A King of Shadow

by Bella Forrest

  “We’re actually looking for a friend of ours—a human. Dark hair, brown eyes. He would have perhaps come this way after the trials. Have you seen anything?” Ash asked.

  The woman looked worried. “No, I haven’t. I’m sorry. Why would he leave the castle on his own? It’s dangerous for a human. Times like these…” She trailed off into silence.

  “We don’t really know,” I replied. “We think he got impatient waiting for the borders to come down, and wanted to find a break in the barriers himself.”

  “Ah.” She nodded. “The barriers. Of course.” She looked perturbed for a few moments, but before I could press her on why, she beamed at us again. “I’m sorry I can’t help, but I will keep an eye out. I hope you find your friend.”

  I felt that she genuinely meant it, and aside from Ash and Jenney, Abelle was the first sentry I’d instantly warmed to.

  She turned to look at me, her bright eyes boring into mine, as if searching for the answer to some unspoken question. Seeming satisfied with what she saw, she abruptly broke the connection and turned to Ash. I felt a bit woozy, and wondered if Abelle had performed some ultra-light mind-meld on me…

  “Ash, why don’t you and Benedict fetch some of the bread I baked last night? It’s in the pantry, you know the way. I made too much. You can take it back with you.”

  Ash looked momentarily confused, but he nodded. “Thanks… um, come on, Benedict.”

  The two of them left the room, Ash leading the way to the pantry.

  “What did you just do to me?” I asked once they were out of earshot.

  “Sorry,” she replied in a whisper, sounding sincere. “It's just a little energy check—people’s energy can sort of be read, if you know what to look for. Please understand, Ash is like a son to me. And I’m worried about him…and what he’s going to do next.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “I saw Queen Trina at the trials, rooting for him…and it was good that she did, but it was also unusual. There are rumors about the queen, some unsavory enough for me to worry.” She paused, trying to choose her words carefully. “I could be completely wrong—really, take everything I say with a pinch of salt—but will you watch out for Ash? Especially if the queen reappears on the scene…” She trailed off as we heard footsteps ascending the staircase.

  “Of course,” I reassured her.

  Ash and Benedict reappeared empty-handed.

  “Abelle, I’m really sorry. I couldn’t find anything,” Ash announced.

  “Couldn’t you?” Abelle feigned surprise. “Maybe I gave it all away already—I’m so sorry.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” replied Ash with a dawning suspicion. He turned to me, but I kept my expression as innocent as possible.

  We left her house soon after, with Abelle’s warning still ringing in my ears. I had been so pleased by Queen Trina’s support of Ash I’d never thought to question it other than assuming that she clearly had a dislike of Tejus…but in Nevertide, hating a Hellswan seemed to be practically a birthright. I’d never stopped to think that Queen Trina might have other, more sinister, motives.

  We walked back the way we’d come, all of us a little downhearted that we’d been unable to discover anything of use. The winds hadn’t let up, and if anything seemed to be increasing in their intensity.

  As we passed a crumbling barn near the old man’s house, I paused. It could have been the wind, but I could have sworn that I could hear someone crying from within. I tugged on Ash’s hand, nodding toward the barn. All three of us were silent, and the distinct sound of wailing carried across the wind.

  We tentatively approached the barn, and I knocked on the broken door.

  “Hello?” I called out. “Is someone there?”

  No reply. I looked at Ash and Benedict, and we crossed the threshold.

  It was gloomy in the barn, but soon my eyes adjusted and I could see a small boy on the hay-strewn floor, crying over the body of a slain goat-like creature, with four horns instead of two and six legs instead of four.

  “Are you okay?” I rushed over to the boy, placing my hands on his shoulders. He turned his tear-stained and dirty face up toward me.

  “He’s dead!” the boy cried. “He was my friend, and someone killed him.” He continued to cry with heart-wrenching sobs, and I looked helplessly back at Ash and Benedict. Ash shrugged awkwardly. But Benedict was staring at the wall, his eyes bulging. I followed his gaze, and my stomach lurched.

  On the wall a crude shape had been drawn in what I assumed was the goat’s blood. Its lines were sharp, vicious-looking, as if the shape was meant to strike fear in the heart of its observer. I didn’t know what it meant, and had never seen anything like it before; the image depicted an upside-down triangle with a thick line struck through the middle of it, and entwined round that line was another, like a snake. At the bottom of the thick line there was a semi-circle with dashes rising from it—a sunset, perhaps.

  “Have you seen this before?” I breathed to Ash.

  “Never.”

  “Is it a…rune or something?”

  “No idea,” he replied quietly.

  I looked over at Benedict, who hadn’t taken his eyes off the shape on the wall. He looked absolutely terrified, and I racked my brains to think of something to say that might calm him.

  “You know, everyone round here is really displeased that Tejus won the trials…it’s probably just some medieval vandalism,” I said, shrugging it off.

  “Did you see who did this?” Ash asked the boy, but he just shook his head and continued to cry into the fur of the dead animal.

  “Does the sign mean anything to you?” I asked, more gently.

  He shook his head again. “I don’t know what that is, but I know it’s…evil!” he burst out.

  Benedict looked even more terrified at the boy’s assessment, so I reached for his hand, pulling him out of the barn.

  “Ash, we need to go, come on.”

  I felt sorry for the crying boy, but there was nothing more we could do—and my priority was Benedict. It looked like today had been too much for him: first the old man yelling at him about strange whispers and evil omens, and now dead goats and blood splashed on crumbling barns. And I had been warned about Queen Trina getting too close to Ash. Just when I’d thought Nevertide couldn’t get any stranger, it managed once again to prove me wrong.

  I couldn’t wait to get out of here.

  Wherever you are, Mom and Dad… please hurry up and find us.

  Hazel

  I sat in the ministers’ office for a while, digesting what I’d heard. None of it made sense to me—the mysterious ‘entity’, the stones locked away in the depths of the castle, or the fact that it had all been kept a secret from the people of Nevertide, for the emperor only to know…and I wondered how much Tejus’s father had known, if the ministers were so vague on the matter. But perhaps this was all revealed in the mysterious book Qentos had spoken about.

  When my head stopped spinning, I left the office with a dull headache, but determined to tell the others what I’d heard. Maybe together we could make better sense of the ministers’ discussion. It was also imperative that I got the stone off Benedict—if it was one of the stones that controlled the power of the entity, then I certainly didn’t want it anywhere near my brother.

  Cautiously, I opened the door of the ministers’ office, and, seeing that the coast was clear, I let myself out and quietly shut the door behind me. I hurried along the empty hallways till I entered the human quarters.

  Two guards were stationed outside, but they waved me through.

  Ruby and Ash were sitting on the sofas with Jenney. Ruby waved me over, her face pale and drawn.

  “Is everything okay?” I asked, looking around at the deserted room. Normally it was full to the brim with kids. “Where is everyone?”

  “They’re all eating in the kitchen,” Ruby replied, smiling wryly. “It should give us at least an hour of peace and quiet.”

&nb
sp; “Is Benedict there too?” I wanted to speak to him about the stone in private, before I told the others about what I’d overheard.

  “No, he’s gone to bed already. We had a weird day. I think he took it quite hard.” Ruby proceeded to tell me about the villagers they’d met and the horrible rune-type image they’d seen on the wall of the barn.

  “That sounds awful,” I exhaled. Ruby was right. Things in Nevertide were getting stranger. “Will you draw me the image you saw?” I asked. “I want to see if Tejus recognizes it.”

  We found a pencil and paper in one of the old chests in the living quarters, and Ruby sketched out the image. It looked strange on paper, and I was glad that I’d not been the one to see it painted out in blood—no wonder Benedict had wanted to forget today in sleep.

  After I’d put the paper in my pocket, I told them what I’d overheard at the meeting, only leaving out the comments Tejus had made about wanting the humans out of here; Ruby would have been upset, and it served no purpose.

  “It sounds like a load of manure to me,” Ash commented when I’d finished. “Just another excuse from the ministers not to do the right thing and lower the borders…I’ve never even heard a mention of this ‘entity’. Don’t you think someone would know something about it if it were true?”

  “I don’t know,” I replied. “They sounded serious—and pretty scared.”

  “It’s so far-fetched,” Ruby countered. “If there was some…thing in the castle, some malevolent evil or whatever, don’t you think we’d have felt it by now?”

  I was getting frustrated with their refusal to take what I was saying seriously. I knew it sounded far-fetched, but if either of them had overheard what I had this afternoon, they would think twice before dismissing it out of hand. And it wasn’t like Ruby to act like this—she questioned everything always, but rarely dismissed something so easily.

  “I don’t know,” I sighed, “but don’t you think it’s a bit strange that the ministers can’t lower the borders at all? What other reason could they possibly have for keeping them up?”

  Ash laughed. “How about the Imperial trials? Don’t you think an entire room of humans would come in handy for Tejus when he competes for those? Remember the ministers here have a vested interest in Tejus becoming emperor—they’ll be wanting to remain in the seat of power. That’s why they don’t want the borders lowered, trust me.”

  “Ash has a point,” Ruby murmured. “I’d forgotten about the imperial trials. With none of us here to help Tejus, he might not be so successful.”

  Ash did have a point, but try as I might, I couldn’t forget the genuine underlying fear in the ministers’ voices as they’d revealed their inability to lower the borders. I couldn’t ignore that. I was also getting a bit annoyed that it seemed like it was Team Ruby and Ash, and neither of them seemed to be considering the possibility that it might all be true.

  Jenney had been quiet throughout the exchange, and I turned to her, hoping that she might have some insight.

  Jenney shrugged. “I’m sorry, Hazel. I don’t know what to think. I’ve never heard anything about secret stones hidden in the castle, or this entity, and I’ve lived here all my life—and you wouldn’t believe the stuff I’ve heard that I wasn’t meant to.”

  “It doesn’t mean we’ll give up,” Ruby added. “Maybe we can look into finding our own way through the borders. Maybe Julian was right all along.”

  “Maybe,” I agreed reluctantly.

  I wasn’t so sure it was just a case of getting through the borders now though…I felt like something big was about to hit Nevertide, and that all of us, Tejus and his ministers included, were ill equipped to deal with it.

  “I’m going back upstairs. I just need to fetch something from Benedict’s room first,” I muttered. Ruby nodded, and concern flittered across her features.

  “I’m fine,” I said. “I’m just tired. Tired of all of this, actually.”

  “Me too,” she agreed softly.

  I left them sitting on the sofas, and made my way to the room that Benedict and Julian had shared. My brother was curled up in the furthest corner of his bed, snoring. I deliberated about whether to wake him or not, but after the day he’d had, I eventually concluded that it was better for him to sleep it off.

  I found his clothes, draped over an easy chair, and started to rifle through the pockets of his jeans. I wasn’t in the habit of violating my brother’s privacy like this, but I figured he’d be fine with it once he heard what the ministers had been saying.

  Digging around in the pockets, I came up empty—not so much as an old candy wrapper.

  Perhaps he’s put it somewhere safe?

  I hoped so. It would be better than carrying it around with him. I would ask him in the morning where he’d put it and then deliver the stone to Tejus or put it back where Tejus had thought it was all along—in the crystal room that I’d slept in during my first nights at Hellswan.

  I left Benedict’s room, shutting the door behind me.

  “Did you find what you were looking for?” Ruby asked. She was waiting for me outside the room. The others had gone.

  “No, but it’s okay, I’ll get it in the morning.”

  Out of nowhere she enveloped me in a bear-hug. “I’m sorry about tonight. I guess I just find this place so confusing—I don’t know what to think anymore. Even stupid things like storms are making me nervous now. There just seems to be so much we don’t know.”

  “It’s fine,” I replied, my voice muffled by her shirt. “I know exactly how you feel. I’m going to do some digging anyway, see what I find… I’ll let you know if anything comes up.” I untangled myself from her embrace. I wanted to get to Tejus’s quarters to see if he was going to shed any light on the meeting today—if he told me anything at all.

  I said my goodbyes to Ruby, and then made my way along the hallways to the other end of the castle and back up the winding staircase. I wondered if Tejus would have come to the same conclusion that Ash had—he’d certainly sounded doubtful in the meeting. I wasn’t sure if the idea of everyone ignoring the ministers was a positive thing or not. If there was even a small chance that they were right, then we were all in danger. If this ‘entity’ was able to control something as powerful as a border surrounding an entire dimension, then who knew what else it was capable of?

  Hazel

  When I entered my living quarters, I found Tejus sitting on the floor, surrounded by old, large books. There were multiple volumes, most splayed out across the room, open on their spines—some written in runes, with gruesome-looking etchings.

  “Where have you been? I told you to stay here,” Tejus said as I approached, without looking up from the books.

  “I had to see Ash and Ruby. What are you doing?” I asked, swiftly changing the subject and taking out the image Ruby had given me of the rune.

  “Will you ever do as you are told?” he grunted at me, then, sighing in frustration, he responded to my question. “Research. On this castle and the histories of the kingdoms…most of it written by long-winded ministers who died centuries ago.”

  “Have you come across anything like this?” I asked, showing him the piece of paper.

  He took it from me, inspecting it with a furrowed brow.

  “No…” he murmured distractedly. “I don’t think so. Where did you find it?”

  “Ruby and Ash saw it smeared in blood on the wall of a barn – along with a dead goat.” I swallowed. Saying it out loud like that didn’t feel good.

  Tejus nodded slowly.

  “Right. I’ll see if I can find it. Perhaps in some of the older documents.” He studied the paper again, and then placed it on the floor in irritation, rubbing his temples.

  I leaned down to pick up a particularly tattered volume. I flicked through some of the pages, sending a plume of dust up into my face. I coughed, and stared down at an image of a sword, with small, cramped notes detailing its design.

  “Is this the sword of Hellswan?” I asked, peer
ing at the picture. I thought I recognized the ornate pommel.

  Tejus looked back up distractedly and glanced at the open page.

  “Yes, it’s been around for a while—but the blade keeps getting remade.”

  I flicked through the pages, but a lot of the text was meaningless to me, either too small to read at a glance, or in letters that didn’t make sense. It looked like a history of weaponry, which wasn’t of much interest.

  I placed the book back on the floor and pretended to look at the other volumes, while watching Tejus out of the corner of my eye. He looked agitated—the more he searched the books and then discarded them, the more frustrated he seemed to get. I wondered if he was looking for the emperor’s book, the one that no one else could read. I wondered what that actually meant—and surely only a spell could ensure something like that happened? Unless of course, it was more old sentry magic that I didn’t understand… like their True Sight and mind syphoning.

  Tejus kept moving his long hair out of his eyes, dragging his hands through it as if he wanted to yank it out in clumps. His jaw was set in a determined, grim line and though he seemed to be barely aware of my presence, I couldn’t help but feel a warm, queasy sensation in the pit of my stomach.

  My eyes were drawn to his hands as he ran his fingers over the pages. I remembered the pressure of his fingers digging into my back and arms, and the times he’d held me when I’d been afraid… I swallowed.

  What did I actually have in common with Tejus? How much did I even know about him other than what he’d told me about himself? And none of that was promising. I’m more selfish than you could ever imagine, he’d once said. He was cold, bordering on the heartless, and he had appalling taste in women if Queen Trina was anything to go by. I thought of Wes, the guy I’d met at Murkbeech Summer Camp, before his mind had been messed with by the sentries. He’d been open, warm and kind, and I’d noticed my attraction to him right away—the easy smile and welcoming conversation. That was the kind of guy I should have developed a crush on, that could have led somewhere satisfying. Continuing to foster feelings for the stony man sitting next to me only felt like a recipe for pain—more than I’d experienced already.