Prophecy of the Seer

by K.N. Lee

  Risa shook her head, grimacing as she drew her sword. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”

  20

  Lilae burst into the inn, and raced past Rowe.

  “What’s going on?” Rowe asked.

  “Bellens,” she shouted, taking three steps at a time up the stairs. Other guests were awakened, and looked to her with curiosity as they rubbed sleep from their eyes.

  Once she reached the room she shared with Liam, he opened the door, and reached outward with her sword in his grasp.

  She accepted, catching her breath.

  “I saw them,” Liam said, fastening his bracers onto his wrists. They glowed, fixed with runes blessed by Delia’s magic. “From the window.”

  She nodded. “I’ve only ever faced one before,” she said.

  “How did that go?” Liam asked, a brow lifted.

  Shrugging, Lilae unsheathed her sword. “I sliced off her head.”

  “Good,” he said. “They die like any other mortal.”

  She watched as he went back into the room, and leaped from the open window. Chills ran up her arms and neck as he commanded the lightning to outstretch from the sky and into his body. She ran to the window, and watched as Liam rode the wave of light down to the alleyway. She followed suit, and leaped down, sword in hand, an eager itch in her throat.

  It had been many moons since since she’d fought anything but the creatures of the Shadow Tower, and her blood yearned for that familiar thrill.

  A bone-chilling screech filled her ears as she and Liam ran from the alley to the main street. There, Rowe, Nani, Jaiza, and Risa were assembled, prepared to face off against this unexpected threat.

  Lilae’s heart thumped in her chest. Delia had yet to return, but that was inconsequential. She’d said it herself. They were a perfectly balanced team.

  She just hoped their odds against magic power was as strong as their experience against its opposite.

  She met them, exhaling puffs of cold air from between her parted lips as she fought to control the red flames that begged to be released.

  Yes, this was a brilliant day for a battle.

  Once she stopped before the others, Reagar and his soldiers emerged from both ends of the city, armed, and ready.

  The silence of the night was unnerving as the Bellens clung to the sides of the buildings, their hair and flowing robes wavering in the sweeping wind.

  It wasn’t until a beautiful woman dressed in black lowered herself to the ground before her.

  With hair as pure as gold and striking blue eyes, she seemed like a vision from a dream. Her faint smile seemed pleasant, almost disarming, but Lilae knew better than to be charmed by any pretty face offering empty promises.

  She gave a low bow, her hair spilling over her shoulders, nearly sweeping the stone road beneath her black boots.

  “Flame,” she said, in a voice that tore through Lilae’s thoughts, searing the edges of her sanity as it crept beneath her skin, itched at her blood, and swam within her thoughts.

  She took a step backward.

  The sheer force of power and magic radiating from the Bellen before her wasn’t missed. It was familiar, and terrifying.

  Liam had just asked if she’d fought one of these women before. She had.

  But, not even Sister Eloni’s magic made her want to curl into a ball and beg for mercy the way this woman’s did.

  Unnerved, Lilae shifted her weight, and swallowed back the whimper that wanted to be released.

  No, she was strong, powerful. She should not fear anyone.

  Even as she tried to reassure herself, the look in the woman’s eyes spoke a completely different story.

  “Yes,” she said. “I know. It is hard to want to be a leader. But, a true leader knows when to lay down their arms and surrender.”

  For a moment, Lilae’s voice wouldn’t come.

  “They’ll be no surrender here today, miss,” Rowe said.

  Lilae glanced at him, and then to Liam.

  Did no one else feel that amount of power coming from this woman?

  Slowly, she returned her gaze to the woman, and mustered her courage—and her voice.

  “Who are you?” Lilae managed to ask without her voice cracking.

  She smiled, almost sweetly, and opened her arms.

  “Sister Evaline,” she said. “Sacred Volva of the First Rite.”

  None of those words had any meaning for Lilae, but she tucked them away, prepared to ask Delia about them if they ever had the chance to speak again.

  “I command this coven,” she said. “And, we have come to offer you a deal.”

  Lilae and Liam shared a glance.

  Lilae met her ethereal gaze, and looked away.

  “What kind of deal?”

  Evaline’s golden brows lifted as she scanned her group of warriors.

  “You,” she said. “In exchange for the lives of your friends, here.”

  That statement settled into Lilae’s gut like a lump of iron ore. She wanted to vomit, for she knew within her bones the level of threat coming from Sister Evaline’s lips. It was said as sweetly as possible, laced with honey, but the underlying threat ate at Lilae’s resolve and left her shivering.

  Liam put a hand out before her. “There will be no deal.”

  Evaline’s smile faded. “I wasn’t asking you, Storm.” She looked to them all. “I am not asking any of you, Rowe, legacy of Oren. Risa and Jaiza, daughters of Pirin. Nani, Inquisitor, Goddess of the Fairies.”

  They all looked to one another. She knew them, and that proved more of how dangerous she was.

  “Yes,” she said, with a nod. “I know you all. I have seen your fears, laughed at your triumphs, wept at your pain. I’m not all awful.”

  No one spoke, and she went on.

  “I have an abundance of empathy,” Sister Evaline said. “But, I do not show mercy.”

  “No mercy,” the Bellens said, in unison, their voices echoing off the walls of the city.

  Reagar stepped forward, and within seconds, he was stripped of his armor and left naked in the middle of the square.

  Sister Evaline didn’t even look at him. She’d only cast out her left hand and taken everything from him, dignity included.

  “Make another step, Handsome,” she said. “And, I’ll rip your soul from your body.”

  Sheriff Reagar fell to his knees, hands clasped as he prayed to the Ancients for assistance.

  “Bloody hell,” Rowe said, under his breath.

  A wave of nausea flooded Lilae’s gut. She’d never heard Rowe sound even remotely as worried as he did then.

  “What is this?” Rowe asked, adjusting the grip on the hilt of his ax.

  Sister Evaline grinned at him, eyes widened.

  “Oh, Dearest,” she said, in a breathy whisper that assaulted all of their senses. “This is a night of reckoning.”

  21

  “Join us,” Sister Evaline said, returning her attention to Lilae. “Lay down your duty. I know it weighs heavily on your shoulders. Its a burden you never asked for—a burden that doesn’t have to belong to you.”

  Her words startled Lilae, for they resonated in a way she didn’t want to admit. Lilae stared at her. If this offer had been offered to her just a year ago, she might have accepted.

  But, she knew the stakes and what would happen if she shirked her responsibility.

  So, she closed her eyes, sighed, and prepared herself for what was to come.

  Lilae slid her finger along the steel of her blade, and steadied herself by widening her stance. Flames raced up the steel, following her finger, and flickered around the hilt. She rolled her neck, and when she opened her eyes, she met those of Evaline.

  They shared no words, for Evaline read what was within Lilae’s eyes. Liam readied himself. To their right, Rowe and the others fixed their gazes on the multitude of witches who began to crawl down from their places along the outer walls of the buildings of Hansburg.

  Evaline nodded, pursing her lips. The
n, she inhaled and gave Lilae a look of disappointment.

  “Very well,” she said, and lowered her head.

  For a moment, it was as if she bowed in defeat.

  Lilae knew better.

  They all did.

  When she lifted her head, terror struck Lilae in the heart.

  Still, there was no turning back—not now.

  Bellens flooded the streets from every direction, and Lilae sucked in a sharp breath. She met Liam’s gaze, and gave a nod.

  Arrows shot through the dark, as Jaiza made the first kill of the night.

  A pleased smile came to her lips, as she gave Lilae a sidelong glance before darting out of the street to climb up the stairs to one of the roofs.

  Rowe took his ax, and used it against a thin ray of red light that came from the hands of one of the Bellens. He then flashed a feral grin at the woman, and held his arms before him, bent at the elbows, crouching on his knee.

  A halo of color and light shot outward from his middle, and began to crisscross around his large frame. The energy collected and within seconds, he stood back up to his full height, and shot through the city in a fury of color, tearing through anyone in his path.

  Exhilaration filled Lilae’s ribcage as she watched him take down at least a dozen from his halo of Legacy light.

  “Good job,” she said, under her breath, and tensed. She reached out a hand out behind her as a Bellen attempted to make a stealthy approach.

  She caught the woman by the throat, and held her upward, and off of the ground, before crushing her windpipe and throat within her fist.

  The woman crumpled to the ground in a lifeless heap, and for a moment, Lilae felt sorry for her. That moment lasted less than a second as more attacked from all sides.

  A boom of thunder erupted from the sky as Liam leaped from the ground and used it to carry him through the city, where he slammed the light into unsuspecting Bellens.

  Risa nudged Lilae, blood dripping from her sword. “Be quick,” she said. “These long-haired crones can only conjure a spell so quickly. Slice them down before they can. Speed—we can defeat them with speed.”

  With that, she was gone, spinning through the battle with the rage and ferocity that Lilae’d had to train against all of her life.

  Lilae took her sister’s advice, and used her sword of flames to guide her through the now-crowded streets. Her boots thumped against the stone as she ran, brows knit together as she danced a dance that had been engrained in her very soul. Her arms were long, and that gave her an edge against the witches. While sparks flew through the sky toward her, she smacked them away with the power of her sword, and charged into packs of them.

  One of the sparks shot into her flesh, and made her cheek sizzle. She wiped it away, and it only served to increase her wrath.

  Lilae growled, slicing through four at a time with sheer force and determination. Despite their magical abilities, their bodies were soft and bent to her blade just like any other man or woman.

  “Shield,” Evaline shouted, her voice a harsh roar in the night that made Lilae’s bones ache.

  Lilae withdrew her blade from the belly of a Bellen as they all stopped and cast their eyes toward the sky.

  Frowning, Lilae looked over her shoulder toward Evaline, who hovered in the air.

  Evaline’s eyes now glowed completely white, and her hands were held outward on either side of her. Symbols of light appeared before her, in the shape of shield. From behind the shield of light and strange characters, Evaline fixed her gaze on Lilae.

  “You’ll account for your sins today, Flame,” she said, and the shield began to spin, collecting speed.

  It went so fast that it almost seemed to vanish before her, and become nothing but a vortex of light and air.

  “This,” she said, all sweetness and efforts to cajole leaving her voice, entirely. “Is for Sister Eloni.”

  22

  Lilae gasped, as a blast of purple light erupted from the center of the spinning wheel that Sister Evaline wielded.

  A series of symbols raced toward her, charged by the Bellen’s power.

  “Lilae,” Liam shouted, and grabbed her by the arm.

  He snapped her into place at his side, and stabbed his sword into the ground, creating a shield of his own. The stone shook and parted beneath the power of his sword’s impact.

  White light stretched and covered them both, locking them behind a wall of air and power. Lilae gazed behind the shield that made the world on the outside look as if it were underwater.

  “Don’t worry,” Evaline said, her voice echoing within Lilae’s ears. “Judgement is coming.”

  Evaline’s brows knit tightly together as she narrowed her eyes and focused on the spinning wheel before her. It began to waver and slowly split into two separate wheels. With one hovering before both of her hands, Evaline shot Lilae a flashing grin.

  Tensing, Lilae watched as she turned one of the glowing wheels, and cast it toward the others. It happened within seconds, leaving no one had a chance to react. Her heart skipped a beat, and she screamed as a blast of light raced through the night toward her sisters.

  Risa ducked, shielding Jaiza, and seemed to prepare for the worst.

  Lilae watched in horror as the light raced to her sisters, and broke free from Liam’s grasp.

  She left the safety of the shield, and began to run, when something crashed from the sky, and into the center of the square.

  A wave of light shot outward in all directions, and knocked everyone from their feet and onto the ground.

  Lilae gasped, desperate to see what had just crashed before them. The white light blinded her, and she was forced to squeeze her eyes shut.

  All seemed to go silent as the light began to fade, and slowly moved inward.

  Opening her eyes, Lilae stared in awe at what she saw.

  Standing there, in sleek armor that encased its wearer completely, from head to toe. Whoever it clothed had a sword, and shield of golden light, and an aura of white and silver spinning around that was at least ten feet tall and ten feet wide.

  She came up to her elbows, and narrowed her eyes as the shield revealed a face of a beautiful woman. With a tattoo on her forehead, and long dark hair that was released from the armor that now dissipated and revealed bronze skin and tribal armor of leather, Lilae couldn’t decipher if she was friend, or foe.

  Her gray eyes left Evaline’s and met Lilae’s.

  Evaline stumbled backward. “You—” she said, stuttering, and her confident air wavered. “You can’t be here.”

  The woman stood to her full height, and regarded Sister Evaline with a cool gaze.

  “Your master broke the sacred laws,” she said. “I can be wherever I choose.”

  Fury entered Evaline’s eyes, and for a moment she seemed unsure of what to do.

  “I will not bow to you, Goddess,” Evaline said, licking her lips.

  A smirk came to the woman’s face. She tilted her head. “You don’t have to bow. But, you will leave.”

  Lilae looked from the Goddess to Evaline, on edge. She came to her feet, and held her sword at her side.

  The city watched, and all went silent except the heart beats that thumped in the night like a tribal drum.

  Snow began to fall in heavy flurries, and the wind howled.

  Sister Evaline shook her head, a tear running down her cheek. “No,” she said. “I will not. He—he won’t let me.”

  The Goddess nodded. “Very well,” she said, raising her sword. “I expected as much.”

  “But, this isn’t your fight,” Evaline protested.

  “When Wexcyn crossed me in Aden,” she said, teeth clenched. “He made it my fight.”

  Lilae knew nothing of what she spoke, but from the Goddess’ tone, she sensed deep-seeded pain and rage.

  “Friend,” Runa’s voice said from within Lilae’s mind. “Definitely a friend.”

  Evaline glowered at them, and lowered her hands to her sides.

  “Very
well,” she said, through clenched teeth. With the wave of a hand, a dark portal of purple and black smoke emerged from behind her. The other Bellens began to dematerialize, and vanish.

  Evaline backed away, her eyes returning to Lilae.

  “We will meet again, Flame,” she said. “And, you will belong to me, or meet your Maker.”

  Lilae shook her head. “When we meet again, it will be you meeting yours.”

  Evaline seethed, and retreated into the portal before it was sucked into the darkness.

  For a moment, there was silence in the streets of Hansburg.

  Rowe and the others returned to the square, and they all stared in awe at the Goddess before them.

  She walked to Lilae and sheathed her sword. She secured her shield onto her back and glanced at the moon.

  “Don’t linger here, Flame,” she said. “Take that dragon of yours and fly. Fly far and fast. You won’t be safe from conjurers of portals and dark magic until you’re behind the walls of the Aurorian Imperial City.”

  Lilae nodded, and rubbed her hand along the smooth talisman.

  “I will,” she said. “Thank you, for helping us.”

  The beautiful Goddess smiled. “I’ll do what I can, when I can. But, Wexcyn and Litha are my main concerns.”

  “Who are you? I mean—you know who we are,” Lilae said.

  The woman held up her hand, and the skies seemed to part for her, ushering light from some distant source.

  She began to rise toward the light as it encapsulated her entire body.

  “Raina,” she said. “The Goddess of War, reigning ruler of Aden.”

  Lilae’s breath was taken away by her revelation.

  “Above all,” Raina said, as she began to vanish. “I am forever your ally.”

  23

  It was midday, when the sun was highest in the sky, scorching the land until it seemed almost barren like a desert.

  This was Gorvar’Ru, one of the wastelands of northern Avia’Torena.