Always Golden

by Gina Dickerson

  Ravenna stepped forwards.

  ‘That’s far enough.’ Vilas pointed his sword at her. ‘I’m not letting you near Oriana.’

  Ravenna held her hands up. ‘I would never harm the queen.’

  Vilas realised Ravenna’s left hand was burnt. Anger rose inside him and, with a roar, he charged at the soldier.

  Lightning fast, Ravenna reached for her bow and fired one at Vilas, the metal tip skimming his ear and drawing blood.

  ‘Stop!’ she screamed. ‘It doesn’t have to be like this!’

  Vilas was almost upon her. ‘You’ve left me with no other choice!’

  ‘And you, me!’ Ravenna promptly dispatched a double-arrowed attack.

  It took Vilas a moment to realise why he felt strange. Looking down, time slowed.

  There were two arrows protruding from his chest.

  Suddenly, he felt thirsty, then dizzy, before collapsing.

  Ravenna’s feet drew into his line of sight. ‘You won’t die,’ she said. ‘I know you have drunk from The Pool of Health. You will recover. Eventually.’

  Weakened, Vilas struggled to focus on Ravenna’s retreating back. With a surge of hatred, he clambered unsteadily to his feet. Lifting his sword he sent it hurtling at Ravenna. She screamed as it sliced into her side. A sense of satisfaction washed over Vilas before he collapsed for a second time, knocking himself out on a fallen rock.

  Vilas’ head pounded like hell when he awoke. His mouth was dry and he needed a drink. Groaning, he felt his chest. The arrows were gone and all that remained to show they had ever been impaled there was the blood on his shirt.

  Someone had pulled the arrows from him while he had been out cold.

  Oriana was still in the same position and Vilas carefully picked her up, carrying her rigid body in his arms out of the cave housing The Pool of Youth. It took him even longer to find his way back through the labyrinth of passages, and several times he thought there was old magic in there with him playing tricks on his mind.

  It was with a sigh of relief he reached the cavern with The Pool of Health. Hoping he was right—that he had assumed correctly as to which pool was which—Vilas strode into the pool with Oriana in his arms. Submerging them both in the warm water, Vilas allowed a little of the water to slip down his throat.

  It tasted the same, didn’t it? The same as the drop Oriana had given him from her pendant?

  Holding his breath, Vilas watched Oriana’s face for any signs of movement. Just when he thought he needed a breath, Oriana gasped. With his heart pounding, Vilas carried Oriana from the pool and fell to the ground, clasping her to him.

  ‘I thought I had lost you,’ he murmured, covering her wet face with frantic kisses.

  Oriana’s grip was weak around his neck. ‘What happened?’

  ‘You were kidnapped and brought here by Ravenna.’

  ‘Ravenna?’

  ‘Did you not know it was her, my love?’ Vilas peered down into Oriana’s eyes.

  ‘Whoever brought me here was wearing a cloak with a hood and a golden mask.’

  ‘It was Ravenna, I saw her. She was with you in the cave with The Pool of Youth when I found you.’

  Oriana’s face was pale. ‘And Hashir?’

  ‘Still locked in his coffin.’

  ‘I didn’t say where he was,’ Oriana replied, with a sob.

  ‘I didn’t think you would unless you were tortured!’

  Oriana wriggled out of Vilas’ grasp. ‘I was.’ She pulled up her slip, exposing her back. ‘Am I scarred?’

  Vilas stood, wrapping both arms around Oriana. ‘No, just beautiful. Why?’

  ‘Ravenna—if it was her—struck me over and over across the back with arrows heated so their tips made my skin sizzle.’ Vilas felt Oriana stiffen. ‘Whose body is that?’

  Vilas had completely forgotten about the charred remains of Karima. Idiot. ‘I’m sorry, Oriana.’

  He tried to stop her from moving away from him but she was too fast and slipped from his grasp.

  ‘No!’ Oriana screamed, dropping to her knees and clasping the silk slipper to her chest. ‘Karima!’

  Vilas rested a hand on Oriana’s shoulder. ‘I’m sorry, I was too late to save her. I know how much you loved her.’

  Oriana’s eyes were wild. ‘Do something...take her into the pool, maybe she can be restored!’

  ‘She’s gone, Oriana.’

  ‘No!’ Oriana jumped to her feet and tried lifting the corpse. ‘She can’t be gone, she just can’t. The pool can give her life!’

  Vilas prised Oriana’s hands from the body. ‘It is too late,’ he replied softly, as if talking to a small child. ‘She is no longer inside that body. Even the water could not bring her burnt body back.’

  ‘No!’ Oriana screamed again, tears cascading down her cheeks.

  Ignoring Oriana’s struggling, Vilas put his arms around her and half carried, half dragged her from the cave to begin the walk back through the forest to Bron, and home.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Present Day

  Oriana

  It took the weight of Vilas’ hand on her shoulder to make Oriana realise he was crouched beside her.

  ‘What happened?’ His voice was full of concern. ‘Did you forget the spot we moved him to last year? I knew I should’ve gone with you.’

  Oriana could not answer him, could not find the words. Instead she turned her head to him and kissed him. ‘Do you still love me after all of these years?’

  ‘What kind of a stupid question is that?’

  Birds awakening from their sleep began to sing. Oriana savoured their song before answering Vilas’ question with another of her own. ‘You aren’t bored of someone you’ve spent centuries with?’

  ‘Absolutely not.’

  Oriana thought of the crowd in the forest. Children. ‘You don’t wish we could have had children?’ She gulped back a sob and turned her gaze to the dawn sky. ‘You didn’t sign up to be with me for ever and not have children. If I had known when I asked you to take a sip of the water that I was never destined to be blessed with bearing a child I would never have asked.’

  Vilas rose and held a hand down to Oriana. ‘I couldn’t have lived this life if we had had children. Watching them grow and live their lives…seeing them die all the while we remain frozen in time? No thank you.’

  Oriana needed Vilas’ warmth as he held her close. She liked how she fitted underneath his chin, how firm and solid he felt. She stiffened, hearing a wave of screams erupting from the dark forest.

  ‘Wait here,’ Vilas ordered, charging back to the car.

  Oriana loosened her hair and allowed the locks to tumble down her back. Although she cut her hair once a year now, it was already reaching down past her knees again. Double knotting her coat’s belt at her waist she ran after Vilas.

  ‘What are you doing?’ she shouted as he tapped his mobile phone.

  ‘Calling the police.’

  ‘You can’t.’

  Vilas looked up from his phone screen. ‘There’s something you need to tell me.’

  ‘I don’t think this is the time for phones.’ Oriana marched to the car boot and opened it. Reaching inside she grabbed Vilas’ sword and passed it to him before taking her own and strapping the sword belt around her waist.

  ‘Swords?’ Vilas looked bemused. ‘Who is in the forest? It’s not goblins, is it? I hate goblins.’

  ‘No, it’s worse.’

  Oriana ripped up the floor of boot, exposing where the spare tyre was kept. The gold bottle was warm when she picked it up. Vilas eyed her silently. She shook the bottle to make sure the contents had not dried up, and slipped its chain around her neck.

  ‘I’m not going to like this, am I?’ he asked.

  ‘No. Put on your armour.’

  ‘I’ll look like an idiot in armour if we walk into a bunch of campers in this day and age.’

  ‘Better an idiot than injured.’

  Oriana marched back towards the trees, finger
s hovering over the handle of her sword.

  Vilas caught up with her. ‘Tell me what’s going on.’

  Oriana held a finger to her lips.

  The screaming had died down.

  ‘Oriana!’ Vilas grabbed Oriana’s arm, forcing her to stop. ‘Tell me!’

  ‘Hashir. He has descendants.’

  Vilas’ face drained so quickly of blood, Oriana feared he would faint. She pressed a hand to his damaged cheek which was still scarred even after all of this time.

  Because he had been burnt before drinking water from The Pool of Health.

  ‘Hashir has descendants?’ Vilas stared at Oriana. ‘I didn’t even know he’d had children.’

  ‘Me neither. Come on,’ Oriana replied, striding onwards. ‘Even if they are of his blood I don’t want her hurting them.’

  ‘Who’s her?’

  Oriana did not answer. She held aside a branch and beckoned Vilas to follow her. The clearing was a few more steps ahead. Motioning for Vilas to keep quiet, she led him to the large tree she had previously hidden behind when the young girl had been entrapped with a neck ring.

  Peeking from around the tree trunk Oriana could see the tall woman in the cloak was still wearing her golden mask adorned with a rose and the head of an eagle. Around her, the circle of people was uneven. Some stood, just staring vacantly; others were crumpled on the floor with their heads in their hands. One woman—Oriana was certain it was the girl Samia’s mother— lay curled up on the ground in a foetal position, sobbing uncontrollably with a closed disc beside her.

  There, a small distance away from the sobbing mother was the body of the young girl. With her legs askance and arms out-splayed it was as if she had simply fainted. That was, until Oriana’s gaze came to rest on the look of shock on the girl’s face from where her head was nestled in the grass further away from her body.

  Her head had been severed.

  By a metal ring.

  ‘It was her,’ Oriana whispered, turning tear filled eyes to Vilas. ‘It was her.’

  ‘I thought by removing Hashir when we did we had seen the last of those blasted rings for once and for all.’ Vilas nodded tightly. ‘I can’t believe what we’re seeing. How could she kill a girl?’

  ‘I didn’t mean just that.’ Oriana slowly unsheathed her sword. ‘She was the one—the one who kidnapped me and took me to The Gloomy Cavern—it was her all along!’

  ‘Ravenna!’ As soon as the name left Vilas’ lips he broke into a run. Lightning fast, he sped past Oriana, wrenching his sword from its sheath. ‘I’ll kill you this time!’

  ‘Wait!’ Oriana raced after him. ‘Vilas, wait…!’

  The people in the clearing screamed. Only the woman in the golden mask remained composed.

  ‘Stay where you are!’ she ordered, as the people began to run away.

  ‘You’re crazy!’ shouted a stout looking woman, grabbing the hand of the woman beside her and charging off into the forest.

  ‘If any more of you run away like frightened weaklings, you know what will happen to you!’ the masked woman screamed.

  ‘We didn’t sign up to murder!’ cried a man, barging his way past several other people who were hovering uncertainly at the edge of the clearing.

  Oriana caught her foot in a bramble and fell over, automatically letting go of her sword to save from smacking her face on the ground. She screamed as a woman, who had been standing nearby, stood on her leg and crashed on top of her.

  ‘Get off of me!’ Oriana shouted, pushing at the woman.

  The woman went limp. ‘Sh-sh-she j-j-ju-st k-killed Samia!’

  ‘It’s your own fault for getting messed up with this in the first place!’ Oriana struggled out from underneath the woman. ‘Get up and run as fast as you can away from here.’

  The woman opened and closed her mouth.

  ‘Did you hear me?’ Anger rose inside Oriana.

  Why wouldn’t the woman just get up?

  Shock.

  ‘Go,’ Oriana said, more kindly this time. ‘While you still can.’ She held out a hand and helped the woman up.

  Turning her attention to Vilas, Oriana gasped.

  Vilas was stood rigid, sword extended at the throat of the woman in the golden mask.

  ‘Vilas, no…wait!’

  ‘No, Oriana.’ Vilas did not move. ‘She deserves to die for what she did to you and what she just did to that young girl.’

  ‘You can’t kill her!’

  In her haste, Oriana forgot to retrieve her sword. Pushing past the father of the dead girl, she became aware it was now only her, Vilas, the woman in gold mask, and the dead girl’s parents present in the clearing.

  Everyone else had seen sense.

  Although it had taken the execution of one of their own to do so.

  ‘Give me one good reason to allow her to live.’ Vilas tilted his head to one side.

  ‘Because I love her,’ a throaty, male voice shouted.

  ‘Who are you?’ Oriana shouted, not recognising the voice.

  The woman in the gold mask took advantage of the interruption and pushed Vilas’ blade away from her throat.

  Vilas turned to Oriana. The look on his face made her rush towards him. She was two steps away from him when his words made the ground shift beneath her feet.

  ‘He has been awoken. It is Hashir, I could never forget his voice,’ Vilas replied hollowly.

  ‘It’s not possible, not after all of these centuries!’ Oriana exclaimed. ‘We’ve been so careful, moving him from place to place.’

  ‘Can he be killed now?’ Vilas asked. ‘Now he is revived?’

  Oriana shook her head. ‘He has been awoken with water from The Pool of Health. I imagine he took more than one sip. He cannot be killed by a mortal blade. He is now like us.’

  ‘Even those who have drank from The Pool of Health can have life ended!’ cackled the masked woman. ‘By having their head severed!’

  With a flick of her wrist, the woman sent a metal disc flying at Vilas.

  ‘Move, Vilas!’ Oriana shouted, diving at him.

  Pulling her hair up and out, she lunged for Vilas, hoping to shield him with her locks but she was too late. She watched in horror as the disc opened into pincers and snapped tight around Vilas’ neck into a ring, bringing him to his knees.

  White light forked out from the ring around Vilas’ neck, sparking off of his armour. He opened his mouth and a stream of light shot out, forcing his head backwards.

  Oriana knelt next to Vilas. ‘Not again!’ She lowered her voice. ‘I’ll have to get the key. Keep still, don’t try to move.’

  ‘Wait.’ Vilas’ irises crackled with static energy. ‘Where is Hashir?’

  Oriana looked up. Her mouth went dry. ‘He’s here.’

  ‘Take him down, Oriana. Finish him for good!’ Vilas looked pained.

  ‘You think you can defeat us?’ The woman in the gold mask strode over to Vilas and Oriana. She held up a hand. ‘All I have to do is press this ring and you will lose your head, Vilas The Charming.’

  ‘You won’t do it.’ Oriana stood up, motioning for Vilas to remain where he was. ‘I know you.’

  ‘Not as well as you thought, evidently.’ Hashir smirked.

  Although he was slightly unsteady on his feet, he moved quickly for a man who had been frozen in time and entombed for centuries. His blond hair was the same as when Oriana had last laid eyes on him, his face not a day older. He was dressed in a loose fitting, linen shirt, a black blazer, and denim jeans. On his feet he wore black boots, and in one hand he held a disc.

  Oriana’s mind whirred. Why was Hashir wearing denim jeans? He hadn’t just been awoken, had he?

  ‘I can tell by the look on your beautiful face that you have just worked it out.’ Hashir laughed. ‘I was awoken several days ago. This.’ He gestured around the clearing. ‘Was supposed to be my welcoming celebration.’

  The masked woman joined Hashir’s side. ‘What a shame you didn’t get to play, my darling. I knew
you would be looking forward to a little head severing!’

  ‘You are both crazy!’ Vilas fumed from his position on his knees. ‘I thought you were loyal to Oriana, Ravenna!’

  The woman laughed. ‘Ravenna? Whatever gave you that idea?’ Slowly, she removed her mask.

  Vilas gasped. ‘Karima? Oriana, did you know it was her?’

  Oriana clenched her fists. ‘As soon as I heard her voice, I knew.’

  ‘You should’ve damn well told me!’

  ‘I tried to but you charged off intent on killing her…you didn’t wait for me to say!’

  Hashir pulled Karima to him and kissed her on the mouth. ‘We were always lovers,’ he told Oriana and Vilas. ‘Ever since each of our father’s promised us to each other.’

  Oriana wanted to hit Karima. She held back, fearing for Vilas. ‘So, you knew all along what was going to happen to my parents.’

  Karima nodded.

  ‘And you weren’t really captured by Hashir.’

  ‘No, afraid not.’ Karima smiled slyly at Hashir. ‘Although a lot of fun can be had wearing a ring around one’s neck, can’t it, darling? It puts a whole new spin on being dominated.’

  ‘I thought you had been murdered!’ Oriana’s spittle flew out of her pinched lips. Anger made her words clipped. ‘We buried you. I mourned you. I thought you had been burnt alive, Karima!’

  Karima chuckled. ‘The silk slipper was a nice touch, wasn’t it? I knew you’d think it was me as soon as you saw it. I knew it would remind of when you found your mother’s body.’

  Rage boiled up inside Oriana. Forgetting everything else she charged at Karima with a sound akin to a battle cry.

  ‘I’ll rip your head off your shoulders!’ she screamed.

  Karima.

  Her friend had known about the siege of the castle.

  Had known her parents would be beheaded.

  Suddenly, Oriana stopped running. It took a moment for her to realise what had happened. She fell to her knees. When she opened her mouth to scream a stream of light surged out. Pain spiked up and down her body from the ring around her neck. She could feel the energy consuming her body. It was so hot, her eyeballs felt as if they were fit to burst.

  Like being boiled from the inside.