by Karen MacRae
She felt the attack as soon as it touched her aura. There were two. Bojek might be screaming and spitting, but his mind sent a subtle thread to entangle Anna’s thoughts. He used some weaker form of his Compulsion to try to confuse her so the other attack could get through. The second touch was even finer than the first. A tiny pinpoint of black energy worked at Anna’s golden oath, wriggling through its weaves, trying to force a link to Nystrieth. Anna’s hand reached automatically for her dagger for more power. Instead of crystal, her hand touched the folds of her rainbow dress. The dagger was in her room. She pulled as much energy as she could from her crystal pendant, but it wasn’t enough. She could feel the black probing under the gold, trying to replace her allegiance. Her small crystal didn’t have enough energy to fight both.
She jumped from the platform, the crowd scuttling back to give her more space. She’d begun calling the crystal while her feet had been in the air. When she hit the ground, a torrent flowed through her.
Those with glasses gaped as they saw the Shaper’s aura swell with a furious white heat, a fiery core snaking through her body and lighting her up like a beacon. All around her burned a brilliant, flawless white. Two black threads fizzled against its outer edge, but they held firm, the faces of the two accused contorting with effort.
The Shaper’s right wrist burst into flames of every colour of the rainbow. She put her hand against her heart and her aura exploded with colour, at its centre a white almost too bright to behold, the black invading her King’s Oath gone. Glasses passed from hand to hand as people clamoured to see.
The Shaper turned to face the housekeeper. “And now we know the creator of the blocks to the King’s Oath,” she said coolly. “But you will make no more.” A blast of white shot from the Shaper’s heart, pushing back the fine black thread that still tried to burrow through the white shell. The cold white fury rushed into the housekeeper’s body and the woman’s gift shattered.
The Shaper’s eyes swung to the man on the stage. She lifted her rainbow hand to block the black thread still trying to find a way to get inside her head. A burst of white hammered at the black. Bojek screamed his defiance, but the thread was beaten back as every strike of the white devoured its way closer and closer to the source.
Anna knew it led to the spy’s gift. She’d seen it when he’d Compelled Beitris and Hew. She pulsed even more energy down the link until a burst of white erupted behind Bojek’s right eye. He cried out in horror as his gift was annihilated.
But she wasn’t finished. Next to go was the Compeller’s oath to Nystrieth. The black badge over his heart split in two and the white burned it to ash. The man sagged against his restraints, his arrogance gone. Anna felt a flicker of pity. She pushed it down. Instead, she deliberately sought and found memories of Luciado. Her mind recoiled at the horror. Burning fingers of white licked out to thrash the paedophile’s aura, stripping it of the ability to feel pain and pleasure, bathing him in a sea of truth, guilt, repulsion and horror. Anna poured more and more energy into the monster until he screamed and his feet began to lift from the ground.
The crowd gasped as the accused rode atop a geyser of white energy. The guards dropped the pole restraints in shock. Those with the Witheridge glass saw white consumer the spy’s purple aura. His body twisted in the air, white hot energy erupting underneath and around him, carrying him higher and higher.
Anna thought of Aibreann. She thought of her kindness, her humour, her loyalty and her immense capacity for love. She showed the tortured man what he had cost the world. Then she probed for every person he’d ever hurt. Unfiltered memories flew through the man’s mind. Bojek saw his victims as they truly were for the first time. He sobbed and screamed in anguish.
Anna snapped off the link to the crystal and a broken, wailing man crashed to the ground.
The crowd was silent, their faces agape with shock and awe. They watched as the King’s Shaper climbed the steps and stood facing the murderers.
Anna stood quietly, her hand on the boulder of red Aurovian crystal, her guards close behind her once more. She could feel the stored King’s Oaths thrum in time to her heartbeat and the golden badge impressed upon it.
The Witheridge glass showed a golden light spread through the Shaper’s white aura until all around her glowed the royal colour. She raised her hand towards the spies and sent a torrent of gold into their chests. The pair rocked as the oath was imprinted ten-fold on their hearts. The unused energy arced back to its resting place in the crystal and a dazzling circle of the King’s gold lit up the platform, the Shaper at its centre. Awed whispers rippled through the crowd.
Anna waited until the last of the oath energy was returned to the crystal. Her aura white once more, she turned to the Councillors. “They will answer your questions,” she said simply.
She didn’t listen to the testimony of the two spies. She was shaken to her core by what she’d seen in the Compeller’s mind. Nystrieth had caused this abomination. He fed his people pain and pleasure until they couldn’t separate the two. They would do anything for it and for him, no matter who or what they hurt.
Her heart ached for her mother’s arms around her, for her forgiveness. She’d tried so desperately to keep her daughter safe, to keep her gift hidden, and here she was for all the world to see. Rybis and the Council wanted her growing reputation and fame to spread far and wide, to travel throughout The Kingdom and across the Oestrieth Sea to the ears of the self-proclaimed God. They wanted to bring hope and resilience to the innocent and fear to those who fought on the other side. They wanted Nystrieth wary of The Kingdom and the King’s Shaper. They wanted him to have to fight harder than he’d ever had before for every inch of land he stole. And then, when it was time, the White would defeat the Black.
It had to.
“I’m sorry, mama,” Anna whispered.
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Anna’s story continues in ‘A Shaper’s Birthright’
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The author would be very grateful if you would take a few seconds to leave a review on amazon
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