Plight of an Empire

Chapter Sixteen: Laelette

The Black Rocks, Rundil

Laelette knew she was going to die.  For what felt like hours, there was only the battering of ice on her cage, but now she could hear voices again.  They had come back to kill her.  Starving to death was an unpleasant way to die, but at least before she would have a chance to escape with Lisbette.  Now her death was assured.

The sound of a key turning the tumblers of the lock resonated through the walls of the cage.  The door was being unlocked.

She took a deep breath and clenched her eyes shut, waiting for the cold plunge of steel into her flesh.  But nothing ever came.  No cold steel.  No hard bashing.  Just the wisps of wind flowing through the air.  She peeked out into the brightness of the world outside.  A large dark figured loomed over her, obscuring her vision.

“Fhetik,” the towering figure murmured.  “Interesting.”

Her vision adjusted to the sudden light and focused on the man standing at the door to her cage.  The sight made her heart jump.  The man, if one could call him that, was larger than any man she had ever seen.  He had to crouch over to see into the cage.  His eyes, sharply slanting upward to his temple, nearly matched the color of the snowy landscape around him, a pale blue silhouette encircling the iris.  His face was cut from stone, hard angles protruding from the cheekbones and chin.  But his skin is what startled Laelette the most.  It was the color of death—an ashen-grey shade that gave the sign of death.  The fur wrapped around his sinewy body billowed in the light wind, catching particles of snow and ice and giving it an iridescent appearance.

“Do not be afraid of me, little one”, he cooed.  An ashen hand stretched out to Laelette, beckoning her.  “Come with me.”

Without thought, Laelette propelled her hand forward and grasped the unhuman’s in her own.  It was cold.  Cold enough to send a shiver down her spine, but at the same time the cold felt warm.  It was comforting to her.  Her heartbeat slowed as he pulled her out of her cage, with greater ease than she thought possible for a creature such as this.

The snow crunched beneath her feet as she stepped into the world outside her cage.  The air was crisp with the scents of a fresh laid snow.  The cold air invigorated her, giving her strength.  Crackling of the iced trees in the light wind reverberated through the expanse of near emptiness.  The ridge she stood on looked downward onto a snowy forest, neither thick nor sparse with leafless trees.  To her right, the dark stone and iron cage that held her sister stood, unopened.

“Lis,” she whispered, her voice cracking from nonuse.

The lumbering unhuman nodded his head once.  “I will free her,” he told her.  “But first, show me.”

Though he never said what he wanted her to show him, she knew exactly what he wanted.  A pale blue light danced in her outreached palm, a perfect ball of snow and ice forming in the palm of her hand.  She watched the reaction of the unhuman—his lips curved up into a pleased smile.  She had apparently passed whatever test he had given her.

“Tell me your name, human,” he said, the tone of his voice leaving no room for rejection.

“Laelette,” she said, her voice holding strong and firm.  Any fear she held while in the cage was now gone—only a cool assurance lingered behind.  “My sister, Lisbette, is in the other cage.”

“She is like you?” he asked.  She nodded.  Without another word, he turned away.  “Open the other cage,” he commanded to someone who remained unseen.

Prince Jyrik Benson stepped around the unhuman, the key grasped in his grimy hand.  Anger coursed through her veins at the sight of the Hermunan prince, but it was quickly replaced with confusion as she watched him obey that unhuman without a single thought displayed.  Only a slack jaw expression was seen on his face as he slid the key into Lisbette’s cage.  As soon as he turned the lock, a surge of fire blast open the doors, knocking him to his back.  Lisbette jumped out, her hands cloaked in her fire.  She was ready to put up a fight with any who would take their chance against her.  But none came after her.