by Thawer, Tish
Rezmona thought that killing the infertile slaves was an amazing feature the elders had worked into the magickal inspections. Because honestly, as a race whose main goal was to populate the world, the idea of being unable to bear children was worse than death. The irony of this wasn't lost on her. Finding a way around their sterility had been the crowning achievement of her race. Their demon culture was smart, strong, and unstoppable, nature be damned.
CHAPTER FIVE
After listening to screams for what seemed like an eternity, Kylie was startled when she was suddenly met with silence. The approaching footsteps had her scrambling to her feet. When a woman with eyes as black as coal appeared outside their cell, Kylie could only assume she was staring at Rezmona, the demon Queen of Abrinthill.
As the queen stepped up to the door, all the women in the cell huddled around Kylie. Just as Rezmona raised her hands, Kylie stepped in front of the small crowd. She didn't know exactly what she needed to do to defend against the queen, but as Kylie raised her arm she hoped the new magick flowing through her would be enough to stand against this evil woman.
"Stop. At least tell us what you're preparing to do to us."
Fury radiated from Rezmona as she waved her hand, causing the barred door to completely disappear. Once inside, the door reappeared back in place.
"How dare you speak to me," she said in a low, menacing tone. "You are a lowly prisoner, a breeding pig, and now you will pay for your impudence."
Rezmona's threat hung in the air as her eyes deepened once more. She raised her hands, and with an evil smirk on her face, stalked towards the women.
CHAPTER SIX
The look on Rezmona's face had Kylie preparing for the worst, but when the queen raised her hands...nothing happened. She shook her arms, chanted something under her breath, and then flung her hands in their direction again.
Kylie remained a single soldier standing in front of the scared women. She felt the tingle of magick flow down her outstretched arm and couldn't pinpoint any particular purpose to it, but right now she didn't care. It was obvious the spirit realm had filled her with the exact magick that was needed, and she couldn't have been more grateful.
After letting out a howling scream, Rezmona flew back towards the barred door in a fit of wild rage. The door flew open, pinning one of the guards between it and the cell itself. Kylie watched in horror as Rezmona slammed the door repeatedly against the poor guard's body until he was nothing more than a bloody heap.
Once the queen was gone, the other guards shut the cell door and carried off their dead brother. Only then did Kylie lower her hand. Staring at her palm in shock, she was stunned to see a small blue spiral emblazoned there. Closing her eyes, she chanted her thanks to the spirit realm once more. "Thank you for bestowing me with the specific gifts that I'll need. I'm forever your servant, that's my vow and for this gift, I thank you now." The spiral glowed, tingled, and then settled into a permanent tattoo on Kylie's palm.
The women rushed to Kylie, throwing their arms around her while sobbing their thanks. She didn't feel as if she'd done anything miraculous, but after hearing the screams resonate from the other cells and witnessing the queen's wrath, she knew they truly did have something to be thankful for.
As she gathered the women in prayer, she couldn't help but wonder if her magick was just a one-time thing. She didn't want to think about what would happen to her friends if she wasn't there when they needed protecting. Suddenly, she knew that not only was she there to protect them, but also to fight for them.
With this realization running through her head, Kylie turned to the women. "Have any of you ever used a weapon?"
The women just stared at her, mouths gaping.
"We're going to have to fight in order to get out of here, and I need to know if you're all willing to do that. Because your freedom and your lives depend on it."
The women slowly nodded their heads in agreement. "Good. Now we need to find something I can transform into weapons. We are surrounded by stone, so see if you can find any loose shards or bricks from the walls and bring them to me."
The women fanned out and began running their hands along the walls and floor. Moments later, they had gathered a small pile of rubble in the corner of the cell.
Kylie sent the women to watch the dungeon hall as she gathered her spirit magick into a protective bubble once more.
After welcoming the flowing energy into her again, Kylie placed her hands over the stones and chanted, "Stone from earth, earth from heart, transform these shards into weapons of art."
The pile of rubble was then surrounded with a beautiful green pulsing light. The stones began to shimmer and shake and were then transformed into the most beautiful knives and daggers Kylie had ever seen. They were encrusted with emeralds and sapphires, rubies and citrine–all gifts from the earth.
Kylie knew these magickally enhanced weapons were going to be their ticket to freedom.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Rezmona was still raging when she reached her chambers. Not noticing Gregor was waiting within, she let her power whip through the air, enjoying the release as things smashed against the walls.
"What has happened?"Gregor asked, announcing his presence. She should have known he'd be waiting for her. With his powers of foresight, he always knew when something was wrong.
"Nothing! Nothing happened," she screamed as a chaise lounge flew across the room. "I was finishing my inspections and when I came to the last group of prisoners my magick failed me."
Gregor hadn't moved from his seat in the corner, but the tension radiating off of him was hard to miss. He was smart to gauge his response, because one wrong move and she'd turn her anger on him. "Did something happen that was out of the ordinary, or could it just be that with the amount of prisoners we're processing this trip, your breeding magick has become depleted?"
Still breathing heavily from the anger coursing through her, Rezmona replied, "I'm not sure. I did enter the last cell planning to punish a prisoner, but I don't see how that could've affected my magick." She paused as inspiration hit. "Unless the cell was somehow warded."
"I'll have it inspected right away," Gregor replied.
* * * * *
Once Gregor left the queen's chambers, he went directly to the study and straight to the place where he'd hidden the book.
He felt that what happened to Rezmona's magick had more to do with the actual prisoners than the cell they were being kept in. But, he wasn't prepared to tell Rezmona of his ponderings just yet; first, he needed to finish the book to confirm his suspicions.
So far he'd discovered that the village was overflowing with abundance: rich soil, healthy townsfolk, and plentiful crops that kept the village overflowing with prosperity. But he hadn't reached a point in the book to explain exactly why.
After two hours of reading through strained eyes, Gregor finally found what he was looking for. The book described a prophecy of a recurring connection that allowed a spirit woman to draw on the magickal vortex beneath the village in order to sustain its prosperity. Gregor was now convinced that one of the women in that cell must be this spirit woman.
He gathered the book in his robes and began to make his way to the dungeon. Killing this woman was something that needed to be done. The book explained that not only was she the keeper of prosperity and abundance, but also their protector. This prophecy's child was their warrior, and that made her a threat.
CHAPTER EIGHT
When Gregor's foot touched the stone steps that led to the dungeon, he was hit with a vision of Rezmona lying on the ground with a knife in her chest. Stopping dead in his tracks, he tried to focus on the vision, but it vanished just as fast as it had appeared. Shaken by the sight of his beloved queen lying dead, the urgency to find and kill this girl overwhelmed him.
He righted himself, then proceeded down the stairs with a plan already in place. He would cast another sleeping spell, then examine each girl. Though he hadn't come across anything in the manus
cript about the chosen woman bearing a sign, it was often the case in situations such as this. The spirits had a tendency to mark those they blessed.
Once he found the girl with the spirit mark, he would quarantine her until he could figure out what to do. He would give his life to protect his queen, and if this woman had the potential to kill her, then she wasn't someone to underestimate.
As Gregor stepped off the last step, he motioned for the guard. "Are the women in the last cell awake?"
"No, your grace. They all fell asleep not long ago."
"Good," Gregor replied as he slapped the guard kindly on the shoulder.
As he crept forward quietly, he could feel traces of magick tingling up his arms. Confident the woman who could threaten their existence was indeed inside this cell, he walked closer, death his urgent goal. It was imperative to eliminate this threat, mainly because the queen had yet to use her magick to produce an heir. If Rezmona was killed, the magick necessary to fuel the breeding program would be lost, leaving their race to slowly dwindle and die.
He found the women sleeping just as the guard had indicated. Raising his staff, he chanted under his breath, then watched as the familiar gray haze settled over the women. Though they were already sleeping, he could see the spell taking effect. He motioned to the guard to open the door and stepped inside with an evil grin on his face.
CHAPTER NINE
After casting the spell to create the enchanted weapons, Kylie could feel her energy starting to wane. Working magick, especially magick this powerful, definitely took a toll. She knew sleep was the only way to replenish her reserves. So, after giving thanks, closing her circle, and passing each woman their new weapon, they all laid down to get some much needed rest.
Reaching the point of relaxation didn't take long, but before Kylie could cross into the land of dreams, she felt the tingling of magick along her skin. As she tried to open her eyes, she was surprised when the spirits forced them to remain shut. Instead, they opened her third eye which allowed her to view the scene from within their realm.
Through her clairvoyance, see saw the old demon standing outside their cell. She heard him whisper a chant, then watched from the astral plane as the same gray haze she'd witnessed before seep from his staff and drift in their direction.
Her first instinct was to rise up against him, but as the thought entered her mind, she knew it was the wrong thing to do. Instead, she remained calm and pretended to sleep. Even as she watched the gray mist settle over her physical form, she knew the spell wouldn't work on her this time.
Through her mind's eye, she saw the demon enter the cell and kneel down next to Reni. With a vile look on his face he rolled her onto her stomach then grabbed a handful of hair, lifting it to inspect her neck. Next he moved to her arms and legs, taking the time to raise each one and look at every inch, even the soles of her feet. When he started to unzip the back of Reni's dress, Kylie truly started to panic.
The idea of this foul man undressing her friends and continuing his inspection in the most intimate of places had Kylie's rage boiling over. But suddenly, praise the gods, he stopped.
Kylie watched as he bent closer to Reni's back, and then with a raspy cry declared, "Yes!"
As he started to rise, Kylie caught a faint glimpse of what had excited him. She saw a spiral tattoo on Reni's left shoulder blade. The same tattoo that had formed on her palm earlier that night.
Kylie watched as the spirit realm caused her arm to flop over, revealing the same image to the old demon's eyes. He almost tripped over her arm, and therefore couldn't miss the symbol that glared up at him from her palm.
The demon's lips quivered with a snarl as he roughly grabbed at Kylie's hand and closely examined the mark. Reaching back to Reni's shoulder, he ran his fingers along the tattoo, striking her when he realized the two symbols were identical. "Damn!"
Watching him strike her friend had Kylie ready to fight, but the thought was pointless since she was still being held in this alternate state. Just as she began to struggle internally, she felt a shock to her system and was suddenly flooded with a sense of understanding.
The spirits had marked each of the women in an effort to hide Kylie's true identity. They had just saved her from being discovered as the prophecy's child.
CHAPTER TEN
Gregor was pleased when he spotted a spiral mark glaring up at him from the slave's shoulder. But just as he stood to motion to the guard, he tripped over another woman's outstretched arm, and found himself staring down at an exact replica of the mark.
Once he examined the tattoo on the slave's palm, he ran his fingers over the mark on the other girl's shoulder. "Damn!" he cried as he slapped the girl's back. The marks were identical.
He quickly examined the remaining slaves and realized that each of them had the exact same mark, only in different locations. He was so angry he couldn't contain the scream in his throat. Kicking the slaves from his path, he made his way back to the cell door.
"Do not let anyone enter this cell, and do not remove the prisoners from within," Gregor instructed the guard. "I'll return shortly."
Frustrated by his failure, he headed back towards his quarters contemplating exactly how he was going to keep Rezmona away from these particular slaves until he had a chance to finish the book. He was hoping the location of the prophecy child's mark would be included somewhere within the text.
When Gregor reached his chambers, he was coursing with energy. His senses were forcing him to finish the book, as his mind focused on the pleasure he'd receive by killing this girl. He lifted his hand and sent dark red sparks into the hearth, igniting the fire, then settled in for a long night of reading.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Rezmona awoke feeling recharged and refreshed. This is the perfect day to start the impregnations, she thought to herself. Usually, they waited until all the prisoners were transported back to Abrinthill, but with the size of the castle and the extended timetable for their stay, she didn't see any reason not to start the process here.
Excited to share her plans with Gregor, she headed for his chambers.
Knocking once and receiving no response, she entered the room. "Gregor? Where are you?" Met with silence, she began scanning the room, frustration starting to build.
There was a fire in the hearth slowly dying out, a slew of papers scattered across the brocade couch, and an almost empty chalice of wine sitting on the desk next to that old tattered book.
Frowning at the sight of the book, Rezmona started to walk towards the desk but was stopped by Gregor's sudden appearance.
* * * * *
"Rezmona!" Gregor exclaimed, sounding startled. "I'm sorry, my Queen, I didn't hear you come in."
Gregor hastily made his way from the door of his bed chamber over to the desk. He watched as Rezmona's eyes narrowed when he quickly snatched up the book, returning it to the confines of his robe.
"Dammit, Gregor! What is it about that book that has you so engrossed?"
"Nothing in particular, my Queen. I'm sorry if my reading offends you, but in order to keep you safe and our breeding program uninterrupted, I feel it's important to learn all we can about the villages we raid."
He hoped his answer wasn't a bit too strained for Rezmona to take at face value, and was quickly relieved when she shrugged it off and said, "Speaking of the breeding program, I've decided to start the impregnations here in the castle. There is plenty of room, and if we are going to stay here to collect more prisoners, then I see no reason to wait. We don't want to get behind with the delivery schedule."
"I think that's a great idea. I'll have the guards prepare a makeshift birthing facility, and then we can begin to move the prisoners. Just leave everything to me." Gregor was relieved to have the attention directed away from his book and how her magick had failed. But his relief was short-lived as Rezmona continued.
"What did you find out from inspecting the prisoners' cell?" she asked.
Gregor internally debate whether he
should lie to his queen in order to keep her safe. It didn't take him long to decide. "I found that the cell does indeed have special wards on it. I've instructed the guards to leave the prisoners as they are until I have a chance to remove them."
"Thank you, Gregor. We'll start the impregnations with the other prisoners and leave those few until last. That should give you plenty of time to remove the wards and allow me to perform the inspections. Now, I'll be in the garden if you need me."
Gregor bowed to the queen, then exhaled the breath he was holding once she left the room. He was confident that within the next few hours he would be able to find and kill the prophecy's child.
CHAPTER TWELVE
After the spirit realm released Kylie, she fell back into a deep sleep–one that would replenish her severely drained energy reserves. The next morning, she woke to the sounds of scuffling coming from the other cells. She slowly scooted towards the bars to get a better view, then watched in horror as the other women were being taken by huge, bulging demons with engorged privates. The looks on their faces had her stomach twisting in knots. It looked as though each demon was choosing his preferred partner.
Kylie fell to the side and vomited, causing one of the demons to look her way. Panic filled her chest and she quickly felt for the magickal weapon that was tied to the inside of her gown. The feeling of the stone knife in her hand immediately calmed her nerves. She looked away from the demon to gaze at her friends and quickly realized they were still being held under by the old man's sleeping spell.
