Chapter 26
The Daughter of Death
Breanna and her group rode through the night. Every horse exhausted, except Whisper, who now the lead group.
“Brian, we need to rest the animals,” Alina shouted as she patted Lightning’s sweaty neck as the sun rose over the hills.
“I know, but this territory isn’t safe. Germanic tribes have invaded here. They will not think twice about slitting our throats while we rest,” Brian called back.
“That’s a comforting image,” Leo shouted, to no one in particular, rubbing his throat with his rein-free hand.
“Exactly, now keep riding,” Brian said, urging his horse forward. The horse decided otherwise and slowed down, no matter how hard Brian kicked and whipped its haunches.
“I guess we’re resting then,” Cole commented as his own horse slowed to a walk.
Whisper whinnied in aggravation and pranced restlessly around the tired steeds.
“Easy, boy. I know you want to keep going. We will get there in time. Let’s rest for now,” Breanna said, steadying her horse.
We are running out of time, Your Majesty. By the week’s end, the ceremony will take place and Eoghan will be lost to us forever, Whisper said psychically.
“I know, but we don’t have a choice. The other horses don’t compare to your strength.” Bre hopped down and pulled out some high grass to feed him.
Speak for yourself, Queeny! Magic’s voice appeared in her head.
“Sorry, Magic.” Bre smirked as Lysandros walked Magic past her and he playfully waved his tail in her face.
“Breanna! Come here,” Alina called out in tone only a frightened mother could produce. Her eyes widened in panic as she extended a hand to clutch her daughter.
Before Breanna could react, a hand wrapped around her throat and cut off her air supply. Another arm wrapped around her waist, lifting her off the ground. The man who held her spoke with a thick accent in a language she had never heard. The terrified faces of her group did not invoke any confidence in her situation.
The man barked orders, but no one understood him. In his frustration, he squeezed Bre’s throat tighter. Bre tried to use her powers. She summoned them to her chest, but they slipped away like sand through her fingers from the lack of oxygen.
Clover and Aurora growled and paced back and forth, watching the mysterious, angry man. They dared not do anything while he had such a tight grasp on Bre.
Bre, you need to channel into his mind and allow us to understand him, Cole hurriedly said in Bre’s mind.
Bre faintly replied, I…Don’t…Think… I can.
You have to try. We need to know what he wants in order to release you, Cole urged, panic making his voice quiver. Search his mind for words and focus on them. The more your mind mulls over the words the more it will crave a translation and your powers will translate it for you. Once you understand him, the three of us will.
Bre’s body weakened as her captor continued yelling in his strange language, but Cole was right. They needed her. Eoghan needed her. She mustered all the strength she had and searched his mind for the words he was saying. Black spots clouded her vision and suddenly the world seemed to spin around her. Despite slowly dying of suffocation, the man’s words reverberated into her chest until finally, her fleeting strength yearned to understand the reason behind him strangling her. Her powers washed over her mind as the strange terms reformed into words she recognized. They were fragments, but comprehensible: brothers, murder, and money.
I don’t think I have the strength to send the translation to everyone, replied Bre, the tone of her voice barely a whisper.
Don’t worry about that. We will take care of you. I know you don’t know us well, but you need to trust us, pleaded Cole. His fierce protectiveness gave Breanna a little more strength not to succumb to the darkness her dwindling airflow produced.
Concentrating was difficult. Bre squinted her eyes to see as the light around her dimmed further. Blurry, black masses moved towards her family and friends. The clanging of metal on the ground signified to Bre that her group had relinquished their weapons.
I vant Broters Tree. they kelled my fater and broter. Bounty on zere heads, Bre’s powers translated.
Got it! Cole fiercely cheered; but it was too much for Bre. Her vision went black and her body fell limp, numb in her extremities.
That was all Bre could handle, but it was enough for the brothers to pick up the translation key.
“Ah, you must be Blythe,” Leo shouted in Blythe’s native tongue as he handed his sword over to a portly soldier, who then threw it into a pile of swords on the ground.
“Alard’s son?” Cole asked, also in the same language as Blythe, “Of the Germanic tribes?”
Startled by the men’s ability to speak in his native tongue and their realization of who he was, Blythe loosened his grip around Breanna’s throat. Bre only managed a faint, jagged gasp, but it was more than she received a second ago. The light around her seemed brighter, and the black spots were smaller in her vision.
“You kelled my broter, Boyden, and my fater, Alard.” Blythe shouted.
“That we did, but not easily. They attacked our lands in the north. It was a good death for great warriors.” Nikolaos tried to calm the situation since Blythe still held Bre hostage. “Just release the girl and we will go with you.”
Nikolaos was glad that only his siblings understood what he said. If Alina had heard, she would surely kill him.
Leo looked stunned at Nikolaos while Cole shook his head. “We hear there is a bounty on our heads.” Cole added trying to change the subject.
“Aye, zat is vhy two of you vill live,” Blythe responded as he shifted his stance.
The brothers looked cautiously at each other and answered in unison, “Two?”
“Aye. One vill fight me and die and zuh oter two vill serve for zuh bounty.” Blythe tossed Breanna to the ground where another soldier restrained her arms.
Blythe reached behind his back and unclipped a double-headed axe. “Zince, your fater iz not here, I vill fight and kell the eldest. Now pick your veapon.”
“We are just passing by. All we wish to do is reach Arras and from there we move on to Cymru. We don’t want any trouble here,” Brian added, unsure of the conversation between the brothers and the man who held Bre hostage.
Blythe spit on the ground at Brian’s feet. He did not understand Brian either.
Brian was stunned. He turned towards the brothers and noticed Cole’s slight movement of his pointer finger tapping the side of his head. Brian responded with a barely detectable head nod, realizing it was the psychic bond between Breanna and her brothers. He bit his tongue, daring not to speak again in case it worsened the situation.
One of Blythe’s men pushed Nikolaos forward towards the pile of weapons. Nikolaos picked up his own broad sword. Not a second later, Blythe lunged at Nikolaos. The fighting and clanging of metal echoed through the silent meadow. Blythe was the smaller of the two, standing 6’ tall while Nikolaos was 6’3”. Nikolaos should have had the upper hand, but Blythe’s muscle more than made up for the height advantage.
Breanna, now restrained by her arms instead of her throat, coughed and gasped as she watched Nik fight the battle that got her released. Alina and the group looked on in horror as they watched the men battle. Each warrior gave the other cuts on their limbs, but neither struck a fatal wound.
Breanna barely knew Nikolaos, but it did not matter to her; he was family, and she would die for family. Now that she could breathe again, anger boiled in her chest. Before she could try to summon her powers, the ground shook and the wind went still.
The men stopped fighting, scared of the earthquake, and the soldier restraining Bre became startled and loosened his grip. Bre slammed her elbow into the side of her captor and ran in between Leo and Cole, who watched her cautiously.
“It’s not me, I swear,” Bre answered their questioning looks.
>
“No, it’s Alina,” Lysandros replied fearfully, staring at the Etruscan Queen.
“Mother?” All four of Alina’s children asked, stunned at the power she exuberated.
A loud crack sounded and the earth split in front of Alina, creating a division between the Germanic soldiers and her group, but more importantly, her children.
Blythe ranted in his Germanic language. No one except Bre and the brothers understood him until a wave of yellow light coursed out from her head and crashed into everyone else. She had passed on the language key to everyone else.
Blythe jumped over the crack in the ground to continue his fight with Nik. As he brought his axe above his head, he called out to Alina, “I vill not let cheap tricks of a minor goddess keep me from my revenge.”
“Uh-oh,” Lysandros’ jaw dropped as he stared at Alina. Rage filled her eyes as they changed from hazel to black.
Alina cracked her neck and narrowed her eyes as she bellowed, “Cheap tricks of a minor goddess? I’ll show you what cheap tricks I am capable of!”
Just as Blythe lunged at Nikolaos, another hole appeared with white smoke gushing through the opening, hurdling Blythe backwards. The rattle of armor filled the air, accompanied by moans of pain and war cries. When Blythe stood up, he found himself surrounded by Celtic ghost soldiers. The ground rumbled once more and a howl echoed through the earth. A large white dog with red ears bounded upward from a newly formed crack.
“Cnaimh! Tàmadh!” a voice erupted from Alina’s mouth, but it was not her usual sweet tone. It was low and raspy, almost evil.
The Celtic hellhound lunged at the Germanic tribe, tearing limbs from bodies while ghost soldiers sliced them apart. The ghost army and Cnaimh destroyed Blythe’s soldiers. The bloody takeover ended with a satisfied howl by Cnaimh. He trotted proudly back to Alina with a bloodstained muzzle. In the middle of the soft, wheat grass meadow was a blood soaked circle of dead German warriors. Kneeling in the center, stunned at his loss, was their leader, Blythe.
“My…my men? Who are you?” Blythe asked, fear shaking his voice.
Alina whistled and the ghost soldiers vanished into white smoke. She clenched her fists and the gaps in the ground closed.
Alina moved closer to the kneeling soldier. “I am the Daughter of Death, the Wielder of the Dead, and Commander of the earth’s depths. Arawn is my father.” In the background, Cnaimh howled in respect for his master. “I let you live so you will spread the word of my coming. I have spared the lives of many in my absence, but now I have returned to my homeland. I want you to tell of the horrors that I have summoned here. Your story will be their warning. Tell them to stay away from my family. If I have summoned the soldiers of the underworld once, I will do it again. I will spread my carnage upon those who dare cross me.”
Alina placed her index finger in the middle of Blythe’s forehead. The color drained from his face, turning from pink to ash. He gasped for air and clutched at his chest.
Alina could feel his heart slow as his lungs struggled to breathe. A sickly sight to watch. Even the brothers, veterans of death and destruction, winced as their mother slowly drained Blythe’s life.
“Your Majesty, stop. He has been warned and defeated,” Brian called out, but Alina was too fixated on Blythe to hear him.
Alina enjoyed the power she had over his life. She enjoyed being in control, the feeling of torturing those who would cause her family pain. She stared down at the dying soldier with a cruel smile as she reveled in his fear. She had never before used her powers for such a cruel deed: never to control death. It shocked her how much she loved it.
Breanna was startled by the amount of fear she had towards her mother. She feared her as if Alina had attacked her. Her powers overwhelmed every sense in her body. Bre experienced Blythe’s terror as he slowly died from Alina’s cruelty. It nauseated her as she watched and felt every second of his death. Even though her heart pumped steadily, it felt as if it would soon stop.
Bre took a deep breath to find the courage to approach her mother. Lysandros reached out and grabbed her arm, but Bre placed her hand over his as if to say ‘It’s ok, I can do this.’
“Mother? You’re killing him. He cannot warn anyone if he is dead,” Bre said softly and touched her mother’s arm. Bre remembered her mother’s touch as warm and comforting, but as she stood torturing Blythe, her skin was freezing. It stung Bre’s skin.
“I can bring him back, if I so choose.” Alina’s eyes widened as she realized she had the power to resurrect him and kill him all over again.
“Please, Mother, this isn’t you. This isn’t how a queen acts,” Breanna pleaded, trying to appeal to her rational thinking.
The group watched in terror, unsure if Alina would respond to Bre or take her anger out on her in her blind state.
“This is how the Queen of the Damned acts, child,” Alina said coarsely, choking the life out of Blythe. Breanna saw his eyes start to glaze over.
Leora, I need your help, Breanna said psychically to her tiger.
Leora purred next to Alina and sent a warm, calming sensation to her.
Alina’s knees buckled as she was overwhelmed with loving emotions. She gasped as she looked down at the almost dead soldier and recoiled her finger from his forehead. She fell backwards in fear of her own powers.
Lysandros ran to help her up, and Brian reluctantly healed Blythe.
Alina hid herself in Lysandros’ arms and buried her face in his shoulder. She was too ashamed; she could not bear to face anyone. She sobbed at the thought of frightening her children and friends.
Lysandros cradled her in his arms and gently rocked back and forth, attempting to soothe himself as much as Alina. He had always known Alina as a formidable foe to their enemies but never a merciless bearer of horrid torture. Oh, but how wrong he was about her gentle exterior.
Breanna grabbed Blythe’s sword and tossed it in front of him, with Nikolaos behind her for back up. “Go, before I finish you myself. Spread Alina’s warning, because neither she nor I will give another one.”
Blythe stared at Bre from his knees, unsure of what to do, too afraid to turn his back on any of them.
“Go!” growled Breanna. Clover’s snarl echoed hers.
Blythe gathered whatever strength he had left to stand and ran towards his horse hiding in the trees.
Breanna’s heart fluttered as she felt his fear while watching him ride away. She could also feel her mother’s shame and pain. It was awkward containing the emotions of the people around her. Her brothers knew how she felt; the psychic connection between the four siblings was strong now, and none of them knew how to stop its growth. They heard every thought and felt every emotion between them.
Panicking, Bre ran her hand through her hair and pulled at the strands to silence the noise in her head. She wanted to stop all of the pain that did not belong to her.
“Try to imagine a wall around each person that blocks all noise and all emotion from escaping their bodies,” Nikolaos whispered as he detangled one of her hands and squeezed it.
Nikolaos’ firm grasp on her hand calmed her. His calm, strong emotions overcame her panicked state. It also helped that Blythe was too far gone to sense his fear.
“I can make a potion to help with that, but the only problem is if she needed to know what we were feeling, we would be blocked from her,” Cole replied.
“What is going on?” Brian looked cautiously at the four siblings huddled together.
“She’s empathic now. Of all the luck we have, she’s an Empath. We have zero privacy with her.” Leo folded his arms in irritation.
Cole rolled his eyes at his younger brother and sighed, “Leo, you are in your forties and I swear sometimes you act like you’re a teenager.”
“Our emotions may be blocked, but she can still read our minds,” Nikolaos added.
“I have Leora to help with the emotional problem if the time calls for it. Just whatever you can do to help, do
it. If you could take The Power, that is all the better. I don’t want it,” Breanna added looking regretfully at her mother. Alina’s pain broke Breanna’s heart. “I don’t want this life,” she whispered.
“You have The Power because you were meant to have it, Breanna. It will help you in some way. Do not forsake your gifts because you do not know how to control them yet,” Brian said, holding her face between his warm hands. He cleared his throat and turned around, “We must get going. Try to focus on anything other than your emotions.” Brian whistled, and the horses trotted back over to them.
“Well won’t that be fun? Teenage girl thoughts pouring into our minds because of some stupid psychic connection, I can’t wait!” Leo’s said.
Leo’s sarcastic remark struck a nerve with Cailean. He bent down from his horse and cuffed the back of Leo’s head, making Leo’s teeth clang together. “Shut your mouth when addressing the Princess.” Without another look, Cailean rode off next to his brother.
Lysandros helped Alina climb onto Lightning and then quickly mounted Magic to ride next to her. The brothers followed their mother, Leo rubbing the back of his head, irritated.
Whisper impatiently nudged Breanna. Clover, Leora, and Aurora waited for Bre to follow the others, but Breanna felt peculiar about riding with the group, as if it were wrong.
She realized then that she sensed Eoghan; she knew he desperately needed help…her help. However, she also sensed that he felt at home where he was. That frightened her the most.
“What if he doesn’t want to come back?” Bre’s voice shook as she asked her animals the questions plaguing her mind. “What if he no longer cares? I can’t lose him.”
Whisper, do you know the way to the Nemeton at Arras? Bre asked her horse.
Yes, Whisper replied, I can get us there faster than the rest of the group. I must warn you, though, that it will be safer with the o’Conaill brothers. The Druids of the nemeton follow the ways of the old religion. You were raised Etruscan, not Celtic. You will be in danger if you break their rules.
I do not care about rules. I will handle whatever comes our way. I just need to get to Eoghan. I need get him back before he no longer wants to come back, Breanna said and mounted Whisper, determined to find Eoghan on her own.
I can get us there within the day, Whisper responded.
Whisper took off at an unimaginable rate. Within seconds, they passed their group and were miles away from them. Breanna’s brothers yelled psychically at her: What are you doing? Don’t be foolish. You will get yourself killed! Lastly, Leo’s concern, which made Bre smile: I’m still getting those damn girl thoughts!
With her group miles behind her, for the first time in her life, Bre felt alone. It terrified her, until she heard Clover’s growl and saw the giant wolf, Leora, and Aurora keeping pace with her. She realized she was not alone after all.
You will always be alone, Princess, said the same feminine voice in Bre’s mind that spoke to her while possessed by the eagle. This power you wield is too great for others to be near. Your mother will die and The Power within her will be lost to you. Your brothers will perish from this time and your teachers will burn. And that man you desperately ride towards will not live to see another year. You are alone, dearest Breanna, alone with the curse of survival.
The Phoinix: Age of Demigods Page 53
