Chapter 6:
Blank eyes scanned over the treetops and valleys of the Moors from the view of a tower bedroom window. She sat on the long cushion that lined just beneath the window so she could see anything that may darken the Moors further. Maleficent had just finished the fourth afternoon of her watch at the drawbridge and another forced interaction with the Lord Elwine. He seemed to mean well, but she had no want or need to talk with him again. Especially when her focus was that of finding a bit of hope that Diaval was on his way back to her. Elwine would entertain her with facts and theories and knowledge that he had gained through his training and experience. It would have been a welcomed distraction once upon a time. Now, it was background noise as her eyes focused only on the skyline above them.
He was a help in one way. She had noticed that Lord Warwick had been keeping his own vigil at the courtyard when she had hers at the drawbridge. They would both leave the council chambers and the man would follow her out. There was an unspoken promise of future conversation- or at least an attempt at some. He had yet to approach her as Elwine usually did so first and then she would go inside once the sun set. She didn't know what to make of the actions, but they didn't settle well with her. She felt uneasy from his constant stares.
Fingers combed through her hair since she took it down for the night. She took a quick look at her wings behind her and muttered under her breath. They were a mess, but she really could not be brought to clean or preen with Diaval's absence on her mind. He would definitely comment of their state were he here. She could just imagine how he would drop behind her without being asked and then would complain on how thorough he would have to be to clean her glorious feathers and put them right. If she closed her eyes she could still see his playful expression and hear the jesting mockery of her wings.
She shook her head and looked down below her window and saw the returning soldiers from the Moors. Aurora had sent more guards into the Moors to find anything that they could from the glen. The first day they had found the remains of the guards that were burned by the lightning and brought them back to rest in Ulstead. The second day they searched for any fair folk that may have been stuck in the spell circle. Gratefully there was not a single magical creature harmed. The third day they searched every foot of the glen for any clue or sight of a raven, but again no Diaval. Not a trace. Not even a feather or hair. It looked like the current team had also come back with nothing in hand.
Her hand went to her chest. She still felt the tight bond she shared with him through her magic. There were a few times she felt it falter as if struggling to keep the connection, but would always return strong. He was still alive and she would hold onto that.
He was alive.
"I need to know you and Aurora are safe." his voice resounded and bounced in her head.
She leaned her head back next to the window, "I need to know you are safe, too."
The door clicked open and her whole body shifted toward the noise. Aurora came in quickly and closed the door behind her. Her robe was wrapped tight around her night shift, her own golden hair worn loose around her face. She quickly walked across the room and cuddled on the cushion, her head landed in Maleficent's lap. Maleficent wasn't surprised at the action since Aurora had done so countless times before when she felt overwhelmed by kingdom matters. Maleficent smoothed her hands through Aurora's hair as her daughter looked out the window toward the Moors.
"How is Phillip fairing today?" she asked and brushed a few strands out of her face.
"Healers say he will be fine," Aurora sighed and relaxed further into her mother, "A few scars on his side, but he just needs rest. He talked with me earlier today. Doesn't seem like he is damaged irreparably."
"Good," Maleficent nodded and fell back into silence, her daughter's presence calmed her just enough.
"He is feeling guilty about Diaval."
Silence slipped back in to fill the room. Maleficent took a deep breath and caressed Aurora's cheek in reassurance, "I know he feels guilt. He doesn't need to. It wasn't his fault that Diaval chose to save him and it wasn't his fault that those men took him."
Aurora nodded in agreement and put a hand to the cold window, "He's out there somewhere."
"I know," another pass of her hands threaded through the golden hair.
"How?" Aurora asked as she searched for comfort.
"We are linked by magic, he and I. I would feel it if it severed."
"Severed?" Aurora looked up with wide eyes.
She looked down at Aurora in the eyes with a sad smile, "Ended."
"Oh," Aurora squeaked out. She sat up and leaned on Maleficent's shoulder, "I miss him."
Maleficent wrapped an arm around her and put her chin on top of her head, "So do I, Beastie. So do I."
"He..." Aurora started and struggled to get words out. She coughed lightly and started again, "When you disappeared, he was here. Well, he was in the Moors. Looking for you at first. Then he watched over them in your absence the best he could as a man. He gave me something to hold on to. We were all scared that you weren't coming back, but he kept everything going. He kept believing."
"That stubborn bird would," the edges of her lips tilted up just slightly.
"Is that why you chose him?" Aurora asked as she leaned back to look her mother in the eyes.
"Why I what?"
"When you saved him from the net- the farmer," Aurora asked with a small tilt of her head, a reminder of who had a large wing in raising her.
Maleficent thought really hard on that day. The day she saved a raven from a violent end. The raven that became her servant and brought her anything she ever asked for, and then even more than that with his friendship. She couldn't think of anyone or anything else that could have done for her what he had. Nothing would have come close.
"It could have been no one else."
Aurora fell back into Maleficent's arms in a hug. Large wings enveloped them both. Aurora began to drift off to sleep in her mother's embrace. Maleficent rubbed her back in soothing circles and turned to look out the window once more. It wouldn't hurt to stay up just a little longer.
Diaval felt time slip by quickly. He wasn't quite sure how many days had passed, but he did notice a pattern with his keepers. For the most part there were only two or three of them at his prison at a time, though he counted four all together. His jailer who liked to 'play' on his ribs came and went, but for the most part gave him plenty of time to rest in between his sessions. If he had to guess, the man only came once a day. Which made this the seventh day as he knew the man would be coming again soon. He had a few more scars on him from the man's visits, but nothing that he could come to regret. He needed to know what they knew, and he needed to see what kind of faults they had in their plans. He didn't spend years as Maleficent's eyes and wings without learning to hear for the right things.
From what he gathered, they didn't have much more information on her than what was said in the legends and stories. Some of which were true; some very, very wrong. He would let them keep those beliefs. On top of that, when they believed him to be sleeping, they talked fairly loudly about their plans and how they plan to continue their next step. She was right, humans were hilarious.
One thing that he did come to regret was the fact that he couldn't help anyone the way he was. There were a couple of occasions when he saw the men drag in one or two Moor Folk. Instead of locking them up like they had with him, they would drain them of their essence right in front of him. They would always choose to do so right after he was beaten and weak, the magic that resided in him focused on healing his own injuries. He had no magic to spare to shift, even though he desperately asked the magic to shift him instead of heal him. He could help them, save them, even if he was injured. If only the magic would let him. It would not listen to him, nor heed his calls to protect the Moor Folk that were killed ruthlessly. It wasn't his magic to control. It was hers. As such, it would take all paths to heal him, protect him the best it could.
The longer he stayed in his captors control, the more dark fairy creatures he saw. They were helping the men with different tasks around the cave he was in. He had no idea why, as the dark fairies of the Moors hated men for even longer and deeper than Maleficent once had. It didn't make sense, unless they were caught under their control somehow. Dark magic can do a multitude of things if used in certain ways.
Diaval tried to roll his shoulders, careful of the weakness of his left shoulder. Thanks to his last beating session he now sported a gash over his right eyebrow, what felt like a couple of cracked ribs and his left shoulder burned every time that he moved it. The healing effect of the magic in him did what it could at the time, which probably saved him from a fully swollen eye. He was happy that it wasn't all expended and he could feel it building back up in him. He knew the beatings were all worth it with the information he was able to gain. He would find a way to get it back to Aurora, Phillip and Maleficent. They had to know what was happening.
Oh, how he missed his little unkindness. The day that Aurora was married to Phillip, he thought that they were going to go off all on their own. Be their own pair where they would start their family and just be. Instead, he noticed that Phillip was brought into the unkindness that already was. All four of them did things together when they had a moment to spare. They enjoyed days in the sun in the Moors, lunches and dinners- even if they were for kingdom matters. Even when Phillip had been crowned king of Ulstead, he kept up with Moor matters along with his new extended family. Diaval was so proud of his little fledgling as she grew their family with Phillip without him noticing until it was already done. She even talked Maleficent into-
Maleficent.
Her face flashed before him. His hands gripped into fists a few times as he fought his emotions. She had to be livid. She never slept well without him nearby. Even as a raven in the early days of his servitude, his mere presence calmed her nightmares as she slept. He hoped she forgave him for waiting for so long to return. He didn't want to make the mistake of missing important information that could potentially harm her because he was eager to get home. Get back to her. She would be worried, he knew, even if she wouldn't admit it to him when he did get back. He was sure a day or two of a dog form would be in his near future for all the trouble he caused. He would apologize profusely after she would turn him back into a man from the canine form.
He stared at the floor and smiled slightly. He knew her well enough. Maybe she would have missed him enough that she would let him stay a man. Let him tell her everything about this place, the men with dark magic, and maybe even the things he finally admitted that he needed her to know. Aurora was right about so many things.
When I get out of here and I see her again, I need to tell her a few things. I have to tell her. Being a dog be damned.
A form blocked the light that was shining in from the next room over. Diaval looked up to expect his usual torturer, but it was another one. It was the one that had originally met them in the glen. He knew him the least of all his captors. He didn't come to the caves too often, from what Diaval knew he kept a tab in Ulstead and what took place there. The new robed man walked straight up to Diaval and held his chin tightly in his grasp to look over his face.
"He has really done some damage to you," he observed, "Maybe we need to tone it down a bit. Don't want him to break your jaw and make it useless to get you to talk."
"I've had worse," Diaval muttered as the man dropped his chin.
"You are not fairy," he said simply and began to walk around Diaval, as if circling prey. Diaval knew this game well.
"No, I am not, but you already knew that," he pushed at the iron rod as his back to elaborate the point. He looked up at the ceiling, but refused to look at the man and play into his ego.
"I did, but you aren't a man either, are you raven?"
Diaval chuckled dryly, "About time you figured it out. I was wondering what was taking you so long. I didn't hide it all that well."
"Well, it takes my connections in the castle walls a moment or two to get to the bottom of things. I wondered, how does it feel to be a bird pretending to be a man?"
"I am not pretending to be anything. I am what I am," he finally did look at the man when he settled in front of him. He tried to force his sore face into his cheeky grin, "I am a very complicated individual."
"And you think that becoming a man a good portion of the time makes you more than a stupid bird?" the man titled his head, face still obscured by the heavy hood.
Diaval's smile dropped and he narrowed his eyes. His face turned serious, "...it makes me hers. Loyally and devotedly hers. And a bit dangerous to you."
"How's that?" he stepped back to point at him in the ropes, "I haven't been kept and beaten for the last half a fortnight."
"I may have been here for that time, yes, but when I do get out of here, I will show you just what a 'stupid bird' can do."
The man chuckled deep in his throat and paced a little just in front of Diaval, a hand going to a chin inside the hood in thought, "You say that you are hers... does that mean that there are feelings involved? You really think that she would return them? That winged devil doesn't have a heart. Everyone knows that."
Diaval's heart jumped at that and he shook his head, "It doesn't matter what I think or what she feels. What matters is that I make sure she is safe and that our fledgling is safe."
"Ha! Listen to yourself! This is rich!" the man threw back his head in a laugh and turned to come close to Diaval, "The queen is a human! Not a bird, not a fledgling, not anything more than a simple woman!"
"She is more than you will ever be. Magic or no. I can assure you of that," Diaval hissed back at the man. He dared to speak badly of Aurora, his brave and beautiful fledgling. It didn't matter what she was. She was his child. Has been since she first came into the forest glens.
"She is just a woman," he said calmly again and took a deep breath, "I will be heading back to the castle today. I need some information since you seem to be lacking in what I really need."
"You won't discover her secrets," Diaval smirked and hissed from the sudden pain in his shoulder, "She has them guarded better than her thorn wall had once guarded the Moors. You will never learn them."
The man stopped and turned around abruptly to clench a fist around Diaval's shoulder. Diaval yelled in pain, but then gritted his teeth to stare the man down.
"I know enough to injure the devil creature," he gripped Diaval tighter before he pushed from him, "Maybe I should bring you back a souvenir? You must miss her, yes? Maybe a feather- or a horn."
It didn't matter on the pain any longer. Diaval pushed at his binds toward the man with a yell of utter defiance, "You won't touch her!"
"What makes you think I haven't already?"
Diaval deflated just a little. Had he already hurt her? Did he have her tied up somewhere in iron chains?
"As I thought. Really, what can a raven do?" he let out another laugh and exited the room and Diaval heard him leave out one of the rooms ahead.
The man from before entered the room and began his ritual of rolled up sleeves and took off his ring, "You got him to laugh. He never laughs. Congratulations."
"You will not have her," Diaval muttered in a whisper, his head lowered toward the floor. Something changed, something pushed at the magic in him at the protective need in him.
"What was that, freak?" the man gripped at the back of Diaval's shirt to pull him up.
Diaval's rope bindings snapped from behind him and he pushed forward to knock the man to the ground. Talon like claws cut at the bindings at his ankles and legs before he shook out his right arm for the claws shift back into human fingers. He swiped at the table at his side, able to grab the ring the man usually wore and pocketed it carefully. He stared down at the stunned man below him and shook his head, "I said, you will not have her. And now, you won't have me."
The man pushed up from the ground and threw a swing at him, but Diaval jumped out of the way and ran through the next room, "Harder when the target is moving, isn't it?"
The man yelled out in frustration, which drew the attention of those still in the next few rooms. Dark fairies turned at him and swiped at him as he passed in a dead run. He tried to follow the way that the men's voices traveled when they left him. He noticed in passing that the rooms were all connected like that of tunnels. The walls were dug earth, unlike the walls in his room. He turned to the right through another room until he saw natural light seep into the tunnel. The light sounds of the Moors beckoned him forward and faster. The agitation from the wounds burning just under his skin as he pushed the muscles to go faster. He would make it out. He had to. She was in danger and she would need him.
One of the other robed figures lunged out from a corner tunnel and slammed the door shut in front of him. He saw that this one was a shorter, rotund man that reminded him of many of the lords from Stefan's old court. Diaval didn't slow and only smirked at the man's quaking form. He urged his muscles and form to shift. Before he hit the door, his form shifted to that of the massive bear. The robed figure that was at the door, rolled out of the way before Diaval connected. He growled out as his bulk hit the door and it instantly buckled under his charge. He stumbled out the door and his left arm nearly buckled under his weight. He looked to the sky, the sun coming close to the mountains, basking the sky in reds and purples.
He heard the rush of voices and the screeching of some of the dark fairies behind him. He looked over his shoulder and knew he was not healthy enough to take them all on, even as a dragon. He instantly shifted into his original form and took a deep prepared breath as he took off into the night sky. His wing may be injured and giving him blinding pain, but he knew what he must do.
He had to get to her. Nothing stood in the way of that.
