Links

Chapter Seventeen

"I don't understand," Althea all but whispered as the group reached the great bronze gates that would open the way to the city of Escadus. "Where the hell is everyone?"

Hazel's expression mirrored the princess', but her second's nerves were heightened to the point that Althea could practically feel them in her own bones. The emptiness around the first gates left a sickening lump in her throat as it were—to find the main gates into the city unguarded as well...

"We need to take advantage of this opportunity while we have it," came the voice of the Murderer Queen, and Althea flinched back to reality. "And we won't know anything until we get inside and look around." The dark haired woman's eyebrows raised as Althea looked at her and gave a single nod of acknowledgment.

Reema's hands dropped the reins and she faced her palms to the enormous gateway. Althea watched as an orange glow seemed to unfurl from within the queen's palms. Ordinarily, the gates would have been opened from the inside, but as there did not seem to be anyone present to do so, magicking them open was the only option. Althea hadn't even protested when Reema took the lead—her own magic had been too erratic to trust anyway.

Just as the first cables of orange light reached through the slim gaps above the doors, a searing pain detonated in the back of Althea Angevin's head, and she crumpled to the ground from her horse with a scream loud enough to reach the heavens. It felt like a hot iron spear had been rammed through her skull as she clutched at her head and continued to scream, desperate to stop the anguish. So lost in her misery was she that she didn't notice when the gates creaked open, nor did she notice Hazel or Ximena appear next to her, or that Queen Morgan herself had leapt from Baetu's back and practically shoved the others out of the way in her rush to reach Althea's side.

"Princess?" came a voice, but Althea couldn't tell whose it was. "Princess!"

The words seemed to echo around in her head before exiting in the form of pain even more severe. She cried out again, ripping at her hair and beginning to sob without compunction.

"Make it stop!" she shrieked, shaking her head and continuing to try to crush it between her palms. "Please, make it stop!"

"Princess, I need you to tell me what you're feeling!"

That was the queen's voice. Althea was almost certain. But the words seemed jumbled and nonsensical, like listening to words spoken underwater. She couldn't understand them.

"Make...it...stop..." the princess begged again, and she was dimly aware of the colors beginning to flash in front of her eyes. Her sobs had become one continuous wail now, her form writhing on the roadway, the hard stone tearing exposed skin from her limbs until blood smeared both the ground and the princess alike.

* * * * *

"What's happening to her?" Hazel demanded in a panic from beside the agonized princess, her hands pinning the woman in place so that she couldn't hurt herself further. Her eyes looked up sharply at the queen. "What did you do?"

Reema's heart was racing and beating erratically in her chest as she stared down at the sight before them. Ximena stood beside her queen with her tail twitching furiously back and forth, indicative of her distress, but in typical fashion, she maintained her composure and said nothing. The queen shifted her gaze to the gates now opened just wide enough to allow them through. Suddenly, her eyes widened and she lunged at the women on the ground.

"Get away from her!" she screamed, who jumped away from the princess far more quickly than Reema had expected. The redhead looked quite shocked as Reema herself moved to take her place at Althea's side, but she used magic to restrain her rather than physical brawn. The princess quieted for a few moments, seeming almost relieved by the inability to move. Anger had overtaken the shock on Queen Morgan's expression as she looked back to Hazel. "Who else in this city is capable of high-level spell casting?"