Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to anything you recognize from the movie and/or the book. The characters and places that you recognize from the movie and/or the book belong to their respective owners. Though, I DO own the rights to all my personal locations and personal OC's. I make no monetary profit from this story.
Sorsha tore through the hallways without a spare thought to the shredded trail of the skirts flying like broken pale green wings around her legs. She knew what a sight she must have made for the terrified maids that skittered out of her way as she ran, but her mind wasn't on vanity she'd never experienced in her life anyways. Her brain was flooded by the fury at the audacity he had to attack this very castle at the cusp of winter like this, fear for friends…one of whom held life and as she saw Eireach stumble towards her…irritation.
His eyes were slightly glazed and told her before he opened his mouth that the boys had been drinking. It was true that irritation coursed hot through her veins like her very blood, but for the first time in her life, she bit her tongue. She wouldn't yell at him for this. It was hardly his fault that the bastard Damien had decided to attack today. None of them had expected an attack this close to Winter, hadn't even let it cross their minds. Stupid, she condemned herself; SHE should have figured that Kindraa might talk him into something like this.
The underhanded, sneaky move was just like her. Damien might not be the brightest crayon in the box, but Kindraa…she had a brain. She was someone that Sorsha couldn't forget about. If anything happened to those she cared about now…she would never forgive herself for her blind ignorance. She let her eyes focus back on Eireach's foggy eyes, quickly sobering in the frantic scramble to prepare for the surprise.
"What do you think you're doing?" Eireach's voice confused and irritated her further.
"Me?" she snipped, realizing she wasn't going to be as nice as she'd wanted to. "You're the one boozing your way to the battle." She took her pace back up, heading out of the castle, her swords singing at her side, ready for the battle to begin.
"Buzzed or not, at least I had the brains to put on my armor."
"Oh, I'm sorry…I was in a hurry to get to the battle." Her temper unfurled in tangible waves of magic around her. "I was a little more concerned with making sure Sarah would be protected than worrying about my armor."
The snarl in his voice was unmistakably aggravated, "You had enough thought in your head to slice that dress to shreds." That stung her…she should have thought of her armor, should have had the goblin grab that as well. She hadn't and it was too late to run after it now, but she wasn't about to concede that to Eireach. So she fell back on habit and snapped at him.
"Well, I'm sorry that I offended your nobleman sensibilities."
"Oh stuff your temper," he said and waved a wrist. Her armor materialized around her and had her breath catching in her throat. Oh she felt supremely stupid. Why hadn't she just done that? It would have been simple enough. Instead of breaking herself down further and admitting that to Eireach, she did her best not to even break stride. He had other plans, "Hold it," he said grabbing her arm.
"Oh what now?" she asked, finally noticing that he hadn't bothered to change her out of the dress, merely placed her armor over it. She looked ridiculous, she decided, but smirked.
"You'll need this." She looked down in his hands and chuckled when she saw her helmet.
"Thanks…." Together, they pushed through the crowds of soldiers working their way through the main hall doors. "I'm tired of running into the middle of fights," she shouted over to Eireach with a vicious gleam in her eyes.
He smiled with a gleam in his eyes that matched her own, "Then let's go start one of our own."
They did just that, the teeth of her sword biting into enemies and the singing arc of his long sword slicing through the air. Eireach grunted as his sword slammed into tough bone and set his own to rattling from the impact. Her swords did more damage, their blue edges already stained with blood, thanks to the serrated teeth that ripped through stubborn flesh.
There was a bitter stench of fresh blood in the air and cries of the wounded and dying assaulted her senses. She let the sights and sounds absorb into her, forced herself to become the swords in her hands. There was no time for sympathy, no time to care who or what she was hacking into. One moment of distraction could lead to wounds more grievous than a simple arrow in her leg.
Her magic circled around her, lending her a sensory shield that let her know when and where an attack was coming from. She sensed the men coming at her, front and back, took one moment to strategize…and acted. One of her swords plunged into the chest of an enemy and she kicked him off in an instant, spinning her sword and slamming it back into the gut of another that had tried to sneak up on her.
Without missing a step, she ripped her sword clear with a fresh crack of bone and slash of innards. There were two men coming at her again, her eyes sought Eireach, but he was caught up…and the simple fact that she'd looked for him mortified her. She used that chagrin, falling to her knees before they attacked, whipping her swords around as theirs clashed above her head. Her swords shifted in her hands, a quick ninety degree angle, and sliced the back of their knees.
They crashed to the dirt and their cries echoed in her ears as she moved on, annoyed for them that Damien didn't outfit them with the proper armor that would have kept them from losing their legs. That was when she saw her, Kindraa, standing at the top of the training arena. Her hands were raised high over her head, fire all but consuming her, a demonic beacon of light against the blue sky. She was a terrifying sight…and Sorsha was drawn towards her even as she let her swords cut down another enemy. Sorsha felt that tiny part of her…that slice of herself that wasn't her own…struggle against the bindings Morrigan had strapped it down with.
"There she is!"
"Oh come on…" Sorsha sighed at Kindraa's words. Did they always have to be after her? In a sick way, she was glad her father had kept her out of sight. If this was going to become a trend, it would get really annoying. As expected, she was flooded by a mass of flashing steel. She heard Eireach's agitated cry as he tried to hack through the throng of men trying to get at her, but Sorsha wondered if he need worry.
It just didn't seem like these men were actually trying to kill her. What an absurd thought, but…it shouldn't have been this easy, she thought as she knocked her way through the soldiers attacking her. She wanted to get to Kindraa, there was a very primal need for her to get to the woman, to extinguish that raging fire around her.
That was when she saw the crystal floating by the demon's head and the demon turned, spoke to it. So there was a spy, Sorsha realized with a renewed wave of rage. Someone was parading around them pretending to be loyal, pretending to be one of them.
She'd weed them out if it was the last thing she did.
When she felt the blinding flash of pain rip across her arm, she thought she might not even get the chance to do that. The flames around Kindraa speared up into the sky in triumph as Sorsha hacked at the man who'd gotten through her defenses. She cursed her moment of distraction, but was confused once more when the men backed away from her instead of jumping on her like a pack of dogs on a wounded cat.
Eireach was able to push through them to get to her, but the field seemed to have gone still and all eyes were on the fury of Kindraa's flames. Sorsha watched a sword flash through the air to Kindraa's outstretched hand and realized that it was the sword that had grazed over her arm.
"It is done!" Kindraa's voice washed over the soldiers and all of Damien's disappeared. But Kindraa remained, her fire dimmed to flickers of flame at the tips of her extremities. Sorsha lunged across the training field, trying to get to her, but Kindraa merely looked up at a castle window with a quick grin before she disappeared as well.
Sorsha's eyes spun around and caught the curtains of the royal chambers swish shut. Whoever it was, they'd watched the whole battle from those windows…had told Kindraa where they were coming from. Whoever it was had told Kindraa how to beat them. The world faded around her and her only goal in life was getting to those rooms. Eireach's calls fell on deaf ears as she rushed past him without a word, the tattered and blood stained remnants of her dress fluttering around her legs.
Cyric was seething by the time that the soldiers disappeared around him. How the hell had the bitch known how they'd attack? How had she known the exit points, attack strategies? Eireach's shouts distracted him enough to see Sorsha running through the soldiers and into the castle. His blood spiked, there was ONE way Kindraa could have known all of that.
One very simple way that was currently running into the castle where his wife was. His legs pushed into action, his muscles warming again as he ran after Sorsha.
Eireach's concerned cries didn't stop him, but he had to let his friend know what he'd fallen for, "It's Sorsha!" he snarled as he darted past his friend.
"What's Sorsh-" Realization dawned on Eireach too late, but he fell into step chasing Cyric. "It's not her, Cryic!" But he was too far away, dashing around a corner, skidding slightly on the stone floor. "Damn it."
"What's he doing?" Eireach turned and saw Jareth coming down a side hall, confusion clouding his face.
"He thinks Sorsha is the spy, damn it…he won't listen to me." Jareth's cheek twitched and Eireach tried to ignore the blood splattered over it.
"Hot headed-" Jareth said, running past Eireach as he said it. "We have to stop him before he does something stupid!"
Cyric sent his magic out, sensing around his castle for the feel of her. He wasn't about to let her touch his wife. Gods, he found her…in his rooms, "Jeaule…" Cyric wasn't sure he'd ever moved so fast in his life. His magic swirled around him as he teleported to his rooms.
She'd blown the doors straight off their hinges. They were in splinters, large and small, littered around the floor like wooden confetti. Apparently she'd been in a hurry to get in. He crept from room to room in his suite, his sword gripped, tight and ready, in his hand. If Sorsha hurt his wife…she'd be lucky if he didn't incinerate her.
But room for room, he didn't find Sorsha…or his wife.
And then suddenly, she whipped around the corner, her hair spilling madly from the loose ponytail at her neck, "Did you see her!?" Sorsha's voice was just as crazed as he was sure his was and her swords were gripped like lifelines in her hands. His mind didn't register that she didn't hold them up to attack, he merely reacted.
His power lashed out, whipping her across the room, her swords skidding across the stone with a metallic clash. Her body slammed against the far wall with a bone rattling thud. Surprise and fury flashed in her eyes that did little to hide the pain she was in.
"What do you think you're doing!?" Her voice was strained against the pressure of his power. "You're hurting me…can't breathe…need to find-"
"Where's Jeaule?" He saw the flotsam of the party the girls had had before the battle broke out. She'd been here. "Where is she!?"
Sorsha's brow knotted, "I don't kn-"
"YES YOU DO!" Jareth and Eireach ran into the room behind him, distracting his power enough for Sorsha to push him away from her chest.
"Cyric stop it!" Cyric ignored Jareth.
"You did something with her…probably with Sarah too." Shocked outrage fired in her eyes.
"I told Jeaule to stay with Sarah to protect her!" Insult lined her words. "I would NEVER let anything happen to either of them," she answered quietly…coldly.
"Cyric," Jareth said, grabbing onto his arm. "I just came from my suite, the women are there." Jareth was upset with him, he could hear it. "Jeaule said the same thing Sorsha just did. Sorsha wanted her to stay behind in case the enemy got through." Guilt started to creep in, but he didn't let her go yet.
"But she ran in…how did Kindraa know everything?" Sorsha realized what he was accusing her of and her eyes narrowed, insult not even covering what he'd just done to her.
"You think I'm the spy." When he didn't say otherwise, she spat at his feet. "You can go to every one of the hells…I'm not my father. I saw Kindraa look up at that window," she said nodding towards the bathroom window. "And then the windows slipped shut." Jeaule and Sarah ran into the room and yet his powers still held Sorsha fast to the wall.
"Cyric what do you think you're doing!?" He saw his wife's lips move, but he didn't hear her words.
Cyric felt a hand grab his shoulder, none too kindly, "No king acts like this." Eireach's voice was cold and admonishing. "You had no proof and no solid reason to even assume it was her." His fingers dug sharply into Cyric's shoulder. "Let her down now." Dull astonishment seeped into his blood…what had he done?
Eireach crossed the room, shoving off of Cyric's shoulder to get to Sorsha who was panting on the ground. She was shocked enough by Cyric's irrational actions that she shoved off his attempt at help, slapping halfheartedly at his offered hand. He knew her anger wasn't for him and wondered just how much damage Cyric had done here.
So he offered his hand again, and she took it grudgingly, wincing as her back straightened, "You okay?" She sent him one withering look before her eyes turned and burned holes in Cyric.
"If I haven't proven myself to you by now," she said, grimacing again as Eireach braced a hand at her back. "If I haven't proven myself better than my father…then I don't know what in the hells I'm doing here." Eireach saw the guilt finally sink in, like the first flicker of flame licking into the darkness. Cyric's shoulders slumped as Jeaule wrapped her arms around him.
And still…Eireach didn't seem able to find the sympathy for him, not yet.
"She fought right beside me the whole time! When would she have been able to tell Kindraa what was going on when she was risking her life to protect you and yours?" Everyone in the room agreed with him, their reproving stares proved that.
"You could have talked to everyone first instead of running up here looking for blood." Jareth's voice was still level, but under the calm Eireach could sense the taught string of his restraint.
"Why in the name of the gods did you think SORSHA was the spy?" Jeaule seemed dumbfounded at the very thought. "She's protected us all, she's-"
"I'm a Kael." Sorsha said simply.
"Oh really…just beca-"
"It's exactly that. I'm not to be trusted because of what he did." She sighed deeply and it cut at his heart. If Cyric didn't apologize, he was going to rip the apology from his throat himself.
But Cyric saved him the trouble by breaking, falling to his knees, "I don't think that."
Sorsha huffed, sounding like a bull about to charge, "Funny way of showing it."
"Really…I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done this. I-" Words failed him and he simply slumped into himself. "I'm sorry. It was a snap assumption that I made while mad after a battle that made absolutely no sense." Sorsha's lips pursed, but she nodded shortly. "I can never apologize enough. I know this isn't enough, but I swear to you, Sorsha…I'll make it up to you." Again, he was answered with a simple nod.
"He'll do more than make it up to you," Jeaule said darkly, her eyes narrowed in disapproval.
"Don't make a big deal out of this." Sorsha's answer was shocking.
"Why is that?" Eireach asked slowly.
"Because now we know that I'm not the spy…but there is one and they were in your rooms during the battle." She sighed. "There's no reason to drag this out when we have a REAL problem on our hands." Her words sealed off the subject, but he was shocked to see that her hand was still in his from when he helped her up.
That was far too close, she thought as she shuffled along down the hallways. If she had any kind of luck at all, they'd drop all their suspicions on that stupid general. Why did Kindraa have to look up at her like that? It was like that bitch wanted her to get caught.
Her eyes flew wide. She couldn't possibly….
That bitch. After all she'd done for her? After all that, Kindraa was going to turn on her? Was she THAT impatient to get this damned piece of her soul back? Isn't this what had gotten Kindraa in trouble with the general's mother? Hadn't Kindraa's greed turned Irelen away from her?
Well, Kindraa was about to get a blast from the past, because she wasn't about to get turned in when she'd been promised so much more. She wasn't about to be killed for treason just to release Kindraa's soul back to her.
Maids smiled at her as she walked down the halls. She smiled back, knowing that, despite the fury raging through her head, she couldn't have anyone starting to suspect things of her. She couldn't have that because she had a great many things to start thinking about.
Damien hadn't wanted to sit there as Kindraa did her woo woo stuff with the bitch general's blood, but she didn't give him a choice. He could think of plenty of other things to occupy his time with, there was a wonderful new shipment of gems that he could be going through. It killed him to think that because of her, he wasn't going to get first pick of the new shipment.
There was a good chance that some stupid noblewoman would end up with a stunning diamond that belonged in a broach for him. Thoughts of other's hands sifting through the sappires, rubies and emeralds before his did made him near to physically ill, but no…he wasn't able to go anywhere.
He had to stay right here in this chair because Kindraa told him to. She had muttered something about needing a biological link to this plane while she worked. Something like that anyways…he hadn't really been paying attention. All he knew was that she was FINALLY in a very good mood, better than he'd ever seen her. And that put him in a good mood because he didn't have to listen to her bitching about her splintered soul, his eating habits or how horrible Morrigan had been to her.
"So what is it that you're doing?" he asked, though he really didn't care. He just wanted to appear interested to keep her in this mood that she was in. If she slipped back into her mood, he might go loony.
"I'm just using a bit of blood magic," she whispered reverently, still clutching the blood stained sword close to her heart. His lip curled, but he kept himself at least LOOKING interested. "Just sit back, I don't need you for anything but a link back to this realm. I can't do this work without a biological link."
"Just don't use any of your magic on me."
Her brow quirked irritably, "I assure you, you matter little in the workings I'm doing here." He shrugged, leaning back in his chair, already supremely bored with her so called 'workings'.
Kindraa set out a mortar and pestle, lit the candles she'd spread around the room with a wave of her hand and laid the sword on the table before her. He could see it, the power working its way to the surface of the illusion of her. The demon beneath it shimmered just under the thin veil of peachy flesh and sent a chill up his spine.
One overlong finger swept down the blade, gathering up the half dried blood. For one sickening moment, he thought she was going to lick the dried blood from her finger with the enthusiasm of a child with a lollypop. But thankfully, she merely scrapped the glob into the mortar, mixing it with a few powders and a thick potion from her supplies.
It smoked, a sickening smoke rising from the mixture to assault his nose. It even drifted down his throat, leaving a metallic taste in the back of his throat that he didn't think would ever leave. The smoke rose around her as her eyes went black, full black…like one of those Aboveground sharks. It scared him to look at her, so he turned his eyes to the lightly bubbling mortar.
"At this time and at this hour, release the binds that hold my power." Kindraa was releasing the bonds that Morrigan had placed on the piece of her soul that resided within Kael…or at least she was trying to loosen them. "I call upon the darkest night, to help me fight and end my plight. Within the girl resides my soul, release it to burn black as coal. This child of hatred whose path is unclear, show me now what I should fear."
It wasn't at all what he'd expected, but it was there none the less. What he thought would be a collage of images in Kindraa's mind was a projected movie that moved about his room like phantoms. There was old General Kael, large and ferocious in the memory of his child, but Kindraa waved that memory away, caring little for the past.
"Show me her future path that's still clouded, clear it for me, show me what's shrouded." There was only one image that burned through now, but it curved Kindraa's lips into a devious grin.
A man stood by the table next to them. He was tall with long, toned limbs that suggested a strength that was equal to the kindness that sparkled in his jade green eyes. But Damien didn't need to look at his coppery curls to know who this man was. The man before them was the spitting image of the man Damien's father had pried from the throne. He definitely looked younger than Damien had ever known the fallen king, but he looked like the man.
It stirred something deep within him, a worry that was so different than the hatred that simmered within him for Cyric. He knew that this man would be in this castle, a crown on his head and his unworthy ass on the throne if it hadn't been for his father. And as he looked across the table, through the thinning smoke, at Kindraa…Damien knew that this man had a chance to have it back should things go wrong with Kindraa.
So he wouldn't let it.
"This is Lord Tur." Kindraa sent him a bland glance before her eyes glued back to the transparent image of Eireach.
"I know who he is and I can use him."
"How?" The pleased fire in her eyes confused him.
"She loves him."
Damien sighed, "I figured as much, but how are you going to use him." She wafted the smoke to her face, breathing in the putrid tendrils deeply.
"She doesn't know she loves him or won't admit it." Her eyes were still black as night and twice as frightening. "I haven't been able to loose my spirit, Morrigan did her job well, but the girl won't know that. If I can manipulate her feelings for him…it should make for quite a bit of fun." Her eyes danced in the candlelight. "At least it will give me some entertainment while I think of another way to free myself from that bitch."
(A/N: Another chapter down, some more interesting things going on in this one. Hope it made some peoples happy. I know that there are readers who made me happy and they were:
BattleofEvermore, darklady26, Kerichi, notwritten, phantome101 and roguegambit
Where have all my reviewers gone? I miss you guys!!!!! But thanks WHOLE BUNCHES to those who have reviewed. You make my weeks with those simple reviews! MUCH love to my little sis, darklady26 for helping me through this week. Couldn't have done it without you!)