I turned to the Would-Be King, raising an eyebrow. ‘And what would that do to the moral of my troops? It would demoralise an already shaky army. No, I will ride out with Merlas at the head of the troops. You can trust her completely to keep me away from harm.’
Kaleb looked ready to argue, but his eyes flickered to Merlas, examining her critically for a moment before nodding reluctantly. I introduced Amarath, Shaeman and Vrael to the captains, and settled down to plan how we were going to do this.
I sat with a hand on Merlas’s guidance strap, looking out over the army. My eyes scanned the ranks, spotting my siblings at the head of their assigned units. Kaleb, despite my protests, stood as captain over a rabble of the undead. With a dimension roughly the size of America and Canada put together, I had a population of two or three hundred million. Compared to modern day earth, that wasn’t much, but to me, it looked like the entire dimension had turned up to war alongside several hundred thousand undead. I just had to hope it was going to be enough. I checked my belt for the umpteenth time, making sure that I had my longsword as well as two more short swords strapped in a cross on my back, backed up by a further three knives. I wasn’t taking any chances.
They announced their arrival with a wave of cold. Every demon in the regiments shivered, but held their ground. Merlas danced on the spot, tossing her head. I kept one hand on the hilt of my sword. Behind me, on a small hillock, I could hear the nervous plucking of bowstrings. The Alenans burst out from the air itself as they teleported into Aspheri. A single winged figure took to the sky. I couldn’t help but feel a small twang of satisfaction as I heard the Prince’s voice, a little higher than what had been given to him naturally.
‘Come and play, little princess! Show your people how you fight on your own!’ Without any command from me, Merlas bellowed a wordless reply into the air, a fearsome war cry for anyone not acquainted with the pegusi. She leapt into the air, her powerful hindquarters kicking off from the ground before her great wings took over the labour, her hooves cutting easily into the turf. I ripped my sword from its sheath, shouting my own wordless war cry. The Aspherins surged forwards, engaging the enemy in a thirst for their blood. Melek sneered at me as Merlas drew even with him, hovering out of range of him, her wings beating steadily to maintain height. I scowled back. He would expect me to play clean and fair, very much like a girl, like a princess. In most cases, I would fight with as much honour as I could. But I couldn’t afford to let him predict my moves. Amarath had taught me to fight dirty. It was time to use it. And the first thing to do was rile up the enemy. An angry enemy didn’t think. An angry enemy didn’t plan. An angry enemy made mistakes.
‘Have they managed to remove your genitals from your head yet?’ I asked innocently. ‘You know, just in case you might actually want to start thinking with your brain instead of your balls for once?’
‘Ha! What kind of effeminate ruler of a warriors’ dimension chooses to fight with words?’
‘A girl!’ Below me, the sounds of the battle filtered upwards. The clashing of swords, the ringing of armour, the screams of the dying and the silence of the dead. I heard Kaleb’s voice yell up at me.
‘My Lady! Behind you!’ Hands grabbed hold of my armour, dragging me from Merlas’s back, blades slicing through the ties that kept me bound to the saddle. Merlas screamed as another sword slashed at her wings, raining blood down onto the battlefield. For a moment, Melek’s guard held me suspended in the air. The prince himself turned a malefic smirk to me.
‘How well do demons fly?’
I can’t remember if I screamed or not as the hands let me go and I began to plummet towards earth. I tried to focus my mind enough to use magic to slow my descent. The whistling sound of the wind past my helmet gave me a distressing, constant reminder of my situation. Merlas neighed in desperation, trying to get to me, her one good wing labouring, the injured one next to useless. I tried to grab a hold of her saddle, but my hand slipped, the straps slippery with her blood. One of her flailing hooves struck my arm. Agony ripped through me as the bone shattered under her iron shod hoof. My dented armour pressed against the break. The ground was approaching fast. I closed my eyes, waiting for the impact. Arms encircled me. My descent slowed rapidly. From high above, Melek bellowed his rage.
‘I’ve got you, My Lady,’ Kaleb’s voice murmured in my ear. ‘Fight on the ground a little longer. I will take care of Melek, and then I will take you to safety. You have fought with the troops. No need to take it to extremes.’
I wasn’t about to argue with him at that point. He left me within a ring of his soldiers, his undead warriors, before regaining the sky on skeletal wings. I vaguely wondered where the wings had come from, but dismissed the thought. The Would-Be King had many powers I didn’t know about, but I couldn’t afford to let myself worry about that now. I drew my long sword, wielding the hand-and-a-half blade clumsily in one hand. Its blade sliced through the enemy with ease, splitting skin and severing muscle. The undead laughed alongside me, revelling in their role, in their usefulness. Their battered, rusted and chipped blades cut through the swathes of enemy with the same ease as mine. Several foes managed to wet their blades with my blood before I dispatched them to the next world, the black liquid running freely down my armour, tarnishing the bright metal. I started to feel light headed. My movements became jerky and slow. Kaleb’s soldiers closed in around me, trying to keep me safe, to defend me as I tried not to collapse from exhaustion. I planted the tip of my sword in the blood-soaked ground. The fog of unconsciousness hovered dangerously on the horizon. An arrow landed close to me. One of Vrael’s. I recognised the red and black fletching that he used on all of his arrows, feathers taken from both Shaeman and Merlas. I knew what it meant. He was telling me to get out of there, to get the hell off the battlefield. No. I wouldn’t. I couldn’t afford to run. I had to prove to my dimension, to myself, that I was neither weak nor a coward. I had to prove that I was good enough to rule over them. Summoning the last dregs of my energy, I raised my sword again, separating a foe’s head from his shoulders before the ground rushed up to meet me.
‘My Lady?’ A distant voice decided to irritate me. I didn’t deign to answer it. I was too tired. Whatever I was lying on was soft and warm. ‘My Lady? Why will you not wake?’
‘Did she not have her vulnerable period recently? Did she not rest then?’
‘She frets during her three days. She paces her safe room and will not rest nor sleep enough.’ My fingers twitched, sending spasms of pain through my arm, in turn setting off every single ache in my body. I groaned. Surely one battle couldn’t have made me hurt this much! I opened my eyes to see the worried faces of Aleth, Kaleb and Vrael. My muscles complained bitterly as I pushed myself into a sitting position, noting that I was still in my muddied, bloodied leather top and trousers, although I was glad to see that someone had thought to remove the metal armour plates. Vrael handed me a vial of some sort of painkiller, which I downed without a second thought. Sighing happily as the comforting numbness soothed all the aches, I leant back against the pillows. Vrael put on his best you’re-not-going-to-like-this-but-you’re-going-to-do-it-anyway face. My heart sank a little. I hated that face. It always ended up in an argument and I still had to do whatever it was he was going to tell me to do.
‘Shadow, you’re going to have to take a break or at least take thing a little more slowly,’ he warned, sorting through some medical supplies that I guessed a healer had passed on to him. I turned a cool glare to my brother.
‘Have you ever tried running a dimension? I can guarantee you that it’s not something you can pick up and drop on a whim!’
‘Calm yourself, Shadow,’ he replied in that infuriatingly level voice that he always used when the argument was just starting. ‘I am merely suggesting that there is perhaps a way of ruling that would be more accommodating to your health. A manner of delegation, perhaps?’
I sighed heavily. There was no getting out of this now, not by a long shot. ‘Okay,
once everything with Alena settles down I’ll take a break as long as there are no more crises to deal with.’
Vrael didn’t look particularly enthused by my answer, but as far as I was concerned, he could stuff it. It was the only compromise he was going to get. ‘I have healed most of your wounds, including the ice burn Kaleb informed me you received from the prince. However, there were two I was unwilling to touch: a stab wound from an ice dagger and the break to your arm. Both are injuries I am not confident enough in my abilities to touch. It will be better for them to heal naturally.’
‘Merlas’s hoof,’ I explained. ‘She was trying to catch me when I was falling but she didn’t…’ I sat bolt upright. I had completely forgotten the doe! ‘Merlas! Is she okay? Did someone…’
‘Peace, Shadow,’ Vrael reassured me. ‘Shaeman’s with her now. We considered it best that he take care of her wing as he had more intimate knowledge of how the muscles are put together. He believes that she will make a full recovery.’
‘And Amarath?’
‘Out with your troops to make sure that all the Alenans have retreated. It would appear that we halved their army’s numbers.’ I allowed myself to relax again. Everyone seemed to be safe and sound. At least, I relaxed until Vrael cleared his throat. ‘A messenger from Alena arrived for you during your unconsciousness. We managed to pass Amarath off as you in order to give the impression that you were unharmed and, please excuse the term, fighting-fit.’ He must have read the expression of panic on my face like an open book. Amarath was not the kind of person that you sit on a throne without having words with her beforehand, and especially not without putting in place a list of words that were forbidden in diplomatic language. ‘Worry not, little one, she impersonated you rather well and kept her tongue in check. With that, the mask and a little illusionary magic to change her hair, it would have been difficult to tell you apart.’
‘So what was the message?’
‘He is reproposing marriage and begs you to consider it seriously.’
‘My Lady, if I may,’ Kaleb interjected. ‘Prince Melek seems to be desperate. He has played all his aces. He cannot defeat Aspheri by the strength of his arm alone, not while you have alliances with the dead dimensions, but his ultimatum has been issued and he is unable to deliver on one of his options.’
I opened my mouth to speak, but I was interrupted by Vrael.
‘Before you start thinking of ways to wheedle out of that one,’ he said with a slightly malevolent twinkle in his eye, ‘a prospective suitor has arrived. I believe he wishes to court you.’ I groaned, burrowing under the blankets. I did not want to have to deal with this right now. I wasn’t ready for it.
Aleth patted my shoulder a little awkwardly as I resurfaced, running a hand through my hair. ‘Worry not, My Lady, he is quite the gentleman, and a crystal demon! They are rare now since the wars that raged between their clans.’
‘It would help your cause, My Lady. If you are being courted by a male, then you cannot accept to be courted by the Alenan Prince, and he has yet to issue an official request. However, a courting does not obligatorily lead to marriage. You could, in short, accept the courting of this demon in order to gain more time during which to think about what to do about Alena. It will delay your decision in a more diplomatic manner.’ Kaleb spoke in a careful, measured tone, as if trying to convey how this idea would slow down the proceedings with Alena from their current rapid-fire state. I had to admit that it was certainly a good idea.
‘Aleth, I’m going to need your help to get ready to meet this guy.’
Aleth did her best. The dress, cut in the usual style she had picked out for me that clung to my body, leaving only my shoulders bare, was a deep purple, darker than my eyes in order to bring them out. Touches of silvery thread and a black bodice complemented the look. She styled my hair in an intricate knot of tiny plaits, weaving a few bloodstones into the design. A belt held my more ceremonial sword to my hip, and a shimmering cloak swirled around my shoulders. I looked into the mirror as she tied my mask over my face. I barely recognised myself. My eyes flashed red briefly. Who was I becoming?
Four guards escorted me to the throne room, not only to give the air of a ruler of a warrior dimension, but also because Kaleb had reasoned that Melek wasn’t going to give up that easily. He was likely to attempt less open methods of trying to get rid of me. Phantom and Wraith trotted alongside me, claws clicking on the black stone floors. One or two steps behind me, Kaleb and Captain Nergal strode side by side.
I settled on my throne, resisting the urge to run a hand through my hair. For all the effort put into making me look my best and reassure me, I was still terrified of what was going to come. All I knew was that this suitor was a demon from a rare sub-species. For all I knew of him, he could be another Karthragan, or possibly some relation of Teran’s.
The man who walked through the doorway of at the footman’s announcement was certainly a handsome demon, although I had yet to meet a demon who was ugly in his human form. His silver hair glinted gold and red in the torchlight, my heart skipping a beat as I took him for a Dementius. But his expression was open and honest. He was definitely not a relation of Teran’s. His face sparked some sort of recognition in my mind, but I couldn’t place it. He bowed low to me, one hand fisted over his heart.
‘I thank you for setting aside the time to meet with me, My Lady.’ He spoke in a strange lilting accent alien to this dimension yet he spoke like a native, which was probably not something to go on since every demon instinctively understood demonic. ‘My name is Ilrune of the Wingless.’
I froze. Ilrune? The wingless Careen I had met at the Academy? He wasn’t a demon, I would have sensed it. ‘My lord Ilrune,’ I said respectfully, ‘your presence here brings back many memories of my time spent on Earth. However, you were not always a demon, I believe…’
‘An accurate observation, my Lady, I am a converted demon. An Unborn. To save my life, the decision was taken to put the blood of demons in my veins in order to assure my survival. I stand before you today, despite the turmoil, to ask you permission to court you.’
I took a moment to observe Ilrune. At the Academy, he had still been very young, still a little wet behind the ears and unsure of the world. But that child was not the creature that stood in front of me now. Now, he was a man of impeccable form, a man who could easily have risen through the ranks of my army to become an officer. From what I knew of the Careen, they would have raised Ilrune to the best of their ideals: kindness, respect, etiquette and honesty. He would make a good king for the people of Aspheri without trying to usurp me or take my decisions for me. The people would accept him with ease. Perhaps this courting would end in a marriage. Only time would tell.
‘My Lord Ilrune, I grant you the right of courting.’
Aleth squealed in delight when I told her of my decision. I lay back in the bathing pool, careful not to let the splint on my arm get wet, daydreaming a little as my Lady’s maid untied the mess of plaits. I’m still young by demonic standards. I’m allowed to daydream about love. Aleth chatted happily about all the positive attributes Ilrune had, from his species to the length of his claws. I half listened to her, but my mind was elsewhere. Well, my mind was with a certain crystal demon.
Ilrune courted me over the next month in the traditional Careen fashion. At every meeting, he brought me gifts, the meaning in Careen society being to show off your wealth and knowledge of your lady’s tastes while attempting to buy her favour by offering things that she would appreciate. The first thing he brought me was a ring, which showed that the female was favouring a male. And he definitely proved his wealth with it: A band of white gold inlaid with three gems, a bloodstone, the stone favoured by the Aspherin royal line, flanked by an amethyst and a diamond. I wore it on a chain around my neck at his suggestion to avoid it getting in the way of my sword play. Diplomatic courtesy had obliged me to tell Prince Melek of my courtship with Ilrune, and his answer had been only slightly short of furious. K
aleb and Captain Nergal were increasingly worried about an assassination attempt, especially since I ‘insisted on gallivanting off with that Unborn’ and leaving my guards behind. Although, once or twice, I did spot one of them following us, trying to remain unseen.
At the end of the month, I strode through the corridors of the palace, eager to get to the courtyard, where Ilrune was apparently waiting for me. I wasn’t just excited to see him though. The courting law for the Careen states that a courtship must last only a month. Today was the last day of that month. One month was perhaps not a long time to have known someone, but over the time I had spent with him, I had started to see that he was, for all the stigma attached to his rank, a man with a heart, who treated me not as a princess, not as a ruler of a dimension, but as a girl who still dreamed of love.
Ilrune was indeed waiting for me in the courtyard, astride a fiery red pegasus, another one standing beside him. I stroked the doe’s silvery coat, admiring her build. Ilrune, ever the gentleman, swung himself off his stag in order to help me to mount.
‘A final gift, My Lady,’ he said formally. ‘Not as fine as the doe bonded to you, but one of the finest of our herds.’
‘She is wondrous,’ I breathed, running my fingers through her silken mane. From what I knew of the pegusi, she was a carnivore, a heavier build compared to the herbivores, like the Earthen draft horses. I touched the plate on her collar, reading her name: Moonmaiden.
We flew out over the walls of the palace, leaning low over our mount’s necks. My hair streamed out beside me as I raced Ilrune, not even knowing where we were racing to. He smiled at me as we flew side by side for a moment before he pulled ahead, starting to angle for a descent. I straightened up, leaning backwards a little to aid my doe in her landing. I pulled Moonmaiden up next to Ilrune’s stag, looking out over the villages. Demons moved in the streets, oblivious to us watching them, finishing the repairs from the bloody battle fought against Alena. The red sun cast its warmth over the black ground, bringing out the crimson flecks in the palace stone. Pride swelled my heart as I looked out over it. There was no way I could let this fall into the hands of Teran or Melek. These demons, these people needed better than that. Ilrune turned his gaze to me, swinging himself off his mount’s back. Standing next to me, he cleared his throat.
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