Hearts of Malice Ch. 05

Urilesh sighed, easily blocking and dodging every clumsy and inaccurate hit they threw at her. Elisa was petite and her body frail, but under Urilesh's mastery she was nimble and lighting fast. Even as they unfairly fought two against one, the bandits struggled to keep up with Urilesh's speed and agility, not lending a single hit from their flurry.

The demon was rapidly getting bored of this fight. Sparks from steel clashing against steel hitting her face and arms as she effortlessly blocked the strike from both her opponents at once. Done toying with her opponents, Urilesh snapped the fingers of her free hand. She blinked out of existence and reappeared further back on the path, creating distance between her and her opponents.

"You are not even entertaining." Urilesh lamented, shaking her head. "How could you even have the slightest hope of ending my existence?"

Urilesh threw her sword away, the blade hitting the stone path with a loud cling. Freed from its mistress, the sword disappeared in a purple flash.

Emboldened by Urilesh's disarmed state, one of the bandits ferociously roared and bolted forward, swiftly closing the distance between him and Urilesh.

"You are unworthy of even gazing upon true divinity."

Urilesh tauntingly smiled at the rapidly approaching bandit and as he striked, she dodged the slow attack. The bandit was sent tumbling forward by his inertia. In a blink, Urilesh grabbed the bandit's right wrist and brutally twisted it. Screaming as the bones and sinews loudly and painfully broke, the bandit dropped his sword and fell to his knees, clutching his limp hand.

Noticing the other bandit rushing her from the corner of her eyes, Urilesh picked up the bandit's discarded sword and unceremoniously thrust it through its owner's eye, piercing his brain and the blade bursting out the back of his skull. The bandit crumbled to the ground, and Urilesh turned to face the other bandit.

"You are unworthy of hearing the voice of true divinity."

With another snap of her fingers, Urilesh's nails on her right hand turned into razor-sharp whip-like claws. With a simple motion of her wrist, Urilesh claws swept through the air, tearing through the approaching bandit's weapon and shredding his right ear. With his broken sword still in hand, the bandit screamed, clutching his maimed, blood-drenched ear with his free hand.

"True divinity will forever be out of your grasp."

With another wide swing of her bladed nails-whip, Urilesh severed both the bandit's arms right under the elbow. Urilesh then flicked one of her fingers and her nail sliced through the bandit's throat. He fell face first on the bloodied ground.

As her hand returned to normal, Urilesh faced the last living bandit, the one that posed as their leader and had stabbed Elisa. Urilesh had utterly slaughtered his two grunts, and he was now shaking like a leaf in the wind, sweating profusely.

Urilesh looked him in the eyes. "Run."

The bandit leader dropped his sword and turned tail, running like the wind to save his life. Urilesh counted up to five, then she cackled gleefully and snapped her fingers. With a resounding rumble, shadowy tentacles bursted out of the ground and lunged at the fleeing bandit, easily catching up with him and tightly gripping all his limbs, thoroughly immobilizing him.

Fury bubbled in Urilesh's chest as she approached her bound opponent, her anger warping Elisa's pretty face. "Who?"

The bandit defiantly spat on the ground at Urilesh's feet, grunting in pain as the tentacles's hold on his limbs tightened painfully.

Intense magical power was radiating from Urilesh, making the bandit's exposed skin sizzle and his clothes brown, Urilesh's sheer rage overwhelming her hold on her titanic power. The tentacle holding the bandit left arm started pulling violently, and the bandit shouted in pain and terror until his arm was finally torn from his body in an explosion of blood and gore.

"I already know who sent you! But I'll tear you apart limb by limb until you admit it!" Urilesh screamed, uncharacteristically losing her facade of confidence and calm.

"Your sister!" The bandit screamed back. "Your sister sent us!"

Urilesh's crimson sword magically appeared in her hand. "Nothing personal, human." She said before stabbing the bandit through the heart.

As the tentacles disappeared and the bandit fell to the ground, Urilesh's body began to quiver as disgust and fury overwhelmed her. The air was crackling with thunderous magic, the ground carving under her feet, the flowers and bushes dying in a wide radius around her, the dead body at her feet torn apart.

"THE AUDACITY OF THIS BITCH! SHE TRIED TO GET RID OF ME! OF ME! URILESH THE DEFIANT!" Urilesh shouted at the top of her lungs. "I'LL RIP THE BEATING HEART OUT OF HER CHEST! I'LL FEAST ON HER ENTRAILS!"

"Give me back my body!" A small voice shouted from within Urilesh's mind, metaphorically pounding on Urilesh's hold on Elisa's body. "Give it back!"

Urilesh's outburst of power suddenly stopped, and she fell to her knees, panting. Through Elisa Urilesh could only access a fraction of her power and she had used a lot of that. Elisa's body was exhausted, and so was Urilesh. The demon thought about her options for a second. She had been forced to reveal herself and her former ally had changed sides.

Urilesh took a deep breath then she smiled amiably. She had lost the support of a Princess, but maybe the other would be of use. "Ok, ok. I'm letting it go, take it back." Urilesh closed her eyes and relaxed.

With an urgent and panicked breath, Elisa regained control of her body. Her eyes suddenly fell on the carnage around her. Still on her knees, the Princess couldn't help but puke the content of her stomach. She began to sob messily, overwhelmed by the situation.

"You are covered in blood and surrounded by mutilated dead bodies. I would suggest crying somewhere else."

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Elisa was sitting on the edge of her bed, crying profusely. Her body was wrapped in a large bathrobe and a pile of blood-drenched clothes was laying hastily discarded near the edge of the room. The Princess was rocking herself back and forth, clutching her head, unable to cope with what had happened.

"Bawling will get you nowhere, little girl." Urilesh's voice snarled from within Elisa's mind.

"Shut up!" Elisa screamed. "SHUT UP! This is not happening! You are not here with me! You are dead!"

"Ungrateful brat! I saved you! I healed your dying body and got rid of the mercenaries that wanted you dead. Listen to me!"

Still sobbing, Elisa laid down on her bed and covered her ears with her pillow, trying to muffle Urilesh's voice. And at the Princess' surprise, it worked. Elisa spent the next minutes crying every tear she had, freed from the voice of the demon that had ruined her life. Her eyes red and puffy, Elisa stared at the ceiling of her room, not knowing what to do. Her breathing and her heart slowly calmed down.

"Are you willing to listen to me now, human?"

The Princess knew that she couldn't escape the voice in her head, but she couldn't resolve to discuss with Urilesh. Instead, she stayed silent and after a moment, the demon's voice continued.

"Your sister is trying to get rid of you." Urilesh stated plainly.

Elisa's heart missed a beat and she immediately snapped back at the voice. "You're lying!"

"Naive little idiot!" Urilesh snarled. "She wants to be Queen and you are de facto in her way! Why do you think there were no guards in the garden? Why do you think your knight is missing? Why do you think I attacked you that night? Why do you think your father is dying?"

Urilesh was lying. She had to. Elisa was not ready to believe a single Urilesh's word. And yet her heart tightened in her chest.

"Listen carefully Elisa. I am not your enemy. I merely had a deal with you sister, a deal she clearly intends not to fulfill. I have no reason to be a nuisance for you anymore. I can help you! I can save your father!"

Elisa hated that Urilesh's words made sense, but they did. The mysterious illness that had brought down Elisa's father had resisted all medicines and magical healing powers. If Urilesh could save him, Elisa was willing to put up with the demon, at least until this very task was done. And it gave the Princess something to focus in the midst of the chaos in her mind.

"What is happening to my father?" Elisa finally asked.

"He is being poisoned by your sister. I explained to her how to create this poison. It's pernicious, undetectable and almost completely unknown of your kind. It's made from the dried leaves of a rare, exotic plant and it requires a heavy magical alteration of the leaves. But the antidote is trivial to create. A simple glass of dandelion-infused water will already get rid of most of the toxin."

Elisa was immensely distrusting of Urilesh, but the Princess also knew that she had to try what the demon was suggesting. A glass of water and dandelions would do no harm to her father, and if there was even the slightest sliver of hope that it could help him, it had to be tried. Mustering all the willpower she had left, she left her bed and rose to her feet.

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Carefully clutching a glass of cloudy water, Elisa walked down the hallway that led to her Father's bedroom as fast as she could without ostensibly running. Under Urilesh's guidance, the Princess was trying her best to act like nothing was out of the ordinary, but she struggled to keep her hands from violently shaking.

"If you are tricking me, I swear that I'll kill myself and take you down with me." Elisa whispered angrily.

"There's no need to be this melodramatic, Princess. I want to live at least as much as you do. This will work."

As she approached her Father's room, Elisa sensed that something was off. Four Royal Guards were crowding the door and one of them even had removed his helmet and was carrying it under his arm. Gulping loudly, Elisa slowed down and mustered a facade of confidence before closing the distance between her and them. The helmetless knight took a few steps and firmly stood in Elisa's path.

"I must see my Father the King urgently! This is a life-or-death matter!"

The knight let out a deep sigh then plunged his eyes into Elisa's. "Then I'm afraid you are too late, Princess Elisa. The King is dead. He passed away barely an hour ago."

The news hit Elisa like a swing of a sledgehammer. The now useless life-saving glass escaped Elisa's hands and came crashing down on the floor, water and glass shard spreading on the floor. Elisa gritted her teeth painfully hard to stop her from breaking down and crying. She even heard Urilesh cuss the unfortunate timing. The Princess knew that if Urilesh was telling the truth, the demise of Elisa's Father meant that Sofia was going to claim the crown very soon.

"Where is my Mother the Queen?" Elisa croaked, temporarily pushing the sorrow that threatened to overwhelm her away in a deeper part of her mind.

"The Queen consort is with the King, grieving her loss. We ask that you respect that."

Elisa couldn't resolve to announce to her Mother that Sofia was behind the death of the King as well as everything bad that had happened to Elisa, especially based on the hardly trusteable words of a demon haunting her mind. But now Elisa was feeling terribly alone in a hostile world.

"Now that the King is gone, who gives orders to the Royal Guards?" The Princess inquired.

The knight hesitated, and glanced at his fellow knights before finally answering. "Until either you or your sister is crowned, Princess, no one. We take no further orders."

Elisa let out a burst of nervous laughter, her hopes of having the Royal Guards on her side dashed, at least until Sofia's treachery was openly revealed. Without bothering to excuse herself, Elisa turned around and strode forward, unsure where even she should go.

"You are running out of time, Princess. You need allies. Optimally allies that aren't in your head."

"I-I'm open to suggestions..." Elisa answered the voice in her head, sobbing quietly.

"Where's your knightess? That would be a good start."

"I DON'T KNOW!" The Princess screamed aloud, letting her frustration burst free. "I can't find her!"

"Please don't shoot the messenger, Princess. If I were your sister, I would have gotten rid of the knightess before taking any other moves. This means that she either is jailed somewhere, or that her corpse is lying in a ditch."

"N-No... Loretta... Loretta is strong..."

"Your innocence is intoxicating, little girl. If every conflict was resolved sword in hand, I would never worry about your knighess. But that's not how the world goes."

Tears ran down freely from Elisa's eyes, blurring her vision. Stumbling, she reached for the nearby wall and leaned against it, her heart racing and her breath short.

"Please... Please help me... I don't know what to do..."

"Dead meat isn't really going to be useful to your cause, so I would suggest checking the jail first."

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With wobbly legs, Elisa walked down the stony spiral staircase that led to the castle's jail. Through her descent, she carefully listened to the advice of the demon in her head.

"You have to walk in like you own the place. You are the future ruler of this kingdom, not a scared little girl. Speak with confidence, don't stammer and don't fidget. Don't lower your eyes. Be assertive."

"I'm going to do my best... You make it sound so easy..." Elisa answered without opening her mouth. She was getting the hang of communicating with Urilesh.

"You can always let me do it." Urilesh's offer strangely sounded like a threat.

"No. This body is mine and mine alone. I won't let you take it."

Urilesh snickered meanly. "As you wish, Princess. It's your time to shine then." Elisa felt Urilesh' presence weaken, as if the demon had taken a step back and retreated deeper in the Princess' mind.

Feeling almost alone, Elisa stepped out of the staircase and entered the small room that served as the jail's reception. Behind the front desk, a young woman with brown hair and matching eyes was waiting, smiling much more than what Elisa expected of someone who worked in a jail. The Princess took a deep breath and steadied herself, then she approached the desk.

"Princess! The woman exclaimed as she recognized Elisa. "It's an honor, but what are you doing in such a place?"

"I'm looking for a prisoner. A knightess that has been brought in today. I want to talk to her."

Furrowing her brows, the woman opened the ledger on her desk and quickly browsed through its pages. "Yes. Loretta of the Order of the Moon. Brought in earlier today."

A massive wave of relief washed upon Elisa. The situation was dire, but not as dire as it could have been according to Urilesh.

"Oh..." The expression on the woman's face changed drastically as she read her ledger. She became agitated, sweat pearling on her forehead. Swallowing loudly, she faced Elisa. "I'm sorry Princess... The prisoner has already been executed."

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Hey,

If you're here, that means that you are still following Hearts of Malice despite the massive delay between the chapters, and for that, thank you very much.

The pace of this chapter was very different from the previous three. As I already mentioned, most of the exposition is done and the whole thing will unfold quickly. There's one, maybe two chapters left for Hearts of Malice.

I have too much empathy for my characters lol. The scene where Elisa is attacked was hard to write, but sometimes a compelling story requires bad things to happen to likable characters. Still, authors that spend whole books to flesh out characters just to kill them in the most gruesome way must have something that I don't.

Also, I'm not sorry about the cliffhanger at the end. It was planned from the very beginning of this story.

And as always, feedback and comments are much appreciated.