran, the magnitude of everything that was happening finally dawned on her.

This place, and every living person in it, was counting on her for salvation, and here she was, too weak to free one single person.

She hadn’t realised how much she’d banked on the prophecy. It had been a safety net this whole time, her self-belief completely invested in a lie. If Lysippe was right, there was no guarantee she could save this land. There never was.

And the Totem... if the animal spirit guides really could see things, they must have known that this would happen. How could they lead them into that? And now Steph was alone with Theone’s treacherous brother and the God of the Damned.

Questions boiled over in her brain until her head felt like it was going to explode. Her feet were racing so fast, the trees were reduced to a blur, undefined streaks of white warped in a world of chaos and obscurity.

Muffled voices started to break through her haze and for a breath she pushed them away, believing them to be the whispers of the maddening Darkness.

It wasn’t until her heart became an inferno that she stopped, though instead of the sudden increase of heat causing pain, the burn only made her feel warm, and safe. Now the voices were clear, and her vision was back in focus. She turned, and through the trees she saw a welcomed face.

King Theone. And he wasn’t alone.

Lorcan was by his side.

T
HE PAIRING WAS
so unlikely, it took Anya by surprise. ‘What are you two doing here? And together?’

‘He finally listened to me.’

The King shot Lorcan a tart look and began talking over him. ‘After the Potentilla and the trip to Silver Forest, I wasn’t going to let you leave again without being close behind. I knew he would be able to sense if you were in danger, so I decided to keep him close. Just as well, by the look of it.’

‘You’ve been following us this whole time?’

‘Well, we were a half day behind, but yes, and it proved my instincts right. This was too dangerous for you. I never should have allowed this journey. It was too soon and you haven’t had enough training.’

‘Are you okay?  You look hurt.’ This was Lorcan. He stepped closer, assessing the wounds she’d collected from her flight through the forest.

‘Harrion told me what happened, both in Toldess Pass and in the city,’ Theone continued, pushing Lorcan aside and taking a look at her cuts and bruises for himself. ‘Sit. Let me heal this.’

‘I’m not worried about these,’ Anya said, politely taking her arm back and covering the gash on her shoulder with her little capped sleeve. ‘All I care about is saving Steph.’ Leaving Steph behind was still sitting wrong in her stomach, and without stopping for air, she vomited everything that had happened with Eleazar and Morcades, bringing up almost every detail – how the King’s family were still alive, how the castle must still be there considering Eleazar and Morcades said they were going to take her and Steph back to it, and how Eleazar had made a deal with some man, giving him the dark rule of the Kingdom in exchange for Lynessa, Theone’s wife.

Something stopped her mentioning Lysippe and the revelation that the prophecy wasn’t actually real. Now wasn’t the time for lost hope.

‘So, somewhere between you sending your sister and your wife into Silver forest with your brother, and Lorcan finding the village burning to the ground, Eleazar paid off this guy by handing Lynessa over to him, and set the whole thing up so that it looked like an ambush, leaving Lorcan to take the blame.’

‘To assure we didn’t go after him, no doubt. He always was so calculating, my brother – NO! No, not my brother. He is no longer my brother.’ Theone’s eyes burned with pure hatred as he ripped the medallion from his neck and threw it amongst the dead leaves on the forest floor.

Lorcan and Anya watched, waiting for him to say something else, to give instruction, but the silence only grew thicker. Then something seemed to break inside him, and the chivalry that had been holding him together broke He unsheathed his sword and he took out his anger on the trees beside him, slashing chunks of bark and dead wood as if it would somehow work like a voodoo doll, passing on the inflicted injuries to his betrayer.

He sunk the sword deep into the heart of the ravaged oak and fell to his knees, his hands shaking but not leaving the hilt.

It was the first time she’d ever heard a man weep with such despair.

‘We need to take back the castle,’ he said, rising and wiping the grief from his face. ‘Is he still in the forest?’

‘Yes, but –’

‘Lorcan. Take Anya back to the camp. I’m taking back my Kingdom.’ The gentle King Anya knew was gone. His eyes, white with fury, his voice, the venom... this side of him was unnerving.

‘Theone, wait.’ She was gentle but firm, a hand placed on his arm the only force she used to stop him. Theone was usually the epicentre of calm and wisdom; they’d never take back the castle if he lost it. This had to be done right.

‘I know the urge to rip his throat out is really strong right now, believe me, I know. He has Steph! But losing our heads and storming into something without thinking sounds like suicide to me.’ Theone closed his eyes and took a long breath. ‘And I’m sure if this was the other way around, you’d be saying the same thing to me.’

Another breath and he opened his eyes. One more and he turned back to face Anya. ‘Harrion said he saw the castle. I was foolish, I should have worked it out. I should have listened to my son – ’

‘You should have listened to a lot of people,’ Lorcan said, sullen and brash.

Anya couldn’t chide him for it. Sure, the King’s life had been ripped apart by his own brother, but after what Theone’s men had done to Lorcan throughout his years of captivity, on his orders... it was a wonder that Lorcan hadn’t incinerated him.

Theone sighed. ‘I deserved that. I’m sorry. I should have listened to you too.’

Lorcan nodded, cold but without another word.

‘My guess is that Eleazar would have used an enchantment to make the castle unseen and unobtainable to onlookers, so no one would challenge the throne once he got his hands on it.’

‘How did Harrion see it then?’ Anya said.

‘Probably by poor casting on Eleazar’s part. Protective enchantments such as that require great skill. If you do not separate yourself from the magic whilst you cast it, you yourself will become an ingredient in the charm. Remove yourself from the area you are protecting, the enchantments weaken until you return.’

‘So, there is still time, if we move quickly, we could take the castle whilst he’s not in there?’

‘No. We have no idea of Eleazar’s numbers but I assume he must have a great deal, otherwise who would he have to rule over? We can’t round up enough men in time for a siege. When I learned what had happened at Toldess Pass, I connected with Linos and told him to deploy the Crown Guard. They’ll have barely made it half way. It’ll be another day at least before they reach us here.’

‘Another day? We can’t leave Steph with them for a whole day. You didn’t see the way he looked at us. We need to get her out of there before he really hurts her.’ She shuddered at the thought.

‘Hey,’ Lorcan assured her, his thumb gracing the strip freckles along the curve of her cheek as their eyes met. ‘We’ll think of something. We’ll find a way to get her back.’

‘We need to get into the castle,’ Theone said. Anya could almost see the mechanisms of his mind whirring around, trying to figure out a way to make it possible. ‘My sister is still in there, and with any luck, more of my people. If only there was a way of taking down the enchantments.’

‘Can’t you do that? Go to the banks of Castle Lake and use your magic?’

‘No. Enchantments like that need to be taken down from within. I need to get past the enchantment and inside somehow.’

‘I could get in. They’re probably looking for me now, if I go back and let myself get caught, that’s where they’ll take me. I can’t do magic but I could try and find the Princess – ’

‘No, that won’t work. If the legends are true and they are feeding her Dark Blood, she’ll be stripped of her abilities until it wears off. I suspect, as she hasn’t ever got away, they are keeping her topped up with it.’ Theone rubbed at his forehead, his eyes closed, searching through all the possibilities. Then he looked at Anya, in that way someone looks at you when they know something you don’t. ‘I have an idea. It’s dangerous, not to mention immoral. You don’t have to say yes, but it’s the only way in I can see.’

‘Go for it. I’ll do anything if it means we get Steph back,’ she said.

‘There is a way to pass magic on to someone who doesn’t possess the abilities, though the power isn’t as strong, and it’s not permanent. It would give you a few hours, four at best. It wasn’t considered good ethics in the days before the Darkness, but given that this may yet be our darkest hour yet, I think we can make an allowance.’

‘So, I’d have magic powers?’

‘For a short time, yes.’

Anya considered this for a while. In any other circumstance, having magical abilities would have been the ultimate in cool, but this was serious. Steph’s life and the fate of Virtfirth would be riding all on her, and now she knew the prophecy wasn’t real, success was no longer a given. Anything could happen. She could fail her friends, fail Theone, and fail the whole Kingdom. What if she couldn’t control the power once she had it? What if she was as skilled with magic as she was with a sword?

The way she saw it, she didn’t have a choice. Either she would go along with the idea, save Steph, free the Princess from Morcades and rid the Darkness from the Kingdom, or she’d die trying.

‘I’ll do it.’

‘Good. I’ll need to switch some of my blood for yours, and show you how to counter the enchantments.’

‘Why switch it with mine, won’t that weaken your powers?’

‘Not enough to affect me. And we must switch to ensure you don’t have too much blood running through your veins. Too much blood in one’s body and it can stop the heart from beating.’

‘Wait,’ Lorcan said, looking at Anya with both admiration and concern. ‘You said Morcades could sense the magic in your vambrace, and that he was going to make you drink the Dark Blood? Well, if you pass on the magic, won’t it be taken away as soon as she drinks that stuff?’

‘He’s right,’ Theone said, burying his head in his hands. ‘He’ll sense the magic in you straight away. We’ll have to think of something else.’

‘Maybe not,’ Anya said, this time knowing something Theone didn’t. ‘I think I know a way we can get round it.’

THE PLANS WERE
put into place in quick time. At Anya’s request, Theone summoned something from the camp for her part of the plan, which she stowed in the bag Trace had given her. Then he sent a message telepathically to Linos, ordering him to rally the Crown Guard ready to fly them out to the Big City on horseback. Lorcan had volunteered to keep the Black Dragon busy whilst the King’s men made way, an offer that Theone was most humbled by.

‘We have wronged you for so long, and yet you wish to stay and fight at our sides. You are a better man than I believed.’

Lorcan shifted uncomfortably. ‘I’m not fighting for you,’ he told the King, and his eyes fell upon Anya.

She was perched on a group of rocks, retying the laces of her Converse trainers. They’d taken almost as bad a battering as she had herself. She looked up as the words left his mouth, and though he didn’t say anything else, she got the impression that he left something unsaid. He gave her a parting smile and took off, into the sky.

‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ As the King spoke, all the majesty disappeared from his tone, and for the first time Anya heard his paternal voice.

‘I’m sure.’

‘You know, I think about what my daughter would have been like, had she still been here with us. I would like to think she would have been like you. Smart – courageous – fiery. Full of heart. I believe your parents would be proud if they could see how far you have come.’

He could never have known that such beautiful sentiment would carry such a sting. A moment passed where only the silence of the forest could be heard. She could feel her eyes welling, but couldn’t bring herself to explain she’d never known who her parents were.

Theone removed his gauntlet, keeping his eyes on Anya. ‘This isn’t going to be easy, and it’s going to feel strange for a while, but it’ll be bearable.’

‘Perfect,’ she said, her use of sarcasm masking the terrible sickly feeling building in the pit of her stomach. ‘So, if you give me your blood, why does it only last a few hours? I was terrible at science, but shouldn’t it last all the time your blood runs through my body?’

‘Think of it like two armies going to war – they’ll attack each other, your blood and mine, but your blood will win the fight simply because there is more of it. It’ll get to work straight away, destroying my blood and with it, my abilities. Once you’re inside, you must move swiftly.’

‘Right,’ she said.

‘Give me your arm,’ he instructed, and as she did so, he locked his hand around it, allowing their wrists to rest together.

‘First, I will need your blessing, otherwise it cannot work. I need you to give me something of yours, something personal, as a sign of your consent.’

Something personal?
She quickly surveyed what she had about her that she could give him, then when the idea popped into her head, she didn’t hesitate. She leant over and placed a kiss on the King’s cheek. ‘You have my blessing,’ she said.

‘I’m honoured,’ Theone smiled. ‘Now, it will be quick but don’t flinch once I start. Veins are a delicate thing to cast over.’

Anya swallowed hard, the sickly feeling still churning, her stomach beginning to bubble and rise. She watched with conflicting fascination and fear as he raised his free hand and let it linger around the place where their wrists met.