I do not want to see. I do not want to know, Elurra thought fiercely, but her mind ignored her wants, and a familiar scene appeared.
Snowflakes fell from the sky, blanketing the balcony outside the ballroom in Tor’ac Roh. It was one of the best views in the castle. The town spilled out far below beyond the castle walls. Elurra wasn’t alone. Upbeat music and warm candlelight trickled out from the half-closed door, but Nitiri ignored it and gazed wistfully into the night. Elurra raised an eyebrow when she noticed Nitiri was wearing the Crown of Age. In Lur Alava, each child in the royal family wore the traditional crown on their eighteenth birthday. It signified the heir was old enough to assume the throne when the ruling monarch perished or relinquished the position. Nitiri absentmindedly reached out and caught a snowflake on her palm, then watched it dissolve into a small drop of water.
“Nitiri?”
Her head snapped up, and she searched the darkness for the owner of the voice. The balcony was connected to the second floor by a flight of stairs. Someone called her name again, and she picked up her skirts and rushed toward the far end of the ledge hopefully.
“Over here!” she cried softly as she darted through patches of light from the high windows.
Elurra grudgingly followed. Cade was waiting for her. All the men inside wore fancy silks and golden finery, but Cade was donned in a simple fur coat and rugged, dark pants. His green eyes sparkled brighter than all the candles in the castle ballroom. Nitiri ran to him like a moth to a flame. He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her off the ground. She quietly squealed in delight.
“Happy birthday, my lady,” he whispered in her ear.
Even in the dim light, Elurra could see Nitiri flush.
“Cade, you cannot be here! If my father saw you—”
“I don’t care what the mighty king thinks. I wanted to see my princess, and no one can stop me from doing so.” He kissed her forehead.
Elurra could tell some time had passed between her last vision and this one. The way they interacted conveyed a certain air of intimacy they hadn’t displayed before.
“It is dangerous to visit me here, Cade. If anyone sees us, you could be thrown into prison, and I would never—”
“Marry me.”
Her mouth flopped open like a fish as she stuttered in surprise, so he clasped her hands and continued.
“I love you, Nitiri, and I can’t keep living like this. I can’t keep going for days, sometimes weeks, without seeing or hearing from you. Run away with me. You know you don’t belong locked inside a castle. They’ve never accepted you here, and they’ll never accept me either, but the Rhai Cudd accepts us both. Soon, your father will force you to marry now you’re of age. If you stay here, we will never be together, and I can’t live without you.”
Before she could answer, he got down on one knee and pulled out a ring. A large black pearl sat in the center, and a smaller one sat above it, creating the body of a spider. Four graceful, silver legs stemmed from each side.
“It stores a reservoir of magic. If you charge it regularly, you’ll be able to cast as many spells as you desire without feeling drained,” he whispered as he slipped it onto her finger.
Nitiri covered her mouth with one hand, her eyes dancing with joy. She nodded vigorously and could barely stutter out an affirmative answer around her joyful sobs. Cade scooped her into his arms.
“Then we shall run away and build our life together,” Cade said, smiling.
A mixture of plans for travel and a rendezvous after the party ensued, but Elurra stopped listening. She spotted movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to see a small boy around her natural age peeking around the corner of one of the decorative ridges in the castle wall. He had dark brown hair and crystal-clear blue eyes. His clothing betrayed his noble or royal status. As he listened to Nitiri and Cade talk about their plans to leave Lur Alava, his eyes grew wide and filled with tears. The teens turned and walked toward the servants’ exit from the balcony, leaving the little boy alone. As soon as they left, he ran into the ballroom.
Elurra felt a sense of foreboding as she watched the child disappear. Before she could decide whom to follow, the scene melted into another. She was back in Nitiri’s room, only this time Nitiri and Cade were packing her bags. The moonlight indicated hours had passed, and dawn would arrive soon. As they were finishing, the door burst open, and guards spilled into the room. The king and queen entered after the royal guard, both dressed in nightclothes. They were clearly woken abruptly from their slumber. The king’s eyes burned, and the queen’s jaw was set sternly as she stood in the doorway.
“Arrest this man!” the king boomed, pointing at Cade.
Cade drew the long knife at his side and stepped forward to meet them, but Nitiri blocked his path.
“Father, stop! Leave him alone!”
“You should be ashamed. You are a descendant of the royal bloodline, and yet you associate with Rhai Cudd scum? They use the dark magic of the Demons and gather like cockroaches in the dumps. They plot to overthrow the royal family and take the throne. They murder, kill, and plunder, using magic to get what they desire, and yet you plan to join them?”
“Father, you do not understand! Not all the Rhai Cudd are evil, and no magic comes from Demons! Only a few sects are so extreme in their hatred and resort to acts of terror. Most want what is best for the people and will use magic to help us if you would let—”
“Magic cannot be used for good! Have you learned nothing about the Great War or the Demons in the Northern Islands? Have you not heard about the terrible atrocities in Tipet?”
“The Demons do not control magic! Have you forgotten the Guardians—”
“Where were the Guardians when the northern colonies went silent? Where are the Guardians in Tipet? The Guardians are as bad as the Demons, and the use of magic always leads to evil. Guards, take him," the king yelled over his hysterical daughter.
Two guards restrained her as five more surrounded Cade. The fight was quick. Cade uttered a spell, and electricity crackled along his knife. He used the element of surprise effectively by jumping at the closest man. He fell with a crash, but the others overwhelmed Cade, disarmed him, and knocked him out. They dragged him away, ignoring Nitiri’s cries.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“Drafus!” her father called to the captain of the guard. “Send out all available men to search for these scum. Check every rundown building and every trashy tavern. This cult has gone on long enough, and I want it crushed. Hunt them down and kill them all.”
“Stop! Do not do this!” Nitiri shrieked.
Her father whirled on her, his face red and blotchy with fury.
“Take her to the dungeon for suspected treason against Lur Alava.”
“No, Daddy!” a small voice cried.
From behind Nitiri’s door frame, wide, tear-filled eyes appeared. Elurra recognized the little boy from the balcony.
“Do not send her to the dungeon!” His bottom lip quivered, and a tear escaped the pool in his eyes.
“This is no longer your concern, Simon. You did the right thing. Now go to sleep and let Daddy handle this,” the king replied.
“You promised to keep her from leaving, but now you are sending her away!”
“Vera, take him to bed.”
Nitiri suddenly understood what had happened, and betrayal flashed across her face as she turned on her little brother. Disbelief and hatred consumed her expression as she stared at him.
“You told him. You are always spying on people for fun. You heard our conversation on the balcony and told Father, did you not?”
Simon burst into tears.
“I did not want you to leave!”
She lunged toward her brother, but the guards restrained her.
“I hate you! I hate you all! Curse you, Simon! Curse you, father!” she screamed, tears streaming down her face.
“Take her away!” the king yelled.
She put up a fight, but she was too angry and distraught to effectively resist. Her magic was weak, and anything she knew was useless to her in her current state. Elurra watched in horror as they knocked Nitiri out and dragged her from the room. The king remained after she was taken away and looked at his captain.
“Execute that boy immediately, along with all the castle staff currently on your list of suspects. I will not have Simon corrupted by these vermin like his pathetic sister.”
The guard murmured an affirmation and left the room. Elurra felt sick to her stomach.
The room emptied, and the dungeon appeared before her. Nitiri was sprawled on the floor, her dress ripped and dirty. She groaned and sat up slowly as she rubbed her head. When she remembered what happened, her eyes widened, and a sob escaped her lips. The guard outside her cell glanced at her passively.
“Release me this instant!” she screamed.
They ignored her. She grabbed the bars and shook them.
“I said release me! I order you as the princess of Lur Alava!”
“You ain’t no princess anymore. Your father said he no longer claims ya.”
Nitiri’s eyes bulged, and she stumbled away for a moment in astonishment. Then an angry glint appeared in her gaze. Her hand flashed through the bars and latched onto the man’s arm before she muttered a command.
Elurra was familiar with the Guardian’s command phrase and wasn’t surprised when the guard flailed as electricity coursed through his veins before he collapsed, a dark handprint singed into his skin. Nitiri easily acquired the keys from the unconscious man and escaped her cell. However, making it out of the dungeon would be much more difficult. Elurra raised an eyebrow curiously as Nitiri searched the guard’s body for a weapon. She found his sword then let out a deep cry of agony, making Elurra jump. Nitiri yelled again, only that time she cut the scream short. For a moment, nothing happened, then running footsteps echoed down the hallway.
“Are you alright?” Damond’s voice called from the passage beyond.
Nitiri hid on one side of the cell as the jailer burst in, noted the open cell, and spotted the unconscious guard. Damond was decades younger, and his hair wasn’t thin or gray. Nitiri stepped out from her hiding place and pressed the sword to his back.
“Where is the boy?”
Damond froze mid-step.
“What boy?”
“The magic user. The king captured him last night. Where is he?”
“Magic users are not kept in the dungeons because they can easily escape. I don’t know where he is.”
Although it sounded like he was telling the truth, Elurra could see he was hiding something. Nitiri didn’t speak for a moment.
“Lead me to the exit.”
“You are making a mistake. Where are you planning to go?”
“I said move,” she demanded as she jabbed him in the back with the sword.
He took in a sharp breath and slowly led her through the twisting corridors. When they reached the staircase to the castle, Nitiri shot him with a sleeping dart. He grunted in surprise and collapsed on the ground in a heap. From there, she climbed the mountain of steps out of the dungeon and crept into a maid’s room on the first floor. It was early morning, judging from the way the light poured in through the windows. She quickly pulled on a maid’s dress and shoved her jewelry into her pocket.
“Where else would they put him, besides the castle?” she asked herself as she tucked her thick red hair into a bonnet.
A menacing gong answered her question. She froze as it echoed through the hallways. Elurra knew that sound. She’d heard it only once, when a group of bandits came into town and went on a ruthless killing spree. Her father didn’t typically believe in public executions. He preferred to lock murderers away in the darkest parts of the dungeon instead of subjecting the citizens to their gruesome deaths, but their atrocities had earned them an exception. The gong had accompanied their mass hanging.
Nitiri’s eyes widened with horror as she made the same realization. She charged toward the front gates, along with the other morbidly curious maids and footmen. Elurra didn’t want to follow. She tried to stay behind, but the vision pulled her along after the distraught princess. Elurra had never seen the gallows in use. Her father hadn’t permitted her to leave her room during the execution, and she now understood why. Still figures rocked on the end of their ropes, their limp limbs lifelessly bouncing against their sides like puppets on strings. Their heads lulled to the side, and horrid, empty expressions with bulging eyes and slackened jaws stared out at the mourning crowd. The bodies dangling from nooses were traumatizing even before she identified the dead.
She first recognized Crackle among corpses of castle staff, but Cade was the centerpiece of the display. His eyes were open, and his expression twisted with gripping terror. Nitiri cried sharply and fell to her knees. Her body convulsed, and tears streamed down her cheeks. Although her mouth was open, she made no sound aside from the occasional choked inhale of breath. She clutched at her heart with one hand like she was trying to rip it out so it would stop hurting. Other cries of grief echoed around the courtyard, and Elurra saw maids weeping and wailing for their dead companions. Standing in the shadows, men from the stable looked at Crackle’s body with solemn faces and quiet tears. Elurra felt tears slipping down her own cheeks, but she couldn’t pull her eyes from the deceased, which were gently swaying in the frigid wind.
“They were my friends,” Nitiri gasped, her voice harsh and coarse. “They accepted me, and my family killed them. My brother betrayed me. My father took Cade from me. My mother stood by and watched. They are all murderers!”
Hatred radiated off her in waves, and something inside her shattered. Elurra could only sense brokenness and overwhelming ire. Nitiri pulled the ring on her finger close to her heart and stood shakily. Dark clouds blotted out the sun as she stared at Cade. Rain started to fall. Each drop cut through the compact snow under her feet. As the trickle turned into a deluge, the snow turned to sludge. Everyone retreated to the castle, but Nitiri remained. The tears on her cheeks mingled with the rain pouring down. The precipitation didn’t last long, but when it ended, Nitiri seemed like a completely different person. A determined look filled her eyes as she glanced at Cade’s corpse for the last time.
“I will make a pact with the Demons or sell my soul to hell if I have to, but I will avenge you. And then, I will bring you back to life.”
Nitiri’s face shifted into a familiar twisted smile that sent chills down Elurra’s spine.
“In fact, I will feed them all to the Demons. They deserve nothing better. When they die, I will reclaim my throne, and I will use magic to resurrect you. We will have the life we both dreamed of. I promise.”
The rest came in broken fragments. Elurra watched Nitiri steal the crown and leave the Kutsal Stone, dig up Cade’s corpse, and retreat to the Rath Flats. She watched Nitiri spiral into madness during her years of isolation as her morals steadily crumbled. Simon’s survival ate away at her, building a fierce rage. Resentment drove her to take matters into her own hands. Elurra didn’t think she could feel any more repulsed after seeing Cade’s death, but she was wrong. She and Lira were always bothered by the fact that Nitiri shouldn’t be able to use Magic so effectively considering she wasn’t born with Prath blood, but Lira had assumed Nitiri trained herself to ration her energy. To Elurra’s horror, Lira was very wrong.
There was another way to get more nanites, and Nitiri had discovered it.