Chapter 99
“Twins!” they’d said! “Two little maidens, girls!” Luna had heard the earth Dryad’s whispers, their forked tongues clacking together as they huddled in the trees conspiratorially.
The Elysian Elders had descended to Arcadia to bless the Queen’s extended belly, the King worshiping the very earth she walked on.
But the night of her birth, with royal consorts dashing in and out of the Queen’s Quarters, their gold and blue ceremonial sashes trailing behind them in haste, a nefarious witch visited Her Majesty.
It was the year of the silver harvest in Arcadia, before Luna was born. Dark witches had been unheard of and promptly executed before they went wild, but this one had managed to slip past the King’s guards and the battle-trained midwives into the lavish sapphire-encrusted bedroom where the Queen was suckling her two girls.
Luna had broken out in a cold sweat when she heard the way the Dryads had described the Queen’s screams.
They said so sorrowful was the tenor of Her Majesty’s wailing that it tore great cracks through the walls of the castle, sending Fae flying for cover, their hands pressed tightly over their ears.
“Two of her little maidens were snatched from her newly-mothered arms, and she, too weak from childbirth, could only watch.” The Dryad’s wooden wings clapped her back feverishly, a gesture Luna had come to associate with terror.
Queen Ilona had screamed for three days straight.
Some Fae said she went mad after that, blaming the King, who was knee-deep in grief, and banishing him out of the realm to the Forgotten City of Armagetton, which had been nothing but outer darkness at the time.
Luna’s blood had run cold enough to clog her veins when she’d heard this.
She wondered, watching the Queen now in her reverie, how long ago it was and if at all ever, she still felt the hollow the King’s absence had no doubt carved in her plump heart.
It was the shaman who broke the silence that had settled over the throne room like brooding rain clouds over the sun.
“Come forth, Chile, step into the totem rings of purity.” The Shaman’s voice thundered, like rock and ice clashing and waves slapping the sandy banks of the shore, as it turned its four multicolored eyes on Luna.
Luna couldn’t tell, for the life of her, if the being—because it was no damn Fae—was male or female. Helios would have told her it was both, only because it looked like the Elysians had slapped two beings together, back to back, and dusted their hands off the creature.
Luna felt her ears ringing again as she looked at it, feet rooted in place. It was wearing a tiki mask on both faces, with skin the color of bronzed oak covered in spells and sigils of power.
She had the distinct feeling the shaman’s head would have broken through the open glass roof of the Queen’s Castle if it stood up.
“It’s okay, Luna.” The Elf King urged, nudging Luna gently into the bracket of totems, his long fingers lingering too close to Luna’s waist for her liking.
She hadn’t known when, but the soft melody of the piano had started again. Or was it violins? Luna couldn’t tell. She watched the Queen descend from the sundial and gasped as a band of Elves drew a large, wicket curtain around her form, trapping her in the square with the Queen and the Elf-king.
The Shaman had stood, and Luna heard the patter of booted feet as the crowd scooted backwards and the being descended on surprisingly short human legs.
Luna was getting the urge to scream again when Cassius clamped a hot hand over her mouth, her hands brushing the rough surface of his armor where he’d trapped it behind her back.
“Easy, tiger, it won’t hurt, I promise.” Cassius breathed in her ear, making Luna’s knees knock, and what she discovered, to her horror, was aroused delight.
Have some shame! Agatha’s blithe warning ricocheted in the girl’s confused mind.
There was a clear liquid running down her face. The Queen had scooped a wooden bowl full of the cleansing liquid that sprouted from the Shaman's cupped hands and was lathering it over Luna’s mass of straight, auburn-colored hair.
Worthless! …Spineless!”Child of the dark!” The voices in Luna’s head grew to a panicked crescendo as she writhed in the Elf King’s arms, bucking her knees wildly like a maid only just learning to ride the unicorn.
Cassius watched the girl flail back and forth, mouthing incomprehensible words in her delirium. He’d never witnessed a purification before, much less stood guard.
If one of the things he’d had to get used to was holding beautiful women like the one in his arms, Cassius decided he didn’t at all mind.
He already felt his loins tighten with lust, but he decided, gulping reflexively, that he would not be a perverted creep about the affair. He’d promised the raven-eyed girl that it wouldn’t hurt, but he’d lied.
Cassius had been feeding Luna his light energy to increase her strength as the smoke of black fowlness seeped from her pores, the weight of their terror hitting him like a brawler’s fist in the gut.
He sagged breathlessly when the last of the smoky darkness had seeped out, wriggling furtively before being washed away by the herb-scented liquid.
Queen Ilona was eyeing him strangely, but he bowed low instead and rolled up the wicket barricade, his face a mask of disinterest.
“It is done.” Luna heard the shaman say, but its mouth had not moved. At least not the one she’d been looking at.
Tendrils of blue and golden light spotted Luna’s eyes as she looked about the Queen’s throne room, oblong-headed fairies flanking her.
“Escort Luna Arkavis back to her quarters, please.” Court dismissed!” Cassius ordered, and the sight of blonde and blue-green heads bowing rooted Luna in place, until one of the fairies gently took her arm.
“I’ll call for you when you are well rested.” Queen Ilona’s honeyed voice made Luna turn and nod absent-mindedly before allowing the oak-colored fairies to lead her away.
She felt lighter than she ever remembered feeling, and her head was a little more clear.
If the darkness had corrupted her so, what’s to say the Fae of Armagetton hadn’t suffered a worse fate? The thought set Luna’s small teeth on edge.
Luna felt, from the intense stares of the oval-faced fairies and the sour-looking maidens that lined the gold and sepia-toned throne room,
That there was more to the darkness than she’d ever imagined.