Queen Yavara Ch. 21

"If you could breach the wall, or even the gate..."

"That gate's spellbound, and the walls are too thick. If Alkandi couldn't do it, then I can't. Not yet, anyway."

"Ok." Rose nodded grimly. "So we'll have to scale it."

"Yes." I replied. I looked at Rose, her face set in a hard mask. "Do you think you can do it?"

"What? Scale the wall?"

"Kill."

Rose thought for a moment. "When we see a wounded deer, it is in our instincts to heal it, but when we see a wolfpack running down a faun, we do not interfere. The Mother taught us that all life is sacred, and to kill is to destroy something of yourself, but we still know the savagery of the wolf, especially the hungry one." Rose glanced at her torso, the ribs showing, "The Mother's sap is poison, and we dare not drink from it. If we are to survive, then we must free her master." She looked back up at me, "But we are not like you, Queen Yavara, who can kill without thought. Many of us will hesitate to deliver the killing blow, and so many of us will die tomorrow. A day's training does not make a soldier."

But seeing your dead sisters will. I thought. It was a truth she wasn't ready to accept, but she would know it soon. The nymphs were pacifists, shepherds of the forest, caretakers of the woodlands, and I was going to corrupt them as assuredly as Arbor would with her sap. Only I wouldn't turn them into lecherous demonesses, but jaded killers. Castle Thorum was built to withstand armies numbering in the tens of thousands, but not once did any of the architects or engineers consider an assault by a couple hundred nymphs. I was counting on it.

"It's a trap." I muttered, "They know I'll come for her. They're waiting for me."

Rose nodded. "Do you want to reconsider?"

"Another day without food and you'll be useless to me." I said, looking at the evening sky, "The rangers prepare for night and morning attacks. At high noon tomorrow, we begin. Prepare yourself and your sisters in whatever way you need."

Rose nodded, and left without a word. I gazed at the high walls of Castle Thorum, their white stones bathed in the pink glow of the setting sun. I was going to break my promise to Elena. I was going to attack the Highlands.