Chapter Eleven #2
Raffe slid his hand to her back and escorted her through the arched doorways, where Nev was still waiting. “Then we void our marriage. I step down, step back. As long as a Vargahian heir is on the throne alongside you, the council will not question it.”
It wasn’t a perfect plan, there were so many unknowns and moving parts, but it was something. The bit of hope she’d been searching for.
It would keep the council off her back and give more time to find Desmond. “Thank you, Lord Raffe.” She dipped her chin. “I’ll consider your offer.”
“That's all I ask.”
Kamari flicked on the astra lamp on her side table and cracked open Desmond’s journal.
She scanned the page, finding where she left off earlier but the words blurred together.
She was too distracted by her encounter with Raffe.
His sudden change in demeanor was certainly unexpected and it swirled in her head all day.
A fake marriage, essentially, to hold the treaty together until Desmond came home. But what was in it for Raffe? Appeasing his family and keeping war from Vargah, she supposed. She snapped the journal shut. She was too tired, too confused, to try and decipher any more of Desmond’s notes.
Darkness settled over her room as she switched the lamp off. Sleep hadn’t come easily since Desmond left but with how overwhelmed her head was feeling, it was the only thing she thought she could actually do.
Besides, when she slept, she dreamt of him.
She sank into bed and closed her eyes. She could feel his hands on hers.
The warmth of his breath on the back of her neck.
She imagined the outline of his dark eyes and the thickness of his black hair as it ran between her fingers.
She could see the markings that lined his forearms. She remembered tracing each one with the tip of her tongue.
She rolled onto her back, her fingers gripping the sheets, as she pictured him again.
She could see him kissing her neck, her chest. Could feel his lips brush against her pulse and then her ear.
Heat pooled in her stomach, her fingers tightening around the silk sheets.
She pressed her eyes shut tighter, focusing her energy on the only thing she still had control of.
Her own body. She trailed her fingers over her nightgown, lifting the soft fabric until it pooled around her middle and she thought of him.
Her skin heated, her legs rubbed together.
Desmond.
Desmond.
Desmond.
Her eyes flew open as six bells chimed from the port in quick, succinct bursts.
Six chimes.
Something was approaching the wall.
Before she could fully cover herself, Nev was in her room. “Your Majesty, you need to get to the keep.” Nev’s gaze dipped to where Kamari was still sprawled atop her blanket, nightgown bunch, cheeks flushed. She quickly looked away.
There wasn’t any time for embarrassment as Kamari sprinted from the bed and threw on her silk robe. “What’s on the other side of the wall?”
Nev escorted her from her room and into the hall where three other knights were waiting. “We aren’t sure yet,” she said. “Only whatever it is, it’s moving fast. As must you.”
She gently pushed Kamari’s back, leading her down the winding staircases where they’d eventually follow the narrow path to the keep.
“Wait!” Kamari stopped. “Where is my handmaid, Hanna? If she’s still asleep–”
“I will go to her next.” Nev pushed Kamari forward.
The bells chimed again. Six sharp rungs that pierced her ears. “Nev, we can’t leave her up there.”
“You are my priority.” But as she said the words, a muscle in her jaw flexed. She was just as worried about Hanna.
“Let the other knights take me the rest of the way,” Kamari insisted. “Go to her. Make sure she joins me.”
Nev paused and glanced at one of the women at her side and with some unspoken command, she took her place by Kamari’s side. “No one enters the keep without the password,” she said, a sharp edge to her voice that raised the hairs on Kamari’s neck.
Six more chimes.
“Go!”
Nev didn’t hesitate again. She spun on the heel of her boot and ran back toward Hanna’s room.
The astra sconces lit a path as the three knights escorted Kamari into the keep. The rough, stone walls felt more like a cell than a room and even though Kamari knew it was protocol, panic clawed at her chest. “How long will I be down here?”
“Until the lieutenant gives us the clear,” one of the women said. Her skin was dark, eyes a hazel that reminded her of Aesira. “We’ll be right outside.”
“But–”
They shut the door.
Six more chimes.
The astra flickered, creating dancing shadows across the jagged walls.
She’d only been in the keep once before, but with Desmond, when a lone snake-like creature slithered over the wall, large enough to swallow several guards whole.
She’d never been so afraid. The screeching and screaming and horrible crunch of a massive jaw.
The sounds were embedded in her memory, and now, alone in the same keep, the memories rushed forth, drowning her in fear.
“Breathe, Kamari,” she said to herself. “Breathe.” The air was stale underground and her mind knew there wasn’t enough of it to last forever.
If something happened outside, would she have a way out?
That thought had her on her feet in seconds, cracking open the keep door. She fully expected it to be locked, but to her surprise, it slid open with ease. Relief unclenched her shoulders.
Six more chimes, this time accompanied by various shouting.
No screams yet.
She peeked through the door, expecting to see the figures of the knights Nev had left for her but the small corridor was empty.
She was alone.
Over her shoulder, she looked into the keep. The astra flickered once before snuffing out, leaving an unending pit of darkness. Her fingers gripped tighter to the door when the dark shifted, snaking from one side of the room to the next.
“Nev!” She backed her way out of the door. The darkness slithered further, spilling over the floor in inky tendrils, reaching, reaching. Just like the serpent from last time.
“It’s just the shadows,” she said aloud.
“Just the shadows.” Weakness spread through her legs, her arms holding her up against the wood door.
More shouting rose outside but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the darkness that seemed to rise and fall, move and shift as though it had lungs to breathe.
A clatter sounded behind her, drawing her attention and in the instant her head was turned, the shadows swept around her ankle, moving up her leg. She stumbled backwards, nails clawing into the ground as she pulled herself farther and farther away.
“Your Majesty!” a voice from behind her made her jump.
“You need to come with me.” The knight grabbed Kamari’s arm, pulling her to her feet, leading her away from the keep.
Over her shoulder, Kamari watched the darkness retreat, slithering back into the keep like a serpent and the astra light flickered back on.
She shuddered, facing away. “Where are we going?” More shouting and screams sounded outside. Whatever was approaching the wall had arrived. When the knight said nothing, Kamari studied the woman.
Her face was concealed with half a mask, a few bits of dark hair escaping around her nape. She didn’t look like one of the knights Nev had left her with, but she wore the same armor, same boots.
“Just come with me.” Her grip tightened around Kamari’s arm, sending warning bells to her brain.
“Where is Lieutenant Nev?” The woman said nothing, pulling Kamari along through the Citadel. More screams rose outside, louder now that they were back above ground. “I really don’t think Nev would have–”
The woman yanked her arm forward. “You’re coming with me,” she said again, her voice severe, her fingers crushing around Kamari’s arm. Her eyes were frantic as she scanned the corridor. Like she was waiting for someone–something. Kamari wriggled her arm, trying to free herself.
“Unhand me,” she said but the woman’s grip only tightened. “Nev! Rahashi!” Her shouts were drowned out behind the screaming outside. Gusts of wind blew bits of dust into the open windows of the corridor.
“Stop making a fuss,” the woman hissed but Kamari fought back.
Scratching at her with her free hand, putting all of her weight into her feet, planting them into the ground.
“I didn’t want to have to do this,” the woman said as she pulled a small knife from her side.
“You will come with me and you will not fight me any further.” The blade was sharp as she angled it under Kamari’s chin. “Do you understand?”
Kamari did her best to nod without the blade pricking her.
The woman moved behind her, walking so the blade was tucked into Kamari’s side.
There was no one in the corridors. No one in the halls as they moved their way through the Citadel.
Everyone would be in their respective hiding places or fighting at the wall.
A tiny spark of relief lit inside Kamari’s chest.
Hanna.
Nev went to get Hanna and when they returned to the keep to see Kamari was missing, they’d look for her. The woman led her down the final steps that would take them outside the Citadel.
Metal clashed together, smoke and flame filled the air from the torches that lined the wall.
A group of soldiers breezed past Kamari but when she opened her mouth to scream, the blade dug into her side.
She jolted at the sharp pierce of pain, her eyes burning from the smoke in the air.
They wove through the crowd, hysteria sweeping over the courtyard.
Kamari glanced up, to where dozens of monsters flew overhead, sharp teeth illuminated by light of the torches.
Muscular bodies and wide-spread feathered wings soared over the flames, their sharp teeth painted red. Kamari knew these beasts. Knew them from a rogue encounter in Novaria.
They were more bird than cat but the way they dove and struck their prey was predator nonetheless.
Kamari’s heart raced. The armada moved through the courtyard, shields positioned over them like a tight shell.
They stopped, bodies going completely still.
Waiting, Kamari realized, for another beast. The flap of many wings tore through the courtyard then they were there.
Feathered and furred and screeching, they swooped over the wall.
The shell of shields shifted, giving enough open space for a single flame-tipped arrow to pierce the air and land in the beast's chest.
Horror seized Kamari but the woman dragged her forward. Bodies pressed against them as they pushed their way through the crowd all the while the blade in Kamari’s side dug further in, warm liquid pooling against her silk robe.
“Almost there,” the woman’s voice was against her ear, her arm tight around Kamari’s middle. They slipped through the last of the crowd, finally an open space, just before the massive iron gates that would open up to the desert.
Kamari took a deep breath, smoke and iron filling her lungs, then she spun, the blade twisting between her ribs. She grit her teeth through the pain, elbowing the woman in the nose. Hot, bloody spurts poured down her face. The woman dropped her grip on the blade, her eyes going wide. “Wait–”
“Your Majesty!” Nev’s voice filtered through the chaos. The woman scrambled for Kamari again but missed, falling to her knees. “Arrest that woman!” Nev’s voice was closer now.
The gleam of the blade caught Kamari’s eye as it lay abandoned on the ground.
She reached for it, but it was too late.
The woman snatched it before Kamari could take another breath and disappeared into the crowd, her hair and mask fading into the crowd of people and beasts.
“Forgive me Your Majesty,” she said. “I came for you but–”
“I need a healer,” Kamari managed, then the world spun and she was on her knees.