Witch Queen

by Kim Richardson

  Witch Queen, Divided Realms Book 2:

  Copyright © 2016 by Kim Richardson

  Edited by Grenfell Featherstone

  www.kimrichardsonbooks.com

  All rights reserved by Kim Richardson. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system without the written permission of the author. The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

  First edition: January 2016

  Acknowledgments

  To those who have taken the journey with me into Elena's world.

  Thank you for believing in me as a storyteller.

  Map

  CONTENTS

  Acknowledgments

  Map

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  BLOOD MAGIC COMING SOON!

  MORE BOOKS BY KIM RICHARDSON

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CHAPTER 1

  THE BLACK BLIGHT WAS A SCAR. The world was blackened and decayed, and everything reeked of death. The cold and damp sky was a gray emptiness that blended with the bleak streets of Soul City. The quiet of the daily market was a far cry from the usual cacophony of voices and the bustling crowds I’d grown accustomed to over the years.

  The once glorious birch trees that lined the streets had become blackened and leafless, their trunks rotting from the inside. Flies buzzed around my head, and I slapped them away. While the sorcerer’s black magic plagued our land, the golden temple shone like a brilliant sun in the semi-darkness, mocking me. I hated it more than ever.

  I cringed, not only at the blighted landscape but because Jon was still missing.

  Two days had passed since he was taken from me, and I was a mess. The Goddess had given me a glimpse of the unconditional and everlasting affection that signified true love, and I’d be damned if I’d let the priests keep it from me. I had tasted it, and I needed it back.

  After Will and Leo gave me the news about Jon’s capture, I’d returned to my little cottage to find Rose shaken but alive and angry at being babysat by two of Mad Jack’s men. But angry was good. I needed her to be feisty and energized for what was about to happen in the world.

  Although I was disheartened, I gave Rose a detailed account of what had happened during the race: how I had been the devastated by Prince Landon’s betrayal, how I had seen the real power of the Heart of Arcania stone, and finally how I had learned that the high priest of Anglia wasn’t a priest at all but some kind of powerful sorcerer. I told her how he had cast the spell that had spread the black blight over Soul City.

  The accusing I-told-you-so look in her eyes made it clear that she partly blamed me for the blighted world. I had set off a chain reaction by stealing the Anglian crown. She had warned me to take it back. And like always, I hadn’t listened. I was glad she didn’t blame me and let me finish my tale.

  I skipped the intimate details of my relationship with Jon, but I explained that Mad Jack’s real name was Jonathan Worchester. He was the rebel leader in the Pit and wasn’t the thug we had first believed him to be. I didn’t tell her about my healing powers till the very end. I watched her carefully for any signs that she’d known something had been different about me all along. Her reaction told me all I needed to know.

  “So you knew,” I told her, my temper flaring. “You knew about my abilities all along, and you never told me. Why?”

  “I had seen your mother’s magic with my own eyes,” Rose said. “And yes, she had told me that you were the same as her. It was a secret I promised never to reveal. I promised her to keep you both safe. And yet your mother was always looking over her shoulder.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Rose shook her head. “She died before she could tell me more,” she continued. “Perhaps I was wrong not to tell you, but at the time I thought it best. I was going to tell you eventually…with all that’s happened, I just never felt the time was right.”

  Time was the essential element I was lacking. And I didn’t have enough time to drill her with more questions—not yet. I needed to save Jon before he was tortured and killed, if he was even still alive. So I kissed her forehead, and without another word I went in search of him.

  That was two days ago.

  And now I was facing the city gates yet again, about to make my second attempt at a rescue. Even with the help of Will and Leo, my first attempt had failed miserably. We’d never even made it past the gates. It didn’t help that the city was protected by a circular stone wall.

  And now, where only two guards had been stationed at each of the four gates before, ten were there in their stead. It wasn’t that we couldn’t take down ten ordinary temple guards; it was that these particular guards had black magic powers that gave them three times the strength of any normal man. At first glance you’d have thought they were normal temple guards, and that’s where you’d make a fatal mistake. Their once healthy skin had become rotted and blistered, and angry black veins pulsed around their necks and faces. They had been infected with black magic. Their faces had become emaciated, and their skin had pulled tight around their skulls making them look skeletal. Their humanity had been removed, and their eyes had become black, soulless orbs.

  Magic was new to Soul City and to me. I was only just starting to understand my own powers. As a steel maiden, a magic bearer, I knew I had been blessed with the innate ability to fight and to wield weapons. I also knew that I possessed an extraordinary healing power. Although I still had many questions about my own blood magic, they would have to wait because the black magic blight was spreading fast. I wasn’t sure how it spread from victim to victim or how it affected the trees and vegetation. But it was clear that it was drawing the life out of everything.

  I had only seen the black magic in action once. The sorcerer had used the stone to conjure his magic from a shadow in the darkness, and threads of something black had shot into the bodies of men. It had wormed its way into them, into their souls, and it had stolen their humanity and turned them into demons. The black blight had spread from the city and had begun to infect the trees and vegetation outside the walls. It was only a matter of time before it reached the Pit and the surrounding villages, before it consumed all of Anglia.

  The only thing going for me now, what set me apart, was that I was partly immune to the sorcerer’s black magic. But it wasn’t enough. There was only one of me, while thousands had been infected. And they were all bent to the sorcerer’s will. I couldn’t take on an entire dark army.

  A group of eight men from the rebellion had volunteered to help me rescue Jon from the temple prisons. Will and Leo had joined the group, and I’d given them each a grim smile to show them my gratitude. These men all shared a hard weathered look that displayed the toll of living
in the Pit. The worried looks in their eyes made it clear that they cared about their leader as much as I did.

  If we were going to defeat the guards and get past the gates, we would have to outsmart them. My years of thieving and sneaking in and out of the city unnoticed would come in handy. I had become an expert at getting out of tight situations. I had planned this rescue mission for hours, and I knew exactly what to do.

  The smell of decaying flesh and sulfur burned my throat with every breath. It was the smell of black magic, toxic and deadly. The scar at the back of my neck throbbed, a reminder of my own brush with that evil magic. The witches had said I would never truly heal, whatever that meant, I wasn’t sure.

  All of us were cloaked and hooded. We crouched low in the shrubbery some fifty feet from the south gate. I was dressed in the same clothes I wore during the Great Race: a long sleeved green tunic with leather bodice, a pair of soft leather leggings, knee-high leather boots, and a black cloak. I hadn’t bothered to change when I arrived home, and now my clothes were covered with a layer of grime. I wiggled my nose at the smell of my own sweat.

  I watched the guards standing at attention through the opening in the shrubs. They were all dressed in black uniforms with the garish Temple of the Sun emblem emblazoned on their fronts. Their swords and short knives had been forged with the finest steel in all of Anglia and hung at the ready from their weapons belts.

  I could hardly breathe. Jon was in there somewhere. I could feel it. Two days was an eternity to be trapped in the temple’s prison. I only prayed that we weren’t too late. We waited for the last of the evening light to dull and leave us cloaked in the night’s shadows.

  “It’s now or never,” I whispered to Will and Leo. I turned to the others and raised my fist in the air, our signal to get ready.

  “You’re sure he’s in there.” Will’s voice was low. His square, hard features and clipped short hair were amplified by the shadows and made him appear more brutish than he actually was.

  “Yes. They’re keeping him below, in the temple’s prison.” I was impressed at my own conviction because deep down I wasn’t so sure anymore. I refused to let the men see my courage waver. I had to be strong for them, but mostly for me.

  “You know they’re keeping him there to lure you in,” said Leo.

  His wavy red locks stood out in the semi-darkness. He wiped his brow with his filthy sleeve.

  “The high priest, the sorcerer, wants you dead. You know that. You know this smells like a trap.”

  I clenched my jaw.

  “I know. And it probably is a trap. But I’m willing to risk it for Jon. Aren’t you?” My voice rose dangerously high.

  Leo’s blue eyes widened at the inference that he might not be up for the rescue. For a moment I thought he was going to chew my head off, but he gave me a silent nod instead.

  I unclenched my fists and relaxed my shoulders.

  “Let’s do this. Remember, wait for the others to create the diversion we need to get past the guards, and then the three of us make for the temple. Ready?”

  Will and Leo nodded. I raised my hand and waved the others on while the three of us waited.

  On cue, the six rebels jumped to their feet and charged towards the gate, swords drawn.

  “For Anglia!” they screamed as they charged, and I marveled at their courage. I prayed to the Goddess to keep them alive.

  The effect was instantaneous. The temple guards snapped to attention at the sudden threat. Swords drawn, they rushed to meet the rebels head on. The early night’s silence was suddenly alive with the clamor of metal hitting metal, of metal tearing into flesh, and of metal hacking into bone. The rebels’ swords sliced deeply into the approaching guards, but their efforts were fruitless as the guards continued to attack as though their wounds were nothing but feeble scratches.

  One of the guards bellowed an inhuman scream as he leapt towards one of our men. With a burst of unimaginable speed and strength, he cut the unsuspecting man’s head clear off. Blood spurted like a red fountain before the dead man’s body toppled to the ground.

  The man I knew as Ulrich reached out and hacked at one of the guards with lightning speed. And just when I thought he would actually kill the guard, a sword skewered him from behind. Blood spat from his mouth as he fell face down into the dirt. Another man, Durm, was caught completely unprepared and was stopped dead by the strength of a guard creature. His sword flew from his hand as he let out a bone-chilling scream. Two of the guards bit down into his neck, and his body went limp.

  I flinched as the sudden screams of terror echoed into the cold night air. Part of me wanted to run out there and help them, but that wasn’t the plan. And as much as it pained me to watch these men die, I stayed still and waited.

  My stomach turned at the sound of the men’s screams, and my beating heart drummed in my ears. Timing was everything in this plan. I had to wait for the exact moment when the guards’ focus was solely on the rebels, so they wouldn’t notice us slip past them.

  Swallowing hard, I pushed the fears and doubts from my mind.

  “Now!” I whispered urgently.

  The three of us ran towards the gate. With my own short sword brandished before me, I bolted down the path and made for the arched entrance to the gate. I ran so fast that the battle a few feet away from me was a blur of silver swords and black cloaks. I didn’t stop. My focus was on the temple and Jon. We needed to put as much distance between ourselves and the guards as we could.

  Without breaking my speed, I took the first sharp turn and ran faster. I hoped the loud footfalls and heavy breathing behind me belonged to Will and Leo. We made a left, passed the merchant district, and made for the holy district where the lesser priests had their homes. The golden temple loomed before us at the end of the main city road, and I became even more sickened by its sight the closer I got. But I was more anxious than I was angry.

  Damn this place. Damn all of it.

  My breath scorched my throat, and my thighs burned as I pushed on towards the temple, towards our quarry.

  As we ventured deeper into the city, I noticed how deserted and empty it was. Had the wealthy and noble families fled? Were they dead? The cowards that they were, it wouldn’t have surprised me if they had fled the city at the first sight of the black magic infection. Bastards.

  A flicker of movement caught my eye.

  A noble woman in a heavy gown of blue silk embroidered with enough jewels to feed a small village and wearing a tall gaudy hat scampered into the street. Her black, soulless eyes widened at the sight of us and burned with the black sickness. Her face was plagued with black veins and as haggard as a corpse. I almost didn’t recognize her. She had been one of the women in the street that day when Baul and Garth, the temple guards, had dragged me through the city to meet the high priest. She had sneered, viciously happy to see me going to my doom.

  The woman tossed her head back and cried out with a creature-like screech, “The black blight is upon you. Feel its hand. Feel the powers of shadow and darkness for it is everlasting and great!”

  In a wild fury, she threw herself at me, but her heavy gown slowed her movements. It was all I needed.

  Without breaking my momentum, I swung my sword in a perfect upwards arc and sliced the woman from her navel to her neck. She stopped in her tracks, and her cries choked on her own black infectious blood. She fell to the ground in a heap of blue silk and black blood. I didn’t feel any remorse. I didn’t feel anything at all.

  More of the infected noblemen, women, and children slipped out of the shadows and came towards us. I didn’t have time to deal with the emotions that surged inside me, of how wrong all of this was, especially the children. I ignored them, and we arrived at the foot of the temple. I hit the stairs two at a time, Will and Leo running up behind me.

  “Where are the prisons?” panted Will at my side as we charged through the front doors.

  Even in all the madness and confusion of our plight, I had mapped out the temp
le in my mind the first time I was here. And I remembered the layout well.

  I slowed to a jog to catch my bearings. “This way!”

  I shot down the main hallway and took a sharp right turn into a neighboring corridor. With my heart in my throat, my steps were steady as I flew down the passageway. Torch lights flickered as I ran, sending long shadows shimmering against the stone walls. The hairs on the back of my neck rose, not at the unnerving shadows but at the silent and empty corridor. There were no courtesans, no priests, and no guards. We met no one as we neared the entrance to the prisons in the bowels of the temple. I made for the great wood doors and frowned. I remembered all too well what lingered beyond.

  “Elena, wait!” cried Will, his voice harsh and out of breath. “This doesn’t feel right.”

  “He’s right,” Leo’s voice of reason sounded from behind me. “Why are there no guards? Why is it so empty?”

  “Because it’s a trap, that’s why,” answered Will.

  Yes. It probably is.

  But I didn’t stop. Even though my mind screamed that this was a trap, my legs wouldn’t stop. My heart wouldn’t let me. Just the thought of Jon, so vivid and startling, caused my eyes to flame with tears. The memory of his gentle fingers on my skin, his kisses, his musty sweat smell—all of it was so painful, I stifled a sob. I couldn’t lose him. I wouldn’t. I had told Will and Leo that I would do whatever it took to get him back.

  Passing the threshold, I bolted down the stairs and into the blackness of the prison tunnel. The hot, acrid air and the smell of rot hit me like a slap in the face, but I kept going. I felt the air move behind me, and I knew Will and Leo were right with me. Perhaps this wasn’t a trap. Perhaps Jon wasn’t even here. I couldn’t let myself get carried away with my fears.

  He is alive and I will find him.

  As I hit the last step, my boots splashed through puddles of piss and human feces. I tore down through the tight chamber doing my best to breathe through my mouth and not vomit. The only sounds were those of our heavy treads. There were no echoes of the moans I’d remembered from before.