by M. D. Laird
“I need more arrows,” she called to her guards who filled her quiver within seconds. Her guard maintained their position. They were ready to tear at anyone who came close and poised to swipe away at any arrows aimed her way. She briefly focussed on the events around her. The angels slashed at the enemy with their blades, the demons with their claws, the thorian and hominem with their swords, and the fae fired their spells. The alliance were outmatching the Elion. They were losing numbers, but the Elion could not win. To her left Eve saw some of the thorian and hominem fall to one particularly brutal Elion—she fired an arrow through his heart. She was about to reach for another arrow when she heard her guards yell something from behind her. Captain Leliel whipped his head and stared right at her but right through her.
“What happened?” he screamed. “Where did she go?”
“What are you talking about?” Eve asked puzzled and looking around at her guards’ panicked faces.
A cruel laugh came from in front of her and a woman—a witch—strode through her guards as though they were not there. She wore a confident, arrogant expression and tossed her hair over her shoulder to reveal a face that might have been pretty if not for the cruel smile spreading across it.
“A neat trick isn’t it?” she said. “I believe the alchemists tried something similar on you before, but we have perfected it. Your guards don’t even know we are here.”
The witch laughed again, and the battle scene, her people and her guards faded, and she was facing an empty plane—empty except for an army of witches and three alchemists. She was facing the Alchitch, and she was alone.
“What do you want?” asked Eve, dismounting Aethon and sending him towards the planes. She had heard how easily the Alchitch had killed animals and could not bear them killing her horse.
“Come now,” said the witch. “Let’s not plead ignorance. You know what we want.”
“What did you do to Calab?”
“We did to him what we told you we would do if you didn’t turn up,” she said, smiling sweetly. “We didn’t let him live.”
Eve swallowed hard. She had known from their note that they had killed him, but it still hurt to hear it confirmed. Rage boiled through her as she stared at the face of the evil witch. The witch who had murdered the man she loved. She forced back the tears. They would do her no good. “Where is his body?” she asked calmly.
“We don’t have it,” the witch replied coolly. “He is a pile of dust now. We could have kept the sweepings, but they had blown away before any of us considered it—scattered to the winds—sorry.” She did not look sorry at all, and she glared menacingly at Eve. “Are you going to surrender your Crown?”
“Why would I do that?” Eve asked.
“Because we will torture you until you do,” said the witch simply.
“I won’t give in. I will slit my own throat before I do,” Eve responded, emulating the witch’s calm tone.
“Then we will go for the next Crown who will hopefully not be as stubborn as you. We have all the advantages. We can’t lose. You and your people do not stand a chance against our magic.”
“Your magic?” Eve mocked to play for time. “It’s not your magic, it doesn’t belong to you.”
“And what do you know of our magic?”
“Plenty. It isn’t yours.”
“And whose is it?”
Eve smiled. “You know who it belongs to and you know they want it.” Something flickered in the witch, some nervous twitch. Eve had no idea if what she was saying was right, but she continued anyway and tried to sound convincing. “Using this magic comes at a price. There will be…consequences.”
“What consequences?” the witch said. Eve gave the evilest smile she could muster and chuckled loudly. The witch snarled. “You risk the lives of all of the alliance by not releasing the Crown.”
“Really?” Eve sneered. “Is that why you’re hiding under this Cloak? Because you’re so fearsome, you can face the whole of the Crown Alliance. And what of the Elion? Are they just sacrifices? Were they getting in the way? Have you used the alliance to clean up your mess for you? To remove the order with a claim on the Crown so you can put your false one on it?”
“Aren’t you clever?” The witch smirked. “Yes, we are using your filthy alliance to rid us of the thorian scum, but we are here and Cloaked because we are merciful. We will annihilate your people if we have to, but we’d rather you just give us the Crown and save some of their lives. If you do it quickly, we can call off the Elion and save some of their lives as well.”
“Their lives would not be saved in your hands.”
“Well,” said the witch slyly, “if you won’t give up the Crown to save your people. How about to save Calab?”
Eve felt her breath had been knocked from her at the witch’s words.
Calab is alive.
She wanted to scream, but she smothered her reaction with everything she had. “You will never have the Crown,” she said calmly.
“Release the demon,” said the witch. Another witch gave a signal to the mountainside and Eve saw a figure swing out onto the mountain and struggle. It was Calab, and he was hanging! Eve raised the bow she was still holding and had strung an arrow within a second. The witch laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous. No one can make that shot.”
“I am not ‘no one’.” Eve snarled. It was a ridiculous distance and even with her thorian vision, she could barely even see the rope. She let the arrow fly. It was a clean shot, and Calab fell—his wings bound somehow. She hoped he would be okay and turned her attention to the witch.
“Well.” The witch giggled. “You’re not quite the pushover we imagined, but no matter. You are still powerless against us.”
Eve stared into the eyes of the witch. They kidnapped Calab, let her believe he was dead and then they hung him, he may well be dead, that fall may have killed him. They went after Calab—after the man she loved—and they want to kill her people. Anger filled her, she wanted to leap onto the witch and tear her arrogant smirk from her face. “What do you want?”
“We want the Crown.”
“Why?”
“Because we want to rule.”
“Why do you want to rule? What do you want to rule?”
“Arkazatinia and all the scum within it.”
“To what end? Have you even thought this through? Do you even know what you want?”
“Of course, we do.”
“What is it?”
“Why do you want to rule?” asked the witch.
“I was chosen,” replied Eve. “Chosen by Arkazatinia to serve its people.”
“You will give it up,” said the witch. “When we torture you, when we torture Calab you’ll gladly rid yourself of the Crown.” She knew what would come. She had faced their torture before. She could not give in. She could not abandon the Arkazatines and leave them to these people. People who sacrificed an entire order because they were in the way and murdered innocent fae to make a point.… Keeping the enemy from the Crown will be a great feat, you need to do nothing more, Jacob had said.
“No,” said Eve, “I’m not giving up the Crown. I offer you a compromise. Tell me what you want. Is it land, money, a voice in the quorum? Tell me what it is, and we can work something out.”
The witch laughed. “We don’t need to compromise. We can take whatever we want.”
That was the only card Eve had to play, and they had laughed in her face, but it did not matter because suddenly she knew. She had offered them allegiance in the face of adversity, and she knew. She knew what the prophecy was and she knew what she had to do. Her head whipped towards the mountain as she heard a shout and saw Calab running towards her. He was severely injured, appeared to be wrapped in chains and could barely stand, but he still came.
The witch laughed. “You want this demon, Queen?” she said. “Turn over the Crown.”
“Never!”
The witch turned to Calab, and he fel
l to the ground writhing in agony, he tried to pull himself to his feet. His body contorted and Eve heard his bones snap.
“Stop it,” screamed Eve, the cry boomed throughout the mountain and the witch, startled by Eve, ceased to torture Calab. She had not only been disturbed by the noise of her scream but by something more, something that resonated around them.
Captain Leliel and his brothers had looked frantically through the armies in a desperate bid to find the queen, but she was gone. Just like the day on the mountain, she had disappeared though this time he could not even sense her. Only the Queen’s Guard were aware of the queen’s disappearance, and the alliance had continued to fight the Elion.
The Elion numbers were depleting rapidly as the alliance advanced on them. Many had seen the dead at their feet and had surrendered. They were held in chains as the queen had commanded. The battle was ending. With the Eurasian and Laurasian armies attacking them from both sides the Elion knew they were defeated and had been abandoned by the Alchitch who had done nothing to aid them. A few fought stubbornly preferring death to relinquishing the claim to the Crown, but most dropped to their knees and surrendered.
The alliance were beginning to chain up the rest of the prisoners when a tremendous scream blasted through the mountain and caused everyone to freeze in terror. The captain knew it was the queen. He had heard her scream through the Cloak the last time, but it was nothing like this, and this time, the Cloak was more powerful, and the scream was so intense the ground trembled. He pleaded desperately.
What are they doing to her? Where is she?
“That magic is not yours,” Eve said slowly. “You have no right to use it.”
“You can’t stop us.” The witch snarled.
“Yes I can,” continued Eve, stalking slowly towards the witch.
“How?” asked the witch, stepping backwards but keeping her voice confident.
Eve glared into her eyes and widened her grin in an attempt to look frightening. “Because it’s mine.” She snarled. “And I am taking it.”
The witch stepped back again, and her confidence faltered momentarily. Regaining her composure, she turned to fire a spell at Calab. Eve raised her hands, and the spell bounced off a shield that had formed around Calab’s crumpled body. The Alchitch gasped, and the witch stumbled and tried to use the magic on Eve.
Eve laughed when nothing happened. “You don’t have it anymore,” she said. “It’s mine, and I have it.”
The witch screamed, pulled a sword from her belt and lunged. Eve had dropped her bow, unsheathed her blade, and focussing her magic on keeping the shield around Calab, she parried the witch’s blow. The witch was fast. The magic coursed through Eve’s veins and fired every neuron, but the shield drained her. It was human adrenaline that seared through her, and she met every blow. The witch was skilled with her sword and forced Eve to fight defensively as she rained blows down upon her. Eve tried to counter her blows, but the witch was too fast, too strong. Eve could not get inside her defences. Her forearms burned as the witch’s sword crashed heavily on her own.
The witch grinned at her. “You’re not good enough sweetie,” she said slyly. “Give up now.”
Panic soared through Eve. She did not know how much longer she could hold the shield. They were going to die. She was going to fail. The witch slashed her sword across Eve’s stomach and caught the under edge of her armour. She felt the sting and the warmth as her blood began to gush from the wound and soaked her shirt. She wanted to vomit from the pain.
NO! She screamed inwardly. She had not come this far to die and fail everyone. Trying to ignore the pain and the blood, she lunged and struck. The witch parried her blow with ease and sent Eve stumbling backwards. She was out of her depth. She was just not good enough.
Anger surged through her, and she charged for the witch striking her hard. The witch countered her blow and Eve met it. The witch tried to force her backwards. Remembering her training with Calab, Eve feigned a stumble, pivoted to catch her off guard, and whipped her sword around inside the witch’s defences.
Eve pressed the point of her sword to the witch’s throat. Delight coursed through her though she remained composed. “Go home. Leave and don’t bother us again.”
“You think we’ll run that easily?” The witch giggled. Eve felt the point of a blade press against her own throat. Another witch had approached her as she was lost in the duel. “You’ll bleed out in minutes.”
It was true. If she did not die by the sword trained on her throat, she would bleed to death from the wound to her stomach. There was nothing she could do. No one could help her. Keeping her sword poised at the witch’s throat and the shield tightly around Calab, she willed her magic to stop the bleeding. Nothing happened at first, but slowly she felt some of the power trickle towards the wound to slow the bleeding until she felt the skin knit together. The magic had exhausted her. How much longer could she hold the shield?
“So, you stopped the bleeding. You’re still no better off. You have a choice. You can kill me, but my comrade will kill you. You can use magic against us, but you are new to the practice and cannot even hope to control it. Use magic against us and your shield will drop, then your precious demon will die. It’s your choice: save yourself and your people and watch your love die, or you can save your demon, and all of your people will perish. Or you can still surrender.”
How can I make that choice? I can’t let Calab or my people die.
Eve held the sword firmly to the witch’s throat and maintained her hold on the shield. As the vox team had said, it was draining. “You can’t kill me. You need me alive to take the Crown, or another will rise up in my place. You can’t take it with force either, you need me to surrender it willingly so you can bind with it.”
“And surrender you will when we have finished torturing you and those you love,” said the witch, a wicked smile spreading across her lips.
“You do realise you are being manipulated don’t you?” asked Eve. “The alchemists have curiously allied themselves with three different orders in recent years. All have designs on the Crown.”
“We are far more powerful than the alchemists,” said the witch. “You shouldn’t believe the hype.”
“I don’t. I have seen for myself what fear a rumour can create. However, they are excellent at manipulating people without them even realising it. They do not intend to allow you to have the Crown. They are using you to get it for them. When the time comes for the Crown to be bound, it will be bound to the alchemists.”
“Do you expect us to believe this? That we can be easily controlled by some old men with a few potions and a magic stick.”
“Yes.” Eve smiled. “You were pervious to their influence because you make the mistake of underestimating them. There have been incredibly powerful alchemists through time, but most have only limited powers to manipulate matter. But they can also manipulate consciousness. It occurred to me a few weeks ago when we met with the light alchemists to discuss adding shields to the vox software.
“The light alchemists use the manipulation of the consciousness to have Lycean people see and hear what the vox user wants them to. The dark alchemists also have this ability though they should still only affect people of Lycea.” The witch looked unmoved, but Eve continued loudly so all could hear. “We knew that the alchemist who controlled the Imperator had him under some influence, but we did not know how.
“The key is the magic. The alchemists have found the magic, and though they cannot use it, they can enhance their own powers, and they manipulated the Impærielas custodian into forming the Imperium. Then they had the Elion ruler aid him using their rage against the Crown as a catalyst. They also released vexed souls from their limbo to get them to retrieve my soul for them. Their plans ultimately failed. I had messed up the alchemists’ plans by allying with the fae. The alchemists needed a new tool, one that can take on the fae and wield the magic and who better than their old friends the witches.
“You see, we are all just pawns. The alchemists have been using you to get the Crown. They gave you an ancient magic, but they did not tell you that you couldn’t keep it. They will remove it from you after they remove the Crown from me, despite the huge sacrifice you have made.” The witch’s eyes flared with hatred towards Eve at her last line and Eve risked a glance at the alchemists who were flanking the witches. They had not faltered though the witches now eyed them with suspicion. “Ally with the Crown instead.”
The witch laughed. “Why would we do that?”
“What do you want? I offer you a compromise.”
The witch laughed again. “We will never compromise with you, we would rather die.”
“I will not let you kill my people.”
“You talk a good game, human, but you’re still outnumbered. Your people will never find you in here. The magic won’t last long. Your shield will fail. We’ll kill your demon and then you’ll have nothing left to fight for.”
“I have my entire kingdom to fight for.” Eve breathed deeply and hoped she could find the strength in her weakening body to throw up two shields. She could not lose Calab again. She looked deep inside her and willed for the strength, and drawing every inch of magic from her veins, she threw it out into another shield. The second covering her completely except for her sword which was still aimed at the witch. It worked, but it was sapping her strength fast. She had to finish this.