He marched right up to the king, ignoring his lizard minions at his feet and stopped a few inches away from him. King Leon only came up to his chest. He stood unflinchingly, almost defiantly, refusing to move, refusing to show the growing fear in his heart. The giant bent down, so they were face to face. Leon peered into his dark eyes; there was nothing but blackness, it was unnerving, it was unnatural.
“Where is the boy?” a low rasping rumble of a voice, deep and inhuman.
The king gritted his teeth, what does he want with my son? “You have invaded the Kingdom of Arrolyn, and single-handedly started a war. Explain yourself, who are you?
The giant snorted a disrespectful grunt. “War? I see no soldiers, no army. All I see are the bodies of dead men.”
“And you shall pay dearly for their lives.”
The shadow stood back up to his full stature and looked down at the old man. “You are in no position to make threats dead king.”
“Tell me your name monster.”
“Monster?” The shadow-like man smirked as he took a few steps backwards “You have no idea.”
“Your name,” the King demanded.
The man reached his hand out to the side; the king watched in astonishment as the darkness surrounding him began to swirl around his arm and made a long shaft of blackness. With a terrible noise like a serrated knife on steel, a sword appeared out of the shadow. Long and thick, the blade was nearly as wide as the king himself. The giant plucked it out of thin air and instantly swung it towards the king. The leader of Arrolyn didn’t flinch, he didn’t even blink, even though now the tip of the sword was digging into his chest. It hurt, but it wasn’t agony. He could tell he was bleeding; he felt the warm trickle running down his chest and stomach. The king refused to wince at the pain; he refused to show weakness, even if these were to be his last moments, he was going to stand tall and strong.
“The boy.”
King Leon stared at his adversary with bitter defiance.
“You know where he is?”
“Yes.”
“But you will not tell.”
“No.”
“You do realise I don’t need you alive then.”
“I do.”
“Bravery, I admire that dead king. I must admit, I did not expect such courage, but it will do you no good. You can either tell me where the boy is, and I’ll kill you quick. Or you can defy me, and you shall die screaming.”
“So be it, now enough of this, I don’t converse with nameless monsters.”
“Nameless, that is what I am. You do know of me, you’ve heard the tales, from your temples and your old dusty books. I am what you believe, what you fear. But you may call me Rakmar Balrok, a name claimed, not given,” Rakmar grimaced “Know this before you die, dead king, I will find your son.”
Rakmar shoved the sword into the king’s chest a little harder. The king squeezed the hilt of his sword as tight as he could, until his hand began to shake, but still he didn’t flinch.
The shadow narrowed his dead eyes and smirked.
“You truly will not give up the boy will you?”
“Never, so kill me and have done with it. Prince Rowan is far from your clutches beast.”
“A parent so protective of their child. A man fearless, unflinching as he stares at his own demise. Impressive, the title of king is well deserved,” Rakmar grinned a horrible grin “I wonder if the boy will be so fearless when I find him. I wonder if he will flinch at the sight of my power.”
“My son is the light, and not even your power, your darkness can extinguish it.”
“My darkness?” The giant shadow raised his colossal sword “I do not wield darkness, I have become darkness itself.”
The blade swung down.
“Rowan,” the king whispered and closed his eyes.
♦ ♦ ♦
Shaya heard the prince’s footsteps stop suddenly. She spun around and saw Prince Rowan leaning against a fir tree, clutching his chest. His eyes were unfocused, his brow sweaty. He looked back in the direction they had just come from, towards the castle. They couldn’t even see it from where they stood. The castle was nearly two miles away through the trees of Evergreen Meadow. He turned back and took a shaky step forward, grasping desperately to the tree trunk.
“What is it?” Shaya asked.
Rubbing his chest, the prince shook his head.
“Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine,” he snapped.
Shaya had to bite her tongue. To snap back at the prince of Arrolyn would no doubt be a bad idea. No matter how much she wanted to.
“Come on, we’re here,” she said finally.
He nodded silently and began to walk after her, still holding his chest.
The wind and rain were starting to ease off slightly, and the first glow of light was creeping over the horizon. Shaya hadn’t realised that she’d been up all night, she wasn’t even tired, the adrenaline of everything that had happened was still causing through her veins. They had used the darkness to their advantage and slipped passed the Krarg. They had spotted two along the way, sniffing the air and the smelling the ground, Shaya’s fears had come true, they were being hunted. They needed to get in and out as quickly as possible. The further south they went, the better. The Krarg didn’t know where they were going, and Shaya wanted to keep it that way. She carefully opened the little wooden gate that led up to the front door of the farm; it creaked like it always did. She had to stifle the urge to bolt up the path, run straight into the house and lock the door. As if she could just jump under the bed covers and she would be safe. Those days she feared were no more.
The young girl didn’t know what she’d gotten herself into. One moment she was waking from a dream, the next she was running through the rain with the prince of Arrolyn, being pursued by giant lizard monsters. It was madness, at the age of thirteen, on an adventure, a mission with a member of the Royal Family. It had quickly become more important than she could have ever imagined, more dangerous than she could have ever dreamed. It was what a soldier was trained to do. It was what she had wanted, to be a soldier on a quest for her kingdom. She wondered if she had known what would happen, would she have ever gone to the castle? Or would she have just clambered into bed, rolled over and closed her eyes and slept the rest of the night soundly? No, if she had the chance, she would do it all again.
Quickly, Shaya unlocked the door and ushered the prince inside. Jinx jumped off her shoulder and flew around as Shaya pulled off her damp hood. She unbuckled the scabbard from around her waist; it was starting to get heavy. After gently standing the sword against the wall next to the front door, she headed for the kitchen.
“I’ll pack some food,” she said.
Prince Rowan didn’t say anything, he just walked to the window and looked out in the direction of the castle. Jinx saw him, fluttered over and landed on the window-sill in front of him.
“Are you alright your highness?” she asked as she brushed the last of the water from her golden dress.
“Yes, fine.”
“Jinx.”
“Jinx. Perhaps tonight has worn me out a little more than I thought,” he smiled faintly. He rubbed his chest again.
“Not surprising.”
The door to one of the bedrooms suddenly creaked open, both the prince and Jinx froze. They heard footsteps coming from the other side of the door. The room beyond was dark; the curtains still drawn. Suddenly, the door swung fully open and something fast rushed out of the bedroom. Before the prince knew what was happening, he was on the floor, dazed and panicked. His fearful flailing suddenly subsided when Jinx started rolling around on the windowsill holding her stomach laughing uproariously.
“Your-, Your face,” she managed to splutter between gasping for air and chortling.
“What is going on out?” Shaya was cut off at the sight of Prince Rowan on the floor, with Kupi on top of him trying to lick his face. She leant against the door frame with a grin that filled her whole face.
“What is this thing?” The prince struggled with the excited moshling as it panted heavily not two inches from his face.
“It’s Kupi, our moshling. Come here Kupi,” Shaya bent down and tapped her knees. Kupi immediately bounded off the prince and ran over to her. She stroked his thick bluey fur behind his low hanging ears. Prince Rowan clambered to his feet and attempted to straighten his robes and brush off the hairs.
“The beast ruined my royal garb” snapped the prince, jabbing an accusing finger at the moshling. Kupi looked back at the furious prince and hung his head down and whined. “It should be chained up outside. And muzzled.”
“He meant nothing by it, your highness. He just gets excited when he sees new people.”
“My clothes are filthy,” he grumbled.
“Well, I’m afraid you can’t wear them anyway. You’ll stick out like a sore thumb wearing fancy clothes like that.”
“And what am I to wear instead?” The prince asked, irritated further at the prospect of wearing ‘common’ clothes.
“We have nothing here that will fit you, but we’ll be passing through town on our way south. We’ll have to grab something quickly there.”
“We don’t have time to go shopping if those creatures are looking for us.”
“Well, you can’t go around dressed like that. We should keep a low profile.”
“Very well, how quickly will your horse get us there?”
“We can’t go by horse” Shaya patted the still upset Kupi and headed into the kitchen, followed by the moshling.
“You expect me to walk?” The prince wasn’t used to this kind of treatment.
Jinx quickly zipped past him and flew into the kitchen after Shaya.
“Outrageous,” he muttered to himself and followed them.
Kupi was snacking on some foul fish smelling mush from his pot on the floor and Shaya was at the island in the middle of the kitchen, shoving a small loaf of bread and few red apples into her tattered beige backpack.
“I’m sorry, your highness, we need to keep out of sight, we can’t go galloping around the wilderness, we’d be spotted a mile away.”
“We should keep to the trees as much as we can, stay off the roads,” said Jinx as she floated around the kitchen table.
“Good idea.”
The prince walked to the opposite side of the kitchen island and leant his hands flat against the wooden countertop.
“You do realise its nearly fifty miles to Filyn Forrest?”
Shaya stopped and looked at him and thought for a second. “You’re right,” she pondered for another short moment. “We’ll have to find a place to spend the night then. We won’t make it before nightfall.”
“Bring the flint for a campfire,” suggested Jinx.
“You must be joking.”
Shaya looked up at the prince with a stern gaze. “I’m sorry prince, but we need to do this right or not at all. Those Krarg in the catacombs seemed very interested in taking you. If they’re going to be hunting us, we need to be smart and take every precaution we can or-,” she paused, about to say out loud something she feared. Until that moment, she had tried not to think about it.
“Or we won’t make it,” the prince finished off her sentence. Shaya nodded. “Forgive my behaviour; I’m not used to any of this. I’ve barely been outside the castle walls. Being surrounded by people who are too terrified to tell you something you don’t want to here, can make you-,” he trailed off.
“Stubborn?” Shaya said hotly.
The prince didn’t say anything; he scrunched up his face as if he was trying to swallow something horribly bitter. Finally, he nodded.
Shaya got the flint out of the drawer in the island and dropped it into her pocket and grabbed a couple of thick blankets from the cupboard and shoved them into her now bursting backpack.
“Your uncle has raised you to be quite the adventurer, hasn’t he?” Rowan said, breaking the silence.
Shaya let out a brief laugh “I don’t know what you mean,” she said sarcastically with a cheeky grin. Her grin suddenly disappeared when she heard the front door creak open. Shaya, Prince Rowan and Jinx all froze and quickly turned their heads to the moshing, who was now quietly nibbling one of his long toenails. Kupi realised they were all staring, looked up at them and tilted his head as if to say, well it wasn’t me.
“Down,” whispered Shaya.
They all dived to the floor. The prince scrambled around and hid next to Shaya as Jinx hopped down onto Shaya’s shoulder.
“Kupi,” she whispered into Shaya’s ear.
Shaya quickly grabbed the oblivious moshling by the scruff of its neck and dragged the chubby creature across the floor. Kupi barely seemed to notice that he was now three feet to the right. He just let out a quiet grunt and continued to munch on the surprisingly long nail. Shaya clamped her hand over Kupi’s mouth.
“Ssssshhhh,” Shaya hushed quietly.
Footsteps, heavy ones, on the wooden flooring. Something was inside the house.
Uncle Benjin? She dared to think, but it wasn’t. She could hear the dull hissing and sniffing of the creature as it entered the kitchen. Shaya allowed herself a quick peek around the corner of the island. It was a Krarg, a blood-stained jagged sword in its clawed hand. Its yellow eyes darted around the kitchen as it sniffed. Shaya sat back and mouthed the word Krarg to the others. It took a few more steps into the room smelling the air, Shaya peered around again, she could only see its dark scaly tail flapping back and forth slowly.
Damn, she thought to herself, she could see her sword resting uselessly by the front door. Foolish, she thought, careless.
The beast took a few more steps further into the room and bent down low, breathing in lungfuls of air, sniffing them out. It dragged it’s blade along the floor, making a horrible screeching noise that shot through Shaya like a jolt of electricity that made her shiver. The Krarg stretched out its long neck to the ground as it slowly, quietly stalked the room. It came close to Kupi’s food bowl and took a whiff; it wasn’t impressed. It pulled its head back and made a disgusted grunt. With a snarl, it looked over to the island in the middle of the kitchen and continued its hunt. Shaya could hear it getting closer.
“Run,” whispered Jinx. Shaya looked at her confused. Her little friend wore a solemn expression on her face. She floated off Shaya’s shoulder and repeated her demand. “Run.”
Before Shaya could do anything, Jinx shot up into the air like a golden firework and hurtled towards the Krarg screaming. The lizard was surprised and took a few steps backwards, nearly tripping over its own tail. She flew around the creature’s head as fast as she could. This enraged the Krarg, its yellow eyes narrowed, and it flung its sword up and swiped down as hard as it could. It missed Jinx by less than an inch, and she continued to zip around the kitchen with the monster in pursuit. While it was distracted, with its back to them, the prince made a break for the kitchen door, leaving Shaya watching her friend fight something fifty times her size. He was gone.
“Coward,” she muttered angrily as she looked at the empty doorway. Quickly she opened drawers looking for something to use as a weapon. The Krarg roared at the annoying sprite and slashed out violently. It hit Jinx with a vicious backhand, and she was sent flailing across the room. She hit the window hard and fell onto the countertop with a solid thud.
“Jinx,” shouted Shaya as she stared at her friend's tiny body. She wasn’t moving. A bellowing shriek from the Krarg got Shaya’s attention. She turned to see the monster’s narrow eyes fixed on her. The girl looked up at her attacker, it seemed much bigger when she wasn’t armed with her sword. She quickly grabbed the nearest thing to her, which was a small knife she used for chopping carrots, not exactly ideal.
The brute seemed to grin with its sharp yellow teeth; a long pink tongue shot out like a snake’s.
“The prinssssss,” It hissed as the lizard reached out with a vile hand towards Shay
a who stood brandishing her so-called weapon “Where?”
“Here,” shouted the prince from the doorway. The Krarg and Shaya both looked. He stood with Shaya’s scabbard in one hand and her sword in the other. He threw the sword as hard as he could towards Shaya. She took a step forward and caught it in mid-air. In one fluid motion, she spun it around in her hand to get the best grip and instinctively blocked the immediate strike from the lizard. She stuck the tiny carrot knife in the beast's leg, and it yelled out a hollow screech. While it was in shock, she used every bit of strength she had to push the monster's blade back and brought her own across its stomach. Then a final slash to its neck silenced the dreadful shrieking. The creature fell with a loud crash. Shaya immediately dropped her sword to the ground and ran over to Jinx. She wasn’t moving, one of her wings was bent backwards.
“Jinx?” she whispered trying to hold back the tears. Shaya reached out and carefully picked up her friend and cradled her in the palms of her hands.
“That hurt,” muttered Jinx as she shifted.
“I thought you were-,” Shaya started.
“It’s going to take more than a smelly old reptile to finish me off,” Jinx sat up carefully and rubbed her head. She winced as she turned and looked at her wing. Her face went pale.
“Are you alright? What do you want me to?”
“Don’t touch it,” Jinx said quickly. The colour was draining from her skin, from her forehead to the tips of her fingers.
She was so tiny and delicate, Shaya suddenly remembered what had happened when she was younger. The two of them had been playing, and Shaya had flicked one of Jinx’s wings. She’d screamed out in pain and fell to the floor, Shaya had obviously apologised profusely. Through the sniffles and tears, Jinx had explained just how fragile and sensitive her wings were. Ever since then, Shaya hadn’t touched them, in case she hurt her tiny sister again.
The Shattered Moon (A Divine Legacy Book 1) Page 5
