Shift

Chapter 12

12

Drake leapt into the hollowed willow and embraced Temperance, his mother.

“My boy, what have you done?” She whispered gently.

“I am fine mother,” He reassured her. She tightened her hold on him but he didn’t tell her about the virus.

“I have heard that you were taken prisoner by the Houses, is it true?”

“Yes mother, but I was well cared for.” Temperance saw the change in his face as he spoke of his treatment in the dungeons of the Houses, but kept it to herself, for now. “I was fed and even healed,” Temperance’s eyebrows lifted at that. “Mother, they have healers there who are like miracles. I’ve never seen anything like it!”

“Why did you need to be healed if you weren’t harmed?” She spoke sharply. Drake flushed slightly and didn’t answer.

“Where is Raven?” He asked instead.

“She left,” Immediately Drake tensed and fear filled his eyes. His mother took his hand and rubbed it. “She’s fine, she went hunting for food.”

“That is my responsibility,” Drake growled.

“You weren’t here,” His mother answered patiently.

“Has Valdor requested her again?” He asked tensely.

“No,” Temperance breathed a breath of relief as she spoke and Drake relaxed.

He strode to the cabinet where his hunting weapons were stored and checked to see what Raven had taken.

She can’t continue here like this… one day, one day it will become worse, I have to get her away… Drake’s thoughts flashed to the deal he had made with the Feline Princess, and a possibility began to form in his mind. He could threaten her, hold out on passing the information Valdor gave him to get her to agree, but something told him Vera wouldn’t be threated, something in him said she would help without bargaining.

He would have to go to her and make arrangements, but not yet, he still had to earn Valdor’s favour.

***

Lana stood in the centre of her parlour.

The other princesses were spread out around her. Vera stood behind her, casually leaning against the fireplace, a reassuring supporter.

“Why are we here Lana?” Maya asked in a casual manor that masked her inquiring gaze. She carefully draped the skirt of her dark blue dress across the carpet and tilted her head to the side, making her long wavy chocolate locks sway. Her ice-blue eyes were a sharp contrast to her smooth brown skin and they narrowed at Lana.

“Because if you haven’t heard there have been some… events in the past weeks that warrant our attention. We’ll be the heads of the Houses soon. We need to start taking up our roles.” Lana spoke forcefully and the others princesses bowed their heads in agreement.

“So what events exactly have grabbed your attention?” Irene asked as she stretched along the sofa. She flicked her reddish fringe out of her emerald eyes and her tanned, muscled figure curled into a ball. She flicked a speck of dirt from her grey tunic.

“Let’s start with the resurface of an ancient dark power that wants all five of us dead.” Vera quipped from her lazy position. Erika gasped and asked nervously,

“Does that have something to do with the forsaken man who escaped last week?”

Irene rolled her eyes at her, “Only everything! Don’t you pay attention to what’s happening outside your sitting room?” She replied sarcastically. Erika’s pale skin flushed; a sharp contrast to her straight mid-length dark hair. She twitched her navy woollen pullover as she lowered her large brown eyes and fell silent. Irene continued,

“So are you proposing we hunt down the guy? Cause I’m all for it if you know how to sweet talk the guards at the gate. They haven’t let me out to hunt since they captured him.”

“Sorry about that,” Vera remarked, not sounding at all sorry.

“No, nothing like that, we have other, bigger problems we should be focusing on.” Lana said, trying not to get flustered.

Vera sighed and moved to the centre of the room;

“Valdor wants our pendants, and he wants us dead. Given his apparent obsession with power we can assume he needs the pendants for some ritual, so first object is keeping the pendants safe. Next, I’m thinking staying alive sounds like a pretty good goal.” There were looks of agreement and everyone nodded their heads.

“I’m for staying alive,” Erika voted sheepishly.

“So that’s our main plan for starters, pretty simple. But we can do other things as well. I think Irene should work on regularly checking what the defences are at the outer curtain, and Maya, I think it’s best if the pendants were intrusted to your safe-keeping. You should see if you can learn anything of their origin and what powers they possesses that Valdor might covert. I recommend keeping them separately hidden. And Erika, you and I will scour the libraries and historical texts to see what we can learn of Valdor’s immortality, or whatever it is that keeps him alive.” Lana took a breath and nodded, pleased with herself.

“What about Vera?” Erika asked. Lana inhaled sharply. It wasn’t that she’d forgotten about Vera, but she figured she had enough to deal with in handling Drake, if he ever fulfilled his promise.

“I’m still working on the virus Valdor sent. It’s imperative that we destroy it and cure its effects as soon as possible.” Lana shot Vera a looked and she shrugged her shoulders. It was the truth, just not all of it. There was a brief moment of silence as everyone accepted their rolls.

Suddenly, as if speaking of it conjured it from the air, someone began pounding on the door. A moment later a maid appeared with a look of fear on her face.

“Princess Vera, it’s for you, it’s Master Bane, he says it’s most urgent!”

Vera’s blood ran cold and she felt her heart seize and falter, reaching out, she stumbled to the doorway, terrified of what she might find.