Warrior's Curse

by Cara Bristol

  “Oh Goddess!” her mother cried and tossed aside the makeshift bludgeon. “Meloni! Dearest. What are you doing here?” She grabbed his arm and helped him stand.

  “You hit me!” He rubbed his head.

  “I didn’t know it was you. I was expecting Honna or one of her guards,” Ellynna said. “I’m so sorry.”

  Meloni held out his arms, and she flew into them. She buried her face against his neck, and he pressed his cheek to her head and rocked her. Reena averted her gaze. She’d never seen her mother in an intimate embrace with a Lahon before.

  “I’m so sorry. I didn’t sense you,” she murmured.

  “One of the effects of the poison.”

  Carinda and Kor entered the room. “What’s going—Shara!” She widened her eyes. “You are well!”

  Yes, she was. Her mother was in much better condition than she’d appeared in her chambers only hours before and much better than Reena had expected after witnessing the seizures. “I thought you would be unconscious,” she said.

  Ellynna and Meloni released each other. The queen smoothed her hands down her robes. “Yes, well, that is what I wanted Honna to think. She’d already attacked your Lahon, and I had to do something to stop her, so I pretended to be having convulsions.” Her face darkened. “Then she shot you.”

  Why hadn’t Honna killed her? Reena wondered. She’d had the perfect opportunity. Why had she let her live?

  The queen looked at Kor. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”

  “Mother, this is Kor. Garat’s brother,” she said.

  “An honor to meet you, Shara.”

  “Now that we know you’re okay, Kor and I have to leave to get Garat.” She looked at Carinda. “You free the prisoners,” she said then turned to her mother. “Go with Meloni. He will see you to safety.”

  A determined glint lit the queen’s eyes. “I will not abandon the Sharona.”

  Her mother could be as stubborn as…as…Reena herself. “You are not abandoning them—” There was no time to explain or cajole.

  Fortunately, Meloni stepped in. “Ellynna, my heart, you need medical attention.”

  “I am fine.”

  “But not fully recovered. Let me help you. Let your daughter, Carinda, and Kor do what they need to do.”

  “I don’t know…” The queen hesitated.

  Meloni motioned for them to leave. Before her mother could object, she and Kor ran from the room. Windows along the hallway revealed a sun low in the sky.

  Fear fueled determination, and she ran faster than she ever had.

  She prayed it would be fast enough.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “Move your sorry legs!” The Sharona shoved him. Hands and ankles manacled, Garat stumbled but managed to catch his footing. The Sharona was the largest woman he’d ever run across, but give him a moment alone with her and he could reverse the situation. Shackled or not.

  Except he was outmatched by sheer numbers. Three other guards accompanied her. After being electrocuted and knocked unconscious, he’d awakened to find himself chained in a locked room. He’d wanted to pound the walls with frustration at his helplessness. Then the four cloaked guards had arrived.

  The lead one took pleasure from taunting and tormenting him, welting his back and legs with a rod.

  Whoosh! At the sibilant warning, he clenched his teeth. A split second later, fire streaked across his thighs. His knees almost buckled.

  Some gravitated to evil, and this Sharona probably hadn’t needed much convincing to join the dark side.

  “When I say walk, I mean walk!” she shouted.

  “Where are you taking me?”

  “To the courtyard,” the smallest of the guards answered.

  “Do not speak to him!”

  The Sharona who’d answered his question shrank in her robe, and he wondered if the one with the cane served as Honna’s lieutenant? Every leader needed one. She seemed vicious enough to hold the post.

  What was going to happen at the courtyard? Would Honna be there? Would Reena?

  Whoosh! Fire lanced his back. Whoosh! Pain blazed across his legs, and his jaw ached from gritting his teeth.

  “You attempted to kill the queen,” the leader deadpanned. From her lack of hesitation, he gleaned she didn’t doubt what she’d been told, while the absence of outrage revealed she didn’t care if it were so. The allegation provided an excuse for brutality.

  “I did not. I came to save her.”

  Whoosh!

  He fell to his knees.

  “Get up!” she shouted.

  The guard’s shadow cast on the wall raised its arm, and Garat braced himself, but another guard halted the strike with a question. “What happened to Kala?”

  The small one who’d been chided for answering his question was no longer with them.

  His tormenter pivoted and narrowed her eyes. “Yes, where is she?”

  “She was here a moment ago,” another answered.

  A robed figure scurried from around the corner. “Here I am,” she said on a hoarse cough.

  “What’s wrong with your voice?” snapped his tormentor.

  “Swallowed wrong. Got something stuck in my throat. That’s why I left for a moment.” She bowed her head, no doubt fearing the lieutenant’s wrath.

  “You should let me know you were leaving instead of disappearing,” the lead guard snapped. Whoosh! The cane burned his back, but it was Kala who flinched, making a protesting noise in her throat.

  “Move!” The Sharona shoved him.

  He lurched forward, dragging his chains. A small beating glow in his chest made him believe Reena still lived. Odder was the feeling she was close by—though he hoped not. He wanted her far away and safe.

  If he had any chance of getting out of this and saving her, he would need help. Surely not everyone was 100 percent loyal to Honna. Of course, her circle would include diehard supporters, as well as opportunists who would sway with the wind, cowards who were too fearful to resist, and the uninformed who didn’t understand the stakes. And perhaps some who were loyal to the queen but pretended otherwise. If he could identify them…

  Perhaps like Kala? He tried to make eye contact, but her bowed and hooded head prevented it.

  Garat took a bracing breath. “I swear in the name of the Goddess I came to save the queen.”

  “Liar! Blasphemer!” Whoosh!

  Blood trickled between his shoulder blades, plastering his tunic to his skin.

  “Stop it!” Kala stepped between him and the Sharona. “W-what if he’s telling the truth?”

  “That is what he wants you to believe. His lies are like seeds he plants in hopes of growing poisonous fruit.”

  “Shouldn’t we verify what he says?”

  “I do not need to verify. I know the truth. Shara Honna is the Goddess’s prophetess. When she speaks, we are hearing the words of the Goddess. If she says Reena is dead, she is dead. The queen’s daughter was weak and sickly. It is small wonder she died.”

  First the Sharona had accused him of killing her, now she intimated Reena had died due to her illness. But no one noticed the contradiction—or was too afraid to mention it. Even Kala bowed her head again.

  “Enough talk!” the Sharona barked and their group continued on, although this time Kala marched behind him. The Sharona they passed in the halls revealed no curiosity but trained their gazes to the floor. The better to not see the truth. The reign of terror had begun.

  Did Shara still live? He didn’t know, but that Reena did, he was almost certain. He sensed her in the marrow of his bones; she pervaded his being like they were one and the same.

  They approached a huge double door. A guard raced ahead and opened it to a sprawling courtyard packed with hundreds of Sharona. Chatter fell to a hush when they filed out.

  The sea of women parted to allow them to pass.

  Then someone hissed, “Spy!”

  “Savage!” shouted another.

  “Savage! Savage! Savage!” The ch
ant spread through the crowd like a contagion, and, for a moment, he was grateful for the dubious protection of the guards until he caught sight of the gallows. Waiting atop the platform—Honna.

  * * * *

  Where was Kor? What was taking him so long? Reena marched behind Garat. She’d done everything she could to slow their advance and buy time for Kor to arrive. After they’d intercepted Kala, Reena had taken her robe and assumed her place in the procession. Once Kor had ensured the hapless guard was secure and could not sound an alarm, he was supposed to meet up with her to neutralize the lieutenant. Even though Garat was shackled, working together, they could take out the other two.

  Except Kor hadn’t returned, and time had run out. In the corridors, they’d had a chance. Out here, surrounded by complicit Sharona, they didn’t stand a prayer. What had happened to change her sistren so drastically? These weren’t the people she knew. Their chants rang in her ears. Each one vibrated with greater hatred.

  I’ll die before I’ll let them execute him. She eyed her cousin atop the platform with a loathing she’d never experienced for anybody. With vicious pleasure, she took note of Honna’s blackened arm, which resembled a dead, gnarled tree branch. Did its state cause her pain? Oh, she hoped so.

  Kor, hurry! Kala had been more scared than combative, and Reena suspected she was not a diehard traitor but had been conscripted into service. It should not take this long to secure a nonresistant Sharona.

  Unless…oh Goddess—what if he’s been captured by another guard team?

  * * * *

  Honna’s arm felt like it was on fire, but triumph swelled as her guards herded the Lahon toward the platform. The crowd had whipped up to a frenzy, certain of his culpability. Were she to order the guards to turn him loose, the normally placid, serene Sharona would rip him apart limb by limb. He made for the perfect scapegoat, an exquisite distraction to transfer the fealty of the Sharona to herself. For that reason, she hadn’t killed Reena outright when she’d found her in the queen’s chamber. Nothing good—not even a memory—of Reena could exist if Honna was to become the undisputed Shara. All loyalty to her cousin had to be eliminated first.

  After executing the Lahon, Honna would finish off the queen if she was still alive, and charge Reena with her assassination. Given her cousin’s association with the barbarian, a few pieces of planted evidence would be all it would take to make a convincing case of matricide.

  Her trial would be swift—her execution swifter.

  No pretense of justice was required for barbarians.

  As soon as the guards retrieved Reena from her cell, his hanging would commence. Despite a lack of outward sign, Reena must have been afflicted by the curse to have enraptured the barbarian into attempting to rescue Ellynna. Why he remained unaffected by other Sharona in proximity, she didn’t know—but didn’t care. While Reena watched, he would be dancing at the end of noose within a few minutes.

  The Lahon broke away from the guards and ran. Three of them tackled him and carried his bucking body up the stairs. The fourth Sharona did little more than get in their way. Totally inept. Who was she? And who had assigned her to guard detail anyway? Honna made a mental note to have her flogged and reassigned to the laundry. She would have her lieutenant take care of it after the hanging.

  The guards dragged the barbarian to the crossbeam shadowing the trapdoor. He fought the noose, snapping his head back and forth, but her second in command cuffed him and wrestled the rope around his neck. His eyes spit darts of rage. “You might be able to eliminate me, but you can’t fight the entire Lahon nation and the other tribes. They will come.”

  Honna patted the EID on her hip. “They will be killed as they approach the wall.”

  “The Goddess will mete out justice, and you will pay!”

  A murmur of disquiet rumbled through the assembled. Doubt flickered on faces. Not good. Not good at all. Before Honna could react, her lieutenant struck him. “Blasphemer! You dare invoke the name of the Goddess?” she shouted.

  “Blasphemer!” The crowd cried.

  Pride swelled. She’d chosen her second in command well.

  The guard readied her arm for another strike, but the small one tripped over her own feet and stumbled, catching the blow instead. She went down like a sack of useless dung. Laundry duty was too good for her. Prison would be better.

  “You!” Honna shouted at the dolt scrambling to her feet. “Remove your—”

  “Excuse me, Shara?” The guard sent for Reena mounted the scaffold steps halfway.

  At the respectful address, a thrill coursed through her. Sure, the title was premature—the coronation had yet to occur, however, its use would begin to cement in people’s minds who was in charge. Who they served. But she didn’t like that the guard was alone. “Where is the prisoner?”

  “Um…” The Sharona inched up two more steps and mumbled, “She wasn’t in her cell…and…the other Lahon has escaped, too.”

  “Escaped?” The blaze in her stomach equaled the burn in her arm. She pressed the withered limb tighter to her abdomen to quell both.

  There was no time to waste. She motioned to her lieutenant.

  The Sharona snapped to her side. “Yes, Shara?”

  “Proceed with the execution.”

  “At once.”

  Honna held up her good arm to quiet the muttering crowd.

  “Hear ye, Sharona!” she called. “This barbarian, this savage, is guilty of spying and acting as an accomplice in the attempted assassination of our queen, who lies wounded, perhaps mortally so, by the hand of her daughter, Princess Reena.”

  “She lies! She is the one responsible. She has been poisoning the queen!” the Lahon shouted.

  “Blasphemer!” screamed the crowd.

  “He’s not lying!” The bumbling fourth guard yelled. “He speaks the truth. He came to save my mother.” The guard flung off her hood.

  Reena.

  The crowd gasped.

  Perfect. Honna dropped her arm.

  The executioner released the lever, and the trapdoor opened beneath Garat’s feet.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Reena screamed and lunged for Garat who dangled in midair. Two guards tackled her, while he kicked and thrashed, slowly strangling to death. A ring of candle torches surrounded the platform and, in the blazing light, his panicked eyes bulged.

  “No! No!” She fought the guards, while his agony clawed at her throat and chest, as if she dangled from the noose. “Honna, no!” Tears streamed down her cheeks. “Don’t do this. Stop it, please. I’ll do anything. Oh Goddess, please, stop it.”

  A hooded figure burst into the courtyard, thumped his left shoulder twice. Kor. He charged for the platform, but the crowd hindered his passage. He wasn’t going to make it to the scaffold in time.

  “Do you confess you tried to kill the queen?”

  Garat gurgled, kicked harder, seemed to be trying to shake his head.

  “Please,” she sobbed.

  “Raise your right hand and confess.” Honna motioned to the guards, who dragged her to her feet, and released her right arm. “Confess!”

  Garat’s face was turning purple. Her crystal vibrated as if electrified, shooting tingles into her shoulder.

  Goddess, help me. Don’t let Garat die. She lifted her right hand. “In…in…the Goddess’s name—” Before she could finish, a burst of electricity sizzled through her arm. The crystal began to glow, growing brighter and brighter, until it enveloped her wrist in a halo.

  With a pop the amulet sparked, shooting out a bluish-white beam into the rope over Garat’s head. It burned through, and he fell through the open trapdoor. Kor, his hood flapping, dove under the platform in time to break his fall. The impact knocked both to the ground.

  Reena held her arm away from her body as her crystal snapped and sizzled. The guards fled down the platform steps.

  “No!” her cousin screamed, and whipped her EID from its holster.

  Another white-hot beam shot from Re
ena’s crystal into Honna’s chest and spread outward, consuming her body in a burning glow. Her eyes bulged and her mouth contorted in a silent scream. Then the light went out, her body crumpled and hit the edge of the platform and tumbled to the ground.

  The door from the palace flew open, and a regiment of bedraggled but fierce guards led by Carinda stormed into the courtyard. A regal Ellynna, accompanied by Meloni, swept in behind them.

  Reena ran down the steps, her crystal humming but no longer sparking. Don’t let him be dead. Please don’t let him be dead. She dashed under the platform.

  Still shackled, Garat slumped against Kor. “Reena,” he rasped, his voice fractured.

  She fell to his side. “Oh, thank the Goddess.” She touched his face, his hair, his chest, checking everything.

  “It’s—it’s all right,” he said. “I survived.”

  “It’s not all right!” She thumped his chest. “You could have died.” Just let me touch you. Hold you. She cupped his cheeks in her hands, tuning out the shouted orders of the queen’s guards and the cries of the traitors.

  Carinda and Meloni appeared. She produced a key and unshackled him. His skin had been scraped raw. Reena rose to her feet so the healer could tend to him.

  “I’m okay.” Garat shrugged off the attention, but Meloni laid one hand on his head, another upon his shoulder.

  “Let me be the judge of that,” the healer said.

  “What took you so long?” She looked at Kor and noticed a bruise over one cheek.

  “Just as I finished tying up Kala, two other guards came in. They were a bit harder to subdue. Where’s Honna?”

  Reena cradled her arm against her abdomen. “My crystal…I…she fell off the platform.”

  “Honna is dead, Princess,” Carinda said.

  “Dead?”

  “She was evil. It was for the best,” the guard said. “Her followers must be arrested and brought to justice lest they attempt to martyr her.”

  “Yes.” She nodded. Reena covered her crystal with her hand, fearing its power. It was as if the amulet had harnessed and focused all of her emotion. She’d cut down Garat—which was good, but she had killed her cousin. The shock and horror on Honna’s face as the beam had hit her was burned into her brain. She would have done anything to save Garat—but she’d never killed anyone before. What if something like that occurred again? How would she control it?