Prologue

Johan stares at the darkened street through the broken window. His heart beats like a stampede of kelk. A pale man emerges from the trees. His eyes gleam malicious red.  A wraith…they all died. Am I imagining it? The wind flutters his robe. Johan sees a ruby locket dangling from the man’s thin neck. Johan shivers and steps back. How is this possible? Red Saint is dead! But that locket…

I don’t want to die. I have come so far. Johan pulls a sword from his sheath and points it at the wraith.

“You can’t kill me, Johan,” the wraith rasps in salosin. His voice grates in Johan’s ears. “Our saint is awakening. He will punish all traitors.”

It’s impossible! Red Saint can’t awaken. He died. Johan shivers. His limbs go weak. The sword slips from his hands and clatters to the floor. The broken pottery crunches under Johan’s shoes as he backs away from the window. The wraith’s laughter pierces Johan’s heart. He tastes the bitterness of blood on his tongue. 

The wraith floats toward the crumbling house. Johan’s back hits the wall. He whimpers. Tears stream down his cheeks. The wraith grips the windowsill in its claws. It grins, revealing bloody fangs. It licks its lips with a blue tongue. Johan sees worms crawling in its mouth. Johan shrieks and closes his eyes. The remaining window shatters.

Please, God, save me! Johan prays and opens his eyes. The wraith lunges at him. Johan leaps away. The wall topples, filling the small room with a cloud of dust. Johan tries to crawl away but the wraith steps on his belly, pinning him to the floor. Johan cries in pain. 

“You can’t run from me, Johan. No one can save you from me,” the wraith says. Its laughter fills the small room. “I have been hungry for so long. I will savor your taste.”

“No!” Johan screams and covers his face with his hands. He prepares himself for a painful death. However, a howl erupts from the wrath. Johan winces and uncovers his eyes to cover his ears. The howl stops abruptly. The wraith stands over him without a head. Shortly, its body falls to the dusty ground. Johan sees a woman in white standing in the room. She holds a sparkling saber. Johan forgets to breathe. 

The witches are here! Why…? You are in trouble, Johan. Witches are worse than wraiths. He tells himself.

“Johan, what did you do?” The witch asks him.

Johan shrugs. “I don’t know. I swear on my mother.” He stands up and steps away from the wraith’s dissolving body.

The witch shakes her head. “Lying will not help you.” She says and turns about to face the window. “You have until morning to come clean. I’ll keep you safe from wraiths till then. Otherwise, your body will join theirs.”

Johan shivers. I am doomed. Witches will flay me alive when they find out what I have done. He touches his pocket to feel the ring he stole from the temple ruins. What does Red Saint want with this ring? It must be valuable. Now, I’ll have to give it to the witches for free. He sighs and pulls the ring out. Hisses fill the darkness.

The witch gasps. “Where did you get this ring?” she asks as she steps away from him and lifts her sword.

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“I found it...,” he is saying when he gasps seeing a crowd of wraiths flying toward the house. The witch huffs and faces the window. She points her shining saber at the wraiths. One wraith flies inside, and she decapitates it with one swing. The wraiths howl like mad beasts and swarm into the house. The witch dances among them and slays every one of them. Johan gapes at her in fear and wonder. I can’t escape from her. She is killing wraiths like they are annoying insects. How strong are these witches? It’s a wonder that they couldn’t destroy the Red Saint sooner. 

The wraiths attack Johan and the witch all night long. She fights them with a wry smile. At dawn, the wraiths hide from the sun. The witch turns to Johan who sits in a corner, trembling.“We need to destroy this ring,” she snaps at him.

“No!” Johan shouts and tries to run away from her. She kicks him and he falls face first on the ground. The ring falls from his hands and rolls on the ground, stopping at her feet. She stabs it with her saber. The ring blows up in a small explosion and acrid smoke. Johan hears a faint sound of screaming. “Why did you destroy it?” He cries out.

She rolls her eyes. “You dumb thief! The Crimson Palace is cursed. The Red Saint has filled it with traps. This ring must have been cursed with a dark spell that makes humans his slave.” She points the saber at Johan’s face. “Now tell me what else you took from that accursed Palace.”

Johan winces and moves away from the saber. “I only took… this…um…ring,” he stammers. “I found it on the road leading there. We couldn’t go far. It was too eerie.”

The witch narrows her eyes. “We…? Weren’t you alone? Where is your companion?”

Johan licks his lips. “Wolves ate him,” he says as he remembers the expression of disbelief on Kalin’s face when Johan stabbed him. I didn’t want to share the ring with him. Kalin should have given me the ring. It was not my fault. 

The witch takes a deep breath and exhales slowly. She wrinkles her nose at him and turns away. The saber disappears from her hand as she hurries to the door. She kicks the door, and it falls outward on the dirt road. The witch leaves Johan in the dirt, weeping for his lost ring. He remembers how shiny the ring was. He remembers how good he felt when he held the ring. He misses the feeling of joy. He misses the completeness that the ring provided. He stands up as longing grows unbearable. He sprints out of the broken door as Crimson Palace calls him. 

Johan has been living on the edge of Darkim Forest since childhood, which hid the ruins of Crimson Palace. He has been hiking in the forest for years, searching for the Palace, so he remembers every pathway. He hurries toward the palace like a loose arrow. The sun shines above him when he reaches it, revealing an ivy-covered Palace looming larger than trees. He yells in triumph and dashes for the broken gate. 

He has no time to escape the golden blade falling on his neck. Johan opens his mouth to yell, but his head falls from his torso. He takes four strides before falling chest first.