Title: Snake Singer
Disclaimer: Characters belong to Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, but the plot belongs to me.
The cloaked figures walked fiercely, as though they themselves were great beasts on the prowl, hunting their sacred lands for food or protection. They seemed to scan the room without moving their heads, yet I was assured that they knew that we were the only people in the room.
"What is the meaning of this!" Shouted the Dio, stepping between Zane and I and beginning to walk down the stairs that separated the thrones from the floor. As he approached the mysterious hooded figures Zane pulled me aside, his hands grabbing a hold of my shoulders tightly and dragging me to the far side of the thrown.
"Danica, listen to me! Whatever happens, don't fight it! Do you understand!"
"Zane?" I questioned, my voice barely higher then a whisper. "I don't..." before I could finish Zane pushed me against him and his lips were embracing mine again. I was lost, helpless within his hold and I could not resist. Immediately after releasing me he was gone from my side, spirited away it seemed by the wind and by the time I turned he was half way down the stairs and close behind the Dio. I looked then to the Disa, who had also left her seat and was watching her husband approach the figures. Her movement sent her long black hair reeling, pushing it to both sides of her neck and framing her face and skin as though it were a great ebony jewel. Though the Disa did not turn her head to look at me I felt her gaze meet mine and I knew that she herself didn't know the full extent of what was happening.
I ignored her silence and stillness and followed Zane down the stairs without an argument and as I neared the bottom I could hear her footsteps following me. Once to the bottom of the stairs I stood beside Zane, taking his hand in support of whatever was about to happen.
The two hooded figures were still, standing straight and tall in front of the four of us. "What is the meaning of this!" The Dio shouted again. "How dare you come into my palace uninvited!" The Dio's voice towered through out the tall room, as though the very sound was a great wave crashing against a stormy seacoast.
One of the cloaked figures stepped forward and a long arm extended out from the bundles of dark fabric that surrounded the person in darkness. The skin was pale and smooth, giving way to a delicate wrist and long slender fingers. The hand reached up to the hood and in a single swipe she pulled away the lining and material. My heart stopped in my throat at the sight of the figure. From the long and lean face, to the high cheekbones and black silver hair, she was exactly as I remembered her. This woman before me, the same who had once been in love with Zane, the same who had kidnapped me and almost killed me, and had it not been for Zane and Rei I would have. It was Adelina.
I tried to breathe, I tried to form words, but it seemed as though I had vacated my own body and no longer had control over it. I reached my hand up and clutched Zane's shoulder, my fingers diving into his thick and flexed muscles. He had suddenly tensed greatly in the last few seconds and I could feel his anger as though it was steam rising off of skin.
"Adalina!" Zane called out, his voice was strange to me and I had never heard him speak in this tone before, it was foreign and unrecognizable to me. At that moment I didn't know if he would lash out at her or turn to me and take me in his arms. Either way she would be infuriated.
"What is the meaning of this!" The Dio echoed again, his voice louder and harsher then it had been before.
"Shhh now," she whispered, lifting her thin index finger and placing it gently between his flaring lips. "Calm yourself Dio, I mean you no harm."
"And my guests?" He questioned, quickly looking her over for any concealed weapons but it was impossible to tell with all of the material that cloaked her.
Adalina took a step back, removing her finger from the Dio's lips and bowing her head, though a sly smile still twisted across her face. For a brief second before lifting her head again my eyes locked on hers and she to mine. I could see the utter hatred in her eyes and a slight hint of insanity that I had heard when she held me prisoner. "As the new leader of the serpiente people I have come to collect a prisoner, someone who had betrayed my people in the gravest of ways and who must be punished." At that moment I couldn't breath, and every pain that Adalina and her guards had inflicted upon me flared up again. I felt the skin tense and I could taste the sour liquid of my own blood filling my mouth. I clasped tightly to Zane's hand, in part comforting myself and in part holding him back from her.
"Zane Cobriana, I here by take you prisoner in the name of treason against your nation!"
"What!" I screamed, my lips quivering with the slight hint of tears as I clutched the side of Zane's arm. Zane was utterly still, and silent, putting up no protest by her words or actions.
"I trust that you will come without combat, but if you need to be restrained I have brought the necessary manpower." Adalina's eyes were fiery and I knew that Zane's eyes were just the same.
"And my wife?" He asked, his voice soft, and seperet from the tone that it had taken on before.
Adalina's smile widened. "She will be punished by her own people, as they see fit."
"My own people?" I questioned. "I am the Tuuli Thea and I have done nothing but help my people."
Again her smile widened, and a slight cackle passed through her lips as she turned to face the still cloaked figure that stood beside her. All eyes turned to the mysteries stranger and we all watched as a long hand came up from the inner curves of the cloak and pulled the hood away, revealing the stone-like face of a man. My mouth hung wide as I looked upon the man. His light eyes staring me down as I looked into them. His dark blond hairs lose around the sides of his face, haloing a long scar that slide across his face. "Vasili...." I whispered, my voice barely forming the words.
"Yes!" He said, his voice strong and cold.
"How could it be?" I begged, stepping forward from Zane until I was directly in front of him. "You're dead, you died years ago."
Vasili said nothing, but his eyes pieced into me like daggers that far to easily exposed me.
"What is this?" Zane asked, I heard his voice but couldn't bear to answer him, and even though it hurt me to look upon Vasili I couldn't take my eyes away from him.
"This is Vasili!" Adalina spoke, her voice almost mocking Zane's confusion and anger. "This is Danica's pare bond, and rightful husband!"
"How could you do this to me!" Vasili barked his voice more harsh then I had ever heard it before. I was speechless, I couldn't move, I was out of my body again and searched my brain for answers to all of these puzzling questions, but within me I found none. "Marry the son of our people's greatest enemy."
I shook my head, I opened my mouth to speak but no words came out. I felt my lips move to form some kind of sentence or apology; whatever his eyes commanded of me but still nothing. "Danica?" Zane called out, I tried to turn my head to look at him but again nothing happened. "Danica?" He called out again, but I couldn't look away from the dead mans eyes before me.
Had he really died on that battlefield? Had he been alive this whole time? Or by some twisted act of fate or cruel turn of magic had he been brought back from the dead to walk among the living, like some kind of zombie from a frightening fairy tale.
"You see Danica," said Adalina, interrupting the silence that maintained everyone's confusion. "Vasili, has been alive this entire time, and wasting away in the Underground Municipality! I found him; I saved him when he was just days away from death."
"Adalina gave me hope that you were still alive, and now I come and find this!"
I moved; a jerk of my limbs because I had been still so long. I let out a long breath and filled my lungs again with another breath, the air felt like poison between my veins. "I thought you were dead." I choked, my voice crackey with tears.
"And you, my wife, I knew you were alive!" Vasili's words pierced me, in a way that nothing and no one had ever pieced me before.
"Wife!" Zane interrupted, "Danica is my wife, not yours."
"Vile satyrs!" Vasili spat back, "hold me prisoner for years so you could betray my people and put my wife under your webs of lies and deceit. Take him away Adalina!"
"What!" I yelled immediately turning and throwing myself in front of Zane, though her long white hand was already extended toward him.
"Danica come!" Vasili yelled, clutching my wrist with tight and forceful fingers and pulling me away. Zane and I clutched hands, but I could not fight Vasili's hold and pull over me, and Zane could not fight the arms of Adalina and her guards who had entered the room only seconds before and already held each of Zane's arms behind his back and drove him away as though he were an animal.
"Zane..." I screamed, as they dragged him from the room and I saw him for the last time. Vasili's hands wrapped around me as he pushed my face into his chest in some kind of loving embrace, and myself struggling against him.