A Shadow's Tale (25 page)

‘No,' I answered, getting to my feet in order to pace again. Kaleb's eyes followed me as I walked back and forth. At this rate, I was going to wear a hole in the floor. ‘I cannot allow you to put your people and your dimension at risk in order to save mine.'

Kaleb let out a hollow bark of laughter. ‘If anyone is at risk in this alliance, it would be Alena. My people are the undead nations. They fear no death for they are already dead. They hunger for a use.'

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. ‘In any case, you suggest we engage in warfare?'

‘I wish you to know that you will not be alone in waging war against this tyrant.' He paused for a moment, thinking. ‘When will you be delivering your choice?'

‘In three days.'

‘Is it agreeable to you if I accompany you? To keep you safe?'

‘Yes, I think that would be a good idea.'

* * *

Three days later, I stood in front of the mirror in my private chambers, shaking off the last fingers of cabin fever from the safe room. Aleth was fussing around me, putting the finishing touches to the dress I was wearing. I swirled a thick, heavy cloak around my shoulders. I would need it to ward off the chill of the ice dimension. I carefully tied my mask over my face, setting the circlet over it. Looking myself in the eye, I tried to steel myself towards going to Alena and telling Prince Melek to, in much more diplomatic language, stick his proposal of marriage where the sun doesn't shine.

As I've said before, Alena is an ice dimension, one of the many city-dimensions grouped together through alliance to create what is known as the Snow Kingdoms. Normally, I would avoid them like the plague, but I'd found that normality had decided to bow out of my life. The only way to describe Alena would be to call it a snowscape. Even the sun, hanging frozen in the sky, cast a light that was faintly blue. The buildings had all been carved from ice, the architecture and designs growing more and more intricate the more important the structure. Now imagine coming from a dimension whose main element is fire, to arrive in the centre of the palace in an ice dimension. I shivered, clenching my teeth to keep them from chattering, pulling my cloak further around my shoulders. Kaleb stood at my shoulder, towering above me, wearing nothing more than a pair of loose trousers and the scabbard of his enchanted sword slung across his bare back. Shaking my head in wonder at how he had yet to turn into a large icicle, I turned to face the group of nervous-looking Alenan guards. One stepped forwards to salute me.

‘Princess Shadow, Prince Melek awaits your arrival with impatience.' I glanced at Kaleb, who inclined his head slightly. Nodding once, I let the Alenan guards escort us to the Prince.

Prince Melek was sitting on his throne, reading from a pile of paper when a footman announced my arrival. He got to his feet, bowing low to me and running a critical eye over Kaleb. I ran a critical eye of my own over him. Unlike most of the Alenans I had seen, his plumage was darker, a pale brown rather than white. His eyes were equally darker, his hands and bird feet tipped with talons I would not like to be on the receiving end of. His muscles were well defined, especially those required for flight. For an Alenan woman, he would no doubt be a fine catch. For me,
however, he was simply a nuisance. A good-looking nuisance perhaps, but a nuisance none the less.

‘One would have thought that the ruler of such a warrior dimension as Aspheri would have brought an entire battalion of guards, not just one…being.'

‘I can assure you that Kaleb is perfectly capable of performing his duty.'

‘Hmm…' Prince Melek mused. I didn't like the look on his face. It looked as if he was sizing Kaleb up for a fight. Taking his eyes off the Would-Be King, he gestured to the elevated platform where his throne of ice stood. I was glad for my heavy cloak that managed to ward off a little of the chill as I spotted what Prince Melek had gestured towards. Beside his throne, someone had formed a chaise longue and covered the ice with thick pelts. I gritted my teeth. As a princess, most humans would imagine that I spend most of my royal life lounging and reclining on such furniture. Chance would be a fine thing. I spend most of my time sitting on the throne trying to sort out the dimension's problems or in the library trying to catch up on a lifetime's worth of Demonic history and lore. In any case, I don't like reclining. No sensible warrior does. It exposes the stomach to attack and is a difficult position to spring out of in a hurry. Unfortunately, as a visiting ruler, I wasn't really allowed to stand in order to talk to him, so I compromised, sitting upright on the chaise. Prince Melek turned a worryingly flirtatious smile to me.

‘Princess Shadow, I believe you have come to deliver your choice. As I remember, I proposed that you choose between uniting our dimensions or angering Alena, which would, I'm afraid to say, end up in Aspherin blood being shed.' The tone of the Prince's voice suggested that he wasn't actually sorry to say those words. I felt my fists clench.

‘Yes, I remember your proposal,' I began, but I couldn't bring myself to say anything else. I couldn't phrase it in a way that wouldn't offend the Prince. I inwardly cursed the need for
diplomacy, glad of the mask that hid my expression of disgust. I would have loved to spit at him, to tell him to get stuffed and leave Aspheri alone, but the laws of courtesy I was subject to wouldn't allow
it
. In a quiet rustling of feathers, he moved down to sit next to me. The cold radiating from him froze my breath in my throat, but I denied him the satisfaction of seeing me shiver.

‘Now, I'm sure that you don't wish war to be declared on your dimension, so I shall assume that you would prefer the union of our dimensions…' he said softly. A muscle jumped in my jaw as I desperately tried to think of a way out. I cast a desperate glance at Kaleb. The Would-Be King stepped forwards calmly, drawing his sword and using the flat of it to keep the Prince back.

‘Do not press the Princess,' he growled. Melek pushed the sword away coolly. He stood up, sweeping back to his throne where he used his fingers to comb a few feathers back into place. He turned his gaze back to me.

‘Your decision, Princess Shadow?'

I raised my chin, my defiance fortified by Kaleb's powerful presence behind me. ‘I will not consent to marry you.'

Melek leapt out of his throne with a growl, tearing his sword from its sheath, slashing at my throat. I raised my arms in defence, the blade glancing off the metal bracers, leaving a deep dent and a rip in the metal. He drew his arm back to strike again. The smell of damp earth assailed my nose. Metal ripped through flesh. But not mine. A young man stood in front of me with Melek's sword buried in his side. His old suit, torn and muddied, smelt of earth. He turned to look at me with eyes so pale they were almost white. One of The Would-Be King's subjects, one of the dead.

‘We have eternal life to lay down for you, Princess of Darkness,' he said. Melek growled, pulling the sword from the undead man's side then neatly severing my protector's head from his shoulders. The young man crumbled to dust before he even hit the ground. I sensed a spike of anger from behind me. Within
a heartbeat, Kaleb's sword was resting on Melek's throat. Melek smirked, turning aside Kaleb's claymore with his own, bloodstained sword. I used their distraction to scramble off the chaise, drawing my own blade. Melek snapped his head round to look at me. Our eyes locked gazes. Ice spread down my spine, freezing me into place. I struggled to breathe. I couldn't look away. All I could do was defend my mind as Melek tried to break into it. Sweat began to slide down my forehead from the effort. The claws of Melek's mind scrabbled for any gap. It found one. My defences were ripped down, Melek's talons beginning to tear through my subconscious. I struggled to push him away as memories clouded my thoughts. Ruling Aspheri, talking to the Kraferrs, living in the home, Holly and Natalie, Meran and Armen. And my mother. Arellan's death. With a yell, I broke Melek's spell, panting, doubled over, tears streaming down my face as my demon side begged for a taste of Melek's blood. The memory of Arellan's death, even after so many years of being buried, were still raw and painful. The Alenan prince stepped forwards, taking my chin in his hand, lifting my head to look at him. His touch froze my skin, thousands of tiny, icy needles digging into me, spreading out from his hand over my jaw and neck, burning in a way I thought impossible for ice. He raised a hand in warning to Kaleb.

‘Try to interfere,
boy
, and I will freeze your princess where she stands,' he growled, not turning his gaze away from me. ‘You're such a naughty little girl, aren't you? You killed your mother. If it wasn't for you, she'd still be alive now, living a happy life. Tsk, tsk. And I thought that the ruler of a dimension such as Aspheri would have been stronger. Your father certainly was. Are you still adamant that you will not consent to becoming my wife?'

I couldn't wield my sword at such close quarters. He was pressed almost intimately against me. Clearly, he had never heard about personal space! Gritting my teeth, I borrowed a move from the
Holly Bristol Manual of Defence Against Overbearing
Males
and prayed that Alenan anatomy was somewhat close to human. It was. Melek doubled over, cupping himself with a high-pitched howl of pain. Kaleb's arms wrapped around me, cradling me to his chest as he teleported us away.

Kaleb took control as soon as our feet touched the black stone floor of the throne room in Aspheri, setting me on the throne and calling for a healer. He crouched in front of me, examining the ice burn that had spread out from my cheek down to my neck. A healer was ushered through the arch into the throne room, where he bowed nervously, stammering a request for permission to treat me. Kaleb answered before I could, in a voice that could have easily turned an army to jelly in the space of five seconds. I gingerly pulled my mask off, hearing the ice on it crackle as it started to melt. Later on, when I looked in the mirror, I would see a pale blue mark that stretched from my ear to the hollow of my throat, covering the entire expanse of skin in between. I rested my head on the back of the throne. I felt weak and ill, as if someone had drained all the strength from me, no doubt an effect from the cold. I'd never realised just how much of a weakness cold could be to me. Aleth arrived with a pile of blankets, clucking at the healer and forcing a quilt on Kaleb, sure that he must have felt the cold as well. I hissed, biting back a snarl as the healer prodded the ice burn. Once he had examined it thoroughly, he began to prepare something with various ingredients from his bag that I didn't recognise, his hands flying as he worked. Within a few moments, he spread a balm across the burn. I tried hard not to flinch as the salve stung my skin but it started to thaw the damage that had been done. After placing strips of cloth over the balm to protect it, he stammered his farewells, escaping from the room and Kaleb's gaze as fast as he could. I sighed, tying my mask back on as gently as I could. The burn was going to ache for a good while yet.

Kaleb faded back out of the shadows as I pulled the blankets
further around my shoulders, desperate for warmth after Alena. Aleth had thoughtfully left a steaming cup of tea waiting for me, which I sipped from gratefully, feeling the heat pool in my stomach.

‘My Lady, it would be wise to start amassing the troops. Alena will soon be marching to war in order to soothe their ruler's wounded pride.'

‘It's going to take more than a war to repair what I did to him,' I muttered into my tea. In a louder voice, I added. ‘Would you please ask the Council to congregate in this room with whatever captains remain in the army as well as an interdimensional messenger.'

Within an hour of my informing the council and captains of the impending battle, the dimension rang with the sound of metal being hammered back into shape. Shouts of encouragement and rallying echoed through the streets. Aleth was helping me to strap on battle armour, still warm from the forge, while I listened to the captains and Kaleb discussing tactics. One of the main problems, however, was that I was missing several captains, which meant that many of the battalions who had gathered were without leaders. I prayed that the messenger would soon return. They were my only hope.

My prayer was answered. The captains looked up in surprise as three more demons appeared in the middle of the throne room. Armed to the teeth, armour buffed to a shine, expressions ready to kill, but still one of the best sights I had seen in a long time. The messenger, looking terrified, peeked out from behind the trio. Amarath strode forwards, wrapping me in a boa constrictor's hug accompanied by a loud clattering of armour.

‘Thank the goddess,' I said as we broke apart. ‘I was terrified that you were going to turn your backs on me.'

Amarath laughed, pulling her helmet off. My eyes flickered to the half-healed cut next to her eye, the scar tissue still an angry
red. ‘You thought I was going to pass up on the chance to march to war alongside my princess of a sister? Not a chance!' Another figure appeared in the hall, cutting off my response and filling the space with her huge presence. Her own battle armour gleamed in the torchlight. Merlas butted my shoulder with her head, as if telling me off for not visiting.

‘My Lady?' Kaleb asked. ‘You are planning to march out with us? Will you not keep yourself away from harm in your safe room?'

I turned to the Would-Be King, raising an eyebrow. ‘And what would that do to the moral of my troops? It would demoralise an already shaky army. No, I will ride out with Merlas at the head of the troops. You can trust her completely to keep me away from harm.'

Kaleb looked ready to argue, but his eyes flickered to Merlas, examining her critically for a moment before nodding reluctantly. I introduced Amarath, Shaeman and Vrael to the captains, and settled down to plan how we were going to do this.

I sat with a hand on Merlas's guidance strap, looking out over the army. My eyes scanned the ranks, spotting my siblings at the head of their assigned units. Kaleb, despite my protests, stood as captain over a rabble of the undead. With a dimension roughly the size of America and Canada put together, I had a population of two or three hundred million. Compared to modern day earth, that wasn't much, but to me, it looked like the entire dimension had turned up to war alongside several hundred thousand undead. I just had to hope it was going to be enough. I checked my belt for the umpteenth time, making sure that I had my longsword as well as two more short swords strapped in a cross on my back, backed up by a further three knives. I wasn't taking any chances.

They announced their arrival with a wave of cold. Every demon
in the regiments shivered, but held their ground. Merlas danced on the spot, tossing her head. I kept one hand on the hilt of my sword. Behind me, on a small hillock, I could hear the nervous plucking of bowstrings. The Alenans burst out from the air itself as they teleported into Aspheri. A single winged figure took to the sky. I couldn't help but feel a small twang of satisfaction as I heard the Prince's voice, a little higher than what had been given to him naturally.

‘Come and play, little princess! Show your people how you fight on your own!' Without any command from me, Merlas bellowed a wordless reply into the air, a fearsome war cry for anyone not acquainted with the pegusi. She leapt into the air, her powerful hindquarters kicking off from the ground before her great wings took over the labour, her hooves cutting easily into the turf. I ripped my sword from its sheath, shouting my own wordless war cry. The Aspherins surged forwards, engaging the enemy in a thirst for their blood. Melek sneered at me as Merlas drew even with him, hovering out of range of him, her wings beating steadily to maintain height. I scowled back. He would expect me to play clean and fair, very much like a girl, like a
princess
. In most cases, I would fight with as much honour as I could. But I couldn't afford to let him predict my moves. Amarath had taught me to fight dirty. It was time to use it. And the first thing to do was rile up the enemy. An angry enemy didn't think. An angry enemy didn't plan. An angry enemy made mistakes.