The Stolen Princess

by Kristen Gupton

  “Wait,” Keiran said, stepping forward. “About our future collaboration, how will I contact you again?”

  Kayla glanced at him and smiled as she started to move away. “You won’t until I decide to contact you.”

  The three men stood there as Kayla and Sytir faded off into the growing storm. Keiran wished they’d been able to spend time together under less stressful circumstances. He understood her desire to get back home to the relative safety of the Northern Wastes where her children waited, though.

  “How far does she have to get before the two of you are able to dip into your bags of tricks?” Jerris asked.

  Keiran shook his head as he lost sight of his sister and her husband. “I don’t have any idea.”

  “Not far,” Baden replied, the sound of his shackles hitting the ground muffled by the snow.

  Keiran and Jerris spun to see him standing there unbound and rubbing his wrists.

  Baden looked at his uncle. He didn’t know what to do immediately. He’d noticed Keiran trading out his previous sword for the strange one now hanging from his belt. His father had mentioned a special sword lost somewhere in Tordania. Whether or not this was the weapon in question, he didn’t intend to find out.

  Jerris tensed and placed a hand on the hilt of his own weapon. He knew, though, if Baden was anywhere near as strong or fast as Keiran there would be little he could do.

  The younger vampire shook his head and turned to the side. “No need for that. I’ve grown tired of this whole ordeal. My father ordered me not to engage you, and I must obey that command now that I’m free.”

  Keiran tensed his jaw, trying to reach out to gauge the sincerity in his nephew’s words. His instincts weren’t flaring up if nothing else. “Then go, Baden. Don’t you dare go after your mother. Sytir is strong enough to terrify your father, so I doubt you’d have much of a chance.”

  Baden nodded, not disagreeing. “I know. You do realize, ultimately, you’ve been a fool for not killing me outright. No matter what happens, we are destined to clash someday.”

  “Killing you now would have brought consequences down upon me I don’t think I’m ready to face,” Keiran admitted before looking at Jerris. “Any thoughts?”

  The guard frowned. “Nothing in particular.”

  Baden narrowed his eyes and took several steps backward. “Well, then, good bye and good riddance.”

  Very much like his father, Baden faded from view. There was a vague, misty shape where he’d stood, but it soon melted into the falling snow and out of sight.

  Jerris turned toward Keiran. “And then there was only the two of us. About that room? It’s getting insufferably cold out.”

  The vampire nodded, the mix of emotions within him toying with the clarity of his thoughts. “Aye, we’ll go find something. I desperately need a drink.”

  “I’m guessing it’s not the same sort of drink I’m thinking of having for myself?” Jerris asked.

  “I’m afraid not.” Keiran blew out a long breath before conjuring up a smile. “Let’s go. Sleeping in a bed that isn’t on a moving ship is overdue.”

  “Getting washed up is long overdue, too.” Jerris frowned at Keiran and shook his head. “You smell like a dead cat.”

  * * *

  It was the damn Nahli mage again. The last being on the planet Athan wanted to run across. While it upset him to find his powers suddenly muted when he’d gotten near them, it didn’t matter.

  There she was.

  After ten years of not knowing what had befallen her, seeing her, even at a distance, thrilled him. He hated the Nahli man more than he ever thought possible, for simply being the one close to her while he was forced into the shadows.

  He sat on a rooftop as they walked along the street below. Though she was wrapped in her bear-pelt cloak, he knew it was her. He could smell her scent, even through the wind and cold.

  While he ached to race down and see her face, doing so would have been suicidal. His desire to reach her was not stronger than his fear of her escort.

  However, getting her now would simplify matters greatly. He knew his emotions were getting the best of him, so he remained in place. All of his excitement, pain, and impatience needed to be pushed aside so he could think.

  Alone, Kayla would be simple enough to abduct. Sytir was the problem, and he knew the mage wouldn’t dare let Kayla out of his sight. They may have only met once, but Athan had a suspicion Sytir wasn’t a fool.

  The vampire wasn’t going to engage the Nahli, especially with his powers disabled. With Sabetha’s previous blindness and Baden being held by Kayla and the others until she’d departed the group, he knew it had to be a force surrounding the woman. The technicalities of it didn’t matter, however. It was simply the current state of affairs.

  Still, he wasn’t pleased.

  To have her so close and yet out of his reach threatened to make his anger boil over, but he knew he couldn’t afford any careless mistakes. It was rare for him to need to exercise such extreme caution, but he’d never forgotten how to do so.

  He silently crept along the rooftops, paralleling their course through the town. Athan hoped they wouldn’t travel too far. Outside of town, the landscape was barren in its winter sleep, offering little cover for him. He wasn’t at all disappointed when he saw them duck into a small inn at the edge of town.

  Two hours passed before he dared to venture onto the roof of the inn they’d stopped at. The candlelight from their window had been extinguished long before. The wood-shake roof of the building was treacherous given the snow covering it. He moved cautiously, fearing the slightest creak or misstep would send Sytir or Kayla into high alert.

  While the power of Kayla’s talisman was still strong enough to stop him from shape shifting, it was weakened enough to allow him to reach out with his mental manipulation. The portion of her mind active when she was dreaming was separate from her controlled thoughts. While he had no access to her conscious mind, this was different.

  He stopped directly over their room and sat down. While the storm had increased, the cold was of little concern to him. Athan closed his eyes and hung his head, tuning out everything around him and focusing his intent down to a single point.

  * * *

  Kayla was at home, in the subterranean chamber she and her family shared beneath the polar ice. Someone had attached all the clothes she’d left behind while on her trip to the ceiling. Why someone would do such a thing, she didn’t know, but remedying the situation wasn’t coming easy.

  “Kayla, it has been a long time.”

  Her hands began to shake, the state of her wardrobe instantly forgotten. Her heart raced as she turned around, already knowing who was there.

  Athan walked further into the room, studying her. Though he knew how much ten years tended to change someone, she hadn’t aged much. Her hair was graying, but it had begun that process back in her twenties.

  He blocked the only exit from the room, and she knew she was home alone. Screaming for help would do no good. The stone walls around her wouldn’t allow any sound to travel to the ears of her neighbors. She scanned around for any weapon to be had, but they were out of reach.

  “Calm down, Kayla.” Athan raised his hands out before him slowly. “I’m not here to do anything but talk, and I needed to find a way to do so away from that…thing…you call a husband.”

  “Sytir is far more of a man than you can ever hope to be,” she shot back, widening her stance. “I have nothing else to say to you, Athan.”

  “I didn’t come here to discuss his virtues.” The vampire licked his lips and let his gaze drift to the side. “I still wonder at how you managed to plot your escape as you did. How you could both let me into your mind and yet guard your intentions… You have great skill.”

  “I doubt you bothered to come all the way here to tell me that.”

  “No, I didn’t, you are correct.” The right corner of his mouth twitched upward. “I came here to offer you a choice.”

&n
bsp; She scoffed, her eyes narrowing. The amount of adrenaline in her blood made it hard to stand still. “What choice?”

  “You can stop all of this right now and come with me, or you can run back to the Northern Wastes with the Nahli, forcing me to do something that will only end in their slaughter,” he said, his smile growing. “I know you care about these damned ice people for some misguided reason, and you don’t want their blood on your hands.”

  Kayla cocked her head to the side. The concept of such a thing had been the reason she’d left to find her brother. Hearing it from Athan directly made it more urgent. Still, there were obstacles he’d have to overcome before getting to them.

  It was the strange way he’d said it, however, that cut through her. “Run back to the Northern Wastes? I already am home…”

  One of Athan’s brows rose up, a wry smile coming to his lips. “It certainly looks like it, doesn’t it? Aside from the mess on the ceiling.”

  Kayla glanced upward before her wide-eyed stare returned to Athan. “I’m dreaming! Sytir and I haven’t left Pardirkov!”

  “You catch on faster than most,” he said, shaking his head. “The choice still remains unmade, though.”

  She shook her head and stood taller. “If this is only a nightmare, then you have no real power here.”

  “And yet you can’t wake up on command, can you?” Athan took another step forward, his smile fading. “You are dreaming, but I am here, so again, what will your choice be?”

  “What do you think you will do to us? Your powers are useless there,” she countered, not retreating.

  Athan moved closer, until he was close enough to look down into her eyes. “Kayla, I know you already fear I will find a way. I’m fairly certain that’s what your little visit with Keiran was about. He doesn’t have any real means of doing anything about me, though. I, however, have unlimited resources at my disposal. Far more than your precious Nahli. Perhaps my magic doesn’t work in their territory, but Sytir’s magic must have limits, too.”

  “Your men and horses would freeze before you ever neared our city,” she said back, crossing her arms over her chest.

  “I’m more intelligent than that, Kayla. I didn’t grow my empire as I have or lived this long by making such foolish attempts.” He shook his head and smiled again. “I have a means of conveyance already in the works, powered not by magic or horses. Cold, unfeeling steel will carry me there with an army of thousands, crushing your beloved Nahli beneath.”

  Kayla stared back into his eyes. After her fourteen years as his captive, she knew all the little tics and quirks in his mannerisms that gave away his lies.

  He showed none of them. He was telling the truth.

  She broke away from his gaze, his teal eyes unnerving and painful to focus on for too long. “I won’t go with you. I’d gladly die first and take away your motivation for coming into the Wastes.”

  Athan reached out and touched her cheek with his hand, his eyes closing slowly. He drew in a long breath, this small contact enough to stir up his emotions and desires. “The Nahli have brought my wrath down upon them on their own. You leaving won’t stop me, so there is no reason for you to do so. The only way I won’t destroy them is if you decide to come with me voluntarily. You can buy their survival. It is all in your hands.”

  Kayla shuddered and recoiled from his touch, his cold hand unwelcomed. “Even if I went with you, you’d still try to go after them. Your ego won’t allow otherwise. You will be destroyed, and the world will be better off for it. Your time is coming to an end, Athan.”

  He let his hand fall back to his side, his eyes opening. “I have all the time I could possibly need to make you mine again, Kayla. I’ve always gotten what I’ve wanted, even if it took me more than one attempt.”

  “I was never yours. I was a prisoner, nothing more. You never held my heart, and you never will.” She nodded to herself, pulling back further. “You’re in my mind right now, Athan. This is my dream, and I don’t want you here.”

  He squinted and gave a single laugh. “You will be mine, Kayla. I will make a path to you. The question is, how many bodies do you want lining it?”

  “Just yours.”

  His smile faded, the room starting to shift around them. She was lucid enough to begin controlling their surroundings. It was time to withdraw.

  Athan outstretched his arms at his sides. “Then go home and make peace with the fate you’ve damned the Nahli to because I am coming for you. You can’t hide forever.”

  Kayla set her jaw and placed her hands close together before her. In a flash, one of her husband’s spears appeared in her grip. She made the room shrink around them and sealed off the doorway. She pivoted her body, thrusting the tip of the spear forward, aiming for the old vampire’s heart.

  It never made contact, though. He simply disappeared.

  * * *

  Sytir was accustomed to waking Kayla out of nightmares. They had been a frequent problem for her since he’d found her a decade before. When she’d started making weak sounds and small movements behind him, he’d woken up.

  He sat up in the bed and placed a hand on the center of her chest, feeling her heart pounding away beneath. “Kayla, wake up.”

  She didn’t respond.

  Sytir sighed and moved to jostle her awake, but he didn’t get the chance. Kayla bolted upright, throwing his arm away from her. Sweat ran down her face, her eyes wild.

  “A bad one?” he asked.

  She slowly turned her head toward him. While she dearly wanted to write the entire experience off as a simple nightmare, there was something lingering about it. “Athan… Athan is here.”

  They both looked up when they heard movement on the roof above. Sytir slid from the bed and stood up. They both kept their eyes fixed on the ceiling, listening to the footsteps hurrying away overhead.

  Kayla sighed, not speaking until they couldn’t hear him anymore. “He’s leaving. He’s afraid of you.”

  Sytir turned toward his wife, his gracile body silhouetted in the light coming through the room’s single window. “In your dream, what did he say to you?”

  “That he intends to do exactly what I feared he would. He said he’s found a way to travel north. I don’t know how long it will take him to put it together, but he’s confident.” Kayla felt a lump in her throat.

  He moved to sit beside her, reaching out and pulling her close. “If his goal is world domination, he will come for us sooner or later. Had we not stopped him from going into Minar, we’d already have been harmed. We have time to figure out a way to fight him. Your contact with your brother was only the first step.”

  “We need to warn Keiran he’s here,” she said. “I’ve no doubt he’s on his way to interrogate him, if he didn’t do so before finding me.”

  * * *

  Athan continued to flee from Kayla’s vicinity, feeling all of his powers return when he’d gotten three buildings away. Being caught without all his strengths around someone like Sytir didn’t appeal to his better senses.

  As he jumped from the rooftop of the third building, he shifted form and became a raven. He landed on a gable of the next structure, and scanned the street below.

  Jerris and Keiran were still out. Their search for an inn hadn’t yet paid off. They’d returned to the ship to get their belongings and had managed to find a place to get cleaned up and eat, but a room for the night still eluded them.

  He had questions for Keiran regarding his visit with Kayla, and it would be easier for him to get those answers now rather than tracking him down in Tordania later. With Jerris the only other present on the street, Athan didn’t feel particularly threatened. He extended his wings and hopped from the building, gliding toward the street in a lazy spiral.

  Keiran stopped abruptly, putting his arm out to halt Jerris, too. Though it was cold enough to diminish most of the scents in the air, something made it through. He scanned the darkness, but the snowfall reduced his visibility.

  Jerris starte
d to ask what was wrong, but Keiran hushed him and readied to draw his mother’s sword from his hip. “Step back, Jerris. I don’t know how close someone has to be to this thing to get ill, but I don’t want to put you at risk.”

  Jerris tipped his head forward and took several wide steps to the side, drawing his own blade. “Not a false alarm this time?”

  Athan flew toward them, pulling up and taking his human form a short distance away. He straightened and reached up to turn the collar of his long coat against the cold. “Quite a ways from home, aren’t you boys?”

  Keiran pulled the sword out, holding his ground. “I knew you’d show up.”

  Athan started to smile, but it faltered when he saw the golden hue of the blade Keiran held. “There it is! Looks like tonight is going to be full of surprises. Where did you find that?”

  “It doesn’t matter. I want you out of here, Athan.” Keiran felt his fangs already descending.

  “What?” His eyes narrowed. “I don’t think you have the authority to tell me where I can or cannot be. If you’re trying to defend Kayla, relax. I’m not here to take her. Not yet, anyway.”

  Jerris switched his gaze from one vampire to the other. He knew if it came to a fight, he’d be outmaneuvered by Athan quickly. His sword’s tip wavered, his nerves flaring up.

  Keiran heard the slight rattle of Jerris’ sword caused from his hand shaking. Whether it was from the cold or fear, he suspected the latter, but there was nothing he could do to assuage it.

  He needed to keep his focus on Athan. “If you’re not here for her, then go.”

  Athan let out a huff, shaking his head. “You think having that sword gives you authority? It doesn’t. I will come and go as I please, anytime, anywhere. ”

  Keiran’s heart rate doubled, his anger growing. “How did you find us?”

  “Does it really matter?” Athan asked. “You know I’ve never failed to see what I needed to in order to go about my business.”

  “I know about your seer, and I know she didn’t lead you to us,” Keiran said.

  Athan’s expression fell, his gaze averting to the side. He shouldn’t have been surprised Kayla had told him that detail, but he didn’t like it. The fear of always being watched or listened to had helped keep Keiran in line.