Steel Maiden (8 page)

“I will not pass judgment on our fellow
brother here for having had a past before he joined the Temple of
the Sun. Many of you here have had a life before the temple.”

His pale eyes moved across the many guilty
faces in the crowd of priests and came to rest upon Brother
Edgar.

“Thank you, Your Eminence.” Brother Edgar
bowed from the middle, but his eyes never left mine.

The high priest smiled briefly.
“Interesting.”

He looked back at me before he continued.
“Although, I don’t quite see the resemblance. She must take after
her mother.”

He paused for a moment. “Her mother must
have been very beautiful. Where is she?”

The high priest asked the question with some
urgency, even though his face was expressionless.

“Where is her mother?”

I suddenly felt cold.

Brother Edgar’s mouth curled into an ugly
snarl. “I killed her, Your Eminence.”

CHAPTER 8

I
TREMBLED AS I fought the tears. I
bit down on my tongue to keep from screaming.

It was as though it was happening all over
again. I had long ago suppressed the memories of my mother’s
execution at the hands of her own husband, and now they came back
to me like a blow to the stomach. My mother’s neck, her stomach,
even her hands had been pierced by swords, arrows, and daggers. I
remembered my mother on her knees shouting for me to run. And I
remembered my father lifting a great axe and bringing it down
brutally against the back of her neck. Nine years later and the
memory of my mother’s head thudding to the floor still haunted
me.

I hated this man more than anything. He had
robbed me of my childhood. He had destroyed any chance of my
understanding the powers that I had just discovered I possessed
when he had killed my mother. When I thought of the Devil, it was
his face that danced before my eyes.

I fought against my restraints, but they
wouldn’t break. I glared at him with as much hatred and malice as I
could muster. He was not my father. He was a murderer. I would
avenge my mother. I
would
kill him.

Brother Edgar only smiled. He appeared to
enjoy the pain that I was suffering. His black eyes bored into mine
and burned with a fury and hatred that matched my own. I raised my
chin and stared at him. I wouldn’t look away.

The high priest looked disappointed that my
mother had been killed. “Pity. I could have used her. Two would
have been better, but one is still all I need.”

My eyes fell on the high priest. “Need me
for what, exactly?” I snapped.

Before the high priest could answer me,
Brother Edgar cut in.

“She got was she deserved.
She
wasn’t
a woman. She
wasn’t
natural. I found out what she was when I
saw her using magic to heal. I was appalled. The creature had
tricked me into thinking she was a natural woman when she was
really a demon.”

He straightened and looked at the high
priest.

“I should have known, I should have seen the
signs, but I was a fool in love. Fooled by her flesh. Fooled by her
beauty. But once I discovered her secret, I killed her.”

He looked at me in disgust. He smiled. “I
should have killed this one too.”

“Maybe you should have because
I’m
going to kill you,” I said, my voice as cold as ice.

I knew he was trying to break my spirit just
as he had broken my mother’s. But I wouldn’t let him. He wouldn’t
break me.

Brother Edgar’s eyes widened, shocked that I
should have the gall to threaten him. He moved towards me, so close
I could smell his wretched breath.

“How dare you speak to me! Demon! You will
suffer the same fate as your whore mother. I will send you back to
your master. Accursed creature. Whore of hell!”

My head jerked back as he backhanded me
across the face. Blood flew from my lips, and I tasted blood
in my mouth again. Whatever healing ability I had, it did nothing
to reduce the pain I felt.

“I should have killed you, demon, just like
I killed your mother.”

I bared my teeth. “I’ll speak to you any way
I damn well please,
priest
. I’m not afraid of you.”

I barked out a laugh. “You think you can
scare me? Break me with your pathetic words? I’m not the one who
hides behind a black robe to feel important. You are weak. Not
I.”

I straightened up and spit blood into his
face.

Brother Edgar faltered, and I knew I had
struck a nerve. He wiped his hand across his face, and his eyes
narrowed.

“Why you little bitch.”

He punched me hard, and I crashed onto the
ground. I curled up into a protective ball and waited for the next
blow. But it never came.

The high priest held Edgar by the arm and
looked as if he were disgusted with him.

“Enough, Brother Edgar,” he said as he let
him go. “You’ve proved your point. But I’m curious. If you had the
chance to kill her, as you say, then why didn’t you?”

I rolled back onto my feet and spit some
more blood onto the perfectly clean and polished floors.

“She escaped. No doubt she used some demon
trick, Your Eminence. I looked for her for years after that, but I
couldn’t find her. I couldn’t fix my mistake. Someone hid her
well.”

He smiled wickedly, and the thought that
Rose might now be in danger sent a cramp into my chest.

“But now I see that my patience has rewarded
me. I can finally finish what I had started.”

He turned around and addressed the other
priests.

“Do not be fooled, brothers. Do not be
fooled by this creature’s beauty because
she
is
no
woman.”

He pointed a finger at me, and I glowered.
“This abomination is a demon, a girl sorceress. And we need to rid
the earth of these demon women once and for all!”

A murmur of agreement ran around the
chamber, and my heart began to race, faster than before.

“The creature should die.”
An old priest with a thin wrinkled face pointed his walking stick
at me. “She will only poison our minds with her lies. We will go
mad if we let her live. I have seen it. I have seen the wicked ways
of the magic bearers. Kill the creature. Kill her!”

“Yes, kill
her!”

“Kill her!”

“Kill the
beast!”

My mind raced, and I focused on the high
priest. I would have welcomed a quick execution over the life of a
courtesan, but I could see that Brother Edgar wanted to make me
suffer. A chill settled deep into my bones.

“Perhaps she is destined
to die.” T
he high priest turned to me, his lips pulled back
into a sly smile.

I could barely breathe.

“But,” he said slowly. I could sense the
guards and the priests looming behind me. “Perhaps the Creator has
other plans for her.”

There was something so evil in the look in
his eyes that I began to shake.

“What’s your name?” the high priest asked
after a moment.

I could hardly hear him over the roar in my
ears. I hesitated and then raised my chin proudly, “Elena. Elena
Milegard from the Pit.”

One of the guards smashed me in the back
with some kind of club, and I stumbled forward…

“Your
Grace
,” Baul instructed me.
“Show some respect, witch.”

“Elena Milegard, Your Grace.”

I was proud to use my mother’s maiden name.
Brother Edgar and I stared at each other with equal hatred.

“Well now, Elena Milegard, from the Pit,”
the high priest said. “I do not want you as a concubine. But there
is something I want you to do for me—”

“She needs to die!” bellowed the hateful
Brother Edgar.

“My lord,” he added quickly.

The high priest scowled at him.

“I will do it. Let me take her down to the
cells and beat the demon out of her. It would be my pleasure. This
is, after all, the result of my own folly. It will give me great
pleasure to
rectify
my mistake.”

His black, soulless eyes fell on me again
and even though I hated this man, I watched him without feeling. He
would not break me. I didn’t fear him, and I wouldn’t go down
without a fight.

“Under different circumstances I would have
to agree with you, Brother Edgar,” said the high priest. He
strolled around the chamber, but then his eyes fixed on me
again.

“But as it turns out—this
is
different.”

Brother Edgar looked shocked. “Your
Eminence?”

The high priest turned around and faced
me.

“I don’t believe in luck or chances. I
believe that she was brought to us by the Creator, and that he has
a plan for her.”

A murmur of disagreement ran around the
chamber, but no one seemed to want to voice his discontent.

I was just as confused as the other priests.
The high priest’s sly smile was not reassuring, and I shifted
uncomfortably. What could be worse than being a concubine? My mind
was in overdrive. I braced myself for what was to come.

The high priest looked at me through keen
eyes. “Elena, have you ever heard of the Heart of Arcania?”

I fidgeted under his icy stare.

“The stone?” I shrugged. “It’s a myth, a
fairy tale. I’ve read about it in a children’s book.”

The high priest seemed pleased with my
answer.

“You can read? How marvelous. I can assure
you that the precious stone is no myth. The Heart of Arcania
exists. The kings and queens of old desired it, too, but no one has
been able to recover it.”

He raised his voice. “As you are well aware,
my brothers, the Great Race will start in two weeks.”

I stole a look at the guards. Both Baul and
Garth looked as perplexed as I was. I wasn’t the only one left in
the dark. Brother Edgar glared at me, and I met his eyes with
vengeful fierceness and kept glaring at him until he looked
away.

“Every hundred years,” began the high
priest, “representatives from
the kingdoms
of
Arcania participate in a Great Race on the anniversary of
the Day of Reckoning, when the Temple of the Sun
came into power
.”

I watched the other priests. The only ones
that looked slightly confused were the apprentices. The hateful,
self-important priests looked on knowingly. Whatever this race was,
it was clear they knew about it.

Still, something in the high priest’s
attitude unsettled me. He had never appeared to be enraged that I
had stolen the Anglian crown—not by a long shot. He had looked
joyous.

“
For the last three
hundred years,” the high priest continued, “we have maintained this
tradition.”

I watched as heads shook in the chamber.

“So what does that have to do with me?”

“Everything,” said the high priest.

I noticed Brother Edgar’s face darken.

“You see, Elena. This is no ordinary race.
The champions from each kingdom must travel to dangerous lands and
undertake quests in which they must face both monsters and the
undead. Anyone, regardless of their station, can enter the race if
they dare. Most will never return. Only the strong can survive…only
the
gifted
.”

I scowled.

“A race? You want me to participate in a
race?”

The high priest’s white robes swung in a
great arc around him.

“As I am the one who must chose the champion
who will represent the Temple of the Sun Empire, who better could I
select than a
thief
who also happens to be gifted. It is
clear, the Creator himself has chosen her.”

Brother Edgar stepped forward.

“Your Eminence. You cannot be serious. You
cannot trust this creature. It would be madness,” he growled.

I could see a large vein throb on his
forehead.

“She will betray you. You cannot allow this.
She must die!”

A consensus of agreement sounded through the
chamber.

The high priest looked at Brother Edgar
dismissively.

“I am high priest here. Not you, Brother
Edgar.”

The high priest seemed to grow taller, and
the chamber darkened as though the torchlights had been dimmed.

“I will take your opinion under advisement.
But make no mistake, Brother Edgar, I will not hear another word
from you. Is that clear?”

Brother Edgar’s eyes met mine for a long
charged moment. Then his face went from red to a deep shade of
purple, but he pressed his lips together and was quiet.

Once the high priest was satisfied, he
turned to me.

“Elena Milegard. You were caught stealing
the Anglian crown, a crime punishable by death. Moreover, you are a
magic bearer, a crime also punishable by death.

I swallowed hard.

“As such, my brothers want your death.”

He paused.

“And under normal circumstances I would not
hesitate to see your head on a silver plate. In my opinion, any
magic bearer is an enemy of the Empire, of all things natural, and
of the Creator himself.”