Heirot

Odoff packed on the last bits of dirt. He kept glancing at his brother Cyrus, leaning against a tree and staring off at the cloudy snowing sky. He had been brooding all night and all morning about Odoff’s decision to get them into a bind through honoring a dead mans last wish.

At least he helped me bury the poor soul, Odoff thought, placing rocks on top of the grave. The girl he was with… She must be the one he called Rai… How did they get all the way in Arken and how did he get in its army if his lover talked so bad about the queen… It just doesn’t fit. Maybe that’s what’s wrong with Cyrus…

“I don’t see why you volunteered us for this,” Cyrus spoke up, narrowing his eyes. “I don’t like to get involved in things that are none of my business…”

Odoff placed the last rock on the pile and stood up, dusting his hands off on his pants. “You didn’t seem to mind last night when you jumped into the middle of his fight.”

Cyrus glanced away sighing. “That was different, that was before he died,” he told his brother, though even to him that didn’t make much since. The point was to Cyrus that Odoff had just volunteered them into going to Arken, to the Shea’s palace of all places, to rescue a girl that meant nothing to them, all to honor a dead man’s last wish. Cyrus knew the odds of them living through the little journey was about as good as the odds of them having made it out of the fight with out the use of magic.

“Its not different Cyrus, your just thinking of yourself,” Odoff said, shaking his head.

“No, I’m thinking of us,” Cyrus muttered. He looked down at his disheveled appearance. He knew he should be freezing, since his cloak was gone and he only had a thin white button up shirt, but he was to busy being troubled to pay attention to the foot of snow around them.

“Cyrus, the girl… Think of her as Alley…” Odoff said, his tone soft as if the name brought hurtful memories to his mind.

Cyrus stared at his brother, his jaw clenched and his face hard. “Alley…” he whispered his eyes burning as he stared at Odoff. “You had to bring her into this didn’t you?”

Odoff glanced at the ground. “I knew she would be the only way you would do this.” Odoff turned and picked up his cloak, throwing it over his shoulders. “So… are we going to get the girl or are we just going to let her rot in Arken?”

Cyrus growled and folded his arms, staring at the pile of snow on the ground. “Yes,” he growled his answer and his eyes shifted to the pile of stones. “But if we get killed I promise you, you won’t get a moments peace in the next life.”

Odoff chuckled and grinned at his brother. “It wouldn’t be that different from this life would it brother?”

Cyrus made an aggravated sound and unfolded his arms as he walked passed his brother. “Come on if were going… The sooner we meet our deaths the sooner I can say I told you so…”

The throne room was totally different from how it had been that morning when she had saved the man from losing his hands. It was lit more but candle chandlers. Torches hung on the pillars and the gargoyles at the top of the pillars were spewing fire from there mouths.

There were tables formed into a U at the end of the throne room and in the middle sat the prince in a fine black tunic. He was talking to a man to his left who was grinning from ear to ear.

Rai stood in the doorway, people filing past her talking. Two of her guards stood behind her, arms folded and looking very displeased with being put on guard duty. Rai had been given a flowing red dress that looked like the fanciest thing she had ever worn in her life. The maids had put her hair up with ringlets that flowed down her back.

She didn’t want to wear the dress. She didn’t want to stay in the castle. But, she had to do everything they wanted, and had to try and not fight it. But, when Steel came back they would find a way out and she wouldn’t have to put up with pretending and holding her tongue.

She started walking forward when Edan looked at her. When he noticed her he sat up and a small came to his face, his green eyes seeing into hers. His smile was one of delight, but it still, like always, had the hint of evil to it. Edan motioned for her to sit by him in the empty chair to his left.

He stood and pulled the chair out for her as she sat down. Rai grew uncomfortable as she noticed all the noble women staring at her, and the young maidens with them. She arched an eyebrow, leaning back slightly as she noticed all the heated glares. They were whispering to and glancing at her and for the life of her she couldn’t figure out why.

“They assume that I’m courting you,” she felt his breath as Edan whispered in her ear. His voice was dark and for something behind it… she couldn’t figure out what there. She froze and looked out of the corner of her eyes.

Rai blinked and her eyes widened and she pushed away so she could look at him leaning over in his chair. “What?!” she said a bit too loudly and the room grew deathly quiet.

Edan grinned devilishly reaching out with out looking and taking his goblet in his hand. He stood and looked around the room as everyone stared at him. “We are here to celebrate the leaving of our armies as they go to attack Ighten. Tonight I want the army of Arken to indulge themselves in anything they please. Food. Drink. And I’m sure your favorite, women…”

The large doors to the throne room opened and figures veiled and unseen glided into the room with an unearthly grace. Rai tilted her head trying to think of what they could possibly be. She had never been to a feast so she couldn’t for the life of her guess what they could be besides whores, since Edan mentioned women. AS they walked a loud drum beat with every foot step made. The veiled beauties stopped in front of the tables. The formed a large square in the middle and stood straight and tall, unmoving. When they stopped the drum beat loud one last time.

Rai glanced at Edan, who was still standing up and holding his goblet. “Demedico, demordo, vadado,” Edan said and it went totally over Rai’s head. She knew a bit of elvish… and that wasn’t elvish… it didn’t sound like anything she had ever heard. “Begin.”

Then loud music began to play and the group broke apart from forming a square. The veiled women began to dance to the fast music, moving gracefully. The way they danced captivated everyone, even the women. It was alien how graceful they could move.

Edan sat down, his eyes going to Rai as she sat in herchair, her head tilted and her mouth open slightly in awe. “I was once told, that if I kept my mouth open for a long period of time, that it would be hard for me to ever close it…”

Rai shook her head and narrowed her eyes, turning her head towards the prince. “Hmmm… to bad you listened to them,” Rai said, turning her attention back to the dancers.

Edan chuckled leaning on the left arm of his chair. “And its such a pity that you didn’t listen to them…” He sounded like he was musing over something as his eyes wondered over her face. “You look…”

“My lady may I have a dance with you,” the voice came from the man to Edan’s right. He was a general she guessed by his uniform and the medals. “If that’s alright with his highness.”

“I don’t belong to his highness,” Rai said testily, growing annoyed at the thought of being courted by Shea’s son. Edan was looking at her, a sign of an annoyed smirk on his face. He was annoyed by the general she hoped, because she didn’t feel like fighting. Rai thought for a moment and stood up. She hated dancing with people she didn’t know, but if it annoyed the pretty boy she would gladly be uncomfortable for three or four minutes. “Yes, you can.”

The general nodded, standing up and taking her by the hand. He led her to the dance floor, where most of the people were now dancing along with the dancers. She glanced back at Edan and found him with his head propped up on his fist. He was staring at them, his smile had faded. Rai was grinning on the inside, from ear to ear. Take that your highness…

Rai wasn’t quite good at dancing, well she was but none of this ball room stuff. She just wasn’t that good at the fancy footwork and she kept getting lost when something with the whole group happened. She was beginning to think that sitting and talking with Edan was a safer thing than dancing. She tripped slightly of the generals foot and her eyes went wide. She felt herself falling backwards and she braced herself forgetting hurt because she knew that marble floor wouldn’t be a very soft landing.

Rai hit something hard, but not hard enough to hurt her. She felt an arm go around her waist to steady her. Rai tilted her head back to see strong green eyes staring down at her and a devilish grin. She got her footing and stood up, an agitated expression on her face.

Rai brushed a long curly strand of hair from her eyes and turned around. She held her head of high and was about to say something when she felt the weight of eyes. She looked around the room to find that everyone had stopped dancing and was staring at them. She also noticed finally that the music had stopped.

Oh damn… she arched an eyebrow and looked back to Edan who was standing with his arms folded across his chest, an eyebrow arched like her and a smirk playing on his face. Oh damn! He’s going not going to ask me to dance is he?

He didn’t even ask her to dance. He just stepped forward as a rush of music began to play, put his hand on her waist and took her hand. It was slow music at first, smooth and soft, which she found strange for Arken taste. As soon as her eyes met his she couldn’t look away. Her feet moved along with his, which was strange since she didn’t know the dance.

The music sped up and so did the dancing. Spinning, jerking… it wasn’t smooth, but it wasn’t bad. Rai couldn’t think of a word to describe it, or to describe the way it made her feel.

Edan kept his eyes locked on hers, his smile had faded away and a serious expression remained. He knew what was in her eyes, since she hadn’t looked away it had given him time to study. They spun in graceful circles following the flow of people in a circle.

Rai closed her eyes as they danced. The feeling from the dance spread through her, it made her heart seem lighter, it made it beat faster. It made her want to do anything, to be reckless and dangerous. A smile, though faint came to her lips as her eyes opened again. She knew what the feeling was now. It was passionate.

Her eyes were once again caught by the piercing green orbs of the prince and the music took her away. She could no longer fight it. The feeling of trying to resist. She didn’t understand it, but she couldn’t bring herself to make the feeling stop. She enjoyed it to much.

They spun around dancing in a circle, the circle moving around the room like the rest of the people. And when the final drum beat hit, Edan let her fall to the side, her back arching to the way he had dipped her. But, the song didn’t end there. It was slow again, the same tune and rhythm as before and Edan slowly lifted her up, his arms finding there way around her waist and before she opened her eyes, though at the moment she might not have protested, he kissed her.

Rai’s eyes shot open and she blinked, pushing against Edan, who didn’t fight it and let her go. “What… what do you think your doing?!” Rai said breathlessly, trying to seem angry, though she found it hard to fight the feeling from before. It wasn’t hard once she realized and reminded herself of who he was.

Edan smiled darkly at her and said nothing. He only turned away and walked around the tables to his seat, taking it again and leaning back as if satisfied with a days hard work. Rai stood in the middle of the throne room, surrounded by dancing people. She could only look at him with a hard gaze, her jaw clenched.

Rai wondered up to her room, of course she had her escorts so it wasn’t a problem to go up. She wasn’t happy to be in the Palace… but she was happy that she had her own space she could go to when ever she pleased to be away from Prince Fullofhimself… She growled and slammed the door in the guards faces, turning and putting her back against it.

She closed her eyes for a moment and walked forward. She went to her dresser and pulled a nightdress out, draping it over the arm of a chair as she reached behind her to unzip the dress.

Grr… Who does he think he is? He can’t just… kiss me like that! I should have slapped him… Why am I just now thinking of doing that when I could have done it thin! Slapped his handsome… what am I saying. I think he’s handsome now? Rai… you spent way to much time with Mizuki and Siren… He is the son of the woman who kill your parents…

“My mother killed you parents?” a dark voice said.

Rai whirled around wide eyed and holding her dress closed in the back with one hand and up in the front with the other. “Do you mind?!” Rai screamed at him.

His highness was on her bed leaning back against the head board and had his feet crossed at the ankles. His arms were folded across his chest and he had an annoying smile on his face… Well it wasn’t him being annoyed it was Rai being annoyed at his smile.

“Why should I mind? It’s my palace,” he stated, tilting his head. “Need some help?”

Rai’s mouth fell open and then she closed it, her eyes narrowing. “I do not need any help from you. What I need for you to do is leave,” she said, pointing at the door with the hand that held the back of her dress closed. When she felt the draft she immediately brought her hand back around the hold it closed again.

Edan chuckled to himself, his head tilting back for a moment. His piercing green orbs looked at her from her feet to her face. He moved off the bed and walked calmly towards her talking to her the whole time.

“You left quick,” he said, taking another step forward.

“Lets just say I couldn’t stand you being in the room,” she muttered, looking at his feet warily for a moment. What is he up to now?

“Aww? Do I tempt you that much?” he asked, grinning. He took two more steps forward.

Rai’s mouth fell open for the second time. “Tempt me? You?” Her eyes were wide with shock. How dare he suggest a thing. “You are the most disgusting creature I have ever met in my life and I would rather be dragged through hot coals than be touched by you again,” she told him as he came to stand before her.

“If you really want that too I can arrange it… We always have hot coals lying around when I pretty lady wants to be drug through them,” he told to her, his voice lowered to barely above a whisper.

“I really don’t like you,” she growled.

“I know,” he told her.

“Then why are you still here?”

“Because I like you.” He grinned.

Rai narrowed her eyes. “There is no way in Veron’s home I would ever like someone like you,” she told him.

“You don’t have to like me…” he told her. “You just have to want me.”

If it was possible, which is was… because it happened, Rai’s mouth fell open for the third time that night. But, she couldn’t contain what happened next. She laughed. Laughed very hard to.

“Listen Prince, your going to have to do more than talk to seduce me,” she told him. “You might have to throw in a spell or a couple of thousand of them before I would ever want you.”

Edan’s eyes looked into her soul. “We’ll see,” he told her, smiling. “We’ll see…” He took a step closer.

Rai froze as her heart picked up. He wasn’t about to kiss her again?! Not again…

Edan leaned down close to her face and smiled. “A woman can hate someone, and still want them… Its called lust… and no human has ever been born with out that factor…”

Rai leaned forward despite herself, getting dangerously close to his lips… “I think you just met her,” she whispered, her eyes glancing up at his. She moved back and tilted her head… “Now go.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He grinned and stepped back, disappearing by fading out.

Rai turned around and began to undress once again.

“Oh and another thing,” his voice said and she turned around to find him right behind her. She pulled he dress up, screaming in aggravation, picking up a stone object off a table and throwing it at him.

“Okay, never mind,” he said laughing, his eyes staying on her for a moment before he faded out again.

“Are you still here,” she asked.

“No,” his voice replied.

“GO AWAY!” she roared so loud it made her cough for a moment.

Nothing was said after that. He said nothing. He left chuckling… at least she thought he did. After that she couldn’t sleep easily with out thinking he was somewhere in the room.

Rai found that the more time she spent in the Prince’s presence the more she wanted to kill him. But, the feeling of killing also came with the feeling… Well, she wouldn’t admit that even to herself. He took her with him when he went walking through Arroes, and he had to do well not to kill her for interfering with his business when he went to torment the people in the city.

It was on one of these fateful days that Edan discovered Rai’s ability to heal… It was also the day he discovered it was on of her weaknesses. It was odd… but like his mother Rai too contracted the illness or wound by healing the person…

He had been forcing her to watch the burning of a man accused of stealing from Lord Borthen’s palace. It was a normal crime. The man had stole two loafs of bread and a ham… Surely he disserved death for stealing from someone above his stature…

They were standing before the man. Edan had his hand around Rai’s arm, holding her fast because she kept wanting to attack the executioner. Edan found the site funny to him, but at the moment he wanted to get a point across to his people… Later he would let her lose on the executioner, though he thought later she would want to be let lose on him…

Rai’s jaw was set so tight it hurt, but her anger caused her to forget the pain in her jaw. Her eyes wondered around as she looked for ways to try and stop this madness… try and help this poor man before he was killed in such a horrible way.

She saw a barrel, but was it empty or full? If it was full… was it full of water? She saw nothing else, but she knew that if she got up there fast enough she could slice the rooms and the old servant could make his escape…

Edan gave his order for the execution to begin. The executioner took the torch and walked towards the pile of sticks that was gathered at the feet of the servant. Edan had to hold tighter to Rai’s arm because she was jerking violently.

“If you do this I swear I’ll kill you the same way,” Rai said through gritted teeth.

Edan smiled, “He is a criminal. I guess you think criminal’s should go free?” he asked her, his voice demanding.

“No one disserves to die like this…” she whispered as the executioner lowered the torch to the grass around the wood. The grass caught fire and began to spread quickly in a circle around the poor screaming man.

He yelled for help, for anyone to help him. As the fire grew worst Rai found that she couldn’t just stand here and watch… No matter what she would help this man.

“Prince, either you let me go or I force you to let me go,” she said to him, staring at the flames as they rose higher and began to reach the poor mans legs.

Edan let his grip loosen, after all she wouldn’t just run into the fire to save someone… He didn’t think she was that heroic.

But, he obviously didn’t know Rai Sunstrom that well. The first thing she did when she was free was jump up onto the stone podium that the fire was on. The executioner brought his sword out to keep her from doing what ever it was she planned on doing.

Edan stood there with his arms folded. What exactly was her plan? To kill the executioner for lighting the fire? He admired the fact that the girl didn’t hesitate once. Not even when the sword was being brought down towards her. Edan would have stopped it if he felt she was going to get mortally wounded… but there was something about the way she moved… They style of fighting was much like that of the Arken soldiers.

Rai sun around to the side as the executioner brought his sword down forwards as if he were lopping off a head or splitting someone in half. She caught his wrist when it came down with the sword and held it in place as she brought her leg around, kicking him in the stomach. He couldn’t breath, so panicking he let the sword go. Rai took it and turned to walk towards the burning man, who was now screaming to a point that it was horrific. Rai heard nothing of the screaming… All she heard was the blood pumping in her ears. She ran forward and stood at the edge of the fire. It was hot and it burned her skin from this far away.

Edan watched wide eyed as he had not expected her to actually try and save the man… But he was burned at the legs and there was probably no way that he would ever walk away from that.

Rai held the sword like a bat and swung it hard from anger, slicing into the ropes. What was holding the man up was now gone and he began to fall forward.

Everything turned to slow motion. Rai saw him falling to the fire… But, what could she do? She through down the sword and stepped back as he slowly fell in her vision. She took a run. And the fire seemed to mock her and rose as she jumped into its center… Flames rising high…

It was cold, and Odoff had never been fond of the cold. “How the hell did you talk me into this again?” Odoff asked, slipping and catching himself on a tree.

They were heading down a steep icy hill covered in sharp rocks and small pines. It wasn’t enough that he had to be out in the cold, but he kept slipping down when his foot found an unstable rock coated in ice.

“I swear,” he growled. “If I slip one more time, Edan can have any girl he wants…”

Cyrus stood on a large spiked rock, leaning on one knee. He turned back to his brother, looking at him, his smile hid by the face mask. “It wasn’t I that talked you into it,” he said sourly. “It was you who talked me into this idiotic scheme.” Cyrus turned back, jumping from the rock and landing gracefully onto an ice coated flat one, not sliding once.

“How are you doing that?” Odoff asked, almost breaking a small tree as his large form slid into it.

Cyrus slid purposely from that rock and jumping, sliding across another. “I guess mother blessed me with better balance than you, dear brother…” Cyrus turned back to his brother, the icy wind blow his cloak around as he stood in the middle of the open hill. His icy eyes stood out more than anything against the stark landscape.

“Yea, I bet its another bit of that black magic…” Odoff muttered, walking again and not slipping for a good while.

Cyrus turned, shaking his head as he stepped from one rock to another. He couldn’t get his mind off the situation that his brother had so willingly put him in. So he would see Edan again… He had longed to see the Dark Prince again… He had longed for revenge.

His beautiful sister Alley and her bright blue eyes. It had been a long time since he had seen her… His last memories of her were not fond… since her last memories of her were of her dead.

Edan had seduced his sister… and when he tired of her he played a cruel game with her. Cyrus tried to get his sister to see the light… but he had brainwashed her until the point she thought everyone lied except Edan… Then he killed her. Through her body from the top of the tower as if she were nothing more than a rag doll.

Cryus had watched in horror as her body plummeted towards the earth, spinning and twisting from the violence of the speed. It played over and over in his head now. He could stare at the ice falling quickly, but all he saw was that tower and his sisters horrified face as Edan kissed her… and pushed her…

Cyrus closed his eyes and reopened them, the image gone from his mind. All he had was his brother. That was all he needed. His cold eyes glanced back at his brother. “We should stop… its only going to get worst,” he said.

“Aye, and my arse needs a rest,” his brother said, grinning.

Cyrus looked around, trying to find a good place to stop. “There are couple of thick trees over there gathered… we can get in between those… It should shelter us from the wind… and make sure we don’t go slipping down the hill at night…”

They moved and positioned themselves in the trees and there they spent the night.

Rai swam in and out of consciousness… The only thing she did when she was awake was blink a few times, her eyes fluttering open and then they would close again. The healers could not heal her, because she wasn’t really injured. It was all magic… and magic couldn’t heal magic…

The bandaged her legs and her hands to keep them from bleeding more. The only thing Edan could figure was they were bleeding in the places the man had been burned… Where his blood had been stopped by the fire, hers leaked freely because there hadn’t really been a fire that touched her skin.

Edan waved a hand as he walked down the hall, the doors to the infirmary swinging open. He didn’t have to wait for them to open, he just walked in, his robe billowing behind him with the steps he took.

She was lying in bed, her blood clothes on the floor beside her and a new black gown was on her now. She was sleeping peacefully it seemed.. He had excepted her to wake up by now, but it seemed the man’s injuries had been severe.

If he would have known she would heal him… Well, if he would have known that she had the gift he wouldn’t have let her go up there… Edan stood at the foot of her bed, his eyes trailing over her.

“Has she woken since I left?” he asked, one of the healers coming forward.

The room was dimly lit by candles… the curtains blood colored. It was untidy and unclean… the last place one would want to go to be healed. It was basically a place where the scientists performed there experimental surgeries and alterations…

“No my Prince… She has almost woken, but fades out again. We could induce a nightmare that would wake her… if you would like it?” the healer asked, a slight grin coming to his lips as if giving pain and torment was something he took great pleasure in.

Edan smirked. “If you think it will wake her up… It bores me when she sleeps…” Edan said, a cruel tone coming to his voice as if Rai was an animal… a pet.

“What nightmare do you suggest?” the healer asked, walking towards the head of Rai’s bed, his hands going out to touch her.

“There is a man… his name is Steel. He is with the army attack the Boarder. Give her a nightmare about him,” he said. “Something gruesome.”

Edan took a seat on the bed beside Rai’s.

“Yes, my Prince,” he said. He placed two fingers on her temple and closed his eyes.

He entered in quickly, a rush of images passing him by. Then it stopped. The girl was sitting in a chair in a simple house. She was rocking back and forth. He couldn’t stand how nice and happy it looked… so he altered it. The house became a field. There was a storm and lighting popped close to her.

Rai ducked and spun around. “Steel?” she asked, looking at the tall man in the field with her. His head was bowed and she couldn’t see his eyes.

“Steel?” she repeated.

Steel looked up at her, his eyes narrowed… a dangerous glint she had never seen before. He ran at her and Rai, confused, stood still. He tackled her to the ground. “What are you doing?” she screamed at him.

He didn’t say anything. The healer shook his head… “No… this isn’t good enough…”

He altered Steel. His handsome face turned decade, the skin was missing from one side, he had maggots and worms in his mouth… and one of his eyes was hanging out of the socket. The healer received his desired effect. Rai screamed, a blood curling scream of terror.

Edan watched as Rai made a sound in her sleep, her head jerking to the side and her feet moving slightly. It looked as if she was trying to push herself further into the bed.

Steel was holding her down… She couldn’t move. “I’ve missed you,” Steel said, his mouth opening and worms falling out.

“No, this is a dream!” Rai told herself.

The healer smiled.

Edan watched one of the healers hands come up and it glided down her neck. The princes eyes narrowed dangerously, as if someone was playing with his toy and he hated to share.

Rai pushed against Steel as one of his rotting hands trailed down her neck. She was panting, afraid. “I loved you,” he told her.

“I… Steel…”

“I loved you,” he repeated, his good eye looking at her. He growled as if she had said something to make him angry.

He began tugging on her clothes, ripping them. Rai screamed and jerked. Then she woke.
Edan smiled as Rai jerked and her noises grew louder. The healer was surely doing his job good… and he had taken his hands off of her. That was another good point. Then Rai shot up into a sitting position, wide eyed and her bandaged hands came up and she began feeling around as if to check if everything was okay.

The healer backed away, bowing towards Edan with a smile and walking towards a cabinet.

Rai blinked, taking in a deep breath. She looked down at her hand slowly, not yet realizing who was sitting on the bed next to her. She pulled back the covers and lifted her dress to find her legs and feet were bandaged as well. She didn’t quite remember everything. The only thing she did remember was going to heal the man… and then looking up at Edan’s face…

She heard a cough from beside her and her bluish gray eyes looked at the person next to her. It was Edan, wearing his black pants and black robe with no shirt…

“Sleep well?” he asked.

Rai narrowed her eyes. “Don’t you ever give anyone peace?” she asked in annoyance as he rose and walked towards her bed, sitting down next to her, facing her.

“You’ve been sleeping all day, isn’t that enough peace?” he asked smiling.

Rai rolled her eyes and sighed. “Your annoying and I hate you,” she said. “If I must be here can’t I just be a fly on the wall?”

Edan grinned, his hand coming up. Rai moved back slightly as it neared her face. But, she couldn’t go far and soon his finger tips trailed down her smooth cheek. “One that looks as you do would never be just a fly on the wall…”

Rai’s face remained emotionless for a moment. She just stared at him blankly. She had to shake her head to keep from thinking the thoughts that suddenly came to her.

Rai stood up off the bed, unable to stay in the so called infirmary much longer. The bone like nurse protested that she stay in bed, that it was Edan’s orders. Rai, however, was disobedient. As she walked she unwrapped her hands, throwing the bloody bandages on the floor. She pushed the two way doors open and stepped out.

Both the nurse and doctor stopped at the sight of her healed hands. No blood pored from them at all. Her legs were the same way. As the doors closed she removed those bandages as well, and no blood pored from them either.

Rai walked through the halls of the tower that was the great capital palace. She walked them alone for the first time. As usual she was unafraid of what might lie in the shadows. She neither feared evil or ran from it. It had always been that way, even when she was a child.

Rai knew one thing. She had to get a letter to Soran… He was young still because of his elf blood… He could come and rescue her. Together they could go after Steel. Rai had to get out of the palace. Until that execution she didn’t realize where she truly was. Until then nothing had been that bad. Until then.

The halls were large and dark, with archways. Moving gargoyles guarded them, watching her as they passed. It might have been imagination, but she could have sworn they bowed.

Rai didn’t exactly know how to get around the palace. She usually just followed Pete and Harold, those where the names she had given to the two meat heads that followed her around.

Rai came to a cross section where she had two places to choose from. She didn’t quite know which three directions to go in, since she had never been in this part of the castle. She looked down one hall, then another, and then the last choice. Both curved off in different directions, which made it hard to choose which way she should go.

Rai shrugged, walking to the right and heading down that hall. It was a bit darker than the rest, but she didn’t realize that or even notice. The saw a dark stairwell that went down, spiraling around. It was lit by torches that gave just enough light to see down the stairwell.

She thought that maybe she was close to the top of the tower… so going down would lead to the middle where she figured the sleeping quarters were. So she followed them down, going deeper and deeper. The more Rai went on the more she wished that the palace had more windows. That way she know how high she was up.

Rai heard faint sounds that was more like screaming. She walked towards a large wooden door that she came to when the stairs ended. Her hands pressed against it and followed down to the handles. She pushed with her shoulder and the door opened. What she saw caught her breath. It was a large open room, filled with the glow of fire. Men and women hung from chains or were chained to walls or posts. Some were laid out on tables. The screams she hard made her eyes tear up as she looked on at the evil.

She took several steps into the room, some of the people issuing pain to the others stopped what they were doing and looked up at her.

She knew that this wasn’t the way to her room, but her feet would not stop moving. Hopeless eyes looked at her, hate radiating from them. They felt she was one of those who had sentenced them to this fate.

She stopped in the middle of the room, looking around at the openings that lead to walls of cells… and at a set of stares that led to cells that surrounded the top of the room.

A tear fell down her cheek as she looked at what these people lived in… What they died in. Her parents went through this… Her parents had been tormented by these people. She closed her eyes, another tear falling at the pain she could feel from them.

She could almost feel the way that the feet of the tormentors moved across the ground, coming towards her.

“Who are you?” they asked.

Rai didn’t answer, she only opened her eyes to look at them. Her bluish-gray eyes were watery and the fire light made them glisten and shine.

“You aren’t supposed to be down here,” one said, growing the words out.

Rai didn’t flinch or move, she just looked at the hard face of a man that had spent his life time enjoying others pain. Her jaw was set as she moved forward quickly. “I don’t care,” she told him, her fist tightening until her knuckles were white. She reared back and in one quick move hit the man in the face. His nose bled, but the stout man had not moved from her blow.

He gave a nod and Rai felt hard hands grab her body.

Edan walked into the infirmary, glancing around. He didn’t see Rai anywhere in the room, which caused him to narrow his eyes greatly. He looked to the doctor, walking forward. “Where is she?” he asked, coming to stand behind the doctor, spooking the man into jumping.

“She left my prince… I don’t know where. She wouldn’t listen to us,” he told him.

Edan’s eyes flashed a glowing green. “Then you should have dragged her to her bed… or gave her something. You let her walk around this palace alone?” Edan’s voice was threatening and deadly.

“I’m sorry,” the doctor said, going to his knees and cowering. “I… I didn’t realize she wasn’t aloud around the palace alone.”

Edan’s knuckles were white.

“Which direction?”

Rai tried to lift herself off the ground, but she felt disoriented, dizzy. She felt pain in her gut again as the force of the blow sent her rolling across the room. She struggled, moving towards a sharp peace of broke glass lying in the dirt of the dungeon floor.

She turned around, using her last bit of strength to lash out at the groin of the nearest man near her. She missed and fell forward. They drug her to her feet, and she fought back as best she could, but they were overwhelming.

In her dizzy vision she saw deformed smiling faces. Rai didn’t like the way they touched her. She felt them drag her to a cold place and chain her to a wall. She felt the sleeve of her arm ripped, and then more of her dress. It was like rabid dogs

“Enough!” It was a loud roar, that was altered… and it sounded like the voice of a monster.

The torturers stopped there assault on the girl, and turned to find there master standing in the door way of a stone cell. “My lord, we found this girl…”

“I said, enough,” Edan growled, his hands coming up and sending the men in the room flying into the walls. All except for one that refused to take his hands of Rai, even to face Edan. When the bodies slammed into the walls it was like hands held them there. He growled louder when his eyes met Rai’s tired looking form. Then the bodies turned to fire and then to ash.

That was when the man let go of Rai, bowing low and cowering at his feet. “My lord, please, have mercy.”

Edan smiled, walking forward and taking the man by the hair. “I will show you… the same mercy as you showed her,” he told him, and shoved him to the side.

Edan knelt in front of Rai. His finger tips trailed down her face and her neck. “Why is it every time I see you, your hurt?” he asked, grinning devilishly.

Rai moved slightly, her eyes fluttering open and glancing at him as her head moved. For a moment she didn’t recognize his blurry form. His face was close to hers, inches away. She turned her head towards him, her eyes blinking the blurriness away.

Edan’s hands touched the shackles that held her against the wall. They broke apart and her arms fell on his shoulders as he lifted her to her feet. Wrapping on arm around her, his other hand came up to brush her hair from her face. “Wake up,” he told her.

“I am…” she groaned, her arms slipping.

“No your not, weakling, wake up,” he told her, using the famous word of his father as incentive.

He felt her become more aware when her feet began to hold up her own weight. She shook her head, her eyes opening more. When she was good and awake she noticed the position she was in with him. Noticed how close she was to him… Rai pushed away quickly, almost tripping.

“Now your awake,” he told her. Rai looked from him to the man, then around the room. She felt a bit disoriented since she didn’t know what had gone on, and felt her head hurting from the hits she took.

“What…”

“This man and his friends were going to hurt you…” Edan said, grabbing the quivering frightened man and lifting him to his feet effortlessly. “Follow me.” Rai did as he told her, though she really didn’t want to.

Edan through the man on the dirt before her.

“Most of the women in this room have been raped countless times by him… him and his friends. They would have done the same to you. They were about to in fact…” Edan growled those last words.

Rai ran her hand over her bare shoulder, looking down at her clothes.

“You hate the sight of him, don’t you?” Edan asked, looking up at her. He could see it in her eyes. Her eyes were fiery with hate. “You hate the thought of that, don’t you? You want to hurt him? To kill him? Do it…”

Rai looked at Edan and then back at the man. She looked at the man with hatred and disgust. “Do it, Rai, or I’ll let him live to hurt more of them. Just like he would have hurt you.”

Rai glanced at Edan, and then back at the man. Edan grabbed an axe off a table and brought it to her, taking her hand and closing her fingers around the handle.
Rai’s eyes stared into his. “He was going to hurt you, Rai,” Edan said.

This was the defining moment. He had thought it over. He had weighed what might be. He would test her. But, he already knew the outcome.

Rai held the axe. She held it up. Edan watched in delight. "Do it."

She swung.

Rai’s eyes followed the handle down towards the bloody blade between the mans legs. Her eyes looked at his eyes. She was disgusted by him. “Death would be to easy a fate for a man like you,” she spat at him, turning and walking away from him.

The sound of his screams filled her ears along with the cheers of those who had been watching them. Edan’s eyes looked at her, watching her as she walked away. He watched the way she moved… an unearthly way…

He didn’t understand why she attracted him so well. Why he wanted her more than he had ever wanted any other woman. He would never protect a woman as he had her…

He looked back at the clever work she had done on the torturer. He was crying… and holding the handle that Rai had stopped supporting. He admired the way she left him in pain, not pulling out the weapon and leaving it for him to do. “Nice…” Edan muttered approvingly.

He followed after the girl, noticing she was a bit pale. “You don’t look well…”

Rai’s eyes burned holes in him. Then her look softened as if she were to tired to argue with him. “I’m just annoyed... And angry…”

Edan smiled and his arm found there way around her, he spun her to him. “I don’t feel like walking,” he told her and Rai watched as there surroundings faded away and they were in a bed room.

Rai looked around before her eyes found him. She couldn’t look away and she didn’t know why.

“What are you staring at? Do you find me that attractive?” he asked, grinning devilishly at her. The soft glow of candle light made her face look just that more beautiful. He had to resist the urge to take her there.

Before Rai could control herself, before she could will the thoughts from her mind, she answered him unconsciously, “Yes…” she said and then caught herself… “No! No I don’t…”

“You said yes!” Edan said, his voice almost in disbelief if he didn’t know his gift better.

“No I didn’t,” Rai protested.

Edan’s arms fell to his side.

“Yes you did.”

“No I didn’t!” Rai yelled.

“No you didn’t…”

“Yes…” Rai said and shook her head. “I mean… I would never say-”

Edan could contain himself no longer. His hands grabbed her and pulled her to him, his lips pressing against hers. Rai at first wanted to scratch and bite… but this dark feeling inside her held her back. Something inside her wanted this… It had wanted it since the moment he danced with her.

She couldn’t explain it… She couldn’t control it. All she could do was give in. So when Edan pulled away to his delight she returned his kiss. It was passionate… lustful.

His grip on her tightened. Rai loathed him for what he was making her do. But, he wasn’t forcing her… He was… She couldn’t explain it and it was driving her mad. It annoyed her, but enticed her.

It was temptation… She didn’t want to give in… But…

Edan could feel her slip away. It was almost as if he could read her thoughts. He finished kissing her lifting her and taking her to the bed. He kissed her again. He knew that he could stop… That he could seduce her any day… But, he didn’t want to wait.

“Give in,” he whispered as his hands roamed over her.

And she did just that. Edan smiled inside.

She gave in.

Rai’s mind soon forgot who he was and where she was. Her body was the cause of that. She got lose in desire and pleasure and gave into it further. Was it a need to be wanted that attracted her? She didn’t know. It killed her, but she didn’t know.

Soon she even forgot that thought, and everything was gone. The only thing left was the moment…

Edan couldn’t believe she had given in so quickly. It only gave another clue to her mystery. She was not afraid of him. She had the same healing problem as his mother. She gave in to temptation easier than any woman he had ever known… What was in her that wasn’t in the others?

Edan rose up over her, looking her in the eyes as he kissed her. He saw it in her eyes then as they opened to welcome his look. It was deep in her eyes, buried by years of breeding. A small bit was left in this one…

One of her ancestors long ago must have been one… Because it was almost gone. Her next child, if not fathered by one, would be as pure as day.

Afterwards she slept next to him. She was on her side facing him, one of her arms draped over his chest. Edan was almost a sleep himself, but small thoughts drug him awake when he was almost fading out.

That and the feel of eyes.

He felt them, all around him. Eyes boring into him. How long they had been there he would not have noticed. He had been to caught up in the moment with the woman beside him. Edan slipped out from under her, undetected with his skillful movements.

He pulled on his pants, stepping to he middle of the large room. He looked around, only seeing shadows.

Then, the shadows moved and walked out from there hiding places.

“Its been a while…”

They didn’t talk to him. They didn’t provoke. They just attacked. There movements were swift and quick as the came to him, closing in the circle. But, Edan’s movements were just as swift and quick. In a flash of light his hands glowed with fiery claws.

Edan spun around, ripping his claws through the first one who came at him. So these were the assassins sent to kill the son of Shea? Pitiful as usual…

Edan turned towards another and the assassin foolishly ran at him like the other one that had just died. Edan noticed one of them had crept towards the bed, obviously noticing the woman curled under the silk sheets.

“Uh-ah,” Edan mused, grinning towards the assassin. As he caught the one coming at him in the chest he moved quickly throwing the limp body at the assassin heading for Rai’s sleeping form.

The two bodies collided, slamming into the bedside table with a loud crash. Rai shot up, wide eyed and looking around.

Edan was standing in the middle of the room, fire wrapped around his hands. His eyes glowing a haunting green. At first Rai didn’t remember the events that had taken place an hour or two ago. A part of her thought she was dreaming. Dreaming that Edan was standing in the middle of the room with three bodies on the floor, his hands covered with fire…

Rai tilted her head at him, wondering why he would be in her room… Then she realized that it wasn’t her room at all… She then wondered why she was in a strange room and in a strange bed. Wait? Why was she in bed…

Images came flooding back to her in a rush. She felt down realizing that her fear was correct. Rai sprang up with the sheet, wrapping it around her form.

Edan looked at her perplexed as to why she moved away so fearfully… Unless… It became clear to her what her laps in judgment had accomplished. Rai was looking from him to the bed horrified, her face pale.

She remembered now… Very clearly… But… he must have done something to make her do it! He must have put a spell on her! He had to have! Edan stepped forward.

Rai pointed a finger at him. “Stay away!” she yelled a bit hoarsely.

Edan smirked. “Come now, your not regretting our moment of passion…” he complained, stepping over the squirming body of one of the assassins.

Rai gritted her teeth, the strong urge to slice him in half welled up inside her. “There was no passion…” the words were so low and so forced that they could barely be heard. She couldn’t say them any louder… It would have been like admitting it really had happened to herself.

Edan grinned evilly. “Oh, I assure you there was quite a bit of passion… and lust…”

Rai wanted to cover her ears so she wouldn’t have to listen, but she couldn’t. So she just screamed, “No!”

“Why is it so hard for you to admit it? You have the memories… and I’m sure I could take you back to relive it,” he said, his grin grating at every nerve in her body. She hadn’t realized until then that he was getting closer.

“Because that’s not me!” Rai cried out. “I don’t… give in…” Yet she did this time… What would Steel think of her? What would her foster parents think of her if they found out?

Rai’s eyes stared at a dark shadow, her mouth open slightly in horror. “What have I done…” she whispered softly, tear sliding down her smooth cheek.

“You haven’t done anything wrong, Rai,” Edan told her, his smile leaving and it was replaced by a sympathetic look. “Everyone falls from there pedestal at some point… It wasn’t wrong what we did… It was just fulfilling needs…”

Rai swallowed. She wouldn’t listen… If it wasn’t wrong why did she feel so horrible inside…

“Look deep inside you and you won’t feel bad, believe me… Because deep inside you, there is something there that wants me,” he told her.

Rai’s bright bluish gray eyes looked at him for the first time in a while. She stared at him and the more she thought the more it didn’t seem wrong… But, she knew it was wrong… It had to be…

“Please,” she whispered, another tear falling. “Leave me a lone for a little while…”

Edan smiled softly. “As you wish,” he said and with that he disappeared. With him the assassins disappeared as well… Rai fell to her knees her hands covering her head as if the whole world just came crashing down on her…

Cyrus walked a head of his brother through a snow covered graven path. The path had tall dead bushes that only had thorns on them and only a few trees along the way. His mind was a wonder about how they would get into the palace… especially undetected. Half of him wanted to turn back… to not even bother with her.

However, the memory of his sister being pushed from the top of the tower and watching her plummet to her death changed his mind every time his foot stopped. He used that as his incentive to keep going.

He didn’t know this girl, but she didn’t deserve Edan’s taunts and torments… And from what his brother had spoken of her… from the only time he ever met her in the inn, she loathed Shea. He said it was something in her voice…

Cyrus just didn’t get the whole situation. How did the girl get in that situation in the first place. And the man wasn’t in Arken’s army… Maybe they had gone there to kill him, Edan… and he was keeping the girl as his slave… And the man had to work for her or something… He would only be able to figure it out once he got there…

Unless, unless he could use a bit of “black” magic, as his brother called it… He could find a lot with that… He just needed something… But he didn’t have anything to go on but her name… Rai…

Hopefully that would be enough for what he could do. Maybe he could even find someone to take the job from them so they wouldn’t have to risk there lives for a girl they didn’t even know… Or maybe they could find someone to help. So he could take on Edan with out having to worry about a girl getting in the way.

Cyrus’s cold blue eyes looked a head at the soft lights of town in the distance. He looked back at his brother, who looked like a bear trudging through the snow. There wasn’t any turning back now. As much as he hated it, he had to keep going. His brother had made a promise to a dying soldier… a fighter.

That night they stopped at an inn a town just outside of Darkwood. Cyrus got the room while Odoff went on up, he did seem quiet tired. Being the large man that he was he wasn’t as flexible and light as Cyrus… Not to mention Cyrus had the help of his magic to make it easier on him.

Cyrus didn’t go to the room straight away. He left the inn quickly, so his brother wouldn’t see what he was doing. He went outside and down the alley between the inn and another building. It was dark and abandoned and just the right place to go to perform such a spell… And his brother wouldn’t be there to stop him.

Cyrus took a seat on the cold ground. All he had to go on was a name… it would be hard, but he could do it. At least he hoped. Cyrus closed his eyes, letting go of how cold his body felt. Letting go of the thoughts in his mind. He found a place that was void of light and void of sound.

Cyrus saw himself standing in the place that was void of light and sound. He began to repeat the name of the girl over and over in his head. It would have been so much simpler to just have something that belonged to her. Then he could touch it and it would take him to that place where she was…

First he saw a happy flirtatious child, he didn’t think that that was the girl he was looking for. But, for some reason it wouldn’t move away. He saw the child holding the hand of a tall elf man who was walking out the door. Then, it switched to a woman… she was kneeling in the middle of a dark room. Cyrus was standing in the room with her, but she couldn’t see him. It was impossible…

She was weeping… and she had nothing on but a single sheet wrapped around her. Edan walked to the window, looking out of it. It was indeed Shea’s palace. He couldn’t imagine how he had found the girl so easily… If this was she.

Cyrus looked back at her, stepping closer and kneeling. Her head jerked up as if she had noticed him. Her eyes stared straight at his, they were bright bluish gray, and sparkling with water. Her eyes were red, and her cheeks lined with tears.

What had Edan done to her? Cyrus’s cold eyes stared at her, confused. Did she see him? But, her eyes moved away and returned to the floor where they continued to stare. It was almost as if for a moment she saw him… or felt him… That was most unusual.

So this was the girl they were sent to save? Just another puny woman who had let her looks get her in danger. Yes, Cyrus had to admit she was beautiful… Maybe that’s why Edan fancied her so.

The girl laid down then, and Cyrus scooted back quickly, though it wouldn’t have mattered she would have gone straight through him. She curled up on the wood floor of the room, wrapped in the thin silk sheet.

“I need you Soran,” she whispered, as if Soran was there and could here her. “I don’t know what to do…”

What had Edan done to this girl that she would talk to someone who wasn’t even in the room with her? Who was this Soran fellow?

The girl broke down in tears once more and it only puzzled Cyrus more. If only he could have known that she cried, not because over what she had done, but because she knew it was wrong, but it didn’t feel that way inside…

The life of a dictator is rather simple… You give orders. People do things for you… You don’t really have to do anything unless you actually wanted to. So Edan sat at a desk pointlessly with nothing better to do than stair at a sheet of paper that gave land to Lord Cross. It wasn’t like they ever kept documentation to anything, so it was pointless to sign over the land to him. Besides if there wasn’t proof of a contract there wasn’t a single way for the person to prove it ever existed…

He heard a sharp knock on the door and his head came up. He brushed the crimson strands away from his eyes with a shake of his head as the door opened.

A creature with gray skin and white hair came strolling in, taking his helmet off as he knelt in front of the desk. Edan sat up and then stood when he could only see the top of the Ishtass’s head. “Yes,” the prince asked dully.

“My lord, the raid on the Border was successful,” the Ishtass hissed confidently, his eyes lowered to the floor.

“And the man?” Edan asked.

“Dead,” the soldier replied, looking up. “He fought against us… and we found his body a few miles away when we were searching for the two survivors. We haven’t found them yet…”

“You probably won’t,” Edan commented walking around the desk. He thought for a moment and then the evil glint turned to malice. As long as the girl thought that her friend was still fighting she would think she was tied here to this place until his ten years were through. “Go,” Edan said short and sweet, turning to walk out a different door than the one the soldier had come from.