The Queen's First Test
1436 Words
The great hall was empty when we returned.
Damon dismissed the guards. Rina disappeared into the shadows. The fire crackled in the hearth, casting long shadows across the stone floor.
"You're thinking too loud," Damon said.
"I'm thinking about the dagger."
"What about it?"
"The thing in the cave said it was forged in the first age. Dipped in the blood of the first wolf. Blessed by the goddess herself." I pulled the dagger from my belt. The blade caught the firelight. "That's not just a weapon. That's a relic."
"It's a knife. It kills things."
"It kills immortal things. There's a difference."
Damon walked to me. Took the dagger from my hands. Turned it over.
"Your mother had this the whole time?"
"She had it hidden. In your mother's room. With the letter." I watched his face. "She knew what it could do."
"She knew Silas was immortal."
"She knew something was keeping him alive."
Damon set the dagger on the table. The blade gleamed.
"Then we use it. In the heart of the mountain. Where the bargain was made."
"The throne room."
"The throne room." He looked at me. "We go back. We find it. We cut the bond."
"And then?"
"And then Silas dies."
I wanted to believe him. Wanted to feel the same certainty in his voice.
But my mother's words echoed in my head.
There's something else. Something older. Something that feeds on the curse.
"The thing in the cave," I said. "It said Silas gives it blood. It gives him immortality. But it also said the bargain is old. Tainted."
"Tainted how?"
"I don't know. But if we cut the bond, what happens to the thing?"
Damon was quiet for a moment. "We deal with that when we get there."
"And if we can't?"
"Then we find a way." He pulled me against him. "We always find a way."
My mother was awake when I visited her.
Sitting up in bed. Eating broth. Her color was better. Her eyes were clearer.
"You went back," she said.
"We went to the caves beneath the mountain."
"The thing."
"We met it."
Her spoon clattered against the bowl. "You're alive."
"Barely." I sat on the edge of her bed. "It wanted to eat us."
"It always wants to eat."
"We made a deal."
My mother's eyes widened. "You made a deal with the hunger?"
"It wants Silas gone. It's tired of him."
"Tired?"
"It said he's grown boring. It wants new blood."
My mother was quiet for a long moment. Then she laughed. It was a broken sound.
"Fifteen years. Fifteen years I've been in that mountain. And the thing that could have killed him was just... bored."
"The dagger can cut the bond between them. The thing told us."
"The thing told you?"
"It wants us to succeed."
My mother shook her head. "You can't trust it."
"I don't trust it. I trust the dagger." I pulled it from my belt. "This was forged in the first age. Dipped in the blood of the first wolf. Blessed by the goddess."
My mother stared at the blade.
"I didn't know," she whispered.
"Didn't know what?"
"What it really was. I found it in your father's things. Before he became... this." She touched the blade. "I kept it hidden. In case I ever needed to kill him."
"Why didn't you?"
"Because I couldn't get close enough. He always knew. Always sensed me." She looked at me. "But he won't sense you."
"Why not?"
"Because you're his blood. His magic doesn't work on you the same way."
I stared at her. "That's why you sent me away."
"I sent you away to protect you. But I also sent you away because you were the only one who could ever kill him."
The weight of her words settled on my chest.
"I'm not ready," I said.
"You are." She took my hand. "You've always been ready. You just didn't know it."
Damon found me in the courtyard an hour later.
Sitting on the stone bench. Staring at the moon.
"Your mother told you something," he said.
"She told me I'm the only one who can kill him."
"That's not a surprise."
"It's a surprise to me."
He sat beside me. His shoulder pressed against mine.
"You've always been the one, Sera. From the moment you walked away from that altar. From the moment you asked me to marry you." He took my hand. "You're the one."
"What if I fail?"
"Then I'll be there to catch you."
I leaned my head on his shoulder. Let myself be small for a moment.
"We go back tomorrow," I said.
"Tomorrow."
"To the throne room. To the heart of the mountain."
"To end this."
I closed my eyes.
"To end this."
The pack gathered in the great hall at dawn.
Damon stood at the head of the table. Maps spread before him. Weapons laid out like offerings.
"We go back to the mountain tonight," he said. "Not to the caves. To the fortress itself."
Murmurs rippled through the crowd.
"We tried that," someone said. "We almost died."
"We didn't have the dagger then."
Rina stepped forward. "What's different about the dagger?"
"It can cut the bond between Silas and the thing beneath the mountain. Without that bond, he's mortal."
"And the thing?"
"We deal with that after."
Rina nodded. "I'm coming."
"As am I," said another wolf. Then another. Then another.
Damon looked at me.
"Your pack," I whispered.
"Our pack."
He turned back to the wolves.
"We leave at nightfall. Prepare yourselves."
I spent the day with my mother.
She told me stories about my childhood. About my father before he became a monster. About the day she decided to run.
"He wasn't always evil," she said. "The thing in the cave changed him. Slowly. Over centuries."
"The hunger."
"It fed on him. His goodness. His love. His soul." She looked at me. "By the time you were born, there was nothing left but the monster."
"You still loved him."
"I loved who he was. Not who he became."
I held her hand. "I'm going to kill him."
"I know."
"Does that bother you?"
She was quiet for a long moment. Then she shook her head.
"He died a long time ago. You're just going to bury the body."
The sun set.
Damon waited for me at the gates. The dagger at his hip. The locket around my neck.
"Ready?" he asked.
"No."
"Good. Certainty gets people killed."
He helped me onto my horse. Climbed onto his.
The gates opened.
We rode into the dark.
The mountain loomed ahead. Black against the purple sky.
"The waterfall entrance?" Rina asked.
"No. Too exposed." I pulled out the map. "There's a side passage. Near the caves. It leads to the throne room."
"The thing's territory."
"It knows we're coming. It agreed to let us pass."
"You trust it?"
"I trust its hunger for something new."
We rode to the side passage. Hidden by rocks. Covered in moss.
Damon dismounted first. Helped me down.
"Stay close," he said.
"I'm not going anywhere."
We walked into the dark.
The tunnel was different from the caves.
Carved. Deliberate. Symbols on the walls that weren't just warnings. They were prayers.
"What language is this?" Rina asked.
"The old tongue," I said. "Before wolves. Before packs. Before the moon."
"How do you know that?"
"I don't. The locket does."
The silver against my chest was warm. Guiding.
We walked deeper.
The tunnel opened into a corridor. Torches on the walls. Doors on either side.
"The throne room is at the end," I said.
"How do you know?"
"I can feel it."
Damon's hand found mine. Squeezed.
"We go together."
"Together."
We walked.
The doors were massive.
Iron. Carved with wolves and moons and things that shouldn't exist.
"This is it," I whispered.
"This is it."
Damon pushed the doors open.
The throne room was vast. Columns of black stone. A ceiling lost in shadow. And at the far end, a throne made of bone.
Silas sat on it.
"I was wondering when you'd come back," he said.
His silver eyes gleamed in the dark.
"You knew," I said.
"I always know." He stood. Walked down the steps. "The thing in the cave told me you were coming."
"It made a deal with us."
"It makes deals with everyone. That's what it does." He stopped ten feet away. "But you're wrong if you think I'm the prisoner here."
"You're not?"
"I'm the warden." He smiled. "And you're the new sacrifice."
The doors slammed shut behind us.
- Writer
