Chapter 118
Water. His only weakness. The only thing he avoided at all costs. The only thing in the land of the living that he feared.
He teleported to the edge of the lake in an instant, scarcely heeding the snow around him or the scream of surprise from the horse as the creature plunged about. All his attention was focused on the broken ice twenty feet out, which was slowly drifting together to cover the hole.
"Master, she's under there!" Creeper exclaimed, pointing frantically, "She's drowning!"
A handful of bubbles appeared in the cracks in the ice, popping dismally when they hit the surface, accenting his words ominously.
The Horned King knew what awaited him if he went. He knew. But she was under there...
Steeling himself with everything he had, the lich swept across the ice like a wraith, using his claws to yank out the ice chunks and slide them aside to recreate the hole.
The water was clear. He could see her. Water could be deceptive in its clarity, but his eyes automatically picked out her shape, only a few feet below the surface, and for a moment he earnestly hoped she was floating up, but she did not.
A thousand thoughts were racing through his head but not one took rest long enough for him to grab it.
He had lost his chance of revenge. Given it up, rather.
He wasn't losing her too.
And it was now or never.
Clenching his fangs tightly, he steeled himself with everything he had and dove.
It felt like liquid fire.
He had known it would be pure hell, but that knowledge did not lesson the agony in the slightest.
It seeped into every inch of him, scorching like hot coals, and he roared in agony, instantly regretting it as his very insides filled with the torturous substance as well, searing him up from the inside out.
His eyes were much, much worse, being far more sensitive, and he instinctively closed them, but the action only intensified his torment.
In an agonized haze he felt his hand close around cloth and he yanked, hard. He heard a snap as it gave, before he felt the pressure around him build as he began to sink.
He roared again in agonized desperation, the bloodcurdling noise vibrating through the water as he got an arm around the girl, barely aware of what he was doing as the wretched torture swept into his mouth and down his throat, searing like an iron.
His feet found the rock ledge the log rested on and he kicked off of it, forcing himself to open his eyes and aim for the hole in the ice that looked to be a league above his head.
Nothing could compare to the torture inside the Black Cauldron. Not even this, but it did not comfort the lich in the slightest.
It was like swimming through red-hot blades.
Breaking the surface, the claws of his free hand dug deep into the edge of the ice, his other arm holding the girl's head barely above water, and he loosed another roar of agony as he forced his body to obey him.
Lifting Avalina out of the water, he lay her on the ice, before beginning to pull himself up, but by this point the ice was too weak to support anything and broke under them both, throwing them back into its watery hell.
The lich barely managed to keep them from sinking again, keeping his grip firmly on the edge of the ice, and tried to haul himself and his cargo up again.
He was nearly out of the water when the ice crunched to nothing underneath him and they went under once more.
The Horned King's talons scored long marks in the ice as he clawed about for anything that would keep them afloat, his screams of agony ripping from him constantly.
Avalina was pulled to wakefulness, no doubt by the noise, and although her mind was lost in a world of freezing delirium, her stiff arms weakly wrapped around the lich's shoulders in an instinctual manner, trying to hold onto him, despite the fact that her hands were too frozen to obey her at all.
The Horned King was barely aware of anything but his own agony, but he felt the movement and it gave him the drive to try again.
She was alive.
Heaving them up over the edge. . .the ice breaking under them. . .over and over. . .the hole around them got ever wider, but he did not stop.
To stop would be their death.
The ice thinned as they neared shore, making it easier to break through but harder to stay afloat, and they went under more frequently, Avalina coughing each time they resurfaced.
The Horned King was exhausted. Completely. Pain can tire someone quicker than anything else, and he was getting everything it threw at him.
He went slower and slower, his agony zapping him of energy, and the next time he surfaced, digging his claws into the ice, he stayed there, groaning in pain and gripping Avalina to him.
Avalina stirred faintly in his arms, but she was so frozen with cold she could barely move.
Weakly, he tried to pull them up again, but the ice creaked under the pressure and he refrained, not wanting to repeat the process.
He was so tired...he would rest for a moment...
"Sire, no!"
Fuzzily, he heard a voice work its way through to him and nudge him out of the painful stupor he was falling into.
"You *must* keep moving! Try again! Avalina needs you!"
It barely registered with the Horned King at all, but it was enough to make him try again. And again. And then one more time. He was so weak...
In a haze he was aware of his claws sinking into snowy, frozen earth instead of ice. Barely aware of what he was doing, he laboriously hauled them out of the water, flooding the snow and turning it to grey slush.
When the lich went to weakly stand up, Avalina in his arms, he would have fallen backwards in his agony, right back into the torture chamber he had just escaped from, had the goblin not appeared from nowhere and grabbed the front of his robe with both hands, pulling for all he was worth. His small feet dug into the deep snow he was light enough to walk on top of and put him at nearly his master's stomach.
In this manner, they managed to make it back from the shore and away from the lake.
Dimly, the Horned King could sense Avalina had lost consciousness again, and despite his own fiery agony he felt a chill run through him. She did not need to fall asleep. But she already was.
The lich could barely stand, let alone straighten up, and he knew he did not possess the energy to teleport them back to the castle. In his state he couldn't walk them back. And even if he could, Avalina's chances of survival were steadily dropping every second they stayed out here. She wouldn't last the journey back, even if he carried her.
A black blot at the edge of his vision made him turn his head slightly and an idea struck him.
The horse was there, his ears pinning and swiveling forward almost constantly, not fifteen feet from them, every muscle taut under that rippling hide.
Carefully, the Horned King tried to approach him, but the horse reared and struck the air with his hooves, his ears laced flat at the lich.
They both remembered the last time they had met. It hadn't ended well.
Mitternacht had sensed his rider's distress, knew she was in trouble, but this creature had appeared out of thin air and brought her back to shore.
It was this creature's fault she was distressed.
The horse roared at the lich and struck the ground, but did not charge, seeing his rider right there, but she was not well. He could smell her weakness.
The animal longed to drive this horned creature into the ground, but his rider was in the way...and she was in trouble...but...
The horse drew a long breath, breathing them in. Reading them through the scent in the air.
This creature had brought her back.
The lich reached for the horse's reins but Mitternacht reared again, backing up a couple steps simultaneously, and screamed at him. He wanted nothing to do with this creature, but the lich was holding his rider and the horse could do nothing against him without hurting her.
He shied away when the lich tried to approach him again, snapping at the thing's hand as he did so.
Stopping several yards away, he roared at the lich again and struck the ground in a rage, clearly saying to put his rider down, but the creature did not.
The Horned King was getting frustrated, but forced himself to stay calm, despite the agony he was in. The horse was his only chance of getting Avalina back to the castle before she froze to death, but the animal wasn't cooperating in the slightest. Did the beast not sense the urgency?
'Talk to him, he likes it.'
The memory of what Avalina had said came unbidden to his mind, and he tried to choke down his agony enough to speak.
"Mit-terrr...nacht."
The horse froze in place, his ears coming forward in surprise at the sound of this creature speaking his name. But it was garbled and didn't sound right...his ears went back again.
"Trrr...trust...me."
Again the horse's ears came forward, listening in puzzlement for a moment. He recognized the words, and the meaning behind them, but they were coming from the lich, not his rider as he was so accustomed. He sniffed the air, blowing warily at the creature as his nose began to process information.
The lich was in a terrible amount of pain. It was all over him, and it left an unpleasant tang in the horse's nostrils.
Horses were terribly sensitive to pain in other creatures, being naturally empathetic animals themselves.
His rider's lifeforce was much lower than it should be, and the horse's base instinct was to blame the creature holding her for this. He remembered everything that had happened between his rider and this...thing.
Lacing back his ears at the memory, he threw his head up warningly at the lich, plainly telling him not to come any closer, before his ears slowly came forward again, his intelligent mind working as he glanced down at his rider.
His rider had been in trouble. This creature appeared, and brought her back. From where, it didn't matter to the horse. But this creature had returned his rider to him from a place he could not follow.
She was cold. He could smell this. She needed warmth. Quickly. He knew a warm place. He could take her there.
"Mit-ter...nacht...pl...lease."
His ears went back for a moment, stamping a hoof warningly at the lich, before coming forward again, quicker this time.
He could sense no malice coming from this creature. Nothing but pain...such pain...
The horse lowered his head faintly from the weight of sensing so much agony, before being drawn to something else.
Concern was mingled in this thing's scent. Concern for...his rider.
The horse blew loudly and threw his head, conflicted, backing up an uncertain step as the lich slowly approached, carrying his rider in one arm.
Past clashed with present in the horse's brain and Mitternacht was trying to make sense of it all.
The Horned King was bordering on desperation as he neared the animal once more, his pain too great to speak again, but the horse was thinking. Even in his agonizing state, he could see this.
Staggering forward, the lich tentatively reached out a hand. They were feet from each other now.
The horse stamped uneasily but did not back away, and as the creature approached, the animal, after tossing his head nervously, lowered it by the faintest of margins, the reins drifting easily into the lich's outstretched hand.
Mitternacht snorted in a wary manner and raised his head as high as he possibly could, his ears coming forward nervously as he felt the creature's grip tighten on his reins. In the Horned King's state, he could break away if he wanted, and they both knew it.
But he did not. Only stared deep into this creature's eyes, the one that held his rider, and now him, and watched.
The only other sensation the lich was faintly aware of through his haze of pain was the ground rushing by beneath him in a blur as they flew for the castle.
The instant he was in the courtyard the Invisibles had swamped him, pulling himself and Avalina off the horse and ushering them inside.
They swept the girl away from him and took her upstairs, presumably to her chambers, but the lich couldn't take another step.
Collapsing on the floor by the fire, missing the chair, he roared for all he was worth, now free to give in to his agony.
He had tried to quell this natural reaction, but it was impossible to keep silent in this much torture. Particularly when it burned you from the inside as well.
Avalina awoke, shivering so badly the whole bed shook with her, under a mountain of blankets the Invisibles had laid on top of her, hot bricks wrapped in many of them to try and warm her up.
She was so cold...she tried to huddle deeper into the covers, but she could not get warm.
It seemed more of a dream than reality, but she remembered what had happened. Dimly.
'He came,' she thought in disbelief.
'He came for me. But I thought he hated me.'
His screams of agony resounded in her ears, and she stiffened at the memory, remembering the torture she had heard in that sound.
Avalina knew he was still in pain. Terrible pain. She felt it more than she knew it, rather, and suddenly she was wide awake.
'Water hurts him,' she remembered in horror.
'He must be hurting so bad!'
Struggling out from under the blankets, she instantly felt an Invisible try to push her back to the bed.
"No!" She gasped out, trying to keep her balance, "I have to see him. Now!"
The Invisibles were still for a moment, as if conversing with each other, before a piece of parchment appeared before her.
'That is a bad idea.'
"Let me up!" Avalina demanded.
'You're in no shape to be traipsing around the castle. You need to stay in bed and get warm.'
"I have to see him!" Avalina insisted.
"He saved my life, it's the least I can do."
'Running around and getting sick will not be the best form of gratitude for his actions.'
"But he's hurting!"
Tears sprang to Avalina's eyes at the thought.
'He would not want you to see him this way. He will visit you when he can.'
"I need to see him!" Avalina begged.
'He is very proud. He will not appreciate you seeing him like he is right now.'
"Maybe I can make him more comfortable!" She protested.
'There is nothing you can do that we have not done already. Now get back in bed before you fall down.'
"Not til I see him first," Avalina said stubbornly, pulling on her nightrobe over her nightgown and nearly falling in the process.
"How long have I been out?"
'Nearly two hours. Can't you stay in here for the sake of his pri-'
"And he's still hurting?"
Filled with urgency, she walked out of the room as swiftly as her shivering legs could carry her, an Invisible finally caving and helping her with a snort of utter exasperation.
Pushing open the door to the balcony, she gasped in horror at the scene below her in the entrance room of the castle.
The Horned King was writhing on the floor in front of the fireplace, screaming in agony, and Avalina froze at the sight.
The Invisible refused to let her go down the steps to the Horned King, explaining that in his state he would hurt her and not even know it.
Avalina had no doubts about this.
Tears sliding down her face, she watched helplessly. It broke her heart to see him in so much pain.
'It's my fault he got hurt,' she thought miserably.
"Didn't you dry him off?" She whispered.
'Yes,' the parchment explained, 'But he swallowed and inhaled a great deal of it, and we can do nothing for that.'
Avalina shuddered violently at how badly he must be hurting. He was burning from the inside, and her eyes widened in horror at the realization.
The answer came to her so strongly she would have fallen had the Invisible not caught her.
"Take me to the library," she gasped.
"Quickly!"
Staggering back onto the balcony with the book, she was forced to let the Invisible help her down the steps so she wouldn't fall and kill herself.
Walking shakily to the ring of furniture, her heart bled for the Horned King, who was still screaming.
She couldn't think of anything more bloodcurdling.
His pain billowed out from him like ashes in the wind, and she coughed and shivered at feeling so much of his torture. How much he was really in was even worse, but she could only feel the tip of the iceberg, as it were.
Shaking in fright and apprehension of what she was about to do, she opened the book and flipped to a certain page.
Beside her, she heard the Invisibles gasp and dive for it, but she held it tightly to her chest and they missed.
Hurriedly, her eyes scanned the page, memorizing the words, before setting the book down on the table and stepping a little closer to the lich, careful to stay out of his way.
The Invisibles, realizing what she was about to do, were whipping around her in a frenzy, and she could sense their panic, their dismay, their fear even, and her stomach clenched.
'Don't do this!" The parchment's font shouted in her face.
'Please, don't! You will regret it! He wouldn't want you to!'
"He did this for me," Avalina answered firmly, tears in her eyes, "And I can't let my friend suffer."
Standing squarely, she extended her arms, palm out, toward the Horned King screaming on the floor, she took a deep breath and steeled herself.
'Please, Avalina, don't!'
"Oh Fates, please now hear my plea," Avalina cried, closing her eyes, "Please grant me what I ask of thee. This pain that fills my friend so kind, I beg you, free him, and make it mine!"
One of my editors upon ending this chapter.
"AVALIIIIINAAAAAA! 0_0 That idiot! That poor, sweet, thoroughly unselfish idiot! :'( (By the way, the descriptions in this chapter were so vivid that it made my toe hurt again. LOL!)"
To DarkraixCresselia: I'm not certain if he ever came into contact with water in the books. I've never read them. But he *is* an undead, and undeads can't handle water at all, usually. I'm sure there's movies or something out there that contradict this rule, but the old-school undeads couldn't come in contact with water at all without unbelievable pain.
Thanks to everyone for the beautiful reviews! I really, really, really, really, really appreciate them! :D