As we moved further away from the exit of the tunnel, I realized we were only on the outskirts of Taroth. Demetri now led the group, walking away from the city and toward a small lonesome building.
Before we reached it, Gwen burst from the door, running toward us. When she reached us, she pulled me into a hug. I wrapped my arms around her, almost instinctively. As if I had been hugging my entire life and this wasn't my first time. I wished I could stay there forever, but Gwen pushed me away gently, horror on her face.
“You're bleeding.”
17
Gwen fixed a hooded cloak over my head, careful to hide my hair before doing the same for herself. She ushered me inside, past the shocked faces of Demetri, Zander, and Keiran. Thana remained uninterested as I passed her in the nearly empty small two story inn.
Gwen led me up the stairs into a fairly large room with a double bed. “I'm really feeling okay—”
“Nonsense,” she said, pushing me down onto the bed and forcing me to lie down.
The other three entered the room after us, watching with wide eyes.
“Out!” Gwen shouted, ushering them from the room, much to my gratitude.
Demetri hung in the doorway, and I knew what thoughts lingered behind his eyes. How could I ever help him without the Blood to become queen? Without the power that made a Red Queen.
Gwen slammed the door shut, leaving Demetri to jump back before it smacked him in the face. She began to pull up my shirt, but I still felt so weak it was impossible to fight against her. “No...”
The scars of the old cuts glistened in the light, but if Gwen noticed, she didn't say anything. The new one was long and deep. She went to work, carefully cleaning it, and then pulled out a long string and needle. After threading it, she moved toward the cut. Energy surged through my veins and I jumped away from her.
“It needs to be stitched, Elara.” I shook my head, feeling dizzy. Gwen's eyes looked over my scars. “What happened to you?” she whispered, so quietly, I knew she hadn't meant to say it aloud.
I collapsed backwards, my vision darkening. I heard Gwen shout for help, but I fell into my nightmares.
“You're awake.” His voice was like music to my ears. My vision finally cleared and I saw the Prince standing over me. I began to push myself up, but Demetri's hand pressed against my shoulder. “Take it easy. You lost a lot of blood.”
I flopped back down onto the pillow. His eyes brimmed with concern, but underneath I could see the disappointment. I wore a fresh set of clothes, and heat bloomed on my face.
I forced myself up before he could stop me, somehow managing to stabilize myself. “We need to get going. We're on a time limit.”
“Slow down. We aren't in that much of a hurry. You need time to recover from your injuries. Being held prisoner by the King of Thieves is no joke.”
My fears confirmed. They were only using me to get what they wanted. “So because I can't heal, I'm useless to you? You no longer want to help me get home?”
“No, I didn't say that. We all care about you, Elara. We all want you to get home safely.”
I shook my head, unable to repress the last week. “If you cared, why couldn't you fight him? Prove him unworthy and take his place?”
“It doesn't work that way here. And thieves aren't known to be the most honorable of fighters.”
“If you cared about me, how could you let Erro take me prisoner? You didn't even try to negotiate!” An anger rose in my voice that I hadn't expected.
“Because if he knew I cared about you, it would have been worse. If he knew how much you meant to me, he would have used the opportunity to torment me.”
My breath caught. He brought his hand to my face, lifting my chin gently. My eyes darted to his lips as his hand pushed my hair behind my ear. His fingers lingered for a moment on my cheek before retreating.
“I just want to go home.” The words slipped from my mouth before I could stop them. I didn't want to go home, because even home wasn't safe. I wanted to go to a different life.
His face turned stoic and he turned his back to me, pacing around the room. “Bad news, little Red. We're not going to make it to Empyrea in time for the next Tide.”
“Can't I just drink some of your Blood and go there myself?”
Demetri's eyes widened in shock and disgust. I wished I could take the words back, ashamed of them. He turned his back once more, silent for a long time. “Your body could not withstand the Shadow, Elara. Erro's mind is addled from the Blood, addicted to the life force of others. I had hoped you would never stoop to the level of those vampires.”
“I didn't know.” I shook my head, not sure what to say. “I'm sorry.”
A low whistle came from the open doorway. My eyes shot to Keiran, wondering how long he had been there. “How's she supposed to help us anyway, Prince? She's powerless. The Red will never be able to win a fight to take the throne in Krev.”
Silence filled the room, other than the steady thud of Demetri's deliberate footsteps as he moved toward Keiran. Demetri's shoulder hit Keiran's as he passed through the door. “Her name is Elara,” he growled. “Not 'the Red.'”
18
Early the next morning, we began the last stretch of the journey. The inn disappeared on the horizon behind us. The lava crackled as we walked past, eating away at the small strip of blackened earth that we walked on. It reminded me of the desert, desolate and hot, but no form of life lived here, not even a lizard or the smallest of plants.
My injuries kept me at the back, though Gwen kept me company. My eyes watched Demetri far ahead, warped like a mirage from the plumes of transparent heat.
“He's growing fond of you.” Gwen said suddenly. I ripped my eyes off Demetri, forcing myself to look out at the wasteland. “He doesn't want to see you go.” Gwen always spoke as if she knew everything. And she probably did.
Zander yelled something from up ahead. I looked to Gwen, who shrugged. We continued our slow trudge toward the others. Zander began to wave his arms, and the two of us broke into a jog to catch up with the others. Each time my foot hit the ground, a jolt ran through me, pain expanding from my stomach. I looked back, seeing what the warning had been, what word Zander had been yelling.
Firestorm.
A wall of black smoke rushed toward us like a wave, fire lashing within like lightning. I broke into a run, ignoring the pain to catch up. Ahead, Demetri waved, but the cloud of embers reached Gwen and I, encasing us. Ash pelted our skin with such force it scratched our skin.
I grabbed Gwen's arm, determined not to lose her, putting my free arm over my face and marching forward in what I hoped was the right direction.
The heat of the storm lashed out in waves, burning my neck, the putrid smell of singed hair. I pulled Gwen, blindly moving forward before crashing into something. I looked up, seeing the armored chest of and wry grin of Demetri. “Let's go!” he yelled, his voice lost in the storm. He grabbed my hand and led us the rest of the way, until finally we collapsed into dark silence. I fell forward into Demetri, releasing Gwen and using both my hands to catch my fall. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, trying to steady me. Comfort radiated from him and I let myself fall into it.
My eyes adjusted to the low lighting, the firestorm blocking most of the light. Everyone's eyes were on us. I hurriedly pushed myself away from him. “Sorry,” I murmured.
He smirked as he began to brush himself off, caked with a layer of dust.
“What are we supposed to do now?” Gwen asked, slumping against the wall, her eyes shimmering with tears.
“Wait out the storm,” Demetri answered. His confident tone seemed to relax everyone, “Settle in. It's going to be a long night.”
I looked at the mouth of cave, just a small circle at the far distance, sitting alone with my thoughts. When the winds would raged, like thunder all around, breezes would reach deep within the safety of the cave. I shivered.
Gravel shifted next to me, a warm coat draped over my shoulders. I loo
ked to see Demetri taking a seat next to me, leaning his back against the wall. “Expecting an attack?”
I shrugged, forcing myself to look back to the entrance, pulling the coat around me tightly to ward away the chill. Despite the small cave, Thana's scanning eyes, and the whispers echoing from Zander and Gwen, I felt alone with Demetri.
“I doubt they'd bother to check every little cave in this storm,” Demetri said.
“Maybe they won't come for me. I'm worthless. I can't even heal myself.” The words came out in a shameful whisper. I glanced to look at his expression before staring back into the void in embarrassment.
“They kept you for days. You'd be dead if you were worthless to them.”
I remembered the gash in the doctor's arm disappearing once he drank the Blood. “My Blood healed one of them. But I still don't have a gift.”
Demetri shook his head, standing up. “You take first watch. Wake up Keiran in a couple of hours.” He began to walk away, but he stopped, turning back to me. “If your Blood healed them, you must have a gift.”
My thoughts lingered on his words, everything silent except the slow breaths and the howls of the wind. A hand bumped against my shoulder, and I looked up at Keiran.
“You may as well get some sleep. I can hardly relax if I don't trust you.”
I thought of arguing with him, even mention that he was the one that had tried to kill me. But nothing I would say could convince him otherwise, and it would only wake the others. I stood up and walked toward the back of the cave, laying on an empty patch of ground. I pulled Demetri's coat over me like a blanket, watching his still form leaning against the cave wall. I drifted in and out of sleep.
A violent shake and loud whisper shocked me awake. “They're here!”
Aches from the rocky surface pained my entire body as I sat up, blinking my eyes several times.
“Come on out! We know you're in there!” A voice snarled into the cave, echoing off the walls. We all moved forward, ready to find our ambushers. We stopped, seeing a crowd of at least twenty outside of the cave. Zander, and Keiran pulled out their swords.
“Just give us the Red and you may pass through the edge of our territory!” Nobody responded. “It's a handful of you versus fifty of us!”
Zander laughed loudly, “We'll take those odds!”
Would even the strongest Bloodburner take those odds? We backed further in as the others entered.
“We'll stand our ground here,” Demetri said, looking at each of us. The enemy began to file in, and the small area allowed for little more than stabbing. But the battle didn't last long.
Thana stepped forward, removing her gloves. She grabbed hold of one of the men by his wrist. Shadow wrapped around the man until he disappeared. His sword dropped from the dark cloud that had sucked him in.
The other soldiers held back for moment, wary of Thana. But they pushed forward. She grabbed another, this time gripping his chin. Another cloud of Shadow. They began to back off.
“What are you doing! Get them!” Their leader was saying. “The bounty on their heads will give each of you a year's salary! Get back here!”
He finished yelling at his retreating soldiers and turned back to us. We surrounded him, swords pinning him against the arch at the mouth of the cave.
Thana reached forward, her thin bony fingers extending over the leader's arm. He shook his head. “No, pl—” His words were lost to the Shadow. He was gone.
“Everyone, get your stuff together. They may come back with more,” Zander said. With the exception of a few small cuts, everyone had made it out unscathed, but we all moved sluggishly, sleep deprived. We walked for hours, chasing the firestorm until it disappeared.
Though the landscape had not changed, I sensed something had shifted. Ahead, dark blue skies chased away the burnt orange smoke. The rivers of fire had morphed into tiny veins beneath the cracks of the surface. The dry air breathed easier.
The change invigorated me, and with wide eyes I watched for what was ahead. My legs grew more sore and eventually the new energy drained away. And just as I looked down at my feet, a sprig of green.
Behind me, the orange sky hung over the rivers of fire in Taroth, reminding me of another place I never wished to return to.
The blades of grass turned into larger bushes, and then into a sparse treeline. When we reached the edge, Demetri stopped, and everyone but Zander and the Prince laid on the ground. The blanket of forest debris was the softest bed I had in weeks and I fell into a dreamless sleep.
Shaken awake, I rose speedily, ready to fight, but we merely continued to hike half-asleep.
Large dark circles were visible on Gwen's face, but she voiced no complaints, and neither did I. Whenever I felt like I couldn't go on, I looked back, remembering who was after us.
A rumbling grew louder in the distance, and we continued to walk toward it. So loud it was like an angry thunder in the skies. Mist hit my face, though I could not find the source of the water through the thick layer of trees.
We reached the edge of a clear blue river. A towering wall of water, a thousand feet high, crashed down next to us. The mist around the waterfall glimmered with all colors, more magnificent than any gemstone. My jaw dropped in amazement.
“They say you have to go through hell to get to heaven,” Gwen said, standing next to me.
We washed ourselves at the edge of the small lake around the base of the waterfall. The water refreshed the group to the highest spirits we had been in for days.
“It's just a few more miles to the river. Then we'll just walk upstream from there,” Demetri was saying to Keiran and Zander. “You two will keep an eye on the girls while I commandeer a ship from the army.”
Though we walked for at least another hour, the time flew by, and the gigantic river came into sight.
Several large ships could be seen from the shoreline, as large as the one we had taken to get to Taroth. Unlike in the canals of Asphodel, these ships fit along the huge river. The Prince quickly hailed one of the ships down, and a small rowboat was sent to get us.
We all piled in and were rowed back to the vessel it had come from. The large ship had several cannons on board, and a black flag with white stars. The flag of Astrea. A military ship.
Everyone on board the ship wore uniforms, with swords strapped to their waists, and in full hydra-scale armor. As the Prince boarded the ship, the crew stood at attention, saluting Demetri.
The captain approached the Prince, giving a small bow before speaking. “Your Royal Highness, what are you doing out here without the Royal Guard?” His eyes flicked to me, as though blaming me.
“At ease,” Demetri said, gesturing to the crew aboard the ship to relax their stiff posture. He returned his gaze to the captain. “Admiral, take us back to Empyrea. And prepare for a strike from Taroth.”
The man nodded, bowing once more before heading the helm of the ship. The first mate approached, guiding Demetri to the captain's quarters to freshen up.
I went with Gwen and Thana and we changed into fresh clothes, each washing up in our own hot basin of water. Gwen checked my cut, cleaning off the dried blood, and removing the stitches before bandaging it again. She put fresh cloth over it and taped it down.
“Be very careful. Laughing too hard could rupture that and make it open again,” she warned.
I nodded as I pulled a shirt over my head of wet hair. By the time we returned to the deck, Prince Demetri had wet hair but was back in full armor. His sword sparkled, even under the dark blue skies. I looked up, seeing that the dark blue was speckled with thousands of stars. And the largest star shone as bright as a moon.
“Beautiful, isn't it?” Demetri said, standing next to me at the railing. I smiled at the sound of his voice, biting the inside of my lip to control my nerves.
“What are they?” I asked quietly, risking a glance at him before staring back up at the stars.
The metal of his sword glided against the sheath as Demetri pulled his sword
out, holding the handle in front of me. The pommel that glowed with its own light. “Some say they are pieces of the broken Goddess, when she was thrown down from heaven.” I locked eyes with him as he continued. “Others say they are crystal shards from a fallen star.”
Our arms touched, warmth radiating from him. He tucked his arm behind his back, glancing toward the captain. I frowned, remembering I was a Red to them. Just as I had once seen him as a slimy Stalker.
I looked toward the front of the ship, seeing the huge river wind upward on a hill until it disappeared. I looked to the shore.
Someone shouted from behind me, and a second flag was raised below the first. The crest of Astrea. The symbol of the royal family.
As the ship moved further, the top of a castle became visible atop the plateau. Beautiful tall towers rising into sharp spires, reminiscent of the Keep in Asphodel. Soon it disappeared under a layer of tall trees. All around there was plants, trees, and flowers of all shapes and sizes. Teal grass seemed to glow under the stars, flowers of all colors could be seen under the dark canopy of the trees.
The hum of life rang out from the forest. The chirp of bugs sounded much more friendly than the swarm of locusts that came to Akeldama every few years. In the distance a tall statue stood guard: a beautiful woman carved into gray stone, curls flowing down her shoulders. Under her long lashes, her eyes glowed with the stars.
“Goddess,” Demetri introduced without prompt.
I looked over her beautiful features, trying to remember any depiction of her in Krev. The temples of Krev had long ago been converted into storage and bathhouses. The images on the walls had faded from decades of decay and lack of repair. As we passed the statue of Goddess, the castle came into sight once more.
The harbor held many vessels, most were large ships equipped with guns and cannons. Military ships. The war galleons contrasted with the peaceful city behind the harbor, filled with colorful houses, trees, and flowers. The castle shot out from atop the city. The stone appeared light blue in the light. Music played in the distance, a man on the docks with a lute in his hands.
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