Tale of the White Witch

Chapter 5 - The Night is Filled with Danger

“I want to know who they were and how they bloody managed to breach the palace walls!” came the booming voice of the Emperor as he shouted angrily at his incompetent men.

“Yes my liege, as you wish.”

Captain Drax turned and began to march off accompanied by several of his guards.

Theron was furious. 

He couldn’t believe that with all of his power and countless guards on patrol that someone could possibly sneak into his palace undetected, and then back out again, leaving no trace whatsoever. It seemed impossible.

“And someone bring me the White Witch immediately.” Theron called out to no one in particular.

Several figures quickly scuttled away to obey his command.

Theron intended on using Esmara’s powers to track down the intruders and bring them to justice for their actions. 

What he didn’t yet know was that by now the beautiful Esmara was miles away from the Imperial Palace, having been kidnapped by a foreign King.

-

Their journey was long and tedious. It lasted the entire day, with the group of masked men and their captive riding non-stop across the foreign countryside on their return home.

Knowing full-well that it would take yet another full day of riding before they reached the Kingdom of Ashador, King Lucius decided to halt their journey and make rest for the night in a secluded area beside a small crystal lake. 

The sun was beginning to set off in the distance and it would soon be dark.

Soon enough each man had their task to complete in order to assist with setting up their campsite. Some had been tasked with gathering wood for the fire, others were sent off to hunt the nearby treeline for food.

Esmara sat on the ground watching each of the men as they worked. 

Both her hands were still tied together and the gag remained over her mouth, preventing her from making any sounds. Ideas of how she could possibly escape them continued to flood throughout her mind as she watched and waited for an opportune moment to make her move.

Her attention was suddenly drawn towards a tall, dark figure as he came to crouch down beside her. In that moment she noticed the flask he was holding in his gloved hand.

“Thirsty?” his voice was deep and sensual as he tilted his masked head to the side ever so slightly.

Esmara wasn’t sure if he was genuinely asking her or if he were merely taunting her. With the gag still over her mouth she was unable to voice any kind of reply and instead turned her head to look away from him.

Lucius let out a frustrated sigh before he reached up towards his face. Grasping the front of his mask, he slowly pulled it off to reveal his true features to her.

Esmara’s head turned back to face him and as soon as her eyes met his she froze in shock. He was surprisingly good-looking. Ruggedly handsome, some might even say.

From what she could see beneath the black hood that he wore, his thick dark hair was cut short and his face was covered in a fine layer of stubble. He had thick dark brows and full lips which slightly parted as he remained crouched down beside her, the flask in hand.

But there was one feature about him that captivated Esmara most of all; and that was his eyes. A darker shade of emerald-green, they projected a mysterious sensation of warmth and this confused her. 

The man had just kidnapped her after all.

“Here, maybe this will help…”

Lucius lowered the flask to the ground and then moved in to reach behind her head. 

Esmara flinched as she felt his hands fiddling with the torn silk tied behind her head. But she soon realised what he was doing and began to relax. 

He was removing her gag.

Soon after he had loosened the knot, Lucius removed the piece of silk covering her mouth and she let out a soft sigh of relief. The corners of her mouth felt raw as she licked her dry lips.

“Better?” he asked her.

She remained silent, unsure of his intentions for acting so kindly towards her. She didn’t know this man; she couldn’t trust him.

Once again Lucius lifted the flask up for her to drink from and after hesitating for a moment, Esmara reached out her still-bound hands to take it from him. She then proceeded to lift it up towards her parched lips and spill the life-giving liquid down her throat.

Lucius remained crouching down beside her, watching as she gulped down the water in desperation. It turned out that she was indeed thirsty.

He had never seen hair as white as hers before; it almost glowed in the now-fading sunlight. And her eyes, they were unlike any he had ever come across. Mesmerising flecks of bright blues and purples, mixed in together and sparkling brightly. Her skin was also strangely pale; it was clear that she didn’t get much sunlight.

Lucius continued to admire this hauntingly beautiful woman as she drank, causing Esmara to suddenly stop and turn her head to meet his gaze with a stern expression.

“Don’t expect me to thank you for this apparent kindness.” she announced. “You are responsible for kidnapping me after all.”

A smirk formed at the corner of his mouth at her feistiness.

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

His tone was clearly dripping with sarcasm.

As Esmara handed him back the flask filled with water she watched with intrigue as her handsome kidnapper stood back up to his incredible height, turned around and walked away to join the others nearby.

She couldn’t deny that there was something that deeply captivated her about this stranger, something about his mannerism that had her wanting to know more about who he was. He seemed ruthless and yet was kind enough to have given her water.

Who was he? 

And why had he chosen to take her along with them?

Esmara was well aware that these men had come to the Imperial Palace on a mission to assassinate the Emperor, so why had they taken her instead? 

What were they planning to do with her?

-

Several hours later everyone at the campsite was fast asleep beside the large fire, excluding the two masked men who were currently standing watch. 

Lucius had wisely decided that they would take turns, with each pair of men watching over their camp for a period of two hours before the next watch would begin.

It was a strange sound that woke Lucius from his peaceful slumber, one similar to a shrieking cry but deafeningly loud. 

There was no mistaking it; the young King had heard the sound many times before in the past.

It was the shrill cry of a Skull Dragon.

His eyes quickly shot open as he pulled himself up to a standing position. By now his men were all doing the same as they armed themselves, peering around to search the darkness for any signs of the creature lurking nearby.

Esmara who had been fast asleep up until now, woke at the same time and sat upright looking around at the men moving frantically around her. 

Something was wrong, she could sense it.

“What is it? What’s going on?” she called out to them.

“Shhh!”

One of the masked men turned to her and lifted his finger up to cover the lips carved into his mask. She looked down to see that he was holding his long sword in his other hand with both of his feet parted in a defensive stance. This indeed showed the seriousness of their situation.

Before she knew it Esmara was suddenly hoisted up onto her feet by one of the masked men who pulled her along behind him towards the camp-fire where the other men stood in a large circle. Their backs were to one another as they held their weapons firmly and peered out into the surrounding darkness.

“My King, what is it?” one of the men called out.

“Skull Dragon.” Lucius replied sternly. “And it sounded close.”

“What’s a Skull Dragon?” Esmara asked in a panicked voice.

“A nasty piece of work, that’s what it is.” the man holding onto her bindings replied.

Lucius turned around to meet Esmara’s eyes, her brow was already furrowed with fear.

“Just stay low.” he instructed her calmly. 

“Whatever you do, stick to the fire. These beasts fear the light more than anything.”

As she was nodding her head, Esmara noticed a dark shadow suddenly swoop across the skies just off to their left, moving faster than anything she had ever seen before. 

It didn’t help that the skies were incredibly cloudy tonight and had blocked out he brightness of the moon from their view. 

They were working in total darkness.

Lucius looked down and noticed a large dry tree branch lying on the ground. Reaching down for it he quickly darted across towards the fire and shoved it into the dancing flames. Within seconds Lucius had created himself a flamed torch.

“Quickly, find yourselves a stick, men!” he commanded them.

Esmara watched as the masked men each moved around to locate themselves a stick or branch and took turns lighting them in the fire.

But luckily for her, Esmara wouldn’t require a torch like the others to remain safe.

She had her powers.

Without warning the fearsome creature swooped in on them, knocking two of the men down to the ground and clawing at the third who cried out in pain as its long claws slashed at his right arm.

“AHHH!”

“Harrat!” Lucius called out, coming to his man’s aide and slicing through the shadows with his long sword in an effort to defend him.

After several misses, Lucius’ blade finally met with the creature in one brutal thrust to its scaley side. 

The dragon shrieked loudly, clearly in pain as it turned and swung its tail in the King’s direction, knocking Lucius off his feet and down to the ground with a grunt.

Esmara watched as the creature moved in to finish the young King off for good. She knew there was no other choice; she needed to do something to help and fast!

Closing her eyes and concentrating on her task at hand, Esmara’s long white hair began to slowly brighten into a glowing hue of light as her powers began to steadily activate. 

The space between her bound hands also began to glow brightly as she focused on gathering all of her energy into a single ball.

Noticing the sudden change in the appearance of the White Witch, the others all watched in amazement as Esmara opened her eyes to reveal their glowing purple hue. 

With a powerful thrust down towards the ground, the illuminated ball of energy suddenly exploded, fanning out into the darkness surrounding them.

The Skull Dragon’s pained cry sounded as the beast met with the powerful force of magical light and instantly disintegrated upon impact into nothing but shimmering dust.

Once the light had disappeared the space around them returned to its usual darkness and the others looks over to see Esmara crouched down on one knee, heavily panting after having used such a large amount of her power. 

She felt extremely weakened and seriously lightheaded from her ordeal, not that she had a choice.

By now her hair had returned to its normal white colour and was no longer glowing. 

Her eyes were slowly dimming as she lifted her head up to meet Lucius’ stunned gaze for only a second before she suddenly collapsed to the floor. 

Her vision began to fade into nothing but total darkness...