The Dark Witch Chronicles Book One: The Curse of The Cymmerien Dragon -
Chapter Twenty Seven: The Fallen Warrior
“Yes?” said Sienna, startling Amara.
She cleared her throat and asked, “Are you okay?” Amara hesitated.
Never before had she interacted with Sienna apart from times when it was necessary. There were no friendly relations between the two that would give Amara a reason to ask if she was okay. And that took Sienna aback. She felt that it was awkward and strange for Amara to ask her something like that out of the blue.
“I’m fine. Is there something you need?” Sienna replied, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear.
“Yes. It’s quite important so. . .I just don’t want to disturb you if you’re not ready for this.” Amara hesitantly looked at her.
“I’m alright, Amara. You can tell me whatever it is.” Sienna let out a
humourless laugh as she spoke.
Amara hoped it wasn’t spiteful on her part and then asked Sienna to follow her back to the library while sending messages to the others that she had found Sienna. When the two of them reached the library, they found that the others were already present. Apart from the five of them, the library was empty as Azrael had asked everyone else to leave. Sienna looked at them curiously as she sat down on a chair beside Iris. As soon as she had settled, Azrael spoke, “I hope we didn’t disturb you if you were busy.”
“I don’t think crying about the fact that the man I love is dead, particularly counts as being busy,” replied Sienna, chuckling in the end.
The others did not react. They were unsure whether or not it was a laughing matter. It felt extremely strange for Sienna to have spoken like that. Maybe she’s in trauma, Iris thought sadly.
Eridanus cleared his throat to break the silence and then began explaining to Sienna what their plan was. She listened to him silently and when Eridanus was done talking, she let out a sigh, furrowing her forehead as though thinking of something. She did not know what good would come out of getting Lilith’s spirit under control – it did not mean that Nicholas would come back – but she knew that if the spirit was under Lord Mikhail’s control, it would result in serious damage.
“Alright, I’ll help you summon the spirit. When and where are we going to do this?” She said.
“We haven’t decided that yet,” Amara replied, in deep thought.
“For now, I suggest we go and give our minds some rest through meditation. We have to prepare for what we are going to do. It isn’t a simple task and we need to be focussed,” Azrael said, and stood up.
“He’s right. We should go and meditate for a while. We’ll assemble again to prepare the day and time of our task,” said Lea and they all stood up to leave.
Sienna was the first to get out of the library followed by Iris and Leandra. When Eridanus left as well, Azrael stood back as Amara began to make her way out. He grabbed her arm and gestured to her to follow him outside into the woods. Amara did not question as the look on his face meant that it was something important. So she walked in the direction that was leading her. When they reached the woods, Azrael turned to face her and Amara waited for him to talk.
“Since the others are not aware of what actual purpose we have of summoning the spirit of Lilith, I needed to speak with you alone. In the days after we returned from the Sea of Cypress, I have been doing my research about constituting a way to protect the prophecy. After a lot of thinking I have reached a conclusion and I want to know if you approve of it,” he told her, resting his back on the bark of a tree.
“Go on,” she urged, giving him a nod.
Azrael let out a sigh and began explaining what he had thought of.
“Lady Calypsa isn’t strong enough as the both of us are aware of it. In order to protect her, we need a team of spirits of old witches who have been the strongest of their time. They can create a protective shield around the Sea of Cypress, which would put restrictions on the wrong seekers entering the sea and attacking the lady; but sorcerers as strong as Lord Mikhail can easily enter after battling those spirits, especially if he has Lilith’s spirit on his side. In any way, we need Lilith’s spirit with us. Besides that, we will require more spirits that are not malign and safe enough to cater to our demands. If there is a strong team of spirits protecting Lady Calypsa, it will be difficult for Lord Mikhail to break the wall. For this purpose, we cannot use help of the others because all of this is not supposed to be revealed to them. But I think we could use Sienna’s help. What is your opinion on that?”
Amara registered his words and pondered over them for a long moment. She bit her lower lip, blinking as she understood his point. It was quite useful, to say the least. Creating a barrier of spirits around the Sea of Cypress meant that Lady Calypsa did not have to divide her time of protecting the treasures as well as the sea. If the spirits guarded the sea, the Lady could devote all her time in guarding the treasures, which she was fairly capable of, and would not need extra help with. But involving another witch meant revealing everything; because without that no sane person would agree for summoning a whole team of spirits. It wasn’t a simple task.
Though, if asking Sienna to help them meant ensuring complete protection of the treasures, then Amara was ready to do the same. Revealing the prophecy to Sienna was far better than letting it be known to Lord Mikhail.
“I suppose that could help. But we will have to be careful about this. If she has to help us, she will have to sacrifice her blood and we’ll have to speak with the Lord and Lady Calypsa as well. Without their consent we cannot reveal the prophecy to Sienna. It is not our right to decide that,” Amara said after a while of thinking.
“That is correct. I have sent a message to the Lord about instructing us about this. If it is possible, we will go to see Lady Calypsa again. Otherwise she would not be able to believe us even though she has enough trust,” he replied, agreeing with a nod.
“When do we inform the Lord then? And how do we know Sienna will agree to help?” Amara asked.
She did not know whether or not she would be able to convince Sienna into this task. Her reaction was something unknown to Amara since she had not known her so closely. A task like this meant having enough trust on Sienna and Sienna having enough trust on Amara and Azrael. Because none of them anywhere close to knowing her, Amara could not tell whether or not she would be of help. The task of being revealed the prophecy to was an extremely complicated and confidential one. If at all there was even a tiny glitch, everything would fall apart. Amara did not want that.
“That is another question. I have a theory that if Iris gets to know Sienna, our task would be easy.” Azrael offered, raising his eyebrows.
Amara regarded him impassively for a moment.
“But that means involving another person,” she said.
“Iris wouldn’t question you if her life depended on it. That much I have understood in the time I’ve been here,” he told her, assured of the fact that there was no way Iris would ever want to get into details if she was advised not to. Besides, she trusted Amara with every nerve of her body.
“That seems about right. I’ll talk to her,” she said to him with a nod of assurance.
She did have enough confidence in Iris being a perfect person to do this job. Amara trusted her as much as Iris did Amara. So they left to go back into the castle, and Azrael retreated to his chamber while Amara walked to Iris’s. She knocked on the door to find Lea opening it.
“Is Iris here?” She asked, standing at the door.
Lea nodded with a tiny smile and stepped aside to let Amara enter.
“Iris, can I speak with you for a moment?” said Amara, entering inside.
Iris was standing next to a table, going through a book of spells when Amara addressed her. She immediately turned around and nodded before following her outside.
“I’ll be right back,” she told Leandra and then walked outside to where Amara was leading her.
Lea shut the door of Iris’s chamber and strode back to where she was seated, picking up the book that Iris was reading. Outside, Iris and Amara walked to the potions chamber where the latter was sure there was no one at the given moment to interrupt them.
“There is something important I want to talk to you about, and I want you not to reveal it to anyone. What I’m about to tell you is something that will stay between the two of us and Azrael. Alright?” She said to Iris when they were in the potions chamber, all alone.
“I promise not to reveal it to anyone,” replied Iris with a nod.
“I want you to get to know Sienna. Find out how strong her relations were with Nicholas. Also try to know for how long she has been a witch, what powers she has, where her expertise lies and what all major tasks she has performed under the orders of the Lord. Tell me if she can be trusted with any kind of grave matter. I want to know everything.”
“Okay, may I ask why?” Iris frowned curiously.
“I can’t tell you that. But it is extremely important that I need you to do this. Can you help me?” Amara asked, raising her eyebrows hopefully.
She was sure Iris would agree, but a part of her said that being the inquisitive person that Iris was, she would ask more questions. Yet Amara knew Iris was quite obedient when it came to important tasks.
“Of course I can. I would even manipulate her into telling me everything, if you want me to,” Iris said, jokingly as she added a slight chuckle in the end.
Amara watched her for a moment in all seriousness, which made Iris shut her mouth and her grin vanished. Then Amara flashed the ghost of a smile before rolling her eyes and walking past Iris who bit back a laugh.
“I’ll let you know if manipulation is required.” Amara turned to look at Iris from the door. “For now, bring me the desired information; and don’t get too curious.”
“Yes, m’Lady,” Iris replied and the two of them left the potions chamber.
Outside the window of the chamber, the silhouette of a figure shifted away from vicinity as soon as the pair left.
Amara proceeded to go to her chamber while Iris went to her own, humming a soft tune to herself and thinking of how she would get to know Sienna. She had absolutely no idea how Sienna would react. What if she would get angry and not talk to her at all? What if she wasn’t friendly enough? What if she got to know more than she was supposed to?
“Good evening, m’Lady,” a voice whispered into Iris’s ear and she whipped her head around so fast that she lost her balance, and fell to the floor.
With a scowl, Iris lifted her head to find Eridanus standing there as he struggled to bite back a laugh but could not control it for long. Instead of helping her up like he should have, Eridanus burst out laughing while holding his stomach. Iris sat on the ground rolling her eyes in frustration and rubbing her backside, for it hurt badly. She placed her hand on the wall beside her and stood up, dusting off her robes since Eridanus didn’t seem like he was going to help her anyway. Why did I even think that he was going to be a gentleman?
Iris waited for a moment to see if he would apologize, but since he was busy laughing she turned around and stalked off, letting out a sigh of disappointment. However, before she could reach her chamber, Eridanus placed a hand on her shoulder and turned her around to face him. He was no longer laughing, but that did not make Iris any less annoyed.
“What is it that you want?” She asked him, irately. Eridanus was sure that he was going to get beaten up if he did not apologize as soon as possible.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have laughed like that, but you looked so funny on the floor, I just. . .”
He trailed off looking at the obviously irritated expression on Iris’s face that told him his apology had gone unnoticed due to the sentence that had followed after. Clearing his throat, Eridanus scratched the back of his neck and Iris rolled her eyes before turning to leave again.
“I’m extremely sorry, Iris. It was wrong of me to laugh like that. Forgive me?” He told her, stopping her by grabbing her arm. Iris pulled her hand away from him and stepped farther from where he was stood right in front of her.
“I have things to do, if you’ll just excuse me.” She turned and left.
Eridanus did not stop her this time and let out an exasperated sigh as Iris walked off. In another passageway right opposite to where Eridanus and Iris were, Amara had watched the whole scene and could not help but shake her head in disapproval when Eridanus spotted her there. He gave her a sheepish grin to which she shrugged and turned to go to her chamber when she was stopped by her name being called. When she looked in the direction of the sound, she saw Eridanus jogging towards her.
As she looked at his face a little closely and clearly for the first time, without any other thing interrupting her, she realized he seemed vaguely familiar. Whether she had seen him in the castle when Nicholas died, or before that, she did not know. But in a way he seemed familiar. It was as though she had met him before and talked to him yet she was unsure of the same. She thought that she might have spoken to him some time and did not remember about it, but it felt like a foggy memory to her.
“I’m not sure if I should address you as Amara or Lady Amara. You are a very experienced and a better witch than many of course. So I’m not sure how I should be addressing you,” he told her when he reached to where she was stood.
“You can call me Amara. I don’t desire any title to my name. Is there anything else you need?” She asked, raising her eyebrows.
“Yes-I mean no-actually I-” he stammered.
“Talk to me when you’re not speech impaired,” she said, rolling her eyes at his nervousness.
She began to walk away. At times, it infuriated her when others acted this terrified of her for no apparent reason. She had done nothing to harm them nor had she ever been so threatening for everyone to be intimidated by her. She did not know how she could change that.
“I was thinking that maybe you would want to talk to me,” he called out. Amara stopped at a distance and turned to look at him. He was fidgeting with his fingers, staring at them distractedly.
“I’ve been a here for a month and you haven’t made any effort to speak with me, which I find really strange. I mean it is me, you would know me,” he said to her.
“And what exactly is that supposed to mean?” She asked him, perplexed.
“I. . .never mind. I’ll let you be on your own,” he told her with a stoic expression before taking a few steps back and turning around to leave.
Amara watched his retreating figure, puzzled. She didn’t quite understand what he meant by that, yet her mind told her that she knew what he was talking about. There was a missing piece that she could not put her finger on. She wanted to talk to him again but something stopped her. She took a step forward to follow him and ask him what he meant by whatever he said, but then she thought better of it and walked back to where she was going after leaving a lingering look where Eridanus had just been. Not only did she find it strange, she found his argument fairly genuine as well, but what it meant, she could not understand. That frustrated her. Thinking that it was not as important, Amara entered her chamber and let go of the thoughts. She picked up her sword that was kept safely inside the trunk in a corner of the chamber, and left to go to the woods.
She spotted the foggy figure of Azrael creating flames into the water of the lake when she reached outside. Amara glanced around at the woods, which had begun to grow back a few of the shrubs and plants that had been burnt by her. That day on, she had watered the woods every day, hoping they would be as they were before, and some of her hopes were being fulfilled. She silently thanked the Goddess of the Earth for being of help to her and then proceeded to walk towards the lake: on the banks of which she would practice her sword-fighting skills.
Azrael turned his head to look at Amara, who stood there watching the flames that he had created. As soon as he spotted the sword in her hands, his concentration wavered and the flames dashed down into the water, letting out smoke. Amara coughed and gave him a look of disapproval to which he grunted in frustration, for his concentration had faded.
“It’s your fault. Had I not seen the sword in your hands. . .” he trailed off, gawking at the weapon.
“Blaming others for the fault in your focus is the most unimpressive thing coming from someone like you, great sorcerer,” Amara retorted bemusedly.
Azrael scowled at her and looked away.
“Let me challenge you for a duel then,” he told her as Amara pulled the sword out of its case.
She raised an eyebrow and then shrugged.
“I don’t mind that.”
Azrael raised his hands in front of him, palms facing upwards and closed his eyes, muttering something softly. In a moment, a sword appeared on his extended hands and he opened his eyes. He then turned to look at Amara, who was standing there ready to battle him.
The duel began. Both of them swung their swords forward and the metal clashed together creating an array of sounds. Amara raised herself and whooshed above Azrael and landed back on the ground right behind him. Swinging his sword backwards he turned around and slammed it into Amara’s. She pushed his sword downwards using all her force and Azrael resisted with all his might. For the fraction of a moment, he let her push his sword to the ground and then threw it in direction of her legs. Amara lifted herself to avoid the blow and Azrael immediately grabbed her free arm, turning her around cogently and her back was now against his chest; his sword on hers as both the weapons rested right next to her neck. Her arm was twisted backwards as both of them stood there trying to catch their breaths.
“You’re not the strongest, great witch. You can lose focus too,” he whispered, smirking.
Amara scoffed and pushed his sword away using hers as she kicked his leg from behind, making him drop to the ground.
“Impressive,” he told her and she let out a breath, holding out an arm for him. Azrael ignored the offer and pushed himself up to standing.
Once again, the swords clashed together and they battled for a while before Azrael extended his leg, pushing it into Amara’s, and she fell onto the ground; her grip lost itself on her sword and she dropped it along with her, losing the battle. Immediately, Azrael placed his sword onto her neck and held it there with an arrogant smirk. But Amara’s eyes were elsewhere. When Azrael followed her vision upwards to the sky, he spotted the largest bird that he had ever seen. It flew above them, the wings flapping and creating a sound of a terrorizing wind. Azrael frowned and pulled his sword away from Amara.
She sat up, a look of horror etching across her face as she watched the creature circling above her.
“What is it?” Azrael asked as he noticed the look on Amara’s face. She gulped in fear.
“The Lord; he’s in danger,” whispered Amara.
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