If there was to be no celebration dinner, then there would be no distraction for me to sneak away. Everything was ruined. My insides turned to stone.
“How dare you shame me like this, boy,” growled the king.
“Don’t you think one wife is enough, Father?” the prince held his head high and ignored the white-hot glare of the king.
Some of the guests began sneaking out of the throne room in a panic.
“Take her to my quarters,” ordered the prince.
Before I could protest, I was ushered out of the throne room by coven guards. I could still hear the bone chilling yelling of the king from the corridor outside.
The guards were holding me so tightly that I could feel bruises forming on my arms as I was dragged away. We arrived at a door I didn’t recognize, and they thrust me inside with such force that I tripped over the fabric of my gown and fell. I jumped to my feet just as I heard the door lock from the outside.
“Wait!” I threw myself at the door and pulled the handle with all my strength. But the heavy wooden door didn’t even rattle. I was locked in.
“I need my maid,” I cried out desperately.
I knew that Celeste wouldn’t have known what had happened yet. I feared that she might get killed if she got caught sneaking around in the hallways now. I couldn’t let that happen.
“Please, I need her. Will you send for her?”
But I could hear nothing except for the faint whispers of dust and gloom.
My heartbeat thundered in my ears. I was not beaten. Not yet. I needed a new plan.
I turned and slumped against the door.
The prince’s quarters were grand, much larger than my own. I lifted the skirt of my gown and ran through his chamber and into the two connecting rooms. But there were no windows in any of the rooms. My stomach churned, and I ran to the bathing chamber and vomited.
The sound of a key in the keyhole jostled me out of my thoughts, and I staggered towards the door.
The door swung open, and my heart leapt at the sight of Celeste.
“But…” I began as she closed the door behind her. “How did you know?”
She rushed to my side with a bundle of clothes in her arms.
“The guards came looking for me. You’re bonded to the prince now. You’re practically royalty…so they came swiftly.”
“Can I still make it to the side entrance without being caught?”
“Yes,” she said. “I’ve brought your clothes and supplies in the bag.”
She pulled my gown over my head and tossed it on the ground.
“I got some of the weapons you used in the witch trials, too.”
She beamed and pulled my witch blade from the traveling bag.
I grinned and grabbed my shirt and pants. I dressed quickly and was pleased to have my own clothes for a change. I couldn’t help but notice that they had been mended.
“How did you get the weapons past the guards?”
“They’ve gone. All the coven guards are in the throne room trying to keep the king and the prince from killing each other. Still, we must hurry.”
With my sword and hunting knife sheathed around my belt, and my bag across my shoulders, we hurried out of the prince’s chambers.
Celeste explained that we were in the north towers, and to my intense surprise and relief, the hallways were deserted. We moved in silence and didn’t meet anyone as we dashed through the fortress and flew down countless sets of stairs. I followed Celeste, and we finally reached the fifteen-foot oak doors that led to the outside. Celeste had been right, there were no coven guards. We thrust our weight against the mighty doors, and they groaned open to reveal a manicured courtyard with fruit trees, shrubs, and ponds.
My lungs burned as I inhaled. The moon illuminated all the shrubs and trees in silver. I could see the outer stone wall about a hundred yards from where I stood. Beyond the wall was freedom.
“Here, take this.” Celeste took my hand and placed a vial in it.
It was different from the other tonics she’d made for me, and even in the darkness of night I could tell it was red. “What is it?”
“A remedy against black magic,” she said. “I’ve never heard of it working on humans, but it’s worth a try if you can reach him. You must make him drink all of it. There’s not much, but if his body can handle it, then it should work.”
I grasped the vial firmly in my hands. My eyes burned.
“Thank you.”
I slipped the vial in my pack and swallowed hard.
“Come with me.”
Her eyes widened in shock. “I can’t. I don’t know…”
“There’s nothing for you here,” I said hurriedly. “If this tonic works, you can be a real help in our fight against the necromancers. You have no idea how much this could help us. How much you can help us.”
Celeste looked away. “Your humans will never accept me. I’m a witch, remember.”
“Maybe,” I said. “But I think if they saw you as a healer, a healer with a tonic that fights black magic, I believe you’d be safe.”
I could see her eyes flash with understanding.
Celeste laughed nervously. “This is crazy…but…all right, I accept.”
I flashed her a grin. “Come on!”
We dashed across the courtyard and were heading south in search of the stables when the witch queen stepped from the shadows.
CHAPTER 33
“WHERE DO YOU THINK you’re going, half-breed?” The witch queen’s magecraft glowed like a tiny yellow sun in the semi-darkness as she emerged from the dark.
I pushed Celeste behind me and whispered, “Get back behind the trees.”
The witch queen was alone, but that didn’t stop the terror that was building in the pit of my stomach. I knew she was here to kill me.
“Have you been following me, queeny?” I said, trying to hide the tremor in my voice and trying to keep her attention away from my friend.
The witch queen smiled wickedly.
“Even if you did mate with my step-son, it doesn’t change anything. I will never accept a lesser witch within my coven. Especially a half-breed, human tramp.”
From the corner of my eye I saw Celeste disappear behind a row of bushes.
My hand crept towards my witch blade, and I grasped its familiar cold metal hilt.
“I never wanted to be part of your stupid coven. I never wanted to be part of any of this. Of this hell. I came here for one reason alone—to seek reinforcements from the witch king.”
“Even if what you say is true,” said the queen, “do you really think you can defeat the necromancers who have one of the most powerful magic stones in this world in their possession? You? You don’t have what it takes. You lack the magic power. You’re nothing but a second grade witch, a lesser witch. You are nothing. Just like your mother.”
I tightened my grip on my witch blade.
“Let me go, and I promise you’ll never see me again.”
The witch queen threw back her head and laughed.
“That’s exactly what your mother said. And now, here you are…her replacement. No, you need to die. I need to be rid of all the steel maidens because the king will never stop desiring you. The way he looks at you makes me sick. Sick! The memories and the shame are all coming back like a horrible disease. The king looks at you with the same pathetic desire for a lesser being that I saw in his face when he looked at her. There can only be one witch queen. Not two.”
“Please,” I said. “I don’t want to be a queen of anything. I just want to go home. Just let me go.”
I was acutely aware of everything around me, the trees, the wind, and the sound of the grass beneath my boots. I narrowed my eyes and watched her.
“No.”
She moved from the shadows until I could see her clearly in the light of the moon.
“I won’t make the same mistake again. I failed to kill your mother. The slippery little bitch always managed to get away and heal. She even mad
e friends in the fortress who helped her slip away before I could finish her off. But I won’t make the same mistake twice.”
The witch queen’s violet eyes grew smoky with power, and her magecraft flared. The vinegar smell of magic hung in the air, and I felt goose bumps on my skin. Her face grew wild, and she hurled a string of magic at me.
I knew what was coming, and I spun and ducked. But a thread of magic struck me, and I sailed through the air and landed on something cold and solid. My head cracked on the ground, and I heard and felt my bones shatter. I groaned as my sword slipped from my splayed fingers. She hit me with another wave, and I heard more of my bones snap.
But then the familiar warmth of my own magic surged through me.
I jumped up instantly, and whirled around, searching for my sword.
“Such weak, beastly, lesser creatures,” laughed the witch queen. “All steel maidens are the same. Animals. And animals have no place in my coven. I think I’ll use your skin as a hide for a new coat.”
“You’re a sick bitch,” I hissed.
Her magic struck me again, and I crumpled to the ground, writhing in pain. My arms buckled as I fought to stand, but she hit me again and again with waves of her dark magic.
“Stop,” I breathed. I strained to reach her feet. “Please.”
The queen’s magic pulsed through me. I felt my insides burn and tasted blood in my mouth. I screamed as my body twisted and broke apart, slowly, bone by bone.
The queen smiled. “Die, you little whore—”
A boom of silver light suddenly exploded, and the queen went sailing in the air and hit the ground hard. I felt her magic leave me, and I pushed myself to my elbows.
“Elena!” Prince Aurion rushed to my side.
“Can you walk?”
I spit the blood from my mouth, took a deep breath, and tried to get up. I was immediately hit with a dizzy spell, and I sank back down.
“I need a minute.”
Red and black spots danced before my eyes.
“We don’t have a minute. We need to leave now—”
The prince cried out as a filament of magic wrapped around his body and lifted him off the ground.
“You traitor,” spat the witch queen as she moved forward.
“Your magic is no match for mine, princeling. Another mixed-blood bastard. Your mother was never fit to be queen. An augur witch like her made a mockery of the king and of our Dark Witches clan. And just like him, you are not fit to be king either. I’ll remove you, too, just as I removed your mother. And then I’ll remove the king.”
Aurion cried as the force of her magic ripped through the darkness and expanded in the air with a sonic boom. The prince was being torn apart. He was screaming and writhing, trying to live. Blood spilled from his mouth, his eyes, and his ears. She was killing him.
I struggled to my feet and hurled myself at the queen. We rolled and fell on the grass. I felt her grunt, felt her breath on my face. And then she was squeezing my neck. The pulsing of her magic burned, and I choked on it. The witch queen snarled as she poured all of her magic and malice into me. The darkness around me deepened. I was going to die this time…
“Her magecraft,” I thought I heard a voice say.
I blinked at the gleaming yellow pendant that dangled below the crazed face of the witch queen, and I knew what I had to do.
I gripped her pendant and yanked it off her neck.
The queen cried out in a combination of surprise and horror, and she let me go. I punched her in the face, and she fell back.
I staggered to my feet in a daze, but I felt a familiar warmth pulsing in my right hand. I stared at the magecraft and realized that the power from the Queen’s magecraft felt the same as the power I had felt when I had held the Heart of Arcania. I heard it in my ears and felt it pounding in my own chest. It was a fragment of the same kind of magic stone. Its power was strong, but it was nothing compared to the larger stone.
How could this be? Where did the witches get these stones?
Now I understood how the witches at the trials had power over me, and why my healing powers weren’t working.
The magecrafts were crafted with magic stones, not jewels.
I frowned. Ada and the other witches had told me that no man or witch could wield the power from magic stones, and yet here they were—set like jewelry.
“Give that to me!” screeched the queen. Her face was gaunt and hollow, as though a sudden sickness had taken hold of her, as though the stone was draining her power away.
All my hatred, and my own feelings of despair and betrayal, rose like a fire in my body.
The queen hurled herself at me, but I was ready for her, and when she was close enough for me to smell the rosewater on her neck, I pulled out my knife, thrust the blade under her chin and pushed it up into her brain.
Her violet eyes blinked once, and then their fiery light was extinguished.
Her body fell to the ground in a heap of witch silk. The witch queen was dead, and I had killed her.
I felt a presence behind me, and I spun around with my fists ready.
Prince Aurion raised his hands in surrender, and I relaxed. If he hadn’t warned me about the magecraft, the queen bitch would have killed us both. I pocketed the magic stone before he could ask for it back. I needed to show it to the high witch, Ada, and I needed to get some answers.
The prince examined the dead queen, but his face was unreadable. Then he looked at me, and his silver eyes gleamed in the moonlight like stars.
“We need to go,” said the prince. “Fawkes is waiting for you by the stables.”
“Fawkes?”
“There’s no time,” urged the prince, “he’ll explain. Quickly before the coven guards find you.”
The prince dashed through the courtyard. Celeste stepped out from behind the tree where she had been hiding. She looked shaken but still appeared to be determined to accompany me. I snatched up my witch blade, grabbed her hand and pulled her along with me as we followed the prince. We didn’t have to go far to reach the stables.
I stumbled to a halt and stared wide eyed. A group of about a hundred witches from the five witch clans were mounted on their horses and ready to ride. And they weren’t coven guards.
Fawkes rushed over to me. “Thank the Goddess.”
He embraced me and practically broke my ribs.
“Fawkes,” I looked around stunned. “Who are these witches?”
I recognized two of the Coven Council members who had been missing during the handfasting ritual, an old female witch who could have been Ada’s great-grandmother, and a male witch as old as the hills, but I had never seen any of the others before.
“Your army.”
“My army? How?”
“Once I knew for sure that the king would never agree to help us, I set about finding our own army. These witches, all of them, are loyal to you.”
I was glad the darkness hid the blush on my face.
“So that’s where you’ve been.”
Fawkes smiled weakly. “I was gathering as many witches as possible.”
I scanned the witches quickly, not a single witch had a magecraft on them.
“I don’t know what to say. Thank you,” I said to these strangers, and they dipped their heads in reply.
“Where are Will and the others?”
“Safe,” said Fawkes. “You’ll be together again soon enough.”
He moved towards the prince and shook his hand.
“We owe you our lives, Prince Aurion. Thank you for keeping her safe.”
The two men exchanged an embrace. I was completely baffled. I looked to Celeste, and her face was just as shocked as mine.
“Let’s ride,” said Fawkes. “We’ve got to clear the capital and make for the mountain pass before the king learns that you’ve escaped. Then we ride hard to Anglia and Gray Havens.”
A witch brought Torak to me, and I nearly fell to my knees sobbing. I wrapped my hands around Torak’s neck and bur
ied my face into his fur, breathing in his scent.
“Goddess I missed you, you big beast.”
Torak lowered his head and rested it on my shoulder. And for a moment I forgot all about the black blight, the priests, the queen, everything.
“Celeste is coming, too,” I said, as I raised my head from Torak’s mane. “She’s something of a potions master. She brewed a tonic that can cure black magic. We’re going to need her skills to fight the darkness.”
Her cheeks flushed as all the other witches looked to her with wonder, and I couldn’t help but notice that even the two Coven Council witches smiled.
But there was still something that nagged me. I let go of Torak and made my way to the prince. He was even more radiant in the moonlight. His eyes were bright and keen, and he looked fearless.
“Why are you helping me? Helping us?” I asked, feeling a sudden tightness in my chest.
“Because, just like you, I believe we need to stop the necromancers. I know the darkness is coming. I care about my people. My father may not see the threat until it’s too late, but I’ll remain here and try to convince him to help.”
He paused, and his skin darkened. “Although that might prove a little more difficult after what happened…”
I stiffened at the memory. I couldn’t help but feel that he had betrayed me even though he had been helping Fawkes the whole time.
“Elena…we didn’t…” the prince began.
I met his gaze. “What did you say?”
There was a shift in the prince’s face. “We didn’t do anything last night, apart from drinking.”
“But I was naked,” I said in a low voice, so only he could hear. “And you were naked.”
He flashed a smiled. “Well, yes. I had to remove your clothes for it to work, so that you would believe we had made love…but we hadn’t.”
I shook my head. “Why would you do that?”
“Because it was the only way to stop him. Because it needed to be convincing, otherwise my father would have seen through the bluff and would have forced the ceremony to continue. And I knew it was the only way to keep him and the queen off your back for a little while.”
“So it was all a lie.”
Witch Queen Page 26
