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“No one knows if they’re going to kill everyone, but we’ve got to get away and think of something.”
Behind him, I spot a look of sudden rage coming over Zalith’s face, no doubt because of the sight of his captured parents. He rears his equus, the animal neighing loudly.
“No!” shouts Slyth.
“Bastards!” yells Zalith, causing the enemy forces to turn.
They’ve spotted us, unsheathing their swords as they chant for us to come down and fight.
“Vippera! You monster, how could you!” he roars.
She cackles as she steps away from his parents. There is a fury on his face like never before, the face of a man who’s about to lose everything near and dear to his heart.
“You want to come save them?” she laughs. “Come on then, be a good son for once in your life!”
“Bitch!”
He rears his arms back to spur his equus, but Slyth reaches out in the nick of time, grabbing hold of the reins.
“Zalith, what the hell are you doing?” hisses the servant. “Have you gone mad? All you have is a dagger against a few hundred swords! To rush in there would be suicide!”
“But my parents! She’s going to kill them!” barks Zalith.
“All of you dismount from the equus and give yourselves up!” yells Vippera, her shrilling voice echoing between the hills. “Or the King and Queen get it, as well as the townspeople!”
I fight the urge to spring forward to their defense but I remain more level-headed than the Prince. As much as it hurts, I brush off flashing images of my father’s corpse burning in flames.
“Never!” yells Slyth.
“You dare test me?” hisses Vippera. “Trust me, it won’t end well for any of you!”
There is a crazed look in her eye, the glare of an animal gone insane. As they bicker back and forth, an idea sprouts in my head that just might work.
“Okay, Vippera!” I call to her. “We’ll come down, just don’t harm anyone else, please!”
She smiles approvingly.
“It’s about time one of you came to your senses, though I never expected it to be the human whore!”
Ignoring her spiteful words, I turn to the bewildered pair of Zalith and Slyth.
“What the fuck are you doing, Rory?” spits Zalith. “You need to get out of here. Slyth and I can distract them while you run!”
“He’s right, she’ll kill you if you go down there, she can’t be trusted!” says Slyth.
“No! This is the only way these people will stay safe!” I yell as loudly as I can, ensuring the enemies will hear me. I then lean toward my companions. “I know we can’t trust her, but you can trust me!”
“What?” retorts Slyth, recoiling. He shares a concerned glance with his master. Zalith relents, nodding in acceptance as the naga fall in line behind me.
“Fine,” says the Prince.
We dismount our equus, then slowly make our way down to the village side by side. I keep a sidelong glance at Zalith, seeing his body shaking with anger the closer we draw to Vippera. I can’t blame him. The tyrant has been trying to take everything away from him since the day she arrived, including his life.
We raise our hands upon our approach. As we enter the enemy lines, I decide then to act on my plan. I immerse my mind into one of the spells I learned from the book given to me by Slyth.
I become so engrossed in silently reciting it that I take no notice of the enemy guards accosting and grabbing us. They restrain our arms behind our backs and lead us to Vippera, a cocky look of victory written across her face.
Still, I pay no mind to anything going on around me, doing my best to harness my arcane magic. Slyth taught me that the arcane type is magic in its absolute rawest form, and so it can be manipulated to do just about anything the caster desires. I hope now that he wasn’t bluffing, because I’m putting all of my faith in his words.
