Loren took a step towards the table and reached out a hand for a leg of roasted lamb, when a sharp pain bolted through her chest. She reeled back, a hand flying to her pendant. It had sparked — painfully — as if in warning. The princess looked back towards the queen, and saw the same sinister, sly look in her eye.
“Kae, Cassendir, Ma’trii!” Loren said forcefully. “Get away from the food!”
Her friends ignored her completely. She tried again, approaching Kae and grabbing her by the arm, pulling her away. The huntress turned on Loren, eyes wide and mad. Kae shoved Loren back, grabbed a knife from the table, and pounced on her. “Don’t you dare reject this gift from our most generous queen.” Kae hissed, pressing the knife to Loren’s throat.
“Kae!” Loren pleaded, wrapping her hands around Kae’s thin wrists and pulling her knife arm away from her throat. “This isn’t like you!”
“Isn’t like me?” Kae scoffed. “What would you know about that? You don’t know anything about me. Its always about you, Loren the princess. Loren the wise, Loren who should be followed.” The huntress tossed the knife, sending it clattering along the stone floor, and choked Loren instead.
“You don’t know anything about the real world.” Kae continued through gritted teeth. “You don’t know what its like, to sleep on freezing ground night after night. Unloved, unwanted, and alone. You always want us to sleep in inns, because the precious little princess doesn’t want to lay her head on dirt. You boast of your sword fighting and archery lessons with the Warmaster, but you can’t even hunt. And you don’t even know what it feels like to be truly, desperately hungry.”
The grip on Loren’s throat tightened, and the princess gasped for air. Kae’s smile was wide and unhinged. “But my queen knows. She knows what its liked to be alone. She only wants our love and devotion, Loren. That’s all she wants. but you’re too stubborn to see it. You don’t deserve even the air you breathe in her presence.”
“Kae…” Loren gasped, trying to pry Kae’s hands off her throat. Her vision began to blur and darken at the edges. “It’s an illusion. A spell. Fight it, please Kae.”
“A spell? Liar!” Kae snapped, slapping Loren hard across the face.
Cassendir heard every word, and at the mention of the spell, he hesitated. He still held fistfuls of food in both hands, but he tore his gaze away from the banquet, and looked up at the queen. She was smiling fondly at how eagerly Kae turned on the princess, and looked as content as a cat lounging in a sunbeam. The scholar focused as hard as he could on the queen, letting his sense of magic reach out past the temptation of the food. The image of the queen that he saw at the end of the table shimmered and shifted, becoming pale and death-like. The banquet also disappeared, and Cassendir realized he was holding rocks and dust. With a gasp, he dropped them.
The queen took notice. Her gaze snapped towards Cassendir, and she realized immediately that he could see through her illusions. Her sly smile soured into a grimace, and she suddenly stood, pushing her stone chair back with a harsh scraping.
“How dare you interrupt the feast, boy?” Her tone was like poison. She raised a single, bony finger at Cassendir. “You don’t deserve my gifts. You do not truly love me. My love, kill him, let him join all the others.”
Cassendir took a step back, mage markings glowing, and a shining sword leapt into his hand. A roar sounded from elsewhere in the castle, loud and fierce. The queen of Yureun smiled again, and all Cassendir saw was a blur of glowing red eyes before he found himself bodily thrown into a stone wall.
A beast easily taller than five men slammed its huge paws into the ground, claws scratching gouges into the stone. It roared again, and its long fangs flashed in the light.
The queen of Yureun smiled fondly at the beast as it pounced towards Cassendir again. The scholar just managed to roll out of the way as the beast punched a hole through the crumbling wall. “Oh, my love. How beautiful you are.” She said with a wistful sigh.
Kae still had her hands around Loren’s throat. She ignored the beast completely, and leaned closer to the princess. Her eyes were bloodshot. “You’ll die here, Loren. You’ll die alone, in the Plaguelands, where your family can’t find you. My queen will watch your body rot to ash, and she will laugh.” She hissed.
“Gods above, Kae.” Loren rasped out, running out of breath. Her vision was almost black. “You wouldn’t let that happen. I know you.”
Kae hesitated, and Loren went limp under her hands. The princess was merely unconscious, but she had gotten through to Kae. The princess was right, Kae, in her heart, wouldn’t let Loren die in some forsaken land. She wouldn’t let Loren die at all. There were so many things she still wanted to say to her, Loren could not die just yet.
Not like this.
The huntress shook her head, trying to clear her mind. She was still confused and disoriented, but there was a beast in the room and if there was one thing Kae knew how to do, it was hunt. With a whistle, Ma’trii leapt into action, pouncing on the beast’s forearm and clamping down with his powerful jaws. Kae drew her bow, and loosed several arrows that struck deep into the beast’s side.
It howled, hurt and enraged. The beast flung Ma’trii through the air with one powerful movement, but it was distracted enough to let Cassendir get to a safe distance. The scholar whispered a spell, and shining blue daggers coalesced in his hand as his mage markings glowed. He flung the daggers at the beast, and they
