The Shifter’s Nanny

by T. S. Ryder

  “Welcome home, brother,” Keralth hissed.

  “Keralth,” Darilth said, his voice low and seething.

  “I have news for you, brother,” he said. “I take it you’ve heard that our father was brutally murdered. I’m afraid to let you know that all the evidence says that you are responsible.”

  “What?” Darilth said shocked.

  “The council has made its decision, Darilth,” Keralth hissed, his gaze chilling Darilth to the bone. “You will be tried for the murder of Kind Rezelith the III.”

  “I will talk to the council myself! Somebody’s been feeding them lies,” Darilth said, his heart beating faster and rage pumping through his blood.

  “Guards, arrest him,” Keralth ordered. Four guards came forward and put him in shackles.

  It was in that moment that it dawned on Darilth what Keralth was doing. He gazed at his half-brother and saw the madness in his eyes. Then, suddenly, he thought of Ella. Keralth must have been aware of her whereabouts. His breathing became labored as he tried to control his rage. His fists clenched as he instinctively pulled on the restraints.

  “Where is Ella, Keralth?” Darilth said, knowing where things were going.

  “What’s the hurry, brother? I’ll tell you when you get comfortable in the dungeons,” Keralth hissed sarcastically. He sounded like a maniac.

  Darilth knew it was futile asking him anything further.

  They locked him up in the Dark Cell deep down below in the castle’s dungeons. A lone guard stood at the door. He looked like an old man, but that was an illusion. He was a demon who thrived on the prisoner’s misery.

  The guards chained him at the far end of the cell and left him alone with the demon. Darilth could already feel the pressure building in his head. Soon it would turn into a searing pain that throbbed at his temples, making it impossible for him to think clearly. All Darilth could think of was Ella as he tried to block out the demon’s force telepathically.

  ***

  Darilth woke up with a start as cold liquid splashed his face. His was stripped naked and his eyes hurt when he tried to open them. Hot, searing pain pierced every part of his toned, muscular body where deep wounds had been inflicted on him as torture. He was a warrior – he had been trained to bear wounds, but this was the kind of torture specifically meant to hurt him. He was strong – still standing while others in his place would have long succumbed to the wounds. His left eye was swollen with bruises as dark blue blood trickled down his face. His long, silver hair was a mess. A few strands were matted to his forehead and jaw, drenched in blood. His breathing was erratic and shallow, like that of a dying man. He wondered how long he had been unconscious.

  Mustering all his strength, he opened his eyes and saw Keralth standing there, dressed in his finest robes, as a guard stood outside waiting. The demon guard was nowhere in sight.

  “So, finally, we can talk,” Keralth said, dryly.

  “Wh-where is Ella?” Darilth whispered. It took all his strength to say those few words.

  “Oh, I thought you would never ask,” Keralth said in a vicious tone, a smirk curling his lips. “The dark moon has her.”

  “No... No!” Darilth’s voice broke. “You ca-can’t do this to her! Get her out of there!” His breathing became more labored and his voice hoarse as his chest constricted terribly. Something inside his heart broke, then shattered. The physical pain from his wounds was practically numbed when compared to the tearing of his heart.

  No... Please, not my Ella.

  The dark moon is a terrible, terrible place. She won’t survive it... Mekarth wailed.

  “What... do you want...Keralth?” Darilth said wearily, his breath coming in gasps.

  “Draco’s Eye, Darilth. Give it to me and Ella will live,” he said.

  “You know... you can’t wield the power of the Eye,” Darilth said.

  “Oh, I can, if you willingly entrust it to me. When the judge convicts you of murder, I will be the next successor,” he said with an evil smile plastered on his face.

  “The Council will never agree to it,” Darilth replied.

  “They will, brother, when I present to them the assassin who will confess to have killed the King,” Keralth seethed.

  “I ... I want to see Ella alive and safe... I want her safely transported back to her home planet. Only then... will I give you the Eye,” Darilth challenged him.

  “Oh, that won’t be needed. Your little whore is pregnant and dying. Remember how Father told you that she was weak – not good enough for you? Too bad, really, that you didn’t listen.”

  “Do not speak of my wife like that, Keralth!” Darilth hissed through clenched teeth, breathing hard as his hands closed into fists and his knuckles turned white.

  “Think about it, Darilth. She doesn’t have much time left. You had better decide which one you want to keep: the Eye or the woman.”

  “Keralth... Please... have mercy on her... She’s pregnant. She won’t survive there...” Darilth begged, desperate to save his wife. She was carrying his baby, and she was in such a terrible place. His father had been wrong. She was a strong woman. Strong enough to produce an heir.

  Keralth laughed and left without another word, the cell door closing behind him.

  Darilth would never have given Keralth the satisfaction of gloating over his misery, but as soon as he was gone, he collapsed. Suspended by chains, his whole body sagged. Tears streamed down his already blood-streaked face, and sobs wracked his body. Excruciating pain seared his head as he thought of her suffering. He coughed up blood while trying to catch his breath.

  No, No, No! Ella, Ella... I’m so sorry...

  And far away on the Dark Moon, Ella dreamed of Darilth. He was bound in chains and severely wounded and he was crying out her name in misery. She wanted to take him in her arms and comfort him but an invisible wall was in between them. She was helpless. She woke up in the dim light, shivering as cold sweat beaded her face. The first thought that came to her mind was that he had been captured in battle by the enemy and was a prisoner of war.

  ***

  Darilth didn’t know how long he wallowed in his grief, crying out her name in the dark, trying desperately to reach her telepathically. He knew it was all futile. He went numb.

  Darilth, get a grip! You must think clearly if you want to save her! his inner dragon said fiercely.

  He pulled against his restraints, jaw clenched, and took a deep breath to regain control. Mekarth was right. He must do something if he wanted to save Ella and the throne. His mind raced as he thought of a way out. Then, he thought of the witch. Merelith! Yes, she could help him if he could summon her.

  But there is one problem. The demon never sleeps. He will sense if we try to contact someone telepathically outside these walls! Mekarth reasoned.

  He had a point, thought Darilth. He looked at his hand. He still wore the ring. His captors didn’t know that it was a secret communicator, undetectable for demons. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of it before. He turned it in his hand and pressed the core. A holographic screen appeared right above his hand as he deftly tapped a message and pressed send. Now all he had to do was wait.

  Chapter Eight

  Merelith

  Merelith was an old friend of the royal Rothgar family, tall, beautiful, and red-haired with bright green eyes. She was a shifter too, but of a different kind. When she got Darilth’s message, she knew something was seriously wrong and immediately headed out to his rescue.

  The night was cold and silent when a sleek panther snuck down into the dungeons. Silent as ever, it stayed softly in the shadows, sensing the demon guard’s presence. The panther shifted and there stood Merelith. The demon suddenly sat up. Merelith had cloaked her scent but the demon was sharp enough to sense a presence there. Still in the shadows, she quietly whispered an incantation and blew shadow dust from the palm of her hand toward the demon. The demon instantly fell asleep. Only powerful magic could make a demon fall asleep, but Merelith was no
ordinary witch. She had years of experience. She had to hurry as there was little time before the old man woke up.

  Merelith found Darilth half-conscious when she went inside. As soon as she removed his restraints, he staggered and dropped to the floor. She covered him with a cloak and then helped him up.

  “Darilth, we need to get out of here, now,” she whispered.

  He nodded. They made their way outside, cautiously evading the sleeping guard and hurrying back up the stone steps.

  “Are you okay, Darilth? They seem to have beaten you quite badly,” she said, concerned. She could see that the Eye had kept him alive. Nobody could survive the kind of torture he had suffered.

  “Merelith, I... I had a vision. We need to find Ella, my wife,” he said as he gasped for breath.

  “Darilth, listen to me. Use the power of the Eye to heal yourself first,” she said.

  “I... I can’t...” he said as he collapsed to the floor.

  “You have to. Try to summon the power. Right now, you need all your strength if you want to get out of here,” she insisted.

  Darilth concentrated, wishing for strength, and at once the stone on his band came to life. He felt the energy immediately, a lifeblood coursing through his veins. Some of his strength returned.

  “Now, do tell. What was the vision about?” she asked him.

  “I saw her in the dark. She was cold and shivering. The place resembled the prison on the Dark Moon, and she was weak,” Darilth said as they got farther away from the dungeons and outside in the open. “And she’s pregnant.”

  “Death looms near. She is in grave danger. She might not survive after the baby is born,” Merelith replied. She saw the worried expression on Darilth’s face.

  “What should we do?” he asked her, raw pain in his eyes.

  “The only way to save her would be to turn her into your kind, but the transformation can happen only after the baby is born,” Merelith said. “Darilth, we must hurry before she dies of the brutal cold. Call the doctor right away. We’ll take him with us.”

  Darilth again used his ring to call the doctor and asked him to bring some clothes and medical supplies.

  They walked a little further and reached a spot in the wall of the castle that concealed a secret passage. They waited there for the doctor. After a while, the hidden door slid open and Dr. Wyern emerged. He carried a bag with fresh clothes and robes. They followed the doctor, hurrying over the snow-covered land until they reached a small cave-like tunnel. They walked through it and when they reached the other end, Dr. Wyern uncloaked the spacecraft that stood there.

  “My lord, Prince Keralth had assigned me to keep the woman alive. So, I visit her frequently and monitor her health. I’ve been trying my best to keep her stable, but her health has been deteriorating,” he said as he tapped in commands at the console and revved up the engines.

  “Thank you for taking care of my wife,” Darilth said. “Wyern, you do know that Keralth is the real traitor, don’t you?”

  “Yes, my lord. There have been rumors around the castle and among the people in the city that Keralth may have a hand in the King’s assassination and not you, as it has been assumed,” he said as he hesitated a little, wondering how the prince would react.

  “The truth will come out,” Darilth said. His wounds were really beginning to hurt now and he had a hard time standing up.

  “My lord, please, I would advise you to lie down in the healing capsule. Your wounds don’t look good,” Dr. Wyern said with genuine concern in his voice. He could see that the prince looked pale. “If you stay in the capsule, the less deep wounds will have healed by the time we reach our destination.”

  “You’re right, Doctor,” Darilth said, “but I need a drink first.”

  “I’ll make you a drink. I’ll also make a potion for you to heal faster. You can have it with your drink,” Merelith said from the corner where she was already working away, mixing herbs and roots.

  “Thanks, Merelith,” Darilth said with a faint smile and winced.

  He drained his glass with the potion and lay back naked in the healing capsule. His mind numb with pain, he couldn’t stop thinking about Ella.

  The ship hovered up and rose higher till it reached the outer boundaries of Iovis’s atmosphere and then sped forward toward the Dark Moon.

  ***

  The Dark Moon was as cold as any planet that hadn’t seen the light of a star in many lightyears. It was far away from Iovis’s sun and positioned in a way that only a small part of the moon saw daylight. It took them almost four days to reach the moon and when they landed, they could sense the place was haunted, devoid of life. The only thing that seemed alive were the unpredictable snowstorms that hit the place.

  Prince Darilth and Dr. Wyern walked up to the large iron gate and unlocked it with the help of the doctor’s entry pass. They were carrying bags containing medication and warm clothes for Ella. Darilth had instructed Merelith to stay back in the craft. They entered a dimly lit circular room and as Darilth tapped in the commands, the room descended steadily, hundreds of feet below the surface.

  Most of Darilth’s surface wounds had healed and he felt his strength returning. His heart raced as he took a deep breath, silently wishing for her to be alive.

  As the circular elevator came to a stop, the massive doors slid open. Darilth turned on a fluorescent light stick that emitted blue-white light. Dr. Wyern led the way through a dark tunnel. They walked for what felt like ages until they reached a door. Dr. Wyern opened the door and they stepped into a dimly lit hallway. A guard sat outside the first door in the hallway, asleep. Dr. Wyern went up to him and quickly injected him with a sedative in the neck. The guard immediately dropped to the floor unconscious. As soon as the door to the cell opened, Darilth rushed inside. He held up his light and there in the corner he found Ella. She was unconscious. Her chalk white skin was now pale gray and felt cold and damp. Her hair was matted to her face. She lay sprawled sideways, and he saw that her belly was big. He smoothed out her hair away from her face and kissed her forehead.

  Ella... forgive me...

  Her breathing was erratic and shallow. Dr. Wyern checked her pulse. “She is weak and her body is going into shock,” he said. “Give her Merelith’s potion first. It will work faster than any other medicine. Let’s get her out of here now.”

  Darilth scooped Ella up in his arms and slowly poured the contents of the vial into her mouth. He wrapped the warm robes around her and carried her outside as they quickly made their way back. All the while, Darilth fought back his tears. She shouldn’t have had to endure all this pain. She had to suffer because she chose to be with him. His pain turned into rage, hot and boiling as it surged through his blood. Keralth had to pay for what he had done. He would see to it. Vengeance now drove his every move.

  Back at the ship, the doctor injected her with medicines. Then she was transferred into the healing capsule. Darilth set the course for his home on R13 and then went back into the healing chamber to be at her side. She lay there, still unconscious, oblivious to the world around her. He stared at the large bump that her frail body had to support. The life growing inside her sucking every ounce of lifeblood, taking everything she had. Eventually, it would kill her. And, yet, she had endured it all. She was a warrior like no other, fighting a grave battle with death.

  He placed a hand on the glass, his long fingers spreading, wanting to touch her bulging belly. He could see the baby moving inside her and he felt a strong tug in his heart. She had sacrificed herself to give him an heir. He ached to touch her again, to feel her soft lips on his, her delicate body against his own, her warmth against his cold. If he were given a choice to save one life, the mother’s or the baby’s, he would undoubtedly choose her. He was nothing without her. His existence didn’t matter without her own. Nothing mattered without her. His heart grown cold with vengeance, he resolved to set things right and save her life. All he needed was a plan to destroy his enemy.

  Chapter Nine<
br />
  Cold Vengeance

  Prince Darilth’s cottage on the moon R13 was warm and cozy. Ella lay under the covers in a warm, neatly decorated bedroom. There were books lining the shelf to her left and the window to her right was covered by heavy curtains. An artificial fire lit up the room, making it bright and warm.

  Ella stirred and woke up, blinking. At first, she thought she was dreaming again. But as she glanced around, she saw him. He sat in a chair close to her bed. Seeing her awake, he came over to her, held her hand and bent down to kiss her.

  “How are you feeling, Ella?” he asked gently. She saw the drained look on his face and felt that dull ache in her heart.

  “I... I think I’ll be alright now that you are here,” she said with a dazed look in her eyes. The effect of the sedatives was still evident.

  “Dr. Wyern says you should rest and stay warm. Ella, I’m so sorry for what happened to you,” Darilth said, and she saw the worry in his intense blue eyes. There were bruises on his face.

  “Darilth...” she whispered as her voice broke. “I think the King knows about us.”

  “No, no... The King is dead. Murdered,” Darilth said quietly, his jaw clenched. “Keralth is behind it. He did this to us because he wants the Draco’s Eye and the throne.”

  “Then you must go back. Fight for your rightful place,” she said, taking his hand.

  He stared into her eyes with sadness. “We aren’t safe while he is at the castle. He is already planning to frame me for Father’s murder. I won’t let him get away with it.”

  “You should go,” she said with a faint smile. “The doctor will take care of me.”

  “Ella, I promise you, I won’t fail you this time. I will take you back as my Queen. You will be at my side and the castle will be your home. You deserve the Rothgar throne as much as I do. Nobody is fit to rule at my side but you.” He said it with an intensity that made her heart race. His piercing gaze seared her very core.