The next day, all the wounded had been tended to, and everyone was chatting about their success while telling each other the exciting moments they had while saving the prisoners. Mariyah sat beside Marcy and Kai by the crackling fire, listening to Kindrick giving a very descriptive explanation of how he heroically chased three soldiers off from attacking a Shifter prisoner. Everyone of course all listened closely at the possibly slightly exaggerated story.
“You know I was right next to you, right? Pretty sure you only chased one guard in your little panda form,” Marcy chimed in, giggling.
Kindrick chuckled and shot her a glance. “Your tiny mouse eyes just couldn’t see more than that one guard. I definitely chased off three, girl.”
“If it helps you sleep at night,” she retorted.
Mariyah tried to hold in her laugh, but failed and as a result let out a rather loud snort.
Kai lifted a brow. “Oh? You can shift into a pig too?”
Interrupting more laughter, rustling leaves were heard in the forest in the distance. “Wait.” Mariyah held up her hand, the crowd silencing. “What was that noise?” she asked those around her. Kai shrugged his shoulders and continued eating the vegetables he was munching on, but Mariyah shook her head. “No, there was something.”
She stood up and turned around in a circle as she heard the noise in the faint distance growing closer. Cal stood after her to listen. Eventually, everyone could hear the sound of hooves stomping against the dirt ground coming near.
“Grab your weapons!” Kindrick shouted, queuing everyone to shoot to their feet and either arm themselves or shift.
They all circled around the fire, facing the forest. Mariyah stepped back, clutching her knife. She spun around, trying to face the sound of the footsteps but they were coming from every direction. No…
Finally horses appeared, encircling their camp. “EVERYONE STAND UP!” a mounted soldier shouted as they surrounded the group.
Mariyah looked worriedly at Cal who was clutching a dagger. How did they find us?! She looked at her large group as fear quickly swelled inside her. She could leave in an instant, but that thought didn't even cross her mind. She looked at the soldiers. “What is it you want?” she asked, holding her marked hand in her dress pocket.
“Do you know of a Mariyah?”
Cal stiffened and shook his head. “Mariyah? No.”
Gil shrugged his shoulders. “Never heard of her.”
“Describe her for me?” Kai tilted his head with a finger to his lip as he gave a very thoughtful and interested look.
The soldier just gave him an irritated look in return. “Unmarked Shifter girl, young, dark hair, uh…” He struggled to describe anymore.
“Very descriptive…” Kai nodded as he tapped his lip. “Could think of at least fifteen girls that match that. Should I take you to each of them? How much time do you have?”
Jos and Steph snickered in the back together, but Sare’s elbow to Jos’s rib cage shut them up.
The soldier sniffed in agitation. “Do they all have a birthmark on their hand?”
Mariyah bit the inside of her cheek knowing Kai was going to get himself in trouble. She knew she needed to step forward. But Soliath WILL kill me. But she can shift. Maybe I can even kill him…put an end to all of this. I might not get a chance like this again...Mariyah cleared her throat before Kai could upset the guards even more. “I-”
“She’s not here.” Rose stepped forward as well, stopping Mariyah.
The soldier lifted a brow impatiently, pressing Rose. “Are you sure about that?”
“I’m sure you’ll find her elsewhere,” Gil said as he stepped forward as well.
Mariyah looked at the others with grateful eyes, but shook her head. “No. It’s okay,” she whispered. Her heart thudded in her chest as she looked at the soldiers. “I’m her.”
Cal quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her aside. “No- no she’s not,” he called out to the guards as he tugged her away.
Kai shook his head at the soldier and put a hand to his chest in sympathy with widened sad eyes. “She’s a confused woman…”
Marcy joined his act with a sigh and a frown and closed her eyes, tapping her head to emphasize Mariyah’s mental state.
Kai breathed out heavily as he looked off at Cal pulling Mariyah away. “She fell and hit her head some time ago and has never been the same. Poor girl, always rambling. Sometimes she thinks she’s the Queen of Seenparay. She thinks the flowers are her servants and the bushes are her ladies. A sad situation, really. We try to help her, but the thoughts just…” He motioned to his head.
Marcy nodded sadly. “Agh, it’s tragic. Poor girl indeed…”
The soldier began to dismount, his eyes dashing from each of them. “What’s going on here?”
Cal whispered to Mariyah as he pulled her away from the group, “What are you doing? They’ll kill you!”
She struggled against him. “They’re just going to keep traveling to village after village until they find me! Or worse, they find an innocent person and they pay for my crimes. Let me go, I won’t let them kill me.” She looked at him with seriousness. “There is no choice.”
Kai continued on with the explanation, shrugging, “I told you, the girl is long gone.”
Cal persisted, “They will kill you, Mariyah!”
“I’m thankful they aren’t arresting anyone else, Cal. That means they’re just after me,” she whispered. “This is good. And I won’t let them kill me. Remember? I can fly away.”
“No, Mariyah. You can’t do this-”
“I have to, and I’m going to. Please, Cal.”
He stayed quiet for a moment, his lips tight. “You swear you will escape?”
She nodded with a smile. “They won’t kill me.”
Cal let go of her arm nervously after locking eyes with her. “If you’re not back in two days, we will come after you,” he whispered to her. His jaw was tight, she could see it twitching as he looked at her. "I don't know how, but we will. I will."
“Don’t do that, don’t fight for me if I’m gone,” she replied. “But I will be fine.” She smiled. She turned to the confused guards and held out her wrists, showing her palm. Her heart beat quickly in her chest as the fear turned into anticipation at the idea of finally being able to kill Soliath…though, the idea of that frightened her almost enough for the fear to return to her immediately.
The soldier looked at her strangely and shook his head in confusion, but just walked over to her and shackled her hands. “Shifters…”
“You’re imprisoning a sick woman, you monsters!” Marcy shouted.
Kai shouted too, “The mentally deranged need help, not captivity!”
Mariyah wanted to laugh but she just smiled and shook her head at Marcy. As she passed her friends, she heard the mutters of asking each other what she must be doing. She just gave them all reassuring looks and allowed the soldiers to take her.
They might try to kill you...be ready.
They roughly tossed her in the back of their wooden wagon and began to head back to the kingdom, a few bloodhounds on tight leashes following behind. Most of the soldiers were on edge, as if suspicious of her willingness to leave. One of them rode with her in the wagon to keep an eye on her. He tightened her shackles, almost breaking her wrists as he did so, causing her to cry out.
After an hour at the least, the wagon emerged through the forest. She swallowed and looked ahead to see the kingdom coming up. Her body bobbed up and down as the wheels of the wagon struggled to get through the mud. The horses pulled hard or were met with the whips of the soldiers.
“Harder, idiot!” the driver of the wagon shouted. “Can’t pull a wagon, beast?!”
Mariyah’s throat tightened at the realization, her stomach dropping, and each crack of the whip against their skin now felt like a knife piercing her stomach. She now just looked down at her feet with saddened eyes and sometimes into the eyes of the horses that carried the last few soldiers following her wagon. She wished she could help them, she wished she could free them.
As they passed through the archway of Seenparay, citizens began to gather along the sides of the cobble road. She saw them watch her, many with shock on their faces while some looked with disgust and threw pebbles. Others stood in silence as if they were intrigued, almost unsure.
The unsure ones were mostly faces of those she’d recognized from her life in the kingdom. Stylva, Pilstrun, Evangeline, and more. Mariyah looked away once she recognized them, ashamed of what they’d think of her. As sure as she was of herself, the idea of them thinking she was a monster hurt her in a way that she hated, and she realized she was embarrassed. She knew she had no reason to be, but it didn't matter. These were the people who she grew up alongside, the people who once loved her, looking at her so differently now.
Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.
“Mariyah!” a voice shouted from the loud crowd.
She turned her head in the direction of the voice, and saw a short man holding his hand up.
“Mariyah!”
When they met eyes, she lowered her brow in confusion. Clover? He quickly pushed through the crowd and made his way up to the wagon as it was passing and reached for her hand. When she reached out back, he slid something in her hand before being hit in the head with the blunt end of a spear. He fell backwards, holding his head, but looked at Mariyah with hopeful eyes.
She stood up instantly after watching him get hit and opened her mouth to call at the soldier to not hurt him, but a bump in the road knocked her back onto her bottom and she realized it'd be best to keep her silence. She didn’t want anyone to be suspicious of his kindness to her, that'd put him in too much danger. I can’t believe he spoke to me… She felt the note in her hands and swallowed nervously before sliding it down her dress to stay in her undergarments hoping no one had seen.
When they arrived at the castle, Mariyah was roughly taken off of the wagon. Her wrists throbbed around the shackles as they yanked her through the back entrance and down the stairs into the dungeon. Without a word, she was harshly thrown inside, the door loudly locking behind her.
She grunted in pain as she sat up and leaned against the stone wall. The smell of rotting animals and filthy waste invaded her nostrils. She gagged at the stench and looked around her cell. The wall was made of rough jagged slabs of stone and brick, with piles of hay scattered around and a bucket across from her. She lifted her head to peek inside the lonely bucket but regretted it quickly as she held in another heave.
This area felt familiar. She must’ve been in a cell closeby when she was taken with her parents. Her eyes formed tears once again as she remembered the feeling of being kidnapped and left in the dark wondering what must be happening to her parents. The agony of watching them at the gallows, the feeling of pleading to the king…
She covered her mouth with her shackled hands and closed her eyes tightly, trying to push away the thoughts. Was this a bad idea? What if they don’t even bring me to the king? No, she reminded herself, the villagers would be in your position if you weren’t here.
She bit her lip nervously as she thought about the people who she had recognized while being wheeled through the kingdom. She could only imagine what they thought of her now. Equevo...Siloh...Petrah...she sighed to herself and breathed in deeply. I wonder where they are now. Her heart filled with anger for a brief moment recalling Petrah’s face staring back at her in the forest, moment’s before the death of her friend. She wondered if Petrah felt guilt when watching her parents’ die. She wondered how all of her family’s friends must have felt.
Remembering the note, she reached down her shirt and pulled out the letter, unfolding it quickly. Her hands trembled from the painful shackles, but she managed to read it.
Mariyah,
There is something your father wanted me to tell you, but I must not write it for the sake of someone finding it. Please, come find my house as soon as possible. Destroy this message at once.
-Clover
She quickly folded up the letter and tore it up into small pieces before tossing the pieces in the waste bucket, and putting hay on top. Something from my father? She wiped a tear from her cheek and bit her lip. She had to go find him after this. The fact that he still wanted to speak with her despite what has happened is enough of a reason to see him. She had to, her curiosity would be relentless if she didn’t.
An hour later, a guard finally returned. He opened the door and motioned her to come out. She did as he requested and followed him up the stairwell. There, she envisioned how she’d kill the king…a claw to the throat, a bite to the neck. Whatever it was, however messy it got. She needed to do it.
The stone walls and steps never seemed to end. It felt like she had been walking forever until she finally reached the top. She looked up to the guard as she got closer and closer to the king’s chambers.
He looked down at her with a scarred eye. “The king wishes to speak with you. If you touch him, or even make one move, you will be killed,” the guard told her. “I bet seven coins you’ll walk outta here alive..” He chuckled. “Philip bet that the king’s gonna kill you the second you walk in there. Try to stay alive, I’d appreciate it if you got me paid.”
“I’ll do my best,” she mumbled with lifted eyebrows and a false smile, in half disbelief and half irritation. That doesn’t matter. As long as I’m fast enough to kill him. That’s all I need. Speed. Speed, and I’ll end this all. She looked ahead to the large room as they approached. She could begin to see the blur of adrenaline trimming her vision with each step. She could almost feel the satisfaction of his death. She was almost there.
But her heart shuddered as she recalled the last time she was in this room. She pictured her parents hanging at the gallows and twitched in disgust as she saw King Soliath appear in front of her. His minimal armor was silver, his boots were black and shiny. Armor this time? I can still claw through that…I’ll find an opening.
He let out a heavy breath as he met eyes with her. “Here we are again,” he said quietly. “Here we are…”
She remained silent, her heartbeat deafening. Adrenaline almost fully blurred her vision now as she envisioned attacking him. This is your chance. You can end it all. In one motion, she shifted into an eagle, her shackles sliding off of her, and then into a black panther, lunging at him with a loud cry.
But out of nowhere, a sharp pain was felt in her thigh and she fell to the ground with a strained cry before her claws could pierce his skin. A guard armed with a crossbow appeared from behind the curtains that hung by the window and quickly restrained the wounded girl. She struggled against the single man, almost flinging him off, but four more were already emerging from hidden places in the room and joined him in holding her down. She whimpered in pain as she looked down at her thigh. Dark red liquid began to drip down her silky black fur. The tail of an arrow stuck out.
She shifted into a human under their grips, pain scorching up her leg as her body morphed around the arrow that was penetrating her muscle. “I’ll stop!” she shouted, begging the five soldiers to climb off of her.
“Release her. She knows now,” the king said, waving his hand to his men. “Leave us. Borth, stay with me.”
A large guard returned to the corner of the room while the rest departed. A long burn went down his cheekbone and down his lips in a diagonal line. She looked at him nervously, her teeth chattering as her body shook from the pain that was expanding up into her thigh. She forced herself to look back to Soliath.
He clasped his hands in front of him, lifting his chin and pacing around her. “I was told you were strangely willing to be captured. Was that because your only plan was to kill me?” he asked her. He shook his head. “That’s awfully impulsive of you. Just because I killed your parents doesn’t mean I’m going to die by your hand so easily.” His lips held a small, hidden smile.
She lifted herself up with her two hands, her wrists still in tender pain from the tight shackles. She only now realized they were bruised and purple. The bottom of her dress was changing into a maroon color from the growing puddle of blood leaving her leg. I ruined it. Her chest lifted and fell, quicker and quicker as she realized her failure. My one chance…She grunted out in frustration, blowing the hair from her face as the sharp pain sent pulses throughout her leg.
“It’s quite funny, actually, you know? People are beginning to admire you. Shifters, at least. They admire a young girl. And for what? Just because your body can change you into different animals?” He sighed as he continued to pace the room. Admire me? No one knows about me. “You’re just a small boulder in the way of my plans...that’s how I see it in my eyes. I thought you watching as your mother’s throat begged for air would stop your hope. I thought that you watching your father’s neck snap in front of you would be enough as well. I thought it would put you in your place. But I was wrong, and it was foolish of me to think I’d be right.”
Shivers ran down her spine and her heart pulsed at his colorful description. The images of their dead bodies were pushed into her head once more and tears filled her eyes despite her attempt to be strong. Her lip quivered in fear and hurt. He’ll kill me now…I have to do something. Worse, he’ll go after my friends. Swallowing the lump in her throat as she thought of her parents dying for her mistake, she asked, “Are you going to punish the others? I led them. It was my idea, and I practically forced them. They didn’t want to be a part of this-”
“This is not about the others, dear girl.” He smiled slightly. “Not yet, it isn’t.” He sighed. “I want to kill you. But I won’t. Not yet.” He crouched down in front of her, looking her in the eye. “I can’t kill you yet.”
She stared back at his cold eyes, his intense eyes almost making her forget the searing pain in her leg. “Why not?” she croaked out, though she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear that answer.
“I want to give you a chance to leave. I want you to flee this country and never return.”
The two stared at each other in silence, Mariyah’s heart felt like it was thumping in her skull.
“You will tell your friends of your foolery and how silly you were for the act you have done, and you will never concern yourself with the politics of this kingdom. You will flee. Do this, and you may live in peace. Never to hear my name again.” His voice lowered, “Or. You can go back to your...your people, and you can help them. You can continue on whatever path you are making for yourself.. Whatever you wish. And whatever they ask of you. And in return, I will break you. Slowly, I will hurt you until you cannot live another day without agony. You would rue the day you thought you could toy with me. You would rue the day you defied me.” His deep and gray eyes looked down at her with a stone emotion. “Save yourself, and leave. Leave now, and no pain will come to you. No pain will reach your gentle little heart. I’m giving you a choice, Mariyah. Be wise.”
She listened to him, her face growing pale. She swallowed her fear and stared at the stone floor imagining any of the villagers being killed like her parents or Oliver…Olly… But leaving was her plan anyways? She would leave with Cal and venture overseas. She’d never see this kingdom again. Of course, the gladiator raid twisted things up a bit…but the plan was still on. She’d leave with Cal once everyone was settled and safe and that was all, especially with the threats Soliath was pushing on her. But maybe she’d have to leave a bit sooner than she had hoped. They’ll be fine on their own, they have to be….right? He didn’t imprison them, just me. Maybe he’s letting it slide if I go. She breathed out loudly and shook her head. She cleared her throat, weakly. “You promise to not touch them if I go?”
“Oh, I promise, child.”
She nodded her head weakly. “Then I will leave.” She looked down at her bloody leg and the small puddle that had formed around it.
“And express your regret for such actions to your people?”
She nodded, her mind growing overwhelmed and hazy. All she wanted was to get out of this castle.
“Wise decision, dear girl.” After looking down at his floor and taking in a deep breath, he lifted his head. A smirk spread across his lips as he walked over to her and leaned in close, whispering in her ear. “I would have made you wish you were hung with your parents.” He spoke in a voice with such coldness and such hate, that a crippling amount of fear lingered in her soul for a long moment.
“He said be off!” Borth shouted, making his way to her and yanking her up by her arm.
Her frightened eyes looked up at him as she struggled to stand up. Finally making it to her two feet, she fell back down onto the stone floor. She tried once more, stumbling as she forced herself to shift into an eagle. She shouted out as her leg tore even more, shifting around the arrow again. She lifted her wings and flew out the balcony window quickly, wasting no more time as Soliath watched her from his window.