"You are the reason the Gods created the middle finger, Lord Nikolai." I hiccup at the gluttonous Lord who stands high and mighty on his chair in the black Merrell granite grand hall of the Bialaer Manor that the Lord's Grandfather inherited from the Ironheart Royal family. Standing in front of the Lord Nikolai of Haxby, Kallistar would be more intimidating if I weren't already drunk on fae apple wine and blackthorn whisky, or maybe it's the fact that he hasn't seen battle in well over a thousand years.
The Lord's oldest son, General Yosai Elysainth, strides over to me where I am being held and forced on my knees in front of the Elysainth family by two soldiers and the other two who captured me from where I was drinking in a hole in the wall these people call a tavern, Lady Elara Elysainth is giving them a reward and Daratrine slaps me hard across my face which was hard enough to sober me up a tiny bit.
"Do not talk to my father that way, you ..." He was cut off by his father's raised hand.
"King Wystan just wants you to leave Kallistar and never come back so we are taking you to the border in the morning and you can find another kingdom to piss off." The Lord explains as he returns to the throne.
"I wanted to execute you personally," Daratrine huffs out and rolls his eyes
Daratrine is the second oldest son of Lord Nikolai's and he has always hated me since I stole five hundred Paeris and some Apple and Pear fae wine from him when we were 95 years old.
"Not this time Daratrine," I smile at him with my broken and bloody nose
"Guards," Nikolai waves to the guards to take me away to the prison cells.
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I wake up to the sounds of screaming, crying, yelling and metal clashing.
What in the Gods is going on?
I have no time to comprehend what is going on when Marlowe, Harlowe, Daratrine and three others come running down the stairs to the prison cells.
"Daratrine," I call over to him as he collects some weapons from the rack next to the door. He was still in his sleepwear and so were two little girls who I had never seen before.
"He's here Deyanira," He whispers as if he can be summoned by saying his name and my whole body goes numb and stiff.
There is no way he is here
"Let me help you," I tell him
He turns around and looks at me with a look of what seems to be desperation or even hopelessness but we both know I can help fight or get those girls to safety whichever he chooses.
"Harlowe, open her cell," He orders one of the guards
"But Sir ..." He gets cut off by Daratrine, and he looks at him
"We need all the help we can get, Harlowe. I can lose them or you two, so open that fucking cell NOW," He orders him again, and Harlowe complies with his demand.
Daratrine hands me a longsword which has the Kallistar coat of arms engraved on it, five ruby encrusted daggers, then he finally hands me some obsidian leathers, and I start to get dressed in the leathers.
"You are to protect Solasta and Sorayah with your life and then your debt to us is done and we will tell King Wystan that you helped us greatly, understood?" He looks at me with a pleading look as if I am his last hope.
Well I really am his last hope or he would have left me in that cell for Him
"Yes Daratrine," I confirm as I finish lacing up the leather corset he had handed to me
"There are no boots for you I'm afraid but we need to hurry," He informs us as he walks down the stone wall at the end of the prison wing and feels around the wall.
"What ar..." I begin to ask but he pushes a stone and the wall opens up and reveals a tunnel. Harlowe crawls in the tunnel first then followed by the two girls, Solasta and Sorayah, then it's Marlowe turn to enter and then he ushers me into the tunnel.
"Hurry Deyanira," He hisses at me as we hear the foot soldiers enter the manor from the clearly barricaded door as we hear screams and pleads for help and to the Gods from servent and the clashing of the longswords from the manor Guards and the yelling of orders from Lord Nikolai and General Yosai.
I run and start crawling through the tunnel as fast as I can and I make it to ten feet in and look back and see Daratrine starting to crawl through and as the tunnel closes we see foot soldiers running down the stairs.
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It feels like we have been crawling through this tunnel for what seems to be hours, Daratrine and I have caught up to Marlowe, Harlowe and the girls while one of the girls is crying for their mother and the other is completely silent.
"Where exactly are we going?" I question anyone who would listen really
"I don't know yet," Daratrine replies softly
I see ahead of me that Harlowe is standing now and he helps the girls to their feet and I can hear Marlowe whisper as he stands if the girls want to be carried or not which the girl seemingly reply yes because Marlowe picks up Solasta and Harlowe picks up Sorayah.
"How did you deal with Xanthippe's death, Deyanira?" I hear a soft voice from Daratrine who is still behind me crawling as I start to stand up
"Why do you ask?" I turn to him
"My family may be dead back there and you are the only one I know who has lost someone close to you," He explains so the rest of them can't hear and he can't even meet my eyes
"I should have stayed and fought Deyanira, I should ..." He starts to ramble as he stares at his feet as we continue to walk down the tunnel
"You would be dead with them Daratrine, those girls need you and your father choose you to protect them, not Yosai, not Tolith, not Reyzana, not Ailas, not Syndra but YOU," I tell him "As for how I dealt with my Aunt's death, I didn't deal with it and I still haven't dealt with it, I don't want to think about her or her death because I miss her every single day Daratrine, if and that's a big IF your family is dead and pray to Ciliren that they are not dead then you have to grieve them and celebrate their lives because it will eat you alive if you don't and I don't want you to end up like me."
"Thank you Deyanira," He says as he meets my eyes
"What is the plan now?" I ask him
"We need to get the girls to my mother and then you are free to go," He tells me
"How far away is your mother?" I question him as I look around the tunnel and I see writing on the walls that I have never seen before but somehow I can understand what is written on the walls
We are children of X and we will take back out land, we will kill all those who stand against us, we have the power of X
That just keeps repeating along the wall as we keep walking along but there is no way I am mentioning this writing to any of them. I get dragged by Daratrine into an alcove and cover my mouth and then I hear it, the chirping of a Ravasatra. Ravasatra is a ten foot, four legged clawed beast that can only hear, smell and feel their prey, fluffy fur, oval floppy ears, pointy nose with long whiskers to feel their way around.
I start to feel the ground rumbled under my feet which means the Ravasatra is getting closer and we can only hope that the girls, Marlowe and Harlowe are hidden away in their own alcove then I start smell the Ravasatra, the stench of rotting flesh and death.
I finally look at Daratrine and I never noticed he has grown to a head taller than me and he is pressing his body against mine and my back is to the dirty alcove wall, he looks down at me and we still can feel the Ravasatra approaching towards us, his beautiful hazel eyes are enchanting and feel like they are looking into my soul if I even have one, I feel the coldness of the metal medallion he is wearing around his neck on my chest as I wrap my arms around him and I feel the arch of his back muscles.
We feel the Ravasatra finally reach us and stop dead next to us, I feel Daratrine's body stiffen against my own as if he would jump in front of the Ravasatra to save me.
He would use you as bait and run
The Ravasatra starts sniffing around and pokes its head towards us, we both hold our breaths and I feel Daratrine's body sliding down against mine. He reaches for a rock by his feet and throws it in the direction of the way we came and the Ravasatra sprints towards the sound and we stay frozen in place as we wait for the Ravasatra to keep walking away from us.
Daratrine removes his hand from my mouth and steps back from me while breathing a sign of relief.
"That was close," He huffs out a relieved laugh
"Sure was," I reply while catching my own breath
We continue to walk and then we find Marlowe and Solasta so they rejoin us and then a few more feet ahead we find Harlowe and Sorayah and they rejoin us too but now Daratrine and I are in front this time.
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We reach the end of the tunnel and there are two of Daratrine's sisters, Forresaina and Maelyrra, there waiting with five horses which I presume there is a horse for everyone unless there is a person missing.
"Can she even be trusted with a horse of her own?" Forresaina loudly asks her when we arrive
"Yes Saina, she can fight if any of us were followed or if there is an ambush on the way to Mother," He reassures her
Forresaina has never trusted me because of some bullshit youngling fable we were all told as child, well now thinking about it that is why most people avoid me as if I am the living embodiment of Libitina herself.
Have you heard the tale of bloody wrath
Cursed by the great mighty Erinyes
Beware of the girl with hair that flows like a waterfall of blood
Onyx black eye that shows you true horrors with a single glance
Bloody Wraths possesses great powers of destruction and ruin
Bloody Wrath will be the downfall of us all
I remember the first time I had heard that fable it was shortly after my mother had met her husband Vaemin, he collapsed at the sight of me and begged my mother to get rid of me so that is when I went to live with my Aunt Xanthippe who was a General in the Neskya Army. She had never looked at me as if I was bloody wrath in some stupid fable but a child who needed love and protection.
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We finally arrive at the Jastria Cottage, which feels like it was on the other side of Kallistar, but I know it wasn't. It was only in Coscar, which is about a seven hour horse ride, realistically it was more like ten hours with two younglings with us, but nevertheless, we arrived as a party.
"Wait," I hear Marlowe warn us
"What?" Daratrine whispers from the left of me as he is dismounting from his horse
"There are others here," He warns us all. Then I see Daratrine draw his longsword from his back, and I look at him I see a look of true panic on his face
His mother was alone, not even a single servant here
I remember there were always servants, handmaids, cooks, and other staff here from when we were children.
Why would his mother be alone here?
Just as I am about to ask the question, the door to the cottage home bursts open and we see a bandit who is seemingly and eerily familiar with a towering height where he is nearly seven feet tall, the most rugged look ever with torn and ripped clothing and he man handling Daratrine's mother with a onyx encrusted gold dagger with tiny opals embedded in the Josmoyria kingdom Crest on the hilt, I wonder how he managed to get one of them since Jormoyrians aren't exactly know for sharing.
"Look who we have here, is that you Deyanira?" The bandit waits for confirmation and I can see the terror in Elara's eyes which I know the feeling of being a prisoner myself.
"Is that you Tarron?" I ask as I recognise where I know that is from and it's the man I was drinking under the table before I was captured by two bounty hunters
"Indeed it is," He confirms with a cocky grin, but still holding that knife firmly at Elara's throat
"Just you, Tarron?" I ask him as I feel a tiny youngling hand slide into mine, and I look down to see two gorgeous sage-green eyes that belong to Sorayah, staring up at me, pleading with me to do anything to save their mother.
"Oh no, dear sweet Deyanira, he isn't alone," I hear a deep voice from behind me say
Oh, please, Moirai Sisters, anyone but Him
I ever so slowly turn around, praying to the Gods that I am paranoid and it isn't Him standing behind me.
Fuck