by Ian Haywood
As Alana finished speaking to me, she turned her attention towards Lucius.
“Lucius, go and retrieve Zephal’s body from the beach and put it in the stables ready for us to take to the Great Council. I know I specifically told you to guard over Naomi at all times, but she will be in my safe hands until your return. After all, it’s not often that I have another girl over to visit – I’m sure that we will be the best of friends until I put her to death!”
Lucius smiled at what Alana had said and immediately turned to carry out her orders and as the doors were opened, I noticed him staring back at me.
As if that wasn’t scary enough, I also now had Alana peering down at me and after what she had just said, I felt a sudden urge to attack her, but I knew that if I did do something stupid then it would most probably be the last thing I would ever do as there was a table full of loyal Generals not too far away who would happily kill me in a split second in order to gain favour from Alana.
And as the feeling inside me wanting to hurt Alana died down, she just smirked at me and spoke once again.
“And there was me thinking that there was no fight in you, but then you go and shock me for a moment. I felt the anger that you had towards me and you were wise not to give in to your animal instincts as the odds against you are astronomical. I may be a woman, but I rule over every man within my ranks and I show no fear for anyone outside of these walls. I have had to fight every day for what I possess right now and nobody will ever take that away from me. Unlike you, nobody has ever protected me – not even as a child. Your father made sure of that! I vowed from an early age that I will continue to fight until my last breath for what I believe in and also to make sure that those who caused me pain pay the ultimate price for doing so!”
Alana paused for a moment before shouting to the Generals still gathered around the table who had been waiting patiently for her to address them once more.
“Gentlemen, you are dismissed for the moment. Return to your quarters and await further instructions.”
The Generals bowed their heads and left the room swiftly and quietly, leaving me alone with Alana.
I don’t know what was scarier – having Lucius hovering over me ready to hit out in a moment’s notice or Alana just constantly staring at me in an uncomfortable silence.
But the silence was not going to last for much longer as the doors crashed open, revealing a visibly shocked Lucius flanked by two guards.
Alana ran over to Lucius.
“What’s the matter, Lucius?” she asked, concerned, “Did you put Zephal’s body in the stable?”
And that’s when we found out what had shocked Lucius.
“Zephal’s body!” He answered, “It’s gone!”
“Gone?” Alana asked confused, “Where would it have gone?”
Alana grabbed Lucius firmly by the arm and started dragging him out of the room and as she passed the guards, she ordered them to keep watch over me until her return.
CHAPTER TWO
There was no stopping Alana making her way through the secret tunnels that led back onto the beach and true enough, as she and Lucius stepped onto the sand there was no sign whatsoever of Zephal’s dead body.
Alana’s immediate reaction was shock and it wasn’t long before her temper broke through at the thought that something so important to her plans had suddenly disappeared from her grasp, but as both she and Lucius pondered over what exactly had happened since they left the beach earlier, neither of them were aware of a figure moving around slowly behind them.
Strangely, Harran’s body still remained on the beach - so that immediately indicated to them that the tide hadn’t taken Zephal’s body out to sea.
Zephal had been an incredibly worthy adversary while he was alive, but it was clear that he was now turning out to be just as awkward in death – but whereas Alana was trying to work out who had taken the body, Lucius had a more sinister theory of what may had happened in their absence.
And if Lucius’s theory was correct, then their plans were not going to go as smoothly as they had both anticipated.
Alana looked across at Lucius and gave him a look that made him feel as if he was to blame for Zephal’s disappearance and Lucius immediately knew that it would be incredibly wise to remain quiet for the moment.
The silence between the two was uneasy to say the least, but Alana would soon break it.
“Lucius, go and assemble your men immediately. I want them to search everywhere possible to find where Zephal has disappeared to. There is no way he could have just simply got up and walked away. I saw him with my own eyes and he was most definitely dead when we left him!”
Lucius nodded his head and quickly returned to the tunnels in order to carry out Alana’s orders, completely unaware that he had passed someone lurking in the darkness within them.
While Lucius made haste, Alana remained standing on the beach for a few moments, looking all around for any trace of the elusive Zephal, but this time was no different and the same negative result was achieved.
But at least she had Naomi safely guarded back at the secret hideout and Alana knew that the importance of possessing Gereziac’s daughter was far greater than any dead soldier would be.
After all, Gereziac could always find a replacement to fight in Zephal’s place, even if he was his best friend, but the feelings that he would have towards Zephal would be miniscule compared to that of his own child.
And it was blatantly clear to everyone how much Gereziac loved his daughter by the way he had sent his best soldier into the mortal world to protect her.
But Alana had sent her best soldier too and the outcome was most definitely in her favour.
Her plan may have to change slightly, but the outcome would still be the same.
Victory for Alana and her army.
Soon her lifelong obsession of becoming sole ruler of all the lands that she had grown up in would come true and in doing so, would make sure that those who had opposed her throughout her life would pay the ultimate price for what they had done.
The only way that Alana’s early life could be described was nothing short of a living nightmare and it was only natural that the anger that built within her every day would have some effect on her.
But whereas others may give up, Alana learnt to become stronger, both physically and mentally – and also made it her personal mission to succeed in a world that was completely dominated by men.
Men who had managed to destroy everything that she lived for – and one day revenge was going to be sweet.
Especially for the main one who had led it all.
But with her goal becoming ever closer and not wanting for it to fail, Alana’s mental health was now beginning to show signs of becoming a lot more unpredictable and even though she had even seen this for herself, Alana had now adopted a policy of leading through fear rather than not leading at all.
Just for a split second, Alana’s concentration had slipped, but the sound of the waves crashing against the rocks to her left suddenly brought her back to reality.
But whereas she was watching to see if Zephal suddenly re-appeared, Alana suddenly had a feeling that someone was watching her.
She quickly turned around towards the tunnel behind her expecting Zephal to be standing there ready to attack her without warning, but all that greeted her was darkness.
But the strange feeling remained – but this time it was growing stronger.
And for whatever reason, Alana looked up towards the cliff face above her and instantly caught sight of a person staring back down at her.
Fearing that she may be under imminent attack from above, Alana began to move backwards towards the mouth of the tunnel, never taking her eyes off whoever was watching her for a second.
But she suddenly ceased moving herself to a safer location as she noticed that the figure above was that of a woman.
Of course the fact that it was a woman wasn’t the only reason why Alana temporarily let her guard drop –
somehow the two of them had locked eyes and for some inexplicable reason, Alana felt a strange sensation running through her.
This was a woman who Alana had never met before in her life, but incredibly the mysterious woman had completely captivated her and try as she might to take her gaze away from the woman, Alana’s eyes remained fixed on the stranger.
And the look that was emanating from the woman made Alana feel strangely peaceful.
The woman’s long black hair swayed gently in the light breeze and she gave out a gentle smile towards Alana and as she did so, the smell of the sea air was suddenly replaced by a sweet refreshing scent of roses.
It looked for a moment as if the woman’s lips moved as if she was trying to talk to Alana, but she was too far away to work out what she was trying to say.
And the strange feeling of inner peace that filled Alana showed no sign of deteriorating and even though it felt good, maybe the woman doing this to her could be a witch who was performing some kind of magic on her.
What was scarier was the fact that she had failed to hear a voice calling her name from the tunnel behind her and Alana physically jumped in shock as she felt a hand touch her left shoulder.
She spun around and was relieved to see that the person who had just touched her was Lucius and if it had been an enemy soldier, then Alana may have made a grave error by not being aware of her surroundings.
Lucius even knew this was not normal behaviour for Alana.
“Are you okay?” he asked immediately.
Alana nodded her head and quickly glanced up towards the cliff, but in the seconds that she had turned her attention to Lucius, the mysterious woman had now disappeared.
And with the woman being no longer in her sights, Alana felt the sensations in her body slowly returning to normal – so it wasn’t long before she was showing her authority once more.
She looked behind Lucius and noticed that he only had a handful of men with him.
“These are not all of your men, General Lucius! Where are the rest of them?” she asked.
“I have already taken the liberty of ordering some of my men to search the large number of sand dunes for any sign of Zephal. The others I have with me remain at our disposal to use as we wish, Alana.” Lucius replied.
“Then I would like them to search the clifftop above us without hesitation!” Alana instantly ordered. “I have seen someone peering down shortly before you arrived and whoever it is up there, I want them brought to me immediately.”
Lucius bowed his head and gave out the instruction to his men to do as Alana said and soon the soldiers set on their way, leaving Lucius and Alana alone.
“Is everything okay, Alana?” Lucius asked, “You didn’t quite seem yourself a few moments ago.”
“You caught me at one of those extremely rare moments where my concentration seemed to be fixed elsewhere, Lucius. Like I said, there was someone up on the cliffs and as you are well aware, I specifically chose this location for our hideout because nobody ever passes this way.”
“Maybe it was Zephal!” Lucius said hopefully, “If that’s the case, then we will soon have him within our grasps!”
Alana shook her head.
“I doubt that very much, Lucius – this person was a woman! And she certainly didn’t show any signs of fear when I noticed her peering down at me!”
“If she wasn’t scared, then where is she now?” Lucius asked as he scanned the clifftop for any sight of the mysterious woman.
“She just disappeared when you arrived! I turned to you and when I looked back up, she was gone!” Alana answered.
Lucius looked back at Alana.
“If anyone was up there, Alana, then rest assured, my men will find them.”
Alana nodded her head and looked back towards the sea.
The tide was now moving in quite strongly and very soon the beach would be covered with water, ready to take Harran’s body to a watery grave, probably never to be seen again.
But where was Harran’s body?
In the short time that Alana and Lucius had been speaking, neither of them had noticed that Harran’s body had also disappeared from the beach.
CHAPTER THREE
No amount of words could describe the anger that was running through Alana right now after the shock of discovering that another body had mysteriously disappeared from right under their noses and for whatever reason, her first reaction was to turn and head straight for the tunnel.
Lucius was taken aback at why she would do this and followed her inside and even he struggled to keep up with the pace that Alana was setting right now.
And even as they reached the massive wooden doors that were now unprotected because Alana had ordered the two guards to watch Naomi until her return, Alana didn’t slow her pace down one bit and very soon they were flung open with such force that everyone nearby cringed at the loud bang that echoed throughout the huge room.
It was good fortune that the two guards and Naomi were not too close to the doors because if they had been, then they would surely have been seriously injured – such was the force that Alana had opened it.
But Alana didn’t even show any signs of slowing down whatsoever as she headed directly towards the three physically shocked people who were looking at her wondering why she had made such a dramatic entrance.
And it soon became clear that Naomi was her intended target.
Naomi was still sat on the chair exactly as she was when Alana and Lucius had left, flanked either side by two guards.
The guard to Naomi’s left was shoved out of the way by Alana as she lunged towards Naomi without any warning whatsoever, and soon the guard, Naomi and Alana were all lying on the marble floor.
Lucius was impressed by how gracefully Alana had flown through the air and even though she had made contact with Naomi with an amazing amount of force, it was clear just by looking down at the three people on the floor that Alana had actually come off the worst.
And the reason for this was when Alana had made contact with Naomi, to his complete amazement, Lucius immediately heard a loud cracking noise which was accompanied by a sudden flash of light so strong that he had to shield his eyes for a moment.
He instinctively ran towards Alana to see if she hadn’t been seriously injured and was glad to notice that her chest was rising and falling, indicating that she was at least breathing right now.
The two guards also turned their attention to Alana, leaving Naomi to suffer whatever injuries she might have endured completely on her own.
Lucius looked across at a dazed Naomi and watched her try to get back onto the seat she had just been knocked off seconds ago – and as it looked like she was just about to succeed, Lucius stormed across to her and grabbed her by the hair.
She dropped back onto her knees and Lucius dragged her across the floor as if she was some kind of rag doll.
When Lucius did finally loosen the grip he had on her, it was only to toss her near to where Alana was lying and as Naomi looked up, it was clear that Lucius was not going to stop there.
Naomi’s fears were painfully confirmed as she saw Lucius’s right arm swinging towards her and in a split second, the back of his hand had made contact with the right side of her face.
The pain was incredible and as Naomi struggled to regain her bearings, Lucius followed in with a swift hard kick to her stomach, which completely took her breath away.
Whilst everything seemed like a nightmare, the amount of agony that Naomi was feeling right now reminded her of how real it all was and if Lucius continued with his onslaught, then maybe Naomi’s life would come to an abrupt end.
But Naomi found a savior from the strangest of sources.
A female voice called out to Lucius as he was about to move in on Naomi once more.