THE DEMON WOLF AND HIS MATE

Chapter 8

Everyone around her became absolutely silent.

The leaves of the trees were bejeweled with frost, shining yellow, blue, red and gold under the grey skies. Although the mist rolled along the ground, she saw fallen logs damped with moss littered around. And somewhere from deep inside the forest, she heard a buzzing... a call... a powerful energy... it thrummed... Anastasia shivered.

When she was only seven, thin papery wings had unfurled for the first time from her back.

Transparent with silvery mesh of pulse lines, forking along the delicate bone that arched at the top, she had spread them slowly under her nanny's guidance, and as she spread them, the pulse lines had flickered like lightening. Her nanny had squealed in pure delight. But that was the last time it had happened. Raul had slashed the bone of her left wing with his sword, permanently damaging it. The pain had left her unconscious. When she woke up, her nanny was gone... forever.

Three years later, her parents were dethroned and imprisoned in the celestial prison by Raul and Raina. Ever since then, she had been waiting for a chance to escape from this dread and come back for vengeance.

Someone came from behind and grabbed her upper arm.

“Round up everything in ten minutes. Extinguish the fire.” he said as he dragged her back to the carriage with the bowl in her hand.

“Do not leave anything behind.”

Macilleus opened the door and pushed her inside even as Nyles protested loudly. She ran after them but Macilleus had closed the door and blocked her to get in.

“I will ride with Milady.” Nyles protested.

“She needs me.”

He pointed in the direction of Darla who was already packing everything up and said.

“You ride with her!.”

“No!” Nyles shouted.

“Then you can stay back.” he replied coldly.

“What?!” she said with shock.

A soldier chuckled at her predicament and she knew the man was serious. She turned and walked towards Darla mumbling curses, throwing her bowl as she went.

Stunned at the sudden change of event, Anastasia sat in the carriage absolutely quiet. She watched him helping them with clearing everything. He picked up the logs and threw them towards the jungle as if they were toys. Within a few minutes, things were packed swiftly and looked as if nothing had ever happened there.

Macilleus climbed into the carriage and the coachman pulled the reins of the horses and carriage started moving.

“What happened?” she asked in a low voice.

“I suspect there are bandits around. Those are the crazed one.”

Goosebumps covered Anastasia's body as her mind froze. Her face paled as she thought for the first time that Nyles said was true–the Dark one, the Demon Wolf–the pirate and the bandits were his people.

Outside she heard clomping of horses. She opened the stutters of the window to see that a rider was on the left. The dirt road must have narrowed because the rider fell back allowing the carriage to go first.

When she looked back at Macilleus, she found him leaning to one side with his eyes closed. Feeling awkward, Anastasia tucked her knees and pulled her hands to her side. She slid to a corner and pulled her legs up to look outside, even though there wasn't much to see, she liked the fact that she was out of Vilinski and that every breath that she took had the taste of freedom. She hoped that they made it to Oraid as soon as possible. She remembered when she was just fourteen, how Iskra, her secret mentor at Vilinski was teaching her the art of swordfighting and had said

“You will be a great warrior if you can fight without your inherent resources. The taste of freedom is going to be a thousand times better when your wings are free.” while Iskra had flapped his wings and attacked her from above, she was thwarting his efforts from the ground. It was difficult but she eventually succeeded after falling down at least a dozen time. In the process she had seriously injured her left arm, and had to stay in a cast for fifteen days. She had a tough time explaining to Raina how she had gotten injured. Her security has increased manifold.

Anastasia closed her eyes as Iskra's face appeared in her head. Iskra was her self appointed mentor after her parent's disappearance. He was Raul's confidante, but was not quite loyal to him. He was her father's man and had been given the task of teaching her the art of war, though she could never use it, because her cousins had threatened that her parents will meet the dire consequences if anything happened.

“You should know how to fight Anastasia.” he would say.

“Not because you need it but because you'll soon become the Queen of Vilinski, and you never know when you will use it.” he was teaching her how to use daggers-the small curved ones, which when twisted in the victim in a certain place will kill them. She was close to finishing that part of training when somehow Raul found out about Iskra.

Anastasia had watched how her cousin Raul had tied Iskra to an iron post in the main garden of the palace, and cut him limb by limb for doing something like that behind his back. She remembered how Iskra hadn't even grunted when Raul was maiming him. He had only looked at Anastasia and gave her a weak smile as if to convey that it was a pleasure to teach her how to fight.

She had run to his rescue and killed a few guards in the process. She had gone to stand in front of him to defend him. But Raina and her guards fought against her and soon overpowered her. She was chained for weeks for this act, not given food, caned and threatened until her spirit broke... well, not until they thought her spirit had broke. She mourned the loss of Iskra. She loved him like her father. Only he was the one who was a messenger between her and her parents.

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