Chapter 42 Falling
Falling
Alianna wiped her eyes, struggling to see through the tears that clouded her vision as she made her way towards that turret. She was almost there. Ulreah had bought her this chance, and she would not waste it.
She saw a flash of red in her peripheral vision. Alianna peered over her shoulder to see a man standing there, smiling at her.
A smile that made her sick to her stomach. There was nothing friendly about that smile at all.
The man was, by most standards, handsome. His long dark hair was combed neatly and tied back into a ponytail. His face was chiselled, not like Rionan’s, but in a more drawn way. His eyes, a grey so deep that they were almost black, seemed to stare into Alianna.
The man wore a long, dark, flowing robe and an expression of pure entertainment. Red tendrils of smoke seemed to flow off of him, reaching outwards towards her like horrific tentacles.
“Hello there. You must be Rionan’s little friend,” the man walked slowly towards her as he spoke, looking her up and down, inhaling as he did so. “How incredibly undermining of Rionan, that he has become so desperate as to bond himself with a human? Where in Xanthia’s name did he find you?”
Alianna trembled, stepping backwards towards the direction of the turret.
“I suppose you are a pretty little thing, as humans go,” the man mused, taking another step towards Alianna.
He caught himself, feigning a look of surprise and mock horror.
“I am being incredibly rude, aren’t I? Please, let me introduce myself.
I am Rannirr. Lord of Eastern Xanthia, Southern Xanthia, and soon to be Emperor of this Realm. ”
An oily smile slid across Rannirr’s face again, and he dipped into a false bow.
“I know who you are,” Alianna hissed out, taking another step backwards. She tried to ignore her racing heartbeat and the feeling of utter terror that flowed through her body.
She had to make it, just a little further. She was so close. If she could just run – she’d be there. Just a few seconds of running.
Then she just needed to throw the stone into the Well, and Rionan could end this.
She had not yet got the stone out of the bag, and cursed the decision to leave this until the last moment.
“Do you? I am glad Rionan has given you some sort of history lesson. And what brings a creature like you to my great Realm, human?”
Alianna froze, her hand tightening on the bag in front of her, and Rannirr’s eyes whipped down to it. His eyes widened slightly as he took another step towards her. His smile grew, and he cocked his head, like a predator that was getting ready to toy with its prey.
“What do you have there, little mouse?” he asked, studying the bag with such intensity that Alianna knew she had a matter of seconds until he killed her – took the stone – or both. Those red tendrils started reaching towards her, a whisper away from touching her, should Rannirr decide to lash out.
Without further thought, she whirled and ran.
Rannirr snarled behind her but did not quicken his pace. She could hear his lazy, unhurried footsteps on the floor as she sprinted towards their salvation.
Alianna fumbled with the bag as she pulled back the opening, struggling to tip the stone out to cradle it within her arm.
Its size was a problem, and they had never considered that she might need to do this while running.
Looking down, the Well was now visible, full with a vortex of swirling, water-like, yellow energy. The sight sent goose bumps running over Alianna’s skin.
She pulled at the stone, but couldn’t free it from the bag with one hand.
How was the final barrier the bag?
Fighting against sobs of terror at who stalked behind her, fighting against cries of anguish for the sacrifice Ulreah made, she focused everything she had on the simple task of opening a bag and throwing a stone into the Well of power below.
So typically human. In this war of power and chaos, the final act which she was struggling to complete, was so typically human.
She was so close to the edge of the turret now.
Ten feet.
Five feet.
Rannirr laughed from behind her as Alianna reached the edge of the turret, stepping up onto the wall.
His red tendrils of smoke shot for her ankles, holding her there.
Alianna wobbled, fighting against the restraints Rannirr had on her, as he closed the distance between them oh-so-slowly.
His eyes narrowed to slits that betrayed his smile, and she felt his power gripping her ankles tightly, shackling her in place.
No.
It couldn’t end this way.
Rannirr’s eyes were locked onto Alianna’s grief-stricken face as he stood only a foot from her now, his putrid scent filling her nostrils.
She felt panic rising in her stomach as victory seemed so near, so within her reach – and death so incredibly close.
“Oh, you poor girl. You really thought you could make a difference for Rionan, didn’t you?
” Rannirr purred. “So easily misled by such a pathetic, weak Lord. I have been alive for almost three times as long as Rionan, little mouse. I have been planning my conquest for centuries. Was this his grand plan? Sending a fragile, weak, breakable human to try and stop me?”
In between his words, Rannirr brought his hand up in front of his face and clenched it into a fist. The power wrapped around Alianna’s ankles clenched against her bones, tightening slowly, until she began to feel her ankles fracture and crack.
She tried to fight the cry that threatened to escape her, but couldn’t stop it from spilling out.
“That’s it, little mouse. Your Lord is below, somewhere. Let him hear you. Let him know how easy it was for me to break his little human saviour.”
Rannirr cupped her chin. Repulsion ripped through Alianna at his touch.
“Now, whatever he has sent you up here with, be a good little mouse and hand it over, hmm? Lest I crush you where you stand and pluck it from your corpse.”
As panic rose in Alianna’s throat, she found herself clenching the bag and the stone within her arms, unwilling to let go.
And that’s when an idea crossed her mind.
She just had to get the stone into the Well, which now lay behind her. One way or another.
If she stayed here with Rannirr, she would die, if for no other reason than to torture Rionan.
Alianna thought of Ulreah’s brave sacrifice.
She thought of his final words: for Xanthia.
She thought of Rionan, somewhere below her.
And before she could think of anything else at all, she reached out her hands and pushed hard against Rannirr’s chest.
The move seemed to take him by surprise, the tendrils around her ankles weakening ever so slightly.
Alianna propelled herself backwards off the turret wall. As her feet slipped and she began falling, what she had intended to do seemed to dawn on Rannirr.
He reached down for her, his face twisted into a mask of pure hatred. The male who had been so desperate to mock a human, who taunted her knowing that Rionan would be able to feel her pain and terror, was now realising that this arrogant act had cost him.
Alianna fell through the air towards the Well beneath, the stone clutched in her arms, still half-inside the leather bag Rionan had given her.
She scrunched her eyes closed.
Awaiting the impact of whatever would meet her when she collided with Rionan’s power.