“Where are we going?!” Amara shouted at Mattias. “My fire won’t keep the guards at bay forever!”
“Up to the roof,” he replied easily. A few moments passed and then he stopped, abruptly turning about to face her. Jezebel looked nervous beside him, but seemed to be dealing with her present situation reasonably well, all things considered.
“Do you remember the question I asked you yesterday?” he said.
“What question?” Amara asked impatiently.
Mattias didn’t respond, waiting her out. Frustration caused a frown to cross her face, but what he meant finally clicked when Jezebel suddenly tried to break free from him. Keeping her in his grasp didn’t seem difficult for him at all, and her effort to get away reminded Amara of a toddler straining against an adult.
He’s asking if I could destroy her life, she realized.
“I think I hear more guards coming,” Evander warned beside her.
“Well?” Mattias asked.
Amara hesitated for a moment, then gave him a short nod.
“Yeah. I could do it.”
“Could you, really? Prove it.”
Mattias dragged Jezebel closer to Amara and held out her arm. Jezebel abruptly stopped struggling, and turned a stare onto Amara.
After meeting Jezebel’s gaze, Amara pulled Hippolytus’s knife out of her pocket and held it low. She then grabbed Jezebel by the upper arm with her free hand, just above where Mattias had a hold of her.
“Keep moving, princess,” Amara said.
Misery briefly entered Jezebel’s expression, and her gaze shot to the floor. A pleased smile spread across Mattias’s face as he relinquished his hold on her.
Another strange roar sounded from the lower level, much louder and closer than before.
“We have to go!” Evander insisted.
Mattias whirled about and began to climb once more. Amara attempted to follow after him, but Jezebel slowed her down by offering resistance. After a moment of this Amara raised her knife at Jezebel, which soon caused her to comply.
The stairwell began to narrow as they climbed, and before long blinding yellow sunlight began to shine off the walls ahead. A cloudless blue sky spread overhead as they spilled out onto the roof. Fortunately, no guards had been waiting for them, but there was also no other way for them to go. The roof was an empty circular space, ringed by half-walls which looked to come up to around the level of Mattias’s waist.
He peered over the side at something below, and Amara dragged Jezebel along in order to stand beside him. The city spread out on all sides in an even ring far below them, and the buildings were distant enough to seem almost toy-like. Beyond the city the ocean spread to the far horizon, dotted here and there by small vessels sailing lazily through calm seas. The forest Sunjata had first sent them to framed the hills opposite of the ocean, intensely dense with shades of green.
“Now what?” Evander said.
Mattias turned to respond, but before he could Hippolytus and several guards burst from the stairwell onto the roof. Amara immediately pulled Jezebel closer, and made sure to raise the knife for Hippolytus to see.
“Stay back!” she barked. “I’ll kill her if I have to!”
“You’d better put your weapons away,” Mattias added. “For your own sakes, if anything.”
Hippolytus raised his hands to him in a placating gesture, and the guards with him sheathed their weapons even as they moved to form a loose ring around Amara and the rest. A trickle of additional guards spilled out in ones and twos from the stairwell, adding to the roof's rapidly growing crowd.
“Are you hurt, Jez?” Hippolytus asked anxiously.
Jezebel shook her head, and Amara brought the knife up to her throat.
“She’s gonna be if you come any closer.”
“Lower the knife, please,” he said. “We won’t do anything to risk the princess’s safety.”
“Scout’s honor?” Mattias asked with a scoff.
The glance Hippolytus shot at him was filled with stress, and Amara saw in it the truly delicate position they’d placed him in. Not only was Jezebel close to him, her father would almost certainly punish Hippolytus if she came to any harm.
“What is it you want?” he asked. “I give you my word that the king can provide you with anything your heart desires. But I can also promise that you won't get a single thing if you hurt his daughter.”
“We’re not here to talk to the help,” Mattias said dismissively.
A clamor erupted from downstairs, and a large wave of guards emerged from the stairwell, merging into the crowd. Shabboleth then charged out of the stairwell after them, and the guards instantly showed deference to him, quickly moving out of his way with bowed heads as he marched towards Amara and Jezebel.
He stopped in the space between the guards and Amara’s group, hands held to his sides but clenched tight. Anger filled every corner of his expression, but he said nothing, his attention focused on the knife held to Jezebel's throat.
His feet came forward just a bit, but he was quickly halted by Mattias.
“Ah, ah! I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Bodhi. Not unless you’re interested in seeing just how much blood your daughter’s body contains!”
“Eric,” Shabboleth said with suppressed rage. “I should’ve expected something like this.”
“Yes, you probably should have."
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Shabboleth took a deep breath through his nose, clearly trying to calm himself down. At least four dozen guards now stood in the space behind him, and most looked quite nervous. The situation undoubtedly boded ill for them regardless of what happened next.
After taking another deep breath he turned to address Mattias.
“So. Here you are once again. For some reason I half expected that you would let the years change you, to let go of the old hates. And yet here you stand. Seeking revenge in the ugliest way you can.”
“If the years didn’t change you then why should they change me?” Mattias shot back. “Besides, I’m not here for revenge, Bodhi. We only want to make a little trade.”
Shabboleth narrowed his eyes. “This is an unusual method for you. I felt certain it was you in the city last night, but when I heard that my daughter was the target I began to doubt myself. Kidnapping a child is something I would expect from Hastur or Livia. But you? How far you’ve fallen.”
“Oh, please. Kidnapping? We’re not even outside of the castle yet! Just give us what we want and everyone can be on their merry way, alive and with all their limbs firmly where they’re meant to be.”
“No…that’s far too convenient. This is part of some convoluted scheme you’ve concocted. You would’ve come alone, otherwise.”
His angered gaze darted to Evander, searching him up and down as though he were looking for something. After a few moments he shifted his attention to Amara, and she saw a realization occur in his eyes after meeting his gaze. His expression swiftly darkened.
“...Ahh. Now I see. You have truly fallen far, Eric.”
The implication wasn’t clear to Amara, but nevertheless she was immediately alarmed. She pushed Jezebel forward a few inches in order to turn a stare onto Mattias, and in the next second a rush of wind and a loud whir filled the air directly in front of her face. Blood leapt in a small arc from her cheek, staining the back of Jezebel’s dress with a slender arc of small red droplets.
Searing pain immediately lanced across Amara’s cheek, and she recoiled for a moment before seeking out the source of the pain. During the confrontation with Shabboleth, Hippolytus had drifted off to Amara’s left, and from his wide stance and extended arm it was clear he’d just tried and failed to kill her with one of his throwing knives.
For a long moment no one on the roof moved. Then Shabboleth let out an enraged roar, and raised his right arm into the air. In the space of less than a second it swelled in size until it towered at least a dozen feet into the air, the skin of it turning into a mottled array of red and green colors. Terror spread across the guards and they immediately scrambled to get away, but only so many could fit into the stairwell at a time. A panicked crush began to form at the top of the stairs.
Hippolytus stood in place, watching Shabboleth’s arm grow with a mixture of shock and acceptance on his face.
“No!!!” Jezebel screamed. “Please!!!”
With a bestial grunt, Shabboleth swung his arm down. It was now long enough to easily reach Hippolytus, and when it made contact with him his body simply shattered. A shower of blood and limbs exploded from what had once been Hippolytus as Shabboleth’s gruesome new appendage smashed him to pieces.
Jezebel let out a heart wrenching scream, then went limp in Amara’s grasp. The tremendous pain in Amara’s face was enough of a distraction for her to nearly drop Jezebel, but Evander rushed over to help prop her up just in time to keep her from falling.
“Are you okay?!” he asked Amara.
Before Amara could respond, a blinding white light began to overwhelm the rooftop. Screams of agony suddenly erupted from the crush of guards at the stairwell, only to be abruptly snuffed out moments later. When the light finally diminished there was nothing left of the guards beyond a few dozen messy piles of armor, weapons and clothing, haphazardly arranged in an uneven ring at the top of the stairs.
As Amara was processing this, something black and huge closed around her, and after looking up she saw Mattias had transformed into his massive raven form. He scooped up Evander and Jezebel’s limp form in his other claw, and began to flap his wings powerfully in preparation to leave.
Shabboleth’s robes stretched and then burst from his body as the rest of his appendages began to swell. Within the space of seconds his swollen body no longer resembled a human being, and the new insect-like limbs which erupted from his grotesque form lunged for Jezebel. Mattias darted away just in time to keep her out of reach, and then turned into a sharp dive off the rooftop.
The wind whipped harshly at Amara’s face, causing her to gasp with pain as it tore at the cut on her cheek. She raised a hand to shield the cut, only to pull it away moments later to see her fingers and palm covered in blood.
A lower rooftop of the castle loomed ahead of them, and Mattias skillfully pulled himself out of the dive with only a few feet to spare before coming in for a gentle landing. He carefully released his passengers before lifting himself back into the air.
Something exploded far above them, and falling stones soon fell like rain across the rooftop. When Amara looked up, a reddish crab-like creature hung from the side of the castle, massive in size and using a vast array of smaller limbs to steady itself while two larger pincer-like arms ripped entire chunks of stone out of the castle's walls.
Amara winced as a small piece of debris collided painfully with her shoulder, and she raised a hand over her head to shield herself. Evander soon gathered up Jezebel in one arm, and helped Amara to her feet as Mattias rose to meet the threat.
Shabboleth cocked his arms back, then threw everything he'd collected at Mattias, who folded his wings in at the last moment and just barely managed to slip past most of the debris. He shot past the upper roof, raking Shabboleth’s huge body with his claws as he flew by. Amara nearly let out a cheer before realizing that the attack had done practically nothing to Shabboleth—Mattias’s claws hadn’t drawn even a single drop of blood.
Evander hurried towards a nearby doorway, and after discovering it was locked he set Jezebel down for a moment in order to batter it down. He leveled a powerful kick at the door, and it exploded inward. After taking a moment to collect Jezebel again he turned to shout at Amara, who was completely focused on the fight occurring above.
“Come on! We can’t help him!”
She ignored him, staring up at Mattias as he dodged between swipes from Shabboleth’s immense claws. Mattias entered into a hover beside the roof, delivering pecks and scratches to Shabboleth’s carapace in rapid succession while narrowly evading swipes from his ponderous pincers. It became clear that there was a significant difference in speed and agility between them, but it was also clear that Mattias was accomplishing very little with his attacks.
After narrowly dodging another swipe from Shabboleth, Mattias darted away from him and flew straight upwards, disappearing behind the sun. Shabboleth skittered along the wall of the castle after him, moving vertically with the exact same swiftness and ease as a house spider.
Shabboleth soon disappeared around the far side of the castle, and Amara’s anxiousness began to peak until she spotted Mattias entering a swift dive out of the sun back towards the castle. Then another explosion sounded from overhead, and Amara’s jaw dropped as Shabboleth suddenly appeared in the air above the castle, clearly having just leapt upwards to meet Mattias’s dive.
He collided with Mattias, and immediately began to tear into him with his pincers. Enormous black feathers flew in all directions like a bizarre storm cloud as Mattias’s downward momentum carried them both back towards the castle.
The entire castle shook when Mattias and Shabboleth crashed into it, and a dangerous amount of rocks and debris began to fall onto the lower rooftop where Amara stood. Evander shouted something and tried to pull Amara to safety but she resisted, silently demanding to continue watching despite the danger.
Shabboleth and Mattias remained locked in combat after falling back onto the roof, and their effort soon caused them to slip off of it. They fell past the rooftop Amara and Evander stood on, still wrestling with one another, and she rushed over to the edge of the rooftop to watch them fall. The ocean loomed beneath them, calm and completely impartial to the strange battle falling towards it.
Another cloud of feathers exploded from Mattias as the water neared, and Amara saw Shabboleth fling away an enormous black wing just before they slammed into the ocean. They instantly disappeared beneath the waves, and Amara let out an anxious cry despite herself when a second wing floated up to the surface, followed closely by a churning cloud of red-black blood.
“Mattias!!!” she screamed.
“Mara!” Evander shouted at her. “Amara!!! We have to go, right now!”
“He’s not dead!” Amara cried out. “He can’t be dead! We have to help him!”
“Fine!!! We’ll help him, Mara, but we can’t do it from here! It’s only a matter of time before more guards find us—we have to leave!”
She turned to look at him, and discovered her eyes had become blurry with tears. She wiped at them harshly with her clean hand before giving him the barest of nods.
Evander immediately turned for the door and ran inside, still carrying Jezebel’s unconscious form in his arms. Amara ran after him, and the castle’s grey walls closed in around her.
