Screams pierced the air as she panted with her legs held in the air by two women. Her naked body glistened with sweat as the figure knelt between her legs mumbled to themselves.
"Keep pushing Empress Katriana. Your baby is almost here. Just a few more moments, keep pushing!"
Empress Katriana's head lolled back on the pillow. She was ghostly white under a sickly sheen of sweat. "I'm so tired."
The midwife looked up from where she knelt between the Queen's legs. "If you stop now, she will die."
Queen Katriana's head snapped up. "She? It's a girl??"
"Yes My Lady. Now, please push!"
The Empress gritted her teeth and blew out a grinding breath that ended in a scream as she pushed with her remaining strength. The torches in the room dimmed as some unseen shadow filled the room. The two women holding her legs glanced around nervously. Queen Katriana's head fell back as a infant's cry broke through the silence left in the aftermath of her screaming.
"My Lady, say hello to your daughter, the Princess of Everwind." The Midwife held up the blood covered infant and then placed her in the Empress's waiting arms. "She is healthy."
"My daughter." Queen Katriana whispered through bloodless lips. She stroked the infant's sticky dark hair. "Beautiful."
The midwife rushed to the door and called down the hall, "More linens! Call the healer!" She rushed back and started mopping up the widening pool of blood gathering below the Empress. "My Lady. You need to rest."
One of the waiting nurses stepped forward to collect the child. The room darkened ominously and Queen Katriana's eyes went jet black as she stared down the nurse until she backed away. "My daughter stays with me."
"Yyyes My Lady," the nurse stuttered out dropping her hands to her sides. "As My Lady wishes."
The Queen leaned down and whispered in her daughter's ear. "It falls to you my love. Be brave and do not fear the gifts your father and I have given you. Be brave and wield your strength with wisdom and love."
The Queen's head dipped to fall with her forehead meeting the infants. The child reflexively reached to touch her mothers face. Queen Katriana let out a long slow sigh and did not inhale again. The midwife stood wringing her hands as tears began to stream down her cheeks. "Sleep well My Lady. Rest with your King in that land beyond the sun. May we join you one day."
The two nurses, stood still in shock as they stared at the body of the Queen as she held her daughter even in death.
The room shook fiercely and the torches slowly choked out one by one as darkness filled the room. A writhing twisting wisp of black night appeared at the foot of the bed. It widened and grew rapidly as the form of a man appeared within it. Stepping out of the darkness, Lord Modian looked sadly at the queen as she held the Princess of Everwind. He leaned forward and kissed her forehead. "Goodnight sister. May the shadows of our ancestors welcome you with open arms."
He reached out and gathered the baby girl into his arms. He glared an unspoken warning at the midwife and the two nurses. He stepped back into the twisting shadow and vanished with the night as the torches relit themselves one by one.
The midwife stepped forward to the nurses. "The baby is in the nursery. Do you understand?"
"Yes ma'am!" They chorused wide eyed with fear at everything that they had just witnessed.
"Good. I fear the worst is yet to come for Everwind. Wherever he has taken her, it is likely much safer than here is going to be."
❧
Kailynn lay on the bed, her body tied spread eagle to the corners of the frame. Even though she had struggled and fought, those bear women had manage to tied her thrashing body down. Now, as she breathed heavily waiting for what was surely to come next, her mind fled back to the firelit clearing with Alac's crumpled form on the grass. No matter what happens next, they will never own me. He will never stop looking for me.
The tent flap flipped open to reveal the completely nude form of the leader of the bear men. Nude excepting the bear head he still wore. His eyes roamed over her still clothed body and he grunted in disappointment. He stalked over to where she laid bound to the bed. Kailynn's heart raced even as she glared at the monster in front of her.
"Don't touch me, you fucking animal! I'll rip your beating heart out!"
He smiled viciously as he ran a hand down the side of her body. Kailynn twisted to get away from his hand. No. NO! She tried to get her mind to go back to the night with Alac. To escape the inevitability of what was going to happen here. The bear man unsheathed a knife that he clearly intended to use to remove her clothes. Kailynn threw her body to the side trying to get the blade to slip between her ribs rather than let him cut her clothes off of her. The bear man growled and grabbed her throat with his free hand as he attempted to cut off her pants.
Kailynn screamed in rage. Not fear or anger. Pure unbridled rage. This body belonged to her and she would only permit those she gave it to have access to its secrets. The rage flooded through her body with a burning heat that seemed to make the air shimmer. The leader yanked his hand off her throat as if he had been burned. Kailynn continued to rage and thrash against her bonds as something dark churned up to the surface from far away and deep in her. The air began to fill with floating specks of grey dust.
The leader of the bear men looked at his hand in wonder as a grey rash began to spread from his fingertips to his knuckles. The tips of his fingers began to flake off and float away as Kailynn's rage filled cries deepened in tone. She could feel the black heat of hatred begin to pour off her like smoke. Her ropes snapped and she bolted upright and stared murderously into the eyes of the bear man. He stumbled and backed away toward the flap of the tent, falling through it. Kailynn rose to her feet, her clothes began to change to the color of ash and fall away from her body revealing her pale skin beneath.
She lifted her hand to examine it. It was pale as always but tinged with a crawling grey mist that coated her palm and fingers. Kailynn reached out and touched the tent rawhide flap and watched as the animal hide rapidly dissolved into grey ash. A strange vengeful calm spread through her body as she stepped through the growing gap in the tent flap. Her boots flaked apart and with each barefoot step, the grass withered and dissolved into ash that floated away in the breeze.
The leader of the bear men kneeled on the grass in front of her, holding his mostly dissolved arm to his chest, his eyes wide with fear.
"Mother Bear... Mock-Tar Bay-Her." He whispered. The rest of the camp all stood in silence ringed around the tent. Watching. Kailynn felt the remains of her clothing that was not consumed by ash fall away from her body. Living, consuming ash, commanded by this rage-filled darkness that now owned her body. She radiated the light of the sun's rays as she reached down and lifted the leader to his feet by his throat.
"I said no." Kailynn watched as the leader choked and gasped as his throat began to turn grey. With a sudden pull, Kailynn yanked out his throat and held it above her head as it blew away in the wind. The bear man collapsed to his knees tearing at his missing throat in an effort to breath as his entire body crumbled away. A spreading ring of ash crept away from where Kailynn stood expanding slowly toward the watching bear people tribe. She stood, a terrible vengeful goddess of death, radiating the sun, holding the remains of the leaders throat in her hand.
"BOW!" Kailynn spoke in a low rumbling voice that echoed inside the heads of the collected mass of bear people. They dropped to their knees without a word, some clutched their heads.
As they bent their knees, Kailynn saw a lone figure standing at the edge of the encampment holding a sword.
Alac. He had come for her. But, had he come for what stood in the center of the bear people encampment as they chanted "Mock-Tar Bay-Her" at her? Because, she wasn't sure what or who she even was anymore.