She awoke from the chill and thumping steps of the soldiers. The sun just started to rise, and the men readied to move again. Her tongue clung to her dry pallet. She reached for her flask and took a sip of water, feeling it fall right into her empty stomach.
Ahead, the armies merged together, the silver of their armor only made distinct by the colors of their cloaks; black and white for the Dranoirs and royal blue and gold for the Morels.
Kaiden found her shortly after she awakened. His windblown cheeks were bright red as he stopped beside her on his mounts.
"We've been looking for you all evening," Kaiden said.
"I'm sorry to have worried you," she said without her usual pleasantness. "We traveled through the evening and I was too tired to walk around searching."
"The council is worried about our Redayran problem."
By Redayran problem, she assumed he meant Nic. "Has anyone seen to his hand?" she said. As much as she wanted to poke his eyes out with her burning fingers, and feed them to the ever-starving Daerious, she'd seen the terror in his mother's eyes and couldn't add the woman's grief to her conscience.
"Yes," Kaiden said, "that woman that's been working with Vera had a look at him several days ago."
"Dear God," Aurelie said, "do you mean, Karah?"
"I don't know what her bloody name is," he said, dismissively. His horse looked around lazily and then shook its head. "The one you know with the hair things."
*****
Shouts came from the direction of the tent Nic had been kept in. Kaiden broke into a run and pulled her along before the shouts grew louder and he sprinted ahead while she held onto her skirt kept us as best she could. Kaiden stopped in front of the entrance of the tent and threw his hands up and then rested them on his head in sheer shock and helplessness.
Aurelie came around the corner, expecting to see one of two dead guards. Her heart stopped for a second and beat away like the climax of a ceremonial drum.
"Somebody do something!" she said as Nic's blood both ran down Karah's hands and sprayed through her fingers.
Nobody moved and neither did she. Karah choked as she cried. Nic's head leaned awkwardly to the side, he only remained on the chair because he was tied to it.
"Who did this?" she asked, looking around the room. Karah squealed and Aurelie felt her pain for a second before she connected the crying to Nic's death and then felt nothing but disgust.
The only guard who made eye contact with her pointed his head in Karah's direction.
The knife was on the ground beside Nic's chair and Karah's neck, face, and dress were soaked in his blood. It didn't look good.
"No," Aurelie said, shaking her head.
People gathered outside of the tent. They were attracting a lot of attention.
"Keep them away," she told the guard. Nodding, he walked off with quite a satisfied smirk on his face which he didn't bother to hide.
"Nic!" Karah gasped and then continued to cry louder than necessary and rubbed his pale cheeks.
Aurelie turned to the gaping strangers in the tent. "Is there nothing you need to be doing? Get out!" Tapping her foot, she waited for the all to leave. Karah kept choking and crying out loud, choking and crying out loud. Aurelie's frail heart couldn't handle the bloody mess, not with the Redayran army just outside the bloody tent. How one of them didn't walk in there was a mystery.
When the room had completely cleared, except for her, Karah and Kaiden, who had yet to say a word, Aurelie walked a little closer to the mess.
"Should we untie him before we call the generals?" Aurelie asked. There was no hiding the body. People were bored stiff. The news had probably spread already.
"No," Kaiden said, shaking his head, "he's got no bruises on him. We'll have to say we found him tied up."
Karah wiped her eyes, smearing Nic's blood across her face. Her eyes were swollen, this, coupled with the streaks of blood made her look like a mental case. "You're all animals," Karah said, pursing her lips in disgust. "His body isn't even warm - " She started to cry again before she could finish.
Kaiden reacted for first time since the entered and stepped further into the room. "You mean this wasn't you?"
"No!" Karah said and looked between the two of them. "I love him, you know that!" She pointed at Aurelie.
"Who the hell killed him then?"
"Oh like you don't know." She smirked, wiping her hands on her dress.
Aurelie and Kaiden shared a look. "We really don't."
"The prince consort, of course," she said between gritted teeth.
Aurelie snorted. "No." She turned to Kaiden smiling and shaking her head. "The general would not have let him out of his sight. Besides, I think he'd go after me sooner that he'd go after Nic." A tear ran down Karah's face. Something told Aurelie she wasn't lying but it made no sense. "How would he even know that he was here?"
Karah shrugged. "What does it matter?"
"Why didn't you see it?"
She looked up slowly, mustering the coldest look Aurelie had ever received from anyone. "Because all I ever see is you."
Aurelie's heart sank. The death could be felt in the room. It was cold and empty and that feeling spread through all of them. Blood dripped down Nic's neck and gathered in his collar bone. From the is dripped down onto the floor.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
"Where the hell is he?" she heard a man's voice outside.
"The Queen ordered that everyone stay out."
"I'm not everyone," the voice said. Aurelie recognized it briefly.
In one quick swoop, she pulled Karah up by her hands, swung her around and pushed her toward Kaiden. He grabbed her, and as if playing along, she started to protest and fight his grip. Aurelie fell down beside Nic and leaned over his lap. She waited until she heard footsteps enter the tent, and then started to cry breathlessly just as Karah had a second ago.
"Good God," the man shouted.
Aurelie didn't turn to him. There weren't enough tears in her eyes for that yet. Keeping her eyes open, to summon tears, Aurelie sniffed repeatedly to make her chest mimic the vibrations of crying. "He's . . . g - gone."
"Who's this?" the man asked.
Aurelie turned to a short, fat man she'd never seen before in her life, and panicked a little, feeling self-conscious. "She was his lover before he met me." Turning to Karah, Aurelie covered her hand with her mouth. "You just couldn't accept that he loved me, could you?"
With chaos and wildfire in her eyes, Aurelie rushed Karah, swung her hand back, and slapped her so hard that it sounded more like a whip meeting skin than a hand.
"I - I," she choked on her own words. "I can't be here."
Karah's expression didn't change, however, Aurelie's handprint now burnt bright red on her cheek.
Aurelie rushed out of the room, covering her face with both her hands. The cool morning air brought a chill to her almost instantly and she lowered her hands, staying in character until she was sure that the coast was clear. Kaiden could deal with the rest of it.
Where the hell are you, Kirin Donahue?
*****
It took them eight days to reach their destination. Aurelie looked for Kirin day and night but there was no sign of him. They set up camp right at the edge of a great mountain, two miles away from the castle walls, chasing down patrols and killing them along the road.
Michael sent her glances during the very few times the two of them crossed paths. She had been meaning to ask him about Kirin but was reluctant about starting a conversation with him. He made it much too awkward. There was very little chance for the two of them to run into each other between seas of men in silver armor unless he deliberately searched for her in the crowd, which is exactly what he appeared to be doing.
Tonight, while the men ate up the last of the food, and rested for the following day, Kaiden, Daerious, Aurelie, Orken and six commanders, one of which represented Halbrook, stood around a large table upon which a parchment lay that had the layout of the castle and the mountain behind it.
The walls were made of stone and were impenetrable due to the simple fact that neither army had any weapons other than their swords to break through it. The witches, on the other hand, could knock the stones right out. Orken even offered to do it himself. The plan was to create a shield wall around the witches, to protect them from the archers, and bring at least three of them close enough to the wall to break it.
The wall had a crescent pattern that reached the mountain on both sides and the mountain itself, dipped over the castle like an ocean wave about to crash, giving the witches a perfect opportunity to loosen the edges enough for large stones to topple over right into the kingdom.
"The archers come from the sides here, and from behind the army," a large man with a braided beard said. "They'll keep the archers at the watchtowers busy. Look they have one just about every ten feet away from each other, judging by this."
"We'll set up infirmaries here," the Halbrook witch pointed her finger toward the dip of the mountain. "That gives us good cover and it's not a long way from the grounds."
"We should be breaking the wall on both sides. They'll just focus on this area and rebuild the wall with our bodies. We have to split them up. Archers from the back, witches from the top, swordsmen from the bottom, and fire at the door. What's the wall made of?" a broad-shouldered, auburn-haired fellow from the Redayran army said. It was a wonder they were here. The atmosphere in the room tightened up at once, some people looked around or down, pretending to busy themselves with something to avoid eye-contact with the man. Aurelie looked him straight in the eye, just as a grieving widow ought to. He looked much too young to be a commander, but so did Michael, and the late King had trusted him with his life.
The scout cocked his head. "I'd never come close enough to see."
"Fire is fire. It'll burn just as well," the man grunted.
"We must present them with an option. It is the honorable thing to do," another man, also from Redayrah, Ralg, said. He had looked at the map with tight lips as if he expected their scouts to have been famous painters.
"He won't surrender," Aurelie said. It had been the first time she spoke that evening. She knew how to fight, but she had never commanded an army and thought it was best to leave to the commanders.
"You don't know that for certain," Ralg said. "King Lukas came to us to seek an alliance; we don't know if he has gathered an army yet. Or whether the trade he secured yields him soldiers as well. They are still in the process of rebuilding. It could be as simple as a surrender."
"King Lukas is my father's puppet and I can tell you now that they do not want peace," Kaiden said. "Send your messenger, but do not rely on this, because it's a fool's errand. My father wants his seat back. I wouldn't be surprised if he was the person behind all the lucrative trade deals King Lukas acquired."
"So we're in agreement that a letter is to be sent?" Ralg asked, ignoring everything else Kaiden had said.
"Yes," Kaiden said, and the others in the room murmured their agreement.
*****
King Lukas,
We, Highfire, Redayrah and Halbrook, present you with an easy option. Surrender yourself to stand trial before the three regions and the people of your kingdom for the slaughter of the late Queen Alorah and there will be no further bloodshed.
If by dawn we do not hear from you, we will march onward toward the castle, and there will be no further negotiations.
"Oh yeah," Aurelie nodded sarcastically, "that'll do it."
Ralg sent one of his men, by horseback, to deliver the message that night. The letter was short and to the point.
Aurelie bid farewell to the brave man that received the order and said a silent prayer for his soul as she watched him leave, not expecting him to return.
*****
An hour later, they sat around that very same table and ate supper. The conversation felt tight, with every man eager to contribute his own weight to the battle plan.
Aurelie listened to all of them, trying to gain as much knowledge as she could while stuffing food down her throat. Her stomach had shrunk while they marched, and filling it with at least half the bowl of stew before her seemed like a task and a half.
Valice had taken flight, enjoying the freedom away from the castle. Occasionally, Aurelie heard the flap of her wing and relaxed knowing that she had been nearby.