Siren's Silence

Prologue: Midnight Run

Ariselle

My breath came in ragged gasps as I ran with every last bit of strength I had. I bolted down a narrow alleyway, clutching the newly-attained sword to my chest. The tatters of my dress flailed behind me, trying to snag on everything that littered the cobblestone ground. I kept one hand wrapped around my swollen throat, wishing the inflammation would go down, but knowing it wouldn't. That meant that I only had minutes before it closed off completely and rendered me unable to breathe. My high blood pressure wouldn't help, but there was even more risk involved with slowing down.

Flashes of the events from the past few hours raced through my head: the invitation to a private conversation with the young man I thought I'd known so well. I could still hear him telling me how beautiful I was and how he found my voice intoxicating, how could I have been so blind? His face, that strange look that swam in the back of his eyes, the eerie feeling that radiated from him, it terrified me. His kiss, a savage, ferocious thing that placed only fear in my heart, burned my lips even now. I could still feel the sharp edge of his knife on my cheek after I had pushed him away, his whispered warning that he would make me unrecognizable if I refused him. Fire burned through the cut that it left when I pulled my head away and took his blade from him, throwing it across the room. My wrists still ached from how tightly he'd grabbed them when he'd pushed me down onto a couch, promising that soon enough I would belong to him. I could still hear my own voice telling him that his father would never allow it, not now, not when I told him of this. Chills ran down my spine when he whispered that his father would soon no longer be a problem and that once the old man was out of the way, he could have anything he wanted. I shrieked, terrified, cut off by his strike to my throat. I remembered my hand seemingly finding the sheathed blade on the floor of its own accord and using it to hit the wretched excuse for man on the head, knocking him unconscious.

I was snapped back to my surroundings when I ran into a wall, causing a shock of pain to run up the arm that had come into contact with the rough stone brickwork. The moment's pause that I was forced to take let me hear the sound of my attacker's voice calling out orders to who I assumed must be soldiers. No doubt, orders to find me, to take me, to drag me back to him.

Another wave of adrenaline pushed me into a run again. I couldn't go back, he would tear me apart. I finally saw a small house I recognized, one I'd known since childhood. I practically ran into the door and pounded on it until it began to shake on its hinges. I didn't even bother to look at the man who suddenly pulled it open as I plowed through, slammed it behind me, and locked it.

"What is the meaning of this?" came a thundering voice that I was very familiar with. "What do you think you're... My lady? Lady Ariselle? What on earth happened?"

I looked up at him, my hand once again wrapped protectively around my neck, I could feel the tears welling in my eyes as I stared into his face. My throat began to tighten making it even harder to breathe. He knelt down in front of me quietly, his brown hair glistening in the soft candlelight that brightened the room. His soft, fatherly gray eyes focused on my face, clearly concerned.

His name was Parker, he had raised me as his own child after my father, my only remaining family, had died seven years before. I was only eight when he passed and had been devastated by my loss. Parker, a man whose age was only a dozen years beyond my own, had taken me in and cared for me, taught me to be strong, brave, and to use my head at all times, well, most times. He had recruited the help of the local healer and his wife, as he had little experience with children, much less girls. Charlene taught me ways to be ladylike enough that I was acceptable, but not drive myself crazy. Her husband, the famous healer Folant, had taught me anything I wanted to know about medicine.