Troy opened the doors to Kate's room the next morning, while dawn was still a grey shadow on the horizon. Kate, still seated in the chair by the fireplace, remained silent as she sensed his dark presence. Troy, dressed in all black and silver, with the exception of the pendants around his neck, came up behind her and settled his hands on her shoulders.
When he spoke, his voice was icy. "It's time to leave."
Kate did not respond. Silently, she rose from her chair and made her way around to stand beside him. Troy caught her arm in an iron grasp and pulled her out of the room and down the crumbling stairs. Kate sunk her teeth into her lip as they descended, blocking out the rest of the pain in her body. When they reached the lowest level, two trembling soldiers pulled the heavy wooden doors open to allow them outside. Kate's eyes widened slightly at the sight of the grey castle courtyard. The kingdom was… alive. Thousands of people were swarming around the kingdom. Men were hurrying, quietly, packing their uneasy mounts while their wives rushed back and forth carrying one more shirt, one more loaf of bread for the men to pack. Children were dashing about underfoot, playing soldier with long sticks instead of swords.
Even as Kate watched, the seething mass of humanity seemed to resolve itself into an army. The men gave their wives one last kiss, embraced their children for the final time, and mounted their horses. A slight wave of pity hit her, because she knew their future. It had nothing to do with her forsaken visions, but her memories. She knew what Onyx was capable of. These men would never return home. Their families would be forever shattered, simply because the men's lives were in the hands of a madman.
Said madman was now pulling Kate down the steps to the cobbled courtyard, where one of the servants was holding his great black horse. Kate was all too familiar with this creature. Trained to obey Troy and only Troy, the only way it would move for another rider would be to save its own neck.
Troy's rough hands landed hard on her waist, picking her up and swinging her into his deep war-saddle. Shots of pain ran through her body from the many bruises this aggravated, but she clenched her teeth. Troy would never know how badly he hurt her. Troy swung effortlessly up behind her, wrapping an arm possessively around her middle before urging the horse forward.
"Don't try anything," he whispered, his breath hot and cruel against her ear.
Kate resisted the urge to snort at that. What could I possibly try? She was a mass of injuries, unarmed, surrounded by enemy soldiers, with no idea where her friends were. She sat silent as they rode into the village to wait for the soldiers to organize.
The men assembled themselves surprisingly quickly. Foot soldiers stood in orderly rows, their ranks headed up by officers on horseback. From her vantage point on Troy's tall stallion, Kate watched as the scene unfolded as the army massed together. She could feel a lump forming in her throat and her eyes began to sting, but she blinked the tears back. Troy began calling orders over her head, and the sound of his voice brought back the seething hatred that she felt for this land and all the people in it. She buried her fear and sadness under that burning fury, leaving herself with only an empty calm. Within thirty minutes, the men were finished assembling. When they began to move, even Kate's fury couldn't burn away the all-consuming sense of terror.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
When a warm hand landed on Onyx's shoulder the next morning she reacted on instinct. Her right arm lashed out, a lethal blow if it had caught mortal flesh, while her left hand groped for the dagger she kept under her pillow.
"Rianna!"
Hearing her name called, the woman slowly blinked open her eyes, dilated to pure black with adrenaline and alarm, but relaxed sharply when she saw Damus' narrow face hovering above her.
"Sorry," she whispered, sitting up in the twisted bedroll and rubbing her eyes. "Did I hit you?"
"No, I dodged it in time." He regarded her for a minute, then gently reached out to touch her brow. "You haven't woken up like that in quite a while."
"I haven't been to war in quite a while, either," Onyx reminded hi, and he smiled faintly before holding out a tin cup of herbal tea.
"Thank you," she murmured, sipping carefully before glancing towards Sarah and Celt's bedrolls. Both were empty."
"Where - "
"Sarah is helping out in the infirmary and Celtos is rechecking the horses. How are you feeling?"
"Like the fuzz is out of my brain at least," she answered, setting the empty cup aside and standing up. "I should have a good chance at planning - " she broke off a split second before the flap of her tent was pushed aside.
"Lady Onyx – oh excuse me." Gartic, the faintest of blushes overcoming him, quickly turned his back.
Onyx glanced down at herself, recalling that she was wearing only her long tunic. Unbothered, she ducked behind Damus to pull on her leggings.
"What is the Matter Gartic?"
"It's Celtos, Lady Onyx, he just collapsed."
"What?!"
Gartic didn't have time to repeat himself before Onyx bolted past him, dressed but barefoot with Damus hot on her heels. They found Celtos awake and alert sitting up against the base of a scrubby tree. Sarah was kneeling beside him, her hands on his shoulders, speaking intently to him. Several of the other monsters, Amystria, Haron and Neo included were grouped around them and withdrew as the Yami came forward.
"Celtos?"
"Good morning, Mistress," the Elf answered, sounding slightly sheepish.
"What happened?" Kneeling down in front of him, Onyx looked deeply into Celt's amber eyes.
He gazed back, his eyes clear but concerned. "I…had a vision," came the answer and his usually confident voice trembling slightly. Onyx's mouth twisted, her eyes darkened with something like fear.
"Show me," she ordered and Celtos closed his hand carefully around his pendant.
The images came fast and disjoined. Katie, sitting on the back of a black horse. A raging battle, majic and weapons flying. A flash of Katie's face coupled with the red-sashed black uniform of a Lohan soldier.
When Onyx straightened up there was an expression of cold fury on her face.
"How dare he," she whispered, her eyes darkening to pitch black. "How dare he risk her like that?!"
"Onyx?" Perplexed Sarah tapped into Celt's memories instead, growing paler by the second as she viewed the premonition. From her it went out through Damus and Neo. The mage swore softly, but Neo in a surge of cold fury, spun around and blasted a nearby tree with his majic, reducing it to dust. Onyx spun as well, smacking the blond man upside the head.
"Save your energy, you fool!" she snapped at him then turned back to the others. "Get ready, all of you. We leave in an hour."
"You have a plan?" Sarah, on her feet again caught Onyx's arm as the dark woman went by.
"Oh yes," came the low answer, and Sarah took an instinctive step away from her at the sound, "Yes I have a plan. And Troy will not get out of it alive."
As Sarah, watched the Yami stormed back to her tent, monsters pulling back from her fury.
"All right, you heard her!" Sarah shouted and the monsters previously frozen with surprise and fear scrambled to pack camp.
Celtos came up behind her, his gate steady and his face composed. "Do you know what she's planning?"
"Not a clue." Sarah answered with a shrug. "I just go where she tells me. You all right?"
"Fine. The vision made me dizzy but it passed quickly."
Sarah gave a slight nod, then went to start breaking down Onyx's tent while Celtos began distributing weapons.
Although Onyx had ordered them to be ready in an hour, it was twenty minutes before they were ready to move out.