A Circle Of Crows

by Brynn Chapman

  He kissed her again and helped her stand up. Putting his hands around her waist, he helped her back to the fire.

  * * * *

  The sun peeked out as Finn awakened and he began to bawl.

  "Keegan, I'm afraid I'm going to have to stop to feed him."

  "No problem, Miss."

  They stopped beside a pond, then she dismounted and looked for a suitable place to sit.

  She found a log and leaned her back against it. After removing the crying baby from her sling, she began to lift her shirt. At this, Keegan said, “I am going to check out the pond and see if there are any fish to be caught ... while I wait.” His face was bright red as he awkwardly made his way toward the water.

  As Finn nursed, Bella felt herself dozing. Even though she knew it could be dangerous, she could not help herself. Her body had been taxed to the limit over the past few weeks, and as usual, she stubbornly ignored all its warnings.

  Something hard and cold was pushing at her back. She felt it again, and this time, it pushed her. The end of an axe blade was rousing her into wakefulness.

  "Well rise and shine, beautiful."

  Above her towered a huge and grisly man with yellowed teeth and matted hair. His stench filled her nostrils even from a few feet away ... a combination of whiskey and sulpher permeated his person. She glanced to her side and saw a terrified Keegan, bound and gagged, lying under the boot of another giant of a man.

  Maximus looked at her body lustily, and said in almost a bedroom voice, “Her Highness will be so pleased. Another babe and a woman to add to our ceremony."

  Chapter 35

  Rachael and Sam stood at the curb in front of the inn, as they loaded Eva and her overnight bag into his mother's car. When Eva grabbed her doll from the floor and began talking animatedly to her new grandma, they knew she was oblivious to anything out of the ordinary.

  Morgana, however, shut the car door so Eva could not hear her and with a look of desperation on her face, said, “You and Sam have found something new about the aunts, haven't you?"

  Rachael stroked her daughter's hair and said, “Don't be ridiculous. Sam and I just have a lot to do around here to make this place profitable again. We'll see you on Sunday when we pick you up."

  Eyes welling over, Morgana grabbed her mother's hand. “Please, Momma, don't go. I want to come with you. I can help, I was there longer than you. Please..."

  Resigned, Rachael sighed. “I won't go, Morgana. If we manage it, Sam will and I'll stay here with you and Eva.” She glanced at him. “We've already discussed it at length."

  Morgana's face calmed and she wiped her eyes, then impulsively hugged her uncle. “I know you'll find them, Sam. Tell them I love them."

  Morgana got into the car and shut the door. When Rachael rapped on the window with her knuckles, Morgana rolled it down.

  "Our winged friends can go anywhere, you know. Keep Eva in your sight at all times."

  Lips pressed together, Morgana nodded in understanding as the car pulled away from the curb.

  The irony of her last statement not lost on her, she was reminded of herself at ten years old, giggling in the kitchen, and Gran's macabre warning to not let Bella out of her sight.

  Under her breath, she murmured, “I just blinked for one second, Gran, and she was gone."

  Rachael and Sam wordlessly turned to face the inn, and eyes on the attic window, headed for the front door.

  * * * *

  Bella dreamt of babies—all three of her babies as she thought of them. In a place of tranquility in her dream, they all lay in her bedroom in the cottage in an oversized cradle she knew instinctively Sam had built. She could hear sounds from the kitchen—lovely, normal sounds of people washing dishes with a radio in the background.

  Suddenly, she heard a familiar rustling sound from outside, and was filled with fear, followed by the need to protect the babies ... who were now wailing. She tried to quiet them, but they continued crying.

  She rocked and rocked ... and opened her eyes to see carrion crows filling the sky outside the queen's tent. Tens of thousands of them; they were engaged in a bloody battle against one another, and the sound was one Bella was sure she would never be able to forget.

  Feverishly searching for Finn, she found him sleeping in the sling, and sighed with relief. Still hearing the wailing echoing in her head, she struggled to find its source.

  As she clambered out of the fetal position, her gut wrenched with the effort. She swooned and swore not to pass out again.

  Shuffling toward the inner tent flaps—she noted it was massive, and better furnished than anything she had ever seen before. Animal skins covered the floor everywhere in a furry carpet—she heard them. Cullen and Hope screaming as loud as the day they were born, she was certain it was the twins. Milk leaked from her, but she barely noticed it.

  She knelt low to the ground and slid Finn gently from around her neck and onto one of the blankets. As she pulled back the flap to peer into the adjoining chamber, panic hit her again; she could see the twins on some sort of altar, squirming and writhing for all their little bodies were worth. The queen stood over them like a physician performing an exam with her chamber filled with about fifteen guardsmen in every corner of the room. Maximus, the ogre, as she had become to think of him, stood watching uncharacteristically alert behind the queen. Bella sniffed the air and her nose wrinkled involuntarily. Searching for the source of the smell, which reminded her of dead things she and her sisters would come across in the woods behind the inn, she saw a bubbling black cauldron in the corner of the room. Two guards, who looked as young as Keegan, flanked it on either side.

  Bella turned and looked around the huge chamber she was in. She spied a massive trunk, partially concealed under an animal skin. When she opened it, she saw it contained more blankets and coverings. Removing most of them, she left only the bottom of it covered. She walked over and picked up Finn, then quietly placed him inside the trunk and shut the lid.

  She returned to her position at the flap just in time to see the queen pour a steaming vial of black filth into Cullen's bawling mouth as the ogre held it open.

  * * * *

  Colin glanced back at Raena, who was swaying dangerously in the saddle. Christian, who was behind them, made eye contact with Colin and made a get a move on gesture with his hand.

  "Rae, we are very close now. Could you manage a gallop?” Colin asked over his shoulder.

  "Of course, I'm fine."

  Christian raised his eyebrows in skepticism, but said nothing.

  They took off at a bolt in effort to try and escape the sulpherous smell they had long ago associated with danger.

  They kept up the pace for half an hour, then Colin raised his hand and they slowed to a trot. He dismounted, and gestured for Christian to do the same. Rae dismounted with Colin's help. She grabbed his horse's reins and held her breath as he stealthily moved to the line of pines. She thought absently of a glass of the absinthe shimmering green on her tee trolley at home, and muttered, “What I wouldn't do for a green fairy."

  Colin lay prone and slithered through the underbrush so he could get a clear view of the valley below. Then he disappeared from sight. Christian gathered the other two horses’ reins and led them up to where Colin had entered the tree line.

  "If he does not reappear, we are going in, Raena."

  Raena nodded silently while never removing her eyes from the last place she had seen Colin. The next five minutes felt like hours, and just as Christian was beginning to pace, they heard the crackling of underbrush.

  Colin reappeared in the same fashion he had left, a look of apprehension marring his handsome face.

  "We have found them, but there are more troops than I had imagined. I fear the queen is planning more than just the sacrifice of my children; she would not need so many guardsmen for that task alone."

  "Then we will have to go in by stealth and wait for cover of the night,” said Christian, glancing at the sky, which was already
growing dark.

  "Yes, that would be the best chance we have for success. It is a very steep slope; we will have to leave the horses up on this ridge."

  * * * *

  Morgana woke abruptly and sat straight up in bed, immediately grabbing for Eva to reassure herself the little girl was still beside her. Eva didn't move and continued to breathe deeply with her eyes shut.

  Since she had disappeared in the mirror, Morgana had lost the innocence and safety of childhood. She was no longer worried about school dances or what her friends were wearing to school. Her only concern now was that her family stay as intact as possible.

  Morgana padded down the hall to the bathroom. Her grandmother's house was quiet and still with gentle breezes blowing in through the open windows filling the house with cool night air.

  She was staring into the mirror at her reflection, when it quivered, ever so slightly. Like a ripple in a still pond. Blinking and rubbing her eyes, she was not sure if it had been a trick of the light, or a danger she should flee. She reached up to touch it as Eva's screams pierced the night ... “Morgana!"

  Morgana ran as fast as she could down the hard wood hallway and slipped, ending up in a heap on the floor.

  "Morgana! They're here!"

  She could hear her grandma opening her bedroom door downstairs and muttered, “Stay downstairs, Grandma."

  Finally managing to get to her feet, she ran again and burst through the door. The crows were swirling outside the window and hitting the glass so hard, several had knocked themselves unconscious and were lying on the ledge outside. Eva had shut two of the three bedroom windows. As Morgana flew for the third, she stopped, transfixed for a split second as a huge magpie made its way directly for her hands. Morgana heaved on the window with all her might. As the window came down, it caught the bird halfway through and crushed its thorax as she slammed it shut.

  Eva flew to her side and grabbed Morgana's legs. Grandma entered the room just in time to see the last of the magpies ricochet off the window again, and she uttered, “What in the world?"

  No, not from this world, Grandma.

  Chapter 36

  Bella was trembling at the sight of the bawling baby. The poor child was writhing in pain as he turned a horrible shade of puce before her eyes.

  Frozen with panic, her normally logical mind fought to come up with a plan, but her maternal instincts were raging, and all she could manage at the moment was to shake with rage at the sight of this female monster before her.

  The queen mixed the second vial and held it in her lily white hand, black fingernails working furiously with it; while Maximus approached Hope, who had also begun to wail the moment her brother started, as if in anticipation.

  With absolutely no plan whatsoever, and in a blind rage, Bella picked up a small, but heavy decanter and hurled it at the queen's outstretched hand.

  The black vial shattered, and in turn, cut the queen's hand which began to smoke.

  "It is the nursing wench! She is awake! Kill her!” she shrieked as the red-black blood streamed down her wrist and splattered onto the altar.

  Immediately, four guards came at Bella. She flew past them and scooped Hope into her arms and held the child close.

  "You will have to kill me. You will not touch her!” Bella screamed incoherently.

  "That would be our aim,” said Maximus as he approached her, “however, I am sure Her Highness would not mind if your death were delayed a few hours."

  She could smell his sour breath and the scent of sulpher clung to his clothes. Actually closing her eyes in an attempt at denial, she knew she had no plan for escape; her body was near collapse from exhaustion, so she was not sure if she could even raise her hands to fight him off.

  Beginning to cry when she accepted that her life would be ending here, she was saddened by the knowledge she would never see her husband again.

  Maximus raised his hands to her, then stopped short and wavered. His eyes had grown very wide as if seeing an unknown foe, and he coughed once, spitting blood all over Bella's chest and face.

  She moved quickly to avoid being buried by his massive frame when he collapsed in front of her, a flaming arrow protruding from his back.

  When she heard her name called, she raised her face.

  Raena was running across the room to her. Along with Colin. She was saved!

  Colin was subduing officers right and left; through proximity with swords and distance with arrows. The queen had picked up Cullen and retreated to the back of the tent, searching for an exit.

  Colin hesitated momentarily when he caught sight of his odd-colored son, screaming and wriggling in the queen's clawlike hands.

  "Stop, woman. Do not take one more step, or I will cut you down. Do not think I cannot do it, as my aim never falters."

  "Your aim may never falter, Colin of the White Guard, but I may have to shift your son for my own protection."

  Colin's eyes blazed with hatred, but he lowered the bow. Taking this as a sign of weakness, the queen turned and faced a large square object covered with a fur.

  She reached up and slid off the covering, revealing a large, golden mirror.

  Rae looked for Bella, but after handing Hope to her, Bella had fled in search of Finn in the other chamber of the tent. The mirror was somehow familiar, but Rae could not place where she had seen it before.

  The queen waved her hand in front of it, then she touched one of the engraved birds on the side of the mirror. Suddenly, the Caves of Sinnistrada appeared and they could see Hyde lying very still on the ground. The only sign of life was the tiny tendrils of smoke coming from his nose.

  "Colin, she's going to escape and sacrifice Cullen to Hyde!” screamed Bella. “She poured a black elixir into his mouth minutes before you arrived."

  Looking thunderstruck, Colin raised his bow and aimed directly for her head, since it was turned to the side.

  The queen heard the whizzing noise and instinctively ducked. The arrow clipped the mirror, and one of the golden crows were decapitated.

  "Fool. I have not survived two hundred years to be killed by the likes of you!” she screeched.

  The surface of the mirror began to swirl and change images, Hyde disappeared from view. Images flashed at set intervals; a pond surrounded by small children and their parents, a huge lake surrounded by hills of slag and rubble, a pond behind a large home—

  "Bella, that's the inn! That's the pond behind the inn!” screamed Raena, who had moved behind Colin and was still clutching a screaming Hope to her chest.

  Then the image changed again. Raena shook her head in disbelief. She frantically turned to Bella to see if her sister was seeing the same thing. Bella stood transfixed and actually looked as if she might faint. Rae hurried to Bella's side.

  "That's our attic, and the back of Sam's head,” she said incredulously.

  "Yes, you silly girl,” cackled the queen-crone, “Your home harbors the only other doorway not found in nature. I thought surely Moira would have told you of it."

  "W-What?” stammered Bella, growing ever closer to fainting with each word.

  "You're the subject of the portrait in the Winter Room!” said Raena. The picture had been in her room as a little girl, and she had stared at it for hours at a time when she was grounded as punishment.

  The image quivered and became less blurry. In the attic, huge black crows were perched everywhere. The trap door reopened and Rachael and Sam were ascending the stairs to the room.

  The queen took advantage of their distraction and went to touch a different carving when Colin launched another arrow, having watched the crone with his son in her arms the entire time. The arrow pierced her hand between the long bones of her palm.

  The queen turned to them and said, “It is too late for this one, lad. He will never survive the tonic I have given him. Look at him. His life is already ending."

  Now silent, Cullen's skin was now more reddish than the purple it was earlier. He was limp in her arms.

 
The crack in Colin's sanity was almost audible, and he charged her with his sword drawn. The door broke open and more of the Black Guard rushed into the chamber. Four guards attacked Colin and subdued him. One had his boot on top of Colin's head and began to twist his foot into Colin's skull mercilessly.

  As the queen was about to find Hyde and finish her plan, a strange flapping sound was heard outside the tent. At first, the queen paid it no mind, for it sounded like a flock of crows. But then another sound was heard, one like the tinkling of bells, and a white light was shining under the tent flap.

  The queen stood very still and her hand went to her side, her wound seemingly forgotten as blood streamed to the tent floor.

  From their vantage point, they could see Sam and Rachael watching the scene in the tent. Their faces were horrified, and they were touching the outline of the mirror as the queen had been minutes before. They could not hear any sound coming through the mirror.

  Sam stared directly at Bella and mouthed, “I love you."

  Raena could feel Bella trembling beside her, and felt for Bella's hand.

  A vibrating, resonant tone could now be heard, and everyone in the tent had fallen still to consider it.

  Colin, with a look of recognition on his face, yelled, “Cover your ears!"

  A horrible, yet beautiful, sound could be heard, one comparable to the mixing of beautiful accapello singing with the undercurrent of a roaring lion.

  The tent flaps flew open and a blinding white light appeared, which shimmered and shined like an iridescent crystal. The babies stopped wailing and looked strangely at peace. Cullen opened his eyes and was staring directly into the light.

  Colin, Raena and Bella closed their eyes. Raena leaned over and whispered into Bella's ear, “It's the Antioch, the healers."

  Now it was the queen's turn to tremble. She lifted the baby up and made a threatening motion with her bloodstained hand. Before their eyes, an Antioch raised one glowing hand. The child floated across the room like an autumn leaf, and landed in front of Rae on the floor. She immediately picked him up and cradled both children to her.