Chapter 13
FEYRA
The hallway was never ending. As much as I ran or pushed myself to my limit, I could never reach the door. Laughter echoed all around me, rebounding inside my mind as much as off the stones.
I cried out, stumbling over a branch in the floor. It was a tree root…
I looked around, the stonework was gone and the hallway was a memory of my mind. I was in a wasteland. Desert and rocks as far as I could see...
The landscape changed again, and I was no longer a wolf anymore. I looked down at my naked body, gooseflesh rose as the wind tore at my skin. I was in a valley. Then back in the hallway. Valley. Hallway.
Back and forth it went.
I closed my eyes and held my hands over my eyes. This was only a dream. A dream! I could control a dream. I could–
“Enough!”
I opened my eyes. I was in a hallway, but a different one now. It wasn’t cold however. That, I realized, was the thought plaguing me as I ran in the hallway before. It had been cold. Inhuman. Evil. A force permeating from the walls that was–like it was trying to eat me.
I shuddered. But this hallway? It was beautiful. I walked towards the ornate door at the end. It was carved from stone, and when I held the door knob, it too was carved from stone. Everything was, as I looked. One piece, all from within the rock. The flow immaculate.
Roses and flowers were carved into the stone, werewolves running and evolving into men and women.
Men and women running and evolving into werewolves.
There were men seeing with waves coming from their eyes and women singing the very heavens down to earth.
They were in a garden of such beauty that I couldn’t believe my mind had come up with it.
I walked out onto a terrace. I was within a great gorge, the cliff face climbing upwards until the miniscule sun winked down in the gap. Again it was carved from stone like inside. I didn’t think the gorge was real…
“My Diora…”
Dion was walking towards me. He was dressed as a king, regal and charming. His smile lit his face up and his arms were wide and embracing. He hugged me gently. He smelled glorious.
“Diora, why do you stand out here? It’s too cold now.”
Why did he keep calling me that?
“Are the girls’ stories getting to you then? I can get Melania to stop reading them.” His face was kind, watching with love.
“No,” I said. “No, don’t take that from the girls.”
I didn’t know why I said it, why would have I? But it felt right to say. It felt–
“Oh my Diora.” Dion hugged me. He held me ever so gently again. “This sickness has been wreaking havoc with you.”
He released me and took my chin in his hands. His fingers so strong, so soft, he would never hurt me. Never want to hurt me.
“Ah, here comes Melania’s assistant now, her medicine will help.” He stood back, arm opening wide for the door.
A woman came out, shuffling along with a tray in her hands. Upon the tray was a cup of liquid. It was purple, it smelled off, it was–
I gasped and grasped Dion’s arm.
The woman was Lady Skol!
She held out the tray. “My lady Diora, here is your medicine. I see that the disease is taking your mind stronger now, so I’ve strengthened the potion.”
“No,” I said. “I will not take your poison.”
“Diora,” Dion said, taking my arms. “Please my darling, don’t make it harder…”
Lady Skol held out the tray, and when it became apparent that I wouldn’t take the cup, took it in her own hands. Dion pinned my arms to my sides.
“Lady Diora, please…”
Lady Skol pushed the cup towards me. Dion held me tight. I couldn’t move. I was bound. The cup was closing in. Dion pinched my nose. Lady Skol’s eyes flashed with evil–
I woke with a jerk. My hands and feet were bound. I fought them in the darkness.
Agatha came into my vision, shushing me and caressing my cheek. It was dark, but I was beginning to see more. We were in a tent. It was night and the cool air coming in under the sides were relaxing. But why were we in a tent?
“Fey,” Agatha said, bringing my awareness back to her. “It’s okay.”
I stilled myself, my breaths came from my nose in bellows. A gag was over my mouth. I couldn’t move and my heart was pounding in my chest. I was shivering suddenly, anger rising in my chest. Why were they doing this? Why was Dion doing this to me? We were fated. We were–
“Everything has gone wrong,” Agatha whispered. Tears had been running down her cheeks and she looked about urgently, checking the silhouettes outside. “They’ve betrayed us.”
My eyes bulged. Betrayed? I looked at the shadows on the tent wall. Two men sat near a fire.
“They’re going to sell us to the guards and take the money.
After you changed…” Agatha stopped, a sob pulled from her.
The shock of the memory. “You changed and Dion had to shift too. He said you were too dangerous. Too dangerous to keep alive, or near them. They said the deal was off. That they would trade you in at the next town that had an outpost.”
It made no sense. My face must’ve asked the question, because Agatha answered.
“I don’t know,” she said. “They just, they–” she looked back at the silhouettes, then leaned closer.
“After you said you had a letter for Jebra, they made a copy of it. While we were asleep, or at least, thought I was asleep. I had no chance of overpowering Dion, who would? You’ve seen him, you saw how he killed that man. ”
I wished that I could hug her. Take her in my arms and make her feel okay—but then I saw her wrists. They were raw and bloodied. She saw me looking and turned away.
“They’ve kept me bound. They didn’t… they didn’t trust me after you became what you are. They tied it so tight.” Agatha wiped tears from her eyes and refused to look at the ropes in the corner.
I couldn’t believe it. Why were they doing this?
The letter. If they’d found the letter to make a copy, and seen the map on the back? They would’ve seen the seal. And if Roman had seen the seal? He would know who I really was. Not that the old seal of royalty meant anything under Lady Skol, but it meant that we were valuable.
Maybe all that stuff Dion said about rewards could be true? Maybe we were runaways…
But another thing twinged in my mind. My dream. Lady Skol had been in it. But she wasn’t Lady Skol, she’d been someone else. In another time…
It was just a dream.
Agatha leaned closer, watching the silhouettes, She was shaking. She looked afraid to even speak louder than a whisper. She was breathing heavily, perspiring despite the cold.
“We need to escape,” she uttered. “As soon as we can. As soon–”
One of the men rose, Dion from his shape, but then the two were so similar, it could’ve been either. He walked out of the light and away. Where was he going?
“He keeps doing that. He talks with the wolves,” Agatha said. She was pale now, and so close that our cheeks were pressing together. “He also listens to us. The first night I was talking with you and he got so angry he threatened to gag me too.”
My blood boiled. I couldn’t believe what these two were doing.
Why had we gone with them so quickly? Was it some stupid reason I believed I had to go with them because of a mind trick that Roman used when approaching us after the square?
He’d looked at me with awe for a while, but maybe it was lust…
My rage kept growing, and I allowed it to take over me. I allowed it to fill every pore and muscle. To take my mind and break free. I willed my wolf to come out and let me transform. I willed it to howl. I wanted to howl…
But nothing happened. No wolf came.
It couldn’t have been a dream. It couldn’t have been a one off. I’d shifted! I’d shifted for the first time in my life and I’d run on my pads for real. I’d run along with Dion. With him chasing me and–
I remembered his roaring face. The power in his eyes and the way his surge penetrated my soul.
Fear had erupted in my heart at the very thought of him dominating me, and I–woke up only now.
What had happened? He hadn’t been looking at me with love then.
He’d been looking at me with hate, with anger, with evil.
Now I saw my dream and Lady Skol. Remembered drinking the potion. I’d been someone else, and Dion hadn’t been Dion. But both had fed me poison.
I looked around the small tent, defeat sinking into my bones. I couldn’t shift. I was unable to now. I lay on a rug. I was comfortable, despite my bound wrists and feet. But they weren’t painful, like Agatha’s had been. But why?
All of that left my mind as soon as I saw the tray and cup.
The very same one from my dream.
“They’ve been drugging you,” Agatha whispered. “Keeping you asleep. Away. Dion’s afraid of you too. He speaks about you in awe. You’re a big wolf, which is why they won’t let you be awake. You’ll overpower them. You won’t need them. You–”
The silhouette came back to the tent wall, facing them. It was Dion. He watched them for a long time, before returning back to the fireside with Roman.
“But I took their map too,” Agatha said.
“When Dion had come in to make the copy of your letter, he thought that I was asleep. Well, he thought that he could go to the toilet for a moment.” She grinned wickedly, her smile like that of a cat.
“I made a copy for us. So we can escape and still go. We can escape Fey, and get away from them. Otherwise–” Agatha stopped speaking, she was too shocked at what she had to say.
“Otherwise I don’t how long you’ll survive. They keep giving you this drink to keep you asleep. They always say it’s just another day, then another one…then another. It’s been a week now. But I hear them talking. They’re hoping it’ll be a peace bargain for Lady Skol’s men we killed.”
The silhouette came from the fire, Dion paused at the tent door again. “I’ll just check her, we don’t need her waking up here. It would be too risky,” he said to Roman.
We froze. My heart went into overdrive, trying to escape my chest.
“The drink isn’t ready yet, you don’t need to disturb her just now.”
“I’ll just see that she’s breathing…”
Agatha covered Feyra as she’d been. She put the copy of the map away in her dress. She looked around the tent, making sure everything was as it had been. “Pretend to be asleep,” she hissed. Then lay down on her mat.
Feyra looked around for a mad minute, then closed her eyes.