Witch Queen (12 page)

“No?” The priest’s voice was louder now,
closer. “That’s too bad. Tell me, did you know she wasn’t born in
the Pit but came from Fransia? Did she ever tell you that?”

He paused, and for a moment I feared that he
spoke the truth. I felt myself lean towards his voice. I wanted to
gouge out the bastard’s eyes with my own hands.

“I’ll take that as a
no
,” continued
the high priest. His voice still rang with that melodic tone that
implied he clearly enjoyed the sound of his own voice.

“Surrender to me now…and I’ll let the old
hag live. If not, I will cut out her lovely brown eyes. Then I’ll
cut out her tongue. She does have a mouth on her, doesn’t she? And
then I’ll let my guards have their way with her. She’s old and
dreadfully ugly, yes, practically a corpse really, but she’s still
a female.”

Bile burned my throat, and I gritted my
teeth so hard they hurt as I struggled with the revulsion I felt. I
wished my magic could help me distinguish truths from lies, but I
knew it couldn’t. I couldn’t. My breath was ragged, but I said
nothing.

I sobbed like a child, but I pulled Torak
and kept moving forward, doing my best to ignore the worried
glances from my men. I needed to be stronger than this.

“You cannot hide from me forever, Steel
Maiden. Or shall I call you Elena? This world is not as big as you
might think. I
will
find you. It’s only a matter of time.
Come now, or you and your friends will suffer the consequences. And
I promise you will feel pain like you’ve never felt before.”

I tried to shut the voice out of my head and
plunged into the thick and tangle of the forest.

A crack like thunder resonated throughout
the forest.

Torak let out a high-pitched squeal and
thrashed violently, trampling the ground. The reins slipped through
my grip cutting deep gashes into my palms. I stumbled and fell
back. White showed around Torak’s eyes, and his nostrils flared in
terror. I thought he was about to bolt, and I sprung to my feet and
grabbed his reins in my bloodied palms. The other horses shifted
nervously, too, and their heads all pointed behind me.

I smelled it before I felt it.

My eyes watered at the sour burning vapors
that smelled of bile and rotten meat, like the pungent reek of a
long-dead animal. I turned around slowly.

A figure stumbled out of the shadows of
forest behind us. It looked human, or it had once been human. Its
arms hung in threads of flesh, and its head was mostly bare skull
with milky white eyes and a hollow, gaping, toothless mouth.
Although it was completely naked, the body was in such state of
decay there was no telling if it had been female or male at one
time. It was unquestionably dead. I suppressed the urge to vomit. A
thick yellow viscous substance coated its rotten body, and I
realized it was the bile I’d smelled. It was as though something
large had regurgitated it. I tried hard not to think what that
thing might have been.

The undergrowth started to move, and then a
whole army of these putrid bodies staggered out of the forest. They
were coming at us from every side.

Ada had said the priests were necromancers,
sorcerers capable of raising the dead and opening portals into
otherworldly dimensions. This was but a glimpse of their black
magic. I felt the men stiffen, but no one moved.

“Soon we’ll be together again, Steel
Maiden.”

The high priest’s voice seemed to be
amplified by the forest.

“We have so much to discuss. So much has
happened since you and I last spoke. This world is changing, making
room for the true rulers, the true gods. Of course, you’ve only
seen the black blight. But there’s so much more, much, much more.
Let’s see what you make of my revenants.”

I bit down hard to keep from screaming and
tasted blood in my mouth. But I didn’t move.

My companions had caught on because they
remained still and silent. I could only hear Torak’s faint
breathing.

The dead were rolling their heads around, as
though they were looking for something, looking for us. Their eyes
were rotten, possibly blind, and I sensed that they hadn’t seen us
yet. If we were silent, we might have a chance to escape. Just as I
turned to the others and signaled for stealth—Torak and the other
horses squealed.

The dead turned their heads towards the
horses in unison.

“What the hell are those things?” Leo was
just ahead of me.

“Death. Now run!”

The high priest laughed, and I sprang
clumsily forward. I could see flashes of silver as my companions
drew their swords.

A harsh inhuman cry like the squeal of a
broken bellows sounded behind us, and we thrashed, blind and
frightened, into the forest.

We were heading in all directions, running
wild, afraid for our lives. We weren’t following Nugar any longer.
In the madness our group had fallen apart.

“Stay together!” I shouted.

Max dashed by to my left without his
horse.

“Max stop! You’ll get lost. Come back!
Max!”

But my cries fell on deaf ears. I didn’t
have time to look for Max’s horse. I only prayed the animal was
swift enough to get away.

A flash of red hair up ahead disappeared in
the shadows behind a giant oak tree.

I pressed on, not knowing where I was going.
All I knew was that the dead were still behind me. I had to keep
going.

I sensed and smelled that the dead were
beginning to encircle us. They were going to trap us. It was harder
and harder to keep Torak from bolting because his reins kept
slipping from my bloodied hands.

Sweat trickled down my neck and back. And
then I smelled smoke. Somewhere the forest was on fire.

A cry pierced the air, and I recognized
Max’s deep voice.

With fingers wet with sweat and blood, I
pulled out my short sword and urged Torak to my left, following the
cry. I was there within moments, but not fast enough.

Five of the dead things were biting and
clawing at Max’s face and neck. They were chewing on his flesh like
rabid animals. Max howled and screamed, but then his scream turned
into a wet gurgle and died in his throat. Max’s mouth hung open and
silent as one of the dead things tore a gaping hole in his neck and
began to feast on his flesh. Before I could move, Max’s head
slipped away from his body and landed at his feet.

The creatures looked up when I approached.
They angled their heads in thought, enough to show some kernel of
intelligence. They smelled me and Torak.

I spit the bile from my mouth and ran.

The dead shambled like drunks. Their arms
and legs were clearly not fully under control. That was good. It
would make them slower. They looked as if they were drunk on blood
and guts. It made me feel sick but a little more hopeful.

The trees thinned out, and I could see the
soft light of a clearing up ahead. If I could make it there, at
least I could see what was coming at me and could defend myself.
The air turned thick with gray smoke that burned my eyes and
throat. Torak shifted nervously beside me. He was as terrified of
the smoke as I was. I didn’t know which was worse, burning to death
or being eaten.

My breath caught in my throat as a flash of
green like a cape wavered behind the trees. It was moving too fast
to be anything natural. What was it?

I decided to avoid this new threat and made
a right turn. The dead had caught up to me and rammed into me from
both sides.

I cried as they leaped on me, and my breath
was knocked out as I fell to the ground. The reins slipped from my
hand, and Torak bolted.

Cold fingers pierced the flesh of my abdomen
like knives. They were going for my guts, my arteries, and my
heart. I gripped the jaw of the dead thing that was on me and
shoved her head up with a wrenching thrust. The agony of her bite
eased as her head snapped back and her mouth lost its grip on my
skin. Blood coursed down the front of my shirt.

I screamed and screamed until my voice
broke. I slashed blindly with my sword, but they were weighing me
down. I felt my strength leaving me. My breath was ragged and
seemed to burn a hole through my throat.

The dead didn’t appear to have any visible
teeth that I could see. They were tearing at my flesh with rotten
gums. I could feel the warmth of my magic trying to heal what it
could, but there were too many mouths sucking my blood and too many
fingers tearing at my flesh.

I screamed until my voice broke. It didn’t
matter anymore. No one was coming for me. They were probably
already dead.

If I had to pick the worst way to die, it
would be to be eaten alive by the dead.

I couldn’t move any more. The ground had
become wet and smelled heavily of copper. My blood pulsed behind my
eyes, and my mind began to muddle. My last thoughts were of Jon’s
soft, luscious lips on mine and the feel of his strong body holding
me warm and close.

I clung to the thoughts of Jon as I waited
for death to take me. Tears sprang hot in my eyes as I felt the
suction of their mouths on my body. The black smoke burned my
lungs, and I could hardly breathe.

I felt warm, however, and not cold. I
thought I would feel cold if I were close to death. I couldn’t tell
if I was healing. Maybe I was too far gone, and my magic couldn’t
repair me.

My face burned, like I was too close to a
fire, but I was too tired to move my head.

Suddenly, I felt the weight lift from my
body. The sucking and biting stopped, and I lay still and
listened.

Had the dead left? Had they fed on me enough
and gone in search of their next victim?

I propped myself up on my elbows.

Liquid walls of orange flames surrounded me.
It was blazing hot, and yet I did not burn. I could smell burned
flesh, but it wasn’t mine.

I could hear howling, and I could see
through the wall of fire. The dead were fleeing through the forest.
They were running from the flames, but they weren’t fast
enough.

I watched as the fire slipped along the
forest floor like a giant snake. It moved with a mind of its own,
skipping trees and shrubs and going only for the dead. It was the
most unnatural thing I’d ever seen, and I couldn’t look away. It
was smart fire, magic fire, and it was both beautiful and
terrifying.

The dead collapsed, completely engulfed by
the magic fire. They twitched a few final times until there was
nothing left of them but piles of black ash. The fire swallowed the
last of their moans, and then the forest was silent once again.

I could see countless more piles of ash
through the fire and smoke. A few branches glowed red with embers.
Then a strange wind picked up, and the embers were burned and
blackened until only small wisps of smoke coiled up from them. The
ashes of the dead caught in the breeze and fell around me like
snow.

I was so engrossed with the scene that I
didn’t notice someone standing above me and that the wall of fire
had disappeared.

I looked up into the shadowed face of the
strangest man I’d ever seen. His waist-long hair was the color of
grass and flowed around him in a windless breeze. His brown cloak
swished around his ankles and revealed clothes that were
emerald and gold. His front was
emblazoned with a golden tree, and a
broad sword was
sheathed around his waist. Although his face was hidden in the
shadow, I could see the deep scowl of concentration. His skin was
wrinkled like someone who had spent his life outdoors. His arms
were outstretched in front of him like he was about to welcome a
friend. But it was the traces of fire that had me mesmerized. Fire
danced along his palms and fingers and then disappeared. Magic.

Strangely, I wasn’t frightened. The stranger
bent over me and then lifted me up in his strong arms. I was
surprised at his gentleness. I heard voices all around, and then
someone shouted my name. But I couldn’t reply, and I didn’t have
the strength to keep my eyes open.

My head fell onto his chest. He smelled of
pine and nuts and spring. It was a familiar smell. But as I tried
to remember where I’d smelled that scent before, darkness slid over
me like a blanket.

CHAPTER 10

I
DIDN’T KNOW HOW much time had
passed when I finally opened my eyes again.

I blinked into a blue sky and bright sun,
and I welcomed the warm, glorious rays on my face. I could still
smell the scent of pine, of spruce, of leaves and vast greenery, so
I knew I wasn’t far from the Anglian woodlands. I just wasn’t
in
them.

I lay on my back on something soft, not one
of the feathered mattresses the rich owned, but it was still very
comfortable considering I was out in the wilderness. I felt dizzy.
My stomach ached with hunger, but I was alive and probably felt
better than I should have, seeing as I had almost been eaten alive
by an army of dead things. I could feel that my clothes were hard
and damp. I was still soaked with my own blood. I wrinkled my nose
at my own musty smell, and the strong coppery smell of blood. My
hair was stuck to my forehead and face. I was a mess but I was
alive.