Chapter 35 #2
The sound of it rang out, and every sentient soldier moved, their heads turned in time to see me sprawled on the ground, cradling my sore wrist. I was sure it was just a sprain. Still, every soldier drew their weapon in a beautifully timed arc of choreography, every single blade pointed at Terym.
The king stumbled backward, and the sound of his own men drawing their weapons ensued.
What had caused them to move? To take an offensive stance? My letter obviously worked since moments ago they hadn’t even twitched when I spoke. But now, bodies were poised to strike, the once-still smoke shimmering along every silhouette.
I focused on the general before me, whose shadowed face was aimed my way in a familiar tilt. Almost like … Shade. He had often tilted his head when he was first released.
It all clicked.
They were the fallen army of Raiden Emyrdeis. Risen again by Shade’s magic at my request, my command.
Shade, who had been nothing but protective of me since the moment he was released.
Shade, who had done everything possible to shield me from harm.
Some way, somehow, that same instinct was programmed into these corporeal beings, a duty of protection to me, their master.
The realization made me freeze. If Terym triggered the need to protect me, it would end in a bloodbath, a fight his soldiers had no chance of winning.
I couldn’t let it come to that, not only because of the repercussions on Eleanor’s position, but many of Terym’s soldiers were innocent despite the man they served.
A strange intensity fueled the air, and the men behind me shifted uneasily, waiting for an attack. A minute passed, then another. And another. All the while, the king remained far away and out of reach of harming me. I stayed where I was, watching the sentient general for any sign of change.
Another few minutes passed, then the sentient soldiers shifted again, sheathing their weapons and returning to stillness once more.
I waited a moment, making sure they wouldn’t move again before I rose to my feet.
Smearing the dirt embedded in my palms against my pale pants, I ignored the twinge in my wrist to keep from drawing attention to the injury in front of the soldiers.
Now that I was standing, I could see the other end of the plain more clearly. A growing crowd of soldiers had formed on Mortremon’s side of the gray flags, gold-plated armor shooting blinding rays toward us as it caught the midday sun.
This was what the king was so worried about, Mortremon rallying to attack.
“Since you failed to do as I asked, I think it’s time I made my second wish,” Terym said, stepping out from behind his guards and drawing my attention from the gathering forces. I was shaking my head before he finished speaking, my promise to Eleanor ringing in my ears.
“Very well, you give me no choice,” he said in an eerily icy tone.
A familiar aggrieved shout rang out, and I turned to see General Lenek tugging a squirming Eleanor through the sea of Torglea soldiers. My stomach twisted at the malicious grin covering his face. She thrashed but couldn’t escape the iron grip he held on her arms.
Bastard.
“Stop! What are you doing?” I shouted, running toward her. He needed to let her go now.
Terym raised a hand—halting me after only a few steps. He had orchestrated this. Ordered Lenek to get Eleanor and bring her here. My gut churned and my chest tightened. He held all the cards, and he knew it.
He fucking knew it.
One word from him, and Lenek would hurt Eleanor. Could kill her.
After everything I sacrificed, all my worst fears were coming true. She had been the best way to manipulate me from the beginning. The first mistake I’d made all those months ago by not fleeing Toreshire when we had the chance, had led to this moment with my baby sister at the mercy of true evil.
A smirk slashed across Terym’s face when he saw the realization dawn on my own, sending my heart to my stomach and my breathing into short pants. “If you don’t do as I say, your sister will receive your punishment.”
General Lenek towed Eleanor toward the stairs of the platform, a whip in his other hand. Fear gripped my heart in a vise, and I struggled to inhale my next breath.
Terym knew he couldn’t physically hurt me, not with my clear protection from not only the sentient army but Shade as well. He wouldn’t risk their wrath, so he moved onto the next best thing.
Where was Harkin? Surely, he would stop this. He wouldn’t allow them to hurt her.
I searched the men, but all I saw was a sea of blue, his distinct orange missing. We were on our own.
Lenek’s boots thudded on the timber stairs as he hauled a still-struggling Eleanor atop the platform.
They were going to hurt her.
Fuck. That.
“Only those who haven’t sought death but still felt its cool embrace shall offer themselves to him.
” The quote left my lips on a breath, so low only the magical beings could hear.
After realizing Eleanor’s obsession, it had been fitting to choose a verse from The Tale of the Eniferium, a story our mother had told almost every night.
My words unlocked the still soldiers, and the sentient army shifted again, drawing their weapons as they had when I’d fallen.
Chaos erupted, Terym’s men echoing the movement, several stepping forward to attack. The sentient army responded without my commanding them, feeding off the desires in my chest to attack them all.
To stop them from hurting my sister.
They started across the dead, grassless ground toward the Torglea army.
“Stop!” Eleanor’s demand rang through the clearing, every soldier halting—even the sentient ones who had barely made it to where I stood out in the open. Hazel eyes bore into mine, commanding me. “I will bear this punishment.” Her words were strong. Fierce. That of a true queen.
She had captured the attention of all.
Eleanor tugged free of Lenek’s grip, then walked toward the nearest pole of her own volition, raising her hands so the general could fix them in the shackles above her head.
Using a knife, he sliced through the back of her dress, exposing her skin, and I stepped forward on instinct. Eleanor’s head shake halted me in place, and I could do nothing while Lenek swung the whip in the air a few times, rolling his shoulders like he was warming up.
Gods, I didn’t know what to do. A battle waged within me. My need to protect fighting with the realization that my sister was right. Her earlier words echoed in my mind. It wasn’t just about her or me. It was about thousands of innocent lives, a decade of ongoing war.
The many faces of Yinora’s villagers flashed in my mind, their exhaustion and pain and hopelessness.
If Eleanor could be strong, I needed to be as well. I owed it to her to be, not just because she was my sister, but because she was also my queen, even if she didn’t know it yet. My eyes locked on hers, drawing strength from the determination blazing within them.
The whip swung, and the thwack that sounded when it met my sister’s bare back ricocheted through my entire being, as if I myself had received the hit.
Eleanor didn’t make a sound while he repeated the movement, and I sank to my knees, digging my fingers into the damp earth in search of strength among the dirt.
Everything in me reduced to the whistle of leather through the air and the resounding smack onto skin.
I counted every one. My eyes were thick with tears but didn’t leave hers.
The pain seeping through her determination pierced my heart like a blade to the chest. Her body flinched with every hit, but she didn’t cry out, taking each hit with strength and dignity.
All this time, I had been wrong. So, so wrong. Eleanor was incredibly strong, and I’d doomed us by not being honest with her, by concealing the truth.
They paused after ten.
Only shuffling among the king’s men was heard before he spoke. “Well, Adelia?”
Never breaking eye contact with me, Eleanor shook her head, her mouth open in panted breaths. I fluttered my eyes closed for a moment, unable to take the crushing weight in my chest.
“No.”
My defiance resonated around us, stronger than I expected with the storm rolling through my body. When my eyes opened again, Eleanor smiled despite the agony she must have been feeling.
Terym made a noise of impatience. “Again!” he demanded, and the general obeyed.
The whip sailed through the air again.
Again, I counted.
This time, Eleanor sagged farther and farther with each hit, her arms straining when she failed to hold her own body weight. Blood seeped into her dress, staining the once-orange fabric.
Each strike was an arrow to my heart, piercing it until I was sure it, too, bled onto my clothes, staining the ground beneath us with more death.
Because my sister’s pain was killing me.
Her head bowed after the tenth strike, her dark curls tangled in front of her face.
After a moment, her eyes caught mine through the veil of her hair, and the determination still shining there ripped a sob from my chest. My head fell forward, my tears endless.
Make it stop.
I couldn’t endure another round of her torture.
“Again,” the king demanded, and my head snapped up. Before Lenek could raise the whip, another man spoke, stepping forward from the crowd.
“My king, she’s had enough.” Pierce’s voice was loud, and several men shuffled on their feet again, their gazes to the ground.
The king tsked. “You disappoint me, Pierce, I thought you were stronger than this.”
“She’s just a child,” he stated, and the agony that flashed on Eleanor’s face at his words was stronger than anything the whipping had elicited.
“Very well. It seems pain isn’t enough, perhaps my dear wife needs more of an incentive.”
Lenek pulled a knife, wrenching my sister’s head back, and placed the blade to her throat.