Shadow Dancer

by Macie Cage

  They stopped in front of her door and at Caiden’s gesture, he knocked.

  Silence.

  “She might be hiding. Just go in.” Caiden’s voice was hushed in the eerily quiet hall, the chaos far removed from their current location.

  Evander took a deep breath. He just had to get Caiden into the room.

  “Marie? It’s Eva, I’m coming in, okay?” he called, though he was sure she wouldn’t be in the room. He shouldered open the door, taking two steps into the room before freezing.

  Marie. Sweet, tiny, beautiful little Marie. Her body was sprawled on the ground, still in her nightgown with a stuffed toy laying close to her hand. He recognized the tattered thing, it was something that he and Caiden had made for her when she’d fallen ill years prior. Her neck was twisted cruelly at an impossible angle, her strawberry blond curls laying bright across the rug. He didn’t want to look, but he didn’t have to. He could hear it now in his frozen state.

  The high bell that tolled above the alarm. One… Two… Three… And there, four. She didn’t need to die. She was perfect. She was the one. She was the perfect ruler. She wasn’t supposed to die, yet the evidence was there. Her death had been ordered.

  “Eva?”

  Evander jolted into motion again, backing up until he hit the Prince’s chest and he pushed, trying to keep Caiden from seeing past him. “Caiden, don’t.”

  “Evander, move.” Strong hands grabbed him by the shoulders and forcibly moved him aside.

  Evander watched the Prince stand in his sister’s doorway, processing what he was seeing. Then he watched him take a deep breath and straighten his spine.

  “Come on.”

  “What?”

  “We have to go.”

  “But—!”

  “We need to make sure that everyone loyal to me gets out safely.” The man’s voice was strong as he pushed past him again.

  Control over emotion: Check.

  Kingdom first: Check.

  The useless idiot suddenly wasn’t so useless after all. Caiden met every requirement that they had in place. He was fit to rule. So why were they doing this? Why did Marie have to die too? Why? The question repeated itself over and over in his head. Why were they doing this?

  “He’d have to do it before the coronation.” Evander felt his stomach flip. Ansom was taking over the throne.

  “Eva? Come on. We have to go.” Caiden was looking back at him.

  Both of them turned towards the noise that was quickly approaching. There was a large group of people coming behind them, and Evander was willing to bet they weren’t friendly. Caiden turned back to him, his eyes flicking back and forth, his hand tightening on his sword.

  He was trying to think of a plan.

  Evander made his choice, and he broke into a dead sprint straight for the Prince.

  He ignored the blatant fear and surprise on the man’s face at his fast approach, his arms rising into a defensive stance.

  Evander grabbed his arm on his way by. They couldn’t use the passages. They’d be cornered. They reached the end of the Princess’ hall, where it met with the larger corridor. There was yelling and a glance showed Ansom and his group of elites coming towards them.

  He ran the other way, straight for the dead end. Straight for that bright, full moon, subtly activating his ability.

  “EVANDER!” the infuriated roar echoed off the walls as Ansom’s bloodlust and rage was made horrifyingly apparent. Evander didn’t dare to look back, his hand tightening on the Prince’s arm and pulling him closer as he drew one of his heavier throwing daggers. He threw, not at their pursuers but at the window, the heavy weapon cracking the glass.

  “Eva!” Caiden screamed, catching on to what he was planning.

  He realized too late that it had been a warning as a knife buried itself in his shoulder. He grit his teeth and jumped, twisting around Caiden as his uninjured shoulder hit the weakened glass and shattered it. Then they were falling.

  Caiden clung onto him as Evander twisted, reaching for the castle wall. The moon threw their shadows against the stone and he tightened his hold on the Prince as he activated his ability. The air felt squeezed from his lungs as he dragged them through the shadow itself, focused on the shrubbery below them. There was a moment of vertigo before he was dragging them onto solid ground at the base of the wall.

  His head spun from the turnaround, but he had become used to the nauseating effect. Caiden, on the other hand, immediately started retching. He pulled the Prince up and found his next target on the other side of the courtyard, just beside the gate. He grabbed Caiden and stepped into the nearest shadow, stepping out beside the portcullis.

  Caiden was braced on his hands and knees beside him, dry heaving and dizzy if his swaying was anything to go by. Evander looked out past the iron gate and found the shadow of a building a short way down the road. He pulled the Prince back to his feet and jumped into the shadow they’d just vacated.

  His momentum carried them through to his destination, sending them airborne at an angle so he could hit the next shadow as he landed. The result was something that felt like a sickening form of flying and falling. It was going to hurt when he finally stopped but it was something he was willing to accept. So long as he maintained his focus, he would be able to keep going for hours.

  But that wasn’t taking into consideration his carrying the Prince.

  Caiden hadn’t said anything, clinging desperately to him, and Evander could tell he was trying not to be sick again. He managed to keep them going for almost thirty minutes, increasing the distance between every shadow until he could feel his control straining with the speed that they were traveling at. They had gone miles. He had no idea where they were or what direction they were going in. He only knew that he had to keep moving.

  Caiden suddenly became a deadweight. The sudden pull tore into his shoulder, making him yelp as he remembered the knife that was still stuck deep in the tissue. His focus snapped and he barely had time to try and slow them down, thickening the shadow they were about to jump through and dragging them through it rather than falling into it. It deposited them almost thirty yards away from their prior location.

  He landed on his hands and knees, his limbs trembling with fatigue. His head ached and he coughed, bile rising in the back of his throat. They couldn’t stop. They had to keep going. He clenched his hands into fists and hissed as even that small action brought searing pain to his shoulder. He spat and dragged himself up to his feet, pulling at Caiden.

  The Prince groaned, and Evander knew that his body would feel battered and bruised.

  “Get up!”

  Caiden gave a soft moan and rolled over, trying to get up to his hands and knees. He fell back to the ground after swaying for a moment.

  “Get up!” Evander yanked the man to his feet and Caiden blinked deliriously at him. Evander shook him, only able to use one arm for the task. “Do you hear me? Get. Up. Now.”

  Caiden squinted at him, his head rolling back and forth.

  “Focus on me. Got it? You have to move.”

  Caiden squeezed his eyes shut and Evander could see his attempt to breathe and control how his head was spinning. Then the Prince opened his eyes again and Evander was relieved to see that they were clear. Then those eyes widened, trailing to his side.

  Evander winced, knowing he shouldn’t look. As soon as the adrenaline wore off, he was screwed. That’s why he needed the Prince to move.

  He followed Caiden’s gaze and saw his right side soaked through with blood. He must have moved too much. The blade was still in him, keeping the wound from bleeding as profusely but looking at it now, well, maybe the spinning in his head wasn’t completely from using his ability. And maybe the shaking wasn’t just from fatigue. …Now that he thought about it… He really was not feeling well.

  “Eva?” Evander could feel Caiden’s hands trying to steady him, trying to keep him upright. “Hey, wait!”

  “Heh, shit. Really should have… seen thi
s coming.” He blearily looked around, finding them deep in the forest, surrounded by hills as the sun began to rise. Not a single sign of civilization. He sighed in relief and finally caved to the painless bliss that was teasing the edges of his mind.

  Four

  Month of the Griffin 14, 421 HE

  He felt as though his mind was swimming through murky water. He felt cold, chilled, and yet his skin felt clammy as though he’d been sweating. There was a dull pain that pulsed through his body with every beat of his heart.

  Evander slowly opened his eyes, finding himself face down on some sort of cot. The room was dusty and dark, the air stale as though it had been abandoned or at least had been empty for some time. He was looking at a chipped basin that sat on a table, a cloth slung over the edge.

  He shivered, the movement making him realize that the knife was gone, and his right arm was numb. Pain shot up his neck and he groaned, attempting to move again only for the pain to double. He laid down in defeat as the soft sound of footsteps approached him. He couldn’t even bring himself to look.

  There was the gentle sound of water sloshing in the basin, a cloth being wrung out before it touched his skin. He winced as something was peeled off of his shoulder and someone hummed in thought.

  He finally opened his eyes again, looking up at Caiden as the man examined his wounds. The Prince didn’t look at him, as though he didn’t expect him to be awake. He looked exhausted, with dark circles below his eyes that stood out in the candlelight. There was a tightness in the corner of his mouth and in his shoulders that belayed his stress.

  Caiden turned away from him for a moment, leaving his line of sight before returning with a small bowl in his hand.

  “What’re you doing?” Evander’s voice was rough, his throat parched.

  Caiden looked down at him, surprise painted on his pale face. He didn’t reply, setting aside the bowl and lifting the cloth again. Evander sighed as the cool water was passed over his neck and the side of his face before Caiden laid the cloth over his eyes.

  “Go back to sleep. When you wake, all will be well again.” Those familiar words resounded in him like a magic spell and he found himself relaxing as skilled fingers pressed into the base of his skull. The sting in his shoulder was drowned out by the relief in his pounding head as something was pressed to the wound.

  He remembered vaguely why the actions felt familiar, why those words put him at ease. The court Physician, Jedidiah, had said those same words to him years prior. He’d fallen ill. No one had known what had caused it but children all throughout the city had fallen ill with fever. Marie had been sick with it as well. She had survived, and everyone had thought the sickness had passed. Caiden never caught it, and Evander had been fine until he collapsed nearly a month after the last case had been cured.

  He’d been kept isolated; the only contact he’d had was with the Physician. He’d never really spoken to the man before that or even afterwards. Besides thanking him, Evander never had the need to visit. After all, most of his injuries were caused by the Clan and were healed by Karen.

  Even the way Caiden went about treating him struck him as familiar from those days that he’d spent in Jedidiah’s care.

  -†- Griffin 19 -†-

  He didn’t remember falling asleep, but he woke to rough, tuneless humming and sunlight. The window was open, letting in the late summer breeze. He could see what looked like a clothesline outside.

  He slowly sat up, finding that he had limited control of his arm now. Which was much better than the numbness that had been there when he’d last woken. His head didn’t feel like it was going to split and while he felt sore and weak, he was no longer helpless.

  Or at least that’s what he’d thought. His head spun as soon as he tried to stand. He cursed and sat back down, holding his head and staring at a knot in the wooden floorboards to try and control it.

  “You won’t be able to move for a while.” Caiden’s voice made him look up at the man as he came inside, a basket of clean linens in his arms.

  Evander looked around, finding the place to be a tiny hunting cabin, clean and airy with the windows open. The small stove that sat over the fireplace held a steaming kettle and it looked like potatoes were roasting in the embers. A basket of vegetables and fruit sat to the side and, to Evander’s surprise, a string of hares was hung there as well.

  He held still as Caiden approached him, peeling something off of his shoulder again. This time Evander watched closely as the man brought some sort of green glop-covered bandage away. His stomach twisted at the yellow tint and reek of puss and some type of sour odor.

  “Poison?” he questioned.

  “Snake venom,” Caiden provided, throwing the bandage into a bucket beside the bed. “You shouldn’t have moved like that while the knife was in you. It circulated a lot faster. You’re lucky I didn’t have to remove your arm.”

  Evander paled at the thought. “Where did you learn all of this?”

  “Jedidiah. Where do you think I went to hide from you?” Caiden chuckled. He was rifling through the clean cloth, pulling out a long bandage that looked suspiciously like a shredded sheet. He came back to him and Evander sat still as the man wrapped his shoulder and put his right arm into a sling.

  “Here.” Caiden held out his hand and Evander looked up at him with open suspicion. “You need to go outside for a while. Fresh air and sunshine can do wonders, you know.”

  “How long have we been here?” he asked, slowly allowing Caiden to help him up. He resisted the urge to pull away when the Prince slung his good arm over his shoulders and wrapped an arm around his waist, supporting the majority of his weight as he led him outside. The strength that the man held surprised him. He had never known Caiden to enjoy sports or swordplay, nothing that would give him this amount of muscle.

  He winced at the late summer sun as Caiden gently lowered him into a rocking chair that was sitting in front of the cabin. He felt… fragile. It was highly unpleasant. Then Caiden pulled up a stool and sat.

  “Roughly a week,” the Prince finally answered him.

  “A week?” Evander frowned. “There’s no way I could have just slept through a week.”

  “No, not naturally.” Caiden’s gaze slid to the side. “I had to wake you a few times to get you to eat and drink.”

  They sat in silence for a few moments until Evander sighed and leaned back, basking in the warmth. His mind was coming around in slow degrees. He was processing the clean pants he wore that were unfamiliar to him, the freshly made garden that had clearly just been planted, the bow and quiver by the door and the complete lack of weaponry that was available to him.

  “So…” Evander cleared his throat, looking back at the Prince who looked just as lost as he was.

  “Explain.” The demand was quiet, and almost fragile.

  Evander sighed. “Where would you like me to start?”

  Caiden glared. “Oh, I don’t know, how about we start with why the hell my family is dead!” his voice rose and snapped, making Evander flinch.

  He floundered for the words he needed. “This… this wasn’t supposed to happen.”

  “That doesn’t explain anything.”

  “It’s hard to explain.”

  “Try me.”

  Evander openly glared at the man.

  “Eva… I already know.” Caiden’s voice was soft, his face a sorrowful mask of self-loathing.

  “Then why do I need to explain anything?”

  “Because I want to know why it happened.”

  Evander sighed again. “Ansom… Ansom took the throne. The Clan, all of us, we are assassins. Our best were assigned to each of the royal household to watch and guard them, to judge them and make sure that the Kingdom would prosper under their rule.”

  Caiden frowned and tilted his head. “But…?”

  “You fit every tenet we had. Even if you didn’t, Marie…” Evander’s heart twisted painfully, the final image of her body burned into his mind. “She shou
ldn’t have been killed if that were the case.”

  “That’s why Princess Eudora was delayed,” Caiden mused.

  “Most likely.” He observed the tired Prince. It was strange to talk with him like this. “Ansom had to usurp the throne before your coronation. He was running out of time.”

  “Why?”

  “Because once you took the throne, I would technically become the head of the Clan.” He smiled bitterly at the blank look of shock that Caiden gave him. “If it ever came to that, then I would be the one on the throne since I was your closest confidant.”

  Caiden was silent for a few moments. “But they want you dead. Why would they repeatedly try to harm you if you are the next in line?”

  Evander froze. Stared. “What do you mean by that?” he asked slowly, observing every motion and expression that the Prince made.

  Caiden looked him dead in the eye and didn’t even flinch. “I already told you, didn’t I? I know.”

  Evander stared at him for what felt like a long while, his mind flying through the prior years, wondering how. How had Caiden found out? When? Then the thought occurred to him, what all had he seen?

  Caiden seemed to read the questions running through his head. “It was after… It was when Brian was killed.”

  Evander frowned at the mention of the stable master that had been executed for having magic.

  “I had sneaked into your room that night. I couldn’t sleep at all. I was so nervous thinking about how mad you’d be.” The Prince chuckled. “I just didn’t want to be alone. But you weren’t there. I thought maybe you were still running errands and I decided to wait.” Caiden’s eyes were unfocused, gazing at a scene long past. “The wardrobe doors were open and I thought maybe you were hiding, so I decided to look in. I saw that there was a passage and I followed it without thinking.”

  Evander remembered that night. It had been shortly after his ability had manifested. Ansom had wanted to beat it into his head that it could be him next. Could be any of them if anyone ever found out that they had magic. It had been the first time that he’d been beaten so badly. He had tried to use his ability while sparring with Ansom himself. It had infuriated the man.