Mandarin didn't say anything for a long time. For so long, in fact, that Valina wondered if the fall from the Ferris wheel had damaged his brain. She sat uncomfortably on the ground, letting the adrenaline slowly pass out of her bloodstream, watching the monkey until he said,
"As tenable as our position may be, I do think we should leave."
Valina made a murmur of agreement and got to her feet. She gripped the simian around his small torso with both hands, lifted him up and said, "Brace yourself." Through the haze of surprise, Mandarin's brain managed to send the right signals to his legs. As he flew through the air in an arc Mandarin managed to twist sharply and land –more or less- on his feet. Meanwhile, the witch had taken a run-up on the other side of the gap. As she neared the edge she sprang.
The area just above her knee hit the corner of the wall, and her eyes went wide as she flung her arms over the edge. In a quick, mad scramble Valina hauled herself the rest of the way before the fear made her limbs freeze up. She didn't want to end up down there, not down in the pit...
They did not know it, but Valina and Mandarin's subconscious were occupied by the same thought.
Oww...
"Why are you so bothered?" the orange monkey asked all of a sudden.
The witch stared at the dark, breathing shape in the shadows. "Wh... What?" Valina was rendered clueless by his question. Being oblivious usually made her irritated, but there was nothing but genuine confusion in her voice now.
She heard Mandarin take another shuddering breath. "Why are you putting so much effort into keeping me away from those guards?" A brief pause. "Why would you care if I went back to that hateful cell?"
Valina looked at the glistening eyes, knew that the confusion on her face was apparent. But she couldn't think of anything to say. "I-" she tried, and paused. Why did the simian need to know, anyway? She wasbothering, as he put it, wasn't she? He should have been grateful!
Dreadfully aware that that the silence was lengthening, Valina said the first thing she thought of. "You swore an oath to me as my servant, Mandarin."
With a hint of haughtiness she added, "I demand your services exclusively. You're no use to me in a cell, are you?" Valina stood up after that, signifying the end of the conversation. There was an almost melodic sound as Mandarin brushed the dust away as he too got up.
"One more question, Valina."
The former Skull Sorceress stopped, not turning around.
"Why did you pause for so long?"
It had been a long time since Samuel had been in an amusement park. He couldn't remember quite how long, though… He'd been in his twenties, he remembered that much.
He also remembered he'd hated being in it then, too…
The man carefully edged his way around the park grounds, glancing around now and then for any movement while checking in every fathomable crevice which the miserable convict and his "friend" might have chosen to hide in.
He'd been taking one of his brother's daughters last time he was at one of these things. He didn't remember which, however… Either Scarlett or Emma.
Samuel shook his head. This was not the time for this; he had to focus. Had to finish this god-awful mission…
The man clutched tighter to the pistol he'd brought back from the truck, and, as his eyes scanned the area, found himself hoping he'd be able to use it on the damned mutant.
A muffled crash was heard a ways around the corner. The guard's head snapped up, and he sprinted towards the sound, gun raised.
Samuel kicked any and all garbage out of his path as he ran, and as it just so happened, a glass soda bottle was in the way of his foot, and went flying to shatter loudly against the side of a nearby stall.
Mandarin and Valina walked next to each other in silence after leaving the Horror House (save for Valina's rapid inhaling of fresh air when they first exited). The witch had shrugged off her minion's last question grumpily, though Mandarin had been hoping for a more in-depth answer, and was irritated he hadn't gotten one. Then he began to think about why he wanted an answer, and all in all it was unsettling.
He wondered, briefly, if it was because the first question's answer was somehow unsatisfactory...
The simian shook his head a little as he walked. No, that certainly wasn't it. Valina's reaction was the expected one. Without him, the witch wouldn't be able to complete her little "quest". That was why she'd caught him when he fell, too, probably…Why had he even bothered to ask, anyway?
Mandarin didn't notice his own shoulders droop ever so slightly.
He also didn't notice that there was a large-ish half-buried metal keg in his path. His foot caught, causing the monkey to stumble forward and crash into the side of a fortune-teller's booth. The aged, rotten wood buckled under the force of his propulsion, and collapsed.
The simian slowly pushed himself out of the wreckage, and turned around to see a very perturbed witch standing behind him.
Her arms crossed in front of her chest, Valina hissed lividly, "You know, Simian, you'd save everyone a lot of trouble if you just screamed outright, 'I'm over here! Arrest me please!'
Mandarin glared (though a trace of embarrassment was etched on his face) and muttered, "I tripped…"
"Thank you for pointing out the obvious," came the snippy remark. "Would you care to tell me that the sky is blue, while you're at it?" Valina marched away.
The monkey followed, a bit sheepishly, behind. "It wasn't as if anyone heard m-"
The noise of shattering glass sounded in the distance.
The pair froze for a second. And then Valina whispered, "Run."
Both took off like bullets, with no specific destination in mind. They just ran. "May I point out," Valina asked bitterly as she sped through the abandoned fairgrounds, "that this is the second time today your clumsiness has gotten us chased by these people?"
Mandarin growled. "No," he said. "No you may not."
The witch looked around desperately. Somewhere to hide, somewhere to hide… It didn't matter where, really, just out of sight…
She saw in the corner of her eye the huge, dark, gaping opening of a tunnel, and for a second she wished she had the time to be pickier.
"This way," she called to her minion as she darted left. The monkey looked over to where his mistress was headed, and slowed a few paces as he gawked in disbelief.
"You have got to be kidding me…"
Valina scowled. "Unfortunately not; now hurry up and follow me!"
With that, the pair both ducked into the maw-like entrance of the Tunnel of Love.
…Just as Samuel rounded the corner. The prison guard had just enough time to see a bony tail disappear into the darkness.
The old control box for the ride was the first thing you saw when you entered the tunnel.
The water had long since dried up in the channel, though it had left behind a considerable amount of pond scum. Somehow it thrived there, layers growing on top of each other, replenished by the rain that dripped through the sagging roof.
Now that the water was gone, you could see the metal tracks that had guided the swan boats through, each boat having carried a young, hormonally-unbalanced couple into what was supposed to be a romantic atmosphere.
The pair that travelled through it currently, however, just found it annoying.
Valina glanced around in the shadowy tunnel while passively stepping around the pond-scummy mechanical swan boat that was resting in the middle of the track. Though dark, she could tell that the walls had been -at one point- painted the brightest, most obnoxious shade of pink you could imagine. Not only that, but red hearts had been plastered to the walls, as well as hung from the ceiling, joined by every manner of cherubs and songbirds and angels. Some of the ornaments had fallen to the ground due to aged and fraying cables.
Who in their right mind decided that this would be romantic? the witch questioned mentally. She, in all honesty, saw no appeal to anything in the tunnel. In her humble opinion, it looked as if every two-bit Valentine's Day card in the world had thrown up all in the same spot.
Mandarin was thinking more or less the same thing as he eyed the tunnel with disgust. He was fully aware that Valina had pulled him in here to hide, and it probably was a fairly secure location, but he still held vague resentment towards her for it. He hated places like this with a passion. The fact that he was walking through it with her made it that much worse…
The monkey halted abruptly, and grabbed at Valina's dress to stop her too. The sorceress looked down at him angrily.
"What are you-?"
"Shhh!"
Valina listened with annoyance in the silence that followed. Slowly, her irritation vanished, and she heard shuffling footsteps behind them at the beginning of the passageway.
"We were followed," Mandarin hissed heatedly to the witch. "Now what?"
What indeed, the sorceress wondered. They couldn't just keep going forward; the tunnel would end at some point, and there were no turns or anything they could duck into…and they certainly couldn't go back…
"Witch?"
Valina noted that the desperation in the simian's voice was mounting. It felt a bit peculiar, actually...to have Mandarin looking to her for help, that is.
She looked down at that moment for no reason in particular, and a plan started to form in her head. A risky plan, but it was all she had at the moment.
"Go further down the tunnel and wait there until I come get you," she muttered.
"WHAT? How will that-?"
"Just trust me!"
Mandarin paused for a moment, staring at his mistress questioningly, before reluctantly heading away down the channel.
Samuel edged though the tunnel carefully, trying not to slip on the slimy pond scum, his pistol at the ready. Where the hell did the little bastard go now?
The ageing guard continued forward slowly, cautiously. And what was with that woman? What did she have to do with this? And why was she protecting the Skeleton King's former right hand?
…And what the hell were they doing in the Tunnel of Love?
Samuel paused, shuddered, then swore to himself that when this was over (when, not if; he had 'em trapped now) he was going to go to a bar and drink until his imagination was dead. Do a friggin' DIY lobotomy.
He occupied himself for a moment by squinting and trying to identify the dark shapes on the walls. Hearts, hearts, Cupids, hearts, angels, bow and arrows, kissing couples, hearts, angel girl singing, hearts-
The prison guard abruptly noticed something crouched on the ground some distance in front of him, jumped, raised his gun, and fired.
The bullet hit the target dead on, and the shape was blown back a few feet, scraping on the floor. Samuel headed over to it, still clutching his weapon tightly.
He didn't notice the singing angel girl peel away from the wall and quietly scamper back to the beginning of the tunnel.
Samuel bent down next to what he'd shot, and rolled it over. An old, broken-winged cherub with a bullet hole in its forehead smiled sweetly back at him.
The guard swore with fervor as he ran a hand furiously through his hair. They'd know he was here now for sure. He'd just cost himself the element of surprise…
Samuel stood up swiftly, still rebuking himself. A little too swiftly. As he stood up, his foot slipped on the slime that covered the floor of the channel, and he fell back down, curses flying from his tongue.
He winced sharply at a pain in his ankle as he landed. Looking over at it, he saw the problem: His foot had become caught in between the narrow tracks on the floor. Still cursing, Samuel tried to pull his foot from the tracks.
He paused when he heard a slow rumbling.
The prison guard looked up. It was coming from the entrance. It was also transforming from a rumble to a clatter; something was picking up speed…
Slowly he became aware of something coming towards him… Something white.
It was an oversized swan boat. And it was moving incredibly fast now.
Confusion lasted only a second before panic set in. Samuel was tugging frantically now, trying to free his foot, trying to get away, trying not to be crushed- sliced in half- KILLED by the mechanical beast speeding towards him. Samuel tore at the laces on his boot, but the white filled his vision.
It had rust all over its rump, really; you could hardly call it white anymore. The contours of its wing feathers were shelves for dust. Yet its neck curved gloriously upwards, tipped with a round head and puckered beak. It could very well have been the most beautiful thing in the entire Tunnel of Love.
When the swan was but feet from him, he remembered, yes, it had been Scarlett that he'd taken to the fair last time. She was the younger one. She'd heard there was going to be a petting zoo...she'd wanted to see the goats... She loved goats, the little oddball. Her parents couldn't take her because they were busy, busy doing…
Well, it really didn't matter now.
There was a thud.
Valina's heart had been thundering in her throat when she'd plunged her hands into the control box. She realized there was only a small chance that her plan would work. Smaller than small. Almost nonexistent. Even if she could get the damned boat moving (and at the speed required, no less) there was always the possibility that it wouldn't hit her target. He could move…
But, somehow, she'd managed to hotwire the thing into moving.
And then she heard a dull thud, and she finally breathed out. Her heart didn't stop pounding, however.
It occurred to her after a minute that she still needed to go and retrieve her minion. She shuddered at the prospect of having to pass what was left of the guard, but slowly, shakily, she rose to her feet and traversed the tunnel again.
Mandarin sat at the end of the tunnel, his back pressed against the wall, wringing his claws. He didn't like having to hide to begin with, but he liked it much less when the only thing he had to hide himself in was lack-of-light. Not only that, but Valina was somewhere in front of him, doing who knew what…
Then he'd heard a gunshot, and he began to panic a bit. Had the witch tried to take the guard head-on? Or had he fired on sight before she had a chance complete her plan? Had she wrestled the gun from him? Mandarin had half a mind to go check, but he then remembered Valina had told him to wait, so he remained where he was, against his better judgment.
His apprehension grew when he heard a mysterious thud. Several minutes passed, and nothing else happened after that. It was at that point the simian decided to disregard his mistress's instructions completely. Something was wrong, and he wanted to know what. Leaping up from the wall, Mandarin took off on all fours, when suddenly he heard someone approaching him…
The monkey froze, subconsciously trying to flatten himself against the wall again. After a moment, however, the figure came into view, and it was, decidedly, female.
Something akin to relief flooded Mandarin's senses, and he trotted the rest of the way to the witch.
Valina gave the simian a look. "I distinctly recall telling you to wait until I came to get you. I had assumed you'd listen this time considering it involved your own well-being… Stupid me."
Despite the face she was making, her voice was surprisingly passive. Bored, almost…
"I heard a gunshot," Mandarin said pointedly. "And then a rather loud thump."
Suddenly the sorceress's expression matched her unimpressed-tone. "So you did…" She turned around and began walking to the entrance, calling over her shoulder, "In the event that you don't want to see your old warden's blood smeared across a gaudy old mechanical swan, you'd close your eyes until I tell you otherwise and stick close to the wall..."
The monkey stared after the witch in confusion, before putting his clawed-hand to the wall, placing his other hand over his eyes, and numbly walking forward.
For whatever reason the image described didn't appeal very much to him at the moment.
The first word people used to describe Charlie was 'young'. And being young, he had all the traits associated with youth. Naivety. Ignorance. Swaggering over-confidence. Now, not all youths are like this. Charlie was just a very poor example.
When he'd applied to be a guard at the desert prison, Charlie had run out of ideas. He owed money in a few places and well, it sounded all right. Not exactly a spy thriller, but close enough. Charlie had arrived, learned a rope or two, and strangely enough his colleagues had taken a liking to him. The kid had charisma.
The boy had grown close to the oldest guard, which was surprising too. Charlie called him Uncle Samuel, one of the reasons being because it rhymed. Sort of.
Right now the young man was alone. He clicked on his walkie talkie radio. "Markus? Samuel? How are you guys doing?"
Nothing.
Charlie frowned. "Hmm. Can't be out of range. Markus' batteries must be dead again." The middle-aged guard had a penchant for laziness; he never replaced his batteries. But what about Samuel?
The young guard was still hanging about the entrance, poking around the Ferris wheel. Further in and to his left was the Tunnel of Love. More tents and stalls. A big building could be seen some way off, crouching behind a row of stalls. That used to be the Horror House, didn't it?
That was the thing. Everything here was so old and creepy.
It was just a subconscious reaction, nothing to worry about. Charlie breathed sharply, clicked on his radio again and strode mechanically forward. He had a fresh tazer, a gun, and about half a kilogram of ammunition in his pockets.
"Samuel? Hey. Er, come in? Where are ya, sir?"
His radio screamed.
Charlie yelled and wrenched his hand away from his ear. Damn, that'd been loud! He looked at his radio incredulously. That hadn't been Samuel, had it? When he thought about it carefully, most of it could have been feedback. The noise at its core was more like a gigantic bump.
"No more running," Valina said. "This time we'll try and get out of this place."
They had just come out of the Tunnel. It was a distance of about a hundred metres to the amusement park entrance. The two of them were creeping silently around the corners of the tents.
Mandarin was loath to mention it, but, "What about the amulet?"
The witch stopped in her tracks. "Damn," she muttered. "It was up there, wasn't it?"
Mandarin clenched his fists. "I'm not climbing up again!"
Valina turned on him. "What else do we do, then? You...you coward!" She grabbed his bony arm in a vicious grip and almost stomped all the way to the Ferris wheel.
Valina stood at the base of the monolithic ride with her hands on her hips. The sun was almost blinding now, searing the skin on her shoulders. Mandarin crouched low by her side and dug his claws into the soil, as if to anchor himself to the ground.
Then the simian heard footsteps. Blindly, he swiped at his mistress's robe. Valina turned, and there was a moment of complete stillness as she locked eyes with the young man.
It broke soon enough. The final guard –who had been trying to take them by surprise- started sprinting. Valina ran to the nearest Ferris wheel cab. It was suspended a few feet above the ground, so Valina reached up and pulled on its door. Mandarin failed to see how the witch could dislodge the rusted metal from the cab, but grunting and heaving with desperation, she did. The entire door came free of the cab and Valina stumbled backwards with the momentum, flung the sheet of metal to the ground and threw her minion into the darkness.
Charlie had halved the distance between him and his quarry by then. He'd just been looking around the old stalls when he heard voices, which led him back to the Ferris wheel.
"Hands up!" he shouted, drawing his weapon. The woman was hunched over the Ferris wheel's control box with her back to him, but she turned swiftly and raised her arms palm-outward.
No way... Charlie's eye widened as the Ferris wheel, groaning and protesting all the way, began to turn. The guard ran even faster. Soon he was face to face with the dark-haired woman. Her eyes twinkled.
"Are you going to arrest me?" Good Lord, she practically sang it!
He took a moment to process her words. He shook it off and said roughly, "Which car is he in?"
The woman tilted her head the other way. "Who?"
"For God's sake, do you see the gun I'm holding or not?"
"I suppose you mean the convict." In one second flat her face calmed like a pool of water, devoid of all expression. "I seem to have lost track of the little scoundrel."
Charlie struggled to maintain a harsh face. "Then I'll have to shoot them all one by one." He tilted his pistol a few degrees upward. The wheel was meeting difficulties. Every now and then it would jar to a halt, and restart after a few seconds.
The woman in black took a step towards him. Her hands were still up. "You're a bit young to be playing with guns, aren't you?" She was completely calm, approaching Charlie like she would a jittery animal. That description could be applied; he was sweating from head to toe.
"You can walk away, you know," she continued. Another step. Charlie trained the gun's barrel on her head again. "Your two friends are dead. If you want I'll tell you where they are so you can see for yourself-"
The words faded away after that, never reaching his ears. Markus and Samuel... Nah, she's bluffing. But what if... Charlie was so lost in the maelstrom of thoughts that he didn't notice the woman take three paces forward, a hand's breadth away from the barrel of his gun.
The sandy-haired guard came out of his trance just in time to see two grey hands swipe at his gun.
"Aaarghh!"
Valina fell, curled up in a ball, gasping into the grass. Her eyes were stretched wide while her fingernails dug into her breast. The witch's scream had been cut short, when all strength had been robbed and she could only concentrate her energies into lessening the pain.
Oh gods, it was like dying again...!
Charlie's eyes were wide too. In his left hand he held the tazer, buzzing with excess discharge. His finger was still on the switch. He shuddered and dropped the tazer onto the ground.
Then, he raised his pistol high and fired.
Huddled motionless in the corner farthest from the door, Mandarin heard the shot. The noise sliced through the air and he jumped. Then another one. A pause, the gun fired again. It sounded closer. The bullets were getting closer!
Mandarin squeezed his eyes shut in chagrin. When the first bullet punctured the metal a foot to his left, he leapt for the gaping door and the patch of white sky beyond it.
Limbs like springs, the monkey grabbed the top of the car door with his claws, and flipped his entire body upwards. Mandarin landed on the roof.
One second to take in the view. Treetops far-off turning gold with sunlight. Clouds in the sky. Valina and the remaining guard on the ground, way, way below...
One second too many.
The prison guard was firing bullets faster, one after the other. Little chest heaving, Mandarin turned and ran. Again. Up the Ferris wheel to the very apex, while the damned thing was rotating. He'd gotten five cars away when he stopped. His muscles were going mad and the air was too thin. To do this twice in one morning was maddening, exhausting... Mandarin had to hide behind one of the Ferris wheel cabs and rest.
So he clung spread-eagled to one. There was a blissful pause in the barrage of fire. But the guard no longer had to deal with a moving silhouette. Charlie knew where he was.
A ceaseless clanging on the brittle metal, the cab suddenly swaying violently; Mandarin shrieked and sprang away. White bars of metal blurred under him as the simian thrust himself forward. One, two, three, he put a claw where a bar wasn't and fell through.
Again!
The small orange money landed hard. On metal.
The Ferris wheel had rotated perfectly into position for Mandarin to land on top of another car. Fate had dealt him a wild card and suddenly –despite the bone-shattering impact- Mandarin's mind became extraordinarily clear again. Running on the comet trails of adrenaline, he rolled over and locked his claws onto the lip of the roof, dangling down on the side.
A strangely familiar lump was pressing into his chest, and the simian was just about ready to scream.
The young man was firing madly. He didn't know he had it in him. There was something hot in the pit of his stomach, fuelling him.
Uncle Samuel...
Three consecutive bullets sheared through the metal joint holding the cab to the rest of the wheel. The bolts blew apart. Blackened fragments of metal tumbled down, but no one saw them.
Valina, however, looked up to see a cab lurch sickeningly and drop to one side. It was staying up by one joint!
The cab lasted four seconds.
The sheer impossibility of the situation made the witch's eyes go wide. But then the green-grey ball of metal spun its way to the earth...a booming thud that bent the grass like ripples in a pond...and all she could do was stare at the crumpled wreck.
The crumpled wreck.
The impact that bent the grass.
The tazer was lying in the grass.
"Ughh!"
The sorceress saw the pistol fall into her vision, snatched it.
In a moment she was standing again, arms ramrod straight, cradling the gun in her hands.
"I'm letting you walk away from this, boy."
The boy in question turned around slowly, to be met with a pitch black barrel pointing between his eyes. Behind the barrel was the stone grey face of the witch. Valina could see his arms shaking with the after-effects of the tazer. The fear he felt was beginning to diffuse into his eyes.
"They're in the Tunnel of Love and the Horror House," Valina said quietly, dangerously. "Now, consider this. I am letting you walk away. I imagine a failed mission is comparatively better than having your brain shot out at point blank."
Charlie arched one eyebrow. No movie one-liner clichés. Just a cold fact. Uncle Samuel.
The young guard exhaled hard, gave a small nod, and turned his back. Valina kept the gun trained on him as he strode away. After a few meters his facade dropped, and Charlie adopted an anxious run towards the Tunnel of Love.
Valina sagged and blindly felt for the Ferris wheel's control box. She hit a switch and the wheel ground –gradually, at its own pace like a senile old man- to a stop. Then she faced the fallen cab. She was almost reluctant to approach it. The witch squinted and raised her gaze on the Ferris wheel itself, searching for any sign of a monkey still up there. Nothing.
Nausea threatened to overcome her. Mandarin must be in the cab.
But a noise! Valina jumped and stared at the hunk of metal. Once it had held delighted families, pointing and gawking at the cityscape...
...and now Mandarin climbed over its edge, throwing arm over arm, to kneel on top of it.
His fur was a mess, drenched in sweat and grime. More strikingly, the simian's eyes were wide and bloodshot. Valina's minion raised a claw, spluttering as he tried to regain his breath...
"Once again, I BLAME YOU!"
And then he swayed and fell forward.
He didn't hit the ground. Without realizing it, the witch had darted forward and caught him before his body made contact with the earth. He was unconscious now, the exhaustion and stress of the expedition having overwhelmed him. Valina, for a split second, was unsure of how to react further now that she had her comatose minion lying in her arms. She looked at his claws randomly, and her breath caught in her throat.
Somehow, during all the earlier chaos, Mandarin had managed to locate and retrieve the amulet.
The witch paused for a moment, before slowly rising to her feet and walking back to the car, placing her unconscious monkey horizontally in the back seat. She carefully pried the amulet from his grip, then slid into the driver's seat, and drove off.
Grimm had his head tilted, lips pursed. He was looking at the fireplace, elbows on his knees and thinking quite carefully. Outside his door a night of sorts had fallen. The sky was a dark purple. On the horizon it met a flat, solid plain of blackened dust and rock. It stretched on and on, beyond the mind's ability to accommodate it. Gone were the prison of bar-like trees; to stand upon this plain was to own an entire world.
The wizard's eyes drilled into the multi-colored flames. Yet his mind was elsewhere. It wandered to the corners of his brain, probing into his recent memories, checking back on itself. It was a welcome change from the simian. Their delightful little quest was progressing well, so there was no need to be present in the monkey's mind for now. Grimm hadn't searched himself for a long time. That fact was conceded that an afterlife in Limbo had few other entertainments, but he hadn't done this since he found the amulet. Not since Valina...
Valina. That was it. Grimm had no other word for it, just...it. This bundle of strange feelings, some he never knew to exist. Usually they could only be called sensations but these were borderline- Borderline...
She was beautiful, no mistaking that. It was her eyes, he was sure. The sorceress had incredibly expressive eyes, large and clear and burning. Remarkable how fierce eyes and cruel lips could form such loveliness.Voluptuous wasn't the word and neither was tempting, but she did lure. Fingers outstretched as she disappeared into her swirling darkness, dragging beings after her like a sinful goddess...
The flames danced in their cave and crawled over the whitened twigs. Grimm kept staring into them. His hands clenched suddenly in hard, maddened determination and for a moment his face twisted into a terrifying expression.
He would look into those eyes and find every strength, every weakness, every desire, to the very last secret. He would find out what it would take to make her adore him, adore him like a god... There would be no turning back. Unlike the Skeleton King, Grimm would not throw her away. He would own her forever.
Grimm had her magic, but the fact was, he still needed her. Until the last piece clicked into place. He was good at controlling all the pieces. So good that he came close to capturing the King, once...but it was always the Queen who had more power, wasn't it?
Howe and Vesper hadn't loved her much, he was rather certain. But if they were still alive, they would be nothing but insulted. Their flesh and blood, stolen by the very man whose life they had ruined! It was the ultimate revenge.
The starless purple sky began to recede, as a sun rose majestically over the insubstantial horizon.
The wizard knew Valina would fight. She would rather die than serve again.
The fire began to die down of its own accord and when the ashes settled, they were stained a deep cerise pink colour. The remains of the firewood seemed to sparkle violently in the dawn light, peeking through the house's solitary window. A reminder...
Valina really was fascinating. He'd be quite sorry if he had to kill her.