Chapter 1: The Blood Moon's Whisper
Lumeris village was bathed in the soft rays of the moon where the cobblestone streets were silent with the exception of the rustling of leaves. Elyra Dawnveil was walking softly through the market and her hands smelled even faintly of herbs and moonwater. She had already gained a notoriety as the healer of the village, at the age of twenty, but very few were aware of the full size of her powers. Rare and dangerous moonlit magic ached a bit beneath her skin, and seemed to be awaiting the occasion when it would be required.
Tonight felt different. The atmosphere was more oppressive, nearer to being electric, like the world was in suspense. Elyra stood by the fountain at the centre of the village, her green eyes blinking with a crescent moon in the rippling water. That image was glittering unnaturally, and this sent shiver along her spine.
The next moment there was a terrible crash along the path to the village that led into the woods. Elyra's heart quickened. It was not unusual to find that travelers had fallen into trouble, but something about the sound had something that she could not disregard. She seized her satchel of herbs unconsciously, and slipped down into the shadows to go where the noise was.
there, among the pitched roots and moony fogs she discovered him. A tall and royal expression of a man reclined on the forest floor, in a state of dishevel. His black hair stuck to his face, and was wet with blood and sweat, and his bosom swelled and fell in an irregular manner. The instincts of a healer flashed in Elyra. Being on her knees next to him, she said, Stay with me... you are not alone.
The eyes of the man flew open--amber, fierce, and at the same time haunted. "Who... are you?" His voice was rough and every word was spiced with pain and something in the background, something old.
"I... I may assist, Elyra said under her breath, and laid her hands above the hurt on his side. A weird warmth radiated along her palms as her hands touched his flesh. There was a glow, as though the moon itself had loaned its glow to her touch. A slight pull back and the man gasped and somehow there was awe, mingled with fear.
You... you are not merely a healer, I said, and I was trembling. "What are you?"
It was the truth, and Elyra hesitated, and it was dangerous, and was so tempting. "I... I'm Elyra. That's all you need to know."
But he didn't let it go. "Elyra... I've seen magic before. But this--this is different. You..." His gaze sharpened. "You're tied to me, aren't you?"
Her heart skipped. Tied to him? How could he know? She tried to remain calm, but her mind was going over questions.
She had not time to reply, a howl broke the night--a guttural moan which ran chills down her. The eyes of the man were stretched open with horror. The blood moon... it is early rising! he screamed, and strove to lift himself. Elyra caught him by the arm, his arm straightened.
"What does that mean?" I am, she said in a whimpering tone.
He stared at her, with a glistening sadness of haunting that tightened her chest. "When the blood moon rises... I become... something else. Something monstrous."
Elyra's mind raced. Even in her outlying village, she had heard of cursed nobility, and of princes who had been devoured in the dark vows of their own families. Standing in front of her was no tale--it was fact, and fatal.
I can give you a hold on it, I can make you control it, she said, more firmly than she herself felt. "I... I do not know how but I will discover a way.
He watched her, a spark of hope struggling with the darkness of his amber eyes. "Why... why me? Why now?"
Elyra was pulled in her chest by a weird tickle that was a tug of fate she could not disregard. "Because we're bound. By something older than either of us."
The forest appeared to come round and round them, the moonlight fainting as though the night itself was keeping its breath. Elyra turned--but as he did so a rustle went behind them--but it was too late. A shadow leaped out of the woods, a light and noiseless one.
It was the face of him, Ardyn Nocturne, damned prince, with his blazing eyes, of amber, and of a thrusting power, which she beheld just before the darkness swallowed her--the face of one, Ardyn Nocturne, and the face of the other, Janie--and then there was the scream, which shook through the village, tearing through the silence of the night.
Elyra shakily tried to hold Ardyn in place, but her own body also was stiffening in an unnatural way. The shadow so leaped out of the woods was no common creature--it had a way of sucking up the moonlight, a vortex of darkness with sparkling red eyes. Elyra's pulse pounded. She had heard it told of animals that were the result of tainted magic, but never had she dreamed of having to deal with one in the woods all by herself.
Stay behind me, Ardyn growled, in his guttural voice. It had something at the edge, which chilled Elyra. He was making an effort to shield her, and there was something about his pose that suggested some peril that he himself could do nothing about.
The shadow grumbled and circled them as a predator does when it is looking at its prey. Elyra's mind raced. Her herbs, her moonwater--but how should they do any good in this? Her instinct, then, was, to place the little pendant, which she habitually wore at her neck, between her hands. She felt it pulsing a little with her touch, and she heard a faint voice--soft, insistent--saying in her mind: The bond... use the bond...
The language was nonsense, but inner voice was telling her to believe. She tentatively reached toward the hand of Ardyn. As their fingers came into contact, a ripple of silver light sprung between them and lit up the forest in a cold light. The shade shrank back with a shriek which shook the foliage.
Ardyn opened his eyes with a glance of amber at what was going on. The bond... it's reacting to your magic, he said to himself. His voice became softer, with a weirdly aweful fear. "You... you're the key."
Elyra swallowed hard. "The key to what?" asked she, extremely quietly.
The ground shook before he could say. There was a low grumble in the trees, and the form of the shadow was changing--it was bigger, more monster-like, and its extremities were unnaturally extended, the energy inside them seemingly driven by some devilish force. Elyra drew back with a griper on the hand of Ardyn.
The very person of Ardyn started to move. His face turned with pain, his muscles twitching with it. "No... not now..." he groaned. His flesh shivered, as say the black inks that crept along. Elyra was suddenly panicked--had the rise of the blood moon been hastened?
"Elyra!" His voice broke as Ardyn shouted and his teeth lengthened and his fingers grew claws. "Run if you want to survive!"
But Elyra could not go--not now. She concentrated on the connection and allowed her moonlit magic to go through it. Silver light fell upon them both, and plied round Ardyn in a protective cocoon. The shadow cried with another scream, and shook wildly about, possibly to be kept at a distance by the light.
But, just as she was clutching, Elyra felt something horrific--this power, this attachment was not wholly theirs. It was beat like an old, beating life, alive, almost conscious. And somewhere in the back of her head a chilling thought came to her: what if it was not helping them... but it was controlling them?
She looked up at Ardyn, whose amber eyes now in the silver light shone a faintly. Elyra... there is something that I have never told anybody. Something my family..." The words choked him, he paused. They swore at me, all right--but there's more. Something that is older... something that awaits us.
The shadow felt the opening, and with a final rush came forward. Elyra set her teeth and the silver light surrounding them flared like a beacon. And as the creature leaped, Ardyn bellowed--a sound so savage, so inhuman with it, that it shook the tree-world,--and all was black.
Elyra awoke not in the forest. they were elsewhere--dark and long and stifling. A chilled whispering voice went round them:
Welcome... to the shades of your doom.
And there in the darkness Ardyn trembled in his body, and changed his build into neither man nor beast. It was too late, Elyra screamed--the real curse, the real danger had only just started.