Friends and Enemies // Chapter Thirty Four // One to the Seven

After about fifteen minutes, Willow and Tajoreth were getting desperate. The books only mentioned things like "beware the Dark Lord" and not things like "the Dark Lord is so-and-so". It was rather frustrating, to say the least. Until...

   "Here it is! At least, it looks like it," Willow called in a loud whisper to Tajoreth. Then, reading out loud, she quoted the book. "The Dark Lord is from another world, where he perished. But Seven survived, and many will seek them...."

   Tajoreth was concentrating on the trying to understand what that all meant, while Willow's voice trailed off. No, she thought. It can't be.

   Tajoreth gently lifted the book out of her hands and continued reading. "It is said that they will seek One of the Seven on Tashra, where they will also seek a Host for it."

    Willow's face had been slowly draining of color ever since she had read the confusing passage about One and Seven, but now her face seemed even paler. "That doesn't sound good."

   He glanced at her. "What is it? I do not understand, what are the Seven and One?"

   She shook her head, recovering from her shock. "I think it's talking about one of the Shadow Lords. He was killed a long time ago, in a different world. But Seven of his things somehow survived, it says. And they have great power - well not really - but they could, if used with the right person, I suppose. But why on earth would they want those? And how would they even get here? Oi, this is too confusing. Let's get out of here," she concluded, nodding to Tajoreth. He nodded back, and together, they blew out the few candles they had lit and quietly slipped out of the library.

   Willow hugged her arms around her as if she was cold, and her face revealed that her thoughts were conflicting. Tajoreth didn't know what he should do, so he gave her shoulder a kindly pat. She grinned at him gratefully.

   "I'll go get the others," she murmured as they reentered the ballroom. He patted her hand on his arm as a reassurance, and they parted. He nudged a masked Killian with his shoulder, and the red head nodded slightly. He noted across the room where Willow and Teclemith were strolling together as if chatting, in a wide circle around the ballroom, and had almost reached the servant's door where they would all exit.

    Teclemith and Willow were waiting for Killian a little while down the passage, past the doors to the kitchen, where more servants were likely to be.

   "This way." Killian took the lead, and led the others down several flights of stone stairs, towards the dungeons.

   "Nice sleeves," he muttered to Willow, indicating her bright orange sleeves on her dress.

   "When you stand out, nobody thinks you mean any trouble," she muttered back.

   "Here we are," Teclemith announced, taking a ring of keys down from a nail on the wall.

   A crow cawed at the from one of the barred windows, its eyes glinting in the moonlight. Everyone barely glanced at it, but a twinge in Willow's mind made her take another look. The crow stared straight back at her, and she almost felt like it knew who she was. If she'd had her bow, she would have shot it, but she only had a little dagger, barely bigger than a letter opener. You're being silly, Willow, she lectured herself. The crow gave another loud caw, then flew off.

   "The prince is not in his cell," Teclemith muttered, glancing through the bars of one of the cells. A sudden groaning echoed through the damp prison.

   "Emmeth!" cried Willow with surprise. The prince was secured with his arms fastened to some sort of wooden thing, in a cell.

   The prince let out another groan as the two guys rushed to unbind him and Willow hurried to help Asharlah up from where she lay in the cell next door. "Trap," he muttered hoarsely.

   "What?" Teclemith asked, leaning closer, a feeling of alarm alerting his senses.

   "Trap!" he uttered, louder this time, loud enough that the duo stopped what they were doing and stared at him.

   "No, it can't be a-" Killian began, but was cut off by the sound of heavy boots on the stone floor and the cawing of a crow.

   "Hurry!" cried Teclemith, whipping out his knife and sawing at the ropes as hard as he could.

   Willow hurriedly grabbed Killian's knife that he tossed to her and scrambled to cut the ropes on the other side, while he awaited the trap, as Asharlah stumbled to the side door, opened it, and struggled out.
   Because Killian was facing the danger, he had the best view of the group coming to get them. The leader was someone whom he didn't recognize, but was somehow familiar. He was much smaller than all the other guards and such advancing towards them at a great pace. He was wrapped in a ragged, almost papery sort of hooded cloak, that extended down past his waist to his leggings, which were long strips of rough grey fabric wrapped around each leg. The only actual part of him that he saw were his eyes, like empty pits, dark and hollow, but fringed in dark eyelashes and dark purple eyeshadow. And that was what made Killian second guess the judgement that the person was a young man. Hanging around the black eyes, where pieces of what looked like hair, but could have been threads from the tattered cloak. The crow that they had all seen earlier rested on her shoulder, its eye glittering fiercely. All of this takes time to say, but they were going too fast that there was barely time for Killian to realize that Teclemith and Willow had freed Emmeth and had slung each of his arms over one of their shoulders, and were half-carrying him down the few steps, out of the cell, and towards a side door that Teclemith had seen out of the corner of his eye as they had come in.

   Killian had had the sense to slam the "extra" prison door that guarded the prince shut, and jam a metal thing in the handle. As their enemies reached it, the girl (Killian had now decided that the small person was definitely female) said something to the crow in a low voice. The crow seemed to nod, then squeezed through the bars and dive-bombed Killian. He let out a cry and started to slash at it with his sword, but the infernal bird kept at it, trying to peck at him ferociously.

   "Killian!" Willow's half-screaming voice pierced through the frantic cawing sounds and the sound of metal striking metal, because his sword was striking the bars of the cell, and sparks were flying. Somehow, the flat of his sword struck the bird, and it tumbled to the ground. Killian darted for the door just as their enemies broke through the prison door and the black-clad girl had her hand almost on his shoulder. Teclemith slammed the side door shut after Killian and shoved a rock into the handle.

   "Hurry," Teclemith directed, and they hurried to where Liberty had landed. Willow was already on her bird and was trying to help Emmeth onto the Kestrel. Asharlah was trying to help as well, but she was obviously very weakened.

   "We're almost there," Willow gasped, and Emmeth fell weakly behind her on the immense saddle. Teclemith and Killian leaped up behind him, and Willow directed Liberty to take flight.
   As she was, the rock that was holding the handle shut shattered, and the evil group was through. Willow urged Liberty on, and the Thunderbird flapped her great wings and they lifted into the air. Killian glanced down over his shoulder at the group of their enemies growing smaller and smaller. The black-clad girl had been handed a bow from one of the guards, and was aiming it up at them. It would have taken a superb archer to reach them. Killian heard the arrow hiss as it whistled past him. He smirked to himself. Who did she think she was? Liberty carried them off into the night sky, where no stars twinkled, and a chilly wind blew.

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   The girl in black yanked her hood off down, and glared up at the slowly disappearing Kestrel. Her black eyes, Shadow eyes, slowly faded back to what she looked like when she looked human. She was human, in a sense. Her now brown eyes peered angrily over a black lower face covering that concealed her true identity. She let out an annoyed breath and snatched her quiver of arrows from an attending guard. Without a word, she stomped back into the castle, but not without one last glare towards the now tiny bird on the horizon. We will meet again, Willow Elvish-grace, and when we do, dark will rise. 

Wow, that was a loooooooooooooonnngggg time coming!

I am so sorry that it took so long! You see, I am an introvert, and a type of introvert that doesn't do well without a schedule, and I didn't have a schedule this summer, so my plans didn't work out as I'd, well, planned. But now choir's going to be back soon, and we're working through a learn-to-sew book, and I'm sure I'm going to start cooking, so at least I have something.

Well, our great uncle {on our mom's side} died a few Mondays ago, and today is the funeral. I only recall seeing him twice in my entire life, so I didn't know him very well. But if any of you feel like praying, my grandma is very sad, so I'm sure she would appreciate your prayers :)

Also, I have what seems to be a salivary or something gland infection, because it hurts on one side of my face. It was probably cause by either my previous cold {I got it from my family last Saturday} or my braces. So my face on my right side, if you looked straight on at me, your left, is slightly puffy, but ever so slightly, mind you.

So Billie and Ammie are back! Yeppers! I really hope that they can visit us soon, we have some fun cosplay stuff for our website planned!

D has been plugging away at her book, unlike me, who's lazy, so go check hers out!

Any questions on the chapter are always welcome, but don't forget, I don't reveal spoilers!

Be a friend, not an enemy,

Willow

Postscript || Don't forget the new FAQ page! But please no comment-debate type things, thank you!