The Queen's Bloody Knuckles
A/N: Well ficsters I'm back…sort of. I realise that it has been an insanely long time since I updated and if you are readers of my other fan fic Secrets, Werewolves & Coming Home do not despair I am intent on finishing that as soon as possible and I will be the first to admit that writer's block is a harsh bitch.
Anyway the idea for this popped into my head when I was watching Deltora Quest (if you live in Australia you will know exactly what I'm talking about!) and I had both Finnikin of the Rock (by Melina Marchetta [she is a genius!]) and Graceling (by Kristin Cashore) open beside me as such Alice's story came to me. If you are familiar with any of this material The Queen's Bloody Knuckles is sort of a combination of all three with a dash of Twilight thrown in for good measure.
It is staying a one-shot for now, but if you like it I will turn it into a full fan fic sometime after I have finished S, W & CH.
Disclaimer: You know the drill; I don't own Twilight, or Deltora Quest or Graceling or Finnikin of the Rock
Enjoy! Luv Juno!
APOV
I have watched him often; he is the only one who walks between the castle and the village without out fear. No one has been seen leaving the castle since the massacre of our Treasured Ones 19 years ago….except for him.
Every time he leaves the castle our village, Seneca takes a collective breath.
We know what this means.
Every time he leaves the castle we know we will lose another of our Gifted; children born with Goddess given abilities ranging from the fairly innocuous to some so dangerous and powerful they are kept hidden.
We do not know what happens to the Gifted who are taken.
They enter the castle and are never seen again.
We do not know his name. We do not need to.
For we call him the Queen's Bloody Knuckles for the carnage he leaves in his wake when he takes one of our Gifted. Bodies of the young and old are pilled six or seven high, some are buried, most are not – set alight in mass piles to set their vengeful souls free, so that they might find solace in the Eternal Kingdom.
Whole families have been slaughtered at his hand, with 2 or 3 generations gone in an instant, all to protect our young Gifted from her. The Elder Queen, usurper of the throne of Aelius and murderer of our Treasured Ones.
The cemetery is the largest and most recognisable part of Seneca; we truly are a place of stones.
My guardian and uncle, Charles jokes that he will be the last in Seneca to go out of business for he is the village gravedigger and stone mason. My aunt, Renée crosses herself whenever he makes comments like this.
She spends days after mumbling silent prayers and takes longer trips down to the shrine of Kalona – The Earthen Goddess; Sister of Fire, Water and Air – to ask for protection from the vengeance of the Elder Queen and her Bloody Knuckles.
She is frightened with good reason.
He is brutal and merciless, the Queen's Bloody Knuckles.
I have seen men on their knees begging for their children's lives but he cuts them aside with his broadsword without blinking, not caring as he sprays our cursed ground with more innocent blood. The ground around our village has soaked up so much blood in the last 10 years that very little grows in our soils and whatever we can reap is poor quality and there is not enough to go around.
But neither the Queen, nor her Bloody Knuckles care about our plight, the little village of stones with its constant supply of Gifted means little to them.
He is somewhere in the village right now and I am toying with fate by being outside. Aunt Renée would be furious and I would be sent to bed without supper. The orchard behind our house is bearing apples; we've not had apples from these trees in five years.
I need to be quick and silent. If I am not quick Isabella will come looking for me, armed to the teeth. If I am not silent the Queen's Bloody Knuckles may spot me and take me back to the castle instead of the Gifted he was expected to collect. I cannot allow either situation to occur.
I dart between the trees, my feet making no sound as I flit from tree to tree, plucking the precious apples from their haven and stowing them in my basket. I am nearly done; just two more and I can leave. I would run back were I not hindered by my long skirt.
I am just about to reach for the last apple when my vision clouds over.
…The Queen's Bloody Knuckles is helping me put apples in my basket and he is smiling at me as he does it…The Queen's Bloody Knuckles is standing over the body of the baker, his sword dripping with fresh blood, the baker's wife is sobbing and his un-Gifted son is screaming for his father and Gifted sister…Isabella is holding a dagger against the throat of the Queen's Bloody Knuckles, blood streaming from the thin wound she has made…
I gasp and jerk myself out of the vision, bumping into a solid mass as I do. We fall to the ground, my basket of apples flying everywhere. "Watch where you step girl!" drawled a gruff voice. I quickly move away from the man I've just knocked over, searching for the whereabouts of my basket.
With a groan I realise that the apple are everywhere and I really need to get home to avoid meeting the Queen's Bloody Knuckles. With haste I reach for the few apples near me and stow them in my apron, knotting it with one hand. The man behind me coughs and taps me on the shoulder. I turn slightly only to be met with the sight of the Queen's Bloody Knuckles.
A breathless shriek escapes my lips and the apples tumble out of my apron and scatter round my feet. The Queen's Bloody Knuckles and his broadsword are standing in front of me. He is holding my basket out to me and inside are some of the apples I've dropped. "Thank you Sir," I say politely, taking my basket gently from his grasp.
I do not drop my gaze from his face, feeling like a mouse trapped in the eyes of a grass snake. I am both ensnared and afraid. I don't want him to frighten me. I am not on his hit list today and nor Thank Goddess is Isabella. I am not being plagued by visions of Charles' dead body, covered in blood and soaking into our cursed ground.
I swallow my horror at the sight of his face.
He has a long scar running from the tip of his eyebrow to the corner of his mouth on the right side of his face; almost like someone has tried to carve open his skull.
He has a crescent shaped scar under his left eye where someone has tried to gouge it out of his head. His nose is bent and has clearly been broken multiple times.
There is a thin scar on his forehead which disappears into his blonde hair as if someone has tried unsuccessfully to remove his scalp.
He has many scars on his face and probably more elsewhere, one scar for every one Gifted he has taken to the castle for nearly ten years. He gazes back at me as I continue to trace the scars on his face with my eyes. The corner of his mouth lifts up in an approximation of a smile which looks more like a sneer when coupled with the intensity of his fierce blue eyes.
I clear my throat and quickly remember that I need to get home so I resume my search for the rest of my apples. Darting around the orchard I quickly gather my fallen apples while he watches smiles like in my vision and tries to help. "What is your name?" he asks softly, placing the last apple in my basket.
I watch his face carefully; I'm not on his list so he shouldn't need to know my name. Bella you need to warn the Baker's family! The Bloody Knuckles is coming for Gianna! NOW! I shriek in my head sending it towards her with all the strength I can muster. The Queen's Bloody Knuckles gives me a pointed look when I don't answer him.
"My name is Mary, Sir," I say, maintaining a calm façade. I need to stall him so that the Bakers can hide Gianna and no one ends up dead. Besides no one uses my first name any way. He nods walking over to the tree where the last apple hung.
"How old are you Mary?" he asks, there is more confidence in his voice now and lacks the gruff tone he used when I knocked him over.
"I am not yet twenty sir," I say, watching as he plucks the apple from the tree. He holds it out to me but I shake my head. "I've plenty sir, you may keep it," I say pleasantly he nods his head and smiles. My eyes glaze over again and he disappears from view.
...The baker and his wife are standing in out small kitchen forcing a large loaf of bread on my aunt who is insisting it is no trouble. Gianna is dancing around my legs, tugging on my red skirt to try and get me to dance with her…
"Mary! Mary!" the Queen's Bloody Knuckles snaps his fingers in front of my face. He looks concerned. "Are you alright Miss Mary?"
I step away from his grasp and touch the side of my head with my free hand. "I am fine Sir, I think I've been out in the sun too long and I need to get home," I say cautiously, feeling slightly charitable toward him now that I am certain that the Bakers are safe. "It was nice to meet you Sir," I call, backing away without turning my gaze from him.
"But we haven't actually met Miss Mary, I know your name but you don't know mine" he hollers back, tossing the apple up in the air and catching it before taking a bite from the red flesh.
"I don't need to Sir, good day!" I say, quickly disappearing behind the building and running down the dusty street. The door to my house swings open and I am met with an unimpressed Isabella. She is dressed as she normally is, in pants and a large men's shirt with bow in hand and knives hidden in her boots.
Despite any attempts by her mother and myself to get her to dress according to her gender she remains as she always is. She roughly pulls me into the house and shuts the door firmly behind us.
"Alice! What in the blazes! You're so lucky Ma and Pa are still in bed!" she seethes, wrenching the basket from my grip and plonking it on our rickety kitchen table. I rub my hands across my face tiredly, scrapping the wisps of escaping black hair away from my eyes.
"Bella calm down or you'll wake them up and do you really want to explain to them that you let me leave the house," I quip, roughly pulling back a chair and sitting on it. Bella goes to say something else but stops and mashes her teeth together. She knows that she will be in as much trouble as me for not preventing me from leaving.
"Fine! But you shouldn't have left! You of all people know the Bloody Knuckles is on the prowl!" she hisses, tapping me sharply on the side of my head. I swat away her hand away; giving up on my hair I pull at the pins securing it at the nape of my neck. The black tendrils fall loose against my back.
"I know the Bloody Knuckles is on the prowl, by the way how is Gianna?" Bella scowls at me and starts packing the apples into one of the empty store boxes.
"She's fine, the Bakers say that they owe you thanks, but I suppose you already know that," she shoots me a sly smile.
"Of course! Marcus and Didyme will be over tomorrow bearing bread and scones, so you and I will be baking apple pie for tomorrow,"
Bella snorts peering into the basket, "Jeez Alice, did you knock off the entire orchard or what?" she jokes.
"Of course not, I did leave some behind," I say indignantly, thinking of the Bloody Knuckles and that perfect red apple. Plus there were many that were far too small to pick. "Calm down Alice I was just kidding. How are you?" she asks, concern flavouring her tone. I can feel the beginnings of a headache and start rubbing circles into my temples.
"Are you getting a headache?" she looks worried when I nod; the throbbing becoming more intense. "Did you see Marcus die?" I nod again, closing my eyes. "I'm sorry Alice I shouldn't be mad at you, you've watched so many of them die," she says softly, so softly that I open one eye to look at her.
Her concern and worry are etched in deep lines all over her face. I feel bad for my earlier stunt in the orchard, thinking of how much deeper those lines would be and how much angrier she would feel if she knew. She looks so much older than her 19 chronological years in that moment.
"Bella don't. We've prevented more deaths since I took to watching her decisions, I see who she intends him to target & adjust the timeline accordingly," I say thickly remembering my first vision of the Bloody Knuckles taking a Gifted.
Our neighbours Sabine and Zareh had identical twin sons who were Gifted fighters and could work in tandem by predicting each other's movements, very rare and unusual Gifts. As such I was 9 when I saw my first dead body both in my visions and in real life.
The Queen's Bloody Knuckles looked no older than I did but he cut Zareh aside like a pro and immobilised both boys before they could even register what was happening. A very pregnant Sabine was frozen in dread.
She was clearly torn between the desire to go to her husband who was bleeding out in the street or rescue her two sons from the young man wielding a two handled broadsword. It was the words 'Mama stay where you are' that influenced her decision.
She sank down next to her husband, who uttered 'name her something fierce' and then died. It took my aunt, uncle and Marcus nearly half an hour to drag her away from Zareh's body; we buried him the next day beside my mother and father.
It was a very short 6 weeks later that their baby girl was born. And true to her word Sabine named her Jalena, for she gave her the will to push her way out of the dark cloud of sorrow that surrounded her and into the light so she could raise her daughter properly.
It didn't take us Senecians long to figure out that our Gifted were being targeted, particularly those with skills in fighting or weaponry. A warning system was developed that ran between our houses and allowed us to warn our neighbours if the Bloody Knuckles was coming for their children.
With Sabine's permission we named the system the 'Zareh line', in honour of the first man to die in defence of his family it was the same day the Bloody Knuckles received his own infamous moniker.
Unfortunately it is not perfect but most families are grateful for any advantage they can get. I wince as my headache becomes more pronounced. Bella sighs and scrubs her forehead with the back of her hand.
She roughly grabs the kettle from the bench and shakes it. The little amounts of water slosh around inside it. "Alice I need to go down to the well is it safe?" she looks worried as my eyes glaze over.
…Bella is down at the well filling the pitcher…it's the large terracotta one with a chip in the lip…Alistair is there poor, frightened Alistair… she is talking to him and throwing her hands in the air in frustration, he's cowering away from her…she sighs and pats his shoulder, he waves and scuttles back inside his house…
"You'll be fine, just be nice to Alistair, we're all frightened Bella," I say reproachfully, Bella heaves a rather unladylike sigh of frustration and slaps the kettle back down on the counter.
"Bloody Alistair! If you didn't need willow bark tea so badly I'd wait for a while," she huffs, sliding two knives up her sleeves.
"Bella you do not need those, Alistair's not going to attack you," I chuckle, raising an eyebrow in amusement. She glares and stabs at me with her quiver full of swan feather arrows.
"You better be grateful for this!" she growls, slinging the quiver over her shoulders.
"Oh be nice Bella his wife and babe are not yet cold in their graves," I say lightly, slouching in my chair. She swipes the pitcher off the counter and picks up her vine longbow. "Yeah, yeah I know but he prattles on and my patience is wearing thin," she says darkly opening the door. "Don't break anything until I get back," she threatens, disappearing with a slam that rattles the foundations.
My vision clouds over in the seconds after she leaves.
…I am standing in a forest somewhere outside Seneca….and wearing a coarse green shift favoured by the Priestesses of Kalona; my head is shaved bare…
…I shut my eyes and a knife whizzes past my face, barely skimming my cheek…the Queen's Bloody Knuckles comes barrelling out of the underbrush and skewers one of the Queen's Guards with his sword…
..."You lied to me," he says sheathing his clean sword…
…"I'm sorry I did not believe I could trust you, I am Alice of Seneca," I whisper softly pulling the cowl of the green hood over the top of my head…
…"I don't blame you Alice of Seneca, I am Jasper of Elysia," he smiles…
… A sly smile of my own has curved its way across my face "I know,"…
With a sigh I rest my head on the table and count the seconds until Bella returns knowing that I definitely dodged disaster today. "Oh Goddess what do you have planned for me? What are you trying to say?" I mumble as a clump from upstairs alerts me to the presence of my stirring Aunt and Uncle. Oh do I have some explaining to do.