RE: Monarch

Chapter 6. Everwood I

Darkness. Unending soundless blackness. There was no sense of sight, or smells, or sound. Just a sense of floating in nothingness for what felt like forever.

I did not, however, feel alone.

There was a sensation of movement in the void. Things towering over me, whispering. A sibilant chattering of broken teeth. I remember wondering if the place was death. If the stories and legends were wrong. If all that waited for us was this horrible nothingness, in which we were not truly alone.

I was afraid.

Afraid to the point I wondered if, before, I had ever truly known what fear was.

Something caressed my very existence, then grabbed hold.

What followed was the sensation of flying through the void at an incredible speed. I was yanked backwards, my being stretching from the strain until it felt my very essence could snap at any moment. Then light returned. I saw flashes of my old life. Vignettes played backward. My father. Annette. Sera. My mothermy real mother, alive and smiling.

Lillian.

The light grew unbearably bright, whiting out all semblance of images and memory. It pierced me over and over, like so many flaming swords. A single word was seared into my soul with an unholy green light.

Again.

Someone grabbed me.

"Cairn. Kid. Kid!"

I came to with fists swinging, clawing wildly at the hands that gripped me, Thoths terrifying visage still vivid in my mind. Get away. Have to get away. I slipped beneath my attackers arms and threw myself against the door, throwing it open to-

Trees? A forest, tall and wide as the eye could see. A hand grabbed me by the collar of my shirt and threw me back in.

It took a moment for the fog of panic to clear. Uncle Luthers concerned face stared at me. He had gotten on top of me and was pinning my wrists against the seat cushions. There was a sense of movement and the occasional bump. A carriage. I was in a carriage.

What the hell?

"You were dreaming." Luther quickly released me and returned to the opposing side. The red satin cushions crumpled beneath him, and the whole weight of the chamber seemed to shift his way. He was fully armored. My whole body seemed to deflate as the importance of those words sunk in.

"It was awful." I raised a hand to place it against my pounding head. But it was not my hand. It was so small. There was practically no hair on my arm whatsoever. I froze in place, having played the last few moments back in my head and noticing another problem. "Terrible," I said, experimentally, almost choking at the pitch of my own voice. It was higher than before. Then it hit me.

"Annette! What happened to Annette?" I stood up, my heart racing. Uncle stood with me and bumped his head against the ceiling, knees braced, as if ready to grab me if I tried to dive out of a moving carriage again.

"Shes still at the castle with your sister and mother, kid. Damn, that dream really did a number on you." Uncle sat back down and crossed his legs, looking away guiltily. "Cant blame you, though. After everything you saw today."

His words finally registered. Annette was fine. But how could that be? Id witnessed it. She was clearly dead. Even if she wasnt, there was no recovering from those injuries. Another strange notion occurred to me. When was the last time Id seen Uncle Luther this sober? He was oddly put together. Almost knightly. There was no seething judgement hidden behind his expression. He looked almost shockingly normal.

Clearly, I was missing something. I sat back down.

Uncle Luther continued to speak. "Kid, I want you to know. The things you saw today. The things I did thats not usually how we do business. That village was a real problem. The elves had to be put in their place sure, but the children?"

I looked up at him, shock coursing through me. Id had this conversation before, nearly ten years ago. The only reason I remembered it was because of how angry Id gotten. It was after the sacking of the elven village of Inharion. Elven cultists. Theyd been killing tax collectors and burying their bodies in the Everwood. Once the murders came to light my father put together a raiding party disguised as an envoy and brought me along. Said I needed to see the law in action, as well as the consequences of disobedience. From a distance, Id watched as the raiding party slaughtered the entire village, led by my uncle.

Id called him a monster.

I was naive. There was no way for me to know back then what would have happened if he refused. That my father would have him executed and banish his wife and children. He wasnt a bad man, just a weak one. Years later I regretted the way I had treated him.

Was this some sort of dream then? My subconscious trying to work out the last few kinks of regret before passing on?

"I wish there was another way. But you did what you had to," I said carefully, still not sure exactly what I was doing.

"Doesnt make it right," Luther seemed to hesitate, struggling with something. "Can you keep a secret? Itll make you feel better, but if it gets out itll be the end of me."

Interesting. Originally, my raging at him and calling him a monster had shut the conversation down entirely, and we rode the rest of the way to the castle in silence. I had no memory of this exchange.

"Of course." I smiled at him. "Ive never mentioned your many affairs with the castle staff to my parents."

Luther blanched. "Guess I was less discreet than I thought." He looked at me, suddenly suspicious. "How would you even know what an affair is? Youre just a kid."

"Old enough to read, Uncle."

"Fine, fine." His cheeks reddened and he waved as if to dismiss the embarrassing line of conversation. "The truth is, I let some of them go."

"Who?"

"The elves. There was a cluster of them playing behind the town hall. A few adults and some children. I came upon them before anyone else and shooed them into the forest." He looked down at his steepled hands. "I know it doesnt make up for the rest of it."

I frowned. This was no mere rehashing of memory. It was too vivid, and it involved information Id been entirely ignorant of. Nothing about it felt like a dream either. Could the last ten years of my life have been the dream?

No. That would mean Lillian wasnt real. I refused to even consider it. If that reality was real, and this one was also, then what the hells was happening? Unless

"Uncle. How old am I this year?" I asked, testing my theory.

Luther looked up, confused at the change of topic but also relieved. "Is this a quiz?" He asked with a grin. "Twelve. As if Id forget my nephews age."

"And what day is it?"

His grin lessened. "The twelfth."

"Of?"

"Winterscrest."

The carriage hit a bump and I stifled a gasp. The 12th of Winterscrest. It seemed so uncanny. Exactly ten years from the day of the coronation. There was something to that, there had to be. Assuming the small chance this wasnt some sort of death knell hallucination. Could it actually be true?

Again

The word echoed in my head, sending chills down my arms.

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The endless possibilities begin to run through my mind. It was like something out of the old tales. I had so much foreknowledge. All I needed was for someone to believe me.

My heart pounded in my throat. "Uncle-"

The ringing in my ears came back. My eyes went wide. Cold chills went up and down my arms. I doubled over in my seat. How? It didnt make sense. Luther was on his knees before me in an instant.

"Cairn. Whats wrong?"

All the memories of past wounds came back to me at once as the ringing in my ears grew louder and louder. The hole in my stomach. The burns on my chest and hands. The knife in my lung. Annette, broken in my arms.

"Whats wrong, boy? Whats happening?" Uncle shook me vehemently.

"Shes coming," I whispered.

"Whos coming?"

"Thoth." The moment I said her name, the carriage ground to a halt. Luther looked up, clearly unsettled. Several wagons up, I heard a guard call out.

"Who goes there?!"

There was a cacophony of heavy footsteps moving towards the front of the line and blades being drawn.

No. No no no.

Luther, still holding my shoulders, looked out of the carriage, then back at me. "Stay here."

I grabbed his arm. "You cannot beat her, Uncle. When the fighting starts in earnest, run."

He gave me a strange look. And then he was gone, leaping out of the carriage and running to join the rest of the men at the front. My whole body fought as I followed, slowly. It was so far from the carriage door to the ground. The forest, previously filled with the sound of calling birds, had gone silent.

"Oh Cairn, where are you?" The sing-song voice sent a wave of revulsion through me and I choked back a sudden surge of acid rising from my gut. All my half-baked plans went out the window like nothing more than a flight of fancy. So much for a second chance to do things right and plan.

Thoth was already here.

Suffer, as I have suffered.

There was no question what shed do if she found me. When she found me. I climbed up and snuck a peek over the top of the carriage. Thoth was there. She looked younger, but otherwise just as terrifying. She was flanked by the man in the cowl and the giant, but otherwise alone. A thought occurred to me. She hadnt raised her army yet.

Still, I had a feeling that the three of them would be more than enough to destroy the small retinue that accompanied me.

"If you make me look for you, it will only make things worse." Thoth called out over the formation of guards that attempted to engage with her, ignoring them entirely. She scanned the caravan and almost saw me before I ducked back down behind the carriage. Id already learned from my first encounter. There was no reasoning with Thoth. No fighting her. There was only one logical course of action.

Run.

Left or right? Did it matter? Both sides of the road were thick with forest.

For just a second, I saw a glimpse of something on my left side, partially obscured behind a tree. It looked like a silver hand, beckoning. A sign from the gods, perhaps. Whatever it was, it was enough.

I sprinted left, away from the caravan into the deep dark of the Everwood.