Arise - Book Two of The Spinner's Curse

                                                             Chapter One:

                                                                  Hunter

I felt it the moment she awoke; the soft sigh that came as breath returned to her lungs. I wanted to scream. It was early. Impossibly early, and also incredibly inconvenient.

For weeks, the Queen had kept me chained to the wall and only that morning had added the choke-hold around my neck. "Where is she?" she demanded, her typically beautiful face distorted with rage. It was a question she no longer expected an answer to. In the years since Eira first escaped and hid herself away, our connection had been lost.

Until today.

I squirmed against my bonds, trying to find a position that would feed more air into my lungs. I choked as the leather strap dug into my skin, but forced myself to stand on tip-toe to ease the strain on my neck. My chest heaved. My calves trembled. I pressed my back tight against the wall to keep my balance as air burned its way back into my lungs. I was thankful the Queen wasn't around to watch my struggle. I could only imagine her glee when she saw that, at last, I was doing something to ease my torment.

I closed my eyes and let out a curse that only the gods would hear. I licked my chapped lips and looked heavenward, only to see the familiar stone ceiling staring coldly back. My toes ached as they held my rigid body upright. Something must have happened, something terrible. It couldn't have been a coincidence that the Queen had chosen this day to increase my torment. She knew. At last, she'd figured out the way Eira had escaped her fate and had finally severed it. Hope drained from me like liquid down a drainpipe until all that was left was a shivering shell. Already, my bones were aching with stiffness as I struggled to keep my weight away from the leather strap securing me above the floor. My muscles screamed their protest. I refused to give in to them. This, I could handle; this, I could take if it would only buy Eira a few more minutes of reprieve.

I prayed she used them wisely.

It took five minutes for my body to give out beneath me and my gasps echoed along the corridor as my vision blurred toward darkness once again. I could see a figure moving, a shadow separating itself from the rest, its long form clothed in a cloak of midnight.

The door to my cell flung open, as if a key was only a figment of my imagination, and clanged loudly against the wall. I cringed. The sound berated my ears, the first I'd heard since the Queen's harsh accusations and the wheeze of my own breath. A firm hand pushed me back against the wall and the darkness around the edge of my vision eased toward grey.  I didn't bother speaking. I didn't need to know what other horrors the Queen had in store for me. My hopes for Eira were already beginning to swirl towards an abyss they'd never resurface from.

The hand holding me up moved upward, to the strap holding me in place, while a shoulder braced itself against my chest. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought I was being freed. The person beneath the cloak grunted. A man. It took him a moment to undo the strap, a moment I used to plot what I would do once my neck was freed. But I didn't get the chance. As soon as the strap was no longer pressing against me, neither was the man. He sprang backward and I could sense his knowing smile despite my inability to see anything beneath his hood. I growled at him, a feral sound that rebounded off the walls and sounded wilder than I'd intended.

A tsking sound emerged from beneath the hood, followed by a crackling laugh. "Pets go wild, don't they? When removed from their master." The man's voice was breathy and nasally, like a ghost or a wraith. My nose wrinkled. The Queen's creatures seemed to become viler with each passing year. The figure cocked its head to the side. "She's awake, now." He said. My blood went cold. I fought the urge to snarl. My lip twitched and he chuckled again. "The Queen will be thrilled," he cooed. My hands clenched. I wanted to beat this man bloody. I would if given even the slightest chance. He seemed to read my thoughts and he took a step back. Good. Let him flee. But he didn't. Instead, he kicked back the hem of his cloak and sat down on floor. I knew from experience that the cold would seep through the stones and bite at his bones. I grinned, keeping my eyes encased in a scowl. He grabbed his knees to his chest and began rocking, like a child forced to play alone. I could feel him regarding me and wished he'd leave.

"You know," I said through clenched teeth, "if I were you, I'd be running to tell the Queen about my little theory."

He shrugged but ceased his rocking. "It isn't a theory. I know." He tilts his face upward so the light bleeding through my little window illuminated his bony face. "I've seen it."

His omission drained my face of color. A Seer. I stared at him. Hard. Creatures of magical descent, even ones that could prove useful, were never a friend to the Queen. This man, whoever he was, wasn't here as her minion. My eyes narrowed as my gut churned with disbelief.

It had been seventy years since I'd last seen Eira, perhaps more. I'd held her gloved hands in mine and begged her to run. From me. It had been the worst, and best, decision I'd ever made. I glared at the intruder, at this stranger who held my fate in his hands. "Tell me." I said. "What do you know about Eira?"

He shook his head. "I'm not talking about Eira." His eyes found my mine, glittering in the moonlight with something I hadn't seen since I was nothing more than a boy: Hope.