I met with the three generals stationed here, who were acting as Viv—and by extension, my proxies—commanding the soldiers. Kenneth, Silvio and Sasha. Sasha stepped forward and bowed her head to me, while the other two knelt in deference. Sasha had been my sister’s best friend. I had always suspected they were more than friends, and if the grief I witnessed her go through when we lost Jahnah was any indicator, I would say the answer was yes.
She spoke first. ‘The one you want is camped a kilometer out from the border. He’s?—’
‘I don’t care to know the specifics,’ I interrupted. ‘I don’t need his name or his background. He’s a barbarian.’
Nodding, she continued, ‘Everett, Prince Demir’s second and the general of the Northern battalion, has already left for the Academy. Julian, the general for the Southern battalion, is back in the capitol reporting to the Morgadian King.’ Everett and I attended the Academy together. He was Demir’s right hand and someone I nearly loathed just as much. They were polar opposites—Everett had short, clean-cut brown hair, even darker skin and he was all brawn. Demir had olive skin offset by honey coloured eyes, and his hair was a rich mahogany that alwayslooked intentionally ruffled. And although he had a physique to rival Everett’s and towered over everyone at the Academy, he was the brains of the duo.
Kenneth handed me an image of the general I would be targeting tonight. Silvio spoke next, ‘He doesn’t leave his tent once he’s gone in for the night. He will likely be awake, though, as he typically falls asleep in the early hours of the morning. But there is a rule in their camp that no one disturbs him unless they are under attack. You will have no interruptions.’ Taking it, I looked at the image of the smiling man who had so easily mutilated one of my oldest serving generals. He didn’t look like a savage beast, not like I did. His eyes were warm and inviting, while mine were cold and intimidating.
Cain landed beside me, and in a cloud of black heavy smoke, he morphed and handed me a piece of paper containing a map that showed exactly where I could find the remaining general, along with a final note stating that Visarous was having a tantrum in the woods. The Forest Fae would undoubtedly be pissed if he gave up their position, but I trusted Cain to handle things if Visarous went too far. I unbuckled my sword and handed it to Cain. He raised an eyebrow at me, not liking that I was going into enemy territory without a weapon.
‘My sword is a dead giveaway, even when using my gifts. I can’t bring it. Besides I’m just as deadly with my bare hands but should that fail, I have some much smaller—and much sharper—blades hidden on my person.’ I winked as I turned away.
Thick, heavy clouds of smoke seeped out of my skin and consumed me; with each step, I morphed into the person I had seen in the photograph. I coughed, clearing my throat, as even my vocal cords changed to allow me to sound like the older man.
Seven
It took twenty minutes to reach the base of the camp. Only a few Morgadian soldiers were still awake. Having shifted into their general they paid their respects while I nodded graciously and continued on towards the main tent and base of their operations. This was where it could get risky if I ran into him or someone who had just been with him in another location. I circled the main tent once I found it. It was large and made of canvas, with the Morgadian royal crest emblazoned over it—a snake wrapped around a sword in gold and black. I heard a fire crackling, the occasional rustle of paper or the slight creak of a chair. It seemed he was alone, just as Silvio had said.
Entering the tent, he barely looked up. Assuming I was one of his men, he grunted that he had asked not to be disturbed and waved me off. Walking through the tent, my fingers trailed the weapon racks that lined the wall until I picked up the thickest blade I could find. Drawing the chair out from in front of his desk, I sat down across from him as I pointed the tip of the blade just underneath his chin. At this, his eyes widened as he finally drew himself away from the papers he had been consumed by. He stared at me in disbelief, stammering andunable to utter a sound at the shock of seeing himself when he looked up. He drew his hands to his eyes and wiped them in an effort to rid himself of what could only be a hallucination at that point. He probably thought he had fallen asleep at his desk and was having a nightmare.
Slowly, I allowed the heavy black smoke to seep from every pore of my skin until it pooled at my feet, and as it cleared, he was no longer staring at himself but at the Queen of Maureia. Before he could shout or move, I pressed the tip of his sword harder against the skin of his neck, drawing a few drops of blood in the process. He was at my mercy.
‘Do you know why I’m here?’ His eyes widened as realisation struck.
‘Revenge.’ He squared his shoulders. This wasn’t just an extension of the war but a very personal act of retaliation. It was not often that I bothered returning favours such as these myself, but this had been a step too far. My reputation preceded me, and I saw traces of fear glimmer in his dark brown eyes. I was merciless and sadistic in my punishments. Recomposing himself, he straightened his back and spat at me in a display of defiance. I couldn’t help but chuckle. I had already seen the fear in his eyes and latched onto that euphoric feeling. Now I got to hunt down that terror until I could bring it back to the surface and make him drown in it.
A twisted, maniacal smile crossed my face as I rose and circled the table until I was behind him. I stabbed the sword down into the chair right between his legs as one of my hidden blades made it to the inside of his neck. A bead of sweat trailed down his temple as his breath caught in his throat. Grabbing him around the throat with my other hand I dug my talon shaped nails deep into his skin. Would I slice his neck open first or strangle him to death? That was the question I saw waging war in his head—the same question I asked myself. Desperation bleeding through, he struggled against my grip his hands pullingat my arm but I was stronger and the moment I pressed the tip of the blade deeper into the crevice of his neck he stilled.
Not wasting any time, I drew my blade back and flipped it, slamming the hilt of it into the side of his temple. He became woozy, teetering on the edge of consciousness, but I didn’t want him unconscious for this part. Only docile. I kicked the chair from under him as he slammed onto the floor, furthering his delirium. I sat on his chest, pinning his arms under my knees and lifted his chin towards me. ‘I will do things to you that will make you beg for death but you’ll be unable to meet it. I will drag this out until your body collapses and gives up on itself from the pain. We will enjoy these last remaining hours of night together and you will bleed out as the sun rises in the morning, knowing you will never live out another day again.’
He groaned, unable to fully comprehend everything I had said through the ringing in his mind. With that, I opened his mouth and pulled out his tongue. He feebly tried to struggle against me but in one quick swipe I sliced through his tongue dropping it to the floor. He tried to scream but he couldn’t make the sounds and began to choke on his own blood as it pooled in his mouth. Now I could do what I wanted without worrying about him calling for help or the inane sound of him begging me to stop.
I took his sword from the sheath strapped to his hip and admired the steel. It was newly sharpened and far better than the one I had chosen that remained lodged in the chair on the ground. This would make for light work. As he had done to my general, I did the same to him. I cut through one arm crunching through bone. He tried to scream but it was a gargled mess as he choked on his own blood. The second arm was quicker to cut through as his fight left his body from the sheer enormity of the pain he was experiencing. Tears rolled down his face as his body convulsed and shook. I took my time with every cut, drawing out the moment. It made me sick to know that he had done thisto my general, to Bradford—a man who had sacrificed so much to stand on the front lines, to stand for me. He was my father’s best friend. He had been like an uncle to me growing up. I remembered that, as a child, he would carry around pieces of parchment paper to fold into little swans every time I saw him. I didn’t deserve the love and loyalty my people gave me, but I would do what I could to make this right. To repay the sacrifice that Bradford had made for me and my cause.
I enjoyed punishing those who deserved it, and this man did. I didn’t know his name, and I didn’t know if he had a family, but I knew he was my enemy, and I understood his actions and their consequences. He had permanently altered the life of one of my people, someone who was akin to family while growing up. Bradford would never fight again or even be able to take care of himself and his family. It was only fair that the man who now lay beneath me and was bleeding suffered a worse fate. I didn’t want this man to bleed out and die before he could experience the extent of the pain he had inflicted. I placed the blood-soaked blade in the firepit at the center of the tent. The droplets of blood sizzled in the flames as the tinge of burning flesh coated the air and when it glowed red with the heat of the flames I drew it out, marvelling at its glow. The general lay on the floor, barely aware of my presence. But that changed the moment I pressed the hot blade against his open wounds where his arms had been. He screamed without noise but I covered his mouth and muffled his tongueless groans for good measure until her passed out from the pain. As he slept, I cut through the flesh and bone of his thighs and cauterized those wounds. I would decide when I was done with him, not his body.
While I waited for him to regain consciousness, I rifled through the papers on his desk. They were plans and strategies for the next assault on our people. Nothing that Viv had not already predicted. They historically played at war like children bumbling around with no real end goal in sight. We had one, butnot the resources that Morgad ever had to make a real difference in this stalemate. If truth be told, it felt as though they had been biding their time but were about to strike the final blow in this long raging war. I felt it in my bones. The plan had been set in motion years ago, during my mother’s reign. It was now up to me to play catch up. One of the papers caught my eye—a map of our lands with defensive positions marked for their soldiers around our Ancient Forest. There was nothing else in all of the reports or papers that expanded on why they were interested in the forest, but I would soon find out.
I buried the papers in his desk drawer, not wanting his people to assume we had gotten to their plans and changed tactics. Just in time for the sun to rise, he awoke, groaning at the pain that coursed through every inch of what remained of his body. Trying to move but realising he was unable, panic flooded his features. Gone was the smiling man from the picture. Using my sword, I cut a hole in the roof of the tent and let the first rays of the morning sun peek through, just as I had promised.
‘I promised you the sunrise before you died, did I not?’ He wept, and as I watched the tears trail down his cheeks, I felt nothing. ‘You only need one eye to see the sunrise, don’t you?’ I asked, and before he could react, my blade pierced through his right eye. He screamed wordlessly against the pain; limbless, he was unable to back away or fight it anymore. ‘Do you want the pain to end?’ I cooed. He nodded his head vigorously as blood poured down his face. I watched him, observing every fleck of emotion in his eyes. Had I ever felt the desperation to live like that in my life? I hadn’t and I doubted I ever would. I slammed my small blade into his ear, piercing his brain. He died instantly as I watched the emotion fade from his eyes and glaze over. My job was done. I left the blade in, the hilt marked with my royal crest—two dragons circling each other in a dance. They would know who did this and why it had happened.
I was covered in blood and couldn’t walk through the rest of the campsite unnoticed like this. I searched the cupboards andfound a fresh set of clothes and chainmail. I placed one of the general’s severed hands into my pocket, the one that contained a ring with the Morgadian crest. I morphed into one of the guards I had seen upon my entry the previous night. He would likely be asleep, or at least I hoped so, as I couldn’t risk taking the form of the general and arousing suspicion once they found his body. I could not let the secret of my ability get out. I walked through the rest of the camp unnoticed and continued into the forest, taking off the chain mail. It was heavy after a long night of bloodletting.
While approaching the border of my own lands, I noticed Cain in the sky above me. Morphing back into my own form, I nodded to him in acknowledgement. He banked and flew faster to our camp, warning the others that I was approaching the border. Likely to prevent my archers from attempting to kill their own queen if they see someone in the enemy’s uniform trying to sneak in.
When I arrived, all of the generals and my advisors were waiting just on the other side of the border. I walked past without even acknowledging them and went directly to the tents where they were housing the injured, including Bradford. When I entered the tent, everyone became deathly quiet. Sienna waved me over to the bed where Bradford lay recovering. He looked as though he was barely holding on to this world; a heavy blankness coated him.
I kneeled beside him. Something not one person in that room had seen in their lifetime—the monarch kneeling in front of someone of lower rank. Even Bradford stifled his pained moans of shock at what I had just done. I pulled out the hand I had severed and showed him the ring before placing it beside him. He looked at me, bewildered and almost confused, so I relayed everything I did to the man who had hurt him in excruciating detail. I described every moment, every sound. The bloody garbled screams, the crunching of bone under my sword and the sound of his skin and flesh melting as I cauterised thewounds. I described the smell of piss, blood and melting flesh. I described the fear in his eyes, the loss of hope and the resignation. By the time I was done, Bradford’s body and breathing eased. He had a smile on his face as he thanked me, it was barely a whisper. He could not believe the lengths I had gone to for him.
‘I am the one that needs to thank you. Thank you for trusting me as your leader, even though it brought you here. You honour me through your sacrifice, and I will forever be grateful for all that you have done for me and our people. When you recover, I will find a place for you to continue your work by my side. Though your body may be gone, your mind is sharper than steel; we have need of you yet. Your family will be provided for and Sienna will personally ensure that you have the best healers doing everything they can for you and your recovery. If you require anything, tell me. You served me well, now it is my turn to serve you,’ I said.
A single tear trailed down the side of his face; the man who had looked like he was on the brink of death only moments ago now appeared almost joyful, grateful. Mustering all his strength he looked at me. ‘Thank you, my queen. We will follow you always, in this world and to the spirit realm.’
Turning, I walked through the tent and left as every general, soldier, and Wiccan looked at me in disbelief. Some with admiration, others with fear and the rest with shock—shock at what I had done to the enemy, shock at the fact that I had just kneeled and expressed my gratitude with such sincerity, or perhaps both. Leaving without looking back, I headed towards my tent. I needed a few hours of sleep before we made our way to the Academy. I would tell them about the maps I had come across later.
Viv woke me after a few hours, sitting in my tent by the fire pit and balancing her sword on the back of her hand. I pulled myself into the chair opposite her, rubbing the sleep from myeyes and noticing the distinct smell of what I had done lingering in my nostrils as I sniffed at the air.
