Steel Maiden

by Kim Richardson

  The other two assassins came at me from two directions. I parried them, one after another. Then they both slashed sideways, trying to behead me. I ducked and pulled out a dagger. I spun and came up behind one of the men. He slumped to the ground as I embedded my dagger into his throat.

  I stumbled forward as something hit the back of my head. The adrenaline of panic gave me the strength to steady myself and turn around. Blinking the spots from my eyes, I felt for blood or any signs of a cut, but there were none.

  The second masked man roared as he flew at me again. His sword cut the air in a side-to-side movement and when our swords met, he pushed me to my knees in a show of strength. I strained to keep my sword against his and looked up into dark eyes behind the mask.

  “You will never get the stone,” he hissed.

  He pushed his sword dangerously close to my neck.

  My arms burned as I strained to keep his blade from slicing my throat. But I was no match for him, and I knew I couldn’t defend myself like this for much longer. He smiled wickedly at me, knowing all too well that he was winning. My arms slipped a little, and his blade inched down closer to my throat. But just as victory gleamed in his eyes, I kicked out my leg and made contact with his ankle. I heard a snap. He yelled and as he dropped his guard, I drove my sword into his heart. His eyes widened in shock, and then their gleam was gone.

  I pulled out my bloody sword and stood up. I jumped over his body and made my way towards the battle. Bodies lay scattered in puddles of their own blood, but I’d say there were more bodies of the masked men than there were of us. Combatants circled and feinted towards each other in a dance of death.

  I spotted Princess Isabella. She proved to be the warrior princess I thought she would be and moved with deadly skill and grace. She spun and parried as if she were dancing while masked men fell at her feet. If I hadn’t been in mortal danger myself, I could have watched her cut a path through our attackers all afternoon.

  A glimpse of red and gold caught my attention. Prince Landon lifted his sword to parry a blow at his shoulder. His sword met with a masked assassin’s, and in a swirl of flashing silver the masked man lay on the ground at his feet. The prince moved with the deadly grace of a tiger. He skewered the assassins so fast and precisely that they were dead before they realized it.

  While about a dozen men and women from different groups lay dead with white foam in their mouths and blood that had thickened like pudding, I was in awe at the warriors around me. Although we had suffered a considerable number of causalities and had been outnumbered, we had managed to kill every single one of the masked men.

  Something caught Landon’s attention, and he bolted towards the temple’s stairs just as Otto disappeared through the arched entrance.

  That’s when the race truly began.

  The surviving crowd rushed to the temple as Prince Landon galloped through the archway. In the melee a man came tumbling down the stairs, and another brawl erupted. Only this time we were fighting amongst ourselves.

  Not wanting to get caught up in this madness, I hung back and waited for an opening. Once again the air was filled with the sounds of metal clashing against metal and grunts.

  I felt something on my lower back, and in a flash I whirled my sword around and parried Mad Jack’s blade with a ringing clash.

  He made to lower his blade, but I wouldn’t lower mine.

  “Easy. It’s just me,” he said.

  I clenched my teeth. He could have easily rammed me through, but he hadn’t. My gut told me to trust him, so I lowered my sword but kept it in my hand.

  Will and Leo both looked wild eyed, but they were alive and had been unscathed by the poisoned blades.

  Mad Jack crouched. He looked at me.

  “On my mark, you run like hell up those stairs and get that god damn stone! You hear me? We’ll be right behind you.”

  Even though I was still unsure why he was here, or whether I should trust him, I nodded anyway. I didn’t have time to second-guess myself.

  I waited. Mad Jack’s shoulders tensed, and he whispered, “Go, go, go!”

  I ran up the stairs two at a time, careful not to trip, and all the while watching to protect myself from any attackers. But I reached the top of the stairs without incident and kept running.

  I heard footsteps rushing behind me. I could only hope that they were Mad Jack’s. I didn’t stop running.

  The temple was larger than I’d first thought, and the first hundred paces of passageway were carved from stone. Soft light from torches that were held in sconces on the walls lighted my path. I felt the same strange sense of power that I had felt at the poles and at the entrance to the city. Only this time it was stronger. Energy pulsed through the walls of this place.

  “Don’t stop,” Mad Jack encouraged me from behind. I hadn’t realized that I had stopped.

  He whispered, “Unless you want twenty more people crushing us in this small tunnel, we need to keep moving.”

  There was an anxiety in his voice that I had not heard before, maybe even fear, and it made me move more quickly…

  I held my breath and ran as fast as I could. The strange, humming tunnel continued for what felt like miles, and then it opened into a cavern.

  Prince Landon stood in the clearing along with King Otto and several others of their entourage. They were examining a section of the wall at the opposite side of the chamber. They looked up at our arrival, but then quickly returned their attention to the wall. Even in the dim light I could see that both men were sweating in concentration. And when I moved closer I could understand why.

  A single oval-shaped stone that looked like a giant egg sat in a niche carved in the stone. It was the size of a hand, but it didn’t sparkle, nor was it made of red diamond. It looked like a smooth river rock. But as I got even closer, I could see six red lines marked on the front of the stone. They were the only indication that this wasn’t just a regular rock.

  “What the hell are they waiting for?” Mad Jack’s hot breath tickled the skin on my neck.

  I looked around at the wall of stones and shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe they feel it’s just way too easy. That’s what I think. It can’t be as simple as this. There’s something else.”

  He leaned so close I felt his cheek brush up against mine.

  “You think it’s a trick?”

  I shook my head and shrugged. “I don’t know…maybe…it just feels off, you know. If this stone is so precious, then why isn’t it better protected? Why aren’t any of those masked men in here guarding it?”

  “You have a point.”

  “Something’s not right.”

  Even as the words escaped me, I felt dark and light emanating from the stone. I smelled the stench of death, but I also smelled the blossoms of summer and the flow of life.

  There was a rush of voices behind us, and the rest of the surviving clans stumbled into the room. King Otto’s eyes narrowed, and he roared something in Girmanian. Then he thrust out his great big arm and reached towards the stone—

  “Don’t touch it!” I warned in a hasty whisper.

  King Otto stopped. His hand was still outstretched.

  “Why not?” he said with a heavy accent.

  Even though he looked at me with eyes that showed his mistrust, he had paid attention to me and had hesitated.

  “I don’t know,” I said. It was the truth. “It’s too easy. Think about it. It doesn’t feel right.”

  I didn’t know why I was helping him. We were competing, and yet a part of me felt it was wrong not to help.

  King Otto stared at me and then glanced at his men. He said something that immediately resulted in laughter at my expense. Prince Landon did not laugh, however, and I could see that he agreed with me.

  The room went still and all eyes turned to the king.

  He smiled at me, and with eyes gleaming with greed he grabbed the stone.

  “No, wait!” I shouted and then held my breath.

  King Otto’s fa
ce paled. But then the color returned to his cheeks when nothing happened.

  He raised his hand in triumph, and the Girmanians exploded in cheers and threw their swords in the air. They had won the race.

  But then the king’s flesh started to glow a bright yellow. His eyes opened wide with fear as the yellow light broke through his skin, and then he exploded into thousands of bloody chunks of burned flesh.

  CHAPTER 24

  BITS OF KING OTTO got me in the face, and I nearly vomited right there. I could see that the only solid parts that were left of the king were his shattered bones. That explained why we had seen all the bones outside in the city. They were the remains of the thousands of unlucky souls who’d already tried to retrieve the stone. Blood of Arcania.

  The room erupted in a cacophony of screams and blood-curdling wails. People ran for cover, slipping and falling into the mess of what used to be the king of Girmania. They didn’t know if they were about to explode as well. The blast had been so sudden that most of us just stood transfixed and stared at the spot where King Otto had stood moments before.

  “La pierre est maudite! C’est une pierre des démons!” Spit flew from the mouth of a Fransian man whose face was covered in blood that was not his own.

  The man said something about the stone being cursed. And I believed him. A consensus of murmurs reverberated around the chamber. The blanched faces spoke for themselves. I just stood there shivering and sweating.

  The stone rested in a pool of blood in the middle of the chamber. The Heart of Arcania was such a small thing, and yet it possessed remarkable power. I had sensed it. And I was no fool. I had warned Otto, but he hadn’t listened. And now all that was left of him was a sticky, slippery, red mess.

  I looked around the room, trying to piece together a plan. My gaze fell upon the nobleman, Bartolomeu Dias, not because he was about to share his thoughts, but because he was watching Prince Landon. In fact, as I surveyed the room, I could see that all eyes fell on the prince. It was as though he had become their leader now, and it would be up to him to decide their fate. Besides, he and Otto had been first to enter the chamber, so Prince Landon was next in line.

  I watched the prince. He hadn’t moved either. He’d been closer to Otto than me, and by the sloppy mess of flesh and blood that covered him, he’d gotten it worse than I had. As though he’d read my mind, he pulled out a handkerchief and wiped his face. But his eyes didn’t leave the stone.

  The tension in the room continued to grow. The hair on my arms stood up, and I instinctively grasped my sword. Something was about to happen and it wasn’t the stone.

  A brute of a man from the Pit turned on Mad Jack.

  “This whole damn race was a waste of time,” he growled, and took a menacing step forward. “We lost valuable men and for what? All for nothing! We can’t even touch this damn stone.”

  Mad Jack didn’t flinch, but I saw his knuckles turn white around the hilt of his sword.

  “Get back, Mason. We all knew the risks when we volunteered to come.”

  Mason stood his ground, but he shook his head.

  “Well, it’s not a fair race. It’s a trick. This whole damn thing is a hoax. The priests tricked us. They knew we couldn’t win. They sent us all on a fool’s mission, another way to toy with us. I’m sick of their games!”

  “He’s right, they knew this would happen.” Everyone turned and stared at me.

  I was shocked that I’d actually spoken my mind out loud, but it was too late to take it back now. I thought Mad Jack would be the first to talk, and I was surprised when the prince spoke first.

  “What do you mean, Elena?” His voice, although a little gaunt, still retained the royal quality I had heard before. But there was something else in his look that I didn’t understand.

  I swallowed hard. “They knew. They knew all along.”

  Mad Jack leaned towards me and narrowed his eyes. “Did you know this would happen?”

  I understood his silent accusation and denied it angrily. “Of course not! But they knew…they knew this was going to happen.”

  As I spoke, everything began to make sense. Why I was here. Why the high priest had looked so triumphant when I had healed myself. It was all for this very moment. Right now.

  I knew that the high priest had sent me because he knew I was the only one who could touch the stone and live.

  Before I knew what I was doing, I walked over to the stone and picked it up.

  “Elena! No!” I heard Mad Jack’s voice behind me.

  The stone was warm, like it’d been sitting in the sun all day. It was smooth and surprisingly heavy for its size. It felt as though it should have been twice as large. I felt its power reverberate in me. It pulsed like the beating of a heart. I heard it in my ears and felt it pounding in my own chest.

  All at once I felt a monstrous pain, and my legs buckled. I lost my breath and couldn’t focus. I heard voices call my name, but there were far away. A buzzing sensation shivered through me from the top of my head to my feet. Hot. Cold. Hot. Cold. I felt like I was being pulled in every direction. My body burned from the inside, and then I felt as cold as death. And when I thought I was going to explode like Otto, I felt a shift in the power of the stone, and it released me, as though I had passed some sort of test.

  “She touched it, and she’s still alive!”

  “How is that possible?”

  I blinked as the chamber around me shifted back into focus. My heart beat madly in my chest like I had just run a mile.

  Mad Jack stood next to me. He was breathing heavily and sweat trickled down his face. His dark eyes were wide with fear, and he shook his head in disbelief. His left hand was slightly raised as if he half expected me to give him the stone but was too frightened to take it.

  I glanced at Landon, and he tensed. He was watching the stone in my hands closely. No doubt he was wondering if he would have survived, if he had picked it up instead of me. Although he was expressionless, I felt the same unexplainable shudder spiraling down my spine that I had felt when I had looked at him before.

  “Maybe the stone chooses who it wants, who it thinks is worthy to wield it,” he said.

  He looked at the stone and then back at me.

  “It seems to have chosen you, Elena,” he said quietly.

  I could tell that he felt he should have the stone, not some peasant woman like me.

  The others in the chamber shifted nervously and cast the same envious glances in my direction. But there was something else—like a pull. It was like everyone had gone mad for the stone. They seemed compelled to possess it. They needed it. It was like they were all under some sort of spell. The stone was doing something to them, but somehow I wasn’t affected.

  I caught a glance exchanged between Prince Landon and his battle-proven wingman, and I shifted uneasily. Was it frustration, arrogance, or greed? Whatever it was, it was catching and spreading to the rest of the company fast. I knew with certainty that they were going to try and take the stone from me.

  I swallowed hard and subconsciously rubbed the tiny lines on the stone with my thumb. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride. I had gotten the stone.

  But the race wasn’t finished yet. I had to find my way back to Soul City with the stone. Landon’s watchful stare made me anxious now. The flirty man was gone, and in his stead was a mighty prince.

  Mad Jack cleared his throat. “Elena has the stone now. She’s won.”

  He motioned across the chamber to the exit. “You should all leave and be thankful you’re all still alive.”

  “The race isn’t over yet,” said Philippe Touraine, the Duke of Fransia.

  He pushed past his companions but stayed away from me. His expression was just as irritated as Landon’s.

  “She needs to cross into Soul City with the stone to win the race.”

  Mad Jack turned towards the duke. I could see the tension across his shoulders.

  “Is that a threat?”

  The duke sneer
ed. “What are you? Her bodyguard?”

  He smiled lazily. “I’m just saying, do not be too hasty.”

  The duke looked at me and there was something cold and foreign in his eyes. I had to force myself not to look away.

  “Elena, right? Well, there is still a continent to cross and many days of travel. I’m sure we’ll all face more challenges along the way. There could be new developments. To win the race, you must have the stone in your possession when you enter Soul City. And to quote the high priest, there are no rules. Anything can happen between now and then.”

  He was right of course. I knew that he had just spoken aloud what everyone else in the chamber was thinking. At some point on the way back, someone would take it from me, or at least they would try. They’d all seen what had happened to the late King Otto. Who would be reckless enough to try again?

  I glanced around the room and met a few determined faces who certainly looked as if they might. Someone would try.

  I sheathed my sword. I had to put the stone inside its golden cage. I pulled out the cage and slipped the stone inside. It fit perfectly, as though the cage had been designed around the stone. I clamped it shut and dropped it safely back inside my pouch. I supposed someone could just cut it off with a blade, but it was close enough to my body that it was not easy to get at, and I could defend myself. I adjusted the thick leather belt slung low across my hips.

  I wiped my sweaty palms on my thighs, hoping no one had seen my trembling fingers, clenched my jaw so much it hurt, and stood up straight.

  They all wanted the stone. I could feel it.

  A little over twenty of them were left from the original racing company. I was alone. The odds weren’t in my favor. I felt like a cornered rabbit inside the wolf`s den. I only realized I was trembling when I prepared to step back and flee as fast as I could. The stone pulsed at my waist, sensing my fear, and urging me to run. My mouth was dry. I took a step back.