by LJ Rivers
Centaurs. At some point, I would have to begin believing my eyes, but since we’d entered this realm, we had encountered so many magical creatures that even I—a Fae and a Sorceress myself—found it hard to keep up.
“Names and business,” the one in front demanded in a guttural voice.
Jack and Erica snarled, but the white wolf backed up to the unicorns, and the others followed her lead. I slid off Sky and stepped ahead of my pack.
“My name is Ruby. We’re on our way to Avalen.”
The centaur in front closed the short distance between us, looking down his nose at me. The rolling muscles on his abdomen rose and fell with every heavy breath, and his nostrils expanded as he fixed his gaze on me. Warm, honey-coloured eyes appraised me, though there was nothing warm about his features. His long ears pointed back into his chalk-white mane, and his broad nose wrinkled.
“You smell of Fae, though have no wings, Ruby. I will ask you again, what is your business here?”
“We wish an audience with Her Majesty, the queen.” I bowed, thinking that it might appease the creature.
“I am Aranos, Captain of the Crimson guard, Centaurian division, the Fury of Mount Avalen, Destroyer of Kahalenya, Her Majesty’s loyal servant.”
Charlie cleared her throat and raised her chin from where she was still mounted on her unicorn. “This is Ruby the Red, Master of Light, Daughter of Elaine, Protector of Don Hekals, Companion of Gwyn Tala’s children.”
I shot her an exasperated glare. Of all the times to be a smartass, she chose this one.
Aranos blinked, then threw his head back in a bellowing laugh, and the four centaurs behind him joined in. On the ridge, the archers had lowered their arrows to a more relaxed position. When Aranos stopped suddenly, the other guards fell silent as if on cue. “That is something.”
Charlie crossed her arms. “I am Charlie, loyal to Ruby the Red.”
“Don Hekals, you say? We do not get many of them here. The last were King Arthur and his knights. Friend of Gwyn Tala’s children?” He slanted his head, looking at the wolves. “Now, that might be true, if only in parts. You have yet to answer my question, however.”
“Our business is our own,” Charlie pressed. “It is between Her Majesty and Ruby.”
A yowled issued, echoing through the mountain pass, and a torch was lifted somewhere behind Aranos. The centaur in the back trotted forward. In his hand, Kit was flailing and clawing the air, unable to free himself from the centaur’s grasp.
“Let him go,” I said.
“This creature is yours?” the centaur asked, shaking his coal-black mane. “I caught him sneaking around us while we talked. Spying, perhaps?”
“He’s just my cat.” I reached for him, but the centaur stepped back, holding Kit far too high for me to grab him.
“So, you admit the creature is yours.”
“Yes.”
“Ruby the Red, I do not know this creature. It doesn’t seem right.”
Murmurs travelled among the centaurs, and the captain gave Kit a pensive stare. “It is possible the Sorcerers of Mynydd have created this abomination. Cage him.”
“No!” I screamed. A cage appeared, as if out of nowhere, and the centaur stuffed Kit inside it. He slammed it shut and passed it on to another of the guards. It looked like a birdcage with silver bars. Kit screeched, and his paws clanged violently against the bars as the centaur trotted back to his position.
Fire scorched in my veins, my blood pumping increasingly fast. I glanced back at the white wolf, who shook her head, and my shoulders sagged. I couldn’t use my fire, but it was too late. A lick of flame had already escaped my palm, rising slowly to hover in front of the commander’s nose.
“Sorcery!” he snarled.
I quenched the oncoming flare, replacing it with a force field. As I was about to push it out, however, something sparked in Aranos’ gloved hands.
What on Earth or Avalon?
He pounced forward. As I raised my hands to shield myself, a familiar shock stirred in my bones, and my wrists jerked together, ripples of electrical waves coursing through my body. I fell to my knees, and the shock subsided. Something slithered around my wrists. I tried to free myself from it, but it only led to whatever it was tightening its grip. A blue glow danced over my hands, illuminating the animal. It was a snake, and the light—the gut-wrenchingly familiar light of electricity—emanated from its glimmering scales. A small head twisted itself out of the loop it created between my hands to look at me. Intense, indigo eyes held my gaze, making my stomach knot. It opened its wide mouth and two forked tongues poked out, tasting the air.
A choir of howls rolled forth, then cut off before the wolves truly got started. I tried to turn when Aranos clamped a chain to my neck, tugging me forward.
“Round them up,” Aranos ordered. “We’re taking these spies to the dungeons.”
Chapter Ten
The door slammed shut behind me, and I stumbled on the dirt floor, toppling over to land on my side. I rubbed my sore wrists where the snake-cuffs had been, then scooted backwards and stopped inches away from leaning on the wall. The room was lit with electric snakes, slithering all over the walls. They stayed away from the floor, so I crawled to the centre of the room and held my knees tightly to me, resting my chin on them.
As I surveyed the room, I discovered a square bench with a hole in the middle that disappeared into the ground, clearly meant for my most basic needs. Aside from that, the room was empty, and my only company was a myriad of vicious electric snakes. I bit my lip and wrinkled my nose at the stale stench of mildew and mould.
I had tried pleading with Aranos on the way here, but he had eventually bound a rag over my mouth to shut me up, at the same time deciding it was a great idea to blindfold me, which only made the journey more arduous than it needed to be. Just before throwing me inside my cage, one of his guards had removed all my restraints and poured some thick, tar-black liquid on the snake holding my wrists, making it fall off. On the way to the dungeons, it had managed to drain every last drop of energy I had, and my magic had become but a distant hum deep within me, no doubt kept subdued by the snakes in my cell.
How did I continuously manage to create such a mess of things? Jen had warned me not to be reckless, and what had I done? I’d turned around and revealed my Sorcery, only to be accused of being a spy. A tear swam down my cheek and my stomach twisted into a heavy ball. I had failed my pack.
Yet again, I was alone. I could only hope that the others were allowed to stay together, if not all in one place, at least not in complete solitary. Like I was. And what of Kit? Aranos hadn’t said another word about what would happen next, and I dreaded the thought that I might be stuck in this hole for the rest of my life, which, judging by my surroundings, would be short-lived if I didn’t find a way out of this plight.
Sniffling, I curled up and closed my eyes, exhaustion drowning me in slow waves. I dreamed of Willow, of flying over a golden sea of barley, laughing and chasing her through the trees. I dreamed of lounging on the sofa back at Craydon Court with Jen and Charlie, three boxes of pizza and Charlie’s Angels on the telly. And I dreamed of Brendan, of his soft kisses and tender touch, and the way his laugh sent a jolt of pleasure through me whenever I heard it. Lastly, I dreamed of Mum. It was a simple moment, the two of us sitting on the garden swing behind our house. Mum had her arm around me and was telling me stories about a long-lost kingdom. Sunrays broke through the clouds, and she looked at me. Her smile filled me with love, and my stomach fluttered.
“Mum.” I reached for her. She stared at me with those deep blue eyes, and her lips formed a “yes”.
But I couldn’t touch her. The more I stretched, the further away she moved. I shifted onto my knees and leaned forward, grasping the air as she faded away.
“Mum!” I shouted, throwing myself at her.
My body jerked, and I sat abruptly as a squeak pierced my ears. My dreams shattered, and I remembered, regretfully, where I was.
A hatch in the door slid open, and a young man stuck his nose in. I had no way of knowing if he was a Fae or something else. He had a plain face, a slightly crooked nose and a few freckles on his pasty skin. “Food,” he announced.
Shaking myself, I got to my feet, wobbling a little as I went to accept the tray he offered me.
“Thank you,” I said.
He started closing the hatch.
“Wait,” I blurted, placing the tray on the ground and crouching by the door to get a better look through the hatch.
He paused, and his grey eyes appeared in the slit. “Yes?”
I didn’t really know what to say, I just didn’t want to be alone again, so I racked my brain, trying to think of something bright. “What’s your name?” Yeah, real clever, Ru.
He squinted, then grimaced in a shrug-like gesture. “Yven.”
“Thank you, Yven. I’m Ruby.” I fidgeted with my knotted hair. “I don’t know why I’m here. I’ve done nothing wrong.”
“That’s what they all say.”
I might be a prisoner, but at least the young man seemed friendly enough. “I need to talk to the queen. I have information for her, and it is paramount she gets it.”
He shook his head. “I can’t help you with that. You’ll have to wait your turn like the rest of the prisoners.”
“My turn?”
“I’m a simple servant. I bring you sustenance, but that is all. The Primes are the ones who will decide your fate. You’ll get your say once you are presented to them.”
“And when will that be?”
He made another shrug-like gesture. “No way to tell. It might be a dark moon from now, it might be during the next star-time. As I said, I’m a servant, nothing more.”
“Could you, at the very least, pass my message along to someone who might be able to speed up the process?”
A finger appeared in front of the hatch, and the man scratched the bridge of his nose.
“Please,” I said, folding my hands. “It’s imperative that I speak with the queen. She’s in danger.”
His tangerine brows rose. “Queen Morgana is well protected. Not much exists that can harm Her Majesty. Are you sure you are quite right in the head?”
I exhaled in a puff. “I’m entirely lucid. And it’s not just her, Avalon itself is in peril. Please, Yven, I’m telling you the truth.”
He tapped a finger on the slit in the door. “I can see you believe that, but moonrage messes with your head. It confuses the best of us.”
“Will you help me?”
“We tend to offer different lodging for those who have misplaced their minds. It might be wise to push your judgement ahead of the others.”
“I’m not—” I clamped my mouth shut with an audible click. It didn’t matter if Yven believed me or not. What mattered was that I got out of here sooner rather than later. “I appreciate it.”
The hatch squeaked shut, and I lay back on the dirt, picking at the food on the tray. It looked familiar. A few slices of bread with lots of different seeds on it sat in the centre, surrounded by what looked kind of like starfruit, blueberries, and sliced bananas. A cup of orange jam and a few greens were assorted into a pile next to the fruit. Last was a glass of water. At least it appeared they fed their prisoners well. Hesitantly, I took a bite. Part of me was concerned that the food might not agree with me, and, for all I knew, it could be poisoned. But I needed the energy, and it seemed silly to bring me here only to poison me. So I dug in, and it tasted nothing short of divine. It was an explosion of savoury sensations on my tongue. After clearing my tray of every last crumb, I downed the rest of the water until there was nothing left, and I was once again reminded of my current predicament.
A constant hum came from the hissing snakes, but none had ventured to the floor so far, so I figured they would stay on the walls. I lay back on the dirt and closed my eyes once more. Time trickled by. Now and then I tested my powers, but nothing happened. My magic was there, lulling deep inside my core. No matter how much I tried, however, I couldn’t summon it. Tears wet my cheeks as I blearily stared at the tiny lightning bolts of snakes webbing across the ceiling. For some reason, I had imagined myself to be almost invincible in this world. As it turned out, I wasn’t. And not for the first time, I felt utterly and completely human.
The room faded around me, and I drifted back to sleep. This time, my rest was void of dreams, and I found myself falling into darkness. There was an almost soothing familiarity to the black void, so I stayed in my empty dream as long as I could. I had no idea how long I had been there when a clank caught my attention, and I opened my eyes again.
The door swung inward, and a centaur filled the opening.
“Time to go.” His gloved hands held one of the lightning-blue snakes, but instead of pulling back, I took a deep breath and got up. I approached the centaur, arms outstretched.
The snake slid around my wrists, and I gritted my teeth at the minute sensation of electric waves. It didn’t hurt as much this time. Perhaps because I didn’t struggle, and though I was less than pleased to wear these particular shackles, I was glad to escape my prison. For however long it lasted. Next, the centaur put a collar attached to a chain around my neck, and I obediently followed him outside. I had learned my lesson about struggling when chained and had no desire to repeat the process.
We entered a dirt tunnel, torches on the walls lighting our way. Every ten feet or so was another room—a prison cell. I tried looking for my friends, but all I saw were shut doors. Please, let them be OK. Finally, we reached a double door at the end. The centaur put one of his hooves in a hoof-like notch on the door and pushed it open. The chilled air breezed past my face, and my eyelids hooded for a moment as I drew in a deep breath.
The stars were spilling across the firmament like a velvety blanket of fairy lights, helping me tell what time of day it was. I must have been in the dungeons for almost twenty-four hours—if not days. I had lost all sense of time in there. Chattering voices sounded nearby, and a cobbled street wound before us. Tall buildings made of what looked like limestone lined the road on either side, rooftops spreading out beyond. As we turned a corner, I raised my eyes to the sight of an immense castle at the base of a mountain. My heart skipped a beat. Lanterns filled the outer walls, and the shimmering castle bathed the city in a greenish glow. A spiralling spear on the tallest tower stretched far into the air, seemingly piercing the sky above the mountaintop. Somewhere beyond those walls was my ancestor. Eighteen months or fifteen hundred years had passed, and she was still here. Somewhere in that castle.
Morgana.
Chapter Eleven
The guard yanked the chain, and it was all I could do to stay upright, let alone gaze at my ancestor’s castle. We headed for a double door, fifteen feet tall and equally wide, where two more guards stood. They wore green cloaks over their shoulders, just like the sentries on Crochan Island. The Centaur had a crimson-coloured cloak, with the same embroidered Morgana crest on it.
“Who’s that you have there, Tenant Barch?” said one of the juniper guards. He eyed me from head to toe with a disapproving grin. “Strange clothes. Northerner?”
“Prisoner, to stand for the Primes, is all I know. Yven says she’s not right in her head. Moonraged.”
The juniper guard chuckled. “He should know.” He turned to his colleague and nodded. “Let the Tenant enter, boy.” As the young guard—he couldn’t have been more than sixteen—opened the door, the elder bowed to my captor. “May the Lady Nimue keep you and your family from ailments.”
“And yours, Valet Neigh.” He tugged on my chain again. “Bow to the queen’s Junipers, prisoner!”
I obeyed, bowing deep to the one called Neigh. As I repeated the move at the other, younger guard, I couldn’t help but keep his gaze. His eyes were emerald green, with fiery strands of yellow around the centre. The hint of a smile touched his lips, but I got the feeling it was the warm, almost caring kind. As my centaur guard led me into the dar
kness, I shook the thought away. These men saw me as a foreigner and a spy, and the smile was merely the young guard thinking about what lay ahead of me. The Primes, whoever they may be.
As the heavy door shut behind us, leaving an echo in the darkness, I felt the pull of the shadows again. It didn’t last long, though, since the guard, Barch, picked a torch from a notch in the wall. The light spread into the hallway, and we resumed our walk. It didn’t take long before we reached another set of double doors, also guarded by two Juniper guards.
And there was a line.
“We wait here,” Barch whispered as we came to a halt at the back.
In front of us stood three more prisoners, all held by the same kind of chain and with electric snakes slinking around their wrists. The first looked like he could demolish his guard at any moment, with his seven-foot frame and bulging muscles. I would have bet a fair amount on him being a bear Shifter. How the small snake was able to suppress the magic in this immense man was a mystery. A guard was positioned to his left, at such a distance that he had to extend his arm to hold the chain, probably scared that the snake’s magic could vanish at any second. The guard looked ridiculously small compared to the giant prisoner, and were it not for the other prisoners in front of me, I might have caught a glimpse of his shaking legs.
The next guard/prisoner couple was more of a match, if that was a word that could fit anywhere in this strange situation. A girl, maybe five feet tall and with long, ash-blonde hair reaching to her thighs, stood with her head bent forward. Around her slender body was a black cloth of sorts, wrapped tightly and secured in a knot by her shoulders.
Before I had time to examine the old man in front of me, one of the juniper guards approached us.
“Tenant Barch? What in the name of the Lady are you doing here?”
“Just bringing this one to the Primes, Valet Intor of Shilow’s Brook,” said Barch, rattling my chain.
