The Ones Who Serve

by Jennifer Kenny

“Not everyone is that honest. Investigations have come to show that some have sent loved ones into hiding. Others are just creating family members out of thin air and deciding they too are missing, and now the crown owes them coin to cover their debts.” Glais heard the windows rattle, and he turned to look at them, but his gaze was not enough. He had an eerie feeling that the wind was not looking for him but only saw him as another obstacle for its real target.

  He took the kettle from the fire carefully but set it aside instead of pouring the water. His focus was on Evangeline, and the strange look on her face as the window blew open.

  Evangeline had never felt such an urge before. There had always been an attachment to the earth, something that had been subconsciously directing her choices since she was a child, but this was different. Her wandering feet would always find a way to keep her outside, but now it seemed that everything was compelling her to seek refuge in the trees. Before this moment, Evangeline had felt in control of herself and had considered this impulsive feeling to be nothing more than a strange little habit. Now she stood in her room with her eyes wide and gripping the back of the chair with all she had to keep from walking out the doors.

  Glais slammed the windows closed, cutting off the flow of the wind that was attacking her. Nothing else in the room seemed to be disturbed by the force except for his wife, but Glais could not question that now. Whatever was happening was not a natural occurrence, and he would protect her if it were within his power to do so. Just as he managed to get the windows closed, instantly the door appeared to open on its own accord. Now, the intruding breeze seemed to be dragging at Evangeline instead of pushing her. Glais had barely managed two steps away from the windows when they suddenly opened again, and a storm of the elements seemed to be galloping through their space with only a single target in mind.

  The wind acted without mercy, dragging at Evangeline viciously, as she struggled to remain where she was. Invisible barbs seemed to stick to her clothes and a strong gust suddenly hit against Evangeline’s back with such force that she stumbled forward from the sudden assault. “Glais?” she called out his name to be heard of the rushing wind and seemed intent to consume her. Her hand reached out for him, and when his hand found hers, the wind did not stop. It only doubled its efforts to steal her momentum.

  “We should follow it,” Glais said, suddenly inspired and finding no other solution within grasp. Glais could feel the panic rise as Evangeline’s hand slipped into his.

  “Follow it?” Evangeline repeated back to him, hoping she had heard wrong, and yet the look on his face told her that indeed he had suggested such a thing. She tried to keep eye contact with Glais, but the wind caught up what was left of her hair and forced it over her eyes. She brushed it away angrily, turning on the spot to tame her locks and the wind only stopped its assault when she was facing the door. “Glais, it is just the wind.”

  “It is the trees.” He pointed out the window as if to show off his point, but it was a careless gesture because what else could it be but the trees calling to her by the only means of communication they had. Thinking back now, Glais could see how the seemingly platonic interplay of the wind could affect her moods to dramatic degrees. There would be time to ponder this revelation later and what it could mean for her safety. For now, the wind was gaining momentum and seemed intent to become a hurricane force if Evangeline refused to obey.

  Glais was at a loss on how to comfort her but realised this was not a moment where she needed support. Evangeline lacked his confidence. Never had the trees appeared so wild and menacing. Since she had arrived, the grounds had responded to her mere presence. The dryad blood inside her may be weak, but it was more than enough to create this. She had no teacher, and Glais could only guess at how best to handle this, but there is one universal truth that seemed to rule over all the unnatural beings he had met. It is better to find peace and work with them rather than create tension and bring war.

  Glais crossed the space between them and grabbed her by the shoulders. He needed almost to yell to be heard over the rushing wind that raced and pulled at Evangeline like she was a puppet that could be controlled. He realised that Evangeline was not listening to him, but instead her eyes were wide and focused on everything around them rather than his direction. He held her steady, and only when she looked into his eyes did he try and speak again “You never had a teacher, not like I had my father, Evangeline. Before my mother gave you the news, no one had even mentioned the words dryad to you before.”

  Evangeline nodded, looking to the open door, feeling the wind tighten around her and pull at her clothes. Glais ignored them as they tried to create a space between them and separate them. Evangeline looked up at him. “Nothing like this has ever happened before.” She told him, and in an instant, there was a change in the air. It did not stop, but instead, the focus shifted. Glais felt it, a supernatural awareness responding to another, he felt as the wind changed routes and Evangeline no longer looked scared. She looked angry.

  “You need to calm down Evangeline. In my experience, control is harder whenever you lose focus. Please, Evangeline, focus on me.” He looked at her, breathing calming as the dark edges of her pain and fury etched her face into the mask that he had never seen. The wind no longer grabbed at her with the intentions of making her move but instead was finding ways into her body. He watched as the wind corrupted her soul and turned his wife against him in a matter of minutes.

  The wind picked up around them, but Evangeline did not seem to notice. Glais tried to win. Her back with rational thinking. “The first lesson is to trust the curse because fear will only hurt you.”

  “I am not cursed,” Evangeline insisted with a low hiss. She pushed against his chest, but he kept his grip tight upon her shoulders to keep them bound. The wind did not touch him, could not attempt to change him in the ways it was changing Evangeline, but it did not leave him untouched. The kettle fell and rolled towards them, and Glais felt that the next experiment would be aimed better.

  “Evangeline, my point is you should be more open to what the world is trying to tell you, and make their desires work in your favour.” Glais was forced to pause as the wind grew more insistent against them and the decorative tapestries shook on the walls. Glais moved her towards the door, and he instantly felt the difference in the pressure. Evangeline pulled her hair out of her face and did not notice the eerie calm in the corridors.

  She did not look at Glais for advice, but he had no words that Evangeline would hear. The transformation was still on her features, a sneer forming on her delicate mouth. She shoved at him again, and this time Glais released her and Evangeline was picked up by the current of the wind and rushed out of their sitting room and into the hallway.

  She took a few hurried steps to catch up so that she no longer felt like she was being dragged down the corridors of the castle. Her only thoughts were on Glais. She turned to see that he was following her at a safe distance. The wind no longer cared that he was there, but Evangeline fought against the pressure to get to him. She hated him. Every fibre of her being screamed as Glais stalked her down the corridors of the castle. She did not see the worry on his face or the way he called out to guards to move out of her the way as she was dragged through the guts of the castle and out into the night.

  She saw Glais for what he really was. A monster and the dangerous creature who was determined to ruin all she might have had and replace the simple pleasures of being a wife and mother with the binding ties of the curse. She shouted out at him, hollering every dishonourable fact she could think of, and repeating some for dramatic effect. She did not see the doors tremble on their hinges as the wind shoved her along. She was lost in the primal state of regret and fear, a combination that manifested as loathing.

  He could hear her heartbeat rise, the sound of deafening and tempting the curse that he kept buried inside his chest. He gave a short puff of breath, blowing away the taste of her mounting blood pressure from the air. He would not be the things
she proclaimed him to be now. Glais followed, and when he reached the open air, he was surprised to see he could pass the threshold with no resistance. This unique ability he dryads controlled was severely limited, and Glais was free to follow Evangeline as she continued to rant as she was half carried into the tree line.

  The walk was fast, and there was a chill to the night that had nothing to do with the weather. The attack in their room could not compare to the electricity in the open air now. While the wind was pulling Evangeline forward and encouraging her every step, Glais felt suffocated by it as he came closer to the trees. Coughing, trying to work past the blockage in his throat, Glais followed Evangeline and was quick to close the distance between them. The closer they came to the location, the wind seemed to lose its pursuit of her and released the dangerous hold it had taken. Glais would never believe the urgency is gone, but it was proof that he had been correct in his assumption that Evangeline’s moods could be so erratic because they were being managed for her on the whim of someone else.

  He was not accustomed to feeling scared by the world. He was the scary one. The curse that ran through his bloodline made him the monster in the dark, but there was something new in the night now. Something that Glais did not know and the curse was confused with. It excited and chilled him, and Glais was more confused by that emotion then he had ever felt before. When meeting Evangeline, he had never imagined her to be more than a girl, but this proved how little he knew of her lineage. Perhaps he had underestimated her influences.

  He came upon Evangeline kneeling on the ground. He paused, but it seemed that she was back to her usual self “The night feels alive,” Evangeline whispered, and Glais nodded. He could no longer speak. The suffocation was there at the back of his throat, making it difficult to take a full breath. Other emotions within him were on the rise but not out of his control. Glais had no word for it, and he would be happier if he never had to feel it again. The trees shadows crossed them, and Evangeline looked up to face him.

  The darkness was gone from under her eyes. The snarl which had stained her lips was a distant memory, and she looked at Glais with a mild irritation that seemed almost comical when compared to how she looked at him before. “Are you going to help me up or not?” she asked, a smile on her lips as she offered him her hand. She seemed to have no memory of how she got here, and he did not like how innocent she looked kneeling in the soft grass with a slightly dazed expression on her face.

  It mimicked the look of new donations when they insisted Glais take his fill and never understanding just what that meant. He would feed and find release within them only to come down from that impossible high to discover they were lost in a strange euphoria which often became addictive. The first time though, before they knew what was really happening, their eyes were slightly glazed over, and their lips were dry and brittle from rushed breathing and a loss of control. It was the same look Evangeline was giving him now. Glais paused but took her hand, helping her find her feet. Instantly as their hands touched the suffocation was gone, and Glais closed his eyes in relief. At least that torture was over and was now replaced by whatever state of well-being Evangeline was on.

  Instinctively, she pressed her free hand against the bark of the closest tree, and there was a distinct ripple that started from her palm and took over the bark until it appeared that the whole tree was quaking like ripples in a pond. Evangeline pulled her hand back quickly and couldn’t be sure if she had imagined the suction or not. Looking at her hand, she saw nothing, but she couldn’t lose the sensation that remained. Wiping her palm on the back of her dress didn’t help, but Evangeline could not stop herself from doing it.

  From the tree came the Dryad. Evangeline and Glais both recognised Alisma’s weakened state and noticed that she did not look as good as the last time they spoke. Glais was not sympatric. “Evangeline, I am sorry for the distress, but you need to know,” Alisma spoke, her voice sounding faded as she struggled to keep her form.

  “Alisma, please.” Evangeline gasped, reaching out for the dryad, but Glais stopped her. Evangeline looked at her arm where he had grabbed her, but Glais did not loosen his grip. Evangeline looked at him. She finally had to submit since Glais was the only one who understood a little on how to deal with the supernatural. She nodded, and he gently released her from his powerful grip “What happened to you Alisma?”

  “This is the danger of attempting to live in Braykith,” Alisma answered. “Please, think nothing of it, but Eva you must come with me.”

  “Come with you?” Evangeline looked back to Glais, but he had nothing to offer her, and she understood the emotion. She felt stunned and confused as well. “What do you mean to go with you?”

  Alisma paused as if she needed to catch her breath, or an ugly pain had caught her off guard. “Eva, please, time is short. Glais, your father, is being attacked in the woods, not far from here but it is not going well.”

  Glais looked at the dryad suddenly. “My father?”

  “Yes. I have come to warn you,” Alisma lowered her eyes, looking down at her hands but the bad news was not going to be easier to give. “Prince Glais, I am not certain if you will be able to get there in time, but Evangeline can appear instantly. I am hoping she recognises the location. It may help you.”

  Glais held up his hand. “My father has travelled to Crimah often.” He interjected.

  “I am sure, but the new foliage has steered him off his usual course.” Alisma shook her head. “Please, we have little time.” She beckoned for Evangeline to approach her. “We must hurry,” Alisma told her again.

  Evangeline nodded and let go of Glais’ hand, stepping in closer to Alisma. “How does this work?”

  “In truth, I am not certain if it will work. I am hoping that you have enough Dryad in your blood to make it possible.” Alisma reached for her, and when they touched Alisma seemed to shimmer before her eyes, but Evangeline no longer felt present. She could feel the suction between them. The draw she had felt for so many years when she was alone in the gardens was intense now, and Evangeline had the unmistakable feeling of being swept away.

  Before she could register her journey, she felt a sudden stop, and a hand on her shoulder kept her from falling forward. Evangeline blinked, but it did not help the world come into a better focus. She rubbed at her eyes, straining against the thick fog that seemed to have settled over everything but regardless of what she tried, Evangeline’s vision remained blurry. There was a sense of movement within the field of view, but the individual action was hard to focus on. Evangeline felt pressure building on the sides of her head, and she tried to cry out for help, but her voice was stolen from her.

  Hush Evangeline. Came the voice of Alisma from inside her own head. It echoed around her skull, but there was no mistaking the sound like not a memory but being implanted directly. Evangeline was suddenly aware that Alisma wasn’t in her head, but rather Evangeline was inside hers. You will be fine. Just stop fighting it and let yourself see.

  Being told to be calm was not something Evangeline would ever be happy to hear, but she tried. She stopped trying to stretch out to create her own space and just saw the world through the eyes of the dryad. Once Evangeline stopped fighting to see the actions, the blurry movements came into focus. Staying determined was hard, and more than once the fog would resettle, and the faces would be lost to her, and the process would need to begin again.

  Evangeline felt panicked, followed by a soothing feeling as if someone was stroking her hair. She closed her eyes, concentrating on the light touch and gentle tugging that came with having her hair brushed by loving fingers. It was something her mother had often done while Evangeline was growing up, and it had always relaxed her. The sudden feeling of being close to her mother gave her more relief than any other activities she could have experienced. “Mother?” she asked, but her question was ignored. Instead, the scene before her cleared further with every blink.

  CHAPTER?

  The trail was lost in darkness, bu
t fires pocketed through the clearing between the trees. Straining to make out the shapes as they became more explicit, there was a sudden shift in their position and Evangeline saw they were closer than before. Sorry, this is harder to stay present than I had guessed. Alisma apologised in her head, but Evangeline did not think much of it. The scene before her took her breath away.

  Men lay dead on the ground, crumpled in the confusion as horses reared in the abruptness of the attack. Evangeline was sure that the rebellion had never been this overbearing, but this was apparently proof that they were the superior force. They were using nature against the men of Braykith, hiding and ducking between trees with such reckless ease that she wondered if they were part dryad themselves.

  In the middle of it was Quintus. His body was hunched over, sword held in two hands, but he was steady on his feet. His hair was slicked back with sweat and blood smeared over his face. Evangeline blinked against the mirage, but it only proved the image was real. She had never seen a man so savage, and the glint in his eyes as he moved into the fray gave her shivers. The odds were against him, but Quintus was caught up in the moment. The option to fight or flee had come and gone long ago, and Quintus believed this was a fight he could win. Even as the bodies of his men lay at his feet, Quintus felt invincible.

  The curse did not know how to stop. It did not want to stay, and as Quintus moved further into the fray of fighting bodies, his intentions ended being his own. A madman looked out from those hard-set eyes. A grin showed blood smearing his teeth as Quintus swung the sword and tore through the body of a man who was wearing the distinctive Braykith uniform. He shouted approval into the night, and Evangeline watched as he moved on without even seeming to register what he had done.

  Evangeline turned her head away, closing her eyes as a desperate cry rose into the night. The Braykith men were trying to gather and attempting to form some kind of defence, but Christof was better trained in the current conditions. The soldiers in black should have outmatched them on all accounts given their background in supposed military tactics, but the rebels had cut down their numbers before the soldiers knew better. And again, they had used the King’s arrogance against him. They knew he would not wait for his warriors to be prepared. Somehow, they had known everything, and now the King’s life was in the balance.