The Poison Princess (29 page)

Ruby
collapsed beside her demon, exhausted from controlling the
possessed monks from so far away and horrified at herself for the
rampant death she had just caused. “What have I done?”

“Did it work?” Scarlett asked, rising up and
looking at her princess, whose head was pressed firmly into the
ground.

“I killed all those monks… I don’t even feel
it...”

“You did what you had to, my princess.”

“I slaughtered them…” Ruby swiveled her head
in the dirt to face Scarlett. “The Hendriks were right about me.
This thing is destroying me.”

“How are you feeling?”

Ruby kind of chuckled in response. “Not
great.”

”Do you need some poison?”

“That’s not what I meant. I killed all those
people.”

Scarlett shrugged. “They would’ve died either
way. Your health is what concerns me, not their deaths.”

A cold wind rushed by them.

Ruby raised herself off the ground, resolving
herself to the task at hand. “Think you could pull some clothes and
shoes through? This hood isn’t going to do much as we go up.”

The horned demon nodded. “I’ll need to cease
with any spellwork for a while, but I can do this much at least.”
Scarlett reached her hand into the depths of space to retrieve a
heavy coat and leather-lined boots. She gladly handed them over to
her princess, eager to help. She then pulled through a long coat
and boots for herself.

“Thank you, Scarlett,” Ruby replied, taking
the clothes from her demon servant. She slipped on the shoes and
then threw the coat over her shoulder, working her arms through the
sleeves. “Actually, I think I could use some poison. Would you be
able to get me some?”

Scarlett smiled at her master. “Last one for
a while.”

The horned demon reached back through the
void and pulled out a flask like the one she had acquired in
Gloomport and handed it to the princess. Ruby pulled the cork out
and took a healthy sip of the fluid. The venomous liquid
reinvigorated her instantly. She didn’t feel as strong as she could
have, but she was at least healthy enough to stand and continue
their journey.

The princess corked the flask and handed it
back to her horned demon, who in turn folded it back into some
unseen layer of reality. They both stood and looked up at their
next challenge. The Rashtalg Mountains were a harsh vision. Jagged
rocks littered the base of the mountain path, while at the top,
snow and ice covered the landscape. The very tip of the mountain
seemed to have a perpetual snowstorm centered directly at the peak
known as the Roof of the World. That was where they were
headed.

Few dared to climb the mountains, as they
held no strategic value, had no resources, and there were faster
ways to travel than by going over the tall mountain range. That
isn’t to say no one had ever done it, nor that the rebellious monks
of the Glow were the first to do so; it’s just that it was a rare
occurrence. Few were willing to lose their lives to Rashtalg only
for their own satisfaction. Now that the monks were situated at the
Roof of the World, however, even fewer ventured up the mountain.
The Cloister housed a generally respected group of monks, but
everyone saw the Glow as tainted somehow. People preferred to stay
away from the dark monks and forget that they were even up
there.

Ruby and Scarlett had no such luxury. If they
wanted the rune inscribed bracelets mentioned by Niada, they would
have to scale the mountain to its very peak. It would be a
challenge, but neither woman was in any way normal. The princess no
longer needed food or water, and she no longer slept. All she
required was the occasional poison, and her demon was largely able
to provide that for her. Scarlett, alternatively, was able to use
the magics of the world to aid their journey. Even in her depleted
state, she would still be able to help get them to the top.

“And you’re sure you can’t get us any
closer?” Ruby asked, intimidated by the journey they were about to
embark on.

“I apologize, my princess. This is the best I
can do for now. I must let my energies replenish themselves.”

“Very well. Then we walk.”

The princess went first, venturing onto the
rarely used path that the Glow established upon their journey up.
Uneven, poorly laid rocks were piled into makeshift stairs. While
not ideal, they served them better than if they were to attempt to
walk on the natural and irregular path of the mountain. Ruby walked
forward with Scarlett following several feet behind. They both
moved slowly, careful of their footing and moving awkwardly thanks
to the heavy coats. Though empowered by their respective
physiologies, neither was immune to the pull of gravity. If either
were to fall, that would likely mean the end for them both.

Periodically, they would pass a flag staked
into the ground left behind by the Glow to mark the trail. Ruby’s
eyes watched for the next every time they passed one. They were
still in the bleak grey area of the mountain, and it would have
been difficult to miss one, but she suspected that, as they got
further up and into the snowy regions that would not be the case
any longer. For the moment, it was just a small ritual to keep her
mind from wandering too far.

That always threatened to be the case, as the
princess had many stray thoughts those days, and upon seeing her
sister once more, her mind drifted to Leina and her craggy hand
demon. She wondered what had transpired at the Cloister after she
left. Ruby had killed nearly all the monks herself, leaving no one
for Leina to torture and question. She, once again, tried to tell
herself that it was a mercy to kill them like that. That if she had
left them alive, her corrupted sister would have only questioned
them about her in an attempt to discover what they had told her.
She suspected in the quiet space of her mind that that was all a
terrible lie she told herself to feel better about it. This
recessed piece of her mind knew for truth why she had killed all
those men and women. Leina knew that her sister had been after a
way to separate her from the craggy hand demon. Ruby was unwilling
to let Niada divulge the whereabouts of such a thing. The darkness
was returning to the princess’ mind after its brief departure, and
she feared that she would become lost in it once again. She had
killed hundreds of monks, demons, and soldiers all within a few
minutes’ span of time. She tried to think about something else.
Anything else.

Scarlett, alternatively, was not displeased
to see such actions from her princess. She would support her human
host in any way she desired, but for whatever reason, she preferred
the darkness inside the poison princess to the moral woman she had
been before they met. She liked the violent, harsh, lust-filled
woman she knew that Ruby could be. She felt more powerful when her
princess lashed out at those that wronged her, devouring their
flesh in her poisons or breaking their bones with a war hammer or
slicing their heads off with a scythe. Scarlett was aroused just
thinking about it, especially when it had been on her behalf. She
was not eager to separate from her princess when they were to find
the rune-etched bracelets at the top of the path. Her worry was
that their temporary divorce would change Ruby’s thoughts and
feelings towards the demon in some way. Regardless, she had sworn
to do her master’s bidding, and she would abide by such a pact. She
would dive into the nether realm and uncover the craggy hand
demon’s true name.

Days and nights came and went as the women
trudged on past the grey, rocky sections of the path until they
reached a colder, less hospitable section of the mountain.
Screeching winds soared past, and the snow from above was blown
down toward them, biting at their exposed skin. Neither Ruby nor
Scarlett paid it much attention, protected in part by their poison
and magic respectively. As the princess had suspected, however,
visibility became more difficult as they ascended. The gusting snow
covered the laid stones at their feet, causing them to slow their
progress even more to acquire sure footing. The flags became harder
to make out, and on more than one occasion, the princess was given
pause, when, at first, she didn’t see the familiar little blue flag
waving in the wind.

Further up they traveled, until no longer was
the snow merely blowing down on them from above. They were now
crunching down on a fresh layer of snow on the carefully laid
rocks, buried somewhere beneath the frozen precipitation. Flags
still lined the way, and that was the only method by which they
knew they were still on the right path. At one point, Ruby looked
up to try and find where the Glow’s monastery was, but she could
see nothing through the storm they had willingly walked into. She
would have to trust that the flags would guide them along the
correct path.

The journey up was harsh, and it took longer
than Ruby would have liked. Nightfall’s darkness forced them to
halt their climb on more than one occasion, as they sought refuge
in any tiny recess they could find in the mountainside. As soon as
the light was sufficient to see their way, the women set off once
more for the Roof of the World.

The princess and her demon continued on
through the harsh weather. She raised her arm to protect her eyes
from the assailing snow, and she’d largely given up on trying to
see more than a few feet in front of her. She guessed the direction
of every next blue flag, but the blinding whiteness made such a
task difficult. After a while, Ruby started to think that they
traveled in circles around the mountain, not making any true
progress towards the Roof. It had been hours since she’d spotted
one of those little blue flags flapping in the severe wind and
snow.

She almost thought she was seeing things when
she saw a little dark cave in the side of the mountain. The
princess had no idea how far off the path they were, but she and
Scarlett both needed a break from the constant snow. She grabbed
her demon’s hand and pulled her forward into the cavern that
shielded them from the storm outside. White flakes covered both
women’s coats and hoods, and they took the opportunity to tidy
themselves back up as best they could.

Though partially resistant to the effects of
this kind of cold, Scarlett was still quite uncomfortable in it.
She wished she could dry herself and Ruby off with a touch of
magic, but she also knew that it would be dangerous to dip any
further into that well. She would have to make do, so she dropped
her hood, wrung whatever moisture there was out of her orange hair,
and wiped the melting snow from her cheeks.

Ruby, meanwhile, sat on a rock, lifting the
coat and the hem of her dress to rub one of her feet through the
leather boots. She too seemed somewhat unaffected by the cold
weather, but that didn’t stop her feet from both going numb from
the lack of heat. She rubbed some warmth back into the first before
swapping and doing the same to the other.

“Can you tell how close we are?” Ruby asked
Scarlett.

“I can’t sense much,” the demon replied.
“There’s some faint bit of magic not far, but I would expect more
for these Glow people and their demons.”

“Where’s the magic you can sense?”

Scarlett looked around. Their eyes hadn’t
adjusted to the darkness of the cave that was in sharp contrast to
the white storm outside, but she wondered how deep the tunnel
really went. She pointed along the cavern pathway and up a small
amount. “That way, actually. You think the cave is part of the
monk’s path?”

“I wonder,” Ruby replied before standing up
and going back outside the tunnel.

She didn’t go far, just examining the
entrance to the cave. She felt along the rocky wall for something
specific. The rushing snow and its sheer brightness blinded her
eyes, but her fingers had no such restrictions. She found nothing
on the first side she checked, so she moved to the other. There,
hidden behind layers of fallen snow was what she had searched for.
Ruby wrenched it from mountainside and returned into the cave,
where Scarlett waited and wondered what her master was doing. The
princess held out her prize, a ragged, but altogether, same kind of
flag that they had been following all that time.

“We’re on the right path,” Ruby said with a
big smile.

Scarlett grinned as well, happy to know not
only where they were going was the correct direction, but also that
despite her sapped state, she was still able to accurately use her
magic sense.

The princess planted the flag back down in a
soft spot in the ground inside the cave, and she walked forward
into the unknown darkness of this new cavern to see what they would
have to move through next. Unlike the caves she had spent eleven
years dwelling inside of, this tunnel had no glowing mushrooms to
light their way. Her eyes didn’t penetrate farther than twenty feet
into the cave before losing out to the darkness.

“Can you see in here?” Ruby asked her
demon.

“A bit,” Scarlett replied.

“Can you grab a torch or something?”

She bit her lip, feeling inside herself for
her power levels. “Mmm. Better not. I could guide you, if you think
that will help.”

“I guess that will have to do. I can’t see a
thing.”

The horned demon nodded and took her
princess’ hand in her own. She moved forward through the darkness,
still able to see rough outlines of the rocky pathway, while Ruby
trailed a bit behind her. Her demon eyes were certainly better than
a human’s but that didn’t mean she saw perfectly in the black that
made up that cave. She still had to move slowly, and she was
careful in her step, as she guided Ruby along behind her.

“Can you judge how far this tunnel goes?” the
princess asked, fumbling forward in the dark.

“Not sure,” Scarlett replied. “I feel the
magic energy getting closer, but it’s still quite a distance
away.”