Companion of Darkness_An Epic Fantasy Series

by CJ Rutherford

  I had to hide. I was no match for her, so I bowed down, uttering a spell to change the scroll into something else. “Nothing. Just a map of the southern shores. Your father sent a message that we were to travel there.” She looked over my shoulder. The lie worked.

  “Yes. We are to ride to the shore.” Lyssa’s eyes narrowed. “Though I hadn’t realized my father had informed you.”

  I shook my head. “Hoggan told me.” It was a gamble.

  “Ah, Father’s pet dwelf.” She spat. “Filthy animal.”

  I gritted my teeth. Maker, I despised this girl.

  Lyssa inspected the room. “Where is the brownie? She was to stay with you at all times when I’m not with you.” Her eyes darkened, her teeth baring in a feral snarl. “I will whip her within an inch of her life for disobeying me!”

  I blanched. Brecca must have known she’d get into trouble for leaving me, but she did it anyway. I put my hands out, feigning calm. “I…I asked her to go and get some balm for my hair. It…it’s dry.”

  Lyssa walked over and ran her hands through my hair before bunching her fist and pulling hard enough that I whimpered. “Hmm, yes. It feels horrible, but I’m not sure a balm exists in all the lands to fix it.”

  My fists clenched. My sharp nails cut into my palms, but I cut back the pain. I imagined my hands passing through her hair, the honey gold strands flowing through my fingers. I felt them, soft and silken, as I ripped the hair from her scalp. A vision of blood filled my mind, with Lyssa’s head smashed at my feet…and I smiled. Maker! What was happening to me? NO!

  Brecca cleared her throat as she entered the room, a small phial in her stubby fingers.

  I turned to her, swallowing the sickness that threatened to engulf me. Brecca gave me a sharp look and a nod.

  Lyssa spun around as Brecca entered. Her eyes flashed with viciousness before she glided gracefully to the door. Looking back over her shoulder, she said, “I’ll be downstairs having breakfast. Meet me in the courtyard when you are…ready.” She sneered the final word before slamming the door.

  Brecca handed the bottle over to me, glancing at the desk but dismissing any suggestion we should discuss what just happened. “I see Hoggan gave you the map.” Her eyes flashed. I wished she and Hoggan were as easy to read as the eldar, but then I supposed they’d had to get used to veiling their feelings.

  I nodded. “The one of the southern coast, yes.”

  Brecca nodded, almost imperceptibly, and the corners of her mouth twitched. She approved of the deception, and I found myself smiling, until her eyes narrowed in alarm. So this was the way it worked. Lyssa could see through her eyes and hear through her ears. Perhaps my inability to sense Brecca’s thoughts meant they were privy to the princess as well. My smile vanished, and I mentally kicked myself, hoping Lyssa hadn’t been watching.

  “So, will you be travelling south with us, Brecca?”

  The brownie sighed, the only sign she was glad of the change of direction. “I shall remain here, my lady.” She lowered her eyes. “I am not allowed to leave the Citadel, unlike you.” The bitterness returned, edging her voice with an undercurrent of ice. Maker, she was good. Everything she did, her speech, mannerisms, even her thoughts, kept up the illusion of her hatred of me.

  I shrugged. “I missed you this week.” Brecca looked at me, her expression a mirror of my own mask. We both knew it was a lie; don’t ask me how. “What were you doing?” I knew she wouldn’t reveal what the princess had done to hurt her, but I desperately wanted to know what Lyssa had been doing while I spent time with Hoggan. It felt…important. I wanted to know what was so important she’d given up her favorite pastime—torturing me.

  She turned around, crossing to make my bed. “Most of the time was spent planning this trip. The court was busy. Lyssa is beautiful so has many suitors, as you can imagine.”

  I strangled a snort. Lyssa was indeed beautiful, but even the most beautiful roses have thorns. In the forest, there were plants that used their beauty to ensnare you, their loveliness and irresistible scent luring unwary travelers to their doom. Lyssa was worse than any of them.

  “Yes, I’m sure the court was a hive of activity.” As Brecca finished the pretense of making the bed, I turned to look over my shoulder. “What’s it like?” I was curious. I’d never seen the eldar throne room.

  Brecca huffed, turning to me, happy to be back on safe ground. “The eldar court is…old.” She cocked her head to one side, her eyes narrowing as she struggled to describe it. “They have held court with the other lords and ladies here for centuries, and before this castle existed, they did the same.” She looked up, her eyes their own shade of autumn brown. “My father sat in the faerie court…long ago.”

  My head snapped round. A brownie in the faerie court? “That must have been a very long time ago.”

  She cut her words and wrung her hands in her lap. “I’m sorry, my lady. It was a long time ago indeed. I should not have mentioned it. It was a slip.”

  Brecca winced. She hid it well, but I saw the fiery barb that licked her back, evidence that Lyssa watched us and was ready and willing to punish Brecca for any slight step out of line. And it appeared talking about the past was deemed so. Another message. The brownies had been allies of the faer, centuries ago, before whatever it was this curse had done to split us all apart.

  “I helped with the faerie court,” I said. “I never saw you there. I would have loved to see your people.” I struggled to keep my face straight. The memories hit me and threatened to break the mask.

  Brecca looked back through eyes that cycled through the deep chestnut brown of her natural color to the hazel of Lyssa’s. Any doubt I had that Lyssa could watch me through Brecca vanished at that point.

  “We don’t have a court anymore, my lady. I…we…” She turned away again, clearly scared and desperate to avoid further punishment. “We eat. We share. In the forest we have all we need. If we are hungry, we pluck fruit from a tree. If we are thirsty, we drink from the stream.”

  “You lived,” I breathed. All I wanted to do was take her in my arms, share our pain. But I wasn’t worthy. My heart sank.

  “I betrayed you. I sang a song and your brother died.” All the joy in my soul died. I’d done this, killed her brother. He’d rushed headlong through the wood and met his death, and his sister ended up shackled. It was all my fault.

  “Yes.” Brecca turned to me. Her voice chilled me…blamed me. The expression on her face and the white, clenched knuckles accused me. But the sliver of her mind that opened to me—just for the briefest moment—told me the truth. She knew the truth, and my eyes stung with bitter tears. It wasn’t your fault, she seemed desperate to convey, before the shutters fell around her thoughts again.

  The following day was filled with contradictions. Pain lanced me with every step I took, blood invisible to others smearing the crystal tiles, but all the while Lyssa displayed how much she loved her pet faerie, introducing me to everyone we met, whether eldar or high-ranking elves.

  I was surprised how few eldar we actually saw, but then the Citadel was a huge place. Except for the few noble elves, the lower elven people we met were servants and in the princess’s eyes too low to even acknowledge. Indeed, if I wasn’t mistaken, I think I saw a few of them scamper into side tunnels to avoid her. Any that didn’t succeed simply bowed their heads in supplication, unwilling to meet Lyssa’s stern stare.

  I tried a couple of times to meet their gaze and offer up a simple smile, but no…it appeared that Lyssa’s deception had fooled them all. I was a privileged, pampered pet. I felt their discomfort at my presence, disdain and even hatred from a few of them.

  The earlier meeting in the courtyard had been a distraction…the unicorns witnessing how low I was in the princess’s eyes.

  Firehoof had stomped as he saw through the glamour. I felt his hidden fury, surprised it was restrained to a bare stamp of hooves.

  Tears of Twilight looked into my eyes.

  ‘This is a pr
ecedent, child.’ She shook her long and luxurious mane. ‘An opportunity, perhaps.’ I didn’t know what she meant, but I held her eyes. ‘For centuries the unicorns have borne the eldar across the plains to the other keeps. We should have left today to make it to the coast in time for tomorrow’s meeting. The fact we have not means the eldar have another, swifter mode of transport. There is only one race in all the lands faster than the unicorns.’

  ‘Dragons…we’re travelling by dragon?’

  Tears nodded, the gesture so equine no one noticed. ‘Use tonight, child. You have the tools to search for what’s hidden, and tonight you will be free to do so. For the first time in weeks you will be alone. The princess will be with her parents, and the dwelf is…otherwise engaged.’

  I stared into those beautiful eyes. ‘How do you know all this?’

  Tears simply swept her long graceful neck to the side, looking at the small brownie holding an apple up to one of the other mounts, gently stroking the amber colored mane.

  ‘Brecca? I thought she couldn’t communicate with you?’

  Amusement bubbled in my head. ‘Not the way we can, child, though I’m certain she suspects we are more than simple beasts…enough so that she talks to us. She tells us things…whispers that she overhears but cannot tell you directly. So…she tells us. I doubt the princess, or anyone else, would be interested in idle chatter between a servant and a beast, do you?’

  Brilliant…absolutely brilliant. I wasn’t sure, but something told me Brecca knew exactly what she was doing. I vowed to visit the unicorns more often, daily perhaps.

  “You know, if you stare into those eyes any longer the beast will hypnotize you, and instead of being the master, you will become the pawn.” Lyssa slipped her arm through mine as she giggled. A spear entered my spine. I wanted to cry out in pain, but the princess forced a laugh from my lips. Her court laughed with me, unaware or unwilling to admit the torture I suffered.

  I gasped as she released me, crossing to her mother. “I think we are done for today.”

  I watched…Maker! I watched as Lyssa led her court, her parents, to the circle, and vanished.

  The map shone in the moonlight leaking through my window. I felt it…the freedom I’d never felt since I arrived, the freedom from being watched. Even that first night I left the room I knew it. The dark figure following me down the spiral stairs was no accident.

  Now? Nothing. I was free to go wherever I wanted, and the only place I wanted to go was the last place I’d gone. Where I’d felt the magic that should have turned me around but hadn’t. The eldar king’s magic, the magic he’d told me would tell him where I wasn’t supposed to be.

  I should be dead. When I crossed that line I should have died, I was certain of it. As I looked at the map, seeing how deeply I’d delved, the shadow shaded in the depths of the dungeon I’d entered…I should be dead.

  Well, if I was dead already, what did I have to lose by going back?

  I opened my door, looking up the spiral stair. Damn you, bitch. I’m not scared.

  I ran down, my plain dress trailing over the steps as I entered the hall. I saw the map in my head, a circle much closer to my goal shining in my vision. My feet hit the circle and I was there. A tower of emerald glass, with a single stair leading down. I suddenly realized the glass matched the color of the spiral staircase beside the dark tunnel behind the barrier. This was where it led.

  I looked around. Maker! If I’d gone up, I’d have been trapped here. Yes, there was a transportation circle, but back then I hadn’t known how to use one. There was only the one entrance, only the open windows. But the view!

  Right then I knew why the figure had gone so deep: because going so deep allowed you to rise so high.

  I stood a mile above the Citadel. The roofs of every building glistened in the starlight. The mountains seemed dwarflike in the distance, and the forest was insignificant when compared with the heights I stood upon.

  Something twisted in my soul. My hands clenched. My eyes narrowed. I breathed heavily as I realized…no…I knew…this could all be mine. All of this. This tower had the power. All I surveyed would be mine, if I wanted it. Wisps of clouds passed below. All I had to do was accept. The walls sang to me. I touched a pillar and green sparks flickered below the tips of my fingers.

  Easy. It was just so easy. I slumped down on a bench. I looked out on the world. It was mine.

  NO! The word seared my brain, painful enough it appeared in my vision in fiery lettering. I staggered. I recognized the voice, felt the fury, and breathed in the scent as I stood up. Cinnamon.

  ‘Thank you, Glyran.’ Somehow he’d broken whatever spell had just threatened to turn me into…something else, something corrupt. I still felt it, the tug of something alien, something wrong. But I turned and put my foot on the first step downward.

  It was as if a thread snapped; the lure into corruption vanished. A chill flowed through me. Looking back over my shoulder as I stepped down the spiral staircase, I vowed never to enter this tower again.

  Why had the map shown this to be the closest circle to my destination, when it was so high above where I needed to be? But then after just one revolution I emerged into the small hallway. It must be some sort of spell. I halted, half-expecting to feel the magic of whatever spell had barred the corridor before, but there was nothing. It was just an ordinary passageway.

  I took a tentative step over the threshold. Nothing.

  As I continued down the passageway, I waited for the feeling to hit me, but no, still nothing but the darkness, that this time felt just like darkness, just an absence of light, nothing ominous or soul crushing at all.

  At the crossroads I stood at the top of the stone staircase, one foot hovering above the first step. I braced myself. My foot landed on the step. Nothing. I took another step, then another. Silence. Down and down and down I went, my hand brushing the wall the only sense I had. The staircase was wide but straight, and as I went deeper the air grew damp and dank. I must be far, far underground, I was thinking, just as my hand reached the end and the floor leveled out. I couldn’t see anything in the inky blackness, but I knew I stood at the mouth of a huge cavern. It was empty. Don’t ask me how, but I knew for certain nothing living was here. Whatever had been, whatever had attacked me, was gone.

  Damn it! I cursed under my breath. It had all been a total waste of time. I decided I could risk it, so I uttered a simple spell of illumination. A tiny ball of bright golden light grew above my outstretched hand until it was bright enough to see a hundred feet around me.

  The cavern wasn’t empty after all.

  I gasped in horror at the magnificent form lying prone on the stone floor. My breath caught in my throat, and tears pricked my eyes as I reached out to run my hand along the scales of the largest dragon I’d ever seen. It was easily twice as large as Glyran, and while the same golden scales adorned the huge body, they were dull and tarnished in death.

  What happened to it? It must have been the source of the rush of hot air that knocked me off my feet the other night, but what had happened? Who had the power to kill a dragon, any dragon, never mind one as mighty as this one? And what was a dragon doing in a cavern under the Citadel?

  Suddenly, I heard humming echo from the opening. I immediately extinguished the light and skipped as quietly as I could to the lip of the staircase. Light was coming from around the corner. Whoever was coming down the stairs had a lantern, so they would see me right away. Maker! I was trapped. I thought briefly about huddling down and trying to slip unnoticed back up the stairs when whoever it was emerged, but no, that was stupid. The sound grew closer by the second, so I took the only other action I could. I ran into the darkness. If I could get far enough so the lantern light couldn’t reach me, I could just wait until they left.

  I got as far as the tail of the dragon before the light cleared the stairway and entered the cavern. I crouched as low as I could, praying to the Maker not to be seen. I peeked over the huge coiled tail. Two figure
s. One was cloaked in shadows, as if a dark mist hung over their shoulders, obscuring any details. The other? Well, she was as familiar to me as my own reflection. I gritted my teeth as her lips broke into a wide smile at the sight of the fallen dragon.

  “Did the beast suffer?” Lyssa’s grin widened, and she actually rubbed her hands together in glee. I felt sick to my stomach, but a rage rose within me. I wanted to hammer that pretty face into the cold, hard, stone floor.

  The other figure spoke, more of a hiss than actual words. It chilled me to the depths of my soul. “Yesss, Highnesss. He begged for mercy at the end. Even as I ssssucked the lassst of hisss sssoul from his body, he ssscreamed in agony.”

  “Good,” she said. “I only wish I’d been here to see it, but at least you saved the important part for me.” Her mouth parted to reveal bright white teeth, and I shuddered as they lengthened into points. What was she? Whatever she was, she wasn’t just eldar, not any more at least. Hoggan had mentioned her being good once, when he’d first arrived at the Citadel.

  The scene from the other night replayed in my head, of her standing, trance-like in the doorway of my room, before it had become the forest. Perhaps there was still good in her, deep down, but right now she was terrifying.

  I wanted to run, to get as far as possible from this, from whatever she was about to do, but any movement was sure to give me away, so I watched with morbid fascination as Lyssa drew a shining blade and sliced into the face of the corpse. The noise was horrible, but she giggled as she cut out the large emerald eyes. Bile coated the inside of my mouth as I swallowed, trying to keep the contents of my stomach down.

  Just when I thought it could get no worse, she held the eyes up, inspecting both before deciding on one, which she then took a bite out of with a sickening squish. Blood ran down her chin, but she smiled the whole time, eating the eye bite by bite until she ran the back of her hand over her mouth and licked the blood off it.