by J. B. North
“That’s why I’m here. Will that be okay with him?” he asked.
“I'm pretty sure it will,” I said as I started forward.
Ayon nervously followed me, a hand running through his hair.
When I came back into the sight of one of the guards, he nodded, acknowledging my presence, but froze when he saw Ayon.
“He's a friend,” I reassured him.
The guard relaxed somewhat, but kept his hand near his sword hilt.
Sir Lochlan turned at the sound of our voices. He looked at Ayon and then back at me with a question in his eyes.
“Sir Lochlan, this is Ayon. He's an old friend of mine,” I said as we approached.
Ayon stuck out a hand. Sir Lochlan looked at it for a moment before he finally consented to shake it.
I smiled nervously. “He is headed to the castle looking for work.”
Sir Lochlan frowned. “What’s your form?”
“A horse, so a stable-hand is what I had in mind,” Ayon answered.
“We have enough stable-hands already.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but Sir Lochlan continued on. “—we are, however, in need of trainers. Not many people are willing to risk their lives to tame wild horses.”
Ayon's eyes widened. If I wasn't mistaken, being a trainer was a step up, even if it was dangerous.
“Of course, the prince has more say in this matter. I'll go ask him for you.”
I watched as Ayon's Adam's apple bobbed up and down nervously.
“Don't worry. He doesn't bite. An execution, however...” Sir Lochlan trailed off. He smiled and continued on into the prince's tent.
Ayon looked at me, worried. “Are you sure it'll be okay to ask him?”
I rolled my eyes. “Sir Lochlan is messing with your mind. Prince Matthias isn't that kind of person.” Of course, I'd only known him for less than a day, so I couldn't be completely confident in that statement.
Then, the prince's tent flap opened again and Prince Matthias stepped out. “I'm glad to hear that you think so.”
“Y-your Highness!” Ayon stuttered, falling to one knee in a bow.
“Please, rise. What is your request?” said the prince patiently.
“Uh…well, I was wondering if I could get a job at the castle...Your Highness,” Ayon said, brow furrowed as he struggled to get back up.
“Hmm,” Prince Matthias hummed. He glanced at me for a moment before looking back at Ayon. “What kind of job?”
“A stable-hand or a horse trainer,” Ayon answered, regaining some of his courage.
“Have you had any experience with either?”
“I’ve been a stable-hand for the past two and a half years,” Ayon confirmed.
“But no experience with training, I take it?”
Ayon shook his head.
“He’s a good worker,” I spoke up. “When I used to visit him, he rarely took breaks.”
The prince studied Ayon. “Well, perhaps you could start out as a stable-hand while the Horsemaster trains you how to break an untamed horse.”
Ayon’s shoulders relaxed as he nodded. “That sounds like a generous offer, Sir.” He shot me a grateful look.
Prince Matthias shifted his feet. “Will you be traveling with us?” he asked. “I’m afraid we don’t have any horses to spare, but since you are one…” He trailed off.
Ayon shook his head. “No, sir. I have a wedding in two weeks’ time.”
“I take it your fiancée will need a job as well, then?” questioned the prince.
“I wouldn't want to ask too much,” Ayon said cautiously.
“Nonsense,” the prince replied. “What is her second form?”
“A sparrow, Your Highness.”
The prince crossed his arms. “So she could be a maid. The castle is always in need of another maid. You’ll have your work cut out for you by the time you reach the castle, I guarantee it.”
“Thank you so much, Your Grace,” Ayon said with a bow.
Prince Matthias patted him on the shoulder. “Consider it a wedding present.” Then, he ducked back into his tent.
“Thank you, Ivy,” said Ayon as we walked toward the woods again. “If you weren't here, I don't think I’d have the courage to approach the camp.”
His praise felt odd. It was usually him that dove headfirst into situations, him that had any connections with the outside world.
Ayon's expression saddened as if he had read my thoughts. “You really are different, you know?” he said.
“It's been tough,” I admitted.
“Maybe we can talk about it when I get to the castle.”
“Assuming I’ll still be there when you arrive,” I said solemnly.
“Why wouldn’t you be?” he asked.
I shrugged. “Two weeks is a long time, that’s all.”
We stopped walking just before we got to the tree line.
Before he continued into the woods, he pulled me into a hug. “It’s good to finally see you again,” he said.
I nodded against his shoulder uncomfortably. He was almost a married man. I wasn’t sure if we should be treating each other like we used to.
I watched his retreating back until the trees swallowed him completely, remembering a time when he had been my best friend. It was nice while it lasted, but now we were older and going our separate ways. Perhaps when he moved to the castle, Emillia and I could be good friends, but things could never be the same with Ayon.
After I turned away from the woods, Sir Lochlan waved me over to where he stood, in front of the second largest tent. “This will be where you sleep for the night,” he explained. “Two guards will be stationed outside at all times—,” he said gruffly before I cut him off.
“Don't waste the guards. I don't need them,” I said.
“There are bandits in this part of the forest. The prince just wants to ensure your safety.”
“I can protect myself,” I protested, crossing my arms.
“He insisted,” Sir Lochlan said. “And as his subject, you will comply.”
I sighed. “Fine.”
Sir Lochlan gave a sharp nod and turned away. “Good.”
-Chapter Five-
That night, as we sat around the campfire to eat dinner, my thoughts returned to the pendant that Rowan passed on from Kurt. Unfortunately, I could only get to it in half form, so I’d just have to wait until everyone else went to bed.
Alyss and Grix approached me as I tore into the leg of a rabbit the guards had caught and roasted on a spit. I probably looked like a barbarian, but my hunger took me past caring. They shot worried glances at the intimidating Sir Lochlan, who sat between me and the prince, the two people he needed to protect the most. He'd eaten quickly, and was now glowering at them as he sharpened a knife, as if considering whether or not they were a threat.
Grix spoke up first. “We just wanted to say thank you, Ivy. It was a relief to finally see the light of day.”
“And I've always wanted to go to the castle,” said Alyss quietly.
I took the time to swallow before answering. “Think nothing of it. It's nice to have someone I know on this journey.”
Alyss smiled timidly. “You don't know me very well yet, but I hope that we can be friends by the end of this trip.”
“I'm sure we will,” I said with a slight smile as I raised a canteen to my lips.
* * * * *
Later that evening, I was restless. I wanted to study Kurt's pendant, but I was certain that the glow of my skin would attract attention through the thin canvas walls. I was beginning to dislike the fact that I could only get to it in half-form.
Outside, the guards talked quietly to keep themselves awake, but it kept me awake, too. Finally, when their voices died down for a few minutes, my eyes drifted closed, but no matter how much I willed myself to sleep, I simply couldn't.
It felt like hours before I heard the snores outside the tent. I sat upright and tossed aside the covers, quietly lifting the tent flap to find
both guards sleeping as soundly as babes. I grinned at my luck, and tiptoed outside. Two more guards were stationed near the fire, right outside the prince's tent. I crouched behind a fallen log before they could spot me. They didn't notice a thing.
With silent, bare feet on the cold grass, I hurried deeper into the woods, trying to avoid twigs and rocks. When I was sure that I was too far away for anyone to see the swirls of light, I changed into my half-form body, heightening my already strong senses. I was rocked backward by the power that enveloped me. I'd felt nothing like it before, but it worried me. Just how much would this plant change me before it finally settled down?
Worried that the guards in the camp would be able to see me after all, I traveled even deeper into the forest. I pulled the phantom stone out of my pocket and studied it as I walked, turning it in my fingers. There was no inscription carved into it, nothing that differentiated it from any other survival test necklace. I slipped it over my head...
And my vision went dark. A dizzying sensation shivered through my body, and I suddenly felt as if the sky had swallowed me whole and spat me back out again.
Suddenly, I was in a dark room that smelled of rot and mold, staring at a figure hunched in the corner. I knew my heart should be beating hard in my chest, but the strange thing was, I couldn't feel it. There was no glow from my limbs either, because my entire body had turned into a translucent grayish blue.
I tried to speak. “Hello?” I said to the figure in the corner.
The figure flinched and turned its head in my direction. He didn't have time to say anything before something clanged loudly. I pushed myself into a corner as a heavyset guard walked by, lantern in one hand and the other pulling along a cart of limp, bloodied bodies.
Light flashed over the room we were in as the man held the lantern up to the bars. “Still alive, eh?” he grunted with a scowl, his breath puffing out in a white cloud. “I guess the king would be mad if you weren't.”
The face of the prisoner was lit up for just a few seconds, but it was enough for me to recognize the drawn face and dull green eyes. It was my brother, but an emptier version of him.
As the man rolled the cart away, I whispered, “Kurt, it's Ivy.”
“I know,” he said, his voice cracking as he watched the light of the lantern creep farther away.
“How is this working?” I asked.
He leaned forward and crawled to the stone slab in the corner, digging under it to pull out a matching black gem. “Rowan made them,” he said in a rusty voice. “They're connected together somehow. Whenever one is slipped on, it takes that person wherever the other pendant is.” He coughed, and pulled his ragged clothes tighter around him. It must've been cold here, but I couldn't feel anything.
“What have they done to you?” If I were in my normal body, tears would spring to my eyes, but in this strange spirit body, there weren't any.
“They want to keep me alive, but barely,” he rasped. “Every day they take me to the room with dark red walls. It reeks of death and rot and the heat from the torches only makes it worse. They want me to tell them about you. Your weaknesses, your strengths, your location, anything... But I won't,” he breathed. “No matter how much of my blood they use to paint those dark red walls.”
If I were in my normal body, I would’ve felt sick. I struggled to find the words to speak.
Kurt was hurting for me. Hurting so that they wouldn't know where I was. “You have to tell them. If you died...” I didn't finish the sentence. He knew what would happen if he died. “I can't have you die, too. Not after Roland. Not after Mother and Father.”
“Roland's dead?” he said flatly.
“Yes… And he wasn't who you thought he was,” I added quickly. “Something was controlling him, making him do all those awful things.”
“I’d hoped so,” he replied. “As soon as you broke the spell, it was obvious that he didn’t know what was happening…which is why I didn’t toss him off my back when we were trying to escape.”
I looked down as I remembered that day. “Before he died, I tried to save him. Tried to give him the plant of eternal life, but he wouldn’t take it.”
He raised his eyebrows, the first flicker of hope settling over his features. “You got to the plant?”
I nodded. “I did. And some of it got into my system when I accidentally punctured the stem.”
He sat up straighter. “So you’re telling me…you’re immortal.”
I shook my head. “I heal quickly and I’m stronger, but…I’m not sure if I’m immortal. I didn’t consume the whole thing.”
He shrugged, and then winced as if he’d hurt something. “Stronger is good. It will help you with your destiny…whatever that may be.”
“Can’t it help me rescue you? I was right there, in the same building, and Rowan turned me away.”
“No. No, if you get caught, it’ll put you and the rest of the world in danger,” he said.
I tilted my head. “The rest of the world?”
“Don’t you realize why King Ciaran wants you? He wants your power. To control you and use you against his enemies.”
I went quiet, and eventually, Kurt broke the silence. “If I tell them things about you Ivy, they'll only kill me sooner. Once they have enough information about you, I'll be useless and they'll either stop bringing me food or kill me on the spot.”
“As long as I’m alive, they’ll consider you the bait to get to me,” I said softly. “But you need to tell them something, if only to keep from being tortured.”
He didn't reply. “Ivy, there's something that you have to know,” he finally said. “Mother…is dead.”
I knitted my eyebrows. “I know. I just said that a moment ago.”
He sighed. “Well…Father isn't dead.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “How is that possible?”
He leaned back into the wall, as though bracing himself for the next words. “He's working for King Ciaran.”
I wished my body could feel something. The cold that didn't bite, the tears that didn't fall, the heartbeat that was absent. But there was nothing.
Should I be angry or sad or relieved?
“How—how did you come to know this?” I forced out.
Kurt's breath puffed out in white fog as he whispered, “He's the painter.”
-Chapter Six-
Before I could reply, the sky sucked me up again and plunged me back down into my body with a jolt that sent my heart hammering as if it had just remembered how to beat. Kurt’s expression as he said those last few words seemed to linger in the silhouette of trees overhead. I blinked once in confusion, but it took only a few seconds to discover why I’d returned to my body.
“What 'ave we got 'ere? I thought fer certain you were dead.”
I jerked my head slightly and caught sight of a man above me. He grinned from ear to ear beneath a speckled gray beard, his eyes shimmery black pools of malevolence. In his rough, dirt-stained fingers, he held the phantom stone. I sat up quickly, leaves falling from my tangled hair, reaching for the sword that was no longer at my side.
One by one, men sauntered out of the shadows and joined their leader, eyeing their newest find. The leader swung the pendant from side to side.
“It couldn’ be black diamond, could it?” he asked with a twisted smile.
I pushed myself to my feet slowly, calmly. “I'm not looking for trouble.”
“Doesn't look like it to me,” snickered one of the men behind me. “Laying down on the ground with your skin glowing like that.”
I turned to face the man that had spoken.
“Got anything else valuable?” he asked. He stalked around me like a cat, eyeing me up and down.
My muscles tensed. “I'm not your prey,” I snarled.
He sneered and looked over his shoulder. “What do you say we take her to camp, boys?”
Their faces glowed as they shouted in agreement.
Someone shoved me forward from behind, and the man
caught me, digging the hilt of his blade into my back. “Then let’s go!” he barked as he tried to push me forward.
That was enough to send me over the edge. In an explosion of rage, I whirled on him and hooked his jaw so forcefully that it cracked. He fell to the ground, suddenly still. I reached down and took his knife while the other men stared at their fallen comrade in shock, the grins wiped from their faces.
Taking advantage of their shock, I kicked the feet out from under the leader and pried the phantom stone out of his grasp. He was stunned to find himself on his back, gasping for the air I’d knocked out of his lungs. Before he had a chance to react, I’d already swiped the gem and pocketed it.
Realizing what I’d done, he grabbed my ankle, digging in with his short, stubby nails. “I want that diamond!” he shrieked, spit flying from his mouth.
With a simultaneous roar, the other bandits rushed at me, their weapons raised. The nearest one carried my sword. I dodged his badly aimed swipe and slashed at the hand that held it. He moved faster than I’d expected.
Instead of me wounding him, he managed to slash through the leather of my glove and deep into my flesh. I hissed through my teeth, trying not to focus on the pain as I used the man’s moment of victory against him. I twisted the hilt out of his hand into mine, and when I hit his temple, he dropped like a fly.
I started to turn toward the others, but before I could face them fully, something sharp plunged into my back. I cried out, faltering momentarily.
The bandits didn’t hesitate once I was weakened. One punched me in the nose while another kicked me to the ground. Blood seeped out of my mouth, but the kicks kept coming until black spots clouded my vision.
“NO!” came a sudden, furious shout. There was a click and the whistle of an arrow before it embedded itself in flesh with a thud. A howl sounded, and one of the bandits fell to the ground next to me. His body twisted away at an odd angle so that I could see the thick arrow shaft sticking out of his back.
There were more running footsteps and then the sound of ringing steel. Most of the bandits knew to run away, shifting into various forms—a squirrel, a warthog, a cat—but one bandit foolishly tried to get the pendant out of my hand.