The air was dense, and the leaves began to welt on the trees as she sat above the temple, staring off into the distance at the mountains. Hethei sat at her side, his feathers puffed out, staring with her. She was broken and lost. A waste of time, energy, and life. But what else was she supposed to do? Finding her people was what she lived for. It was what helped her continue living. It also gave her the confidence she needed that she was rightfully Queen of the Molok Kingdom because she was willing to push and do what she needed for her people. Sedeth had even said she was a true queen because of that. He had understood her duty to her people, dead or alive. Maybe it was impossible for her to have friends or be with anyone else. Maybe she was a queen meant to forever be alone. Nonroyalty didn't understand where she was coming from. Royalty expected too much from her.
She fought the urge to go back to Nokia to see if their hatred for her had waned. To see if being around them would help lift her up again. But she knew that it would only add to her confusion and her sadness to see what she couldn’t have. She needed to uplift herself on her own. She needed to trust herself and find hope in herself. She needed to hold onto the belief that she could bring her people back.
Although she had researched endlessly and had traveled all over the land of black ice multiple times, she never came across any real answers or connections at all. She had to figure out her next step. Would it be to search out Obsviden again?
She clamped down on her jaw and cursed herself for the hint of fear. Even if she didn’t want to seek out the man of death, she had to do it for her people. She had no choice.
Her world grew dark. Time for sleep was near, and a new day would begin tomorrow. She decided she would try to find Obsviden then.
She stood as Hethei smoothed his feathers out and flew to her shoulder. She looked out to her land, taking it in, breathing it in. This was all hers and would remain hers. She would prove it to herself.
There was a flash of purple light on the far edge of the mountains between the village that was now completely empty and Atta. It had come from the shaded trees. Almost like flashes of lightning without the strike. It happened again. She looked to Hethei and saw he was as confused as she was.
She nodded to him once, and they both opened their own portals and walked inside, ready to see what may have come over from whichever side of the universe.
They found themselves in the trees. The entrance to the inner part of the mountain with the bones was a seeable distance away. Branches reached over them, obscuring their view of the sky. There was no breeze or sense of calm that she usually felt from her world to comfort her. Her blue dress hung dead at her sides. Her body was perfectly still.
There was movement, a flash of silver and a rattle of chains. Then a shadow crept along the ground toward her as a brief warning before she saw who it was.
Stilk.
Stilk with a burning hatred in his narrow yellow eyes that receded deeply in his skull. A stocky build with chains clanging near his feet, tearing up a few blades of grass.
Her heart grew cold.
She had no idea how he had come back, but she would get rid of him again before he could play a smile across his wide-chapped lips.
She was shaking. She scolded herself to stand still and strong
Stilk walked closer like he was her prey. He wore a smirk that made her want to go mad.
He looked so sure of himself, smug even as he threw his arm back with one of the chains as if he would whip her.
Her desperation and need to get rid of him again worked to tear open a hole to fulfill her purpose. She stared at the spot where she wanted to open a portal to send Stilk away.
But as much as she wanted it, as much as she called for her world to open for her, nothing happened. She tried to hide her worry and tried again, willing another hole, but still nothing. Stilk’s smile stretched as he watched her struggle. A bead of sweat formed and fell from her neck down the back of her dress. She strained and tried again, tensing every muscle in her body, but her power would not work.
She went to run away, but Stilk was faster. He swung out one of his two snake-like chains. It wrapped around one of her ankles, pulling it out from under her to make her fall.
She had been too confident. Of course, if Stilk had found a way back, he would have found a way to stay.
She dug her hands into the dirt, begging Ausrine to save her as she began to be dragged backward to Stilk. He was strong. Stronger than she had anticipated, but it was a fact that she already should have known since they were the ones who built the temple and the homes in her village.
Dirt and grass curled up around her fingernails as she fought the pull.
She flipped herself onto her back once she knew she was too close, but Hethei, who was above Stilk, distracted her when he came down to peck out Stilk’s eyes. The other chain was thrown up about to strike Hethei, making him fly away.
Stilk looked at her, “You think I give up Solocs?”
She was alone.
She kicked and screamed, but Stilk was stronger. He wrapped her legs with the second chain and then undid the first one around her ankle before he bound her wrists.
“No power. Easy catch,” Stilk muttered as he began pulling her out of the trees and onto the flat grass toward the temple.
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They were going to the temple.
But why?
No. No. No. No. Stilk could not take her back to her home to die where her parents had. He could not reclaim the temple, the throne, and this world. She could not let him. She could not waste the power given to her, the kingdom given to her. She could not let it be turned over to him.
Dread choked her. The thought of being the only person capable of bringing back her people and the only person capable of returning her kingdom to how it once was mocked her. Stilk was going to make sure she failed. She welcomed the bits of rock she felt working their way under her head and over her skull as Stilk yanked her along. She welcomed the pain, because in it, she felt the sharp urge to breathe. To be kept alive.
Even as he dragged her up the steps. Even as the hard stoned edges thumped into her back as she was pulled up, the same way that her dad’s body had when he had been pulled down, she knew she had to fight this. She would last no matter what Stilk tried to do. For her parents that he killed. For her parents that were taken from her in front of her all because of his vicious lies. For Lilla who had slipped through her fingers. For her friends and people who lay motionless and ageless in the bottom of the pit. For everyone waiting for her. For everyone needing her to bring them back to life. She would last. She would fight.
She flailed her body the second he stopped dragging her when they were in the throne room. She kicked and thrashed the moment that Stilk began undoing her feet. She threw her head side to side and screamed, until his fist came down and met the back of her head to the stone floor.
Darkness enveloped her rage with her heart still beating.
Her wrists were smoldering with pulsing pain as blood tried to reach them. The tight chains were holding her up, bearing her weight.
She had been hung. Stilk’s chains somehow had grown longer. Only her toes touched the ground with her arms stretched thin as if she was in mid-flight. The metal cut into her when she tried to move her wrists to wake them up. She bit back the pain, refusing to give Stilk any satisfaction.
No matter how far she tried to turn her head to find him in her sorrowful world, he was nowhere.
“Looks like I made it to you first.”
The voice was not Stilk’s. It was careful and slick with finesse.
Obsviden was standing in front of her, his satisfied smile matching the hint of laughter in his eyes that were brown in the dark.
“Why are you… where is Stilk?” Airya tried to yell, but her voice was broken by the time it came out of her scratchy throat.
“He is waiting for you to wake. He wants you to see… well, what exactly, I don’t really know,” he put a finger to his chin and looked up to the temple ceiling with the owl eye carved there.
“But… how?”
“Ah, yes. I am sorry about that, My Curious Thing. I had to help him get here.”
“Why?” It was getting hard to breathe. Her heart was picking up its pace.
“To say I didn’t seek him out would be a lie. It’s just. Your powers, your world, it’s so interesting, so fascinating. Not that I care to have them. I have powers of my own. But the Desphere, you know, the one that they used to kill your people. I wanted information on it.”
“It’s gone! Stilk said that Stilgar broke it!”
His laughter came out as a tsk when he took his finger away from his chin and pointed it at her, “You, Miss Queen Airya, have not learned, while searching for my things. You know how I like to play. I just wanted the information. I promised I would help him return if he gave that to me.”
Two slabs of rock appeared. Drawings etched into stone that reminded her of the stories on the temple. “And these are perfect.” In that moment, she saw his red burning mark on both. “In exchange for these, I helped him find these chains to combat your magick, and I helped him find a witch to throw him in a fire and send him back.”
Two more slabs appeared in his other hand that looked almost the same from where she hung, “And for MORE information, I gave him power to be able to get rid of you for good,” he winked. “I told him to use a sword or something, but he refused. Something about not wanting to be like your people. But chains that would make your powers not work would do, along with… something else.”
Squinting to see what those sketches may be that had signed away her death, she saw a small etch of the aging spear before, in a flash, it was gone along with the other stones.
“But why… why does all this matter to you? Why do you want me dead?” Shaking. Her body was shaking. Vibrating up the chains, making them clink against the temple pillar she was strung by. She didn't know if she was shaking from fear or from not understanding why this demon of a man would want to kill her when she had done nothing to him. She needed to live. Wanted to live. She could not die by Stilk’s hand.
He threw his head back, “It all matters, Airya! And I wanted to see how it would play out. I needed to push the plot along. And I have given you gifts, Airya. Sir Eli, I got you to him, correct? And I made sure he stayed around that boy. The boy of the Green Eyes. The opposite of your kind. I thought you would want to get to know him since you met him so long ago. That night I found it interesting that you both had neon eyes. I Looked into his history, and it was filled with death.” He smirked.
“That’s not possible. How would he have gotten here?”
“Easy. Same way your kind did. Green Eyes ran into the explosion after your parents and the others. They had been lost to their world just like them. But instead of getting dropped off in a paradise kingdom, the Green Eyes were dropped off somewhere else where they suffered.”
“No. Not possible…”
He shrugged, “Now, even though I helped Stilk along, and I may have deterred you a little, I’m not saying I don’t believe in you. I mean, you have been sooo close. You have been RIGHT THERE.” He stopped and gave her a smile as if he knew a secret she didn’t, but one she should have caught on to. “Don’t worry, Airya. You still have your chance. Only you have made your chance. The real question is. Will you make the right choice?”
Then he was gone. He had been there one moment, and before Airya could blink, he was gone the next.
But it had to be because Stilk had come back with his beady yellow eyes boring wickedly into hers.
“Are you going to kill me?” Airya asked. “Are you really going to kill me for banishing you after you killed my people!?”
He scoffed at her and waved his thick hand, brushing her comment away. “I kill you for taking home. I kill you for killing Solocs.”
“But I took nothing from you! We did nothing to you!” Airya's understanding was cut from a deep seeded terror that all that she had worked for and her life's purpose was disappearing. “I know you said the Yellow Eyes came and killed one of your own. But it was an accident! I’m sure it was! They were probably scared! My mom… my mom was scared. She tried to make it up to you! She welcomed you!”
“All do is take!”
One of her tears fell to the ground below her feet. She hadn’t realized she was crying. Stilk stared at it amused. Another tear fell and trickled down her shin into her silver slipper with a tickle that only brought dread. Stilk's big stubby fingers grasped one of her feet and slid the slipper off. He crumbled the material into his hands and threw it to the ground. He did the same with the other one.
“You live so others see. You live until die. Went got Solocs. Will be in temple soon. Take back what’s right.”
Stilk rubbed one of his rough fingers along her big toe. She curled it, pulling it back, but that made him grab it and trap it in his thick fingers. Her eyes shut as a scream escaped her throat when she Stilk twisted. Pain burst behind her eyes in the white when she heard a crack. She looked down to see his ugly face smiling up at her before her eyes shut when he twisted again.