One
My Master of War dragged a beaten and bloody body toward me through the great hall. Sitting on my throne surrounded by my people I watched carefully taking in the scene before me. Throwing the man down at my feet, Vivianna let out a satisfied chuckle. His body slid across the marble floor. With his hands bound, head covered, he was unable to stop himself. The force of the last step at the foot of my throne slammed him to a halt. A quiet descended over my court as my people prepared themselves for the show that was to come.
‘My Queen, I bring you a treat. A spy we found lurking in the sewage tunnels that lie beneath the castle. We believe he’s been sent by the Morgadian King,’ Viv said, kneeling down and bowing her head in deference to me. Her long brown braids, falling from behind her ears, covered her face. She lifted her gaze; her sun-kissed skin and piercing green eyes greeted me along with a scar that travelled from the edge of her lip to the tip of her eyebrow. She did not become my Master of War for just any reason. She was battle hardened and stronger than most; she was taller than me and the chainmail she wore showcased a physique that rivalled most of my men.
‘Is he your King, Vivianna?’ I stared at her defiantly.
She blustered slightly, ‘What? No! Why would you even ask that?’
‘Then do not use his title in these halls let alone these lands. To us, he is less than nothing—not a King, not even a man; he is nothing. So, you will not use any titles that offer him an ounce of respect.’ Bowing her head lower, she apologised for forgetting her place.
Viv and I went to the Academy together a training ground for future leaders across all the realms. We have known each other since we were children. She was a Skin Seeper like myself and many of my people, gifted with the ability to change and morph aspects of her body and face to disguise herself but never fully able to shed her likeness completely.
‘Cain is this true? If he’s a spy, what is his purpose here?’ I asked, turning to my Master of Secrets who sat perched on top of my throne. Cain’s gift went a step further than most Skin Seepers, shifting into various birdlife, his favourite form being that of a black Grackle. This was a gift that was rare even among the purest Skin Seeper bloodlines; Cain was half Forest Fae, which made his gifts all the more remarkable.
Cain, being mute, made him the perfect person to manage my shadows and whispers and keep my darkest secrets. At my heavy-handed encouragement, an Elder Wiccan gifted him the ability to transfer his thoughts to parchment when I brought him into the fold of my council of advisors. Replying to my questions about the spy who lay powerless at the bottom of my throne, Cain dropped a small scroll of parchment into my hand.
He goes by Blake. He’s new to Morgad’s circle of spies but I don’t believe the Morgadian King sent someone so inexperienced. I think he was sent by his son, Demir. Your old friend. My whispers say he’s trying to find out what your route to the Academy’s Alumni Ball in four days will be. He plans to make a move if an opportunity presents itself to get to you before you are on Academy grounds, where the wards prevent himfrom laying a hand on you.
The ball. It had been a year since I graduated from the Academy and took my rightful place as the Queen of Maureia at the age of twenty. Demir was the heir to the throne of Morgad, my people’s greatest threat and throughout my time at the Academy he made my life a living hell any chance he could. Thanks to the wards we couldn’t kill or use our gifts against each other but that didn’t stop people from engaging in psychological warfare or trying to seriously maim and injure their enemies. I could still vividly remember the last class I had with him, which was the Art of Negotiation—a course all future leaders had to complete, as it taught the history of various successful and unsuccessful peace talks and had us dissect what could have been done better. Class had just ended, and as usual, he had been staring daggers at me. As if on command, the current flavour of the month he was fucking noticed this and whispered something in his ear, making him grin before she stood from her seat and threw a dagger at my head. It missed, of course, given I was far faster than she could ever hope to be.
In the time since I ascended the throne, I have never met him on the battlefield where our borders meet. His father wouldn’t allow him to risk his life, so Demir was left in charge of sending others to their deaths. I on the other hand had a bloodlust that could only be satiated by drawing the edge of my blade through someone’s neck and watching as blood flew out in every direction staining the soil beneath my feet. The sound of a body falling to the ground made me almost giddy. It is also what my people expected of me. If I were to do what Demir did and send orders from a safe distance, my people would not respect me enough to follow me and die for me. They would revolt.
‘Blake, is it?’ Standing from my throne, I stepped slowly letting the sound of my black leather boots echo throughout the hall. I could see him flinch slightly as each pad of my foot sent fear through him. Blake squirmed in front of me trying to pull away from the imminent threat of my looming presence. Hisattempts were fruitless, as the hessian bag over his head cut off his vision and restraints bound his hands.
Crouching down in front of him, the black leather fabric of my fighting leathers tightened against my thighs. Placing a finger under his chin I tilted his face up towards me pulling him in close to whisper in his ear.
‘You’re going to die today Blake.’ He sobbed a muffledNothrough the hessian bag. Pulling it off him, I saw a young blonde boy, not quite a man, who was scared and panicked, regretting every life choice that had led him to this moment. In his light green eyes, I saw true fear as I took in my own reflection that caused it: my brown hair, which almost looked midnight black, porcelain skin, and piercing sapphire blue eyes that held an animalistic, predatory glint.
‘Please, no! I’ll tell you anything. Whatever you want to know,’ he begged, the desperation in his eyes evident. I knew he was telling the truth; that was one of the many gifts given to me when I ascended the throne. Being Skin Seepers, my people were descended from the first dragons. The way our rulers were chosen was through the eternal flame, the same flame that has continued to burn from the mouth of the very first dragon when he selected his first human ally from my bloodline. When I ascended, it merged with my soul, coursing through my veins, and my brown eyes transformed into blue.
With the eternal flame roiling inside me, I now had the ability to recognise truth when it was spoken. Whether friend or foe, I would know if the words I heard were rooted in lies or fact. It made interrogating my enemies far easier but also made the circle of those I could trust incredibly small.
Very quickly, I was able to identify the people around me with ulterior motives and the depths of their deceit. People had thought they could lie through omission if I wasn’t asking the right questions, but the flame would tug at me, telling me there was something more to be said. Those stupid enough to outright lie to me faced a different kind of wrath, as the flame within myveins burned with such intensity that it took me months to stop flinching from the pain as I got used to the sensation.
Blake was telling the truth. That I could be certain of. Most would have killed themselves rather than offer up information, but he was too young to be a spy of any real worth. Perhaps Demir thought I would have compassion for the young man, but he was mistaken.
‘Tell me, what did your dear princeling tell you about me?’ His eyes widened as the cogs in his mind whirred, before he settled on telling me the truth. I knew what things had likely been said, as there was nothing but ill will between Demir and me.
‘H-he said you are…cruel and vicious. That you would kill everyone in Morgad if you had the chance. You are sick and twisted, and you don’t deserve to lead. You are darkness incarnate, you are a poison to these lands that will infect everyone and everything if given the chance.’ My people sniggered around the hall. They knew this to be true, but to us, these were the traits of a good leader; they described the only person who deserved to sit on our throne.
‘He’s not wrong.’ I laughed a cold, bone-chilling laugh. ‘Tell me what information you have managed to relay to him so far and what he plans to do with it.’
‘I haven’t reported back yet. I was caught before I could make it to your council room. All I know is that he wants to kill you. He wants to bring you back to his father as a trophy and prove himself to his people by taking your life and ending this war. I was supposed to find out your travel plans to the Academy.’
The blue flame simmered under my skin. He was withholding something. Pulling one of my golden blades from the inside of my boot I pointed it at the crook of his neck pressing down on his artery. ‘The whole truth.’ I pressed harder until a single drop of blood coated my blade. The Morgadians didn’t know of my gifts; they were a heavily guarded secret, and ourlands were warded that anyone who stepped foot outside of our territory forgot them aside from me.
‘He has people in the forest where our border meets yours at the mountain base of the Academy. His archers are ready to get you before you cross onto protected ground. I would be careful if I were you. He wants you gone. I’ve never seen him hate anyone so viscerally the way he hates you.’
I chuckled with genuine amusement. ‘I assure you, the feeling is mutual. Since you’ve told me everything I wanted to know, how about I reward you and let you live?’ Sweeping my arms out in a benevolent gesture, I continued, ‘See? I’m not entirely cruel.’ The poor boys’ eyes shone with hope for the first time. ‘But as I promised you would die today, I have to at least send you back with a message’. Grabbing my blade the rope around his wrists gave way, his lithe frame slumping back to the ground. My boot slammed into his back, his spine arching as a groan fell from his mouth. Without giving him a moment to breathe I stepped onto his arm crushing it under the heel of my boot. Bones cracking echoed through the hall as a primal scream erupted from his body. Viv’s face mirrored mine: pure, unadulterated joy. I know if I had turned to look at my court their eyes would be as hungry as mine. Crouching down beside him—blade poised between his eyes—I drew his foggy gaze back to me.
‘Shut. Up. I need you to stop screaming so you can hear these words.’ I pressed harder, focusing him on the present, not the pain that laced his body. ‘Tell my dearest princeling to try his worst. Iwillkill him. It will be slow and bloody. By the end of it he will be begging me to take his life because death will be a sweet reprieve from what I will put him through. Tell him, I am coming for him.’ Looking at Viv, I gestured for her to come closer. ‘Hold him down, my message isn’t over yet.’ Sitting on his stomach, I pinned his body under my own. Visarous stepped forward to help his twin hold the spy down.
My hand tensed under the pressure of my dagger as I etched the first letter of my name onto his pale forehead. Blakethrashed, tears rolling down his face as a choked scream escaped him.Queen Skylar, the bloody writing read. Demir would never be able to use him again.
Visarous let go and stepped away as soon as I was done. Being a Spirit Caster, he was bound by the old ways; he could never take a life. His solemn duty was to protect souls in this life and the next. Should he kill, he would become an outcast and be exiled from the cloth, losing everything and living the remainder of his life under the mountains with no contact from another living creature until the day of his death. The brutality of what I had done had likely made his skin crawl. Although Viv and he were twins, they looked nothing alike. One of the steps to becoming a Spirit Caster was the stripping, during which he had to bathe for three days in spirit infused waters, they stripped him of everything. His brown hair had turned white as snow, his green eyes a translucent blue, and his rich, honeyed skin a porcelain white. It symbolised his letting go of his old self and everything that made him alive, becoming one with the spirit world and the Spirit Casters before him. Although the waters had changed his appearance, aside from his lean physique, his personality never changed. He was calculated and precise, every word in every interaction carefully chosen. But beneath his cold facade were subtle hints of something slightly sinister that I required in my closest advisors; that is why I chose him as my Master of Spirits.
Viv dragged Blake’s broken body away to dump him at the castle entrance. He could drag his own broken body back to Demir for all I cared.
