The Stone Queen

by L. E. Bross

  “Shit, someone's coming. Get out of here,” one of them shouted.

  “She said to finish the job,” another growled.

  “Screw that, I'm not stickin' around to get caught,” the first said. “That dark son of a bitch she hangs with will kill us. Besides, she ain't got much time anyway.”

  One of them made contact with my spine, a kick so vicious that I felt the vertebrae snapping apart under their boot. The pain in my lower body went still. I felt nothing from the waist down.

  It took full minutes to realize the torture had stopped and that my attackers were gone. When I tried to open my eyes, they wouldn't part, so I gingerly attempted to touch around them. My fingers refused to bend. I moved an inch to the left, but a piercing pain took my breath away and I stopped. My breath mixed with a gurgling sound every time I pushed it out. Wetness seeped down my throbbing face, but whether blood or tears I had no idea.

  I fought against the prickly stars of unconsciousness that hovered at the edges of my mind. I opened my mouth to call out a few times, but the agony in my chest stopped me cold. Each breath scorched my lungs like fire.

  The ground started to vibrate under me, but the blackness in my vision grew thicker and I had no idea if the sound was coming from inside or outside of me. If anything were even real anymore.

  “Princess?” A strangely familiar voice rasped over my head. “Meri, can you hear me?”

  I opened my mouth but only warm wetness came out to dribble over my cheek. I couldn't breathe. Each tiny gasp was an effort of futility.

  I was choking on my own blood as it filled my damaged lungs. I heard the wet sounds coming from my mouth, gurgling like the water next to my arch. I grasped onto that thought and concentrated on that image. Of children running barefoot through a meadow of flowers in dazzling colors, streamers fluttering behind them. Of breathtaking water that sparkled like diamonds.

  I wanted to be there. To smell the air. To hear the children's laughter. To join in the perfection that was everything around them.

  This was what I clung to as the life left my body.

  I was lifted from the pavement but my body didn't hurt anymore. It was almost peaceful, the way my mind disconnected. For the first time in as long as I remembered, there were no nightmares lurking in the corner of my vision. With my eyes swollen shut I didn't even have to close them.

  The stone under my face was incredibly warm as it tensed and bunched rhythmically.

  “Almost there,” his voice rumbled under my cheek. “Just hold on. Please hold on.”

  The plea of the monster crept into the fading awareness in my head but it was too late. Blood had filled where only air should be. There were no breaths left inside me.

  There wasn't even enough life left in me to fight it when everything went black.

  I slipped under and let it all go.

  I was finally free.

  Voices crept into my subconscious and I struggled to understand what they said.

  “I can't help her while she is glamoured. She must be in true form for any of my magic to work. It has become so much a part of her I can't see the edges to even begin to pry it off. I've spelled her enough to keep her breathing for a short time, but there is nothing more I can do for her. She is dying.”

  The voice sounded like the old lady who lived downstairs from us. Harsh from decades of smoking, it had an almost manly quality. I tried to turn my head and every muscle in my body ignited in white-hot fire, but all I could do was moan through gritted teeth. Could I be dead and feel this much pain?

  “There, there, girl. Just relax. I'll give you something to help with the pain, but I can't help you unless you remove your Glamour.”

  A coolness washed over my skin, like someone had poured cold water over my body. Immediately the pain faded into a bearable throbbing and I could inhale tiny gasps of air. I could still hear the gurgling of blood in my lungs, but I could at least breath enough.

  Through the slit in one eye I saw a shadow move closer.

  “Princess, you must remove your Glamour for Evelina to help you. She can heal your wounds, but not until you are in true form.”

  It was the stone monster talking. There was a panicked urgency to the whispered words, but I had no idea what they meant. Exhaustion tugged at my mind and I drifted back off into my cozy dreamland, completely forgetting there was anyone else there with me.

  “There is another way, but it is a last resort…” the old woman's voice said just before I completely sank under the weight of sleep.

  Chapter 5

  Chills raced through my body as if I had been plunged into the Arctic Ocean.

  I jerked back into consciousness and my teeth clattered together so violently I thought they would break from the hammering impact. It echoed in my head, louder than anything I'd ever heard in my life.

  I'd been cold before, but nothing like this. This was bone-deep, bitter, and it sucked the very life out of me. When a rush of fire roared through me next, pushing that life back inside, I screamed. The sound ricocheted around the room and slammed back into me. Now I was being burning to death.

  I thrashed around, fighting to get free from this inferno, but my hands were secured to something at my sides.

  I was tied down on my back unable to move more than an inch. Fresh panic exploded under my skin and I strained against the bonds. Guttural screams rushed past my lips.

  “Is this necessary?” The strained voice came from somewhere above me.

  The gargoyle, it was letting this happen to me. It had rescued me from the attackers only to bring me to a place where the agony never stopped. Another white hot flash of pain seared through me. I arched off the table with a loud wail, forgetting the very thoughts in my head.

  “Please…stop…” Broken sobs filled the room.

  “The Glamour has attached itself so deep into her psyche that it has become a part of her. To remove it we must strip it away, layer after layer,” a strange voice hissed.

  Oh god, they were skinning me alive.

  I screamed again, so loud that my throat burned.

  “How much longer?” the Gargoyle ground out. I heard anger in its voice, but what did that thing have to be angry about. I was the one being slowly tortured.

  “Patience, Kalian, we are almost there, I can see her true glimmering already.”

  The cold came again and I lost the ability to think once more. I wanted to cry, to ask why they were doing this to me, but I could barely take a breath. I'd been beaten in Central Park and now some sick psycho was slicing my body to ribbons.

  Why? I formed the words but couldn't say them.

  “Yes, there she is, we're almost there.” The deep voice above me sounded almost eager now.

  Almost where? I screamed in my head.

  What the hell were they doing to me?

  Even the air hurt as it brushed across my raw flesh, a fiery trail of acid eating away at my bones. It burned right through me, right down to the core of my existence. There would be nothing left when this was over.

  I tried to scream for them to stop, but my tongue had swollen to fill my mouth.

  Then in an instant, it was over.

  The pain stopped and there was just nothingness.

  Silence filled my head.

  Sure that I was dead now, I barely noticed when heat enveloped me. Not the searing hot like before, this was the softest feathery touch with just the perfect amount of warmth.

  I floated almost outside myself.

  This was….nice. Peaceful. Pain free.

  “Step aside,” a woman said briskly, “I can heal her now.”

  Fingers stroked along my forehead and a trail of fire licked after the touch. Not again.

  “No more,” I gasped. “Please.”

  Boulders shifting filled my ears.

  “Stand back, Kalian,” the woman hissed. “This is necessary if you want her alive and well.”

  A rumbling growl echoed around me, but the heavy footsteps moved away.r />
  The touches continued and the fire trail followed, but it was gone almost as soon as it started. Then, I realized that my eyes were no longer swollen shut. I blinked several times to bring the dim room into focus.

  A wizzled old face scrunched up in concentration filled my vision. The hair on her head stood up in all directions like one of those troll dolls, and her gnarly hands swept back and forth across my body. Light glowed from the places she passed over, and I saw there was no blanket after all. The warmth came from her fingers.

  The fire was coming from her hands.

  I tried to sit up but the bonds held me in place. Air and blood still gurgled in my lungs as I struggled to speak.

  “What's going on?” I managed to push out.

  I watched the woman move her hands over my chest and each breath came easier. Finally I could suck in an entire lungful of air without feeling as though I were drowning. I took several lungfuls of clear air, no longer choking on my own blood.

  “Who are you?” My voice started to get louder again. “Where am I?”

  I struggled to be free, tried to kick out with my legs and realized I couldn't feel them. There was nothing from the waist down. The crack I heard, the kick to my lower back. I was broken still.

  “Hush. Lay still, this next part is going to take a lot of concentration.”

  This time the woman laid her hands on each side of my hips and heat pulsed from her fingers. A glowing white dome covered the bottom half of my body and I watched in detached fascination as the light pulsed like a heartbeat.

  Slowly, awareness crept back in.

  I could feel the top of my legs.

  Sweat beaded on the woman's forehead and her hands shook. Her lips were moving but I couldn't hear what she said under her breath. The glow became brighter, so bright that I had to close my eyes and the pulsing crawled down my legs until I felt it in my toes.

  Then it all stopped.

  The warmth. The touch.

  I opened my eyes and saw the woman stagger back, into the arms of a strange looking creature. My eyelids fluttered as I tried to make sense of what I saw. It was man sized, but had uncut sideburns that grew down his face, twisting into a thick beard. Its ears pointed upwards into peaks above his head and though it was dressed, misshapen legs were obvious beneath the loose pants he wore.

  “She is healed.” The woman sank into a large chair with the creature's assistance.

  Shadows swirled and moved and I tensed. Then, a huge figure stepped into the light. The stone monster. When he reached the table, he dropped to one knee and bowed his head.

  “I am sorry for the pain. You were…” His head sank even lower. “You were close to death and we had no choice.”

  I tried to sit up again but the bindings still held me down.

  “Can you untie me?”

  The goat creature sprang forward, and in minutes I found my limbs free.

  The stone monster finally lifted its head. “It was necessary to keep you still during the process.”

  I gingerly sat up, waiting for the pain, but none came. I glanced down, sure that my skin would be raw from everything I felt earlier, but my clothes were still on and there was no indication my skin had been removed.

  There weren't even any bruises as proof of the attack earlier.

  “I don't understand.”

  I swallowed against the sudden dryness in my mouth. I tried to lick my lips and winced as my tongue scraped across the sharp ridges of my lips. A cup appeared next to me, and I sat up and took it without asking, gulping down mouthfuls of the cooling liquid.

  “Who are you?” I asked the stone creature.

  “Kalian, Princess Meri.”

  I looked around the room until I realized he meant that Princess Meri was me. And his name was Kalian. And I had to be in some state of unconsciousness because none of this was real. I'd suffered through enough delusions to recognize I just needed to ride this out. I closed my eyes and tried to find the pieces of reality that had to be there.

  “She will be vulnerable in this state. There was a reason she was cloaked so fully. You must be very careful and keep her safe until you can bring her home,” the old lady said.

  I twisted my arm in front of me, searching for evidence of anything that had happened to me. The room spun when I looked up. Why did I feel so…light? Like I could just jump up and fly away.

  “The potion will allow her to rest now and complete the healing on her own.”

  They drugged me?

  The cup slipped from my fingers even as I tried to fight against sleepiness, and there was nothing to do but to give in and let the light take me away.

  I dreamt of a beautiful castle, brilliant with wild colors.

  It made me burst with a happiness I had never felt before. Free and alive, I wanted to stay there forever. But the sleep faded, leaving me with only the fleeting remnants of that wondrous place as I fought to remember every tiny detail.

  I'd never had such a vivid dream before, one that felt more memory than fiction.

  “She is awake.”

  The voice, unlike the ones I'd heard before, ran like warm syrup through my veins. Instinctively I leaned closer to it. I wanted to hear it again. When nothing else came, I forced my eyes open. For a moment I reconsidered that I had in fact died and gone to heaven and was looking at one of the angels.

  This man next to me, he was beautiful.

  Long, dark hair flowed over broad and muscled shoulders highlighted under the tight leather jacket he wore as if it were a second skin. He was lean everywhere, built almost exactly like Torin. A twinge of longing rose in my chest until the man reached out and gently lifted my chin, turned it from side to side as he examined me, and I forgot everything but him.

  “Now this is a marked improvement.”

  His honeyed voice flowed over me in sweet lazy rivers again. I looked up and swallowed the mixture of fear and amazement. His eyes were pure violet. Completely. Not a bit of white could be seen. Not the normal circle of black in the middle, they were just vibrant purple from edge to edge.

  And totally mesmerizing.

  I felt lost in them, unable to look away.

  Tightness gripped my chest and I lifted my hand. I needed to touch this stranger.

  A low growl sounded from behind the man who grinned at me before taking a step back. The stone monster, Kalian, came closer, his clawed feet digging into the cement floor.

  “Meri.” He pushed his body between me and the man, cutting off my view. Instantly the connection I felt was gone. The stone beast shifted and I realized just how much of the room it took up with its monstrous size.

  Yet it seemed uneasy. Wary.

  “Can you sit?” it rasped out.

  I wasn't sure I had the strength, but when I pushed up, nothing hurt anymore. In fact, I'd never felt better in my life. When I looked up again, I froze. The room around us wavered and I realized something was very different about the stone beast

  “Your eyes,” I whispered.

  I lifted my hand and lay against his rough cheek. I remembered touching the statue that first night. Had I only missed that its eyes were almost…human looking? Like the lake in my hallucinations, his eyes were a brilliant blue.

  They were just like the stranger's; color from edge to edge with no pupil. No white. Right before my eyes, the blue darkened to the color of angry clouds before a storm. They pulled me in, but I felt safe, safer than I ever had in my entire life.

  They were so familiar. I knew them, but how?

  I fought for the memory. It was right there, on the edge of my awareness.

  “Princess…Meri, you must listen to me,” Kalian's urgent whisper brought me out of my head. “In order to save you we had to strip away your cloaking. You are vulnerable now. Able to be seen.”

  The fear in its voice sent goose bumps skittering along my skin, even in the hot room. “I don't understand what you're saying.”

  The stranger laughed and I could almost see the sound d
ancing in the room. Bright colors swirled and dipped around me like butterflies. Enraptured, I watched them move. They made me smile.

  “Charming when one completely forgets who they really are don't you think, gargoyle? Almost like a newborn babe, unaware of the evils waiting to snatch it up.”

  The beautiful man sauntered over, stopping just inches from me. He brushed his fingers over my cheek and I tilted my head to get closer to his touch. This craving for contact, from a stranger no less, was insane. I hated people touching me.

  Well anyone except for Torin.

  But I couldn't help this need rising inside me, a desperation to feel skin on skin.

  “So very vulnerable, like a newborn kitten,” he said.

  I fought to urge to purr.

  He spoke to Kalian, but his gaze never left mine. I watched his lips move and had the sudden want to feel them against my own. He smiled that same grin that Torin used when he knew I wanted him, as if he could see my deepest thoughts.

  “Remember our deal, Elf,” Kalian growled.

  The beautiful man grinned. “I never forget a promise, Guard.” He turned back to me and I leaned toward him. The only thing keeping me from tumbling off the table was Kalian's giant form next to me.

  “Until we meet again, my sweet.” The man leaned until his mouth was next to my ear. My skin broke out in a rush of goosebumps. “And we most certainly will,” he whispered.

  He turned and left the room and took the warmth with him. A chill swept through so quickly I shivered. My skin now crawled where he had touched me, the complete opposite of how I felt only seconds earlier. I rubbed my arms to dispel the cold. A vile, bitter aftertaste coated my tongue.

  “Who was that?” I whispered to no one in particular.

  “Nephaste,” Kalian snarled. “You'd do well to remember his name. He becomes the air needed to breathe and the disease that will kill you. Both enemy and friend. Never, ever trust him.”

  “Then why was he here?” I asked. “What did you promise him?”

  He met narrowed gaze of the old woman I saw before, but said nothing.