Queens of Darkness

Chapter Five

Zaynah wailed and clutched at her head as Alexander raged in her mind.

'FOOLISH GIRL! I GAVE YOU AN OPPORTUNITY TO PROVE YOUR DEDICATION AND YOU DEFIED ME! INSOLENT COWARD!'

"I'm sorry! she screamed through the thick green mist. "I couldn't kill my friend! her loved ones would be devastated, like I was when my father let Mother die! I don't want-"

'LOVE IS A WEAKNESS! Look what it has done to you! You couldn't even carry out the operation we came here for!' he berated.

"I'm sorry!" she squeaked. She shook her head in dismay at her words and straightened, recomposing herself.

'Good girl,' Alexander said, more gently this time. 'Now remind me: what were your plans again?'

She breathed deeply to relax, and recited her ambitions to him. She sensed him nodding approvingly.

'Excellent,' he replied, sounding pleased. 'Now how are you going to achieve it?'

Zaynah smiled. "By creating more beasties. They will implement fear. I want my victims cowering at my feet when I slowly kill them one by one. The Nether demons will be mine. Then I will travel back to Egypt and crush them once and for all."

'Beautiful,' Alexander said. 'And I promise that it will be worth it, every second, every inch of power along the way. Now get to it.'

Zaynah nodded and was about to start her work, when Alexander added, 'And one more thing: You are not Zaynah anymore. You gave your old name up for a reason. That's in the past. You are Shadow Queen, the strong, the powerful, and soon to be the undefeatable. But you have to act like it. I fear you have started to become soft, like the old Zaynah was. Prove me wrong. Love is a weakness. Use it as a weapon and kill the girl.'

"Lilith will never see me coming," Shadow Queen laughed.

'Right on point, Shadow Queen,' Alexander said. 'Besides, you shouldn't feel bad; Lilith was never really a friend. She's a violent demon reincarnate who must be sacrificed for the greater good. SH should be grateful for your merry and extension of friendship, but she's also too unpredictable to make a good ally. There's little potential in her when the benefits of commanding both armies are greater than keeping her around. The demons will accept you, respect you once you have proven your strength. The lower demons are dimwitted so they won't be much of a problem. It's the smarter higher demons and mortal Seirs that will need all of your willpower to control. They are even more unpredictable than the girl herself,' Alexander reasoned smoothly. When Shadow Queen hesitated, he continued, 'She is a returned soul, dear- a returned soul in a body is uncontrollable. You cannot trust her. The reincarnate must go.'

This convinced Shadow Queen. This is what she wanted to hear. She turned back to the altar when Alexander interrupted her again.

'One more thing,' he said. 'I want to know: are you up to the challenge? Will you follow through?'

Shadow Queen paused for a nanosecond, then replied quickly enough, "Yes, I will."

'Good girl. Do your work well, and the rewards will be great,' he promised.

Smiling, Shadow Queen turned back to the altar and began her work. She raised her hands over the altar and chanted. Green mist rolled from her hands and hit the altar, causing melted wax to pour out from it like a thick fountain. It spilled over the edges and made a ring around the altar and where Shadow Queen was standing. The puddle spread out until it had almost touched the edges of the courtyard, then it began deepening; all the while the altar continued spilling wax, filling up the deepening pool. The wax cast a soft glow on the courtyard, illuminated by the heat it emanated.

When the wax had eaten away to bedrock, it stopped expanding. The flow of warm wax coming from the altar reduced to a trickle, then it stopped altogether. Shadow Queen raised her hands over the wax and began shaping a new beastie. The wax molded with her movements, melding into shadow as it took on the form of a serpentine dragon. With a final twist, the beastie was finished, It reared up and looked at her with large, unblinking eyes.

"Guards this place and make sure no one gets in," she told it. It dipped its head, then slithered into the shadows.

Shadow Queen watched its flickering movement for a moment then began the tedious process of creating more beasties. Lions, tigers, serpents, shapeshifters, large, small, all types of shadow creatures. Throughout the ordeal was the ever-present, insistent whispering of Alexander the Great, encouraging her, praising her, and chiding her when she worked too slow: "Keep going", "Excellent work", "Hurry up!"

Shadow Queen worked all night, adding hundreds to her existing force of hundreds. She didn't stop there though. She couldn't afford to stop. Shadow Queen was building an army.

"Watch out Lilith," she growled. "There's a new queen in town!"

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Hey guys, sorry for the long time between updates on this story! I've been really busy and all that sh*t. But anyways, I'm going to try to work around my erratic schedule by updating big works once a week, and alternating between Pyra and this story until this one is finished, then doing Pyra and probably Frosted until one of them is finished and continuing with the next one. That's my plan for this year until summer break, but more on that when we get closer. 88 followers, guys! That's like 60 more than my friend! ;) You know who you are... I'm hoping to get up to 100 before the school year ends. Let's try to make it happen guys by clicking that little star! Your votes help promote my work, which I really appreciate! What also helps my writing is advice, so feel free to leave some. Just don't be rude about it. I won't shoot down your ideas, I promise. As usual, if you find any typos or such, please point them out so I can fix them. That'd be a great help, thanks! Hope you're enjoying your three-day weekend! Remember to remind yourself why we have Monday off. Martin Luther King Jr. was a great man and civil rights activist, so show him some respect by showing that you respect him. :) That's all (and don't forget to vote!) Have a nice weekend y'all!
-Misty out