Epilogue 3: The High Queen

Epilogue 3: The High Queen
The High Queen shrieked, throwing the glass against the wall, and paced. How could this have happened? How could he have left her? Again? To go to that witch ceremony?
What was he thinking?
She tried to call him. The message didn’t go through. 
He couldn’t be blocking her!
She worried her lip, what if… 
What if he found out while he was there among those witches?
She tried to call Thaeryn again,  but the surface of the mirror didn’t change no matter who she tried to call. This couldn’t be happening.
Suddenly, the screen flashed. 
She answered it. 
“It’s about time you—”
She broke off as she realized that no one had answered. Instead, there was just a map with a flashing dot that indicated where she was.
She was being summoned. That was even worse. 
Her stomach churned. She glanced around the room and grabbed her cloak before following it out of the palace. 
The staff gave her polite smiles as she passed, but none of them asked where she was going. 
None of them cared, and it had gotten worse since the Calling. 
She’d told Thaeryn that the staff should be replaced with people who actually respected her as queen.
None of the knights even offered to escort her.  
He never listened. 
Like how he just left her for a diplomatic event. He shouldn’t be mingling with witches. 
It was dangerous, and growing more dangerous by the moment for her standing.
It had to have been at least an hour walking in her heels before she reached the place that the map indicated. 
She’d expected a cave, or a random clearing, it was a an old building in a clearing where the trees blocked out all the light. The building wasn’t familiar to her. She looked around trying to figure out where she had been led. A flicked of moonlight flickered in the stone.  Her heart lurched and she lunged toward it, but she could even touch it, her body froze. The spark of light shoved her back. She tried again, but each time it repelled her. On the fourth time, it held her in place. A rush of frigid cold plunged into her chest. The door of the building trembled and opened before yanking her inside and throwing her onto the floor. 
“What the hell is—“
The wall closed tight nearly crushing her, squeezing the breath out of her before dropping her to the ground. 
Okay. 
Apparently, she shouldn’t talk. She swallowed and glanced around. The building had no windows. 
But it didn’t seem like it was going to kill here. 
Leave it to Thaeryn to have such   dangerous thing on the grounds where his wife might walk. 
Pressure fell from the cieling, shoving her to the ground until she lay flat and couldn’t breath through the mounting pain that might just snap her spine. It back off so abruptly, she sucked in a deep sharp breath, but didn’t move. 
The ground vanished, dropping her through cold, damp air. She landed hard, a sharp spike of pain cut through her leg. 
That was the worst of the pain, but not the only source of it. Everything hurt. It was so dark that she couldn’t her hands in front of her face.
Who was doing this? 
Draevir? He’d never liked me, and he controlled the earth. Still, he was never powerful enough to do much of anything but being annoyingly loud and insightful.
The world tilted, and she slammed into another wall. It tilted the other way and slammed her again. Back and forth until there wasn’t a part of her that wasn’t bruised.
She tried to call Thaeryn again. 
He had to come for her.
Finally, she fell through space onto a patch of hard stone bordering  a vast field of flowers and soft-looking grass. 
She tried to crawl toward it, but a wall circled her, keeping her contained. She shrieked and beat at it. 
“Let me out!”
A low, vicious laugh echoed from all around. Her heart leaped into her throat.
A child appeared. She vaguely recognized her as Ruhkaal’s brat. She’d always found it funny that neither Draevir nor Ruhkaal had proven themselves men enough to get decent wives or have children of their own.
“I chose this face to gauge your character and if you might be worth saving,” she said, speaking with a voice that was much older than the brat was. “I am glad that I have not been wrong.” She tilted her head. “I may have felt bad for allowing the earth it’s pound of flesh for now.”
Her heart sank. 
“I’m the High Queen, you can’t keep me here.”
“I assure you, I could and would if it served Our purposes.” She smiled, cold and vicious. “I will let you decided it that is a good thing or not.”
She turned as a vision appeared nearby. A few feet in front of me, Thaeryn lay in the grass, side by side, with that woman her father had gotten rid of years ago.
She shrieked, pounding on the wall, pushing at it to get over there.
“No!” She shrieked. “Get away from him! Stop!”
She choked on the words as another figure appeared, another person who had been dead for years. Fleur appeared dressed in a wispy gauzy red dress. She looked younger than when she had last been alive. Two younger men followed her, chatting with her though she couldn’t make out what they were saying. They were dressed in red tunics, trimmed in silver.
Others appeared, countless others headed toward Thaeryn and that woman. Some of them were holding hands, some were single. The women had flowers in their hair, others sat and started picking them weave a crown of silver flowers. They smiled together. They looked so happy together as they sat beside Thaeryn and that woman. Her short dark hair curled stupidly against her forehead, but Thaeryn was perfect, lying there, just not with her.
She seethed, noting that everyone else was wearing red, but Thaeryn and the woman were in silver tunics. 
Like they were going to temple together or going to the Calling.
Another figure walked toward the group, but she couldn’t make out the figure’s features. People turned to wave and beckon the person over. 
The stone dropped out and she fell through a craggy cave. Jagged spikes ripped and tore through her skin and clothes. The sharp edges snapped her bones as she fell. 
When she finally landed, she was on the floor of her her bedroom.
In the mirror, she could see that she wasn’t hurt physically, but everything ached and the thought of getting up was out of the question. 
“You could have been happy, but creatures like you are never content.” She turned. “I hope you have enjoyed this time as High Queen, because it is coming to an end.” She threw her head back and laughed as the High Queen closed her eyes and fell headfirst into a violent darkness, screaming. 
“Thaeryn!”