Chapter 3 #5
She extracted her finger from under my chin, reaching for the elaborate necklace around her throat.
She popped open the golden amulet and took something from within it and without warning, she shoved it in my mouth.
I jerked, the vile taste of some pill rolling over my tongue as Magdor held my mouth shut.
She tilted my head back, forcing me to swallow as she hushed me, her grip unnaturally strong and the iron already weakening my body making it impossible for me to buck her off.
My heart started to race, the room became blurry and unfocused as whatever foul thing she had forced on me took effect.
A vision filled my eyes and I lost sight of the chamber, engulfed by a swirling mass of light.
It grew hotter, whiter, blinding, then it began to fade and suddenly I was sweeping across the Lyrian Desert, passing over a huge rock shaped like an eagle.
Beyond it sat two lush green mountains and between them lay a waterfall so tall I couldn’t see the top of it as it ran from a sheer cliff into a silvery pool of water.
I could hardly process what I was seeing as I moved at an unnatural speed towards it as if flying on the back of some winged beast. I slipped through the veil of water and before me was a garden of jewels, the gemstones seeming to grow from the trees and plants themselves.
A carpet of earthy moss trailed past the glinting jewels where they perched within flowers or dangled like fruit upon branches: rubies, emeralds and diamonds bigger than my fist.
I felt my mouth falling open as I remained trapped in the vision, sailing across the enchanted garden and gazing down upon a gleaming golden coin with a winged girl etched into its surface.
It was perched atop a stone pedestal, nestled in a cluster of moss and wild flowers, and I could almost feel the power radiating from it.
The vision died in a wave and I sucked in a breath as I found myself looking at Magdor again, her cruel beauty mocking me.
“What magic was that?” I hissed. This was the proof I’d been hunting for, for years, and yet now I wasn’t in any sort of position to prove it. Curse this fucking woman. I knew she was harbouring secret power.
“I need a man to cross that waterfall. It must be done quietly and by someone who will not be missed,” she said, ignoring my accusation.
I blinked heavily, still trying to process what I'd just witnessed.
So much treasure all in one place, a hundred lifetimes wouldn't have been enough to spend it. And I knew where it was.
“I will gift you your freedom if you swear to bring me that coin. Only the coin. Touch nothing else, and when you return, I will reward you with enough gold to make you a lord of Osaria.”
I gazed up into the bitch’s eyes, seeing my fate there twisting and contorting into something new.
It was death or this. But I knew whatever that coin meant to her could be nothing good.
I couldn't give her something that could make her more powerful.
My kingdom meant too much to me to allow that, and she'd already gotten her talons into it.
Since the emperor had married her, taxes had doubled, hangings had quadrupled and the kingdom had fallen in to disrepair.
What other terrible things would she do if she gained access to more magic?
After she’d become the empress of Osaria and my suspicions had surfaced, I’d spent any free time I had researching the Fae of old.
They’d possessed all kinds of powers, some of them able to create fire, stone, metal and more, while others could wield power through potions, elixirs and the possession of magical objects. Objects, perhaps, like that coin.
I remained silent, wishing she'd offered me anything else. Something I could have swung to my advantage and used to assist me in bringing her to her demise. But a deep, resounding note of dread in my gut told me that I couldn’t risk that coin falling into her hands.
Am I willing to die for this? She'll just find another man to do this deed if I refuse.
“I will return soon with your pardon,” Magdor purred, backing away from me with a knowing glint in her eye. She thought I'd already accepted. But had I?
She barked an order at the guards outside and a moment later I was hauled out of the chamber and taken back to my cell.
I was thrown into the damp, dirty space, wheezing as I clasped the deepest wound on my side.
“Looks like they gave you a rough time,” a male voice spoke from the shadows.
I turned to find I had company in the cell next to mine which had been empty before I'd been taken to be tortured. I could barely see the man in the darkness shrouding us, and I didn't have the care to try.
I pushed myself back against the wall with a groan, relieved to at least to have the iron removed from my wrists and ankles.
“Name's Drake,” he offered as if I gave a damn. “As in... of The Forty Thieves?” he pressed and I ground my teeth.
I'd heard of them, alright. Everyone had heard of them and knew well enough to despise them. They were a bunch of cutthroats, thieves and cold-hearted killers of the most notorious variety. Stories of the crimes they’d committed and the fear they spread throughout the slums travelled all the way to the ears of the palace guards, and even to the ears of the emperor himself.
Not that he’d done a thing to try and combat them.
Magdor dismissed the lower Fae who lived on the outskirts of the city beyond the twelfth ring as insignificant, and ever since she’d come to rule by the emperor’s side, he’d taken up the same viewpoint.
But I knew who The Forty were: the biggest organised gang in the city, who ruled the slums of Osaria through terror and fear, though I'd not heard of this man specifically.
Drake leaned forward into the flickering torchlight that was cast beyond his cell and I saw him clearer.
He was tall and muscular in a way that spoke of violence like the kind I lived for, though his hadn’t given him any scars that I could see.
The thin tunic he wore was sleeveless and torn to reveal intricate tattoos marking his dark skin, each of them drawing my gaze like they had some deeper meaning I couldn’t comprehend.
They reminded me of some of the images I’d seen in books on the old Fae, but I couldn’t for the life of me place them now.
He had jet black hair which was pushed away from equally dark eyes which sparked with an excitement I couldn’t understand considering our current surroundings.
His was the kind of face that made women melt, the kind made for stealing virtue and breaking hearts, and something about the glimmer in his gaze told me plainly that he was well practiced in both.
He was smiling, a perfect white toothed smile and his gaze moved over me in a way just as assessing as the look I was giving him.
I wasn’t sure of the purpose of his smile. Did this thief actually think I was going to make friends with him? I might not have looked like it right now, but I was a royal guard. Not someone who would ever form a kinship with a miscreant lower Fae with fucking dimples.
“Help meeee. Ahhhh,” a tiny voice reached me from somewhere to my left and my head snapped around in that direction, a curse leaving my lips as I realised where it was coming from.
My very slight Affinity with animals sometimes extended to hearing creatures’ thoughts, and it seemed my gift – for want of a better word – was currently at play.
A fly was caught up in a web in the corner of the ceiling beyond my cell and there was very little I could do for it as a spider closed in on its meal.
“Hungry, chompy, chompy, nom, nom, nom,” the spider’s thoughts filled my head and I squeezed my eyes shut to try and block it out. By the Fallen, I would have given up this Affinity in a heartbeat. It rarely served any purpose apart from tormenting me with the deaths of tiny bugs.
“Nooooooo,” the fly wailed then its little voice was cut off and I let out a breath, relieved it was over though not feeling particularly good about it either.
I had saved countless tiny creatures from the jaws of their predators when I was a boy, and somehow, I never got past the guilt I felt over the ones I couldn’t save.
My mother had nicknamed me her little Rarh after the god of protection, a trait that had been the reason for me becoming a royal guard in the end.
Though I shuddered to remember why it had come to the total sacrifice of my free will in taking up that line of work.
“Scrummy little buzz buzz,” the spider said then finally shut up as it settled into its meal.
“You okay there, mate?” Drake asked.
“Yes,” I muttered, figuring it wasn’t worth the explanation. It was a rare kind of Affinity, and an odd one too. It wasn’t exactly something to boast about and sometimes I simply preferred to pretend I didn’t have it at all.
I sighed, figuring I might as well continue to bridge the silence.
There wasn't much else to do considering I was going to die for my crime. Because, yes, I’d made my decision.
I was not going to help Magdor become an even bigger monster than she already was, even if that meant facing a bloody death.
I’d made my oaths to the kingdom, to the royal family, and I had vowed to die if ever I was put in a position to betray them.
So here I was, keeping my word on that promise like I did with every promise I’d ever made.
And though I wasn’t afraid to die, I did have endless regrets over how little I had really lived.
But I supposed it was far too late for what-ifs.
“Thirty-nine,” I said.
“What?” Drake asked, cocking his head curiously.
“Thirty-nine thieves,” I corrected him. “They caught one.”