Chapter 25
FEYRA
I exited the Pools and made for the cover of the streets. The Singer was back on its perch, it was disgruntled that it hadn’t received its meal, but nonetheless it sang its song of control. It was still unaware of Zani singing the anti-melody in the village.
I wondered if any werewolves had realized they could shift?
Or had all been taken to the cages? Had dormant ones been kept to service the guards?
Or had they brought the peasants from the Outer city of Lassig?
Too much I didn’t know, and too much that brought me sorrow.
But my blood boiled at Agatha. What a traitor!
I couldn’t believe it. Not only was she betraying me, but she was betraying the people we’d grown up with.
Had she always been that way? Had I always been blind?
The village was deathly silent, overrun and depressing.
Barrels of alcohol were everywhere, rubbish piled in mounds in the alleyways spilled out into the streets.
Every inn I passed was full with drunk and leering Inspectors and guards.
Poor women were at the mercy of these monsters, while men were made to do everything else.
Any scream or cry for help was met with laughter.
I despised her, and the closer I came to the inn Dion had directed me towards, I grew more angry. I could feel my wolf straining for release. But I had to be careful, if I tried to change, or do anything, I’d alert the Singers.
I came to the inn and slipped down the alleyway. I entered the stables from where we’d left so long ago, and crossed into the shadows. There were no people guarding the doors, no stable boys. How arrogant were these men?
I entered the inn and began my search for her. The staff working were too stressed to notice me. I saw men bloodied and left in the corridor, and one of the chefs was even helping a serving girl restitch her blouse front. My blood could only aggravate so much.
I doubted Agatha was in any of the private rooms or dining areas.
From all the rubble I began to see in the building, it seemed some renovations had occurred.
I came to the back stairs, kept private for the staff, and began to climb.
When I came to the top floor, I knew I’d found her.
I could scent her from her perfume alone.
It hadn’t changed since we first met. I paused, something like that had stuck with me my whole life.
I’d always been good at smelling scents…
maybe that was why Aunt Teetee had me train as an herbalist?
I vowed to avenge her.
I pushed the door open softly, a hallway stretched before me in the darkness.
I allowed my eyes to adjust and then saw the men hidden in dark recesses.
They were standing and waiting, spears at the ready.
Fortunately for me, they were asleep. I exited the stairwell and closed the door quietly.
The guards remained as they were as I crept down the hall.
At the end was a grand door with a heavy lock.
I restrained myself from growling out loud, of course it would be locked. I didn’t think it would be wise taking a key from one of the guards and waking him, and potentially waking the others. That would lead to a fight and a fight would surely break my cover.
I had to find another way.
Agatha had always needed to feel the breeze as she slept, which meant that she would have a window for her room. A window that would be open.
Before sneaking back down the hallway, I gathered my clothing fabric and tore a piece off.
I stuffed it into the lock. That’d stop them.
I snuck back down the hall and entered the staff stairwell, made my way through the inn and back to the stableyard.
I entered the stables and climbed up to the hay loft where I’d hidden with Agatha.
Was she a traitor then? She probably couldn’t believe her luck in finding a way to get me all by myself.
I growled into the darkness, with no one around to hear me I figured the gamble was alright.
More than that though, I recalled the window that we'd seen at the end of the loft.
I exited the window, shuffling along the narrow board and up the small ladder that had been installed for roof repairs.
From there, I was now facing the inn. From the top of the stableyard roof, I ran and jumped to the ledge skirting around the inn.
I landed with my foot slipping off of the ledge.
I grabbed a water pipe in desperation to hold on.
I clutched it, pulling it into my chest. Doubt filled me suddenly, what the hell was I doing here.
I wasn’t a hero. I wasn’t a killer. I was an herbalist. I–
I had spent months with Dion proving to myself how resourceful I was!
We hadn’t wasted months for me to chicken out because my foot slipped.
I kept clutching the pipe, waiting for my heart to calm.
When it did, I continued on and began shimmying upward.
Aunt Teetee, Roman, everyone that had been killed by Lady Skol, they all deserved vengeance.
I made it to her floor as the water pipe detached. I jumped and flattened myself against the wall as the pipe fell away, clattering onto the stable roof. The crash echoed into the night. I braced, waiting for the calls, waiting for the guards to come rushing, but nothing happened.
I frowned, I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.
I brought my mind back to the ledge I was balancing on.
It would be a four story fall from here.
I held my breath and skirted along the narrow ledge, the moon lit up my trail and my eyes took in everything before me.
Even the street below was clear, I saw a man on the street.
He was stumbling and scrambling towards each inn main door, talking to anyone that would listen.
Each guard blew him off and laughed. A phrase caught me though… they’re alive…
I had to get to Agatha quickly! At some point someone would take him seriously.
I rounded the building corner and saw the window opening. I moved to it slowly, sneaking and watching. Readying myself to jump up, I mis-stepped and almost fell to my death.
But saved my life.
A Siren Singer was perched in the opening. Tasting the air and crooning softly. Of course she’d have one all for herself. But that also meant another Singer that Zani would have to battle against. I hoped she was as powerful as Dion had said.
I shifted back awkwardly, clinging to the shadows. I would have to kill it as I jumped in. I took out the small knife Dion had given me out in the Warlands and gauged my run. I would have only milliseconds to kill it.
I ran and jumped, kicking off the ledge and leveraging from the window frame. The Siren Singer didn’t even have time to realize what was happening before my knife pressed through its throat and up into its brain.
We clattered into the room in a frenzy of thrashing death and blood. I clambered from the dying beast as quick as I could, but Agatha was already sitting there with a loaded crossbow pointed at me. A silver arrow winking in the lamp light.
“You!” she uttered.
I ran at her as she fired. I dodged the arrow and sprang onto her, picking her up easily and slamming her into the wall above her bed. I’d pinned her by her neck.
“Lady Skol made me,” she begged.
“I highly doubt that,” I uttered. “I trusted you.” I threw her off the bed and she crashed into the floor and wall.
“I loved you. You were my sister. But you betrayed me as easily as you breathe.” I booted her in the stomach.
“Lady Skol never made you do anything. You admitted it yourself that you killed Aunt Teetee.”
I booted again and Agatha caught my foot, twisting it and pulling me down.
My knife clattered away and we began wrestling, rolling around the room.
I was trying to get my hands on her throat and strangle her.
She jabbed me in the neck and broke free.
I couldn’t breathe. Coughing and trying to take in whatever air I could, I stumbled after her.
She swung around, but I saw the glint of the blade too late, the knife swiped across my belly.
I screamed as she swiped down to stab my heart. I caught it, deflecting the blow into my thigh. She’d stabbed me with my own knife! My wolf was howling in anger. Practically begging for me to shift and tear this bitch to shreds.
“You should’ve stayed dead,” she hissed. She drew a whistle from her pocket.
I yanked the knife from my leg and threw it at her, it drove through her hand and shot the whistle away. She screamed in pain. The guards at the door had been trying to unlock it the whole time, fumbling with a key that wouldn’t work.
I leaped at Agatha, as she pulled another knife. I batted it away and headbutted her. She fell back with a broken nose. Blood flowed down her dress and she screamed in dismay.
I grabbed her by her clothes and threw her across the room. My leg was screaming with pain, but as I looked at it, it slowly began to heal.
I roared at her and leaped. I was going to kill her.
I was going to avenge Aunt Teetee’s death.
Roman’s death.
I grabbed her by her hair and pulled her to her knees. She was blubbering, crying how sorry she was and how she’d been forced.
But I couldn’t do anything.
Because I’d just frozen. My hands gripping her head. Her tears leaking down her cheeks. I could see the bruises already developing from our brawl. Feel the blood rushing around my body as my healing kicked in. Yet I could do nothing.
Lady Skol appeared from behind a wall. Agatha’s eyes bulged, she hadn’t even known she was there.
“Simply lovely,” she said. “Two friends reduced to violence. There’s no better way to conquer than to divide.”
Realizing that I couldn’t move, Agatha scurried out from under me. She wiped tears of joy from her face that were mixed with blood. She groveled to Lady Skol and clung to her robe, kissing her shoes.
“Thank you for saving me!” she said. “She came from nowhere. She killed–”
“And yet she was meant to be dead? You assured me your merls would do the job. That you yourself had gone back to the temple and seen the blood and bodies… Or did you lie?” Lady Skol said. Her face was sweet and incredibly dangerous.
Agatha stuttered. “But I did! When I went back there was only–”
“You served your purpose,” Lady Skol said. She clicked her fingers and Agatha erupted into flames.
She began screaming, burning alive and writhing on the floor. The smell of searing flesh filled the room and her burning hair stung my nostrils. As quick as it had started, it ended. She was dead, a smoldering heap on the ground that Lady Skol regarded with disgust.
“Well, that’s sorted. My plan has worked to draw you back here, however. I never expected you to die out there. I didn’t kill you myself, you see,” she said, walking up to me.
I was still frozen in my position. Sweat was pouring out of me from my strain to move. My wolf was trying to shift. My body was yearning for it. But she was blocking me!
Lady Skol smiled. “Yes, it was smart using the Singer girl. Very powerful. Very talented. Very dead.” She clicked again, and the door of Agatha’s chamber opened.
The guards who’d been fumbling with the lock stood dumbfounded.
Only for their surprise to heighten as a set of the hideous men-like creatures from the temple walked in, limping as they carried the trussed up, dead body of Zani.
“No!” I screamed.
Lady Skol laughed. “You think I wouldn’t know?
I created the beast from them. I used their own songs against them.
All of you. Of course I would feel an anti-melody, even in my castle.
” She smirked. “But very devious of your mate. And he thinks he’s protected as he goes to save those men? ” She laughed and it flayed my body.
Lady Skol turned, walking towards the window and looking out. She tasted the air like the Siren Singer. The hideous creatures licked their lips and picked up the dead Siren Singer, talking among themselves like they’d just won a delicious meal. I felt sick.
It was just Zani’s body left. Her eyes were wide open, shock on her face. At least she’d died quick.
“On the contrary,” Lady Skol said, “she died slowly. Well it felt slow to her. An eternity. Years of pain and torture. All because of you. The reason she looks shocked is because she finally saw what you really were and your fate.” She came back to me.
“You think you’re the only one to know those who can foretell? ”
She dragged a finger across my belly, where a cut seconds earlier had been. Except now it was back. She reopened the wound. Warm blood spilled out of my clothes and down my legs.
“You’ve played your part well. You fell for that letter better than I had ever thought. Your blood will draw Dion to me and then I can kill him, and end all of this prophecy business–”
A chilling howl rose into the night. It shook my very bones and core. I heard a thousand more cries of pain.
Lady Skol tasted the air. Her forked tongue coming out of her pristine and beautiful face. She was pure evil. “It is time we left,” she said, snapping her fingers again.
The room dissolved and suddenly we were in an antechamber.
The antechamber I’d dreamed of countless times, where I’d fought and killed Lady Skol.