Witch Queen (2 page)

I watched the guards standing at attention
through the opening in the shrubs. They were all dressed in black
uniforms with the garish Temple of the Sun emblem emblazoned on
their fronts. Their swords and short knives had been forged with
the finest steel in all of Anglia and hung at the ready from their
weapons belts.

I could hardly breathe. Jon was in there
somewhere. I could feel it. Two days was an eternity to be trapped
in the temple’s prison. I only prayed that we weren’t too late. We
waited for the last of the evening light to dull and leave us
cloaked in the night’s shadows.

“It’s now or never,” I whispered to Will and
Leo. I turned to the others and raised my fist in the air, our
signal to get ready.

“You’re sure he’s in there.” Will’s voice
was low. His square, hard features and clipped short hair were
amplified by the shadows and made him appear more brutish than he
actually was.

“Yes. They’re keeping him below, in the
temple’s prison.” I was impressed at my own conviction because deep
down I wasn’t so sure anymore. I refused to let the men see my
courage waver. I had to be strong for them, but mostly for me.

“You know they’re keeping him there to lure
you in,” said Leo.

His wavy red locks stood out in the
semi-darkness. He wiped his brow with his filthy sleeve.

“The high priest, the sorcerer, wants you
dead. You know that. You know this smells like a trap.”

I clenched my jaw.

“I know. And it probably
is
a trap.
But I’m willing to risk it for Jon. Aren’t you?” My voice rose
dangerously high.

Leo’s blue eyes widened at the inference
that he might not be up for the rescue. For a moment I thought he
was going to chew my head off, but he gave me a silent nod
instead.

I unclenched my fists and relaxed my
shoulders.

“Let’s do this. Remember, wait for the
others to create the diversion we need to get past the guards, and
then the three of us make for the temple. Ready?”

Will and Leo nodded. I raised my hand and
waved the others on while the three of us waited.

On cue, the six rebels jumped to their feet
and charged towards the gate, swords drawn.

“For Anglia!” they screamed as they charged,
and I marveled at their courage. I prayed to the Goddess to keep
them alive.

The effect was instantaneous. The temple
guards snapped to attention at the sudden threat. Swords drawn,
they rushed to meet the rebels head on. The early night’s silence
was suddenly alive with the clamor of metal hitting metal, of metal
tearing into flesh, and of metal hacking into bone. The rebels’
swords sliced deeply into the approaching guards, but
their efforts were fruitless as the guards continued to attack as
though their wounds were nothing but feeble scratches.

One of the guards bellowed an inhuman scream
as he leapt towards one of our men. With a burst of unimaginable
speed and strength, he cut the unsuspecting man’s head clear off.
Blood spurted like a red fountain before the dead man’s body
toppled to the ground.

The man I knew as Ulrich reached out and
hacked at one of the guards with lightning speed. And just when I
thought he would actually kill the guard, a sword skewered him from
behind. Blood spat from his mouth as he fell face down into the
dirt. Another man, Durm, was caught completely unprepared and was
stopped dead by the strength of a guard creature. His sword flew
from his hand as he let out a bone-chilling scream. Two of the
guards bit down into his neck, and his body went limp.

I flinched as the sudden screams of terror
echoed into the cold night air. Part of me wanted to run out there
and help them, but that wasn’t the plan. And as much as it pained
me to watch these men die, I stayed still and waited.

My stomach turned at the sound of the men’s
screams, and my beating heart drummed in my ears. Timing was
everything in this plan. I had to wait for the exact moment when
the guards’ focus was solely on the rebels, so they wouldn’t notice
us slip past them.

Swallowing hard, I pushed the fears and
doubts from my mind.

“Now!” I whispered urgently.

The three of us ran towards the gate. With
my own short sword brandished before me, I bolted down the path and
made for the arched entrance to the gate. I ran so fast that the
battle a few feet away from me was a blur of silver swords and
black cloaks. I didn’t stop. My focus was on the temple and Jon. We
needed to put as much distance between ourselves and the guards as
we could.

Without breaking my speed, I took the first
sharp turn and ran faster. I hoped the loud footfalls and heavy
breathing behind me belonged to Will and Leo. We made a left,
passed the merchant district, and made for the holy district where
the lesser priests had their homes. The golden temple loomed before
us at the end of the main city road, and I became even more
sickened by its sight the closer I got. But I was more anxious than
I was angry
.

Damn this place. Damn all of it.

My breath scorched my throat, and my thighs
burned as I pushed on towards the temple, towards our quarry.

As we ventured deeper into the city, I
noticed how deserted and empty it was. Had the wealthy and noble
families fled? Were they dead? The cowards that they were, it
wouldn’t have surprised me if they had fled the city at the first
sight of the black magic infection.
Bastards.

A flicker of movement caught my eye.

A noble woman in a heavy gown of blue silk
embroidered with enough jewels to feed a small village and wearing
a tall gaudy hat scampered into the street. Her black, soulless
eyes widened at the sight of us and burned with the black sickness.
Her face was plagued with black veins and as haggard as a corpse. I
almost didn’t recognize her. She had been one of the women in the
street that day when Baul and Garth, the temple guards, had dragged
me through the city to meet the high priest. She had sneered,
viciously happy to see me going to my doom.

The woman tossed her head back and cried out
with a creature-like screech, “The black blight is upon you. Feel
its hand. Feel the powers of shadow and darkness for it is
everlasting and great!”

In a wild fury, she threw herself at me, but
her heavy gown slowed her movements. It was all I needed.

Without breaking my momentum, I swung my
sword in a perfect upwards arc and sliced the woman from her navel
to her neck. She stopped in her tracks, and her cries choked on her
own black infectious blood. She fell to the ground in a heap of
blue silk and black blood. I didn’t feel any remorse. I didn’t feel
anything at all.

More of the infected noblemen, women, and
children
slipped out of the shadows and came towards us. I
didn’t have time to deal with the emotions that surged inside me,
of how
wrong
all of this was, especially the children. I
ignored them, and we arrived at the foot of the temple. I hit the
stairs two at a time, Will and Leo running up behind me.

“Where are the prisons?” panted Will at my
side as we charged through the front doors.

Even in all the madness and confusion of our
plight, I had mapped out the temple in my mind the first time I was
here. And I remembered the layout well.

I slowed to a jog to catch my bearings.
“This way!”

I shot down the main hallway and took a
sharp right turn into a neighboring corridor. With my heart in my
throat, my steps were steady as I flew down the passageway. Torch
lights flickered as I ran, sending long shadows shimmering against
the stone walls. The hairs on the back of my neck rose, not at the
unnerving shadows but at the silent and empty corridor. There were
no courtesans, no priests, and no guards. We met no one as we
neared the entrance to the prisons in the bowels of the temple. I
made for the great wood doors and frowned. I remembered all too
well what lingered beyond.

“Elena, wait!” cried Will, his voice harsh
and out of breath. “This doesn’t feel right.”

“He’s right,” Leo’s voice of reason sounded
from behind me. “Why are there no guards? Why is it so empty?”

“Because it’s a trap, that’s why,” answered
Will.

Yes. It probably is
.

But I didn’t stop. Even though my mind
screamed that this was a trap, my legs wouldn’t stop. My heart
wouldn’t let me. Just the thought of Jon, so vivid and startling,
caused my eyes to flame with tears. The memory of his gentle
fingers on my skin, his kisses, his musty sweat smell—all of it was
so painful, I stifled a sob. I couldn’t lose him. I wouldn’t. I had
told Will and Leo that I would do whatever it took to get him
back.

Passing the threshold, I bolted down the
stairs and into the blackness of the prison tunnel. The hot, acrid
air and the smell of rot hit me like a slap in the face, but I kept
going. I felt the air move behind me, and I knew Will and Leo were
right with me. Perhaps this wasn’t a trap. Perhaps Jon wasn’t even
here. I couldn’t let myself get carried away with my fears.

He is alive and I
will find
him.

As I hit the last step, my boots splashed
through puddles of piss and human feces. I tore down through the
tight chamber doing my best to breathe through my mouth and not
vomit. The only sounds were those of our heavy treads. There were
no echoes of the moans I’d remembered from before.

The prison was empty, deserted, except for
us. I passed several cells, all of them empty. Where were all the
prisoners? I skidded to a stop and faced a wall of cells. The metal
bars were rusted with age and stained with unidentifiable grime.
Gasping for breath, I stumbled a few steps, trembling from head to
toe as I blinked through my tears and stared at the empty
cells.

I knew the signs of a panic attack.

“Jon? JON!” I screamed.

My voice echoed loudly in desperation. I ran
into a cell and kicked a piece of shredded cloth. And then I ran
into the one across from it. I ran into all the cells nearest me,
fighting the bile that rose in my throat whenever I found a cell
that was vacant. I didn’t care that Will and Leo were witnessing my
moment of weakness. I was desperate. My knees shook, and I knew I
was about to fall. I tried to control my breathing, but it was no
use. The cell’s corridor was already spinning.

I should never have left him behind. I
should have made him come with me.

“There’s no one here.” Leo’s voice was
tinged with regret and sorrow. “I’m sorry, Elena,” he soothed.
“We’re too late—”

“I’m here.”

The voice was faint and reverberated within
the shadows from the opposite end of the chamber. But there was no
doubt in my mind that it belonged to Jon.

“Jon!”

Frantic, I shot towards the voice, never
wavering until I came to the exact location where I had heard him.
I barreled into the last cell, searching through the semi-darkness
for the man I loved.

And there he was. Even in the darkness, I
could recognize his silhouette: the straight line of his shoulders,
the slight wave in his hair, the hard line of his jaw, even the way
he angled his head a little to the side. It was all him. My
Jon.

“Finally,” he said. He stood up, and it took
all of my self-control not to rush over and throw myself into his
arms.

“I was about to give up on you.” He stepped
forward into the light, and I gasped.

His face was gaunt and haggard. Scabs
crusted and flaked over his skin like he’d been burned. And his
once handsome face was covered in black veins.

Jon was infected with black magic.

CHAPTER 2

I
CHOKED ON A sob and stepped back,
shaking. “No, no, no. It can’t be.”

“Yes, it’s me, Elena.” Jon took another step
towards me.

His smile widened, but his eyes were as
black as tar, and they shone with something I couldn’t
understand.

“I told them you would come. I told them
about our…
connection
, that you’d never leave me behind.”

I was unable to form any words. It was him,
my
Jon, and yet he was very different. A chill spiraled
through me, and I fought against the tears that welled in my eyes.
The air moved behind me as Will and Leo came up to stand at my
side. Their swords glimmered in the soft light, but they made no
attempt to go after Jon. It was as though they were waiting for me
to decide what to do. But all I could do was stare, praying and
hoping that this was a bad dream, and yet I knew it wasn’t.

Jon raised his arms.

“Ah, perfect. My two loyal subjects. This
indeed is a blessing. The high priest will be pleased.”

His black eyes met mine again and my heart
gave a painful jolt, as though something inside was squeezing it.
He reached out with his hand, and I recoiled at his rotten
fingernails and the black threads that pulsed under the skin of his
hand.