Mark of the Princess

by B. C. Morin

  “Yes. I just can’t wait to see her again, you know. I just need to know that she is ok.”

  Tristan put his arm around her and pulled her in to lean on his chest. He brought his chin down for a moment, and gently kissed the top of her head, then leaning back against a moss covered stone, and closed his eyes before drifting off.

  Evyette awoke to find that the guys were still sleeping, and shadows were creeping about the edge of their camp. She heard them saying something but she couldn’t make out what it was. Evyette walked closer to the surrounding tree lines to find that it was her name they were calling, but the words they spoke were in a language she didn’t recognize. The shadows’ eyes were red and menacing, their faces obscured by the shadows, yet she couldn’t help but want to get closer to see what they were. She crept closer to them and saw that the shadows never took shape and remained hovering around the edge of their campsite. She turned to look at Kaleb and Tristan and didn’t understand how they hadn’t awoken to the noises and talking of these shadows. Suddenly she felt a pull on her entire body. She tried to turn and head back to the camp, but her feet seemed to be stuck to the ground. She opened her mouth to scream but one of the shadow’s hands covered her mouth allowing no noise to escape.

  She decided to turn and fight it, bending down and pulling the blade from the holster on her leg she readied herself. She threw herself forward onto the shadow and found that she didn’t fall through it but rather on it, as it had taken form. She tried to stab it but it moved out from under her. As it circled her, it called her name and then spoke again in the language she couldn’t understand. Finally she spun around and saw her silver blade cut through the chest of the shadow figure. Thick black liquid poured from it’s wound as it fell to the ground. The fae marks that were engraved on the blade also covered in the black liquid.

  Is that its blood? She thought. As she watched the shadow fall to the ground she felt the force of two more head toward her. Again she tried to move and couldn’t. It felt as though they were reaching inside of her. The pain was so intense that it caused tears to stream down her face, she opened her mouth to scream but again no noise came out.

  She sat up so suddenly that Tristan awoke with her, her mouth still open just as in her dream. Her breathing was heavy and she was patting her chest where the shadows hands had delved inside of her. Her face was wet with tears and when she looked at her hand there was no blade.

  “Oh…” she began, her breathing slowing down, “a nightmare.” She said as she turned to face him.

  Tristan cupped her face in his hands wiping her tears with his thumbs. “About Alannah?”

  “No. Some strange shadow creatures. They were attacking me. It was strange. At first they were shadows with no forms, and then they had the shapes of fae with no wings, and hardly any features at all, except their eyes. They were horrible.” She explained with a shudder.

  Tristan felt his heart drop. “You’re ok. I’ve got you.” He reached out pulling her against him again, “As long as you’re with me I won’t let anything hurt you.” He knew these were the same spirits from the other night but because of the protection spells they cannot physically get to her.

  “Tristan.” She tilted her head back to look at him.

  “What were those?” Tristan was unsure if he should tell her. He didn’t want her to worry.

  She sat up never taking her gaze off of him. “I know you know what they are. I saw the look on your face last night when I was attacked and I can see it in your face now.”

  Her usual calm demeanor was gone. There was worry and panic now that wasn’t there before. A different worry than the one she had for Alannah’s well being.

  Tristan glanced at Kaleb who had awoken as well and was listening.

  She looked over at Kaleb momentarily and then back at Tristan.

  “Well?” Evyette questioned, growing increasingly nervous about the response.

  Tristan rubbed the back of his neck trying to think of the best way to tell her without sending her into a full out panic. But there was none.

  “Venator-animus.” He said finally looking back at her. “Soul Hunters”

  Her look changed from worry to horror. “But, why? Why me?” Evyette said, feeling the anxiety building up inside her.

  “I don’t know. Usually they only target certain individuals who they have laid claim to their souls. The wards that Kaleb put on you should hold for a while but we will need to see one of the Magi to find out more.” Tristan explained, running his hand up and down her back trying to comfort her.

  “I just do not understand. Why would it claim me? I am not important. I am not royalty or anything. I’m a damn orphan!” She exclaimed fright and anger wreaking havoc on her emotions.

  Tristan grabbed her hand. “We will figure it out. Do not worry. For now, you have Kaleb and I protecting you. Nothing will happen to you as long as the protective wards are up and we are with you.”

  She buried her face in her hands, although she didn’t cry. She didn’t like people seeing her weak. She rubbed her face with her hands and put them back on her lap. She realized that now was not the time to worry about this anyway. There were other things that needed to be done before she could worry about herself. She didn’t say anything else and for all intents and purposes Tristan decided that it probably wasn’t time for him to say anything either.

  She laid down next to him again and put her head on his chest.

  ‘As long as you’re with me I won’t let anything hurt you.’ she thought of his words and let out a sigh. She hoped he was right.

  * * *

  Alannah looked at the cut on her arm that was already healing thanks to the spell that Brennus preformed.

  She was still thinking of what he had said about her powers coming in. She didn’t understand if it was her powers, why they were so uncontrollable. She had seen other faeries powers come in and usually as they manifested, they were very easy to handle and would grow in strength as the faerie grew older and tried to master it.

  Brennus had already put out the fire and walked back into the cave. “How’s your arm?” He walked over and grabbed her arm to look. She was sitting close to the mouth of the cave where the moonlight still trickled in.

  “Hmm, not bad.” He said proudly of his work before putting her arm back down.

  “Brennus, do you really believe that what happened was because my powers are coming in?”

  He sat down near her but facing the mouth of the cave. “Yes.”

  “Could you…” she looked at him keeping watch and looked back at her arm, “could you teach me some spells?”

  He turned his head and torso to look at her for a moment, “no.”

  She was taken aback by his answer, she really didn’t think he would say no. “Really. Well you do not have to be an oaf about it.”

  Brennus chuckled, turning around completely, “I’m not being an oaf. I simply can not teach you.”

  She didn’t let him finish. “You can not or you will not?”

  “I can not. The spells we use are different than the ones other faeries use. We use a language that we have to learn from the time we are very young. It’s specific to the magic and fighting style we use.”

  “Oh.”

  “So you see Princess, I wasn’t denying you just to deny you. I truly cannot. To learn the magic we know, you have to be taught by our teachers. Not by me, regardless of how great I might be at it. ” He stood and walked out to the area in front of the cave.

  She felt infuriated at his ego and at the same time sheepish for having reacted the way she did. Was she really behaving like a brat? She thought of her life and how sheltered she really was. How Kaleb and Tristan knew so much more than her and Evyette. She thought of her actions back home. That girl is gone now, now sits a girl here who has managed to escape a castle prison, has been shot with an arrow and then have that arrow removed and is now having her powers come in. Maybe she had been naïve. But now she was something different
, she had to be.

  She turned and laid her head on a smooth stone that was on the floor and without looking at him responded. “Oh, and you’re not that great.” She knew it was a lie as soon as it left her lips. Of course he was great. He knew spells that could do things she never thought possible, he’s been trained by the best. He was great, but she wasn’t about to tell him.

  Brennus laughed to himself.

  He waited outside surveying the area until he felt it was safe enough to go to sleep, although he had put up some protection wards, he wasn’t one to take chances. Brennus walked back to the cave and sat next to the princess who he thought was asleep. Her hair lay on the floor between them and he looked at the mark on her back again. He sat trying to recall every ancient marking he had read about. He knew this was no ordinary power or skill marking. This was more. Without thinking he reached over and touched it with his finger tracing the mysterious symbol.

  Her body reacted instantly giving her goose bumps and he quickly drew his hand back. She made no indication that she was awake although she was. She felt him touch her and although she was thinking of the touch she wondered about his intrigue toward her Mark.

  He turned with his back to her so that he could face the opening of the cave, with his mind on the symbol, he fell asleep.

  The dreams were random. Some of his childhood, most of his training. After all, that is what most of his childhood consisted of. Training. Having been born with the most Marks and gifts than any other warrior faerie in a century it was only natural to have him work on each and every one of those skills. No matter how much it took from him being with the other children.

  Brennus envisioned the classes, the trips, the books. Suddenly as if by magic a book was in front of him. It was an old book. ‘There are only three copies of this book in the world.’ He was told. It has the most powerful and ancient symbols and spells inside. He thumbed through it and saw each and every one of his Markings as they were when he was born. Of course now they looked different as they all had expanded and spread since he had first begun his training. The more he trained the bigger they became, symbols of his knowledge and power. But then he came to another page. A symbol that he had seen once before. He couldn’t remember in the dream where he had seen it. He tried to read the information below it, but only grasped some words. Omnipotens, infestus, mille annus. He awoke quickly thinking of his dream. ‘Most powerful, dangerous, thousand years’ he repeated to himself. He turned to look at Alannah who this time was asleep. He glared at her Mark once again, and as if being hit by a wall of information, he remembered.

  The day dredged on as the one before. This time though they had come across a pond and a berry bush by noon time so they were not as famished as the day before. Brennus had not told her about the dreams or about what he had remembered. He had simply told her that controlling her emotions would be the first step in channeling her powers. Despite her worry of getting them wrong, she practiced a few of her spells during the day. When she passed a hole in the ground she turned and said “Aquacio” and suddenly the hole was filled with water. She smiled at herself and kept walking. She knew that certain spells took a lot of energy and could leave her drained so she used the ones she knew would not deplete her. As she walked by a tree she touched a flower and in a low voice said “Fieri-caecus”, and as she drew her hand back the flower became invisible.

  Her arm burned around her bicep. She grabbed at it, but the burning was gone in a moment. When she looked, her spell casting mark had spread. She continued to recite spells in her head but didn’t perform any of them for fear of draining her energy.

  At night they stopped at a clearing to rest. They heard some noises nearby but decided that they were probably coming from animals now that they were getting closer and closer to the forest edge.

  * * *

  Kaleb and Tristan had already doused the fire and put some protective wards around the area they were to be sleeping in. Evyette who had been quiet most of the day seemed drained. Tristan looked at her and saw just how tired she was. She was paler than usual, there were dark circles under eyes, and he wondered how much sleep she had actually gotten the night before.

  Tristan had, as usual, propped himself up against a tree. Evyette came over next to him and without a word she leaned against him and put her head on his chest and her arm around his waist. She didn’t know if he could protect her like he said but she sure felt safe being this close to him. He lifted the arm that was around her back and pulled back her hair which had fallen to cover half of her face and then put his hand on her arm and fell asleep.

  The sound of the snapping twig awoke them. Kaleb quickly looked at Tristan. Tristan was trying to carefully slip out of Evyette’s hold without waking her. He stood himself and walked over to Kaleb.

  “Do you think someone is here?” his hand on the hilt of his sword.

  Kaleb put his hand in front of him with this palm up. “Levis” suddenly a small ball of light appeared , floating above his palm. They both looked over to see if they had woken Evyette, but she was still sound asleep. They knew that with all the wards that they had placed she would be safer in here than following them.

  “You stand guard here. I’ll go check out the noise.”

  Tristan grabbed Kaleb’s arm stopping him from walking ahead. “No, you will not go alone.”

  Trist we can’t leave her completely alone. If one of the Venator-animus manages to get through the wards …”

  He didn’t have to finish. Tristan knew that if even one of the soul hunters could manage to get through it would kill Evyette.

  Kaleb lifted his hand in front of him, “Pendere” the light lifted from his hand and hovered in front of him. He unsheathed his sword and walked in the direction of the sounds that he kept hearing.

  He walked carefully into the large group of trees, and looked around but found no-one or nothing. Suddenly out of the corner of his eye he saw a beam of light heading toward him. He turned to face it and used the sword to ward off the spell. “Impetius.” he said as he flung his hand in the direction that the attack came from. Suddenly as if out of the shadows a sword came up into the air and slashed down at him. He brought his sword up and blocked it, knocking the other sword to the ground.

  “Coma!” Suddenly the small illumination shot out rays of light all around the group of trees, exposing his adversary. A Rogue Faerie came at him attacking with his sword and several other spells. “Incendum!” The rogue faerie yelled. “Aquacio!” Kaleb yelled back as a stream of water shot out from his hand and doused the stream of fire that was beaming at him. The water splashed hitting them both. Suddenly the Rogue Faerie ran at him with his sword at the ready.

  The clash of swords was loud. Kaleb studied his opponent. The rogue faerie stood a mere couple of inches taller than him. His wings were battered and had been cut. He was thin and looked starved but was still muscular and strong. He had marks like his. His eyes were dark though, they seemed almost completely black.

  Suddenly the pain was hard and sharp. The rogue faerie had kicked up his leg when Kaleb was blocking his sword, kicking Kaleb in the stomach. Kaleb stumbled back and bent over a moment but remained on his feet. Unexpectedly another faerie came from the other side of the trees. He was taller than the two of them and covered in Marks. His fighting style was un-relentless. He attacked the rogue faerie and knocked him down several times. Once Kaleb caught his breath he ran back to the battle. He swung his sword at the rogue faerie and almost hit the larger faerie. The larger faerie was about to attack Kaleb when Kaleb shot him a glance that showed he had not meant to do that. The large faerie brought up his sword and ripped through the air in the direction of Kaleb but blocking the sword of the rogue faerie. Kaleb then turned and using all the power he could muster, shot a burst of power in the direction of the rogue faerie. The hit knocked him off of his feet and into the tree behind him. The larger faerie ran faster than Kaleb had ever seen any faerie run and suddenly by the time the rogue faerie st
ood he was pinned to the tree by the silver blade. The blood running from the faerie onto the sword traced markings on the sword that Kaleb was unable to interpret.

  The larger faerie quickly disengaged his sword from the tree and the rogue faerie and pointed it at Kaleb, the Rogue faerie falling to the ground.

  “I don’t know what your business was with this faerie but it is done. You should leave and take your trouble with you.” He said, standing over Kaleb.

  Kaleb, keeping his sword at the ready responded. “I had no trouble with that faerie. I was attacked while investigating some noise. I do not live in these mountains.”

  Suddenly from the edge of the trees Alannah came running in with her sword at the ready. “Brennus?”

  “Alannah!” Kaleb exclaimed before putting his sword down, a stunned expression on his face.

  Thinking that this might have been another hired hand of Maligo the larger faerie shot a spell at Kaleb and knocked him down. For the moment Kaleb had forgotten that the princess was there and stood quickly and retaliated. He shot a burst to Brennus but he had moved out of the way. It struck a tree and pieces of bark and leaves filled the air.

  Brennus ran at Kaleb with his sword in the air, ready to crash down. Kaleb lifted his sword but did not expect the might behind the other sword. He blocked it but barely kept his own sword from hitting him.

  “No! Stop!”

  They both let up slightly on their positions and looked at Alannah.

  “Kaleb? Thank goodness. Maligo told me that he had you killed.” Alannah stepped closer to look at him.