A Whisper of Night

4.2 || ASTNORDEN 💫

Astna narrowed her eyes.

"Your attempts are getting clumsier and clumsier," she snapped. "Don't you think it'd be suspicious if they found me stabbed and bloody at my dais?"

Elsking did not respond. He nodded to his guards, who climbed up to the dais, looming to Astna's right and left.

"We'll say that you fell," he said. "It's a pretty long way down. You could crack your skull, if you fall the wrong way."

"No one's going to believe that," she said scornfully.

"No," Elsking admitted, "but they'll want to believe it, and that's all it'll take."

"Why, though?" she demanded, backing up until her knees hit the chair. Her heart was pounding, her palms clammy. She glanced at the doors - maybe Elsking had forgotten to lock them...maybe....

"You know why," he said. "I want to help our people, Astna. War would only destroy us. Negotiations - "

She forced herself to keep her voice even. "Negotiations have gotten us nowhere. If you truly wanted to help our people, you would be calling them to battle. There are people starving in the harbors because of the Lion Queen. There are families crowded into rooms too small for even one person and children playing in filth and sewage. We don't even know half of what goes on in Old Skeynvald."

"We can work from our end to improve their situation." Never before had she heard him sound so confident.

"And what's your plan?"

He hesitated. "Well," he finally managed, "it's - "

" - nonexistent. You're lying to yourself, Elsking. Killing me won't change that, nor the conditions of our people - of your people."

His jaw trembled. For a moment, she thought he would cry.

"I thought I could love you," he said, "when I was a child. I thought you loved me."

Her eyes widened incredulously. Is he seriously appealing to my pity? To paint me as the villain?

"You disgust me," she said, fury blossoming within her. "I, at least, will be honest: I have never loved you. You have all the authority I've ever desired, yet you do nothing with it. You, of all people, should know that I hate those who discard their power out of fear."

Elsking opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again; his eyes were wide and almost childish. She strode to the edge of the dais, towering over him.

"It was always me," she said. "I was always the one who went to see our people. I was always the one who delivered them bread and water, who offered them care and shelter. I was always the one who spoke for them at court, because nobody else would."

Elsking lowered his eyes. Astna's nails dug into her fists.

"You argue for negotiations, yet it was always I who negotiated – I who pleaded – with the Lion Queen's ambassadors for mercy. I have been insisting and shouting and begging for our people since I was fifteen years old, while you holed yourself up in the castle and let your privilege blind you."

The guards backed away, their gazes downturned.

"You may be too young to remember our mother and father, but you know the stories of their demise as well as I do." Blood roared through Astna's ears, blocking out everything save for her voice and Elsking's fearful face. "You know how the Lion Queen tortured Father until he went insane, how she drove Mother to suicide. You know this, and yet you stay as meek and nonchalant as a dog. You embarrass me, Elsking. I am loathe to call you brother."

Elsking's mouth hung open. The room seemed to hold its breath as Astna glared at him.

"What?" she said. "Have your senses finally caught up with your stupidity? Or are you too much of a coward to kill an unarmed woman?"

Elsking gritted his teeth. "Enough," he said. He nodded at Hoger. "Kill her."

Hoger glanced at Elsking, then at Astna. He looked hesitant, almost fearful.

"Kill her!" Elsking shrieked, and Astna flinched as his voice ricocheted through the hall, shot through with desperation and hatred. "Just do it – just do it now!"

Astna tried to say something, but fear caught in her throat. She stumbled over the chair as the guards strode towards her.

Crack.

All four of them froze.

Crr-crack.

"What the hell?" grunted Vanstur.

A screech split the air, a screech like steel and fury, a screech so awful that Astna clasped her hands over her ears as she stumbled backwards.

Something streaked from the pillar behind the dais, striking Hoger in the chest. He screamed as fell from the podium, and his head struck the ground with a sickening crunch.

With an awful rip his throat came open, a stream of scarlet spurting into the air. He shrieked and clawed at his neck, blood bubbling onto the ground – 

And atop him - atop him - 

Scales like the night sky, her father's voice seemed to whisper. Eyes like vengeful stars, wings like wine-soaked silk...the legacy of Valchtnallan. 

One of the hydra's heads turned up, its fangs red, its jaws curled in a snarl.

Astna's mouth fell open. 

"No," Elsking whispered. "No - this isn't possible - "

A flicker of movement caught Astna's eye, and she spun towards the entrance.

"My Lady!" Ellac said cheerfully, striding through the door. "I present to you my lord fa - "

He froze, his mouth falling open.

Astna gritted her teeth. Speak, she ordered herself. Speak before Elsking uses this against you.

"Get the guards," she ordered, her voice oddly strangled against the dying moans of the guard at her feet. "My brother tried to kill me."

~~

So, after 500 chapters, the hydra finally hatches! What do you think it'll do? And what do you think will happen to Astna and Elsking now?

As usual, please vote and comment! Thanks so much for reading!