“That’s where the visiting granted animals used to stay,” he informed me.
I glanced back that way, but it was hard to see now.
He crossed his arms. “All right, I’ve grown quite curious by now. Are you going to show me this special skill of yours?”
I bit my lip. I almost wished I’d never said anything about it, now that it had made Cyric upset. “Do you really think it could help somehow?”
“I suppose that depends on whether you could teach it to anyone. But if you can really disappear it would at least keep you safer, right?” He started to smile, a little humoredly, obviously still doubtful of the whole thing—when before his eyes I vanished myself into smoke.
I felt the whisper of noise that accommodated disappearing my entire body, and saw his eyes widen with shock as if I were looking through a foggy glass.
He stretched his hand out, but touched nothing. “Ellia,” he called.
I reappeared instantly.
His breath was short. “By the sun, you weren’t kidding,” he exclaimed.
“I’ve grown better at it all the time,” I said. “I’ve just recently learned to vanish completely.”
Tobias scoffed a little, a half-smile forming on his lips.
“You didn’t believe me before,” I said.
“It’s not that I didn’t believe you. I’ve just never seen anything like it. Where did you learn it?” he asked.
“I didn’t. It really just started on its own. Not even very long ago….”
His expression grew serious. He looked deep in thought for a moment, and then he nodded to me. “Throw your hood back. I want to teach you something.”
I narrowed. “I thought I was going to be the one to teach.”
His smile tipped. “Somehow I doubt that you’ll be able to share that skill with anyone. But I have something I can easily share with you, and it will help keep you safe.”
“Why all the sudden?” I asked. “When are you going to tell me about your plan?”
“There will be time for that afterwards.” He pulled out his sword. “If you please?...”
I dropped my hood back as he’d asked. Then he held the hilt of his sword out to me.
I took it warily. “I already know how to fight.”
“Good. That will make this easier then.”
He went on to show me a maneuver for disarming an opponent of their weapon. This I already knew how to do, but his way was different in that it would allow you to at the same time retrieve the weapon for yourself. He demonstrated it first on me, and despite the fact that I had studied mostly defensive maneuvers in the past, I was unable to block it. The form of his trick was unlike anything I’d ever seen.
After he proved multiple times that I would not easily be able to learn how to stop it, he held his sword and instructed me to try the maneuver myself. Out of all the work I’d done in Akadia thus far, whether experimenting with my vanishing magic or sorting gems in the mines, it was the greatest trial for me. Physical feats had never been my strong suit. After an hour I had done it only twice without dropping the weapon.
Tobias laughed. “You needn’t twist so much. You look more like you’re dancing than sparring.”
“Well I’m sorry if I’m more used to dancing. These ridiculous clothes certainly don’t help.”
He chuckled again and rebalanced the sword in front in me—poised to attack.
As he’d taught me, I grabbed his wrist with my right hand then reached for the sword-hilt with my left, but as I twisted under and around I realized I must have somehow done something wrong because I wound up between his arms, with the sword at my back. I started laughing and almost toppled over.
He caught me easily. “See now you’re actually trying to dance, aren’t you?”
“I didn’t mean to.”
As he straightened me back up and readjusted his sword I saw a flash behind him. As I realized what it was, my laughter died.
Commander Lox was standing on the other side of the temple—where we had first come in. He wore full armor as he always seemed to and his expression was dark, but what was worse than this by far was the familiar figure standing beside him. His armor just as red, his expression just as dark.
“Cyric?” I said, unable to help myself.
Tobias turned around, or maybe he already had and I’d just noticed. Immediately, he put a hand in front of me, as if to tell me not to speak.
Lox spared a glance at Cyric, but when Cyric gave no reaction he looked back between Tobias and me. I could discern delight in his features as he stepped forward.
“Tobias,” he began. “Have I finally caught you here in the forbidden granted temple? I thought you had given up trying long ago.”
As they neared, I gave Cyric a questioning look. He shook his head subtly—the way he did when it meant I needed to trust him and say nothing. In this case, it was impossibly difficult.
“It’s good to see you this afternoon, Commander,” Tobias replied. He put on a light smile. “As for the temple, it’s just a place. You won’t condemn an old soldier for his habits, will you?”
“That all depends on what habits you’ve formed.” Lox stopped only yards away from us. “I’ve been hearing a lot of stories about you. Things that greatly concern Akadia. Things that would concern the council.”
“Perhaps you should be more wary who you listen to, Commander. A lot of people say a lot of things.” Tobias glanced at Cyric as he said it; the return stare Cyric gave was cold.
Lox laughed. “I don’t need hearsay when I can see you breaking one of our most regarded laws right in front me.” He nodded towards me. “To take another man’s handmaiden… the penalty is great.”
“If that’s what this is about, Lox, you may take me before the council now. I have nothing to hide.” Tobias looked at Cyric directly. “I’ve done nothing with her, Cyric.”
I watched Cyric grimace before Lox put a hand up between them.
“I’m afraid this offense goes beyond Cyric’s personal feelings, just as the penalty also goes beyond you, Tobias…. Perhaps you’ll convince the council to let you off with a minor beating, but the handmaiden will not be so fortunate. Cyric has already informed me that neither you nor she received permission for her to be taken alone. The penalty for such betrayal is a life sentence underground, working the furnaces.”
“You can’t do that,” Tobias argued.
I moved a horrified gaze to Cyric, but he had already turned on Lox. “You didn’t say anything about this to me,” he said.
Lox glanced over. “Remember I told you to trust me, Cyric.” He put a hand on his shoulder.
I frowned, then I saw something that I wished I hadn’t. Cyric’s eyes moved to Lox’s hand where it rested on his shoulder, then they softened, to a degree that I’d rarely received myself.
My expression turned livid. “Get your hand off of him!” I shouted.
Tobias pulled me back. “Ellia, he’s a Commander. Keep your senses.”
“I don’t care who he is,” I snapped. “If he tries to hurt me, or send me underground, Cyric won’t let him.”
Tobias exhaled sharply; he spoke in an irritated whisper. “Have you thought yet who it was that brought Lox here to begin with?”
“Hey, you stay out of this!” Cyric suddenly shouted.
My eyes narrowed in confusion. I looked at Cyric, but I knew that what Tobias was suggesting couldn’t possibly be true. Cyric bring Lox here? There had to have been another explanation.
Tobias turned to Cyric. “Cyric, I don’t care what qualm you have with me, but for the safety of your friend, be wary who you share your secrets with.”
For some reason this incited Cyric’s anger. “What did you just say?”
“I know you don’t trust me,” Tobias went on. “But I’m loyal to Ellia, and I think both of us believe that her safety is of much greater consequence than anything else that happens here today.”
Lox looked confused; I felt much the same.
Cyric stared at Tobias as if frozen for a long moment, then eyes went dark and they turned on me. “You told him!”
“What?” I glanced between Tobias and Cyric. “No.”
“Cyric, please,” Tobias begged.
“What are they talking about, Cyric?” Lox asked.
Cyric’s face looked hot and filled with panic.
“Don’t tell him,” Tobias said.
I looked at Cyric. If I was following right I could only guess that Tobias meant not to tell him that I was the princess, but Cyric would never do that. I didn’t understand.
“Why? So you can use her for yourself?” Cyric shouted.
“No, I—”
“Stop mistrusting each other—both of you. Cyric, Tobias is good. He isn’t trying to use me.”
“Since when do you know how to keep yourself safe, Ellia?” Cyric asked in a sharp tone.
Though I felt like tearing up, I took a brave breath. “You can’t possibly think that telling Lox anything is safe. Tobias already knows; I can’t help it.”
“You can tell me anything, Cyric,” Lox said, his tone calm. “You know I’ll watch over you.”
“He’s lying!” I screamed.
“Ellia, stop,” Tobias told me. I turned to him. And then I heard Cyric’s voice cut through everything.
“She’s the princess.”
My features went blank. It felt as if I’d lost all sense of time and space. I turned to stare at Cyric; he was looking at Lox. “My handmaiden is the princess of Shaundakul. The daughter of Savras Solidor…. That’s what Tobias is trying to hide from you.”
Lox looked from Cyric to me. I felt my skin begin to shake. Lox’s eyes grew glossed and greedy, I wanted to vanish myself away from him. Instead I turned on Cyric.
“How could you tell him? What’s wrong with you!”
Cyric seemed little more than annoyed. “Don’t tell me who to tell. You go informing this lowlife, without my permission. I’m keeping us safe.”
“How can you say that? Lox is the one that attacked Uldin Keep. He’s evil.”
“You’re saying your precious captain had nothing to do with it?”
“That makes no difference at all. You had no right to tell anyone!”
“Why? Because of my name?”
“What?”
I felt a hand wrap around my arm. “Please listen to me now, Ellia,” Tobias whispered quickly.
“You get your hands off of her,” Cyric shouted, and before I could tell what was happening, he had stepped forward and knocked Tobias backwards with his fist. I gasped, raising my hands up to cover my mouth.
Tobias brought his head around, wiping blood from his lip. Cyric stood shaking with rage.
Lox spoke calmly. “He’ll tell everyone who she is, Cyric,” he said. “He’ll betray her and they’ll have her killed…. It’s not safe to let him leave here.”
I narrowed, hardly able to believe Lox could invent such a preposterous story. But as I watched Cyric, his gaze turned darker.
Tobias looked up at him panting.
Cyric drew his sword from its sheath.
I screamed and wrapped my arms around his waist. “Cyric, no!”
He pushed me away. I tried to cling again, but he lunged for Tobias.
Tobias avoided the attack with a duck and roll, and was also able to sweep his sword off the stone floor. When he came back up, he held his weapon in one hand and raised the other to Cyric. “You don’t have to do this,” he said.
“Cyric, stop!” I cried.
Cyric shouted and attacked again. This time Tobias began to parry and then fight back. Despite myself, my eyes began to fill with tears. Lox was watching the battle with a smile on his face. I felt a blood-thirsty desire to rip him to pieces, but I couldn’t bring myself to move that far from Cyric and Tobias.
Tobias gained ground on top of a table and slashed into Cyric’s arm. I cried out at the same time Cyric did. Tobias looked my direction. While he was distracted, Cyric knocked him over.
Though Cyric’s arm was bleeding, he used it to raise his sword over Tobias. Tobias narrowly avoided the blade coming down, then they continued to fight.
“He’s not evil, Cyric,” I shouted. “He won’t hurt me.”
I heard pounding footsteps and looked over to see Lox heading towards me. I darted away, closer to the battle and the ledge outside. All the same I was slower than Lox and he’d almost reached me when we heard the clatter of a sword falling against the stone floor.
We both turned.
Cyric had his weapon raised to Tobias’s neck, his other hand gripped Tobias’s collar. Tobias was pressed against a boulder and his weapon was cast off a dozen feet. His chest rose heavily up and down.
“Cyric, don’t!” I screamed.
Lox’s voice was just as loud and more commanding. “Do it. If you don’t dispose of him, he’ll see to it that she’s killed, or he’ll use her to start a rebellion against Akadia. There’s no other way to keep him quiet.”
Tobias’s eyes were wide and pleading. I had never seen Cyric look so angry. His arm began to shake, and his sword along with it.
Then, without warning, his shoulder relaxed; his sword and arm fell.
My eyes filled with tears and Tobias breathed a sigh of relief.
But the happiness I felt made me notice too late that Lox was no longer standing beside me. I barely had time to look back towards Cyric before I heard the plunge of a sword into skin. Lox stood behind Cyric, the hilt of Tobias’s sword in his hand and the other end through Tobias’s chest.
Lox spoke slowly. “You will never see the Akadia of your dreams, son of Denathar.”
Tobias blinked once, then looked past them both at me.
“Run, Ellia,” he said. “Run.”
The next sound I heard was a body falling against the stone.
I screamed in grief and dropped down to my knees. I felt the rush of every death I’d faced in the past month.
“Cyric, what have you done?” I cried.
Lox’s voice came in and out of focus.
“It had to be done. I’m sorry, I should not have asked you to kill him when the situation was so confused. You did well.”
All his words were spaced apart; I wasn’t sure whether he or Cyric were speaking in between them, or what they were doing. I felt as if I couldn’t breathe.
Suddenly a flicker of light broke through my vision. I saw Cyric holding up a silver wristband. I immediately thought it was my crown, but the blue jewel was not on it. He said something softly to Lox, and then Lox looked at me with the same hungry gaze as before.
They started walking towards me. I tried to rise to my feet before they reached me, but I could barely stand. Lox came first. I pushed him away.
“Hold her,” Lox commanded.
I swung at him again; this time Cyric caught my arms behind my back and held me still. My chest hurt so badly with confusion and despair that I could hardly resist him. “Cyric, what are you doing?” I wailed.
Lox held the silver band up beside my face. There was a flash of light. He looked between the band and me. Whatever he saw made his own eyes grow ghastlier than ever.
I started crying anew. I wanted to call Cyric for help, but it didn’t feel like he was there at all. The Cyric I knew would not have done these things.
“She truly is the princess of Shaundakul,” Lox said. “How did you discover this?”
It was a moment before Cyric spoke; he released my arms. “You should remember her from the forest of Uldin Keep. It was my duty to protect her during the battle…. I’ve known her for a long time.”
Lox tilted his head. “This is truly unprecedented.” He looked once more at the band, then he let it dangle in his hand at his side. I could see now that it was my crown.
“She won’t have to be sent underground now, will she?” Cyric asked.
“Of course not, no.” Lox put his hand on my face, his oversized fingers rubbed against my skin. This was what he
also seemed to do to me—why couldn’t Cyric see how evil he was? He went on. “But until I figure out how to handle this, we can’t allow anyone to find out who she is.”
Cyric nodded. Lox let go of my face. Cyric was so close I couldn’t help but look into his eyes, but all I saw in them was distance and coldness. I didn’t know how long I tried to see something different before he looked away from me.
I felt my fists tighten. I turned slowly on Lox.
“If you think that I will stand by and be used by you, you know nothing of the people of Shaundakul!”
“Lawful to the point of dull. Stubborn to the point of uselessness. Actually, I’ve had experience in the past weeks.” He smiled. “Fortunately for you, you don’t have the option to make a poor choice.” He raised his hand in an obvious gesture for Cyric to hold me again.
This time when he did I immediately made my arms vanish. Lox’s eyes went wide in confusion. I used the moment to grab my crown from his grasp, then I pulled even further away. Cyric started to attempt to catch me. Whenever he got close I made part of myself disappear.
“Just stop,” he cried in exasperation. “You have nowhere to go.”
I ignored him and moved back even further.
He groaned. “Ellia. Stop.” His angry tone frightened me so that I tripped going backwards.
In unison I saw both his and Lox’s eyes grow wide. Cyric reached towards me. I clasped my crown tight. Just when I thought I was going to hit the ground, there was nothing beneath me but air.
I felt the sun at my back and wind and heat around me as I plummeted over the side of the temple ledge.
~ ~ ~
CHAPTER TEN
ELLIA:
*
I fell and fell endlessly, with the loudness of the air in my ears and my cape rushing around me. For a moment all I could think of was Cyric and Tobias and Lox. Then without meaning to I began to disappear and reappear. Sound came in and out of focus—silent whispering, then crashing wind, over and over. The ground grew closer. When I was vanished I could still see it nearing through a haze of smoke, but my body felt light and absent.
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