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 (6 page)

BOOK: Shadow Queen
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Astrid opened her mouth to curse him but the
word ripped from her lips. Her stomach jolted to her throat as Luka
dove from his cave and out into the cannon.
Well
, she
thought as the world sped by her,
I may not be able to give him
a piece of my mind, but at least I might vomit all over the
bastard
.

 

 

***

 

 

The journey back to Limra only took half the
time of traveling by glider. Astrid would have been impressed if
the fast-moving world didn’t make her queasy. Ethen, on the other
hand, had enjoyed himself quite thoroughly. To help him keep up,
Luka had pulled Ethen’s glider along by a rope tied around his
waist. However, Astrid was relieved to find that Ethen had taken
the time to break down her glider and lash it to his own.

Astrid stumbled to the ground when finally
released from Luka’s embrace. He seemed reluctant to let her go so
soon. During the journey, she had noticed him catching glimpses at
her. Each time she would peer through her wind-battered hair, he
would turn his gaze away.

Fryx’s villa was in sight. Astrid heaved a
heavy sigh as she smoothed down her unkempt hair. Her dark braids
intermingled with her reddened braids, leaving the rest to hang in
a defiant clump. With a growl, she scooped her mass of hair up and
wound a ragged bit of twine around it.

Astrid barely took her first step toward the
villa when the great door unwove its battered branches and
slithered open. Fryx burst from the gaping doorway, his sour-faced
goblin company in tow.

“Ah! What a delight it is to see you! We must
hurry! I’m afraid there’s little time to waste!” Fryx was in a fit
of disarray. Astrid could hardly recognize the dwarve from his
former composed self. His eyes were red and his beard matted. Even
the goblins looked several shades paler than before. Quibell,
however, was not among them.

Astrid beckoned Luka to follow. He nodded,
keeping his eyes low. “Lead the way, Fryx.”

The crowd poured into the great hall of the
villa and dispersed. Fryx led Astrid, Ethen, and Luka to the door.
The dwarve tapped his knuckles lightly on its surface. Quibell
emerged from the darkened room and motioned for them to enter. Fryx
glanced at Astrid. “Only him,” he said. His brow lay heavy on his
weary face.

Ethen opened his mouth to protest but snapped
it shut from Astrid’s quick jab to his ribs. “I understand,” she
said, “we will wait out here.”
Healing is a delicate
task
.

Fryx shook his head and glanced at Luka. Luka
folded his wings behind his back and ducked through the door. Fryx
followed, allowing Quibell to slip out into the hall and ease the
door shut. The goblin folded his spindly arms against his barrel
chest, a grimace spread across his dusky blue face.

Astrid took Ethen by the arm and led him back
to the main hall. There was no use waiting in the presence of bad
company.

Once out of ear shot, Astrid spoke in a
rushed whisper. “Do you think Luka will actually be able to heal
him?”

“Of course he will. He healed you, didn’t he?
He stayed by your side the entire time!” Ethen threw himself onto a
large, overstuffed lounge and propped his feet up on a shimmering
blue stool. Flakes of reddened mud dotted the blue as he settled
his boots into the plush cushion.

“Excuse me, but I don’t exactly remember a
lot of what happened,” said Astrid, doing little to hide her scowl
of disapproval as she kicked Ethen’s feet from the stool. “I say
it’s all a load of troll shit.”

“You
really
don’t believe he did it,
do you?” Ethen’s tone was tense. She knew she had struck a nerve.
“You’d be dead two whole days now if it wasn’t for him. I’d be
reciting prayers for you right now. Maybe even building your pyre
if there was anything left of you to burn.”

“You really take everything far too
seriously,” she said. Though her demeanor was calm, she was just as
tightly strung. She had faced Death and found herself solely
unprepared.

“And you need to grow up before you actually
do get yourself killed.” Ethen’s words hung heavy overhead. Hearing
them hit her hard, but not enough so as to break her façade.

“Save the lecture for another day,” Astrid
said through a forced grin. “I have business to attend to.” The
still iron grate had lingered on her mind since entering the villa.
It was due time to put her mind at ease.

Astrid sauntered over the grate and peered
inside. The beast sat against the stone wall as if he were one with
its frosty texture.

“You’re not seriously thinking about going
down there?” Ethen sprang to his feet, knocking over the muddied
stool.

Astrid ignored him, her mind set on the task
at hand. She laced her fingers through the grate and yanked it
free. The iron squealed on its hinges, sending shivers down her
spine. A silver rope sat coiled on a spindle near the top. Astrid
cranked the spindle enough to expose enough of the rope ladder to
reach the bottom of the oubliette.

“Wait here,” she said to Ethen without taking
her eyes off the Phooka. Though she could feel his heated glare at
her back, he remained silent.

Astrid slipped inside and onto the ladder.
She took one last look at Ethen. His wild sandy blond hair hung
over his stormy green eyes. He was doing his best to contain his
anger, much like he had always done, even as a child. It pained her
that she was always the cause of his hidden rage.

Astrid ducked her head inside, out of sight.
Rung by rung, she descended further into the gaping darkness.

She reached the bottom within moments. She
sucked her breath hard in through her clenched teeth as her eyes
struggled to adjust to the shadow. Her steady hands slid her
hunting knives from their hilts in one fluid motion.


So you’ve come to slay the
beast?”

Though the Phooka spoke, he did not stir.
Astrid could see the glint of a chain around his neck. Its presence
settled her fluttering heart but not enough to lower her guard.

“It depends,” she said, keeping her voice
level. “Is this beast in need of slaying?”

The Phooka croaked a raspy laugh. Astrid’s
eyes could now pick out the mottled blindfold beneath his yellowed
horns. Black fur, matted and bloodied, covered him from head to
hoof. Yellow teeth flashed their jagged edges as he bellowed with
dusty laughter.


Elves always think they’re so clever,
that they’re above everyone, even monsters like me. But let me tell
you this, little girl,”
the Phooka’s voice dimmed to a rattling
whisper. “
Your kind are the worst monsters of all.”
His hand
ripped the blindfold from his brow, revealing eyes of pure darkness
rimmed with Hellfire. The blaze burned bright around the darkness,
creeping across the Phooka’s flesh. “
You’ve run out of places to
hide. He’s coming for you, girl!”
The fire burned deep within
his skull and sparked into his chest. He howled, sending Astrid
crashing to her knees. “
HE IS COMING!”

 

 

***

 

 

Luthen roared from his restless meditation,
bolting from his perch at the open window. Pain seared into his
skull while images of a young girl burned in his mind. The howls
twisted into laughter when he finally recognized her frightened
face.

Anya sat upright and rigid. Her face was
blank as fresh snow, almost as if being shaken from her unconscious
state was a common occurrence. How he loved her predictability.

“Oh, silly lamb,” he said, speaking to the
wide-eyed face in his head. “This is only the beginning of your
nightmares.”

Luthen shook her face from his head. Her
presence still lingered, bringing a smile to his lips. “Anya, my
darling, we have work to do,” he said, running his hands through
his thick raven hair. She nodded and slipped from the bed, her
footsteps a hush of silk from her flowing nightgown. “I’m afraid we
have one last stop to make in Lythia.”

 

 

***

 

 

A gnarled, old woman crouched on her hands
and knees, scrubbing the white stone until it gleamed like
moonlight. She caught a glimmer of her reflection and shrunk away.
Her heart faltered at the sight of the stranger’s face she bore.
The young girl Amaeya once knew was long dead and in her place was
a tattered old crone.

“Hurry, my love. We haven’t a moment to
lose!” Luthen’s footsteps crashed through her nighttime labors. She
managed to yank the bucket from his path with seconds to spare.

“I do wish you would tell me why you’ve
dragged me out of bed,” said Anya as she drifted through the empty
hall. She picked her way around Amaeya, careful to keep her gown
free of the damp stone.

“Now darling, it wouldn’t be much of a
surprise if I told you all my secrets.” Luthen’s voice floated
through the hall behind him, chilling Amaeya’s blood. The smaller
she made herself the better.

“At least give me a hint,” said Amaeya as
they turned off the main hall.

Luthen stopped her at the corner of the halls
and swept her into his arms. “Let’s just say,” he said, his eyes
searching the darkness of the corridor, “that I have found a
missing piece of you.” His black eyes locked onto Amaeya’s. Her
heart fumbled its beating as her breath was swept from her lungs.
She had cowered from that gaze since their first encounter all
those years ago. Luthen had tortured her for weeks, asking the same
questions over and over—
where is she? Where is the girl?
The
process had left Amaeya a withered husk, serving no more purpose
than to polish the white stone beneath his feet.

His mouth moved in silent words only meant
for her.

I KNOW YOUR SECRET.

 

 

***

 

 

“FOOLISH GIRL!” Quibell’s voice screeched
from far above, ripping Astrid from her frozen terror. She fumbled
up the silvery ladder, right into the wiry blue arms of an angry
goblin. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? That beast
reeked
of foul magic!”

Astrid shoved the goblin away. “But Fryx
said—”

“Fryx promises many things, much that are not
his to promise!” Quibell spat at the open prison door in disgust.
“That scoundrel was found wandering outside the villa. He put down
three good goblins before he was subdued.” He stopped suddenly, his
face wincing as he sniffed the air. “That same taint seems to have
followed you out,” he said, sniffing at her. Astrid slapped his
face away, having had enough.

“I don’t know what the hell that was down
there, but it’s
dead
,” said Astrid through clenched teeth.
“I believe my business is done here.”

“I’m not leaving Luka here,” said Ethen, his
voice an uneasy calm.

Astrid shot him a pained look. He hid his
eyes from her, his face dark and unreadable.

She nodded, trying hard to keep her face
blank. In all their years, they had never had such bitterness
between them.
Perhaps space is what we need.

Astrid pushed past the sour-faced goblin and
ran for the door. She kept running until she found herself swept up
in the swarming market of Limra. Here, a person could disappear
faster than if they wandered out into the bleakest part of the
desert.

She meandered past the bellowing merchants
and flowing crowds until she reached the highest part of the city.
Here, you could see far out across the desert on one side and far
across the sea on the other. Astrid smirked at how ironically
similar to the two were, both just as unforgiving and bleak as the
other yet still strangely beautiful.

The sun had started to set, casting the sea
into a pit of sunlit fire. The people of Limra—the elven merchants,
the sun-kissed sea dwarves, the pinched faced High Goblins, the
barefoot and bleak-faced humans—all paused a moment to soak in the
surrounding sight.

Astrid sat perched on a crumbling wall,
positioning herself to see both sides of the city. It was the first
moment she had a lone since what happened in the canyon. Her hand
instinctively reached for her ribs, leaving her cringing at her
invisible wounds.
How close had I really been to death?
The
fear circling that thought left her paralyzed. She could feel her
own mortality creeping out from the darkest parts of her mind.

A small tug at her sleeve snapped her back to
the present. “ ‘Cuse me, miss,” said a small voice. Astrid looked
down at the small child at her arm. It was the same girl from the
Pit.

Astrid opened her mouth to speak but could
not find the words. The young girl’s face was spotted with bruises,
but she was very much alive. An older boy stood behind her. Both
were dirty from the streets and clothed in rags.

“I din’t mean to bother you, miss, but my
sister, well… you saved her, and I din’t have nothin’ to pay you
back ‘cept maybe this and I—” the boy stopped short and nudged the
girl toward Astrid. A little hand held up a delicate purple
blossom. “This is for you.”

The small girl edged closer, offering the
flower. Astrid, speechless, let the child place it in her open
hand.

Flowers were a rare commodity in Limra. There
was no telling what the children had to do to get their hands on
the precious blossom. She winced at the thought of one of them
risking the loss of a hand if they had gotten caught stealing
it.

Without warning, the girl crawled up into
Astrid’s lap and threw her arms around her. She snuggled her face
into Astrid’s chest. Astrid, completely off her guard, gave the
child a small pat.

“I’m so sorry, miss,” said the boy as he
tried to pry his sister off Astrid. “I know it don’t seem like it,
but she’s been talking about you nonstop. You’re a sort of hero to
her—well, to us all.”

BOOK: Shadow Queen
9.56Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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