Eternal Darkness (The Amagarians 1)

You know why. A voice filled with malevolence sang.

Drac wove back the pattern, reinforcing the shield to keep his demon suppressed. And even then he could hear the echoes of cruel laughter in his mind.

“Our healers have been summoned, and they will be here shortly to examine the princess,” Gidon said.

Drac heard the curiosity that underlined the king’s words. He did not respond as he looked at Saieke, willing her to consciousness. What could he say? He had tasted her pain and lost mastery of his self? Like his brother?

His gut twisted in hard knots, and evil brushed against his senses.

Like your brother...relinquish rule to me and I will make you King of Amagarie. Drac ignored the hiss. Though he bonded with his demon and accepted the brutality embedded in him, his beast never let an opportunity pass to try and seduce Drac to let him have free rein to devour.

There was a rustle of sound, and the door was flung open to admit Talon and two of their most proficient healers. They had their baskets, cloths, and basins of hot water scented with medicinal herbs. Drac rose from the bed to stand beside his king and give the healers space. He felt Gidon’s stare, but his gaze did not leave her.

“My King,” the head healer said. “If we could be offered privacy for the princess, we are going to remove her caftan. We will set her shoulder and leg and give her a healing draught to help with the pain and provide a restful sleep.” She kept her head slightly bowed as she waited for his response.

“I cannot leave until she wakes.” Drac could not explain his behavior or the knowledge that if they tried to remove him from her presence with knowing how she fared, the leash on his darkness would slip another fraction. Drac did not know what his king saw, but he inclined his head and shiktred from the room with Lachlan and Talon.

Drac sank in the great chair closest to the bed, watching the healers every move, willing her to consciousness.

***

Saieke woke slowly. She shifted and hissed from the pain that slashed through her ribs. Her hand flew to her throat, feeling for torn flesh, and encountered smoothness. She scanned the chamber and her eyes collided with dark and fathomless ones. Saieke swallowed nervously as she eyed Drac. He said nothing, just sat in the great armchair by her bedside. She tried to lift herself and let out filled moan at the hurt that it caused.

“I will alert the healer.” There was no particular inflection in his voice to give her an inkling of his thoughts, and his emotions were leashed.

Why was he in her chamber?

“Please alert no one. I will attend my needs,” Saieke replied, wanting him to leave the room. She needed to be alone and not in the presence of any Darkan.

“You have a fractured shoulder, several cracked ribs, a broken shin and hip, and have lost several pints of blood,” he countered.

Saieke shivered at his distorted voice. She lifted her fingers to her throat feeling for her pendant. It was gone. “My pendant …if you would locate it for me, I would be most grateful.”

He rose fluidly to his feet and then disappeared. She reared back when he appeared at her bedside. “Ahh...” she groaned.

He crouched so that she looked down at him. “What can I do?”

Saieke blinked at him in bewilderment. He was concerned? “If you could locate my pendant …”

He dangled it in front of her with the vial. She grasped it, and he still did not move. She clutched it to her chest and glared at him balefully. “Why are you in my chamber?”

She tried to hold his gaze, but after a few seconds, lowered her lashes as the memory she was trying very hard to repress brushed against her mind.

“Do not fear me,” he ordered.

Clearly an absurd command. She opened her mouth and closed it several times. It was impossible to not feel fear. In fact, she was terrified. She needed to be out of the Darkage and away from him. “I...” she could not give voice to the images and thoughts in her mind.

“Speak so I may lay the fear that beat from you so powerfully to rest,” he said flatly.

“I was attacked…and I saw something…” Saieke held her breath as anxiety seared her. “It had three heads, and the eyes of the king, but not the king’s. It came from his …out of him and the feelings that came from it are not to be borne.”

Her fear spiked as he got colder.

“Let the image burn from your mind, Princess. Your attackers were arrested and await trial in the dungeon.” A grimace twisted his lips. “The taste of your fear is repulsive, control it.”

She glared in stupefied amazement. “You believe that if you order me to not feel fear, it will vanish?” Saieke took a deep calming breath and then winced. She could feel that their healers tried to mend her, but it was primitive work at best.

He watched as she painstakingly uncapped her vial and took a mouthful. The healing elixir rushed through her with warmth, like a soothing balm. Saieke’s bones pinched, reconnected, and vessels that had burst repaired themselves. Vitality flushed her skin and made it glisten. Within a minute, she was restored to full health and energy.