The Queen & The Nine
Njall woke up suddenly his thoughts filled with darkness. He reached beside him, only to find bedsheets, he sat up on his elbows looking around the dark room, only to see Zaya’s lithe form, encased in moonlight her eyes watching the curling waves leading to oceans vast and wide.
“Hey,” Njall murmured.
“You were thrashing on the bed,” Zaya observed.
Njall forehead bunched. “Did I wake you?”
“I’d have to actually have fallen asleep to do so.” She replied turning away from the window, to look cross the bedroom to sit on his side of the bed, pushing his sweaty hair off his forehead.
“Can you tell me about your nightmare?” She asked smiling slightly as Njall leaned into her palm, his eyes closing in bliss.
“Will you tell me why sleep won’t come for you?” he asked, turning his head to give her hand a gentle kiss that felt as light as butterfly wings.
Zaya let her silk robe fall off her, as she sat down on Njall’s side of the bed, leaning forward, to touch her head to his. “My thoughts are never far from my Kingdom, my sister. They are like two heartbeats repeating against my chest.”
Njall leaned forward, his hands roaming up over Zaya’s to hold her against him, in a tight embrace. “You have a gift, to be a beacon of light in the darkness that was Shazir’s rule. It is no easy thing, to be the one everyone looks to. I will always be here to shoulder that burden with you, in whatever way you need.” Njall murmured, a hand moving to her neck, as he moved his head back to look at her beautiful violet eyes, that gleaned with love and despair all at once.
Zaya leaned forward kissing Njall, who smiled against her mouth, huffing slightly as he felt Zaya’s hands move to shove him down the bed, her body following, her legs moving to saddle his middle. Making his eyes go dark for completely different reason than his nightmare. Zaya lifted up her head, to observe him, her arms folded over his chest. “Husband mine, your burdens are also mine. What nightmare had you trash so?”
Njall smiled, turning his head his dimples making Zaya want to bite his cheek. She settled for wiggling on him, making him groan. He pushed his hands into her long flowing hair, holding her face as he looked up at her with a timid smile. “No nightmares, can stand in the place of your smile.” He murmured, as he leaned up and kissed her softly.
“I dreamed of darkness, flooding this entire continent. Of curling monsters rising from the oceans, of screams of pain and agony filling the air. In all of that carnage, a single woman rising from the ashes of all that darkness, dark and wicked.” He murmured.
“What could that be?” Zaya wondered.
Njall’s lips thinned. “I think you should speak to Lord Einer and the Nine. They might have a legend or two, your parents may have not told you.”
Zaya, moved her mouth, no doubt to demand more answers, but Njall flipped her to her side of the bed, his mouth teasing the gentle slope of her breast and she became completely distracted from thoughts of dark figures coming out of fire.
In the morning, after the servants had left her to break her fast, she found herself thinking back about what Njall had said. She drank and ate quickly and then walked down the castle, to the courtyard, where some of the nine, (the ones not currently guarding the castle), sparred with each other. Kailani turned, as she approached, Kailani straightening, and bowing once at the Queen.
“My Lady, do you have need of me?” she asked.
Zaya, threw off her long coat, that the servants had buttoned her into this morning, without it, she was clad in dove skin breeches, and a leather corset. She unbuttoned her silk sleeves, rolling them up to her elbows, tightening them around her elbow, before she picked up two staves, and twirled them entering the ring.
The four members of the nine that were currently in combat, paused straightening their stances, as they watched their Queen, enter the practice field, and stopped in the middle, making her own fighting stance. “Well?” Zaya asked.
The four members bowed and launched into an attack formation. For minutes all that could be heard was the clang of steel and wood, as Zaya moved in concert with the nine, knowing that all the years she studied with Kailani, it was moves she had learned as the Nine, that she’d shared with the Queen.
“I want to know, what you all might know of darkness approaching our kingdom, of monsters climbing out of the oceans, and a dark figure moving out of fire and ash.” She stated as she fought the members off.
She saw some of the members tense, but still they fought. “You speak of the cleanse.” One of them whispered.
“It is a rumor, or a prophecy depending on who you ask. Of our world being consumed by the monster realm.” Another one whispered.
“The realm that Shazir now resides.” Zaya muttered as she twirled, her batons hitting the knee of two of the members making them flip up and over, before they continued their assault.
“Why do you speak of this?” Kailani asked, as she moved closer. “Did Njall see this?”
“Yes.” Zaya murmured pausing in her fighting as the four members froze in place their eyes wide with fear.
Zaya straightened. “Is this something we should be preparing for?” Zaya asked.
“Not us.” One of them whispered.
All four of the nine turned to Zaya, making her take a cautious step back. “We won’t be the first strike.” They said as one, as they turned to look at the horizon at the ocean.
Zaya’s breath caught in her throat. “Zara. She’s on the ocean.”
“It could be a warning of something that may come.” Kailani murmured.
“If it was, it would mean nothing if we don’t have a way to warn Zara.” Zaya sighed.
“Zara is strong. She and Nasir are a formidable team. In any case their has been decades of Mages and Nine dreaming of this possible apocalypse. There is no telling when this might occur, or if it ever will.”
“I hope all of you are right. This Kingdom has had far too much darkness in its lifetime.”