Stranger (The Aevyanthis Chronicles, Book One)

Chapter Three

Hidden deep within a labyrinth of mountains stood a castle made from blackened stone. There, the sunlight was always fleeting, never settling for too long; it was a place of shadows, a cursed place where even the winter did not linger. The nomads did not venture through those mountains, having grown up with their elders campfire stories of mad kings and the ruins that they haunt, and those who did not heed the stories would find themselves lost, left to starve in a living, breathing maze that moved when they closed their eyes.

Within the castle, unnoticed by the world, a woman sat on a throne carved from the darkest onyx. She had her legs draped over one side, tapping her toes to a rhythm only she heard. In her hands, a dusty tome threatened to crumble with each turn of its yellow pages.

Gossamer webs hung like torn silk in the corners of the chamber. Spiders crept along their dew-dripping masterpieces, their legs treading as delicately as one would step over cracked ice, their fangs glistening with clear droplets of venom. There, they waited for their unsuspecting prey to scuttle to their doom. They would not stray from their homes in the shadows, for none would dare tread close to the woman.

The smell of murder stained the air. It was layered beneath rot and grime, hidden but never gone. Tapestries of house emblems lined the walls. They hung in silence, their colors rotted to a dirty grey; they were the emblems of kings long forgotten, their dynasties nameless and unrecorded. The men who had sat in that throne before her had been fools – human fools who, like all men, became victims of time, regardless of their worth as a ruler. But now the throne was hers, and she was not going to let something as trivial as mortality stop her.

She licked her finger and turned another page. It broke off in her hand, and she stared at it for a moment, before letting it slip from her fingers and drift to the decaying carpet runner.

Her ears pricked up seconds before the doors burst open. A servant boy rushed into the chamber. A cloud of dust followed his footsteps as he hurried, dropping to his knees at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the throne.

"Mistress Abriel," he gasped, burying his face into the carpet. "Please forgive me for the intrusion, but I bring news. Dire news."

The woman did not look up, her foot still tapping to an unsung melody. "Choose your words carefully," she said. "Or else I would have to assume you like to be food."

The boy whimpered. He had only heard rumors of the Mistress's pets, how those who had laid eyes on them were never seen again. "Y-Your scouts have returned with news of a Maelstrom that opened up over the Serenis. They believe the t-traitor brought forth a human from across the Veil..."

She closed the tome, suddenly distracted. With glazed eyes, she rested it politely on the armrest and sat upright. She was gazing at something that wasn't in the room, something that was speaking only to her.

"Yes, you're right," she said dazedly. "Of course. Yes... Yes..."

"M-Milady?" the boy whispered.

Abriel turned to him as her conversation was cut off. A vision of overwhelming fury writhed across her face for a second, before her eyes unclouded and she noticed he was still in the room.

"You speak the truth," she said softly.

"I-I would never lie to you, milady."

"I know, child. I know."

She closed her eyes and touched at her temples, trying to rub away the headache that was forming.

"Send for my brother," she said. "I have work for him."