The Twin Princes

by J. M. Topp

  She blinked. He had a striking resemblance to—

  ‘What is this?’ she asked.

  ‘This is your brother. Say hello to Eymeg Artus Farnesse,’ said Yngerame, pulling Eymeg’s head up by the hair.

  ‘What the fuck?’ asked Eymeg, turning to Elymiah. ‘My sister?’

  ‘Eymeg? Why are you—?’ Then Elymiah understood. ‘You brought the Hallowed Masters straight to me. I have heard a lot about you, Eymeg, but to think you would betray me...’

  Eymeg turned his gaze away from her. The look of confusion was palpable on his rugged face. ‘The cursed knight…was Elymiah Farnesse?’ he whispered.

  One of the knights, at the behest of Yngerame, slammed the end of his halberd against the back of Eymeg’s leg, knocking him onto the ground. The knight slapped chains around his wrists.

  ‘You are not my prisoner, Eymeg,’ said Yngerame. ‘But I will not have you moving about Aivaterra freely anymore, witch or no.’

  ‘You said you would leave Jolien out of this,’ said Eymeg through clenched teeth.

  ‘Ah, and I intend to keep my promise,’ said Yngerame. ‘You, however, are henceforth banished from Aivaterra. You are never to set foot in my holy city ever again.’

  ‘You always were a fool, Eymeg,’ said Theodric with a curt glance.

  ‘Take him away,’ said Yngerame.

  The two Aivaterran knights grabbed Eymeg by his arms and pulled him out of the room. Two more knights entered the bedchamber and surrounded Elymiah with swords drawn. They seized the commandant and forced her to her knees, cutting the straps of her sleek metal arm and pulling the metallic appendage off. It fell with a loud clank onto the floor. Yngerame walked over to stand in front of her.

  ‘This time, I won’t let you out of my sight. I will make sure you suffer.’ He laughed. ‘The cursed have no other course but to suffer, and I, the Hallowed Master and mouthpiece of Oredmere, will bring you to justice!’

  Thunder roared outside the mountain castle.

  ‘Take her to my ship,’ said Yngerame. ‘All these daemon hunters are now prisoners of Aivaterra. They will aid with the rebuilding of our holy city and then swiftly be put to the sword.’

  ‘Stop!’ Elymiah’s shout drew everyone to a halt, even Yngerame. She began to laugh. ‘Why? What reason is there to do this? The daemon horde moves from Weserith. Aivaterra is mostly destroyed. What reason is there to hunt me down? Could you possibly be this foolish, Yngerame? Yeah, I would think so. You aren’t entirely human, are you? I wonder, could you be a daemon yourself?’

  Yngerame began to sweat visibly, but then he closed his eyes and shook his head. ‘You think to bait me to anger, Elymiah Farnesse?’

  ‘Bait you? Is that what you call telling the truth!?’

  ‘Silence her!’

  The knight to her left punched her stomach.

  ‘No!’ grunted Elymiah as the wind escaped her lungs. ‘Please, don’t do that.’

  ‘Leave her alone,’ said Theodric as blood trickled down the edges of his mouth.

  Yngerame frowned. ‘Get them out of my sight. The tides are rising, and Aivaterra awaits.’

  ELYMIAH, BOUND HAND and foot, sat in a steel cell exposed to the salty sea and air. The smell of burnt oil lingered in her nostrils. As soon as the ships had departed from the sandy beaches of Karagh Muín, the fires the Hallowed Masters had set engulfed the castle within the mountain. A smokestack rose into the air, marring the blue sky with an ashy grey colour. Elymiah’s clothes had been replaced with a soiled sackcloth dress. Though she had tried to hide her belly, the Hallowed Masters had quickly been informed of her pregnancy. She touched her stomach, feeling the child within her move ever so slightly.

  The prison ship had followed Yngerame’s warship through the straights and the rocky sandbars leading to the exit from the Isles of Brume. She looked to Snowfall Mount as it began to shrink in the distance. Her thoughts wandered to Coda.

  He might have heard of the infiltration of Aivaterrans by now, surely. He will rescue us. I know it.

  Elymiah had been placed in a cell with Theodric, Amelinne, and two other acolytes who had recently been promoted to full-fledged Veledred. If only their promotion could have protected them. Their faces were sullen as the small ship bobbed up and down in the dawning morning. The sun’s rays were just beginning to shoot across the seas. Their chains clinked as the sea rocked against the ship. Elymiah rested her back against the cell as four Aivaterran guards walked along the deck of the ship, swords to the ready and holding Eymeg by the arms. The Hallowed Masters were being smart. They rotated prisoners from ship to ship every few hours to prevent insurrections before they reached the mainland.

  The guards opened the cell. Theodric stood up and rushed them. One of the guards slammed the hilt of a sword onto his forehead, sending him back into the cell, blood dripping from his nose.

  ‘Theodric, stop it!’ shouted Elymiah.

  ‘Listen to your commandant, daemon hunter,’ snapped the guard from under his helm. A rain of sea rushed over the edge and into the cell, dousing Elymiah with salt water. The guard grabbed Eymeg and tossed him into the cell. He fell with a thud. The chains wrapped around his wrists and ankles clanked as he sat up. The guard growled and slammed shut the cell door.

  Eymeg placed his back against the gate, facing Elymiah. ‘Look, I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I…I was lied to. I didn’t know the knight they were hunting was my own sister. Yngerame tricked me.’

  ‘What did they offer you, huh? Who is this Jolien?’ growled Theodric.

  Eymeg looked away.

  ‘Must have been a pretty penny. To make a man betray his own kin,’ said Theodric.

  ‘That’s not it,’ said Eymeg. He glanced at Elymiah. ‘I swear, I didn’t know they were going to do this.’

  Theodric cursed and turned his face away. Elymiah looked Eymeg over but didn’t respond. He stared down at his boots and remained silent.

  Elymiah wasn’t angry. For a reason she could not explain, she was unable to will herself to hate him. Perhaps it was lack of sleep or exhaustion, but a strange thought entered her mind. She was leaving the Isles of Brume a prisoner, but she felt freer than when she had arrived. She saw the Aivaterran warship ahead in the distance. Its sails glistened white and gold as they billowed majestically.

  I will break free of this prison and take this ship over. Then, I will take that ship and kill Yngerame. But then a tiny bump in her stomach, the softest of kicks, snapped her from her murderous thoughts. She looked down at her belly. A smile dared spread itself across her face. She looked up to the red hue of the dawning sky. A shadow in the clouds caught her eye, and then she saw Dorma, flapping his wings in the sky high above. A faint shriek echoed across the waters but was drowned out by the flapping of sails in the wind.

  But Elymiah did hear it.