themselves.
They were so young, and both so beautiful. Shylby with her long, honey-colored hair, tied up now in braids. Her smooth porcelain skin, unbroken and unblemished. Her eyes were pure blue, like a clear sky on a new summer day.
He too was quite handsome. His chin covered in trimmed, brown hair. His face tanned from the sun. His eyes clear and kind, a peaceful man with only love in his heart.
Shylby gave him that same smile as they moved to the final stage of the spell, speaking the words in unison.
Bind us heart and soul Bring us together as one Neither living apart
Our love the string that ties us May we live forever together Or live not at all apart
Magic swirled around the barn. Mores of light lifted from the censers. Scents and sounds filled every corner. Their spell was reaching its climax, growing in intensity just before it would break and wash over them both.
Like a wedding ceremony, the two lovers were to speak their devotion to each other, then kiss, consecrating their immortal love.
'I shall be with you forever,' they said to each other. 'Or I shall die-'.
The door to the barn burst open. _
Startled by the sound, Xeries turned to see a man, his body lit from behind by the late afternoon sun.
'Alone,' said Shylby, her voice intoning the last word of the spell without his.
Xeries heart froze. He had failed to speak the word in unison, and the ritual was broken.
The next few moments were a blur to him. He remembered hearing Shylby scream. The torrent of loose magical energy lifted him into the air. He felt himself thrashed around, then as if he were gripped from the inside by a million hands, his body bent and disfigured. His back bowed. His face grew boils. His chest caved in. His arms stretched, and his knees knocked together.
He dropped back to the floor, every inch of his body wracked with pain. He squirmed on the ground, trying to claw his way out of his own skin. But it was no use. There was nowhere for him to go.
When the pain began to subside, Xeries tried to move, but he could not get to his feet.
'Shylby! Shylby, are you hurt?' His words sounded strange, as if both he and Shylby were speaking them at the same time.
Shylby lay on the floor beside the stone, water-filled altar. One look at the love of his life, and Xeries found a new level of misery. The aches in his own flesh were nothing compared to the torment he felt over seeing Shylby, her face and body turned nearly inside out. She twisted and flopped, writhing in pain, her mouth agape, open for a perpetual scream that never came out.
Pulling himself across the rough wooden floor to lie beside her, Xeries scooped Shylby up in his arms. Her beautiful honeyed hair had fallen from her head in huge clumps, leaving weeping bald flesh in its place. The smooth, perfect skin on her face had been tortured and burned. Huge blisters consumed every inch, covering her eyes and nose. She tried to touch her face, but she no longer had fingers. Her arms were warped, and her hands had melted into little more than smooth stumps.
Watching her struggle was the most horrific thing Xeries had ever endured. Not in his wildest nightmares could he imagine feeling so powerless, so tormented. Shylby's pain seeped into him, more every moment, and it was then that he knew that nothing worse could ever happen t3' him. Nothing he could ever experience could be as bad as this.
Unable to see him, talk, or touch, Shylby flailed for a moment longer. Her ruined hands found his neck, and she pulled herself as best as she could up against him. She labored to breathe, moving her mouth with tremendous effort. She gasped, struggling with all her might.
'Alone,' she whispered, her voice all but gone.
Her body convulsed, jerking uncontrollably. Xeries squeezed her against his chest. Holding onto her was all he could do as she slipped away, her spirit taking a long time to leave her tormented body.
Xeries continued to clutch her to his chest long after she passed. His body twisted and in pain, nothing else mattered to him. Shylby was gone.
'What is happening in here?'
Xeries looked up at a man wearing dirt-spattered clothing. He drew closer, hunched over and carrying a pitchfork.
'What?' said Xeries, confused, not sure where the man had come from. His voice still sounded strange.
'Who are you?' The farmer lowered his pitchfork and pointed it at the young man. 'What are you doing here? I heard your strange noises and saw what you did, so don't lie to me, boy.'
Xeries's memory came back to him then. This was the man who had opened the door to the barn at the end of their ritual.
'You killed her,' said Xeries, his sadness growing into anger. His words echoing each other as if Shylby were still there speaking them in unison with him.
'I saw what you did to her,' said the farmer. 'Don't try to blame nothing on me.'
'It was you,' said Xeries, reliving the moment in his head. 'You interrupted our spell. You were the one who made me slip.' He laid Shylby s head down on the floor and slowly got to his feet, not taking his eyes off of the man.
The farmer started to twitch, clearly nervous. 'You better tell me who you are before I run you through.' He shook his pitchfork.
'You killed her,' Xeries said, pointing an accusing finger at the man. 'You took her away from me. You ruined everything.'
Shoving his arms out at the farmer, a torrent of magic spilled from his hands. The air rippled and distorted as a shock wave blew the man backward, sending him smashing through the wooden wall of the barn.
All of his sadness and frustration came bubbling to the surface. 'You killed her,' repeated Xeries, walking toward the man he'd just sent sailing away. 'And now, I'm going to kill you.'
'Have you heard me?'
Xeries watched the last of his memory play inside his head before answering. 'No. I was… somewhere else.'
'We're here so that you can replace me. You've brought me here because I'm no longer useful to you, and you're going to cast me away, just as you have all the others. Isn't that right?'
Xeries returned to the dais and climbed the steps. Setting his goblet down, he stood in front of his most recent wife.
'I am not casting you away. We are here because this is where I was a young boy. This is where my bloodline started.' He took hold of the veil and began lifting it over her head.
She tried to take it from his grasp, but her hands were shaky and slow.
'Please don't. Don't look at me.'
The veil came over her head, pilling up on the stone back of her throne. Underneath, her face was terribly wrinkled. Her cheeks were deep craters, her eyes nearly falling from her head, and her veins bulged as if they wanted to burst through the skin. She looked drained, like a shriveled fruit, sucked dry from the inside out. This was not the effect of a long life, running its course on the human body. This was something else.
'Do you see what you have done to me?' she said, looking up at him with bloodshot, dried up eyes.
'But your sacrifice has given me eternal life,' he said. 'Does that not please you?'
'Does it matter? You have drained me, and I am no longer of any use. Now you will find another, and you will drain her too, all the while professing your love.'
Xeries nodded. 'That is my burden, yes.'
'It is not a burden if you make someone else carry it,' she said, gathering her veil and dropping it again over her withered face.
Xeries sat back down in his throne, and resumed his waiting. His wife's life force would not last much longer, and he would need a new bride to drain, very soon. His patience was indeed running thin.
