Then, she remembered the power rushing to her arm. Fuck. She had done something to him. But it was in self-defense, and magic wasn’t exactly outlawed.
The guard crept towards her, fearful no doubt that the so-called Demon would rise up through her and smite them. It would have been laughable were it not for the fact that most of her family seemed to be swallowing Darsen’s horseshit.
“If you won’t lay a telling salve on him, lay one on me. I’ll tell you what happened!” her voice was becoming desperate.
“I think both of them should be interrogated under oath,” Aleria said, supporting her again.
Everyone ignored her.
Her father approached her, and for a second, she wondered if he would stand beside her, but instead he suddenly flicked a smidge of green powder over Xandrie.
“You can approach the suspect now.”
Xandrie couldn’t believe her own father would restrain her with some of his famous Stock Still formula, but her arms were rooted to her side and the Guards swarmed and bound her with no effort. “The man tried to rape me. He forced himself on me. Will no one believe me?”
“I believe that’s entirely possible, and should be investigated.”
Again, no one paid any mind to Aleria. Xandrie had seen it happen before, and she hadn’t cared much. Her sister was the pretty one; no one cared about what came out of her mouth.
“We recuse ourselves, naturally, from the proceedings,” her mother announced. “It would be unseemly if her family were to be involved in any way. The law dictates she be tried in the manner proscribed.”
“You’d let them torture me?” Xandrie couldn’t believe it. She’d known she wasn’t wanted or welcome in her family - she had no idea her parents hated her.
Turning to her elder sister, eyes shining, she begged, “Don’t let him hurt anyone else. Watch him.” Aleria nodded, as the Guard seized her and shoved her towards the door.
Xandrie felt the same fury that had overcome her by the village walls, rise from the pit of her stomach. She needed to contain herself, save that energy for what came next. She knew, all too well, what the dungeons of Malec held. There would be pincers and fire and thumbscrews and a rack. Worse yet, they were staffed with the most brutal of all men.
She wasn’t wrong. The dungeons were stacked to the ceiling with well-oiled and highly-polished instruments of torture. The dungeon master took great pride in his work. Felons and villains folded under his hand.
Xandrie was lashed to a tilting table, the vicious tools of her torturer all around her. She didn’t know where it came from, but each time the vile brute approached her, she burned with the power of a thousand suns and neither he, nor any of his sniveling henchmen, could touch her. They had not managed to break her skin once.
Darsen hovered in the background, consulting with the counsellors and noblemen he and her parents were so close with.
Pfft, noble my ass. You’re no more a noble than I’m a vessel of the Demon.
A glint of gold said the Mayor was back there, in his ceremonial garb. He didn’t dare draw close. None of them did. They were all of one opinion: she was possessed. She had consorted with, and did the bidding of, none other than the Demon of Bhashtar. There was only one sentence.
That sentence was “Death.”
Demon
The gold felt good. No, better than good: it felt like perfection. No wonder alchemists had studied it through all time. Its heft, its luster, the way it sang in his brain was more calming to his nerves than all the draughts his physicians might prescribe. Though he knew it was a sickness – that he was obsessed and should find a way to curb his appetite for the metal – Rhey Vasili plunged his hands deep into his hoard and let the coins run through his fingers. He wanted to stop. He meant to. He’d tried to. He’d even managed to stay away for a day at a time. But he always returned to his chambers, to seek the solace precious metal afforded him. He feared he’d never rid himself of the hunger for gold.
The curse of his kind: the most powerful amongst them eventually grew sick. Feral. First, they were fascinated by gold, then, by the dark - last, came flesh and fire. This was how he had come to be crowned before his time - his father had left when his hunger for gold had devolved into a taste for flesh. He would suffer the same fate one day; there was no cure for it. He knew that was the reason why the Elders had called for the Claimings; they wanted the Kingdom to have a Queen, and an heir, when the time came. They were preparing for his fall.
Rhey hadn’t had the time to count and touch all his coins for weeks, but he was almost done, when the doors to his private chambers clanged open. He stood, ready to growl at whoever had dared invade his sanctum, but his scowl disappeared when he took in the unexpected visitor.
“I need your help; we don’t have a moment to lose. Please, Rhey, come with me.” Demelza already had him by the arm and was dragging him towards the door, babbling about someone who needed saving.
“Slow down,” he said. “Tell me what’s going on. Who’s in danger?”
Demelza sighed. “I have a friend…”
Rhey smiled. “You have a lot of friends, many of whom get in more trouble than you could shake a stick at. Who’s done what and what do I need to do to fix it?”
Demelza dropped her voice. “Her name is Xandrie.”
Rhey frowned. That was an unusual name, and he wasn’t familiar with it, which did confuse him as he absorbed every detail, forever branding them in his memory. Rhey never forgot anything.
Demelza dropped her voice. “She’s human.”
“Human?” He tried not to sound alarmed, but if Demelza was found to be consorting with a human, there’d be hell to pay. He fixed her with his most authoritative, steely gaze. It had no effect on her, whatsoever. She knew the penalties for fraternizing with a human, but here she was saying nothing was more important than saving this woman.
“Look, I can’t explain it, but it’s as if we’ve known each other through time. I have no idea how or why, but I feel like she’s in danger. She’ll get tortured, I know it. You have to help me, Rhey.”
“You feel it?” said Rhey. “You haven’t actually seen it?”
“That’s what I am a trying to tell you. I don’t need to see it. It’s in my blood, my bones, my everything. Xandrie is in danger and we need to help.”
Rhey threw his cloak over his shoulders. “The Elders will skin our hides when they find out, Elza.”
Demelza smiled briefly.
“Mine, perhaps. But you do happen to be their King.”
The sentence had been “Death” but they were making a pig’s ear out of executing her. In other circumstances, she might have found it entertaining.