Mark of the Princess (17 page)

Alannah could not believe what she was hearing. Why had she not been told about all this. Was her father so worried about her safety that he tried to protect her from the truths of this world? She grew angry at him. But then the anger ceased and turned on herself. If she would have studied to master her gifts of spells and spell casting she would have eventually found this out. She was so fixated on the power that she knew she would inherit from her mother, she had convinced herself that with that she didn’t need the spell casting or potions abilities she had been gifted with.

“I still don’t understand what he wanted from me. I was barely able to remember the spell to unlock the door and to be honest, I don’t even have my powers yet.” She dropped her gaze.

She smirked and looked down at herself. She remembered the burning on her arm and pulled back the fabric of her dress to check her skin. Her Mark had spread. She smiled at the thought of the moment that she used the spell.

When a faerie begins to use their powers, these marks will spread. As they master their gifts or other abilities those marks spread as well.

She remembered what her mother had told her when she was a small child and asked her about the Marks that decorated her arms.

The rest of the night consisted of them finding some food and Brennus creating a small fire to keep them a bit warm in the cold and relentless mountains.

In recollecting all the events of the night before she hadn’t noticed that Brennus had left. Her heart dropped into her stomach for a brief moment. Did he leave her?

“I’ve been out scouting the area. It seems that if we go to the east we will encounter the human’s dragons. Our safest bet is to go to the west area and down, into the forests. Once we are there we can find the Kingdom of the Magi as they should be the closest.” He said, pointing in the direction they were to go.

“Then to the west we will go.” Alannah agreed, reaching over and putting on her belt. “I need a favor from you before we go Brennus. I need you to cut off the excess of my dress. If we are to be moving through the mountains I will not be able to do so with this behind me.” She turned quickly and watched her dress swoosh behind her.

“As you wish, my lady.” He responded unsheathing his sword.

She pulled her hair forward and over her shoulder.

He bent down and grabbed the fabric that laid on the ground behind her. He spun the sword in his hand and in one swift motion cut the excess.

As he pulled the sword back he noticed the mark in the center of her back right between where her wings sprout. A mark he knew that he had seen in his studies but at the moment couldn’t decipher.

She turned and thanked him. “Are you alright ?” She looked at Brennus who was looking pensive.

“Yes. That mark. The one in the middle of your upper back. Do you know what that means?” He questioned her.

“Oh. Um no,” Suddenly feeling a bit exposed, “my parents have asked a few scholars and no one knew of it. They said it was an ancient symbol, but no one knew the meaning.” She raised an eyebrow. “Why? Do you know?” Alannah’s voice gave an air of excitement at the possibility of someone knowing.

“No, but it seems familiar, as if I have seen it before. No matter. I will let you know if it comes to me.” He said as he sheathed his sword once again.

She had never really put too much thought to it but seeing the concern on his face made her worry.

“We should get going. We seem to be pretty deep into the mountains, and it will take a while to go West and North as well so that we can better get our bearings.” Brennus took a few steps in front of her before glancing back to be sure she was following.

She said nothing but took a step forward and began to follow him.

* * *

The mountains were a bit steeper than they looked. Evyette had taken the lead, she had finally gotten used to the trousers she had decided to change into the day that they left. She knew that trekking through the forest in a dress was not going to be comfortable or convenient. Under other circumstances she would have been marveling at the beauty of the mountains. How they seemed more like hills with many ledges than they did mountains that she had seen in books. Their vastness astounded her. But it didn’t dishearten her.
We’ll find her
she thought.

Kaleb pulled on Tristan’s shoulder as he walked past.

“Tristan.” he said lowly. He looked at Evyette to see if she would respond to their conversation, and was glad to see when she did not.

“Trist.” He said lowly. “Yes?” Tristan slowed down as he and his friend slowed their pace.

“Trist, you know about the Night Spirits right?”

“Yes.” Tristan said looking briefly at Evyette, who had clearly overcome her fear of the mountains. “Also known as the Venator-Animus. The Soul Hunters only come after someone if there is a reason. They targeted Evy.” He finished.

“I know, and I racked my brain all night trying to figure it out and I didn’t come up with anything. She was raised by the King and Queen, she is actually better behaved than her sister. I can’t imagine what that was about. But I know one thing. We can’t leave her alone now.” Kaleb whispered.

“No. We cannot … Do you think she knows?” Tristan asked.

“No. She seemed to never have heard the name of the Night Spirits. I think she assumes it was a random attack.” Kaleb responded.

She looked at Tristan and he managed a smirk. He couldn’t let go though that he was worried for her, that the evening’s events were now playing over and over in his head.

“Evy.” Kaleb’s voice came up from beside her. “What would you say to me putting a protective spell on you?”

“Are you afraid I will not be able to defend myself if we are attacked?” Evyette asked, raising an eyebrow and setting her hands on her hips.

“No, I just thought that since you haven’t had as much training as Tristan and I, it would be a bit helpful for you to have that. Plus we aren’t really sure if the Night Spirit attack affected your energy.” Kaleb said, thinking quickly.

“Oh. Well, you make a good point. About the training anyway, because really, I am feeling fine But if you think it would help us then I would be ok with it. I would hate to slow us down for any reason.” She replied shrugging her shoulders and smiling.

She doesn’t seem bothered, and she still has no questions about the Night Spirit. Did she really not know that they came for her?
Tristan asked to himself as he watched Kaleb prepare.

Kaleb closed his eyes and began chanting one of the strongest protection enchantments that he could think of. His sole concentration at the moment was making sure that this worked. He knew it wasn’t permanent but it would at least keep her protected for a while.

Once he was done, they immediately began climbing again. Tristan turned to Kaleb and mouthed
Thank you
before continuing beside Evyette.

“I think we should go further north first so that we can get our bearings and get a better view of the mountains.” Kaleb said as he sped up and pulled in front of Evyette and Tristan.

“Something is wrong. It should not be getting this cold, this fast.” It wasn’t the type of gradual cold you felt when you were getting to a higher altitude. It was sharp, painful even.

They all stopped and began to look around. Evyette was shivering, Kaleb and Tristan had begun to feel their fingers going numb. They saw nothing out of the ordinary except a rather large lizard that seemed to have been following them.

Tristan stepped closer to the lizard and noticed a gleam in it’s eye.

“It is a shape shifter!” He yelled out, lunging at the creature and though it had turned to run he had just barely caught it by its tail. He brought his other hand up wrapping it around its belly. The lizard squirmed in his hand, flailing back and forth. It opened it’s mouth and bared sharp serrated teeth that Evyette had never seen on a lizard before.
What is that?
She thought to herself.

“What do you want? Who is with you?” Tristan began to squeeze the lizard in an attempt to force him from this shape revealing his true self. Slowly the girth of the lizard began to grow and became too much for Tristan to hold. He once again held it by the tail as it grew and began to take form. Evyette stood awestruck with her mouth open.

Suddenly before her was a smaller faerie than herself. It had wings smaller than her’s and a tail. Tristan had unsheathed his sword and pointed it at the faerie, not letting go of his tail.

It hissed at Tristan baring it’s sharp teeth once again.

Kaleb had unsheathed his sword as well and walked over to Evyette. He had his arm pulled back around him making sure that she was behind him. “We know you aren’t alone.” Convince your friends to stop and we will spare you.” Kaleb called to the fae firmly. Even as he tried to sound convincing, his mouth was shaking, the cold was becoming unbearable.

Tristan had kicked the back of the faerie’s knees to get him to kneel. Once he did, he grabbed him by the wings instead of the tail and put his sword to them.

“Do not think for one moment that I won’t do it.” Tristan threatened, he was shivering by now, every word he spoke shook frigidly off of his lips.

The fae that they had caught had put his head down. He held up his hand and made a sort of wave. From behind them emerged another fae about the same size as the one they held captive.

She was a pale frosty blue, and instantly they knew that the freezing temperatures were coming from her. Her concentration was fixed on them and her hands were pointed at them. Being so small and light it was easy for her to have been moving behind them without being heard.

The fae that was kneeling turned his head to her and put his arm up then slowly brought it down. She repeated his movement and brought down her arms and with that, the cold began to fade.

The fae on the ground turned his glance to Tristan which still had his sword on the edge of the faerie’s wings. Tristan looked at Kaleb and he nodded. He removed his sword from the fae’s wings and released his grip.

“We come looking for a friend of ours. We have no business with you unless you know of her whereabouts.” Kaleb said in a serious tone that still had an edge of threat.

The creatures looked at each other and looked down.

They know something,
Evyette thought.

“We do not know about your friend, but we have heard much from the old ruins in the center of the mountains. There has been much activity there. Dark activities.” He said, his voice still hissing slightly.

“What do you mean dark activities?” Tristan asked sheathing his sword and watching as the brown faerie that was on the ground scattered to his partner.

“Dark spirits have been called,” the blue faerie spoke this time, her voice very shrill, “we have seen creatures roaming the mountains that have not been here in centuries.”

“Creatures?” Evyette queried. She looked at them in amazement.
Were they not ‘creatures’ as well
. She thought to herself. They looked kind of like faeries, but they were smaller and thinner save for their small distended bellies and a tail. She had never seen a faerie with a tail.

“Aye, creatures and demons. We caught site of a faerie but a few nights ago. He had black wings, and a rather large satchel, clearly traveling. But he disappeared behind one of the mountains.”