He woke up when the carriage jolted over a crack in the road and had to remind himself of where he was when he sat up. The usual waking view of tufts of blankets piled up on him in his King sized bedchamber was not what he was welcomed to. His brother and their advisor sat opposite him, blurry shapes sharpening the more her blinked. He was not at home, comfortably splayed across his own bed. He'd been enlisted by his brother to act with him in ambassadorship to some Port Kingdom. It was only a guise so that his brother could ask for the hand in marriage of the King's only child. It wasn't as if everyone didn't already know but their positions meant they needed a little pomp. God forbid they get straight to the point. Instead it meant spending three weeks in a foreign Kingdom until his brother finally worked up the guts to ask for her hand.
Kai's opportunities to third wheel had grown immensely from the number he was comfortable with. That number being 0. Either that or he could spend the trip with Shane. A prospect which appealed to him as much as cholera did.
'And why is she the heir if she is a born out of wedlock?' Lucas whispered to Shane, trying not to wake his brother.
Shane spared a wary eye as he spotted Kai coming round to consciousness.
'She's not technically, sire.' Shane cleared his throat the way he always did before a long tangent. 'Though she was conceived out of wedlock he parents married before birth and she was naturalised shortly after her mother's death.'
'So she's a fancy bastard? Don't worry I'm allowed to say that. Solidarity.' Kai popped open the camel skin of water and ignored Lucas' look of outrage. 'Look,' he continued after taking a swig. 'Say it how you will she's only heir to the throne by the skin of her teeth. She'd be lucky to marry you. And we need this Kingdom on our side. Trade with a Port Kingdom would mean exponential growth for us.' Kai hid the grimace with a practices blank look, as he relayed the plan. It was just another reminder of what was stolen from him.
'Yes thank you brother I'm well aware. Why do you think I'm learning facts about her in the middle of the night.' To prove his point he drew back the carriage curtain to show the pitch black view outside.
'That's the other thing. Stop learning facts about her in the middle of the night. I'm trying to sleep.' He pulled the cushion from behind his back and moulded himself a better position to rest in before laying his head down once more and settling his breathing into a comfortable pattern. It lasted all of two minutes. The low murmuring on Lucas and Shane coupled with the pressing need to relieve himself resulted in his pounding on the roof of the coach, as a signal for them to stop in the middle of nowhere, while he jumped out.
At any particular time of night, if he was awoken so rudely as he was, then he would be angry. Sleep was precious to him. Tonight he was angry enough to venture deep within the woods, and dare the things in the night to challenge him. He stepped through the trees, avoiding the shards of moonlight seeping in and sticking to the darkness. In hope one hand remained on his dagger all the while. Only for him to remain undisturbed throughout the whole excursion. So he took the long way back to the awaiting coach, hoping to find and animal to kill, or hoping that something was attacking the sitting coach and conveniently killed his brother. He was only a fraction of the way when he noticed the object dripping in the distance. He looked closer to see something submerged in moonlight falling through the branches of the tree it was tied on. He checked his surroundings were still as clear as they had been and ventured closer. The object was a freshly skinned fox hung from a tree dripping blood onto the symbol carved crudely in the mud below. instinctively he followed the symbols with his feet and reached and finger out to poke the fox. Before he could satisfy his curiosity the sound of voice halted him.
'Stop, don't touch it!'
Kai tightened the hand around his knife and hid the grin taking over his face in the shadows. The source of the warning was already scrabbling onto a horse from what he could make out. A horse. How did he not hear it? Unless they weren't riding the horse.
'And why is that?' Kai stepped closer to the hooded figures horse and grabbed the reins before they could, keeping them in place.
'They're sacrifices for the spirits.' answered a female voice muffled by a scarf over the bottom of her face. A hood covered her hair, but a few curls spilled out, framing wide eyes that appraised him. 'It's a blood moon.' She replied as if it made any difference to the fact that the occult practice she described was outlawed. If his lessons served correctly then it was easy to assume this kingdom was slightly lax in their persecution of witchcraft because they were so close to the sea. All those strangers and foreign objects coming from every corner of the world were bound to make a person more open minded.
'And are they dangerous?' Kai kept his tone light, doing his best not to scare the girl. He hadn't quite decided what he was going to do yet. If he killed her there were no witnesses, he could easily claim she attacked him first, but there was also no point to that. That anger, the feeling that boiled inside him when he wanted to hurt someone, had dissipated.
'Its depends.' she replied, sounding unsure of herself. 'Do you intend me any harm?' She indicated to his grip on her horse. He hadn't even realised he'd gotten so close. In a calculated gesture of goodwill he let go. 'I mean you no harm. I'm just... curious. I've never seen occult like this up close.' He lied.
'Me neither.'
Kai let out an involuntarily chuckle. "You're good. Very convincing. But when you lie there's a little murmur in your voice. It's a very silky voice other than that.'
'I'm not lying.' she tried harder to mask it. 'And my voice is rich not silky.'
'Agree to disagree.' Kai kept his hands loosely at his side. 'Which means you're either out here because you're a witch or because you consort with witches. And they're a crime the last time I checked.' Predictably the stranger yanked the reins only to be restrained once more as he grabbed them in place before she could move. 'Don't worry. I'm not a witch hunter. Like I said, I'm just curious. And I like to be right.'
'You know that's not a great habit to have.'
'Oh really? I think you're wrong.' He gently moved a palm down the horses mane and watched it become gentler under his touch.
'What a surprise.' The stranger muttered under her breath. 'If I've answered all your questions can I go?'
Kai scoffed at that. 'What answers? I'm still waiting to find out if the blood moon is dangerous.' 'It's not like the name is a dead giveaway or anything.' Kai peeked beneath her hood to watch her long lashes flicker as she rolled her eyes.
'It's not dangerous.' She finally sighed. 'It just means there's something coming.'
'Something…?'
'Something.'
'An answer that vague and correct. It must be witchcraft.'
'All it needs is a hollow promise and it'd be politics.'
Kai let out an involuntary chuckle at that. 'Was that a joke? It was a good joke. Your life is in potential danger and you're joking?'
'Well if I knew my life was in danger then I would have performed a whole skit.' She snorted, unimpressed by his threat.
He smiled at that. It wasn't the forced smile that accompanied him everywhere, or the enthralling smirk he wore for charming purposes; it was a smile. Rare and fleeting, appearing only in times he was genuinely, happily surprised. When he caught it across his lips he endeavoured to hide it once more. 'Why aren't you more scared?'
She raked her eyes over him and then settled them back on his. 'Why should I be? You're not real.'
He involuntarily began pressing down his chest to check he was still there. 'I think I am. I've checked all my body parts and they're still here. Well not all, but I'm willing to suspend checking there for the sake of decorum.'
'Keep talking, I know what you are.' As she spoke through her words the wind brushed over her as she and the horse stood barrier to it. Something about how the wind was picking up made her thoughts begin to swirl. And she thought of the stranger before her. How she met him by a sacrifice meant for a coming spirit, he certainly looked like he was coming for it. She only intervened because she thought he was a lost moron. She was the moron for waiting until she crossed this precarious stretch of forest before mounting her horse. If she hadn't she probably never would have noticed him. But there was her fate. She was always meant to notice him because he was the demon coming for her. She only remembered the demon existed when she finally caught sight of his face illuminated with the yellow hue of a red moon. Before then her mind had been occupied with her coming nuptials before remembering the consequence of failed magic.
'A devilishly handsome man, with wit to spare and muscle coming out of every orifice. No actually I take that last one back it didn't sound like I intended.'
'Lilu.'
'Bless you.'
'No, Lilu. The demon.'
'You think i'm a demon.' The crane of his neck and his voice forming a hulky whisper kept her on edge as she looked down into his face. She was confident he wasn't able to see her properly with the shadow of her hood falling over her eyes and the rest of her face obscured with a scarf. 'I'm flattered.'
And like that her theory had gone to the wind once more. Demons didn't look like him. They didn't sound like him. If they did humanity would be done for.
'I'm glad to have pleased you, on that note I'm going head out now, the weather is picking up…' Despite the confidence with which she asked his only reply was to hold the horse in place tighter.
'Nice try, but it takes a lot more than that to please me.'
'All I'm hearing is picky.'
'Aren't you witty?'
'It's coming out of my every orifice.'
That earned her another smile from him.
'You know if I was really a demon I'd take more offense with you mocking me.'
'It's a good job you're not.'
'I'm not? Then what am I?'
'Distracted.' Before he could ask any further he felt the thump on his chin of her spurred boot colliding squarely with it and shoving his mind violently against it's skull. Forcing him to stumble back and take stock of everything that happened. She took advantage of the disorientation and began riding away. Taking care to look back and make sure he wasn't following her. Through the darkness she felt the air ripple as something hurtled towards her, missing her leg and causing a whiny to rip through the air. She looked down through the darkness to see the outline of a dagger wedged into the leg of her horse. She'd never make it out of the place without being caught by guards. Her horse would barely make it two miles before falling away to pain, it was already teetering.
Kai watched her retreating frame. He would have gone after her if it wasn't for the whining voice of his brother calling for him through the thickets. The hunt would have to be discontinued. He trudged back to the carriage, in a better mood than before as he rubbed his chin, and signalled for the entourage to continue.