A Dark Knight
1134 Words
Kontessa, the black-skinned demon, took her love back to their apartments and laid her on the bed.
Marjory whispered in her ear, “I love you, you know.”
Kontessa felt warm tingles in her stomach, and she took the redhead in her arms to hold her for the rest of the night. They lay without sleep, kissing tenderly.
* * *
Kontessa took off the next morning as the bright sunlight shone through the clouds. Rain fell the night before, and the streets were filled with water in dark brown pools. Her horse splashed through the streets as she went, and she left the city.
Over the plains, Kontessa went covering league after league. She went on for a fortnight until she came to the Capital of the Elvish Nation buried in the forested mountains. Illianard sat on a broad plateau in the northern range surrounded by rivers wide and narrow. She came to the gates of the city, closed now but just a little late.
“I have come to see the king,” she announced at the gate.
"Who are you that you should see anyone here?" the guardsman spoke from atop the forty-foot wall.
“I am Kontessa Eldeman, and you may find it hard to believe, but I am the only one who can help. Now ask somebody and let me in." Kontessa’s anger found its way into her horse, and it spun and reared. "Now!"
The gateman disappeared from view for a moment, and when he came back, he announced. "Open the gates. The king expects this one."
Kontessa calmed the horse somewhat, but the mare charged through and ran through the streets when the gate opened. Clear the way," she shouted as people dove from her course.
When she reached the inner castle, she came to another set of gates, but they knew to expect her here and opened the gates willingly. Twelve men escorted her to the throne, and she bowed. "No need for that," said the king. "As you probably know, my name is His Eternal Self-Righteous Forever Long-lasting Emperor of Everything king of the elves.” His gaze went to the floor. “But I could not even keep my daughter safe. Too long have we lived in peace. You would think it a good thing to live in peace, but we had grown lax, uncaring. And now my daughter is taken. Please tell me you can get my heir back."
Kontessa found she could not answer. She stood simply breathing, feeling such deep compassion for this ruler that all she could utter was, "Yes."
The king came down from his throne and knelt on one knee. "Please do, demon. Please do."
The king's generals emptied the throne room except for Kontessa, the three of them, and the king. "King Ulma, please rise. I’ll do everything I can to bring her back. Only death will stop me.” Her ivory teeth showed against her void-colored skin. “And I don’t plan on dying yet.”
The guardsman came from another room after the king resumed his throne and brought out a table with a map. The map showed the mountains surrounding the kingdom, and it also showed that the Dark Knight's castle sat on a high peak inaccessible by any army.
“Now I see why you need a single fighter,” she announced.
* * *
Kontessa spent the next three days climbing up the mountains to the Hell Brooke castle, where the Elvish Princess was held captive. The Dark Knight, it seemed, served as general under the king until he won a war against the goblin kings over a hundred years before, then the general staged an uprising and tried to take the throne. It failed, but when the general disappeared, it became a dark secret that few knew of.
On the third day, she reached the cliff where the castle lay. No gates were there to hold in the dragon Bohumil. No moat surrounded the castle but only walls of a rare red granite. The keep inside made up the whole of the general’s home.
Kontessa climbed the place's walls to peer over into the courtyard where a monolith stood covered in ruins from a millennium ago. Dark and alone, the monolith stood, and it stood long before anything elvish came.
She lowered herself into the yard and made her way across it. The doors to the throne room lay open, not expecting any to climb the vast distance upward. Doors opened off the great hall, and she knew that he was near.
“Hello demon,” came a voice from one of the doors. The general entered and strode across the room to sit on the throne. “I suppose you have come to rescue the princess, Quiet Skyrider.”
“I think you know why I’m here. You will release her to me, or I will take her at your death."
The knight came forward and drew his blade.
He charged at her, and she blocked his blow.
He ducked as she returned the swing.
Together they circled the throne room.
The dark knight came at her again, and she swung upward, catching him in the middle of his chest. Knocking him back.
“Why do you resist,” he asked, “Can’t you see that you can’t hurt me. Your best blow does no damage to me.”
Kontessa swung again, and his black chain shirt deflected the blow. “You're really just a punk, aren't you?' This enraged the knight to no end.
"I will become king of the elves," he exclaimed. Then he made for the throne where his scepter lay. The rod that he planned to hold at the coronation of his reign.
The blue dragon flew from nowhere, and gas erupted from his mouth in service to the knight. Kontessa tried to duck, but the chlorine caught her face and arm, burning her skin. She knew it would scar.
She raised her free hand, and the dragon tried to escape, but she held it in her presence with an iron will. "Your Dragon is mine, Mustafa." The dark knight rushed forward and took hold of the dragon's bridle, but the dragon ripped its head from his grasp.
“Toleran” came from the Dark Knights's mouth, and he fell from the spell bouncing off the hide of the beast. The dragon turned toward the knight and opened its mouth as it had done to Kontessa. Out came the same gas to burn the chain shirt and the skin of the knight.
He died screaming.
Kontessa went to the doorway that held the stairs behind the door as all others led down. She climbed them, and there stood, tied to the bed, was Quiet Skyrider.
- Writer
