by A Lonergan
No.
Cal loved his people. He cared for them far more than anyone else. What would happen if he died? Rosalia would be given back to Armia. I knew it and I could feel it, but I didn’t know what to do. I squeezed my eyes shut before I leapt from the floor and ran at them. I hit the force field hard, but I was prepared for it and just slid backward across the stone. Armia stopped just a fraction from his jugular.
“I knew you would be more resilient than what you were playing at.” She threw the knife at one of her men, and he caught it easily. “No one goes through torture like a pro and can’t heal like one.”
Cal watched me from the table as I spoke. “I will tell you what you need to know.”
Armia barked out a laugh. “If I had known it would have been this easy, I would have started with my brother first. But it doesn’t bother you?”
I frowned but didn’t say anything. I didn’t know what she could be talking about.
“The fact that he was willing to let you be tortured for hours on end, and yet, you couldn’t take it when I got too close to his neck? He would have let you die and would have never given the information I wanted.” I ignored her, but she continued. “He would have watched you die and you know what the best part is?”
I turned away from her glee.
“The best part is, he was more interested than I was when the glamor was peeled away from your arm. He had more sick pleasure in his eyes than I would have ever imagined. Can you picture it? My brother enjoying your pain, because he couldn’t wait to see who you really are?”
Her words made my breathing pick up, but I refused to let her see through me. I kept my face stoic as I picked up my arm and showed it off in the light. It was beautiful and untouched, except for the black swirling tattoos that started at my wrist and ended at my elbow. I couldn’t let her see my surprise. My entire life I had no idea it had been there, hidden under magic. My magic hidden away, locked away from even myself. I was a fraud. A part of me had known what she was doing when I laid on the table. A part of me had waited to look at the damage, at what she had uncovered.
“Do you really think the Emperor would be that stupid? Stupid enough to let it be known that his Assassin had infiltrated castles, entire kingdoms and villages by allowing me to have his mark on display?”
I couldn’t look at the king as I lied through my teeth. My entire life I’d had no idea that he’d shackled me like so many others. I had thought my father having the tattoo had been a misguided memory, but now the pieces were starting to fit together of a much larger puzzle.
My speed.
My agility.
My stamina
My quick recovery.
When I finally looked into Armia’s eyes, I saw fear.
Chapter Eighteen
The King
I watched Willow from the table. I couldn’t tell if she was lying or not, Nico would have been the one that would have been able to tell immediately. Her face was impassive, and her eyes were hard, like she had put on a mask. Armia turned and I could see her face finally. Her eyes were round and searching the room around me. I was wondering what she was thinking when she started to whisper to herself, “She’s going to kill me if she makes it out of here alive.”
The magic changed things. The thick band around Willow’s arm proved that there were things hidden beneath her surface and they terrified Armia, now that she had uncovered it. If Willow went back to Arinal, her Emperor would let her loose once the band was removed. He would allow her to come back here to take us down and I didn’t blame her. If I didn’t make it out of this alive, that is exactly what I wanted her to do.
“So, are you going to tell me where my djinn are hiding, sweet Willow?” Armia’s voice was sickly sweet as she turned away from me and faced the beauty on the other side of the force field.
Willow lifted her eyes from the ink marking her arm. “Why?”
Armia shook her head. “Why what?”
“Why kill those girls?” Willow’s voice trembled. “Why have them raped?”
Armia waved her hand around the air, dismissively. “I didn’t have that orchestrated, but elves are barbaric and I don’t stop them. They have tastes that can’t be sated, and I won’t put a cap on their desire.”
Willow’s jaw clenched. “Desire? You think that has to do with their desire? No, they are a rotten race if they call that their need. They are vile creatures that shouldn’t be allowed to exist if all they do is feed off of other’s misery. Who do you think you are?” I could see the rage simmering under her skin.
My sister sighed. “They are dead now, they do not suffer. I could have let them live through that pain for the rest of their filthy existences.”
“Or you could have sent a message another way.” Willow’s fingers twitched like she was craving the feeling of a blade there. I couldn’t blame her, I had a rage that I hadn’t felt in a long time. It boiled under my surface.
“Death is the only way I would have gotten my dear brother’s attention.” She turned around and gazed down at me.
“I’ll bring you to your genies. Let him go.” Willow was done playing games.
Armia raised her eyebrows. “Our dear king will come with us.” She rubbed her finger against her thumb and blew on them. The cuffs on my wrists and ankles disappeared, but I could still feel their magic on my skin. “They would never let us back into the castle if they knew you were our prisoner, now would they? Plus that little spell that needs to be taken down. I’m going to freshen up and then we will head back to the keep.”
I got off of the table and walked through the force field. It felt like water as I passed through. Willow immediately went to my face and neck. She inspected the wound there. Her soft fingers touched me gently. The others on my body were nothing, but there was a chance that this one could be fatal if it wasn’t treated correctly when we got back to the castle.
Just as the door was about to slam shut, Armia peeked her head back in. “Oh yes, and when we get to the castle think long and hard about your story.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “No, don’t do that. I will tell the stories and you go along with them. I won’t be long.”
The door slammed closed with a loud BANG, and Willow was back to looking my wounds over. “How are you feeling?”
The cut on my cheek had stopped bleeding, but it hadn’t scabbed over yet. I would have to be careful to not get dirt it in, down in this hell hole. Willow’s brows were pulled together as she continued to look me over. I tried to push her hands and concerns away, but she continued on.
“You know, you were harmed more than I was and you’re worried about me? That makes no sense.” I chuckled as she scowled. I sobered up quickly as I noticed her ink again. “Did you know?”
She shook her head, making her dark hair sway around her shoulders. “No, and I’m worried about it.”
I tilted her chin up. “Don’t be worried,”
“How can I not be? How can I just be okay with this?” She lifted her arm into the light that Armia had left behind. The magic swirled at her wrist and spread up to her elbow. It was constantly moving and twisting on her skin. I couldn’t see any particular design as it snaked around.
“My magic might not be powerful enough, but I know someone that is. She would be able to remove it from you.” I touched the marks and slid my thumb over her wrist. Her skin was smooth where the magic writhed and wiggled.
“And then what?” she frowned.
“Well, the genies,” I paused and the door slammed open. My sister came in, limping, with bruises covering her face and arms. I didn’t continue my sentence.
“Your goons would be able to sniff out the glamour on me. I had to make it realistic.” She shrugged her shoulders like she hadn’t been beat into oblivion.
Willow’s mouth hung open. “You’re masochistic.”
Armia rolled her eyes as she repeated the magic on Willow. Willow’s shackles disappeared, but she was still magically bound.
My sister gav
e us a predatory smile. “Willow, feel free to try your funny business and my elves will take out all of their pleasure on you, and you will be kept alive just to treat their needs.”
Willow smiled back and replied, “I will kill every single one of you.”
Chapter Nineteen
Willow
I gritted my teeth as the queen bitch, herself, lead us down a dark hallway. I shuddered to think of what my bare feet were stepping in, but I reigned it in as much as I could. I had been in worse situations than this and I needed to get it together. I had to formalize a plan. I needed to get out of this scenario alive, and somehow get the cuff of magic removed from my arm, figure my actual magic out, and then I would rescue my mother.
After a little while of us stumbling through the dark corridor, we came upon a dead end. Armia snapped her fingers and illuminated the area. I knew she wasn’t doing it as a curtesy for us. Two of her elven henchmen reached up and started to ascend the wall. Armia motioned for us to follow them. I reached up and my fingers brushed onto a metal rung. I wrapped my fingers around it and pulled myself up, easily. My upper body strength had started to dwindle since being in this kingdom, but I was proud that it wasn’t completely gone. My toes dug into the gritty wall and I kicked off of it. I propelled myself up enough to grab the next bar. On and on I went, following behind the monstrous men above me. After what seemed to be a hundred foot climb, and my arms starting to tire, I could see light above us.
My chest swelled with hope as a rough hand wrapped around my ankle. I had the instinct to kick down, but then it gave my foot a gentle squeeze and I remembered that Cal was below me.
When we reached the top, Armia’s men grabbed my wrists and yanked me into the open air. I flailed my arms around like a drunken festerfaust and tried to get my footing. I was typically more graceful than this, but they were careless where they used their muscly mass.
I hate being manhandled.
I dug my fingers into the dirt and blinked several times, trying to get my eyes adjusted to the intrusion of the Sun.
How dare it be so bright and blinding? I chuckled to myself. Being out in the open again was doing something strange to my mind. Even though I loved my shadows, I only liked them when I was hunting my assignments. I preferred the sunlight if I could get it.
Cal was tossed down beside me and when I could finally see, I noticed that he didn’t look good. His skin had taken on a sickly pallor, and the cut on his face was starting to turn an awful shade of green. The shade of green that dripped from children’s noses in the market. I shuddered.
Yuck.
He had dark circles under his eyes, and he had lost more weight than I had.
What did they feed this man in the castle?
Cal had his eyes squeezed shut and was grasping his middle like he had been kicked. My eyes left the man on the ground and found the two elves standing over him with sick satisfaction in their eyes. Armia still hadn’t made it up yet, which gave me the perfect opportunity. The behemoth men had knives strapped to them like I had before I entered into the castle for my first day of duty. I rolled across the ground, swiped the knife from the blonde’s boot and stabbed it into his eye socket within seconds. I rolled back to the ground and crouched in a defensive position over Cal, still holding the blade that had a perfectly round eyeball still attached to it. The king still hadn’t opened his eyes, but I knew he was aware of the situation.
The blonde elf was wailing and had fallen over, while the brown headed elf was stalking toward me like I would be a fun fight. I smiled with all of my teeth, I would enjoy this.
Except I wouldn’t.
Because at that moment, Armia decided to come out of the hole and I was suspended in the air again. The blade clattered on the stones beneath me and the air was sucked from my lungs. I could hold my breath for a long time, so I would play along, I had time to prepare before she faced me. Being out in the open, in what seemed to be a desert, was my kind of playing field. The sand crunched under the woman’s feet as she rushed to her man’s side.
“Brother, heal him, immediately!” Armia barked.
Cal rolled over and peeked one eye open, “I can’t, I can’t even heal myself. The cuffs zapped my magic, and even if you had removed them days ago, it would do no good. I haven’t had a decent meal in days, or weeks, depending on how long we were down there.”
Armia snapped her fingers and I dropped to the ground. “I should have shoved that knife deeper.”
Armia roared and flew at me. She slapped me across my cheek and her nails dragged on my skin. The sting had my head snapping to the side. I was genuinely surprised. “Get up, Nehemian, go home, we will continue without you.”
Nehemian clutched his face and disappeared into thin air.
Could I do magic like that?
It had been hours and I was antsy for a fight. Cal seemed to be withering away but my mind was sharp and I wanted to use it. My feet burned from the sand and the relentless sun. “Why don’t you just kill him, take the throne and get your precious genies back?”
Cal whipped his head back and gave me an incredulous look.
Armia tilted her head and regarded me curiously. “There is a lot you don’t know about magic, for being a magic wielder.”
I cocked an eyebrow at her. “Just because I have magic doesn’t mean that I was trained in everything about it. Emperor Hildiguard trained me to kill others, if he trained me anymore, I would be able to kill him. I am his weapon, not his death sentence, after all.”
She nodded her head and continued on. “Yes, I guess that makes sense. You can’t be the best or you would be able to get your mother back, and free her.”
I pretended like her words didn’t faze me. The mask went back in place. This was a playing field and I needed to win. “So?”
She flicked her hair over her shoulder like the heat wasn’t beating down on us, we weren’t her prisoners and we were just on a casual stroll. “Because the castle has things that are spelled to the King. If I were to ascend the throne out of nowhere, what was the point in me even leaving? But also, I wouldn’t be able to access certain things, and I wouldn’t have the loyalty of his men.”
What seemed like hours later, with my feet numb and Cal barely upright, we could see Rosalia. The gates open and inviting, waiting for us to come back. The castle loomed behind the city with all of its haunting beauty, and I knew for sure we couldn’t be entering right through the front door like this. All of us were covered in bruising except brown headed boy, and Cal without his guard would cause panic, especially since we had been gone for so long. Cal being missing would cause alarm in the kingdom.
I stopped our little convoy. “We can’t just march in there.”
Armia put her hands on her hips and scowled. “What do you propose we do?”
“Isn’t there a back entrance?” Cal started to sway and I caught him, just barely, in my arms. His weight was overwhelming, but brownie boy didn’t look to be ready to offer help anytime soon. He was fiddling with his knife like a bored school boy.
Armia watched us both with a strange look in her eye. “There are the servants quarters, but I would have no idea how to get there.”
I took a deep breath. “I know how to get there, but we will have to be careful.”
Chapter Twenty
Willow
Cal had passed out and when he did, brownie boy was the only one that could carry him. Though he wasn’t happy about it. He grumbled under his breath the entire way, until I finally snapped. “Will you shut up!”
He looked up at me with surprise. “Yes, I am talking to you, and yes I am tired of hearing your voice.”
His upper lip lifted from his teeth in a snarl. “Do you know who you’re talking to?”
I rolled my eyes. “Do you?”
Armia just stared at us both. The man was holding Cal over his shoulder like a sack of grains, and I was about to pick a fight with him.
“Let me guess, Armia didn’t tell you. She was pr
obably afraid you wouldn’t work with her if you knew you had the realm’s deadliest assassin in your presence.”
He took a step back. “Then how did we catch you?”
I smiled. “Maybe I wanted to be caught.” I held my inked up arm into the sunlight and let the meaning of it sink in. Emperor Hildiguard was known for being ruthless, as well as his servants. This just proved my identity.
My stomach dropped at the thought and I knew I was about to be sick. Nico wouldn’t let me back in the castle in he saw the ink on my arm. I stopped walking and pressed myself against the wall the surrounded most of the kingdom, aside from the road that lead to the Jaded Lands and the side that met the Wasted Sea.
“We need to get to the castle before nightfall. You don’t want to be here when the creatures come out to hunt.” I could see Armia fighting for breath, like she was terrified. “There are things out here, at night, that would give ghouls nightmares.”
“Then I guess we will stay out here,” I held my arm up. “They won’t let me back in if they see this.”
“I don’t have strong enough magic to keep them from sniffing out the glamor.” She got an evil look in her eye. “I could cut your arm off for you.”
I rolled my eyes. “That won’t work, the magic is too strong. But it won’t prevent you from cutting it and letting the blood cover the marking.”
“It’ll be my pleasure.” Armia smiled.
When we made it to the servants entrance, my arm was throbbing and coated in a thick layer of blood. Brownie boy had cringed every time I didn’t make a sound or a movement to what she was doing. It wasn’t that I couldn’t feel it, it was that it no longer phased me. Like a switch had been turned off in my brain toward all pain inflicted on me. Somethings caught me by surprise and left a little window open for pain to get through, but when I could manage it, it was the best gift the Emperor had given me.