Alac approached cautiously, his sword still drawn in his hand. The spreading of the circle of ash had stopped. Kailynn wanted to call his name, to rush to him and help him as he winced with each step forward on his injured leg. Something in her kept her back straight, her head high as she regarded him with a cool expression on her face.
A few of the bear men stood to stop him but Alac held the glittering point of his sword GodKiller at the nearest one's throat. Alac's eyes never left Kailynn's. They were cold, with grey irises and ringed in a deep black that stood out from the whites of her eyes. At the movement of his sword, many more of the bear people snarled and raised their curious weapons. Bear claws of iron, sharpened and held in their hands or fastened to poles similar to spears. Some held knives or drew bows with arrows tipped with wicked looking iron arrowheads.
As the tribe began to slowly react to the threat that Alac posed to the camp several of the bear women positioned themselves in front of Kailynn, all armed and wild looking. One put a bear hide around Kailynn's shoulders that fell open in the front. The living ash caressed the soft fur as Kailynn assessed Alac with detachment.
One of the bear men crept up behind Alac, claws raised.
"Enough!" Kailynn's low command echoed through the valley and the minds of everyone present. The tribe again dropped to their knees. A low chant started again, "Mock-Tar Bay-Her, Mock-Tar Bay-Her."
Kailynn beckoned Alac forward with a bored wave of her hand.
"So, you have come finally." Her voice wasn't quite her own. It belonged to the thing that had escaped from her inner darkness in those moments that Kailynn had given herself over completely to her rage. "Deathdealer, have you come to destroy or to serve us?"
Alac considered briefly, "I have come to destroy those who would keep you against your will."
Kailynn waved her hand, her pale skin gleaming in the light of the afternoon sun. "These creatures now serve me. Will you?"
"I would, if I knew that you are the one that I have come for."
Kailynn's face broke into a twisted smile. "You seek the servant girl."
"I seek the one who shared my bed."
"Say her name!" The entity drew Kailynn's body up to its full height and stood regally among the trembling bear people. "Who is she to you?"
The air thickened with the smell of burnt wood and flesh as the living ash started to creep along the ground toward where Alac stood.
"Kailynn. Your name is Kailynn."
"I am the Empress of Everwind, the Ash Queen, the bearer of the House of King Achiron!" Kailynn heard the words leave the mouth of a body that was now very far away.
"You, Deathdealer will kneel as these have." The Ash Queen gestured to the kneeling tribe surrounding her. "Or, you will fall as he has." She pointed to the heap of ashes that was once the tribal leader.
"I bow to no one Ash Queen, except for the one who lifts me back up."
A sneer curled the corners of Ash Queen's lips. "She was weak. Do you not want to serve the rightful Empress as I take back what is rightfully mine? I would reward you well." The Ash Queen grazed her fingertips down the front of the body Kailynn was increasingly unable to feel. Alac's eyes never left the Queen's.
"That is not yours to give." He sheathed his sword. "Kill me if you must but I am only here for her, not the Ash Queen in a stolen body."
"You dare speak to us this way! I will have your heart in my hands and let you watch as it stops beating."
"Kailynn!" Alac called out, "Come back!"
The Ash Queen tilted her head back showing the fullness of her pale throat to the sun as she laughed. A horrible twisted laugh that would have quailed the heart of a lesser man. Kailynn thrashed inside herself, clawing at the prison of her mind as the Ash Queen advanced on Alac with slow steps that withered the grass of the plain.
"Stop! I command it!" Kailynn pounded her fist on the mental barriers that held her from the control of her body. The Ash Queen stopped and stood deathly still. Her eyes glazed over and went vacant. Then she appeared on the other side of the invisible barrier in her and Kailynn's shared mind space.
You do not command me child. I am here to do what you could not. I am the Empress!
Kailynn slowed her breathing and changed her posture to reflect the Queen's. "I am the owner of this body. I say what will and will not happen with it. You serve me. Know your place!"
The Ash Queen stepped through the barrier, her eyes and skin made of living grey and black ash. Her hair curled like smoke and spawned sparks that floated around her. An ash tiara sat on her head crested with smoldering embers. She towered over Kailynn, terrible and fierce.
You called me! I freed you, you ungrateful little brat! I saved you and I took our revenge. These creatures serve me, as will your insignificant little plaything. As will all of Everwind!
Kailynn stepped forward. "Your time of freedom with my body has ended. Now you will serve or you will burn to nothing in here." Kailynn took a deep breath and willed the barrier to open. She stepped through and mentally slammed it back shut, trapping the Ash Queen inside.
The Ash Queen shrieked and slammed into the barrier again and again. She spun into a cyclone of living ash, smoke and fire and raged against the cell that Kailynn had trapped her in. Kailynn gasped and held her head as a pounding fiery wave surged against the back of her eyes, again and again.
Slowly the raging whirlwind stopped as the Queen reformed in the center of the space. She stood regally, her posture straight and her hands folded in front of her.
You will need me again soon, servant girl. Pray that I answer.
Kailynn stumbled and fell onto her hands and knees in the blighted grass of the encampment. Lifting her head, she looked around until her eyes found Alac.
"Alac." Her voice was cracked and hoarse. "You came."
Alac rushed to her and carefully picked her up off the ground and into his arms. The bear tribe stirred angrily, but stilled when Kailynn held up her hand. She reached up and stroked his cheek as he carried her toward the mostly ruined tent in the center of the encampment. Alac grunted as he held her with his wounds beginning to bleed again.
"I would have come from the afterlife for you Kailynn."