Page 35 of Light and Shadow
Warm blood runs down my cheek. My focus slips for a moment, but I gather myself and show him the beautiful new elven man of perhaps twenty, who sits beside Venora on her black throne. “You mean nothing to her. Once she’s used you up,she’ll discard you like she has so many before.” I’m making a guess, but it hits home, and his eyes dart toward her.
“She lies.” Venora reaches for me with both hands as if she might strangle me.
The moment she grips my throat, she pulls her smoking fingers back and screams. Her flesh bubbles, and the burn spreads.
Stunned, I falter, releasing my attack on Ciaran. Had I burned her? Is that why she can’t touch me?
He straightens, and despite what I’ve shown him, he runs to her aid.
A thunderous cracking of wood and stone overshadows her agonized shrieking.
The castle is collapsing. I’m prepared to be buried alive. It can’t be worse than what I’ve already suffered. Instead of falling stone and eternal darkness, daylight shines through, blinding me to the room as Aaran’s face flashes in my mind. Courage wells up inside me. I stagger to my feet and launch myself at Venora with my hands outstretched toward her face.
My index finger makes contact with her left cheek and leaves a nasty burn just as Ciaran bats me away.
I crash to the ground and slide until my shoulder hits a pillar.
Dust and rubble fly in every direction. Booted feet on the marble floor and battle cries hurt my ears. Total chaos surrounds me, but someone lifts me from the floor and carries me out of the way. Aaran, Nainsi, Jax, and several others raise their swords to attack Ciaran, who also lifts his weapon.
A short stocky man screams, “I get the witch!”
The hall fills with shadow demons, all screeching like banshees as they surround Venora and Ciaran before my rescuers reach her. Gray shadows lift them and crash through one of the windows to carry them away.
The silence that follows is bliss.
Bert’s concerned face comes into focus. “I’ve got you, Harper.” Even though his voice is calm, he’s on his guard.
“I burned her.” I stare at my fingers. My blood, and maybe hers, mark my skin. The pain of a hundred cuts and bruises lances through me as the threat subsides. The room spins, Bert’s face blurs, and everything goes black.
Aaran
I drop my sword and rush to the side wall where Bert is holding an unconscious Harper. Her dress is in tatters. Blood, dried and fresh, covers her, but still she breathes. My heart is pounding so hard I can’t catch my breath.
Charging into the great hall, I focused on battle. Now, it’s hard to hold my composure in the face of what Harper must have suffered. I cup her face where blood still drips from three long cuts along her cheek. “Harper?” My instinct is to shake her awake. I need to know she’s alive and that her mind is still sound. “I should never have made you come here.”
While Bert holds her as if she were his child, he shakes his head. “She came because she wanted to. It was her choice. It was the right thing to do, and our Harper is a person who always does right. Don’t diminish her choice by taking it away from her.”
He’s right, but I want her well, whole. Whatever she suffered in the hours it took us to arrive, I cannot imagine. Is my Harper still inside her?
Nainsi puts her hand on my shoulder. “Let’s get her out of this tainted place. She needs healing.”
Again, someone else is more rational than me. Again, my emotions have clouded my judgment. I slip my arm under her knees and around her back.
“Be gentle with her. She’s beaten up, and even passed out, probably hurts.” Bert stands as I lift Harper from his embrace.
Turning, I’m stunned to see dozens of elves walking out doors and the shadows of pillars. Wearing rags, they’re emaciated and approach with heads bowed.
For an instant, I pull Harper closer to protect her, but these elves are not a danger.
Jax speaks to one of them, then approaches me. “They were taken from the northern city of Fioseil and kept as slaves. Their magic is bound. That’s how she kept them.”
I nod, but my priority is getting Harper out of this oppressive castle’s dark magic. Still, the shuffle of many feet following behind me adds the weight of each one’s safety heavy on my shoulders.
“The witch won’t stay away,” Fancor says. “She only ran because she was injured. I’m guessing your woman did the wounding. This human must be stronger than she looks.” He strides ahead toward an area just outside the wall, where tattered tents circle a stone well.
More elves, some sickly, step out of their makeshift homes.
There are so many. How will I get them all to safety and get Harper to Tús Nua under my mother’s protection? “Jax, can you and your soldiers see what these people need and how bad their condition is?”
