Warrior

by Michelle Magly

  “I…I know you.” He looked familiar. His skin, now a pale, waxy color, had once been healthy and full. The remnants of a neatly trimmed beard sunk into scraggly facial hair. His other hand clutched at his side, thin with malnourishment. Blood poured over his fingers from the chest wound.

  He coughed again. “I am Councilor Ve…Velora. You are the Warrior who saved…” He broke off to cough again.

  “Yes, that’s me,” she said. Senri looked for something to help him, picking up a tattered scrap of a tapestry. “Move your arm. I’ll help bind your wound.”

  “Won’t do. No time.” He pushed away Senri’s hands and slouched farther onto the wall. “Don’t waste it on me. You need to…need to save her again.”

  Senri dropped the tapestry. “You’ve seen where they took Alina?”

  The Councilor nodded.

  “You have to tell me.”

  ***

  They took Alina into the library, one of the inner-most chambers in the palace. By that time, Alina could smell smoke and the air had grown hot and stale, just like her vision. Please don’t let my kingdom become a ruin. She wanted her people to have something to return to after the fighting.

  After depositing her in a chair, the grunts lingered. Alina tried to get up, but the room spun when she stood, so she sat down again. Lord Demek strolled toward her. He looked gaunt, as if he had stopped eating. His hair, usually carefully swept back, was disheveled. He had a wild look in his eyes.

  “You are bold, your Highness, and courageous.” He stopped in front of the armchair and looked down at her. “I am afraid it must end here.”

  One of the guards laughed. “Want me to do it?” he asked.

  Demek turned on him in a flash. Alina barely saw him draw the dagger before it sunk into the soldier’s gut. Before the other one could react, Demek had slit his throat. Alina stared, wide-eyed and was too light-headed to scream. She had just been kidnapped by a madman. Any hope of political bargaining vanished with Demek’s sanity. She watched him wipe the blade on a soldier’s tunic before sheathing it. He grimaced. “Sorry about that.”

  “What are you waiting for? Kill me.” She tried to stand once more, but her stomach knotted and she felt like she might throw up. People are dying because of me and I could not even finish the fight.

  “I can’t kill you.” Demek walked over to a bookcase and leaned against it. “That’s not how this ends. Besides, you’re a smart woman. Tell me what killing you would accomplish?”

  “Nothing, but you’re insane anyways.” As if to prove the statement, she watched Demek glance down at the bodies of his soldiers and smirk. “What it would accomplish does not matter.”

  “Are you so sure about that?” Demek pushed off the bookcase. “What you think of me does not matter.” He walked toward a window. It looked out to a courtyard within the palace. Alina could see flames eating away the trees.

  “If you had this kingdom’s best interests at heart, you would help me drive out the armies of Shedol,” Alina said. She contemplated telling Demek the whole truth. It would not hurt her anymore. He had her trapped, alone, and had successfully taken care of those meant to guard her. “I…I’ve seen what destruction they will bring if we allow this to happen.”

  “And you think I haven’t?” Demek asked in a soft voice. He drummed his fingers on the windowsill and glanced back at her for a moment. “We aren’t so different, Alina.”

  Alina wanted to ask what he meant, but the door to the library creaked open and he left his spot by the window. Senri staggered forward with Alina’s dagger clutched in her grasp. She ran toward Demek, but he sidestepped her and pushed her over. She fell forward, dagger falling out of her hand.

  “You don’t give up, do you?” he asked. Once again, Alina tried to get to her feet. This time, she remained standing. Her head pounded just from getting herself into an upright position. Demek sneered down at Senri. “I would let you live, fool, if you weren’t so busy trying to stab me.” Senri reached out a hand for the dagger, but Demek stepped on her fingers. She cried out. “Don’t try that again.”

  “Stop.” Alina took a step forward. “Stop hurting her.”

  He looked up and the grin on his face faltered. He looked down at Senri and the grin faded completely. He removed his foot and stepped away, meeting Alina’s gaze. “You care for her, Alina?”

  She nodded. “And everyone else in this kingdom.”

  Senri got to her knees, but Demek grabbed her by the shoulder and she winced. “I know you do.”

  “I refuse to watch while you make them suffer any longer.” Another step. She felt something touch her shoe and looked down. It was the dagger. She stopped moving.

  Demek nodded and breathed deep. He closed his eyes for a moment. Alina took the chance. She kicked at the blade, sending it clattering across the floor. Senri snatched it up and rammed it into Demek’s leg. His eyes flew open, the irises the color of milky crystal. He screamed and stumbled back. Dark lines etched into his neck, faint vein-like patterns Alina recognized all too well.

  “By the Almighty!” she cried out.

  Senri pulled the dagger from his leg and stood, her grip shaking. She approached him with the point hovering inches from his stomach. Demek backed into a wall, still clutching his leg.

  “Wait. Wait, Senri,” Alina said, taking a few shaky steps forward. “Don’t do it, yet.”

  “Why not?” she asked. The dagger trembled in her grasp.

  Demek looked up at her, he gasped in pain. “You should do it. You have a chance, now. Just end it.”

  Senri looked at her, brow furrowed in confusion. Alina shook her head, but saw Demek’s hand go for the dagger.

  “Senri,” she yelled.

  Demek grabbed Senri’s hand and tugged forward, sinking the dagger into his stomach. “I told you.”

  Senri let go of the dagger and took a step back. “Alina I didn’t mean…”

  “I know,” she said.

  Demek fell to his knees, clutching the handle with both hands. He drew in a rattling breath of air and met Alina’s gaze. The seer’s marks spread over his face like a spider web. Alina expected him to yell, or curse, but he just smiled.

  “I’ve been...been trying to do that for years.” He coughed and looked over at Alina, his eyes still crystalline. “Alina, you are so headstrong, just like your mother.” Blood pooled out from the wound and over his fingertips. “Perhaps if I had been more like her, things would have been different.” Alina wanted to speak, to question him, but Demek shook his head. “Don’t. Let me die, please.” Demek pushed the dagger deeper inside, dragging upward until his grip slackened and his head fell forward. His lifeless body slumped to the floor.

  Alina reached out for Senri and took her hand. “He killed himself.” Alina felt numb. Even as she ran a thumb over Senri’s palm, she did not register the touch. Time felt as if it had frozen. A war could not possibly be raging on beyond the library. They had just watch a man stab himself.

  Senri nodded. “But the battle isn’t over.”

  They both glanced around the library. Everything sounded so quiet. The courtyard had been enveloped with flames. Alina breathed in and tasted ash. The palace had caught fire as well. “I don’t know if there’s a battle for us to return to.” With some effort, Alina walked over to the window. Flames climbed higher. They would die if they stayed put. “Can you stand?” she asked, turning to Senri.

  Senri managed to hoist herself up, but only hobbled over to a couch before collapsing on it. “I don’t know how far I can make it. Do you think we won, or do we have to fight our way out?”

  Alina glanced over at Demek’s slumped form and watched the blood run down, soaking his uniform. “I don’t know.” She walked over to Senri and gently took a hand. Her lover let out a small hiss of pain, but welcomed the contact. Alina kissed the palm of her lover’s hand. “If this counts as a victory, I suppose we did.”

  Senri smiled and squeezed her hand. “We should probably leave, though. We
might burn to death otherwise.”

  “We might burn to death trying to escape, too.”

  “True.” Senri nodded. With Alina’s help, Senri made it to her feet. They began walking toward the nearest exit when something shook the palace. They stood still, waiting to see if the palace would hold. A dragon roared in the distance and Senri glanced at the roof of the library. “Alina, I love you.”

  Alina pulled Senri closer and helped her take another step toward the door. They needed to move. “And I love you, Senri.”

  The room filled with smoke and the heat climbed ever higher. Convinced they would cook before escaping, Alina finally heard the pounding footsteps of someone running down the hall. Senri held onto Alina tightly. She closed her eyes, but Alina kept her gaze fixed on the entryway. She refused to meet her fate blindly.

  Nin came running into the library entrance, two bloody daggers gripped in her hand. Her eyes widened when she saw Senri and Alina standing there, trembling. Alina nodded at her, but made no attempt to move forward.

  “By the Almighty, you’re alive!” She grinned and wiped the soot out of her eyes. Nin turned back to the corridor and shouted, “They’re here!” More footsteps.

  Nat, Lanan, and Yahn came running into the room. Senri opened her eyes and a smile spread across her face. Everyone ran forward and helped them out of the room. They shouted over one another, asking questions. Nin approached more slowly, pausing by Demek’s corpse and glancing over at Alina. “So, we are victorious on all fronts, then,” she said.

  Alina nodded. The battle had ended. Still, she could not smile like her friends. “We are.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  IN THE AFTERMATH OF the battle, Alina had many things to tend to. This room had been last on her list for a reason. Even while she stood outside, hand resting on the doorknob, she wanted to walk away. Demek was dead, buried in a mass grave with all the other invaders. She did not need another excuse to be haunted with his memory. She closed her eyes and saw him, hand gripping the knife, point pressing into his own stomach, the seer lines crawling up his face. “So headstrong, just like your mother. Perhaps if I had been more like her...” She hated that the man offered her no peace, even in death. But she hated how conflicted she felt over his last actions more. Even after weeks of discussing it with Senri and the others, she had still found no way to explain away his behavior.

  But really, what did she expect to find? Cobwebs and piles of books referencing dark magic, blood and bottles of poison like Senri had teased, or rusted weapons. She turned the knob and pushed the door open. She had not expected this. Identical to all the other bedrooms, the large four-poster bed had been neatly made, the furniture dusted. The plain room seemed mostly untouched from the fires, though char marks still climbed up the wall on the far corner. It smelled musty, dust-ridden.

  Demek’s jacket lay out on a nearby chair, the medals still pinned to it. She walked over and touched one of the gold medallions. It glinted. Most of the decorations related to negotiation. Her father wore similar ones. The newest related to his rank as a lord and then as Regent. Alina dropped the medals and continued to wander the room.

  His dresser held clothes. His nightstand drawer had candles. The washroom kept the standard collection of perfumes. It seemed that nothing out of the ordinary remained in Demek’s private bedchambers. Alina left the washroom and sat down at the vanity. She caught her reflection in the bronze mirror. It looked off, however, warped. She reached out and touched the metal. Her fingers glided over the fist-sized dents spanning the mirror.

  A wooden letter box lay on the vanity. Alina tried to open it, but couldn’t. Wrapping her fingers around the rough edges, she tried to force it. The mechanism did not even rattle. She examined the small, square depression on the side. It looked like he had designed something specific to open it.

  She opened a vanity drawer. Various rings and necklaces lay inside. She picked through them, tossing the gold adornments back in as each one proved to be a plain trinket. As she plunked another ring back in, the contents of the drawer shifted. A silver glint caught her eye. Alina reached in and grabbed the thin strand, then pulled it free of the others, holding it up to the light. She almost dropped the necklace. Demek should not have owned anything like this.

  The chain, extremely delicate, was expertly forged to have so many thin, silver threads interwoven, representing different strands of the future. Alina trapped the strands in between her fingers and rubbed them together. The texture reminded her of something; the silver bracelet her mother had given her.

  A stab of remorse pierced her gut. She had ruined her bracelet, tossing it into the fire back at Eastwatch Keep. All for nothing, too. No one would question her right as ruler now. She had done the impossible by allying with the dragons, and then did it again when she drove out the invaders. In a matter of days, they had recaptured all of the heartland and driven the Shedol armies off to sea. She was Alina, Queen of Fire, as Senri often reminded her. Even the soldiers whispered the name.

  But this necklace, a necklace the same make of her mother’s seer bracelet with the interwoven strands of silver, should not have been in Demek’s possession. It had belonged to her mother. She examined it, noting the small, darkened spot along the chain where Alina had stained it with ink as a child. She pulled the two metal clasps closer for a better look. Etched into the silver were two letters, one on each clasp: SD. The clasps formed a perfect square, just like the one cut into the box. Fumbling in her haste, Alina pressed the two clasps into the keyhole. The lock clicked.

  Alina dropped the necklace and exhaled. She pulled the lid back, listening to it creak as she did so. The box had not been opened in a very, very long time. Inside the box lay parchment, folded letters stacked tightly against one another. Alina took the one on the top and unfolded it. She read:

  My dearest brother,

  I hope this letter finds you in good company. You will be pleased to know things are, as ever, safely dull back home. Your niece has reached her third turn this week. Her father is ever-doting upon her, as well as me. He speaks of perhaps taking us along on his next outing. I think the fresh air will do us both good. The city is rather confining, as you are fond of declaring. And though I am trying to honor his Majesty’s wishes, I think it might do her some good to spend time with you upon your return.

  There is not much to tell. I hope you find time to write back. You can tell me about the sea. I have not seen it since we were both children. Do you remember mother’s house on the shore? You will also have to tell about your adventures beyond the shoreline. I know you cannot discuss most of it, but try to find an interesting story to bring back, or at least make up one.

  Ever yours,

  Mura

  By the time Alina finished reading the letter, her hands trembled. She felt weak. Perhaps she would faint. She dropped the paper and tried to avoid looking at the letter so neatly scrawled in her mother’s handwriting. Any doubts she had while reading it had been erased by the bottom line, where her mother’s name written in its loopy signature stood out as a glaring marker of ownership. Sorez Demek, the man she had watched die, possibly as a direct result of her own actions, could not possibly be her uncle.

  She picked up another letter, this one addressed to her mother. It used the same vague language, talking of being abroad and lamenting how they could not spend time together. She read more, but the letters were empty of anything useful, nothing but sentimental fluff. In a way, it made things worse for Alina. She threw the letters back in the box and swallowed a sob. Tears pricked the corner of her eyes. Damn him. She bowed her head and cried into her arms, stifling the sobs with a dress sleeve. A noise startled her from her tears. She turned. Nin stood in the doorway.

  “You,” Alina hissed, wiping her tears quickly. “Did you know about this?”

  Her maid shut the door and walked in. “If it helps at all, he was very proud of you.”

  “It doesn’t!” She slammed the lid on the box closed. �
�None of it helps. It just means my own kin betrayed me, not just a fellow countryman.” Alina shook her head and wiped at her tears again. “He was dirt, Nin. I spent my whole life unaware of his existence, and when he did reveal himself, he tried to turn our kingdom over to a race of maniacal cannibals.”

  “No.” Nin sat down on the bed. “He didn’t.”

  Alina stood. “Well then why?” she yelled. “Why did he sell our people off into slavery and nearly kill Senri? Why did he kill Velora and the other Councilors?” Tears welled up in her eyes. They had found Velora in a hall. Senri led her to him after the others found them in the library. He had passed already. Many of the other Councilors had been executed days before their army arrived. Damn the Almighty, the tears would not stop.

  Nin frowned. “He was not in control of his actions.”

  “That doesn’t tell me why. I am Queen, Nin. I deserve to know!”

  The maid nodded. “You do deserve to.” She waited while Alina glared at her, then gestured to the chair. “Have a seat.”

  Never before had Alina felt so utterly powerless. She had thought she controlled the game board for the duration of their struggle. It seemed Nin aimed to prove otherwise. Reluctantly, Alina sat down.

  “I only know what my predecessor has told me, for the most of it. Your uncle, like your father, was a travelling diplomat. He actually introduced your parents.” Nin paused. When Alina did not interrupt, she continued, “When your mother became with child, he took on your father’s assignments for leaving the country. The child of the brother to the queen made a much more alluring target for anyone wishing to harm foreign ambassadors, and Demek had no family, save your mother. A couple years after you were born, the rulers sent him west to investigate a disturbance between bordering nations. It was a troubling assignment, and your family was ordered not to discuss it or your uncle’s very existence with anyone, including you. He was away for several years, and when he returned, he had changed.”