Endure

by M. R. Merrick

  “And yet here we are. In prison. That demon of yours could’ve come in handy yesterday,” Vincent said.

  “I would not jeopardize your lives for my pride.”

  “That makes one of us.” Vincent’s cool glaze glared back at Tiki. “Well then, what now? We go talk to mommy dearest to see if she’ll retract her punishment and allow you to compete as a contender rather than a prisoner, then what? What if she says no?”

  “If she says no, we will have to fight our way out.”

  “But what if she says yes?” Rayna asked.

  “All I can ask is to compete as a contender for the throne, and not as a prisoner in the opening ceremony. If she says yes, then I fight. I will ask that the three of you be released and transported safely to Drakar.”

  “No,” I said. “We’re not leaving you.”

  “Chase Williams, please listen to—”

  “No, you listen! I told you once and this is the last time I’m saying it. You’re a part of this family now whether or not you like it. Where you go, I go. That means the only way I’m leaving is with you.”

  “I’m asking you to respect my people’s ways.” Tiki’s voice was still calm and even.

  “And I’m telling you no.” Tiki stepped back with a furrowed brow. “These people imprisoned and tortured you. You told me when you were of age, your father and brother challenged you to combat and you accepted. You accepted it to earn your freedom from them and you won.”

  “I did, but what does that have to do with anything.”

  “They challenged you together to ensure they would win, and they didn’t. A half-breed defeated two well-trained royal pure bloods. If you can defeat two of them on your own, then all four of us will hold our own in that fight.”

  “There will be many competitors, Chase Williams. Fifteen or maybe more. That is nearly four demons each. That is not a likely outcome.”

  “Maybe not, but you said we can use magic and I’ve got plenty of that, as does Rayna. And Vincent…” I motioned to him and he looked up at me with surprise, the holes where his fangs would come down still just an empty space. “Well, he doesn’t have much bite left in him, but he’s got claws and he can compel your people.”

  “Not each clan is like my family. There are many variations, some of which are fierce warriors. For now, let us see what Mother says before making any hasty decisions.”

  Moke returned with three other guards, each carrying a silver tray full of unappetizing scents. When they opened the cage and handed them to us, they looked even worse.

  “I will be back in one hour. Enjoy.” Moke made an expression I thought passed for a smile and then he was gone.

  “Original Suriattas Colisque!” Tiki didn’t hold back his excitement. He sat down and began to dig into his tray.

  Vincent, Rayna, and I each looked at one another, then down to the floating fish-like creature on a black paste. It had strips of fur along its yellow skin and it smelled oddly like soy sauce and expired milk.

  “Eat.” Tiki’s mouth was so full I could hardly understand him. “It is good.”

  “I think I’ll pass. I had a big breakfast…a few days ago,” I said, whispering the latter. My stomach grumbled in revolt and that suited me just fine. I wasn’t sure I could ever be hungry enough to eat that, and if I could, I doubted very much I’d be able to keep it down.

  When Moke returned, he was alone. He eyed the stack of untouched trays and grunted before opening to the door. “You should have eaten. You will need your strength.” Nobody responded and Moke grunted again. “This way.”

  Outside the Queen’s quarters, her voice screamed and grumbled. As Moke unlocked the door, we found the Queen alone in her room. She crouched on her hands and knees in the center of the bed, screaming at the glass headboard. Unfortunately for us, she wasn’t wearing any clothes. It was a moon I hoped to never seen again.

  Moke cleared his throat. “Mother, the prisoners have arrived.”

  The Queen turned on her hands and knees. She growled and snapped at the air with fangs like a wolf about to attack. She’d broken and clawed out the remaining spikes that had jutted from her skin. Pieces of bones were scattered over the floor and blood and pus oozed from the wounds.

  “Come back to poison me again have you? I will not be taken so easily!” She lunged toward us.

  Moke reached out with a single hand and caught her by the throat. She screamed and flailed, drool and spit splattering from her mouth. He held his arms out, holding her with ease.

  “Mother, my Queen, you must calm yourself.” Moke was firm and his voice seemed to calm her. Her feet dangled in the air and her arms fell limp along her sides. She let out a dramatic sigh.

  “Moke, my sweet child…” She gasped for air and a trickle of white pus ran down her arm from a broken spike on her shoulder. Her shoulders rose and fell with each breath, and then she went silent. The quiet was absolute, enveloping the room, and then it was broken. The Queen screamed, kicking and flailing, lashing out again.

  “This is not working, Tiki!” Moke’s voice was loud and now he seemed to struggle against the frail Queen whose claws tore into his arm. “I am so very sorry, brother.”

  Tiki nodded, accepting his brother’s words and turned, preparing to leave the room.

  “No,” I said. “She has to hear him out.”

  “She can comprehend nothing at this point. The poison has taken too much of her mind. There is nothing more we can do.”

  “Maybe not you, but we can.” I turned to Rayna.

  “What are you looking at me for?”

  “Your magic. Use your earth element to try and calm her.”

  “You want me to get close to her? Forget it. You have the earth element too, why don’t you do it?”

  “You know our elements accomplish different things. You can help us here, Rayna. You’ve saved me from my own anger how many times?”

  Rayna eyed the crazed demon striking out at the air. She looked worried, biting her bottom lip. “Fine, but hold her down. I don’t want any of that…whatever is coming out of her on me.”

  I directed Tiki and Vincent to the other side. Moke held her waist, while Tiki and I each grabbed an arm. Vincent grimaced, trying to find a dry spot on her leg.

  “Come on!” I yelled.

  “There is blood and pus and…I don’t know what that is, but I am not touching it!” he said, pointing to a strange orange fluid that dribbled down her leg.

  “There isn’t time for this. Do it!”

  Vincent cringed, lunging forward and gripping each of her legs. Moke brought the Queen down, laying her on the floor gently and pinning her shoulders. She squirmed and fought, but between the four of us, she wasn’t going anywhere.

  Rayna knelt down, grimacing as she reached out and placed a hand on her sunken-in stomach. Her hand hovered over the skin and when she finally set it down, a pool of black and white liquid splashed up over her fingers. She dry heaved on the air and gagged. “Oh gods.”

  “Rayna, please…” I said.

  Rayna gagged again and took a slow breath. Her magic came to life and the scent of wet dirt and the sound of clapping leaves were sucked into the room. The Queen’s body went still and Rayna’s magic seeped into her, but the magic didn’t stop there—it moved through the Queen’s body and into me too. The panic and nervousness that had sunk to the pit of my stomach dissipated. I became at ease and my grip on the Queen loosened. As I looked around to the others, I realized Rayna’s magic flowed into each of them. We were all touching the Queen and reaping the benefit of Rayna’s power. After a few moments, Rayna began to pull back her magic, and the doors to the bedroom burst open.

  “What is this?” Kithra yelled. “Guards!” A half a dozen demons stood behind him in seconds and we all stepped away from the Queen. “Moke, you traitor!” Kithra screamed. “Seize them. Seize them all!”

  The guards shuffled around us and I was ready for a fight. My elements sparked at my fingertips, sharp bones pushed bene
ath Tiki’s skin, and Vincent began to channel his inner demon. With the guards’ weapons drawn, they hesitated.

  Kithra sat idly in the background with arms crossed and smug look upon his face. “Get on with it!”

  The guards took another step forward when the gravelly voice of the Queen broke out. “Silence!” she demanded. Her voice was shaky, but still managed to be intimidating.

  Each of the guards went completely still, and the self-righteous look upon Kithra’s face faltered. “Mother?”

  The Queen lay naked and sprawled out across the floor, a small outline of black blood topped with white pus pooled around her. Her white eyes stared up at the ceiling for a long moment before she pushed herself into the sitting position. “Get my robes,” she said, and this time it was just above a whisper.

  “Yes, my Queen,” Moke said, retuning with a long, silk-like robe. He wrapped it around the Queen, feeding her arms through the necessary holes and helped her to her feet. The Queen stumbled and coughed as she held out her arms, and Moke wrapped the fabric around her, tying it closed.

  The Queen limped toward her bed, her body hunched over. Black and orange fluid oozed down her legs and stained the sheets as she tried to climb onto her bed. Each movement seemed to cause her more pain than the last, and whimpers came between heavy breaths. “Moke,” she whispered.

  Moke moved to her aid and helped her into the bed. He grabbed her crown, which had fallen under the bed, and placed it upon her half-balding head. When she sat upright up against the headboard, Moke pulled the covers to her waist and the Queen stared at us.

  “Kithra,” she gasped. The brother stepped forward, kneeling at the footboard. Without a word, he lowered his head. “You dare harm those who try to help me?”

  “Their dirty half-breed magic is not welcome here. I will not allow anyone else to hurt you.”

  “It was not assassins who made me this way, it was the gods!” she screamed. The color of her eyes started to return, bits of orange filling in the white. She glared at Kithra and waved him away. “Take your men and leave us.”

  Kithra looked confused, but with a single glare from the Queen he jumped to his feet, ordering the guards to leave.

  As the hydraulics sounded and the doors shut behind us, the pulse that had leapt in my throat began to settle. Moke remained by the edge of the bed and as the minutes passed, I grew increasingly nervous.

  “Tiki,” the Queen said. Tiki stepped forward, but he did not bow. He stood straight with both hands hanging by his side. “You dare not bow to your Queen?”

  Tiki shook his head. “I do not. An action that comes with the freedom I once earned.”

  “One thousand years and you have not forgotten our customs?”

  Tiki shook his head.

  “My son, an abomination who once earned his freedom, has returned. Why have you come back to my land?”

  “Kithra sought me out,” Tiki said. “He said you demanded I return for the Death Throne.”

  “You cannot have my crown, for you are not of pure blood. Why would I demand such a thing?”

  “I do not know, Mother.”

  She seemed to ponder that for a moment before pointing at Rayna. “Girl, come forward.”

  “Me?” Rayna asked hesitantly.

  “Do you see any other girls in this room?” the Queen snapped. “Come to me. Now.”

  Rayna stepped forward with an invisible force holding her back. Each step was a struggle, until finally she came to stand beside Tiki, but strategically out of the Queen’s reach.

  “For a moment, my sanity has returned. What magic is this?”

  “It’s my element…I’m an earth elemental.”

  “Elemental. I have not heard such a term in thousands of years. Not since the Great…” the Queen gasped. “You’re not a half-breed. You’re a hunter!”

  “I am both, actually,” Rayna said. She glanced to Tiki who only offered her a shrug.

  “So it’s true. The barriers to the Earth dimension have fallen.” The Queen’s voice trailed off and she seemed lost in the thought. “Ithreal returns.”

  “No,” I said. “Not if we can help it.”

  The Queen studied me before a laugh spilled from her lips. “What will you do to stop the god of darkness, boy?”

  “I’m not a boy, I’m the Protector.”

  The Queen didn’t appear surprised, but she arched a thick, unkempt brow and grunted. “The defender of the gods stands before me, my prisoner.”

  “I am nobody’s prisoner.”

  The Queen smirked, her head wavering from left to right as if it had grown heavy.

  “You should count your blessings I have not killed you all myself. That filthy creature’s magic calms me, both from this madness and my own hatred. They have toyed with my mind, poisoned it with magic. Those black eyes and moonlight skin infest my thoughts with their own. We will not fight for him, not again!”

  “What are you talking about, Mother?” Moke asked.

  The Queen leaned her head back on the headboard and she stared up at the ceiling. “I would never speak such things in front of guests. Especially those who represent the very creatures I hate.”

  “Mother, those creatures have given you back your sanity, if only for a moment.”

  The Queen grunted, eyeing Rayna from head to toe. “Perhaps…” She adjusted herself in the bed, pulling her robe tight over her body. “Thousands of years ago, before the Great War, Ithreal came to the goddess of our world and demanded her alliance against the other gods. When she refused, he challenged her, and won, overtaking her soul and as such, our world. The Suriattas clan had just taken over, and he destroyed half our people before we succumbed to his will and fought in his Great War. A war that did nothing but create disgusting half-creatures and get more of our people slaughtered. I was happy when the hunters beat us back, ending the war. I was happier when the gods banished Ithreal. Finally, our people would see peace once again. But now he’s back. I’ve seen him in the eyes of others, and they demand our allegiance once again.”

  “The Brothers,” I said.

  The Queen looked at me with disgust, although I didn’t understand it. If she was happy the hunters ended the war, I thought she would have been pleased to see us.

  “With the barrier to the Earth dimension gone, the sons of Ithreal fight on his behalf. And because of them, the Death Throne arrives once again, for the first time in more than a millennia. Their dark magic floats in my brain, infecting me like the blood of a disgusting beast, like a half-breed.”

  “That’s why you summoned Tiki,” I said, ignoring her anger. “When you wouldn’t agree to their terms, they forced you to do what they wanted. Distract us.”

  “What would you know about their methods?” she snapped.

  Rayna looked at me, as did Tiki and Moke. I had just stepped into a spotlight I didn’t want to be in—again.

  “They came to me last night while we were in your prison. They wanted us here for when Riley and his pure bloods invaded Earth. They knew if we were there when it happened, we’d never stop fighting. They needed me gone so that I’d complete the rite.”

  “The Protector,” the Queen scoffed. “A fabrication of the gods’ imaginations. They’ve misplaced all their hopes into a hunter. That means we’re all doomed to suffer like the half-breeds of all the worlds should.”

  “What do you know about the Protector?” I asked.

  “I know the gods think you will protect them from Ithreal.”

  “No, they blessed me as the Protector to stop all this.”

  “This cannot be stopped, boy. You’ve no idea the power you are up against. If Ithreal’s essence is freed, even in part, the gods will parish. They will have to choose between releasing his chains and having the power to fight, or going to war with the god while they are weak. Their pride and oaths will hold them bound while he slaughters them.”

  “How do you know all this?” Rayna asked.

  “I don’t know…when his son
s diseased my mind…these thoughts and memoires came with their power. They are not my own. Perhaps they did not expect me to last as long as I have.”

  “You could stop this,” I said. “You could call off the Death Throne and fight with us.”

  “Fight with the filth that killed my people?” the Queen laughed.

  “You said yourself you were happy the hunters pushed back the demons in the Great War.”

  The Queen glared and waved me away. “There is no calling off the Death Throne. Look at me, rotting and broken. Someone must rise to lead our people when my last breath is taken. And now that you are here, you are a part of it.”

  “If the Death Throne must happen, it can happen without us. You can let us go, and let things go on as if we were never here. You said yourself Tiki cannot take the throne.”

  “All prisoners are a part of the Death Throne, and all abominations are prisoners.”

  “But Tiki earned his freedom. He is free to go.”

  The Queen shook her head. “The people of Lavinos would never let him leave. He has returned and as such, must earn his freedom again. The Death Throne is our proudest tradition.”

  “There has to be a way,” Rayna said.

  “No!” the Queen growled, sitting up in her bed. She crawled forward on the sheets, inching her way closer to Rayna. Her robe fell open and she didn’t move to fix it. Her eyes were intense and focused, and what was left of her claws tore into the bed. “You abominations are a constant reminder of our losses, and will be forever a fuel for our hatred!”

  “Mother,” Moke said. “Please come back and lie down.”

  “Silence!” she screamed, her bones cracking as she crawled forward. The orange that had returned from her eyes was gone. The madness had won her over. “They will compete in the opening ceremony, they will pay for their ancestors’ actions, and they will die.”