Cloak of Darkness (The Destroyer-Blessed Saga Book 1)

by Sara E. Tonissen

  Snow White slowed her steps at the sound of fear in her son’s voice, but she did not stop her march toward her menace until she stood before her. Queen Snow White fanned her skirts around her until she was kneeling in front of Red. Her milky hand reached forward, her fingers about to touch the face of Red Riding Hood, notorious criminal and assassin, when Red’s head shot up, her hood falling back.

  The guards launched into position, the ones holding Red dragging her away while the rest formed a protective shield around their queen. But their power could not hold back the determined queen as she pushed past them to behold the face before her.

  The striking emerald green eyes of the girl were a perfect reflection of another pair that the queen had known long ago. Queen Snow White could not fathom the possibilities that had brought their fates together.

  “This is not possible,” the queen protested. She stumbled backwards toward the throne, the guards dumbly watching as their queen teetered around them. Her knees gave out, her arms barely strong enough to catch her as she dropped to the floor.

  Prince Sampson rushed to his mother’s side, the guards finally stepping away to allow him to pass. He paid no heed to the rest of the room as he used his body to support his mother. Snow White leaned against her son as if he were the only thing left able to hold her up.

  Queen Snow White grabbed onto Sampson, her white-knuckled fingers digging into the fabric of his jacket as she rose on wobbly legs. The prince wrapped an arm around his mother, fear and confusion rushing over him as he demanded for someone to send for the royal physician.

  “Clear the room,” Snow White stammered, a quivering hand reaching up to calm the pounding in her chest. “Clear the room,” she demanded, her voice growing stronger with each word. “Now!”

  There was no scraping of chairs. No shuffle of skirts against legs. No tapping of steps against the marble floor. No movement from any servant, guard, or councilwoman despite the queen’s clear order.

  “I do not need the royal physician,” Queen Snow White thundered. Her eyes were locked onto Red’s hunched figure even as she spoke to the rest of the room. “I gave my orders. Clear the room.”

  The protests of the court sounded throughout the room. Accusations against their menace and demands for her punishment rang through the domed ceiling, but Snow White ignored their voices. It took one look from their queen, however, and the twelve councilwomen and their husbands stepped down from the dais.

  The maids and butlers were much more willing to leave. What they had witnessed would create enough gossip to last the rest of the month. Their whispers began to echo through the servants’ passageways the moment they took their first step across the threshold.

  The guards were the most reluctant to leave their posts. It was their royal duty to follow their queen’s orders, but it was also their duty to protect the crown, the head it sat upon, at all costs. The youngest guards slowly shuffled out of the room. The more experienced men could only stand before their queen in dumbfounded confusion.

  “The guards in control of Red Riding Hood may remain,” Snow White stated to ease the tension of the head guard. She nodded at him to replace the guards around the assassin with his best men, and he took his place beside the queen and the prince.

  Red watched the spectacle in awe, her mouth falling open like a dead fish. She had never seen such loyalty amongst a group of palace workers. She had never even seen such obedience from the Kingdom Rogues. And Red doubted that she would ever get the chance to witness an event like that ever again.

  Once the guards were cleared, Prince Sampson finally got a good look at what, or who, had so deeply frightened his mother. His fingers tightened around his mother’s arm, caramel eyes growing wide in shock. He looked as though he were a Lossal deer frozen in the light of a faerie orb.

  Queen Snow White stepped out of her son’s embrace, a wave of her hand silencing his babbling protests. Her eyes were locked on Red’s as she took a tentative step forward. The queen paused, her hands wringing together as she considered what she was supposed to do next.

  “Give me your cloak,” Queen Snow White requested quietly.

  Red shook her head, her parted lips coming together to form a smirk. “My hands are shackled behind my back. Unlock me and it’s yours.”

  One of the guards grabbed a handful of Red’s hair, yanking her head back until she was looking upside down into his dark eyes. “Disrespect my queen again and I will have your tongue ripped out!” he snarled.

  “Mother, please stay back,” Sampson begged, his words finally coming back to him. “Please.”

  “Gentlemen, there is no need for such violence,” Snow White criticized, willfully ignoring her son’s pleas. She took another graceful step toward Red. “We are better than that. We are better than her.”

  The guards nodded at their queen, but their grips only tightened the closer she came toward the assassin. Every muscle was tense, jaws clenched in concentration as they prepared themselves to attack at any sudden movement.

  Red’s entire body was aching by the time Snow White reached her.

  Queen Snow White was pleased to see that Red’s smirk had finally disappeared when she was once again able to look down at her. The room’s tension reached its peak when the queen leaned forward, her nose inches from Red’s.

  Snow White reached her milk white hands out, her slim fingers still as stone as she reached for the knot in Red’s cloak. The guards grappled the stunned Red, their grasps already leaving bruises behind as they held onto the limp assassin.

  Not a breath was let out as the few remaining people waited for their queen to move away. Every heart stopped beating altogether when Snow White leaned closer, her mouth coming to rest by Red’s ear as she pulled her cloak from Red’s small shoulders. Ears strained as they tried, and failed, to hear what Queen Snow White said to Red Riding Hood.

  Red tried to lean away from the queen, but she had nowhere to move. No options left. Her breathing hitched in her throat when she heard what the queen had to say.

  “Tell your mother that her life debt has been repaid,” Queen Snow White breathed out, a small smile lining her rouge tinted lips.

  The group of guards dragged Red back the moment their queen stepped away. Swords were held to her throat, ready to pierce their menace the moment their queen gave them the word. Limbs were pulled at, leaving every major organ and vein vulnerable to their deadly blades.

  “Release her,” the queen demanded. She stepped past Sampson, returning to perch herself on her throne.

  When the guards did not listen to her command, Queen Snow White declared, “That was an order. Release her.”

  The guards reluctantly released Red from her shackles, but their hands did not lessen their grip on her arms. The protests of the head guard and Prince Sampson echoed throughout the throne room.

  Sampson quickly ascended the throne dais, his hands waving around as he tried to reason with his mother. “You can’t just let her go!”

  “I just did,” Queen Snow White stated plainly. “Leave my kingdom,” she demanded, her focus returning to Red. “Do not return ever again. You have one week before I send every last soldier to hunt you down.”

  Sampson stopped trying to argue with his mother, realizing that he would get nowhere with her in the current state. He tried his best to regain his dignity and the composure of a united front between Airaldan’s current and future ruler. He took a seat on his own throne, his jaw clenching with the effort to keep himself from yelling.

  “You will not cross these borders again,” Prince Sampson hissed. He caught his mother’s eye, hoping to understand what she was doing while still trying to keep the confidence in his statements. “If you do, we will know, and you will die.”

  “Release her,” Queen Snow White stated to the guards calmly, her hands clasped gently in her lap. Red’s dirty cloak was draped over the arm of her throne, sticking out like a sore thumb. She turned to look at Red. “I suggest you take my son’s word
s to heart. Enter Airaldan again, and you will be killed on sight.”

  The guards pushed Red to the ground, rushing to stand at the base of the throne dais. Each sword and shield glittered in the cast of the sunlight through the wall of windows. Every man hoped that Red would make a rash decision, each of their muscles straining in the hopes of getting the chance to slay her.

  Red numbly walked toward the servants’ passage. She ignored the sneers and snarls from the guards, their curses riding off them in waves of hatred. Red was only aware that she was alive. That she was a free woman.

  Before she reached the steps that would lead her to freedom, Red turned once more to look at Queen Snow White and Prince Sampson.

  Their eyes were dark, their expressions shaded as Red slowly bowed before the royalty, plucking a single rose petal from one of the numerous bouquets scattered around the room. She let it gently fall from her clasped hand.

  As she walked away, Sampson was ready to turn on his mother, but she held up her hand to silence him. In that silence the two pricked their ears to hear a soft whisper coming from their menace. That single rose petal slowly glowed pink before catching fire in the light from the evening sun.

  The pair barely managed to tear their gazes away from where the petal should have fallen to watch their no longer red-cloaked menace disappear down the servants’ passage; their show of power over the other kingdoms finally slipping through their fingers.

  Chapter 6

  The scene from the throne room played through Red’s head every step she took out of the palace and into Peragon’s streets. Each word was restated with every click of her heel. Every movement was recreated with each lift of her foot.

  Red swept her hands over her arms, across the new bruises on her stomach and ribs, through her hair. She was amazed to find that everything was intact. She was shocked to find that her heart was still beating inside her chest.

  Red was still puzzling over the day when four darkly cloaked figures leaped down from a nearby roof.

  “Well done, Red,” the front figure drawled, his tone matching the smirk that Red knew was on his face. “We thought you were dead meat the moment the city guards started dragging your sorry ass through the streets. It was quite the parade. Very festive.”

  “Jealous much, Dranac?” Red teased, crossing her arms defensively. “Think what you want about me, but I am still the best of the best. It would look poorly on my training if I couldn’t get out of those sorts of situations.”

  “You know, you’re right. I bet your impressive amounts of sarcasm charmed them and they just let you go.”

  Red stepped up to Dranac Gnorw, the boy removing his hood, blond hair falling to his shoulders. In the months she had been away, the boy’s once lanky body had gained sturdy muscle, his frame finally able to fill out his tunic. Despite the fact that he had been following her all those months, he looked well fed.

  And fed up.

  That same sour mood radiated off the defensive stances that Dranac’s companions had taken up. All three were armed to the teeth, ready for a fight, but no one moved out of the open area.

  To break the buildup of tension, Red asked, “So, how has it been following me these past few months? Have I been entertaining enough?”

  “This may be a blow to your ego, but it was quite horrible. I was bored the moment we left,” Dranac Gnorw replied, smiling down at Red. “When did you notice that we were following you?”

  “Oh, you know, just the moment I left the manor. Did I not just say that I’m the best?”

  “Yeah, the best at being a cocky little shit.”

  Dranac roughly threw an arm around Red, pulling her into an awkward sideways hug. Red was relieved that he was acting exactly as he had five months prior. But he could not hide the questions that plagued his sooty eyes. Red had just as many questions, if not more, that she had no idea how to answer.

  When her mind flew through the events of her day again, her smile turned into a frown and she inquired, “I thought you would be on your way back to the Rogue Manor by now. And since I’m not dead, don’t I still have more names on Arthur’s list?”

  “I wanted to see what you got charged with so Arthur would know,” Dranac casually stated, abruptly stepping away from Red. He jokingly tugged at the ends of her hair once more, but his eyes were shadowed as he spoke. “And Estra Ayrith was your last target.”

  “What do you mean Estra was my last target?” Red asked. “There should still be three people left.”

  Dranac fiddled with the straps of his travel pack, flat out ignoring Red’s impatient glare as he tried to come up with a snarky comeback.

  She stepped up to Dranac Gnorw, pushing him into the nearest brick wall. There was no room left for him to run, and the move clearly took him by surprise. Dranac laughed, but his expression darkened when he saw Red’s death-promising stare.

  “Jeez, impatient much?” Dranac jeered, his hair swung into his face as he looked down at Red. “The last three on your list got scared once they started learning about the deaths of their friends. You were hitting a lot of them in the first couple of months, so word got around quickly that Arthur was hunting people down.”

  Dranac leaned his head against the brick wall, his hands tucking behind his neck. He let out a yelp when Red dug the heel of her boot into his toe. The two gave each other matching dirty looks, one meant as a curse, the other as a demand to continue.

  “Apparently a couple of them grew tired of waiting for you to get ‘em,” Dranac Gnorw continued. He smirked down at Red, pleased that he held the power over her curiosity. “I guess they showed up to the manor, begging for mercy. Crying and snotting up the whole foyer. Arthur dealt with them.”

  “How pathetic,” Red commented, stepping away from Dranac. She let out a breath, relieved to know that she was finished from killing anyone else for the time being. “It makes my job easier, though.”

  “Oh, and I heard one of ‘em even killed his entire family,” Dranac added with a shrug. “He was so scared of what you’d do to his poor girlies.”

  Red threw him a disgusted scowl, but Dranac Gnorw leaned in and whispered, “Clearly he didn’t know that you don’t mess with families unless you have to, huh?”

  Red pushed him away. She let out a sigh, another set of guilty prayers sent on their way to the Maker. She ran a hand through her hair, considering what the news would mean to her. “When did you hear about this?”

  “Robyn brought the message a couple months ago, but I was given specific instructions not to tell you until you killed the witch.”

  “Robyn’s not a messenger.”

  “Robyn volunteered,” Dranac Gnorw said dryly, poison dripping from the other boy’s name. “I assume that he wanted to leave on good terms with Arthur, so he volunteered to deliver the message out.”

  Dranac’s final words hit Red in the chest like the guard’s boot in the throne room. She took a step back from their little gathering, hand reaching toward her bruised side as she tried to steady her rough breathing.

  Robyn Thorn was the only person who volunteered to rescue Red from the cursed prison in Craelon. They had trained together nonstop since her initiation into the Kingdom Rogues. Red considered him to be one of her few allies in the Rogue Manor.

  She had no idea that Robyn had planned on leaving. And Red was not sure if the fact that Robyn had left or the fact that he had not told her hurt more.

  “H-he left?” Red whispered, hating the shake in her voice before the words even made it past her lips.

  No one left the Kingdom Rogues. And those who did never managed to leave on good terms with Arthur Welin.

  Most traitors were taken out by the Kingdom Rogues within the first few months after they abandoned them. And that was only if they did not beat the Kingdom Rogues to the punch; the constant anxiety drew some of them to insanity.

  The thought that Robyn Thorn could have easily been her next target almost made Red hurl right onto Dranac’s dusty boots.

>   Red grasped at Dranac’s collar, slamming him against the brick wall again before he could even process what she was doing. She yanked him down, their faces barely inches apart. “You better not be fooling around with me, Dranac Gnorw,” Red fumed. “I swear to the Destroyer, if you’re pulling my leg, I’ll gut you. Right here. Right now.”

  “But you just got released,” Dranac snorted, his charcoal eyes filling with laughter as the girl half his size tried to shake him into submission. “I don’t think you’ll want to go back to the palace just because Robyn left us to fend for ourselves. What would it do to your reputation if the citizens of Cathal actually found out you cared about someone?”

  “I am this close,” Red cursed, scraping her nails against Dranac Gnorw’s cheek, white scratch marks reaching down to his chin. “This close to clawing your eyes out if I find out you’re lying.”

  “May the Maker strike me down with all her powerful magic if I’m lying,” Dranac Gnorw shouted into the sky. He threw his arms in the air in mocking emphasis.

  When the clear blue sky showed no sign of an oncoming lightning storm, he gave a confirming nod and began laughing in Red’s face. “The look on your face, I swear Red, it looked like you were gonna challenge the Maker herself and send lightning to strike me down just so you could prove me wrong.”

  Red threw Dranac’s cape from her hands, his body collapsing in a fit of giggles as he looked at the fire in her eyes. One of the figures grabbed at Dranac, pulling him into a standing position before angling a sword at Red.

  Wiping tears from his eyes, Dranac Gnorw coughed, turning serious. “Look, I know you two were friends and all, but he’s gone. He left before you barely made it out the door. I don’t know what to say; the trainees are heartbroken that Robyn’s not there anymore, but the Kingdom Rogue lifestyle isn’t for everybody.

  “With his skills we thought he would have eventually taken over, but I guess the guy just didn’t think that what we’re fighting for is worth it anymore. Now that we’ve got that settled, shall we head back home?”