“Well, well, well.” A large male flashed ten feet in front of him, halting his progress. Aerolus could feel the energy ahead of him, bright with streaks of Shadow—Alandra’s marker.
“Not now,” he growled and forcibly thrust the man from his path. Unfortunately, the tall Aellei had friends, a lot of them. They left the forest on silent feet, a formidable enemy should they prove antagonistic. The ice wraiths soon intermingling with the Aellei warned him they weren’t friendly either.
“Don’t worry, Light Bringer,” an ice wraith said and cackled. “I know you’re in a hurry, so we won’t keep you long.”
A flash of blue fire struck him from behind, bringing him to his knees. Instinctive rage struck back as lightning flew from his wound into his attacker, searing the wraith to a crisp in seconds.
Finally able to let free his anger, Aerolus released a storm into Aelle that would be remembered for years to come.
Alandra looked for Sava everywhere, but to her dismay saw nothing but Shadren glaring at her invasion into darker territory. Morphing back into her original form, she readied herself for anything.
“Sorry,” she murmured as she stepped over a young Nocumat. “Have you seen Lord Sava?”
The creature grumbled a few unsavoury remarks and sludged across the narrow trail. She ventured deeper into the woods, the feeling of doom growing steadily worse. She finally stopped in a small, dark clearing, conscious of the silence around her.
“Sava?” Why she bothered calling for him she wasn’t sure. Zartic, and it had been Zartic, obviously hadn’t sent her to Sava. She glanced around, unease crawling through her. She took two furtive steps forward and swallowed around the lump in her throat. Queen Lidra, in all her Dark glory, waited with a smile. Splotchy black marks streaked her once white flesh, and blood dripped from her fanged mouth down her chin.
‘Sin Garu’s words came back to her. “Don’t believe me? Look at what’s left of Lidra.”
Shit.
“My little niece, come to her auntie at last.” Lidra smiled, her pointed teeth offensive in a face once so very averse to the Dark pleasures.
“I guess it’s pointless to expect you to renounce your throne?” Alandra sighed, trying to appear cool while her heart thundered. Lidra had passed beyond reason, beyond the Shadow into death’s keep. Blood drinkers were one step from pure evil, and Lidra now shared more in common with the Dark Lords than her own kind.
“You little slut.” Lidra’s eyes flashed, their blue now clouded with sickly yellow. “Our kingdom needs the magic Tanselm offers. Dammit, I was born there, you ignorant sheel. I know very well what we’ve been living without for over a thousand years.”
She sneered, cloaking her body in the illusion of an elegant red sheath that lit her curves to perfection. Her skin was once again brilliant, and the blood disappeared from her mouth. Her hair lay in soft waves of gold over her back.
“I am a queen, the highest of the Aellei, and I would have my people where they deserve to be, at the very top of the multiverse.”
Alandra couldn’t help frowning at Lidra’s melodrama. “And you think Tanselm is the best so many worlds have to offer? No offence, Lidra, but I’ve been there. And as beautiful and magical as it is, Tanselm surely pales to other places in existence.” And if I live long enough, I promise to travel to as many of them as I can with my Storm Lord.
“Heresy,” Lidra hissed. Lifting her arms above her head, she linked her hands together and began to absorb the surrounding Darkness.
Alandra stared nervously, wondering how she might evade her aunt long enough to get some help. Sava would know how to handle Lidra, but Alandra wasn’t so sure.
“B’alen wants you. I know he does. But it’s for no more than your power, you stupid chit. I’m the one he desires. I’m the one he drinks from when he hungers.” Lidra licked her lips, and Alandra felt an odd surge of pity for the selfish queen.
“What has happened to you?” she asked softly. “You were once Lidra the White, the Queen of the Aellei, and now you’re reduced to a Dark Lord’s nymph?”
Lidra’s eyes flashed, and she directed a large stream of negative energy through Alandra.
Stunned at the brute force of the attack, Alandra stood in shock like a statue, trying in vain to rethink her strategy. There was no time to wait for Sava. She had to rid Aelle of Lidra now. The raw hatred seething inside the queen was a danger to anyone she encountered. Unfortunately, Lidra was beyond saving.
“Why have you always hated me?” Alandra asked, drawing Lidra into her haphazardly constructed plan. “Even as a young child, I was the one you teased unmercifully. Great queen, I loved you. What have I done but be your niece above all else?”
Lies, but they sounded suitably pathetic uttered in a capitulating voice.
“Stupid as well,” Lidra muttered, glaring. “I’m your aunt in that your great-grandmother Nara was my sister before she died, not so very long ago. She made the mistake of lying with a Storm Lord. A Light Bringer,” she spat in distaste. “Knowing Father would kill her for such perfidy, she tricked your Aellein great-grandfather into marriage. He cared little for his other progeny, siring a multitude of Aellei with dozens of females more worthy than my sister,” she said as insultingly as possible.
A sudden flash of insight took Alandra aback. “You were in love with him, weren’t you?”
Lidra shrugged. “Rovu was the most handsome of our kind. Unlike Sava, he knew my worth, and sadly, my wrath. The minute he set eyes on your mother, some odd sense of paternal fondness hit him. It made no sense whatsoever, yet he refused to let her go. He even began doting on you.”
Alandra recalled her Pare Rovu, remembered his kind eyes and the sticky taffy he brought whenever he visited between his jaunts abroad.
Lidra shrugged, her beady eyes glued to Alandra’s face. “Because of you and your mother, I had to kill him. Such weakness in a male is not worthy of a queen.”
Alandra stilled as a sudden suspicion dawned. Her parents had been killed together, supposedly caught in the crossfire between warring Djinn and Aellein outcasts.
“Yes, you stupid girl.” Lidra rolled her eyes and sent another blast of Darkness through her, one that did substantial damage this time. “I killed your father, your mother, hell, I killed my own sister as well. How could I let her live, hanging onto my lover as she did? Rovu never really loved her. He just wanted her because he thought she was prettier than me. Than me!”
She plumped her lips, and her brilliance flared. “You are the spitting image of Nara, Alandra. And every day you’ve taken breath, I’ve been just waiting for the opportunity to rid myself of your presence.” Lidra’s face turned ugly, her features twisted with hate, and Alandra wondered how much of it was the Dark and how much was Lidra’s unruly jealousy.
“How fortunate, then, when I openly accused you of allying with the Dark Lords,” Alandra said stiffly, still trying to sort the awful truth Lidra had spouted that she, honestly, wished she didn’t now know.
“Oh, yes.” Lidra shot at her again, but this time Alandra managed to avoid the blast by ducking behind a nearby boulder. Pain from her other wounds throbbed in her side, where the numbing Darkness coalesced. Her mind, however, ticked at a record pace, trying to figure out how to do the most damage to Lidra as possible. “Your accusations did more than open the door to my vengeance. You see…”
As Lidra blathered on about one corruption after another, Alandra continued to dodge her advances. Shoring the Light within her, borrowing from Shadow as much as she dared, she knew she’d never have a better chance.