by Am Hudson
“It will most likely mean a fight,” I warned carefully, “especially if we run into the white-haired woman.”
“I’ll take her,” said a sweet-looking girl with a slight southern accent, bashing one fist into her palm.
“If it’s a choice between her or Hans,” said another, whose curls had clearly been neglected for ten years, “I’ll take the bitch.”
My mouth split into a wide grin. I liked these girls. “Okay then,” I said with an enthusiastic nod, looking around at my little backup team. “Let’s do this.”
“What about him?” a skinny vampire aimed a nod to the lifeless legs I’d stepped over earlier. “We can wake him and use him. I’ve seen some of the things he can do—when he fought Hans.”
“Leave him. He looks half dead, and I don’t have time to carry lost causes to freedom,” I said, “That bitch has my baby girl. I need to rescue her before…” I left it at that.
“I’ll carry him out then,” the loud woman said, her bare feet moving gracefully over the rocks and slime to the man’s side. “He suffered more than any of us.” She bent and looped his arm over her shoulder, heaving as she hoisted him off the ground, and as I turned to blast the lock open with a shot of Cerulean Light, the way his head flopped forward caught me off guard. The shot died in my hands as the outline of his face sunk in to mind.
“Oh my God!” I rushed over and lifted his head; his eyes were closed loosely, his jaw slack and hanging, his face completely expressionless, like the dead. “What happened to him?” I turned and looked around the wide stares. “I said, what happened to him!”
“Like Ericka just said, he had it worst,” the frail, crawling woman said quickly. “King Drake came for him himself most days—”
“We heard the screams late into the night.”
“And then the King delivered him back here, sweating and shaking, and healed him up the next morning before it started all over again.”
“That’s not possible.” I brushed his hair back off his face. “This man has the power to freeze a room of men with his mind. Why would he let Drake hurt him that way?” And why wouldn’t Drake tell me he had Arthur all this time?
“Hans,” two girls informed at once.
“There’s that name again,” I said, my head spinning a little with all the new names bouncing around the cell. “Who the hell is Hans?”
“He’s ancient—older than any of us here.”
“He’s got the power of the mind, too. But he’s stronger than anyone we know—”
“Even that boy,” the southern girl said, her wide eyes landing on another, both of them nodding in agreement.
“What boy?”
“The pretty boy. The Councilman’s brother—with the green eyes—”
That could only be… “You mean Jason?” I said.
“Yeah, and he was in here with us, too,” Taylor said, motioning around the cell. “For a while.”
“Jason was here?” I practically screeched, leaving Arthur hanging off Ericka’s shoulder. “Where is he now?”
“That white-haired freak told Hans to deliver him to the tower this morning.”
“The tower,” I said to myself, my eyes shrinking with thought. “Did she say why?”
“Something about using him as leverage.”
My teeth ground together so hard that I heard a crunch. “Right. Then you girls get Arthur somewhere safe. I’m going up for Jason.” It was a start. Chances were the witch would be in the tower with Jason.
But none of them moved as I took a step toward the door. I looked back and noticed all eyes on Arthur’s face.
“What?” I snapped. “What’s the big deal?”
“I thought that was him.”
“Arthur who?” a voice called from deeper in the cell.
“Arthur Knight?” The girl holding him looked at me for confirmation.
“Yes. Why?”
“Oh my God!” The crawling woman covered her mouth, shrinking back into the darkness she’d emerged from.
“I can’t believe I heard him scream like that.”
“I’ve never heard anything so horrific in all my centuries.” The woman’s eyes were so wide I could see the unusual turquoise colour, even in the dark. “And that was Arthur Knight all along?”
They all looked at each other then, and burst out laughing.
Ericka dropped him carelessly to the floor and stepped away. “He can stay here.”
“Yeah, stupid old bastard. May he rot in agony,” the southerner said, and spat on his bare feet.
“Hey!” I rushed over and wiped it off, cleaning my hand on my jeans after. “Don’t do that.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s my friend,” I said. “And he deserves respect.”
“Why? He’s nothing but a savage and conceited ex-council member.”
“World Council member,” I reminded her.
“Who cares? He sentenced me to six years of torture.” She motioned down her ragged, bloodied clothes as if to say ‘hence her appearance’.
“Six years?” I blinked a few extra times, confused. “But David freed the prisoners—”
“Yeah, all but the last cell,” said another, folding her arms. “Then he left and never came back.”
Which was actually my fault, I realised, because I called him to return home when I found out I’d slept with Jason.
“Yeah, so leave his uncle here to rot like he did to us.” Ericka kicked some dirt up at Arthur and turned away, moving over to lean her back against the bars. “Are we getting out of here, or what?”
“Not without Arthur,” I said, standing up.
“Come back for him when you’ve rescued your baby,” said another. “He deserves everything bad he suffers.”
“And we won’t be the ones to drag his sorry ass out to freedom,” added a ghost on the sidelines.
I couldn’t understand their hatred for him, but then again, I’d never known the version of Arthur they had, so I at least understood that they probably did have a reason to hate him.
“Fine,” I rescinded. “I’ll come back for him later. Let’s go.”
I stepped over Arthur, and the girls cleared a path for me to the Lilithian Steel cage. This metal was made from the very blood that made me. It might hold vampires in, but it couldn’t hold a stone-melting Lilithian.
“Wait!” A woman appeared from the rear of the cell, and a small posse descended from the shadows behind her. “You can tear that door off, break the lock, set us all free, but at what cost?”
No one said a word; they all looked down at their feet.
“King Drake will hunt us all down. This doesn’t give us a full pardon,” she reasoned, pushing back her pink bangs. “This doesn’t do us any favours, except maybe to see our sentences doubled when we’re caught again.”
“And we will be caught,” said another from behind her, her voice weary and dejected. “It’s useless to run—you all know that.”
“Not anymore,” I said, turning back to face them all. “If you fight for me, I will see to your full pardon in Drake’s monarchy and in mine, and you will have the eternal gratitude of the Lilithian Queen, her King, and the Drakarian King—”
“No one speaks for King Drake,” a woman piped up. “And Christie is right. If we leave here, we’re toast.”
In my mind, I calculated how many guards might be out there. I knew Drake had recruited and turned a whole new army to fill out the gaps left in his old one after our first attack, and when I wandered these halls while I stayed here, I’d counted at least two guards on every corner. There were probably enough men out there to subdue me without too much effort, and without Drake’s say-so, who I was would not matter to them. I needed these girls. Probably all of them.
“Drake is my father,” I said quickly, as a few began to sit down.
They all paused mid-sit or mid-step away, and stood straight again, pretty much all wearing the same confused expression.
“Look at my ey
es,” I offered, walking past each one and gazing right into their faces. “Look at the resemblance. I’m telling the truth.”
“Holy shit!” said the girl standing closest to me. “She looks just like him.”
“Even if you’re telling the truth,” the pink-haired Christie said, “How do we know we can trust you to protect us once we get free?”
“Go straight to the Island of Loslilian—find the King, or any of my men, if the King isn’t there. Tell them what happened here and tell him to bring the Knights. We will protect you, and when all this is over you’ll see that you don’t need protection. My father will pardon your crimes if you help me.”
“Then count me in.” An older woman at the back stood up. Four more followed, each stepping forward, their chins tilted high, ready for a fight.
“It will be my honour to serve you, your Majesty.” A woman bowed low, her straight hair falling just past her chin. “My name is Jennifer, I’m an old friend of Eric’s.”
I smiled widely at her. “How do you know that I know him?”
“I was here during your arrest and torture. Eric used to talk to me through the bars.”
“Have you seen him lately?”
“Not for over a year, I’m afraid,” she said. “He left, I’m told.”
“Well, in a few minutes, you will all be free to leave.” I looked out at the dark tunnel beyond the bars. “After we fight off these… highly trained Drakarian Warriors.” My voice teetered off at the end with uncertainty.
A few girls laughed, easing the tension in the room again.
“It won’t be easy.” A girl in quite modern jeans and a t-shirt stepped up and turned to face the others, walking backward until she stood at the head of them all. She clearly hadn’t been down here long. “A few tips, girls, before we get started—”
“Who are you?” one remarked sourly. “And what would you know?”
“I’m Jessica,” she stated assertively. “But you might have known me as Second Lieutenant Moody.”
I heard a whisper among the girls about Jessica having been one of Drake’s Warriors—arrested for desertion—and if anyone had been ready to throw another rude question at her, they all seemed to swallow it down, settling back respectfully to listen.
“First thing you need to know is that anything can be used a weapon.”
“I have a weapon!” A girl up the back said, presenting her unnaturally sharpened fingernails, angled at the top like spears. “Been working on these babies for two years!”
“That’s perfect. And for those that hadn’t thought of that—” Jessica held her hands out, wiggling her fingers. “These can rip a guard’s throat out. Just hook your fingertips in, like this—” She demonstrated, “—and yank. Don’t be afraid of hurting him, that’s the idea.”
“Eye-gouging works on our kind, too,” said another, moving to stand beside her.
“And you are?” Ericka asked sceptically, folding her arms.
“A highly trained police officer,” she stated, folding her arms in slowly as she moved her feet a half-step apart. “But you can call me Detective.”
“Or just Michelle,” the girl she’d been standing next to said timidly.
Michelle smiled warmly, unfolding her arms. I could see she played the stern authoritative officer well, but she was really a big softie at heart, which I found odd for a vampire.
“And you were saying?” someone said, by way of welcome into the circle of trust. “Eye-gouging?”
“Right. Just dig your thumbs into their eyes—” she curled both thumbs in the air, like she was pressing them into a big ball of dough, “—and that’ll give you a chance to escape.”
“And remember,” Jessica said. “Every girl for herself once that door opens. But when you get free, get to the Lilithian lands and find the King.”
Everyone nodded in agreement, soft murmurs filling the cell.
“Are we ready then?” I asked, my hand poised above the bars near the lock.
My soldiers stepped up around me, a few of them leaning down into their thighs, ready to run, and I focused on the lock, shutting my eyes and imagining the mechanism within it lifting and clicking away from the latch. I could’ve used my Cerulean Light to melt the bars away, but I remembered that, inside this castle, there was no Nature—no Life. If I used my magic too much, I might not have enough energy to defeat Safia and save my daughter. Besides, I could use the practice with my telekinesis.
The latch clicked and the door opened suddenly, flying forward as the vampires shoved it out and charged from the cell. They made no noise as they vanished from sight and sped down the tunnels toward the exit. But as those leading the charge reached the guards, it became abundantly clear that the girls were winning the first round.
As I stepped forward to follow the last few, a hand went across my chest. “You stay here.”
I followed the dirty arm up to a pair of kind eyes. “Excuse me?”
“We’ll take down the guards and clear a path for you,” she said.
“I can fight,” I assured her. “I know I look small, but I’m pretty skilled.”
“I’m sure you are. But it is my duty as a new and faithful subject to the Lilithian Throne to protect my Queen.” She bowed. “I have been locked away here for twenty years, and you have blessed me with freedom. I am eternally your servant.”
I smiled, releasing my breath with a soft laugh. “Okay. Well, in that case, how ’bout I run out behind you then? I can’t stay here,” I reasoned. “My daughter is out there. I need to fight.”
She seemed to consider it for a moment, and then nodded. “As you wish.”
“Come on then,” I said, but stopped mid-step. “Wait. What’s your name?”
“I was once known as Melissa, but it has been a long time since anyone has said that name.”
“Well, thank you, Melissa. Sincerely.” I gave her a small head bow in return, and followed her out of the cell.
We walked slowly down the dark tunnel, past rows of iron-barred enclosures, most of them empty. I found myself sniffing the air for any hint of my baby, hoping maybe she was in one of these cells and that, if she was, I didn’t walk right past her. By now, she must be desperate for a feed and a diaper change. In this darkness, I had no way of knowing how much time had passed, but my heart ached for her, like nothing I’d ever felt before. I actually felt sick to my stomach, worrying that she might need something.
“Slow down here,” Melissa said, holding her arm out across the way.
Being so dark, I hadn’t noticed that we’d come upon a fork, the tunnel splitting in three. I looked up both directions, wondering which one would lead us out of here.
“There’s a few girls up ahead,” she said. “I can smell them.”
“We can smell you,” one of them said, springing up and startling the life out of me.
I laughed, breathing out the shock, and another three came up behind her, laughing too.
“Is the coast clear?” Melissa asked, all business.
“All clear,” Ericka said. “Three of our girls were taken out in the fight, but we’ll come back for them later.”
“How many guards did you come across?” I asked.
“Sixteen—so far,” the crawling woman said, looking a little less malnourished than she had before. She licked her lips, wiping her dirty wrist across her mouth. “I drained at least half of them.”
“That won’t sustain you, Mariam,” the southerner noted, touching her arm gently. “We need to get you to the surface for some human blood.”
“You guys follow us then,” I said. “Both Melissa and I are in better condition than you guys. We stand more of a chance against the guards.”
“Yeah, but we’ve got less to lose than you do, my Queen,” a woman I hadn’t met, or didn’t remember, said. But when I saw her razor-blade nails, she suddenly came to mind. And she was right.
“So what’s the plan then?” I said, pressing my back to the slimy wall. I could feel the
goo seeping in to my white sweater, and I said a silent and sad goodbye to it.
“Rachel,” Jessica said to the razor-nails girl, “You and Jenny run ahead and scout out the tunnel quietly, then double back to let us know how many we’re dealing with.”
“On it,” the girl that first jumped up and scared us said. “Come on.” She tugged Rachel’s moth-eaten sleeve and they ran off, their bare feet slapping the moisture on the stone floor.
“Mariam.” Jessica turned to face her. “You’re our feistiest fighter. When the girls come back with numbers, you charge ahead and start making a fuss—distract the guards so we can slip the Queen past without too much effort.”
Mariam grinned wickedly.
“And I’ll stay with the Queen until we reach the tower,” Melissa stated. “I may not have as much strength right now as I used to, but I will fight with everything in me.”
“Five,” Rachel advised, appearing at a run from the shadows up ahead.
“Five right by the stairwell, and at least three more, from what I can smell, up top,” Jenny added. “They’re waiting on some backup—”
“And they have a few of the girls in chains on the floor,” Rachel cut in.
“Don’t worry about them for now,” I said. “I’ll send a team back here for them when I get free.”
“You had better,” Ericka warned. If I was a dishonest person, her tone would’ve intimidated me. But I knew I had only the best of intentions. Those girls would be freed, or I would not be able to call myself Queen.
My defences suddenly went on high alert then, but I heard the shift of a foot through the dark and the ting of metal along a leather sheath a second too late. The bloody tip of a blade poked out through Ericka’s chest and her eyes rounded in surprise, her hands cupping the sword.
Another one went straight through Jenny’s throat, and as it caught Rachel off guard, she spun around swiftly and slashed her razor nails across the man’s eyes. He made a strange kind of groaning sound and fell to his knees as Jenny did, but before I could react to help any of them, Melissa and Jessica grabbed an elbow each and forced me to run.
