The Paladins of Naretia

Chapter 33

  Aria could hear the bloodcurdling screaming of both men and monsters from beyond the safety of the palace walls. The sound was so sharp in her ears that she knew the dark army must have breached the cities defences and made their way into the cobbled streets below the palace walls. Aria felt a wave of guilt for her absence wash over her, but the feeling was swallowed by the cold jaws of panic as she failed, room after room, to find her brother. Her heart beat at a rate that she knew could not possibly be sustained for long.

  "Where are you?" she whispered to herself, afraid that talking too loudly would alert Aramus to her presence. "Why do you have to be so good at hiding?"

  Aria's lungs ached, her legs burned, and her whole body shook, begging her to stop and rest for a moment. But she refused. Her mind raced with the images of Pearan's best hiding spots, the ones she knew of anyhow. Every time her eyes matched those images, her heart sank lower into her chest when she discovered that they were all empty.

  Eventually she had no choice but to stop in the middle of a long corridor and breathe deeply before she passed out. Running her hands through her hair and crumpling to her knees with tears blurring her vision, Aria felt an overwhelming tide of nerves surge up from her stomach. 'Where, where could he be? I told him to hide, but he's so good at it I might never find him.' The thought gave Aria a small amount of relief. 'If his own sister can't find him, perhaps Aramus can't either.' Her relief was short lived as the bone chilling screams of a small child echoed through the empty stone corridors and reached her ears. Her heart stopped and everything around her became silent as she listened intently to the echoes that taunted her failing.

  "Pearan!" she screeched, getting to her feet to follow the sound of the voice.

  Aria reached for her sword, determined that this time Aramus would meet his end, but her hand met with empty space. It was then she remembered that, in her haste to find her brother, she had left it strewn on the floor next to Mullrode. She had nothing, no wizard to help her find her brother, no stone golem to protect her from the monster that had given her nightmares, no guards, or defence of any kind. But yet, as she made her way toward the palace throne room, a strange calmness came over her.

  Rounding the corner and slipping into the dark marble hall through the large wooden doors, Aria took in a sharp breath and willed her heart to keep beating when her eyes met with the scene in front of her. Pearan had obviously taken her instructions literally and hidden behind the throne, as any seven year old would do. His eyes were wide with fright and Pearan's red hair disappeared as he dived around the golden chair, trying to avoid the tip of Aramus sword.

  Aramus's eyes were ablaze with the terrible fire of Dantet and his wings were arched on his back, flames licking around the edges of them. More alarming was the murderous look that twisted his face until there was no part of him that Aria recognised as the man she had come to care about.

  "Aria, help," Pearan shouted. "He wants to kill me."

  Aria sprinted with every last ounce of her energy toward her younger brother. Aramus ignored Aria and caught hold of Pearan by his arm. He drew his sword into the air ready to strike the young boy just as she reached him. Aria heard herself scream. She felt the searing sting of sharp metal in her chest, and the trembling of a small child's body behind her. The hotness of Aramus, so close to her now, burned her as he leaned closer to Aria. Triumph was written all over his face, as she felt her lungs slowly begin to fill with something sticky and suffocating.

  "You can go now boy, I have no further need for you," Aramus hissed, letting go of Pearan to grasp Aria more firmly, and stop her from collapsing. "Your sister has made the ultimate sacrifice for you, and inadvertently given me the final ingredient that I needed."

  "Aria?" Pearan's sweet young voice was laced with a deep sorrow that she had not heard since her parent's deaths.

  "Pearan, go, find the wizard Ol?rin," Aria gasped, keeping her eyes locked on Aramus's. She didn't want to show her brother the blood that was filling her mouth and drowning her. "Then hide."

  "But Aria?"

  Aria felt his small hand clasp hers and for a second she latched onto that feeling, knowing it would be the last time she ever felt it. Coldness and heaviness filled her body. She knew her time was running out as her chest rattled with the effort of breathing. She didn't want her brother's last memories of her to be the same awful ones she had of her parents. She didn't want him to be consumed by it, as she once had been.

  "Pearan, go, be quick," Aria spluttered, feeling the muscles in her neck lose their strength and the need to breath burn at her chest. "Go, now."

  Aria heard him sob deeply and felt his hand slip away from hers. The coldness that was left after his touch spread throughout her body, and when his footsteps finally disappeared down the corridors, Aria collapsed.

  Aramus lowered her to the ground, his uncaring fiery eyes watching her as the world around her darkened. She didn't feel the crushing need to breathe anymore, or the pain as he pulled the sword from her chest. All she felt was the coldness, the empty coldness that pulled her away. The sounds around her were muffled as she watched Aramus untie the satchel from his back and retrieved a glass bottle, filled with a purple liquid. He uncorked it and held the tip of his sword over the opening, dripping her blood into it. The blackness around her encroached further until there was only a small pin point vision of Aramus smiling. The liquid in his phial turned so dark, that it might have been capable of extinguishing the sun itself.

  He was consumed, and she was dying.

  'So cold.'