12. Rorin
Rorin
We’ve been riding silently for hours. And during such quiet time, I’ve mulled over every possible outcome to the reaction my father will have once he figures out that I’ve gone directly against his orders. None of them turn out positively.
To ease the churning in my stomach I center my mind on something other than him. Instead I focus on my win, earning the Queen of Obsidian and her army. Or at least I hope it’s a win. Her army trails a few miles behind us. Their group is about fifty times the size of ours, slowing them down significantly. I wonder how they’ll fare with the creatures that live out in these lands. The gray tone of the trees and overcast sky make for a perfect camouflaged setting for the beasts that I know lurk somewhere within them. They’ll have to endure them much longer than we will. But, surely, as trained professionals who are native to this kingdom they should be able to handle themselves.
SNAP !
The hairs on the back of my neck rise, unease weighs over us like a blanket. Our horses halt pausing our trek as we sit in silence long enough to be sure that nothing would come of that snap.
When we started moving again, I sidled my horse up to Eveera’s. “How’s your shoulder holding up?”
She keeps her golden eyes forward, the muscle in her jaw feathering. “Fine. Marjorie took care of it.”
“And your wrist?” I pry. She looks down at it and shrugs.
“That was nothing. What about you?” She asks keeping her eyes straight ahead still.
I smirk, “I’ve endured worse, Nightmare.”
Her nose scrunches up in annoyance, finally meeting my gaze. “ Nightmare?”
I laugh. “Sure, I figure if you get to nickname me and my companion, then I get to nickname you. Queen of Nightmares - Nightmare. It works.”
“It’s ‘The Nightmare Queen’.” She corrects. “And don’t nickname me.”
My lips tip up at the correction. “Oh, I’m sorry, so you get to nickname yourself and the two of us - but I can’t nickname you?” I think I’ll ignore that demand. The voice inside my head sings. I decide to switch topics by asking, “You seem on edge, you’re not nervous are you?”
It was meant to be lighthearted but by the way she turns to glare at me, she didn’t take it that way. “Do I look like the type that gets nervous?” She snaps.
I raise my hands up, “just asking is all. Checking in.”
“Don’t do that.”
“Don’t do what?” I ask.
She waves her left hand around haphazardly, “ that. The checking in. ”
I neutralize my expression, choosing to look away from her this time, “don’t check in? Why can’t I check in?” I ask, trying to seem aloof.
“The reasons are endless as to why you cannot check in on me.”
“Well, we have a long ride ahe—” A whistle rings through the air followed by Armond flagging our group down. With the sky so cloud covered and gray nighttime came quicker than I had expected, so quickly that I hadn’t even noticed how dark it was getting already.
The redhead jumps off of his horse. “We camp here.” He has a gravelly lilt to his voice making his demeanor all that more imposing. Most of her men and women are intimidating to look at and I’m slightly ashamed my own army isn’t as hardened as they are, I suppose they each mirror their sovereigns in that regard.
The rest of us follow suit jumping off our horses and unloading our packs. Again the group goes silent. The tension and unease from earlier has returned now that we aren’t moving.
Will’s anxious energy is palpable, the two of us have memories of these woods not too far removed from the present, and I can tell he isn’t too sure about being ready to face them again. He’s muttering quiet words and assurances to himself to ease his nervousness. Eveera at some point in setting up camp overheard him and barked in his direction that we are, “going to war and the creatures out here should be the least of his problems”.
Will lets out an irritated sigh, “must you Obsids always be so vile. Everything has to be a threat?” he snaps.
“Hey man, no offense or anything, but you’re probably safer with the creatures than you are with any of us. With us being so vile and all.” Axel offers his less than helpful commentary, throwing Will a wink.
Will looks at me desperately. “Ror- ”
"Go set up the mats.” I say. His eyes narrow at me, distress seeping into them as he turns around. I hate pulling rank, but the more back and forth arguments there is between our two sides, the less I can make this work.
Looking around the small camp I observe everyone settling down for the night, with the exception of one person. The queen. She's not anywhere where I can see her, my head spinning around like an owl looking for her in the firelight. It's not until I hear leaves rustling straight ahead of me that I see her small shadowy form slipping deep into the woods away from camp, alone.
My feet move to go follow her when I feel my wrist catch. “Where do you think you’re going, princeling?” Ezra growls, his fingers wrapping tightly around the rune of the blood seal.
“I think your Queen has slipped off into the woods unprotected.” I snap.
“She’s got it covered, Muscles.” Axel pipes up from his sleeping mat, great another nickname .
I yank at my wrist, pulling Ezra toe to toe with me in the process. “No offense, gentlemen, but my kingdom made an investment in her . So I think I will go ensure that said investment doesn’t get herself killed before we leave your soil.”
Axel props up on his elbows. “Actually,” his lips curling into a sneer, “you invested in us.” He motions his finger in a circle indicating the group, “she’ll be pissed you followed her out there anyways.”
Tearing my arm away from Ezra I flash my wrist at all of them. “I don’t see anyone else with one of these. Meaning my deal is with her. I’ll take my chances.” I say taking off in the direction she went. Axel’s parting words of “it’s your funeral” die down behind me with each step I take.
It took me several minutes to find her. She’s sitting with both palms pressed into the dirt. Rivulets of her black magic splinter through the ground around her. I rest my back against one of the barren trees witnessing her Wield work, not wanting to interrupt but wanting to watch her.
It’s interesting to see her tattoos go so still, frozen in whatever position they were in before the magic started leaving her. So much power pours out of one small human. It’s suffocating bottling in a Wield, I can’t imagine what hers would feel like if she didn’t expel it so freely.
“You’re not very discreet when you’re stalking someone.” Her voice rasps. But the sound of it as it leaves isn’t her usual voice. The voice she is speaking to me in is distorted. It sounds like she is battling between herself and her Wield.
“I wasn’t stalking, I was ob—”
“ Observing. I know. I told you to stop doing that.” She doesn’t turn around to address me. She stays prone on the ground with her hair out of its loose braid falling around her face. Her eyes - from what I can see at this angle - are as black as ever. “Didn’t they tell you I don’t like being followed?” She growls.
“They did. I didn’t listen. I have an investment to protect. And they all seem to forget that they’re meant to be guarding you.”
She plays with a small tendril of her magic. Fascinating. I look her over, paying closer attention to those tattoos. The women in Vellar aren’t quite so bold with painting their skin. “Why the serpents?”
“Got a thing for reptiles, I guess.” Her reply is toneless, but it’s returned to her normal, raspy and sultry voice.
“A thing for reptiles?”
Her head lifts up, the gold of her irises peeking through cracks of black as the last of her magic is absorbed. She hops up to her feet, somehow she still manages to look her nose down at me no matter how much shorter she may be. “That’s what I said.” Her hand comes up and pats my chest, the touch leaving behind a burning sensation.
I skulk behind her the rest of the way back to camp where most everyone has gone down for the night. She walks over to the fire and with a swift kick she snuffs it out, waking Will. “What the hell did you do that for?” He groans pulling the blanket up to his chin.
“Light will only draw attention to us. And I’d rather not draw attention out here, Mousy.”
He purses his lips, “I thought you said that the war and yourselves were more dangerous?” He asks, his tone mocking as he flops back down.
Across from the fire, Ezra shifts on his mat, leaving a very blatant amount of excess room on it. My eyes flick between him and Eveera who glances at him and then glances over to her own mat. For a brief moment I swear she meets my stare, before casting her gaze down. She turns and walks to her mat next to Axel who’s already snoring. Ezra’s face contorts, the rage clear on it.
Coincidentally it would seem Will laid out my mat between hers and Axel's. I can’t help the smirk that grows on my face. She chose being closer to me - her enemy - than her own lover. Whether she realizes that or not, Ezra seems to. At least that’s what I’m assuming based on the murderous look he gives me before flopping over and giving me his back.
I lay down next to her. She’s created as much distance between us as possible to the point that she’s practically on top of Axel who remains asleep despite his queen fusing her chest to his side.
Her long dark hair blends into the night, the curls spreading across her mat behind her. In this state they look nearly identical to the tendrils of her Wield. Her side lifts up and down matching the rhythm of her breathing as she falls asleep.
Screaming, who the hell is screaming?
I’m standing in a dark hall the screams echoing off the stone. The pain vibrating with the sound. I follow the noise, weaving around the bodies that are in pieces and littered everywhere. Their blood splattered all over the walls.
The screams lead me to a set of doors. The markings and carvings in the wood seem familiar to me, but I can’t recall why. I peer through the crack in the door, looking into the room. In the center is a small girl on her knees, hair a sea of black flows down her back, blood covering her nightgown, legs, and hands. There’s magic pooling around her black as her hair.
Eveera? It can’t be…she can’t be older than maybe eleven or twelve…
My hands push the door wider which allows the smell inside to overwhelm my senses. More of that thick, coppery, scent of blood enters my nostrils. My eyes follow to where her blackened gaze is trained, all the way to where I see—
Oh fuck. Oh no, no, no gods no. I fall to my knees next to the younger Eveera, horror clawing up my throat as I stare at the body hanging above the both of us. Her mother, Queen Ayla, is completely disemboweled. She’s strung up by her innards from the posts of her bed.
It’s a gory and hideous display and Eveera found her.
I gulp down the bile building in my throat.
“This was the night of the assassination. It has to be.” I whisper, my voice coming out garbled, like I were speaking underwater. But I wouldn’t dream this-this isn’t my memory…this isn’t my nightmare…it’s hers .
-
My eyes fly open, a fiery sensation tearing up my arm. The sky is still pitch black, shadows dancing around us. The only visible light is coming from my wrist, it’s glowing red. Whimpers and rustling fill the otherwise silent camp.
Eveera -tosses and turns in her sleep -no doubt from the living hell I just witnessed in her mind.
In her mind. I think. Oh this is going to piss her off.
Her hair, that same sea of black is no longer spread out across the mat but wound around her now, “ No, no, no, no.” Tumbles from her lips.
I move over to place my hand on her shoulder. I pick up her wrist, it’s glowing the same red as mine, further confirming that another facet of this seal isn’t just binding our agreement - but binding us.
“Eveera. Eveera. Come on.” She doesn’t budge, but her whimpers have started to turn into wails. “Wake up before you alert the whole damn outer lands.” I hiss into her ear.
Both eyes snap wide as she gasps in a mouthful of air, her hands clawing at her chest. “What the hell?” She whisper shouts. Next to her Axel groans out a barely coherent “ Evie, shut up” in our direction, his hand flailing out to smack at her.
“Don’t yell at me, you were the one making all the fuss.” I snap. She shoves me away from her, sprinting off into the darkness. “Damn woman.” I grumble, darting off after her. Armond - who’s on guard - lets a slight snort out at the display. Why the fuck didn’t he wake her? The want to turn around and confront him instead of Eveera rises up in me but I tamp it down and settle for a scathing glare in his direction.
“Must you follow me?!” Her attempts to shout are dwindled by our need to be quiet.
“If you insist on stalking off into the middle of the night then yes, Your Highness , I must follow you.” My frustration matching hers.
Why does she have to be so difficult? She knows how dangerous these woods are, and yet she still is choosing to storm away. The thought sits in my mind, the voice in my head begging to materialize. “You can’t take off out here.” I argue.
“Ha. I’m probably the only who can take off out in these woods, thank you very much.”
A sigh heaves from me as I rub the scruff on my chin. “Well last time you got bit.”
She glares, an accusatory finger poking into my chest, “because you distracted me! And look here you are, distracting me. AGAIN! Poking your nose into something that isn’t your business , AGAIN! ”
“I was just trying to help.”
She leans her head back against a tree. “It was a nightmare, Rorin. I would’ve woken up eventually. You don’t need to try and help me with my dark and twisty head. Okay, princeling?” Something tugs inside me when she says my name, before she switches back to that insipid nickname. I pace back and forth in front of her.
“I’m not. I-I wasn’t.” The words stammering out of me. My body moves in front of her, caging her against the tree. “My mind…and then my wrist.” I whisper.
Her eyes go dark, “what about your mind and wrist?”
“I saw things. I saw memories. I think you pulled me into them.” My voice is barely audible. If my words weren’t, then my position was the only thing holding her in place.
“Pulled you into what, princeling. Words.” She asks her tone on the brink of turning violent.
“I saw you. I saw… her.” Her eyes start to bleed black at the corners as she loses the grip on her control. On instinct I grab her throat and pin her in place, the proximity putting our faces close enough that our noses brush. My lip curls into a snarl that just barely grazes her top lip. “Don’t do it, Nightmare. Don’t throw my own demons at me just because someone saw yours for once.”
Her eyes slip back into that mesmerizing gold at my words her voice cracking. “Why?”
Why indeed. With the threat of her Wield lashing out sated, I place some distance between the two of us. “Our wrists, the seal. I think it links more than just the terms of our agreement. I think it links us. You were panicking, your mind was throwing you into chaos - into danger. The seal reacted . I think it pulled me in to protect you.”
She huffs out a quiet incredulous laugh. “Protect me? You are who I need protecting from. Fuck whatever the seal does. Stay out of my head, princeling.”
For the next day and a half, Ezra scowls at me. If his glares could kill, I’d be dead ten times over already.
We kept the routine from our first night. Armond whistles out, we make camp, Ezra glares, Eveera stalks off to release more energy, I follow, Eveera glares and Ezra glares, we fall asleep, we wake up, and naturally, Ezra glares. There were no nightmares on the second night, but Eveera hasn’t looked at me since the first. She hasn’t spoken to me either.
“We are about a day and a half’s ride from the border.” Armond’s voice booms over the sound of hooves clamoring through the terrain.
Orem’s head pops up. “Who’s meeting us at the wall again?” He asks.
“Commander Bennett - will greet Rorin and I first. Then he will let all of you in.” Will answers.
A collective snarl rolls through the group at the tone Will takes with them. The closer to the border we get the bolder Will has been with his demeanor. “Get your foul remarks in now, because once we are back on Vellaran soil no one will tolerate your treatment of the prince.”
“If that was your version of a threat Mousy, you might want to work on your delivery, dear.” Eveera says. Her voice shakes something loose in me. A tendril of hers pats his head as she passes his horse. For the first time ever, I see a murderous look flash through Will’s eyes. He’s a damn good head guard, but violence, murder? Not his thing. He prefers to detain and deal with people through the justice system. He’s only ever killed when protecting an innocent.
“Ror.” He calls, waving me over to him.
“Yeah?” I ask.
I bring my horse closer so that he can lean over and keep his words quiet. “Notice how there’s been a lack of some certain possessed beings so far?”
I nod, chewing on my lip. “Yeah, I have.”
“And?” he presses.
My shoulders shrug. “And, I think the queen must have it under control.”
He laughs at that. Not as quietly as his words clearly had been, because we get a few stares from the Obsids around us. “Where was that control when she got herself bit the other day?” I don’t have the explanation for that, I don’t know when in that fight she got bit exactly, just that I noticed her bloodied shoulder after we pulled back our Wields from one another.
“You guys can stop talking about me now.” We both startle at the sound of her voice. It’s the first time she’s acknowledged me verbally since our last conversation. “But, you’re right, princeling. I do have it under control.” I give Will a look to let it go. We already have a fragile enough relationship with them .
She returned to her silence after popping into Will and I’s conversation. Her next acknowledgment coming in the form of her hand reaching out to stop us. We all pull our horses up to where she’s stopped. To where there is a deep fissure running through the ground. That wasn’t here when we entered the kingdom, I note. “Shit. How are we supposed to get across tha—” Axel’s mouth drops open as Eveera’s horse backs up and then takes off at breakneck speed, the two of them jumping across the expansive gap.
The rest of us stay put and stare at her dumbfounded. “You lot coming?” She shouts. Unease trickles through while a few of us look around for any possible way around this. When one can’t be found, each of her men take off in a run, meeting her on the other side. Will shoots me a nasty look before making the same jump. I’m the last to do it, my horse landing with a grunt.
“Armond, Void to the others, the armies will have to detour around as best they can.” Eveera barks. Within a blink he winks out of existence, leaving his horse behind.
Axel is panting, his hands planted firmly on his hips. “E? Have I ever told you that you make terrible decisions. I could have just died right now.” He shrieks while pointing a shaky - dramatic - finger at the fissure.
She tips her chin up. “I do not make terrible decisions.” She argues.
“No. No, sweetheart, you really do.” He says breathlessly. “You really do.”
Sweetheart? He calls his queen sweetheart? I mull that information over in my mind as the voice in my head suggests, maybe he was a lover too. That thought and their familiarity with one another sends an ill feeling twinging through me.
As she passes his horse up, he leans over to thwack the side of her head. Another person who hits the queen upside her head? How bizarre. She gives no other reaction than yelping,“OW!” and shoving him back. Armond blinks back to his place on his horse interrupting the queen and Axel. He gives her a nod that she returns as she takes the lead.
The closer we get to the border the more anxious the energy around us seems to get. Will is the only relatively unaffected one, his mood steadily improving.
CRACK! An eerie sensation of déjà vu creeps up the back of my neck while my horse stops in its tracks. The rest of the horses slow as well, all eight of our heads looking around us. I urge mine forward to line up with her and Axel.
She hands her reins to me, standing quickly in her stirrups. Just as I think she’s about to get off of her horse, she instead climbs up onto her saddle using the new vantage point to survey the area. Her irises go from gold to black in an instant just as a dozen pairs of red eyes appear on either side of our horses. Black tendrils explode out of her hands and both Axel and I lunge to grab a leg and steady her. Our eyes lock, the look saying the same thing to each other.
The tendrils secures tightly around the creatures’ throats. She pulls her hands down, forcing the creatures to collapse with the motion. She then whips both her hands out to the sides and their heads roll from their shoulders, black sludge pouring out into the ground from the stumps.
The air is still for a moment until a scream rings out from deep in the forest. What was a dozen pairs of eyes has now tripled. Panic briefly crosses Eveera’s face just before she dives towards the ground, her ankles slipping from our hold. We both scramble off our horses after her.
“WHAT DID I TELL YOU? SHE MAKES TERRIBLE DECISIONS!” He shouts while unsheathing his sword and cutting through the closest creature. This damn woman.
I had eyes on her but now she’s disappeared into the masses. Again .
My wrist both glows and burns and if I were to guess, I would bet that it is my indication that she was at least still with us. The sign that proved she was okay came from the wave of bodies dropping to the ground at our feet.
“SHE’S SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THEM, AXEL!” I call out.
“Eveera.” I reach out to her mentally. It’s a long shot that the link will work this way but I want eyes on her. No, I need to have eyes on her.
A new voice pipes up. “CAN SOMEONE MAKE SURE SHE DOESN’T GET HERSELF KILLED, PLEASE?” Maxwell. “IF SHE DIES, MARJORIE WILL SKIN US ALIVE.” He shouts.
“How about” Grunt. “ nobody” SLICE! “ DIES,” Will yells back to him. “I thought you said she had this HANDLED !” He directs those words at me.
I dive under the hands of the creature closest to me. “ EVEERA!” I try again.
A strange feeling washes over me as a feminine voice barks into my mind. “ I SAID STAY OUT OF MY BLOODY HEAD.” I don’t have time to respond as I stab another beast, sludge splattering all over me. I see her head pop up in the middle of a group of creatures.
She screams out slashing in all directions. “Where are you all coming from?!” Her throwing stars are seated snuggly in the throat of a beast that I pass while running towards her. I urge my legs to move faster when I see a deformed hand grabbing at her back.
“NO!” I scream, yanking her chest into mine, my sword coasting over her head and cutting clean through the creature’s face. She slumps against my chest for a moment both of her hands fisting into my bloodied clothes. My free arm comes around, hand cupping the back of her head. I hold her tightly to me as our breaths sync together.
After a short while she stiffens, taking in our position and the bodies littered around us. We hear another branch break in the distance and her head whips to the side, “what the gods?” her words echo into my mind. She points her finger but keeps the arm close. I squint in the direction she’s turned her head in, trying to see what she's pointing at.
Distantly, I see a shadow and then two red eyes. There off in the woods stands a lone creature. He makes no effort to charge at us. He just stands there, staring the same as we are.
“ Is that? ”
“ A creature that looks almost cognizant? ” She breathes out. Meanwhile my hold tightens on her, fusing our bodies together, as I move us back.
“ What the hell do you think that means? ” I say down the seal.
She shake my head. “ I don’t know. ”
“IF YOU TWO ARE DONE SNUGGLING, WE’D LIKE TO GET GOING BEFORE ANY MORE OF THE WALKING DEAD SHOW UP.” Axel’s voice carries, dumping over us like ice cold water.
“You okay?” I ask, my hand stroking down her hair absentmindedly. “No venomous consequences this time?” I rove my eyes over her. No injuries this time. Her chin lifts in defiance but how she looks at me when she notices us holding onto one another…makes my head dizzy. And it only clears when she slips from the position I put us in and saunters off back to the group.
We all look like shit. We decided as a whole to stop for the night shortly after the fight. If I thought we were quiet before, I was wrong. It is more silent than the dead now. Looking over each person the only ones with injuries sustained were Will and Orem. Orem, has a cut through his eyebrow that’s still bleeding and Will’s lip is busted. Other than that, the only things that really sustained any damage were our clothes. They’re all soaked through with the creature’s sticky black sludge.
With how exhausted I was and the tension from earlier, I hadn’t planned on following Eveera tonight. Until she got up and looked in my direction. I’ve either deluded myself or there was an almost imperceptible look of expectation on her face when she did.
When I caught up to her I take note that she is sitting again in a small clearing, palms to the earth, her black magic veining through the soil. Her shoulders are slumped, giving way to her exhaustion.
“ This is becoming a habit, princeling. ” That voice. It’s like a siren’s call, luring me to sit down next to her.
“ I thought you told me to stay out of your bloody head.” I remark.
She snorts, “ I did.”
“What happened out there today?” I ask, this time vocally.
She shakes her head, sighing, “I have no idea. The way the lone one looked. It looked like he was—”
“Studying us.” I finish for her.
She lets out another long sigh, “yes. I have never once in the years we have dealt with them, encountered one that seemed to be aware of itself. Mostly they seem mindless, slaves to their bloodlust. I’ve even witnessed them turn on one another if they aren’t satiated from the energy or killed off quickly enough.”
“How long have you been dealing with them?”
Her fingers dig deeper into the dirt. “How old am I? Twenty-five? That would make it fourteen years, they showed up after…” Her voice trails off, gaze bleeding from gold to black. The seal in our minds slams down sharply, sending my presence against a mental wall. Whatever she’s working out in there she doesn’t want me to know .
I lean forward trying to get her to look at me. “After what?”
She pulls her lip between her teeth, biting down gently. “Nothing, it will be fine.”
Putting my hand to her shoulder, I try to shake those eyes back to their golden hue. “Eveera.”
“I SAID IT WILL BE FINE!” A wave of black rams into me.
“P-please don’t lock me up here again. PLEASE.” His laugh rings out through the cell. “Please don’t lock me up here again.” He mocks before landing a kick in between my ribs. “P-please.” I sob out to nothing. I’m dirty, broken, bleeding. I will kill him. I will kill them all the moment these mage shackles are taken off.
I gasp, clawing at my throat as I suck down the breaths.
“ Did you kill him? ” Her voice comes quietly from inside my mind.
I look up at her, rage overwhelming. “What?!” I snap.
“The man. Did you kill him?” Her voice is soft and her eyes are gold again.
I take a few more breaths to calm myself down for good measure before answering. “Yes.”
“Good.” Her stare is as pained as mine. “Next time, don’t push me for information. Or I might grow to enjoy your fears.” She threatens.
She takes off towards camp. Dread was already pooling in my stomach, like it does every time I think about my time in that room.
I’m going to have to build better mental blocks if she is going to continue sending me into that nightmare. I already killed the man once, I don’t need him coming back to life.