Queen of Blood

The deeper they got inside the mountains, the more the rocks acquired the shape of ancient structures, similar to houses and castles that air, snow and rain managed to destroy over the course of time.

They were guided by Zeydar for almost an entire day without sleeping and barely ingested any kind of food. Their bodies needed rest for the night and chose to assemble in what seemed an abandoned village. A few wooden houses that had been burnt stood still in time and rock walls that were falling apart allowed them entrance.

“I don’t have a good feeling about this place.” Calix confessed, shifting his view between the surroundings and the fire he was preparing.

Seeing Calix Lohs in fear was something Arline never thought would experience and she quickly figured, it wasn't funny in the slightest. That his viking-looking friend felt an ounce of terror was the closest she has felt to being hopeless in this entire adventure.

“What is this place?” Arline asked and drew her sword. The howling wind, the shadows of the mountains growing larger by the minute and the neglected structures around them, made her feel like she was in a horror movie.

“The original Reiska.” Zeroun said as he cleaned some dirt from some rocks and brought them next to the fire. “Terrifying and dangerous monsters took over the kingdom and only a few were lucky enough to survive.” He simply told them. “Merrick’s great-grandfather settled the kingdom were it is now and put the mountains off limits, unless they want you dead.”

Arline’s anxiety spiked and the exhaustion left her body, holding tight to the sword to attack in case a monster appeared from one of the hills. They were out in the wild and absolutely exposed, but Zeroun felt relaxed enough to fall asleep almost instantly when he cuddled in the wolf skin.

“I will take the first watch.” Arline said, not feeling how tired she was. “Try and rest.” She offered and Calix wanted to complain but she grabbed his hands, reassuring him that she was fine.

“Wake us up when you want to rest.” He gave in and went to sleep as easy as Zeroun.

Arline stayed silently by the fire, watching if anything moved or approached them in a violent manner. But Zeydar’s reflective red eyes were following her, guarding her and keeping them safe. She could’ve let the dragon be the sentinel, but she wanted to seize the night time and silence to think about the words that Pelagius had said to her.

The stars and the moon traveled across the sky as the night passed, growing colder with every minute. Arline was hugging her figure with the wolf skin and managing to stay awake, her eyelids and head feeling like they weighted a ton.

In some point during the night, her head dropped so heavily it woke her up. The camping fire was the same when she took a look around but in between the shadows her eyes stopped at a figure of a still human. That presence unsettled her, Arline didn’t feel safe and called for her friends but they didn’t even change their breathing.

“Zeroun.” She whispered loudly and he hummed. “Who are they?” Arline sounded scared and didn’t move a muscle.

Zeroun woke up and took a look. “Specters.” He said when he focused, never changing his tone nor moving suddenly. “Calix, light a powerful fire.” He advised to Calix who opened his eyes instantly.

He was confused but as he inspected the surroundings over Zeroun’s shoulder, he saw those visitors and moved his hand swiftly letting the fire burn. Arline didn’t want to move, she felt frozen and Calix got right by her side.

“They are sensate to not be near light.” Calix said and moved her head to make her focus on Zeydar, whose mouth was wide open, glowing with ascending fire on her throat and emanating very powerful heat.

“What now?” She asked in a whisper.

“Wait for the first ray of sun.”

At first, Arline thought the specters would stay standing far away from the fire but unfortunately for her, the creatures started floating around them, where the light couldn’t reach for the darkness. They didn’t talk, but the sound coming out of their bodies made her skin crawl and cry out for help. The corporeal shadows almost looked made of very thick water that formed a human body but wasn’t intelligent enough to form a face.

“I won’t let them hurt you.” Calix said in hopes that those words could calm her down but Arline was hugging her knees and was looking down, hoping for the sunrise to arrive soon enough. And without noticing, her body and mind shut down to the sound of the tortured souls moaning in pain.

Arline woke up when she felt her body was falling, making her jump and opened her eyes instantly, trying to return her heart beat back to normal.

“They are gone, don’t panic.” Calix called from behind.

“How much did I sleep?” She asked while rubbing her eyes, trying to fade the tiredness.

“Not enough considering how much time you spend awake.” He chuckled and handed her something to eat, scanning her.

Arline looked around and noticed some members of the crew were missing, Zeroun and Zeydar were no where to be found. “Where are they?” She wondered with a little preoccupied tone in her voice.

“Zeroun went to check for any clues of Vatra inside the old kingdom and Zeydar just flew away.” He explained.

“Why the hell did I agree to this?” She mumbled for herself but was loud enough for Calix to hear, something he chose to ignore. “How did they treat you?” Arline referred to their visitors from last night. It wasn’t a peaceful night for her. She dreamt of men chasing after her, and her not being able to run away fast enough until they caught her.

“They tried to touch me.” Calix laughed. “I had fun.” Calix said and signaled a few burnt patches on the rocks. Arline sometimes forgot how powerful Calix was, and how much he liked causing chaos.

They stayed in silence waiting for Zeroun’s return with hopefully good news, and for Zeydar to come back from hunting, assuming that was what she was doing. The only thing heard in the valley was the wind howling until a crack was heard near them. Their heads quickly snapped at the hills, hoping to see a tall and slim figure, but Zeroun wasn’t there.

They continued to waste their time doing whatever they could to keep themselves from getting bored. Carving wood, sharpening their knives, practicing their aim, Calix even let Arline comb and tie his hair.

Arline was focusing on a target when she heard a mocking laugh behind her. “Why are you laughing?” She asked.

“I did not laugh.” Calix said confused and both stayed silent and heard it again.

When she scanned the campsite one more time, Arline noticed how some grass was moving across the ground slowly, trying to camouflage with the rest of the soil. She called for Calix and both watched in surprise how two pointy ears appeared from the ground.

Calix and Arline had two very different reactions. Calix’s face darkened and took a step back, while Arline knelt to take a closer look, fascinated by the cuteness and beauty of the creature.

When it lifted its body, the animal resembled a fox. Covered in moss that acted as its fur, dirt, grass, some mushrooms that had grown over time and two grey rocks that were its eyes. It approached Arline slowly and started smelling her carefully, wobbling its nose quickly. She was reaching for its head when Calix pulled her away with extraordinary force.

“Don’t even dare to touch it.” Calix warned her, let his voice go a low as humanly possible.

“Look at it, it’s harmless.” She said trying to move closer to the fox. Arline hadn’t notice how its eyes were starting to turn into the color of an old mirror, giving it the look of a possessed being. Not to mention the laugh the fox was letting out, wasn’t mocking anymore, it almost sounded human. As if it was laughing at a very bad joke in a high pitch voice.

Calix climbed up a small hill quickly and came down just as fast. Lifted her from the ground and placed her on the black horse with ease.

“Calix what is happening?” Arline asked worried, looking at her friend pick up what was left of their small camping site.

“We go that way.” He signaled up the hill on their left, completely ignoring Arline’s question.

“What about Zeroun?”

“He went that way.”

That was everything he said. Before they started running away from whatever monster was chasing them, Calix Lohs set the entire valley on fire, while standing completely still. The fire started consuming the grass around them, even the fox, which didn’t move as it continued to laugh at them.

The horses were galloping through the rocks as her shaky voice was calling for her friend. He heard her but focused on the road ahead and increased the speed while columns of thick, grey smoke ascended to the sky.

After ceaseless hours of riding, the structure of a dark rock castle lifted in front of their eyes, ruined by the passing of time and scorched by fire. The horses were heavily breathing, barely keeping the pace as they reached the gates. When they dismounted, the animals threw their bodies to the ground, giving up to exhaustion.

“Answer me, Calix.” Arline begged him for an explanation as they entered the front doors of the old structure. “What was following us?”

“Is following us.” Calix corrected her. “Don’t get away from me, Arline.” His growling voice resonated in the hall and her stomach dropped. It wasn’t hard to get away from his side considering Calix was holding Arline by her arm and was guiding her towards multiple passages and stairs.

They began running to the undergrounds through a dusty spiral set of stairs. Arline’s heart was pounding with adrenaline and fear of not knowing the threat behind them, but she trusted Calix entirely without questioning him.

When they crossed a heavy door, he slammed her against the wall with one arm and closed the door with the other. Calix covered her mouth and placed two lavender flowers on her neck and other two on his. “Do not make a sound.” He mouthed for her.

Suddenly, a rotten smell invaded the air and made her eyes water. To that, overcame the growling of creatures she had no idea what they were but could distinguish heaviness, brutality and violence in just the guttural sounds that came out of their throats.

The frustrated roaring of the pack made her more scared than when she faced Pelagius for the first time. She closed her eyes while Calix’s rough hand still covered her mouth.

A few minutes passed and without saying a word, they began moving to the center of the castle, going through complicated and confusing tunnels.

“Calix, please.” Arline had been holding onto his hand tightly the entire time and didn’t want to let go in fear of missing his step, but he was too focused on getting them away from the threat. “Calix Lohs, I demand a complete answer from you.” She said and pulled him by his hand to face her. “What were those things?”

“Orcs.” He simply said, took her hand and continued walking. “Fire only slowed them down as they are made of rock.” He explained. “And that damned fox acts as their eyes.”

“Where are we?” She asked.

“The catacombs of the old palace.” He turned right, yanking her to follow him. “We will be safe here, orcs don’t go to places they can’t see.”

“Please tell me Zeroun is somewhere near.”

“Hopefully, he is here.” Calix said and whistled. The wind in that part of the castle was freezing cold and the thin cascades of water that drained from the rock walls didn’t help to make the temperature inside it enjoyable. When the only things heard were the water falling and the wind passing, they heard a whistle that came from the left.

Both paced through the tunnels as if the sound could be taken away by the slightest breeze of air. In fact, the whistle was a cloud of air that traveled through the corridors and guided them to an inside chamber in the middle of the castle. They reached the middle of a round room, lightened by the last rays of the afternoon sun that weakly warmed the stones.

“You made it.” Zeroun’s voice echoed from a dark place and approached to hug them tightly. Arline felt how her eyes began tearing up from the relief of seeing her friend alive.

“Anything interesting?” Arline asked, composing herself.

“I thought she could be here, and I came across Eric.” Zeroun said his name in a sorrowful way, he felt like crying and at the realization of who Eric was, Calix ran to the side of the soldier that had saved Arline’s life in the Battle of Mount Suvlic.

“Is that you, Calix?” A weak voice said tightly when Calix approached his oldest friend. Arline stood above, watching their reunion from a distance, knowing that poor Eric was agonizing from pain. She could almost see how Death was whispering in his ear to say his goodbyes and was grabbing his hand.

Calix sat next to Eric, putting his head on his lap, talking to him to try to make the fear of dying to go away. He did it so naturally and Arline soon realized she didn’t know hoe much death and war Calix had seen throughout his life to act like that.

“What happened to him?” Arline asked Zeroun in a whisper. She wasn’t blind nor stupid, she saw how the poor young man was laying with burnt and shabby looking clothes, in a pool of his partially dried blood that came from wounds all over his body.

“A dragon.” Zeroun said, pointing at his wounds. “I don’t believe Vatra to be as wild as to do that.”

Before she could answer, Eric called for her and with confusion, she approached his side. “I am sorry.” Arline instantly said.

“Don’t be.” Eric coughed, spitting blood. “I chose to be here.” His breathing was short, and with each breath his body shut down a little bit more, but the spirit to keep himself alive was unmatchable. “Do me a favor, Cole.” He took her hand and placed a dagger in it. “Take me from my pain, please.”

“Eric-” Arline couldn’t do it, she didn’t want to do it. This entire time she had been in the mountains, the Queen of Blood had barely requested anything, and now that death was palpable in the room, she began whispering.

“Please.” The soldier’s voice choked with tears of pain, sorrow, scare but he tried keeping them in, trying to be brave and embrace his destiny. “I should be dead by now.”

“Do you want me to deliver a message to someone?” She asked with a motherly tone, while stroking his blond hair to ease him down.

“Give this to the General, tell him it was an honor to be on his side.” He handed her a chain with a black onyx charm. “I am alone, no one to remember me.” Eric slowly said as his last words were slipping from his mouth.

“We will, my friend.” Calix said to him as he grabbed his hand tightly, saying goodbye. Arline didn’t realize until then how exhausted he looked. Burning the valley must have cost him energy he didn’t have.

Arline took the necklace and put it on her neck. She chose to be quick and stabbed Eric’s slow beating heart. In less than ten seconds the poor and tormented soul of that young man was at peace and free of pain.

When Arline got up, she was lightheaded and the sadness that invaded her mind almost made her want to stab herself on her heart. She could feel the spirit of the Queen on her mind and putting her through pain again. “How do we get out of here?” She coldly asked.

Zeroun signalized up to the big shattered windows. ”Unless you want to come across the orcs.”

Arline wanted to wait for Zeydar, with her it would be an easierway to go up. When she heard the recognizable growl of a dragon she turned around in hopes of finding her trustworthy marbled dragon. But the eyes that were watching her weren’t the caring and protective crimson rubies but bright, iridescent green eyes that had been stalking them since they had arrived and she never noticed.

Only when her eyes accustomed to the darkness of the room, she distinguished the silhouette of the reptile that was hanging on the wall, looking directly at them, ready to attack.