Evander and the Strangler's Quest

by Wells, L. G.

  He tried to focus on the warmth and the way that it felt traveling from his core to his limbs, and the soft fur beneath his head that he later realized was one of Scence's huge paws acting as a pillow, but his mind was wandering from the forest and traveling somewhere else, and his eyes were covering over with clouds, and before he could think to hold on any longer, he had fallen into darkness.

  …

  He woke up to the sound of crackling, closely followed by a low-pitched humming, and his eyes parted to reveal a bright white light. He was still in the snow. He frowned as he considered as much. It was a wonder he hadn't frozen to death by now.

  The humming came closer, and the familiar, sweet melody awakened Evander's mind. He blinked several times, and the white light faded into deeper, more saturated colors. He wasn't in the snow at all, but inside the palace – and in his parents' old chamber.

  He sat up so quickly that his head spun, and he ducked over the side of the bed and retched onto the floor. A hand came and gently held his shoulder to keep him from falling, and then eased him back down onto the pillows.

  His mother smiled down at him.

  “How'd you find me?” he said groggily.

  He was no longer in his wet clothes, but a soft dressing gown and warm socks. His injured hand had been redressed with a thick, strong bandage, and a warm fire was burning from the fireplace to keep him warm. On the table beside him was his father's old lead box, and the heat radiating from inside it let Evander know that the Deathless Flame was still trapped inside.

  Aeliana raised a finger and pointed to his side, and he turned his head just enough to see a pair of powdery green wings fluttering beside him. Effer plunked down to the pillow and sat cross-legged next to his head.

  “You know about the sprites?”

  His mother gave him a knowing look, then retrieved a quill and some parchment from inside the bedside table drawer. She wrote upon it and turned it to show him.

  I've been in contact with the magical beings for all my life.

  “But you shouldn't be, not anymore,” Evander said. “If Anguis finds out –”

  She scribbled more hastily on the parchment.

  What more can he do to me? He's already taken my tongue.

  Evander bit his own, a feeling of guilt welling up inside him. As happy as he was to see his mother, he knew that Anguis would punish her when he found out – and he would find out – that she had helped him. He wondered if she knew that the Noble Guards had been the ones to put him beneath the ice.

  “Does anyone know I'm here?” he said. “If Anguis finds out you helped me, then –”

  Then he shall find out. But until then, I don't want you worrying about it.

  “I was the one who stole it, Mata,” he said. “The Deathless Flame. I took it, and Anguis knows. He tried to kill me because of it.”

  Her face clouded over with a frown, and Evander wasn't able to read her expression to guess what she was thinking. She took her time writing the next note.

  What made you steal the gods' flame?

  “I …” He looked down at his hands. Beside him, Effer was shifting. He was surprised that she was able to keep so quiet. He thought she would have outed him already. “I thought it would help me find Arthfael.”

  It was clear that it wasn't the answer Aeliana had been expecting. She jumped a bit as though she had been bitten by a snake, and clutched her arms to her chest as she stared at him.

  Your brother is lost to our world, Evander. Surely you know that?

  “But I think he's still out there,” Evander said, his voice brimming with fervor. “I'm almost sure of it. And all I need is a little more time, and I can find him and bring him home –”

  His mother was shaking her head. The slow, rocking movements seemed to sway the entire room back and forth, and tears wet her face with moist lines over her pale skin.

  Your brother can't come home, Evander. Not from this.

  She paused as she showed him the note, seemingly deciding whether or not he understood. Choosing the latter, she took the page back and added on a final note.

  He's gone.

  “But he's not – I know he's not, Mata,” Evander said. “Just – just don't worry about it. I've got it all figured out. I know what I have to do –”

  Does it involve magic?

  “It … well, the sprites have been helping me,” Evander admitted, but he couldn't bring himself to tell her that he had made a deal with the most forbidden of the magical creatures. “But there's nothing wrong with magic, Mata. You know that as well as I do. It's only Anguis that's outlawed it –”

  Anguis outlawed it for a reason, she scribbled hastily. He has his own magic – dark magic. It's what gives him power. He doesn't want anyone else getting a hold on it because he fears it could overthrow him.

  “Anguis uses magic?” Evander said. So he wasn't a mystic after all, but a warlock of sorts who dabbled in the arts to read minds and predict future events. “But he says it's against the gods –”

  A clanging came from outside the room, and Evander's mother jumped up. She crumpled the parchment she had written on and tossed it into the fire, then grabbed Evander from the bed and hauled him up. Effer sped along behind them.

  “What's going on –?” Evander started, but Aeliana pressed a hand to his mouth, urging him to stay silent. Evander strained his ears to listen to what was happening outside. The voice of his mother's servant girl carried into the room as his mother dragged him through to her Dressing Room.

  “The Queen isn't feeling well, M'lord – she asked not to be disturbed tonight –”

  “Get out of my way, girl,” Anguis said impatiently.

  Aeliana, still holding Evander by the arms, searched the room frantically with her eyes, looking for a place to hide him from Anguis. Evander pointed to the wardrobe just as the door to the chamber began to open.

  He pushed his mother away from him and dived to the wardrobe, opening the bottom drawer and throwing himself inside. Effer sped in with him as Aeliana bolted back towards the bed where Evander had just been laying.

  Evander lay curled in the dark drawer, his hand clamped over his mouth to quiet his labored breathing, and listened for the sound of Anguis' chilled, whispered voice.

  “Where is he?”

  The sound of Anguis' footsteps on the floor as he moved closer to Aeliana contrasted to the ones pounding around the chamber. The guards were overturning furniture as they searched for Evander.

  “I know you helped him,” Anguis went on. “The guards told me a white beast dragged the boy from the river and carried him off. One of your friends, I suppose? Still communicating with animals?”

  Smack!

  Evander cringed at the sound, feeling as though he had been the one to get hit. He wished that the sprites had kept him in the forest after all.

  The guards' footsteps sounded in the Dressing Room. The walked back and forth in front of where he hid, checking beneath the table and under the lounging chair, and opening the window to see if he had tried to make an escape out of it.

  “Tell me where he is, Aeliana. He'll die regardless, but the longer it takes me to find him, the less generous I'm going to be with how quickly he goes …”

  Evander shook all over. He wondered if the wardrobe was quivering against the wall. Effer leaned her tiny head against his arm, trying to calm him. The guards would surely hear him.

  “You know I'm not a patient man, Aeliana. And you know that I'm even less forgiving. I'll give you to the sound of a crow calling outside the window …”

  Even though it was dark, Evander shut his eyes. He wished there was more space to move so that he could clamp his hands over his ears, but the small drawer made it impossible. A pair of footsteps came right up to the wardrobe and stopped in front of it. The creaking of the doors opening filled the hollowed wood. He was caught. The guard would be opening the drawers to overturn them any second –

  Caw! Caw!

  Evander's eyes sn
apped open. The drawer was still dark. It hadn't moved beneath him. The sound of clothing beings shoved to the side came to his ears as the guard looked for him behind the long ling of fabrics, but then the footsteps turned and walked away.

  “He's not in the room, King Anguis,” Hocking said. “She must've stashed him somewhere else already.”

  Anguis hummed lowly.

  “Very well,” he said. “It seems you're out of time, My Lady. Poor Selvyn will be requiring a new queen.”

  There was no sound from the chamber while it happened: it was more like a hollow, empty swell that filled the place for several minutes while Evander lay frozen in his spot, and then a distinct thud came to his ears, and he knew what had happened but couldn't bring himself to think of it.

  Anguis and his men left the room. When they had gone, Evander slid his hands through the crack in the drawer and pushed it open so that he could climb out. He numbly went into the chamber, knowing what he was going to find before he reached it but still completely unprepared.

  His mother was lying on the floor, her eyes open and staring upwards at the ceiling. There was a leather belt wrapped around her neck, and her hands were grasping at it even in death, still trying to prolong the moment that came much too soon.

  Evander stepped forward and knelt down beside her. His hands were shaking, but he forced them to be still enough to close her eyes. He couldn't leave her like that: staring into one world while traveling to another.

  Effer fluttered from the bedside table, struggling to stay in the air, and landed beside the box holding the Deathless Flame. When Evander finally looked up at her, he saw that she was holding the key he had gotten from the River Odi. He took it from her and stared at it blankly. It seemed worthless now. He dropped it into his pocket and hung his head.

  The door opened and Evander jumped back, but he wasn't quick enough to return to his hiding place. He froze as the person entered the room and looked up with his tear-filled eyes, readying himself to be caught, but –

  It was his mother's servant girl. She halted upon seeing him, but didn't look surprised. She looked down at where Aeliana lay, then back to Evander.

  “I'll make sure she's buried properly,” she said. “Even if Anguis won't allow it. I'll make sure.”

  Evander tried to open his mouth to thank her, but no words came out. She stepped into the room and shut the door.

  “Take the white coat that she used to where to the Festival,” she said, nodding towards the Dressing Room. “It will camouflage you once you're outside.”

  “But –” he said, not understanding, “– then what?”

  “Then run, Prince Evander: run where no one will find you.”

  Chapter Ten

  Run where no one will find you. Run where no one will find you.

  He repeated the words in his head as he fled across the snow-covered grounds and into the forest, the ermine sprinting alongside him at his feet, and he didn't slow down for a moment even though his breath had gotten lodged in his lungs and seemed incapable of ever moving through him properly again.

  The lead box was clutched beneath his arm, and the ornate key was trapped in his pocket. It smacked against his leg as he ran, reminding him of the unhealing pain it had caused to retrieve it.

  They would search the kingdom for him, he was sure. All because he had stolen the Deathless Flame. All because he had made the deal with The Strangler. And for what? he wondered as he ran. His mother's words were flashing in his mind, sickening him and making him doubt everything that he had done. Your brother can't come home, Evander. Not from this. He's gone.

  But he couldn't be dead, Evander thought desperately. He and The Strangler had a deal. If Evander completed the tasks, then The Strangler would show him where his brother was. So he had to be alive. He had to be, unless –

  The Strangler had tricked him after all. He had never told Evander that he would come back with him alive, that was just what Evander had assumed. For all he knew now, The Strangler was going to lead him to a pile of bones that were frozen beneath the snow, and then everything Evander had done would be in vain. Anguis' hatred of him would never had arisen, and his mother's death would have never happened.

  Evander's foot caught a branch and he stumbled, plowing face first into the snow. He pushed himself up, only then realizing how greatly he was shaking. His whole body was weak, and yet his mind seemed more solid than ever. He gripped the fingers on his injured hand together to form a fist, then stood up.

  There was only one place where Anguis wouldn't search for him, and it was also the place where Evander could find the answers to his questions. He stood and marched on, moving towards the center of the forest where The Strangler lived.

  He reached the blackened part of the forest and didn't hesitate as he walked up to it.

  “I need to speak with you!” he shouted at the old oak stump. When nothing happened, he aimed a kick at it. “Come out!”

  The hooves broke through the darkness, and The Strangler's form followed. He crawled from the hole and stood on his hind legs in front of Evander, staring down at him unhappily.

  “What insolence has overtaken you, boy?”

  “You tricked me,” Evander said. “You told me I could get my brother back, but it was all a lie!”

  “Perhaps I've missed something,” The Strangler said. “Have you completed your tasks? Have you seized your reward and found it displeasing? No? Then what leads you to believe you've been tricked?”

  “He's dead, isn't he?” Evander said. “My brother's dead.”

  The Strangler looked at him calmly.

  “Yes, he is.”

  “Then it was a trick!” Evander shouted, taking the ornate key from his pocket and throwing it down onto the ground. “You did this so that you could mock me – so you could have some fun! You knew I'd never get my brother back, and you did it anyway! You betrayed our deal!”

  The Strangler lifted its front leg and smacked him across the face. The hoof caught Evander's jaw and sent him crashing to the ground.

  “I have never betrayed a contract,” he spat. “You humans would think that, though, wouldn't you? Just another product of the creatures you bow to as gods.”

  Evander slowly lifted his head from the ground and clutched his face. The Strangler stared down at him.

  “If you want to know what betrayal is, I'll tell you,” The Strangler said. “Betrayal is what your beloved Nativita, Infirma, Prosperitus, Natura, Contrus, Amora, and Navigatius did to me!”

  His pawed the ground with his hooves, sending a mixture of dirt and snow up into the air. It sprung into Evander's eyes.

  “The seven of them were once humans no greater than you,” The Strangler said. “They were witches and warlocks who dabbled in the art of the magical creatures, searching for a way to gain power. But human power is and always will be limited by one thing: a lifespan. So the seven of them searched for a way to make themselves immortal, but they couldn't figure out how to do it on their own.

  “They found me as a young man who was pious and good and adored the magical realm for all of its glory. They convinced me to share my studies of the creatures with them, and in doing so extracted how magical beings live for much longer than a mortal life. In exchange for my knowledge, they promised me a seat at their godly table: the eighth god, and I accepted.

  “Each of them selected an aspect of human life to reside over. Nativita chose birth, Infirma chose illness, Prosperitus chose success, Natura chose the earth, Contrus chose war, Amora chose love, and Navigatius chose travel. When it came time for me to choose, they blocked me out of their kingdom, fearing that my power was greater than theirs and could be used to overthrow them. They turned me into an animal and locked me in the forest with nothing but a cruel name, and they assumed that they had overtaken me.

  “But a magical deal is not one that can be broken without consequences, and since they promised me that I, too, could reign, I picked what I wanted to reside over. It was the cou
nter to each of their own choices – the solution to it when they failed – the enemy: Death. When birth failed, Death did not. When illnesses couldn't be lifted, Death could end it. As earth kept growing, Death could clear it. When wars were fought, Death chose who won. When love was unbreakable, Death could shatter it; and when love failed, Death stopped the pain. When travelers explored new worlds and came home, Death could bring them to a place from which they couldn't return. In short, I won.”

  Evander stared up at The Strangler, unable to respond, but The Strangler went on.

  “I told you that I could bring you to your brother: this was no lie. But you asked me for an impossible quest for anyone – even your gods – and so I had to ask you for an equally impossible quest in return. I never betrayed our deal.”

  “No, no … of course not,” Evander finally said, shaking terribly upon the ground. “No, I see that now –”

  “Your foolishness makes me see that you are nothing more than a descendant of the mortals who betrayed me, though, and I am inclined to break this deal with the only thing powerful enough to do so: Death.”

  “No!” Evander shouted. “No, please – I made a mistake! Anguis killed my mother because I stole the Deathless Flame, and I was angry at you, but I realize my mistake now –”

  He scurried onto his knees and clasped his hands in front of him, begging The Strangler for mercy.

  “Please, let me bring my brother back,” he said. “Please … Anguis is just like the gods. He's using dark magic to gain power. He killed my family. Please, let me stop him.”

  The Strangler stared down at him with the black orbs trapped inside his eyelids. His nostrils were flared, and his horns glistened with frost.

  “Pick up the key,” he said at last. “You need it for your final task.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  “Find the Two-Faced One's Door and answer his riddle. If you are correct, you will be shown the path to your brother.”