Realm Book Two - Shadow Slave

by K. A. M'Lady

  Being in Modgav’s care would do that; steal the life from you, the hope. That’s what she lacked; the spark of the possibility of hope. Until she looked at me. I saw it briefly, just barely catching it as her eyes caught mine across the room as she purposely disobeyed her master.

  Please, Rihker. Don’t leave me. Please help me, she silently pleaded to me as Modgav once again pulled the chain, tearing her gaze away. When she spoke, I felt her suffering clear to the ends of my soul.

  This was she—the creature we had come for. The Light hidden within the shadows of the Darkness. She had called out to me in my dream. Why, I did not know. One thing was for certain—no one deserved to be Modgav’s prisoner. I had to save her.

  “Show them, Modgav,” the Queen was saying. “Show them all what happens to those who disobey me.”

  “As you wish.” There was so much glee to his voice, it all but floated through the room like a thick dark cloud of vile happiness. Modgav relished the pain and suffering of others, and whoever he was about to bestow his brand upon was definitely going to feel its mark.

  The blade’s soft sigh as it cleared his sheath brought a stoic silence throughout the Throne Room. The women appeared to cower behind their men. The men shrinking away so not to be noticeable by the Goblin King. Whatever was about to happen had obviously happened before if the looks of fear on some of the faces surrounding us were any indication.

  I watched silently as my mother still lay prone at her Queen’s feet blubbering about demons, skeletal scepters and the Darkness. This is what she had come to, the woman with the power to leave her own child to die in a forest. She wasn’t the great and powerful seductress of her Lady Queen, riding the coattails of her power after all. She was nothing. Nothing more than a disturbed, broken woman whom the Light had abandoned in the shades of coming Darkness as her own Queen wandered in the shadows.

  It was the Queen’s fault, really. She was bringing the Darkness to her people. She was the reason Gwina was not whole. When you walk in the shadows, you can not expect it not to leave its stain on the soul of your people. It made me wonder what else was wrong with her Kingdom. What other foulness had she brought to the Land of Light?

  There wasn’t time to consider anything as Mercy was suddenly just wandering towards the dais, her feet seemingly moving of their own accord. “That’s right, child. Come to me. Come to your King.”

  Modgav’s hand was outstretched, Kushkun’s Zion held firmly in the other. His dark, gruff voice whispering seductively to her—soft, sweet words only one of Goblin blood would find alluring.

  “No!” I roared. I took three steps forward and yanked Mercy by the arm, my nails digging into her forearm. I jerked on her, but she just kept moving. “Mercy, no. Don’t let him do this to you,” I begged.

  Modgav’s laughter filled the hall around us, and still she tried to move forward. Still she tried to go to him.

  I pulled harder, my nails gouging into her flesh until I could feel the warmth of blood pool beneath their crescents. Finally she stopped moving, her warm cocoa eyes blinking several times before realization returned and she came to her senses.

  I sighed, not realizing until then the hold the Goblin could have on her. What the hell were we going to do? “In for a penny?” I asked sheepishly.

  “In for a pound,” she replied. “Thank you. I didn’t realize the allure would be so strong.”

  Modgav laughed again, the deep, rich guffaw thundering through the room until it came to rest in the pit of my stomach. “Did you think you would be beyond your own King’s power, half-breed?” he mocked, his swirling eyes boring into Mercy’s. “Little fool. Gone so long from the folds of the Horde you do not recall your place. Well, let your King remind you.”

  “Change for me, ugly little half-breed. Change for your King.”

  “No!” I said, pulling Mercy tightly beside me. “Enough of these games.”

  “But the games have just begun, Rihker,” the Queen interrupted, her eyes bright. “Or haven’t you been paying attention?”

  Modgav looked at Mercy, whispered something that I couldn’t hear and that was it. One strange look and a silent command and she was on the ground writhing like a serpent, screaming in agony, her back bowed, her arms flung out beside her as she tried to clutch the marble floor, her fingers trying to dig through the tiles themselves. Then she screamed again, screamed as though her altered self were about to tear its way through her flesh. No subtle merging of her two selves, but an explosive rupture breaking free of her own body.

  “Show them now, Modgav. Show Rihker and her little friends. Show them what I do to those who go against me.” The Queen was all but bouncing up and down with excitement. Whatever else she expected him to show us, I didn’t want to see. But I knew I didn’t have a say in the matter.

  That was when he took his sword, Kushkun’s Zion, and held it to the chest of the seemingly forgotten creature that was chained to him. “Ready to die, Changeling?” he questioned, his maniacal laughter reverberating off the walls of the Throne Room, pounding against my flesh until it settled in the pit of my stomach like despair.

  “We have to stop him,” I told Gimlit, knowing that the shit was seriously about to hit the fan. There was no way I could idly stand by while he killed another being. It was bad enough that Mercy was writhing on the floor beside us, her Goblin self breaking through the beauty of her being like a schizophrenic hopped up on crack. But I would not willingly stand by and watch him kill another creature of the Realm. Not if I could stop him.

  Gimlit didn’t question me, he simply nodded his understanding and silently pulled the sword from the sheath at his back. It was so refreshing not to be questioned, argued with, or interrogated. Simple acceptance and battle ready, that was Gimlit.

  Before I had time to consider a plan of action, Modgav took his blade and slammed it through the chest of the Changeling. The crowd started screaming, women gasping, men grumbling. The Changeling’s labored gasp was audible and then she immediately began to shift, blade embedded to the hilt between her rib cage, Light bursting from her body like an exploding sun.

  I started to react, my own power beginning to flow upwards from inside of me—whether Light or Darkness I’m unsure of but never the less the power was there. But as I watched the Changeling’s shape began to change; at first her entire body glimmered with a metallic rainbow of color swarming her body in a radiance of light. Then, all of a sudden, the small waiflike creature that had been chained to the Goblin folded in on itself, shimmered, bowed over, and became a man.

  I stood there gawking; my mouth hung open, eyes rapidly blinking in shock and wonder as I took in the physical change. He was strong in physique, his body ripped with muscle, the same long flowing multi-colored hair, the same sword embedded to the hilt of his chest.

  As rationality swam back through my mind the light rippled again and the man became horse, a rainbow paint with a flowing green mane. Then the horse became a dragon; twenty feet tall, shimmering an opalescent pearl with a wingspan of half the size of the room. The chain was still clinging to its leg, Kushkun’s Zion still protruding from the center of its heart.

  “By the Prophets,” I whispered, spellbound with the sight before me.

  Rihker! Her voice was screeching in my head. The pain, her pain ripping through me as though it were my own. She was in such tremendous misery, it was almost too much to bear.

  “Now, Gimlit,” I yelled, the Changeling’s agony roaring through my mind like kindling to fire the Darkness. The anger and hatred that I had stored away for Modgav lit up inside me like an inferno, called to life as I opened myself up to the Darkness within me. With welcoming arms it bubbled up and boiled over like a living, breathing flame of death and destruction. Joyously, with every drop of my own vengeance and hatred that I had for the Goblin, I took and forced it into a ball of Light. Then I whipped it with all the power that I had directly at Modgav.

  It caught him square in the chest, a flaming burst of brill
iant white light exploding with the might of a wrecking ball. The force of it managed to pull the blade free from the Changeling, ripping it from his hand, sending him careening off of the dais. The blast was even powerful enough to rend the chain in two.

  The crowd scattered, people screaming, Others running for their very lives. The guards began yelling orders as swords were drawn and people were rushing in every direction. The Queen rose up before us like a brilliant hovering aqua moon, glowing brightly with anger and power. “By the Prophets and all you hold dearly, I will kill you for that, Rihker Tennai.” Her voice was malicious and dark, filled with an abundance of rage.

  I grabbed Mercy off of the floor; her body weak and limp in my hands as she turned to stare up at me. The face before me was half hers; beautiful and lovely, the other half was her deformed Goblin face—all teeth, creepy-eyed and grotesque looking.

  “Mercy, get with it, bitch.” I told her as I tried to shake some sense into her. Seeing her weak and helpless was not how I wanted to see her. Not how I needed her to be. Mercy was our Enforcer. We needed her to be strong. I needed her to be strong. “Time to haul ass, lass,” I said with a lame Irish accent, hoping that would get her attention.

  The guards were already gathering forming their battle formation; Elves stood by Pixies, Fairies next to Trolls. The odds were not in our favor. How the hell Queen Corral had managed to mix all these creatures to do her bidding was completely beyond me. But it was definitely not looking good.

  Gimlit had his sword drawn and Jade had partially Werewolfed out on me; claws and a full muzzle of his own chomping teeth.

  Could I ever date someone normal again, I wondered idly as I took in everybody’s position. My mother was finally gathering herself off of the floor, the Queen apparently having forgotten enough about her to send all of her retribution our way. Great, now I had two psycho bitches, and one neurotic Goblin pissed off at me. What a great way to end an evening.

  We needed to get the hell out of Dodge. Fast.

  “Through Modgav’s secret door,” the little creature whom I’d freed from Modgav whispered to me as she limped slowly towards us, the chain still attached to her leg. She had returned to the waif with the multi-colored hair once again. This time she was close enough that it finally dawned on me that she stood before us completely naked, her body hidden only by the length of her hair.

  “It is the only way,” she whispered, her voice softspoken, serene like a gentle flowing brook as she looked up at me, her large doe eyes completely without malice.

  “Rihker,” Mercy croaked. Mercy was still trying to get up off of the ground, her half-turned body refusing to assist… “Blood. I need blood,” she told me.

  Son of bitch. Why do the monsters always need me to open up a freakin’ vein when we’re ass-deep in a whole word of hurt?

  I looked at Jade, who was in battle stance as four Elvin guards were fast approaching. “Don’t look at me I’ve got my own problems,” he said, an easy gleam to his pale eyes as the guards rushed him. Somehow he was enjoying the shit out of this. Maybe it was a guy thing. Or a Werewolf thing. If we survived, I’d get to ask him.

  We were officially out of time and at the moment, I no longer had the time to give a shit.

  Shoving my wrist in her face, I said, “Make it fast, we’re about to get our asses kicked.” I barely got the last word out as a million blades of sharp-assed teeth broke my flesh. Okay, it wasn’t a million, but you get bit by a fucking Goblin-Vamp half-breed with a face full of teeth. I don’t give a shit what people tell you, without something hot, steamy and sexy to allure you into the kiss, getting bit by a Vampire fucking hurts. Especially a fucking half-breed Goblin!

  As Mercy sat there siphoning the lifeblood out of my arm, I just kept repeating to myself over and over, it’s worth the pain, it’s worth the pain, it’s worth the pain. As long as we don’t get our asses kicked, it’ll have been worth it.

  When I felt my eyes grow heavy and the deep lull of darkness spread comfortably through me, the long pull of my blood flowing from my vein into her mouth as I began to float in the comfort of where a soul might rest, I heard Kieran calling for me. Screaming my name from the bottom of an endless bleak abyss. I opened my eyes and shoved Mercy away from me, stark horror on her face matching the horrified fear that coiled in my gut.

  “What is it?” Gimlit asked as he took the liberty of mindlessly slaying three of the Queen’s Imperial Guards without even batting an eye. My hands were trembling. Where Mercy bit me was a massive throbbing ache. When I looked at the puncture wounds and went to wipe the blood from them, the smell of Kieran lingered, his smell scenting the air around me.

  “What have you done?” I asked Mercy, worry and fear a hard knot in my belly.

  She was shaking her head back and forth. “I did nothing. I swear it.” The conviction and fear so steep in her voice I could feel her honesty. Feel the truth of her words. “But I heard him too. And I smell him as if he were standing right here.” Her eyes were wide with worry. What could make a Death Stalker as old and as fierce as Mercy afraid? “Something is wrong, Rihker. I cannot feel him. I cannot feel him when I call to him.” Fear unlike I had ever seen on Mercy before stole across her once again beautiful features. What could trap a thousand year old Death Stalker? What could keep Mercy from feeling her Master?

  “We must leave here at once,” she said, reaching for me.

  Suddenly my vision was filled with a blinding purple light, the world set aglow to an amethyst haze. My knees buckled, my back arched and Kieran screamed my name in my head, causing me to scream myself. Take me, lass. Into your heart. Take me and be mine.

  It was Kieran’s voice rumbling in my mind. “What the fuck! Kieran, what are you doing to me?” I yelled, not even realizing I was speaking out loud. It was then that my Queen, my glorious fucking Queen decided it was time for some sport of her own—like pull the Pixie apart.

  “Time to die, Halfling!” she growled from her glowing perch up near the ceiling. I had so much shit hitting the fan, I didn’t know what to respond to first. Gimlit and Jade were waist deep in Trolls, Elves and whatever Other mixed bag of Queen’s tricks she could throw at them, both slashing and dashing, swords swinging, claws flying and blood spurting. I was praying that it was bad guy blood and not ours.

  Mercy was finally up on her feet and was face to face with the ugliest Troll I had ever seen in my life; six feet of grey death swinging some sort of ax while she tried to protect the Changeling, Kieran’s need of us momentarily set aside. Lucky me, I was on my own with Tweedle Dee the Psycho Pixie Queen.

  This was ridiculous. We were so outnumbered even I wasn’t dumb enough to think that we were going to make it out of here unscathed. We needed help. Serious help. Only, my backup was at the end of a deep dark hell, pleading for me to rescue him. So what the hell was I supposed to do?

  The Queen was hovering, the very floor shaking as she gathered her power; about to blast me into some obscure Neverland, I’m quite certain. And that’s when it hit me. Who to call for help. Her words of reminder, ‘Claim me and I’ll come,’ ringing in my ears. Only, what was this going to cost me?

  What burning oath of blood would this lay as claim upon my soul? The walls trembled, mortar and marble cracking across the long expanse of the room; the very floor itself shifting upwards in sections and sinking in others. It didn’t really matter. I was already condemned to burn. What the hell was one more scar?

  “Dax!” I bellowed, need and demand rising up from my gut. Nothing. “Dax, I call you to me,” I yelled. Still nothing. A sentry guard broke through the line that Gimlit and Jade had been holding off, his sword held out before him as he came screaming right towards me, “Die, Pixie heathen bitch! Die! Die, humanmonger whore!”

  “Humanmonger whore.” I looked at him for all of two seconds, swung my blade that I somehow managed to pull from my sheath at my back without a thought and cut his lying fucking head clean off. “Fuck you!” I spat at his decapitated body a
s it fell at my feet with a thud the blood already oozing in a crimson pool beneath his headless body.

  “Dax, I claim you to my hand this bloody fucking instant!” I roared, stomping my foot on the floor. The Darkness and anger began to rush up inside me like the wake of a wave the more pissed I became.

  “Well, ye don’t have te shout aboot it,” she said with a huff. She appeared like a shimmering shadow; a grey haze suddenly there. This time she was wearing a slick leather body suit that looked like she had been poured into it, or it had been poured onto her; there were no zippers, no latches and no buttons. The only openings were for her hands, legs and her head. Briefly, I wondered how the hell she got it on.

  She looked at me with those strange amphibious eyes, oily and shiny, and I almost felt like there was a glow of approval in them that I’d called on her to help me. “We need to get out of here, Dax,” I told her, nodding to the melee about the room.

  “And which way is out?” she asked, a devilish smile appearing across her ghastly-pale face.

  “Through the secret door,” the Changeling said again, this time pulling on my arm. “We must go through the secret door. Modgav has already gone through it. You must follow, Rihker.”

  There was something compelling in her words. Pleading. I didn’t know why we had to go through that door, but go we must. The Queen was on warped Pixie mode, I had no idea where my mother had gotten to and the one fucking Goblin I hated more than anything in the world was escaping unscathed. Besides that, Kieran was calling me from the Darkness. Pleading for me to rescue him.

  Whatever shit had hit the fan with him and Jirvel had gone far more terribly wrong if he wasn’t even able to save himself, let alone any of the others I had so foolishly convinced him to take with him. This was all my fault. If anything happened to any of them, it would be on my shoulders to bear.

  Dax pulled a black scimitar from who the hell knows where, and I definitely didn’t want to be on the receiving end of it. “The little one speaks the truth. You must skirt the Darkness, Rihker if you wish to find the Light.”