Within the Shadow

Chapter 8

The women slaves were pushed to one side of the village while the men were on the other side. There were three guards in each other, waiting for one of the slaves to escape. Winter stood near Seliah as she watched the guards. They eyed her the most, waiting for her to make a move.

" Seliah," Winter whispered. " What will they do to me?"

" If you don't obey them they will kill you."

" Death seems like a better choice now."

The women stood in a line while the guards looked at their appearances and pulled out the ones that looked too weak to work. Seliah was taken away from the line with a tug. " Seliah!" Winter shouted. The guard pushed Winter back as she tried to get her friend back. The ones that were weak, were killed in front of them.

Seliah gave Winter a small smile before she was forced to kneel down with the other women. A guard stood behind her and kept his sword in his hand.

" Another execution," a woman muttered. " They picked the good ones."

" The good ones?" another woman scoffed. " That Seliah girl was never good. Taking food from the youngest child here."

Winter stared at the two woman before one was killed. The blood pooled around her and stained her clothing. There was a slash across her chest. The next one was Seliah. The guard put the tip of this sword on her shoulder, ready to slash. " Are you ready for your doom?"

" I've been ready since the day I was captured," she told the guard. The guard raised his sword in the air and slashed Seliah down on her neck. Her keeled and slowly fell onto the ground, her head was still attached by a thread. Winter stepped back, but was stopped by a guard. She looked up at him, and was earned a glare. She knew that she shouldn't show any feelings about death, but she couldn't help it. She felt her eyes sting and the tears running down her face.

That was her only friend.

Nova, Cassandra, Austin, and Casper stopped in the forest and lit a fire. The dark made the forest seem mysterious. Nova looked up from the fire at her friends, " What is suppose to happen now?" she asked. " Holden is gone, and now we're walking in the middle of the forest."

" First, we have to make sure that you can use your magic," Cassandra told her. " We can't have you go out of control when you're fighting an enemy."

" It's the same for me then," Austin said. " I can't control my magic either."

" You're experienced a little," Casper said. He turned to Nova, " We should get you a weapon just in case. A bow and arrows would be nice for you."

" George and his army will come after us, no matter what. We're all in danger, and the royals are doing everything they can to make this place safer."

" They don't care about us," Cassandra told her brother, " They want us to suffer. That's why they don't get involved."

" Then you don't like Princess Faith?"

" I didn't say anything about her. Princess Faith is going to find her parents, and that's all. The Demon Sisters are their problem right now."

" It's the same with the royals then," Austin assumed. " They only care about their objective, like you said. But, the Princess is doing everything she can. We have our own Princess and Prince in this kingdom."

Cassandra stared at her brother and scoffed when he was done talking. Though, he was right. Each of the royals only worried about their goals, but also they would want to make the world safer so that they wouldn't be targeted.