Chapter 16:
Maleficent felt herself drop to the floor as soon as the magic dissipated from around her. The draining that he had done, took so much from her. The strength from her legs and arms were completely gone, she was only able to lay where she had landed. Her wings shifted heavily around her in a pitiful attempt to protect her from what was to come. She slowly opened her eyes to take a look at where they had landed. The room spun with shifting shapes and blurred colors as if she was surrounded by-
"Iron," Elwine announced and walked right up to her. His feet stopped in front of her face. He knelt down to see if her eyes were even open, "Just enough to keep you sedated, not enough to kill you."
"How would you know?" she muttered and tried to push against the ground, only to fall back down.
"Trial and error, my dear," he smirked and began to pace around her, "Once we found a way to catch fairy, it was just another step to begin testing on them. Dark Fey were hard fighters, but in the end were very good subjects."
She howled out a yell and one wing tried to swipe at him, but just fell short.
"There is the fire that adorns you to my heart!" he laughed as the wings fell against her back.
She breathed heavily and glowered, "You do this for power."
"It's always about power!" he crowed to the ceiling and threw his hands up, "My lineage is based on power. How to obtain it, how to wield it, how to steal it if need be. The Elwines, Warwicks and Hemmets were all a part of the war against the Moors. Once Perceforest failed in the last large war, our ancestors walked away from sorcery. Luckily, I along with my partners were able to bring it back to the fray. Back to combat the true black magic that you and your precious Moors use."
"Your ancestors led the charge that killed my parents."
"Quite possibly," he nodded with a proud chuckle, "Another thing that links us."
She fell quiet and tried to focus on healing what she could with the room still spinning.
"He was here too," Elwine continued and paced around her again as he smoothed his hand over the iron walls, "I had wondered how the iron didn't react to him at first. I assumed it was because he was average. Nothing magical."
Maleficent turned her head slightly and saw the metal pike in the middle of the room. It was just as Diaval had described to them when he came back. He found a way out. He knows where she is. He must. He and the others will come.
"You will not take the Moors," Maleficent said in a quiet, yet strong voice.
"I would have assumed a bigger fight from you. I still do, actually. I know better to think otherwise," he leaned over her and turned her to her back, her wings pushed awkwardly between her and the floor. He looked down into her eyes, "I have a trick up my sleeve."
"They will find you," she kept her resolve and refused to give into his game.
"No need," he smirked again and ran a finger down the side of her face, "We will take the fight back to them once more. By then I will have all the power I could need and a new ally in my pocket."
"You will be stopped."
"Your optimism surprises me," he tilted his head and shrugged his shoulders as she walked to the side of the room where he pulled at a few books until he found what he had been looking for. He brought it back over to her and knelt next to her prone figure. He showed her the front of what looked like an old journal, "Do you know what this is?"
She only curled her lips to growl through her fangs.
"I will tell you then," he patted the cover of the journal, "It was my grandfather's spells and incantations. He was a young man when that war ended and he walked away from it all. Left the journal and pendant intact though. Maybe some part of him believed that it would be needed once more again."
"Or he knew it was as worthless as his line would become," she challenged.
"Now you are trying to bait me," he wagged his finger in her face, "Not going to work."
He got back up on his feet and pulled over a small podium to place the journal on. He placed it right along her side as he flipped open the cover to go over the many spells.
"You see, my grandfather was dabbling in curses. I think that he was really on to something. The others were much too fearful to use curses. Even Warwick was hesitant- which frankly surprised me," he explained and smoothed open the book to the page he had searched for, "... but I think there are some benefits diving into the forbidden, don't you?"
"It caused me nothing but pain and regret," she closed her eyes and thought back to her beautiful daughter's smiling face and then to the pain and hurt that shone in her eyes once she knew of the curse, "You may get your revenge or whatever it is you seek, but it will come at a higher cost than you will want to pay."
"That's how your story played out," he wagged his finger again, "But not mine. Mine will end with the crown of the world upon my brow."
"Always power with you humans..." she muttered and closed her tired eyes again.
"I had always wondered how a love spell worked," he hummed and looked down at her, "Not the least bit afraid that I would be able to take you from him?"
"Not in the slightest. Even with your spells."
"He's just a simple bird. Why wouldn't it work to make you leave him? What hold could he possibly have over you?"
"He is mine and I am his," her hands balled into fists to try to call her strength back, "It's quite simple."
"Then let's make it more complicated," he smirked and turned the page in the journal. His voice whispered very old words that seemed to echo in the small iron room. The words stopped falling from his mouth, but hung heavy in the air as if waiting, "What if I told you that Stefan never betrayed you?"
"It's not true... he took so much from me. Much more than just my wings..."
"He became king because he proved himself worthy and brought down the tyrant King Henry," as Elwine spoke his words turned to smoke that began to float down and over Maleficent. The heaviness from the waiting curse came down to settle on her chest to keep her firmly in place as the new words flowed around her, "He made Perceforest a bright place to be once more. He married the princess not out of love, but out of duty for his heart still resided in the Moors with you."
Maleficent's brows furrowed as she tried to fight off the falsities that he wove. Her eyes clenched shut against the onslaught of false visions. She saw the young Stefan that had given her 'True Love's kiss', and then the Stefan that she had once hoped that he would grow to be. A strong, yet tender man who would see the worth of peace and wisdom. Memories that did not really feel like memories floated behind her eyelids as a wedding took place and a coronation where his eyes searched for hers.
"This isn't..." she whined and found herself losing the fight against the new curse.
"He was killed by a monster. A shapeshifter that was sent by his own daughter to kill him," Elwine smiled as he watched her face fight the curse, but the mist grew heavier. Her brilliant hazel eyes clouded over with the smoke around her, "You have been fighting her ever since the fall of your beloved. She turned the Moor Folk against you, her reign reached out beyond Perceforest to the magic Moors of which you protect."
"I protect the Moors."
"Yes, and you must protect them again," Elwine nodded excited at the pace of the curse, "The usurper queen still has the beast that killed Stefan. He does not leave her side unless it is to go to battle. You will have your revenge, Maleficent. Against the one who killed him and her raven black pet. These memories are true and will not falter."
Maleficent began to breathe quickly and harshly. Her brows creased with heavy worries and conflicting memories. She remembered her childhood with Robin and the other Moor Folk. She then remembered how they had turned away from her. Not for what she had done, but for their new queen that had brought ruin to the Moors. The memories of herself claiming rule over the Moors slipping into the deep, dark recesses of her mind. Shadows gripped the memories and tore them from her waking mind.
"Robin, why?" she asked aloud as the picture of her friend turned from her in her mind's eye.
"There is no way out of this one," Elwine told her from his podium as the mist grew lighter.
Her mind turned to Stefan and his betrayal. Instead, that night she recalled shared treasured memories, kisses and an intimate hold with one another before he went to fulfill his duty to the human kingdom. Her wings caressed them both under the moonlight as he promised that he would be hers if she was his.
"So, listen well. I will be yours as you are mine until all my days have gone. If you agree, you are my mate, now and forever more." she heard her own voice in the memory, but another came through and blended with Stefan's.
"Why would I ever- in all that is in creation- say anything other than yes?"
Something wasn't right about the memory, but it was still so real. She remembered saying the words, she remembered that she meant them. The shadows shifted again as it took any other details from her and into the dark.
"You will be at my side forever to feed my power," Elwine continued to tie the ending pieces together.
Aurora's smiling face came to the forefront. The daughter that she loved. Aurora's laughter stopped and turned twisted and dark. Her sun-kissed hair pushed back into tight braids and slashed with red. Her father's body crumpled at her feet as a monster sat at her side- mouth filled with the good king's blood. Aurora laughed now in hallow breaths and she pointed at Maleficent to send her monster pet on her. The Moors grow dark around Maleficent as she tried to fly away and into the brighter sunlight just out of reach. The daughter she had known was not hers. She was darkness and everything bad about the humans that Stefan made wonderful.
"Aurora," she muttered with a slight growl.
"And her pet shapeshifter..."
Maleficent's head tilted just slightly. She saw a black raven who came to her on a night that she doesn't quite remember. A night she was filled with sadness. Then there was a face that flashed. Pale complexion, pointed nose and a playful smile. Lips that would tell truths even when falling on hesitant ears. Eyes that were human, but then they weren't. They were nothing of a human. They were unique. They were his.
"Diaval..." she whispered with a gasp.
"Even if he came for you... he won't have the chance to kiss you awake," Elwine promised her as the last bit of the mist settled around her, "You will kill him before that."
Flashes of memories of the raven come back and the bird shifted into a wolf, a bear, a dragon... in Stefan's castle. The roaring beast spraying fire against Stefan's guards, the banners fall around it as he roars and charges toward Stefan. Behind him on the high balcony stood the girl child that would take her father's throne. With the help of her pet. It was a threat. It killed Stefan. It will not survive the next time they meet.
Maleficent opened her mouth to say such when a gut-wrenching scream flew from her mouth. Her memories, the ones who made her who she was, the true beautiful memories that she shared with her family were all being torn apart. The shadows and darkness in her mind pulled them into the pitch black nothing where she could no longer see or feel them. She felt her whole self fall back into the darkness with them, only pain, regret and anger remained with the false truths above the dark waters in her mind. Her true self felt the pull of sleep filled with night terrors and events yet to come. The downfall of her family by her own hands, her mind only able to grip the falsehoods that now entangled themselves with the true memories rewritten.
A single tear escaped her eye and fell to the floor as the pull of sleep was too much. She knew when she awoke again, she would be a Dark Fey unknown even to her.
The sun had little time left in the sky as Diaval shifted the armor over his chest to make sure of the fit. When he finally landed the night before, Aurora and Robin made him sleep before he went out to look for his mate. With a glance, he looked around him as other Dark Fey and men also suited back into armor. They would join him on his hunt. He put a hand over his heart and concentrated. He still felt her there, her magic and her light. It was faint, but she was still alive and he would not rest until she was back home with her family.
He clicked the last buckle into place and called his sword to him. He put it in the scabbard at his side and walked out toward the front hall. Aurora stood with Phillip and Percival as they talked quietly to one another. Diaval heard their talk halt when he entered the room and he walked past them to look out the front of the castle. The tall thorns still stood. Another piece of proof that she was alive. His eyes scanned the skies above the Moors and plotted which direction he would need to go.
"You going is not a good idea," Aurora said from his side. She looked up at him, "I told mother I can't lose both of you. I still stand by that."
"Aurora, I love you, little one, but I cannot stay behind," he told her as he held her arms in his hands tenderly, "She is not lost to us. I am going to get your mother back. Whatever it takes, I will bring her back home with me. I promise you."
Aurora looked up into his eyes for a long moment before she hugged him tightly around the neck. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her close to him. She was so strong, but that didn't mean that she wasn't his little girl.
"I hope speed and safety on your journey, father," Aurora whispered into his ear and kissed him on the cheek as she stepped back.
He kissed her forehead and looked at Phillip, "No matter what, you take care of her and your people. Stay with her."
"Against my instincts as a friend I will, only to follow my instincts as a husband," Phillip promised him.
"Good man," Diaval nodded and quickly turned from them.
Percival and Smiling John walked out with him to meet a few of the Dark Fey that included Borra, Udo and Talom. A few more men were on horseback ready to take their lead from the Dark Fey that would be in the sky. They all walked toward the thorn wall that opened for them despite Maleficent not being present. They were not ready to alert any looking to the sky of their presence just yet.
Borra walked at his side as the horses walked behind them, "You surprise me every moment, raven. No other creature can compare to your love for her."
"Well, look at this, we're agreeing with each other," Diaval smiled at him and then took a deep breath, "Thank you for coming back when you did."
"We of the Moors are family. We cover one another," Borra nodded and clapped Diaval on the back, "Now, let's go get our phoenix."
Diaval felt his wings itch for another flight. He turned to look over his shoulder at Percival, "Can you follow us in the air?"
"Have before with you much smaller."
"Then let's go."
Before they got too close to the open gorge, Shrike dove from the trees and landed in front of them. She took a few deep breaths as she looked back over her shoulder.
"We have no need to find her. She is coming to us," she panted and looked to Diaval.
"She found her way out?" Diaval smiled in hope. True, he was one intelligent raven, but his mate was truly gifted.
"No, Diaval," Shrike shook her head and pulled his attention back to her, "She is leading them here."
"What?" he whispered and then took to the sky to look up and over the trees toward the moving trees of the Moors.
There was a large gust of green magic as a whole crop of trees broke open and there she was. She stood in front of the army of Dark Folk with Elwine at her side. Even at the initial look, Diaval immediately knew that she was not herself. She normally wore gowns that she was accustomed to, made of natural elements of the Moors and usually encrusted with the little things that he would find for her. Tonight, she instead wore a dress of satin and silk, decorated with gold cord and pilfered jewels- heavy and too manufactured by man for her to be truly comfortable. Her eyes glowed with a mix of green and red as she stared up at Diaval. Elwine whispered something to her and a glow of green magic lit her hand.
Borra flew up to meet him and looked down at his leader, "Raven?"
"There is something very wrong," Diaval watched her movements carefully, "That isn't... her. It is, but..."
"What do we do?" Borra asked with a hint of worry.
Diaval looked back to the gates of the castle and to Aurora who had a smile on her face as she caught sight of her mother. Diaval took a glance back at Maleficent who also caught sight of Aurora. The face that she held when she saw her daughter was not that of a mother. It was that of a predator finally within striking distance of her prey. Diaval shook his head, "No."
Diaval dove back down and stood between Aurora and Maleficent. He looked his daughter in her eyes, "Aurora- listen to me. Stay in the castle."
"He brought her back. He will give her back," Aurora tried to look around him to see her again.
"That is not your mother," he said firmly and made her turn to him.
"What are you talking about?" she grinned, though it failed to show true happiness.
"When has your mother ever worn satin? Or gold cord?"
Her smile faltered and fell, "...Then what?"
"Go inside with Phillip. Stay safe."
"What are you going to do?"
"Like I said before. I'm going to get your mother back," he said and looked over his shoulder to the army across the way. He pushed at her to Phillip's arms and they all retreated back into the castle with Prince John at their side.
Diaval took a few steps and then launched into the air to land alongside Borra and Shrike with Percival and Smiling John behind them, now off their horses. He took a deep breath, put a hand over his heart to feel her still there with him. The few steps that it took to get to the edge of the gorge were determined, but hurt as all he could see in her eyes was rage and pain. He knew that look from her. She was lost again. Her face blank and eyes focused as she prepared to protect herself. Another wall so much stronger than any made of thorns encompassed her heart again. She was lost, hurt and unsure... just like the night he first met her.
As Diaval and the others flanked the border, more and more of the army came out to take their stations once more against the army. Men, tree guardians, Dark Fey and Moor Folk rose up. Diaval raised his hands and pulled at the magic that he had saved to bring out a few of the earth dragons from below.
"You have learned more tricks, haven't you?" Elwine teased from his side of the gorge.
"You will go no further," Diaval stated in a strong voice and pointed to Maleficent, "And you will give her back, Elwine."
"What makes you think you have any say to bargain something so grand?" Elwine laughed as he stood next to her. He put a hand on her shoulder and looked her over before he turned back to Diaval, "This is how it is. I am giving you a choice, bird. Leave the kingdom. Take all of those who wish to go. She stays with me as my power and force. I don't care where you go, just leave this wonderful place in my capable hands."
"That is no deal," Diaval shook his head, "The Moor Folk are weakened by being away from their lands, they are growing sick and may possibly perish. I refuse for that to happen."
"And the Dark Fae will not abandon their home again," Borra added on as he narrowed his eyes at Elwine, "Especially not for a single human."
"Watch your tongue!" Maleficent spat with a hiss in her voice.
Diaval shifted his gaze to her for a moment though he still addressed Elwine, "I promised someone I would never leave her. I made a vow. I love her and I refuse to take anything above her."
"Your queen must be very pleased with your loyalty, shapeshifter," Maleficent growled as her eyes glowed brighter with him insight.
"It's not my queen of who I speak," Diaval said clearly and sincerely.
The look and words threw Maleficent off. She leaned back slightly and seemed to process his words carefully. Her eyes narrowed as the green shone brilliantly over the red that was there only a moment ago.
"The answer is no, Elwine. We will not give you the Moors or our kingdom."
"Even if it is to save your people- her people?"
"Her people need her. You will not take her from us."
"And just how do you think you are to win with your guardian now your enemy?"
Diaval stood tall and silent for a moment before he looked straight into her eyes. His heart called out to hers to make her see who he was, who she really was. He suddenly smirked and turned his attention back to Elwine, "By winning her back with my charm, of course."
"You stubborn, feathered imbecile!" Elwine spat and looked at the Dark Ones behind him, "Attack!"
"Attack!" Percival and Smiling John echoed one another and the battle was on once again.
