The Talons of a Dark Heart Ch. 09

Chapter 9

The bright night sky was painted with the storm twirling gales of snow under the bright moon. Talyis stood baffled, watching Novak run through the gardens to the stables. The blanket of snow scattered as he ran. The cool air crackled with tension.

The celebration within the castle halted when the two watchmen came in yelling, "Attention! Stop the music. Attention! Everyone listen! The farms and outer villages are under attack!"

"We will hold them off as long as we can, away from the villages. Go to your homes. Board up your windows and doors. Do not allow anyone into your homes until you hear the royal horn blow." These and other orders were rapidly dispatched by the watchmen.

"How do we know we won't end up trapping ourselves inside to be murdered?" One man objected loudly and villagers around him agreed.

"If you hear the tower bells ring we have lost. Take what you can and scatter," the watchman continued. "Do not worry about your personal belongings, you must scatter, leave your homes and preserve as a people," the second watchman instructed.

"Who is attacking us?" a woman called out.

"Navapa and another foreign army in their ranks; we could not recognize their battle colors or seal."

The crowed erupted with yelling and women began weeping, others murmured loudly to each other, the room was in a crescendo of various levels of fight and flight.

Questions swirled into a tempest as the guests whispered to each other about Calena and how the marriage was meant to provide the Aricin people with a strong ally. People began to exit hurriedly, leaving a trail of white, gold and silver glittery confections in their wake. Talyis joined the crowd that finally moved more with her than against. Suddenly, a strong hand grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the exodus. The fingers dug into her flesh and she tried to yank her arm back.

"Where do you think you are going?" a voice slithered. She turned to her personal guard, swaying unevenly with drink.

"Delia and Gareth, they don't know-" she began.

"The Majesty will know before you can get past the castle gates," the guard slurred.

"Novak's Umma, she is defenseless," Talyis protested.

"The royal attendants are already on their way to old lady Ulie's cottage. Who next princess?" the guard mocked.

"If I were stupid, I would have escaped earlier, months ago, in the middle of the night." She half lied. "I would rather handle the beast in the castle than the wild ones in your forests."

"If that is true, slave then maybe I should leave you to face your fate with them. I know you have something to do with this attack." Accusation glittered in his drunken eyes. "I bet that unknown army is probably vile Onor that care only for themselves than mankind and deserve nothing less than the pain and torture of the underworld."

Her men were outside attacking, coming to her rescue? It had been so long since she had thought about home in a tangible way. Her thoughts of home and family had been so clouded by what had happened since her kidnapping, and the Aricin history.

When she dreamed, she dreamed of her bedchambers and how eerily still, silent it was that night of the raid. The dreams always left her in a cold sweat and confused about why her guards had never come to her aid. Knowledge of the impending battle and the chance her men were outside did not console her. Indeed, the Aricin had brought this upon themselves by capturing the princess of their enemy. The Aricin would be foolish to believe that a crippling attack would not come to them. It was all a vicious cycle of vengeance, hatred and lust for power. If indeed it were her people joined with the Navapa she knew it was going to be a bloody battle. She found no comfort in the prospect that this could possibly be the end of the Aricin.

"Onor wench! He has freed you. Go protect yourself," the guard snapped. "Our concern is not for you but for our survival. We have only wanted to be our own people. I now must keep vigil on the watch tower, to protect what's left of us."

Talyis wasn't conflicted anymore. She wrapped Novak's damp robe closer to her body and his smell enveloped her. The saddle bag still hung from her shoulders, and she slid her hands inside, dragging her fingers along the book's spine, reading its title with her finger tips. She had given this book to her green-eyed friend. She wanted to know where the boy was now and how Novak had acquired the book.

She climbed the stairs to the prince's chambers and curled up into a ball in the bed. She shivered from the cold, but was too emotionally drained to build a fire. Her mind went back to her childhood. She wondered where her father had kept Novak as a boy. Her father had servants from many distant lands. Many allies sent their children to learn in her country, but how was it that a kingdom's heir was not introduced or even snooped out by her precocious curiosity.

Her stomach began to churn.

"Parasite, parasite, parasite," she chanted like a mantra as if to make it true, wishing it to be anything but a growing baby. "Argh!"

Stress pulling her mind in directions and the parasite making her stomach roll, she jumped up and ran to the chamber pot and emptied her stomach. The wind whistled loudly outside and shifted the snow to drift into the room. Now she had no choice but to take time to build a fire to warm the room.

The fire crackled and embers flew up in a dance up before disappearing. Everything was ghostly silent; the blizzard seemed to absorb any noise. But she tried to listen hard, to pick out the cry of a villager or the sound of metal on metal in battle -- she heard nothing. She wrapped another blanket around her tightly and pulled the book from her sack. Her fingers traced her young handwriting:

To boy,
With deepest £ove
scribbled scribbled crossed out.
Talyis

She massaged the tension from her head, remembering what she meant to write:with deepest love, but she had crossed it out. She hadn't been able to do it; she was afraid of being rejected and instead signed her name to make it seem as a closing salutation. She smiled as she read the first page of her most beloved fairy tale, remembering how the boy used to tease her about the ridiculous fantasy which always drove her to a burning blush.

"This would never happen! Why would the princess fall for such a brute," he'd argue. "These tales are not realistic, Talyis-" he would always begin his lecture about the ways he understood love to work. He always finished with a good heckling of the main character, a vengeful warlord who became 'lovey-dovey' at the end.

But when he had proved himself winner of the debate, he would read the story with so much passion that anyone would scarcely believe he was so adamant about the story's plot and unforgivable characters. She smiled as she recalled the way he distorted his voice for the fairy queen and especially the voice he gave to the warlord, for her benefit and how she had laughed for hours sitting on the floor with him.

Talyis slapped the book closed and threw it across the room, watched it slide under the bed. Her chest rose and fell quickly, she looked about the room frantically for answers but only the silence responded. Novak had read it, she was sure. He had read it and used his knowledge about how she felt about the boy against her, to confuse her, twist her. He was certainly twisted, she thought bitterly. He had told he loved her! Then, he had recanted it. No doubt an attempt to play with her mind, to keep her off kilter. She was only his slave, after all.

Suddenly she realized as her mind wandered back to her green-eyed boy. Funny, she mused, how he had had dark curly hair, similar to Novak's. Fair skin like her captor's as well, and they even shared green eyes.... But the green eye boy from her dreams had been transformed into Novak.

Talyis deeply massaged her forehead with the palm of her hand, her mind admonished here for feeling for Novak, transforming the boy into that beast. Her temples throbbed going over the events constantly.

Recanting his statement of love -- that had been the lie. Thinking back, she could see it in his face. He had said he loved her, and there was no mistaking the sincerity in his eyes. Her heart broke as she realized how everything had fallen apart. Now she heard the coldness in his voice as he forced himself to say he had lied about his love. Had he done it to protect her? Himself?

There was no denying that she was in love with Novak. Was it possible to have two loves at once? Or maybe she it was just infatuation on a young boy, and now Novak was real. She concluded Novak had probably found the book; the green-eyed boy could have easily died by wild beast when he ran away.

Queasiness returned to her and the room spun as she considered that the boy could have died; her heart sank. Then she tried to comfort herself by crawling into Novak's big bed, smelling his scent deep within. The boy was probably married, she thought but again she felt sick. If the boy was alive, Novak could help her find him, but did she want to find him. All of the fears of rejection came to her as strongly as the day she had wanted to write "with deepest love" as she drifted off to sleep.

***

The air was musty from neglect and the dust from the covered furniture tickled his nose. Gareth stood near him, urging him to take vengeance for his family and people. His sword was heavy in his hand and it was as if the soft flesh at the point was hard as stone. The man slumping in a puddle of fabric, his gaunt face and hollowed eyes stared at him. The haughty laughter was gone and now he begged; but not for his kingdom, not for his treasures, not forgiveness. When King Aronich wasn't begging for his life, he was accusing Novak of the desertion which caused that had caused the death of his wife. The man who had everything -- power, wealth and a beautiful daughter -- claimed he had nothing and hated it all. Given the bargain King Aronich demanded echoed over and over, Novak did not know why he hadn't pushed the point of his sword into that cruel heart.

Instead, he agreed to the greedy king's demand. He led his men up the stairs to the princess's chambers, skipping certain steps as he had as a boy. He could not fathom what kind of horrendous woman the princess had become that such a bargain would be proposed. She had been a pesky and snobbish child it could be possible that she grew into a despicable person but Novak never imagined the words her beloved father would say in her defense.

She was sleeping, her back to the door. He stood in the doorway, unable to see it through himself. He didn't want to see her face, and he didn't want to fulfill the bargain. Her high-pitched screams electrified his dying heart jolting it alive within the poisonous pool of bitterness it had lain in for years since his return to Aricin. What was he doing?! He couldn't have his men execute the woman he had always loved no matter the cost and charge of punishment for his people's pain. He ordered his men to stop but she was so terrified, her eyes wild searching in the dark. We take her, he proclaimed and at once his men annoyed with her screeches knocked the girl unconscious, ending her terror until she would awaken to her new life.

His army outside the Onor castle cleared a path for Novak and his personal band to leave with the princess, not allowing the enemy soldiers to see that their princess had been captured. She was to be assumed dead. His army would stay behind within the village for another month, finishing the decimation of the Onor kingdom and left animal blood on the princess's bed.

***

Novak was pulled in and out from his dream reality was muted within his sleep.

"They're coming from here and here."

"They're using the burning farms and cottages to melt the snow and warm their camps."

"Those poor people." Novak heard his generals discussing events as he barely coming out of his light sleep that gave him the recurring dream of events past. As always, it left him perplexed by his choice and questioning if he had made the right decision not only for his people, but for Talyis. Many times during the journey, Gareth had advised him that it might have been better for Talyis to have followed though with the bargain. But the bargain always made him shudder, no matter how angry and in rage he was with Talyis he couldn't bring himself to that.

"They haven't taken the mountain pass, here, my lord," one general said, pointing to the maps, but Novak was still trapped in thought on Talyis. "My lord?"

The drowned voices became clearer as he neared the surface of waking. He was so tired he had fallen asleep during the briefing. His face was red from the cold and his heart beating hard in his chest from the sudden waking.

"We can take this mountain pass, move around from behind and attack them by surprise coming down this path," the general continued.

"Good, let's move out," Novak ordered.

The men frowned; the gusty arctic winds filled the tent with violent, ominous howls. The army sat on the snowy ground huddled together while they waited for battle orders; many had fallen asleep.

"The storm is not letting up, my lord," one soldier said tentatively.

"The enemy will not rest. We move out now. Pray the dawn is near and the sun will give us warmth," Novak commanded. The three generals looked at him with unspoken pleas, but shuffled as they prepared to leave the warmth of the tent and brave the blizzard. "Men, it is our families left behind that count on us. The farmers in the mountains are suffering and we must come to their aid."

"Yes, Prince," the men agreed in unison.

***

Talyis climbed the winding narrow stairs in the dark. The walls were slick with moisture from the cold gusts that would snake down from the castle's watchtowers into its heart.

She pulled Novak's robe closer to her as her eyes and ears searched. As she had for the last three days, she listened for a single battle cry, the whistling of an arrow through the air, the horn of victory; she heard nothing.

Her eyes were weary and everything within her was as quiet as the outdoors. Her guard sat on a chair, drinking from a flask of some hard liquor to warm himself. He acknowledged her by raising his eyebrows and continued his vigil, ready to ring the massive bell of warning. Talyis simply stood by him watching, waiting, and willing for something, anything to happen.

"The sun's going to shine today." He pointed off to the horizon. Pink and orange blades of colorful clouds fought against the constant grey and white sky.

She tried to force her lips into a smile but it was too much effort and she fell back into her morose countenance. For three days and three nights the frigid storm had overrun the land, battering every structure with torrents of snow and wind. At least today the sun would warm the air just a bit and being able to see the world under sunlight was sorely missed.

"I am going to the village," she announced as she had everyday since the attack, and again the guard did not reply. "I am going to see Delia." But today, now that the sun would possibly melt the snow drifts and blankets below, she was going to actually leave.

"I strongly advise that you stay here," he finally said. She smiled, realizing she missed the competition of argument with Novak gone. She sighed knowing the guard was too simple to play the game she trapped him in.

Talyis stood watching a moment longer. always hoping that something would happen in that one moment.

Nothing.

She resolved to actually leave and went to the kitchen to grab baskets and fill them with as much food as she could carry. Her every step and movement echoed through the empty castle. All of Novak's servants had remained with their families in the village and all of the guards except her own were with Novak in the battle with Calena and her armies. She tried not to think about the bloodshed. She picked up a red apple and placed it in the basket.; She tried to ignore images of torn bodies, and found almost stale bread and added it to basket. So much food from the wedding feast had gone to waste.

The sun shone brightly. but could not erase the chill in the air. She walked through the dead quiet village listening to the snow plop on the ground as the evergreen trees could no longer hold it. All of the houses were boarded up for protections against attack seemed eerily vacant. All but the shuffling of fearful Aricin could be sensed. The fearful in the houses shared the feeling she had while being stolled in the castle, trying to notice any changes in events, waiting for it. Her feet froze as she sank through the icy glaze and into the snow with every step.

Ulie's cottage was the only home not boarded up; instead. a guard stood at the door, his large sword vertical to his body, like a courtly painting. The smell of Aricin food wafted through the air as liveliness radiated all around the cottage. Talyis reminded herself to visit Ulie on her return; she wanted to see Delia first.

"There she is, the Onor bitch that brought this upon us." A young voice came from behind her. She turned and saw three teenage boys, tall and lanky their faces sweating as the pounded their fists into their palms and advanced on her.

"Hey, she's over here! You couldn't miss her with her vile Onor dark skin," another boy shouted behind her. Talyis spun and saw three more approaching her. The six of them closed in on her, forcing her to inch further away from the main road and in between two boarded homes.

"What have you got there?" the leader asked sinisterly grabbing for the basket but Talyis held it protectively against her chest.

"Food for anyone who needs it," she said and scolded herself for letting her voice tremble.

"Why would you care about us? You tried to kill us all off and now your trying again." A frizzy brown hair and eyebrows one said.

"Yeah, but Novak and our armies will finally kill your people off," the smallest of the six added.

"Maybe we should help our prince and rid the world of you too," the leader growled and pushed her into his friends behind her.

She was pushed back and forth between the six boys, her basket fell and the items spilled out onto the snow. "Scream, Onor bitch!" the leader yelled. Talyis stayed stoic within the whirlwind of the boys assault. "Beg for your life!" The boy pushed her hard against the side of the cottage. Snow from the roof plopped to the ground. She just stared into the young boy's gaze with deep pools of hatred.

The leader pulled a dagger and pressed it against her throat.

"My father told me that we finished you off when Novak attacked your lands for our honor, but somehow, our prince took a liking to you and brought you here." His voice slurred with the hatred that had once resonated in Novak. Her heart wanted to weep, it had been so long since she'd heard such contempt, and she truly wanted the new Novak .

"I am sorry for what my people did to you. I was only three years old, you weren't even alive."

"Shut your mouth," another boy yelled.

"Let's finish her off!" The frizzy haired goaded the leader, pushing him into her. The dagger grazed her neck.

"Step away from the woman!" A voice commanded loudly from behind the boys. Talyis frantically searched, trying to spot the voice but the boys blocked her view. "If you kill her, you will have to answer to Novak and he will not be pleased."

"Prince Novak would thank us for killing off the last of the Onor," one of the boys retorted.

"She is marked, she is Novak's slave!" the man warned.

"Where, I don't see anything on her arms?" the leader yelled, grabbing Talyis' arm and looked for the brand.