The three of them were surrounded by flickering and flowing green light. It was like being inside an ocean wave. Keep walking, Rainere had instructed them. Never stop walking inside a portal. The structure is as fragile as water, and you will sink through and drown just as easily.
Adele pulled on Ohrig’s arm and he hefted Pepper tighter to him. Adele led them through in what she hoped was a straight line. She concentrated hard on the image of her daughter’s face and prayed that Rainere had got her to safety. The Magic about them hissed and zapped at their steps, and Adele saw a door appear, surrounded by shadows. It was the only exit in front of them and she headed toward it. Walking was taking all her energy and she was working hard to concentrate on keeping her steps steady and constant.
Suddenly, Rainere appeared in front of her. He looked weary and was covered in the black soot of disintegrated spiders.
“This way, cara mia,” he said gently and took her hand. “That way lies darkness.”
Obediently, Adele followed Rainere along the invisible path in the portal, Ohrig dragging Pepper with him. She heard the Chime Voices complain about not heading toward the door, but they only whispered and chimed quietly in the back of her head so she ignored them.
Though she felt like they were curving back on themselves, Adele soon saw a gap in the green wall and through it she could see the forest at the edge of the Belvoir Estate. Rainere stepped out first and pulled her through after him. Adele stumbled like she had gotten off a boat when she left the portal.
It was night now, and the full moon lit the forest floor so she could see Natalie, still asleep, lying in the arms of Captain Lucky as he leaned against a tree. With a cry she ran the short distance to her daughter and grabbed her out of Lucky’s arms, sobbing great, hot sobs of relief. She sunk down to her knees still holding Natalie and thanked every God in Unisia and on Earth that she had got her daughter back in one piece. Natalie was alive.
She felt Rainere’s touch on her shoulder as he sank down beside her. “True love’s kiss will wake her, Adelena,” he said, his gravelly voice even hoarser after the fire. “A kiss from the person who loves her most in the world will wake her and she will be fine. But perhaps wait a moment, the dark and the forest may frighten her. Get her back to the Estate where she will be happier.”
Adele could understand his concern, and it made sense even though she wanted nothing more than to see Natalie’s green eyes open. She felt Rainere watching her, but she didn’t look at him or say anything and after a minute he moved away.
General Ohrig dropped down next to her on the sticks and leaves, stretching his legs out with a groan.
“How is the Princess?” he asked and lay a gentle hand on Natalie’s cheek.
“Rainere says she’ll be fine, but to wake her up when we get back to Belvoir.” Adele nodded to the forest around them. “All this would frighten her to pieces.”
“Well, if she is anything like her mother, she might take a bit more than that to scare,” said General Ohrig, as a smile yanked up the corner of his mouth. “Never has a woman showed me the true meaning of courage like you have tonight, my Queen.”
Adele returned his grin. Natalie was back in her arms and she could smile again. “But if anyone ever asks you, General, I ran the whole way out of that tunnel by myself.”
Ohrig managed a dry chuckle. “And if anyone ever asks you, Your Majesty, the smell of piss on my trousers is all Spider waste.”
Adele pulled Natalie tighter to her chest and took a deep breath. The horrible fear that had held her lungs tight was gone. She had won. She had killed yet another monster in Evendaar and had kept her family safe again.
Adele sucked in a breath and felt a sob rattle through her.
Long live the Queen!
Chapter Fifty-One
“Fire Lights the Way as it Burns”
Adele looked up to see Schiss staring at her from just a few feet away. He had crawled over to her on his knees and when her tired eyes took him in, she could see his shabby black jacket was crawling with Spiders the size of her hand.
Despite everything they had been through tonight in the Spiders Nest, the sight of those creatures—hairy and long-legged—moving over Schiss’s body still made her shiver.
“My Queen,” Schiss ducked his head respectfully, but his large eyes were full of fear. “I’m sorry to interrupt you and the General.”
“What is it, Schiss?” asked Adele, something about Schiss’s manner made her nervous. She handed Natalie to Ohrig and struggled to her feet to stand before him. Adele cast a glance in Rainere’s direction. He was starting a fire, but he looked up suddenly as if she’d called his name. She turned away from his dark stare.
The little man-Spider was as tall as she was, but he tried hard to make himself as small as possible, hunched over his wringing hands.
“My Queen, congratulations on your victory tonight. The Spider Empress is dead and all the Favored Children with her. All that remains of our once great people is myself and these few babies who crawled into my jacket before the Fire could eat them too.”
Adele didn’t like the word ‘babies’ being used to describe the tiny Spiders they had all trampled on their desperate run out of the Nest. It made her feel - uncomfortable. Schiss looked terrified as he trembled in front of her, and the moonlight did his large features no favors.
“My Queen, it was an honor to fight by your side and serve you in this war…”
“I’m sorry Schiss, it’s been a long night,” said Adele, her eyes narrowing. “Please just get to the point.”
Schiss coughed and plucked a spider off his face as it crawled out of his hair and tucked it protectively in a pocket. He smiled at her. His thin lips stretched hard over his pointy teeth in a valiant effort to be brave. “My family and I would like to know what you mean to do with us, m’Queen,” he squeaked. “If you mean to take our lives then I will place my own head under your foot. For I could think of no nobler way to join the Great Darkness beyond this world than by…”
“Stop,” interrupted Adele. “I’m not going to kill you, Schiss. I saved your life in that tunnel and I’m not going to take it now, or of any of those ba…babies.”
All the quiet conversations around them stopped to listen to her speaking to Schiss.
Looking down at the fragile Schiss and the Spiders crawling about him, trying to hide themselves in his clothes she couldn’t help, but feel a cold stab of guilt. How many more Spider People just like Schiss had been hidden in those tunnels and caverns? Now they were all burned to ashes by the Dragon Fire. The fire that would continue to burn underground until every single Spider and object touched by Spider Magic was dust. Schiss and what was left of his family could never return there. She had killed their Empress and destroyed their home. They were now refugees in their own world.
Adele took a deep breath and tried to order her jumbled thoughts. “I only killed the Empress because she took my daughter from me, and would have killed us both. She wanted to rule Unisia and eat my people. I couldn’t let her have her way.” Adele shook her head. “But if you mean me no harm, Schiss, then you are free to go your own way. Your loyalty and faith in me have earned you your freedom. Without your help tonight we would never have been able to save Natalie and for that I will always be grateful to you. Thanks to you Schiss, I will never have to fear another Spider again.”
Adele forced herself to grasp Schiss shoulder. She felt his tiny bones beneath her hand and tried not to flinch as the little Spiders on that part of his arm scattered.
“Schiss, you are now Emperor of the Spider People,” said Adele. “You should gather up the last of your family who live under the Sun like you do and let them know of the danger for them in the Nest. Let them know that you are their new leader and that the Queen of Unisia considers you her personal friend and hero.”
“Hero,” whispered Schiss and his lip trembled. Adele’s speech was too much for him. He dropped to her feet and kissed her filthy shoes. “Queen
Adelena, your mercy is only equaled by your power and beauty. I give you my deepest…”
“Get up, Schiss,” insisted Adele, and took Schiss by his shoulders pulling him to his feet. “You are an Emperor now. Stand tall and be proud. I know you will do well by your people. And if you ever need anything you only have to ask it of me. I will never forget what you did here tonight for my family.”
Schiss bowed deeply. Adele bowed in return and smiled. She felt good that she had restored some balance to what she had done here tonight, and she felt the rightness of it down to her bones.
“I will leave immediately to search the forest for the rest of my people, m’Queen,” Schiss grinned. “I will let them know we can walk in the light of Queen Adelena’s Unisia. The Above Lands are once again safe for the Children of the Shadows.”
Schiss bowed once more and scuttled away from her and into the deep gloom of the Dark Forest.
Adele’s stomach had dropped away at Schiss’s words and she could see Rainere had heard as well. Though she couldn’t hear him she saw his lips move in the words of the Prophecy.
So, it looked like she had cast “the Shadows into the Light” after all. But it was still difficult to see Schiss as a Shadow creature when he had been so selfless in helping her to save Natalie. Perhaps the Prophecy was wrong about that, too?
“Your Majesty, we should probably get to Belvoir now,” said General Ohrig. “It’s getting close to dawn break and we need to prepare to return to the Golden Palace.”
Adelena nodded. Despite his warning not to return there, Adele had to tell High Wizard Ohren about the death of the Spider Empress and everything that had happened. Though she still didn’t have all the details of the wretched Prophecy, the fact that it was unfolding before her very eyes was disturbing. Ohren would have to help her, whether he liked it or not.
By leaving her in the dark about everything, Ohren had sent her to the Mage of Sandar woefully unprepared. Then he had sent her to the Belvoir Estate, with not a word about why. Had Adele known anything about the details of the Prophecy, she never would have left the grounds of Belvoir Estate and she never would have run into Rainere’s arms and all of his psychotic plans for their ‘happily ever after’ in a world run by giant monster Spiders and no Natalie.
Adele felt cold. High Wizard Ohren was a mystery himself, but he was also the only source of answers for all the questions she had about her Magic. On this journey she had experienced so much and learned even more about herself. She was no longer the frightened, trusting girl she had been when she had left the Golden Palace three weeks ago. But what exactly she was now she couldn’t say. But she was stronger, certainly.
Stronger and angrier.
Chapter Fifty-Two
“But When the Fire Goes Out”
Rainere watched as the men around him pulled themselves to their feet and made to follow their Queen back to Belvoir. He had designed the portal to land at a point at the border closest to the Belvoir Manor. They would only have a short walk back, no more than a mile.
Through the Mark on his side, Rainere could feel Adelena’s thoughts flash to him and away again. He couldn’t make out her every thought or read her mind, but the Mark let him feel a connection to her so deep that when she thought of him, it was as if she spoke to his face. The connection was fascinating, but, at this point, also very painful.
He could feel that Adelena was confused and bewildered. She longed to take comfort from him, but couldn’t find her way back to trusting him as she had once. He would have to be gentle with her. Though with the danger of the Spider Empress now passed they no longer had to marry with such haste, he could not imagine having her so far from him again. Leaving her alone at the Golden Palace with her children would be impossible. Until Rainere could be sure of what the High Wizard Ohren wanted from Adelena he would be keeping her safely by his side at the Grey Palace.
Rainere was surprised Adelena didn’t even turn to look at him as she walked to the edge of the magical boundary between the Dark Forest and the Belvoir Estate.
She didn’t mean to leave him here alone?
“Adelena,” Rainere called out, not caring who heard the desperate note in his voice.
Adelena froze and though her back was still to him he could feel her feelings toward him churn and swell in her mind.
“Adelena, don’t leave me like this,” he begged, pouring every ounce of passion into his plea. “You have to know everything I did, I did to protect you. If I had had any idea the Spider Empress would betray me like that, I would never have taken Natalie to her. I love you, cara mia, and I love your children.”
Adelena finally turned to face Rainere. He drank in every feature on her finely-drawn face. She was exquisite. She was the image of love painted on his heart.
“Love,” she said quietly. “That’s a funny word to use to describe your deception and ambition, Prince Rainere.”
Rainere gasped and grabbed at his side where the Mark burned him with the force of her emotions. “Cara mia, please, don’t,” his voice was rough with pain.
“I am not your cara mia!” Adele suddenly shouted. “I never was! You lied to me and you used me, and all you ever wanted was this crown off my head.”
Rainere took a step toward her, crossing the fire. If he could just hold her again, he could make her understand. She had to understand he had done it all for her.
“No!” And his shout was as fierce as hers. “I do love you and it was for that love that I have turned my whole world upside down, Adelena. I betrayed my Family name, my vows, and The Blood itself for you, woman. You have no idea what it cost me to protect you from this world!”
“What is it exactly that have you protected me from?” asked Adelena, and swung her arms wide encompassing the whole group of tired men and her sleeping daughter. “We almost died tonight!”
Even now, in the shuddering firelight, covered in disintegrated spiders and wet with the filthy water from the tunnels, she still looked beautiful. But the hatred that she felt for him was flooding through the Mark and filling him with despair. Her love was the most precious thing that Rainere had ever been given, and he would not let it go without a fight. After all he had been through to get her into his arms, she couldn’t just walk away from him tonight.
“I might have lied, but you lied, too, Adelena,” he said, and the green tears dripped down his cheeks unnoticed. “After all those years we had together in our dreams, and then finding you here, you told me you had waited for me, then you refused to be my bride. You told me you had no Magic and then you hurt me worse than I had ever been hurt before. You told me you didn’t think you were a Queen, but you wouldn’t give your Crown to me. I trusted you to tell me who you really were and it turned out that you are one of The Blood and not St. Lucidis at all, and you knew that. You promised to marry me. You vowed that you would love me always…”
“You forced that promise out of me,” Adelena hissed back. “I never wanted to marry you, or anyone else ever again.”
Rainere gasped. Finally, he had the truth. She had never wanted to keep him forever. A painful stab of self-loathing slipped between Rainere’s ribs and this time the emotions had nothing to do with Adelena’s.
Of course she had lied. How could she love me when no one else ever has?
Adelena continued screaming at him, but he no longer heard her words. It was enough to know the way she truly felt about him. His eyes dropped to the ground and his knees soon followed.
But how could she hate him so quickly now when he had only ever loved her and risked his Immortal soul to protect her in this world? Rainere closed his eyes against her tirade of pain and hurt. Her language had turned ugly and guttural… she was no longer his sweet Adelena. This night had woken a monster inside of her and he didn’t know this part of Adelena at all. This part she had kept hidden, even from herself. Rainere could feel the undercurrent of mad joy that Adelena took in screaming at him now. The monster was daring him to speak, daring him to retalia
te.
“Adelena,” he whispered, opening his eyes to look up at the twisted demon she had become. Before him, she was wreathed in shadows, her eyes burning with an eerie mix of green and gold lights. Her face was transfigured with rage and she spat down at him words of hate. He searched her face desperately for the woman he loved. “Come back to me, cara mia. Please.”
She finally stopped speaking and dropped her face down close to his. Her mouth was close enough to kiss.
“You need to go and find the deepest pit in Hell. You will crawl to the bottom of that pit and there you will spend every last day of your endless life knowing with absolute clarity just how much I hate you. Right up until the day I stop thinking of you at all.” Adelena placed her hand over Rainere’s hand where it was pressed to his side. He ached for the touch and leaned into her only to recoil from the vicious blow she sent him through the Mark.
Rainere fell to the ground. His ears were ringing and his head buzzed and spun sickeningly. He couldn’t pull a breath into his lungs and didn’t feel Grotto when he dropped to the Prince’s side and started banging on his chest.
Rainere fought to gain control of his neck muscles, just enough so that he could turn and follow Adelena with his eyes. His heart stuttered and burst in his chest and he was aware, dully, of just how frantic Grotto was now.
Am I dying? But the thought was almost a relief. This way he wouldn’t have to live without her again. He saw the doorway into the Great Darkness beyond and felt his soul reluctantly step toward it. Freedom blew in the doorway and tasted like the North Wind. If he could just pass through, he would be free.
He could make out Adelena’s ruined shoes as she walked away from him, but hot tears kept blurring his vision and burning his eyes.
“Your Majesty, is he? I mean…” Charlie asked, giving Rainere a look that was heavy with pity.
“I said, we are done here,” snapped Adelena, not even sparing Rainere a glance, as she took her daughter back from Captain Lucky.
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