A King of Shadow Read online

  I wished I’d paid more attention to Benedict when he’d started to behave oddly—the pale face, complaining of never sleeping, all starting the night we’d found that narrow passage…I should have listened. I’d been so preoccupied with finding a way out of Nevertide, and the stupid Hell Rakers group, that I’d ignored what was right in front of me.

  It suddenly occurred to me that the others could already be out of Nevertide by now—the trials were over, there wouldn’t be anything stopping them from lowering the borders.

  They wouldn’t leave without you, a small voice reassured me. But I knew it wasn’t true—we would have left without Hazel the first time if Jenus hadn’t intervened. They would leave, but I knew without a doubt that my parents and GASP would come back to find me…if they could.

  A soft knock on the door broke my train of thought.

  “Who’s there?” I called, rushing over to the door.

  “Can I come in?” asked a soft, feminine voice. The nymph.

  “It’s locked,” I retorted, returning to the bed in frustration. She wouldn’t be any help. I heard her giggle from behind the door, and then the heavy clunks of locks turning. The door swung open.

  “Magic!” she exclaimed, pirouetting in the doorway. She looked as lovely as before—the wild leaves and flowers entwined in her hair, the soft glowing aura around her, and the bizarre dress of foliage doing nothing to detract from the enchanting violet eyes that peered down at me.

  “I’ve got a lovely surprise for you.” She smiled, dancing into the room. “The queen requests your company—are you dressed well?”

  I looked down at my blanket.

  “Uh…wait,” I replied, taking one of the robes from the closet and throwing it over my clothes.

  “That does look dashing.” She giggled again. “You’re a vision in purple!”

  I looked down at the robe. It was black.

  “Thanks,” I muttered. I suppose it didn’t really matter what color she thought I was wearing, but I was unaccountably pleased that she liked my outfit. I supposed it did look quite good. Dignified.

  “The queen likes things to look nice. Everyone should be like that.” She smiled, beckoning me toward the hallway outside the room. “Don’t you think? There’s so much ugliness in the universe…I like things to look nice too.”

  “Me too,” I replied, realizing that it was so true. I’d never given it much thought, but the nymph was right—why shouldn’t things be beautiful?

  We walked along the hallway, and I admired the polished marble floor and the Grecian-looking arches that swept over us. The nymph almost seemed to float along the corridor in her gracefulness.

  “Do you like the palace?” I asked.

  “Oh, yes!” she replied, laughing. “I love to play here…all my friends do. Not many people in Nevertide like us.” She pulled a face at me. “But Queen Trina isn’t like that, she loves to dance and drink with us. You should come to one of our parties, human boy, you’d have so much fun!”

  “I’d like that,” I found myself replying. “How often do you have them?”

  “Oh, all the time. Especially when the queen has guests. Not everyone agrees with her lifestyle, so she keeps it quite private. Only specially chosen people can join us. King Tejus liked us! We had such fun when he was here.” She giggled, stroking the flowers in her hair. I found myself laughing too, hoping that I’d be here long enough to attend one of the parties—it would be a shame to waste the opportunity while I was in Nevertide.

  “King Tejus was my favorite,” the nymph sighed. “He was such a gentleman—so devoted to the queen. Not like her father…he hated us being here, such a sour man.” She shook her pretty head in displeasure. “He hated to dance.”

  “He sounds awful,” I agreed.

  “Listen!” the nymph exclaimed, pointing to the sky.

  “What?” I whispered back after a moment, not hearing anything.

  “The moon! Can’t you hear it sing? It sounds so beautiful…I wonder what it sings about?”

  I shook my head in amazement. I had no idea. I hadn’t even known that the moon did sing.

  The nymph continued to dance along the corridor, her faint glow lighting up the darkened passage.

  “We’re here.” She turned to me suddenly, gesturing to a large white-washed wooden door. “The queen awaits you. Be nice to her, human boy. We all love her very much.”

  I opened my mouth to ask if I should knock, but the nymph seemed to have vanished into thin air. I looked around wildly, crushed by her abrupt absence.

  Without warning, the door in front of me opened and Queen Trina stood before me.

  “Hello.” I smiled at her.

  “Oh, for goodness’ sake.” She turned away from me. “Didn’t you eat the food I gave you?”

  I didn’t know what food she was talking about. I looked around the rest of the room, seeing if the nymph was hiding somewhere, but she was truly gone.

  “I’m sorry to disturb you,” I said as politely as I could, “but have you seen—”

  “A pretty maiden dressed in leaves?” came the acerbic reply. “No. Drink this.”

  Queen Trina shoved a cup of steaming liquid under my nose—it stank, and I took a step back.

  “Drink it,” she ordered. “It’s an herb. It cancels out the effects of the nymphs.”

  She shoved it with more force toward me, and tentatively I took a sip. It didn’t taste as bad as it smelled, thankfully.

  “All of it,” she barked.

  I drank down the liquid… Oh, damn. As the fog lifted, an unpleasant clarity asserted itself. “Why do you keep those…things around?” I seethed. “If she’d asked me to jump off a cliff I would have!”

  “Watch your tongue,” she hissed at me. “And sit.”

  She gestured to a chair placed in front of a large desk, made entirely of a bright blue stone that seemed to be alive somehow, with light dancing and moving within it.

  “What am I doing here?” I asked, not wanting to give her the satisfaction of seeing me marvel at the grandeur of her office.

  “I told you—you were getting in the way of my plans,” she replied airily.

  “And those plans are?”

  “Never you mind. They don’t concern you.”

  “But they concern my friend, Benedict—right? Do you know he’s only fourteen? He’s a kid!” I wanted to punch something. I felt so helpless here, letting her do God knew what with Benedict and the rest of my friends.

  “He is fine,” she retorted. “And he will continue to be fine. He has a benevolent and kind master now; he is incredibly lucky.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I spat.

  “Of course you don’t. For good reason.” She smiled with saccharine sweetness. “So—Julian. Let us discuss the options you have before you. You will find that I’m a very generous jailor…as long as you are willing to cooperate, of course.”

  I didn’t bother answering her, and I didn’t feel like being very cooperative.

  “Very well.” She smirked, evidently finding my attitude amusing. “You have two choices. You may reside in the dungeons down below this castle—rather grim, and cold this time of year.” She mock-shivered. “Or you are welcome to enjoy my lavish playground, and all the wonders that it has to offer.”

  I remained silent, waiting for the catch. This wasn’t my first kidnapping.

  “On the condition that you always remain under the watch of a nymph.” Her eyes glinted with victory. “It appears to me that you rather enjoy their company, do you not?”

  I considered my options with a heavy heart.

  I knew without a doubt that the more pleasant of the two alternatives would be to spend my days in the castle with the company of the nymphs—but I also knew that it would be the quickest way for me to forget my friends, to abandon any hope of trying to escape…and I couldn’t imagine it would be that long before I forgot my own name. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see the mocking smile of Que
en Trina sitting before me.

  It was no choice at all.

  “The dungeons,” I whispered.

  She laughed loudly. “My! You’ve got more courage than I gave you credit for, human. It’s a good thing I took you out of Hellswan when I did! So be it then,” she continued. “The dungeons it is. A wise choice, though I doubt you’ll live long enough to benefit from it. As I said, it gets terribly cold down there…and endless days and nights spent in pitch darkness, not knowing when dawn has risen or the sun has set? It does curious things to the mind, my dear. Very curious.”

  I jumped up from the chair and lunged toward her, my hands outstretched. I wanted to strangle her. Rip her limb from limb if I’d had claws - completely destroy her.

  As soon as my fingers brushed the wool of her blue cloak, she stepped backward and a lightning bolt of excruciating pain ricocheted through my head. I screamed, falling to the ground in a crumpled heap, my body withering in pain. My efforts were pitiful.

  The last thing I heard before passing out completely was the delighted, girlish laughter of Queen Trina Seraq.

  She thinks this is all a game.

  Benedict

  I groaned as a gust of cold air numbed my face and hands. Still believing I was in bed, I turned over in half-sleep, trying to locate my blanket. Instead of the soft wool I hoped to find, my fingers touched damp sand.

  This isn’t right.

  Icy-cold realization washed over me, and I sat up abruptly. In the light of the moon I could recognize the malformed humps and vertical jutting plains of the Viking graveyard, and a sickening green light erupting from the ground a few yards ahead. Dread clenched my gut as I rose to my feet, dully putting one step in front of the other as my body drew me toward the light. Once again I felt like someone’s puppet, animated by their strings, completely out of control of my own body and mind. I couldn’t even understand how I’d gotten here. When I went to bed I had made sure that I locked my door – and even wedged a chair beneath the door handle. I couldn’t remember waking up and moving through the castle, or leaving the grounds through the portcullis. Which could only mean that I was losing more time—experiencing more blank spots where I could have been doing anything, and I wouldn’t know.

  That thought terrified me more than the eerie light that beckoned up ahead.

  I followed, my feet stumbling over the uneven earth, but determined to reach my destination. With each step I took, I could feel the power of the light growing stronger—not just the light’s intensity, but the force I could feel coming off it, drifting over to me in waves.

  Soon I no longer wanted to turn back. Everything in me wanted to see what lay beneath the earth, to discover what the green light promised.

  I passed a hole in the ground, a bright shard of light pouring out of it and reaching up into the sky. I thought that something must have fallen through, an animal perhaps, or maybe it was just a natural pothole. I tried to peer down it, but the light was too bright—and still I was being pulled forward, to another spill of light ahead.

  A yard from the hole, the earth dipped down low, tree roots exposed in the soil landslide. In the glow of the light they looked like a mass of sprawling limbs, and I hurried past them into a stone passage. The light was bright here, but less intense, so I could make my way along the narrow path easily. The walls on either side of me were made of large stone blocks, and on each I could see strange engravings—a bit like the runes on the Viking relics, but different somehow, like they held power. Like they were alive, not just carved shapes.

  As I made my way along the passage, I could hear voices droning—a low, steady hum that came from repetition of a prayer or mantra, over and over again. I couldn’t make out what the voices were saying, but I knew they were sentry voices or human, not the strange whisperings that I’d been hearing in the castle, though they called to me in the same way.

  I stepped out of the passage, into a small room. In the middle was a large stone shape where the green glow was strongest, and surrounding it, all dressed in black robes, were about a dozen sentries. Their hoods were worn low over their faces, so I couldn’t recognize any of them.

  They ignored me, continuing to chant, but among them I felt a strange sense of well-being, like I was in exactly the place I was meant to be—with people who understood, who knew about the stones, the whisperings and everything else that had been happening to me since I came to Nevertide.

  I moved closer to the table. The chanting sentries didn’t move from the circular stance, allowing me to reach out and touch the smooth, warm slab that formed the top of the table. My eyes adjusted to the brightness of the light, and I could see that the same runes were carved here too, and it was these patterns and shapes that the light spilled out from.

  My body started to feel as if it was vibrating, humming with energy. A moment later I realized that it was coming from my trouser pocket. I reached my hand down, and, slipping my fingers inside the rough cotton of my jeans, I felt the stone Hazel had given me. It was almost too hot to touch, and when I pulled it out, it glowed even brighter than the runes.

  I stood still, stupefied, the stone in my outstretched palm, the hot searing of my skin not seeming to matter, my eyes darting from the stone to the table.

  The droning of the ministers stopped.

  A woman’s voice spoke out, one that I recognized.

  “Will you not do your duty, Benedict of Hellswan? You are the chosen one. The creature from another dimension, called forth to save us, to set us free. So it is written, so it shall be.”

  Yes!

  More than anything, I wanted to do my duty—to fulfill my purpose.

  The vibrating of the stone increased, shuddering through my body. I knew what I must do—the very thing that I’d been waiting to do since I’d first heard the whispers and seen the unearthly swirls on the wall in the castle. Slowly I placed the stone down on the table and watched, open-mouthed, as it rolled of its own accord into the center and then placed itself into a small divot, enclosing it so perfectly that it looked like the stone had always been there.

  I looked over at the female sentry who had spoken, and watched as she slowly removed the hood from her face. I smiled as I met the almond-shaped eyes of Queen Trina Seraq.

  I wanted to call out, to speak to her once again, but the room shifted, blurring and jolting…

  No, wait!

  I grasped the slab of the table, trying to hold onto reality a moment longer, but the room was already spinning, becoming a blur of robed figures and the eyes of Queen Trina growing larger and larger until everything went black.

  Hazel

  When I first woke, I thought that I’d completely misjudged the time—outside the window, the sky was still dark, and it took me a moment to realize that it was in fact morning, but an almost black rolling blanket of cloud had covered the sun. I wrapped my robe round me more tightly, shivering. It looked ominous—thunder clattered against the windows, and it seemed that the whole of Nevertide was covered in a bleak misery.

  I went to get washed and dressed, taking my time so that I could delay coming face-to-face with Tejus. A hot bath helped, and I stayed submerged in the water till my skin became wrinkly and I half-worried that I’d pass out from the heat.

  When I entered the living room, I found Tejus sitting on one of the sofas, with Lucifer purring around his legs for attention.

  Tejus turned in my direction, briefly nodding ‘hello’ before returning his attention to the storms outside.

  “What’s going on with the weather?” I asked, attempting to break the silence. Last night I’d vowed that today I’d ask to move down to the human quarters—it would be easier on us both, and until we were allowed to leave Nevertide it was probably best I stayed away from Tejus.

  “I’ve never seen it like this,” he murmured. He looked concerned, and I noticed dark shadows under his eyes as if he hadn’t gotten much sleep. I wondered if the kingly duties were already getting to him, but it occurred to me that
other than in made-up scenarios in our mind-melds, I’d never actually seen Tejus relaxed or at ease.

  I moved to sit opposite him on the sofa, thinking that now was a good a time as any to discuss my sleeping arrangements.

  “I was thinking that I might move my things down to the human quarters—until we move out. I’m sure you’d be happy to get some privacy.”

  “What are you talking about?” he replied in irritation.

  “Moving downstairs. Today,” I repeated.

  “No.”

  His jaw clenched in resolution, and he turned away from me.

  “Okay, well, I was being polite,” I retorted. “You’re no longer my jailor. I’m going to stay downstairs.”

  He rose from the sofa, glaring at me.

  “Do you think that because my brother isn’t here, you’re safe?” he growled. “I am king now, Hazel. If anyone would seek to harm me, and there are plenty who would, you are the person they would target first—are you so blind?”

  “Who is going to harm you?” I exploded in exasperation. “I just want to leave, Tejus—please!”

  My desperation was getting the better of me. I wanted the dignity of leaving on my own terms, but I didn’t know how to say that without letting him know how much he was starting to hurt me.

  “If I knew that, I wouldn’t be concerned,” he bit out. “Why are you so desperate to leave? Anything you want or need is yours here.”

  No, it’s not.

  I swallowed. “I just want to get out of your way, that’s all.”

  “I do not want that,” he replied quietly. “Hazel, I—”

  The door to his living quarters thundered with a loud knock.