Rose of the Oath

  Chapter 10: Fear and Flames

  “No, no, no, no.” I stared at the flames surging from thatched roofs and shattered doors. The rebels weren’t that close! They’d be here soon, yes, but Dachs said…

  Yanking at my thoughts, I focused on my sisters. Shadows swirled about them, accenting their wide eyes and pale, tear-stained cheeks. Ropes wound about their wrists and arms. Boots tramped on all sides. I clenched my fists in my skirt.

  What could Tauscher want with them?

  Vines wound around my chest and I pressed my hands against the smooth surface.

  Eldric appeared, shrouded in gloom, his face grim, his eyes blazing as he slipped a scrap of parchment into his cloak. A dagger glinted in his hand, and a sword, bow, and quiver hung over his shoulders. I searched outward. Wings swept across the moon, but there was no sign of a road or the torches surrounding my sisters. He was scouting, then, oblivious to what had just happened.

  Strangling a cry, I shoved myself to my feet and burst through the door. Running, running… Deeper and deeper down this new net of corridors. My eyes burned and gasping sobs tore themselves from my throat. My foot caught on a protruding tile and I stumbled. Rolling to my side, I hugged my knees to my chest and huddled against the wall just inside a narrow room.

  It was happening again. It couldn’t be happening again. Not to the girls. Not to Helene and Klara.

  I muffled a sob, squeezing my eyes tightly. Snow glistened through my memory. My father’s farewell. My mother’s laugh.

  I yanked at my thoughts. No, not again. I would not be helpless.

  The beast.

  Tauscher won’t stop until he has the beast. Dachs’s words throbbed through my mind.

  No! No, I couldn’t betray the beast. But the girls…

  The beast for my sisters. My captor for my family. A stranger—and yet not such a stranger.

  NO!

  I pressed the back of my hand against my mouth. It wasn’t fair. It was so horribly not fair. What did I care about the beast? About the King or Tauscher or the rest? The beast’s freedom for mine. He didn’t have to stay. He never had. He’d given me the rose. Maybe he would help. I couldn’t ask. Not now. Yet if there was a chance…

  Each beat of my heart pounded the blood to my head like the tolling of mourning bells. There had to be a way. The King help us all. The King—

  The snow-lit night swept back over me. Figures of my parents faded into the shadows of the night. The howl of wolves. A scream.

  Running, running as hard as I could, my bow clenched in one hand, each breath a whispered prayer. Shadows closed in. They whispered and surged and swirled about me, writhing, growing louder, shriller, transforming into the howl of wolves.

  The cries ceased.

  Wolves padded on all sides, their thick paws whispering in deep snow. Blood shone dark under the moon, spreading outwards from two torn figures.

  Too late. Too late…

  My name echoed in the distance, but I couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. The wolves growled. Blue eyes fastening on me, black lips curling over white teeth.

  The voice was closer now, more urgent.

  A wolf sprang. A scream tore from my throat as pain lanced up my arm from a searing fang. Snow filled my mouth and eyes as a crushing weight slammed me to the ground. Hot breath swept over my neck. The weight was gone, replaced by snarls. Steel against flesh and bone.

  The voice was drawing near, but battle raged around me. Ice clogged my veins. For the briefest moment, I caught sight of a tall figure, outlined by the forest, a dagger clenched in one hand, a sword hanging from the other.

  Already the wolves were fleeing with whimpers. The figure spun about, crouching next to the two figures. A sound, almost a groan, escaped his lips, then he turned towards me. A dark hood covered his face and I cowered against the ground, squeezing my eyes shut. I could hear him, breathing softly. Smell the blood and… roses? His warm, strangely ridged hand closed over mine, squeezing it gently. Then, in a rush of cool wind, he was gone.

  “Elissa?” Eldric’s voice dimmed as the echoes of his steps slid to a stop. A moment more his arms were tight about me, my head against his chest, my suppressed sobs mixing with his rasping breath.

  Mist swept about us. I clung tighter to Eldric, but the thud of my pulse quickened, faster, harder, like the pounding of a hundred marching boots, surrounding me, sweeping me away.

  I jolted from the memory with a gasp and staggered to my feet.

  The King hadn’t helped then. He wouldn’t help now. Six months the war had raged. The rebel had been revealed and cast from the palace when the rose was plucked, yet where was the Prince? The beast trusted in the King. Perhaps the King would save him.

  A groan tore itself from my lips.

  Starlight and moonlight glittered from crystal to crystal as I dashed my hand across my eyes.

  I’d have to speak to him, to the beast. Convince him to flee with me.

  He might help. Or perhaps he would destroy the rose—the rose he gave me. No, he wouldn’t. Perhaps… I shivered, shoving my hair from my face, then froze.

  Wraith-like figures stared down at me from all sides of the narrow room I’d stumbled into. Tapestries, stitched in white and gold, glinted in the moonlight. Pale reflections. Intense eyes. Roses, white and red. Trees and wolves. Flashing fangs and glittering blades. And there, amid the confusion stood… me.

  She bore the same likeness. The same lithe frame. The hair was golden instead of dark, but her gray-green eyes glittered with light. Like my own. Like my mother’s.

  My hand curled against my throat as I stared. My gaze spun about the room. It was small, but well lit by reflective crystals. Dried roses, coated in dust, spilled over a small table beneath another picture of the woman. This one was rougher, yet the eyes were more vivid. Filled with pain and peace.

  What…?

  I turned in a slow circle. The murals on the wall. Dusty roses. The familiar flowing script, telling some kind of story. Parchments lay scattered over the room, and I picked one up. These swirling phrases were no repetition of the King’s Oath. Sorrows. Hopes. Watching. Passion…

  I dropped the parchment as though it were made of flames and stumbled back a step.

  The beast… It was true then? All his talk of the King and the Oath and he’d only wanted me? This was what he’d been working for?

  I spun from the room, springing down the corridors, twisting and turning until my surroundings became familiar.

  Each corner, each shadow, I searched for the beast. Every step pounded faster as I waited for hands to grab me. None did. I slammed the door to my room, panting, every nerve wound, ready to snap at the touch of a feather.

  My rose gleamed in the moonlight. I stared at it for a long moment. My freedom to reveal the beast. A chance to rescue my sisters from the wrath of a vengeful rebel. I snatched it up and dashed from the room. Along the corridor. Down the steps. Out the door. I fled over the damp grass. My other hand clenched the stone Dachs gave me, pressing it to my chest.

  The beast could take care of himself. He could stay here with dust and roses and scribblings until the age came crumbling down, but I’d not do the same. I needed to be free. To find Helene and Klara. What did it matter what the beast thought of me? What I thought of him? My duty was to my family; to my sisters.

  The shadows of the forest closed about me, clinging to me, suffocating me.

  The warm energy of the barrier hummed softly. I stared at the shadows. Helene and Klara’s faces glimmered through my memory. Their pleading gaze. The tears spilling over their eyes. The tears reflected another picture, one that grew larger and larger. A figure, battling wolves that leapt from all sides.

  My throat burned and I sank to my knees.

  I couldn’t. I had to. Tauscher never kept prisoners for long. I needed to find them. I needed…

  “You call yourself King, and yet You care nothing for us!” I flung the words into the night. “This is what you offer. Wolve
s and pain and death. The beast claims to care for You. He claims You will send Your Prince. So save him, if You are so strong.”

  I flung the rose at the barrier.

  It glowed, passing through and falling into the dried leaves. The light gleamed brighter, stronger.

  I sprang forward. The barrier quivered, weakening as the glow began to fade.

  Pressing back against a tree, I dashed the tears from my eyes.

  A moment more then. I’d be through. I’d find them. I’d—

  That is when I heard the first wolf howl.

  He stood at the window. Watching. Waiting.

  The light died away.

  His jaw tightened. It was only a matter of time now.

  Resolution braced his veins.

  Then the howl of a wolf shattered the determination into icy fear.