A King of Shadow

by Bella Forrest

  If Tejus could shut off his emotions and get on with the job, then so could I.

  Benedict

  As soon as Hazel left, Yelena came into my room looking sheepish.

  “Sorry,” she muttered. “But you did say that you would tell her everything.”

  “She was already worried out of her mind, and now Ruby and Ash can’t get in the castle, Tejus was going mental about the stone—which I’ve lost somehow…it just seemed like a bad time,” I replied defensively.

  “What do you mean you lost it? Is this the stone that Hazel gave you to look after?” Yelena asked.

  I had told Yelena all about the stones, the ones in the creepy secret corridor and the one that Hazel had given me…which had looked very similar.

  “Yeah,” I replied quietly. “I’m not sure what I’ve done with it.”

  Yelena fiddled with the corner of the bedspread.

  “Benedict, is it possible that in these…blackouts you keep having, you left it somewhere?”

  “That’s what I’ve been thinking,” I replied despondently. “I have flashes of memories – like holding the stone out in my hand, seeing it glow or whatever in front of me on some weird table in the Viking Graveyard, but also seeing more stones in the castle, in a tower – I don’t really know everywhere that I’ve been…and I don’t even really know where the graveyard is!”

  “Did you tell Hazel that?” she asked.

  I shook my head.

  “I didn’t want to worry her. I don’t want her to know about this…stuff. Not until we find a way to fix it.”

  She thought about what I was saying for a few moments, then turned to me.

  “Maybe the stone won’t be that hard to find. Maybe when I follow you tonight, you’ll lead me right to it?”

  “Maybe,” I replied. I didn’t feel as optimistic about it as she did. “Are you still prepared to do that?”

  “To follow you? Yeah. I am. Something bad is going on here, and I guess it’s up to us to get to the bottom of it—especially since Ruby and Ash aren’t here anymore, and there’s another stupid border up.”

  As frightened as Yelena was, I could detect a hint of excitement in her voice. I would have been the same in her position, but I needed to warn her that it wasn’t the right response. When I was in those ‘blackouts,’ as she’d called them, I wasn’t in control of myself. Anything could happen—and none of it good.

  “Be careful,” I warned her. “Remember to follow me only at a distance. Don’t interrupt me or approach me, okay? And if I start…hurting anyone – or anything like that, just knock me out, all right? Take one of the swords with you.”

  She stared at me solemnly. “I promise that I will, and I’ll be careful.”

  I nodded, knowing that she wasn’t taking my warning as seriously as she should be. But I didn’t know what else to say, and I was desperate enough not to try to scare her off the idea.

  “Well, I guess we just wait. It shouldn’t take me too long to drop off.” I could already feel my eyelids starting to droop.

  “Okay. I got some weird drink off Jenney earlier—she said it was a sentry version of coffee. It tasted gross, but I feel wired.”

  I nodded, but Yelena always seemed pretty hyper to me. I couldn’t really tell the difference.

  “Should I wait outside?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” I agreed. So far I hadn’t tried to jump out of any windows, so I assumed that I’d be safe on that front.

  “I could stay in here though?” she continued. “Watch you while you sleep—see if you say anything?”

  No, thanks.

  “Um…I don’t think that’s going to help me fall asleep,” I replied. “It’s better if you wait outside.”

  “Okay!” She leapt up off the bed. “See you in a bit.”

  “Just remember what I—”

  “I know, I’ll be careful.”

  Yelena left the room, leaving the door open. I rolled my eyes.

  “Yelena, can you shut the door?” I yelled.

  “Okay, okay!” She darted back and closed it firmly.

  “Thanks,” I called out.

  I made myself comfortable in my bed, glad that I wasn’t going to have to do this alone, but it didn’t mean I wasn’t any less terrified about what might lie ahead.

  Here again?

  The bright lights of the stone wall danced in front of me. They seemed to flicker more brightly than I’d ever seen them before—in a way, the stones looked as if they were happy, like little sprites twinkling and dancing for me.

  There was a dull pain in my left hand, and my palm felt damp. When I looked down at it, I realized that my hand was bleeding profusely. What the hell had happened there? I didn’t remember cutting it or anything, but there was a bright red gash carved deep into my skin.

  I looked at it for a moment, and then lowered my hand back down to my side.

  It wasn’t as important as the stones—it didn’t really matter.

  Hypnotized, I stared at the wall, trying to discern a pattern, but as soon as I thought I was following one, it would change and I would become even more transfixed—drawn even further into their mystery, their power and the deep, strong magic that they held.

  The patterns seemed to be drawing me to one stone in particular. It was a bright, brilliant, pink stone, almost neon in color. While I watched, it started to vibrate just as I’d seen the other one do. Soon it had wormed its way out of its socket and dropped on the floor with a sharp clang. I watched as the stone moved across the floor toward me, rolling over, again and again, till it touched the tip of my shoe.

  Pick up the stone, Benedict. The whispering started again, and my body went cold with fear.

  Pick up the stone…once you get the stones this will all be over…

  I tried to fight the impulse to reach down and pick up the waiting stone. I fought it with every bone and muscle in my body. It wasn’t enough.

  I bent down, and my fingers brushed its bright surface. It was warm to the touch, as if the energy inside it was alive—pulsing through to my hand, driving me to curl my fingers around it, carrying it safely in the palm of my hand.

  I stood upright, knowing that I wasn’t done yet—the voices still wanted something from me. I placed the stone in my pocket, its presence almost feeling reassuring. On some level, it felt good to be close to that much power again.

  While I stood motionless, waiting, the wall started to move. It slowly grated on its axis, just like it had done the night before. Ahead was the dark corridor that would lead me to the Viking graveyard.

  No! Please not there again! I called out to the voices.

  But you must, Benedict. You must.

  One foot moved in front of the other, and I crouched down to get through the narrow opening. My skin was drenched with sweat, and it kept falling into my eyes, blurring the tunnel in front of me.

  I kept walking along, my fingers brushing the damp stone, the only way I could guide myself. The door shut behind me, and when it did, the hold of the voices seemed to lessen momentarily, and I became more aware of what I was doing. There was something I needed to remember…something good in all this—something that was going to save me, but I couldn’t quite remember what it was…

  Yelena.

  Something she was doing…what was it?

  I couldn’t remember, and soon I was lost in the depths of my own fear again—an endless trudge through a black tar of horror that seemed like it would never end, that I would be stuck, frozen in the darkest place in my mind, forever.

  Hazel

  Every time thoughts of Tejus came rushing up to meet me, I tried to shove them back down, locking them away so they wouldn’t drag me down into a more depressed and morose state than I already was. I had been looking through the books for hours, and now the text was swimming before my eyes as I fought back tiredness. I’d found nothing even close to helpful, just a bunch of boring records of ministers’ meetings, usually on the topic of dividing up land and ensuri
ng that they had enough grain supplies for winter. Seriously dry stuff.

  If I’d had more stimulating reading material, I felt like my plan to block out all things Tejus-related would have worked a whole lot better, but as it was, the price of a century-old ton of grain wasn’t really doing the job.

  I couldn’t concentrate.

  It was all too frustrating.

  Maybe if I’d had a better idea of what was going through his mind, I’d be able to put all this behind me…or at least be able to understand the situation. From what I could make out, Tejus did have feelings for me but wasn’t willing to admit them, which made the entire thing more frustrating. Or maybe he couldn’t admit them for some reason. Is he promised to someone else? I wondered. It hadn’t occurred to me before, as I’d never noticed any other women around Tejus—other than Queen Trina, and that was obviously over—but he was a royal. Perhaps his father had arranged for him to marry a princess in some other kingdom?

  It was one theory, but it didn’t explain some of what he’d said to me. What had he meant about the price being too high? That didn’t fit with my theory…unless if anyone found out he’d be in trouble. That did seem likely. If any of the other kings were as odious as Tejus' father, I could imagine his head being on the chopping block if he wasn’t faithful to Hellswan’s traditions.

  Or…

  I was making up stupid stories. I needed to actually talk to Tejus, to find out what was truly going on, rather than to continually try to second-guess him. Though having an honest conversation with Tejus didn’t seem to ever be an easy task.

  I was starting to reopen yet another weighty tome when the door to Tejus' room swung open, bashing against the wall behind it. I jumped up, startled, and spun around to see Yelena standing in the doorway, bent double and gasping for breath.

  “What’s the matter?” I rushed forward, hoping to see Benedict behind her. When he wasn’t, my heart skipped a beat.

  “It’s B-Benedict,” she gasped out. “You’ve got to come!”

  “Where is he?”

  She couldn’t speak, just gestured for me to follow her and took off at a run. I kept pace with her easily, not daring to ask what was wrong or where my brother was. As Yelena speedily navigated the hallways, desolate rooms and corridors of the castle, I was stuck in my own private nightmare, my imagination flitting from one horrific scenario to the next, always coming back to the image from the gruesome fairytale of the young boy holding the stone, gently swaying from the rafters.

  Get a grip! I commanded myself. I was getting close to hysterical and it was the last thing that anyone needed, especially if Benedict was in trouble.

  Yelena came to an abrupt halt at the start of one of the corridors. She took a moment to catch her breath, and then slowly started to walk to the other end.

  “It’s this.” She pointed to one of the walls.

  Written in the brown-red pigment of already drying blood, a sentence had been scrawled across the wall in large, jagged lettering. It read:

  “To follow me is death. But I shall come. I shall come back to claim you.”

  “Who wrote this?” I gasped. “What’s it got to do with Benedict?”

  She glanced at me, and then returned her gaze back to the wall.

  “He did,” she replied in a hollow voice.

  What?!

  My body stiffened suddenly, and I placed my hands across my stomach. I felt physically ill.

  “Yesterday, before he went off to the forest, he told me that he had been sleepwalking—all over the castle, outside, everywhere. He had been hearing voices, but other than that he couldn’t remember what happened while he was sleepwalking, only the whispers and the stones—bright, gleaming stones that he said were calling to him.

  “I said I would follow him, and we’d find out what was going on, where he was going…maybe also find the stone that you gave him, the one he lost. I’d followed him before, but it had always freaked me out, so I’d run back to the room. But I promised him I’d follow him this time.” She looked at me with desperate, pleading eyes. “I promised him! And so I did. When he came here, he cut his own hand with a dagger—I don’t even know where he got it from—and started to write on the wall. I started trying to speak to him, to tell him to st-t-top…”

  Yelena broke down into sobs, and I held her tightly, feeling my heart thud in my chest with fear.

  “What happened next, Yelena?” I coaxed the girl gently, trying to repress the urge to scream.

  “He didn’t stop. He just stared at me, but not really seeing me, you know? Then he walked down here.”

  Yelena untangled herself from my arms, but took my hand and walked forward, leading me further down the hallway to what first appeared to be a dead end. Yelena pointed to a wooden closet door on the right-hand side of the wall.

  “He went in there, and I tried to follow him, but I couldn’t. I broke my promise.”

  Her face was a mask of utter misery, and as frightened as I was for my brother, I needed to comfort the girl who had tried to save him.

  “Yelena, i-it’s okay. You were afraid. Anyone would be.”

  “No!” she cried. “It’s not that. You don’t understand. I can’t follow him—the corridor is blocked, by some sort of boundary. I can’t get in…only he seems to be able to.”

  “What do you mean? Like a sentry boundary?” I asked, opening the door. I could see nothing ahead but pitch black, and my fear for my brother reached levels of hysteria.

  “Yes, try it,” Yelena replied. “You can’t go further than a certain point.”

  “Wait here.”

  I walked over to one of the flaming torches and grabbed it from the wall. Holding it aloft, I stepped into the small corridor, ducking my head as I travelled along its narrow passage. Yelena was right. When I reached a certain point, the space in front of me seemed to form an elastic barrier—I could feel it stretch like a rubber band as I tried to move past it, but no matter how hard I tried, it would not give.

  “Benedict!” I called out into the passage. “BENEDICT!”

  Only my own echo greeted me, sounding like it was taunting me for my vain efforts to reach my brother. I wondered what the hell this passage was. Where did it lead to? It looked like an endless tunnel, with no lights in the distance, just nothing but an empty void of space. How would my brother have felt walking down here, all alone? I felt sick just thinking about it.

  “Yelena?” I called out, making my way back.

  “I’m here!” she shouted.

  I came to the entrance, and peered out into the light of the hallway.

  “Do you know where the library is?” I asked.

  “Um…yeah, I do.”

  “Tejus is there. Will you go and get him? Say I need him to come right away.”

  “O-Okay!”

  I watched her run down the hallway, and then I marched up to the other end and back again, collecting all the torches that I could manage to hold. I laid them down in the narrow corridor, not able to leave Benedict while he was down there, and desperately wanting light to mark his way home. Who knew how long that passage would be? Or if it veered off in different directions?

  Sweat was pouring down my back when I finished. The hallway was in near darkness, but the others that led from it provided just enough light to see the writing on the wall that Benedict had left.

  My brother did that?

  I couldn’t believe it. It might have been him physically, but it sounded like my brother’s mind had been taken over completely. I didn’t know what on earth had done such a thing, but I knew that I had helped it. Yelena’s mention of the stones made me believe that somehow Benedict was connected to the entity, to the hidden locks, and I had given Benedict the key to making that connection possible…

  I sat waiting in the passage by the barrier, looking off into the black nothingness ahead. I wanted him to come back. I wanted the words on the wall to be true. I shall come back to claim you. I didn’t care what he came back for—as
long as he came back.

  Hazel

  “Hazel?”

  I heard my name being barked from the end of the corridor by a familiar voice. I had sat down on the cold stone floor while I watched and waited for Benedict to return, but now I stumbled to my feet, running along the passageway.

  “Tejus?” I called, fumbling out of the closet door and tripping over into the hallway.

  He grabbed me in his arms, holding me tight against his chest as I sobbed. In that moment, I didn’t care about us. I didn’t care what we were, or what we might never be—I just wanted the comfort that, in the absence of my brother, only he could bring me.

  “It’s all right,” he murmured against the top of my head. “It’s going to be all right.”

  I didn’t believe him. My brother might come back as he’d promised—but would he be coming back as Benedict, or something else? It felt like the only thing that was keeping me together was Tejus’s arms and his solid, safe presence… a complete change from the last few hours, where I’d thought that he was the one breaking me apart.

  Gently he released me, letting me step back a little, but still within the confines of his embrace.

  “You need to tell me what happened,” he commanded gently.

  I looked over at Yelena, and she nodded. I wiped the tears away from my eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath. I told him everything that had happened, Yelena filling in the details. Hearing it again, in the form of a cold, factual account for the sake of Tejus, nearly sent me over the edge. Somehow it sounded worse, like it wasn’t my brother that we were talking about, but some strange, evil creature—a mindless thing. I showed him the writing on the wall, and Tejus looked at it, his face carefully expressionless as he acknowledged the threat contained within them.

  The entire time we were explaining, he remained touching me in some way—taking my hand, or holding his palm lightly against the small of my back. It helped me feel less alone.