Horn

Chapter 1. The Chamber

*She had to sacrifice something that she was not prepared for... (A prompt from Erica Garcia, the Writing Prompt App.)

*Within the bowels of a dark stone chamber, an unnamed creature tests the patience of one who demands her sacrifice.

The choice is given: Surrender her body or abandon her heart.

(Thank you @LadyInTower for this reworked blurb. I use it as the opening for my story)

"Drop them in there." Cia pointed to the stone table filled with bottles and small objects.

I couldn't miss the giant bubbling goblet in the center, filled to the brim with a mysterious shiny liquid, even if I wanted to.

I felt like prey. Cia's golden iris occasionally lit up with some wicked calculation. From the years I had spent with her, I knew well enough that nothing good would come out of this situation.

She had said she wanted my horns. I supposed I could part ways with them. I had shed blood, tears, sweat, and been nearly killed for this woman countless times before, so what little pain from sawing off my horns would be in comparison?

I just had some idea of what Cia wanted, and it left a bitter taste in my mouth.

These pair of horns—the utterly useless objects to me—would be used to raise the whole army of undead Svyies. Imagine the damage Adelmo and his Riders would suffer because of that. Imagine the darkness and destruction. We had come too far to let it happen.

The Chosen One, the First, the Pure Blood. All those names hung over my head like curses since the day I had become conscious. Right there, on Cia's table. Now, they just sounded ironic.

"What's the delay, child? What are you waiting for?" Cia hissed at me.

"I won't do it."

It took me a while, but for the first time in my life, I could say it without fear. It only made Cia laugh. The cackling drilled into my brain when I saw nothing funny. I had crawled my way out from under her thumbs, Cia would have to drag my dead body back and revive it again if she wanted me to serve. Imagine all that hard work.

"My child."

As if she could read my thoughts, Cia smiled and waved her hand in the air. So gracefully. I could hear heavy chains scraping behind the chamber's stone walls like metallic snakes waking up from their slumber. The whole room shook. I know the mechanism like the back of my hands, having countless hours by myself in this chamber.

Cia put a finger on her cherry lips, and, just as when she presented Eor the Golem to me as a gift, she pointed to the hidden door that had hissed open like a giant mouth. I glanced in that direction but was never ready to see what, or who there was.

In the corner, on the damp and dirty floor, Elis' eyes and mouth gaped open. His clothes were torn to shreds. His silver hair was matted. With dry blood. The fog of death blanketed his features, giving me a gut punch. Air was sucked out of my lungs.

I had been looking for Elis up and down the river for six months straight, with a certainty that no one from his group could survive, but here he was.

"I don't understand...."

The mumbling came out as strange as it got. I didn't even feel my tongue.

"Your horns for his life, child. Simple as that. I suggest you make up your mind quickly because I don't think poor Elis could wait."

No, he couldn't, could he? I don't think so.

Neither could I.