“Mal...”
I look around but see nothing except a hazed light. No walls, no trees, no floor. Am I floating?
“Mal...”
I look behind me toward the direction of a voice. Who was it?
“Malachi?”
I furrow my brows, taking a step in the direction before the scene changes around me. Stone walls and elaborate rugs line the hallway, sconces turning on in pairs as far as the eye can see.
“Mal...”
I walk ahead and only stop when a door opens ahead of me, light pouring out from the entry. I cautiously continue forward, being careful to listen. I peek inside the doorway and find Lena standing by an armoire.
“Mal!” she smiles and beckons me forward. I can’t help but feel stuck. Her golden-brown hair is styled in a half up-half down fashion and she wears an elaborate gown in a deep burgundy, hugging her curves.
“Royalty really suits you, Princess.”
She pouts and crosses her arms before striding over to me.
“Princess, how did-”
Her arms wrap around me and she burrows her face in my shoulder before whispering, “Lena. Call me Lena, remember?”
I feel slight heat reach my cheeks and I nod. I wrap my arms around her slowly, unsure if I do, this would come crumbling down. Were we on hugging basis? I like this...
“Mal?”
“Yes?”
“What are you thinking?”
“Um...” I break the embrace and look away, unable to meet her eyes. I find myself subconsciously cupping the back of my head and throw my arm down when she clears her throat.
“I just didn’t realize...” I search for the words but come out blank. I dare a glance at her and catch her eyes. A shimmering grey, a subtle reminder of the shores of a sea.
“You getting all frazzled at a hug? I didn’t catch you for the embarrassed type. Don’t like hugs?”
I arch a brow and move to speak, but she continues, “Mal, we did it.”
“Did what?”
“Don’t be silly! You need to get dressed! Mother is going to announce it!”
“I don’t understand.” I say, taking a step back. Her mother? She burned with the Palace Kasardis. “Lena, your mother isn’t here.”
She looks at me, her expression puzzled as if she couldn’t quite understand me.
“Lena... that night at the palace, before we were taken to Shadow’s Edge... Carson and I barely escaped. Your mother...”
“Mother what?” a cold voice startles me, making me jump to the other side of Lena. I draw back and see a similar figure to Lena, but older, colder.
Dull grey eyes stare back at mine; a slender, tall figure in the door way. A golden gown and a white and silver veil sitting behind her bare shoulders, reach to the floor. Her hair dangles in limp, brown curls toward her waist. She frowns and stares at me. It is the queen.
“Mother!” Lena beams, grabbing my hand. I look toward the sudden touch, my fingers adorned with jewels and I can’t help but throw my arms out, a laced blouse and petticoat of gold and blue. I look at Lena to the queen, my heart beginning to race.
The queen smiles and holds out her hand to Lena. Lena takes it and gestures back at me, holding her hand out.
I try to take a step back but my feet don’t move. There is a window to my right, but I would fall to my death. How is the castle here to begin with? I feel a light pound begin to form, starting another headache.
“Mal, please.” Lena pleads, gesturing again for me to take her hand.
“I can’t...” I say, guilt taking place. I am part of the reason her mother was dead; she is supposed to be dead.
Lena drops her hand, tears beginning to form. “You promised me we were a team...”
“Malachi.”
I turn toward the queen, a wicked smile splaying as she holds out her hand. I stay there, debating. This is a dream, the sooner I listen the quicker it will end. Just when I begin to reach for her hand, the room begins to darken, wind even in a closed room starts thrashing through, whipping my hair around my face. I push my hair back and hold it before spotting black spider veins begin from her eye, down to her chest, down her arm, reaching her fingertips.
I jolt back, as far as the back wall of Lena’s room. I stare into the queen’s eyes as she stares right back.
“Mal, you are too late.” Lena pouts, taking her mother’s hand and begins to be consumed into darkness.
“No!” I shout but Lena disappears, shadows begin to dance on the walls.
A maniacal laugher protrudes through the room, resonating through the queen. A sharp pain stings at my hand. I look toward it, my mouth dropping open as I see a purple-black and white-gold shadow like substance try to consume eachother where my cut is.
The air goes stale, almost as if there is no air at all. No wind and I am sure I am not even breathing. I feel the presence first and I look up, the queen inches from my face, looking just as I remember her from days ago when the Palace burnt to the ground.
A shrilling voice answers instead of her own, a mere echo of her normal voice. “Who are you?”
I try to speak but my body defies me. Was this what being in shock was? I stare into those deep, now violet eyes, mirroring my own image. I almost think I see a shadow inside of them, as if an eye were in an eye.
“You’re one of them...” she looks to me, then to my hand. A smile creeps on her face, her eyes glowing brighter. She moves to grab my hand but I close it shut, shoving her away.
“Get away from me!”
“Mal...”
I clench my eyes closed. This is it, I am done for. Nightmare or not, this feels way too real.
I feel the queen’s hands grab mine, and I flail trying to stay out of her grip. Dark tendrils snake toward me, as I watch in horror.
“Mal!”
I shoot up, thrashing, a small thud sounding to my right. I blink at the sudden brightness, trying to steady my vision. I breathe in rasps, trying to calm my drumming heart.
“Mal?” I hear and see her face; Lena’s face. I smile, setting my head in my hands, ignoring the damp texture and chuckle to myself, the adrenaline settling.
“Are you ok, now?” she sets a hand to my shoulder, trying to catch my eye. I shoot my head up and take a deep breath, relief flooding over me.
“Yeah, I’m ok.” I smile to her, glad that she looked the same, no shadows or being swallowed whole by darkness, here.
“You scared me awake. You started thrashing and yelling. You, um... you mentioned me and the... the queen.” she looks at me, her hands fumbling aimlessly.
“I’m sorry.” I look toward the wooden shutter. The sky in an arrange of colors. “How long have we been asleep?”
“It’s almost sundown.”
I straighten myself, putting a hand to my aching head, fully aware of the throb in my hand. “Lena, we need to talk. About your mother and the plague.”
“I know. I’ve been trying to not... I felt that if I talked about it, the situation would be more... real.”
“It is real. All of it and we should have had this conversation last night at the inn.”
“We needed one night, Mal. One night to indulge in all of us being alive.”
I stay quiet. She’s right. We needed a distraction. She lost her queendom, her mother and got a harsh slap of reality in just shy of a week. We all could have gotten hurt or worse.
“Mal, I know my mother is... no longer here. What happened to her? Was it painless?”
I sit for a second. “She was infected. Carz and I, we both made it into the palace. She wasn’t herself.”
“How so? You never met her, how would you know?”
“Because, the guards, they were afraid of her. All the jackals I know never once showed any form of fear when talking about her before. She... the infection, it changed her.”
She nods and waits for me to continue, her eyes staring down at the bed.
“The plague... it isn’t normal. It’s almost as if it’s alive, somehow. It infected her and it... mutated.”
She looks up to me, disbelief showing. “Her eyes were violet and they glowed. This... plague; it swarmed around her and had tendrils trying to attack us. It’s like a fog or a smoke, but it moves fast and it has physical form when it wants to.”
Her eyes become wide with the information.
“I don’t know what it is exactly. The notes are the only thing on helping us understand it. If there really is a cure, we need to find it.”
“Why do we have to? We’re not the strongest or the smartest!”
“I don’t know.” I look towards my hand laying flat on the bed, it’s bandage worn and fringing. I can’t help but recall the dream. Was it just guilt dreaming of the queen? The night the palace burnt down did spook me, but it was over. The change in tone from the dream to the ′ “Who are you?” ′ is more concerning.
“I need to rebuild my queendom. I’m no longer a princess, Mal, I’m technically Queen.”
“Then we need to find the cure so there is a queendom to be had.”
She nods and I sigh. “Carz should be here by now. It’s been too long.”
“We need to find him!” she rears back.
I smile, looking at her. She was still the spoiled princess whom I met merely less than a week ago, but she is no longer that naïve girl. She is finally beginning to understand the world around her. I can’t help but feel pride as well as a little sadness for her. Was it really better to understand the world or be blissfully naïve? I don’t think I will ever know the answer to that question.
“Lena, I need some bandage, first.”
“Right. One sec.” she disappears behind a small divider wall and comes back with clean linen. “Here.”
“Thank you.” I remove the bandage and discreetly try to look at my palm where the cut is, my pulse thrumming quicker. I make sure she is not looking when I peer down at it. It is a deep cut, after all, I had shoved my hand out when subconscious, toward the blade that night when she debated on killing me. After the cheap attention I gave to it to try and keep if from being infected, it seems to prove useless.
The cut is closed by some stitches I had done myself; a lousy job. Slight swelling around the wound and a dark tissue surrounding the skin around the cut before shifting to red. Definitely infected; is that a sign from the headache?
“Mal, hurry up with that! We have to find Carson! We aren’t supposed to be in here anyway. Are you sure we can’t pay them?”
“With what Dreuge, Princess?” I cross my arms.
“Ugh... I’ve never had to worry about...” she stops and looks back at me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to...” she trails off.
“It’s alright. You came from royalty, it is only natural you wouldn’t have to worry about it. Can’t pretend otherwise.”
She looks down at the ground before continuing to ready herself. I get up, ignoring the throbbing at my skull and gather my boots and shroud.
“Mal?” she asks, turning to me.
I stand and face her a foot away. “Yes?”
“Do you regret taking me with you?”
I raise a brow before chuckling. “No, I do not. If anything, our team needed a girl.”
“Alright...”
“You’re catching on, quickly. If anything, you being blissfully ignorant is refreshing!” I smile and she punches my arm, playfully.
“You can be such a jerk!” we both laugh before settling down.
“Let’s go get us a redhead.” I state before leading out the door.
Smack!
“Damnit!” I clutch my head, peeking out ahead of my arm at the body I head bunked.
“Ow!” the guy clutches his face with both hands, but blazing hair peeks from the top in a messy mop.
“Carz?” I ask, gaining his attention.
“Yeah?” my fiery haired friend looks up at me, continuing, “If I would’ve known this is the welcome I would get, I would have stayed hidden!”
I give a short laugh, pulling him in giving him a brief hug. “Welcome back.”
“Thanks.” he frowns playfully at me before Lena steps in and embraces him. Carz looks taken aback, glancing at me. I shrug and he looks back down at the princess before throwing a single arm around her in a hug back.
“Welcome back, Carz!” she beams, taking a step back to give him some breathing room.
“Um, thanks.” his cheeks redden before he states, “Been awhile since I was hugged like that!”
The princess frowns and then next thing I know I hear an “Ow!“.
“Liar! The other night both of you had a girl around you.” she averts her gaze away from mine when I catch her eye.
“You had the same opportunity!” Carz smiles, baiting her.
“What?! I did not! A lady of my stature would never-”
She is cut off when Carz bursts out laughing. “Please, Princess... You and Mal were about to exit the room together!”
Her face reddens and I can’t help but feel a similar heat stretch across my face before throwing my hands up, keeping myself out of the conversation.
“N-no! It wasn’t like that!” she tries, but Carson adds in.
“So Mal isn’t good enough to-”
“N-no! That isn’t what I am saying!”
“So I am?” I add in, enjoying her shade redden a little further.
“You both are unfathomable!”
“Who says unfathomable?” Carson teases.
I swoop them both in, surprising them both before adding, “Glad the group is back!”
Carson, barely shorter than I, meets my gaze and gives a thumbs up. The princess, on the other hand, wiggles her face up to mine, the top of her head barely reaching my bottom lip and a small smile shows.
I let them both go and gesture ahead, behind Carz and out of the room. “Shall we?”
“Yes!” Lena says and marches out, eager to get out of the room. We remain cautious, stepping slowly and trying to stay behind any bystanders to not get caught by the innkeeper.
After a few moments, we make it out and I turn toward Carson, “We clear to head out toward the gate from earlier or is Jarvis still around?”
“Jarvis won’t be a problem.” Carz states, crossing his arms in matter-of-fact. I look at him in question, but he just waves me off before adding, “Tell you two when we’re out.”
I nod and we all stride, backtracking to where the gate is. At the peak of nearly a half hour, we make it out of the major city surrounding Valantis, to the connecting town of Verxus, the port town stretching from Valantis toward the Black Shores where we washed up from. Opposite the shores, lies the gate, in-between the large city gate of Valantis we stand under and the guard’s port.
“Sorry it took me so long. There is a wagon ready for us in the stables outside the gate.”
“How did you manage that?” I ask.
“Follow me and you will find out.”
We follow to the edge of the gate, turning to the left at the stables. A small, closed wagon cart with two horses sits ready for us. Carson smiles at me before skipping over, holding a hand out for Lena. “After you.”
We help her into the closed wagon, packed full of blankets and hay, a bucket in the corner and a weave bag full of apples. I shut the sheets, covering her out of view from the outside.
I follow suit to the front with Carson, opening the slit in the cloth so she can see and hear us in the front. “Spill.”
Carson whips the reigns and the carriage lurches forward, before he begins, “Well, everything was going well at first. I thought I lost Jarvis and his goons and I was beginning to make my way toward the Valantis gates. I had a bad feeling, the more and more time passed. The sun had just come out at this time and the streets were beginning to fill up more and more.”
“Normally that is good. What made you feel uneasy?”
“I was being watched. A figure in a shroud was there, everywhere I went. They purposely weren’t looking at my direction and I thought I was being paranoid. So I kept moving, finally making it back to the gates. Jarvis caught me.”
Lena and I listen in, curious to how he got away. Carz continues, sighing deeply in the process. “I beat his goons around me and was about to get the living shit kicked out of me, but the figure from before? He stepped into the clearing. The guards, Mal, even the guards weren’t intervening. Shows just how reaching Jarvis’s reputation goes. But this man? He wasn’t afraid. He walked right up and ordered Jarvis to let me go.”
“Nobody just orders Jarvis around. Who was he?” I ask, concern forming at the pit of my stomach.
“I don’t know. He and Jarvis just stood there, eyeing eachother forever it felt like. I finally felt Jarvis let go of me and he backed up. If looks could kill Mal, that stranger would be dead.”
“So there is someone even Jarvis fears?” Lena asks.
“I guess. What is weird is this guy had a Blue Jay sitting on his shoulder. His shroud was weird. It had black embroidery on the edge of the hood and a symbol of a bird on his chest.”
“If I didn’t know you any better, I would think you were filling me with a load of crap.”
“I know how ridiculous it sounds. Trust me, I am still wrapping my head around it. Jarvis said something though.”
“What did he say?”
“He said, ‘Tell the Sparrow my regards’, and that was it. He rounded up his crew and left back toward the Black Shores.”
“‘Tell the Sparrow my regards,’? What do you think he meant?”
“The Sparrow... I thought it was rumor...” Lena mumbles.
“Who is the Sparrow?” Carz and I say in unison.
“I don’t really know the specifics. Someone who works behind the royals, or so they say. I heard my uncle Yuran speaking about it once. I went through his office once and found a letter with a seal of a bird. Uncle was furious with me and promised me not to tell Mother...”
“What did the letter say?” I push.
“Just a greeting. It said ‘Wish you well in your endeavors, my door is always open’ and that was it. It was not signed.”
“Hmm...” Carz thinks, soaking in the information. “Lena, where did you say your uncle was headed?”
“Landyserie.”
“Ugh... Of all the places, it has to be Landyserie?” Carz complains, throwing his head back.
“It’s the knowledge of the continent! Of course it would be there!” she defends, throwing her hands up. “It is a neutral place, so we shouldn’t have to worry too much about alliances and being attacked by Jarvis.”
“Wrong.” I say. “Neutral territory makes it harder to pin point who is trying to kill you.”
“Why is everything about life and death with you two?”
“Princess, you’ve seen our lives.” Carson says. “The royals train there, don’t they?”
“Yes. I was... I was supposed to attend the academy in a few weeks.”
Landyserie, the largest city in all of Kaldonia, neutral to all king and queendoms. Everyone is allowed in, despite alliances or no. Royal children attend the academy for help in building alliances and peace, but deep down I am sure it is to learn your opponents strategies. The city during the day is considered just and with order, the city during the night held a lot of crime and injustice. Brothels, bars and gangs take up most of the night.
On top of that all, it is home to the Landyserie Cathedral, full of the largest library in the continent and home to the history of each palace. Family lines and coronations for royal heirs happen here as well. Not to mention the Saint Keepers who are in charge of it all. It is said that aside from the seven king and queendoms, a Saint and a goddess, the Lost Maiden, were said to bring together all seven royal families and rule over an eighth palace, Landyserie. The Saint Keepers are said to be holy knights and politicians who practice in the ways of the Saint and Goddesses wishes. For all I know, it is a lie and an excuse they use to remain in power.
“They call Landyserie the eighth province.” Lena says, thinking the same.
“As long as we get in and get out alive, the eighth province and all that is holy can eat my ass. I just want this to be done and over with.” Carz grumbles.
“On a second note, Carz, how did you end up getting the carriage?”
“Oh that...” he bites his lip before choosing his words. “I know a noble and I happened to run into someone who is an affiliate. Took a little convincing, but...”
“You know a noble?” I ask, not quite sure if I heard him correctly.
“Yes. Unfortunately. It was from before.”
Before-as if before we came a team. I nod and let it go. The remaining time of the day gets quiet, stars starting to show in the sky as it begins to get colder. Lena hands Carson and I a couple blankets. I take my turn to rest, ready to switch with Carz in a couple hours. After all, Cherrwarden is a few days ride from here and Landyserie even longer.
ns 15.158.61.21da2
