In The Moment

“This is how I die.” I can’t escape the thought of my ultimate demise as I stumble through the unfamiliar woods around me. Trying to escape a dark monster that isn’t nameless nor faceless. The name that has haunted my dreams since I was a child. The name that I daren’t utter aloud...Ilerhi.

Ilerhi cursed my land, family, and lineage at my birth. I was to inherit the queendom of Aswen on my 17th birthday. A day that he promised my mother I would never see as she banished him on my 10th birthday.

7 YEARS AGO

“You will regret this, Aien. You have cost me EVERYTHING. You have taken my family, my station, and everything I hold dear,” he screams at my mother while he is being restrained by the royal guard. From here, the dark elf that has been my mother’s closest confidant since the death of my father looks feral.

“I will make you hurt, just like you have hurt me,” Ilerhi snarls, ripping an arm free to point a finger directly at me. “I will take the only thing you love more than yourself, Elpharae.”

A shocked silence falls over the court. My mother straightens her back and walks up to him with all of the grace and confidence that I hope to have as queen. “That will be quite hard to achieve from the dark lands, old friend.” Mother then looked to the guards and commanded them, “Remove him from my sight and banish him to the dark lands.”

Throughout the years my mother taught me to protect myself and those that I love. She taught me to fight with a sword, a bow, a dagger, and even my bare hands. While other heiresses were learning to brew potions and prophesy the future of their kingdoms, I was learning to defend my kingdom and myself against a threat that others have forgotten but I cannot.

TODAY

I think of her as I run. My mother. She taught me how to protect myself and my kingdom but I failed her. For the last 7 years, I have been focused on the threat that I couldn’t escape. Having put blinders on like my mare so as to focus on one goal, I didn’t see the other danger lingering at the edges. My would-be husband.

A man has never ruled Usmana before and yet because of my foolhardiness, Rhiscoli would be the first. He showed up suddenly, almost as if he were a gift from the Gods. He promised to protect me and my mother. She warned me against such promises but his charcoal eyes told me that he was being honest. Oh, I have never been more of a fool.

He wanted to be wed the moment I was eligible which was the day before I was to take the throne, yesterday. I was ecstatic! I wouldn’t need to sit through endless, monotonous balls entertaining dull royalty and diplomats. What should have been the happiest day of my life became my own personal hell.

Rhiscoli wasn’t just any young man, he was the nephew of Ilerhi. He had fabricated his family lineage so well that he was able to fool our historians. As soon as we sealed our nuptials with a kiss, a twisted smile curled into place as the doors to the court burst open in a flurry of dark elvish magic. A collective gasp could be heard from all in attendance followed by a stunned silence.

It was like time slowed to a crawl, I looked up to see Ilerhi strut through the doors. I looked to my mother as her face fell. In that moment I knew what she would do. We talked of it hundreds of times, she would hold him off so I could escape. I looked into her emerald green eyes, much like my own, as she mouthed for me to run. I tried to run, to move but it was like the weight of a thousand regrets held me in place. I hear an ancient spell slip from his mouth as the spark left my mothers eyes. And then I snapped, I turned and I ran as fast as my legs would carry me. I have been running all night.

I slip and see my fiery orange hair fall from my braid as I land on the ground. Resigning myself to the inevitable.

TO BE CONTINUED...