The Witch's Retribution

Chapter 29

Basil took a step back, putting himself between Tia and the Dark Sorcerer. He wouldn't say it was his brother, wouldn't think it. The idea was too alarming. "Tia, there's a back door, isn't there?" He half-whispered to her.

"We are not running away!" She hissed.

"I'm not; you are. There could be more enemies on the way, and we still need to find Alfonse." She hesitated, and Basil continued urgently. "Please. I promised your son I would keep you safe."

"Taylan's alive." She breathed.

"And well."

"Alright. For my family." She grabbed her sword from the dusty floor, glanced once at the man in the doorway, and disappeared into the only other room in the house. The door closed, blocking her from view. Basil stepped before it, stopping the man from following her.

Basil's magic, like little green fireflies, danced along his skin, but it was more for show than an actual threat. If it came to a fight, he doubted he'd last long. "Why are you attacking innocent villagers?"

"Oh, I'm not. Just these two." The Dark Sorcerer stepped farther into the room, the door closing behind him with a sullen bang. "If I had found the boy, I might not have hurt them. What have you done with him?"

Basil tensed. "As if I would tell you."

His magic shimmered, protecting him from the black tendrils that shot out at him. "Too much like your sister, and you're not even of the same blood." The sorcerer shook his head. "Protecting the heirs to our enemies' thrones."

Basil's green eyes narrowed at the man, his initial uneasiness growing. A flicker of old, familiar magic brushed against Basil's. He jerked back, hitting the wall behind him. The memory of Enya standing before him, her arm protecting her stomach, and her words of a child. His brother's child. He hadn't forgotten. It was something that haunted him, knowing he could have prevented all of this had he simply killed Enya right then. But that's not what shocked him.

When Enya had mentioned her child those years ago, he had felt a flicker of the same magic he felt now. He had no doubts that this was the child's father, but... Before he could finish his thought, a knife skimmed the edge of his outer thigh, imbedding into the wall behind him. He flinched and focused again on the man before him.

"Why attack Pierake?" Basil questioned, sliding his dagger from the back of his belt as inconspicuously as he could. "They've done nothing to our kind."Well, almost nothing. He added in his mind, gripping the blade of the dagger instead of the hilt. It split his skin like paper, but he didn't let the pain show and began using his blood to draw on the wall behind him. His shaking fingers fell into the old pattern of familiar symbols he had made certain to memorize some months ago.

"Sybil's just as cruel as Daimon. What is the rumor centered around her? That she executed her lover and threw their only child into a volcano?" The man smirked. "But that's only half true due to a certain prince."

Basil stilled, remembering the day he had seen Sybil's lover die. The way he had mouthed 'I love you' until an ax severed his head from his body. Basil had been thinking then how glad he was that it hadn't been fire. The queen had called him to her chambers days later, unable to look directly at him with his magic's nervous flickering bathing his skin. She had seemed almost ashamed.

The queen had then handed him her son, the only prince of Pierake, and Basil had taken the child to the home of a retired castle servant. It was a secret Basil hadn't told anyone, and he was certain no one had seen him that day. He had been so careful and only returned once, weeks just before Bane's attack, to check up on Taylan. That was when Basil had discovered the queen had taken another child, passed it off as her own, and dropped it into the center of an active volcano, as the rumor went.