The Poison Princess (24 page)

“Is this real?” Leina asked.

“It is,” Ruby replied.

“But… you died. I remember he…” She struggled
to think. “He sent you somewhere. Somewhere you were supposed to
die.”

“Yes, he did. The Abyss, but I didn’t die. I
had to come back for you.”

“He tricked me,” Leina said. “I was just a
little kid. I didn’t know what I was doing. He’d been my imaginary
friend for years, and I trusted him. He told me that if I just
wished hard enough I could play with him for real. After I did,
everything went kind of… hazy.”

“He corrupted you.”

“What have I done, Ruby?” Tears started to
fall from her eyes. “I killed mother and father. I tried to kill
you. So much death…”

“We’re going to fix this, Leina. I’ll find a
way to save you.”

“It hurts. I feel like there’s a boulder
crushing my chest. Everything I’ve done…”

“That wasn’t you,” Ruby assured her. “That
was the demon. He did all of this. Not you.”

Leina shook her head. “You don’t know what
he’s made me do… Things I’ve done with a smile… I’ve slaughtered
thousands of people all for his approval. Why would I do that?
Every night he comes to me… Makes me do things to him… Moreover, I
do them happily… I can’t be saved, Ruby.”

“I know that this has been a nightmare for
you, but--”

“You don’t know!” Leina screamed. Some of the
darkness was returning to her eyes.

“You’re right. Of course, you’re right. I
don’t know what you’ve been through, but I’m not going to abandon
you. I will find a way to save you from the demon.”

“What if I don’t deserve to be saved?” Leina
stared at the floor of the hallway in a daze.

“That’s nonsense. You’re a good person. The
demon can’t change that.”

“I was a good person. I’m not what I once
was, sister.”

“No, I can save you.”

“How?” Her voice had lost the tremble it
previously had. “Saying it doesn’t make it true.”

“I’m not sure yet. I thought I would start
with the Cloister. They’ve studied the nether realm for
generations. Surely they will know of a way to separate you from
the demon.”

“And then what?”

Ruby shrugged and looked away. “Then I find
it. Nothing will stop me, Leina. I’m going to save you. I’ll
separate you from the demon, and then I’ll kill it.”

“What makes you think you can kill it?” The
question was almost defiant.

“Because I have to. After everything it’s
done, there has to be justice. I have to save you, save our
kingdom, save our people. And I have to put it down.”

“I don’t need your help, you foolish girl.”
The voice had changed completely. Ruby looked back at her sister to
see the full corruption spread over her face once more.

Ruby backed up from Leina’s darkening form.
“What have you done with my sister?”

Leina tossed off the blanket and pursued the
princess. “Your sister is dead. I am all that remains of her. I am
not corrupted, I am freed. Free to do as I see fit. The demon saved
me. Saved me from the shackles that this world sought fit to place
on me.”

“You don’t know what you’re saying.” Ruby
backed up into a wall.

Leina placed her hands on either side of the
princess, leaning in close. “I know exactly what I’m saying, sister
dearest. This place is better without you. You should have stayed
dead. I don’t need you.”

“That’s the demon talking. You have to fight
it. He’s done something to you.”

Leina arched back and laughed. “Done
something to me? You really want to know what he’s done to me? No.
I know what you want to hear. What I’ve done to him? Mmm, yes.
Every night I beg him to let me suck his prick. To swallow every
last hot drop he shoots down my throat. I plead for him to stick it
inside me. To bend me over and fuck me, until I moan with desire.
Make me howl with pleasure.” She imitated the sounds, echoing
through the hall before continuing, “And do you know how long I’ve
been doing it?” She smiled so widely, it looked like her cheeks
would split and bleed. “Every night since I got rid of you! Since I
was a tiny little thing hanging off the tip of his cock!”

Ruby cried for what her sister had become.
Finally, choking away the tears, she managed to say, “I will save
you,”

“Say it again! That’ll make it true!” She
mocked. “Do you know how many men and women and children I’ve
killed? How many I’ve personally tortured, until they could fight
it no longer? Until their bodies gave in and simply ceased to live?
That’s what I do for fun! I stick people on spikes and watch their
bodies slowly slide down until even their skulls are pierced! I
eat, while I watch! Sometimes I eat pieces of them and make them
watch!”

“I will--”

“YOU CANNOT SAVE ME!” She roared with such
ferocity that the princess had no choice but to believe it.

Ruby slumped down against the wall only able
to cry, wishing the dream would end. Leina leaned down and looked
into her sister’s eyes. She wiped the tears from Ruby’s cheeks and
lifted her chin with a finger. “I’m going to kill you, sister.
Probably slowly if I can manage it. Though, you always were such a
weak little thing. I expect you won’t last very long. Maybe I’ll
keep you alive and share your body with my demon. Maybe he’ll like
to play with you and use your holes before I put you on one of my
spikes. I’m not jealous. He has his needs after all. My advice?
Stay away from this place. There is no redemption here, big sister.
If you come home, you will only find death.”

Ruby had nothing left. Her sister had emptied
her out and left her a hollow shell. With a terrible cracking
sound, the world split in half and the princess was left alone in
her own, grey dream. She curled into a ball and cried, until the
terrible nightmare finally ended.

“Why!? Why did you make me see that!?” Ruby
shouted, tears rolling relentlessly down her cheeks. She stood up
from the chair only to fall to the floor, landing on her knees and
sobbing in a ball. The princess lost control of the lever, and the
poison began to spew out from her mouth despite all the time she’d
spent teaching herself how to harness it.

Master sighed loudly. “And she’s spitting up
again.”

Mad raised an eyebrow. “Told you she
would.”

“All over my rug.”

“I told you to move it. You never listen to
me!”

“He never listens to anyone, Mad,” Prime
agreed.

Scarlett ignored the little men and ran
across the room, embracing her princess, wrapping her arms around
her. She turned and glared at the little Hendriks. “What did you do
to her?” she demanded.

“We showed her what we had to,” Prime said,
stepping down from his stool.

“What does that mean, you little--”

Master cleared his throat before adding, “We
reintroduced her to her sister. We showed her who she has
become.”

“Showed her the demon’s corruption!” Mad
cackled.

“Look at what you’ve done! What was this
supposed to prove?” Scarlett asked.

“It isn’t supposed to prove anything, demon,”
Overlord said.

“Ruby needed to see what had become of her
sister,” Supreme explained. “She needed to understand what she
faces. She needs to understand the task she’s undertaking to save
her sister.”

The princess looked up, her face flooded with
tears and black mucus dripping from her nose. She forced control
back over the lever in her chest. “How?” she demanded, spitting the
poison from her lips. “How could I ever save something like that?
That wasn’t my sister. My sister is dead. That foul beast has
destroyed her.”

“As Mad has seen it, there is certainly a
way,” Supreme insisted.

Ruby wiped her face and forced herself to
stop crying her black, oily tears. “How?” she repeated in a
quivering voice, looking to the wild Hendrik.

“The knowledge will be given in the
Cloister!” he cheered. “There is yet hope and redemption before
death!”

Those were the same words that the Oracle had
chosen for her prophecy to the princess. Knowledge. Hope.
Redemption. Death. She was still unclear what either Thea or the
Hendriks had meant. “Whose redemption? Whose death?”

Mad smiled. “Unclear. That decision hasn’t
been made yet.”

“Who decides that?”

“You, princess. Always you.”

Ruby went silent. She felt like she was
getting nowhere.

“What did you see?” Scarlett asked her,
whispering at a level intended to keep the Hendriks from
hearing.

“My nightmare,” she replied, standing up. “We
have to go to the Cloister. If there really is a way to save her,
then I’m supposed to find it there.”

“I will follow you anywhere, my
princess.”

“And what about you lot?” Ruby asked the
divided Hendriks. “Am I supposed to just leave you here?”

“This is where we belong,” Prime replied.
“Freeing us would only lead to our death by the queen.”

“As much as I hate to agree with him,” Master
began, “he is right. Our place in your journey ends here. It is
time for you to leave.”

The others nodded with him, while Ruby wiped
the last of the tears from her eyes.

Scarlett wrapped her arm around the princess’
and asked, “Are you ready?”

“Let’s go,” she replied.

The demon helped Ruby toward the door, where
they exited the Hendriks’ cell that was anything but a prison and
set back toward the stairs. Ruby kind of turned off her mind at
that point, allowing Scarlett to take over. The princess wasn’t
paying any attention to where they were going; her focus, like a
frightened turtle, had shrunk back inside the shell of her mind,
still focusing on the dream state she’d woken from. You couldn’t
really blame her after what she had just seen and heard. Her sister
was a very different person than what she remembered.

The demon at her side took the lead, and she
propped Ruby up, as they descended the stairs. The urge to show the
Hendriks some proper respect for Ruby had been difficult to resist,
but it was clear that she needed to get out of there. After walking
down a flight, they came across a guard. The princess was in no
condition to deal with it, so her demon handled it. Strengthened by
her bond to Ruby, taking care of a single guard was far from
challenging for Scarlett.

She raised her unoccupied hand toward the
guard and then pushed it forward. The guard followed her hand’s
instruction, tumbling backwards down the spiral steps with
incredible velocity. She heard his body break and tear and the
metal of his sword and armor crash against the stone steps. Ruby
seemed not to notice. The noise, however, attracted another pair of
guards. Scarlett dealt with them similarly, tossing them down the
stairs with her magic.

The pair of women soon came to the bottom
floor, stepping over the twisted and mangled form of the three
guards. Another sat at a desk, but he had the good sense to stay
seated and let the women pass by. Scarlett pushed open the door
prior to approaching it, pushing it with her power as well, and
they then crossed the threshold and were back in Elythine’s
streets. The night had come and gone during Ruby’s dream state, and
the light of dawn washed over their faces, as they moved forward
into the city.

Scarlett knew where Ruby wanted to go next,
but she didn’t know how they intended to get there. She didn’t want
to trouble the princess though, as she knew that whatever she had
seen in the dream was still causing her more than a little
distress. She would take care of this small matter for her
princess, while she recuperated.

The demon escorted Ruby to the edge of town
on the west side of the city, closest to where she understood the
Cloister to be. Perhaps, she thought, she could find some
transportation to the monk’s monastery. Scarlett sat her princess
down near a stone fountain, while she went to ask around. There was
a young man tending a horse at a stable, who she approached.

“Excuse me,” she said.

He stopped brushing the horse and turned to
face the demon, his eyes tracing up every curve of her beautiful
form. He didn’t even seem to pay much attention to the horns on her
head, choosing instead to spend his time on her other, more
attractive body parts. Finally, he stuttered, “C-C-Can I help
you?”

“I’d be careful,” she warned. “The last
person to look at me like that is a puddle of filth.”

“You mean he’s lying in a puddle of his own
filth?” he asked.

“I really don’t,” Scarlett said with a
strange little smile.

The young man cleared his throat. “Right…
Well, then, how can I help you?”

“I’m trying to find transportation to the
Cloister. Is there someone here who can do that for me?”

“No one goes that far. It would just cost too
much to be worthwhile.”

This wouldn’t stop Scarlett. She twisted her
hand, pushing it through the veil between realities to retrieve
another (or possibly the same) bar of gold. “Would this cover your
costs?”

The young man stared with awe at the gold. He
had clearly never seen that much money in all of his life. “I-I-I
think we can come to an arrangement.”

“I suspected as much. You just work out
whatever little details you need. I’ll retrieve my friend.”

The young man nodded, and Scarlett left to
find the princess and tell her the news. Ruby wasn’t where the
demon had left her but had instead moved to the fountain and was
looking down into the water. She stared at her own reflection
thinking how hopeless her quest felt.

“I’ve got us a ride to the Cloister, Ruby,”
the demon told her.

“How did he do it?” the princess asked,
ignoring the news.

“How did who do what?”

“The craggy hand demon. How did he corrupt my
sister? There was so little of the girl I remember left inside
her.”

“I’m not sure what you--”