Read Shadow Queen Online

Authors: B.R. Nicholson

Tags: #death, #magic, #maiden, #violence, #phooka, #goblin, #queen, #weapons, #fantasy, #reaper, #elves, #blood, #dwarves, #shadow, #astrid, #monsters, #cloud

Shadow Queen (10 page)

BOOK: Shadow Queen
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They walked in silence for an hour before
seeing the peak of the merchant’s villa.

“Wait here,” said Merrick, stopping her with
his hand. He leaned in, suddenly embracing her. “Please don’t
follow me. I don’t want you to see this.”

“I don’t have to see it,” said Ilsie. She
choked on her words as she drew away from his touch. “I’ll
know
.”

Merrick shook his head and walked away toward
the villa. He walked closer but suddenly stopped when his eyes
caught a glimmer of red further beyond near the sea. His legs
steered him toward that glimmer, his hand clutching at the poisoned
needles.

Luka was perched on a boulder, motionless and
staring far out into the sea.

“Luka?”

The feathers on Luka’s head stood straight
up. He turned and locked his icy gaze onto Merrick. “
What do you
want?”
His voice was laced with bitterness.

“I want to talk,” said Merrick. He eased next
to Luka and sat down next to him. He saw Luka’s wings tense, but he
did not move.

“Make it quick,” he said, looking away. “I
have little patience for you.”

Merrick nodded. “Luka… I want you to know I
never meant for anything to happen to you. It was beyond my
control.”

“I’m sure it was,” said Luka. He kept his
eyes firmly rooted on the sea.

“Luka, we want to make peace.
I want to
make peace
.” Merrick laid a hand on Luka’s arm. Though Luka
flinched at his touch, he remained still.

“Pretending nothing happened won’t erase the
past,” said Luka with a strained voice. “I can’t get those years
back. I can’t even get my old self back. What good is your
peace
?”

“There are other ways, Luka,” said Merrick.
He held his jaw firm, fearing he may say too much. This was his
only opportunity to set everything right and he was not about to
waste it.

“No, father. Not for us,” said Luka, tearing
his heavy gaze from the horizon. His stare made Merrick’s hair on
his neck stand on end. “I know our people. I will always be a
monster to them… to you.”

Merrick drew his son close to him in an
unexpected embrace. Luka did not struggle but he did not move to
reciprocate. “There is a place and a time where one day we will be
together. One day… me, you, your mother…” His voice stumbled in his
throat. “Goodbye, my son.”

“Father—”

Merrick drove the needle into Luka’s back.
Luka fell into the gritty sand, howling in pain. The poison would
work its way toward his heart within seconds. Luka suddenly went
rigid. His eyes stared daggers into Merrick as his breath gradually
grew shallow.

Ilsie ran out over the rocky beach. She
crouched beside Luka, her face blanched with horror. “Merrick, what
have you done!” The black poison etched wicked lines in Luka’s
bronze skin, circling his heart.


You will pay for this…
” Luka growled
with his final gasp of air.

Merrick, his heart hollow, nodded. “I
know.”

 

 

***

 

 

Fryx’s carriage rumbled along on the deserted
streets of Limra. They had been instructed to travel to Governor
Bastrick’s mansion, where they would be provided with
transportation to
the city.
The foggy details of the
situation set Astrid on edge.

The carriage soon approached, allowing the
party to spill from its belly. They were rushed inside by guards
wearing rain-slick black armor straight to the Governor’s Seat.

Bastrick was seated on his throne with one
leg kicked over its scrolled arm. His greasy black hair was plaited
against his sapphire blue scalp. He beckoned the party to come
forward.

“It’s about damned time,” he said with air
whistling through his nose. He picked at his ashen nails. “A lift
has been sent for you… I see you have an escort, Fryx.” He paused
his pruning to nod at Astrid.

Fryx shuffled his feet and nodded. “Yes, of
course.
The best
.”

“You better be right, Fryx. I can’t afford
for this to turn sour,” said Bastrick as he narrowed his glossy
black eyes. “If these blasted wizards, or whatever the hell they
are, don’t want to make a deal, then you know what needs to be
done. No matter the cost.”

Fryx nodded again. “Yes, you have my word,”
he said. “The city is in safe hands.”

Bastrick scoffed and beckoned the guard.
“Take them to the lift.” He stifled a yawn with the back of his
hand. “Don’t make a fool of yourself, Fryx!”

The party was led down a winding corridor and
up a spiraling flight of stairs. They soon emerged on the roof of
the mansion. A massive iron cage waited for them, its gate open
like a gaping mouth.

“Why do I let you drag me into these
situations?” Ethen’s whisper hissed at her ear.

“Think of it as an opportunity to become
closer as a family,” said Astrid. Questions about what lay above
them nagged at her from inside her skull.

Jagged white towers reared up before them,
stabbing through the billowing black clouds. Astrid felt her mouth
drift open in shock at the incredible size of the city.

The iron cage skidded to a stop against the
top of the massive city wall. A swarm of armored hands tore open
the cage’s top and thrust a ladder down into its belly. Astrid
watched the cowering goblins glance toward their master. Fryx waved
his hand, urging them to ascend. One by one, the pinched-faced
goblins crawled up the rungs of the splintering ladder. Fryx took
his place behind them. Ethen gulped and followed Fryx. Astrid
lingered at the tail of their company. Someone had to watch their
backs.

High on the wall, Astrid could see the city
sprawled out before them. Exquisite white stone villas stood silent
in the midst of their lush gardens and sapphire ponds, guilty
bystanders of the storm raging outside the city walls. A long stone
road wound around the villas and climbed up to a gleaming white
palace.

The pearly stone shone with an eerie
resemblance of something Astrid had dreamt years ago. She shook the
gauzy memories from her mind. Now was not the time to reminisce on
childhood daydreams.


This way
,” said a nearby guard with a
gruff, hollow voice. He bobbed his helmeted head and huffed at the
air. Wicked horns curled from above his visor. He reeked of musky
Phooka.

Twelve other menacing guards stood
surrounding the company. They were armored head to hoof in bone
white metal. Each carried an assortment of daggers and swords. The
lead guard, however, had a hefty mace swinging from his belt.
Astrid clenched her teeth as she eyed patches of dried blood
decorating the guard’s gauntlets.

The company was ushered by the guards through
the unflinching city. Astrid could feel hidden eyes watching them
from the confines of the villas. She couldn’t help but think the
inhabitants had seen this procession before.

They approached the palace much sooner than
Astrid had wanted. Its heavy iron gate swung open with hissing
hinges. The company spilled out into a courtyard full of blood red
roses. The path leading to the palace’s entrance was lined with
wicked iron spikes that stretched above their heads. Astrid’s eyes
followed the spikes up—

“—
Astrid! LOOK.”
Ethen’s words fell
from his mouth. His hand clenched at her forearm. She could feel
him trembling.

Her gaze was met by the empty stare of a
severed head.


Astrid—”

“—
silence!”
She shoved him down the
cobbled path, her eyes never leaving the bloody promenade of
heads.

The hollow laugh of the lead guard echoed
through the court yard. “
Does our garden shock you?”

Astrid kept her mouth shut tight. She would
rather spend her energy ripping his tongue from his mouth than
wasting it on useless words.

Her eyes lingered on final head along the
path. Its wound dripped splotches of fresh red onto the white stone
below. The face of the grizzled man was one of stubborn resolve. He
had managed to hold his grimace even after death.

The company slipped inside the chill palace
without a sound. The guards halted their progression and unsheathed
their swords.


The dwarve goes alone,”
said the lead
guard, swinging his mace onto his shoulder. “
The rest will wait
here.

Quibell’s face squinted in disgust at the
towering beast. “
I go where my master goes
.”

Fryx heaved a sigh and placed a hand on the
wrathful goblin’s shoulder. “Quibell,” he said. His face was etched
with fatigue. “You have always been loyal to me, but now you must
listen. You must stay.”

Quibell opened his mouth to protest but was
cut short by Fryx’s sharp whisper. “
No matter the cost!”

The goblin nodded and pulled away from his
master’s grip. The other goblins crowded around him, their dusky
skin paling from fright.

Astrid tensed.
There’s no way this is
going to end well…

Fryx nodded to his companions and followed
the lead guard down the yawning hall. He turned and disappeared
down an adjoining hall, swallowed up by the palace itself.

The remaining twelve guards circled tighter
around the company, their blades gleaming with the glow of nearby
torches.


Idiot girl,
” said Quibell, hissing in
Astrid’s ear. “Are you prepared to die?”

Astrid glared at him from beneath her mask.
“I am prepared to
kill
. Death is not an option.” She
tightened her grip on her knives and slipped them halfway from
their sheaths.

The goblin smirked. “You are foolish, girl.
You cannot always run from Death.”

“No,” she said. Ethen slid behind her back,
ready for the approaching blood bath. “I won’t be running. I’d
prefer to meet Death head on.”


As you wish.”
Quibell’s snarled words
erupted into a fierce howl as he pommeled into a nearby guard. His
sword sliced through the guard’s britches, up into his groin. Blood
erupted from the wound as the goblin yanked his blade free.

Astrid sprang from her rooted stance,
narrowly missing a blow to the head. She ducked beneath the
weighted twirling of a great sword and jabbed her knife into the
open flesh of the guard’s underarm. She felt her blade puncture
through bone and heard the breath catch in his snout. The guard
staggered as she ripped her knife free and spun around behind him.
Her opposing blade found another weak spot just above the guard’s
flank. She twisted its black razor edge deep into the soft, furry
flesh. The guard’s knees buckled. Astrid kicked his legs from under
him and slammed the hulking beast face first into the stone floor.
She heard the helmet buckle and crack. The guard moaned, blood
spurting from his crumpled visor. She lifted his head by the horns
and smashed it once again into the stone. The guard lay twitching
in his blood.

She rose from the corpse, narrowly missing
Ethen’s arrow as it buzzed by her skull. Its obsidian tip sunk deep
into the eye socket of an approaching guard, sending him toppling
over on top of the bloodied Phooka.

“Not bad,” said Astrid. “Reflexes could have
been a bit quicker, though.”

Ethen rolled his eyes as he dodged a
stumbling Phooka. Two goblins had latched onto his helmet and had
made his head their pincushion.

Quibell had dug his wicked blade into two
more guards in a mere span of seconds. The goblin moved with a
speed that made Astrid’s blood run cold.

His goblin companions fought in packs of two
or three. They swarmed the Phooka, clawing up the gigantic beasts
and stabbing and slicing at the hidden flesh inside their
helmets.

Seven Phooka lay in pools of blood at their
feet. The remaining five gathered in the corner, steam billowing
from their snouts. They gnashed their yellow teeth and shook their
menacing horns. Several tore the armor from their bodies. Their
eyes burned with rage.


You will pay for this,
” said the
largest of the remaining guards. “
Phooka do not go quietly to
their graves.”

He roared with rage as he lowered his horns
and charged toward Astrid. She knelt, bending backward. She watched
the Phooka slip past just above her face. His exposed torso drifted
into sight. Her upraised daggers dug into the muscled flesh,
slicing it apart in one fell motion.

Astrid slid between the howling Phooka’s
legs. She heard him skid on his own blood and tumble onto his face
with a dull
thump
.

She shook the foul blood from her blades and
smiled. “Who’s next?”

The final few Phooka balked and darted for a
quick escape. Two sprinted to her left and were immediately tackled
by the ferocious goblins. The other two tore down the hall that
Fryx had taken.

Ethen broke into a dead run. Astrid followed,
trailing closely behind. She could hear Quibell’s wicked laugh
flickering at their heels.

Ethen loosed an arrow from his bow. It
burrowed into the nearest Phooka’s neck. He gasped, sucking in
bloodied air through his lacerated wind pipe. The beast stumbled
and slumped over onto his back.

The final Phooka growled with a fierce
rumble. He spun around, duel swords outstretched. He lashed out at
Ethen, knocking the bow from his grasp. The Phooka’s blade bit into
Ethen’s thigh, shearing the muscle. His stance wavered as he cried
out from the sudden blow. The guard raised his swords high above
his head, ready to split Ethen in two.

Astrid shoved Ethen from the Phooka’s reach
with the force of her sprinting body. The savage monster’s blades
crashed down at her feet. The metal sunk deep into the stone.
Astrid smiled and glared into the Phooka’s wild yellow eyes.

His face melted into sudden fear. “PLEASE,
fair and deadly warrior,” he said, falling to his knees. “I am
merely a pawn! PLEASE! Spare me!” He groveled at her feet,
whimpering like a wounded dog.

BOOK: Shadow Queen
2.21Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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